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Why are Parkour and Paul Walker so popular now?

Oliver Twist Gruel

Please, sir, can I have some more terrible Hollywood adaptations?


When you think of things that are mysteriously popular, you don’t think of parkour or Paul Walker, because those things are never popular. Except they suddenly are, and it’s weird!

Those two great tastes have gone all chocolate and peanut butter on us, and combined to give us the Paul Walker vehicle Brick Mansions. If that sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because Brick Mansions is the American remake of Banlieue 13! Don’t worry, Banlieue 13 star and parkour creator David Belle will be around to costar in case anyone wants to go all Punisher: War Zone on them. And you should.

The film will be set in America. Walker will play an undercover detective chasing a weapon of mass destruction that was stolen by a drug dealer in the ghetto known as Brick Mansions. He seeks help from the incredibly agile Lino (Belle), who knows Brick Mansions better than anyone and is the only person not cowed by the drug dealers. Besson’s Europa Corp is producing along with Ryan Kavanaugh, Tucker Tooley and the Relativity team. While a number of Hollywood actors wanted the Lino role, Besson would not make the movie unless Belle was in it.

Let’s not forget the parkour Oliver Twist movie (funded by Red Bull!) called Twist that’s also coming soon! I bring this up not only for the parkour reference, but because there is another Oliver Twist movie coming down the pipe.

Dodge and Twist takes place as a now adult Oliver and Artful Dodger are on opposite sides of the law in a theft of the Crown Jewels case. So it’s one of those films.

Paul Walker is also starring in the Hitman remake, Agent 47. The original Hitman came out in 2007, with Timothy Olyphant as Agent 47. Skip Woods and Michael Finch are writing, you might recall that Skip Woods wrote the original Hitman. that’s the kind of outside the box thinking that will make Agent 47 the kind of movie you don’t rent from RedBox.