The upcoming Alan Ritchson action film Motor City is taking the concept “a man of action and few words” to a higher degree, with the entire movie’s hook being that there are only a few lines of dialogue, which you can count on one hand. Motor City also aims to be a throwback to the gritty revenge films of yesteryear, which starred the likes of Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood.
The film takes place in the 70s and is said to contain era-appropriate needle drops on the soundtrack. Now, Independent Film Company has released the poster for Motor City, which sports a simplistic, but bold image of Ritchson in a dynamic action pose in mid-dive as he’s shooting his sawed-off shotgun. The design is also a bit of a throwback to 70s-type designs and contains a punny tagline, “Love will drive you mad.” Check it out below.
The cast list includes Ritchson, Shailene Woodley, Pablo Schreiber, Ben Foster and Ben McKenzie. Potsy Ponciroli directs the film from a screenplay by Chad St. John.
The official plot synopsis reads,
“In 1970s Detroit a working-class romantic is framed by a ruthless gangster after falling for his girlfriend. After years in prison, he returns with only one mission: revenge.With operatic scale, MOTOR CITY unleashes a barrage of brutal action, magnetic performances, and striking imagery, fueled by a thunderous rock score, precision-crafted action, and immersive sound design to create a visceral, propulsive spectacle built to electrify audiences this summer.”
Ponciroli previously wrote and directed Old Henry, directed and co-wrote the comedy Super Zeroes, directed the crime comedy Greedy People, and created the CMT series Still the King… Although at the moment, he might be best known for being the person who was hired to write the long-awaited Goonies sequel.
For this movie, Ponciroli was working from a screenplay that was written by Chad St John and was featured on the Black List. Deadline notes that the “script started out at Warner Bros more than a decade ago and went through multiple iterations in terms of leads and directors interested. Despite becoming an independent project it has managed to maintain impressive production scale and scope. It’s part graphic novel-part noir-part John Wick meets disco.” Motor City was made on a budget of $30 million.
Our Chris Bumbray had a blast with the film at TIFF, giving it an 8/10 and saying in his review, “The action is ferocious, with an especially good mano-a-mano fight between Ritchson and co-star Pablo Schreiber (who plays a crooked cop) serving as the action highlight. […] While the idea of a dialogue-free action movie might not be everyone’s cup of tea, I found myself riveted by the craft demonstrated by Ponciroli. Given Ritchson’s rising fame, this could be a movie people talk about for years.”
Motor City explodes into theaters on July 24.