Lionsgate Acquires Gerard Butler Vehicle ‘The Plane’

AFM once again has landed a deal on an upcoming film this week as Lionsgate has officially secured the domestic and select international rights to an upcoming Gerard Butler vehicle The Plane, according to Deadline. Butler will commandeer this action-thriller film as a commercial pilot named Ray Torrance who, following his heroics of cleanly landing a weather-damaged plane through an active war zone, is caught in an ugly crossfire involving a plethora of militias interested in hijacking the aircraft and taking its body of passengers hostage.

Lionsgate has acquired the select rights to Latin America, North America, India, and the U.K., with others pending negotiations according to the distributor. CAA Media Finance was primarily responsible for brokering the deal for the film’s domestic rights while MadRiver International managed the international deal. Based on a script compiled by Charles Cumming and JP Davis of Violence of Action fame, The Plane derives from its source material novel written by Cumming. The film is projected to enter production around spring 2020.

Lionsgate’s deal sees the reunion of Butler and the studio after collaborating on the third installment of the Fallen series Angel Has Fallen earlier this year. The third film grossed approximately $69 million in the U.S.