Is Wayne Kramer directing the adaptation of the video game 'Kane and Lynch'?

According to Screen Rant, potentially yes:

Acclaimed stunt man Simon Crane is reportedly no longer onboard as director of next year’s video game adaptation Kane & Lynch. According to Latino Review, director Wayne Kramer is currently the top candidate to replace him.

During his career as a stunt coordinator, Simon Crane has worked on Hollywood blockbusters ranging from Aliens and Batman to Braveheart and Titantic – all the way up to this summer’s Angelina Jolie thriller, Salt. Crane was set to make his directorial debut with Kane & Lynch, which as of now is still scheduled to begin shooting this August.

However, Lionsgate has dropped Crane from the project due to creative differences and is currently on the lookout for a new filmmaker to come onboard. F. Gary Gray – who directed Kane & Lynch star Jamie Foxx in last year’s Law Abiding Citizen - was approached by the studio earlier this week, but he reportedly passed on the project.

Now the word is that Wayne Kramer – director of the ultra-violent 2006 flick Running Scared – has entered negotiations with Lionsgate to helm Kane & Lynch instead.

Kramer’s most recent directorial effort was last year’s immigration flick Crossing Over, a box office failure regarded by most critics and moviegoers alike as a retread of the Oscar-winning ensemble drama, Crash. Based on that film, Kramer may seem like an odd choice to helm a movie whose plot revolves around a convict (Willis) and a schizophrenic killer (Foxx) who must join forces to retrieve a stolen microchip for a group of bloodthirsty mercenaries.

However, Running Scared was a pulpy thriller that revolved around a criminal (Paul Walker) and his attempts to retrieve a gun (evidence) after a drug-op gone wrong. It was a frantically-paced, action-packed flick that often reached Tarantino-esque levels of violence – in other words, exactly what we can expect to see in the film version of Kane and Lynch. In that sense, Kramer sounds like a reasonable fit after all.

The biggest concern with Kane & Lynch at this point is whether Willis and Foxx will make for a charismatic pair of criminals in the film– regardless of who ultimately directs the flick. Cinematic adaptations of video games have an infamously bad history track record, so we’ll just have to keep our hopes high for now.

What do you think? Does bringing Kramer onboard to direct Kane & Lynch sound like a good idea? Are you sad to see Simon Crane dropped from the project? Sound off in the comments section below.

Kane & Lynch is still scheduled to begin filming this August with the intention of reaching theaters sometime in 2011.

-I could definitely see this being a good choice of director, but you never know...thoughts?