It’s a whodunnit by way of an action movie.
Lionsgate has picked up The Professionals, an original feature for the action professionals at 87Eleven Entertainment to produce along with Mandalay Pictures.
Hunter Perot, the grandson of late business executive and presidential candidate Ross Perot, wrote the initial draft of the screenplay, which is now being penned by Madison Turner, a stuntman-turned-scribe who is the son of Tierre Turner, a stunt performer and coordinator who has worked on movies such as Training Day and is currently on 9-1-1.
The stunt connection is key, as it was one of the factors that brought the players together.
Chad Stahelski, the stunt maestro-turned-filmmaker behind the John Wick movies, is producing along with his 87Eleven partners Alex Young and Jason Spitz. Mandalay Pictures’ Jason Michael Berman and Jordan Moldo, who originated the project, are also producing.
Professionals is described as a combustible mix of Clue and John Wick. The story follows a group of contract killers stranded in an English countryside estate when one of them is murdered and the remaining group has to solve the death.
Josh Glick, David Bernon and Perot will serve as executive producers. James Myers is overseeing for Lionsgate.
Turner, who counts The Dark Knight Rises amongst his stunt credits, previously worked with Mandalay as the writer of Adam, an action vehicle for Anthony Mackie set up Netflix. And he previously set up his Blacklist script The Liberators at Warner Bros. with Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society and Safehouse Pictures attached to produce. He is repped by CAA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Goodman Genow.
Stahelski is gearing up for Highlander as his next directorial effort and is a producer on Ballerina, the upcoming action movie that is set in the Wick universe and features a Keanu Reeves cameo.
Mandalay recently wrapped production on High and Low, Spike Lee’s re-interpretation of Akira Kurosawa crime thriller for Apple and A24 that stars Denzel Washington. Last year, the company produced Air, the acclaimed drama that Ben Affleck directed for Amazon MGM Studios.