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8 months ago
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EXCLUSIVE: Pierre Morel, the veteran action director behind Taken, has been tapped to direct a feature based on the popular racing NFT Reactor Motors from the company of the same name, Deadline has learned.
The film will be produced by Morel, Mike Bundlie and Barry Levine (Oblivion, Hercules) of Abstract Entertainment, and Renee Tab of Sentient Entertainment (Peppermint, Overdrive).
Created by artist and Abstract co-founder Bundlie, Reactor Motors’ storyline follows geophysicist Eva Mason as she accidentally discovers a new mineral she calls Reykium while researching geothermal energy in Iceland’s volcanoes. The mineral is energetically reactive to metal which she and her team convert into the future of clean energy race cars in hopes of making it globally available. Subsequently, her team’s racing wins catch the attention of an energy conglomerate that will do anything to acquire the Reykium engine.
“Pierre is the perfect director for REACTOR with his ability to convey deeply emotional connections to characters within a high octane action setting,” Bundlie told Deadline. “Having him, Abstract and Sentient at the helm, is our dream team for introducing the world of REACTOR to a new audience. “I’m overjoyed to be bringing this world to the screen that has been so passionately supported by the collectors.”
As the first procedurally generated video NFT collection on Open Sea, the custom designed cars of Reactor, each one unique with varying levels of rarity, quickly sold out to curious fans. Those fans became a community as Reactor Motors expanded the brand into the first console-style NFT racing game built in Unreal Engine, where owners of the NFT Reactor cars can race each other in a 3D world immersed in the storyline. The game is in Beta testing and available to anyone who owns a Reactor NFT.
In celebration of the feature, a new series of Reactor Car NFTs, currently dubbed the Y Series, will be announced for sale in Q2. In addition to the film and game, Reactor Motors has announced additional licenses and merchandise including an upcoming augmented reality comic book series and graphic novel being distributed by Abstract Comics, a division of Abstract Entertainment, which focuses on the origin story of Reactor and how Eva and her team first developed the cars that are central to the video game. The comics will have special edition covers from top comic industry artists including Rob Prior, whose work with Star Wars, Stan Lee and Marvel has earned him fans worldwide.
A cinematographer turned director, Morel is best known for helming Taken, the modestly budgeted French indie thriller that went on to gross nearly $300M worldwide and spawned two sequels and a television series, making it one of the rare indie film franchises in history to gross $1B worldwide. Prior to that, he helmed the French-language Parkour actioner District B13 which became a cult classic and spawned both a sequel and an English-language remake.
Other features from Morel include the French actioner From Paris with Love, international spy drama The Gunman starring Sean Penn, Javier Bardem and Mark Rylance, and the recent female driven action-thriller Peppermint. Most recently directing the action comedy Freelance, starring John Cena and Alison Brie, Morel also directed and exec produced the pilot for both NBC medical series The Night Shift and ABC sci-fi drama Zero Hour. Currently, he’s in post on Canary Black, an action feature starring Kate Beckinsale.
Creating and producing highly visual films based on the graphic novels it releases, Abstract Entertainment’s founders most recently produced Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods and Netflix’s award winner Trees of Peace.
Coming off of surprise blockbuster Sound of Freedom, Sentient is in post alongside Morel on Canary Black. In pre-production on Last Meals starring Boyd Holbrook and Kelly Reilly, the company also has a remake of supernatural horror The Others set up at Universal.
Morel is repped by UTA, Sentient’s Renee Tab and attorney Gretchen Rush.
