It’s a project that has bounced around Hollywood for a while, attracting talent and directors (music video helmer Samuel Bayer and action lunk Vin Diesel have both been attached), but never quite managed to come together.

Now Black Water Transit – adapted from Carsten Stroud’s novel by Die Hard 4.0 writer Doug Richardson – looks like it has a director ready to sit down. And he has something of a history himself: Tony Kaye is no stranger to controversy, having fought for control over the cut of American History X and launched his provocative abortion debate documentary Lake Of Fire at this year’s Sundance.

It sounds like an explosive mix, with Samuel L Jackson and Bruce Willis reuniting on screen for the first time since 2000’s Unbreakable [cheers Tony!]. The plot finds successful businessman Jack Vermillon (Jackson) trying to help his son, an ex-junkie sent down for drug smuggling and armed robbery. The prosecutors offer him a deal – they’ll get his son moved from a maximum-security prison, provided he gives them something in return. His problems seem solved when Earl Pike (Willis), a military man looking to move his illegal gun store out of the country comes to Vermillon for the job. But things go badly wrong, and with several FBI agents and a cop dead, the whole mess is about to fall on Vermillon’s head…

Kaye will crank his cameras in New Orleans, but thanks to the production delays, the start date has been shoved back until early April.