Lionsgate sometimes traffics in a lot of b-grade material and horror films (the “Saw” movies) we generally don’t care a lot about, but lately have been getting in the ring with some heavyweight filmmakers.
Last month it was getting onboard Steven Soderbergh’s “Knockout,” with mixed Martial arts champion Gina Carano, and now it’s working with another Soderbergh cohort, Stephen Gaghan, the Oscar-winning screenwriter behind “Traffic” and the Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director behind, “Syriana” starring George Clooney.
His third feature-film to date (Gaghan’s debut was actually 2002’s college thriller, “Abandon” starring Katie Holmes), according to DealMemo, this new picture is an untitled action-thriller that Gaghan’s co-writing with Shannon Burke (credited with being a consultant on “Syriana”).
The protagonist is an elite deep cover operative whose attempt to take down a global organization costs him everything. He resurfaces as a beat cop in Brooklyn, only to discover that the bad guys he was fighting are also operating in his new backyard.
No other details are revealed including cast, but production will begin next spring. The character actor heavy “Syriana” made great use of actors like Christopher Plummer, Chris Cooper, Jeffrey Wright and Amanda Peet (on top of stars Clooney and Matt Damon). So hopefully we’ll see some more interesting names and faces appearing in this one.