It was two weeks ago when it was revealed that David Leitch, the action-master behind JOHN WICK, DEADPOOL 2, ATOMIC BLONDE, and HOBBS & SHAW, had signed on to helm BULLET TRAIN for Sony Pictures. The high-speed action-thriller will follow "five assassins who find themselves on a fast-moving bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka with only a few stops in between. Strangely, they discover their missions are not unrelated to each other." The film, which is based on the popular manga Maria Beetle by Kotaro Isaka, is said to be in the vein of Keanu Reeves' SPEED and Liam Neeson's NON-STOP.
BULLET TRAIN has now landed a major star as it's been announced that Brad Pitt (ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD) has signed on to star in the film. There's not a lot of information about Pitt's character at this time, but THR's Justin Kroll has heard that the actor will play an "American hitman named Ladybug." If you'll recall, Pitt had a brief, yet very memorable, role in DEADPOOL 2, so it will be interesting to see Leitch direct the actor in a starring role. In addition to directing, Leitch is slated to supervise the script which is being penned by Zak Olkewicz (FEAR STREET). It was previously reported that as the film is a contained thriller, it would be easier to adhere to the new COVID-19 health restrictions and production should be able to get underway this fall.
David Leitch has several projects in the works in addition to BULLET TRAIN, including a feature-film adaptation of the classic 70s TV series Kung Fu. Along with his JOHN WICK co-director, Leitch is also involved with THE MATRIX 4 assisting Lana Wachowski with a few of the stunt sequences. As for Brad Pitt, the actor was recently seen in AD ASTRA and ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, with Pitt even scoring an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the latter film.