Luc Besson made his name by creating a bunch of high concept thrillers that quite often produce huge results, and films that gain massive cult followings, for relatively little money; films such as La Femme Nikita, Leon, The Fifth Element, and Taken are amongst his best; and news has recently begun to break about his next project; a sci-fi thriller titled Lock Out.
Set in the near-future, Lock Out will follow a man who gets falsely convicted of espionage against the United States, and if offered his freedom if he agrees to rescue the President’s daughter; who somehow manages to find herself held hostage in a state-of-the-art, outer-space, prison that’s been overrun by the violent offenders that call it home.
Guy Pearce (Memento) is attached to play the lead, and will be attempting to rescue Maggie Grace (who’s being reunited with Besson, after the pair worked together on Taken; another film in which she got kidnapped, and one which reads a lot like Lock Out, only set in Paris instead of space) from her violent captors.
Maggie Grace is also due to team up with Luc again; for a sequel to the very successful Taken, that will once again place Liam Neeson (Chloe) in one of his hardest hitting roles as a former CIA operative with a grudge; and can be see on screen later this year in the action/thriller Faster.
Peter Stormare (the man who played the Russian in Armageddon, and Abruzzi in Prison Break) and Tom Hollander (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End) will also be joining the cast of Lock Out; which is due to be directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger (the pair behind Prey Alone), and begins filming next month.
Lock Out is being produced by Besson’s Europacorp, and currently has Sony is talks to release the film (which like most movies nowadays, is going to be getting the 3D treatment) once shooting has wrapped, and has a release set for sometime next year.
