Here’s To The Magic…
My thoughts on 2024, and the New Year that awaits us…
Lee B. Golden III
About Lee B. Golden III
Posts by Lee Golden:
DEMON CITY: Netflix Teases Its Latest Killer Live-Action Adaptation From ‘Melancholic’ Director
Netflix has been winning in the last few years on the live-action adaptation front for Japanese IP. Depending who you are among manga readerships, this could very well extend to the audience being courted for Demon City, the latest production from the streamer launching February 27. Seiji Tanaka (Melancholic) is directing from his own script which is based on Masamichi Kawabe’s 2020 comic series, “Oni Goroshi”. Demon City stars Toma Ikuta (Netflix series “Beyond Goodbye”) in the role of Shuhei Sakata, a hitman seeking vengeance for the deaths of his wife and daughter, against an organization of strange masked criminals who control the provincial city of Shinjo from the shadows. The film also stars Matsuya Onoe (G-Men), Masahiro Higashide (The Confidence Man JP), Masanobu Takashima (We Couldn’t Become Adults), and Mio Tanaka; Rounding out the cast are Ami Toma, Taro Suruga, Mai Kiryu, Naoto Takenaka, Takuma Otoo, and Masanobu Takashima. […]
NIGHT CALL: Danger Runs The Night In The Official U.S. Trailer For Michel Blanchart’s New Crime Thriller
Michiel Blanchart’s new thriller, Night Call, was acquired by Magnet earlier this year, and now has an official U.S. trailer online. Jonathan Feltre, Jonas Bloquet, and Romain Duris star in the pic which opens theatrically on January 17, followed by a digital rollout on January 24. NIGHT CALL is a propulsive, no-holds-barred thriller that follows Mady (Jonathan Feltre) – a student by day, locksmith by night– who receives an emergency call from a young woman to open a lock. But the door the young woman wants to open isn’t hers, and the bag of cash she runs away with isn’t hers either. It belongs to Yannick (Romain Duris), a ruthless mob boss who blames Mady and will stop at nothing to retrieve his stolen goods. In a city shaken by protests, Mady has only one night to prove his innocence and save his neck. What started out as an ordinary […]
SUPERMAN: David Corenswet Is The Man Of Steel In The Teaser Trailer For James Gunn’s DCU Restart!
James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a SUPERMAN who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness of humankind. Key words there being “newly imagined DC universe,” of course. Not everyone has taken kindly to the changing of the guard at Warner Bros. and DC Studios since the decade-long Snyderverse recapitulated last year. Nonetheless, change takes time to adapt to, and the past several days since the first poster debut for Superman indicate something a little more efficacious for Gunn’s pending comic book movie revival. To that end, the official teaser trailer is here as well, undoubtedly with more promo assets to come as Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Studios ready a July 11 theatrical release. The cast is led by David Corenswet who is the latest successor to the […]
FRONTLINE: Get A First Look At Japan’s New Dramatic Covid-19 Thriller Coming In 2025
Just Being Alive Is Love director Sekine Kosai is returning in the new year with pandemic thriller, Frontline. The film stars Shun Oguri, Tori Matsuzaka, Sosuke Ikematsu, and Yosuke Kubozuka, from a script by Jun Masumoto who also planned and produced the pic. The story takes its cues from the events of February 2020 and follows the efforts of DMAT commander and his team to solve Japan’s imminent health crisis that looms involving the arrival of 3,711 passengers aboard a luxury cruise ship – ten of whom were confirmed at first to have symptoms relevant to the disease at the root of the pandemic. Warner Bros. Pictures has released a making-of trailer for Frontline which you can view below ahead of the film’s June 2025 release. Check it out below along with the film’s first poster.
