Actors Gerard Butler and Frank Grillo have each carved out a career in big, explosive, shameless action flicks, and now, in some rare great news, both have been confirmed to be starring together in The Grey director Joe Carnahan's upcoming crime thriller, Copshop. Kurt McLeod wrote the original screenplay, which is based on a story by McLeod and Mark Williams, with Carnahan penning the most recent draft.

Copshop will reportedly take place in a small-town police station that becomes the unlikely battleground between a professional hitman, played by Butler, a smart rookie female cop, and a double-crossing con man, played by Frank Grillo, who seeks refuge behind bars with no place left to run. Though there is no word on who is being courted for the female lead, casting is currently underway. Principal photography is set to commence in October with the movie slated to shoot in Georgia and New Mexico. STX will present the project to buyers virtually at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival.

Gerard Butler as a hitman and Frank Grillo as a con man sounds like the perfect combination of muscled grit, with the sheer levels of testosterone likely to punch out of the screen and leave you with a deeper voice and hairier chest. The collaboration between these two B-movie icons is sure to put Copshop at the top of many an action movie fans must-watch list.

In a joint statement, Joe Carnahan and Grillo said of the project, "We feel that this is a movie that can play big globally but be made sensibly, and we are always looking for this type of 'elevated genre' where the writing really drives the action and the drama. We also couldn't be happier to have someone with the box-office power of Gerard Butler as our partner in crime on this film."

Gerard Butler has several testosterone-fuelled projects on the horizon, with sequels currently being developed for both the continuation of the Fallen franchise, and for 2018's gritty crime thriller Den of Thieves. Butler recently revealed that Fallen 4 is being worked on as we speak. "Yeah, I think you will be seeing another," he said. "We're toying away with another really fantastic idea that we're working on at the moment that obviously we can't say too much about."

Aside from his return as Banning, Butler also recently revealed the return of an even gruffer character of his, that of Detective Nicholas "Big Nick" O'Brien, the gritty hero of Den of Thieves. "We're working on that script at the moment, and I'm getting pages daily from Christian," Butler said of Den of Thieves 2. "It's a fun ride, spreading across North America into Europe and the diamond district of Marseilles. It's very cool and has a more European vibe this time. All the fun characters, Big Nick, Donnie, and Lobbin' Bob [Jordan Bridges], will be back. And I'm really excited about it."

Before any of that though, Butler can next be seen attempting to outrun the apocalypse in the upcoming Greenland which is scheduled to hit theaters on September 25.

As for Grillo, who has become well-known for roles in the likes of The Purge: Anarchy and Captain America: Winter Soldier, he also has several intriguing projects coming up including the absurd-sounding action sci-fi Jiu Jitsu with Nicolas Cage, Bruce Willis vehicle Cosmic Sin and action comedy sequel The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard. This comes to us from Deadline.