Michael B. Jordan has a lot on his plate, but one project that seems to be a particular passion project is The Silver Bear, a hitman story based on a series of novels called the Silver Bear Thrillers, written by Wanted and 3:10 to Yuma writer Derek Haas.

Deadline is now reporting that the production has locked down both a writer and director. The filmmaker in question is The First Purge‘s Gerard McMurray. This is a reunion of sorts, as McMurray worked on the film Fruitvale Station with Jordan as an associate producer.

“Every step forward on The Silver Bear has been the perfect marriage of the material to the creative talent involved. We could not be more amazed by the way this project has come together, especially with Gerard McMurray’s bold, creative vision for the movie and Michael B. Jordan’s immense skills as an actor and a producer,” said Lionsgate Motion Picture Group President Nathan Kahane. “We are confident the right team is in place to do something very special with Derek Haas’ action-packed, suspense-filled novel and are thrilled to be collaborating with daring filmmakers like Gerard, Michael and the team at Nickel City Pictures. As we re-energize our slate with films like this, Lionsgate intends to be a home where artists can bring and make their very best movies.”

“We are very excited by the addition of Gerard to direct The Silver Bear. From the first meeting, it was clear that Gerard was the right person to realize the potential of the underlying material and is a perfect match for Michael’s talent and charisma. This combination will deliver an interesting, layered action film that today’s audience will love,” said Nickel City Pictures’ Rungta.

Below is the official synopsis of the novel source material:

“‘A natural killer,’ his mentor—a middleman named Vespucci—said he was. He proved it with his first professional hit: a Fifth Circuit Court judge in Boston, executed with a sheet of Saran Wrap in the stairwell of her own courthouse. He’s proved his merit often, usually with a Glock semiautomatic, but he’s improvised too, with his bare hands, the heel of a shoe, knives, even a sewing machine. He is the consummate assassin, at the top of his form, immune to the psychological strains of his chosen profession. He is what the Russians call a Silver Bear. He calls himself Columbus. It’s the name Vespucci gave him, ten years ago, when he discovered a dark, new world of fences, clients, marks, jobs, jack. Not that his real name meant much to him anyway. He never knew his father or his mother, a prostitute who became dangerously involved back in the seventies with an earnest young congressman named Abe Mann, then a rising star in the Democratic Party. The magnetic Abe Mann has since become the Speaker of the House. He is currently running for the Democratic nomination in an exhausting presidential campaign, weaving his way across the country. Columbus is not far behind. But as he pieces together his past and prepares the seamless assassination of his mark, the criminal underworld he has always ruled begins unraveling violently around him.”

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SOURCE: Deadline