Highland Film Group has announced that Frank Grillo (Captain America, the Purge franchises, Kingdom and Point Blank) and Academy Award Winner Morgan Freeman (Angel Has Fallen, Million Dollar Baby, Shawshank Redemption, Invictus) have signed on to star in Daniel Adams’ (The Lightkeepers, The Golden Boys) Panama. The action film was penned by Adams and William R. Barber and will be produced by Michelle Chydzik Sowa and Michelle Reihel, with Barber also serving as executive producer. Highland Film Group will handle worldwide sales, which will launch at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival.
Inspired by true events. In wild 1989 Panama, James Becker (Grillo), a rugged, decorated ex-marine, is sent undercover by his former commander Stark (Freeman) to execute a high-value deal with untrustworthy adversaries. While navigating through the chaos of the local civil war, Becker must fight assassins, court femmes fatales and negotiate with the enemy in order to complete his mission. With Stark always by his side, Becker perseveres against all odds in hopes of making it home alive. Principal photography is set to commence in November.
Grillo is an acclaimed actor who has brought his brand of naturalism, relatability and depth of character to an incredible body of work that spans decades. Highlights include the Captain America and Purgefranchises, the television show “Kingdom,” the documentary Fight World, Wolf Warrior 2, the Grey, Warrior and Zero Dark Thirty. Fresh off the success of the brawl-thriller Donnybrooke with Jamie Bell and Margaret Qualley that opened the Toronto Film Festival and debuted on IFC in February, Frank also scored an impressive hit with the Netflix action/thriller Point Blank opposite Anthony Mackie that drew massive numbers for the streaming giant in the first 48 hours of its launch. Up next is Screen Gems’ Black and Blue with Naomie Harris opening October 25th, the Lionsgate sequel The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard alongside Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Salma Hayek, Antonio Banderas and Morgan Freeman, Jason Blum’s The Night 3 Opened with Watts and Bobby Cannavale for Universal and the anticipated Boss Level, an action sci-fi thriller starring Grillo, Mel Gibson and Naomi Watts, directed by Joe Carnahan and produced by Grillo and Carnahan’s esteemed production company WARPARTY.
Freeman won an Academy Award for his performance in Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby, and is known for countless other roles including Invictus, Shawshank Redemption, Driving Miss Daisy, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Now You See Me, Lucy, The Lego Movie, Oblivion, The Dark Knight Rises, and many more. He stars in the third installment of the Olympus Has Fallen trilogy, Angel Has Fallen, which is currently in theatres. Other major awards received by Freeman include the AFI Lifetime Achievement, the Kennedy Center Honor, SAG Lifetime Achievement, SAG Actor Award (Million Dollar Baby), NAACP Image Award (Million Dollar Baby) and the Cecil B. De Mille Golden Globe Award.
Adams is a writer/director best known for his work on the Richard Dreyfuss, Bruce Dern, Mamie Gummer and Blythe Danner starrer The Lightkeepers; The Golden Boys starring Bruce Dern and David Carradine, and most recently Gabriel Byrne and Kiersey Clemons’ An L.A. Minute.
