Casting

ROAD HOUSE Opens Its Doors As Cameras Rolls For Prime Video Reimagining Of The Patrick Swayze Action Classic

It was last November when the long-gestating remake of 1989 United Artists action thriller, Road House, managed to set actor Jake Gyllenhaal and director Doug Liman together on the project. As of Tuesday, the film, once designated for MGM, is now home at Prime Video with additional casting info announcing Billy Magnussen, Daniela Melchior, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Lukas Gage. Liman will direct from a script by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry, which “follows a former UFC fighter (Gyllenhaal) who takes a job as a bouncer at a rough-and-tumble roadhouse in the Florida Keys, but soon discovers that not everything is what it seems in this tropical paradise.” Rounding out the cast are Hannah Love Lanier, Travis Van Winkle, B.K. Cannon, Arturo Castro, Dominique Columbus, Beau Knapp, and Bob Menery. Joel Silver, who worked on the original film starring Patrick Swayze, is producing for Silver Pictures. Exec producing are JJ Hook, Alison Winter, […]

CARRY ON: Jaume Collet-Serra To Direct Taron Egerton For New Netflix/Amblin Thriller

Lee B. Golden III

Netflix and Amblin Partners have announced the new thriller, Carry On, to be directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Black Adam, Jungle Cruise, The Shallows) and starring Taron Egerton (Black Bird, Rocketman, Kingsman, Robin Hood). The film will be the first to get produced as part of the deal announced between the two companies last year. Written by TJ Fixman, with additional writing by Michael Green (Logan, Blade Runner 2049), the thriller centers around Ethan Kopek, a young TSA agent who gets blackmailed by a mysterious traveler to let a dangerous package slip through security and onto a Christmas Day flight. Dylan Clark will produce the film out of his Dylan Clark Productions banner. Exec producing are Holly Bario, Amblin’s President of Production who will oversee the project on behalf of the studio, as well Brian Williams via Dylan Clark Productions, Scott Greenberg and Seth William Meier.

WARRIOR: Mark Dacascos And Chelsea Muirhead Join Season Three Of The Hit Martial Arts Action Drama

Lee B. Golden III

WarnerMedia is officially announcing the casting additions of actors Mark Dacascos (John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum) and Chelsea Muirhead (Spare Parts) as series regulars for HBO Max martial arts action crime drama, Warrior. Both actors join a cast of new and returning actors for the upcoming ten-episode third season, led once more by series star Andrew Koji (Paramount Pictures’ Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, Sony Picutures’ upcoming Bullet Train). Set during the violent and bloody Tong Wars of the late 19th century in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Warrior stars Koji as Ah Sahm, a Foshan martial artist whose covert arrival in search of his missing sister forces him to tread carefully between rival gangs, corrupt politicians, and an amenable police force. At the end of season two, shocking twists and stark revelations unfold in the city’s fractured backdrop, upended by racial unrest between the Chinese and the Irish, while Ah […]

BLACK LOTUS: Frank Grillo Toplines New Action Thriller From ‘Boyka: Undisputed’ Director

Lee B. Golden III

Principal photography has just begun on action thriller Black Lotus, according to production notices sent out on Friday. Todor Chapkanov (Viking Quest, Boyka: Undisputed 4, 2nd unit for The Hitman’s Bodyguard, The Expendables 4) will direct a cast headed up by Frank Grillo (The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, Copshop, Boss Level) opposite eleven-time world Dutch kickboxing champion and lead actor Rico Verhoeven (Kickboxer: Retaliation, Netxlix series “Undercover”) Penned by Tad Daggerhart (The Expendables 4), Black Lotus sees Verhoeven in the role of special forces officer Matteo Donner. After his best friend dies while on a joint mission, he roams the world struggling with guilt. Once back in Amsterdam, he ends up in a one-man war in the streets and on the canals of the city. Between explosions, flying bullets and crashing cars, Donner has only one goal: to rescue the kidnapped daughter of his dead friend. Cameras are rolling in the […]

