Fans of grizzled middle-aged badassery are about to be in for a real treat following the news that kings of B-tier action Gerard Butler and Frank Grillo’s first collaboration Copshop is coming to theaters on September 17th.
Joe Carnahan, no stranger to the genre himself having recently helmed Hulu’s fantastic time loop thriller Boss Level with Grillo in the lead, co-writes and directs, and the two stars are also listed as producers on the project. The plot follows Grillo’s con artist Teddy going on the run from Butler’s hitman Viddick, which forces him to hole up in a small town police station, but that doesn’t deter the highly trained assassin in the slightest from trying to complete his assignment.
In all honesty it doesn’t really matter what the storyline is, the prospect of seeing two proven ass-kickers like Butler and Grillo facing off in the sort of heightened genre territory that’s become each man’s stock in trade over the last decade is undeniably exciting, especially if the somewhat inconsistent Carnahan can carry the style, flair and inventiveness that he brought to Boss Level over to Copshop.
In perhaps the most blatant piece of counter-programming we’ve seen this year, Copshop will open on the same weekend as Clifford the Big Red Dog, so it’s not as if there’s going to be much in the way of audience crossover. Gerard Butler is on a tear as he continues to establish his dominance as Hollywood’s premiere mid-budget action icon, with sequels Greenland: Migration and Night Has Fallen in development alongside fresh concepts Remote Control, The Plane and Kandahar, while Grillo has six movies releasing in 2021 alone, and another four crime thrillers in the works.