Gareth Evans doesn’t wait around, eh? Barely 24 hours have passed since we brought you news that the Welsh filmmaker has lined up his next project – Apostle, a kidnapping thriller centering around a religious cult – and already, it’s been confirmed that the director has found his leading man.
Word comes by way of Variety, revealing that Beauty and the Beast star Dan Stevens has climbed aboard the period revenge thriller, one which follows a man on his journey to a remote and seemingly desolate island. He’s on the hunt for his missing sister, and soon places the proverbial crosshairs on a dangerous religious cult that are demanding a ransom for her safe return.
Uninterested, Stevens’ character then calls upon his investigative skills to unravel the many mysteries behind the commune which will, in all likelihood, involve crushed skulls and tightly choreographed action scenes. Apostle is hailing from the director of The Raid, after all, and the fleeting logline teases that it “soon becomes clear that the cult will regret the day it baited this man, who digs deeper and deeper into the secrets and lies upon which the commune is built.”
Stevens, who displayed a scenery-chewing intensity in Adam Wingard’s The Guest, is a fine candidate for the role, and the English actor only continues to make waves following his acclaimed performance in period drama, Downton Abbey.
Apostle is without a release date at the moment, but we understand Gareth Evans is eyeing a production start in March. Beauty and the Beast, meanwhile, is due to grace theaters on March 17, 2017.
