Jason Statham, a man who knows exactly what he's best at and rarely fails to bring it, is once again signing on to play a killer with a soul. According to Variety he's set to star for director Taylor Hackford in Parker, based on the series of books by Donald Westlake about a thief who lives by an honor code. Of course he does.

Both Statham and Hackford are coming off fairly iffy previous efforts. Though Statham has been the star of blockbusters like Crank, the Transporter series and especially The Expendables, his last film was January's The Mechanic, which grossed a fairly paltry $45 million worldwide. Hackford's had an even worse time of it-- the director of Ray and The Devil's Advocate stumbled badly with his last film Love Ranch, plagued by distributor problems and eventually making just $137,885 theatrically.

The good news for both of them is that they're going for something that basically can't lose-- Statham as a man who straddles good and bad, and will likely crack a few skulls before the closing credits run. I mean, the Variety writeup specially says of the character, "his word is his bond, and if he is crossed he will strike back relentlessly." That's an easy sell if I ever saw one.