Antonio Banderas is set to star in "The Big Bang," a neo-noir detective story to be directed by Tony Krantz.
Richard Rionda Del Castro, Krantz and Erik Jendresen will produce the film, based on a script by Jendresen ("Band of Brothers"). Production begins in Spokane, Wash., in September.

Banderas stars as an L.A. private detective who's hired to find a missing stripper. The trail leads to the New Mexico desert, where the private eye finds a trail of bodies and contends with a brutal Russian boxer, three LAPD detectives and an aging billionaire looking to perfect the nuclear physics equivalent of the Big Bang.

Exec producing will be Patricia Eberle, Richard Salvatore and Ross Dinerstein. Rionda Del Castro's Hannibal Pictures is financing and handling foreign sales at Cannes. U.S. representation is being handled by WMA and Endeavor.

Pic marks the first theatrical feature for Krantz, one of the few ex-agents to make that leap. Krantz, who spent 15 years packaging series at CAA and later heading Imagine TV, previously directed two Jendresen-scripted films -- "Sublime" and "Otis"-- that were designed to go direct to video through Raw Feed, a venture Krantz co-created.

Krantz now owns Flame Ventures, whose slate includes a NASCAR Imax film in 3-D that Krantz will direct, and "The Conversation," a series for AMC based on the Francis Ford Coppola film that is being written by Jendresen and Christopher McQuarrie. Banderas most recently completed a starring role in Woody Allen's as-yet-untitled next film.