After frequently popping up in blockbusters and critical darlings in the 2010s, Chris Pine has slowed down his workload following his scene-stealing role in the Wonder Woman films. The Wonder Woman 1984 actor has only appeared in a handful of feature films since 2019, instead appearing to pick and choose his roles with more discretion, executive producing and starring in the Patty Jenkins-directed limited series I Am the Night, for example.
So it feels like it’s about time for Pine to show his handsome mug again and re-establish the dramatic acting chops that he gave us a glimpse of in Hell or High Water. And what better way to do that than with a reunion with his Hell or High Water co-star Ben Foster, in a thriller directed by Tarik Saleh (The Nile Hilton Incident) which had been put up at the Virtual Cannes Market late last year? Pine and Foster will co-star in the thriller Violence of Action, which has now landed at STXfilms.
STXfilms has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to Violence of Action, the STX Global Corp. announced Thursday. The Chris Pine-starring thriller will be directed by Tarik Saleh (Westworld, Ray Donovan) from a script by JP Davis, and will also star Foster, Gillian Jacobs, Eddie Marsan, Fares Fares, Nina Hoss, and Amira Casar. The acquisition announcement doesn’t come as much of a surprise, as STXinternational had recently acquired international rights to the film for distribution in the U.K. and Ireland.
Violence of Action stars Pine as “James Harper who, after being involuntarily discharged from the Green Berets, joins a paramilitary organization in order to support his family in the only way he knows how. Harper travels to Berlin with his elite team on a black ops mission to investigate a mysterious threat. Barely into his first assignment, he finds himself alone and hunted across Europe, where he must fight to stay alive long enough to get home and uncover the true motives of those who betrayed him.”
It sounds like a promising Bourne-style thriller that will play well to Pine’s leading-man charisma, and hopefully give him a vehicle worthy of his talents. Though he’s shined in the Wonder Woman films and given us some pleasantly surprising supporting turns in films like Into the Woods and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, it feels like Pine is on the cusp of being recognized as the versatile actor that he showed he was in Hell or High Water.
STXfilms chair Adam Fogelson’s praise for the film, which is currently in post-production, at least seems to point to my hopes coming true: “We’re incredibly impressed by what we’ve seen so far of Violence of Action. Chris gives the kind of unforgettable performance that will resonate with audiences everywhere.”
Violence of Action is produced by Thunder Road Films’ Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee (John Wick franchise, Greenland, Sicario), with 30WEST fully financing the film. 30WEST’s Dan Friedkin, Micah Green, and Dan Steinman are executive producing along with Pine, Jonathan Fuhrman, Tom Lassally, Josh Bratman, and Thunder Road’s Esther Hornstein.
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