PANOPTICON: ‘Narcos’ Series Director To Helm Prison Thriller, Ridley Scott To Exec Produce
There was once a project titled The Panopticon back in 2014 for which Keanu Reeves was being primed to star for director Tarsem Singh. This week’s update, in particular looks completely seperate from the aforementioned project announced seven years ago despite the title.
As Brian Welk notes at The Wrap, Panopticon is a new prison thriller that will be directed by Andrés Baiz (Netflix series Narcos), from a Black List script by Emily Jerome. The main headliner in the report is Ridley Scott‘s attachment to the project as exec producer ahead of its Fall shoot.
Casting is already underway for the female-led thriller which will center on Chase, a rising hedgefund manager who initiates a plot to secure a big coffer from a little known private correctional facility in Arizona that reaps big profits, and the inmates are running the show.
Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios is financing and co-producing the film with Tom Moran and Vera Meyer shepherding. Kevin Walsh will produce for Scott Free with Jerome and AGC Studios’ Ford and head of production Linda McDonough.
“Emily Jerome has written a powerful, taut thriller wrapped up in the all too prescient real world arena of the US incarceration system. We’re excited to be putting the project together with her and our friends at Scott Free,” Ford said in a statement.
AGC International is repping international sales. CAA Media Finance, which arranged for the film’s financing, will handle domestic. Both companies co-represent Chinese distribution rights. (The Wrap)
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