A Simple Favor director Paul Feig and stars Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick are reteaming for A Simple Favor 2, a Prime Video release

Back in 2018, Bridesmaids and Ghostbusters director Paul Feig brought us the mystery A Simple Favor, which starred Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick in the story of “mommy blogger Stephanie (Kendrick), who befriends Emily (Lively), a secretive upper-class woman who has a child at the same elementary school. When Emily goes missing, Stephanie takes it upon herself to investigate.” A couple years ago, we heard that Amazon MGM Studios and Lionsgate were teaming up to produce a sequel to A Simple Favor… and now The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that Feig, Lively, and Kendrick are all coming back for A Simple Favor 2. Filming is expected to begin this spring, and the film is heading for a streaming release on Prime Video.

Jessica Sharzer, who wrote the screenplay for the first film (which was based on the 2017 novel of the same name by author Darcey Bell), returned to write the sequel, with Feig and Laeta Kalogridis also working on the script.

A Simple Favor 2 will see Stephanie Smothers (Kendrick) and Emily Nelson (Lively) heading to the island of Capri for Emily’s lavish wedding. The destination nuptials between Emily and a wealthy Italian businessman are set to include murder and betrayal on the itinerary.

A Simple Favor cast members Henry Golding, Andrew Rannells, Bashir Salahuddin, Joshua Satine, Ian Ho, and Kelly McCormack will all be reprising their roles from the first movie. Feig and Laura Fischer are producing A Simple Favor 2 for Feigco Entertainment, while Sharzer serves as executive producer.

Are you a fan of A Simple Favor, and are you glad to hear that A Simple Favor 2 is moving forward? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

I have seen A Simple Favor, I probably watched it sometime in early 2019… but I remember nothing about it aside from the fact that it was directed by Feig and starred Lively and Kendrick. I couldn’t tell you what it was about or anything that happened in it. Even after that refresher in the opening paragraph, I’m still blanking on this one. So I’m obviously going to have to rewatch A Simple Favor if I’m going to check out A Simple Favor 2.

The Dune Part Two star is set to work with Aronofsky in the new crime drama from author and screenwriter Charlie Huston.

Austin Butler may not be confirmed to be co-starring in Michael Mann’s Heat 2, but the Masters of the Air actor has now been reported to be set to be the lead in Caught Stealing. Since 2022’s Elvis, Austin Butler’s star has really taken off. The former Disney and Nickelodeon child actor is capitalizing on his breakout film with roles in the recently released Dune: Part Two, where he plays the ruthless Feyd-Rautha. However, Butler hasn’t turned his back on smaller films, as he is set to co-star alongside Tom Hardy in Jeff Nichols’ period drama, The Bikeriders.

Now The Hollywood Reporter is saying Butler will be working with Darren Aronofsky for Sony’s crime drama that “follows Hank Thompson, a burned-out former baseball player, as he’s unwittingly plunged into a wild fight for survival in the downtown criminal underworld of ‘90s NYC.” Caught Stealing will be penned by Charlie Huston, who is also the author of the book that the movie will be based on. Huston is no stranger to this process as he adapted his novel The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death for HBO, as well as his novel Already Dead, which can be seen on Max. He is also a seasoned TV scribe as he has written pilots for FX, Fox, Sony and Tomorrow Studios. Huston also served as a consulting producer for Fox’s Gotham, and worked in several development rooms. Aronofsky will be producing this film via his Protozoa Pictures.

Aronofsky is coming off the critically acclaimed film The Whale, which catapulted Brendan Fraser back into the movie spotlight as he earned his first Academy Award win. Aronofsky talks partnering up with Sony to make this new film with Butler, “I am excited to be teaming up with my old friends at Sony Pictures to bring Charlie’s adrenaline-soaked roller coaster ride to life. I can’t wait to start working with Austin and my family of NYC filmmakers.” Sanford Panitch, president of Sony Pictures’ Motion Picture Group, also shared his excitment of working with Aronofsky on Caught Stealing, “Darren is one of the most brilliant audiovisual storytellers in the world, and adapting these wonderful books by Charlie Huston for Austin to star was too exciting an opportunity to not be a part of.”

About the Author

E.J. is a News Editor at JoBlo, as well as a Video Editor, Writer, and Narrator for some of the movie retrospectives on our JoBlo Originals YouTube channel, including Reel Action, Revisited and some of the Top 10 lists. He is a graduate of the film program at Missouri Western State University with concentrations in performance, writing, editing and directing.

