Jung Byung-gil to helm Gerard Butler’s next potential franchise in Afterburn

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Gerard Butler already has several franchises on his hands, and it seems that he's looking to add yet another to his slate. Butler has been attached to star in AFTERBURN, an adaptation of the Red 5 comic of the same name, for close to eight years, and now Deadline reports that Jung Byung-gil (THE VILLAINESS) has signed on to helm the futuristic action-adventure flick.

AFTERBURN finds treasure hunter Jake (Gerard Butler) traveling to France to retrieve the Mona Lisa after a solar flare has utterly destroyed Earth's Eastern Hemisphere. So…GEOSTORM had a baby with NATIONAL TREASURE? As scores of priceless treasures remain untouched, Jake is more than willing to enter the quarantine zone to retrieve them, provided he's paid enough. It's not all smooth sailing however, as Jake must contend with rival treasure hunters, rogue armies, pirate gangs, and hostile mutants. Jake will also be paired with a strong-willed weapons expert who brings along her own agenda. It's still early days yet, but should the film perform well, it's expected that AFTERBURN could launch a new franchise which would find Jake searching for more treasures such as England’s Crown Jewels, the Star of India, or China’s Imperial Treasures. Scripted by Matt Johnson (INTO THE BLUE), production on AFTERBURN is looking at getting underway late this summer.

Gerard Butler already had several franchise installments on his agenda, as he will soon begin shooting ANGEL HAS FALLEN, the third film in the OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN franchise, and it was also recently announced that a sequel to Butler's recent DEN OF THIEVES is in the works as well. The DEN OF THIEVES sequel will find "Big Nick (Butler) on the hunt in the streets of Europe closing in on Donnie (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) who is embroiled in the dangerous world of diamond thieves and the infamous Panther mafia, as they plot a massive heist of the world’s biggest diamond exchange."

Does AFTERBURN sound outrageous enough to work as a Gerard Butler film?