EXCLUSIVE: Screen Gems has set Eric Bana, Edgar Ramirez and Olivia Munn to star in Beware The Night, a film that re-teams Clint Culpepper’s Sony-based company with The Exorcism Of Emily Rose tandem of Scott Derrickson and Paul Boardman. The film is a paranormal thriller that will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Films. Derrickson will direct a script he and Boardman wrote and shooting will begin May 20 in the Bronx.
The film reunites Bana with Bruckheimer; they previously worked together on Black Hawk Down, one of the films that sprung Bana’s movie career. Here, Bana plays an Irish Catholic cop working a case when he meets a renegade priest. Despite the cop’s beliefs, he’s convinced by the priest that there is a demonic element and together they work to solve the case and combat the paranormal forces working against them. Ramirez plays the priest. Munn plays the cop’s wife, who also has a tie to the case. Screen Gems is hoping this will blossom into a franchise. Chad Oman and Mike Stenson will be exec producers.
“Beware The Night is a project we’ve been developing for many years, confident that a story which combines the paranormal with a gritty New York City police story is both original and strongly appealing to audiences,” Bruckheimer said. “We’re excited to work with Culpepper and his team at Screen Gems, and director Scott Derrickson, who has emerged as a uniquely talented filmmaker with the ability to both entertain and terrify audiences in equal measure. We’re also thrilled to have Eric Bana, Edgar Ramirez, and Olivia Munn, three really fine actors whose strongly defined roles in Beware The Night will allow them to give full range to their skills.”
For his part, Culpepper was relieved the film finally came together–he became aware of it when it was languishing at Disney because of his relationship with Derrickson from the 2005 Exorcism Of Emily Rose–because he always wanted to make a movie with Bruckheimer, “and people have gotten tired of hearing me say, over and over again, I have a film with Jerry Bruckheimer, I have a film with Jerry Bruckheimer.”
Bana will next be seen starring in the thriller Closed Circuit. Ramirez is coming off Zero Dark Thirty and he just agreed to play boxing legend Roberto Duran in Hands Of Stone, with Robert De Niro playing his longtime trainer Ray Arcel. Munn is shooting the second season of HBO’s The Newsroom and was most recently seen in Magic Mike. Derrickson is coming off psychological suspense thriller Sinister, and Bruckheimer next delivers the Disney tent pole The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp on July 3.
Bana is represented by WME and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern; Ramirez CAA and Impression Entertainment, and Munn by CAA and Mosaic.
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