VETERAN 2: Ryoo Seung-Wan’s Crime Thriller Sequel To Film Later This Year

Lee B. Golden III

Ryoo Seung-wan will direct a sequel to his 2015 action comedy thriller, Veteran, according to multiple reports now making the rounds online. Plot details are under wraps, while it is known that actor Jung Hae-in (The Age Of Blood, Start-Up, Netflix series D.P.) is in talks for a villain role. Yoo Ah-in portrayed the antagonist opposite leading man Hwang Jung-min in the inital film. The latest developments on the sequel come seven years since its announcement upon the first film’s critical and commercial success. Ryoo has since gone on to direct a trio of projects, including last year’s hit political thriller, Escape From Mogadishu, which took home several Bests during last November’s 42nd Blue Dragon Film Awards. Escape From Mogadishu also took home several more awards along with the Grand Prize from the 58th BaekSang Arts Awards back in May. It was during those festivities that Kang Hye-jeong, CEO of […]

THE GANGSTER, THE COP, THE DEVIL: Don Lee, Sylvester Stallone To Raise Crimefighting Hell At Paramount Pictures

Lee B. Golden III

Following reports back in May of 2019, Deadline‘s Nancy Tartaglione is reaffirming the news on the pending Don Lee and Sylvester Stallone collab, a remake of Lee Won-tae’s hit 2019 action crime thriller, The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil. The original film was released in South Korea by Kiwi Media Group and shortly after by Well Go USA in the states following its Fantasia Festival premiere (read our review). Joined by Kim Moo-yul and Kim Sung-kyu, Lee starred as a gangster who, after becoming the sole survivor among a raft of murdered crimebosses, reluctantly pairs up with a dogmatic cop who despises gangsters, to take the serial killer down. The new film is now in early stages of development at Paramount Pictures. Lee is set to produce the new film via Gorilla 8 Productions, next to B&C Content CEO Chris S. Lee, BA Entertainment CEO Billy Acumen who also produced […]

BELIEVER Sequel In The Works At Netflix

Lee B. Golden III

Baek Jong-yeol (Beauty Inside) will direct a sequel for Netflix to Believer, Lee Hae-young’s 2018 reimagining of Johnnie To’s 2013 crime thriller, Drug War. According to various trade reports here and abroad, actors Cho Jin-woong and Cha Seung-won will reprise their roles alongside a cast that additionally lists Han Hyo-joo (The Pirates 2), Oh Seung-hoon (KBS series Bloody Heart), Kim Dong-young (Boys) and actress Lee Joo-young (Tastes Of Horror). In Believer, Cho starred as Won-ho, the scrappy, jaded leader of an anti-narc unit facing pressure from their superiors as he aims to bring an end to the criminal wave of the elusive Mr. Lee, played by Cha, with the help of a key witness, played by Ryu Jun-yeol. The new film will reunite both actors for a story that reteams Won-ho “with gang members who are not quite what they seem”, with the addition of actress Han in the role […]

News Briefs: FAST X Adds Another, News On Eckhart’s THE BRICKLAYER And AMBUSH, OUR MAN FROM JERSEY Casts Up, UK Thriller LETTER GIRLS

Lee B. Golden III

• Rita Moreno is the latest to join Fast X, adding to the “Family”-themed spy saga of Fast And Furious films starring Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and new additions Alex Ritchson, Brie Larson and Jason Momoa. Louis Leterrier is directing for Universal. (The Wrap) • Renny Harlin’s The Bricklayer is going to Screen Media, featuring Aaron Eckhart, Nina Dobrev, Clifton Collins Jr. Tim Blake Nelson and Ilfenesh Hadera. The film centers on an ex-CIA operative forced to confront his checkered past amidst a growing international conspiracy that puts the U.S. in crosshairs. (Deadline) • In back-to-back reporting, Eckhart’s latest thriller out of Highland Film Group, Ambush, has landed multiple deals for release including in the UK. Also starring are Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Conor Paolo for the story of a military captain who must lead his commando unit through heavy enemy fire following a surprise attack while on a mission […]

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BLOOD FOR DUST Casts Trio For New Action Thriller, Highland Launching Sales

