It’s hammer time for Idris Elba. The actor is set to star in and produce Hammer Down, an action feature that marks the directorial debut of Simon Hatt, who previously produced projects for Marvel Studios and DC.
Veteran producer Charles Roven, who won his first Oscar earlier this year for best picture winner Oppenheimer, is producing Hammer Down via his Atlas Entertainment along with the company’s Madison Weireter. Elba is also producing with Gina Carter (See How They Run) via their 22 Summers banner. Black Bear will offer the title at next week’s American Film Market.
Hatt previously shot a Hammer Down short film starring This Is Us actor Chris Sullivan as a widowed truck driver who goes by the handle Hammer Down. The Affair actress Abigail Dylan Harrison starred as Hammer Down’s young daughter, who tagged along as he attempted to deliver a mysterious package. The project was personal for Hatt, who grew up in the U.K. with a truck driver father.
The story is now expanded as a feature with the following logline:
Mac (Elba) is the best at what he does, driving a big rig truck across the country with a “no questions asked” policy about the goods he transports. When he takes his tenacious teenage daughter along for a job, they are tracked and attacked by a relentless group of criminals that will stop at nothing to secure the consignment he has been entrusted to deliver. Pursued by both criminals and the police, Mac and his daughter must work together to prevent the cargo falling into dangerous hands and survive to live another day.
The movie marks a reunion for Elba, Roven and Hatt, who previously worked together on James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. Hatt came up as an assistant for directors such as Matthew Vaughn and Gunn, learning the filmmaking trade from some of the most stylish and singular voices in the business. He spent the past decade on Gunn projects, including the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, Brightburn and Peacemaker. He worked his way up from assistant on the first Guardians to executive producer on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, before departing the superhero genre to strike out on his own.
Elba is coming off of an Emmy nomination for the Apple series Hijack, which has a second season in the works, and has a voice role in the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and is working on Kathryn Bigelow’s next film.
Roven, who produced The Dark Knight trilogy, has the Rebecca Ferguson and Chis Pratt starrer Mercy from Amazon MGM Studios next year.
