In a market largely saturated by superhero movies, you can never have too many original action film properties, and producer Basil Iwaynk has been responsible for a number of them coming from under his production banner at Thunder Road. Titles like The Town, John Wick and Sicario come to mind and with much acclaim, and so when you hear news of a new a project underway from these folks, it’s nice to know not to have to be too skeptical.
As such, word has it exclusively from The Tracking Board that the company is preparing to launch the new action thriller franchise, Smoke On The Water. Ilwaynk, along with producer Kent Kubena picked up the script from I Still Know What You Did Last Summer scribe Trey Callaway and Ever After and Anna And The King writer Rick Parks, with a plot concept that pits the U.S. Coast Guard against an open water narcotics smugglers between Cuba and Key West, Florida.
The angle for the project is to launch a new action franchise centering on what has now become a high-tech world of drug trafficking off the Florida coast–with an emphasis on the cinematically untapped world of Cuba, which presents fascinating new possibilities in light of the softening of the U.S.’s embargo policies.
The report also hints at a potential franchise with tones similar to that of Fast And Furious franchise with the hopes of hitting a bigger audience through a grounded-yet fun, energetic story. In my opinion, this ultimately could mean a PG-13 action franchise in the making since Universal’s Fast And Furious series of films have garnered more than $3.9 billion with the most recent one earning over $1.5 billion dollars. With numbers like that, perhaps PG-13 action is still trending, or they could be bold about it and present us a kick-ass R-rated crime saga on the high seas.