After floating around in the murky depths of development hell for years now, action thriller Hunter Killer is finally be getting some momentum. Gerard Butler is back aboard after flirting with, and then jumping from the film in favour of Olympus Has Fallen, and now Gary Oldman is ready to join him.
Adapted from George Wallace and Don Keith’s novel Firing Point, the story concerns a rogue Russian general who kidnaps his country’s president and looks to kick off World War III. Allied against him are an untested submarine captain, Joe Glass (Butler) and a Navy SEAL team. Despite his history playing Russians on screen, Oldman in this case will be an American official.
This one has attracted plenty of interest through the years, pinging the radars of directors such as Philip Noyce, Martin Campbell and McG but never quite finding anyone to truly take it on. Now Original Films producing team Neil Moritz and Toby Jaffe have rescued the rights to make the film from the bankrupt Relativity Media and are on the hunt for someone to pick up the megaphone, as they want to start shooting in July.
Oldman will next be seen in crime drama Criminal and sci-fi drama The Space Between Us.