According to THR, director Philip Noyce (Dead Calm, Salt, Revenge) has signed on to direct a racially-charged thriller titled The Arrangement, for Mandate Pictures.

While the studio hasn’t revealed too many details about the film, Mandate president Nathan Kahane is said to have spoken on how “the movie’s water cooler quotient has to do with the racial subtext of the movie.”

This is what we know so far:

The movie centers on a married couple – the husband is white, the woman is half-white, half-black – whose unity is tested when another man, who happens to be black, takes a liking to the wife and begins to create problems.

Hmmmm . . . I don’t know what to make of this one. Sounds a little like Lakeview Terrace.

Kahane is quoted as saying that the script was produced “in-house” with screenwriter Brian Tucker, who, Kahane claims, “writes post-Obama stories that forces audiences to question themselves.”

“Post-Obama”? What is that, exactly? Has the world really changed that much since the last presidential election? If it has, I didn’t get the memo.

Kahane had this to say about his director:

“He’s a remarkably talented director of genre,” said Kahane. “He’s also someone that hopefully will put us it the conversation with movie stars. There are audacious roles to be had. The villain is a full meal character.”

It sounds like Mandate Pictures expects some big names to come on board. I don’t know how big a name they are expecting to get, but if it was up to me, I’d bring Bokeem Woodbine in for a read. Maybe even Leon, too. But not because the role makes me think of either actor, particularly. I just think that both men are capable of convincingly pulling it it off.

In the end, this film sounds like it could ruffle some feathers. Regardless, I’m very interested in seeing how it turns out. And I’m even more interested to see who they cast in the role of this trouble-making black man, who most likely will be dead or in jail by the time closing credits roll.