It’s a shame that the U.S. doesn’t really have bullet trains the way other countries do. Not only because they’re very convenient, but because they make for killer action thriller settings. Apparently, Sony Pictures thinks so too, as they signed “Deadpool 2” and “Atomic Blonde” director David Leitch to direct “Bullet Train.”
The Hollywood Reporter has the scoop, which has a premise as badass as you’d expect. Basically, the film “centers on a group of hitmen and assassins with conflicting motives on a train in Tokyo” and is being compared tonally to films like “Speed” and Liam Neeson‘s 2014 “Non-Stop.” Honestly, if the movie delivers action sequences half as good as the train fight scene in “The Wolverine” then we might get another “Atomic Blonde” type of action extravaganza.
“Bullet Train” is an adaptation of the Japanese novel “Maria Beetle” by Kotaro Isaka, and it’s being written by Zak Olkewicz, who wrote the upcoming R.L. Stine adaptation “Fear Script,” while Leitch is overseeing revisions. Originally, Antoine Fuqua had signed to direct the film, but is now producing instead. It will be interesting to see what Leitch brings to the project and if he’ll prove to be a better choice than Fuqua. Honestly, as long as it manages to be as claustrophobic yet thrilling as the best train movies like “Train to Busan” and “Snowpiercer,” then by all means make this another franchise in the style of “John Wick.”
The plan is to shoot the film this fall, with the studio betting on the film’s closed space setting to make it easier to fall in line with the new coronavirus-influenced health restrictions.
David Leitch is also currently attached to direct a film adaptation of the Ubisoft videogame “The Division” for Netflix, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain, about a bio-terrorist attack on Black Friday, and a vampire romance movie “Undying Love.” He is also producing the action thriller “Nobody” starring “Better Call Saul” star Bob Odenkirk.
