FilmNation Entertainment and Likely Story have cast Luke Evans (Clash of the Titans, Tamara Drewe) to star in the action film The Amateur American. With shooting scheduled to start in Europe in September, the film will be produced by FilmNation Entertainment’s Aaron Ryder and Likely Story’s Anthony Bregman. FilmNation will also be handling international sales.
Based on the novel of the same title by J. Saunders Elmore, The Amateur American is written and will be directed by DGA-WGA Winner Ross Katz (HBO Films’ “Taking Chance”), who also produced In the Bedroom and Lost in Translation. The action thriller is about a young American living in Paris who accepts a job working for a shadowy employer and soon finds himself framed for murder and caught up in a deadly game of espionage, blackmail, and deceit.
FilmNation’s Ryder said: “We had the pleasure of working with Luke on The Raven and his performance in it is extraordinary. He is an ideal contemporary leading man.”
Likely Story’s Bregman adds: “Welshman Luke Evans is in fact an amateur American, but now he is our Amateur American — which means he will now be duped, seduced, imprisoned, shot at, chased, and nearly killed by all manner of professional Europeans. We can’t wait!”
Evans recently wrapped production on The Raven alongside John Cusack, and can next be seen in Summit’s The Three Musketeers with Logan Lerman and Orlando Bloom, and Tarsem Singh’s Immortals alongside Henry Cavill.
FilmNation is also currently in post-production on House at the End of the Street starring Jennifer Lawrence, Max Thieriot, and Elisabeth Shue; in development on F*cking Engaged with star Jessica Biel; and Message from the King from writers Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell.
Likely Story is currently in production on Stephen Frear’s latest feature Lay the Favorite starring Bruce Willis, Rebecca Hall and Catherine Zeta Jones. The company is also currently in post on both Lawrence Kasdan’s Darling Companion starring Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline as well as Julian Farino’s comedy The Oranges which topped the blacklist in 2008.
