Nimród Antal to direct Liam Neeson in upcoming thriller

Hungarian director Nimród Antal is going to direct Liam Neeson in upcoming thriller Retribution. Shooting will start in the spring in Berlin.

Studiocanal, The Picture Company and Jaume Collet-Serra’s Ombra Productions have set Nimród Antal to direct Liam Neeson in Retribution – Deadline reports. The new thriller’s plot will be similar to Speed, with a businessman discovering that a bomb has been planted in the car he is driving by an unknown assailant, who tells the driver to execute a series of commands throughout the day or else the bomb will be detonated. To make things even worse, the businessman’s family is also in the car.

Studiocanal is fully financing the film and will sell worldwide territorial rights at the American Film Market and release in its own territories in the UK, France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. It is going to be a remake of the acclaimed Spanish film El Desconocido that got eight Goya Award nominations when released in Spain in 2015.

The Picture Company has an overall deal with Studiocanal, and are producing with Ombra Productions. Faca Films that produced the original film will be executive producer along with Atresmedia Cine.

Nimród Antal is an American-born Hungarian director, screenwriter and actor. He moved to Hungary to study at the Hungarian Film Academy.  In 2005, he went back to his home town Los Angeles to pursue a career in Hollywood. He is best known for writing and directing Kontroll (2003); Hungarian-language film that won numerous awards (like Award of the Youth at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and the Golden Hugo which is the main prize at the Chicago International Film Festival). He was also hired by Robert Rodriguez to direct Predators (Ragadozók, 2010).

For Neeson, this will be his fifth film for Studiocanal; Collet-Serra directed three of them (Unknown, Non-Stop, and The Commuter) and they were produced by The Picture Company.

Collet-Serra directed Disney’s Jungle Cruise starring Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blund, Edgar Ramirez, Jesse Plemons, and Paul Giamatti, and he is next prepping to direct New Line’s DC Universe actioner Black Adam, with Johnson as the main character.

The Picture Company is coming off a strong opening on the genre film Come Play, and is in postproduction on the Navot Papushado-directed female-centric action thriller Gunpowder Milkshake, acquired by STX in an eight-figure deal.

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Source: Deadline, IMDb