“King Ivory” director John Swab is putting together another drug-world thriller with “Copperhead,” and the gestating feature film has landed a high-profile lead as Miles Teller has been tapped to play the protagonist at the heart of the undercover cop story.
As reported by Deadline, “Copperhead” has a script by Chad Feehan and J. Todd Scott, as the movie at Black Label Media “is thrust in motion when an undercover drug deal explodes into violence in West Texas. A veteran detective is then forced to team with a young federal agent to unravel the conspiracy within their elite task force.” Black Label, which is also behind “Sicario 3,” is financing and producing the new movie alongside Teller’s Lime Tree Productions and Swab’s Milk Boy, with cameras set to roll in August.
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Teller’s recent credits include Antonique Fuqua‘s King of Pop biopic “Michael” (inching closer to crossing the billion-dollar mark at the global box office, currently at $890 million), the afterlife rom-com “Eternity,” and co-starring with Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson in the James Gray-directed crime flick “Paper Tiger” that debuted at the Cannes Film Festival (The Playlist reviewed the film) with NEON releasing later in the year.
Some of the other projects in the past saw Teller playing Goose’s son in the “Top Gun” sequel and being poised to return for Paramount‘s “Top Gun 3,” which is now officially in the works with Ehren Kruger and Christopher McQuarrie said to be tackling a script. Although we’re unsure who is going to direct that one, as it seems that Joseph Kosinski is busy with his “Miami Vice” remake at Universal Pictures and a grounded UFO thriller as well in the works.
Swab’s last film was the aforementioned gritty fentanyl thriller, “King Irovy,” that boasted an impressive cast such as James Badge Dale, Ben Foster, Melissa Leo, Michael Mando, and the late Graham Greene in one of his final performances. Another project on the horizon for Swab is that he was hired to replace David Leitch (“How To Rob A Bank”) on the new Will Smith/Jerry Bruckheimer action film “Fast & Loose” at Netflix. Another high-profile movie in the works that he’s set to direct is the Jason Momoa-produced biker flick “Hell’s Angels.”
He’s certainly a filmmaker who is looking to make serious, no-nonsense thrillers set in the underworld crime, and pairing with Teller could lead to some cinematic magic. “Coppherhead” feels like it could be a project that opens the door to another intense role like Teller’s series “Too Old To Die Young” from Nicolas Winding Refn alongside feature work like “Whiplash,” “Only The Brave,” and his boxing flick “Bleed For This.”
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