Liam Neeson To Star In Studiocanal’s ‘Retribution’

EXCLUSIVE: Liam Neeson will next star in Retribution, a remake of the Spanish thriller El Desconocido. Studiocanal is backing the film for a fall shoot in a co-production with The Picture Company and Ombra Films. Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman will produce under The Picture Company’s overall StudioCanal deal, with Jaume Collet-Sera and his Ombra Films partner, Juan Sola. Vaca Films, which made the original film, will be executive producers along with Atresmedia Cine.

This marks Neeson’s fourth collaboration with the producers and Studiocanal after the international hits Unknown, Non-Stop and The Commuter. All three were directed by Collet-Serra, who won’t get behind the camera on this one. The Commuter is in post and Lionsgate will release it January 12.

Scripted by Chris Salmanpour and Andrew Baldwin, Retribution follows a successful Wall Street executive who discovers on his way to work that a bomb has been planted in his car by an unknown assailant. He is forced to follow a series of orders throughout the day or else the bomb will be detonated. The situation is more dire because the man’s family is in the car with him. The original was compared to Speed and got eight Goya Awards nominations when he was released in Spain in 2015. Didier Lupfer, Ron Halpern and Shana Eddy will oversee for Studiocanal.

CAA-repped Neeson just wrapped Hard Powder for Studiocanal and stars as Mark “Deep Throat” Felt the Peter Landesman-directed Felt, a film that is in post-production.

Here is the trailer for the original film El Desconocido: