While it would be really cool to have an action flick led by Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan and Golden Globe winner Idris Elba, we’ll have to settle for two separate movies.
Somebody somewhere has decided Quan is an action star, as he’s landed another one in Fairytale in New York. The Lionsgate thriller will be directed by Jalmari Helander, whose previous film Sisu kicked all sorts of ass. Set in New York City on Christmas Eve, Quan plays an unassuming cab driver who takes one last ride, only to have a run-in with a criminal gang who steal the priceless gift he got for his estranged son. The cabbie must go on a relentless pursuit to get it back. Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani (Black Adam) wrote the script. Since winning an Oscar for his comeback role in Everything Everywhere All At Once, Quan has scored another action lead in Love Hurts, which opens in February.
Meanwhile, Elba is set to star in Hammer Down, an action-thriller from director Simon Hatt, James Gunn’s former assistant and a producer on Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy. Here’s a description of the story, which is written by Hatt based on his own short: “Mac (Idris Elba) is the best at what he does, driving a big rig truck across the country with a “no questions asked” policy about the goods he transports. When he takes his tenacious teenage daughter along for a job, they are tracked and attacked by a relentless group of criminals that will stop at nothing to secure the consignment he has been entrusted to deliver. Pursued by merciless killers and with the police hot on their trail, Mac and his daughter must work together to prevent the cargo falling into dangerous hands and survive to live another day.” [Deadline]