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Kevin Bacon

ONE WAY: Action Thriller From Andrew Baird Adds Kevin Bacon Ahead Of Virtual AFM 2020

Lee B. Golden III

Golden Globe winner Kevin Bacon (Death Sentence, Mystic River) is joining the cast of Zone 414 director Andrew Baird’s new action thriller, One Way. Principal photography has moved up to February 2021, with locations set for Los Angeles, California, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Colson “Machine Gun Kelly” Baker (The Dirt, Project Power), and Travis Fimmel (Ridley Scott’s ”Raised by Wolves,” Warcraft) also star. Written by Ben Conway, Baker stars as Freddy, who winds up on the run with a bag full of cash, and near-fatally wounded after a robbery of his ex-crime boss goes south. Slipping onto a bus headed into the unrelenting California desert, Freddy is soon betrayed after a call for help cues his estranged father (Bacon) who informs his former employer where Freddy is. With his life slipping through his fingers, Freddy is left with very few choices to survive. There is only one way. Tim Palmer, Martin […]

Neil Marshall

THE LAIR Welcomes Neil Marshall To Direct Action Horror Thriller In Spring 2021

Lee B. Golden III

Neil Marshall (Hellboy, The Descent, The Reckoning, Dog Soldiers) is readying action horror thriller, The Lair, with Highland Film Group handling worldwide sales at the upcoming virtual AFM, launching Wednesday, November 4. Aimed as a return to his creature horror roots, The Lair centers on Kate Sinclair, a Royal Air Force pilot Lieutenant whose final flight mission sees her jet shot down over one of the most dangerous rebel strongholds of Afghanistan. After finding refuge in an abandoned underground bunker where deadly man-made biological, carnivorous half human/alien weapons are awakened, Sinclair barely escapes. Unknowingly however, she tracks the creatures known as Ravagers back to a US army base. Casting is underway with plans to shoot in Spring 2021 with Marshall writing and directing. He is also producing the pic under his Scarlett Productions Ltd. label. “If The Reckoning was a gothic drama in testament to the power and resilience of […]

TAKE BACK: Multiple Deals For New Action Thriller Starring Gillian White, Michael Jai White And Mickey Rourke

Lee B. Golden III

Actress Gillian White is taking center stage in the new year for her lead debut in action thriller, Take Back. 101 Films International is leading the charge as world sales agent ahead of AFM on the Christian Sesma-directed pic which is currently in post-production, with North American distribution in-bound from Shout! Factory. Zach Berries (Black Magic) wrote the pic with White joined once again by actor and off-screen husband Michael Jai White, after appearing together in Never Back Down: No Surrender, and in Dallas Jackson’s Welcome To Sudden Death. Zara (Gillian White) and Brian (Michael Jai White) are living the perfect small town life when a mysterious stranger from Zara’s secret past kidnaps their daughter and now they must race to save her life. The film also stars Mickey Rourke, Paul Sloan, Jessica Uberuaga and James Russo, and was one of the first independent films to be completed in the […]

Josh Duhmael

BANDIT: Josh Duhmael To Star In New Heist Biopic Thriller From ‘Gridlocked’ Director

Lee B. Golden III

Josh Duhamel is in the driver’s seat this week with Highland Film Group announcing casting for Gridlocked director Allan Ungar’s latest, Bandit. Kraig Wenman adapted the biopictoral heist thriller from Robert Knuckle’s 1996 novel, “The Flying Bandit, Bringing Down Canada’s Most Daring Armed Robber”; The book is comprised of journalist Ed Arnold’s interviews with Gilbert Galvan Jr., who lived under the name Robert Whiteman when he was dubbed the Flying Bandit in 1987. Bandit sees Duhmael in the role of “a charming and daring career criminal (Duhamel) who escapes from a US prison and crosses the border into Canada where he assumes a new identity. After falling in love with a woman that he can’t provide for, he turns to robbing banks and discovers that he’s exceptionally good at it. But as he gets addicted to the rush and the jobs become more dangerous, his notoriety is growing in record […]

MAJOR GROM: THE PLAGUE DOCTOR: Don’t Miss The Latest Trailer For The Russian Comic Book Adaptation From Bubble Studios

Lee B. Golden III

Bubble Studios’s own Mila Rozanova is set to take to this year’s virtual American Film Market for Ice helmer Oleg Trofim’s latest superhero actioner, Major Grom: The Plague Doctor. The film, a $10 million action movie based on the Major Grom comic book series from Bubble Comics, is set for a Spring release in Russia from Disney, and in case you missed, the newest trailer debut about a week ago at virtual Comic Con Russia. 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 […]

REAGAN: Voltage Pictures Launches Sales For Upcoming Biopic With Dennis Quaid, Penelope Ann Miller And Jon Voight

