Danny DeVito Wraps Shooting On New Thriller

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The Complex examines Danny’s potential for success as purveyor of thrills and chills.

There was a time in the early ’90s that it looked like Danny DeVito was really about to sprout his directorial wings and fly.  He’d made two pretty successful comedies in Throw Momma from the Train and War of the Roses before moving directing David Mamet’s epic screenplay for Hoffa.

Interesting film, Hoffa.  I was more or less a kid in ’92 when that film came out, and I think I took it in at the theater three times.  There was a resurgence of mob-leaning movies in those days after the revelation of GoodFellas, and whatever it was that The Godfather: Part III turned out to be.  I loved all that stuff so I absorbed as much of it as I could.

Hoffa looked and felt like a great film, but twenty years later, I’m still not so sure that it was, and if it was, I’m not so sure that it was because of Danny DeVito.

I’m dwelling on Hoffa because it was after that that DeVito moved into more frivolous fare like Death To Smoochy and Matilda.  Thus, Hoffa marks the last “serious” film that he made, and thus the closest meter I can use to gauge his chances for success on his latest directorial effort, which just wrapped, according to Deadline.  The project, which Deadline describes as untitled but which appears on IMDb as St. Sebastian, is described as an “apocalyptic thriller.” The current project stars William Fichtner, Lance Reddick, and Constance Zimmer.

Hoffa, to be sure, is not described as a thriller, but it was no goofy comedy, either.  I’m envisioning an apocalyptic thriller being more along the lines of an epic than a dark comedy or a children’s film.  Hoffa covered decades in a nonlinear format, was shot on several different locations, and sported a pretty stellar cast that included DeVito, Jack Nicholson in the titular role, and a budding young actor by the name of John C. Reilly.  No doubt, it was a challenging project to shoot and assemble in the editing room.

So I suppose, using Hoffa as a measuring stick for quality, I’m willing to take a look at the new project, whatever it is or isn’t called.