Gerard Butler - Thunder Run & Olympus Has Fallen updates

Action pic 'Thunder Run' to start filming this summer

Freedom Films have announced that VFX production has started for 3-D action-thriller Thunder Run and that principal photography kicks off this summer. The Simon West-directed film will star Gerard Butler, Sam Worthington and Matthew McConaughey. Here's the announcement:

Freedom Films CEO, Brian Presley is proud to announce the closing of a substantial domestic P&A financing arrangement days prior to Cannes for the CG 3-D action thriller “Thunder Run.” The film will be co-financed by Presley’s Freedom Films and CEO Fred Malmburg’s company, Paradox Entertainment with Gerard Butler, Sam Worthington and Matthew McConaughey starring. Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park International is handling sales at Cannes during the upcoming Marche du Film.

VFX production has already begun on the CG 3-D film with principal photography set to begin this Summer. Presley is producing alongside Jib Polhemus of The Graphic Film Company, with Simon West directing. “Thunder Run,” is an all CG 3-D action thriller based on the non-fiction book “Thunder Run - The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent David Zucchino. Adapting the story for the screen are Academy Award-winner Robert Port and Ken Nolan, screenwriter of “Black Hawk Down.”

“Thunder Run” is the untold story of the dangerous and bloody capture of Baghdad by American Forces at the onset of the Iraq War. In April 2003, three battalions and fewer than a thousand men launched a violent thrust of tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles into the heart of a city of five million, igniting a three-day blitzkrieg, which military professionals often refer to as a lightning strike, or “thunder run.” In telling the story of the surprise assault on Baghdad--one of the most decisive battles in recent American combat history--this movie paints the harrowing picture of the soldiers on the front lines and the realities of modern warfare.

Freedom Films is represented by Jay Cohen of the Gersh Agency.

Source: Coming Soon

Also reported by Variety 

Update on 'White House Taken' (previously titled 'Olympus Has Fallen')

Roland Emmerich's White House Down will roll out in theatres on Nov. 1, 2013 -- the date previously held by the director's sci-fi epic Singularity, which was halted in preproduction last year. Singularity remains a priority project for Sony, but White House Down is further along, according to a studio spokesman. White House was acquired by Sony based on a script by James Vanderbilt, who also penned this summer's The Amazing Spider-Man and Total Recall. Mythology Entertainment is producing. The movie revolves around a paramilitary takeover of the White House. Emmerich (2012, The Day After Tomorrow) and Sony are in the process of casting. White House will open opposite Ender's Game, based on the best-selling young-adult book series.

There is a rival project, however. Gerard Butler is set to star in White House Taken for Nu Image/Millennium Films (it previously was titled Olympus Has Fallen). Butler will play a former Secret Service agent called back to duty when terrorists overtake the White House.

Millennium will be shopping White House Taken at the upcoming Cannes Film Market. It doesn't have a domestic distribution deal yet. 

Source: HollywoodReporter