"It’s a much deeper, darker journey."
The latest addition to the 'Has Fallen' series is only a couple of months away and Gerard Butler is already teasing fans with the movie's 'new direction'.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly the Scottish actor revealed that 'Angel Has Fallen' will be grittier than the two previous iterations, namely 'Olympus Has Fallen' and 'London Has Fallen'.
Butler will reprise his role as Secret Service agent Mike Banning, but this time around he's been framed for an assassination attempt on President Allan Trumbull, played by Morgan Freeman, which forces him to go on the run to prove his innocence.
"It’s the same man in the same position, but it’s a much deeper, darker journey. There’s still huge set pieces and we made sure not to disappoint the fans of the first two, but you’re really inside this character, watching him try to get his shit together," he said.
"I feel like we’ve been brave in taking this new direction. If it pays off, then maybe we make a fourth. If it doesn’t, then hey, I had a blast."
Butler and director Ric Roman Waugh scrapped two scripts before settling on the new plot which takes inspiration from movies like 'Taken', 'The Fugitive' and 'The Bourne Identity.'
“If you have some IP and it’s based on something and you have a big studio behind it, you expect that [success],” he says. “It feels exciting when you create something yourself and it becomes a franchise, rather than jumping into some big studio project. Nowadays, there are so many superhero movies, and Mike is a regular guy with regular challenges, but he’s also incredibly loyal, courageous, and heroic. I think that people really buy into that, and it’s always great to foster a new hero and go on a journey with him.”
'Angel Has Fallen' hits cinemas in August.