Australian director Bruce Beresford has confirmed that he has signed a development deal for US thriller Killer Instinct.
The film is being adapted from Joseph Finder's novel about young sales executive Jason Steadman who meets former special forces officer Kurt Semko. Good things soon start to happen for Jason until he discovers Kurt has been paving his way to the top by the most efficient means available.
"It might happen – the script, a melodrama, is pretty good," Beresford told IF via email.
He is working with screenwriter David Murray on the project.
Beresford, who was nominated for an Oscar for the Breaker Morant screenplay in 1981, is often attached to several projects, including the comedy-drama A Woman of No Importance. However, Beresford said that film, which is based on an Oscar Wilde play, will never be made.
The director recently finished comedy-drama Peace, Love & Misunderstanding, starring Jane Fonda and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, which is scheduled for release in the US this year. His dance biopic Mao's Last Dancer was the highest grossing local film in Australia in 2009.
Chockstone Pictures' Steve Schwartz and Paula Mae Schwartz are producing Killer Instinct with Barbara De Fina. Chockstone are also producing Cogan's Trade, which is being directed by another Australian, Andrew Dominik.