John Boyega, Felicity Jones, Jack Reynor, and Queen & Slim breakout star Jodie-Turner Smith will star in an indie thriller titled Borderland.
Tom and Charlie Guard – aka the Guard brothers – will direct from a script they co-wrote with Ronan Bennett (Public Enemies), based on Steven S. Moysey‘s novel The Road To Balcombe Street.
Jones will also executive produce under her Piecrust Productions banner. She is also married to Charlie Guard, which may explain her involvement and potentially smaller-than-usual role in the film.
Reynor will play an Irish paramilitary soldier whose pregnant wife is killed by an SAS sergeant when a border ambush goes wrong. He makes it his personal mission to hunt down the sergeant and avenge his wife’s death.
“Borderland is a vengeance-fuelled chase movie, fusing some pulse-ticking action with a powerful message for our times. We’re thrilled that the script, driven as much by character as it is by plot, has attracted such a first-rate cast”, said the Guard brothers in a statement.
Hopefully the final film is a lot more inspiring than that synopsis, which sounds exactly the same as every other revenge action thriller. You’d hope for a lot more from the writer of Michael Mann‘s Public Enemies, which riffs on fame and legacy in interesting ways.
However the Guard brothers haven’t made a film since the 2009 horror The Uninvited. That film hardly stuck in the memory and it’s a wonder why, this long after the fact, they’re getting another chance to direct a project anyway. So it’s hard to expect a lot from Borderland, but hopefully it’s excellent cast can help surprise us.
Reynor recently starred in Ari Aster‘s Midsommar and will soon be seen alongside Tom Holland in the Russo brothers’ crime movie, Cherry. Boyega has his own crime movie, Naked Singularity, in post-production, and he has also wrapped a new project from director Steve McQueen.
Jones will next be seen starring alongside George Clooney in the Netflix drama The Midnight Sky, while she’s also wrapped Last Letter From Your Lover. Turner-Smith will soon be seen starring alongside Michael B. Jordan in Without Remorse and opposite Colin Farrell in the A24 sci-fi drama After Yang.
#Peace.Love.Borderland
