After playing nicely with Kevin James for Amazon’s buddy action comedy Playdate, Alan Ritchson (Reacher, Fast X, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) is returning to Queensland, Australia, for the anticipated production start of an untitled project at Amazon MGM Studios about decorated Navy SEAL hero Mike Thornton. The project finds Ritchson teaming with Sylvester Stallone, who’s producing the film alongside D. Matt Geller via Balboa Productions.
Who are the creative forces behind Ritchson’s new project?
Principal photography on the project is set to begin this month at Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast. Ritchson is familiar with the area, having filmed the action thriller Runner, which Scott Waugh shot in Brisbane and the Gold Coast last year. Filmmaker Patrick Hughes (The Hitman’s Bodyguard, The Man from Toronto, The Expendables 3) is helming the untitled project, which Variety says “chronicles Thornton’s real-life survival story in the South China Sea that earned him a Congressional Medal of Honor.” In addition to Alan Ritchson, the Hughes-helmed project stars Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders, Black Mirror, A Prayer Before Dawn) and Hoa Xuande (The Sympathizer, A Stitch in Time, Cowboy Bebop).
Joining Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa Productions as part of the production effort are Hidden Pictures’ Todd Lieberman and Alex Young, Ritchson’s AllyCat Entertainment, and Alan Rautbort. Executive producers are Valerie Bleth Sharp and Mike Thornton. When Hughes gets behind the camera, he’ll direct from a screenplay by Mark Semos (SEAL Team, Y: Marshals), Ritchson, and Jason Hall (American Sniper).
“This latest project for Amazon MGM Studios will create employment for around 260 local cast and crew while injecting an estimated AUD50 million ($33.5 million) into the Queensland economy and supporting numerous small businesses,” said Acting Minister for the Arts Tim Nicholls.
“Queensland crews have an internationally renowned reputation for delivering complex action films and series and it’s fantastic to start the new year with such an ambitious production coming into Village Roadshow Studios,” Screen Queensland CEO Jacqui Feeney said.
Ritchson and Hughes recently completed work on War Machine
Alan Ritchson and Patrick Hughes recently joined forces for War Machine, an action sci-fi thriller that follows the final recruits of a grueling special ops boot camp as they encounter a deadly force from beyond this world. Joshua Diaz, Dennis Quiad, Jai Courtney, and Esai Morales also star. That movie starts streaming on Netflix on March 6.
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