Classic UK gangster film The Long Good Friday is to be re-made, it was confirmed in Cannes, with the action shifting to Miami.

Handmade Films and Impact Pictures are partnering on the $50m project, written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson.

Co-producers will be Patrick Meehan for HandMade Films and Jeremy Bolt for Impact Pictures.

The action in the new film is to be re-located from its original 1980s London Docklands location to present-day Miami.

Discussions have already started for US distribution. Casting will take place later this year with production due to begin in Miami in the summer of 2008 after Anderson has completed Death Race for Universal Pictures.

The deal was negotiated by Patrick Meehan and Michael Ryan for HandMade Films.

'The Long Good Friday was an astonishing view of 1980s gangland that shocked audiences with its urban crime and violence,' commented Anderson. 'I am delighted to have the opportunity to put a new spin on this classic film which promises to reveal today's underworld in an equally shocking fashion.'

HandMade Films International is launching worldwide sales in Cannes.

The Long Good Friday is one of a number of remakes being hatched by Handmade following its acquisition of Guy Collins' and Michael Ryan's Sequence last autumn.

Later this year, Larry Clark is expected to begin work on his New York-set Mona Lisa remake, Shame. Further down the line, there are also plans afoot for a big budget remake of Time Bandits.

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