Golden Globe and Grammy nominated actor, singer, and songwriter Nick Jonas (Jumanji franchise, Midway) and Academy Award nominee Laurence Fishburne (Matrix franchise, John Wick franchise, Man of Steel, Mission: Impossible III) have signed on to The Blacksmith, which Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios will finance and produce.
Pierre Morel (Taken) will direct the action thriller, which is adapted by screenwriter Ben Ripley (Source Code, Flatliners) based on the acclaimed graphic novel from Kickstart Comics by Malik Evans and Richard Sparkman.
“The Blacksmith provides a fresh, highly contemporary new take on the espionage genre and it’s exciting to pair an exhilarating young talent like Nick with seasoned heavyweights such as Pierre and Laurence. We’ll soon be announcing an equally outstanding young female actor to play across from Nick and then we will have all the ingredients for a major new film franchise built around a very modern breed of action hero,” Ford said in a statement today.
ALSO READ: Zac Efron talks about Fred in the upcoming ‘Scoob!’
Along with AGC Studios, Jon Shestack (Air Force One) will produce with Kickstart Productions’ Jason Netter (Wanted), and Jeremy Stein, with AGC’s Ford and Linda McDonough executive producing. Samantha Shear and Bob Sobhani will also executive produce.
Here’s the official synopsis: Wes Loomis (Jonas) is a “Blacksmith” – the intelligence community’s go-to weapons expert. When his clandestine lab is destroyed and his colleagues murdered, Wes must go on the run with only his unique set of technological skills and the help of a brilliant, young CIA analyst Noelle Hazlitt to keep him alive.
They seek out Mather (Fishburne) a retired blacksmith and Wes’ mentor, to guide them on a journey that keeps this improbable pair one step ahead of their pursuers in a breathless, action-filled thriller that is just the beginning of the globe-trotting adventures of The Blacksmith…
Nick Jonas was represented in the negotiations by WME and attorneys Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham LLP; Laurence Fishburne is managed by Helen Sugland of Landmark Artists Management, and was represented by Paradigm and Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein & Lezcano; and Morel was represented by UTA, manager Renee Tab of Sentient, and Hansen, Jacobsen, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller & Gellmann LLP, with AGC’s VP of Legal & Business
Production will commence later in 2020.
SOURCE: AGC Studios
