Bullet to the Head (2012)
Bullet to the Head is a 2012 American action film directed by Walter Hill. The screenplay by Alessandro Camon was based on the French graphic novel Du plomb dans la tête written by Matz and illustrated by Colin Wilson. The film stars Sylvester Stallone, Sung Kang, Sarah Shahi, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Christian Slater, and Jason Momoa. Alexandra Milchan, Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Kevin King-Templeton produced the film. The movie follows a hitman (Stallone) and a cop (Kang) who are forced to work together to bring down a corrupt businessman (Akinnuoye-Agbaje) after they are targeted by the businessman’s assassin (Momoa). The film had an exclusive test screening at the International Rome Film Festival on November 14, 2012 and was officially released in US theatres on February 1, 2013. The film received mixed reviews and was a box office bomb.
Plot.
In the city of New Orleans, hitman Jimmy Bobo and his partner Louis Blanchard kill a corrupt former MPDC policeman, Hank Greely, although Bobo leaves a prostitute, Lola, alive. Later, at a bar, Blanchard is murdered by another hitman, Keegan, who also attempts to kill Bobo but fails. Washington, D.C., Detective Taylor Kwon arrives in New Orleans to investigate his former partner’s death and meets Lieutenant Lebreton, who informs him Lola confirmed Greely was assassinated. Kwon goes to the morgue, and, after seeing Blanchard’s body and finding out who he is, he deduces that Blanchard and Bobo killed Greely. Meanwhile, Keegan meets with his employer, Robert Morel, and Morel’s lawyer Marcus Baptiste. Baptiste reveals that Greely tried to blackmail Morel, and provided local mobster Baby Jack with a file detailing Morel’s illegal operations. Keegan later kills Baby Jack and his men and retrieves the file. Kwon meets Bobo in a bar and informs him that he knows Bobo and Blanchard killed Greely. Bobo leaves, and when Kwon tries to follow him, he is attacked by corrupt cops who were ordered by Morel to prevent Kwon from further investigating about Greely.
Kwon manages to disarm and gun down one of the corrupt cops but is wounded by the other. Bobo rescues Kwon by running over the other cop and takes him to a tattoo parlor, where Bobo’s estranged daughter, Lisa, treats Kwon’s wounds. They later go to a massage parlor where Bobo interrogates Ronnie Earl, the middleman who hired Bobo and Blanchard on Morel’s behalf. Ronnie Earl tries to kill Bobo, but Bobo manages to kill him, although his gun jams. Bobo later confronts Kwon, who admits to having tampered with Bobo’s gun, nearly causing his death. Bobo and Kwon agree to work together.
Bobo and Kwon kidnap Baptiste and take him to Bobo’s house, where he is forced to give them a flash drive detailing Morel’s plans to acquire housing projects and demolish them to build office buildings and reveals Keegan is an ex-mercenary hired to be Morel’s enforcer. Afterwards, Bobo shoots him in the head. Keegan and his men trace Baptiste’s cellphone to Bobo’s house, but Bobo and Kwon are able to escape and detonate a bomb, killing Keegan’s men. Keegan escapes and swears revenge on Bobo. Angered at Bobo’s methods, Kwon abandons him and continues alone.
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Box office.
The Specialist opened in the U.S. on October 7 and grossed $14,317,765 in its opening weekend finishing number one at the US box office. In its second weekend, it grossed $8,972,766, finishing second to the claimed $9.3 million gross of Pulp Fiction, however, others disputed Miramax Films’ claimed gross and felt that The Specialist was the highest-grossing for the weekend. The film ended up making back its budget with $57,362,582 at the domestic box office while making another $113,000,000 internationally, giving it a worldwide gross of $170,362,582. It set a Warner Bros. record opening in the Philippines with $1.1 million and had the fifth biggest opening of all time in Spain with a gross of $2.1 million. It was Stallone’s third highest-grossing movie at the box office in the 1990s and the second highest overall gross next to Cliffhanger. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “B-” on an A+ to F scale.
Development, Casting.
The film is based on Alexis Nolent’s French graphic novel Du Plomb Dans La Tête (“Lead in the Head”), with a screenplay by Alessandro Camon under the working title “Headshot”. The producing team previously produced the film I Am Number Four. An executive attached to the film has said, “[This movie] is exactly the type of fast-paced, universally themed project that suits our business model. Sylvester Stallone is an international icon and we’re really excited to be in business with him.” Originally Wayne Kramer was attached to direct, but left the project when his vision of the film was darker than Stallone wanted. Sylvester Stallone then called Walter Hill who had just had a movie fall apart six weeks before that he had been trying to do for a year. Hill later recalled: Thomas Jane was originally cast for the part that would eventually go to Sung Kang. The role was recast at the insistence of producer Joel Silver, stating a need for a “more ‘ethnic’ actor” to appeal to a wider audience. Hill stated:
Filming, Release.
Bullet to the Head was shot in New Orleans and started filming on June 27, 2011. Hill: One of the things I like about New Orleans is it feels like you’re in a western with the architecture. All the balconies, the old buildings, it feels like you’re in the 1880s. Some of it spills into the movie. I don’t know how much of it creeps into the edges and helps you or how much of it is just by design. Usually you’re trying to tell a narrative through your characters and have all this stuff bleed in around the edges. Hill said he told Stallone “to play things more casually. I wanted him to play his natural personality as much as possible. He’s a very engaging guy. I told him, “I’m not interested in you inventing a character as much as imagining yourself as character.” He went right with that.” On August 23, 2011, it was announced that the film would be released on April 13, 2012. On February 23, 2012, the release date was moved back. It was released on February 1, 2013.