Casting

ASH: Beluah Koale, Iko Uwais And Kate Elliot Join Flying Lotus Sci-Fi Thriller Now Filming

Production has begun in New Zealand for sci-fi thriller, Ash, from director Flying Lotus. Casting has also been announced for actor Beluah Koale (Dual), Iko Uwais (Beyond Skyline), and Kate Elliot (Fracture), who join the previously announced Eiza González and Aaron Paul. In Ash, González plays a woman who wakes up on a distant planet and finds the crew of her space station viciously killed, she must decide if she can trust the man sent to rescue her, played by Paul. Flying Lotus is directing based on an original screenplay written by Jonni Remmler, and is also set to compose the film’s original score. Nate Boloton of XYZ Films and Matthew Metcalfe of GFC Films are producing, with Neill Blomkamp (District 9) and Echo Lake onboard as exec producers. XYZ Films is also co-financing alongside IPR.VC. “So proud to work with this amazing group of fearless artists. Everyone involved […]

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THE KILLER’S GAME: J.J. Perry To Direct Novel Adaptation Starring Dave Bautista, Lionsgate Launching Cannes Sales

Lee B. Golden III

It’s been more than twenty years for any move to cinema with Jay Boninsaga’s 1997 novel, The Killer’s Game. The film finally has a home with Lionsgate launching international sales for the adaptation which now has stunt professional and second unit director J.J. Perry lined-up to direct his second feature since Netflix hit vampire actioner, Day Shift with Jamie Foxx. Filming begins this summer for Perry with Guardians Of The Galaxy franchise actor Dave Bautista starring as Joe Flood as a principled veteran assassin who learns he is dying. Thinking his days are numbered and refusing suicide as it goes against his Catholic principles, he stakes a multi-million dollar prize on his own life, only to realize two things: One – that he’s been misdiagnosed and is still in perfect health, and Two – his girlfriend is preganant. Now the two will have to race across Europe in order to […]

PRIMA FACIE: Cynthia Erivo To Star In Feature Adaptation Of Hit Stage Play

Lee B. Golden III

Participant and Bunya Productions are teaming up for Prima Facie, starring Cynthia Erivo. BAFTA Award-winning filmmaker Susanna White will direct from a script by critically-acclaimed playwright Suzie Miller who wrote the original and current hit stage play on which the film is based. Prima Facie is described as a “propulsive and character-driven film,” in which Academy Award nominee and Tony Award winning Erivo will play “Tessa, an ambitious and confident defense attorney from working class roots. A rising star in the high-powered London legal system, Tessa skillfully defends her clients, including those accused of sexual assault. But after she is raped by a colleague, she discovers that the law does not deliver justice along the boundaries of consent. Participant and Bunya are producing in association with Erivo’s Edith’s Daughter; Bunya’s Greer Simpkin, David Jowsey and Jenny Cooney will produce the feature alongside Participant; Miller, Erivo, Solome Williams and Participant’s Jeff […]

DIABLO: ‘Fist Of The Condor’ Director’s Chile-Set Actioner Reunites ‘John Wick 4’ Co-Stars Adkins And Zaror

Lee B. Golden III

How’s this for another ‘triple threat’ of sorts? Actors and action superstars Scott Adkins and Marko Zaror will reunite for Diablo, from director Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, which rolls cameras later this year in Chile. The film teams Adkins up for the first time with Espinoza who has collaborated with Zaror on several genre hitmakers, firstly collaborating on 2006’s Kiltro which launched the Chilean martial arts star to leading man stardom. Deadline’s Zac Ntim reports: Plot follows Kris Chaney (Adkins) who, after being released from prison, embarks on a perilous mission to fulfill an old promise but finds himself in danger when he kidnaps Elisa, the daughter of a powerful gangster. Her father, Vincent, puts out a call to the entire criminal underworld to bring her back alive. El Corvo (Zaror), a psychopathic killer, joins the hunt not for the money but for his own vendetta against Vincent’s family. Kris must […]

