[i]Director will replace Frank Darabont on legal thriller[/i]
Director F. Gary Gray is the winner in the sweepstakes to replace Frank Darabont on the legal thriller “Law-Abiding Citizen.”
Darabont recently fell off the film, setting off a scurrying among agents and directors to sign on to “Citizen,” which will star Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler and is a priority for startup shingle the Film Department. John Singleton was interested, but Gray landed the gig.
Darabont co-wrote the script, but creative differences with producers led to a parting of the ways.
“Citizen” centers on a man who is enraged by a plea bargain to set his family’s killers free and in a fit of vigilante justice pursues the district attorney who made the deal. Butler, Alan Siegel, Lucas Foster and Mark Gill are producing, with Neil Sacker and Robert Katz executive producing.
The WMA-repped Gray is best known for helming “The Italian Job,” which earned nearly $170 million worldwide for Paramount in 2003. Gray has signed on to helm a sequel and also is attached to “Armored,” the remake of a French thriller that Eric Bana is starring in for Millennium.