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Punchy-Punch-Punch!!! The First IP MAN 4: THE FINALE Trailer Is Online!

They say “ask and you shall receive”… I opined on some thoughts back in Fall of 2013 over whether or not we deserved more Undisputed films shepherded by action star Scott Adkins at a time when fans were pining for a fourth stint at Boyka fanfare. My diatribe included a nod to the prospects of seeing the British cult film star join forces with the likes of Asian action film favorite, Donnie Yen, and in the time since then, they’ve teased a little here and there… And that was it by the time cameras rolled for the now fourth and final entry in Yen’s longstanding hit kung fu franchise exploring the life, times, mythological action and splendor of the Wing Chun master who would tend to his greatest-achieving student, Bruce Lee. Mandarin Motion Pictures will be obliging fans beginning this summer with a date pending. Ip Man (Donnie Yen) has […]

The First Trailer For Roy Chow’s New Boxing Drama Looks For A KNOCKOUT Win

Lee B. Golden III

Expect to hear more from Roy Chow in the coming months with The Legend Of Condor Heroes and upcoming Dynasty Warriors still in tow. Having riveted audiences with Nightfall and brought what I among others still feel was a reverent Wong Fei-Hung reboot with Rise Of The Legend, he’s got actor Han Geng ringside for the new boxing drama, Knockout. Media Asia announced the film at this year’s FilMart in Hong Kong, top-lining actor Han Geng for the story about a former champion’s comeback to the ring after a prison sentence. Also starring are Vivian Wu, Janine Chang Philip Keung with a release set for 2019, no doubt, while we do have a trailer and poster to get the wheels turning. (H/T: Asian Film Strike)

Louis Koo’s STORM CLOUD Rumbles With Original Creator Set To Co-Direct For One Cool Film

Lee B. Golden III

Three years after Louis Koo was announced to partake in a live-action threequel Storm Riders adaptation, news out of FilMart in Hong Kong now confirms comic book auteur Ma Wing-shing will join the project for his directorial debut. Ma, who created the original Fung Wan comic series dating back to 1989 via publisher, Jonesky, will join filmmakers Jonathan Lee (The Brink) and David Lee (Insanity), for Storm Cloud, in which Koo will play the title role. Koo’s One Cool Pictures banner is producing the film following Andrew Lau’s The Storm Riders (1998) and the Pang brothers’ The Storm Warriors (2009), both which starred Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok in the respective roles of fantasy wuxia heroes per the comic’s title, Wind and Cloud. Lau’s 1998 film saw an origin tale highlighting our heroes’ tragic upbringing, raised as brothers despite their inherently different personalities. Bookending a tale of romance, magic, mystery […]

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RISE OF THE MACHINE GIRLS: Remake Of Noboru Iguchi’s 2008 J-Splatter Thriller Lands World Rights At Nikkatsu

Lee B. Golden III

Just above is the first official photo out of FilMart for Nikkatsu’s latest world sales acquisition, Rise Of The Machine Girls. This one has nostalgia written all over it if you’re like me living in America and were once enraptured by the all-consuming line-up of gonzo Japanese sci-fi action and gore titles fresh from Media Blasters and its niche shingles – It’s the label that got me started on collecting DVDs in the early 2000s before the company dissolved in 2012, and yeah, I miss it. In the new version, Ami and her sister Yoshie are scraping by doing fight shows when Yoshie is captured by female killing machines during a surprise attack on a black market organ-trafficking ring. Going to her sister’s rescue, Ami has her left arm severed but attaches a machine gun to the stump and charges into the enemy’s lair – only to find Yoshie has […]

TRIPLE TIME – Part II: An Interview With TRIPLE THREAT Star Tony Jaa

Lee B. Golden III

Martial arts action cinema fans are just weeks away from catching Jesse V. Johnson’s newest ensemble action adventure thriller, Triple Threat. Respective reviews will likely go out by the week of Friday, March 15, which is when we’ll proudly post ours. In the meantime, Thai action star Tony Jaa who broke out in 2003 with venerable cult hits like the Ong Bak trilogy and the Tom Yum Goong films, has kept himself favorably busy working with directors in China and Hollywood. He’s back with us for the first time in about five years touching base since we last exchanged in 2013, and I’m also pretty glad we cleared the air on a few items of mention. Read on for the rest, and be sure click here to catch up with our latest chat with Triple Threat director Jesse V. Johnson, and then get your tickets today! Jaa, it is an […]

