Liam Cunningham & Robert Patrick Also On Board
Young Swedish helmer Daniel Espinosa has certainly been a name on everyone’s lips of late. His crime pic “Snabba Cash” earned a lot of buzz from its festival run, which has put him in the running for a number of high-profile projects including “X-Men: First Class” and “Wolverine.” Instead, however, the helmer will soon direct “Safe House” which is shaping up to be quite the exciting actioner with Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds starring from a much-buzzed script by David Guggenheim.
Also joining the production as it heads towards filming are the quartet of Brendan Gleeson, Liam Cunningham, Sam Shepard and Robert Patrick, who will feature alongside musican Tim McGraw, Ruben Blades and French actress Nora Arnezeder in the story of a young U.S. intelligence agent (Reynolds) who must go on the run with a newly arrived prisoner (Washington) after his titular safe house comes under attack by assassins. McGraw and Arnezeder will be portraying Reynolds’ mentor and love interest respectively but there’s been no word yet on what roles the remaining actors will fill.
We actually read the script by Guggenheim — described as “Collateral” and “Three Days of the Condor” — and felt it was “a fast-paced, page-turning script, but it could use some texture and depth to make it something out of the ordinary.” Hopefully scribe Terry George (“Hotel Rwanada,” “In The Name Of The Father“), who has been brought on to rewrite, can iron a few of those problems out.
At one stage, producers were apparently eyeing Jeff Bridges for the role of Deputy Vice Director Harland Whitford but with the similarly aged Shepard now on board, perhaps they’ve had to settle somewhat. The pic is set to begin lensing imminently with a February 10th release already planned for next year. [Variety]