Joe Carnahan's 'The Grey' Recruits Liam Neeson and More

Liam Neesonhas been confirmed to lead Joe Carnahan’sThe Grey, a thriller that just received the green light to start next week.

Neeson, who replaced Bradly Cooper inSeptember 2010, will play Ottoway, a hunter hired to protect a camp of oil workers in the Alaskan tundra. But, on a flight back to Anchorage, the plane crashes and the crew of drillers are besieged by an aggressive, highly-intelligent pack of grey wolves.

He will be joined by star of“The Pacific” and the cancelled“Rubicon” James Badge Dale,Dermot Mulroney,Frank Grillo,Nonso Anozie, andJoe Anderson. Carnahan and Neeson worked together on the mainstream adaptationThe A-Team, but this won’t be anything like that flick’s catch phrases and flying tanks.

The screenplay by Carnahan and Ian Jeffers is very much about man versus his environment, as the characters battle to survive the wolves picking off the weak and the elements, like hypothermia. But there also exists an internal struggle with primal instincts and faith that makes the story more complex than the expected“will they make it?” plot.

It’s an exceptional script, especially a scene that reads like an homage toJurassic Parkas the men race and hobble across a clearing with the wolves snapping at their ranks.

Carnahan said, ”The wolves have a territorial range of 300 miles, and they will run you out if you cross that. If you’re within 30 miles of their den as is the case here, they will try to kill you. It’s simple arithmetic, but it creates an opportunity for one of those man vs. nature movies I love like Deliveranceand Touching The Void.”

Source