Summit Entertainment (The Twilight franchise) has announced the release date for the upcoming film Red. In case you’re not familiar, the film features Bruce Willis as Paul Moses, a former CIA assassin, who after years of retirement ends up hunted by the government for the things he knows. Red has been set for release on October 22, 2010.

The film, based off the mini-series by Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan) and illustrator Cully Hamner, has an A-list ensemble cast lined up including Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, John C. Reilly, Mary-Louise Parker, Brian Cox, Richard Dreyfuss and just announced the other day, James Remar (Dexter).

The film is being directed by Robert Schwentke (The Time Traveler’s Wife), from a script by Jon and Erich Hoeber, who gave us another recent comic-book adaptation, Whiteout.

According to THR’s Heat Vision Blog, John C. Reilly and Mary-Louise Parker are now in negotiations to join the cast of Red, Summit Entertainment’s adaptation of the Wildstorm/DC Comics miniseries written by Jon and Erich Hoeber and being directed by Robert Schwentke. If they do end up signing up for the film, they will join a cast that already includes Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren.

Originally published in 2003 and 2004, Red was co-created by writer Warren Ellis and artist Cully Hammer. It centers on a former black-ops agent Paul Moses (Bruce Willis), now in retirement, who has to contend with younger, more high-tech assassins who want to kill him and keep his former exploits from going public. Naturally, the first hit squad fails and alerts Moses that he’s being targeted. So, he goes on the offensive in order to stay alive.

If cast, Reilly would play a retired CIA agent who is paranoid that everyone is out to kill him. Parker would play Willis’ character’ love interest, a federal pension worker who becomes embroiled in the Willis character’s struggle to stay alive. Red is expected to begin filming in January in Toronto with an projected release later in 2010.

There are very few constants in this world, but moviegoers can rest easy knowing that, for the past 21 years, Bruce Willis has made consistent action films and while they may not all be consistently “good” (I’m looking at you, Hudson Hawk), John McClane keeps going strong, spitting out quips and blowing up city blocks. According to The Hollywood Reporter, at the fresh age of 54, Willis is once again setting his sights on the comic book world, as he’s now in talks for the lead an adaptation of Warren Ellis’ graphic novel RED.

Published by Wildstorm and DC, the story revolves around Paul Moses, a retired CIA agent living in seclusion. A new director is appointed to the CIA, who uncovers all of the heinous activities that Moses had done under employment of the agency, and changes the status of former Agent Moses from “Green” to “Red”, thus signing for his assassination. (Sounds a bit too close to the plot of the USA series Burn Notice, right?)

The adaptation of the series was initially announced in June of last year, when Summit Entertainment picked up the rights for the Ellis’ book. The film is being scripted by the team of Eric and Jon Hoeber, who just finished the script for this year’s Whiteout, starring Kate Beckinsale and The Spirit’s Gabriel Macht. Bruce Willis will next be seen in the Disney thriller (?) Surrogates, and is also attached to Kevin Smith’s buddy cop film A Couple of Dicks, and a live-action adaptation of the video game Kane & Lynch. Busy guy!