Gerard Butler is planning to play Mike Banning for the fourth time in another installment in the Fallen franchise started by 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen. The new film will be titled Night Has Fallen and will be directed by Ric Roman Waugh. Butler and Waugh previously worked together on the third film in the franchise, as well as Butler’s latest movie, Greenland.
Millennium Media announced Night Has Fallen on Monday at the American Film Market, which is being held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic, reports The Hollywood Reporter. The film will find Butler’s Secret Service agent Banning in a situation where he is double-crossed, outgunned, and outmanned, but somehow finds a way to win. It is not known if Morgan Freeman, who has played U.S. House Speaker-turned-Vice President-turned-President Allan Trumbull in all three Fallen films.
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Many of the same talent involved in the franchise’s third film, Angel Has Fallen, will be involved in Night. Robert Mark Kamen is working on the script with Waugh. Producers include Butler and Alan Siegel of G-BASE, Electic Picture’s Heidi Jo Markel, Les Weldon, and Millennium Media’s Yarvi Lerner, Jeffrey Greenstein, and Jonathan Yunger. The new movie will be filmed at Millennium’s studio in Bulgaria and other locations in Europe.
The Fallen franchise started in 2013 with Olympus Has Fallen, directed by Antoine Fuqua. It was followed by London Has Fallen, directed by Babak Najafi, in 2016 and Waugh’s Angel Has Fallen in 2019. The first two movies involved Banning foiling terrorist plots, while the third found him trying to clear his name after he was framed for a plot to kill the president. The films have grossed a combined $523.5 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.
Butler’s next movie is Greenland, which STX Films released to theaters in foreign territories. In October, the distributor announced the film will go directly to Video on Demand services in the U.S. for $19.99 for a 48-hour rental on Dec. 18. It will later be available on HBO and HBO Max in 2021. The film is a survival story, with Butler’s character, his estranged wife (Morena Baccarin), and their son hoping to survive as a giant comet nears Earth. The film was written by Chris Sparling and also stars Scott Glenn, David Dedman, and Hope Davis. Butler’s other recent movies include Geostorm, Den of Thieves, Hunter Killer, The Vanishing, and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.
