From Variety: “Brad Pitt is set to star in action-thriller “Bullet Train” for Sony Pictures, sources tell Variety.
David Leitch will direct and will supervise the script, which will be written by Zak Olkewicz. Since directing the “Fast & Furious” spinoff “Hobbs & Shaw,” Leitch had been taking his time in picking his next film, and only recently committed to this pic.
The film is based on the Japanese novel “Maria Beetle” by best-selling author Kotaro Isaka. Ryosuke Saegusa and Yuma Terada of CTB Inc., who represent Isaka and the IP, are executive producers on the project.
Harvill Secker has separately announced that it will publish the novel “Bullet Train” in English next year.
Leitch and Kelly McCormick will produce “Bullet Train” through their company 87North, along with Antoine Fuqua and Kat Samick. Brittany Morrissey is the executive overseeing the project for Sony Pictures.
Sony recently announced that the studio is developing “One Punch Man,” also based on a popular Japanese manga, that they hope has franchise potential.
With studios still figuring out production schedules, no start date is set in stone.
Since winning his first acting Oscar for Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” for playing stuntman Cliff Booth, Pitt has been taking his time in weighing his options. With the Paramount and Damien Chazelle movie “Babylon,” in which Pitt will co-star with Emma Stone, moving production to 2021, Pitt saw an opening to a project into his schedule before then, eventually zeroing in on “Bullet Train.”
Pitt was also recently seen in the James Gray sci-fi drama “Ad Astra.” He is repped by CAA.”