The film had Cavill both co-producing through his Promethean Productions and starring as the title character, British Special Forces op John Stratton, tracking down an international terrorist cell. The film is based on the first in a series of eight novels by pseudonymous author Duncan Falconer, an ex-SBS (Special Boat Service) commando.
Director Simon West (Con Air, The Expendables 2) was apparently prepared to start shooting Stratton (currently listed as “Stratton: First Into Action” on IMDb) in London and Rome, with GFM Films selling the movie at Cannes as recently as last week, but then GFM co-founder Guy Collins was informed by Promethean and Ileen Maisel and Lawrence Elman’s Amber Entertainment Ltd that they wished to push production back three weeks in order to finalize casting and improve the script.
“Then, during several meetings this week in London with both sets of producers including Henry Cavill, he told us he has decided not to shoot this script at this time,” Collins stated. “He had a different vision of what the film should be to us and the production team and wanted to delay production until September and shoot a different story and script. It has been a shock for us and will be for our distributors. We want to keep the production team together and Simon West as director so we have no option other than to exercise our rights under our funding agreements and replace Henry – which is not an easy task.”
Back in February Cavill stated, “I’ve long wanted to tell a story about the British Special Forces and finally the opportunity has come around. Duncan Falconer’s work is fantastic and we are incredibly fortunate to be working with him so closely. We plan to convert the books to cinema as accurately as possible while keeping them topical. Simon West is a perfect match for this movie with his ability to marry story-telling and action, both of which are essential to do this project justice!”
While it’s not unheard of for an actor to abandon a film this close to production (Bruce Willis left the action film Wake after production had started earlier this year due to that film’s financial problems), it is rare for it to occur strictly for creative differences and with financing firmly in place, especially when the star is a co-producer on the project.
Whatever his reasons, Cavill leads Warner Bros.’ splashy period spy comedy The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which will hit screens August 14, as well as reprising the Man of Steel in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which is scheduled to open March 25, 2016.
(Photo Credit: WENN)
