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Canuck producer-distributor Peace Arch Entertainment has inked Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight champ Rich Franklin to star in the actioner "Weapon."

Pic also stars Bruce Greenwood and Tiffani Thiessen. Peace Arch will handle Canadian distribution and sell the movie internationally. Lensing is under way in Hamilton, Ontario.

UFC is a fighting league that mixes martial arts with wrestling and boxing. In the pic, a U.S. border patrol agent (Thiessen) apprehends a genetically engineered super-soldier (Franklin) but runs into trouble when the soldier's creator (Greenwood) starts hunting them down.

Movie is produced by Joshua Gray and directed by John Stead, based on a screenplay by Peach Arch president John Flock and Christopher Warre Smets. Exec producers are Jacqueline Kelly, Barbara Sacks, Kate Harrison and Lewin Webb.