Director Exits KANE & LYNCH Adaptation a Month Before Production Set to Begin

French up-and-coming director Patrick Alessandrin has left the video game adaptation's team only a month before the cameras were set to roll, forcing Lionsgate to pursue previously considered candidates.

Kane & Lynch, the latest video game set to make the transition from console to silver screen, is in trouble. After a brief marketing push at several gaming and comics conventions this year, which included the first teaser posters and large-scale banner ads, it appeared fans were rather optimistic to see Bruce Willis and Jamie Foxx take up the titles roles. Kane & Lynch, based on the wildly popular crime game, follows Adam "Kane" Marcus, a mercenary who makes an unlikely alliance with a schizophrenic killer named James Lynch. The duo is forced on a mission to retrieve a stolen microchip.

According to the LA Times, the brakes have been put on this go-film:

"The movie from Avi Lerner's Nu Image/Millennium and Lionsgate (the former is financing, the latter distributing domestically), seemed all ready to start shooting next month, with French up-and-comer Patrick Alessandrin (District 13: Ultimatum") preparing to direct.

"But the latest turn has Alessandrin fallen off the film, according to several sources familiar with the project, forcing producers to go back to the drawing board. "Running Scared" helmer Wayne Kramer and "Italian Job" director F. Gary Gray, who at various points were in talks to take the directing reins, are now back in the mix. Producers are also talking to Antoine Fuqua, who collaborated with Millennium on the crime drama "Brooklyn's Finest."