Following an extended period on the sidelines due to an injury suffered on the set of The Maze Runner: The Death Cure – incidentally, production on that one has been penciled in to resume come February – Dylan O’Brien is looking to get back in on the action.
The 25-year-old looks set to kick things off with a bang, too, assuming the part of counterterrorism operative Mitch Rapp for Michael Cuesta’s American Assassin. An adaptation of Vince Flynn’s expansive novel series, it chronicles Rapp’s rise to prominence as a CIA black ops newbie, working under the astute eye of a Cold War veteran (Michael Keaton) and CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan).
Taylor Kitsch recently inked a deal to join Cuesta’s thriller as the antagonist, one described as a mysterious operative out to jump-start a full-blown conflict in the Middle East on the scale of a new world war. It’s up to Dylan O’Brien, then, to scupper those plans before they take hold. He’ll be partnering with a decorated Turkish operative (Shiva Negar) to do so. Stephen Schiff is on board to adapt the screenplay with Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Nick Wechsler producing.
Filming is already underway in Europe, however CBS Films and Lionsgate have yet to set an official release date. Regardless, with such a vast archive of material at their disposal, should American Assassin play well with audiences, all involved could be staring down the mouth of a brand new action franchise.
AMERICAN ASSASSIN follows the rise of Mitch Rapp (Dylan O’Brien) a CIA black ops recruit under the instruction of Cold War veteran Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton). The pair is then enlisted by CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) to investigate a wave of apparently random attacks on both military and civilian targets. Together the three discover a pattern in the violence leading them to a joint mission with a lethal Turkish agent (Shiva Negar) to stop a mysterious operative (Taylor Kitsch) intent on starting a World War in the Middle East.