Writer-director David Ayer and QED International are joining forces for Fury, a World War II battlefield tale, The Hollywood Reporter said.

QED has pre-emptively bought Ayer’s spec script and will finance the project, produce it with John Lesher’s Le Grisbi Prods., and handle international sales for the film, which is expected to begin production later this year.

Set in April 1945 as Nazi Germany is collapsing, Ayer’s screenplay focuses on the five-man crew of an American tank named Fury as they embark on a heroic mission that becomes a battle for survival against a desperate German army.

“I want to bring a fresh execution to the genre," Ayer said. "What these men went through is worthy of a complex, honest, hard portrayal. This will have incredible, visceral action and complex, rich characters. I plan to bring tank combat to life in a way that lands with a modern audience."

“Fury is not your father’s World War II movie -- it digs deep into the complexities of battlefield heroism,” QED International CEO Bill Block said. “This is the biggest acquisition in QED’s history, and we cannot wait for David to bring this amazing story to audiences worldwide.”

Ayer, who wrote Training Day and wrote and directed End of Watch, also is teaming with QED on the action thriller Ten, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington and Mireilles Enos, which Open Road Films will release in January 2014. He also will be re-uniting with Lesher, one of the producers of End of Watch. Fury will be produced by Block, Lesher and Ethan Smith.