Cops Will Break the Rules in James Mangold’s ‘Logan’ Follow-Up ‘The Force’

As is Hollywood custom, the successful blockbuster director has now handpicked his next high-profile gig from a windfall of hot-property scripts piling up on his desk. James Mangold has been having a pretty great month as the director of the kindly-reviewed, highly lucrative Logan, and now he’s parlayed that big win into his next directorial gig. He’ll leave the superhero world for his follow-up feature, but the new premise will still afford him plenty of opportunity for the grim, terse scripting and shocking bursts of violence that have already earned Logan a wide following. And this time, Mangold’s a loose cannon, on the edge, and not playing by the rules.

What I’m trying to say is he’s doing a cop drama. Deadline has the exclusive that the next Mangold picture will be The Force, an adaptation of Don Winslow’s upcoming novel of the same name about corruption in the NYPD. Acquired by Fox for a princely seven-figure sum before a word had even been written, the novel was presumed to crackle with the same potboiler intensity that Winslow brought to international crime saga The Cartel. (Stephen King’s cosign of “The Godfather with cops” didn’t hurt either.) The book comes to newsstands on June 20, but Mangold‘s film still needs a writer to mold a script out of the novel.

This project is still in very early gestation, but when it comes to corrupt cop dramas, there are a few givens. Someone will most likely be ordered to place their badge and gun on the chief’s desk. Audiences can expect fists to be banged on other desks. Basically, watch the relevant BoJack Horseman episode and you’ll be prepared.