Tim Allen will star in Redbelt, the mixed martial arts drama David Mamet wrote and will direct for Sony Pictures Classics, reports Variety. Production starts next month in Los Angeles. Chiwetel Ejiofor co-stars.
Emily Mortimer, Alice Braga, Joe Mantegna, Rodrigo Santoro, Ricky Jay, David Paymer, Rebecca Pidgeon and Jose Pablo Cantillo will star, along with martial artists and fighters Randy Couture, John Machado, Danny Inosanto, Enson Inoue and Ray Mancini.
Ejiofor, who was the first actor Mamet set, stars as a Jiu-jitsu master whose purity is compromised when he is drawn into the movie business and manipulated into brawling in ultimate fighting matches.
Allen plays a troubled action star with marital problems who meets the master when he is getting pummeled in a street fight.
Ejiofor has been training in London with members of the Gracie family, the renowned Brazilian fighting clan.