BY A MAN’S FACE SHALL YOU KNOW HIM, And I, THE EXECUTIONER: Film Movement Classics Debuts Japan Crime Classics In High-Def In January [Exclusive]
We gave famed director Tai Kato a brief mention in last month’s coverage of the streaming releases for Film Movement Classics’s Red Peony Gambler Trilogy. This week, Kato is now the latest in-focus subject of the label’s latest announcements of Japan crime classics, By A Man’s Face Shall You Know Him (1966), and I, The Executioner (1968). Both films, much like their fellow Showa Era cohorts under the Film Movement Classics banner, are getting replenished releases for viewers, debuting for the first time in high definition on VOD and Digital, and on Film Movement Plus, the label’s in-house streaming platform, on January 31. Film Combat Syndicate is sharing an exclusive look at the trailers for both titles which you can view below within the text. Take a look, and then head over to Film Movement for more! PRESENTED IN HIGH DEFINITION FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, BOTH FILMS PREMIERE ON […]
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO: BMC Review
The Count Of Monte Cristo is a Samuel Goldwyn Films release. The film will play for audiences in Los Angeles and New York theaters beginning December 20, and will expanding to more than fifteen markets in the U.S. beginning on January 3. The last screen adaptation of famed author Alexandre Dumas’s The Count Of Monte Cristo was 2002’s release from director Kevin Reynolds. To say the least, while I enjoyed the film, it always felt like there was more missing to its treatment for such an epic tale to be told. Would it be a stretch to say that the time our dear protagonist Edmond Dantes spent on an island prison equate to the weight of having to wait as long as the rest of us did for something significant and impressive to come along from the film front? I reckon that it depends on your viewpoint and tastes in film, […]
KARATE KID: LEGENDS Finds Jackie Chan And Ralph Macchio Joining Forces In The Official Trailer
“Two branches. One tree.” That’s the tagline being touted for Karate Kid: Legends, the newest chapter in the ongoing Karate Kid franchise which still has one more season of Netflix series Cobra Kai before this film arrives. I’m especially curious as to how Ben Wang will be introduced into this saga after that show ends. I’m thinking cameos? Easter eggs? Maybe a surprise appearance by Hilary Swank? Who knows? In Karate Kid: Legends, after a family tragedy, kung fu prodigy Li Fong (Ben Wang) is uprooted from his home in Beijing and forced to move to New York City with his mother. Li struggles to let go of his past as he tries to fit in with his new classmates, and although he doesn’t want to fight, trouble seems to find him everywhere. When a new friend needs his help, Li enters a karate competition – but his skills alone […]
ARROW PLAYER Announces Bustling January SVOD Line-Up
It’s been a while since I promoted anything Arrow Player-related. The streamer is back this month with a new line-up announcements for its January rollouts and it’s chock-filled with classic action titles and horror delights to help meet it’s subscribers demand. The streamer itself is available in North America and the UK and you can learn more about it at the official website. Arrow Video is excited to announce the January 2025 lineup of their subscription-based ARROW platform, available to subscribers in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland. Enjoy a selection of new titles, from carefully cultivated curations to shorts by new talent. For serious enthusiasts, ARROW offers deep dives into the tastes of filmmakers that changed the way we see the genre.In a recent profile, the New York Times praised ARROW and noted, “Viewers with a fondness for the esoteric will be hard-pressed to find more quality bang for their streaming buck.” The January 2025 lineup […]
MAN WITH NO PAST: Catch The Trailer For James Bamford’s New Action Thriller Coming In January!
James Bamford’s new action thriller kicks off 2025 with Man With No Past. Bamford directs from a script written by producer Steven Paul, with a cast that lists Adam Woodward, Charlotte Vega, Jon Voight, Marton Csokas, and Phillip Winchester. Academy Award® winner* Jon Voight (COMING HOME), Marton Csokas (THE EQUALIZER), and Adam Woodward (THE SAINT) star in this action-packed thriller. Waking in an unfamiliar city, a man with no memory of who he is must confront the mysteries of his own identity. But his desperate search to uncover his past pits him against a powerful enemy, leading to a showdown that will seal his fate and reveal his true identity. Man With No Past releases on digital on January 14 from Paramount’s digital release shingle Republic Pictures. Check out the trailer below!
