Freelance trailer: John Cena stars in action comedy from the director of Taken

A couple years ago, we heard that John Cena would be teaming up with Taken director Pierre Morel for an action comedy called Freelance. That project has since made its way through production, and now it’s ready to reach theatres on October 6th. To start building the hype for the release, a trailer for the film has arrived online and can be seen in the embed above.

Freelance is the first produced feature screenplay for writer Jacob Lentz, who previously earned writing credits on over 1000 episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. The story Lentz crafted for this film has the following synopsis: Ex-special forces operative Mason Pettis (Cena) is stuck in a dead-end desk job when he reluctantly takes on a freelance gig to provide private security for washed-up journalist Claire Wellington as she interviews the ruthless—but impeccably dressed—dictator, Juan Venegas. When a military coup breaks out just as she’s about to get the scoop of a lifetime, the unlikely trio must figure out how to survive the jungle AND each other in order to make it out alive! 

Cena is joined in the cast by Alison Brie as Claire Wellington and Juan Pablo Raba as Juan Venegas. Christian Slater is in there as well.

Coming our way from Relativity Media, Freelance was produced by Steven Richards, Renee Tab, Chris Tuffin, and Chris Milburn.

When we first heard about this movie, it was reported to have a budget of $40 million. It looks like it’s going to deliver some fun action, and it’s kind of nice to see an action movie with a lower budget (compared to several of the other action movies we’ve seen released this year) getting some theatrical play rather than going straight to a streamer. I’m not so enthusiastic about the specific release date, because October is a “horror only” month as far as I’m concerned, but that’s just my viewing taste.

What did you think of the Freelance trailer? Does this look like a movie you’d like to catch on the big screen? Let us know by leaving a comment below.