The first reactions to the Omen prequel The First Omen are largely positive, saying the film is disturbing, chilling, and ghoulish

On April 5th, 20th Century Studios will be giving a theatrical release to The First Omen, which serves as a prequel to the 1976 horror classic The Omen (watch it HERE) – but some reviewers, including JoBlo’s own JimmyO, have already had the chance to see the movie, and their largely positive reactions started hitting social media last night. We have assembled some of them below (including, yes, JimmyO’s), and some of the descriptions used in these reactions include disturbing, chilling, stunning, fascinating, and unrepentantly ghoulish.

The film stars Nell Tiger Free of the Apple TV+ series Servant, and will be hitting the big screen with an R rating for violent content, grisly/disturbing images, and brief graphic nudity… although it nearly got an NC-17.

The First Omen was directed by Arkasha Stevenson, based on characters created by David Seltzer. Here’s the synopsis: When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.

Free is joined in the cast by Tawfeek Barhom (Mary Magdalene), Sonia Braga (Kiss of the Spider Woman), Ralph Ineson (The Northman), and Bill Nighy (Living).

The film was produced by David S. Goyer and Keith Levine, with Tim Smith serving as executive producer with Whitney Brown and Gracie Wheelan. We first heard that a prequel to The Omen was in development way back in 2016. At that time, Antonio Campos (The Devil All the Time) was in talks to direct First Omen from a script by Ben Jacoby (Bleed). Later The Conjuring writers Chad and Carey Hayes came on board to work on the script, and they were followed by author Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl). The film ended up in the hands of Arkasha Stevenson – who has previously directed episodes of the genre shows Channel Zero, Legion, and Brand New Cherry Flavor. Stevenson rewrote the script with her writing partner Tim Smith, then Firestarter‘s Keith Thomas worked on it as well.

The Omen (1976) was followed by Damien: Omen II in 1978, Omen III: The Final Conflict in 1981, Omen IV: The Awakening in 1991, and a 2006 remake. So this is the sixth entry in the film franchise.

Are you looking forward to The First Omen? Let us know by leaving a comment below – but first, take a look at these reactions:

The star of the indie film Love Lies Bleeding is adding more franchise-related roles to her resume and possibly getting in on the action for Mission: Impossible.

The breakout star of Love Lies Bleeding, Katy O’Brian, is also seeing her fair share of franchise roles. Prior to her latest A24 movie, O’Brian has played parts in projects for Disney like The Mandalorian and Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. She will also be seen in the upcoming Twisters, where she says, “We filmed a tornado movie during tornado season in Tornado Alley.” She would reveal that her character is “a little sillier” than she has been used to, but she won’t go as far as to call it a comic relief role. “I don’t want to say comedic role, and then everyone’s like, ‘She wasn’t funny.’ We’ll say it’s silly and fun.”

Now, according to Deadline, O’Brian is joining the cast of Mission: Impossible 8 as filming continues underway for the Tom Cruise action film. Details surrounding the upcoming sequel are as sealed as the missions in the movies themselves, so it is not known at the moment what role she will be playing in the movie. O’Brian, who no doubt sports an impressive physical presence, could likely play a part that is heavily involved in action scenes. Recently, pics have shown up online from the production that features Cruise doing what he does best — running.

Despite the title change of dropping the “Part One” from the subtitle, Mission: Impossible 8 will indeed be telling the second half of the story that began in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, with Ethan Hunt out to destroy an AI system called The Entity, which is housed in a sunken Russian stealth submarine.

Cruise is being joined in the cast by Hayley Atwell, reprising her Dead Reckoning role of thief-turned-IMF-recruit Grace; Vanessa Kirby as arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis, a.k.a. the White Widow, a character who was previously seen in both Fallout and Dead Reckoning; Ving Rhames as IMF agent Luther Stickell, who has been part of this franchise since the first Mission: Impossible movie in 1996; Simon Pegg as IMF agent Benji Dunn, who joined the party back in Mission: Impossible III; Henry Czerny as CIA director Eugene Kittridge, who was introduced in Mission: Impossible (1996) and finally made his long-awaited return in Dead Reckoning; Rolf Saxon as William Donloe, a CIA analyst who got in trouble after Ethan Hunt accessed his computer way back in the first Mission: Impossible; and more Dead Reckoning reprisals: Esai Morales as the Entity-serving terrorist Gabriel; Pom Klementieff as Gabriel’s former ally Paris; Shea Whigham and Greg Tarzan Davis as US Intelligence agents Briggs and Degas; Mariela Garriga as Marie, a mysterious woman from Ethan and Gabriel’s past; Mark Gatiss and Charles Parnell as the heads of the NSA and NRO;. There are also a handful of new additions to the franchise: Holt McCallany as Secretary of Defense Bernstein; Nick Offerman as Sydney, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Janet McTeer, Hannah Waddingham, and Lucy Tulugarjuk in unspecified roles.

