Casting

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VANQUISH: Action Thriller Shoot Underway With Morgan Freeman And Ruby Rose From ‘Midnight Run’ Director

Lee B. Golden III

Principal photography is underway in Biloxi, Mississippi for action thriller, Vanquish, from director George Gallo (The Comeback Trail, Midnight Run). Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby) and Ruby Rose (The Meg) are starring from a script by Gallo and co-scribe Samuel Bartlett who also storied the pic. Strict Covid-19 protocols are in place for the production which sees Freeman in the role of a retired police commissioner who blackmails his caretaker (Rose), by kidnapping her daughter (Journey Brener), forcing her into helping him double cross his team of dirty detectives in an attempt to clean up the city and cleanse his soul before it’s too late. March On Production’s Richard Salvatore and David E. Ornston (upcoming The Comeback Trail) are producing with Chassy Media’s Nate Adams. Christian Mercuri’s Capstone Group is co-financing the project alongside Gary Leff’s Southland Equity. Mercuri and Leff will exec produce. “With the state […]

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ONE LIFE: Anthony Hopkins And Johnny Walsh Tackle Dual Performances For Humanitarian Tale At See-Saw, BBC Films

Lee B. Golden III

Aisling Walsh (Maudie, Elizabeth is Missing) will direct One Life for See-Saw Films, as announced by the company on Wednesday. Starring are Academy Award Winning actor, Sir Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs, The Two Popes ) and Johnny Flynn (Beast, Emma), with a script by Lucinda Coxon (The Danish Girl, The Little Stranger) and Nick Drake (Romulus, My Father). Developed by BBC Films and See-Saw, One Life is based on the extraordinary true story of Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Winton who, when just 29 years old championed the rescue of refugee children out of Czechoslovakia, under threat from Hitler’s death camps, to the safety of British foster families. Battling public apathy, political hostility and bureaucratic obstruction, he succeeds in rescuing 669 children before war breaks out, the borders are closed and the mission is abruptly over. Half a century later, Nicky has a surprise reunion with the now grown children whose […]

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THE FATHER: Donnie Yen, Alec Baldwin, Frank Grillo Star In New Action Thriller Shooting Early 2021

Lee B. Golden III

Donnie Yen (Ip Man franchise) will star in The Father, according to Variety‘s Manori Ravindran. AGC International has acquired international sales rights on the action thriller which will launch for buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival as of Thursday this week. CAA Media Finance will handle U.S. distribution rights for the film as cameras get ready to roll early next year. Also casting Alec Baldwin (Mission: Impossible franchise) and Frank Grillo (Beyond Skyline), The Father is set in South Boston, and centers on Yen in the role of “middle-class Hong Kong immigrant John Chung, who is making the best of his family’s new life in America while working as a modest fish broker in the city’s docklands. When his teenage sons stumble upon four kilos of heroin and are hunted down by a local crime ring and corrupt cops, Chung must stop at nothing to protect them.” Tommy Wirkola […]

THE SILENT SEA Casts Bae Doona, Gong Yoo And Lee Joon For Netflix For New Sci-Fi Space Drama

Lee B. Golden III

Korean sci-fi mystery series, The Silent Sea, is in the works at Netflix. Artist Studio will produce the pic which is based on a shortfilm of the same name, whose director, Choi Hang-yong, has also boarded the project. Bae Doona (Sense8, Stranger), Gong Yoo (The Age Of Shadows, Kim Ji-young: Born 1982) and Lee Joon (Lucky, Father Is Strange) will star in the futuristic thriller, which centers on members of a special team sent to secure a mysterious sample from an abandoned research facility on the moon just as Earth has undergone a process of desertification. Per Netflix’s announcement on Monday, Bae Doona will play astrobiologist Doctor Song Ji-an, who is determined to uncover the truth behind an accident at the now-abandoned Balhae Base research station on the moon; Gong Yoo joins as Han Yun-jae, the dauntless exploration team leader tasked with carrying out the crucial mission with limited information, […]

