EXCLUSIVE: Former UFC Middleweight champion turned actor Michael Bisping (Red Sonja) and George Finn (Time Lapse) have signed on to star in Atlas King, a feature from filmmaker Nika Agiashvili (Daughter of the Wolf).
The film is described as a “gritty thriller” and will be on sale at the Cannes market with Storyman Pictures.
Agiashvili is producing alongside John Edward Lee and Finn through Storyman. Bisping will also produce, with Giga Chikadze associate producing. Production is scheduled to begin this summer in Downtown Los Angeles.
The film follows a hardened ex-fighter (Bisping in the titular role), who comes back to town after years in exile to bury his best friend and settle old debts. Reunited with his godson (Finn), a street-level enforcer tied to a criminal syndicate, the two forge an uneasy alliance and plot a high-stakes heist to escape the grip of a ruthless mob boss.
Bisping competed in both the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). His professional fighting career spanned from 2004 to 2017. At UFC 78, Bisping made history as the first British fighter to headline a UFC main event. He won the Middleweight Championship and became Britain’s first UFC Champion at UFC 199. He was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2019.
Bisping’s acting credits include XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017), My Name Is Lenny (2017), Den of Thieves (2018), and Triple Threat (2019). Finn starred in Lionsgate’s LOL, opposite Miley Cyrus and Demi Moore, and Royal Pictures’ Time Lapse, opposite Danielle Panabaker and Matt O’Leary. He can be seen most recently as a guest star on CBS’s S.W.A.T.
“I’m thrilled to collaborate with Nika and his team,” Bisping said. “The script grabbed me from the beginning.”
