Renny Harlin and Aaron Eckhart Team Up to Revive 80s Action in Trial By Combat
The Strangers filmmaker Renny Harlin teams with The Dark Knight star Aaron Eckhart for Trial By Combat, an ’80s throwback action brawler loaded with big swagger and bone-crunching action.
Sharpen your foam swords: Renny Harlin and Aaron Eckhart are teaming up for an unapologetic throwback called Trial By Combat, and it sounds like the most 80s premise to stroll into 2025 on a cloud of sweat and synths.
The hook
Per Deadline, the film is set in a near-future where the justice system has decided courtrooms are boring and now lets trials play out through legalized gladiator matches. Each side picks a Champion, they fight, and verdicts follow. Shockingly, a setup like that favors the connected and steamrolls the powerless.
Aaron Eckhart plays John Porter, a former top Champion who got chewed up and discarded by the very judiciary he served. When a new injustice lights the fuse, Porter goes after his old nemesis for a fight to the death, hoping the showdown takes the entire corrupt system down with it.
Who is making it (and how it gets to you)
- Production: Thunder Road Pictures
- Director: Renny Harlin (the recent The Strangers films)
- Writer: Matthew Wilson
- Star: Aaron Eckhart as John Porter
- Sales: Architect is handling international sales ahead of the American Film Market; CAA Media Finance has North American rights
- Origin of the scoop: Deadline had the exclusive
Why this has a familiar flavor
Trial By Combat is aiming squarely at that late-80s/early-90s lane: big hook, bruised hero, righteous anger, and fights that mean something. Between this and Edgar Wright cooking up The Running Man, the old formula is very much back on the menu. Personally, I am not mad about it.
What the money folks are promising
'Trial by Combat is a pulsating, epic throwback to classic 80s and 90s high-concept, character-driven action thrillers,' said Architect's Calum Gray. 'It's also everything you want from a Thunder Road actioner: grounded, thoughtful and intelligent but also propulsive, stylized, and kick-ass. Expertly curated to deliver maximum satisfaction for the audience.'
Meanwhile, sharks
Harlin and Eckhart also have another action thriller together called Deep Water. Setup: an international flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai goes sideways, forcing an emergency landing in shark-infested waters. Survivors band together while a whole lot of teeth circle the wreckage. Eckhart leads the cast with Molly Belle Wright, Kelly Gale, Ben Kingsley, and more.
No release date yet on Trial By Combat, but the AFM sales push is happening, so expect movement soon. Would you back the arena system if you could pick your own Champion, or are we sticking with boring old due process? And how long are you lasting in a gladiator match, honestly? Sound off below.