Rami Malek is leaning into his “Mr. Robot” roots with CIA spy thriller “The Amateur.”
Malek leads the upcoming feature as a decoder for the CIA, who is working out of a basement when his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack. Cue the revenge action saga.
The official synopsis reads: “Charlie Heller (Malek) is a brilliant, but deeply introverted decoder for the CIA working out of a basement office at headquarters in Langley whose life is turned upside down when his wife (Rachel Brosnahan) is killed in a London terrorist attack. When his supervisors refuse to take action, he takes matters into his own hands, embarking on a dangerous trek across the globe to track down those responsible, his intelligence serving as the ultimate weapon for eluding his pursuers and achieving his revenge.”
Laurence Fishburne, Caitríona Balfe, Jon Bernthal, Michael Stuhlbarg, Holt McCallany, Julianne Nicholson, Adrian Martinez, and Danny Sapani round out the impressive ensemble cast.
Malek also produces “The Amateur,” which is directed by James Hawes. The feature was written by Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli, and based on the 1981 novel by Robert Littell.
Along with Malek, “The Amateur” is produced by Hutch Parker, Dan Wilson, and Joel B. Michaels, with JJ Hook serving as an executive producer.
Malek told The Hollywood Reporter that some of the action scenes in “The Amateur” were reminiscent of “The Dark Knight.”
“It made me think about Heath Ledger [in ‘The Dark Knight’], when part of the hospital explosion didn’t go off right away. You then see that he actually flinched once it did, and [Christopher] Nolan kept it in the film. God bless him, what a phenomenal performance. But even a character like [the Joker] is going to flinch at an explosion. So the idea of not blinking as you walk away from something of that caliber is just not realistic, and our aim was to make things as realistic as possible,” Malek said. “In the back of our minds, it was always, ‘He’s going to do some extraordinary things that stop the popcorn from reaching your mouth, but at the end of the day, he is still “the amateur.”‘ So we kept that as a compass, along with Charlie’s moral compass. Both guided us and reminded us that we were putting someone in a position they’ve never been in before. He’s digging into the deepest part of his soul, his ingenuity and his mind, all at once, in order to do some extraordinary things that he didn’t even think he was capable of.”
“The Amateur” premieres in theaters from 20th Century Studios April 11, 2025. Check out the trailer below.
