Kate Beckinsale Set To Star In Spy Thriller ‘Canary Black’ For ‘Taken’ Director Pierre Morel & Anton — Cannes Market

EXCLUSIVE: Kate Beckinsale (Underworld) has been set to star in action spy thriller Canary Black from Taken and Peppermint director Pierre Morel.

Producer, financier and sales firm Anton (Greenland) is launching the project for the Cannes market.

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The Matthew Kennedy (Inheritance) script will see Beckinsale play top level CIA agent Avery Graves who is blackmailed by terrorists into betraying her own country to save her kidnapped husband. Cut off from her team, she turns to her underworld contacts to survive and help locate the coveted intelligence that the kidnappers want.

The project is being produced by Anton’s Sebastien Raybaud and John Zois with Sentient Entertainment’s Renee Tab and Christopher Tuffin.

Anton’s Cecile Gaget will launch worldwide sales at this month’s Cannes Market later this month and UTA Independent Film Group will oversee domestic rights in conjunction with Anton. Filming is slated for late 2022.

John Zois stated: “Anton is thrilled to bring action master, Pierre Morel, together with Kate Beckinsale who broke the mold of the action hero in the Underworld franchise. They both continue to up their games and push the genre today.”

Morel is currently in post-production on Sentient’s action pic Freelance with John Cena, Alison Brie, Christian Slater and Juan Pablo Raba.

Beckinsale recently completed production on El Tonto, the comedy written and directed by Charlie Day, as well as Catherine Hardwick’s Prisoners Daughter in which she stars opposite Brian Cox.

Anton’s thriller Choose Or Die debuted to strong viewership on Netflix last month. The company is currently shooting horror thriller All Fun And Games starring Asa Butterfield and Natalia Dyer, and recently launched animated feature Fireheart on Hulu in the U.S.

Kate Beckinsale is represented by UTA and Kleinberg Lange. Pierre Morel is represented by UTA, Sentient Entertainment and attorney Gretchen Rush.

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