Plenty of deals are being struck at Cannes. Just this morning, for instance, Nicolas Winding Refn announced that he will be co-producing a remake of Witchfinder General, the infamous Vincent Price vehicle about the sadism and madness of religious extremism, in its many forms. Beyond that, the sheer amount of casting news thats been coming out of the European festival has been head-spinning in its volume.
One story that stuck today, however, involves Frank Grillo, the talented character actor who injected some much needed bravado into The Purge: Anarchy and made for a pretty awesome Crossbones in Captain America: Civil War. Netflix has closed a deal in Cannes to distribute Wheelman, an action-thriller with Grillo in the titular role, with a start-of-shooting date set for Fall 2016. The film will be written and directed by Jeremy Rush, and is being produced by Joe Carnahan, who you might know best as the writer-director behind The Grey, Smokin' Aces, and Narc.
You can check out the familiar synopsis below, which sounds an awfully lot like movies as good as The Driver and Drive or movies as bad as the Ethan Hawke-fronted Getaway. But considering how reliable Grillo tends to be in these kind of roles, I'm willing to bet this one will be closer to the former films than the latter disaster.
Here's the official synopsis for Wheelman:
The wheelman is Grillo - a getaway driver thrust into a high stakes race-to-survive after a bank robbery goes terribly wrong. With a car full of money and his family on the line, the clock is ticking to figure out who double-crossed him, and the only person he can trust… his fourteen-year-old daughter. All reasons to think fast, and drive faster.
