Jason Statham in "HEAT" remake

Brian De Palma will direct Jason Statham in ‘Heat’, a remake of the 1986 crime drama (NOT the 1995 Michael Mann film) that is once again being penned by two-time Oscar-winner William Goldman.

Today, we have a story, as “The Stath” is set to headline Heat, a remake of the 1986 film – NOT the 1995 Michael Mann movie – scripted by multiple Oscar-winner William Goldman.

Goldman hasn’t penned a screenplay since Dreamcatcher in 2003, but the 80-year-old author/screenwriter will be getting back in the saddle for the latest cinematic version of Heat. Fellow Hollywood filmmaking icon Brian De Palma will serve as director on the new Statham-centric dramatic thriller. The 1986 film version of Heat stars Burt Reynolds as the protagonist bodyguard-with-a-troubled-past; that movie was also written by Goldman.

It’s fair to say: whenever most people hear the words “Jason Statham thriller,” they automatically assume the actor will be playing yet another seemingly invulnerable force of nature in human form, who uses his physical prowess to serve some noble purpose. That will almost certainly be true with Heat, but we could get to see a somewhat more interestingly “human” and less invincible variation on the stereotypical Statham character, given his status as a recovering addict therein.

Both Goldman and De Palma are highly-decorated talents who’ve been responsible for producing great pieces of Hollywood entertainment over the decades, so their being involved with Heat sounds promising enough, from that perspective. Of course, some would argue the two are past their artistic prime – and it’s kind of hard to dismiss such complaints entirely – especially with regards to De Palma’s unmemorable work since the late 1990s (see: Mission to Mars, Femme Fatale, The Black Dahlia).

Looks like this movie will be 4 stars