Gerard Butler may have recently launched legal action against the production companies involved in Olympus Has Fallen seeking unpaid royalties, but he’s still set to reprise the role of Mike Banning in fourth installment Night Has Fallen as he continues to cement himself as the top dog of B-tier action cinema.
The actor has been on a hot streak recently, with the half-billion dollar success of the Fallen franchise playing a huge part, but he’s got a slew of exciting projects lined up outside of that. Sequel Greenland: Migration sold at Cannes for over $70 million, while he’s teaming up with fellow genre veterans Joe Carnahan and Frank Grillo for next month’s Copshop.
He’s also loosely attached to comic book story Afterburn, desert thriller Kandahar and literary adaptation Remote Control, but next up for Butler is The Plane, which starts shooting at the end of the month in Puerto Rico, and the premise is right in the leading man’s wheelhouse.
Butler stars as Ray Torrance, a commercial airline pilot who lands a damaged plane in enemy territory, where he’s soon surrounded by pirates planning to take the craft and its passengers hostage, forcing him to take action and keep everyone alive until help arrives.
Jean-François Richet is helming The Plane, and he’s no slouch when it comes to grizzled badassery having directed acclaimed French crime story Mesrine with Vincent Cassell, as well as Mel Gibson’s sorely underrated Blood Father. A high concept actioner with Gerard Butler in the lead already comes burdened with a built-in audience, so let’s hope his latest effort maintains the same level of quality as his most recent string of mid budget bruisers.
Published: Aug 3, 2021 08:05 am