Empire City Ben King
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As time goes by, it looks more and more as another Has Fallen with Gerard Butler will not happen. Butler had crafted one of the best action heroes of this generation with his portrayal of Mike Banning who radiated a sure-fire John McClane vibe in three films that threw it back 80’s action style in their execution. There was a planned fourth film set to go but unfortunately some behind the scenes drama has looked to derail any chances of Butler playing Banning again and he has clearly moved on while still starring in action-thrillers.
Well, Butler might have a new franchise action hero waiting in the wings as the star is set to play a former Navy SEAL turned firefighter in the upcoming actioner Empire City which also stars MCU alum Hayley Atwell. The movie is being helmed by Michael Matthews from a screenplay penned by Brian Tucker and S. Craig Zahler.
A new first look image has surfaced of Butler deploying full on action hero mode as he navigates a corridor in a building overrun by a massive hostage situation which looks to force Butler to dust off his spec ops skills and combine them with his new attributes as a firefighter. Scroll below for the reveal!
Per Deadline, In Empire City, when a hostage crisis erupts inside New York’s landmark Clybourn Building, former Navy SEAL turned firefighter Rhett (Butler), his squad, and his NYPD wife Dani (Atwell) must fight and navigate their way through the building to rescue the captives. Omari Hardwick also stars as Hawkins, the film’s villain.
The supporting cast includes Mel Jarnson (Mortal Kombat), Tre Hale (Platonic), Michael Beach (Mayor of Kingstown), Dominic Bogart (American Primeval), Stephen Murphy (The Odyssey), Jack DiFalco (Daredevil) and Kaiwi Lyman (Den Of Thieves). Marc Butan, Gerard Butler, Alan Siegel, and Paul Currie serves as the film’s producers.
Empire City is being repped by The Veterans for international sales with CAA Media Finance taking on sales for domestic distribution at European Film Market which is running next week. The film is still in production in Australia.
I for one am a little saddened that Mike Banning’s time is probably up but never say never. With that being said, Butler is still crushing it as one of action cinema’s current bad boys and looks to enter the future delivering more high-octane entertainment. Empire City looks to utilize Butler like he was in the Has Fallen series so here’s hoping that this film will be good enough to trigger a new franchise for Butler to lock ‘n load on. At the very least, let’s just hope that Empire City delivers the adrenaline and kinetic action that fans crave. We shall see.
