If this and Hunter Killer both go through, Antoine Fuqua and Gerard Butler sort of have to be on the best of terms — if only for their own sakes. Anyway, THR says the director has started to circle Olympus Has Fallen, a White House-set action film that, when bought back in mid-March, already had Butler set to produce and star.

Landing your director less than a month after a star is no strange business, but things are, nonetheless, moving rather expediently behind the scenes — all thanks to another project. In this instance, the James Vanderbilt-penned, possibly Roland Emmerich-directed White House Down — which, like Olympus, is summarized as “Die Hard in the White House” — has Millennium Pictures trying to get their own film before cameras in June.

Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt made their screenwriting debut on Olympus, a movie that revolves around a “down-on-his-luck ex-Secret Service agent who becomes America’s only hope on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is taken over by terrorists.” Perhaps a little more action-oriented than much of Fuqua‘s oeuvre — save for Tears of the Sun and, maybe, Shooter — though I simply require someone who can frame action in an acceptable manner; if he can do that, Olympus should have something going for it. I, however, don’t know just what that is right now.

Is Fuqua a smart choice for Olympus Has Fallen? Are you more interested in this or White House Down?