Neil Marshall’s Art Of Action Banner Sets Two Modern Movies

Those guys at 87North best be sleeping with one eye open — there’s a novel, UK based action outfit in town, and it’s already set its first two features. As per Deadline‘s reporting, Art Of Action Ltd. — founded by filmmakers Neil Marshall and Jadey Duffield following their work on last year’s eponymous BFI season dedicated to the genre — has struck a deal with UAE company Versatile Synergy to make two high-concept novel action movies.

The first of these two projects is a survival thriller, Skeleton Coast. To be written and directed by Marshall, whose horror classic The Descent just celebrated its 20th anniversary, Skeleton Coast is described as “an action-packed survival thriller with a dark sense of humour in the tradition of such ‘man-versus-nature’ movies as Jaws, Lake Placid, The Grey, and Beast.” Its plot revolves around members of a film crew who crash in the desert and find themselves at the mercy of savage hyenas, poachers, and human traffickers.

The second feature, hailing from Duffield, is Blackout, whose logline is quite the eye-catcher. Per the synopsis provided to Empire, Duffield’s joint is “a contained espionage Knives Out whodunnit crossed with The Raid-style action” which centres around a group of elite corporate spies who, while hiding at an exclusive off-grid resort, discover their digs have been infiltrated by enemy operatives, turning the place into — and we quote — “a blood-soaked battleground.” Count us in!

Speaking to Empire after the news broke, Marshall said of Art Of Action’s novel venture, “We’re so thrilled to be collaborating with Mohamed [F. Mostafa, founder and CEO of Versatile Synergy] and the team at Versatile and can’t wait to get stuck in. We’re really going to push the action envelope with these two movies. Bring on the mayhem!” It sounds like the race for the inaugural Achievement in Stunt Design at the 2028 Oscars is on… smashing stuff!