Antoine Fuqua may be one of the most sought-after directors in Hollywood, but his projects keep stalling out. Still in search of a greenlight that has eluded him thus far, the Brooklyn's Finest director may be one step closer, as he's in final negotiations to helm Relativity Media's Hunter Killer.
Based on the novel Firing Point by George Wallace and Don Keith, the story follows an untested submarine captain who must work with a Navy SEAL team to rescue Russia's president, taken prisoner during a military coup. No cast has been announced yet, but whoever joins the project will have to stop a rogue Russian general (can Ed Harris play a good Ruskie?) from jumpstarting World War III.
The real question is if this will take priority over Fuqua other projects? He was expected to start production on the Eminem-led boxing movie Southpaw in January, but DreamWorks backed out of the picture in August. He also dropped out of directing Morgan Creek's Untitled Tupac Shakur biopic, which still hasn't found its lead. So with only Storming Las Vegas and Hunter Killer on the books—have we seen the last monkey wrench thrown Fuqua's way?
Relativity Media's submarine thriller is set with a December 21, 2012 release date.