Tony Kaye’s Black Water Transit: Out of the Courts & Into the Theaters?

In many ways, Tony Kaye’s shot in New Orleans production was rattled by its own “wrath” of unforeseen events and circumstances and by the looks of it, the clean up crews are out by this Hollywood Reporter mention assessment of the damage. By the gist of the article, it looks like a rob Peter to not pay Paul type of situation – where the fate of Kaye’s film is not necessarily in better hands, but is closer to seeing the day of light at a theater or festival setting. At a cost of 2 million to purchase the rights, it would make sense if some distributor is already waiting in the wings to release Black Water Transit, a thriller that was completed in 2007 and despite a pretty good cast, never made it close to the big screen thanks to Capitol Films closing shop.

The Doug Richardson-scripted adaptation of the Carsten Stroud novel follows the divergent agendas of criminals, cops and lawyers as they collide over a shipment of illegal firearms and a double homicide. Urban plays Earl Pike, a criminal who tries to get his family’s illegal gun collection to a safe haven. New Orleans is a city in chaos, picking up the pieces after hurricane Katrina. Black Water Transit’s owner, Jack Vermillion (Laurence Fishburne) is trying to break away from the life of crime he grew up in and conduct a legitimate business. Jack is tortured by thoughts of his only son Gary, who is in prison endangering his own life with his self destructive behavior and aggressive attitude towards the other inmates. When the mysterious Earl Pike approaches Jack to ship an enormous stash of guns, he decides to expose Earl to District Attorney Schick in exchange for Gary’s protection. Jack’s plan, however, is jeopardised by the fact that Sardoonah (Brittany Snow), a prostitute he has taken under his wing, is falling in love with Earl and might be shifting her loyalty.