Ke Huy Quan to Star in Action Thriller ‘Fairytale in New York’ for Lionsgate

Ke Huy Quan, who made a Hollywood comeback with Oscar-winning work Everything Everywhere All at Once, is continuing his action hero streak.

The actor has closed a deal to star in Fairytale in New York, an action thriller that will be directed by Jalmari Helander, the filmmaker behind the pulpy Nazi-crushing flick Susi.

Beau Flynn, whose credits include the action spectacles Red Notice, Jungle Cruise and Black Adam, will produce the feature via his FlynnPictureCo. banner.

Lionsgate is launching international sales for Fairytale at AFM.

With a script by Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani, the story is set on Christmas Eve in New York City and centers on an unassuming cab driver, to be played by Quan, who takes one last ride before going to celebrate the holiday with his estranged son. After a run-in with a gang of criminals, he embarks on a relentless pursuit to retrieve his kid’s priceless Christmas gift.

Scott Sheldon of FlynnPictureCo. will executive produce. Shelby Thomas will oversee for FlynnPictureCo. James Myers is overseeing the project for Lionsgate. Dan Freedman negotiated the deals for the studio.

“As soon as we watched Sisu, we knew Jalmari was a filmmaker we wanted to be in business with again,” enthused Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair Adam Fogelson in a statement. “Fairytale in New York is a wildly entertaining, thrill ride of an action film and an emotionally resonant story about family. And every once in a while, an actor hits their prime. Ke Huy Quan is having that moment right now and his deep experience crafting action in front of and behind the camera as well as his exceptional likability make him the perfect actor for this project.”

Quan starred in 1980s classics The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and later took a 19-year acting hiatus. In that period, he took on various gigs, including that of stunt choreographer, working on 2000’s X-Men, among other films.

He returned to acting with Netflix’s Finding ‘Ohana and Everything Everywhere, winning a best supporting Oscar for the surprise box office and awards hit. The latter movie opened up numerous doors for Quan who will now be making his leading man and action hero debut with Universal Pictures and 87North’s Love Hurts, which will open Feb. 7, 2025. He will also appear in the Russo brothers’ feature The Electric State for Netflix, which debuts in March.

Post-Everything Everywhere, the actor had roles in the second season of Marvel’s Loki, which earned him a Critics’ Choice Award nomination, as well as Disney+’s American Born Chinese. Quan is repped by UTA and Cohen & Gardner. 

Helander is repped by WME and Jerome Duboz of Ithaka Media. Haines and Noshirvani are repped by CAA, Grandview, and Jackoway Austen.