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Robert Downey Jr. and Shane Black launching ‘Parker’ franchise

Robert Downey Jr. and Shane Black are bringing an entire film and television franchise to Amazon based on literary favorite Parker.

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(Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

A couple of weeks ago, it was reported that Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man 3 duo Robert Downey Jr. and Shane Black would be reuniting for a third time to reboot Donald Westlake’s literary criminal Parker in a new movie, but the official announcement has revealed that it’s much more than that.

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As per Deadline, Amazon has partnered up with RDJ and the Lethal Weapon creator to develop and entire series of film and television projects, with Joel Silver and the former Marvel Cinematic Universe star’s Team Downey banner listed on the producorial side of things.

First out of the gate is Play Dirty, which will star Downey Jr. as Parker. Black will direct, and he’s already co-written the script with Charles Mondry and Anthony Bagarozzi, so things are a lot further along than any of us were reasonably expecting.

Downey Jr. has HBO event series The Sympathizer gearing up to shoot, in which he’ll be handsomely rewarded for playing multiple characters, and then it’s reasonable to expect Play Dirty to be lined up as his next project. However, that may spell even more bad news for fans eagerly awaiting any updates on Sherlock Holmes 3.

On the plus side, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man 3 were both fantastic, and we can’t wait to see what the third partnership between the actor and writer/director ends up bringing to Amazon, with the streaming service clearly holding huge ambitions for the nascent property.