Riders Of Justice rides again as 21 Laps' Shawn Levy and Lionsgate team up for English remake

Riders of Justice, a Danish action-comedy film that was a hit with fans and critics alike, is being remade in English, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

And Anders Thomas Jensen, the writer and director of the original, which dropped in November 2020, is onboard to co-write the adapted screenplay with collaborator Nikolaj Arcel.

Lionsgate has picked up the English-language adaptation rights to the film, while 21 Laps Entertainment’s Shawn Levy, Dan Levine and Dan Cohen are onboard to produce.

The hit Danish action-comedy film Riders Of Justice, which starred acclaimed actor Mads Mikkelsen, is being remade in English with 21 Laps Entertainment’s Shawn Levy and Lionsgate teaming up for the adaption

21 Laps Entertainment is coming off the success of Free Guy, a science fiction action comedy film that was directed by Levy.

With A-lister Ryan Reynolds in the lead, Free Guy has earned more than $331 million at the worldwide box office since its debut in August on a $100 million-$125 million budget. 

The production company is best known as the creators of the wildly successful sci-fi horror-drama series Stranger Things, and exclusively distributes content through a partnership with Netflix. 

Riding high: 21 Laps’ Shawn Levy is riding high of late following his directorial work on the hit film, Free Guy (2021), which starred Ryan Reynolds in the leading man role

21 Laps’ Levy, 53, has been an executive producer for all three seasons of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things since it premiered in 2016, as well as the upcoming season four.

During his run on the science fiction horror drama, which stars Winona Ryder, Millie Bobby Brown, and David Harbour, among others, he has also directed six episodes and played the role of a morgue worker in one other. 

During his acclaimed career as a screenwriter, Jensen won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 1998 for his film Election Night.

The 49-year-old has also received Oscar nominations in the live-action short category for films Ernst & Lyset (1996) and Wolfgang (1997). Jensen also wrote the script for the original Danish-Swedish version After The Wedding (2007), which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Returnee: Anders Thomas Jensen, the writer and director of the original version of Riders Of Justice, is onboard to co-write the English screenplay with collaborator Nikolaj Arcel; Jensen is seen holding up his Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film in 1998 for his film Election Night

Premise: In the 2020 original, Mads Mikkelsen played a recently-deployed soldier who returns home to care for his teenage daughter after his wife is killed in a tragic train accident

The original version of Riders of Justice starred acclaimed actor Mads Mikkelsen in the lead, alongside a cast that also included Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Andrea Heick Gadeberg, Lars Brygmann, and Nicolas Bro.

The storyline followed a recently-deployed soldier who returns home to care for his teenage daughter after his wife is killed in a tragic train accident, as reported by THR.

But when a team of statistics experts claim foul play, the soldier embarks on a revenge-fueled mission, along with this eclectic group, to find those responsible. 

So far, there’s been no official word on any potential cast members for the upcoming English adaption.                               

Original success: The Danish version of Riders of Justice was hit with fans and critics alike following its release in November 2020; so far there’s no official word on any potential cast members for the upcoming English adaption