Last year, it was announced that Chris Hemsworth (“Extraction 2”) and Pedro Pascal (“The Last of Us”) would team up for a crime film said to be “in the vein of Michael Mann’s ‘Heat,'” and there is a neat update on where “Crime 101” from director Bart Layton (“American Animals”) is currently at in the development/prep stage.

Author Don Winslow (his novella of the same name adapted for the pic) has shared an update on Twitter, confirming that Amazon MGM Studios has acquired “Crime 101” after a bidding war with Netflix and that the film will begin shooting sometime in September.

Here is the official synopsis for Winslow’s novella, which should give you an idea of what to expect from “Crime 101”:

A string of high-level jewel heists up and down the Pacific Coast Highway has gone unsolved for years, mostly because the perpetrator has lived by a strict code he calls “Crime 101”. Police attribute the thefts to the Colombian cartels. But Detective Lou Lubesnick’s gut says it’s the work of just one man. Now the lone-wolf jewel thief is looking for that fabled final last score, and Lou breaks all the rules of “Crime 101”.

Pascal is a busy bee these days as he’s expected to play Dr. Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic in Marvel’s “Fantastic Four” reboot this summer at Pinewood Studios UK in England and has a July 2025 release date. It’s starting to feel like he’ll move directly from “Fantastic Four” into “Crime 101.”

Hemsworth has been getting a bunch of success with his “Extraction” films on Netflix and will be seen next in George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.” A fellow MCU actor, Hemsworth, has been teasing his interest in returning to the “Thor” role for a fifth solo film, while rumored online, it’s one that has yet to be made official by Marvel.

This isn’t the only Winslow project in the works, as Oscar-nominee Austin Butler (“Dune: Part Two,” “Elvis”) is attached to star in “City On Fire,” a mobster epic that has been compared to “The Godfather,” which would see Irish and Italian criminal syndicates going to war and is expected to be a franchise-starter for Butler. James Mangold (“Ford v Ferrari”) was also developing a feature film adaptation of “The Force” that had Matt Damon circling the cop thriller at 20th Century Studios.

Amazon MGM Studios has yet to give “Crime 101” an official release date.

SOURCE: DON WINSLOW