Original Film, G-BASE and Endurance Media are setting action director Jung Byung-gil to helm the Gerard Butler-starrer Afterburn. The film is eyeing a late summer production start from a script by Matt Johnson (Into The Blue). Jung made a splash at last Cannes with The Villainess, and before that Confession of a Murder, which was recently remade into the Japanese-language hit Memoirs of a Murderer.
Neal Moritz and Toby Jaffe are producing through Original Film, Alan Siegel and Butler through G-BASE, and Steve Richards through Endurance Media. Steve Barnett and James Tomlinson are executive producers. Jung’s partner, Lewis Taewan Kim (Okja), is also producing. Endurance Media is financing. Christian Mercuri at Capstone Group will be handling international sales at the upcoming European Film Market in Berlin as well as executive producing and co-financing the project.
The film has long been a passion for Butler, and the hope is to launch a new franchise. Based on the Red 5 comic, Afterburn is a futuristic action adventure. Five years after a solar flare disrupts all technology in Europe, a treasure hunter (Butler) goes to France to retrieve the Mona Lisa. Paired with a strong willed weapons expert with her own agenda, the two search for the famed painting and encounter unexpected enemies along the way. They are eyeing future story lines where the character searches for such treasures as England’s Crown Jewels, the Star of India, or China’s Imperial Treasures.
Butler currently stars in Den of Thieves and is about to start shooting the third installment of the Olympus Has Fallen franchise, this one titled Angel Has Fallen. Butler, who’s repped by CAA and Alan Siegel Entertainment, recently wrapped Hunter Killer and Keepers.
ICM Partners reps Jung.