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DEVOTION: Black Label Aims For Early 2021 Start On 1950s War Epic With Jonathan Majors And Glen Powell Starring

Lee B. Golden III

Sweetheart helmer J.D. Dillard is revving up to direct war epic, Devotion, based on Adam Makos’s biographical 2014 novel, beginning in February 2021. STXinternational is handling international sales on the project at this year’s virtual Toronto International Film Festival, as announced by Black Media Label on Friday. Actors Jonathan Majors (Da 5 Bloods, ‘Lovecraft Country’) and Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick, Hidden Figures) will star in the film from a script by Dillard, revised from a previous draft Jake Crane and Jonathan A. Stewart. Black Label, whose Molly Smith, Rachel Smith, Thad Luckinbill and Trent Luckinbill are producing, is fully financing the pic. Devotion takes place in 1950, as the Cold War threatens international peace and racial inequality creates tension across the US. The film centers on two young pilots from different worlds, who are accepted into an elite squadron for training – one is Tom Hudner (Powell), a clean-cut, […]

FIVE EYES: Jason Statham Leads New STX Action Thriller With ‘Snatch’ Director

Lee B. Golden III

Freshly off crime ensemble, The Gentlemen, a reunion is reportedly in order for Snatch and Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrells director Guy Ritchie, and actor Jason Statham with Miramax thriller, Five Eyes. As Dave McNary notes at Variety, cameras are set to roll in Europe this October with Statham set to play an agent recruited by the titular global intel alliance, Five Eyes, and reluctantly paired with a high-tech CIA expert to infiltrate a billionaire arms broker, to track down and stop the sale of a deadly new weapon that threatens to disrupt the world order. Ritchie is directing and producing from a script he revised from a previous draft by Marn Davies, and Ivan Atkinson who will also produce. STXinternational is handling world sales at this year’s Toronto Film Festival. STXfilms will distribute the film in the U.S., U.K. and Ireland. Statham and Ritchie recently worked together on […]

Kento Yamazaki in KINGDOM

ALICE IN BORDERLAND: ‘Kingdom’ Star And Director Reunite For New 2020 Netflix Original Series, 14 More Added To The Cast

Lee B. Golden III

Some of the best news that arose this year was the development of a sequel to Shinsuke Sato’s festive manga adaptation, Kingdom, though I can’t speak for whether or not we’ll get more Bleach, which is what I was also hoping for. That doesn’t undercut Sato’s efforts by any measure, and by all means, his latest push with Netflix original series, Alice In Borderland, is entirely welcome, as are the new cast led by Sato cohorts, Kento Yamazaki (Kingdom, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K) Tao Tsuchiya (Library Wars: Book Of Memories, Mare). Based on Haro Aso’s Shogakukan publication, Sato is directing the eight-episode series he’s written with Yoshiki Watabe and Yasuko Kuramitsu, in which Yamazaki plays Ryohei Arisu, a listless, jobless video gamer who suddenly finds himself in a strange, emptied-out version of Tokyo in which he and his friends must compete in dangerous games in order to survive. […]

COPSHOP Action Thriller Headlines Grillo And Butler For October Production From ‘The Grey’ Director

Lee B. Golden III

While there’s no news yet on Boss Level, actor Frank Grillo is still well on the way with several projects, the latest being Copshop, once again reunitung Grillo with The Grey and director Joe Carnahan. Grillo will be joined by Greenland star Gerard Butler, headlining the project storied by Mark Williams and Kurt McLeod who wrote the original screenplay. According to Deadline’s Andreas Wiseman, Carnahan penned the most recent draft. In Copshop, a small-town police station becomes the unlikely battleground between a professional hitman (Butler), a smart rookie female cop, and a double-crossing con man (Grillo), who seeks refuge behind bars with no place left to run. The film hails from production companies Zero Gravity Management and Sculptor Media with Butler also producing with Alan Siegel at G-BASE. Carnahan and Grillo, who recently transitioned their progress on a remake of Indonesian action thriller The Raid into the tentatively-titled Zeno, will […]

