The trades on Monday confirmed Oscar-winning Once Upon A Time In Hollywood actor Brad Pitt’s latest attachment to star in Bullet Train, an adaptation of a Japanese novel, to be directed by Fast And Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw director David Leitch.
Based on the popular Japanese book Maria Beetle by Kotaro Isaka, the story follows five assassins who find themselves on a fast moving bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka with only a few stops in between. Strangely, they discover their missions are not unrelated to each other.
Per THR and Deadline, Leitch is also on script supervision detail with Fear Street writer Zak Olkewicz putting pen to paper. The Atomic Blonde helmer will also be joined by Kelly McCormick in producing the pic via their 87North banner, along with Antoine Fuqua and Kat Samick. CTB Inc.’s own Ryosuke Saegusa and Yuma Terada, who represent Isaka as well as the novel rights, will exec produce, and with Brittany Morrissey overseeing the film for Sony.
As additionally noted in Variety, the original IP, published in 2010 by Kadokawa Shoten from author Isaka Kotaro, will get an English-language publication next year from UK-based firm, Harvill Secker.
A start date remains pending.