Filmmaker Matthew Michael Carnahan is set to direct The Gatekeeper, a new project in development for Amazon MGM Studios and Di Bonaventura Pictures.
The film adapts Deadlock, a novel by New York Times bestselling author James Byrne. The story follows Desmond “Dez” Aloysius Limerick, an unconventional and highly skilled former operative who becomes involved in a dangerous conspiracy.
According to DEADLINE reports, Dez discovers the conspiracy after a chance encounter in which he saves a reporter’s life. He then faces the challenge of stopping powerful forces determined to protect their secrets.
The character first appeared in Byrne’s novel The Gatekeeper, but the film will mainly draw from the second book in the Dez Limerick series, Deadlock, published by Minotaur Books. The series also includes Chain Reaction and Storm Warning.
Oscar-winning screenwriter Brian Helgeland adapted the screenplay for the project. Di Bonaventura Pictures and Pouya Shahbazian will produce the film.
Helgeland recently wrote and directed Paramount+’s Finestkind, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Foster, Jenna Ortega and Toby Wallace. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023 and took inspiration from Helgeland’s real-life experience as a commercial fisherman in his early 20s.
Helgeland won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for L.A. Confidential and earned another Oscar nomination for Mystic River. His writing and directing credits include Payback, starring Mel Gibson, A Knight’s Tale, starring Heath Ledger, 42, starring Chadwick Boseman, and Legend, starring Tom Hardy. He also wrote films such as Man on Fire and Green Zone.
Carnahan made his directorial debut with Mosul, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019. He also wrote World War Z for Paramount, which earned more than half a billion dollars worldwide, and Deepwater Horizon, a critically successful film produced by Di Bonaventura Pictures.
With Carnahan directing and Helgeland handling the adaptation, The Gatekeeper brings together two filmmakers with experience in action-driven and character-focused storytelling.
