Joey King Is Reportedly Co-Starring In An Action Movie With Brad Pitt
The Kissing Booth 2 marks Joey King's third hit in three years, after the original 2018 Kissing Booth and 2019's The Act. That kind of run is hard to pull off, since streaming began to diversify the entertainment landscape. With 2021 guaranteeing a release of The Kissing Booth 3, the actor's success story isn't over yet, and it looks like she's working to extend that streak even further, since Joey King and Brad Pitt's reported movie Bullet Train looks like it's getting ready to pull out of the station.
The project, which is being developed at Sony Pictures, will be headed up by David Leitch, best known for 2019's hit film Hobbs & Shaw, part of the Fast & Furious franchise. Bullet Train will be another action thriller, though this one is based on the Japanese novel Mariabītoru (which translates to Maria Beetle). Written by Kotaro Isaka, the English translation of the book is due out in 2021.
Set aboard one of the Shinkansen (the network of high-speed railway lines in Japan nicknamed the "bullet trains"), Maria Beetle is about five assassins, each on an individual mission. The five discover they are all on the same bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka, and that their assignments are not as unrelated as they first appear. The thriller hinges on who will survive the train ride, and what awaits them at their destination.
Brad Pitt was first announced to be attached to the project back in June 2020 as his first major big-screen project since winning the Oscar for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Now King is in talks to join the cast.
Details of who King would play are vague at this point. The assassins in the novel, Nanao, Ouji, Kimura, Lemon, and Mikan, are all men. Considering King is reportedly being considered for one of the "four leads opposite Pitt," this could indicate a potentially gender-flipped character.
On the other hand, the narrator of the story, Kozue Harashima, is a woman, as are some of the assassins' handlers. (Nanao's mission, for instance, comes from his agent, Maria.) King could also be up for one of those roles. Until talks are nailed down, and King is officially cast, it's all just speculation.
However, King's involvement in the movie does look promising. Elite Daily reached out to King's team for confirmation of her casting and did not hear back in time for publication. However, on Aug. 3, King Instagrammed a screenshot of a report about her connection to the film, accompanied by the caption: "I’m so excited it’s kind of unbelievable! Is this real life?" So yeah, it sounds like this train has left the station already.
Bullet Train is currently expected to begin production in Los Angeles in the fall with an eye on a 2021 or 2022 release date.
