Col buys 'Smokejumpers' pitch from scribe
Mullin sells firefighting actioner with Baumgarten, Merrims producing
Pitch was based on the adventures of what Mullin describes as "the Green Berets of firefighting," those who parachute into forest blazes with little more than axes and hubris.
Pic will be produced by Craig Baumgarten and Adam Merrims of Baumgarten/Prophet Entertainment, and will be supervised by Col's exec veepee of production, Doug Belgrad.
"It's very much character-driven," Mullin said, adding "I was sort of inspired by the old Clint Eastwood movie 'The Eiger Sanction' -- it's where Clint plays a CIA killer who has to identify his target while climbing in this mountain expedition in Austria, and he has to kill his target before he discovers and kills him."
So, too, with "Smokejumpers," which is a thriller within an actioner: Project centers on an undercover FBI agent who must pose as a smokejumper to find a serial bank robber -- one who is, himself, an airborne firefighter. The trouble begins when the agent finds he has little clue as to who among his crew of 18 paratrooping firemen is actually the killer.
Mullin had most recently penned "Trillion" for New Line Cinema, and "The Rallye" at Warner Bros.
"There's this element of 'whodunit' to it, while at the same time, there's 5 million ways for our hero to die," Mullin said.
