His plan to star in a second action franchise with Jack Ryan:** Shadow Recruit** may not have worked out quite as he hoped, but that hasn’t deterred Chris Pine from the thriller business. He’s attached to star in The Line for director David Gordon Green{
Green has shied away from action films following Pineapple Express and Your Highness, and he’s back in dramatic mode at least with his latest, Joe. **The Line **will be different: written by Walking Dead writer-producer Sang Kyu Kim, it’ll find Pine as an agent in a downward spiral after losing his family. Circumstances land him as the caretaker of a 10-year-old child who is orphaned by a shootout between criminal cartels.
Taking the boy under his wing, the agent discovers there are enemies swarming to kill both him and the child on either side of the law, and he has to go on the run. It sounds like something you’d normally find Jason Statham tackling, but Green’s quirkier style should bring something fresh to the genre, and Pine has proved he’s willing to take chances. Welcome To The Punch producers Rory Aitken and Ben Pugh are producing the film, which will be pimped to buyers at the European Film Market.
Pine is switching gears again for his next two films, appearing (and warbling) in Rob Marshall’s Into The Woods (set for release here on January 9, 2015) and getting weird for Horrible Bosses 2 (out November 28). To hear him talk candidly (and swearily) about both of those and more, take a listen to his Empire Podcast interview.
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