Liam Neeson has lined up some interesting co-stars for his latest action-thriller Memory, which will see him joined by Guy Pearce, Monica Bellucci and Harold Torres, Collider's former Up-and-Comer of the Month from ZeroZeroZero.
The film hails from Martin Campbell, director of the James Bond movies Goldeneye and Casino Royale, and finds Neeson playing Alex Lewis, an "expert assassin with a reputation for discreet precision." In other words, an assassin. I mean, there's not a huge margin for error in that line of work. You don't see too many bumbling assassins in movies. But I digress...
One day, Alex, who is not to be confused in any way with Bryan Mills of Taken fame, refuses to complete a job for a dangerous criminal organization and quickly becomes its target, forcing him to hunt down those who want him dead. Alex has a very particular set of skills that help him stay one step ahead of both the crime syndicate and the FBI, but there's just one problem -- he's struggling with severe memory loss, which affects his every move. As details blur and his enemies close in, Alex must question his every action in addition to who he can really trust.
Pearce and Taj Atwal (Line of Duty) will play a pair of veteran FBI agents who team up with Mexican intelligence liaison Hugo Marquez (Torres) to investigate the ensuing carnage, drawing the ire of a local tech mogul (Bellucci).
Dario Scardapane (The Bridge) wrote the script, which is based on the book De Zaak Alzheimer by Jef Geeraerts as well as the Belgian film The Memory of a Killer from director Erik Van Looy. Filming has already begun in Bulgaria, with Ray Fearon (Beauty and the Beast) rounding out the cast.
Cathy Schulman (Crash) is producing via her Welle Entertainment banner along with Rupert Maconick, Arthur Sarkissian and Michael Heimler. Black Bear Pictures is fully financing the film, which Teddy Schwarzman (The Imitation Game) and Ben Stillman (Gold) will executive produce along with Peter Bouckaert and Rudy Durand.
Emmy winner Pearce is poised for a big April, as he stars opposite Michael B. Jordan in Amazon's newly acquired action movie Without Remorse, and plays Kate Winslet's love interest in HBO's limited series Mare of Easttown, which premieres this coming Sunday.
Meanwhile, Bellucci is coming off the recent release of the Oscar-nominated drama The Man Who Sold His Skin, which I've heard nothing but good things about. Like Campbell, she's also an alumnus of the 007 franchise, having appeared alongside Daniel Craig in Spectre.
But the selling point for me here -- since it ain't the familiar logline -- is Torres, who was excellent in Amazon's underrated drug drama ZeroZeroZero, and was recently signed by ICM Partners and Mosaic. I'm excited to see him in more movies, and I'm glad he'll have a bit more visibility sharing the big screen with Neeson. I watched Honest Thief with my Dad just a few weeks ago and told him that Neeson's young co-star Anthony Ramos was going to be a major star soon, which surprised him, given the size and nature of his role in that film. A few weeks later, he nabbed the lead in a new Transformers movie. The point I'm trying to make here is that maybe one day, Torres will wind up the star of a global action franchise. You never know...