Brooke Bunny
John Moore has been let out of director jail. Way too early, in my opinion.
The “Good Day to Die Hard” helmer has been chosen to direct “The Englishman”, a Foresight Unlimited/Envision Entertainment collaboration that’s said to be based on Will Scully’s book “Once Upon a Pilgrim”. William Wisher (“Terminator 2″) wrote the screenplay.
Set to shoot in South Africa early next year, ”The Englishman” is a true story based on the book “Once a Pilgrim” by Will Scully. It unfolds in real time as Scully, an ex-SAS officer turned mercenary, gets caught up in a military coup in Africa. Trapped in a hotel together with thousands of innocent civilians and completely surrounded by hostile rebels, he single-handedly takes on the enemy until he can get all the civilians safely evacuated.
”The Englishman” represents the fifth collaboration between Foresight and the Envision partners, Stepan Martirosyan, Vitaly Grigoriants, and Remington Chase. In addition to the upcoming ”Lone Survivor”’, directed by Peter Berg, and also starring Mark Wahlberg, and set to release in December this year by Universal, they are preparing the upcoming ”Spinning Gold”, starring Justin Timberlake, which is set to go early next year. The two companies have also just completed production on Castle Rock’s, ”And So It Goes,” helmed by Rob Reiner, and starring Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton.
“We are delighted to be teaming up with Derby Street Films to bring this amazing true story based on Will Scully’s book to a worldwide movie audience,” commented both Damon and Martirosyan.
“‘The Englishman’ is one of those rare stories, the details and circumstance of which are so bizarre and mesmerizing, it created a compulsion in us to tell it,” said Moore. “Bill Wisher and I are delighted to be in business with Derby Street and Foresight on this film: they see what we see, they want the movie to be all it can be.”
“Will Scully’s story is extraordinary and it’s very exciting to have John Moore on board as director,” said Horlick. “This is exactly the type of commercial movie that Derby Street Films plans to keep developing for the big screen.”
