Brad Anderson’s New Film ‘Jack’ About A Serial Killer Who Doesn’t Know Jack

By  · Published on May 14th, 2010

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a solid serial killer flick with a Jack the Ripper connection hasn’t it? From Hell was almost ten years ago, David Hasselhoff’s undeniably awesome Terror At London Bridge is even older, and the two best Ripper films ever made both came out in 1979 (Murder By Decree, Time After Time). He’s history’s most notorious serial killer due to his writings, his panache, and his success at eluding capture and identification.

After that intro you might suspect I’m about to discuss a new addition to the Ripper’s cinematic family, but I’m not. It was purely a means to an end in my effort to reference The Hoff at least once per day. But there is a new movie called Jack heading into production and it is about a serial killer…

Per Variety, Brad Anderson has signed on to direct Jack. The movie is written by David Venable and is about a serial killer with amnesia. “Storyline revolves around what happens when the amnesiac falls in love with a doctor. As the killer’s memories begin to surface, he must decide whether to make a clean start or embrace the killer within.” Anderson’s a solid director with well-received thrillers like Session 9 and Transsiberian on his resume as well as the grueling ordeal that is The Machinist. Aside from his TV work though on shows like The Shield, Fringe, The Wire, and HBO’s Treme I wouldn’t say he’s a very commercial director.

The story here has potential and I’m definitely curious as to where it goes. Because what are the options? Jack clearly can’t be forgiven or allowed to go free. And if he truly falls in love then I can’t imagine he’ll turn around and try to kill the lucky girl. So I expect he’ll tell the girl he loves her, tell her he’s sorry, and then step off the curb in front of a bus. Or maybe he’ll jump off a bridge. And his soul will get trapped in a falling brick… and just like that I’ve come full circle back to Hasselhoff’s amazing performance in Terror At London Bridge.

Jack starts filming in late August.

Rob Hunter has been writing for Film School Rejects since before you were born, which is weird seeing as he's so damn young. He's our Chief Film Critic and Associate Editor and lists 'Broadcast News' as his favorite film of all time. Feel free to say hi if you see him on Twitter @FakeRobHunter.