I have a confession to make: I really like Tim Allen. Granted most of his movies suck, but the guy has a great, fatherly, comfortable screen presence. The problem with his movies isn’t him, it’s usually just that he picks the lousy things to be in. Think about it, Wild Hogs is the best thing he’s done since the greatness of Galaxy Quest and seriously, Wild Hogs isn’t all that good. So to me, this news is kind of exciting. Taking a break from his usual slate of crappy Disney family movies, Tim is going to work for David Mamet.

Variety says the movie is a mixed-martial arts drama called Redbelt, which Mamet wrote and plans to direct. The movie stars Chiwetel Ejiofor who played the brilliant, martial-arts oriented villain in Serenity, wore high heels in Kinky Boots, and married Keira Knightley in Love Actually. Ejiofor is a Jiu-jitsu master whose purity is compromised when he’s sucked into the movie business and ends up in ultimate fighting matches. Tim Allen co-stars as a troubled action star with martial problems who meets Chiwetel’s martial-arts master character while being beaten up in a street fight. It’s a safe bet that Chiwetel saves his ass.

Allen’s character sounds a bit like a variation on his Galaxy Quest character, except imagine that character in a drama and spouting David Mamet’s infamously fast-paced, clever dialogue.

If you’re not familiar with David Mamet’s work hit up Netflix for his last movie, Spartan. It slipped in and out of theaters rather quietly in 2004, but deserved a lot more credit than it gets as a taut military thriller that demands the audience think its way through to the end. Digging Mamet takes concentration, and that’s often more effort than most moviegoers are willing to give.