In celebration of the release of Summit Entertainment’s crime thriller Snitch, opening in theaters February 22nd, we’re proud to bring you seven of the greatest undercover badasses in movie history.

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed

By the time the American remake of Infernal Affairs rolled around, DiCaprio was already widely-celebrated for his skills; but it wasn’t until audiences saw him doing push-ups between prison bunks that he carved out his first proper badass. Given the circumstances, it could have been easy for any actor to overplay the role of William Costigan, but DiCaprio brings a level of grace and sadness to level off the character’s grit and ferocity. Even more badass: DiCaprio actively declined campaigning for any awards for Best Supporting Actor that year as to avoid stepping on the toes of his co-stars.

Johnny Depp, Donnie Brasco

Getting in “too deep” is a common theme in many undercover films. After all, putting yourself at risk is what going undercover is all about. But what happens when you form a legitimate friendship with the men you’re supposed to be infiltrating. Things quickly get complicated for Donnie Brasco when he realizes that doing his job will most likely result in his friend’s death.

Toshiro Mifune, The Bad Sleep Well

Mifune’s performance as Koichi Nishi is a rarity in that it doesn’t employ the slam-bang tactics of many of his cohorts seen on this list. His stoic nerd slowly unveils the vengeance of a son scorned by one of the most powerful corporations in Japan through tactics of seduction, espionage and psychological torture. Mifune played numerous lively punkers in his lifetime, particularly in the realm of samurai lore, but this character seethes in his rage, striking only after his prey is at the brink of madness. Case in point: Nishi corners one of his targets on the window ledge from which his father died, calming the man down by offering whiskey that he later reveals is “poisoned”. The mark collapses, driven insane by the ordeal. Nasty!

Keanu Reeves, Point Break

This is simple story about a former Ohio State quarterback named Johnny Utah. For an F-!B-!I!-Agent!, Johnny maintains the most suspicious bromance with Patrick Swayze’s Bodhi this side of “Brokeback Mountain”. He allows his bleach-blonde nemesis to escape an aqueduct face-off, jump out of an airplane and eventually surf himself to death. At various points in the film, Bodhi’s potency in performing extreme sports counteracts the hobbling ethics of Reeves’ lawman. Johnny, like, totally buries his heart at wounded knee.

Kevin Spacey, The Usual Suspects

Have you ever seen Kevin Spacey try to act like a badass? It doesn’t work. But Spacey as a schlepp? That’s Oscar gold. The writing/directing on “Suspects” lay formidable groundwork for Spacey to perform as the keystone for an impeccably oddball cast. His bumbling Verbal Kint acts as a tender foil to a constant stream of roughneck freakouts. With little more than his wits, this badass knows that the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing Chazz Palmenteri that he didn’t exist.

Chevy Chase, Fletch

Light years ahead of the Twitter-quip generation, Chase is at the peak of his powers, dishing out maximum smarm before turding up his career with JTT movies. What makes this role fairly badass is that it is one of the last of a dying breed: that of the snoopy, investigative newspaper reporter. What makes it particularly badass is that Chase has a ball conjuring up characters with names like Dr. Rosenpenis, Dr. Babar and Mr. Poon. The actor has gone on record as saying this was his favorite role, given that director Michael Ritchie often took multiple takes and allowed Chase to riff with whatever came off the top of his dome.

Nicolas Cage, Face/Off

“Castor Troy” is a pretty distinct – if not altogether awful – name. Despite this and other cringe-worthy moments that face-swipe to show affection, Nic Cage keeps John Woo’s ‘97 hit from teetering into cornball territory. Cage’s Castor Troy is the kind of guy who can talk an undercover agent into sucking his tongue. He poses as a priest so he can plant a dirty bomb and goose choir members. He switches sunglasses for no reason. And he delivers a more badass John Travolta impersonation than Dana Carvey.

This just proves that Out for Justice really was a film ahead of its time.

But don’t let that make you think the coveted role of Osama Bin Laden has fallen into unworthy hands: In addition to the natural resemblance, Sekhon has reportedly lost more than 25 pounds to get his frame into the Bin Laden range of about 165 pounds. Interestingly, despite the recent report that Sekhon will be Bin Laden in the movie, he has reportedly already finished all his work on the film, but says he’s “on quite a big non-disclosure agreement” that keeps him from discussing his role further.

He’s joining a pretty impressive ensemble cast, which includes Chris Pratt, Kyle Chandler, Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, and many more. I can’t wait to see how he pulls off the beard! (The Playlist)

Instead of making a joke here, I’m just going to go on record as saying this is a very bad idea.

The scribe behind Salt, Kurt Wimmer, will be putting together a film that incorporates a bunch of contemporary bullshit into a movie that was just fine to begin with. Whoever is behind this clearly holds nothing sacred and will put together a film that falls way short of the original, but I would like to chip in my two cents to make sure the remake is as ephemeral and awful as possible.

Cast:

Johnny Utah – Tobey Maguire

Bodhi – Dax Shepard

Tyler – Katy Perry

Pappas – Jon Cryer

featuring an original soundtrack by Bruno Mars.

In closing, I leave you with this quote from producer Michael DeLuca. Feel free to read it then go take a shower: “Point Break wasn’t just a film, it was a Zen meditation on testosterone fueled action and manhood in the late 20th century and we hope to create the same for the young 21st!”

Padilha and writer Nick Schenk (Gran Torino) are collaborating on a film called Tri-Border, about the dangerous, crime-ridden border area between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. The two of them are doing research there now. Hopefully they’ve got a RoboGuard or something with them. The script follows a Boston-born DEA agent who’s forced to go to Tri-Borderville, in order to track down a top drug dealer.

Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal were prepping a thriller for a year called Triple Frontier, about the same location. However, they also had a project in storage about some guy named Osama bin Laden, which for some mysterious reason has taken precedence for them now. (Hollywood Reporter)

Now Columbia Pictures has grabbed the US distribution rights for the film, to be written by The Hurt Locker‘s Mark Boal. It’s a regular Hurt Lockereunion. Sony Pictures Co-Chair Amy Pascal said the following about the sale:

“With the death of Osama bin Laden, this film could not be more relevant.”

Wait a minute… Osama bin Laden is dead? You don’t say. I guess that probably explains other competing Osama-killing movies in the works from George Clooney and Oliver Stone. (TheWrap)

Anyway, as writer Mark Boal furiously adds a happy ending to the script, the film has found one of their leads: Australian actor Joel Edgerton. You may know him as a guy who was almost the guy replacing Matt Damon in The Bourne Legacy. He’ll play a secret operative as part of a group of kickass, Osama-slamming warriors.

To take the role, Edgerton reportedly passed on the part of The Huntsman in Snow White and The Huntsman, one of three million Snow White movies coming out. He would have starred opposite Kristen Stewart. Maybe he’s not into that twitchy way she does everything. In the end, it probably came down to how little Bin Laden murdering is in Snow White and The Huntsman. Sometimes a guy’s gotta kill some Bin Laden. Sam Claflin will reportedly take the Huntsman role.

Kill Bin Laden is looking to start shooting this Summer. (LA Times)

You might vaguely remember hearing about one or two projects in the works detailing the hunt for Number One Terrorist Guy Osama bin Laden. Now, after last night’s news that Osama’s star power in Hollywood has increased significantly, the question over how these projects are going to be handled in up in the air.

The most recent project is the black ops thriller tentatively titled Kill Bin Laden from The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow. It’s been stalling, but now that there’s a pre-packaged “happy ending” to the story, maybe Kill Bin Laden will get fast-tracked, perhaps under the new title Killed Bin Laden.

The other movie is a project based on the book Jawbreaker, about “the December 2001 American-led military mission to hunt and kill Bin Laden right during the opening stages of the 9/11-prompted invasion of Afghanistan that the author as the CIA pointman had helped coordinate with Special Operations Forces.” Oliver Stone was reportedly interested in it, but it never gained much traction – it’s safe to say that’s about to change.

Anyway, both of these movies’ stocks have probably increased significantly in light of bin Laden’s death. Stay tuned for any official announcement about these projects, or any other new bin Laden-related movies. Perhaps in an announcement from the White House at 11:30 PM. (Deadline)

UPDATE: Variety is now reporting that the narrative concerns black ops and is based on a true story that has appeared in printed form. The pic does not, as previously indicated, directly revolve around Osama bin Laden.

Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) might have Public Enemy Number One in her sights for her next project. No, she isn’t working on a Cat Stevens biopic with Osama bin Laden – the as-yet-untitled low-budget black ops thriller that’s been reported on earlier might center around efforts to nab Osama.

This isn’t the only project on Bigelow’s plate, though. She’s also working on Triple Frontier, which is set to begin shooting sometime this year. The jury’s out on which of these projects is actually going to be released first. Since the black-ops bin Laden movie is reportedly a small, low-budget affair, it might get banged out before the larger Triple Frontier, or it might be serving as a tentative back-up plan in case the bigger project falls through or is delayed. Either way, a movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden is sure to be controversial, although in the case of war movies like The Hurt Locker, controversy doesn’t always translate to box office success. The prospect of seeing Sam Worthington or somebody spit out a witty one-liner before shooting Osama in the face might be enough to break some box office records, though. Free suggestion re: one-liner – “Where you’re going, you won’t have Been Laid In a very long time!” Send my residual checks to Screen Junkies. (SlashFilm)

Kathryn Bigelow will have to wait longer than planned to tactfully ask Triple Frontier‘s make-up stylist to apply extra powder to Tom Hanks‘s giant forehead. That project has encountered complications and will be pushed back to Fall 2011. Well, she ain’t just going to sit on her hands. This is Kathryn Bigelow we’re talking about here. If she wants to film an international thriller, she’s going to film a damn international thriller. So, in the meantime, up next for Bigelow is a smaller “international thriller.”

The project name hasn’t been released yet but the story is reported to be based on a true story centering around black ops. Not to be confused with Bad Boys, which centered around black cops. (Variety)

Hollywood’s nicest man is heading for a part of the world that is anything but. Tom Hanks has been cast in Triple Frontier, which takes place in one of South America’s most dangerous regions. And that really means something, considering South America has more than its fair share of dangerous regions.

The film, the follow-up from The Hurt Locker director and writer Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal, is an ensemble picture set in the notorious border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil where the Igazu and Parana rivers converge — making “la triple frontera” difficult to monitor and a haven for organized crime.

So far, Hanks is the only confirmed cast member, and I’m assuming he will play a law enforcement official. Also, there are rumors that the title will be changed to Sleeping Dogs. If these rumors prove true, could we be looking at the long-awaited followup to Turner and Hooch? We’ve got a possible cop, and the word “dogs” in the title, so all signs point to yes. (Coming Soon)

Back in 1988 James Cameron made a terrible decision to direct a music video for Bill Paxton‘s band Martini Ranch. I’m sure the final product has been haunting him ever since, a horrible display of mariachis and teased hair that not even his domination at the box office can banish from his mind’s eye. Ooooo is that Kathryn Bigelow?! Why in God’s name don’t they show more of her? And why is she wearing so many articles of clothing? Bustiers abound in this P.O.S. and Cameron doesn’t slap one on Kathryn. If I wasn’t so terrified of you, James, I’d give you angry fist shake. (Cinematical)