District B13, Taken and Peppermint director Pierre Morel’s The Blacksmith has an official cast as of Tuesday with Lawrence Fishburne and Nick Jonas set to star. The article at Variety also touts a “soon be announcing an equally outstanding young female actor to play across from Nick” which should further give way to franchise potential.
Ben Ripley is adapting the script from the 2011 Kickstart Comics publication that was written by Richard Sparkman and Malik Evans, and illustrated by Alberto Muriel. The AGC Studios-produced and financed feature slightly retools its incarnation of the comic, renaming our protagonist on Wes Loomis (Jonas), a high-tech weapons expert for the spy community who is rendered fugitive and on the run when his secret lab is decimated and his colleagues are murdered.
As Variety’s report on Tuesday elucidates: “Resorting to his unique skills set to keep him alive, and the aid of a brilliant, young CIA analyst, Noelle Hazlitt, Wes seeks out his mentor, Mather (Fishburne), a retired blacksmith, to guide Noelle and him on what the film’s synopsis describes as “a journey that keeps this improbable pair one step ahead of their pursuers in a breathless, action-filled thriller that is just the beginning of the globe-trotting adventures of ‘The Blacksmith.’”
Production will begin later this year from with Air Force One producer Jon Shestack, Wanted producer Jason Netter, and Jeremy Stein producing. AGC’s Ford will exec produce with Linda McDonough executive producing, and Samantha Shear and Bob Sobhani also exec produce.
Lead pic: Comixology