Yet another potential directing gig for Scott.
According to Deadline, Gerard Butler and Ridley Scott are to team up for a fact-based thriller based on the real-life exploits of ex-British army officer Simon Mann.
Butler would be playing Mann, who in 2004 put together a band of mercenaries to attempt a coup against the president of Equatorial Guinea. The coup attempt was thwarted in Zimbabwe, where Mann went to pick up weapons. He spent five years in a harsh prison there before being taken to Equatorial Guinea where he was sentenced to 34 years–but spared that sentence when he received a presidential pardon in 2009. Mann’s backers, including former British PM Margaret Thatcher’s son Mark, disavowed involvement with him after the coup failed.
Robert Edwards (‘The Bomb in My Garden’) penned the screenplay and Scott is set to produce along with direct the drama. Giannina Facio and Alan Siegel will co-produce.