John Boyega and Robert De Niro will star together in a crime thriller called “The Formula” at Netflix, and Gerard McMurray, the director of “The First Purge” and Netflix’s “Burning Sands,” will direct. McMurray will write, direct and produce the film based on an original idea but that’s reminiscent of “Drive” about a Formula One racing prodigy who becomes a getaway driver in order to care for and rescue his family. De Niro will also produce “The Formula” along with Jane Rosenthal and Berry Welsh. Rosenthal and Welsh have an overall deal with Netflix, and “The Formula” came together under that arrangement. Jason Michael Berman is executive producing the film, and Ephraim Walker, working under McMurray’s banner Buppie Productions, is co-producing, as is Sam Shaw. Boyega, who broke out in the latest “Star Wars” trilogy, most recently starred in one of the five installments of Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology, “Red, White and Blue.” He is currently at work on “They Cloned Tyrone” opposite Jamie Foxx. De Niro recently joined the cast of David O. Russell’s untitled next film at New Regency, and he’s attached to Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” He’ll also be seen in the thriller “Wash Me in the River” with John Malkovich and James Gray’s “Armageddon Time” with Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Oscar Isaac and Donald Sutherland. “The Formula” will be McMurray’s third feature and his follow-up to “The First Purge,” which grossed nearly US$70 million domestically for Universal in 2018. He first directed “Burning Sands” for Netflix back in 2017. Boyega is represented by Identity Agency Group, De Niro is represented by CAA, and McMurray is represented by WME and Artists First. (SD-Agencies) | 