Casting

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

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

• 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 […]

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

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 […]

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Aaron Eckhart Actioner MUZZLE Adds Trio To The Cast

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 […]

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

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 […]

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

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 […]

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

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

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 […]

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

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 […]

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

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 […]

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

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 […]

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

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 […]

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LAST KING OF THE CROSS Adds Cast For Paramount+ Australia Crime Series

Paramount+ Australia is getting gears rolling for new ten-episode hourlong crime drama, Last King Of The Cross with actor Ian McShane (John Wick franchise) announced as the lead antagonist back in March alongside Lincoln Younes (Little Monsters). Casting this week is also announcing Callan Mulvey (Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice), Tess Haubrich (Spiderhead, Alien: Covenant), Claude Jabbour (Eden, Stateless), Maria Tran (Truy Sat, Echo 8), Matt Nable (Riddick, Bikie Wars: Brothers In Arms) and Damian Walshe-Howling (Underbelly, Janet King) according to Deadline‘s Max Goldbart. Deadline broke news of the show in March introducing McShane as Ezra Shipman, the most feared and venerable crime boss in Sydney’s Kings Cross. Well up in age however and forced to confront his own mortality with no one to hand his legacy to, he crosses paths with John Ibrahim (Younes), a poverty-stricken immigrant who otherwise reflects much of Shipman’s own similar traits: young, brash, ambitious, and intelligent. With […]

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LAND OF BAD: Russell Crowe, Liam Hemsworth Cast For September Action Thriller Shoot From ‘Underwater’ Director

Russell Crowe (Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind) and Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games, Independence Day: Resurgence) are set to star in the new action thriller film Land of Bad, it was announced on Friday. Will Eubank (Underwater, The Signal) will direct from a script he wrote with David Frigerio. Land of Bad centers on Reaper (Crowe), an Air Force drone pilot supporting a Delta Force special ops mission in the South Philippines. After the mission goes terribly wrong, he has 48 hours to remedy what has devolved into a wild rescue operation. The Tier One team on the field is joined on the battlefield by Kinney (Hemsworth), a green Air Force JTAC who is thrust into the middle of a high-stakes extraction. But the ground mission suddenly turns upside down and becomes a full-scale battle when the team is discovered by the enemy. With no weapons and no communication other than […]

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ABSOLUTE DOMINION Sets Cast For Dystopian Martial Arts Tournament Thriller From Netflix, Blumhouse TV

Production is underway for Absolute Dominion, the dystopian martial arts thriller that gained headlines earlier this month for the local film commission in the state of Nevada. The film hails from Netflix and Blumhouse Television with Punisher: War Zone helmer Lexi Alexander directing from her own script. Absolute Dominion is set in 2085 A.D. when the world has been destroyed by religious warfare. Desperate to save humanity, global governing forces host a gripping, no-holds-barred, martial arts tournament. Last fighter standing wins Absolute Dominion for one faith. According to the trades, Alex Winter (Bill & Ted trilogy), Alok Vaid-Menon (Random Acts of Flyness), Andy Allo (Chicago Fire), and Désiré Mia, are starring in the film with Jennifer Jajeh (Transparent), Juliana Joel (American Gigolo), Julie Ann Emery (Better Call Saul), June Carryl (Y: The Last Man), Junes Zahdi (Counterpart), Laith Ashley (Pose), Mario D’Leon (Power), Nora Armani (The Blacklist: Redemption), Oluniké Adeliyi (The Expanse), Patton Oswalt (I […]

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THE KILL ROOM Adds Joe Manganiello For Spring Production

Cameras are set to roll this Spring in New York and New Jersey for dark comedy crime pic, The Kill Room, according to Deadline’s Andreas Wiseman reporting on the addition of actor Joe Manganiello (Archenemy, Zack Snyder’s Justice League) to the cast. The film, first announced in the trades at the start of April, joins the actor with previously-cast Pulp Fiction cohorts Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman. Penned by Jonathan Jacobson with Nicol Paone tapped to direct, The Kill Room charts “the story of a hitman (Manganiello), his boss (Jackson) and an art dealer (Thurman) whose money-laundering scheme accidentally turns the hitman into an overnight avant-garde sensation, forcing Thurman’s character to play the art world against the underworld.” The film will hit the Cannes market in May with producer Yale Entertainment’s sales and distribution banner, Great Escape, handling international sales and co-repping U.S. rights with ICM Partners, according to […]