Lee B. Golden III

Scoot McNairy (Argo, Gone Girl, A Quiet Place Part II), Kit Harington (HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” Eternals), and Josh Lucas (Ford v. Ferrari, The Forever Purge, “Yellowstone”) are set to star in the action thriller feature film Blood For Dust. Rod Blackhurst (Netflix’s Amanda Knox, Peacock’s “John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise”) will direct the shoot this September from a story by himself and David Ebeltoft (Here Alone) which they both scripted. Former friends Cliff (McNairy), a traveling salesman struggling to make a living, and Ricky (Harington), an illegal weapons dealer making serious money, reconnect one fateful day. Hoping to make some quick cash, Cliff agrees to partner with the violent Ricky, who is expanding his business to include cross-state drug and gun deliveries for John, a mid-level American cartel boss (Lucas). Reluctantly he agrees to retrofit his beat-up station wagon to carry dozens of kilos of drugs. When Ricky […]

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News Briefs: Eastwood Returns For FAST X; THE KILL ROOM Casts ‘The Unicorn’ Actress; SHE-RA Goes Live-Action; Adkins Boards VIOLENCE OF ACTION

Lee B. Golden III

• Universal is on the way with the first of a back-to-back finale of the Fast saga with Louis Leterrier directing Fast X, and with none other than Scott Eastwood confirmed to reprise his role from The Fate Of The Furious. He joins newly-added Alan Ritchson along with Jason Momoa, and the usual Fast cadre led by franchise main Vin Diesel for its May 2023 release. (THR) • Hitman comedy drama The Kill Room is adding Dree Hemingway to the Yale Entertainment production, which centers on a hitman named Reggie, his boss and an art dealer, and their joint money laundering scheme that accidentally turns the Reggie into an overnight Avant-Garde sensation, forcing the dealer to play the art world against the underworld. Nicol Paone is directing from a script by Jonathan Jacobson for a cast that also lists Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Joe Manganiello, Maya Hawke, Debi Mazar and […]

SCURRY: Barry Pepper Toplines New Horror Thriller From ‘Occupation’ Franchise Director

Lee B. Golden III

Actor Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan, The Green Mile, Seven Pounds) will star in new genre-raising horror film, Scurry. The film will be directed and produced by Luke Sparke as announced by Film Mode Entertainment’s Clay Epstein and Sparke’s Sparke Films on Thursday. “We’re thrilled to be working with Luke and the Sparke Films team on yet another stellar feature film that raises the genre bar as well as the project’s commercial viability around the world,” said Epstein. “The addition of Barry Pepper and his adept talent, along with his massive global following starting with films like Saving Private Ryan and The Green Mile to more recent titles with box-office earnings exceeding the $1B mark all add immense value to Scurry.” “As huge horror/thriller fans it is fantastic to be able to step into the genre with Scurry. This elevated horror film is sure to terrify and have the audiences on the edge of their seat when they […]

Aaron Eckhart Actioner MUZZLE Adds Trio To The Cast

Lee B. Golden III

Stephen Lang (Twentieth Century Fox’s Avatar franchise, “Into The Badlands”), Nick Cassavetes (Face/Off) and Diego Tinoco (MTV’s “Teen Wolf”) are set to join Aaron Eckhart in Crypto helmer John Stalberg Jr.’s new action thriller Muzzle. Stalberg Jr. will direct from a script he storied with screenwriter Carlyle Eubank (The Signal). Eckhart plays LAPD K-9 officer Jake Rosser, who has just witnessed the shocking murder of his dedicated partner by a mysterious assailant. As he investigates the shooter’s identity, he uncovers a vast conspiracy that has a chokehold on the city in this thrilling journey through the tangled streets of Los Angeles and the corrupt bureaucracy of the LAPD. L.A.-based Highland Film Group is co-financing the thriller and is handling worldwide sales rights, with cameras set to roll this summer. Stalberg Jr. is also producing the pic with Broken Open Pictures’ David Frigerio (Crypto), and Ford Corbett (the upcoming Where all Light […]

