• Following news broken in 2019, Dwayne Johnson will play Mark Kerr, confirming a new biopic based on the no holds barred era of the UFC fighter’s career. The film will be directed by Uncut Gems helmer Benny Safdie who reunites with A24 for the project. (Deadline)
• Trouble Man lines up Michael Jai White along with Method Man, Gillian White, Orlando Jones and more for the action comedy from Samuel Goldwyn Films. Featuring fight choreography by Joey Min, White plays an ex-cop-turned-P.I. who unravels a larger conspiracy while investigating a famed R&B singer’s disappearance. (Deadline)
• Kodansha and Majestic Limited will bring Origin to the big screen. Korean author Boichi’s hit publication which only recently arrived in the U.S. last month, is a violent futuristic action sci-fi set in Tokyo where mysterious beings known as “Origins” hunt down non-human remorseless killers preying on humans. (Variety)
• Ridley Scott will direct potential franchise inaugural actioner, Bomb, based on Kevin McMullin’s short story acquired by 20th Century Studios. Billed as a thriller in the vein of Dog Day Afternoon and Speed, the short story involves a hostage negotiator thrust into peril the night before his wedding as a man stands on a newly uncovered, undetonated bomb at a construction site in Picadilly Circus. (Deadline)
• Shawn Levy is reteaming with his Free Guy and The Adam Project star Ryan Reynolds for a new TBA heist comedy at Netflix. The details are bare-bones as of last week but the film is billed as a high-concept action comedy ensemble film which Dana Fox is penning. 21 Laps’s Levy and Maximum Effort’s Reynolds are also producing alongside Fox, and with Simon Kinberg and Audrey Chon for Genre Films. Molly Milstein, and Margy Love are exec producing. (THR)
• Plane helmer Jean-François Richet will direct the long-developing sequel to 90s hit Sylvester Stallone action adventure, Cliffhanger. Mark Bianculli is penning the script for a summer 2024 shoot, with a story that sees a woman questing to use all of her climbing skills to outsmart the kidnappers who’ve beseiged the exclusive mountain lodge run by her now captive father, played by Stallone. (Screendaily)
• Inside will mark the feature debut from director Charles Williams. The coming-of-age crime thriller starring Guy Pearce recently wrapped with a story tackling a young man’s transfer from juvenile to adult prison, where he is taken under the wing of both Australia’s most despised criminal, and a soon-to-be-a-paroled inmate. (Variety)
• Antigua will set the stage for a sequel to Peter Malota’s 2017 actioner, Kill ‘Em All, written by James Agnew. Attachment of a director remains pending with Jean-Claude Van Damme set to join daughter, actress Bianca Brigitte Van Damme for a story that finds the original film’s protagonist targeted by the brother of the previous villain. (Deadline)
• Director Kim Han-min finally bookends his high-seas Admiral Yi trilogy with Noryang: Deadly Sea, starring Kim Yun-seok in the lead role as the protagonist and his fleet leans in on the Wae army at the tail end of the Imjin War. The film takes to theaters in the U.S. on December 22 from Well Go USA.
