The original film helped launched the careers of Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen and Dirty Dancing’s Jennifer Grey and is still beloved by American military types. Now Tom Cruise‘s son Connor is to appear in a remake of the cold war-era teen movie Red Dawn, about a group of school kids who become guerrilla fighters to repel the Soviet invasion of their small Colorado town.

Connor, 14, who was adopted by Cruise and his former wife, Nicole Kidman, will play the youngest of the group, who dub themselves the Wolverines after their school’s American football team.

In the new film, which will also star Home and Away’s Chris Hemsworth, Transformers 2′s Isabel Lucas and Bridge to Terabithia’s Josh Hutcherson, the Wolverines take on invading troops from Russia and China. Hemsworth will take the Swayze role as group leader Jed Eckert, with Hutcherson as tech geek Robert, played by C Thomas Howell in the John Milius-directed film in 1984. Cruise Jr is to play Robert’s best friend and mayor’s son Daryl. Lucas stars as a cheerleader rescued from an internment camp.

The original Red Dawn was rated the most violent film ever made by the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records, despite its PG-13 rating in the US – it featured a startling 134 acts of violence per hour, or 2.23 per minute.

Dan Bradley, previously a second unit director on the two Bourne sequels and Quantum of Solace, will step up to direct. Bradley is known for his quickfire action sequences which were credited with helping to make Jason Bourne such a success.

The remake will start shooting in Detroit later this year with the aim of a September 2010 release. In a few weeks’ time, the young cast will be heading off for military training at an undisclosed location.

Cruise Jr previously appeared in the Will Smith film Seven Pounds as a younger version of the Oscar-nominated star of Ali. Smith’s own son, Jaden, has also embarked on an acting career, and is due to star in a forthcoming remake of another well-known 80s flick, Karate Kid. The new version will feature martial arts superstar Jackie Chan and has been appropriately retitled Kung Fu Kid.

Source: guardian.co.uk

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