About the Author

E.J. is a News Editor at JoBlo, as well as a Video Editor, Writer, and Narrator for some of the movie retrospectives on our JoBlo Originals YouTube channel, including Reel Action, Revisited and some of the Top 10 lists. He is a graduate of the film program at Missouri Western State University with concentrations in performance, writing, editing and directing.

The Crow director Alex Proyas is making a new movie called Sensoria, which is entirely generated with AI. Multiple teasers are online

Several months ago, Full Moon released a thriller called AImee: The Visitor, which was marketed as having “the very first AI-created femme fatale in film history.” Now director Alex Proyas – who has been very vocal about the fact that he doesn’t agree with the choices that went into the making of the remake of his most popular movie, The Crow – is taking the technology a giant leap further. Not only does his new movie Sensoria feature an all-AI cast, but the movie itself is entirely generated with AI. Proyas has released multiple short teasers for the film on his YouTube channel, and the longest, the “full length teaser,” can be seen in the embed at the top of this article. To see the rest, click over to YouTube.

Proyas has said that Sensoria is his “experiment to sustain an audience over 90 minutes and convey my own HUMAN vision via the machines.” For the credits, he wrote, “Video & voice by AI – written & directed by a human.“

The filmmaker hasn’t revealed many details about Sensoria, but he did share a video that tells “The Story of the NPCs,” which is probably a major part of the film’s plot. That video can be found at the bottom of this article. Here’s the transcription: “In the heart of a sprawling metropolis in the early months of 1974, there existed a city within a city. A forgotten enclave where the forgotten resided. It was a place where the streets echoed with a haunting emptiness. Where shadows danced in the absence of life and where the air carried the weight of despair. This was the domain of the NPCs; non-essential, unwanted inhabitants deemed redundant in the grand scheme of human survival. It began with whispers, rumors that slithered through the alleys and lingered in the minds of the populace. The authorities, driven by a misguided sense of efficiency, had initiated a clandestine operation to rid the city of its surplus population. They targeted those who seemed to serve no purpose, whose lives were deemed inconsequential by the powers that be. Slowly but surely, under the guise of bureaucratic processes, the NPCs were rounded up like cattle into a forsaken corner of the city and left to fend for themselves. Among the forgotten souls was a man named Reject 53148C. Once a clerk in a nondescript office building, his days had been spent shuffling papers and following orders without question. Now he found himself trapped in this desolate place surrounded by others who shared his fate. For in the darkness of despair, amidst the shadows of a forgotten city, a glimmer of resilience emerged. A testament to the indomitable spirit of humanity in the face of adversity. And though their journey was fraught with uncertainty, they pressed on, guided by the belief that even in the darkest of times there existed a light that could never be extinguished.”

Some viewers were upset to learn that the recently released horror movie Late Night with the Devil featured three pieces of AI artwork, so I’m sure the idea of Alex Proyas making a feature film that’s entirely generated with AI isn’t going to go over well with a lot of people.

What do you think of Alex Proyas making an entirely AI movie? Check out the teasers, then share your thoughts on Sensoria by leaving a comment below.

Milla Jovovich is filming a new sci-fi film from The Machinist’s Brad Anderson. The film also stars Luke Evans and newcomer Billie Boullet.

Milla Jovovich returns to the genre she knows so well with World Breaker. She stars opposite Luke Evans from Fast & Furious 6 and Dracula Untold. Brad Anderson is in the director’s chair for this science-fiction film. Anderson is known for such bleak projects as Session 9, The Machinist (which famously had Christian Bale lose a scary amount of weight prior to playing Batman) and Transsiberian. He has been dabbling in TV over the recent years, having directing for shows like Titans, The Man in the High Castle and Peacemaker.

The synopsis for World Breaker, according to Deadline, reads,
“Five years ago, a tear in the fabric of reality brought creatures to our world from an alternate dimension bent on our destruction. A father hides his daughter on an island to keep her safe while he prepares her for survival and the battles to come. But when the world is about to break, no place is safe.”

