After walking away from the John Wick franchise, director David Leitch took the helm of both Deadpool 2 and Hobbs & Shaw, establishing himself as an action director to watch in Hollywood. Next up for him is Bullet Train, a big screen adaptation of the Japanese novel Maria Beetle by Kotaro Isaka.
In that book, five assassins find themselves on a fast moving bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka with only a few stops in between. They then discover their missions are not unrelated to each other, and the question becomes who will make it off the train alive and what awaits them at the terminal station?
So far, Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time In...Hollywood), Joey King (The Kissing Booth), and Andrew Koji (Snake Eyes) have been added to the cast, and Kick-Ass and Avengers: Age of Ultron star Aaron Taylor-Johnson is now set to join them. Deadline reports that the British actor is likely playing one of the movie's four assassins, so the project has presumably found its lead with this foursome.
Shooting is set to begin in Los Anegles this Fall, and it's previously been reported that the movie is a "contained thriller," meaning it can be shot on a contained set rather than on location, something which will help a lot given the restrictions which remain in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other recent projects for Taylor-Johnson include Tenet and the upcoming The King's Man.