Given her stellar career in music and her great work in romantic comedy, it’s easy to forget that Jennifer Lopez had some of her first big successes in thrillers and action pictures, notably Steve Soderberg’s Out of Sight with up-and-comer George Clooney and the still-cult-classic Anaconda. Now she’s returning to her sexy-action roots in Taylor Hackford’s (Officer and a Gentleman, Proof of Life) new high-octane thriller Parker, where she’ll co-star with action hero Jason Statham. It’s about what you’d expect from this multi-faceted woman; she recently told Harper’s Bazaar: “I’m a singer. I’m a dancer. I’m a performer. I’m an actress. That’s what I’m supposed to be doing. It makes me a better parent, a better person.”
The movie is not the first to be based on Donald Westlake’s relentless tough-guy thief “Parker,” first seen in a long series of almost thirty novels written from the 1950’s until Westlake’s death in 2008 (other Westlake novels that have been made into movies include Payback, The Grifters, The Stepfather, and The Hot Rock).
Parker also opens the gateway to a lucrative new franchise for everyone involved. Bobby Cannavale, Clifton Collins, Jr. and Carlos Carrasco also appear in this story of heists, hostages, and double-crosses, opening nationwide on January 25.
Here’s a featurette on the film, including some face-time with J.Lo herself:
