Don Cheadle Leads Jazz Musician-Killer Feature ‘Canyon’ In Works At Alcon Entertainment; Derek Kolstad Scripting

Anthony D'Alessandro
·2-min read

EXCLUSIVE: Here is a project that we hear is coming together: Alcon Entertainment’s Canyon, starring Oscar nominee Don Cheadle.

The feature, which has Colin Tilley attached to direct with a screenplay by John Wick architect Derek Kolstad, takes place over the course of one scorching night. Canyon — a part-time jazz musician and full-time killer — finds himself the unlikely protector of a young siren pulled into a turf war between feuding crime families.

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Producers are Andrew Kosove, Broderick Johnson and Davis Entertainment’s John Davis and Jeremy Stein, and Kolstad. Karyn Smith-Forge is also producing with Cheadle under their company This Radicle Act.

Cheadle was nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars for 2005’s Hotel Rwanda. He starred in the Best Picture Oscar-winning movie Crash from Lionsgate and plays Rhodey in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3 and Avengers movies as well as Disney+ series Secret Invasion among other titles. Cheadle is represented by UTA.

Kolstad recently penned the sequel Nobody 2, which is set for an August 15, 2015 theatrical release; he also wrote the gritty original 2021 R-rated action pic about a docile family man (Bob Odenkirk) with an underlying secret who has no fear when squaring off against any crime boss. Kolstad wrote the first John Wick, which spawned a billion-dollar global franchise for Lionsgate starring Keanu Reeves across four films, with spinoff The Ballerina set for next year. He also wrote two episodes of MCU/Disney+’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and co-wrote Prime Video’s Die Hart starring Kevin Hart and John Travolta. He is repped by UTA, Circle Management + Production and Behr Abramson Levy Johnson.

Tilley is a Grammy-nominated music video director, commercial director, NFT creator and filmmaker. He has written and directed music videos for artists including Kendrick Lamar, Zendaya, Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj, Enrique Iglesias, 50 Cent, Tyga, Lil Wayne, Jason Derulo, Diddy, Usher, Rita Ora and others. He is repped by Circle Management + Production.

Alcon had the Sony $261 million-global grossing summer family movie The Garfield Movie, based on the Jon Davis comic strip, starring Chris Pratt voicing the big orange cat and Samuel L. Jackson. It has financed and produced or co-financed and co-produced 34 films to date including Blade Runner 2049 starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, which won Oscars for Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects and received an additional three nominations.

Alcon Television Group is in production on the live-action series Blade Runner 2099 for Prime Video starring Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer.

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