We’re used to movies and stories that start off life in Europe and then get taken by Hollywood and turned American, but it’s not often it happens the other way around (although it does occassionally). However that’s what happening with Autobahn, which started off as Greg Russo’s US-set script I-95, but has now been transplanted to the zippy roads of Germany. It has apparently been moved from America to court the increasingly important international market.
Now the movie has a director, with THR reporting that Dardevil helmer Mark Steven Johnson signing up to helm the movie. Autobahn is the story of a washed-up ex-Formula One driver who wakes up trapped inside a BMW on the side of the Autobahn. He answers a phone ringing in the glove box, only to be told that he has 90 minutes to deliver the bomb-rigged car to a target or his wife and daughter will be killed. There’s another good reason to take the movie German, which is that the autobahn is famed for having no general speed limit, allowing for plenty of high-speed action.
Hopefully this will give Johnson’s career a bit of a lift, as he was unfairly derided in some quarters for both Daredevil and Ghost Rider (although rightfully pillories for being anywhere close to When In Rome). He’s actually a pretty good director, and could do with a movie that can show off his action skills without being weighed down by comic book baggage and expectation.