Samuel L. Jackson is set to star as a hitman in an untitled thriller to be directed by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra and written by Matthew Stone.
Endeavor Content will represent worldwide sales for the film at the European Film Market, and it will be produced by John Davis, known for “The Predator” franchise and “Game Night.”
Jackson will play Morris Stokes, a retiree who loves loves golf, his Lexus and ’70s soul music. But the former hitman for mob boss “Easy-A” has got more kills under his belt than he can count. When his nephew, Leslie, makes a stupid mistake, Morris gets a call from his old boss and must negotiate one last job: either help the kid recover the lost money, or put a bullet in him. Morris drags Leslie around town, making him clean up his mess while pontificating on some of life’s lessons along the way.
Stone is known for his work on “Man of the House” and “Intolerable Cruelty.” Requa and Ficarra are producers and directors on “This Is Us,” and their last feature was 2016’s “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” starring Tina Fey.
Jackson most recently was seen in “The Last Full Measure” and last summer’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home.” This year he’ll be seen in “The Banker” for Apple TV+, Chris Rock’s “Saw” spinoff movie “Spiral,” and “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard” alongside Ryan Reynolds.
He’s represented by ICM Partners and Anonymous Content.
Samuel L. Jackson is reprising his role as John Shaft in "Shaft", which comes out this Friday. Scroll on to discover some little-known facts about the acclaimed actor. Trust us when we say: You'll likely be surprised by at least one of them.Getty ImagesJackson is ranked as the all-time highest-grossing box office star with a total of his movies grossing $5.1 billion. His most commercially successful movies include the "Avengers" franchise, the 1996 crime drama "A Time To Kill," the original "Incredibles" movie from 2004, and the 2012 Quentin Tarantino film "Django Unchained."Getty ImagesJackson was born in Tennessee and went on to attend the historically black Morehouse College, where he started out as a marine biology major before switching to acting. Getty ImagesDuring his college years, Jackson became involved in the Civil Rights movement and served as an usher at Martin Luther King, Jr.'s funeral after his assassination in 1967. The assassination moved him to become more deeply involved in the movement: "I was angry about the assassination, but I wasn’t shocked by it. I knew that change was going to take something different—not sit-ins, not peaceful coexistence," he told Parade in 2005. US Library of CongressJackson was expelled from Morehouse after he and his peers held several members of the college's board of trustees hostage, including MLK's father, to demand reform in the school's curriculum and governance. The expulsion galvanized Jackson and he became involved with the black power movement. However, after FBI agents visited his house and told his mother that he was not likely to survive the year if he remained in Atlanta, his mother put him on a plane to Los Angeles. He returned to Morehouse in 1971 to receive his acting degree.Chicago Urban League RecordsJackson made his film debut in the 1972 independent feature "Together for Days," a blaxploitation movie about the relationship between a white woman and a black radical, but he did not achieve stardom until his role in Quentin Tarantino's breakout 1994 crime drama "Pulp Fiction."Miramax FilmsIn 1974, Jackson met his future wife LaTanya Richardson at a student rehearsal in Atlanta. It was love at first sight: "We started talking, and boom! I knew she was the person for me. From then on, we were always together, and we’ve stayed that way," he told Parade in a 2005 interview. The couple have been together for more than 40 years and have one daughter.Getty ImagesJackson entered the New York theater scene in 1976, where he hung out with the likes of Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, and Alfre Woodard. His time in the theater remains central to Jackson's acting: “I’m a theater actor. It’s a different breed. Actors create characters. Movie stars are eye candy. They come and go.”Getty ImagesJackson described himself as a "hard taskmaster for some directors” in a 2017 interview with The New York Times. He said that he refuses to do extra takes and that the ability to golf twice a week is written into all of his contracts.Getty Images8 Things You Probably Didn't Know About 'Shaft' Star Samuel L Jackson (Photos) Before he was Shaft, Jackson got his start in the Civil Rights movement and NY theater scene View In Gallery
