A Chris Pine Movie Just Went Bankrupt
An upcoming Chris Pine thriller movie just went bankrupt, and the companies behind it are scrambling for their next step.
This article is more than 2 years old
Chris Pine is one of the more bankable movie stars in the world right now, but that doesn’t mean his movies can’t go bankrupt. It is, however, a somewhat unusual case for a movie to be placed under Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, which in the United States is a particular form of asset protection when an insolvent company restructures itself. Pretty fascinating, huh? In this particular incident, the movie in question is called The Contractor and stars Pine as a former US Special Forces officer who joins a Blackwater-style private security firm. Apparently, he is still the hero of the movie and has to join forces with a fellow veteran played by Kiefer Sutherland to make it back home to his family. Check out the trailer:
This particular Chris Pine film in which he plays a highly skilled government operative who finds himself and his family at risk from nefarious forces (as opposed to this one or this one) was produced by STX Entertainment, which is currently trying to make a transition from a 2020 merger with Eros International plc., to being a subsidiary of Najafi Companies (a private equity firm run by Jahm Najafi, who is also a part-owner of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns). It is very much the kind of behind-the-scenes dealing, restructuring, and business acquisitions that mostly goes unseen by the average consumer of films. In this case, it is mostly notable because it puts an actual film under the protection of bankruptcy law, as opposed to a corporation or LLC. In any case, The Contractor will still be released by Paramount in the United States on April 1, albeit in an apparently limited theater run.
Even if The Contractor were delayed or prevented from release by this particular business maneuver, it’s not as though there will be a particular dearth of Chris Pine movies coming out. He is set to star in the CIA thriller All the Old Knives, which will co-star a stacked cast including Laurence Fishburne, Jonathan Pryce, and Thandiwe Newton. It is an Amazon Prime Video production, so get ready to unavoidably find it everywhere soon. Amazon also appears to be going in on gritty, US military-themed projects starring one of the famous Chrisses, as they also have the limited series The Terminal List starring Chris Pratt as a highly skilled government operative out to catch bad guys (and/or torture them, by the looks of this one).
Chris Pine also has his regular gig as the non-William Shatner variant of Captain James T. Kirk, and a fourth Star Trek feature film was recently announced. We are going to remain cautious on that one, because it appears Pine himself was pretty unaware that he was going to be starring in it until recently and co-star Karl Urban (Dr. McCoy/The Butcher Boy himself) has apparently not even seen a script. Pine will also be starring in the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie, so get ready for another year full of different guys named Chris filling the box office.
