Fox has released the poster for Street Kings (formally known as The Night Watchman).
Iconic author James Ellroy (Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential) penned the script, with David Ayer handling directing duties. Ayer previously directed Harsh Times as well as having written the screenplays for Training Day and The Fast and the Furious.
The cast is a pretty strong one, with Forrest Whitaker, Keanu Reeves, Hugh Laurie, Common, The Game, Chris Evans and Cedric the Entertainer.
Foxspotlight.com also has a promo page for it.
Dark Horizons interviewed Whitaker for his film Vantage Point. In it, he talked about the film and his role in it. The portion about Street Kings is below, but be warned, it does contain SPOILERS. For more on Forest and his various projects, click on the link above and read the entire interview.
You have been warned!
Whitaker: Yeah. I play, like, the – kind of like, almost like the godfather of, like, the corrupt cops in Los–LAPD.
Question: We don’t get to see the dark side of you very often.
Whitaker: This was kind of cool.
Question: What do you tap into to bring out the dark side of you?
Whitaker: I – have duality, too. I’ve got things that are dark. But I think – now I realize that I don’t even have to have those things in me. I can just, like, imagine them enough, and they come inside.
Question: Oh, really?
Whitaker: Yeah. I don’t think – I feel like you can access anything now. You know? Like, anything you could do.
Question: Do you talk to any cops in preparation for that?
Whitaker: I’ve played so many cops before. I mean, I had been – you know, yeah. I mean, I read some books and went through a couple of things. And – we went to a shooting range. But I’ve been to so many shooting ranges, played so many cops. You know. And it’s not like – it’s not like they’re gonna be able to, like, get deep into the corruption part of it, you know? It’s a hard core film. I just saw it two days ago.
Question: Is it tough?
Whitaker: Oh, yeah. Keanu’s really, really excellent in it. He plays, like, the enforcer. He’s like, my guy I send out to – to destroy people and stuff. and ultimately it’s about his awakening.
Question: So there are no really good characters in this. Although he develops into a –
Whitaker: You know what’s interesting? I don’t know if he develops into a good character. But his eyes are open. But even once his eyes are opened, he realizes that his eyes have been closed. Even when he, like, is opening his eyes to me, he realizes at the end that his eyes have been closed to the person who’s against me. You know?
Question: Bill Hurt says there’s no such thing really as straight good and evil. That they’re all characters.
Whitaker: What did he say?
Question: There’s no sort of bad – good and bad. That it’s conflicted. He used the word conflicted a lot.
Whitaker: Yeah. I agree with him. Because I think that even the character I played in Street Kings, he really feels like he’s doing something good for the people around him. Like, at the end, he’s – it’s this long conversation with Keanu where he’s like, saying to him, he says, “What do you think is gonna – who’s paying for – you know, this guy’s surgery? Who’s paying for his retirement? Who’s – you know. Who wouldn’t do this? Take care of the people they love?”
