Alex Cross is a reoccurring character in the novels of James Patterson. His stories have already been adapted for the screen a couple times with Morgan Freeman playing the lead role. Those films were Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider. Well now the character is looking to get a reboot with Tyler Perry as the lead. It’s old news that I, Alex Cross is being directed by xXx and The Fast and the Furious director Rob Cohen, but there is some new casting news to report. Mathew Fox has signed on in a key role as an assassin. Add to that the fact that Ed Burns is going to play Cross’ assistant Tommy Kane, and this looks like a movie that is starting to come together. But I’m not sure how I feel about it. I think a lot of people have been trained to see Tyler Perry’s name and treat it as a joke, but he’s made some things that are more dramatic than those cheesy black family sitcoms and cross dressing Madea movies that he is known for. And I saw him act in Star Trek and it wasn’t bad. Rob Cohen’s movies I can’t really defend, but they’ve managed to make a lot of money from what I can tell. Still, just give me those two names and I, Alex Cross sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

Morgan Freeman was already a bit too old to play Alex Cross – the iconic James Patterson detective – in Kiss The Girls and Along Came a Spider, but he was still Morgan Freeman. You don’t turn that man down, and the job he did was more than capable. Now, QED wants to bring back the character to the big screen. At one point, Idris Elba was in the starring seat. Now, it’s Tyler Perry, who can’t even be described as the poor man’s Idris Elba. Perry will play the master psychologist for I, Alex Cross – based off the novel of the same name. According to Deadline Lincoln, distributors are currently being sought out, and Paramount (who released the other Cross flicks) might be interested. To say this is terrible casting is understatement. Cross is a terribly complex character – compassionate yet tough, an intellectual giant who self-imposes a life of solitude while also managing to volunteer in one of the poorest communities in DC. So far, Perry just hasn’t shown the depth to bring this character to life. There’s also always that tiny fraction of a possibility that it turns into Alex Cross-dress. Jokes aside, Tyler Perry is no Morgan Freeman. He’s also no Idris Elba, and it’s a damned shame that we won’t get to see the Elba version of Alex Cross. Perry will have to have a lot of surprises up his sleeve that he hasn’t tapped into yet in order to pull this off.

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this stuff late at night, what do you expect?

For many people Idris Elba will forever be known as ‘Stringer’ Bell on HBO’s highly acclaimed The Wire. But “many” is a relative term, because millions more know him from his multi-episode guest arc on NBC’s The Office last year. Elba can also be seen in The Losers, The Unborn, and the upcoming Marvel bomb film, Thor. As exciting as all of that is though, the one thing every actor wants is a successful franchise. And now Elba may have just found his… DeadlineMuncie is reporting that Elba has signed on to star in the upcoming film, Cross, based on the bestseller by James Patterson. The character of Alex Cross has been brought to the screen twice before in the excellent Kiss the Girls and the less impressive Along Came a Spider. Morgan Freeman played Cross in both films, but the general consensus seems to be that the man is just too damn old to continue in the role. The new film sees Cross tracking a serial rapist who may have been the one who murdered his pregnant wife years prior. Sounds like a conflict of interest to me, but I’m always down for a good revenge killing. Cross is scheduled to begin production next year. Patterson has written fifteen books featuring Alex Cross, so if audiences like what they see in the new film Elba may never have to sell drugs again. What do you think of Elba as Alex Cross?

Columbia Pictures has acquired the screen rights to “Maximum Ride,” the best-selling young adult novel by James Patterson.