He will also serve as a producer on the Nickel City Pictures/Lionsgate project.


After playing the hero in Creed, Michael B. Jordan will turn hitman in The Silver Bear, a film adaptation of Derek Haas’ book series that Jordan will both star in and produce for Lionsgate.


In The Silver Bear, Jordan will play Columbus, who becomes a feared and respected hitman in the criminal underworld.


Nickel City Pictures optioned the books last year, tapping Frank Baldwin (Hard Powder and The Godmother) to adapt the first in the four-book series. Nickel City’s Vishal Rungta, Mark Fasano and Ankur Rungta will produce along with Jordan’s Outlier Society Production banner. Haas, Michael Garnett and Tobias Weymar will serve as executive producers.


Jordan’s upcoming projects include Creed II and Just Mercy, both of which he is also executive producing. Jordan launched Outlier Society, a film and television company, in fall of 2016 with Alana Mayo heading production and development. Their slate includes Gen:Lock, Raising Dion and David Makes a Man.


“We could not be more excited to work with Michael and Lionsgate. We have been huge fans of Michael all the way back to his days in The Wire, and from our first meeting we knew that he was the perfect fit for the role of Columbus,” Nickel City’s Rungta said in announcing the project.


“The Silver Bear is the kind of story that needs to be experienced on the big screen, and Michael is the perfect movie star to inhabit the skin of this dynamic character and take us into the cinematic world of Columbus,” added Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chairman Joe Drake.


Jordan is represented by WME and attorney Greg Slewett. Haas is repped by WME and Adam Kaller. Baldwin is represented by Syndicate Entertainment, Leverage Management and Stuart Rosenthal. WME and Bloom Hergott represent Outlier Society, and Endeavor Content and Jerry Dasti of Sloss Eckhouse LawCo represented Nickel City Pictures.