Jimmy Henderson’s THE PREY Finds Hunting Ground In The UK

Lee B. Golden III

One of the most thrilling features coming our way comes from the creative auspices of director Jimmy Henderson (Jailbreak) following last year’s festival outing, The Prey, Cambodia’s first $1 million dollar-budgeted action feature. The film premiered at Busan and at BFI in London and is currently in the market for buyers by way of internatonal sales agent, Raven Banner. Among the lot via Deadline, we now have fledgling distro banner Lightbulb Film Distribution stepping up to the plate and picking up for its UK-bound release with a date now pending as of last week at EFM in Berlin. Actor and martial artist Gu Shang Wei, stars in the film as an undercover cop swept away amidst a botched raid, forcibly incarcerated and left to fight for his survival among prisoners hunted for sport in a maniacal warden’s deadly game for rich, affluent huntsmen. Also starring are Vithaya Pansringarm and actress […]

THE DEER AND THE CAULDRON: Pang Ho-Chung To Adapt Classic Jin Yong Novel Series

Lee B. Golden III

Love trilogy director Pang Ho-Cheung is boarding an adaptation of the late Jin Yong’s novel series, The Deer And The Cauldron. Bravos Pictures is repping internationally at EFM in Berlin, signaling as Pang’s first period production set in the Qing Dynasty. Pang’s Making Film Productions will produce and roll cameras for the first installment this summer with a story whose lead character profile reads as Wei Xiaobao, “a charming and mischievous hero rather than a wu xia martial arts champion”. The first installment is set for release in 2021. (Variety)

800: Sales Underway At EFM For Guan Hu’s New WWII Epic

Lee B. Golden III

Gangster pic Mr. Six helmer Guan Hu is in post production with trailblazing $80 million dollar World War II epic, 800, which centers on a four-day fracas between looming Japanese forces, and a band of Chinese soldiers and draft dodgers who’ve fortified a Shanghai warehouse complex. The project is marked as the first Chinese production to use IMAX caneras for its eight-month production period. Huayi Bros. is selling the film at EFM which employs cinematographer Cao Yu (Legend of the Demon Cat), action director Glenn Boswell (I, Robot) original music by the U.K.’s Rupert Gregson-Williams (Aquaman, Wonder Woman) and Oscar-nominated VFX supervisor Tim Crosbie (X-Men: Days of Future Past). No casting details so far. (Variety)

GREENLAND: ‘Angel Has Fallen’ Star And Director To Reteam For Diaster Pic

Lee B. Golden III

Last weekend saw big news out of Berlin with actor Gerard Butler set to star in upcoming disaster pic, Greenland. STXinternational is repping the film intermatonally for buyers in Berlin and releasing in the UK. Production in Toronto is currently slated for May with the actor set to reteam with director Ric Roman Waugh, both whom are currently in talks. Greenland hails from Thunder Road and Anton, with Butler leading the tale about one family’s fight for survival in the face of a cataclysmic natural disaster. Producing the film is Thunder Road’s Films Basil Iwanyk (A Star is Born, Sicario, John Wick) who developed the project with Butler and Alan Siegel via their G-BASE banner. Anton is fully financing with Anton’s Sébastien Raybaud and Harold van Lier exec producing. CAA Media Finance reportedly arranged the film’s financing and will rep the film’s domestic rights alongside Anton. Butler and Waugh’s Angel […]

Sabu’s JAM Stimulates With Song And Savagery In The Official Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Celebrated director and actor SABU made festival waves late last year in Tokyo premiering his latest, Jam. World sales reps at Freestone have been busy at EFM in Berlin where the film now looks toward garnering releases overseas since opening locally in December. HiGH&LOW franchise actors Aoyagi Sho (Tatara Samurai), Machida Keita (Over Drive) and Suzuki Nobuyuki (Strayer’s Chronicle) lead the cast for an action drama wrapped in arthouse flair about the intersecting lives of three men: a has-been pop idol hoping to resurrecting his career, a good samaritan hoping his actions will cure his dying girlfriend, and a yakuza on the run after killing another gangster who had him sent to prison. Check out the trailer above and stay tuned for more info as further releases are set in motion.

