Jason Statham Reuniting With Miramax For Thriller ‘The Bee Keeper’ Penned By ‘Equilibrium’s Kurt Wimmer

After working with Miramax on Guy Ritchie’s action flicks Wrath of Man and Five Eyes (will be re-titled at some point), Deadline reports the British action star has signed-on to produce and star in a new thriller, The Bee Keeper.

The spec project hails from screenwriter Kurt Wimmer (Street Kings, Sphere, Law Abiding Citizen), who of recent times has been mostly involved with remakes/reboots with stuff like Total Recall, Point Break, Children of The Corn, and the Pierce Bronsan flick The Thomas Crown Affair.

“The Bee Keeper explores universal themes with an unconventional story that will have fans sitting on the edge of their seats. We’re excited to bring another iconic and irresistible film to audiences around the globe,” said Miramax CEO Bill Block.

Filming is said to begin September 2022 in both Atlanta and London.

A director isn’t named, but Wimmer was behind the wild dystopian sci-fi action film Equilibrium that starred a pre-Batman Christian Bale and created a fantastic oddball martial art using guns.

EQUILIBRIUM – In a futuristic world, a regime has eliminated war by suppressing emotions: books, art and music are strictly forbidden and feeling is a crime punishable by death. Clerick John Preston (Christian Bale) is a top-ranking government agent responsible for destroying those who resist these rules. When he misses a dose of Prozium, a mind-altering drug that hinders emotion, Preston, who has been trained to enforce strict laws of the new regime, suddenly becomes the one capable of overthrowing it.

It’s actually a really neat action movie and sadly his other directing effort Ultraviolet was just a huge mess potentially leading to him to stick with screenwriting until his new Children of The Corn movie.

Statham is expected to shoot an Expendables spinoff called Christmas Story this fall, according to Sly Stallone. There are also expectations he’ll return for the gestating Hobbs & Shaw sequel and may land a role in Guy Ritchie’s upcoming WWII movie Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

‘Expendables 4’: Sly Stallone Teases Fourth Installment Might Finally Start Shooting Soon

There’s been multiple hiccups and delays concerning studio plans to move forward with a fourth Expendables installment. However, Sly Stallone in the last two years has retired from both the Rambo and Rocky/Creed franchises allowing him to do The Expendables 4, something that has been in development for over five years now.

The movies focus on a team of professional mercenaries based out of the United States, that normally are assigned to rescue missions or operations deemed too dangerous. Their main draw over the years has been pitting various action stars together that previous have never worked together on the big screen. Notable stars include Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes, Chuck Norris, Antonio Banderas, Mickey Rourke, and Mel Gibson.

Stallone has taken to Instagram over the weekend to tease that the project might finally be underway in the near future. Showing off a new ring for his character Barney.

“Just finished the designing the new ring for EXPENDABLE 4 It’s a little heavy, but it’ll definitely put some muscles on your fingertips,” Stallone said in his post on Instagram.

There have been expectations that Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, and Arnold Schwarzenegger would be part of the cast, but no major announcements concerning a director or who will be joining Stallone have been made public. Also, there had been a spinoff film reported on a while back that would have focused on Statham’s Lee Christmas, but that seemed to fizzle-out and it’s unknown if that was actually Expendables 4 or not.

Gregory Poirier was the last screenwriter attached to the project and had been expected to shoot in Sofia, Bulgaria at some point.

Expendables 3 attempted a PG-13 rating in what I assume was the studio’s push to make more money, but the film ended up making the least at the box office out of the three installments with only $214.6 million globally, $100 million less than Expendables 2. Hopefully, they’ll wise-up and return to a mature rating given there aren’t many kids out there looking to spend cash watching aging action stars huff and puff for our entertainment.

SOURCE: SLY STALLONE