Lionsgate, Samuel Goldwyn, IFC Films and Briarcliff have submitted offers to acquire Alan Ritchson thriller “Motor City” following the film’s premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, TheWrap has exclusively learned.
Insiders note the process is still early and other buyers have shown interest in the film but haven’t submitted offers yet.
Set in 1970s Detroit, “Motor City” follows an auto worker (Ritchson) who is framed by a local gangster (Ben Foster) and sent to prison. When he is released years later, he sets out on a mission to exact revenge and reconnect with his former love (Shailene Woodley). Revenge, love, betrayal. These are all recognizable ingredients of genre storytelling, and “Motor City” makes full use of them.
Considered one of the buzziest titles for sale at TIFF, the action script by Chad St. John, known for reliably pulp action movies like “Peppermint” and “London Has Fallen,” got a lot of attention when it made the 2009 Black List, most notably for its complete absence of dialogue.
In his review of the film, TheWrap’s executive awards editor Steve Pond wrote: “John Miller, the central character in ‘Motor City,’ has no such qualms. Embodied by Alan Ritchson (‘Reacher’) with John Cena’s musculature, Dog the Bounty Hunter’s hair and the Hulk’s jawline, he’s thrown a guy off a building, shotgunned a couple of people, clung to the hood of a speeding car and fired another blast while hurtling backwards off the hood of that car after the driver slammed on the brakes … all under garish neon lights on rain-slicked streets, and all before the opening credits.”
According to director Potsy Ponciroli (“Old Henry”), it was that combination of new and old, familiar and experimental, that made “Motor City” such a compelling project.
“That was the beauty of [screenwriter Chad St. John’s] script,” Ponciroli told Pond at TheWrap’s 2025 Toronto International Film Festival Studio. “This is a movie we’ve seen. You’ve seen the revenge story. You’ve seen the love triangle. You’ve seen those beats. Giving the audience at least that head start allowed us to really play with and deliver things in a sparse way. We don’t have to force-feed anything.”
