Oscar Isaac to Star in the High-Concept Thriller “London”

Oscar Isaac is heading to Londontown…

The 41-year-old Guatemalan & Cuban actor will star in and produce London, a Lionsgate feature film based on a new short story/high-concept thriller by bestselling crime writer Jo Nesbo.

Oscar Isaac

Ben Stiller will direct the film, which will be adapted for the screen by Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth.

Isaac obtained the rights to the story as a producer under his Mad Gene Media banner in competition, and then got the dream team of Stiller and Roth. 

Isaac and Red Hour Productions’ Stiller will produce with Nicky Weinstock and Jason Spire.

Isaac will next star in the Denis Villenueve-directed Dune, as well as Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter

del Toro In Talks to Star in “Predator” Reboot

It’s prey time for Benicio del Toro

The 49-year-old Puerto Rican actor is in early talks to star in Predator, a reboot of the film franchise in the works at 20th Century Fox.

Benicio del Toro

Shane Black will direct the film. He was actually a co-star in the 1987 original alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, playing a member of Arnold’s team and the first to die at the hands of the Predator. Carl Weathers and Jesse Ventura also co-starred.

Black’s Monster Squad co-writer Fred Dekker is scripting the new Predator.

del Toro is also aboard Soldado, the second installment of the drug war thriller that began with 2015’s SicarioGomorra director Stefano Sollima is helming after Denis Villenueve led the first one, and Taylor Sheridan has again written the script. Black Label Media and Lionsgate are co-financing.

Additionally, The Oscar-winner has a villainous role in Star Wars: Episode VIII.

del Toro to Star in “Sicario” sequel, “Soldado”

Benicio del Toro is ready to soldier on…

The 49-year-old Puerto Rican actor will star in Soldado, the second installment of the drug war thriller that began with 2015’s Sicario.

Benicio del Toro

Hailing from Lionsgate and Black Label Media, the sequel focuses on Alejandro Gillick, the shadowy protagonist played by del Toro, and Josh Brolin’s CIA agent Matt Graver, who in the first film established themselves as hell bent on hunting down cartel kingpins, no matter what.

Soldado, which was scripted by Taylor Sheridan, does not include the FBI agent character played by Emily Blunt in Sicario.

In the film, Gillick and Graver concern themselves with what is being smuggled across the border between Mexico and the U.S. in the tunnels used to move drugs and illegal immigrants. Those tunnels also can be used to bring terrorists into the U.S.

Italian director Stefano Sollima is the front-runner to direct the second installment. Denis Villenueve directed the first film.

Arnold Schwarzenegger May Star in the Gullon-Penned Dark Film “478”

Javier Gullon is about to get Terminated

The Spanish writer has penned the dark script 478, with Arnold Schwarzenegger aligned to star in the film.

Javier Gullon

Gullon is best known for his exceptional work on the Denis Villenueve-directed Enemy, an adaptation of the Jose Saramago classic novel The Double that Jake Gyllenhaal starred in.

Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa is producing and the aim is to shoot in the fall.

In 478, Schwarzenegger plays a man whose wife and child die in a plane crash. The tragedy was caused by an air traffic controller’s screw-up. The air traffic controller is vilified for his mistake and placed into protective custody. Schwarzenegger cannot let it go, and is determined to seek vengeance. Though is sounds like a standard revenge film, I’m told it isn’t. It is much more subtle than that — a real character piece more than an action film and gives Schwarzenegger a chance to show the chops he displayed on Maggie.

CAA will represent the film’s domestic distribution rights.