Kiefer Sutherland is set to star alongside Al Pacino and Ever Anderson (“Black Widow”) in “Father Joe,” a new action thriller set in 1990s Manhattan, penned and produced by Luc Besson (“Leon: The Professional”).

“Father Joe” starts filming in mid-October with Barthélémy Grossmann (“Arthur: Malediction”) directing.

The film is produced by LB Production and EuropaCorp, whose credits include Besson’s hit action thrillers “Taken” with Liam Neeson, “Lucy” with Scarlett Johansson, and “Leo: The Professional.” The latter, which saw Natalie Portman deliver a breakthrough performance starring opposite Jean Reno in 1994, is also set in New York.

Sutherland, who also joins the project as producer, stars in “Father Joe” as a man of faith who wages a violent war against the city’s criminal underworld. Pacino plays a powerful mob boss whose empire collides with Father Joe’s crusade. Anderson, the rising star of “Peter Pan & Wendy” and “Black Widow,” plays a young woman caught between danger and redemption under Joe’s guidance.

Sutherland said, “I have been a fan of Luc Besson going back to ‘Subway’. As a director and a writer, he has a unique capacity to weave drama and action together without sacrificing either. I’m so excited about this opportunity to work with him as the writer of ‘Father Joe’ and director Barthélémy Grossmann. I can’t wait to get started.”

Besson recently premiered “Dracula: a Love Story,” an ambitious gothic horror romance starring Caleb Landry Jones and Christoph Waltz. The movie, which has sold around the world, has had a strong box office performance in several international markets, including in Latin America and in Russia, where it ranks as the country’s third biggest international hit since 2022 with $7 million grossed since its Sept. 11 release. In Greece, where it opened last week, it debuted in second behind Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another.”