Action star Jason Statham is set to work with David Ayer on the Sylvester Stallone-penned action movie Levon’s Trade.
Per Deadline, the Expendables franchise stars will work together with the director of the 2016 Suicide Squad movie, with Levon’s Trade to be produced by former Miramax boss Bill Block under the production banner Black Bear and BlockFilm. Serving as a screenwriter and producer, Stallone will be adapting the first of 11 Levon Cade thriller novels created by legendary comic book writer Chuck Dixon.
Stallone’s banner Balboa Productions had initially acquired the rights to the Levon Cade stories for a potential television series. Production is set to begin on location in London in March 2024, presumably after the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
“I am thrilled to be reuniting with some of my most talented and longstanding partners on Levon’s Trade,” Block said. “I first worked with David Ayer on Fury and it was immediately clear that he is a director at the very top of his game. Jason and I have worked together on a number of films, and most recently the three of us collaborated on The Beekeeper. Levon’s Trade is going to be another spectacular action movie and I’m confident we’ve assembled the dream team to bring the first novel in this celebrated series to the big screen.”
Levon’s Trade sees Statham in the title role of Levon Cade, a man who quits his “profession” to become a construction worker and improve relations with his daughter. However, when Cade’s boss’ daughter goes missing, he must utilize his black ops-trained skills to find her. Along the way, Cade runs up against a larger criminal conspiracy that threatens his newfound peace.
This will not be the first time that Statham has starred in a Stallone-penned movie. The actor previously headlined the 2013 action-thriller Homefront playing an ex-DEA agent protecting his daughter and new home from crystal meth dealers. Adapted from Chuck Logan’s novel of the same name, Stallone optioned the rights originally to use as the basis for a Rambo sequel before reworking it into a vehicle for Statham. Additionally, the two stars appeared together in all four installments of The Expendables franchise.
Though Statham stumbled recently with the box office failure of Expend4bles, the actor found success in other 2023 sequels. He reprised his role as Deckard Shaw in Fast X, which made over $714 million worldwide, and scored another global hit sequel with Meg 2: The Trench. Statham will next be seen in Ayer’s John Wick-inspired thriller The Beekeeper, set to hit screens on Jan. 12, 2024.
Levon’s Trade does not yet have a release date.
