Gerard Butler, Frank Grillo Starring in Police Drama ‘Copshop’

Dave McNary
·3 min read

Gerard Butler and Frank Grillo have boarded Joe Carnahan’s police drama “Copshop,” with filming set to start in Georgia and New Mexico in October.

“Copshop” will be set at a small-town police station that becomes the unlikely battleground between Butler’s professional hitman, a smart rookie female cop and a double-crossing con man played by Grillo, who seeks refuge behind bars with no place left to run.

Kurt McLeod wrote the original screenplay based on a story he created with Mark Williams. Carnahan penned the most recent draft. Williams and Tai Duncan of Zero Gravity Management are producing the film alongside Warren Goz and Eric Gold of Sculptor Media, Butler and Alan Siegel’s G-Base Productions, and Carnahan and Grillo through their WarParty Films production banner. Executive producers are James Masciello, Matthew Sidari and Tom Ortenberg for Open Road Films.

Open Road Films will release the movie theatrically in the U.S., while STX International will handle foreign distribution and release directly in the U.K. and Ireland. STX will present the project to buyers virtually at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival.

Raven Capital Management, which acquired Open Road Films in 2018 and recently relaunched the theatrical film distributor with former head Tom Ortenberg at the helm, developed “Copshop” in partnership with Sculptor and Zero Gravity, and is fully financing the film. CAA Media Finance arranged the project’s financing and domestic distribution deal.

“I’m thrilled to be teaming up with Joe Carnahan for the fifth time, and Frank Grillo has been a good luck charm for Open Road since its inception, having been featured in Joe’s film ‘The Grey,’ ‘End of Watch’ and ‘Homefront.’ Putting Joe and Frank together with one of the biggest action stars in the world in Gerard Butler in Joe’s exciting script for ‘Cop Shop’ is a recipe for a big theatrical hit,” Ortenberg said.

Butler was most recently seen in ”Angel Has Fallen,” the third installment in the ”Fallen” film series. Butler produced all three films under the G-Base banner. He’s starring STX’s “Greenland,” Lionsgate’s action/thriller “The Plane” and the action pic “Kandahar,” also with Waugh.

Grillo portrayed Crossbones in Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” and is the face of Universal’s “Purge” franchise as Sergeant Leo Barnes in “The Purge: Anarchy” and “The Purge: Election Year.” He starred in the DirecTV series “Kingdom” for three seasons.

Butler is represented by CAA and Alan Siegel Entertainment. Grillo is represented by CAA and Management 360. Carnahan is represented by CAA and Paul Hastings. Raven, Open Road and Sculptor are represented by DLA Piper. McLeod is represented by Zero Gravity Management and Weintrob Tobin.

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