Principal photography started this week on Screen Gems’ action thriller Proud Mary, starring Taraji P. Henson with Billy Brown, Jahi Di’Allo Winston, Neal McDonough, Margaret Avery, Xander Berkeley and Danny Glover. Babak Najafi directs from a script by John Stuart Newman and Christian Swegal. Paul Schiff and Tai Duncan are producing. Taraji P. Henson and Glenn S. Gainor are executive producers and Andrea Ajemian is co-producer. Casting is by Nancy Nayor.
Taraji P. Henson is Mary, a hit woman working for an organized crime family in Boston, whose life is completely turned around when she meets a young boy whose path she crosses when a professional hit goes bad.
Henson, acclaimed for such diverse roles as Katherine Johnson in the Oscar-nominated Hidden Figures, Cookie Lyon on Fox TV’s Empire (Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated performance) and Queenie in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Oscar-nominated performance), adds an indelible portrayal as the fierce and beautiful Mary.
Jahi Di’Allo Winston (Feed The Beast) is Danny, a streetwise kid unaware of what prompts Mary to come to his aid; Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon) plays Benny, Mary’s fatherly but brutally unforgiving boss; Billy Brown (How To Get Away With Murder) is Tom, Benny’s son, a fellow professional who was once romantically involved with Mary; Neal McDonough (Captain America: The First Avenger) is a well-manicured killer primed to be sacrificed to maintain peace; Margaret Avery (The Color Purple) is Benny’s wise, refined wife; and Xander Berkeley (The Mentalist) is the drug-dealing sadist Mary eradicates, provoking an all-out turf war.
Director Babak Najafi most recently helmed the internationally successful action thriller London Has Fallen. (see our review)
The writers are John Stuart Newman (Dirty Work) and Christian Swegal (Stasis), the director of photography is Dan Laustsen (John Wick: Chapter 2), the production designer is Carl Sprague (Infinitely Polar Bear), the editor is Evan Schiff (Southside With You) and the costume designer is Deborah Newhall (Cadaver).
Proud Mary films in Boston and surrounding Massachusetts cities through May, and will be released in theaters nationwide by Screen Gems in January 2018.
