Gerard Butler Reuniting With 'Angel Has Fallen' Director on 'Kandahar'

© Lionsgate

Gerard Butler is adding another action thriller to his belt, reuniting with his Angel Has Fallen and Greenland director Ric Roman Waugh on Kandahar.

Waugh will direct from a screenplay he wrote with former military intelligence officer Mitchell LaFortune.

Based on LaFortune’s experiences at the Defense Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan at the time of the Edward Snowden leaks, the film will see Butler star as an undercover CIA operative working in the Middle East whose classified mission and covert identity are exposed. Stuck in the heart of hostile territory, he must fight his way out of the desert alongside his translator to an extraction point while eluding the elite special forces hunting them.

Kandahar is being produced by Thunder Road Films’ Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee, G-Base’s Alan Siegel and Butler, and Capstone Group’s Christian Mercuri. Rob Moran will executive produce along with Brendon Boyea and Jonathan Fuhrman.

Capstone is co-financing the project and handling international sales on the highly anticipated film, and will present the project to buyers at the Virtual Cannes Market, which kicked off on Monday. CAA Media Finance arranged the financing and is representing the film’s U.S. rights.

Principal photography will take place on location in the Middle East.