Crime Drama LINE OF DESCENT Unravels A Dark Legacy In The First Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Philip Kim and Elisabeth Costa de Beauregard’s Storyboard Media have been hustling since the last AFM repping world sales for award-winning filmmaker Rohit Karn Batra’s crime thriller, Line of Descent. Its presence continued since then at the EFM in Berlin where producer Guy J. Louthan scored greenlights for projects under his Palanquin banner – Mata Hari and Fargo-esque crime thriller, Call Center. For now, we have an official first look at what will entail for Batra’s feature directorial debut, formerly titled The Field, now screening in Berlin during the market period. Casting a raft of Indian talent with DC Universe’s Doom Patrol series headliner Brendan Fraser back in the spotlight, Batra pens the script that sees Fraser as a manipulative arms dealer playing all sides of a brewing war fueled by three Indian mafia brothers following the death of their patriarch, and an undercover cop investigating their activities and inner-turmoil. […]

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Kitamura’s Marine Action Thriller, DOORMAN, Casts Ruby Rose To Star

Lee B. Golden III

Do I still want a Versus 2? Yes. Am I deluded at this point? Probably. Still, director Kitamura Ryuhei is someone I’ve been long proud of since stumbling upon his films back in college in 2001, and it gives me great pleasure to see reported at Deadline that his latest, Doorman, has installed actress Ruby Rose. Rose will play Ali Gorski, a decorated Marine officer, homeward bound and looking for an opportunity to heal from battlefield trauma. Her newfound refuge as a doorman at The Carrington, a historic, labyrinth apartment in New York City, is short-lived with the arrival of deadly mercenaries bent on retrieving precious art hidden in the walls of the building. Doorman is penned by Lior Chefetz, Joe Swanson and Harry Winer, and with story by Greg Williams and Matt McAllester. DDI is at EFM in Berlin this week with Doorman included in its slate, now two […]

DAUGHTER OF THE WOLF: Gina Carano Action Thriller Gets A May 10 U.S. Release

Lee B. Golden III

Director David Hackl’s latest pic is well on the way after selling to a raft of territories at this year’s EFM in Berlin. The Gina Carano and Richard Dreyfuss-led Daughter Of The Wolf will have its day in North America on May 10 in theaters and VOD. Clair McKenna, an ex-military specialist, comes home to the recent news of her fathers passing only to find herself at odds with her defiant 13-year-old son, CHARLIE. With the news that Clair has inherited a large sum of money from her fathers business Charlie is kidnaped for a ransom. Instead of seeking help Clair takes one of the kidnappers, Larsen, as a hostage and forces him to lead her on a perilous journey to rescue her son from the mysterious figure only know as the Father. The trek takes Clair deep in the mountains of the Yukon, near the US – Canadian border […]

Sono Sion’s PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND Haunts With Imogen Poots Joining Nicolas Cage

Lee B. Golden III

Alex Ritman’s newest exclusive at The Hollywood Reporter is continuing the stimulus from last year’s news with Nicolas Cage addition to Sono Sion’s American debut, Prisoners Of The Ghostland. Set to begin production in the Spring, Cage will be joined by Green Room actress Imogen Poots who now joins the film which is currently being shopped in Berlin from XYZ Films. When a notorious criminal, Hero (Cage), is sent to rescue an abducted girl (Poots) who has disappeared into a dark supernatural universe, they must break the evil curse that binds them and escape the mysterious revenants that rule the Ghostland. The news comes after Cage sliced and buzzsawed his way into 2019 with Panos Cosmatos’s bloody, psychedelic action horror opus, Mandy, whose SpectreVision has since also boarded the actor’s recently-announced H.P. Lovecraft nod, Color Out Of Space, also on XYZ’s Berlin slate. Cage took to the 3rd International Film […]

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VALENTINE: Shout! Falls In Love With Indonesian Superhero Adaptation Starring Estelle Linden

Lee B. Golden III

A glimpse at some of the EFM buzz titles published this week at Screendaily are aloft with some excting offerings. Indonesian superhero thriller, Valentine is no exception as obscure as the film has been since having its release held back for more than a year prior to its short-lived theatrical run in November of 2017. Whatever the case may be now, the film at least gained a footing in the market scene when UK international sales outfit, Carnaby, acquired the rights last May. That, in turn, now brings news of the Ubay Fox/Agus Pesto-directed actioner’s North American landing at Shout! Studios, so expect this one to hit the blu-ray internets in due time. The beautiful city of Batavia has been infested with robbery and violence. When ‘Srimaya’, a café waitress meets a film director and his friend, they take her on a dangerous adventure full of thrilling action as a […]

THE MOURNER: ‘Casshern’, ‘Last Knights’ Director Tackles Novel Adaptation With Ezra Miller Starring

