McG is not having an especially good President's Day weekend, as his new film This Means War continues to sputter along at the box office, currently slotted for fifth place behind Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. The film was supposed to be McG's return to his fizzy-poppy action wheelhouse after the slog that was the dark Terminator: Salvation, but whatever skill he showed with the Charlie's Angels movies seemed to have vanished, slapping This Means War with a ton of bad reviews and little audience attention.

But McG is ready to dust himself off and move on already, and he told The Playlist that his next project is likely to be Puzzle Palace, which he started setting up for himself last fall. The script is written by David Guggenheim, who found a pretty good hit with Safe House last weekend, and according to McG, Guggenheim is doing another pass on the script while Summit, which picked up the project, works out its merger with Lionsgate. The story, which you could describe as "a teen Die Hard" if you wanted to, is about a kid clearing his father's name by breaking into the NYPD headquarters. Then again, look who McG is imagining as the star:

"It’s a smaller picture, it’s designed for a [Ryan] Gosling [type actor]. It’s not as small and antithetical as ‘Drive,’ but it’s not a big giant over-the-top action picture, it’s meant to be a fun, intelligent action character study.”

Yes, Ryan Gosling will be 32 years old this year, and while it's entirely plausible to see him starring in an action-heavy film about clearing his father's name, I wouldn't describe Gosling as a "kid" or a "teen." I'm not really sure how to work that out, but the more worrying element is McG describing it as an intelligent character study. Not to bag on the guy too much while he suffers a disappointing box office weekend, but a character study doesn't seem exactly what McG would be good at. He tried to go darker and more serious with Terminator: Salvation and failed terribly, and while This Means War might not have worked out, an action comedy still seems so much more up his alley. I'd love to see McG tackle something in the vein of Die Hard, but the more he describes this project as more serious, the less interested I am.

What about you guys? Did you see This Means War and swear off McG forever? Or are you willing to see him pick up the pieces and turn in a fun movie again? He's not going to quit making movies, so it seems most helpful just to hope for the best at this point.