Director James Mangold is riding high after the surprise success of Ford V Ferrari (the film has grossed more than $200 million worldwide) and he’s got a number of choices for his next film. It was recently announced that he will direct a Bob Dylan biopic which must be a dream come true. But Mangold isn’t stopping there. He’s lining up another project too, this one with Ferrari co-lead Matt Damon again in the driver’s seat.
Deadline is reporting that Mangold will direct The Force, a cop drama based on the novel by acclaimed author Don Winslow. Damon is set to star in the picture that’ll be produced by Ridley Scott and others. Here’s an official synopsis of the novel’s plot:
“All Denny Malone wants is to be a good cop.
He’s the king of Manhattan North, a highly decorated NYPD detective sergeant and the real leader of “Da Force.” Malone and his crew are the smartest, the toughest, the quickest, the bravest and the baddest, an elite unit given unrestricted authority to wage war on gangs, drugs and guns. Every day and every night for the eighteen years he’s spent on the Job, Malone has served on the front lines, witnessing the hurt, the dead, the victims, the perps. He’s done whatever it takes to serve and protect in a city built by ambition and corruption, where no one is clean—including Malone himself.
What only a few know is that Denny Malone is dirty: he and his partners have stolen millions of dollars in drugs and cash in the wake of the biggest heroin bust in the city’s history. Now Malone is caught in a trap and being squeezed by the feds, and he must walk the thin line between betraying his brothers and partners, the Job, his family and the woman he loves, trying to survive, body and soul, while the city teeters on the brink of a racial conflagration that could destroy them all.”
While the plot sounds like any number of crooked cop dramas we’ve seen over the years, I can’t deny that I’m intrigued. There’s a reason that we have seen a million movies about morally-compromised police officers: it’s a fascinating genre full of deceit, betrayal, tension and serious character arcs. Obviously Mangold will have to add something new to the proceedings but I’m into The Force even if it does sound like a lot of other movies.
I do have to complain about the name of the fictional task force though. Da Force? Seriously? They couldn’t think of a better name than Da Force?
Like I said, Mangold has a lot of projects to choose from after Ford V Ferrari so the fact that he’s going with The Force says a lot about the source material. He obviously sees something very provocative in the story. Plus you know that every director wants to make a crime drama someday, it’s like a rite of passage and probably a true delight to follow in the footsteps of The French Connection, Serpico and The Departed. I bet Mangold is very excited to dive into the seedy underworld of corrupt cops. And he’s surely excited to reunite with Damon, who actually plays a damn good villain when he wants to (speaking of The Departed…)
