Photo: Besson. Courtesy of Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
EXCLUSIVE
〉The trio worked together on the upcoming action/thriller Twice
EXCLUSIVEAction veteran Luc Besson to set to produce original thriller THE SENTENCE via his EuropaCorp banner. The high-concept revenge pic, which is being pitched as Taken meets The Purge, is set in a future where an eye for an eye is law and a victim is granted 24 hours to take revenge against someone who murders their loved one.
The Sentence follows a father who, after killing a criminal while protecting his son during a home invasion, must then take up arms against a horde of the victim’s deadly cohorts as they descend upon him and his family.
Besson is a stable in the revenge genre, having produced and scripted the iconic Taken series and the long-running Transporter series. Olympus Has Fallen scribes Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt, who themselves are all too familiar with the genre, will pen. Europa’s Director of Development Ryan Wickers will oversee for the company.
Photo: Benedikt, Rothenberger. Getty Images
The screenwriting duo of Rothenberger and Benedikt are quickly becoming Hollywood’s go-to action writers, having scripted the third entry in Sylvester Stallone’s Expendables series, following that with Olympus.
Up next, they returned to write Olympus‘ follow-up London Has Fallen, which bows next January and stars Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, and Angela Bassett. They’ll also pen the action/thriller Twice for Besson, who will produce and co-write.
Besson has brought about several of the genre’s most memorable titles, having directed and scripted cult classics such as Leon: The Professional, The Fifth Element, Kiss of The Dragon, and the recent Scarlet Johansson hit Lucy.
Most recently, Besson wrote and produced Paul Walker’s Brick Mansions, Kevin Costner’s 3 Days to Kill, and the final chapter of Liam Neeson’s Taken trilogy.
Next up, he’ll produce Transporter series reboot The Transporter Refueled, the Naomi Watts thriller Shut In, and sci-fi epic Valerian, which stars Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne.
Rothenberger and Benedikt are repped by UTA and Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment.
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Clark Allen | Associate Editor
