One of these days, Jason Statham is going to sign on to play a major role in a character-driven drama, a stuffy period piece or a musical, and we’re all going to be shocked. That day won’t be coming for a long time, though, with the news just breaking that the action star is set to headline The Bee Keeper, which will once again find him firmly inside his wheelhouse.
Not much is known about the project other than the script hails from Kurt Wimmer, which should give us a decent indication of the tone given that his previous credits include Equilibrium, Street Kings, Law Abiding Citizen, Angelina Jolie’s Salt and the Point Break remake. The film is said to be “deeply steeped in the mythology of bee keeping”, which sounds like a joke but actually isn’t, apparently.
Jason Statham as a vengeful beekeeper drawn into a deadly war between rival apiarists that he can only solve by punching and kicking people repeatedly in the face? Yes please, although chances are that there might be a little more to the story than that, but we should at least be able to cross our fingers in the hope for some high quality one-liners based around stings, honey and the rest.
The actor has a stacked schedule for the foreseeable future now that The Bee Keeper has buzzed onto his slate, with Guy Ritchie’s untitled crime thriller formerly known as Five Eyes in the can, The Meg 2 still tentatively scheduled to begin production early next year, Expendables spinoff A Christmas Story announced by Sylvester Stallone and a Hobbs & Shaw sequel still floating around the ether of development hell, without even mentioning the very high probability that Statham’s Deckard Shaw will be heavily involved in Fast & Furious 10 and 11.
