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IRON FISTS AND KUNG FU KICKS: Serge Ou’s Fantastic Fest Martial Arts Cinema Doc Opens On September 17

Next to all else forthcoming for this year’s seventh Urban Action Showcase in New York City will be director Serge Qu’s new documentary, Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks. Home viewers will be in good company by then as well with a digital and DVD release on September 17 coinciding with its same-day premiere at Fantastic Fest. News comes by way of Variety‘s own Dave McNary on Friday who reported Giant Pictures’ acquisition of worldwide digital rights of the new martial arts action cinema documentary. Rights exclude SVOD and Australia/New Zealand. Fantastic Fest programmer Evrim Ersoy makes the case for the new doc following its Melbourne premiere last month: Filling a long overdue gap with a thoroughly examined, endlessly entertaining, and utterly wonderful documentary looking at the width and breadth of the history of kung fu movies, IRON FISTS AND KUNG FU KICKS is a blazing roundhouse of a film […]

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CODE 8: Jeff Chan’s Crowdfunded Feature Sci-Fi Goes To Vertical

Three years in the making since the online release of the winning sci-fi short, Code 8 is now a feature film reality with a late 2019 day-and-date release in tow from Vertical Entertainment. The project is a culmination of efforts by director Jeff Chan who helmed the short that launched the successful Indiegogo campaign in 2016 fronted by cousins, lead actor Robbie Amell and co-star Stephen Amell. Code 8 takes place in a world where superhumans comprise 4% of the human population and are heavily policed and forced into poverty. For an “electric” named Connor Reed (Robbie Amell) things are no different now that he’s on the run after committing a petty crime. To make matters worse, paying for his ailing mother’s treatment hasn’t gotten easier. He soon aligns himself with a lucrative criminal network led by Garrett (Stephen Amell) who teaches him to use his powers to pull off […]

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THE KILLER’S GAME: Sales Launch In Toronto With Late 2019 Production Start

Dave Jeremy Kay reports at Screen Daily that D.J. Caruso’s new novel adaptation, The Killer’s Game, will commence principal photography in December. Actress Morena Baccarin (Deadpool, Deadpool 2) and actor Kris Wu (xXx: Return Of Xander Cage, Valerian) are both up for roles joining Ice Cube (Ride Along, Ride Along 2) and lead actor Dave Bautista (Blade Runner 2049). Inspired by Jay Bonansinga’s 1997 novel, the action adventure thriller sees Bautista as a principled veteran assassin who learns he is dying. Thinking his days are numbered and refusing suicide as it goes against his Catholic principles, he stakes a multi-million dollar prize on his own life, only to realize two things: One – that he’s been misdiagnosed and is still in perfect health, and Two – his girlfriend is preganant. Now the two will have to race across Europe in order to outrun the cadre of hungry gamesmen now out […]

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REDEMPTION DAY: Go Behind The Scenes Of Actor Gary Dourdan’s New Geopolitical Rescue Actioner From Voltage

Sales at Cannes last month saw the launch of writer and director Hicham Hajji’s geopolitical action thriller, Redemption Day, from Voltage Pictures and starring Gary Dourdan (CSI), Serinda Swan (Marvel’s Inhumans) and Samy Naceri (Taxi franchise). Production reportedly wrapped its shoot in Morocco with a script reportedly inspired by a true story about a photographer friend killed by a terrorist group during an NGO in Africa. The footage in the player above hails from the first week of principal photography earlier on. After the discovery in Morocco of the oldest human bones dating back 315,000 years – a discovery that will turn what we think we know about human evolution upside down – a famous archeologist Kate Paxton goes on site and is suddenly kidnapped by a terrorist group and held for a ransom. Her husband a US Marines will do everything in his power to save her. Who was […]

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THE GANGSTER, THE COP, THE DEVIL

THE GANGSTER, THE COP, THE DEVIL: Well Go USA Launches The Official Trailer For South Korean Crime Thriller Opening June 7

Well Go USA officially acquired Lee Won-Tae’s new crime drama, The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil, and is officially poised to release the film in the U.S. on June 7. The Texas-based distro firm made the announcement on Thursday (news via THR) conjoining an official trailer which you can view above. Fierce gang boss Jang Dong-su (Don Lee) is violently attacked after a fender bender on a rainy night. After fighting back, he barely escapes, however his reputation as a feared leader is damaged beyond repair. The only way to restore his image is to find his attacker and exact revenge. Jang teams up with Detective Jung Tae-seok (Kim Moo-yul) to find the assailant, but soon discovers the attacker is actually a serial killer. With no support from the police department, Detective Jung is forced to use gang boss Jang’s resources in order to track down the killer. The two […]

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ATTRACTION 2 Looks Scary As F**k. Check Out The Teaser!

