His first flick out of the gate was a smash hit. His second ... not so much. But young moviemaker James Wan is back for a third trip in the director's chair, and the resulting flick is Fox's Death Sentence, which is scheduled for release on August 31. At first I thought it was basically a Death Wish rehash, but it definitely looks like there might be a little Straw Dogs in there too... Then again, the IMDb tells us that Death Sentence is based on a novel by Brian Garfield ... as was the entire Death Wish series.Based on this brand-new trailer (which comes on the heels of this new poster), the story looks pretty simple: Normal Joe's teenage son gets killed in a convenience store robbery, but the killer gets off and goes free. One act of bloodthirsty revenge then transforms into a man vs. street gang battle that's sure to get pretty nasty. Or maybe I'm just so big a Kevin Bacon fan that I'll give anything he does a break. (Actually, after The Air Up There and Trapped, the guy's certainly not infallible, but the guy's got a pretty strong track record overall.)
Adapted for the screen by first-timer Ian Jeffers (nope, not Leigh Whannell, although the Saw screenwriter does have a supporting role in the film), Death Sentence also stars John Goodman, Kelly Preston and a distressingly hairless (but still gorgeous) Aisha Tyler. I'm not much of a big prognosticator on the box office, but this one could turn out to be a solid double off the wall for Mr. Wan and Fox. These revenge flicks seem to do pretty well -- sometimes.
