The first promotional stills of Homefront has surfaced.

In the action-thriller Homefront, Jason Statham plays former Drug Enforcement Administration agent Phil Broker who is trying to leave his violent life behind him. He moves with his daughter to small-town Louisiana, where he butts heads with a crime faction including a former biker chick (Winona Ryder) and the local crime leader, Gator (James Franco).

Anytime you run up against a guy named Gator in Louisiana, bad things are going to happen.

“(Broker) is trying to live off the grid with his daughter, live the idyllic life,” says director Gary Fleder. “But then he runs into Gator, who has a lot of people in town afraid. Looking at it within the paradigm of the classic Western, Gator is the guy with the black hat on. Even the sheriff doesn’t want to mess with him.”

Action follows in the movie (opening Nov. 27), which screenwriter/producer Sylvester Stallone adapted from the best-selling novel by Chuck Logan. Stallone had plans to star and direct, but passed it on to Statham when they were working together on 2012’s Expendables 2. The set-up allows Statham to move his game beyond strictly the action genre.

“I’ve done certain kind of roles up to now, and this is different from the usual tough-guy role, who does not show a lot of emotion and is mostly action,” Statham writes from the set of Expendables 3 in Bulgaria. “In this film you get to see the lighter side of me. Yet there is still the tough-guy element.”

Statham also shows a paternal side with his onscreen daughter, 12-year-old Izabela Vidovic, the first actress Fleder saw during a nationwide casting search for the part. He continued to look, but eventually circled back to Vidovic.

“Call it karma, or fate,” says Fleder. “Sometimes it’s actually just the best person who walked into the room on the first day. She’s got tremendous skill and charisma, and you really believe they are father and daughter.” Continue reading ‘Homefront’: First Look