Lee B. Golden III

I honestly have no idea when people started calling him Casper Kiriya – I always new the Last Knights director as Kiriya Kazuaki ever since I obsessed over the awesomeness that was his 2004 manga adaptation, Casshern, and his 2009 folkloric follow-up, Goemon. Alas, he’s going by Casper these days which is still pretty damn cool. Even moreso is that we get to talk about him again ahead of his latest summer production, The Mourner, which takes off at EFM this week from Paradigm and has since added Ezra Miller (Justice League) to the cast. The Mourner follows a jaded and embittered homicide detective on the trail of murderous sex traffickers, who discovers new spiritual meaning in her life when she comes across a mystical young man (Miller) whose calling in life is to mourn the dead who have no one else to mourn them. Echo Lake Entertainment’s Mike Marcus […]

THE HEART Beats For Sierra/Affinity At EFM, Casts Rockwell, Spencer And Janney

Lee B. Golden III

Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (The Descendants, Fox Seachlight’s upcoming Downhill) are set to reunite with fellow Academy Award-winners Sam Rockwell and Allison Janney (The Way Way Back) for new movie, The Heart, which rolls cameras at the end of the year. The two actors will be joined by Academy award-winning Octavia Spencer (The Shape Of Water, Hidden Figures), from an original script by Faxon and Nash. THE HEART tells the story of Joe (Rockwell) and Lucy (Spencer) who, while desperate for cash, take the job of delivering a human heart from New York to Florida in 24 hours. When they realize that their delivery is destined for a black-market buyer who illegally skipped the donor list, they attempt to reroute it to its rightful recipient, but they are soon hunted down by multiple insane criminals — including the greedy millionaire buyer, his scorned brother, and Lucy’s own drug-dealing ex-boss […]

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN: Revenge Thriller Casts Carey Mulligan

Lee B. Golden III

As reported the other day at Deadline, actress Carey Mulligan will star in the new retribution thriller, Promising Young Woman. Mulligan will star from a script by writer/director Emerald Fennell which centers on a woman beleagured by her tragic past as she commences dispensing her own brand of justice unto predatory men. The Oscar nominee will begin filming this Spring for LuckyChap Entertainment, and FilmNation who will produce and will rep the film internationally in Berlin next week. The producers said, “We are excited to unleash Emerald Fennell’s dark and subversive vision on an unsuspecting public. Carey Mulligan is the perfect actress to draw the audience into Cassie’s world.”

Mad River Lines Up BLACK FLIES For EFM With Mel Gibson And Tye Sheridan

Lee B. Golden III

A Prayer Before Dawn helmer Jean-Stephane Sauvaire is setting up Black Flies for Mad River Pictures ahead of EFM next week where IMR International will be to rep global sales rights; CAA and WME are handling U.S. rights. Starring Mel Gibson and Tye Sheridan, the film sees the latter in the role of Ollie Criss, a young paramedic whose perspective on life and death is drawn toward a ghastly shift as he and long-time paramedic, Rutkovsky, thrust themselves into the harsh realities of New York’s inner-city streets – high crime rates, homelessness, and widespread drug use, etc. The film is based on Shannon Burke’s 2008 novel from which Ryan King is adapting the screenplay. Mad River Pictures is financing the pic and is producing with Christopher Kopp, Two & Two Pictures’ Lucan Toh and Babak Anvari, and Anthony Katagas, as well as Sheridan who next appears in X-Men: Dark Phoenix […]

SHADOW IN THE CLOUD Casts Chloe Grace-Moretz Ahead Of EFM

Lee B. Golden III

I’ve been waiting to see Chloe Grace-Moretz kick some kind of ass again and now it looks as if that moment will arise very soon with the production of Roseanne Liang’s action horror, Shadow In The Cloud. Endeavor Content is launching international sales at EFM which kicks off next week. As Andreas Wiseman reported at Deadline on Wednesday, Moretz, whose recent credits include Let Me In, Suspiria and upcoming Greta, will play a captain carrying top secret documents aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress as she’s forced to contend with an evil presence, an oncoming Japanese ambush and a leery, all-male crew. Bright and Chronicle scribe Max Landis penned the script. Producing are Automatik’s Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (Sinister) and Fred Berger (La La Land) from Automatik, as are Four Knight’s Kelly McCormick (Atomic Blonde) and Tom Hern (The Dark Horse). Sandra Yee Ling is executive producing.