Hayley Atwell Joins Gerard Butler In Empire City Hostage Thriller

A major Marvel star has joined the cast of Gerard Butler’s upcoming hostage thriller Empire City. Butler is best known for starring in films like 300, Olympus Has Fallen, The Phantom of the Opera, Den of Thieves and How to Train Your Dragon.

His next project is a movie called Empire City, in which the actor plays Rhett, a firefighter who attempts to save several innocent lives amid a hostage crisis at the Clybourn Building in New York City.

Deadline is reporting that Hayley Atwell has signed on to co-star in Empire City as Rhett’s wife, Dani, who’s a member of the New York City Police Department and is tasked with rescuing the hostages alongside her husband.

The film is being directed by Love & Monsters‘ Michael Matthews, with the script written by Brian Tucker and S. Craig Zahler. Producers include Alan Siegel, Marc Butan, Paul Currie, Quirin Berg and Alexander Janssen.

Production on Empire City will kick off sometime this month. A studio is not attached to distribute the film just yet, but according to Deadline, a deal could be reached at the American Film Market in the coming days.

Atwell is famous for playing Agent Peggy Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Avengers: Endgame and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

On the small screen, she starred in her own MCU spinoff series Agent Carter after appearing on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Atwell then reprised the role in the animated series What If…? on Disney+.

Outside of the MCU, Atwell starred with Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.

Both Butler and Atwell have been nominated for multiple awards over the years, with the former receiving a nod at the Satellite Awards for his role in The Phantom of the Opera. His breakout film 300 earned him an MTV Movie + TV Award, Empire Award and Saturn Award.

Atwell, meanwhile, was nominated for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film at the Golden Globes for The Pillars of the Earth. Her role in the MCU earned her two Scream Award nominations for Captain America: The First Avenger and a Saturn Award nod for Agent Carter.

Now the two actors are teaming up to play husband and wife in Empire City. While a release date hasn’t been revealed yet, it will likely be announced in the coming months, along with the rest of the cast in what is expected to be an edge-of-your-seat thriller.