Ryan Reynolds will star in Buried, a film that pushes him well out of the studio comfort zone, according to Variety. The film is about a civilian contractor in Iraq who is kidnapped and buried alive in the desert. According to the trade he has a candle, knife and cell phone; not the sort of things typically left on the person of someone who is being buried alive, so I’m tending towards the assumption there’s more going on than just Iraq war drama.

The film will shoot in Spain under the direction of Rodrigo Cortes from a script by Chris Sparling. Reading just the bare details I can’t help but think of the amazing film The Vanishing, which remains my favorite ‘buried alive’ movie. (The 1988 original, not director George Sluizer’s own 1993 remake.) The tenusous safety of civilian warzone contractors makes for a good starting point for a thriller, too. I’d be surprised we haven’t seen more films jumping off from the contractor scenario if it weren’t for the fact that putting ‘Iraq’ in the logline of any film now seems like a surefire way to kill it at the box office. We’ll hope for better for this one. I like the idea of Reynolds stretching himself in a controlled little thriller where he really has to carry the film on more than just charm.