Guy Pearce, Monica Bellucci join Liam Neeson in Martin Campbell’s ‘Memory’

Black Bear Pictures announced today Emmy Award winner Guy Pearce (Mildred Pierce, The Rover) and Monica Bellucci (The Man Who Sold His Skin, Spectre) will star alongside Liam Neeson (Taken trilogy, The Commuter, Widows) in Martin Campbell’s (Casino Royale, Goldeneye) Memory. 

Harold Torres (ZeroZeroZero, El Chapo), Taj Atwal (Line of Duty, Truth Seekers) and Ray Fearon (Beauty and the Beast, The Foreigner) have also joined the cast of the action-packed crime thriller penned by Dario Scardapane (The Bridge, Netflix’s The Punisher), based on the book De Zaak Alzheimer by Jef Geeraerts and the Belgian film The Memory of a Killer written and directed by Erik Van Looy and written by Carl Joos.

Memory follows Alex Lewis (Neeson), an expert assassin with a reputation for discreet precision. When Alex refuses to complete a job for a dangerous criminal organization, he becomes a target and must go on the hunt for those who want him dead. Veteran FBI agents Vincent Serra (Pearce), Linda Amistead (Atwal) and Mexican intelligence liaison Hugo Marquez (Torres) are brought in to investigate the trail of bodies, leading them closer to Alex, but also drawing the ire of local tech mogul Davana Sealman (Bellucci). With the crime syndicate and FBI in hot pursuit, Alex has the skills to stay ahead, except for one thing – he is struggling with severe memory loss, affecting his every move.  As details blur and enemies close in, Alex must question his every action, and who he can ultimately trust. 

Black Bear Pictures (I Care A Lot, The Imitation Game) is financing Memory.  Academy Award-winning producer Cathy Schulman (Crash), through her Welle Entertainment banner, Rupert Maconick (Eddie the Eagle), Black Bear’s Michael Heimler (I Care A Lot), and Arthur Sarkissian (upcoming The Asset) are producing. Black Bear’s Teddy Schwarzman and Ben Stillman serve as Executive Producers alongside Peter Bouckaert and Rudy Durand. Principal photography is currently underway in Bulgaria.

Pearce won an Emmy Award (and was nominated for a Golden Globe) for his starring role in HBO’s mini-series Mildred Pierce, and is best known for his film roles including The Rover, The Hurt Locker, The King’s Speech, and Memento. Bellucci received a César nomination for her star turning role in L’appartement, and has since featured in films including The Man Who Sold His Skin (nominated in the Best International Film category for the 2021 Academy Awards), On the Milky Road, Spectre, The Wonders, The Matrix Revolutions and Reloaded, and recently starred as herself in two episodes of the Netflix hit series Call My Agent (Dix pour cent).

Torres recently starred in Amazon’s ZeroZeroZero for which he received a Film Independent Spirit Award nomination. His credits include: Netflix’s El Chapo, Northless, Run Coyote Run among many others. Atwal most recently starred in Amazon Prime’s Truth Seekers, alongside Simon Pegg, and recently appeared in BBC hit series Line of Duty. She is also known for roles in BBC’s The Syndicate and ITV/PBS’s Van Der Valk. Fearon’s film credits include Beauty and the Beast, The Foreigner, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and television credits include HBO’s His Dark Materials and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Emmy-winning Fleabag.

Memory marks another major title that falls under the output deal between Black Bear and STXinternational, following the recent announcement regarding Neil Burger’s The Marsh King’s Daughter, starring Daisy Ridley.

STXinternational has secured international rights to the film and the company will also distribute the film directly in the UK, Ireland and India, with Black Bear’s sister company, Elevation Pictures Corp, releasing in Canada. CAA Media Finance, which arranged financing for the film, is representing domestic distribution rights.

Black Bear most recently debuted J Blakeson’s I Care A Lot in February, earning a #1 slot on Netflix and a Golden Globes win for ‘Best Actress’ for Rosamund Pike.

Pearce is represented by CAA, Independent Talent Group and Shanahan Management; Bellucci is represented by CAA, AS Talents, represented by Alexandra Schamis, Do MGMT and Officine Artistiche; Torres is repped by ICM Partners and Mosaic; Atwal is repped by Hamilton Hodell; and Fearon is repped by Markham, Froggatt and Irwin. Neeson and Campbell are repped by CAA; Neeson is also repped by Artist Right Group and Arcieri & Associates.

Photos: Kathy Hutchins, Denis Makarenko/Shutterstock

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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