Martin Campbell is a very prolific filmmaker who has built a solid career in the world of action and thrillers. After his early minor but interesting titles Criminal Law (1988) starring Gary Oldman and Kevin Bacon, crime and law thriller Defenseless (1991), and action science-fiction No Escape (1994) with Ray Liotta and Lance Henriksen, he reached high popularity being behind one of the most acclaimed 007 movies, GoldenEye (1995), probably the only decent Bond played by Pierce Brosnan. Later, he was responsible for the James Bond reboot with Daniel Craig as the new 007, the immense and essential Casino Royale (2006). After that, more action thrillers followed like Mel Gibson‘s vehicle Edge of Darkness (2010), the forgettable superheroes disaster Green Lantern (2011), and Jackie Chan revenge flick The Foreigner (2017). Busy as a bee, he is still in post-production of an upcoming assassin-for-hire action Memory, starring Liam Neeson, Monica Bellucci, and Guy Pearce, but let’s forget about this one for now because it doesn’t have a release date yet.
His most recent work is The Protege (2021), another assassins movie with lots of action and an attractive cast. The movie centers on Anna, who was rescued as a child by the legendary assassin Moody was trained in the family business and became the world’s most skilled contract killer. But when Moody – the man who was like a father to her and taught her everything she needs to know about trust and survival – is brutally killed, Anna vows revenge. As she becomes entangled with an enigmatic killer whose attraction to her goes way beyond cat and mouse, their confrontation turns deadly and the loose ends of a life spent killing will weave themselves even tighter.
The movie has been written by Richard Wenk, who was the director of horror and fantasy Vamp (1986), and became another big name in action movies as the author for the screenplays of titles like 16 Blocks (2006), The Mechanic (2011), The Expendables 2 (2012), The Equalizer (2014), Countdown (2016), The Magnificent Seven (2016), Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016), American Renegades (2017), and The Equalizer 2 (2018).
In The Protege (2021), Maggie Q plays the mortal assassin Anna while Samuel L. Jackson was her mentor Moody. The main cast is completed with Michael Keaton, Robert Patrick, David Rintoul, Patrick Malahide, Ray Fearon, Ori Pfeffer, Florin Piersic Jr., Tudor Chirila, Velizar Binev, and George Pistereanu.
Filming for The Protege (2021) took place in Bucharest, London, and Da Nang, in Vietnam. The film is Rated R for strong and bloody violence, language, some sexual references, and brief nudity. Lionsgate has the distribution rights and has scheduled it for a release in the USA and Canada on August 20, 2021.
Watch the trailer for The Protege (2021) here.
