EXCLUSIVE: Avengers and Captain America star Anthony Mackie is to lead cast in and produce action-sci-fi Outside The Wire for Netflix with Mikael Håfström (Escape Plan) on board to direct.

Set in the future, Mackie will play a drone pilot sent into a deadly militarized zone where he finds himself working for an android officer tasked to locate a doomsday device before it falls into the hands of insurgents. Shoot is due to begin in August with additional casting under way.

Mackie is producing with Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (Sinister) for Automatik, Ben Pugh (Ironbark) and Erica Steinberg (Death Proof) for 42, and Jason Spire (Operation Finale) for Inspire Entertainment. Script comes from video game scribe Rob Yescombe and Rowan Athale (Way Down).

Executive producers are Josh Horsfield, Fred Berger for Automatik, Rory Aitken for 42 and David U. Lee for Leeding Media. Charlie Morrison is co-producing for 42. Håfström, known for Escape Plan, 1408 and The Rite, is currently in post-production on Scandi thriller The Perfect Patient.

Netflix previously partnered with Automatik and 42 on Jim Mickle’s In The Shadow Of The Moon, which will be released later this year. Growing UK-U.S. outfit 42 has a multi-year first-look development, financing and production deal for features with the streaming giant, which recently recently teamed with Mackie and Inspire on adventure-drama IO.

Upcoming for the prolific Mackie are Fox thriller The Woman In The Window, George Nolfi’s The Banker, sci-fi Synchronic, Altered Carbon season 2 for Netflix and the platform’s remake of Point Blank. The Hurt Locker actor is in pre-production on Disney+ miniseries The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, in which he will reprise his Captain America and Avengers character Falcon.

La La Land and Insidious outfit Automatik has Cory Finley’s Bad Education with Hugh Jackman and Benedict Andrews’ Against All Enemies with Kristen Stewart upcoming. Upcoming for 42 are cold war thriller Ironbark with Benedict Cumberbatch, Military Wives with Kristin Scott Thomas and Sharon Horgan and TV series Wild Bill with Rob Lowe. Inspire’s slate includes feature Signal Hill about the 1981 landmark police brutality case won by famed attorney Johnnie Cochran.

Mackie is represented by Inspire Entertainment and UTA.