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| It would seem the action movie gods have shined upon me today, providing some potentially awesome material for my first post here at Screen Rant.
We’ve known for a while that British action star Jason Statham is set to star in an upcoming thriller called The Killer Elite. The film is based on Ranulph Fiennes’ novel “The Feathermen,” and follows “a group of former British special forces members who are being hunted by assassins. Statham will play a former Navy Seal who is forced out of retirement to save his closest friend.” Now The Daily Mail is reporting fellow Englishman Clive Owen has joined the cast, presumably as the friend to Statham’s character.
The last few years of Owen’s career have been interesting; he starred in the critically acclaimed Children of Men, Inside Man, and Sin City, but has also shown up in some questionable films like Derailed and The International. There have also been some strange projects along the way – Shoot ‘Em Up, anyone? – and recently it seems as if Owen has lost a bit of the edginess so wonderfully displayed in films like BMW’s The Hire series. Perhaps joining forces with the reigning bad-ass of Great Britain will rejuvenate him a bit.
Statham has carved out a niche for himself as a genuine action star, ushering in a new breed of post-John McClane era heroes with a mixture of martial arts and tough guy machismo. It only helps his case that he does most of his own stunts (including driving) in the Transporter series and films like The Bank Job and Crank, and I would be hard pressed to find someone with an equal command over the genre as he has now. His upcoming role in Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables, perhaps the most insane collaboration of action stars past and present, is proof positive of Statham’s position in the hallowed halls of action stars.
This new collaboration of the two actors will see a return to characters similar to those they’ve both played before. Statham, an ex-Navy Seal in The Killing Elite, played ex-special forces soldier Frank Martin in The Transporter and its two sequels. Owen has also tread this familiar ground, himself playing an assassin in The Bourne Identity.
The Killing Elite was previously scheduled to begin production last fall, but supposedly the filmmakers have chosen to shoot the film in Australia sometime this year. No word yet on the official start date for the project.
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