Gerard Butler will soon be back to blow some more shit up once again with his Angel Has Fallen director Ric Roman Waugh for Kandahar. The film aims to continue “the oeuvre of production powerhouse Thunder Road (John Wick and Sicario franchises) in bringing high intensity action to character-based stories.”
The move marks the latest update for Thunder Road Films who acquired the hot screenplay back in 2016, written by Waugh and former military intelligence officer Mitchell LaFortune, the latter whose experiences at the Defense Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan at the time of the Snowden leaks from 2013 onward, serve as the basis for the project.
Kandahar will see Butler in the role of Tom Harris, an undercover CIA operative working in the Middle East. An intelligence leak dangerously exposes his classified mission and reveals his covert identity. Stuck in the heart of hostile territory, Harris and his translator must fight their way out of the desert to an extraction point in Kandahar while eluding the elite special forces hunting them.
Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee, G-BASE’s Alan Siegel and Gerard Butler, and Capstone Group’s Christian Mercuri are producing. Rob Moran will Executive Produce along with Brendon Boyea and Jonathan Fuhrman.
“It’s rare to find the combination of such undeniable talent like we have on Kandahar with Gerard, Alan, Ric and Basil. Add in an amazing action script and you have a feature film that sets the bar very high. I am delighted to work with the whole Kandahar team and to bring this film to the marketplace,” highlighted Mercuri.
“We are so thrilled to be able to bring the Greenland band back together again. Mitch’s script has always been a jewel in our slate, and to have this team bring it to life is a dream come true for us,” commented Iwanyk.
Butler, Waugh, Iwanyk and Siegel are also behind STX’s upcoming thriller, Greenland, set for a wide theatrical release, currently for August 14.
Principal photography will take place on location in the Middle East. Capstone is co-financing and selling the pic internationally at the upcoming Virtual Cannes market.
CAA Media Finance arranged the financing and is representing the film’s U.S. rights.