Rogue Gets Moving

Production is about to begin on Rogue, the screenplay Lionsgate acquired in January, written by Lee Anthony Smith and Gregory J. Bradley, with Jet Li and Jason Statham to star and music video director Philip G. Atwell set to direct with Cory Yuen as the Martial Arts Action designer. Filming will take place in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Here’s the plot:
After his partner is killed by “Rogue” (Li), the infamous assassin who has recently set off a bloody crime war between two rival Asian mobs, FBI agent Jack Crawford (played by Statham) starts a deadly game of cat and mouse to settle the score. The film will be produced by Steve Chasman, Fierce Entertainment’s Christopher Petzel and Jim Thompson in association with Lionsgate. Principal photography on ROGUE will commence in spring 2006 and will be overseen by Paseornek and John Sacchi.

Another close collaboration between Lionsgate’s international and motion picture production teams, the project, originally developed by Fierce Entertainment, was brought to Lionsgate by President of International Film Sales Stephanie Denton. Lionsgate launched the project to the international community at the European Film Market in Berlin this past February under the direction of Nick Meyer, President of International.

“ROGUE is an engaging, high-crime thriller teaming the internationally acclaimed, hugely popular Jet Li with one of the hottest young action stars in the business, and it will have audiences on the edge of their seats,” said Paseornek. “We are very excited to be working with Jet Li along with director Atwell and writers Smith and Bradley on a project that adds another fast-paced thriller to our upcoming theatrical release slate.”