According to Deadline, action stars Gerard Butler (300, Angel Has Fallen) and Frank Grillo (The Purge) have officially signed for the leading roles in Joe Carnahan’s upcoming action-thriller film titled Copshop. This marks Butler and Grillo’s first action project together, who have both respectively starred in a number of action films.
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Copshop centers around a small-town police station that becomes the unlikely battleground between a professional hitman, a smart rookie female cop, and a double-crossing con man, who seeks refuge behind bars with no place left to run. The outlet also notes that the casting for the female lead is already underway.
The film will be directed by Joe Carnahan (The A-Team, The Grey), who also wrote the most recent draft of the screenplay written by Kurt McLeod which is based on a story by McLeod and Mark Williams. It will be produced by Butler and Alan Siegel through their G-Based Productions banner along with Carnahan and Grillo through their WarParty Films banners. Williams and Tai Duncan of Zero Gravity Management are also serving as producers along with Sculptor Media’s Warren Goz and Eric Gold. While Open Road’s James Masciello, Matthew Sidari, and Tom Ortenberg have boarded the project as executive producers.
Production is expected to begin in October and is set to be released in U.S. theaters by Open Road Films. While STXinternational will handle the film’s international sales.
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Butler is best known for his performance as King Leonides in Zack Snyder’s war film 300. His other notable film credits include: Dracula 2000, Lara Croft: Tom Raider-The Cradle of Life, Gamer, Olympus Has Fallen films, Gods of Egypt, and How to Train Your Dragon films.
Grillo’s film credits include Zero Dark Thirty, The Purge: Anarchy, The Purge: Election Year, Captain America: Civil War, and Reprisal. He will next be seen in The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard which is set to premiere in 2021.
(Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images & Matthew Simmons/Getty Images)