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CONCRETE UTOPIA: Lee Byung-Hun Leads Trio For Earthquake Survival Thriller Shooting In Spring 2021

Lee B. Golden III

Um Tae-hwa (Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned) will sit at the helm in March 2021 for tentatively titled disaster thriller, Concrete Utopia, for Lotte Entertainment. A new report at KOFIC notes the casting additions of actress Park Bo-young (The Silenced), and actors Lee Byung-hun (Ashfall) and Park Seo-jun (The Divine Fury). The film reportedly centers on the events in a teetering apartment block in a city left devastated by a major earthquake. Lee is currently shooting The King director Han Jae-rim’s airplane disaster thriller, Emergency Declaration with Song Kang-ho. More at KOFIC.

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THE CHOSEN ONES: Sunny Pang To Star In Survival Thriller From Ranjeet S. Marwa [EXCLUSIVE]

Lee B. Golden III

Filmmaker Ranjeet S. Marwa is officially set to move forward on The Chosen Ones, a sprawling new survival thriller set to shoot in the U.K. starting in the first week of October through November. With Covid-19 safety protocols in place, Marwa will be directing from his own script and producing for his Rocket Sky High Motion Pictures Ltd. banner alongside Djonny Chen of Silent D Films, and with Sunny Pang (Headshot, The Night Comes For Us) attached to star. The project is one of several feature films that Marwa kept in the works since launching crowdfunding in January for action thriller, Blood Rush (which would have filmed this summer), prior to setting forth plans to direct again with Traced by this time in 2020 after pitching the two projects to this year virtual Cannes market. The pandemic, among other factors, has since affected progress on both Traced and Blood Rush, […]

HELLBOUND: Netflix Sets Cast For New Supernatural Series Drama From ‘Peninsula’ Director

Lee B. Golden III

The big fuss of late among kung fu fans over news of a hopeful Ricky Lau-inspired vampire project aside, director Yeon Sang-ho‘s next push will be Hellbound, a new series announced on Wednesday by Netflix. Confirmed cast additions include Yoo Ah-in (Burning), Park Jeong-min (Time To Hunt), Kim Hyun-joo (KBS2 series The Miracle We Met), Won Jin-ah (Long Live The King) and Yang Ik-june (Bad Guys: Vile City). Yeon will direct from a script co-written with Choi Gyu-seok, author of the popular webtoon Songgot. Produced by Lezhin Studio (Lucid Dream), Hellbound centers on angels of death come to Earth to condemn people to hell, an act seen by the cult members of the New Truth Church as the will of the divine to embolden their own religious crusade. Netflix further details the casting as follows, with Ah-in in the role of Jeong Jin-su, the charismatic and mysterious head of the […]

Cross - Son Ye-jin, Lee Sun-kyun, Sam Worthington

CROSS: Son Ye-Jin, Lee Sun-Kyun, Sam Worthington To Star In New Dystopian Class Warfare Sci-Fi From ‘In Time’ Director

Lee B. Golden III

Long since his development efforts in the 1990s with ambitious sci-fi thriller, Cross, it looks as if filmmaker Andrew Niccol will finally get to move forward. According to Pierce Conran at Kobiz, actress Son Ye-jin (The Pirates, The Negotiation) and Lee Sun-kyun (Parasite, Jo Pil-ho: The Dawning Rage), will headline the film with actor Sam Worthington (Avatar franchise). Exact plot details are underwraps but the story is set in a diverse, albeit dystopian country where the lives of the rich and the poor are separated by a giant border wall that appearently no one is allowed to cross. Son and Worthington will take on the respective roles of the impoverished and rich residents on opposite sides, with Lee cast as the ruthless head of border security. A March 2021 start date is reportedly being set with scenes to be shot on location in Korea as well. Judging by the premise, […]