Up-and-coming British-French actress Billie Boullet has also joined the production, playing the daughter of the story, while Evans and Jovovich are on board as the parents. Boullet has recently garnered a Critics Choice nomination for her portrayal of Anne Frank in Nat Geo and Disney+ series A Small Light. Mila Harris is also listed in the cast. However, it is not currently known what role she will be taking in the film. World Breaker was written by Joshua Rollins, whose credits include Infinite Storm, and Martin Brennan, known for Zone 414, of 23ten Productions is producing. Northern Ireland Screen provides support for the film as it is currently filming in the UK. 

You can catch Jovovich in the recent trailer for another sci-fi film involving a family, titled Breathe. Breathe follows “a mother named Maya and her daughter, who are forced to live underground after Earth is made uninhabitable due to a lack of oxygen. Only short trips to the surface are made possible by a state-of-art oxygen suit made by Maya’s husband Darius, whom she presumes to be dead. When a mysterious couple arrives claiming to know Darius and his fate, Maya tentatively agrees to let them into their bunker but are they all they appear to be?”

About the Author

E.J. is a News Editor at JoBlo, as well as a Video Editor, Writer, and Narrator for some of the movie retrospectives on our JoBlo Originals YouTube channel, including Reel Action, Revisited and some of the Top 10 lists. He is a graduate of the film program at Missouri Western State University with concentrations in performance, writing, editing and directing.

Ewan McGregor and Mary Elizabeth Winstead shine in a beautiful drama based on the best-selling novel.

PLOT: Count Alexander Rostov, in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, finds that his gilded past has placed him on the wrong side of history. Spared immediate execution, he is banished by a Soviet tribunal to an attic room in the opulent Hotel Metropol and threatened with death if he ever sets foot outside again. As the years pass and some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history unfold outside the hotel’s doors, Rostov’s reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. As he builds a new life within the walls of the hotel, he discovers the true value of friendship, family and love.

REVIEW: Ewan McGregor is a singular talent. The acclaimed actor can sing, share the screen with Winnie the Pooh, fight Darth Vader, and play a convincing heroin addict. He has also proven himself adept at sharing the screen with family members. After sharing the screen with his daughter Clara in Bleeding Love, Ewan McGregor is reuniting with his wife, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, for their third project together. McGregor leads the wonderful drama A Gentleman in Moscow, about one man surviving against every obstacle in his path, all in the name of love. Adapted from the bestselling novel, A Gentleman in Moscow is a beautifully realized drama that will have you rooting for McGregor from the opening scene of the first episode through the last scene of the finale.

Set in the day immediate aftermath of the October Revolution, Ewan McGregor plays Count Alexander Rostov. An aristocrat, Rostov is viewed as an enemy of the people thanks to his connections to the former Russian royal family. Having returned to Russia from Paris, Rostov is sentenced to spend the rest of his life as a resident of the Hotel Metropol, a luxury accommodation taken over by the Bolsheviks. Promised room and board, Rostov refuses to be defeated despite his suite being replaced with a servant’s quarters, repeated intrusions by soldiers led by Osip Glebnikov (Johnny Harris), and reluctance by members of the staff as well as other guests who view him as a threat to the new government. In the early episodes, Rostov befriends a young girl named Nina (Alexa Goodall) and plots an escape alongside the exiled Prince Petrov (Paul Ready). Little does Rostov know, but these relationships will forever alter the future of his life.

Chronicling decades of his life within the Metropol, A Gentleman in Moscow imbues Rostov with hope despite all odds to the contrary. Pulling elements from prison stories and themes from Steven Spielberg’s similarly themed The Terminal, A Gentleman in Moscow starts out by looking at what Rostov’s life is like, limited to existing within the walls of a hotel. What could have been a whimsical and humorous tale, as the trailers may lead you to believe, this series is, in fact, a steadfast drama with some humorous moments peppered within. Much of the footage used to cut the trailer comes from the series’ first two episodes, which leaves the plot twists and elapsed time a mystery for audiences unfamiliar with the source material. While trailers often give away too much of the plot, I appreciate how little is truly revealed in A Gentleman In Moscow, leaving the bulk of the story for the viewers to experience chapter by chapter.

Where the novel compressed and expanded the multiple-decade arc of the narrative, the series spends an appropriate amount of time over the intervening years as Rostov grows from an aristocrat to an even more nuanced character. Able to play Rostov from young to old without relying on much more than wigs and a bit of hair dye, Ewan McGregor beautifully plays this character as a sympathetic and loving man who will not let politics deter his love for his homeland. Couple that with the shared screen time McGregor gets to spend with Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and you have the third project the real-life couple have worked on, giving another layer to their chemistry together. Having first played a couple in Fargo before playing hero and villain in DC’s Birds of Prey, McGregor and Winstead once again portray soulmates in this series. Winstead plays Anna Urbanova, an actress who falls in love with Count Rostov, and their relationship is the anchor for this story. In addition, Sofia (Beau Gadsdon), Marina (Leah Harvey), and the rest of the ensemble balance a whimsical nature with the emotional range of the dramatic side of this tale.

