In one of the first major deals at the American Film Market, Lionsgate has boarded the Gerard Butler action-thriller “The Plane.”

The project re-teams the actor and studio following the release of “Angel Has Fallen” this year. Joe Drake, chairman of the Motion Picture Group for Lionsgate, made the announcement at AFM on Thursday that the studio had bought the rights to “The Plane” for North America, Latin America, UK and India.

The film will begin production in 2020 and is being produced by Di Bonaventura Pictures’ Lorenzo di Bonvaventura and Mark Vahradian and MadRiver Pictures’ Marc Butan and Ara Keshishian, as well as Butler and Alan Siegel under their G-Base banner. The script is written by JP Davis and Charles Cumming based on the book by Cumming.

Butler will portray a commercial pilot who, after a heroic job of successfully landing his storm-damaged aircraft in a war zone, finds himself caught between the agendas of multiple militias who are planning to take the plane and its passengers’ hostage. As the world’s authorities and media search for the disappeared aircraft, the pilot must rise to the occasion and keep his passengers safe long enough for help to arrive.

“Action films continue to be one of our content pillars as we have seen this year with ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum,’ ‘Angel Has Fallen’ and ‘Rambo: Last Blood,’ and we believe ‘The Plane’ will be a very strong action title for us in 2021,” said Drake.

MadRiver International handled the international sales. CAA Media Finance brokered domestic rights. Jason Constantine oversaw the deal for Lionsgate along with Eda Kowan and John Biondo. Butler is represented by CAA and Alan Siegel Entertainment.