EXCLUSIVE: Big-budget action-comedy Jason Statham Stole My Bike has been dropped into the European Film Market in Berlin and becomes the big-ticket new project on sale for commercially-oriented buyers.
Statham will star in the movie for Deadpool 2 and Bullet Train director Leitch, reuniting them after Universal’s box office hit Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. Filming is being lined up for May 2026.
Plot details are being kept under wraps, but we’re told it’ll see Statham “in the role of a lifetime, playing global action superstar Jason Statham“. We hear the budget is being set north of $80M — an increasingly rare proposition in the indie marketplace — and the project includes a number of major action set pieces. It’s being conceived as a PG-13 with tongue in cheek, per the movie’s meta title.
Script comes from Alison Flierl, whose credits include BoJack Horseman and the School Of Rock series.
Black Bear has committed to a wide domestic release and is handling international sales. CAA Media Finance arranged the financing on behalf of the filmmakers and represented the U.S. rights. Interest is already high in the project and we understand Amazon is circling rights in multiple territories.
Husband and wife duo Leitch and Kelly McCormick are producing for 87 North (The Fall Guy); Statham is producing for Punch Palace Productions; John Friedberg produces for Black Bear. Also producing are Meredith Berg and Ethan Erwin for Beryllium Entertainment.
Statham remains one of the market’s biggest draws thanks to action franchises such as The Meg, Fast & Furious, and The Beekeeper. He has also shown off comedy chops in Spy, Snatch, Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre.
Leitch has directed big-canvas pics like Deadpool 2, Bullet Train, and The Fall Guy, the latter a love-letter to the stunt community where he began his career. Expect more high-wire feats in this one. Leitch played a key role in lobbying to get the Academy to introduce the stunt design Oscar, which arrives in 2028.
Black Bear and Statham have been regular collaborators, most recently on Guy Ritchie pic Viva La Madness, which is currently filming in London.
The EFM market has seen a slew of horror projects but has had few big-canvas new arrivals featuring tried and tested studio level talent. Jason Statham Stole My Bike ticks that box. Laika animation Wildwood is one of the other projects in the market that can match its budget. Not that size is everything; but the biggest buyers will always want the option of buzzy projects of scale.
Leitch and McCormick are represented by CAA and Tara Kole of Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. Statham is represented by Patrick Knapp of GGSSC. Flierl is represented by Rock Shaink and Jake Schneider of Romark Entertainment and Will Jacobson of GGSSC. Berg and Erwin are represented by Will Jacobson of GGSSC.
