Hayley Atwell Joins Gerard Butler in High-Stakes Action Thriller EMPIRE CITY
Hayley Atwell is teaming up with Gerard Butler for an intense new action-thriller titled Empire City, and it sounds like a wild ride. The film is set to kick off production this month, with Michael Matthews, best known for Love & Monsters, stepping in to direct from a script by Brian Tucker and S. Craig Zahler.
In Empire City, a hostage situation breaks out inside one of New York’s most iconic skyscrapers, the Clybourn Building. Butler stars as Rhett, a firefighter who finds himself in the middle of the crisis, while Atwell plays his wife Dani, an NYPD officer. Together, they’ll have to fight their way through the chaos to rescue the captives trapped inside.
The project marks another collaboration between Butler and his longtime producing partner Alan Siegel through their G-BASE banner, reuniting with fellow Plane producer Marc Butan from MadRiver Pictures. Paul Currie is also producing, while Quirin Berg and Alexander Janssen from Leonine Studios are on board as executive producers.
Butler continues to keep busy with major projects. He recently returned as Stoick in the live-action How to Train Your Dragon from Universal Pictures and scored box office success earlier this year with Den of Thieves 2: Pantera.
Atwell, meanwhile, is coming off her role opposite Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and its upcoming sequel. Of course, fans around the world also know her as Peggy Carter from the MCU films and the Marvel’s Agent Carter series.
Director Michael Matthews, who delivered the charming and adventurous Love & Monsters, recently helmed AMC+ series Nautilus. His knack for thrilling, character-driven storytelling makes him a perfect fit for a high-tension hostage thriller like Empire City.
Source: Deadline