Grizzled action man Gerard Butler will soon return to doing what he does best, being a grizzled action man, in the upcoming war thriller Kandahar, which has now landed a release date. Studio Open Road Films, who won the US rights to Kandahar last year, has now revealed that the Butler-led movie will hit theaters in time for Memorial Day weekend on Friday, May 26, 2023.
Kandahar finds Butler leading the way as Tom Harris, an undercover CIA operative, who finds himself stuck deep in hostile territory in Afghanistan. He must fight his way out, alongside his Afghan translator, to an extraction point in Kandahar, all while avoiding the elite special forces tasked with hunting them down.
The action outing sees Butler reunite with Angel Has Fallen and Greenland director Ric Roman Waugh, working from a script written by Mitchell LaFortune. “What made Mitch LaFortune’s visceral script so compelling and unique for me is its authenticity and how he humanizes not just our heroes, but all the characters portrayed in a region that’s been locked in a perpetual cycle of violence,” Waugh said of the project when it was first announced.
The rest of the cast of Kandahar includes Olivia-Mai Barrett (Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle, The Man Who Fell to Earth), Rebecca Calder (Wrath of Man), Ali Fazal (Victoria & Abdul, Furious 7), Navid Negahban (Aladdin, 12 Strong), Bahador Foladi (Tehran), Faizan Munawar Varya, Nina Toussaint-White (Bodyguard, Doctor Who), and Travis Fimmel (Vikings, Raised by Wolves).
Gerard Butler Can Currently Be Seen Fighting Bad Guys in Plane
Gerard Butler can currently be seen once again demonstrating his penchant for action movie escapades in Plane, which follows Butler as pilot Brodie Torrance who, after saving his passengers from a lightning strike by making a risky landing on a war-torn island, quickly finds out that surviving the landing was just the beginning. When most of the passengers are taken hostage by dangerous rebels, the only person Torrance can count on for help is Louis Gaspare, an accused murderer who was being transported by the FBI. In order to rescue the passengers, Torrance will need Gaspare’s help and will learn there’s more to Gaspare than meets the eye.
Plane has proven to be a big hit for Butler, landing one of the actor’s highest scores on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. “Plane charts a standard action-adventure course with its cruising altitude just a few miles above Direct-to-Video -- but with Gerard Butler in the cockpit, thriller enthusiasts will still find this a fun flight,” reads the consensus.
Directed by Jean-François Richet and written by Charles Cumming and J. P. Davis, Plane stars Mike Colter (Luke Cage), Daniella Pineda (Jurassic World Dominion), Yoson An (Mulan), Remi Adeleke (Transformers: The Last Knight), Haleigh Hekking (Action Royale), Lilly Krug (Every Breath You Take), Joey Slotnick (The Blacklist), Oliver Trevena (While We Sleep), and newcomer Kelly Gale alongside Butler.
Plane was released earlier this month and is out now in theaters.