Sixteen years after working together on Wanted, director Timur Bekmambetov and actor Chris Pratt are re-teaming for a sci-fi thriller called Mercy, which just started filming this week – and Bekmambetov has celebrated the start of filming by sharing a picture from the set! You can check it out right here:
This image reveals that the film is taking advantage of the virtual production method known as The Volume, which uses LED panels as backdrops.
Sporting a screenplay written by Marco Van Belle (Arthur & Merlin), Mercy will be telling a story that is “set in the near future when capital crime has increased” and follows “a detective (Pratt] who is accused of a violent crime and forced to prove his innocence.”
Pratt is joined in the cast by Rebecca Ferguson (Dune), Annabelle Wallis (Malignant), and World Boxing Council middleweight champ Kali Reis, who recently shared the screen with Jodie Foster in the HBO series True Detective: Night Country. We know who Pratt is playing in the movie, but no details have been revealed about the characters Ferguson, Wallis, and Reis will be playing.
In addition to directing Wanted (which starred Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy, but featured Pratt as an office worker who takes a keyboard to the face in what may be the most memorable moment of the film), Bekmambetov has made Night Watch, Day Watch, Profile, Ben-Hur, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, V2. Escape from Hell, The Irony of Fate 2, Yolki 1914, Yolki 5, Escape from Afghanistan, The Arena, Nochnoy bazar, and Peshawar Waltz... and that list makes me realize that I haven’t seen most of the movies he has been involved with. He has also produced such films as 9, Apollo 18, Unfriended and its sequel, Hardcore Henry, The Snow Queen and its follow-ups, Searching, Missing, other entries in the Yolki franchise, and many more. A sequel to Wanted was in development for years, but never made it into production.
Are you interested in Mercy, and are you glad to know that it has started filming? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.