McGregor, Douglas, Quaid Join ‘Knockout’

Published by Jeff Leins on: January 8th, 2010

Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Dennis Quaid, and Michael Fassbender are in negotiations to join the cast of Steven Soderbergh’s Knockout.

When Soderbergh announced former American Gladiator and MMA fighter Gina Carano as the lead he promised to surround the first time actress with named actors for a “mainstream action film with universal appeal.”  He wasn’t kidding.

This action movie was initially described as a “James Bond” style spy thriller centering on a girl from the “wrong side of the tracks” given a chance to put her fighting skills to good use.  However, according to the Playlist’s inside scoop, it seems Soderbergh is looking for more originality in the concept and has twisted the plot into a revenge story about a black ops super soldier searching for who set her up.  If he was going for something that hadn’t been done before, he failed.  Bourne anyone?

Douglas is a government suit calling the shots, Fassbender and another mysterious actor are soldiers on the special forces spy unit, and McGregor is the owner of the private Blackwater-like military group.  Quaid’s character is unknown, though possible a soldier too.  It’s a pretty spectacular cast and with Soderbergh’s track record of delivering unique films, I’m intrigued by what he’s cooking up in the already-crowded spy genre.

Apparently Soderbergh’s unconventional deal with Relativity Media, who’s fronting a “reasonable budget,” and domestic distributor Lionsgate includes provisions that he receives no money up front, but he eventually retains ownership of the film once it’s released.  Does this mean he’ll be attempting the simultaneous video-on-demand route he’s pioneered with his smaller, low-budget projects?  I doubt it, but one can hope he’ll continue to usher in the next step in direct distribution to cinema consumers.

Knockout is scheduled to shoot this February.  The double entendre title may also change in the meantime, though I kind of like it.