News coming of the Toronto International Film Festival via Deadline that martial arts star Donnie Yen (Mulan, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) will lead a new Boston-set action flick titled The Father from director Tommy Wirkola with production aiming to begin in early 2021.
Joining Yen in the film said to be an homage to action films of the 1980s will be Alec Baldwin (The Departed, Mission: Impossible – Fallout) and Frank Grillo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier).
The Father was written by Cut Throat City screenwriter P.G. Cuschieri.
Described as an ode to the revered action movies of the 1980s, The Father is set against the Irish-American gangland of South Boston and charts the struggle of middle-class Hong Kong immigrant John Chung (Yen) making the best of his family’s new American life while working as a modest fish broker in the city’s infamous docklands. When his wayward teenage boys stumble upon four kilos of heroin, they’re hunted by a local crime ring and a group of corrupt cops. Also starring are Alec Baldwin and Frank Grillo.
Arthur Sarkissian (Rush Hour), Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee of Thunder Road (John Wick), John Schramm and Yen will produce from a script by P.G. Cuschieri to be directed by Tommy Wirkola (Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters).
Yen has been mostly known for his Ip Man franchise but has shown up in various Hollywood films such as Guillermo del Toro’s Blade II, Shanghai Knights, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, and most recently with Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan.
Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola is known for his genre hybrid films Dead Snow and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.
SOURCE: DEADLINE
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