One of the 21st century’s most popular and prominent “action men”, Jason Statham, is set to add another movie to his resume, the action-thriller The Killer Elite. The $40 million movie is based on the bestselling novel The Feather Men, and revolves around, “a group of former British special forces members who are being hunted by assassins. Statham will play a former Navy Seal who is forced out of retirement to save his closest friend.”
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The deal for the film was closed a couple of days ago at the Cannes Film Festival and it will be helmed by commercials director Gary McKendry. Inferno will fully finance the project and Joni Sighvattson, Steve Chasman, (Inferno’s own) Bill Johnson and Jim Siebel will act as producers. No writer has been brought on-board as of yet.
The book upon which this is based was written by Sir Ranulph Fiennes (no, not the award winning actor, although he is his third cousin…), who is said (by the Guinness Book of Records) to be “the world’s greatest living adventurer.” He was the first person to reach the north and south pole “by surface means” and the first man to completely cross the Antarctica on foot. He’s also the author of twelve other books other than The Feathermen, two of which have been on the bestseller list.
It seems almost mandatory that a film be made based on one of his books, doesn’t it?…
Although it’s not much to go on at the moment, the plot outline does sound pretty cool. It definitely has the potential for some real kick-ass scenes involving Statham and his always impressive fighting scenes. Even if it’s more gunplay than fighting in this one, with Statham you’re pretty much always guaranteed some entertainment, even if what’s going on around him isn’t any good (hint: some of his straight-to-DVD stuff).
Do you like the sound of The Killer Elite? Are you a fan of Jason Statham’s action movies?
The Killer Elite is hoped to start filming in London, Paris and Australia this fall.
Source: Variety
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17 Comments
We’ll see if his gun handling is convincing enough to be believable as a Navy SEAL… Because if this is just the typical action movie where every shoots hand guns one handed, shooting longguns at the hip, then why bother. There are like a million other action movies like that with a similar premise. If they want to take this movie seriously, they have to make it believable. But if it’s meant to be just another popcorn action flick, then I guess it doesn’t matter.
ive definitely looked at statham as sort of the action-man of my generation, ive sort of grown up during my adolescence with statham all over the screen, so suffice it to say im a bit attached to statham’s movies, particularly crank and the transporter series. while some of his movies sort of blend together as far as plot (or lack thereof) i still find myself ending up in the movie theater seeing the majority of his films. looking forward to this one and the expendables.
Stathams never actually done any straight to DVD stuff, which is pretty impressive in comparasin to some. (hint: JCVD)
@englishgavs
I don’t know if he has or not, but In the Name of the King was in theaters for such a short period of time you might as well consider that a straight to DVD movie…
@EnglishGavz
Statham has done straight to DVD films:
Chaos
Thai Boxing – A Fighting Chance
Turn It Up
@ Ken J
I agree with you on that Name of the King comment
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I thought Statham did serve in Special Forces of the Royal Army or somehing like that
@SIN187UM,
Yeah, Chaos is the one I was thinking of. With Wesley Snipes? Yeah.
@ Ross Miller
Yes and Ryan Phillippe
Chaos was pretty solid for DTV realy. I’d hardly call Statham a DTV actor. He had his first $100 million grossing film last year, so his career isn’t on the decline either.
yea dudelove, Chaos was pretty good! Snipes and Statham play each other off well in that film.
As for Statham being the only action-man of our generation. He is the ONLY one. Who else is there?
Rock went disney, Diesel is, well, he screwed that up. Statham is the only one left.
Statham and Tony Jaa.
An actor’s career does not always need to be on the decline to star in a direct to DVD movie. Samuel L. Jackson starred in Home of THe Brave which went str8 to DVD and his career has been on the up swing for the last 10 years. Some times, they do it as favor to a director, or have the time, or want to work with a particular actor. Ultimately if the panel review from the studio and/or panel of movie watchers doesn’t think its fir for theaters then it goes to dvd. And no one called him a direct to video actor, simply clarifying that he has done direct to video movies. If Tony Jaa would put out more films US Side Statham would be owned like he was by Jet Li in The One, also if Mark Dacascos and Donnie Yen ever get their due credit Statham would be just another JCVD.
Donnie Yen FTW! lol
Jason Statham can do no wrong.
@ Ken J
Have you seen Donnie Yen in Flashpoint?
@ BJ Jones
Crank 1 and 2 = Statham Doing Wrong
@SIN, yes, and that’s is like his WORST movie. I don’t get why it has such a cult following, it was the DUMBEST most wannabe dramatic story I’ve EVER seen, especially that ending, it was downright retarded. I mean, Donnie’s fighting scenes were cool, but that’s about it. I even liked Yen’s Mismatched Couples more and that was a completely retarded movie, but it was hilarious, lol. If you want to see Donnie Yen REALLY kick some ass in a GOOD movie, watch Ip Man. You can import the Hong Kong version from ebay. Make sure it’s the Hong Kong version though, the China version SUCKS and the subtitles are all inaccurate…
Watching Ip Man will raise your standards for martial arts movies forever…
@ Ken J
I only brought up Flash Point because of the fight scenes, most Hong Kong martial arts movies have crap story lines, but their crime dramas get it right, go figure. Anyway I will check out this Ip Man, because Ong Bak and Tom Yung Goong reset my standards for martial arts films. I think his worst film is Iron Monkey 2.
Man, you are watching the wrong Hong Kong martial arts movies if you think most of them have crap stories…
@ Ken J
When I say crap story, for me anyway I mean some crap that feigns to be straight up T-bagging action only be some romance crap. I don’t believe there’s any wrong or right ones, just ones that suck and don’t suck. Like Dragon Tiger Gate, movie was OK, fighting was good, story was mediocre, but every one raves about it. Fighter in the Wind is 10 times better than Dragon Tiger Gate, but as of late I’ve been watching Korean films more than Hong Kong films.
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