What is Harrison Ford paranoid about in the upcoming thriller Paranoia? Definitely not getting older. The longtime action hero just lets his age show in first-look photos for what’s actually a corporate espionage drama from director Robert Luketic, who brought us such hand-wringingly suspenseful films as Legally Blonde and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!.
OK, so Luketic has gravitated toward more action-driven features in recent years, from Killers with Ashton Kutcher to the card-counting drama 21. He might be on to something with Paranoia, which stars Ford, Gary Oldman and Liam Hemsworth in a story of trust and betrayal in the boardroom. The leading men can be seen in the first two photos, shared with USA Today.
In the story, adapted from Joseph Finder’s novel, a boss wines and dines a young employee, only to eventually lure him into spying on a rival company, compromising his ethics. Hemsworth recounts a scene where Ford, playing the boss, hands him the keys to a $100,000-plus luxury hybrid car. “He cannot believe all of this is happening,” the Hunger Games star says.
Oldman reportedly plays the pawnbroker who manipulates Hemsworth into spying, proving that every gift comes with a cost. “There’s a real contest of wills between the two of us here,” Ford tells USA Today about the relationships in the story. “It’s a world that is well-served by being even more paranoid than the characters actually are.”
Providing Luketic can generate palpable tension, then Paranoia might be on to something special. But the last time Ford took a pass at corporate intrigue, we ended up with Firewall, when we were really hoping for Presumed Innocent. The movie shot in Philadelphia, PA, and is heading toward an October 4, 2013 release date.
