The title of Diego Boneta’s latest explosive thriller is his character’s response to bluntly being asked how he wants to die: “I want to die in a gunfight”, he admits, and he just might get his wish.
Die In A Gunfight stars Boneta and Alexandra Daddario as a pair of star-crossed lovers, doomed by the fact that their New York City crime families have a long-standing feud, and won’t stand to see their offspring happily in love.
This bombastic movie is now playing in select Australian cinemas: you can fall in love with it by using our session time finder, to see if there are screenings near you depending on your region’s lockdown regulations.
If that basic plot sounds familiar, it’s because Die In A Gunfight is your umpteenth Romeo and Juliet reimagining, this time filtered through a slick, comic-book-esque, action-thriller story. Imagine if there was some cool version of Romeo and Juliet set in like 16th century Italy, say, and the characters all used swords to fight each other, and they’re all princes and ladies? IDK I just think that’d be kinda fresh and unique.
The punching and pistol-whipping sound effects in the trailer below let us know that we’re in for a whole lot of violence, all in the name of love. Previous attempts to adapt this hot script for the screen were going to star Zac Efron, Josh Hutcherson, and Kaya Scodelario at various points. But it looks like Boneta and Daddario make a lovely couple, whom no knuckle-dusting rival family thugs (Travis Fimmel) will ever tear apart.
Other supporting actors fleshing out each wealthy, loathsome family include Justin Chatwin, Emmanuelle Chriqui and Billy Crudup as our omniscient narrator of everything.
Let’s hope that the warring fams can work things out before our star-crossed heroes get the usual Shakespearean ending. Hopefully they can ride off into the sunset together, as an animated comic-book dream sequence fantasises in the trailer above.
