The most wanted man in Hollywood is about to join the Manhunt. Gerard Butler, who is attached to a staggering number of films at present, is reportedly in advanced negotiations to star in Manhunt, an action-thriller scripted by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (both from Children of Men). Directed by Breck Eisner (The Crazies), Manhunt follows an FBI team into the North Carolina wilderness where they track James Tollan, a domestic terrorist and ruthless survivalist who has evaded capture with the help of local townspeople; his repeated attacks on the federal government have marked him as the FBI’s most-wanted. The team enlists a reluctant local bear hunter to help capture Tollan, but finds that the terrorist will stop at nothing to defend his home turf once they enter his woods. While the report doesn’t specify the role, I’m going to assume that Butler is up for “friendly bear-hunter” and not “ruthless murderer.” Hit the jump for more, including a recap of all of Butler’s current projects.
Report of Butler’s involvement with Manhunt comes via Deadline. This is the latest in a long list of projects that have been attributed to Butler over the last year. Let’s recap, shall we?
There’s Hunter Killer, the story of “an untested submarine captain who must work with a Navy SEAL team to rescue Russia’s president, who’s taken prisoner during a military coup. The two sides team to stop a rogue Russian general from igniting World War III.” Sam Worthington may possibly co-star with Antoine Fuqua to direct.- Thunder Run, a war picture centering on the 2003 capture of Baghdad and the “first ever conventional war film made to utilize this revolutionary facial and motion capture technology and state of the art CG and 3D.” Worthington and Matthew McConaughey also star.
- An untitled, fact-based mercenary pic with Sir Ridley Scott directing.
- The diamond heist-thriller, Brilliant, directed by Robert Luketic (21).
- A surfing picture, Of Men and Mavericks, directed by Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential).
- The romantic comedy, Playing the Field, with Jessica Biel and Dennis Quaid.
- One of the “assault on the White House” movies of the year, Olympus Has Fallen.
- Oh, and let’s not forget How to Train Your Dragon 2.
- There’s also the “released prisoner gets revenge” flick, Motor City.
- And finally, the sci-fi comic adaptation, Afterburn, in which “solar flares have left the Earth a ravaged wasteland filled with mutants and pirates”
Have fun, Gerard!
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Butler’s always been in demand since 300. But I think his first big successes following that film came last year with acclaimed performances in Machine Gun Preacher and Coriolanus. Maybe that’s why he’s so in demand right now.
Butler is a good(not great) actor. He’s labelling himself as a producer just to look good on his resume. Not watched Coriolanus yet, but does need to make better choices and not hog the screen time away from better actors like Michael Shannon.
They’d be better off making an adaptation of MANHUNT the game from a few years ago. This just sounds like a wannabe RAMBO with the terrorism angle thrown in.