Dundalk-born John Moore has been attached to direct ‘The Hunters’. The Irish director’s previous credits include action movies ‘A Good Day to Die Hard’, ‘Behind Enemy Lines’ and ‘Max Payne’. ‘The Hunters’ will be based on New York Times bestselling American author Chris Kuzneski’s 2013 novel of the same name.
The novel is the first of a series based on the Hunters, an elite team which includes a soldier, a historian, a computer genius, a thief and a weapons expert, who are financed by a billionaire philanthropist and given the task of finding legendary treasures. ‘The Hunters’ sees the group attempt to find a haul of gold, paintings, jewellery and ancient artefacts of the Romanian state, which were lost when being transported to the Kremlin during World War I.
The screenplay will be adapted by Robert Mark Kamen, who previously scripted the ‘Taken’ and ‘Transporter’ series of films. It will be the first film to come out of Tempo which is producer Piers Tempest’s (‘Grabbers’, ‘Killing Bono’) new UK venture with Jo Bamford. Mark Huffa, (‘Exodis: Gods and Kings’) and Chris Clark (‘Calvary’) will also produce.
Paradigm will handle US rights while Alex Walton and Ken Kao’s new sale production and finance firm Bloom will take care of international sales on ‘The Hunters’ at Cannes.
Walton, who launched Bloom on Tuesday with Gus Van Sant’s ‘Sea of Trees’, stated that ‘The Hunters’ is “the perfect addition to our growing portfolio – a dynamic European-based thriller that will excite audiences around the globe. We are thrilled to be working with Tempo and with a director that is proven to deliver heart-pounding action.”
Director Moore expressed excitement about directing the new thriller, and said that the script reminded him “of the kind of great action movies I grew up on like ‘Lethal Weapon’, great characters and smart dialogue.”
