Trailer talk: Joe Carnahan’s Copshop promises to be a quirky actioner

The trailer of filmmaker Joe Carnahan’s Copshop was released today. Gerald Butler as the deadly assassin Bob Viddick is on the hunt for the guileful con artist Teddy Murretto, a part played by Frank Grillo. While on the run in the Nevada desert for his dear life, Grillo muscle-wrenches rookie female cop Valerie Young (Alexis Louder, known for Tomorrow War), to land him in jail in the small-town police station in the middle of nowhere. 

So far so good, but the odds are against him as Viddick soon manoeuvres his way to land up in a nearby cell, tracking time for the opportunity to eliminate Muretto. Trouble compounds when a rival assassin (Toby Huss) steps in. The stakes are high, and now Viddick has to really scheme out-of-the-box to finish Muretto and escape from the haywire situation unscathed. 

Butler’s assassin is morally ambivalent, which heightens the entertaining factor of the already interesting plot premise. ‘You’re a psychopath.’, says Grillo at one point in the trailer, to which Butler cops an attitude, saying, ‘I’m a professional.’ There’s also a hint of a twist in the trailer, showing Butler arriving at a deal with Louder to be allowed to blow Grillo’s head off. Stylistically, the trailer is quirky, odd and way out there, meshing backbreaking action with humour, but that’s also what fuels your curiosity.

Watch the trailer here.

Carnahan’s last outing was the American science fiction flick, Boss Level. For a director like him, who garnered acclaim with his debut 1998 actioner Blood, Guts, Bullets, and Octane ( which he acted in, directed, wrote, edited and produced), he is back to his forte. Given his proven knack for action films, it can be argued that a slick and smartly rushing actioner is on the cards. 

However, what waits to be seen is how Carnahan plays up the interplay of two assassins trying to off one man within the space of a police station, the space that is meant to be within legal bounds, but here, ironically becomes the battleground for carrying out extra-legal operations. It is evident from the title that this ‘copshop’ is the centre of the goings-on and shenanigans.

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Ryan O'Nan, Keith Jardine, and Kaiwi Lyman are also part of the cast. Carnahan has co-written the script with Kurt McLeod, drawing from the original story by Mcleod and Mark Williams. Copshop will be out in theatres on September 17.