Antoine Fuqua hasn’t had much luck lately with his films. His last, Brooklyn’s Finest, didn’t exactly light up the box office or strike the critical acclaim vein, and his movie prior to that was a big piece of horrible (Shooter with Wahlberg).
So now he’s looking at attaching himself to the upcoming comic book adaptation Afterburn, based on a Red 5 title not many have ever heard of, but has an interesting story perfect for a big budget presentation: the Earth has been hit by a massive Solar flare which renders half of the planet uninhabitable due to radiation levels. A group of treasure hunters venture into the afflicted zone to retrieve objects of value, some famous like the Crown Jewels, and discover mutated animal and human life lurking about.
The project has been around since at least 2008, when Empire ran a piece declaring Tobey Maguire’s commitment to the film. Obviously that didn’t come about and now we have Deadline reporting that not only is Fuqua interested but so is Gerard Butler. Butler has recently been on tour in mediocre movies like Gamer and Law Abiding Citizen, and is looking for something bigger to teleport him back onto the Action Movie Star A-list after seeing him expelled from that category thanks to a slew of bland, post-300 romantic comedies.
This is still a ways away from being anything real, but the premise isn’t too bad for a mid-summer popcorn blast. They’re bringing in Christian Gudegast (A Man Apart) to rewrite the old script, so once that’s done the dominoes should start falling.