Brendan Fraser Replaces Ray Liotta in Indian Mafia Thriller 'The Field'

'The Mummy' actor will play a gun runner in the bilingual title to which Ray Liotta was attached earlier.

Brendan Fraser will star in The Field, the directorial debut of Rohit Karn Batra, which revolves around an Indian land mafia family fighting internal battles following the death of the family's patriarch.

Fraser will play the role of Charu, an American expat gun runner “whose illicit dealings with the Indian underworld wedge him in the middle of the family implosion."

Ray Liotta was earlier attached to play the role when the project was first announced in 2014, but the director said script changes led to Fraser's casting. “The more the script evolved, the more obvious it became Brendan was the best choice for the idiosyncratic role of Charu,” said Batra. “For a director to explore this journey with him in a place like India is nothing less than a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Batra's credits include Roundabout, which won the jury prize for best short film at the 2012 Palm Beach International Film Festival. The Indian cast includes veteran Bollywood actor Prem Chopra along with Ronit Roy, Neeraj Kabi, Vineet Singh and actress Radhika Apte.

The Field is produced by Guy J. Louthan, whose credits include 2013's Halle Berry-starrer The Call. Brillstein Entertainment Partners' Jai Khanna is among the executive producers along with Adam Rosen. The film will feature dialogue in Hindi and English.

The Field will be the second Indian production for Louthan, who earlier produced Roland Joffe's The Lovers, which was filmed in India in 2013. The romance drama starred Josh Hartnett and Bollywood actress Bipasha Basu.

Fraser is already in India for the shoot, which begins on Friday at locations in Mumbai and Delhi. Batra is repped by Brillstein, while Fraser is repped by CAA.