Liam Neesonhas signed on to star in a newaction-thrillerentitledThe Commuter, according to a report fromDeadline. The project doesn’t have a director in place yet, but production is scheduled to begin in New York sometime this coming spring. StudioCanal is providing the financing, with The Picture Company producing.
The story, written by Byron Willinger and Philip de Blasi, follows a businessman (Liam Neeson) who unwillingly gets embroiled in a criminal conspiracy during his daily commute home. This sinister plot not only endangers his life, but also the lives of several other commuters around him. We first reported onThe Commuterway back in 2010, whenOlatunde Osunsanmi(The Fourth Kind) signed on to direct, but that was the last we heard about the project.
Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman will produce through their newly-formed The Picture Company. The producers, who were former executives atJoel Silver’s Silver Pictures, formed this company less than a year ago, and this project will be their first to go into production. The Picture Company also has a number of other projects indevelopment, such as 20th Century Fox’sEscape from New Yorkremake, Disney’sThe Tracking of a Russian Spyand a reinvention of the 1974 film Don’t Look Now, for StudioCanal.
Byron Willinger and Philip de Blasi previously wrote The Crossing for Screen Gems,Skyscraperfor Universal andParadise Lostfor Legendary Pictures, which are all in various stages of development at this time. This project will reunite the producers, StudioCanal andLiam Neeson, since they all collaborated on recentthrillerssuch asUnknownandNon-Stop. While this will beLiam Neeson’s next film, he still has plenty more projects in development.
Liam Neesonrecently wrapped production onMartin Scorsese’sSilence, and he will next be seen inA Monster Calls. He is also attached toA Willing Patriot,Narco SubandThe Revenger, which he just added to his busy movie slate last week. What do you think ofLiam Neeson’s latest action project?
