Nick Jonas and Laurence Fishburne have joined the cast of “The Blacksmith,” the next action film from “Taken” director Pierre Morel, AGC Studios’ Stuart Ford announced Tuesday.
Morel’s “The Blacksmith” is based on a graphic novel from Kickstart Comics by Malik Evans and Richard Sparkman and follows a weapons expert who must go on the run from killers who murdered his colleagues.
“Source Code” and “Flatliners” writer Ben Ripley adapted the graphic novel. AGC Studios and Jon Shestack will produce along with Kickstart Productions’ Jason Netter and Jeremy Stein. AGC’s Ford and Linda McDonough are executive producing, as will Samantha Shear and Bob Sobhani.
Production on ‘The Blacksmith” will begin later in 2020. Here’s the full synopsis:
Wes Loomis (Jonas) is a “Blacksmith” – the intelligence community’s go-to weapons expert. When his clandestine lab is destroyed and his colleagues murdered, Wes must go on the run with only his unique set of technological skills and the help of a brilliant, young CIA analyst Noelle Hazlitt to keep him alive. They seek out Mather (Fishburne) a retired blacksmith and Wes’ mentor, to guide them on a journey that keeps this improbable pair one step ahead of their pursuers in a breathless, action-filled thriller that is just the beginning of the globe-trotting adventures of “The Blacksmith.”
“‘The Blacksmith’ provides a fresh, highly contemporary new take on the espionage genre and it’s exciting to pair an exhilarating young talent like Nick with seasoned heavyweights such as Pierre and Laurence. We’ll soon be announcing an equally outstanding young female actor to play across from Nick and then we will have all the ingredients for a major new film franchise built around a very modern
breed of action hero,” Ford said in a statement.
Jonas was last seen in “Jumanji: The Next Level” and in Roland Emmerich’s “Midway.” He’ll next appear in the sci-fi “Chaos Walking” alongside Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley.
Fishburne was seen in the third “John Wick” film, in “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” and “Running With the Devil,” as well as the series “black-ish.”
Jonas was represented in the negotiations by WME and attorneys Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham LLP. Fishburne is managed by Helen Sugland of Landmark Artists Management, and was represented by Paradigm and Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein & Lezcano. Morel was represented by UTA, manager Renee Tab of Sentient, and Hansen, Jacobsen, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller & Gellmann LLP, with AGC’s VP of legal & business affairs Anant Tamirisa egotiating on behalf of AGC.