2019’s Cannes Market has emerged proficiently for sci-fi fans with Russia being a front runner since making strides with 2017 sci-fi, Attraction. Director Fedor Bondarchuk is back once again for another round of alien invasion and spectacle with Attraction 2 and as such, Variety’s exclusive report on Thursday also brings us our first official teaser. After an alien spaceship crash-lands in Moscow, Julia (Irina Starshenbaum), an ordinary girl, gains superpowers and becomes an object of study at the Ministry of Defense’s secret labs. But it turns out that humans aren’t the only ones interested in Julia’s new powers, and she will have to decide whose side she is on… The success of Attraction falls in line with previous hits from Bondarchuk who broke ground with 2005 Afghan War movie, The 9th Company, before trailblazing in 2015 with 3D-shot IMAX release, Stalingrad. Attraction drew mixed to positive reviews, and became a […]

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PHARAOH’S WAR: Tyson And The Mountain Bring Out The Big Guns In The Official Trailer For Amr Saad’s New Egyptian Action Adventure

I honestly don’t know what the appeal is in Mike Tyson as an actor apart from seeing him generate chuckles in The Hangover and its sequel, but he’s definitely found his calling overseas as he keeps getting cast in movies. That’s right, the China Salesman headliner is back in villainous form with the likes of the towering and rather impressionable Hafthor Julius Bjornsson a.k.a. “The Mountain” (Game Of Thrones, Kickboxer: Retaliation) for Pharaoh’s War which now has an official trailer making the rounds. The two are joined by Egyptian actor Amr Saad who plays a man on a mission to lead Egyptian refugees through the desert and protect them from mercenaries with the help of his own cadre of badasses. Screen first reported on the film’s sales currently underway at Cannes from Premiere Entertainment Group. Production took place from earlier this year and onward while at one point, action star […]

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FLIGHT RISK: ‘Pusher’ Director Announces New Action Thriller From Great Point

Kidnap and Pusher remake helmer Luis Prieto will direct Flight Risk according to Stewart Clark at Variety. Great Point is handling international sales on the project from Automatic Media whose Ray Haboush (The Last House On The Left) and Robert Aaronson (Chocolate City) are producing. Great Point co-founders Robert Halmi and Jim Reeve will serve as executive producers. The story follows the strangers as they wake up on the plane, which is running on autopilot. They have no idea who they are, how they got there or who they can trust. “I was immediately hooked by the brilliant concept at the heart of this project, and I’m excited by the possibilities for an amazing cinematic experience,” Prieto said. Producers Aaronson and Haboush added: “We were convinced from the very beginning that Luis would be the perfect director for this white-knuckle ride of a movie.” (VARIETY)

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BLINDSIDED: Cartel Thriller Casts Natasha Henstridge For Summer Production

Jeremy Kay reports for screen out of Cannes with news of crime thriller Blindsided, currently on the market floor from Premiere Entertainment Group. Shooting will commence in Pennsylvania with Species actress Natasha Henstridge starring as a woman hiding from assassins with a young girl in her care whose father is about to testify as a key witness against a Colombian drug cartel Joth Riggs will direct from a screenplay by Ernesto Melara. Production hails from Inspiring Films whose Grant Bradley will produce with Premiere chief Elias Axume. Buckhead Film Group’s Robert Eager will exec produce. (SCREEN)

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LANSKY: Keitel, Worthington Lead Cast For Upcoming Gangster Biopic

Production is set to commence this August for The Abandoned helmer Eytan Rockaway’s gangster biopic, Lansky, based on the life and times of American monster Bugsy Siegel’s close cohort. Harvey Keitel, best known for roles in hit films like Bad Lieutenant and Pulp Fiction will star alongside Emory Cohen, Sam Worthington and Austin Stowell. Alexandra Daddario and Tony Danza are in talks to join. Investigated and pursued for decades by the FBI, the aging crime boss Meyer Lansky is now living in quiet anonymity in Miami Beach. When Lansky enlists a young journalist named David Stone (Sam Worthington) to tell his story, the Feds use him as a pawn to track down the hundreds of millions of dollars that Lansky has been suspected of stashing away for over half a century. As Lansky spins his dizzying tale, Stone finds himself caught in the middle of a game of cat & […]