ASSASSINATION: New David Mamet Thriller Casts Up Ahead Of Cannes Market, Filming Starts This Fall

Lee B. Golden III

Cameras will roll on location in Vancouver this September for Assassination, a new thriller from director David Mamet (The Verdict, Wag The Dog, Redbelt). Arclight Films is launching sales for the pic at the Marché du Film which begins its annual event on Tuesday at Cannes. Penned by Mamet and co-writer Nicholas Celozzi (Kickboxer: Vengeance, Kickboxer Retaliation), the 1963-set thriller centers on events that take place during a crucial justice hearing against organized crime, when the head of the Chicago mob orders the assassination of President John F. Kennedy Jr., creating a deadly conspiracy while altering the fate of a nation. Academy Award-winner Al Pacino (The Irishman, The Devil’s Advocate), Academy Award-nominee Viggo Mortensen (Green Book, Eastern Promises), Academy Award-nominee and Golden Globe-winner John Travolta (Saturday Night Fever, Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty), Shia LaBeouf (Megaopolis, Honey Boy), Rebecca Pidgeon (Heist, Homicide) and singer/actress Courtney Love (The People vs. Larry Flynt) are […]

THE RIDGE: Billy Magnussen Debut Directs Survival Thriller Later This Year, Highland Launching Sales At Cannes

Lee B. Golden III

Actor Billy Magnussen (Game Night, Aladdin, No Time to Die, Bridge of Spies) will star in The Ridge, a new survival thriller rolling cameras in the U.S. later this year. Highland Film Group will launch international sales at the Marché du Film, with CAA representing domestic. Magnussen will also debut direct the pic from a script he storied with screenwriters Mike Anderson and John Clavier, who penned the pic with Will Lowell. He will play Grady, billed as a “true outdoorsman” and brother to the fiancé of sensitive city dweller, Dez, played by Lamorne Morris (FX’s “Fargo,” Hulu’s “Woke”). When Dez flies out to Wyoming along with his friends to meet the family, Dez is put to the test by Grady, setting the two men at odds with one another, and they engage in an explosive feud that causes their truck to crash and tumble from a ridge. Leaving the […]

MORTAL KOMBAT 2: Karl Urban In Negotiations As The Upcoming Sequel Finds Its Johnny Cage

Lee B. Golden III

Karl Urban is reportedly in talks to take the mantle for the role of Johnny Cage in director Simon McQuoid’s pending sequel to the Lewis Tan-led 2021 actioner, Mortal Kombat. Urban’s name marks the latest addition to the group of new and returning cast members to continue the story, with actor Joe Taslim already contracted for another installment following his debut as franchise character favorite, Lin Kuei ninja and Cryomancer Bi-Han, a.k.a. Sub-Zero. McQuoid will direct from a script by Marvel series Moon Knight scribe Jeremy Slater. Fan posts and blog updates around the web have been brewing with notes of a summer production start and rumors of potential casting choices for the sequel. Urban’s debut of Cage, a narcissistic Hollywood bad boy and martial arts movie star born with the fighting game franchise’s launch in 1992, is also the character’s newest successor on the screen following actor Linden Ashby […]

ROSARIO: High-Concept Horror Casts Emeraude Torba For June Production Start, Highland Launching Sales At Cannes

Lee B. Golden III

Emeraude Toubia (Freeform’s hit TV series “Shadowhunters,” Amazon’s “With Love”) will star in Rosario, a new high-concept horror film launching sales at the Cannes market out of Highland Film Group. Felipe Vargas will direct from a script by Alan Trezza (We Summon the Darkness). Toubia will star in the titular role of Rosario, a successful stockbroker on Wall Street, who is forced to spend the night with the body of her estranged grandmother Griselda who has abruptly died. While waiting for the ambulance to arrive, a heavy snowstorm locks her inside the apartment, surrounded by unfriendly neighbors. As the night endlessly stretches on, twisted and menacing supernatural forces that have possessed Griselda’s corpse begin their assault on Rosario. Now the target of a deadly family curse that spans generations, in a desperate attempt to break the evil, Rosario must battle everything she knows about her past to save herself and […]

