Film News Roundup: Pierce Brosnan Stars in Science-Fiction Thriller ‘Youth’

In today’s film news roundup, Pierce Brosnan will play an engineer who tries to rewind his biological clock, a film about the 1964 Anchorage, Alaska, earthquake is in the works and a Hire Her Back initiative is underway.

CASTING

Pierce Brosnan has signed on to star in writer/director Brett Marty’s feature-film adaptation of “Youth,” a short film he directed and co-wrote in 2016.

Highland Film Group is handling the international rights for the science-fiction thriller, with CAA Media Finance handling domestic. Sales will launch at this month’s Marché du Film Online.

Brosnan, who’s 67, will portray an engineer in the near future who’s about to retire at age 70 when his company pays him to undergo a procedure to rewind his body’s biological clock back to its prime. The process goes tragically wrong and his aging begins accelerating rapidly, so he attempts a more dangerous treatment.

“Youth” is co-written by Marty, Josh Izenberg and Amelia Whitcomb. Jib Polhemus, Paul Schiff and Martin Brennan will produce alongside executive producers Laura Bickford and Hannah Leader.

Brosnan is best known for starring as James Bond in the four films prior to Daniel Craig taking on the role, starting with “GoldenEye” and ending with “Die Another Day.” He starred in the AMC Networks series “The Son”  and will next be seen in the Netflix film “Eurovision,” A24’s “False Positive,” Columbia Pictures’ “Cinderella” and Renny Harlin’s “The Misfits.”

PROJECT LAUNCH

Concordia Studio has acquired the rights to produce a feature film adaptation of Jon Mooallem’s book “This Is Chance!: The Shaking of an All-American City, A Voice That Held It Together.”

The story centers on radio reporter Genie Chance and her accounts of the aftermath of the massive 1964 earthquake in Anchorage, Alaska.

Ol Parker, whose credits include “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” and “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” is set to adapt and direct the film. Concordia co-founder Jonathan King will produce the project, with Mooallem serving as executive producer. Concordia’s Patrick Callan will oversee development for the company.

“With ‘This is Chance!,’ Jon Mooallem has written a gripping and inspirational account of human connection amid epic catastrophe, in the process shining a light on the extraordinary character of Genie Chance and reminding us that heroes can come from anywhere,” said King. “I know from our time together on the Marigold Hotel movies that Ol Parker has a rare talent for understanding characters under stress and then bringing them to life with warm affection and emotional depth.”

HIRING INITIATIVE

Women In Film Los Angeles is launching the Hire Her Back Initiative, a multimedia campaign calling for entertainment employers to achieve gender and racial equality as they move toward returning to film and television production.

Hire Her Back is aimed at calling attention to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on women and people of color, as well as highlighting the talent of women in the screen industries. The organization is partnering with New York Women in Film and Television and Women In Film and Television Atlanta for a Hire Her Back Fund to provide grants to industry women whose livelihoods have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The grants will be administered by The Actors Fund.

Seed funding has been provided by producer Shivani Rawat, founder of ShivHans Pictures.