American Assassin

The X-Men have grounds for a lawsuit. The latest trailer for the forgettably-named upcoming action-thriller American Assassin begins with a squadron of new recruits going through a training exercise in a high-tech virtual facility. Hard-light holograms act as attackers, and though they may be projections, the “shots” they fire definitely hurt like real bullets. This dangerous room bears a suspicious resemblance to the Xavier School’s Danger Room, to the point that the wheelchair-bound telepath could probably hash this out outside of court for a fat stack of settlement dough. These may be fictional characters in fictional situations, but the American Assassin trailer does not give the average news-post writer much more to discuss.

One assassin can only be so fun. So why not have your up-and-coming newbie killer go head-to-head with your former star hitman gone rogue? That’s the basic premise of American Assassin, a blood and bullet showdown between two of Michael Keaton’s proteges.

Alien Vs. Predator. Freddy Vs. Jason. Kramer Vs. Kramer. Plessy Vs. Ferguson. Soon, a new rivalry shall join the ranks of the great cinematic grudge matches. You saw Bradley Cooper plumb new depths of moral compromise with American Sniper in 2014. Now, he’ll go up against his greatest nemesis yet: it’s American Sniper Vs. American Assassin — Battle of America.

When he’s not running in mazes or being welcomed to the Scorch, Dylan O’Brien is a black ops assassin ready to handle the CIA’s most sensitive crimes. O’Brien stars as Mitch Rapp, a counterterrorism operative who has to stop a maniac from starting a third world war in American Assassin. The film is based on the first of a 15-book-long series by Vince Flynn, and if this one does well in theaters, we can expect a whole lot more, as this is the first in a planned franchise.

Dylan O’Brien has caught franchise fever. With his work on the last installment of The Maze Runner series wrapping up, he’s just started production on American Assassin, based on Vince Flynn’s bestselling 15-book series. O’Brien will play Mitch Rapp, a counterterrorism operative who has to stop a maniac from starting another world war.

Bruce Willis in the CIA? The guy has -- on screen, that is -- been part of every other law enforcement organization in the world, so why not take a job with the most secretive one of all.