Resident Evil star Milla Jovovich will star Protector, A Taken-style action thriller that Highland Film is offering to buyers at this year's American Film Market. Adrian Grunberg (Rambo: The Last Blood, Take the Gringo) will be directed from a screenplay by Bong-Seeb Mun. Production is expected to begin this winter in New Mexico.
The film's plot stars Jovovich as Nikki, a former war heroine who believed she had left her violent past behind to raise her daughter Chloe in peace. When she wakes up in an abandoned factory to find that Chloe has been kidnapped, Nikki must fight her way through the city's criminal underworld, hounded by both police and military, to get her daughter back.
Protector is one of several action projects headed to the AFM this week, as producers redouble their efforts to return to shooter thrillers.
Kenneth Kim, Bang-Ok Joo and Bong-Seeb Mun will produce the film for Aanaxion Studio, alongside Arianne Fraser and Delphine Perrier for Highland Film Group. Martial artist and stunt coordinator Ho-Sung Pak (Transformers: Age of Extinction, Bullet train) is also the film's producer and stunt coordinator. Highland Film Group will co-finance the project and handle worldwide rights.
Jovovich will next appear in Paul WS Anderson's film In the lost landstogether with Dave Bautista. She is repped by CAA, Untitled Entertainment and Hansen Jacobson.4o mini.
Highland Film Group's current slate also includes that of Chuck Russell WitchBy Justin Chadwick Sierra Madre and that of Joe Carnahan Not without hope.