Toronto Deals: Valhalla Entertainment Producing Maritime Revenge Thriller ‘The Shipkiller’

Robert Connolly will direct the adaptation of Justin Scott's novel

Valhalla Entertainment and Arenamedia are partnering to produce "The Shipkiller," the companies said Tuesday at the Toronto Film Festival. 

The revenge thriller is based on a book by Justin Scott, and was nearly made into a film in 1979 with David Niven and Sean Connery. The story centers on a man's quest to demolish the super tanker that sank his sail boat and killed his wife — sort of like "Moby Dick" with a big ship instead of a white whale.

Robert Connolly has been attached to direct the picture, although  there is still no word on casting. Connolly is an Australian director who is behind "Underground," which documents the teenage years of Julian Assange, when Wikileaks was merely a glint in his adolescent eye.

Valhalla's Gale Anne Hurd, the producer of such high voltage action fare as "Terminator" and "Aliens," will produce the film along with Connolly.

Connolly is represented by Jennifer Levine at Untitled.

Comments