David Leitch, the mayhem maestro behind Deadpool 2 and Hobbs & Shaw, has signed on to direct Bullet Train for Sony Pictures.
Leitch will also produce the thriller with his 87North production partner Kelly McCormick. Antoine Fuqua, who was attached to direct, and Kat Samick are also producing.
Bullet Train centers on a group of hitmen and assassins with conflicting motives on a train in Tokyo. The project has been tonally described as Speed, the Keanu Reeves action film set on a bus, meets Non-Stop, the 2014 Liam Neeson thriller set on a plane.
The script is being written by Zak Olkewicz (Fear Street) and Leitch is overseeing revisions.
The studio is hoping to shoot this fall. The film is a contained thriller, which means it can be shot on a contained set and fall in line easier under health restrictions than a more sprawling action movie with actual locations.
Brittany Morrissey is overseeing for Sony.
Leitch is the stunt coordinator-turned-filmmaker who, with his partner Chad Stahelski, made a killing with John Wick. While Stahelski stayed to run that franchise, Leitch branched off to helm Charlize Theron in the bone-crunching Atomic Blonde, then took on franchises Deadpool 2, which grossed $785 million worldwide, and last year’s Fast & Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw, which made $759 million.
He is repped by WME and Gang Tyre. Olkewicz is repped 3 Arts Management and Felker Toczek.
