GAMBINO: John Woo To Rejoin Nicolas Cage For New York Mafia Thriller
Nicolas Cage and John Woo are regrouping once more for crime thriller, Gambino, according to Variety’s Alex Ritman. WME Independent is lauching sales at the American Film Market.
The title follows Cage’s Carlo Gambino, a butcher’s son from Sicily, who ruled New York’s underworld with quiet authority. But when his death sends shockwaves through the city, Pulitzer-winning journalist Jimmy Breslin follows the trail he left behind to uncover the man beneath the legend. As the synopsis reads: “Through the voices of those who loved him and those who feared him, Breslin peels back the composure that masked Gambino’s ruthlessness, revealing how this outsider rose to redefine power, loyalty, and the American dream.”
The film brings the star and director back together for the first time since Woo’s 2002 World War II movie, Windtalkers, and the propulsive 1997 actioner, Face/Off. Recent reports have alluded to developments of a sequel to the latter with Cage possibly reprising his role, as Ritman notes in his own report.
Bad Boys writer George Gallo is penning the film. He and Gallo are also producing next to Nick Vallelonga (Green Book), as well as Cassian Elwes (Dead Man’s Wire), Robert Daly Jr., and David Lipper of Latigo Films (Not Without Hope, The Neglected) will produce. Edward Zeng (Following Harry) is also producing for NextG Films which is financing.
“At NextG Film, our vision is to unite the finest creative talents of Hollywood with the bold entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley,” said Edward Zeng of NextG Film. “Together, we aim to deliver an epic cinematic experience that brings audiences back to the theater again and again—an experience that not only entertains, but inspires people to reflect on the world we live in today. Humanity stands at a crossroads. Through powerful storytelling and innovative artistry, we hope to remind everyone that the future is ours to shape, and it is our shared responsibility to make it better.”
Woo’s credits also extend as far back as the 1960s as a script supervisor, climbing the ladder through his time at Golden Harvest. By the 1980s, the Chang Cheh mentee found fruition as one of Hong Kong’s biggest arbiters of the Heroic Bloodshed subgenre, elevating from kung fu and comedy to sweeping “bullet ballet” classics like A Better Tomorrow, The Killer and Hard Boiled, all starring Chow Yun-Fat.
Woo made his Hollywood debut with Jean-Claude Van Damme actioner Hard Target, and with John Travolta touting one of his best villain roles in Broken Arrow, as well as rejoining Chow to produce his American breakout in Antoine Fuqua’s The Replacement Killers with Michael Rooker and Mira Sorvino. He later stepped in to helm 2003 cat-and-mouse thriller, Paycheck with Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman. Some of Woo’s recent work includes Manhunt, Silent Night, and a remake of The Killer starring Omar Sy and Nathalie Emmanuel.
In 2022, Woo was honored at the 26th edition of Fantasia International Film Festival with a Career Achievement Award, cited in part:
With a singular directorial approach, Woo reinvented the conventions of action cinema, its visual language and dramatic codes. Nobody breaks down a sequence like Woo does: his staging is complex, his camera choreographies always elaborate, his mastery of physical performance and stunts unrivaled. His brilliantly original editing patterns are instantly recognizable, as are his slow-motion sequences, employed as much for pathos as to provide poignantly counter-adrenalized flourishes. At the heart of everything, Woo’s films are deeply moral visions, built around themes of friendship and trust with moving sincerity.
Read more at Variety