Lee B. Golden III

Voltage Pictures is officially launching sales this week for Reagan, a new biopic based on the life of the 40th President of the United States. Director Sean McNamara (Cats & Dogs 3) is directing the pic, currently in production and is expected to wrap shortly, according to an announcement on Wednesday. Dennis Quaid (Midway) and Penelope Ann Miller (The Bronx Bull) will star in the respective roles of title character, and of First Lady, Nancy Reagan. Howard Klausner (Space Cowboys) penned the script which “is said to look at Reagan’s life through the eyes of a KGB agent, a fictional character, as he tracks the actor-turned-SAG president-turned-California governor-turned-President from anti-Communist crusader in Hollywood to leader of the free world.” Actor Jon Voight (TV’s Ray Donovan) will play the KGB agent, with Robert Davi (Mob Town) playing Leonid Brezhnev, who ruled the Soviet Union through the 1960s and 1970s. Voltage President […]

THE THERAPIST: FIST OF TAE-BAEK: Don’t Miss The Official Int’l English-Subbed Trailer

THE THERAPIST: FIST OF TAE-BAEK: Don’t Miss The Official Int’l English-Subbed Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Having already premiered for Bucheon and having since opened in South Korea, Sam Choi’s new martial arts comedy, The Therapist: Fist Of Tae-Baek, also has a full, English-subbed trailer running that introduces much more story than before. The film stars Oh Ji-ho and Shin So-yul, and is currently hitting market floors from international sales agent, KTH. Seong-joon, the heir of Tae-baek martial arts, leaves his life of seclusion in search of Jin-su, a senior member of his discipline. On the way, he meets Bo-mi, the love of his life and realizes martial arts is useless to live, renouncing the ways of the martial arts. Instead, he opens an acupuncture clinic using the knowledge accumulated from his training. But when his idyllic life is interrupted by threatening loan sharks and gangsters, Seong-joon returns to his roots to protect his family. Look out for reviews as the film continues to make the […]

LET IT SNOW Forecasts Releases In The UK, Australia and NZ For Arclight

Lee B. Golden III

International sales agent, Arclight, successfully landed a distribution deal for the U.K., Australia and New Zealand releases of Stanislav Kapralov’s feature directing debut, Let It Snow. The news comes following Lionsgate’s own acquisition via Grindstone with a DVD, Digital and On-Demand release in tow for September 22. A terrifying blend of action and horror, Let It Snow may just be the ride of your life. As Mia and Max visit a remote European resort for a freeride snowboarding vacation, they ignore the receptionist’s disturbing tales of unexplained deaths on the nearby trails. But when they sneak onto a forbidden slope, Max goes missing, and Mia finds herself attacked by a masked snowmobiler. Now she must brave the rider’s vicious attacks as well as a massive avalanche if she hopes to survive… Kapralov directs from a script he wrote with Omri Rose, and with a cast that lists actress Ivanna Sakhno […]

CRAZY SAMURAI MUSASHI Lands At Well Go USA For North American Release

Lee B. Golden III

Third in line since debut directing Death Trance and the recent Shudder release of Re:Born, dynamic action duo Tak Sakaguchi and Yuji Shimomura will be bringing the crazy to North America with their latest feat, Crazy Samurai Musashi. Well Go USA has acquired the rights to the ambitious period sword thriller, marking Sakaguchi’s first time back to the label since 2011 with the U.S. release of several Japanese genre titles, namely Mutant Girls Squad, Helldriver, Yakuza Weapon and Deadball. In Crazy Samurai Musashi, Sakaguchi stars as the 17th century samurai of legend, Miyamoto Musashi, who battles more than four hundred warriors in a deadly challenge against the Yoshioka Ryu. Actors Kento Yamazaki, Yosuke Saito, Ben Hiura and Arata Yamanaka also star in the film which is now being sold internationally for this year’s virtual market at the Toronto International Film Festival by sales agent, Princ Films. Crazy Samurai Musashi has […]

BRUISED: Halle Berry MMA Drama On Track To Netflix Release Pending Deal

Lee B. Golden III

Netflix is reportedly in the process of nearing the deal toward acquiring Halle Berry’s new film, Bruised, a film that intially had Blake Lively attached to star with a different director. Next to starring, Berry now has her first directing gig on the Michelle Rosenfarb-penned MMA drama which is screening as a work-in-progress for this year’s virtual Toronto International Film Festival. The news comes marking a new milestone for the actress after years of memorable screen roles, as well as bookmarks of insurmountable struggle, which she herself spotlights in a recent cover story at Variety. In the article, it is noticed that Berry reportedly endured production with two cracked ribs after shooting a major fight scene, and insisted on a 5:00 a.m. morning wake up schedule to stay on top of the day’s goings-on. “I didn’t want to stop because I had prepared for so long,” Berry says. “We had […]

