Gerard Butler to film thriller Copshop in New Mexico and Georgia

Gerard Butler and Frank Grillo are set to star in an action thriller, Copshop, that will film in New Mexico and Georgia in October.  

Joe Carnahan directs from a screenplay that was originally written by Kurt McLeod, although Carnahan will be calling the shots from his own, most recent draft. 

As reported on Deadline, the plot unfolds in a small-town police station that becomes a battleground between a professional hitman (Butler), a smart rookie female police officer, and a double-crossing conman (Grillo), who seeks refuge behind bars with no place left to run.

The producers are Mark Williams and Tai Duncan of Zero Gravity Management; Carnahan and Grillo via their shingle WarParty Films; Warren Goz and Eric Gold of Sculptor Media, and Butler and Alan Siegel’s outfit G-BASE Productions. 

The executive producers are James Masciello, Matthew Sidari and Ortenberg, for the recently-relaunched distributors Open Road Films.

New Mexico and Georgia are long-established international production hubs, with the former – the first US state to offer production incentives - often doubling for global desert locations. New Mexico has also enjoyed a recent profile boost with Netflix acquiring ABQ Studios and Universal announcing it is converting an existing Albuquerque warehouse into a major filming facility. 

Georgia, nicknamed the Hollywood of the south, offers a 30% incentive, and regularly hosts multiple large-scale shoots – recent visitors have included Avengers: Endgame, Venom and Watchmen. 

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