'Taken' director Pierre Morel will helm the film based on the graphic novel by Malik Evans and Richard Sparkman.
Nick Jonas and Laurence Fishburne have signed on to star in The Blacksmith, an action thriller based on the graphic novel by Malik Evans and Richard Sparkman.
Jonas will play Wes Loomis, aka The Blacksmith, a go-to weapons expert for the intelligence community. But when his secret lab is destroyed and his colleagues are murdered, Wes has to go on the run with only his unique technical skills and the help of CIA analyst Noelle Hazlitt to keep him alive. They seek out Wes' mentor, the retired blacksmith Mather (Fishburne), to guide them.
Taken director Pierre Morel has signed on to helm the feature from a script by Source Code writer Ben Ripley, adapting the Kickstart Comics graphic novel.
Stuart Ford's AGC Studios is financing and producing The Blacksmith. Jon Shestack will produce with Kickstart Productions’ Jason Netter and Jeremy Stein, with AGC's Ford and Linda McDonough executive producing alongside Samantha Shear and Bob Sobhani.
The Blacksmith is set to begin production later this year.
AGC first introduced international buyers to the project at the American Film Market in November. The Blacksmith will be a highlight of AGC Studios' slate going into next month's Cannes virtual film market, which kicks off June 22. UTA, which represents Morel, is co-representing U.S. distribution rights.
Jonas was represented in the negotiations by WME and attorneys Schreck Rose Dapello AdamsBerlin & Dunham; Fishburne is managed by Helen Sugland of Landmark Artists Management, and was represented by Paradigm and Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano; and Morel was represented by UTA, manager Renee Tab of Sentient, and Hansen, Jacobsen, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller & Gellmann, with AGC's vp of legal & business affairs Anant Tamirisa negotiating on behalf of AGC.