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THE FATHER: Donnie Yen, Alec Baldwin, Frank Grillo Star In New Action Thriller Shooting Early 2021

Lee B. Golden III

Donnie Yen (Ip Man franchise) will star in The Father, according to Variety‘s Manori Ravindran. AGC International has acquired international sales rights on the action thriller which will launch for buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival as of Thursday this week. CAA Media Finance will handle U.S. distribution rights for the film as cameras get ready to roll early next year. Also casting Alec Baldwin (Mission: Impossible franchise) and Frank Grillo (Beyond Skyline), The Father is set in South Boston, and centers on Yen in the role of “middle-class Hong Kong immigrant John Chung, who is making the best of his family’s new life in America while working as a modest fish broker in the city’s docklands. When his teenage sons stumble upon four kilos of heroin and are hunted down by a local crime ring and corrupt cops, Chung must stop at nothing to protect them.” Tommy Wirkola […]

THE LAST JOB: Dreyfuss, Sorvino Star In New Action Thriller Selling For Voltage At TIFF 2020

Lee B. Golden III

Adam Lipsius (Amy & Sophia, Oceans Rising) will be making the case for buyers at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival with new action thriller, The Last Job. Voltage Pictures officially launched international sales on the pic which stars Academy Award-winners Richard Dreyfuss (The Goodbye Girl, Close Encounters of The Third Kind) and Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite, Mimic, Stuber). Written and directed by Lipsius, The Last Job centers on Ben Myers (Dreyfuss), an ailing ex-mobster who has lived a life filled with violence, crime, love, and loss. He is quickly taken out of retirement when one day, he comes home to discover that he’s been robbed of all his savings. Instead of turning to his police detective daughter (Sorvino), Ben tracks down the thieves in an increasingly brutal quest for answers that drives him to question what his life has been for. Confronting the end, will he make peace with […]

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Well Go USA Picks Up Denis Kryuchkov’s RUSSIAN RAID

Lee B. Golden III

Well Go USA never forgets its audience. Their library spans a variety of genres, including and especially global action cinema. With this in mind, they’re landing hard this week with word from Geoffrey McNab at Screendaily on their acquisition of Russian Raid, from director Denis Kryuchkov. Reportedly inspired by Gareth Evans’ Indonesian ctor Ivan Kotik makes his formal action star outing following roles in Dragon Blade, The Mermaid and Oleg Stepchenko’s Jackie Chan/Arnold Schwarzenegger epic, Journey To China. The film sees Kotik in the role of ex-Spetsnaz operative, Nikita, who embroils himself with a shady employer to seize a highly-guarded factory, only to go toe-to-toe along with his team of elite roughnecks, against Russia’s most wanted war criminal. Russian Raid picked up some eyes late last year at the American Film Market and was supposed to release earlier this year on a date then shelved due to the Covid-19 pandemic. […]

Dennis To’s IP MAN: KUNG FU MASTER Punches Down On The Cannes Virtual Market

Lee B. Golden III

Hands down, the actors culminating the Ip Man wave of movies and shows have all been influential in arousing ceremony for the long late Wing Chun grandmaster in the last twenty years. For fans of martial arts and Asian action, it should come to no surprise, the reception of Dennis To, for that matter. He’s played the role twice before – in 2010 and again for Jeffrey Lau’s 2018 ensemble, Kung Fu League – and he’s since made a surprise reprisal as of late last year with Ip Man: Kung Fu Master, directed by Li Liming. Decades before becoming Bruce Lee’s legendary teacher, the young Ip Man, then a police captain, is framed for the murder of a ruthless but honorable mobster, and targeted for vengeance by his dangerous daughter. Forced to quit the force, he must soon also contend with the arrival of the Japanese army in Guangzhou According […]

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Bruce Willis To Take Revenge Thriller REACTOR Hostage This Summer

Lee B. Golden III

The Horde director Jared Cohn will lead the way this summer for hostage revenge thriller, Reactor, starring Golden Globe winning actor Bruce Willis (Die Hard franchise, Armageddon, Glass). Currently in pre-production for a late summer shoot, 308 Enterprises and Almost Never Films are financing and producing the film, which will be shown to buyers at the upcoming Cannes virtual market, repped internationally by The Exchange. Written by Cohn along with Cam Cannon and Stephen Cyrus, Reactor centers on a man (Willis) whose lust for revenge against a gang of mercenaries, leads him to seize and hold a nuclear power plant hostage. 308’s Corey Large (It Follows, The November Man) is producing with Almost Never Films’s Danny Roth (Edge Of Fear, The Hurricane Heist) and Johnny Messner, with Steven Eads as exec producing. “We’re honored Mr. Willis is collaborating with us again on REACTOR. It’s extremely humbling and exciting having Bruce […]

