The star takes his place alongside John Cusack in Benaroya Pictures’ apocalyptic Stephen King adaptation. International Film Trust represents international sales at the AFM.

Tod “Kip” Williams will direct Cell and production is scheduled to commence in January. Paradigm and CAA represent US rights.

Jackson will play an engineer and former soldier who escapes from Boston along with Cusack’s character after a mysterious pulse transmitted by cell phones spreads like a virus. King and Adam Alleca co-wrote the screenplay.

“It’s really exciting to have such a great cast continue to come together on this project,” said Michael Benaroya, principal of the project’s financier Benaroya Pictures. “Our goal is to create exciting commercial fare with top talent to really deliver on the concept of an ‘elevated genre’ film.”

Richard Saperstein of The Genre Company and Benaroya produce with Brian Witten and Shara Kay. Executive producers are Edward Mokhtarian, Armen Aghaeian, Xavier Gens and Laurence Freed.

While president of Dimension Films, Saperstein produced King adaptations The Mist as well as the global hit 1408, which also starred Cusack and Jackson.

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