After years in development at Millennium Films, Sylvester Stallone‘s hitman movie “Scarpa” is finally moving forward, as director Brad Furman has hopped aboard the long-gestating project, TheWrap has learned.
Stallone will play Gregory Scarpa, a mobster known as the Grim Reaper who served as an enforcer for the Colombo crime family. By his own admission, Scarpa killed more than 50 people before turning FBI informant after his own family was murdered. He died in 1984 in a Minnesota prison.
Also read: Sly Stallone, Nelly, Kyra Sedgwick Tackle Life by the Book in First ‘Reach Me’ Trailer (Video)
As terrible as Scarpa’s crimes were, he also did some good in his life, kidnapping a Ku Klux Klan member and torturing him for two days in order to get the location of the bodies of three civil rights workers killed in Mississippi.
Oscar nominee Nick Pileggi (“Goodfellas”) wrote the script, and Irwin Winkler (“Rocky”) will produce the movie with Millennium’s Avi Lerner.
Also read: Sylvester Stallone Reloads for One Last Ride in First Full ‘Expendables 3’ Trailer (Video)
Stallone next stars in Millennium’s action sequel “The Expendables 3” and its self-help drama “Reach Me.” He’s also expected to appear in Millennium’s female-centric spin-off “Expendabelles,” which Robert Luketic is directing. Luketic was recently quoted as saying that Stallone (and possibly some of his “Expendables 3” co-stars) will be “in the movie.”
Furman made his feature directorial debut with 2007’s armored truck heist movie “The Take” before going on to jumpstart the McConaissance with “The Lincoln Lawyer.” He most recently directed “Runner Runner,” which was a disappointment with both critics and audiences. He’s repped by WME.