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10 DOUBLE ZERO Clocks In Nicholas Cage For Christian Sesma’s Latest Cop Actioner

AWOL-72 helmer Christian Sesma is reteaming with Vigilante Diaries team, screenwriters Nick Vallelonga and Paul Sloan for Nicolas Cage action thriller, 10 Double Zero. Andreas Wiseman reported the news out of Cannes over at Deadline with news that Wonderful Global is selling the film internationally. 10 Double Zero heads to Louisiana for a July shoot with Cage leading the story of two police officers who take on a personal vendetta to hunt down cop killers, only to find themselves targets of a conspiracy in the ranks of the police force with the investigation leading right back to them. Wonderfilm’s Jeff Bowler and Bret Saxon will produce next to Vallelonga Productions, Mike Hatton’s Ton of Hats and Josh Mandel’s First J Productions. “We are thrilled to introduce 10 Double Zero to audiences around the globe for the first time in Cannes,” said Bowler, founding partner of Wonderfilm Media. “With Nick’s amazing […]

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UNDISPUTED To Continue Boyka’s Story On Television, Production Begins Next Year

The award-winning Undisputed franchise is coming to television as of Thursday’s exclusive out of Cannes from Alex Ritman at THR. The martial arts action franchise is currently selling at the market for London-based Empire Films, the company now behind its small-screen reboot alongside Millenium Films. Walter Hill’s inaugural 2002 film, Undisputed, had Wesley Snipes and Ving Rhames starring as Munroe Hutchen and George Chambers, boxing champions in their own worlds who find themselves rivaling behind bars. Though the film bombed, further franchise fruition grew under the auspices of Nu Image and Millenium Films with famed action director Isaac Florentine taking the mantle for the next two installments, Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing and Undisputed 3: Redemption. Actor and martial arts star Michael Jai White took on the Chambers role opposite Scott Adkins for part two, segueing from the original film’s boxing millieu into a more popular and suited MMA format. […]

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THE DOORMAN: Lionsgate Nabs New Ruby Rose Action Thriller

Actress Ruby Rose is riding high this week having emerged in Thursday’s trailer for the Fall premiere of Batwoman on The CW. She’s also remained consistent in her big screen endeavors following roles in xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage, John Wick: Chapter Two and shark thriller, The Meg, now staking her claim with her latest action role in The Doorman with a release now being planned thanks to Lionsgate’s U.S. acquisition of the film at Cannes. A heist to steal priceless art from decades ago; a prestigious building housing New York’s elite over countless years; and a doorman…unlike any other. From director, Ryuhei Kitamura of Midnight Meat Train comes DOORMAN, an action packed thriller featuring Ali Gorski, a highly decorated ex-military sergeant turned doorman of The Carrington. During the Thanksgiving weekend, while all but few of the tenants are away and The Carrington is under renovations, a seedy plot […]

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KUNG FURY 2: THE MOVIE Knuckles-Up For A July Production Start

Production on Kung Fury 2: The Movie will go forward on July 29 in Germany and Bulgaria according to The Hollywood Reporter. Creasun Media’s L.A.-based financing and production arm, Creasun Entertainment USA will provide major investment on the film in time for production four years after the explosively successful crowdfunded production of Swedish filmmaker David Sanberg’s superbly-received OTT half-hour fantasy short. The project saw Sandberg in the role of a Los Angeles cop who, following the death of his partner at the hands of a ninja, became the titular kung fu longfist of the law after being hit by lighting and bitten by a cobra. The adventure continued with our hero accidentally landing in the Viking ages after trying to use Hackerman’s rad time-traveling machine to travel back to Nazi Germany and kill time-hopping murderer, Adolf Hitler, once and for all. Sandberg’s Kung Fury garned upwards of 40 million views […]

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DEN OF THIEVES: PANTERA To Shoot Later This Year

