One of the first friends I made out in L.A. was a guy named Alex Coscas and once we realized both of us were writers, naturally we swapped scripts and gave each other feedback. Thus began a friendship that has lasted the better part of a decade.
The script Alex gave me was then entitled "Billionaire Boys," a straight-up, no apologies Bruckheimer-esque film. It was somewhat in the mold of Armageddon, where there's a rag-tag group of colorful characters thrown into a high-octane situation. In this case, the idea was that a group of mercenaries would more or less sell spots on their missions to extremely wealthy celebrities looking to live out the life of an action hero. Basically, it was Action Hero Fantasy Camp. So you've got the Chris Tucker comedian character, the N'Sync/Backstreet Boy analog, and so on.... all shelling out cash to make like Stallone in The Expendables.
And then on one mission, all of the "real" soldiers are killed and it falls to the "Billionaire Boys" to complete the mission and get back in one piece.
Pretty cool, huh?
(I have to chuckle at the few articles I've seen that draw comparisons between this and City Slickers, The Expendables & Tropic Thunder... because only ONE of those scripts even existed back when I read Alex and his writing partner's first draft.)
Well, despite what seemed like a pretty marketable premise, it would actually take the better part of a decade and a great deal of Alex's own initiative to put this project together. Don't get me wrong, Alex and his writing partner Joe Kelbley wrote several other scripts, but he never gave up on this one. It's going to see the light of day under the title Soldiers of Fortune, and features the talents of Christian Slater, Ving Rhames, Sean Bean, Colm Meany, Dominic Monaghan and James Cromwell.
As I understand it, the film will get a brief theatrical run starting August 3, concurrent with a VOD release, before going to DVD. Alex is an incredibly busy guy, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to do an interview with him around the time the film comes out. If that's something you guys would be interested in seeing, please chime in in the comments.
I don't think I've ever been prouder to feature a video on here... I give you, the trailer for Soldiers of Fortune.
Friday, June 22, 2012
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That looks great fun. I'd definitely be interested in an interview.
ReplyDeleteNow THAT's a great story concept. Congrats Alex!
ReplyDeleteThe trailer seems to be missing the essential beat though -- where the rich noobs find themselves on their own (unless the script has since changed). Even so, it looks great.
Agreed. I was waiting for the moment where the music turned and it got dark and some of the billionaires were shitting their pants and Christian Slater is kidnapped or killed and someone gives a rousing speech and they're all like, "I survived the Lehman brothers. I can certainly survive G.I. Joke!"
ReplyDeleteThat's a great line!
DeleteYeah, now I'm trying to remember if the Christian Slater character died in the early drafts, or if he lived and just the other real soldiers died. Like I said, it's been YEARS since I read this and I know I saw a couple different drafts along the way
Love the log, the trailer has some good bits (man transforms into magazine cover). But it missed the second half of the log - now they're up shit creek with no paddle!
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