A triple-shot of Idris Elba today.

The actor is in talks to join Sean Penn and Javier Bardem in director Pierre Morel’s action thriller for Silver Pictures, titled The Gunman, which is based on the novel, The Prone Gunman, by Jean-Patrick Manchette.

The story, which will be adapted to script by Peter Travis, goes:

Martin Terrier is a hired killer who wants out of the game – so he can settle down and marry his childhood sweetheart. After all, that’s why he took up this profession! But the Organization won’t let him go: they have other plans. For one more time, the gunman must assume the prone shooting position. A tour de force, this violent tale shatters as many illusions about life and politics as bodies.

The age-old “one last job before I retire” / “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back In” sub-sub-sub genre(s).

Penn will play the hired killer who wants out. 

Meanwhile, Elba will play a mysterious operative named Dupont. It reminds of the singular name of the character he played in Ghost Rider 2 – Moreau. Both French names.

No word on what Bardem’s role is.

The European production will be backed by Studio Canal, and will shoot all over Europe later this month, with hopes of a potential franchise of Gunman films according to THR.

But an action thriller with Elba, Penn and Bardem with the director of the first Taken movie at the helm, should get your attention.

Up next for Elba, he stars in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, to be released by TWC, this fall, and before that, Pacific Rim next month.