Lee B. Golden III

About Lee B. Golden III

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Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!

Posts by Lee Golden:

Shinsuke Sato Inherits A KINGDOM Sequel!

Buried in all the terrible goings-on of news in the world in the last few weeks, at least one gem came to pass and just recently made my way with word that a sequel has been greenlit to follow-up Bleach helmer Shinsuke Sato’s hit manga adaptation, Kingdom. The official website presented an illustration from Kingdom creator, mangaka Yasuhisa Hara, to signal the sequel, formalizing the return of actors Kento Yamazaki and Ryō Yoshizawa, and actress Kanna Hashimoto to reprise their roles. Indeed, Sato himself, whose work I’ve enjoyed since The Princess Blade with Yumiko Shaku years ago, will return to the helm. Sequel details are pending, although those who are more apt to the franchise may have an idea for what may come after Sato’s intricate and sweeping Warring States Period story, about a young war orphan destined to become a hero following the death of his best friend. Designed […]

SPLIT SECOND: Eat Your Heart Out This August With MVD And 101 Films’s Release Of This Rutger Hauer Action Classic

Lee B. Golden III

MVD Entertainment is proudly announcing an August 11, 2020 release for the high-definition “Ultimate Collector’s Edition” Blu-Ray debut release of the 1992 cult action horror, Split Second, in association with 101 Films. The film is pretty messy, but very stimulative flick and holds its own, with a cast led by the late Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner, The Hitcher), actress Kim Cattrall (Big Trouble in Little China, Sex and the City) and a Alastair Duncan (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo). Tony Malyam (The Burning) took the helm with final act scenes directed by Ian Sharp from a script flexibly written and revised throughout production by Gary Scott Thompson (88 Minutes, The Fast And The Furious), with creature designs by Stephen Norrington (Blade). Split Second takes place in dystopian London in the year 2008, and tells of Harley Stone (Hauer), a stoic, maverick cop on the edge as he battles tenaciously […]

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WIRA: Adrian Teh-Directed Martial Arts Actioner Streams Globally On Netflix June 15

Lee B. Golden III

It’s a welcoming thing that Netflix has become such a beacon for elevated genre cinema in some aspects. The streamer’s accomodation of such hits freshly out of Indonesia, The Phillipines such as The Raid, Merantau and The Night Comes For Us, Erik Matti’s BuyBust and Pedring Lopez’s Maria, are just several examples aimed at pulling in fans of action who are in the market for productions out of Asia. To add, an announcement from Netflix on Wednesday for Adrian Teh’s latest thriller, Wira, which now marks the Malaysian filmmaker’s second title to land on the streamer since military actioner, Paskal, late last year. The streamer will release Wira globally on Netflix starting Monday, June 15. Actor Hairul Azreen rejoins Paskal vets Teh, and actor Henley Hii, along with international sensation Yayan Ruhian, and actor Dain Iskandar Said. Azreen plays an ex-soldier home from service and on a mission to rescue […]

MONEY PLANE Takes The Action To The Skies This July From Quiver

Lee B. Golden III

Quiver Distribution is taking the reigns with Money Plane, from writer/director Andrew Lawrence. Sinister villainy takes the stage here on the new actioner with actor Kelsey Grammer front and center, alongside leads Aaron Copeland, Denise Richards, Thomas Jane, Katrina Norman and Patrick Lamont Jr.. A professional thief with $40 million in debt and his family’s life on the line must commit one final heist – rob a futuristic airborne casino filled with the world’s most dangerous criminals. Money Plane arrives via Digital and On Demand on July 10.

40 YEARS OF ROCKY: THE BIRTH OF A CLASSIC Arrives On Digital And Video On Demand

Lee B. Golden III

This December will mark the 44th nationwide anniversary of Rocky, one of several American film staples to come from the auspices of actor Sylvester Stallone in the proliferation of his household name status since. The inaugural franchise hit is now the subject of 40 Years Of Rocky: The Birth Of A Classic, written and directed by Derek Wayne Johnson and is now available on Amazon and iTunes/Apple TV+ from Virgil Films. Its international release as Becoming Rocky: The Birth Of A Classic, arrives via Branded Studios. In 1976, a low budget movie written by an unknown actor was released, inspiring audiences around the world to go the distance. ‘Rocky’ became the ultimate underdog film. Over forty years later, Sylvester Stallone recounts the making of the beloved classic through rare home movies provided by Director John G. Avildsen and Production Manager Lloyd Kaufman. The North American version is also available on […]

UNDER THE LIGHT: Zhang Yimou’s Urban Gangster Debut Scores A Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