SERENA: Cast Announced As Cameras Roll For New Sci-Fi Thriller In NYC
Cameras are rolling in New York City for Serena, a new sci-fi thriller being directed by Rob Alicea (The Hat Man) in his feature debut. The cast includes Andi Matichak (Halloween Trilogy, Son), Steven Strait (The Expanse, Magic City), Ashleigh Murray (Riverdale, The Other Black Girl),Tyrone Marshall Brown (Power, Love Is), and María Gabriela González (Tyler Perry’s Mea Culpa, Fantasy Island) along with actress Nicole Gut. Jonathan Benecke and P.T. Hylton penned the script which follows Holly (Murray), a tech engineer desperate to launch her company into the future with resounding success. A CEO commissions her to build her an AI model, with the aim of testing it before its implementation. Down-on-his-luck and funds, former rock star, Chris Sadowsky (Strait), is asked to be one of the testers — with devastating repercussions. The AI model surfaces in the form of ‘Serena’ (Matichak), billed otherwise as a simple tool which, much […]
Streaming Sleepers: Fede Álvarez’s ALIEN: ROMULUS Plants A Seed For Franchise Vitality
I don’t typically do horror, but I love a good, intense, well-made thriller in the various subsets of the genre. In particular, I love what Fede Álvarez accomplished with Alien: Romulus, which is currently streaming on Hulu. Cailee Spaeny was incredible in the front-and-center role of action heroine Rain Carradine, who along with adopted brother and Weyland-Yutani android, Andy, played by David Jonsson, pair up with a ragtag group of survivors to leave their unyielding work colony on LV-410 and head for the serene planet Yvaga. What they don’t know is that the abandoned station for which they’ve just commandeered is full of hibernating xenomorphs eager to do what they do best: Hunt and breed, using humans as incubators to kill and consume anything living or breathing, and in their way. I haven’t seen Prometheus or Alien: Covenant, so those are on my watchlist to take in at some point […]
‘Look Up’ At The New Motion Poster For James Gunn’s SUPERMAN
We’re roughly seven or so months away from the release of James Gunn’s new DC comics adaptation, Superman. With the first teaser slated for Thursday, fans now have a debut motion poster to teaser things a bit, fearuring David Corenswet in full regalia. The film is billed as the first stop of the rebooted DCU from Gunn and co-shepherd Peter Safran following Warner Bros. Pictures’ Snyderverse of films that began with Zack Snyder’s Man Of Steel, and ended with James Wan’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Superman, a cub reporter in Metropolis, embarks on a journey to reconcile his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing as Clark Kent. Gunn directs from a script for a cast that also lists Rachel Brosnahan, Isabela Merced, and Edi Gathegi, along with Nathan Fillion, Anthony Carrigan, María Gabriela de Faría, Sara Sampaio, Skyler Gisondo, Nicholas Hoult, and Wendell Pierce. Superman opens in theaters July […]
THE DEVIL AND THE DAYLONG BROTHERS: Trailer Revealed For Gritty Goth Western From Quiver
Following its acquisition in August, Quiver Distribution has proudly unveiled the official trailer and poster for the new Southern gothic western thriller, The Devil And The Daylong Brothers. Brandon McCormick directs from his own script with a cast that lists Brendan Bradley, Nican Robinson, Jordon Bolden, Rainey Qualley, and Keith Carradine. Deep in the kudzu-choked backwaters of the American South, three brothers set out on a blood-soaked quest for revenge against their father, who sold their souls to the Devil before they were born. The Devil And The Daylong Brothers arrives in North America on January 31. Watch the trailer below.
VOLTRON: Filming Underway For The Live-Action Amazon MGM Studios Adaptation
Production is already underway for the new live-action treatment of Voltron as announced about a day prior to this post by Screen Queensland. The Amazon MGM Studios’ production is being directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber for a cast that lists feature starring Sterling K. Brown, Daniel Quinn-Toye, Henry Cavill, Rita Ora, John Kim, Alba Baptista, Samson Kayo and Tharanya Tharan. Thurber is producing, as well as penning the script with co-scribe Ellen Shanman, which follows the epic tale of five explorers who come together to pilot a quintet of Robot Lions that can form the ultimate humanoid robot warrior, Voltron, to battle evil. The film is based on the classic 1984 animated series from World Events Prodictions, which coalesced from several other Japanese animated shows. Todd Lieberman is also producing via Hidden Pictures, as well as Bob Koplar, and Hobie Films’ David Hoberman. Cameras are rolling in the Gold Coast, […]
CAT’S EYES Gets Prime Video Expansion On December 18. Catch The Trailer!