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HIJACK: Apple TV+ Orders Real-Time Thriller Series Starring Idris Elba

Apple TV+ is partnering with actor Idris Elba (Sonic The Hedgehog 2, The Suicide Squad) on new thriller series order, Hijack, marking first project that will hail from Elba’s first-look deal with Apple TV+ and his Green Door Pictures signed in 2020. Told in real time, “Hijack” is a tense thriller that follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven hour flight, as authorities on the ground scramble for answers. Elba will star as Sam Nelson, an accomplished negotiator in the business world who needs to step up and use all his guile to try and save the lives of the passengers — but his high-risk strategy could be his undoing. George Kay (Criminal, Netflix’s “Lupin”) is writing the series, and Jim Field Smith (Criminal, The Wrong Mans) is attached to direct. The two are also exec producing via their Idiotlamp Productions […]

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RRR Star Ram Charan Signals New Collab With UV Creations For Director Gowtam Tinnanuri

Award-winning actor Ram Charan is on deck to star in an as-yet untitled “multi-million dollar” feature film with production house, UV Creations, with director Gowtam Tinnanuri at the helm, according to announcements on Monday. The news comes following a period of well over two weeks of buzz and box office for the hit success of Baahubali helmer S.S. Rajamouli’s latest period action epic, RRR, in which Charan stars alongside A-listers NT Rama Rao, Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn. The film is billed as a thought experiment that centers on two legendary revolutionaries and their fictional journey away from home before they started fighting for their country in the 1920s. It has been highly praised for its incredible action sequences and stunt-filled set pieces. UV Creations is hailed as the company responsible for several Tollywood (or Tegulu language cinema) blockbusters such as Koratala Siva’s action drama, Mirchi (2013), and Sujeeth’s romantic […]

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SHADOW FORCE Casts Omar Sy, Joe Carnahan To Direct For Lionsgate

Boss Level and Copshop helmer Joe Carnahan will be back to direct another action thriller with Shadow Force for Lionsgate. First announced in 2019, actress Kerry Washington will now be joined by Lupin series star Omar Sy, who replaces actor Sterling K. Brown, as Deadline‘s Andreas Wiseman reported on Friday. Nathan Kahane, President, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, said: “Omar is at the top of his powers – combined with his global stardom, he’s ideally suited to co-lead this action-drama with Kerry, whose talent as an actress and a producer is unbounded. We’re thrilled to be working with the production team of Stephen, Kerry, Sterling, and Pilar, who have shepherded this story of a family in peril from the beginning, and with Joe, who will bring a unique, visceral style to the film.” Andreas Wiseman, Deadline Directing from a script Carnahan wrote with Leon Chills, Shadow Force “will follow an estranged couple with […]

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John Kissack’s FELIX Shoots This Spring From ‘The Grey’ Director, Casts Jeffrey Dean Morgan And Benjamin Evan Ainsworth

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (“The Walking Dead”, Watchmen) and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth (“The Haunting of Bly Manor,” upcoming Pinocchio) are set to star in the new horror thriller, Felix. Third time feature director John Kissack (Everfall) will helm this – his second horror pic – from a script by Casey Giltner, with principal photography set to start this Spring. Ainsworth will play Charlie, who, along with his best friend Jimmy, are making a movie with dreams of becoming Hollywood directors. When Charlie’s dad (Morgan) finds an old ventriloquist doll named Felix among his late mother’s belongings, Charlie and Jimmy immediately cast Felix as the creepy antagonist in their movie. Through a chain of increasingly sinister and disturbing events, the family discovers that Felix has a mind of his own and it’s up to Charlie and Jimmy to rid their family of this ominous force they’ve awoken. Joe Carnahan (Copshop, Boss Level, […]

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