Coming off a strong supporting turn in “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. has signed on to star in the upcoming action-thriller “Gridlocked,” which will be financed and produced by Canada-based Hackybox Pictures.
The “Jerry Maguire” star will play a former SWAT team leader who’s being shadowed by an arrogant movie star researching a role. When a team of mercenaries attacks a training facility, the unlikely duo must organize its survivor members and fight for their lives.
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Allan Ungar (pictured left) will direct from an original screenplay he wrote with Rob Robol. The duo have known each for years and attended New York Film Academy together.
Bruno Marino, Geoff Hart and Cody Hackman are producing “Gridlocked,” which shoots this spring. The film will be sold at the European Film Market in Berlin.
Hackybox Pictures recently completed Ungar’s mixed martial arts thriller “Tapped,” which stars Michael Biehn (“The Terminator”) and MMA champ Anderson Silva. The film will be released by Lionsgate and VVS Films in May.
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Gooding recently appeared in Robert Rodriguez’s sequel “Machete Kills” and Joseph Gordon-Levitt‘s directorial debut “Don Jon.” He’ll soon be seen alongside Sharon Leal in the slavery drama “Carry Me Home.” 
Gooding, who won an Oscar for his turn as football player Rod Tidwell opposite Tom Cruise in “Jerry Maguire,” recently earned a SAG nomination as a member of the ensemble cast of “The Butler.” He’s repped by ICM Partners.