As studios strive to make 2021 one of Hollywood's biggest years ever word has reached the bullpen that Lionsgate has acquired the crime thriller Silk Road, starring Jason Clarke and Nick Robinson. Joining the aforementioned actors for the upcoming film directed and written by Tiller Russell are Alexandra Shipp, Jimmi Simpson, Katie Aselton, Lexi Rabe, Daniel Stewart, Darrell Britt-Gibson, and Paul Walter Hauser.
Based on true events, Silk Road focuses on the young, affluent, and highly motivated entrepreneur Ross Ulbricht (Robinson), whose ambitious goal is to launch the Internet’s first completely anonymous and unregulated marketplace. With Ulbricht’s passion for the possibilities his invention offers the world, his site – the Silk Road – becomes the world’s fastest-growing drug market, catching the focus of disgraced DEA agent Rick Bowden (Clarke). A dinosaur with a habit of substance abuse and blowing cases, Bowden once had street-savvy in dark corners but is unprepared for the dark web as he struggles through tutorials on how to use the Internet. As both men’s private lives erode, with Bowden in over his head and Ross’s growing paranoia driving unthinkable choices, they cling to their jobs in an elaborate game of cat-and-mouse that has both asking how far their idealism can take them. (via Deadline).
Produced by Stephen Gans, David Hyman, Duncan Montgomery, Alex Orlovsky, and Jack Selby, and executive produced by B. Thomas Golisano, Dawn Bierschwal, Christopher Figg, Elika Portnoy, and Robert Whitehouse, Silk Road is based on the Rolling Stone article “Dead End On Silk Road” by David Kushner.
Evidently, the story of Silk Road continues to this day, with the site recently making headlines after $1 million in bitcoin connected to the site was moved for the first time in years. In short, this mysterious move has sent up a flare to those keeping an eye on the darkest corners of the web, alerting them to shady brewings that could be going down.
“Silk Road is a thrilling story with the kind of stranger-than-fiction details that can only come from a true story,” Bixby said. “This movie will keep audiences riveted by its cat-and-mouse game of a criminal mastermind being tracked by a hot-headed narc,” said Lionsgate VP of Acquisitions Lauren Bixby.
Speaking of thrillers, you can catch Jason Clarke as Carl in Antonio Campos' The Devil All the Time, which also stars Tom Holland, Bill Skarsgard, Robert Pattinson, and the voice of Donald Ray Pollock. In the Netflix drama, sinister characters converge around a young man devoted to protecting those he loves in a postwar backwoods town teeming with corruption and brutality. The movie is available to stream on Netflix right now, so why not make it a part of your next quarantine weekend?
Meanwhile, Silk Road is gearing up for a domestic release in theaters, on digital, and VOD on February 19, 2021.