Good news for fans of The Purge franchise… Frank Grillo’s Leo Barnes is coming back for another round of Purge Night.
The MCU star has revealed that he has signed on for a return to the guilty pleasure franchise despite it reportedly ending with the most recent franchise (here) with creator James DeMonaco who wrote and directed all the movies so far, saying: “We want to end it all, I think, in this one, and I’m very excited. When I came up with the idea and pitched it to everybody, they seemed psyched, and I think it will be a really cool ending, how we take this one home.”
But nope, it seems there’s life in the old girl yet.
“We committed to doing that— ‘Purge 6’ with [DeMonaco] directing,” said Grillo.
“It’s based on the Leo Barnes character. I’m excited. He’s going to send me the script. He just finished it. So, yeah, I’m really psyched about that. I love doing the ‘Purge’ movies…I’m psyched, they called me and said James wanted to direct one more and I’m like, ‘Don’t even tell me. I’m in.’”
Grillo’s Barnes appeared in The Purge: Anarchy and The Purge: Election Year, playing a cop who wanted to kill the man who killed his son, using Purge Night as the perfect time to do it before getting caught up in other peoples’ lives… personally, I liked him in the franchise, with his character being a perfect way into the franchise however with the last two movies we moved away from Frank and went in other directions with the franchise.
Could this new movie give Barnes the closure he’s been looking for? Here’s hoping.
But that’s not the only exciting news for Grillo fans.
It seems that he is also set to star in a sequel/reboot.remake of the Sylvester Stallone and Billy Dee Williams thriller Night Hawks, left.
The movie, which also starred the late Rutger Hauer as a serial killer being hunted by Stallone and Williams’ cops, has become something of a cult classic since its 1981 release and may be most famous for its final shot of Stallone in a dress and wig… no, really.
However, is seems that Stallone himself has wanted to get it off the ground since 2019, this time as a series from the perspective of the villain.
“I’m playing [Stallone’s Deke DeSilva]. He’s directing, he’s gonna direct ’em, and then he’s gonna be in it… It’s happening as we speak, we’re selling it right now,” Grillo says.
The series is planned to be eight episodes long with Stallone himself set to appear at some stage though it’s unclear if he’ll be an unrelated character with this being a straight-up remake or if he’ll reprise his role of DeSilva, making this a sequel of sorts.
“I’m like you,” Grillo goes on, “I love Rocky, I just love Stallone and I’m at this point where I’m sitting across from him and he’s telling me I’m the only guy to play the role…This is AMAZING!”
We’re big fans of Grillo and we do have a soft spot for The Purge franchise and Stallone’s Night Hawks, so this all seems like good news to us.
Thoughts? We want to hear them.
Source: The Playlist and JoBlo
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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