At long last, director Christian Gudegast’s highly anticipated Den Of Thieves sequel has an official with Den Of Thieves: Pantera, currently making the sales rounds at Cannes for eOne’s Sierra/Affinity. The sequel was announced last February in the weeks that followed the first film’s January rollout from STXfilms, firstly developing in 2003 between a few studios. Den Of Thieves overperformed up to $57 million dollars by its third week and ultimately grossed upwards of $80 million dollars by the end of its run. That film saw a sprawling battle of words, wits and bullets amid high drama and suspense with Butler playing Big Nick O’Brien, a Los Angeles detective who despite his unraveling personal life is bent on nabbing a gang of vicious bankrobbers hiding in plain sight led by Marine veteran-turned-career criminal Ray Merrimen, played by Pablo Schrieber. O’Shea Jackson Jr. also headlined the cast as Donnie Wilson, a […]

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ATLAS COMICS: Steven Paul, Weed Road Partner To Mine Bygone Superhero Banner For Paramount

A new comic book universe is potentially on the horizon with the trades all reporting that Steven Paul acquired a majority stake in Atlas Comics. Paul’s SP Media Group will finance, co-produce and with Paramount Pictures in a first look development and distribution deal with Paramount Pictures announced out of Cannes on Thursday, along with word that the Ghost In The Shell producer has tapped Akiva Goldsman to oversee a writers’ room through his Weed Road Pictures banner. Paul reportedly acquired the stake from owner Nemesis Group and principal Jason Goodman, in a deal that took years to iron out according to Variety. Goodman’s grandfather, Martin Goodman, firstly founded Timely Publications in 1939 whose Atlas Comics emerged in 1950. Then-Atlas creative hive member Stan Lieber (a.k.a. Stan Lee) was promoted to editor for Marvel Comics a few years after Atlas went defunct; Goodman and son Charles attempted to relaunch Atlas […]

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SYLVIA: ‘Closer’ Duo To Tackle Mossad Agent Story With WestEnd’s WeLove

If you enjoyed the latest actress/director pairing on Netflix for Vicky Jewson’s Closer featuring Noomi Rapace, fret not. The two will be back together for Sylvia, which Jewson will pen with Close writer Rupert Whitaker tackling the 2010 biography, “Sylvia Rafael: The Life and Death of a Mossad Spy”, from author duo Ram Oren and Rafael’s former trainer, ex-Mossad agent Moti Kfir. Sylvia is based on the life of the Mossad’s most famous female agent, Sylvia Raphael Schjødt, following her rise to prominence within the Mossad and her intelligence work locating Ali Hassan Salameh — the leader of Palestine’s Black September organisation and the figure behind the murder of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. This mission would eventually lead to her involvement in the infamous Lillehammer affair. As Variety‘s Stewart Clarke reports, the “Lillehammer affair”, bookmarks the incident involving the death of an innocent Moroccan mistakenly […]

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WANTED MAN: Dolph Lundgren Road Actioner Acquired By CineTel Films

Fresh from the Rocky fray, Aquaman co-star Dolph Lundgren will star in Wanted Man. Michael Worth wrote the script from a story he and Lundgren put together. Travis Johansen, a drunk, washed-up San Diego police sergeant is sent across the border to Mexico on a job to save his career. He has to bring back a prisoner to testify in an investigation into the murders of two undercover police officers back in San Diego. The prisoner turns out to be Rosa, a Mexican hooker involved with the Mexican drug cartels. Soon, the whole of Mexico seems to be gunning for Johansen and his red-hot witness. Set in the big-horizon desert landscape of the American-Mexican border, “WANTED MAN” traces the love-hate relationship between Johansen and his colorful captive. Everybody goes running for cover as our odd couple tries desperately to escape their pursuers and make it to the good ol’ US […]

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BATTLE OF JANGSARI: Check Out A Shot Of The New Korean War Epic Now Selling At Cannes

Just below we now have what appears to be a first look at Kwak Kyung-taek (Dark Figure Of Crime, RV: Resurrected Victims) and Kim Tae-hun’s new Korean war epic, Battle Of Jangsari – that’s the current working title from Warner Bros. Pictures Korea and Taewon Entertainment. Finecut is currently at Cannes and repping international sales rights on the project which stars SHINee member Choi Min-ho (Illang: The Wolf Brigade), Kim Sung-cheol (Prison Playbook – TV) and Megan Fox (Transformers, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen). Based on a true story of Jangsari Landing Operation during the Korean War in the 50’s, the film is about 772 student soldiers – whose average age was 17 and had only received 2-weeks of boot camp training — that were drafted for Korean War in order to pave the way for Incheon Landing Operation, which turned the tide of war. Minor updates can be seen […]

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