BLOOD RUSH Key Sales Art Coats The Virtual Cannes Market In The Red Stuff

Lee B. Golden III

I certainly wasn’t the one who first broke the news of Ranjeet S. Marwa’s Blood Rush at the top of the year, but it’s been an honor thusfar to be able to keep a finger on the pulse of the goings on these days with director Ranjeet S. Marwa, and seeing him take to his first-ever sales pitch at Cannes (albeit the Virtual Market) has been all the more exciting. He’s working on filming his next endeavor, Traced, later this year in the U.K. starring Sunny Pang, while plans remain in motion to round-up key impressive talent for an early 2021 start for blood-drenched action thriller, Blood Rush, about a widower whose secret life in the occult sends him in a downward spiral he’ll now have to fight his way out of, tooth and nail. The production has had its few snags along the way, unfortunately – most prevalently due […]

Netflix Picks: MMA Drama KINGDOM Lands July 1, LUCIFER Adds Season Six Ahead Of August Season 5 Premiere

Lee B. Golden III

Folks who are keen on streaming their television shows and often frequent Netflix for doing so will be in good company very soon on top of its acquisition of pending series release, Cobra Kai, in addition to Warrior Nun and other amazing shows on the platform. This past week saw Entertainment Weekly break the news on Byran Balasco’s hit MMA drama series, Kingdom, which premiered from 2014 through 2017 for three seasons on DirecTV’s AT&T Audience Network. Set to stream on Netflix beginning July 1, Kingdom, from Endemol Studios, tells of the harrowing interpersonal relationships and family drama centered on Alvey Kulina (Frank Grillo), a fighting legend, and the owner of Venice, CA-based Navy St. MMA gym. Also starring are Kiele Sanchez, Matt Lauria, Jonathan Tucker, Nick Jonas, Joanna Going, Natalie Martinez and Kirk Acevedo. The streamer will also be accomodating a sixth season of tongue-in-cheek hit dark fantasy series, […]

TAKE BACK: ‘Vigilante Diaries’ Director’s Latest Stars Michael Jai White, Gillian White And Mickey Rourke For July Start

Lee B. Golden III

July marks the start of principal photography in California for Take Back, per reports at Screendaily. The film reunites director Christian Sesma with several of his Vigilante Diaries cohorts, inclduing Mike Hatton who will produce via Ton Of Hats. Sesma will direct from a script by Zach Zerries which sees Never Back Down: No Surrender duo Michael Jai White and Gillian White in the respective roles of Sara and Brian, a couple living the perfect small town life when a mysterious stranger from Sara’s secret past kidnaps their daughter and now they must race to save her life. The Whites’, a married couple off-screen, lead a cast that also enlists Mickey Rourke (Nightmare Cinema) and James Russo (A Soldier’s Revenge), and Vigilante Diaries actors Paul Sloan and Jessica Uberuaga. Also producing are Andy Lyon and Michael Walker whose 101 Films label will be representing the pic as one of a […]

TRACED: Ultra-Violent Sunny Pang Thriller Hits The Virtual Cannes Market This Sunday [EXCLUSIVE]

Lee B. Golden III

Steadfast and unabashed, director Ranjeet S. Marwa will be in good company with producer Djonny Chen they unveil their slate from Silent D Pictures and Rocket Sky High Motion Pictures, Ltd. on Sunday. Their primary focus at the forefront will be Traced, which currently has new mock-up sales art now making the rounds. The film features Singaporean actor Sunny Pang (Headshot, The Night Comes For Us), with more to be announced in the days ahead. Following our report on June 2, we now have an official logline that reads as follows: “After being locked in prison for three years, Noble must find the people responsible for his incarceration. However, revenge is not always the answer, redemption is.” A deeper insight into the film elucidates themes such as family, betrayal and redemption, with tones akin to the ultra-violent cinematic works of filmmakers like Timo Tjahjanto (The Night Comes For Us), Park […]

CRAZY SAMURAI MUSASHI: Tak Sakaguchi Is A One Man Army In The Latest Sales Art Visual

Lee B. Golden III

It’s been the longest time coming for Tak Sakaguchi’s recent pairing with Yuji Shimomura, the now internationally titled Crazy Samurai Musashi. Production has seen more than its ample share of behind-the-scenes drama that have thankfully borne little affect on the carefully-played hand Sakaguchi dealt in the years since then. With extensive shoots and post-production in its wake along with a teaser last summer, Crazy Samurai Musashi now dons its first official world sales poster which you can view below. Plot details are nil though the teaser still pretty much speaks for itself as does the tagline in the artwork: 400 vs. 1 IN A SINGLE TAKE Yeah, I’m keen. My Theater D.D., Inc. is repping sales for the film, which is about all the info I can gather at the moment. In the meantime, check out the artwork below, along with last year’s teaser just beneath.