The Wolf of Mean Streets; Focus Features Taps Justin Lin for Times Square

The Universal folks are keeping their enemies close and their family members in-house. Justin Lin, who has been working with asphalt skidmarks (Fast & Furious items), will, according to Variety, step onto the Focus Features lot for Times Square. The old Focus Features would place their sole thriller in the late August dumping season slot, while it looks like the new Focus strategy embraces the genre. Focus Features acquired the Taylor Materne & Jacob Rubin’s Black List (lower ranked) script for Lin to direct. Chernin Entertainment, Perfect Storm Entertainment’s Lin and Troy Craig Poon and Far Hills Pictures produce.

Gist: Set amidst the transformation of Times Square from New York’s seediest neighborhood to the commercialized Disneyland it is today, when a secret from his past is unearthed, a young man’s loyalties are divided between his neighborhood boss who raised him and the grizzled ex-cop who swore to protect him.

Worth Noting: Lin also has the docu-to-fiction adaptation of The Battered Bastards of Baseball in the works.

Do We Care?: We’ve been tracking Lin since he broke into the biz with distinctly indie items Better Luck Tomorrow (2002) and Finishing the Game (2007), and this Catch-22, sideburns friendly The Departed type template is hopefully scummy setting a la Taxi Driver.