Ok, here’s hope that Gerry Butler gets to redeem himself for the atrocious role in The Ugly Truth.

His new thriller Law Abiding Citizen with Jamie Foxx is surprisingly moved ahead of its release schedule from March 2010 to October of this year. Both Coming Soon.net and IMDB both list the release as October 16. I wonder why that is, but I hope that’s a good sign.

The poster is looking good though, definitely an improvement from the old one I’ve been seeing (see the two side by side here), it looks as if a fan with subpar Photoshop skills decided to take a stab at designing it. I like the composition and somber mood of the new one, Gerry’s eyes just totally grabs you (ok, so I’m biased here as I think GB’s eyes are his best feature) and they look so menacingly striking that I can’t take mine off them! =)

In the movie, Butler plays Clyde, an ordinary man  who’s hellbent on vengeance against a DA (Jamie Foxx) who sets his family’s killers free. Set in Philadelphia, this is the first film produced by Gerry’s own production company Evil Twins. F. Gary Gray (The Italian Job) directs the film based on a script by Kurt Wimmer (Equillibrium). Initially, Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption) was attached to direct, but unexpectedly dropped out just as Foxx was cast. The film also underwent a role reversal as Butler was supposed to play the District Attorney—that’d be interesting as he actually has a law degree!

Finally, there’s one film from ze Butler that I’m excited about this year! I have high hopes for this one, we know Butler can do intense and Oscar winner Foxx can do pretty much anything. It’s got a pretty stelar supporting cast, too: Michael Gambon, Colm Meaney, and recent Oscar nominee Viola Davis.

A poster on IMDB’s LAC forum thread claimed to have seen an advance screening of the film and liked it, saying that GB was great in the role of Clyde. Let’s hope it’d get a fresh rating on RottenTomatoes, it can’t possibly get any lower than 15% (you know which film gets that honor)!