Forest Whitaker and Common will team with Ray Liotta and Michael Chiklis for an indie crime feature titled Pawn.

Marking the directorial debut of David A. Armstrong, the film centers on a hostage situation gone “terribly wrong” as an ex-con becomes entangled in a manipulative chess game between the feds, local police and the mob.

No word yet on who will play what roles.

The film, which starts production on December 1, will be produced by Chiklis’s production company Extravaganza Films.

Common is currently starring in the AMC Reconstruction series Hell on Wheels. And Whitaker recently finished photography on his thriller Vipaka, also starring Anthony Mackie and Sanaa Lathan.

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