Modern Family star Sofia Vergara is in negotiations to topline opposite Jason Statham in Heat, the remake of a 1986 Burt Reynolds action pic, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Simon West is directing the project, which is being produced by SJ Pictures, Quad Productions and Current Entertainment.

The story centers on a recovering gambler-turned-hired bodyguard (Statham) working in Vegas who decides to help a friend (Vergara) after she is attacked by the mob but gets in over his head as he seeks revenge.

Both the 1986 movie and this new Heat are adaptations of the novel by William Goldman, who also wrote the script for both.

Vergara has been thrice nominated for Emmy and Golden Globe awards for her Modern Family work. Movie-wise she will appear in The Smurfs 2 as well as Robert Rodriguez's sequel Machete Kills.

Vergara is repped by CAA, Untitled, Hansen Jacobson.