UPDATE: Michelle Yeoh is heading back into action with The Surgeon, and Sony Pictures has acquired the film following its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Sony’s deal includes rights for North America as well as Latin America, Italy, China, and Hong Kong. The acquisition came after the film generated buzz at TIFF.
With Yeoh putting her martial arts experience to work in a story built around surgical precision, The Surgeon could offer the Oscar-winning actress another opportunity to showcase her action-hero credentials.
SOURCE: THR
Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh is suiting up for action once again — this time in surgical scrubs — as the lead in the newly announced action thriller The Surgeon.
Billed as the launchpad for a potential franchise, the film is being introduced to buyers at Cannes by Patrick Wachsberger’s production company, 193.
The Surgeon is written and directed by Roshan Sethi, who brings real-life medical expertise to the project as a practicing physician. The film also marks another high-profile collaboration between Wachsberger and producer Basil Iwanyk, whose previous partnership on John Wick — which Iwanyk produced and Wachsberger distributed during his tenure as chairman of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group — redefined modern action cinema.
In the film, Yeoh plays a retired surgeon who is kidnapped and forced to operate on a mysterious patient. But her captors underestimate her most lethal skill: 35 years of surgical precision. The story builds to what is described as an “explosive and brutal confrontation,” as Yeoh’s character uses her medical knowledge in a series of innovative and visually striking takedowns.
Producing The Surgeon are Iwanyk and Erica Lee for Thunder Road, alongside John Schoenfelder and Russell Ackerman of Neotext, Adam Kolbrenner for Lit Entertainment, and Steve Klinsky for Untravelled Worlds. Executive producers include Patrick White and Jay Schuminsky of Lit Entertainment.
SOURCE: Variety