Director Alexandre Laurent’s eight-part live-action adaptation of Tsukasa Hojo’s manga caper classic, Cat’s Eyes, is already streaming exclusively on French streamer TF1 as of last month. To this, the series is also poised to launch on Amazon Prime in France and we now have an official trailer to help proliferate things a bit. Created by Michael Catz, Cat’s Eyes stars Camille Lou, Constance Labbé, and Claire Romain in an origin procession about three sisters who gather to steal high value art that once belonged to their presumed-late father. As they are pursued by a special task force, the trio also begin to uncover the mystery behind their father’s disapperance years earlier. Cat’s Eyes marks its first treatment here in live action since debuting on the pages of Jump Comics in 1981. I know our own Mike Garcia is a fiend for Hojo’s work. He’s definitely more of a City Hunter […]
LE JARDINIER: JCVD Cuts Down Grass And Goons In The Official Teaser
Jean-Claude Van Damme is out here living his best life, and back at it with The Last Mercenary helmer David Charhon with the new Prime Video action comedy release, Le Jardinier (otherwise known as The Gardener). The official teaser is here as well, joining the action legend with actor Michael Youn from a script by Charhon and by Vincent De Brus, and Sebastien Fechner. Below is the logline via translation: Every year, the Prime Minister has a list of troublemakers eliminated in the name of state reasons: the obscure Matignon List. Serge Shuster, special advisor to the presidency, finds himself there in spite of himself. At the heart of an implacable plot, Serge and his family, condemned to certain death, can no longer count on anyone but their new gardener, Léo, who, in the past, has not only trimmed hedges. He will do what he was hired to do: eliminate […]
ASH Fumes Up A Psychedelic First Poster And 2025 Release Date
Variety’s Jack Dunn debut the first poster for Ash, the new sci-fi thriller from director Flying Lotus, and starring Eiza González, Aaron Paul, and Iko Uwais. RLJE Films has since unveiled a teaser trailer as of October and now the film has a release date set for March 21. On the mysterious planet of Ash, Riya (González) awakens to find her crew slaughtered. When a man named Brion (Paul) arrives to rescue her, an ordeal of psychological and physical terror ensues while Riya and Brion must decide if they can trust one another to survive. Flying Lotus, whose real name is Steven Ellison, directs from a script by Jonni Remmler. The director also stars in the film along with Beulah Koale and Kate Elliott, and will feature an original score composed by Flying Lotus himself. Peep the poster below, and read more at Variety.
CLEANER: Daisy Ridley Has Her Work Cut Out For Her In The Official Trailer [UPDATED]
12:05 EST: Updated with official poster art Earlier: Martin Campbell is back in the headlines these days with the director touting his newest action thriller, Cleaner. The film stars none other than Daisy Ridley, chucking one-liners at Clive Owen in Die Hard fashion, as seen in the official first trailer which launched on Thursday also featuring actor and martial artist Taz Skylar in a co-antagonistic role. Cleaner is set in present-day London. A group of radical activists, led by Clive Owen, take over an energy company’s annual gala, seizing 300 hostages in order to expose the corruption of the hosts. Their just cause is hijacked by an extremist within their ranks, who is ready to murder everyone in the building to send his anarchic message to the world. It falls to an ex-soldier turned window cleaner, played by Daisy Ridley, suspended 50 storeys up on the outside of the building, […]
NOVOCAINE: Jack Quaid Takes A Lickin’ And Keeps On Tickin’ In The Official Trailer!
Another in my list of 2025 bookmarks gets a trailer to whet the appetite with a look at Novocaine from Paramount Pictures. Dan Berk and Robert Olsen direct a cast led by Jack Quaid and Amber Midthunder from a script by Lars Jacobson. When the girl of his dreams (Amber Midthunder) is kidnapped, everyman Nate (Jack Quaid) turns his inability to feel pain into an unexpected strength in his fight to get her back. Betty Gabriel, Jacob Batalon, Matt Walsh and Ray Nicholson also star for the film’s March 14 release. Catch the poster and trailer below, and mind some of the brief, albeit visibly gruesome moments. This one gets bloody.