The Russo Brothers

THE GRAY MAN: The Russo Brothers To Direct Espionage Adaptation For Netflix, Ryan Gosling And Chris Evans To Star

Lee B. Golden III

Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans are set to star in The Gray Man for Netflix, according to Deadline‘s Mike Fleming Jr.. The film further reunites Evans with directing duo, MCU favorites Anthony and Joe Russo, and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. The update comes following years of the IP’s languishing development, firstly at New Regency, and most recently at Sony under the stewardship of The Russo Brothers as of 2015 via The Tracking Board. At the time of that particular report, actress Charlize Theron was circling the project, and no word of it is mentioned in Fleming Jr.’s new report. The film is based on the 2009 novel from Jove Books – the first of a four-novel set from author Mark Greaney – and centers on “a deadly duel between killers as Gentry (Gosling) is hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Evans), a former cohort of Gentry’s at […]

Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt Boards David Leitch’s BULLET TRAIN For Sony

Lee B. Golden III

The trades on Monday confirmed Oscar-winning Once Upon A Time In Hollywood actor Brad Pitt’s latest attachment to star in Bullet Train, an adaptation of a Japanese novel, to be directed by Fast And Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw director David Leitch. Based on the popular Japanese book Maria Beetle by Kotaro Isaka, the story follows five assassins who find themselves on a fast moving bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka with only a few stops in between. Strangely, they discover their missions are not unrelated to each other. Per THR and Deadline, Leitch is also on script supervision detail with Fear Street writer Zak Olkewicz putting pen to paper. The Atomic Blonde helmer will also be joined by Kelly McCormick in producing the pic via their 87North banner, along with Antoine Fuqua and Kat Samick. CTB Inc.’s own Ryosuke Saegusa and Yuma Terada, who represent Isaka as well as […]

REPLAY: Olivia Munn To Star In Close Quarters Action Sci-Fi In Vein Of ‘John Wick’ And ‘The Raid’

Lee B. Golden III

Former Attack Of The Show host Olivia Munn has risen to the occasion with a film and television resumè host to some notable acting credits in over a decade. This week, the Ride Along 2, X-Men: Apocalypse and The Predator actress is diving into a more primal action role in Replay with a press release now out as international sales agent, The Exchange, revs up its slate for the virtual Cannes market from June 22 through 26. Deftly merging the frenetic, close-quarters action of JOHN WICK and THE RAID with the clever sci-fi storytelling of THE TERMINATOR, REPLAY is the story of Erin Staffer (Munn), whose husband is kidnapped and murdered. Now, armed only with illegal, bleeding edge tech and a desperate plan, Erin must do everything in her power to change the past and save him. Replay is now in pre-production, and hails from The Exchange and Dark Castle […]

Horror Thriller TRACED To Star Sunny Pang For Fall Start; BLOOD RUSH Shoot Moves To Spring 2021 [EXCLUSIVE]

Lee B. Golden III

Filmmaker Ranjeet S. Marwa is turning his focus over to Traced, a new horror thriller which has already locked Sunny Pang to star. The film is aimed as “a crime thriller with elements of extreme violence” along with a tone and vision akin to the works of directors like Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin), Takashi Miike (Ichi The Killer), Lynne Ramsay (You Were Never Really Here) and Park Chan-wook (Old Boy) to name a few. Traced follows King (Pang), a troubled man with a violent past, hired by a multimillionaire to rescue his daughter, Hannah, from being exploited for her rare blood type, by a criminal gang known as Blood Thieves. As King battles his own inner-turmoil, his mission unravels an even larger conspiracy, and so King will do whatever it takes to find and save Hannah – no rules, no exceptions, no remorse. Marwa is producing via his Rocket Sky […]