We now have a first look at Zhang Yimou’s new gangster crime thriller, Under The Light, now making the rounds with an official trailer ahead of a hopeful 2020 release. This won’t be the last we hear from Zhang who blew away last year’s audiences with the sweeping, tenaciously-directed, multiaward-winning visual period action stunner, Shadow. Plot details are nil apart from what you may gather in the footage above, but the film, formerly titled “Rock Solid”, has a solid cast to its billing. The film stars Lei Jiayin, Zhang Guoli and Yu Hewei, and to its credit, the film has actress Zhou Dongyu who took home the Best Actress prize from last month’s 39th Hong Kong Film Awards win for her role in Derek Tsang’s coming-of-age drama, Better Days, which is inarguably a fantastic piece of work. Under The Light doesn’t have a release date yet, and marks as a […]

FANTASIA XXIV: Neil Marshall’s THE RECKONING, Shinichiro Ueda’s SPECIAL ACTORS, Natasha Kermani’s LUCKY And More Lead The First Wave

Lee B. Golden III

This year’s 24th installment of the Fantasia International Film Festival is setting up a virtual presentation this August following announcements just a few months ago. Shinichiro Ueda’s Special Actors is certainly looking to make a mark on the festival scene this summer along with noted horror director Neil Marshall’s The Reckoning, as well as Tezuka’s Barbara which I’ve seen Ard Vijn tout quite a bit at Screen Anarchy, and even Natasha Kermani’s Lucky sounds like it’ll be a thrill. I’m looking forward to covering some of these this August when the festival kicks off, but this is just the first wave. A second wave of titles may further guarantee my involvement when it hits in July before the full line-up goes public in August. Read on! FANTASIA’S UPCOMING VIRTUAL EDITION ANNOUNCES FIRST WILD WAVE OF PROGRAMMING, WITH NEIL MARSHALL’S THE RECKONING TO OPEN FESTIVAL Nobuhiko Obayashi’s LABYRINTH OF CINEMA, Brea […]

BATTLEFIELD 2025 Lands This July From Uncork’d Entertainment

Lee B. Golden III

Joseph Mbah (Krampus Origins, Expo) is back with Battlefield 2025, his latest sci-fi thriller opening on VOD/Digital beginning July 7 from Uncork’d Entertainment. Mbah wrote the pic with Robert Conway (Eminence Hill), with a cast that includes Jose Rosete, Anna Harr, Dustin Leighton, Caleb Thomas, Alaina Laethem, Adam Michael Gold, and Titus Covington. Weekend campers, an escaped convict, young lovers and a police officer experience a night of terror when a hostile visitor from another world descends on a small Arizona town.

Trailer: Fedor Bondarchuk’s ATTRACTION 2: INVASION Invades This July From Dark Sky Films

Lee B. Golden III

With Egor Abramenko’s Sputnik still forthcoming, it’ll be worthwhile to make note of its producer, celebrated blockbuster director Fedor Bondarchuk, whose own filmic succession with Attraction sequel, Attraction 2: Invasion, now comes with a handy trailer for its U.S. release from Dark Sky Films, English dubbing included. Two years have passed since an alien spaceship crash-landed in Chertanovo. After her direct contact with extra terrestrial technologies, Julia, a previously ordinary girl, has become an object of study at the Ministry of Defense’s secret labs. While undergoing their analysis, she discovers she is developing seemingly impossible superhuman powers. And soon she finds that not only are her fellow humans out to harness her newfound abilities, but that her amazing potential has made her the target of new intergalactic entities, plunging the world into a cosmic threat. Oleg Malovichko and Andrey Zolotarev penned the script for a cast led by Irina Starshenbaum, […]

CAPTURING GHOSTS Part III: A Word With Stunt Performer And ‘Kung Fu Ghost’ Stunt Coordinator Shane Alexander

Lee B. Golden III

View this post on Instagram BTS #KungFuGhost #aJenniferLinchFilm #martialarts #comedy #supernatural #romantic #featurefilm A post shared by Kung Fu Ghost (@kungfughostmovie) on Mar 22, 2020 at 12:48am PDT Post-production remains pending for Jennifer Linch’s debut martial arts comedy feature, Kung Fu Ghost. Additional photography is set to shoot later this summer consummate the film’s completion as Linch tentatively looks toward a strategic late 2020 presentation. For now, we turn to at least one other key stunt performer on the project, namely Shane Alexander, who serves as the film’s stunt coordinator. He joins us in the latest chapter of our ongoing Capturing Ghosts interview series to promote Kung Fu Ghost, as we hope to share the stage with Linch in the not too distant future. For previous reads, click here and here. Greetings Shane and thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for readers. How are you and […]

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[UPDATED] TOMIRIS: Well Go USA Takes Kazakh Hit Warrior Queen Epic

