Samuel L. Jackson is set to star alongside Dave Bautista in futuristic action-adventure Afterburn, set 10 years after a solar flare has wiped out technology across the globe.
Bautista will play ex-soldier Jake, who works as a treasure hunter recovering valuable objects from the old world for powerful clients. His latest mission is to team with freedom fighter Drea to recover the Mona Lisa before an unhinged warlord gets there first.
The movie is adapted from the Red 5 comic/graphic novel series of the same name. Jackson will play the supporting role of freedom fighter Valentine.
Black Bear and CAA Media Finance are launching the project for sales ahead of next week’s European Film Market, where it’ll be one of the biggest-budget new packages with an imminent start date. Principal photography is due to get underway in April in Europe with additional casting underway.
The film will be directed by J.J. Perry, who recently wrapped production on Lionsgate’s The Killer’s Game, also with Bautista, and is known for his work as a second-unit director and stunt coordinator on the John Wick and Fast & The Furious franchises.
Producers are Neal H. Moritz (Fast and Furious franchise) and Toby Jaffe (Total Recall) for Original Film and Steve Richards (Sherlock Holmes franchise, The Matrix trilogy) for Endurance Media, which is also financing. Bautista will also produce through Dogbone Entertainment. Black Bear is handling international sales and CAA Media Finance is repping domestic.
The story has long been a passion project for the producers which first tried to get it into production back in 2018. Six years later it has fresh impetus with different ingredients.
Read issue #1 of the new Mace Windu Marvel comic out today, featuring the character first brought to the big screen by Samuel L. Jackson twenty-five years ago in The Phantom Menace.
