By: John M Jerva

There’s more news coming out of this week’s European Film Market in Berlin and it involves Australian star Sam Worthington who has locked roles in two upcoming action-thrillers titled Alphas and COUNTERPLAY which the latter is set to be helmed by Maria Director Pedring Lopez.

First up, we have the shark vs whale thriller Alphas which is being directed by Steven Quale (Final Destination 5) will star Worthington who is in final negotiations to “play an environmentalist who must convince the owner of a killer whale sanctuary to unleash the orca that nearly killed her in an attempt to drive away a spiralling Great White shark population led by a fierce alpha shark.”

According to Screen Daily who brought the exclusive, the film will start shooting this summer in Puerto Rico. Frank Hannah (The Cooler) penned the script which comes from an original idea by Hannah and Christopher Tuffin.

Also on the docket for Worthington is the Pedring Lopez helmed action-thriller named COUNTERPLAY which was called Escape at one time will shoot in August in Philippines and will see Worthington “play a former kidnap and hostage negotiator who comes out of retirement to help get a young man accused of drug trafficking out of the Philippines and back to Australia.”

COUNTERPLAY hails from Lopez’s BlackOps Studio Asia and Scott Rosenfelt (Home Alone, Mystic Pizza) will produce alongside Michael McDermott from MAM Media and Fusion Pictures’ Andy Green serving as executive producer.

Lopez made a splash last year with his high-octane, female centric action pic Maria which premiered in the U.S. on Netflix.

Worthington also has the sequels to the blockbuster franchise Avatar waiting in the wings which will hopefully hit in the next few years so he is more than busy days and he is definitely keeping in action shape with these new projects.

Source- Screen Daily