Lee B. Golden III

The official trailer I caught in January for Akan Satayev’s Herodotean action adventure, Tomiris, was such a find that I hated not catching it sooner. The film eventually opened in October (not September as previously noted) and at some point, Gary Hamilton’s Arclight Films snagged gloabl sales rights, and the word now from Screen Daily‘s Jeremy Kay is that film get treated to a U.S. release on September 29, courtesy of Well Go USA. Starring Kazakhstan standouts Almira Tursyn (as Tomiris), Adil Akhmetov (as Argun), and Aizhan Lighg (as Sardana)––who perform all of their own action-packed stunts––THE LEGEND OF TOMIRIS tells the real life story of the great queen who, along with her female warriors, united divided nomadic tribes to create a powerful nation capable of repelling the likes of Persia. According to historical accounts, Tomiris and her army very likely served as the downfall of Cyrus the Great, who […]

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COSMOBALL: Well Go USA Picks Up Russian Sci-Fi Action Sports Thriller For January 2021

Lee B. Golden III

Director Dzhanik Fayziev has been a listed favorite at Planos, Texas niche staple Well Go USA for some years now. He first landed distributorship in the U.S. with co-director Ivan Shurhoveckiy for period sword-and-shield thriller, Furious (a.k.a. The Legend Of Kolvorat), and now the company is making its succession this year with Fayziev’s recent sci-fi successor, Cosmoball (f.k.a. Goalkeeper Of The Galaxy). 2071. Galactic wars have destroyed the Moon and changed the climate on the Earth. Now tropical forests are covering Moscow, while New York is iced all over. A huge alien ship towers over Moscow – it is the stadium where spectacular intergalactic Spaceball competitions take place. The game combines both sport and gladiator fights. When the game is on, the whole world stops in its tracks to watch it. The players are called Athletes, only they are allowed to contest because of their powers and ability to control […]

THE RUNNERS: Tom Sizemore Stars In New Kidnap Thriller From Uncorked Entertainment This July

Lee B. Golden III

Micah Lyons and Joey Loomis’s new kidnap thriller, The Runners, hits DVD and Digital beginning July 14 from Uncork’d Entertainment. In addition to starring, both are in the director’s seat, and with a cast that includes Tom Sizemore (Heat, Saving Private Ryan) and Glenn Morshower (“24”, “Friday Night Lights”). After losing their parents in a car accident, Ryan must raise his rebellious teenage sister, Zoe. One night, Zoe sneaks out to a party and is abducted by a charming older boy who intends to sell her to the cartel for human trafficking. Now, Ryan and his best friend have just hours to track them down and save her before she is sold and dragged across the Mexican border, never to be seen again. The Runners also stars Netty Leach, Neal McCoy, Jason Peter Kennedy, and Swayde McCoy.

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Trailer: Dark Russian Superhero Thriller MAJOR GROM: THE PLAGUE DOCTOR Terrorizes Evil

Lee B. Golden III

Award-winning Ice director Oleg Trofim is hitting the markets this summer with Bubble Comics adaptation, Major Grom: The Plague Doctor. The new superhero thriller is based on the hit Russian comic book franchise which has produced 80 issues and 20 books with up to a million copies printed overall in its eight-years of longevity. St. Petersburg’s quiet life drastically changes when a mysterious vigilante dressed as a medieval plague doctor appears in the city. Declaring that modern Russia is “plagued by injustice”, he begins to “cure” it by murdering the people who at some point of their lives have escaped retribution for their crimes because of their financial and social positions. The society is shaken up: everyone questions the Plague Doctor`s true status – is he an agent of chaos or a noble justice warrior? However for Police Major Igor Grom and his rookie partner Dima Dubin what matters most […]

AV: THE HUNT: Catch The Trailer For Emre Akay’s Feminist Survival Thriller

Lee B. Golden III

This year’s twentieth Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival is ramping things up in the next few weeks to head off a week-long virtual festival beginning July 3. The festival recently rolled out its eight first titles, one of which includes Turkish filmmaker Emre Akay’s third feature endeavor, AV: The Hunt. Six years in the making, project was originally campaigned on Indiegogo away from the state-funded film circuit, and billed as “a hard-boiled, fast-paced thriller set in patriarchal Turkey”. The film stars actress Billur Melis Koç, and actors Ahmet Rıfat Şungar and Yağızcan Konyalı, from a script by Akay and co-scribe Deniz Cuylan, and is produced by Tolga Topçu of JaguarProjects, Diloy Gûlün of Karma Films. REVENGE meets MIDNIGHT EXPRESS in this survival tale of an adulterous woman is hunted by her own relatives to wash the family honor.A young couple makes love when a cop barges in. Young and athletic […]

Trailer: Daniel Zirilli’s INVINCIBLE Retooled As ULTIMATE SOLDIER For Japan DVD Release

