Jason Statham is reportedly being lined up for the lead role in espionage thriller Echelon after Eric Bana dropped out. Almost a year ago, it was announced that Hyde Park Entertainment has picked up the rights to Andy McNab’s 13-part espionage ‘Firewall’ novel series centered on the character of Nick Stone. The British actor is set to play SAS soldier Nick Stone who attempts to halt the Russian Organized Crime from trying to gain access to the world’s largest computer intelligence database.
Deadline says that Statham hasn’t yet signed on for the film, but is looking to take on the role that Eric Bana (The Hulk) was a few months later attached to. The project will be helmed by Simon Crane which will be his feature directing debut. Simon Crane was previously been engaged as a stunt coordinator on The Tourist and Salt.
It will be the first movie financed through the $250 million Hyde Park/Imagenation Abu Dhabi deal to develop, produce and distribute up to 20 movies over 7 years. Ashok Amritraj (Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li) of Hyde Park Entertainment, Bonnie Timmermann (Georgia Rule, Bug) and Steve Chasman, who’s co-worked with Statham on The Bank Job, War and all of the Transporter films, have signed on as producers, according to Deadline.com.


At this moment we do know that John Connor is in charge for the script and no production start date has been set yet.
Jason is currently starring as the voice of Tybalt in Elton John and David Furnish’s animated Gnomeo and Juliet and has a number of projects lined up. He will next star in The Killer Elite and Safe and is anticipated to start filming The Expendables 2 with Sylvester Stallone in the near future