Industry stunt multihyphenate Olivier Schneider is on deck to direct the new crime thriller, Les Orphelins. Casting details remain pending on the film which was recently announced in French entertainment magazine, Écran Total.
The film centers on two people who’ve come up on opposite sides of the law since their younger days at the orphanage. When they discover the murder of a childhood friend whose daughter sets out to avenge her, the two must put their differences aside in their quest for justice at any cost.
Schneider is penning the script for the Inoxy Films production along with Nicolas Perfaillit (A Prophet, Soux X) and Alban Lenoir. Gaumont is handling international sales and will distribute the pic locally.
Schneider is best known for his prolific stunt career dating back to 1996. Some of his recent credits as stunt coordinator and fight choreographer include Liam Nesson actioners Taken (2009) and Unknown (2011), the Ryan Reynolds/Denzel Washington-led Safe House (2012), Disney+ series “Moon Knight,” and Blake Lively actioner The Rhythm Section (2020). He also worked on the respective fourth and fifth chapters of the Daniel Craig-led 007 films, Spectre (2015) and No Time To Die (2021), the latter which received five awards at the 2022 Tarus Stunt Awards, including Best Stunt Coordinator. Schneider also shepherded the stunt and fight action on Universal’s Furious 6 (2013), and upcoming tenth installment of the ‘Fast’ franchise, Fast X from Louis Leterrier which arrives this summer.
At one point back in 2015, Schneider was in the works to direct an adaptation of author Karine Giebel’s crime novel, “Meurtres Pour Rédemption”, so his aspirations toward directing have been ongoing for a while now. Les Orphelins will be his inauguration as filmmaker in the director’s chair.
Aside from frequenting writing duties on previous TV series, “Hero Corp,” Lenoir, in addition to starring, also contributed the writing for director Guillaume Pierret’s back-to-back French hit action releases on Netflix, Lost Bullet and Lost Bullet 2.
I’m looking forward to further news on this project as the trades pick it up to provide more details going forward, so stay tuned. In the meantime, feel free to familiarize yourselves with some of Schneider’s greatest hits in the player below.
Lead image: Instagram