Protector: Milla Jovovich to star in Adrian Grunberg action thriller

Resident Evil star Milla Jovovich may have moved on from that franchise, but she stays busy. We’ll soon be seeing her face off with Dave Bautista in her husband Paul W.S. Anderson’s fantasy film In the Lost Lands (a George R. R. Martin adaptation), we recently heard she’ll be working with Rosario Dawson and Alexandra Shipp on the action thriller Midnight, she’s gearing up to work with director Brad Anderson on both the sci-fi film World Breaker and the zombie movie Twilight of the Dead (based on an idea by the late, great George A. Romero), and now The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that she’s set to star in the Taken-esque action thriller Protector.

Adrian Grunberg, whose credits include Rambo: Last Blood, Get the Gringo, and The Black Demon, will be directing Protector from a screenplay by Bong-Seeb Mun. Filming is expected to take place in New Mexico this winter.

Jovovich will be taking on the role of Nikki, a former war hero who believed she had left her violent past behind to raise her daughter, Chloe, in peace. When she wakes up in an abandoned factory and learns that Chloe has been kidnapped, Nikki has navigate the city’s criminal underworld, pursued by both the cops and the military, to get her daughter back. The names of the other cast members have not yet been announced.

Bong-Seeb Mun is producing Protector alongside Kenneth Kim and Bang-Ok Joo for Aanaxion Studio. Arianne Fraser and Delphine Perrier of Highland Film Group are also producers on the film, and so is martial artist and stunt coordinator Ho-Sung Pak. Highland Film Group is co-financing the project and will handle worldwide rights. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Protector is one of a slew of action projects heading to the American Film Market this week, “as producers double down on a return to shoot-’em-up thrillers.” And a return to shoot-’em-up thrillers sounds like a great thing to me.

Are you a Milla Jovovich fan, and are you glad to hear that she’ll be working with director Adrian Grunberg on the action thriller Protector? Share your thoughts on this project by leaving a comment below.