THE GUNS OF CHRISTMAS PAST: XYZ Films To Launch Cannes Sales Action Thriller, Liev Schreiber In Talks To Star

Lee B. Golden III

Liev Schreiber (Salt, Repo Men, Showtime series Ray Donovan) is in negotiations to lead The Guns Of Christmas Past, a new action thriller from director Xavier Gens (AMC/Sky Atlantic series Gangs Of London). XYZ Films is launching world sales for buyers at the upcoming Marché du Film in Cannes with cameras set to roll later in the year. Andrew Hilton wrote the script which is billed as a “genre mash-up described as A Christmas Carol meets John Wick”. Schrieber will play ‘Ebb’, a former hitman for the mob, brought out from hiding when his former best friend and partner (Jacob Marley) is killed. Ebb penetrates the compound of his enemy to exact revenge. The “Ghosts” of Past, Present and Future all arrive to thwart our hero’s plans. Navid McIlhargey and Erik Olsen are producing alongside XYZ Films, which is also financing with investment funding coming from IPR.VC. “I am excited […]

FLAVIA DE LUCE: Murder Mystery Family Adventure Finds Cast, Protagonist To Launch Sales At Cannes

Lee B. Golden III

Newcomer Isla Gie (“The Sandman,” “The Outlaws”) is set to play the titular 11-year-old Flavia De Luce for the family crime caper. She joins Martin Freeman (The Hobbit, Black Panther, Sherlock), and director Bharat Nalluri (The Man Who Invented Christmas, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day), for a feature adaptation of the New York Times bestselling novel “The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia De Luce Mystery,” which is the first book from Alan Bradley’s acclaimed “Flavia De Luce” mystery novel series that to date have sold over four million copies worldwide. Susan Coyne (“Daisy Jones and the Six,” The Man Who Invented Christmas, Mozart in the Jungle, “Anne of Green Gables”), adapted the bestseller with a script that follows the adventures of Flavia de Luce. Amateur Detective. Master Poisoner. Eleven Years Old. When she finds a dead body at her family’s decaying British manor house and […]

MOTOR CITY: Alan Ritchson Heads ‘Wanted’ Director’s Next Actioner

Lee B. Golden III

It’s not the Wanted sequel some fans may still be pining for, but a Temur Bekmambetov-directed action picture is still something people will line up for, and here to test that theory is the upcoming Cannes sales launch by Black Bear International for action thriller, Motor City, starring Alan Ritchson. Ritchson will play John Miller, a Detroit man released from prison, who unleashes a rampage of brutal vengeance on those who framed him. The Detroit-set film will be “characterized by immersive visual storytelling, with stunningly choreographed and stylized action sequences,” according to a statement. Variety’s Leo Barraclough notes that WME Independent will co-represent domestic rights on Motor City with Stampede at the Marche du Film. Pic hails from Stampede Ventures with Black Bear also on board as exec producers. The actor’s next big move will see him pursuing Vin Diesel & Co. this month in Louis Leterrier’s Fast X and […]

RECKONER To Launch Sales At Cannes, Christina Hendricks To Star

Lee B. Golden III

Christina Hendricks is set to star in Reckoner, a new psychological thriller from debut filmmaker Nissar Modi (Breaking At The Edge, Z For Zachariah). The American Woman and Neon Demon actress will play an affluent woman whose “carefully constructed life is disrupted by a young man connected to a tightly-held secret from her past.” Reckoner is based on a short story by Rachel Ingalls. Financing will be by XYZ Films, who will produce with Two & Two Pictures in their continued partnership to produce films from first and second-time genre filmmakers from underrepresented demographics. XYZ Films is also debuting world sales launch at Cannes out of New Visions, the company’s new initiative designed to spotlight the boldest new voices alongside established talent striking a new path in the international space. The film will launch sales firstly in the slate alongside Zarrar Khan’s Directors’ Fortnight selection, Pakistani-Canadian horror In Flames, Tribeca […]

