Karl Urban Is Going OVERDRIVE

By Lorna Berridge / October 26, 2011

Karl Urban has always been one of the best things, if not the best thing, in nearly all of his films so we imagine director Antonio Negret (Seconds Apart, Transit) must be skipping for joy now that Urban has signed on to star in his long gestating French-set automobile action-thriller €˜Overdrive€™. And yeah, he'll likely be the best thing in the movie again. Written by Derek Haas and Michael Brandt, the writing duo behind 2008€™s action fest Wanted, the thriller will start shooting this weekend in Marseille and centres on two brothers with a penchant for stealing cars who find themselves in a little more trouble than they bargained for in the South of France when they come in front of a mob boss. Whilst Negret has been signed on for some time the film hasn€™t taken shape despite Matthew Goode and Alex Pettyfer having been attached as the brothers since it was first announced at Cannes. According to The Hollywood Reporter the brothers will now be played by Karl Urban and Prince Caspian himself Ben Barnes. Meanwhile Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke is in talks to play the love interest, what will be her first big screen role. The film is being produced by Luc Besson protage Pierre Morel (Taken, From Paris With Love) and Negret is looking to step into Morel's footsteps, presumably for extremely ordinary sounding Euro-thrillers that are as dumb as any of the equivalent action thrillers in Hollywood and usually star some B-movie style acting. Barnes was last seen in Killing Bono in the summer Brit-flick telling the €˜truish€™ story of Neil McCormick. Since then Barnes has been busy with a part in Bradley Cooper/Olivia Wilde scribe thriller €˜The Words€™. Urban, meanwhile, will next be seen in the new and improved film version of Judge Dredd €“ simply Dredd - out next summer and will squeeze in €˜Overdrive€™ before heading back to space with the long awaited sequel to 2009€™s Star Trek revamp early next year.