WHEELMAN: Netflix Acquires Worldwide Rights To Jeremy Rush’s New Frank Grillo Action Headliner
Last week’s announcement of director Jeremy Rush’s newest action flick, Wheelman, took shape finally at Cannes with word that dominant streaming video service, Netflix, has officially secured the film’s global rights. Some exhibitors feel threatened by the company’s proliferation following recent efforts toward day-and-date releases, but it’s happening nonetheless and those with Netflix aren’t hugely stressing the matter.
It does make you wonder about the theatergoing experience though, and hopefully this doesn’t have a lasting and negative effect. We’ll see. At any rate, Grillo’s got a bit of an eventful summer ahead, and more details are available further below.
Cannes, France – (May 17, 2016) – Netflix has acquired worldwide rights to the high-concept action thriller Wheelman starring Frank Grillo. Joe Carnahan (The Grey, The A-Team) is producing the film alongside The Solution Entertainment Group’s Myles Nestel (The November Man, Machete) and Grillo who is making his producing debut. Wheelman is written and directed by Jeremy Rush and is scheduled to commence principal photography in fall 2016. J Todd Harris, Chady Mattar and Scott Silver are executive producing.
The wheelman is Grillo – a getaway driver thrust into a high stakes race-to-survive after a bank robbery goes terribly wrong. With a car full of money and his family on the line, the clock is ticking to figure out who double-crossed him, and the only person he can trust… his fourteen-year-old daughter. All reasons to think fast, and drive faster.
“We are looking forward to working with this stellar team to bring this action-packed film to our members around the world,” said Robert Roy, Netflix vice president of global film.
“We are so excited to be making the film with Netflix as our partner and look forward to this being the first of many projects with them” said The Solution’s Nestel and Lisa Wilson.
“Netflix is literally reinventing the game in terms of distribution and the sheer number of subscribers they reach and the amount of viewers that will ultimately see Wheelman is really exciting to me. I couldn’t be happier and in terms of a creative partner, Ted Sarandos and his team are incomparable,” added Carnahan.
“What Netflix and Ted Sarandos are allowing talent and independent film makers to do, is experience a freedom without the pressures of the conventional film model. I couldn’t be more excited to be part of this,” concluded Grillo.
Best known globally as the star of The Purge film franchise whose latest installment Anarchy grossed over $110 million worldwide, Grillo will star in the next installment Election Year to be released in July. Grillo is also featured in Marvel’s current release of Captain America: Civil War, which has already grossed over $900million globally. He reprises his role as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones first seen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Grillo can currently be seen as ‘Alvey Kulina’ in the critically acclaimed DirecTV series Kingdom where he brings his real life boxing experience to the intense lead role.
Other credits include breakout performances in The Grey, Warrior, Zero Dark Thirty, End of Watch, Disconnect, Collision, Homefront, and many more. In television, Frank has captivated audiences on Breakout Kings, The Gates, The Kill Point, Prison Break, The Shield, and several more.
Joe Carnahan has forged a reputation for producing the very best in action films. In addition to The Grey his credits include Twentieth Century Fox’s The A-Team starring Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, and Jessica Biel, Universal’s Smokin’ Aces starring Ryan Reynolds and Ray Liotta, and Lions Gate’s Narc starring Jason Patric. Carnahan is also responsible for shepherding NBC’s breakout hit The Blacklist.
The Solution recently announced their production Anna Dressed in Blood from Twilight producer and creator Stephenie Meyer. Based on the popular YA novel series by Kendare Blake, the film stars rising talents Maddie Hasson and Cameron Monaghan. Other films on the company’s Cannes slate include Official Secrets starring Paul Bettany, Natalie Dormer, Martin Freeman, Tahar Rahim, Gillian Anderson with Harrison Ford and Sir Anthony Hopkins, The Sleeping Shepherd starring Michael Pitt, Imogen Poots, Isabelle Huppert, and Willem Dafoe, Oppenheimer Strategies produced by Oren Moverman (The Messenger) and starring Richard Gere, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Steve Buscemi and Michael Sheen, Lizzie Borden directed by Craig William Macneil, The Ticket with Dan Stevens, Malin Akerman and Oliver Platt, which was in competition at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, and the highly anticipated Bleed For This with Miles Teller and Aaron Eckhart, and executive produced by Martin Scorsese.
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!