‘Oliver Twist’ in 3D, With Parkour, Produced By Red Bull?

We bang on Hollywood all of the time for its stunning lack of originality. So when the film industry announces pre-production on a 3D, parkour-infused adaptation of Charles Dickens’ ‘Oliver Twist’ that will be partially funded by Red Bull, we have to stand up, applaud and admit we sometimes can be wrong.

Variety reports that ‘Twist’ will be set in modern times, centering on Fagin’s gang of criminal orphans, who now use parkour to pull off a series of complicated art thefts. Please, sir, can we have some more?

This project comes hot on the heels of Taylor Lautner signing on for the parkour action thriller ‘Tracers.’ We seem to be in the middle of a movement here.

The Brothers Lynch and Simon Thomas are getting credit for this original storyline. The trade says that Red Bull's Sophokles Tasioulis, Pure Grass' Ben Grass and Salt's Piers Tempest will produce the feature, which hopes to be in pre-production in January. You see? Red Bull isn’t just for energy drinks. As Variety notes, then company launched its media company in 2007 and currently owns the TV channel Servus TV channel.

So tell us, are you intrigued by a parkour take on Oliver Twist? Is it any more strange than, say, ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’ or some such mash-up? Because I think if we have to sit through another version of Dickens’ ‘Twist,’ why not introduce a gymnastics-inspired fighting style?