Adapted from Amor Towles’ novel by Ben Vanstone (The Last Kingdom, Merlin), A Gentleman in Moscow is directed by Sam Miller (Black Mirror, Daredevil) and Sarah O’Gorman (The Witcher), both of whom turn the Metropol into a character all its own alongside the strong performances of McGregor, Winstead, and the cast. The last hotel that was this important to the plot of a film or series was The Grand Budapest Hotel. While not nearly as whimsical as Wes Anderson’s creation, this series allows the Metropol and its hidden rooms, staircases, and other secrets to add to the story’s charms. There is also a central theme of food that balances the different class levels at play in the early 20th-century Russian setting of A Gentleman in Moscow. With exceptional production values and a classical music score that mixes Russian traditional music and sweeping dramatic themes from composer Federico Jusid, A Gentleman in Moscow is beautifully realized and charming to watch.

A Gentleman in Moscow is a pleasant surprise. For a story set in a violent era of political upheaval in a country notorious for such events, Ewan McGregor and Mary Elizabeth Winstead can project light and air of positivity despite all odds being against them. In an age where we can easily wallow in negativity, Alexander Rostov is a beacon of never giving up, even when everything seems hopeless. I felt invigorated after completing this series and am not ashamed to say that I was invested in these characters enough to have multiple emotional responses over this sprawling series. A Gentleman in Moscow is a touching portrait of overcoming the odds and finding love despite everything in your way. Another win for Ewan McGregor.

A Gentleman in Moscow premieres on March 29th on Paramount + with Showtime.

A clip from the paramedic thriller Asphalt City centers on the characters played by Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan

Vertical and Roadside Attractions are set to give the paramedic thriller Asphalt City (formerly known as Black Flies) a theatrical release on March 29th, and in anticipation of that release we have the EXCLUSIVE first look at a clip from the film that features the lead characters, played by Sean Penn (Mystic River) and Tye Sheridan (Ready Player One). The characters are taking a dinner break in this clip, and you can see how it plays out by taking a look at the video embedded above.

Based on Shannon Burke’s 2008 novel Black Flies, Asphalt City was directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire (A Prayer Before Dawn) from a screenplay by Ryan King and Ben Mac Brown. The story follows Ollie Cross (Sheridan), a young paramedic assigned to the night shift alongside uncompromising and seasoned New York City EMT, Gene Rutkovsky (Penn). The dark nights reveal a city in crisis; Rutkovsky guides Cross, as each 911 call is often dangerous and uncertain, putting their lives on the line every day to help others. Cross soon discovers firsthand the chaos and awe of a job that careens from harrowing to heartfelt, testing his relationship with Rutkovsky and the ethical ambiguity that can be the difference between life and death.

Penn and Sheridan are joined in the cast by Gbenga Akkinagbe (Fast Charlie), Raquel Nave (Bizarre Again), Kali Reis (True Detective: Night Country), Michael C. Pitt (Ghost in the Shell), Katherine Waterston (Alien: Covenant), and Mike Tyson (The Hangover).

A Sculptor Media Production, in association with Projected Picture Works, AZA Films, Two & Two Pictures, and Dogwood Pictures, Asphalt City was produced by Penn and Sheridan, alongside Warren Goz, Eric Gold, Christopher Kopp, Lucan Toh, John Ira Palmer, John Wildermuth, and Tina Wang. Sauvaire, King, and Burke serve as executive producers with James Masciello, Matthew Sidari, Mitchell Zhang, Jamie Buckner, Luke Rodgers, and Babak Anvari. 

Roadside Attractions’ Eric d’Arbeloff and Howard Cohen told Deadline that they were “deeply moved by the incredible portrait of EMT life on the streets in New York that is the heart of Asphalt City. Director Jean-Stephane and stars Tye Sheridan and Sean Penn together deliver an unforgettable work of visceral power about these unsung heroes of urban life.“

Vertical’s Peter Jarowey added, “Tye and Sean deliver such raw, intense performances that truly draw the viewer into the heroism EMTs exhibit, but also explore the dark underside of having to walk the line between life and death every day.“

Are you interested in Asphalt City? Check out the clip, then let us know by leaving a comment below.

