Markets

AFM 2018: Lionsgate Nabs THE HITMAN’S WIFE’S BODYGUARD, Starts Filming In Spring 2019

Millenium was already turning the gears at Cannes this past summer for newly announced sequel, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, following Patrick Hughes’ inaugural hit last year starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson. Going forward, production is expected to commence in March with Hughes back in the director’s chair and U.S. release plans now in the hands of Lionsgate according to Scott Roxborough’s update at The Hollywood Reporter. Hughes directed The Hitman’s Bodyguard which centered on a disgraced bodyguard whose troubled past with a hitman sees the two on a raucous journey of survival while a mad dictator – the subject of a war crimes investigation by the Hague – sends for their deaths. The film earned more than $180 million dollars globally while the sequel will also reunite Reynolds and Jackson once more with actress Salma Hayek back in the role of wife to Jackson’s character. Brandon and Phillip […]

EVE: A Roughed-Up Jessica Chastain Is Still Standing In The First Official Photo

Lee B. Golden III

Voltage Pictures is at the American Film Market and they’re shopping upcoming action thriller, Eve. Screendaily is presenting a first look at the film with actress and producer Jessica Chastain in her reunion with The Help helmer Tate Taylor since production began in September. Eve (Jessica Chastain) is a deadly assassin who works for a black ops organization, travelling the globe specializing in high profile hits. When a job goes dangerously wrong she is forced to fight for her own survival. Buyers are also privy to exclusive footage of the film which, in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Taylor cites as his first action film, also noting that he had about three weeks of preparation before shooting. Chastain expressed her elation about the film’s vision as well as with having recently-cast actresses Joan Chen and Geena Davis. “I love any type of film that turns a genre on […]

AFM 2018: Scott Adkins Thriller, KARMOUZ WAR, Shops Around For Premiere Through Next Week

Lee B. Golden III

Peter Mimi’s latest 1952-set thriller, Karmouz War, saw a release in Egypt over the summer and now the film will be setting sail in the marketplace courtesy of Premiere Entertainment Group. The Los Angeles-based company has launched talks with buyers for the film which stars Amir Karara opposite action star Scott Adkins, and is penned by Mimi from a story by producer Mohamed El Sobky. A British soldier (Adkins) is locked up by his own army for military misconduct, but is unleashed by the British as their secret weapon when fighting the Egyptian soldiers, who are led by General Yousef al-Masri in Karmouz, Alexandria during English-occupied Egypt. Karim Gawish served as executive producer for Lucid Film. The project is also one of a few titles being handled by Premiere at the moment with the aforementioned action star and there aren’t any headlines officiating so I’m not mentioning it here, but […]

AFM 2018: SNOW PONIES Revives At Endevaor, Announces Cast

Lee B. Golden III

It was last February that Gerard Butler was set for upcoming actioner, Snow Ponies. Having taken a back seat since then, trade news out of the American Film Market is emerging with reports that noted debut directing gig from second unit director Darrin Prescott (John Wick: Chapter, Deadpool 2, Black Panther) is making its case through next week for buyers thanks to Endeavor Content. The refurbished package is being described as a darkly comedic action comedy centered on seven hardened men trekking across a vicious landscape to deliver a mysterious package only to have their mettle tested to the extreme. With murderous bandits stalking them and brutal obstacles at every turn, they are forced to choose between survival and honor, loyalty and deceit, all the while wondering what secrets their precious cargo may contain. Snow Ponies is based on a 2006 Blacklist script by Pat Healy with a cast that […]

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AFM 2018: Dev Patel To Debut Direct His Next Starring Actioner, MONKEY MAN

Lee B. Golden III

Well this sounds exciting. Actor Dev Patel may have fallen short of his action star posterity with a certain live-action adaptation of a Nickleodeon IP, but that hasn’t hindered his favor since breaking through nearly a decade ago with Slumdog Millionaire. Nor does that change the fact that he’s a first-dan black belt in TaeKwonDo and if he’s been keeping up the craft, that ought to make him an action star contender in his own right. Indeed, the star of Neill Blomkamp’s Chappie and Garth Davis’ 2016 drama, Lion, is pivoting toward directing with his own debut, Monkey Man. Trade news has all but confirmed that Patel will both direct and star in the project for which Endeavor Content will be on hand at the American Film Market through next week to rep worldwide sales on and present to buyers. As Brian Welk of The Wrap notes, Patel developed the […]

AFM 2018: Tomek Baginski’s KNIGHTS OF THE ZODIAC: SAINT SEIYA Expected To Shoot In Summer 2019

Lee B. Golden III

Oscar-nominated shorts director Tomek Bagiński first came on our radar several years ago with a series of Allegro-backed fantasy shorts titled Polish Legends. He’s attained other credits both before and after and he’s currently executive producing The Witcher series for Netflix while things are slowly gaining traction on the market front for his feature debut on live-action anime adaptation, Knights Of The Zodiac: Saint Seiya. As Screendaily notes, GFM Films is reportedly boarding sales on the project at the American Film Market and is providing funding alongside Toei Animation Co., Sola Entertainment and A Really Good Film Company. Based on the work of mangaka Kurumada Masami, the manga launched in 1986 from Shueisha and carried over through 1990 at Weekly Shōnen Jump. Morishita Kōzō Morishita and Kikichi Kazuhito respectively directed their episodes for the original 114-part series before Saint Seiya would live on through multiple spin-off anime and manga works, […]