Donnie Yen (Ip Man franchise) will star in The Father, according to Variety‘s Manori Ravindran. AGC International has acquired international sales rights on the action thriller which will launch for buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival as of Thursday this week. CAA Media Finance will handle U.S. distribution rights for the film as cameras get ready to roll early next year.
Also casting Alec Baldwin (Mission: Impossible franchise) and Frank Grillo (Beyond Skyline), The Father is set in South Boston, and centers on Yen in the role of “middle-class Hong Kong immigrant John Chung, who is making the best of his family’s new life in America while working as a modest fish broker in the city’s docklands. When his teenage sons stumble upon four kilos of heroin and are hunted down by a local crime ring and corrupt cops, Chung must stop at nothing to protect them.”
Tommy Wirkola (What Happened To Monday) is directing from a script by P.G. Cuschieri. Yen will also produce the pic along with Arthur Sarkissian (The Foreigner, Rush Hour), Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee of Thunder Road (John Wick, Sicario), and John Schramm.
Yen currently stars in Mulan, exclusively on Disney+ which rescinds its $30 price for subscribers this December. The actor and martial arts star is soon set to work on an adaptation of hit video game, Sleeping Dogs for producer Neal Moritz and DJ2 Entertainment, and also has Golden Empire from Starlight Media and SA Inc..
His latest completion will see him starring opposite Nicholas Tse in action crime thriller, Raging Fire next year. With post-production handed over to Big Brother director Kenji Tanigaki, the film will be the final screen credit for director Benny Chan who passed away on August 23.
Baldwin is also set to join director Joel Souza for outlaw western, Rust, with Grillo soon reteaming with director Joe Carnahan for Copshop next to Gerard Butler.