Hot AFM Title: Nimród Antal To Direct Liam Neeson In Studiocanal, The Picture Company & Ombra Thriller ‘Retribution’; Spring Shoot In Berlin

Mike Fleming Jr and Andreas Wiseman
·2 min read
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EXCLUSIVE: Studiocanal, The Picture Company and Jaume Collet-Serra’s Ombra Productions have set Nimród Antal to direct Liam Neeson in Retribution, a thriller that puts a businessman in a Speed-like dilemma when he discovers that a bomb has been planted in the car he’s driving by an unknown assailant, who tells the driver to execute a series of commands throughout the day or the bomb will be detonated. Making things worse, the businessman is accompanied in the car by his family.

Studiocanal is fully financing and will sell worldwide territories at the American Film Market and release in its own territories in the UK, France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.

Pic is a remake of the acclaimed Spanish film El Desconocido, with a script by Chris Salmanpour and Andrew Baldwin. The original got eight Goya Award nominations when released in Spain in 2015.

The Picture Company partners Andrew Rona & Alex Heineman, who have an overall deal with Studiocanal, are producing with Collet-Serra and Juan Sola through Ombra. Vaca Films, which made the original film, will be executive producers along with Atresmedia Cine.

Antal’s credits include Predators and Kontrol. This marks Neeson’s fifth film for Studiocanal; Collet-Serra directed three of them in Unknown, Non-Stop and The Commuter, the three of which were produced by The Picture Company. Ron Halpern and Shana Eddy will oversee for Studiocanal.

Collet-Serra is in post on Disney’s Jungle Cruise, which he directed for Disney with Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Edgar Ramirez, Jesse Plemons and Paul Giamatti starring, and he is next prepping to direct New Line’s DC Universe actioner Black Adam, with Johnson playing the title character.

The Picture Company is coming off a strong opening on the genre film Come Play, and is in postproduction on the Navot Papushado-directed female-centric action thriller Gunpowder Milkshake, acquired by STX in an eight-figure deal.

Neeson is repped by CAA and Mark Stankevich. Serra is repped by manager Scott Greenberg at LBI.

Here is the trailer from the original Spanish nail-biter:

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