Colin Firth Has Three To Kill For Christopher McQuarrie

Though British thesp Colin Firth is currently best known for character-driven dramas like The King’s Speech and A Single Man, his reputation in Hollywood may be getting a makeover within the next few years. Hot off a supporting role as a super-spy in Matthew Vaughn’s upcoming action-adventure The Secret Service, Firth has committed to another action-oriented project: gritty thriller Three to Kill.

Christopher McQuarrie (Jack Reacher) is set to direct the film, which follows an unlucky businessman (Firth) living on the French coast, who witnesses an assassination and is then pursued by two hitmen determined to put him in the ground next. McQuarrie’s commitment to Mission: Impossible 5, which has already been scheduled for December 25th, 2015, means either that Three to Kill will be shoehorned into the director’s schedule before cameras roll on his action blockbuster or that we may have a while to wait before this thriller sees theaters.

Three to Kill features a screenplay written by Howard Rodman (Savage Grace, August), which was adapted from a 1976 novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette called Le Petit Bleu de la Côte Ouest. The book’s official synopsis reads:

It all starts when Georges Gerfaut, a middle manager in a Paris company, witnesses a murder and discovers that he is next on the hit list. Suddenly Gerfaut is on the run, his circumscribed white-collar life instantly superseded by a world without rules.

Funnily enough, Three to Kill isn’t the only Hollywood film in the works based on one of the late French author’s works. Idris Elba, Sean Penn and Javier Bardem are already set to star in The Gunman, a Pierre Morrel-directed action thriller based on Machette’s 1998 novel La Position du tireur couché.  

Have you read any of Manchette’s novels and, if so, are you excited to see Hollywood actors portraying his creations? Additionally, do you think Firth will pull off an action-oriented role with Three to Kill? Sound off in the comments section!