Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Media Rights Capital has closed a deal with Welsh writer/director Gareth Evans for his first English language action drama. Evans will make seven figures to write and direct. They are keeping the plot under wraps, but it will feature strong roles for two male stars, and the plan is to shoot in 2013 after Evans completed Raid 2. That is the sequel to The Raid: Redemption, a film that was a festival favorite at Sundance and Toronto.

That film has put Evans in high demand. He recently made a deal to develop to direct Breaking The Bank at Universal. It’s about the biggest heist in history in England, masterminded by former UFC fighter “Lightning” Lee Murray. Screen Gems is separately developing a remake of The Raid.

This is another example of MRC getting in business with an emerging talent, as the company has done with Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Neil Blomkamp. Evans is repped by WME and Management 360.