Quite the interesting director/star pairing looks to be in the works.  A remake of the 1980s crime series The Equalizer has been in development for the past few years, with Denzel Washington most recently signing on to star.  Last we heard, Sony was compiling a shortlist of directors for the project, and on that list was Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn.  The studio has finally made a decision on who will take the helm of the project, and it is indeed Mr. Refn.  Hit the jump for more details, including a release date for Refn’s next film Only God Forgives.

We recently reported that director Jon Chu (Step Up 2: The Streets) was in talks to helm the Masters of the Universe reboot; now the director is talking about the film at length.  Written by Richard Wenk (The Expendables 2), the story follows the path of Prince Adam of Eternia who becomes the powerful He-Man with the assistance of a magic sword.  The protagonist uses this power to defeat the evil of Skeletor and his minions.  The property, previously adapted by Gary Goddard in 1987, is based off of a Mattel toy line of the 80s.  Chu talked about his reaction to the script, his appreciation of the toys, his enthusiasm for the property and even his status on finalizing G.I. Joe: Retaliation.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say. 

It looks like the all-female version of The Expendables (the one produced by Adi Shankar and written by Dutch Southern) now has some competition:  Millenium Films’ The ExpendaBelles, an action picture which recently landed a pair of scribes.  Kirsten Smith and Karen McCullah Lutz of Legally Blonde will pen the script for the mercenary movie.  The writing duo is responsible for past films like 10 Things I Hate About You, She’s the Man and The House Bunny, so we’ll see if they can up the action in their interpretation. As Deadline reports, The ExpendaBelles should be the first film in an expected franchise.  The other as-of-yet untitled all-female version of The Expendables currently has ass-kickers Gina Carano (Haywire) and Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) on board.  Are there enough action heroines to go around for two of these films?

In related actioner news, Richard Wenk, who co-wrote the screenplay for The Expendables 2, has been tapped to re-write the Masters of the Universe treatment.  Hit the jump for more on that story. 

CBS Films has acquired US distribution rights for director Simon West’s (Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) The Mechanic from Millennium Films.  A remake of the 1972 action thriller starring Charles Bronson, The Mechanic follows an elite hit man (Jason Statham) as he teaches his trade to an apprentice (Ben Foster) who has a connection to one of his previous victims.  The film was produced by Irwin Winkler, Robert Chartoff (Rocky, Goodfellas), David Winkler and William Chartoff and CBS Films is planning on releasing it next spring. Richard Wenk and Lewis John Carlino wrote the screenplay

Hit the jump for an image from the film and a few quotes from the press release: