When Fast & Furious star Paul Walker tragically perished last November in a California car crash, the uncertain future of his blockbuster racing franchise became a huge topic of discussion, but other projects the actor had worked on also faced tough decisions about how to deal with his passing.
One of the last films Walker completed, Relativity’s action remake Brick Mansions, was originally scheduled to bow this month, but the studio’s radio silence in advertising the pic suggested that Relativity was having difficulty deciding just how to market it. Now, we’ve learned that the studio has opted to push Brick Mansions to open on April 25.
The move comes on the heels of the studio shifting its buzzy found-footage film Earth to Echo from that date to July. Relativity certainly doesn’t want to appear callous in how they sell Brick Mansions, one of Walker’s final films, so the film’s new April slot will hopefully give the studio the opportunity to mount a tactful, respectful marketing campaign leading up to its release. They’re certainly on the right track already: Relativity and producing studio EuropaCorp will make a large donation, including the cost of the film’s premiere, to Walker’s charity Reach Out Worldwide.
A remake of the French action flick District 13, Brick Mansions takes place in a dystopian Detroit. Walker stars as Damien, an undercover cop who’s tasked with infiltrating a crime-infested tenement called Brick Mansions in order to defuse a neutron bomb already ticking towards detonation. The original District 13‘s David Belle appears in a small role, while RZA and Catalina Denis both have supporting parts. Taken 2 editor Camille Delamarre directs.
The appeal of seeing Walker grace the silver screen one more time aside, Dredd and The Raid: Redemption have done great things in recent years with the same Die Hard-esque set-up, so I’m excited to check out Brick Mansions. Whether they’ll be able to recapture the same adrenaline rush District 13 provides remains to be seen, but the fact that Luc Besson, who penned the original, produced Brick Mansions certainly bodes well for the film.
Are you going to check out Brick Mansions when it opens April 25? Let us know below.