Lee B. Golden III

Provided Covid-19 doesn’t impede director Daniel Zirilli’s current production deal with Shogun Films anymore than one might predict, the workload may finally add to the current stack of actioners rolling out for the Hollow Point and Acceleration helmer. For this, we turn to Ultimate Soldier – best known in the states as Invincible – which pits actor Johnny Strong against international action star Marko Zaror in a tale of an experimental program involving nanites gone haywire. AMG Entertainment has local dibs in Japan for a release on DVD beginning June 3. Colonel John Taylor enlists billionaire inventor Leor Teska to fund a secret black site, testing Teska’s new nano technology for military applications, developed by scientists. When one of the test subjects, Brock Cortez, escapes, Teska’s head of security, Cam Devore is given the dangerous task of tracking him down. Also starring are Vladmir Kulich, Paul Kennedy and Sally Kirkland.

COVID-19: THE IMPACT ON ASIAN CINEMA Trailer: Sunny Pang, Oka Antara And Nick Khan Headline Ranjeet S. Marwa’s New Doc

Lee B. Golden III

Updates on Blood Rush and Traced notwithstanding, director Ranjeet S. Marwa’s independent documentary, Covid-19: The Impact On Asian Cinema, looks to further arouse a discussion on the Coronavirus and its deadly affect on the world and global industries therein, principally the film industry at large since the top of the year. Featured interview subjects include two of Marwa’s Blood Rush co-stars, Singaporean actor Sunny Pang and British fight choreographer Nick Khan, as well as Balinese actor Oka Antara (The Raid 2, Foxtrot Six). I haven’t seen it yet, though I suspect there will be discussions regarding all-too prevalent racist fallout on a global scale, in addition to the financial collapse of various markets and closures, as well as the overall outlook in an industry that’s long been aware of streaming companies who’ve gained a foothold on home entertainment since January. Indeed the industry continues to suffer to this day, as […]

Paramount’s KILL THEM ALL Circles ‘Star Wars’ Alumni Victoria Mahoney To Direct

Lee B. Golden III

Following updates in February, THR reported exclusively recently that Victoria Mahoney is up for the director’s chair on Oni Press graphic novel adaptation, Kill Them All. Billed as “a love letter to 1990s action movies”, Kyle Starks penned the original Kickstarter-backed IP, which served as the basis for a script by James Coyne for Paramount Pictures. Here’s how Oni Press details it: A betrayed murderess wants revenge. A hard drinking former cop wants his job back. For either to get what they want, they’re going to have to fight their way through fifteen flights of criminals, assassins, drug lords, murderers, yup, even accountants, and… KILL. THEM. ALL. Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) are producing the film. Mahoney’s credits include directing episodes of Power and American Crime, and her 2012 project, Yelling At The Sky, and she is best known as the trailblazing […]

6:45 Teaser Brings Timely Death On Repeat

Lee B. Golden III

The first teaser and poster are now online for Craig Singer’s time loop slasher, 6:45. The film stars Michael Reed (The Haunting of Alice D, The Disco Exorcist), Augie Duke (Exit 0), Armen Garo (The Departed), Thomas G. Waites (The Thing, The Warriors), boxing Hall of Famer-turned-actor Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, hip-hop DJ The 45 King, and Grammy-nominated rapper Remy Ma (“Love & Hip Hop: New York”). Bobby Patterson is hoping a weekend getaway will save his rocky relationship with his girlfriend Jules Rables. The couple arrives in the quiet island resort of Bog Grove. To their bewilderment, the sleepy beach town is curiously deserted and they quickly learn about the deadly history that’s about to repeat itself. Bobby’s struggles with Jules are cast aside in order to overcome a dementing cycle of terror they find themselves trapped in. No matter what he does to try to avoid it, he […]

AMERICAN FIGHTER Conquers In The U.K. This Summer From Signature

Lee B. Golden III

Shaun Paul Piccinino’s American Fighter stood tall at Fantasia last summer, if my own thoughts on the film are of any hint. It’s the film that follows up from Alex Ranarivelo’s 2016 based-on-a-true-story induction, American Wrestler: The Wizard, with actor George Kosturos reprising his character now for a more fictional telling, and served with a few doses of kicks, throws and body blows to boot. This now brings us to the official trailer, now streaming for its digital UK release from Signature Entertainment on July 20, and comes with its own buzz pitch that reads “American Fighter boasts many gritty and excellently choreographed fight scenes reminiscent of action cult classics Rocky, Lionheart or The Karate Kid.” It’s not wrong, really. Again, I enjoyed it and you’re welcome to click here and read my interview with Piccinino to learn more on his adventure. A desperate teenager is forced into the dangerous […]