It is hardly breaking news to say that video game adaptations often struggle as films.

Everything from Super Mario Bros, through Street Fighter to Doom has struggled both critically and commercially, with even seemingly bankable fare like Prince of Persia misfiring.

Kane & Lynch, a third person shooter about two death row inmates who break out for a big bank job was hoped to be the project that would break the curse of the game adaptation, but this has now hit a director-related snag.

Patrick Alessandrin (District 13: Ultimatum) was attached to direct Bruce Willis and Jamie Foxx, with shooting starting next month. According to the LA Times, Alessandrin is now off the project and the producers are trying to find a replacement director.

F Gary Gray (Law Abiding Citizen, Be Cool) and Wayne Kramer (Crossing Over, The Cooler) were previously considered and are now back in the mix, as is Training Day’s Antoine Fuqua. The shooting schedule has been revised while a suitable director is found, with filming now not likely to begin until early 2011.

It seems strange in a way that studios keep trying to push video game movies, given their ignominious history, perhaps they keep trying to convince themselves that the next one will be the hit? Given how Hitman, Max Payne and even (though to a lesser extent) Silent Hill turned out, it is tempting to wonder how many more times these adaptations will have to fail before the studios finally give up flogging this particular dead horse.

Presumably the comparative success of the Tomb Raider and Resident Evil gives them just enough hope to keep going. We will see.

Thanks to the LA Times for spilling beans on this one.

Here’s the new UK poster for Gerard Butler’s new movie, Law Abiding Citizen. The trailer for the movie came out recently and it looks like a great, gritty movie with a dark storyline. Jamie Foxx, Colm Meaney, Bruce McGill, and Leslie Bibb are also in the movie directed by F. Gary Gray. It’s out on the 27th November so not too long to wait now.

Synopsis: Law Abiding Citizen is a thriller about a brilliant sociopath who orchestrates a series of high-profile murders that grip the city of Philadelphia – all from inside his jail cell – and the prosecutor assigned to his case who realizes he is the only one who can end the reign of terror.

Click the poster to enlarge or check out the trailer here.

Source: Empire

***UPDATE*** – Here’s the other poster of release of Jamie Foxx. Click to enlarge.

A few days ago I added a new poster from Law Abiding Citizen. Today, we’ve got a new poster of Jamie Foxx (click to enlarge) and a trailer for the movie. From what I’ve just seen, it looks like it’s going to be a good’n! Watch it after the jump.

Synopsis: Law Abiding Citizen is a thriller about a brilliant sociopath who orchestrates a series of high-profile murders that grip the city of Philadelphia – all from inside his jail cell – and the prosecutor assigned to his case who realizes he is the only one who can end the reign of terror.