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THE BLACKSMITH Casts Up With Fishburne And Jonas For The New Graphic Novel Adaptation

Lee B. Golden III

District B13, Taken and Peppermint director Pierre Morel’s The Blacksmith has an official cast as of Tuesday with Lawrence Fishburne and Nick Jonas set to star. The article at Variety also touts a “soon be announcing an equally outstanding young female actor to play across from Nick” which should further give way to franchise potential. Ben Ripley is adapting the script from the 2011 Kickstart Comics publication that was written by Richard Sparkman and Malik Evans, and illustrated by Alberto Muriel. The AGC Studios-produced and financed feature slightly retools its incarnation of the comic, renaming our protagonist on Wes Loomis (Jonas), a high-tech weapons expert for the spy community who is rendered fugitive and on the run when his secret lab is decimated and his colleagues are murdered. As Variety’s report on Tuesday elucidates: “Resorting to his unique skills set to keep him alive, and the aid of a brilliant, […]

Jessica Alba

Netflix Issues Action Thriller TRIGGER WARNING For Jessica Alba To Star

Lee B. Golden III

Indonesian filmmaker Mouly Surya will direct actress Jessica Alba in Trigger Warning for Netflix, the streamer announced on Friday. Josh Olson (A History Of Violence) and John Brancato (The Hunter’s Prayer) are penning the action thriller, which marks Surya’s latest return to the director’s chair after leaving a mark on 2017, with Cannes official Directors’ Fortnight selection, Marlina The Murderer in Four Acts. The film was also Indonesia’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards. In Trigger Warning, Alba will play a traumatized veteran who inherits her grandfather’s bar after his untimely death, and is faced with a moral dilemma as she discovers the truth behind his death. Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee are producing, with Alba serving as exec producer. The Sin City, Fantastic Four and Mechanic 2 actress also stars in Spectrum Original’s LA’s Finest alongside co-leading lady Gabrielle Union, spun-off from […]

(UPDATED) BLOOD RUSH: ‘Bad Boys For Life’ Actor In Talks; ‘Wira’ Star Confirmed [EXCLUSIVE]

Lee B. Golden III

Updated as of Thursday, April 9, 2020. Italian-American actor Massi Furlan is in talks to join Ranjeet S. Marwa’s Blood Rush, which remains in active development under Marwa’s independent Rocket Sky High film label. Marwa also confirmed with FCSyndicate on Wednesday that Malaysian stunt performer, actor Hairul Azreen is officially joining the feature thriller; Balinese actor Oka Antara (Foxtrot Six, The Raid 2) was previously attached following reported talks last week but has since departed the project due to scheduling concerns. Details on the roles for both Furlan and Azreen remain under wraps. Zack Lee (The Night Comes For Us, Headshot) makes his lead debut on Blood Rush from a script by Marwa, with an ensemble cast bustling with fervor listing the likes of Sunny Pang (The Night Comes For Us), Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman (John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum), Nathan Jones (Tom Yum Goong, Jet Li’s Fearless) […]

BLOOD RUSH: Oka Antara Among Names Circling Ranjeet S. Marwa’s New Action Thriller [EXCLUSIVE]

Lee B. Golden III

Protracted development otherwise remains underway for the Ranjeet S. Marwa action thriller, Blood Rush, and several additional actors are now eyeing the project for varying starring and support roles. Among the lot is Balinese actor Oka Antara, who has been in preliminary dicussions with Marwa for a few days now. In addition, actor and stunt performer Andrew Suleiman will enlist in a small role next to working behind the scenes on fight choreography with Nick Khan. Character details are under wraps but I’m told both roles will assuredly contribute to the action scenes per the film’s narrative. Marwa launched the film at the top of the year for his Rocket Sky High film label. Actor Zack Lee (The Night Comes For Us, Headshot) is set to star as Max Wayan, a widower forced to battle his inner demons and fight his way out of a vicious cult in the time […]