Udo Kier in Turkish Narc Thriller

Jean Claude Van Damme’s appearance in the Turkish comedy Sınav made the news here in ScreenAnarchy last month and it looks like he won’t be the only eccentric recent casting choice of Turkish producers. Today came the announcement that fan favorite Udo Kier will be starring in a relatively big budget Turkish crime thriller called Pars: Kiraz Operasyonu (literal translation: “Leopard: Operation Cherry.”) Big kudos to whoever came up with that title.

The name "Pars" stands for a Turkish narcotic police team and what we know so far is that the film will chronicle a case of drug trafficking through Afghanistan, Turkey, Europe and USA. Though nothing has been disclosed about the characters, it's not hard to guess that Kier will play one of the kingpins of the traffic.

Director/Producer Osman Sınav is well known for the prime time TV series he created such as Süper Baba (1993), Deli Yürek (1999), Ekmek Teknesi (2002) and Kurtlar Vadisi (2003) which also once saw Sharon Stone and Andy Garcia as guest stars. Sınav also adapted Deli Yürek to the big screen in 2001 as Deli Yürek: Bumerang Cehennemi but surprisingly didn't take part in this year's controversial movie adaptation, "Kurtlar Vadisi: Irak" (Valley of Wolves: Iraq)

The shooting continues at various locations in Istanbul, Amsterdam and Monaco. The film, which also stars Mehmet Kurtuluş, Nida Şafak and Pelin Batu, is scheduled to be released in March 2007 in Turkey.