Joe Carnahan Teases 'Continue,' An Action Version Of 'Groundhog Day'

After four features including this year's The Grey, it's no surprise Joe Carnahan is considered a solid filmmaker. The bigger surprise is that he's now becoming an innovator in the world of social media too. Carnahan made big headlines last month when he posted two pitch trailers created for a possible Daredevil reboot at 20th Century Fox. They were rare but welcome glimpses into the development of a major property, similar to Kevin Tancharoen's Hunger Games pitch trailer.

Now Carnahan is sharing again. Thursday he posted a screen test for a film he wrote and is hoping to direct, called Continue. He describes it as "Groundhog Day as an action movie." Unfortunately, Carnahan has since removed the clip. After the jump, read what he had star Frank Grillo doing, and thoughts on whether or not we'll ever get to see the film.

Carnahan originally posted the video via his Twitter account, @Carnojoe, teasing it as the first of five reveals. However, the video has since been removed along with a tweet apologizing for offending some friends. I doubt it'll pop up again. The clip was called  "The Poor Bastard Sushi Bar" and here's what happened to the best of my recollection.

Frank Grillo's character walks into a sushi bar and is greeted by the chef saying "happy birthday." He seems a bit flustered, confused, but orders salmon and a bottle of sake. No, make that two. The chef brings over the drink, they toast to living today to its fullest and Grillo begins to chug the first bottle. The man next to him at the sushi bar asks how he can drink that much. Grillo replies, "How can you not?"  The man launches into a speech about the destructive nature of alcohol when the camera begins to dolly in on Grillo and we hear his voiceover. He says that no matter how many different ways he answers that man's question about drinking, he always gives the same boring answer. Grillo says he knows it by heart. In fact, he knows everything that happens for the rest of the day. And that's the scene.

[Note: When I first wrote this post, the video was up, but as its since been taken down, all of the above is from just one viewing. A few of the details may be incorrect and for that I apologize.]

So why take the clip down when Carnahan was planning on posting five of them? Well it seems Continue is a film he's hoping to make in the future with 20th Century Fox. They might not be comfortable with the curtain being pulled back this early in the game. Fellow writer Mark Millar also tweeted about the script though calling it "one of best scripts I've read in years. The opening 15 mins could be cleverest opening to a movie EVER."

We still don't know what film Carnahan will be shooting next. In addition to this news about Continue, on Carnahan's Twitter (which, if you haven't gotten the point by now, is a must follow for awesome news) he also revealed he's finished the script for Death Wish, saying he's incredibly proud of it, and that it isn't a remake. He's also been trying to make Killing Pablo and White Jazz for a long time. It'll likely come down to which film gets someone to finance it first.

What movie do you hope Carnahan makes next? Do you want him to post more Continue videos?