GUNNER Adds Five To New Dimitri Logothetis Action Thriller

Lee B. Golden III

Production is already wrapped as of last week in Alabama for action thriller, Gunner from director Dimitri Logothetis (Kickboxer: Vengeance, Kickboxer: Retaliation, Jiu-Jitsu), and new casting additions have been announced. With Morgan Freeman and Luke Hemsworth, the roster now includes Sean Rogers (Warner Bros.’ upcoming The Flash), Yulia Klass (Survive the Game), John Hickman (Jiu Jitsu), Gary Wood (Kickboxer: Retaliation), and Barry Minoff (Assassin). The cast also lists Joseph Baena (Chariot), Connor DeWolfe (Disney+’s “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers”), Grant Feely (Disney+’s “Obi-Wan Kenobi”), and Mykel Shannon Jenkins (The Paper Tigers) as of a few weeks ago. Logothetis is directing from a script by Gary Scott Thompson (The Fast and Furious franchise), with Joel Shapiro (Killerman with Liam Hemsworth, Dear Dictator with Michael Caine) producing alongside Logothetis, and Joel Cohen executive producing. Gunner follows Special Ops veteran Lee Gunner (Hemsworth) who takes his two sons on a fishing trip to reconnect. […]

WAR 2 Adds ‘RRR’ Star NTR Jr.

Lee B. Golden III

Variety’s Naman Ramachandran is reporting the addition of NTR Jr. to the upcoming sequel to Siddharth Anand’s 2019 espionage action thriller, War. The South Indian star of the global success story, S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR, will join returning actor and Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan for the sequel which will be directed by Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva helmer Ayan Mukerji. A trade source told Variety: “NTR Jr is locking horns with Hrithik Roshan in ‘War 2.’ It’s going to be epic. Their battle of wits and their fierce showdown will definitely be an action spectacle to remember on the big screen. This move by Aditya Chopra enables ‘War 2’ to have the widest audience appeal for a Hindi film and it also widens the box office potential of the film. South India should come alive and connect at a more emotional level with the film because of the presence of their […]

Samara Weaving in Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins

BELLA: 80s-Set Paramount Action Thriller Casts Samara Weaving, ‘John Wick’ Franchise Helmer Joins To Produce

Lee B. Golden III

The Whistleblower helmer Larysa Kondracki will be in good company with Chad Stahelski who’s now riding high with the success of John Wick: Chapter 4 out of Lionsgate. As Deadline’s Anthony D’Alessandro tells it, the pair is set to now venture out together on Paramount Pictures action thriller, Bella which Stahelski will produce out of 87Eleven Entertainment, and has Ready Or Not, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins and Scream VI actress Samara Weaving tapped to star. Set against the backdrop of a crime wave that gripped New York City in the ’80s, Bella is a hyperstylized action thriller about a cop’s daughter who, as her father clings to life following an assassination attempt, goes on a rampage to unearth her father’s attacker and weed out deep-rooted corruption in the New York City Police Department. Jesse Wigutow, tasked with penning the upcoming revival of The Crow and Joachim Rønning’s Tron: Ares, […]

RETURN TO SILENT HILL With Stars Irvine and Anderson in Live Action Sequel

Edward Orndorff

In news that is still shocking to write, the revival of the Survival Horror classic Silent Hill continues to trudge down the hallway of nostalgia, taking a moment to stop at the silver screen. Christophe Gans (Brotherhood of The Wolf) is returning to the director chair, with newly announced stars Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) and Hanna Emily Anderson (Jigsaw, X-Men: Dark Phoenix) for a sequel to the rebooted Silent Hill film franchise: RETURN TO SILENT HILL. Said to be based on fan favorite Silent Hill 2, the film is set to launch in conjunction with the upcoming video game reboot. Silent Hill, long thought abandoned to pachinko hell by it’s fans, made a shocking return to the scene in October 2022. Konami, the franchise’s owners since it’s inception, announced several new Silent Hill projects were in the works, including amongst them three games; one of these was a long rumored […]

