Leslie Grace will co-star alongside Patrick Schwarzenegger in The Journeyman, a crime thriller directed by Ángel Manuel Soto, Deadline reports. Schwarzenegger plays a down-on-his-luck tennis pro drawn into match-fixing to support his family, while Grace plays his fiercely loyal fiancée. The script comes from husband-wife writing duo The Roberts, with revisions by Bill Dubuque.
AGC Studios will fully finance and produce the film, with Stuart Ford producing alongside Bryan Haas, Mason Eways, and Scott Franklin, and AGC’s Miguel A. Palos Jr., Zach Garrett, and Anant Tamirisa executive producing. Production begins November 30 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with The Pimienta Film Company providing production services. The project has been in development for several years, previously attached to Dev Patel with Tarsem Singh set to direct before the current creative team came aboard.
For Soto, this marks his latest project following The Wrecking Crew, the Amazon MGM action-comedy starring Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista. He previously directed Blue Beetle, the first Latino-led superhero film from a major studio, and Charm City Kings, which premiered at Sundance and won a U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for its ensemble cast.
Grace, known for In the Heights, recently released her album ¿Amor Quién Eres? through Sony Music Latin. Schwarzenegger, known for The White Lotus, is currently filming Mike Birbiglia’s Focus Features comedy Old Friends New Friends.
AGC International holds international rights and will continue shopping the project at next month’s American Film Market, with UTA and WME co-repping domestic sales.
With production set to begin next month and a cast now locked in, the next thing to watch is how the film’s long development history, including its earlier iteration with different lead talent attached, shapes the final version now moving forward.