Since bursting onto the scene with V/H/S/ 2‘s Gareth Evans co-directed segment ‘Safe Haven’, Indonesian filmmaker Timo Tjahjanto has steadily built a very robust directorial CV — delivering the one-two punch of 80s Hong Kong action homage The Night Comes For Us and horror joint May the Devil Take You before proving his Hollywood genre chops with last year’s violent delight Nobody 2. Now, in the same week the first trailer dropped for Tjahjanto’s second Hollywood sequel on the trot, The Beekeeper 2, Deadline is reporting that the action man is set for original Miramax action comedy The Burnout.
Now, we tend to err on the side of caution when movies get floated with tantalising ‘X meets Y’ descriptions (although Send Help‘s ‘Cast Away meets Misery‘ was a recent one that proved deliciously right), but The Burnout comes with a real doozy. Per Deadline, Tjahjanto’s next movie is being billed as — wait for it! — The Big Lebowski meets Jason Bourne, with the action following a past his prime former CIA agent, whose life as a carefree burnout (hey, that’s the title!) in Ibiza is upended when he finds himself reluctantly dragged back into action. Penned by Tom O’Connor (The Hitman’s Bodyguard), with further punch-ups by Hunter Toro, the movie may have a premise that feels distinctly Nobody-esque, but that stoner comedy/espionage thriller comp bodes well for an actioner that’ll come carrying its own distinct flavour and tonality.
The Burnout is just the latest exciting genre movie plate Timo Tjahjanto is spinning at present, and joins a pipeline that elsewhere includes a planned Simu Liu led Sleeping Dogs adaptation, a sequel to Netflix hit The Shadow Strays, and an as-yet-untitled Indonesian-language thriller that’s currently in production at Netflix as well. All of which is to say that if you happen to be a Timo head (which we very much all do here at Empire HQ) then it looks like there’ll be no shortage of Tjahjanto-shaped treats punching, kicking, and otherwise fighting their way onto our screens in the near future.