BLOOD BROTHERS: R4 Films Developing Starring Vehicle For ‘Tom Yum Goong 2’ And ‘Jiu Jitsu’ Actor Marrese Crump [EXCLUSIVE]

Lee B. Golden III

Independent film duo Robert Samuels and Robert Jefferson are developing Blood Brothers, a new action thriller set as the first of a new line of feature projects out of R4 Films LLC. The duo is also in talks with actor and martial artist Marrese Crump for a lead role, with Jefferson penning the script for a hopeful Q4 2023 or early 2024 shoot in Thailand. Key story details are under wraps but I am told the film will take its key aesthetic inspiration from films like The Raid movies and Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives. Both Jefferson and Samuels are producing the pic as well, in reunion with frequent collaborator Oso Tayari Casel, in addition to Mark V. Wiley who penned Samuels’ 2021 co-directing effort with James Lew, Made In Chinatown. The potential casting will mark a return to “The Land Of Smiles” for Crump who is a purveyor […]

SLEEPING DOGS: Karen Gillan And More Cast For Russell Crowe-Led Oz Crime Pic

Lee B. Golden III

Cameras have begun rolling in Australia for crime thriller, Sleeping Dogs, casting Karen Gillan to join the Russell Crowe starrer from Nickel City Pictures partnering and Highland Film Group. Casting additions also include Marton Csokas (The Lord of the Rings trilogy), Harry Greenwood (The Nightingale) and Thomas M. Wright (Universal Pictures’ Everest). Adam Cooper makes his directorial debut on the pic from a script he wrote alongside Bill Collage following their work on Assassins Creed, and Exodus: Gods and Kings. Mark Fasano of Nickel City Pictures produces next to Cooper and Collage, along with Deborah Glover and Pouya Shabazian of New Leaf Literary. Matthew Goldberg and Cliff Roberts are exec producing, in addition to Arianne Fraser and Delphine Perrier and Ford Corbett whose Highland will rep world sales at EFM. Based on E.O. Chirovici’s critically acclaimed novel, “The Book of Mirrors,” Crowe plays homicide detective Roy Freeman, who in the wake […]

Luke Hemsworth Actioner GUNNER Casts Morgan Freeman For Spring Shoot

Lee B. Golden III

New Dimitri Logothetis action thriller Gunner is casting up as of Thursday with the addition of Morgan Freeman according to a new news release. The Academy Award-winner whose credits partly include Million Dollar Baby and The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, joins lead actor Luke Hemsworth with a script by Gary Scott Thompson (The Fast and The Furious). In Gunner, we follow Special Ops veteran Lee Gunner (Hemsworth) who takes his two sons on a fishing trip to reconnect. The trip soon turns awry when the boys stumble upon a massive drug-running operation and are kidnapped by Dobbs, the son of the gang’s kingpin Kendric Ryker (Freeman) who runs the organization from prison. With no one but himself to retaliate and with elite combat skills they won’t see coming, an enraged Gunner wreaks havoc to rescue his two sons from Ryker’s gang. You don’t cross Gunner! Logothetis, best known for shepherding two […]

THE RIKER’S GHOST Taps ‘Marlowe’ Duo For New Liam Neeson Prison Escape Thriller

Lee B. Golden III

Fans of actor Liam Neeson are less than a week away from Briarcliff Entertainment’s release of Neil Jordan’s new crime thriller, Marlowe. In the meantime, you’re welcome to add The Riker’s Ghost which has both Neeson and Jordan reuniting once again with production set to commence in September. Starring from a script by Jordan and co-scribes Sean O’Keefe (Spenser Confidential), Brian Rudnick (Dungeons & Dragons), The Riker’s Ghost sees the Taken franchise star in the role of a convict set for release who is forced to break a terrorist out of prison when his lawyer is kidnapped, as he is the only one who knows a way out. The film further reunites Jordan, who is also credited for directing memorable titles like The Crying Game, Greta and Interview with a Vampire, and producer, Parallel Film’s Alan Moloney since working on Marlowe. Financing will be provided by Endurance Media whose Steve […]