South Korean filmmaker Jung Byung-gil will make his Hollywood directing debut through a new Gerard Butler-led project, “Afterburn,” according to Deadline.
Jung’s “The Villainess,” a bloody, revenge-fueled action thriller about a deadly female assassin who seeks freedom, premiered last year at Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim and successfully introduced the director to an international audience.
“Afterburn” is the story of a treasure hunter in a futuristic Europe. The hunter, played by Butler, is paired with “a strong-willed weapons expert with her own agenda” on his way to retrieve the Mona Lisa from France following a technological disaster. Original Film, G-BASE and Endurance Media are producing.
Jung follows an elite handful of South Korean directors — among them Bong Joon-ho (“Snowpiercer”), Park Chan-wook (“Stoker”) and Kim Jee-woon (“The Last Stand”) — to venture into directing a Hollywood project.
The film, scripted by Matt Johnson (“Into the Blue”), is expected to begin production in late summer.