A number of those on the set of The Brothers Grimsby with Rebel Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen are denying the former’s claims.

The discrepancies between Rebel Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen just got hairier, as details have emerged in what exactly the actress was referring to when she alleged that he was responsible for inappropriate behavior on the set of The Brothers Grimsby. In an excerpt from her new memoir, “Rebel Rising”, Wilson claims that Cohen tried to coax her into onscreen nudity and go method in a rather crude way.

One excerpt (via People; the book is due out next week) reads: “It felt like every time I’d speak to SBC, he’d mention that he wanted me to go naked in a future scene. I was like, ‘Ha, I don’t do nudity, Sacha.’” Another, which is far more descriptive, adds: “SBC summons me via a production assistant saying that I’m needed to film an additional scene. ‘Okay, well, we’re gonna film this extra scene,’ SBC says. Then he pulls his pants down … SBC says very matter-of-factly: ‘Okay, now I want you to stick your finger up my ass.’ And I’m like, ‘What?? … No!!’…I was now scared. I wanted to get out of there, so I finally compromised: I slapped him on the ass and improvised a few lines as the character.” Wilson would maintain that even after the supposed incident, she had to do a reshoot of a sex scene with Cohen. Of note, Sacha Baron Cohen’s wife, Isla Fisher, was also in the movie.

The real-finger-in-the-arse scenario ever happening has been denied by numerous parties, with a producer on The Brothers Grimsby defending Sacha Baron Cohen by saying, “As per the script, which Rebel had read and approved in advance, her character was attempting to put a finger in Sacha’s character’s butt. At no point did Sacha actually ask her to put a finger in his butt…Throughout this entire period, she was treated with the utmost respect and empowerment and was welcomed as a collaborator in all creative areas.”

The Brothers Grimsby would tank, unable to fully capitalize on either one of its stars’ fanbases, opening at #8 and taking in less than $7 million domestically.

Sacha Baron Cohen is actively denying every one of Rebel Wilson’s claims, previously stating, “While we appreciate the importance of speaking out, these demonstrably false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence, including contemporaneous documents, film footage and eyewitness accounts from those present before, during and after the production of The Brothers Grimsby.”

Do you believe the claims by Rebel Wilson on Sacha Baron Cohen’s behavior or do you think liberties have been taken with the story?

Reacher’s Alan Ritchson will star in War Machine, an action sci-fi movie set to be directed by Patrick Hughes for Netflix.

Deadline reports that Alan Ritchson (Reacher) is set to star in War Machine, an action sci-fi movie from Lionsgate which will debut on Netflix.

Patrick Hughes (The Hitman’s Bodyguard) will direct War Machine and also co-wrote the script with James Beaufort (Machine). The logline reads: “In the final 24 Hours of the world’s toughest selection process, a team of Army Rangers encounter a threat beyond their imagination.“

Before Alan Ritchson suits up for War Machine, he’s got a few more projects to get through. The actor is currently in production on Playdate with Kevin James. The action comedy follows Brian (James), a down-on-his-luck man and stay-at-home dad who accepts a playdate invitation from Jeff (Ritchson), who turns out to be an unexpected loose cannon. Once production wraps, Ritchson will be back to work on the third season of Reacher. The new season is based on Persuader, the seventh book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child. “Jack Reacher lives for the moment. Without a home. Without commitment. And with a burning desire to right wrongs – and rewrite his own agonizing past,” reads the synopsis of Persuader. “DEA Susan Duffy is living for the future, knowing that she has made a terrible mistake by putting one of her own female agents into a death trap within a heavily guarded Maine mansion. Staging a brilliant ruse, Reacher hurtles into the dark heart of a vast criminal enterprise. Trying to rescue an agent whose time is running out, Reacher enters a crime lord’s waterfront fortress. There, he will find a world of secrecy and violence – and confront some unfinished business from his own past.“

Ritchson will next be seen starring alongside Henry Cavill in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, a World War II movie directed by Guy Ritchie. Inspired by true events, the film tells the story of the first-ever special forces organization formed during WWII by Winston Churchill. “The top-secret combat unit, composed of a motley crew of rogues and mavericks, goes on a daring mission against the Nazis using entirely unconventional and utterly ‘ungentlemanly’ fighting techniques,” reads the synopsis. “Ultimately, their audacious approach changed the course of the war and laid the foundation for the British SAS and modern Black Ops warfare.” The film will hit theaters on April 19th.