Parker—violent anti-hero, dangerous predator, single-named fictional protagonist who chases after ex-partners, ex-wives, and well-executed financial transfers—is about to become a cinema star again. Previous film adaptations of Donald Westlake qua Richard Stark’s popular crime fiction novels have been helmed by iconic male stars such as Lee Marvin, Peter Coyote, and yes, Mel Gibson (by iconic, we mean some combination of hardboiled, hallucinogenic, and headcase-y). In the Taylor Hackford-directed Parker (set to release in October 2012—if we’re not too distracted by the pending return of Quetzalcoatl), Jason Statham will take his turn at the marvelous villain, via a screenplay based on the recently rereleased Flashfire. The only thing that could make this all that much more interesting is . . . Jennifer Lopez. Done and done.
With all this in mind, and apologies to Jason Statham, we’ve reconsidered the casting and thought about five other actors fit to finesse our ruthless protagonist: