HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER - ABC's "How to Get Away with Murder" stars Billy Brown as Nate. (ABC/Craig Sjodin)
ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder” stars Billy Brown as Nate. (ABC/Craig Sjodin)

Still basking in the glow that has been the box office smash she stars in, “Hidden Figures”, Taraji P. Henson has lined up a new big-screen project. Henson is attached to star in Screen Gems’ upcoming action-drama “Proud Mary,” playing a hit-woman named Mary, whose life is completely turned around when she saves a young boy who awakens a maternal instinct in her that she never knew she had. The boy also happens to be the son of a drug boss she’s hired to kill, who’s now an orphan (she succeeds) living on the street. She attempts to give herself and the boy a fresh start, but that proves to be a challenge.

Iranian-Swedish film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer Babak Najafi has been tapped to direct “Proud Mary” for Screen Gems. He is most known for directing “London Has Fallen,” the 2016 sequel for Antoine Fuqua’s “Olympus Has Fallen.”

Announced today, Billy Brown (“How to Get Away With Murder”) has joined “Proud Mary” to star opposite Taraji P. Henson, although details on his role are a mystery for now.

Scripted by John Stewart Newman and Christian Swegal, production is slated to begin this April in Boston, with Paul Schiff and Tai Duncan producing.

Screen Gems has slotted “Proud Mary” for a January 26, 2018 theatrical opening, just in time for Black History Month – although it’s the same month that Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther” and John Boyega’s “Pacific Rim: Uprising” both open. A crowded, competitive month.

Billy Brown can currently be seen playing Detective Nate Lahey in Shonda Rhimes’ ABC drama “How to Get Away With Murder.”

Variety was first to report Brown’s casting.