Sentient Rounds Up Action Thriller SOMBRA, O’Donnell And Grillo For MERCILESS

Lee B. Golden III

Sentient Pictures International (SPI) has greenlit two action thrillers for its slate at the Cannes market: Sombra with Juan Pablo Raba (Peppermint, “Narcos”, upcoming Freelance with John Cena), and supernatural thriller Merciless, featuring Frank Grillo (Audience network series “Kingdom”, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, Wheelman Copshop, Ida Red). SPI is handling international sales on the hot titles and are introduce to buyers immediately. Domestic rights on both films are being co-repped by SPI and UTA Film Independent. “The strength of these packages is a direct result of the fact that they were ideas that originated here, were developed by Sentient filmmakers and are now being sold, financed and produced internally,” said SPI’s Managing Directors Renee Tab and Christopher Tuffin. “This continuous flow is central to Pierre Morel’s goal of providing artists with a one stop shop for elevated, commercial and genre films which will at the same time ensure a high […]

OCCUPATION: Luke Sparke’s Alien Invasion Sci-Fi Saga Lines Up Five More For ‘RAINFALL’ Trilogy

Lee B. Golden III

Director Luke Sparke is setting in motion the next installment of his Occupation alien invasion saga with Occupation: Rainfall Chapter 2, and is casting Jeremy Piven (Rock n Rolla, Entourage), Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers), Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica, Van Helsing, Bombshell, upcoming Step Up: High Water), Liam McIntyre (Spartacus) and Danny Trejo (Machete) in the new outing. The quintet will join the returning ensemble of actors from the previous films including the voice of Jason Isaacs, Jet Tranter, Dan Ewing, Zac Garred, Charles Mesure, and Dena Kaplan. Clay Epstein’s Film Mode Entertainment is handling worldwide sales rights at the Cannes market with the new movie segueing immediately into pre-production afterward, and with an additional fourth film tying-in as Occupation: Rainfall Chapter Three also in development. Occupation: Rainfall Chapter Two sees Earth’s resistance thrown into chaos as an ominous new threat ruthlessly hunts down the humans that are left, and […]

Don Lee Set To Reprise His Role In Third Outing For THE OUTLAWS Cop Thriller Franchise, Fourth And More Also In The Works

Lee B. Golden III

Multiple Korean news outlets are reporting that a third follow-up to Kang Yoon-sung’s 2017 cop thriller vehicle, The Outlaws, is well on the way with a forth installment already in development. Lee Sang-yong, who directed the second film, The Roundup, will rejoin his star to helm the pic which is currently slated for a 2023 release. Partial casting details reported by Maeil Business Newspaper’s Han Hyun-jung further include Lee Jun-hyuk (Baseball Girl, Along With The Gods 1 & 2), Munetaka Aoki (Rurouni Kenshin franchise), Lee Beom-su (The Divine Move, Unfinished), and Kim Min-jae (Unstoppable, The Battleship Island). The report also hints that successes on the second, the pending third and fourth films could also lead to possible developments for four more titles in the line-up, totaling eight films altogether. Lee, who also stars in films like The Unjust, Kundo, Train To Busan and Derailed to name a few, headlined writer/director […]

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BOUDICA: ‘Hell Hath No Fury’ Helmer To Direct Warrior Queen Epic Later This Year

Lee B. Golden III

Action veteran Jesse V. Johnson (Hell Hath No Fury, Savage Dog, Avengement upcoming White Elephant) will shoot warrior queen epic, Boudica, in Wales this August. Johnson will direct from his own script with actress Olga Kurylenko (Quantum Of Solace, Black Widow, Sentinelle) starring in the title role. Inspired by events in A.D. 60, Boudica follows the eponymous Celtic warrior who rules the Iceni people alongside her husband Prasutagus. When he dies at the hands of Roman soldiers, Boudica’s kingdom is left without a male heir and the Romans seize her land and property. Driven to the edge of madness and determined to avenge her husband’s death, Boudica rallies the various tribes from the region and wages an epic war against the mighty Roman empire. Pic hails from Bleiberg Entertainment and Picture Perfect; Ehud Bleiberg is producing with Johnson, with Danny Dimbort, Nicholas Bennett and Ariel Bleiberg exec producing. Bleiberg/Dimbort will […]

