According to Screen Daily, Law Abiding Citizen now has a director in Frank Darabont. Citizen is the first movie to be produced under Gerard Butler's production shingle; you can read all about Evil Twins and its upcoming slate here (I am gently encouraging you to be interested in this fledgling company).

Production is set to begin on August 18th in Detroit, which I hear is becoming the new Shreveport. It's being filmed on a shoestring budget of $40 million, and the screenplay has been penned by Kurt Wimmer.

The plot has been changed quite drastically since it was first tossed around. Originally, Butler was an assistant D.A. who finds himself at the center of a traumatized victim's vigilante plot. Now, it has been revamped into the story of a criminal mastermind who controls a city from the confines of his prison cell. (Which explains why Darabont was drawn to it, and why he's a good pick. Prison dramas are a good specialty for him.) Butler is the assistant D.A. who stands in the mastermind's way.











How very Clarice Starling of him. The original story had a nice, Harvey Dent sort of twist to it. (That's probably a sign I'm on Dark Knight overload.) But could we see one crime/legal drama that does not involve the criminal mastermind who has law enforcement wrapped around his finger? Hell, that happens like every other week on Bones.

Butler, normally I have your back for everything, but I have to be honest with you: The original story was better. But I extend the olive branch by saying if you need a Temperance Brennan / Dana Scully type, I work cheap (you have to stay under your $40 million budget). And I can run in heels while shooting a gun. Don't ask me where I picked that up.

What do you think, readers? Up for another Darabont prison drama? Am I just being mean? I admit, it should be fun to see Butler outsmart the heir to Hannibal Lecter.