'Taken' Director to Helm 'The Hitman's Bodyguard' for Skydance (Exclusive)

Pierre Morel is in negotiations to direct The Hitman’s Bodyguard, an action movie being produced by David Ellison's Skydance Productions.

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Bodyguard is not set up at Paramount, though Skydance is a major co-finanacier of the studio's big tentpoles and many of the projects it develops and finances are expected go through the studio.

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Written by Tom O’Connor (Fire With Fire), the two-hander script follows a protection agent who is forced to escort to the Hague a hitman awaiting his chance to testify against a war criminal and ex-head of state of an Eastern European country.

While District B13 was the Frenchman’s first movie as a director, Morel really gained attention for the 2009 hit Taken, starring Liam Neeson. His follow-up was the action movie From Paris With Love.

Morel previously was attached to direct Bastille Day for Vendome Pictures and Anonymous Content but has moved on.

He is repped by CAA, Sentient Entertainment, and Hansen Jacobson.