PALIDO: Kellan Lutz Action Thriller Heads To Cannes With Key Sales Art For Premiere

Lee B. Golden III

Actor Kellan Lutz will star in writer/director Javier Reyna’s new action thriller, Palido. Further casting is already underway with L.A.-based Premiere Entertainment Group announcing the pic this week with sales art to present at next week’s Cannes market repping worldwide sales. Lutz, whose credits partly include The Twilight saga, Extraction, The Legend Of Hercules, Java Heat and The Expendables 3, will play an attorney with a military past who hunts down the gang that killed his wife and brother, and took his daughter. Moctesuma Esparza (Selena, The Milagro Beanfield War), and Al Bravo are producing for Al Bravo Films alongside Elias Axume for Premiere, whose Carlos Rincon is exec producing. “We are excited to have Kellan on board the film,” said Premiere CEO Elias Axume. “He’s a dynamic actor with wide range that elevates any film to the next level.” Recent Premiere original productions include Jason Patric thriller Shrapnel and […]

ZORRO Taps ‘Elite’ Actor Miguel Bernardeau For Amazon Prime Series

Lee B. Golden III

The latest report from Variety‘s John Hopewell brings word that Amazon’s Prime Video platform which will now also be host to its own Zorro series starring Miguel Bernardeau (Netflix series “Elite”) in the title role, and Mexican actress Renata Notni (Netflix’s “El Dragón: Return of a Warrior”). The ten-episode series is being billed as an up-to-date version of the classic Diego De La Vega character and his alterego, and hails from L.A.-based Secuoya Studios. It will be directed by Javier Quintas (“Money Heist”, “Sky Rojo”) and Miguel Angel Vivas, (“Locked Up”, “Unauthorized Living”) from a script by Carlos Portela (“Hierro,” “Velvet Collection”). More from the report: Zorro will be shaped by relationships from his youth, love and disappointment in love which will forge his development as a character and reflect a kind of masculinity far from stereotypes, Secuoya announced. His battle also takes in discovering who murdered his father, a personal […]

THE BLACK KAISER Signals The Return Of Mads Mikkelsen’s Hitman Role In ‘Polar’ Sequel

Lee B. Golden III

Swedish filmmaker Jonas Åkerlund will reteam with actor Mads Mikkelsen for The Black Kaiser, a sequel to Åkerlund’s adaptation of Victor Santos’s 2012 graphic novel publication, Polar which premiered on Netflix in 2019. Mikkelsen, whose recent credits partly include Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Anders Thomas Jensen’s award-winning Riders Of Justice and David Yates’s Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore, penned the script with Jayson Rothwell, is reprising his role from the first film with casting currently underway. Polar firstly saw Mikkelsen in the role of Duncan Vizla (a.k.a. The Black Kaiser), settling into retirement when he soon finds himself marked for death by his former employer. In The Black Kaiser according to the trades as announced on Thursday, “the Black Kaiser (Mikkelsen), the world’s most lethal hitman, uncovers a deadly conspiracy protecting a powerful syndicate of killers, and becomes their number one target.” Jeremy Bolt and Robert Kulzer […]

BREATHE: Jennifer Hudson, Milla Jovovich And More Head New Survival Action Thriller For Capstone And Thunder Road

Lee B. Golden III

Academy Award-winner Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls, Respect) will head up action survival thriller, Breathe, from Indie Spirit Award-winner Stefon Bristol (See You Yesterday). The film will also star Sam Worthington (Avatar) Milla Jovovich (the Resident Evil franchise), Academy Award-nominee Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild, Annie) and Academy Award-winner Common (Wanted, Suicide Squad) will also star. Bristol will direct his sophomore pic from the Black List screenplay written by Doug Simon (Dimension’s Demonic). In Breathe, after Earth is left uninhabitable due to lack of oxygen, a mother Maya (Hudson) and her daughter Zora (Wallis) are forced to live underground, with short trips to the surface only made possible by a state of the art oxygen suit made by Maya’s husband, Darius, whom she presumes to be dead. When a mysterious couple arrives claiming to know Darius and his fate, Maya tentatively agrees to let them into their bunker, but are […]