Jason Statham is to star in ‘Levon’s Trade’, a new action movie written by Sylvester Stallone.

The 56-year-old actor has signed up to portray Levon Cade in the film, which marks Stallone’s first screenplay since ‘Creed II’ in 2018 and 2019’s ‘Rambo: Last Blood’, and is adapted from the novel of the same name by Chuck Dixon, the first of eleven in his popular thriller series.

The movie – which will be directed by David Ayer – will chart how Levon decided to go “straight” and lead a simple life working in construction and being a good father for his daughter, but he is called back into the shadowy world of black ops when his boss’ teenage daughter goes missing, taking him into the midst of a sinister criminal conspiracy.

David and Chris Long will producer for Cedar Park Entertainment, as well as Jason for Punch Palace Productions, Sylvester for Balboa Productions – who were originally developing the project for TV – John Friedberg for Black Bear and Bill Block for BlockFilm.

Bill is “thrilled” to be involved with the project.

He said in a statement: “I am thrilled to be reuniting with some of my most talented and longstanding partners on Levon’s Trade. I first worked with David Ayer on Fury and it was immediately clear that he is a director at the very top of his game.

“Jason and I have worked together on a number of films, and most recently the three of us collaborated on The Beekeeper. Levon’s Trade is going to be another spectacular action movie and I’m confident we’ve assembled the dream team to bring the first novel in this celebrated series to the big screen.”

Jason was attached to the project before the Hollywood strike.