‘Afterburn’: Dave Bautista led Comic Book Adaptation Has Wrapped Filming!!

The next big action film from Dave Bautista has just received a major update. The actor has announced that filming has wrapped on Afterburn, the upcoming action sci-fi feature based on the Red 5 Comics series of the same name. The film will also star Samuel L. Jackson, Olga Kurylenko, and Kristofer Hivju, and Bautista took some time to show love to his castmates on the project.

Bautista made the annoucement on social media, shouting out the creative team as well as Afterburn director J.J. Perry. “Afterburn is officially wrapped. What a journey!! Love and respect to the stellar cast, crew, producers and the big boss JJ Perry,” said Bautista. “We brought the heat!” His post also featured several photos with Jackson and Kurylenko, as well as a short video of Bautista, Jackson, and Perry sharing a conversation between takes.

Afterburn will be based on the comic book written by Scott Chitwood and Paul Ens. The adaptation is set in a dystopian world a decade after a solar flare caused the planet to be turned into a wasteland. The film will follow Jake (Bautista), an ex-soldier who works as a “treasure hunter” recovering valuables from before the flare for wealthy clients. His latest mission is to recover the Mona Lisa, and he teams up with freedom fighter Drea (Kurylenko) to find the painting before a dangerous warlord gets it first. Perry directed the film from an adapted screenplay by Matthew Johnson and Nimrod Antal. The film comes from Black Bear and is produced by Bautista for his Dogbone Entertainment banner alongside Steve Richards for Endurance Media, and Neal H. Moritz and Toby Jaffe for Original Films.

‘Afterburn’ Has Been a Long Time Coming

The road to the screen for Afterburn has not been an easy one – or a short one. The film was reported to be in development as far back as 2010, when it was announced that Antonie Fuqua would direct the adaptation with Gerard Butler set to star. That version never got off the ground, but two years later, it was reported that a rewrite of the film was in motion, with Butler still set to star and director Tommy Wirkola set to replace Fuqua. But yet again, the project fell through. A few more versions went through the ringer before Perry, Bautista, and Jackson were announced to lead a new adaptation earlier this year.

This will be a large venture for Perry, whose directorial debut came in 2022 with Day Shift, an action comedy starring an A-list cast of Jamie Foxx, Snoop Dogg, Dave Franco, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, and more. His next film, The Killer’s Game, also stars Bautista alongside another superstar cast of Ben Kingsley, Sofia Boutella, Terry Crews, and Pom Klementieff. It is slated to be released by Lionsgate this September.