News

Robert De Niro and Jack Huston in "Wash Me In The River"

WASH ME IN THE RIVER Acquired By The Avenue For Spring 2022 Release

Lee B. Golden III

Action crime thriller Wash Me In The River will release in Spring 2022 under Highland Film Group‘s distribution label, The Avenue. The company secured multiple deals for the film, directed by Randall Emmett (Midnight in the Switchgrass) from a script by Adam Taylor Barker and Chris Sivertson. Academy Award Winner Robert De Niro (The Irishman, Taxi Driver), two-time Academy Award nominee John Malkovich (Deepwater Horizon, Being John Malkovich), Jack Huston (American Hustle, Kill Your Darlings), star in the film which centers on a recovering opioid addict seeking revenge on the dealers responsible for selling the drugs that resulted in his fiancé’s death, while two cops are hot on his trail. The film, which recently wrapped production in Puerto Rico, also stars actor and recording artist Quavo (FX’s “Atlanta,” ABC’s “Black-ish”), and actress Willa Fitzgerald (Warner Bros.’ The Goldfinch, USA Network’s “Dare Me”). Highland’s The Avenue launched initially late last November […]

TRESE: Netflix Casts Filipina Voice Talents For For Netflix Original Anime

Lee B. Golden III

Filipino actress Liza Soberano (My Ex and Whys, Alone/Together) and Filipino-Canadian actress Shay Mitchell (YOU, Pretty Little Liars) will voice the lead character in the respective Tagalog and English iterations of Alexandra Trese in Netflix Original Anime, Trese. Based on the Philippine graphic novel created by Budjette Tan and KaJO Baldisimo, Trese is set in Manila, where the mythical creatures of Philippine folklore live in hiding amongst humans. It is here our heroine finds herself going head to head with a criminal underworld comprised of malevolent supernatural beings. Jakarta and Singapore-based BASE Entertainment’s Shanty Harmayn and Tanya Yuson are producing with Jay Oliva (Wonder Woman, The Legend of Korra) exec producing. “As a fan of the komiks, I knew that the title role of Alexandra Trese was going to be challenging to cast for the animated series.” said Olivia. “It is important for the voice talent to embrace the layered […]

GAIN-ING GROUND: A Word With Actor/Producer Daniel Stisen

Lee B. Golden III

Save for his physical action star appeal given the fruition he’s amassed as a professional bodybuilder, Daniel Stisen has every intent to prove his versatility as a well-rounded actor and producer of stories that compel and inspire, as well as entertain. Over the past week, I got acquainted with Stisen who’s own endeavors of late have seen him make the case to potential investors at this year’s virtual EFM, for projects hailing from his eponymous production banner. His latest shortfilm performance, Gain, is also making the rounds on YouTube – a gritty, NSFW dramatic thriller about the introspective perils of bodybuilding, and he’s currently shopping his newest lead role in action thriller, Last Man Down, on which he is finalizing post-production, along with another project with director Sheldon Lettich, which is currently listed on IMDb for those curious. Stisen reached out to us to share a dialogue and help get […]

DRIVE ALL NIGHT: Check Out The Trailer For Peter Hsieh’s Feature Debut Ahead Of Cinequest!

Lee B. Golden III

Peter Hsieh’s directorial debut, Drive All Night, is out with trailer and poster assets this month to help spark attention ahead of its premiere this month at Cinequest. The SF Bay Area-produced indie feature stars Yutaka Takeuchi (Marvel’s The Defenders) and Sarah Dumont (Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse). ‘Drive All Night’ follows Dave (Yutaka Takeuchi), a reclusive swing-shift taxi driver, whose night takes an unexpected turn after he picks up a mysterious passenger, Cara (Lexy Hammonds), a young woman hiding a dark secret. As she makes him drive through the city on a series of bizarre excursions, things get increasingly more surreal the further into the night they go. Sarah Dumont (‘Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse,’ ‘The Royals’) plays Morgan, a sympathetic waitress who works at a diner that Dave often frequents, while Johnny Gilligan plays Lenny, an obsessive hitman guided by strange visions, who pursues our protagonists […]

Paul Sloan Sets His Sights On EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM In The Intense First Trailer For Christian Sesma’s New Action Thriller

Lee B. Golden III

Director Christian Sesma’s increasing output of late will soon find moviegoers in good company with Gillian White’s debut, Take Back. In the meantime, Sesma’s latest completed thriller, Every Last One Of Them, has hit the ground running this weekend with an official trailer to help set the mood. Desperate to find his missing daughter, Jake Hunter (Paul Sloan), tracks her last known whereabouts to a small desert town only to discover that the head of a deeply funded security firm (Jake Weber) and his vicious younger sister (Taryn Manning) are protecting a family secret that could potentially derail a billion dollar water deal between his boss and the US government. But as Jake uncovers the truth about his daughter’s whereabouts the answers become terrifyingly clear and he goes on a merciless quest for revenge bringing those responsible to justice — that is if his former black ops mentor (Richard Dreyfuss) […]

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THE ROUNDUP: Don Lee Action Crime Sequel To ‘The Outlaws’ Now Filming

Lee B. Golden III

Production is currently underway for The Roundup, a sequel to Kang Yoon-sung’s 2017 action hit, The Outlaws. Lee Sang-young is making his debut at the helm for a returning cast that currently sees Don Lee (The Gangster. The Cop. The Devil., Unstoppable, Along With The Gods 2: The Last 49 Days, upcoming The Eternals), and the new addition of actor Son Suk-ku (Hit-And-Run Squad), with filming expected to wrap this summer. The first film saw Lee at the wheel as Ma Suk-do, a.k.a. “the Beast Cop”, heading a small anti-crime task force and dispensing justice amid warring gangs and the rise of a vicious crime boss in a South Korean Chinatown district in 2004. The Roundup sees Ma, front and center once more on a mission to Southeast Asia to extradite a suspect where a ruthless killer who has been targeting tourists for years emerges. “Buyers have been telling us […]

ONE WAY (2021)

ONE WAY: First Look At Colson Baker And Kevin Bacon As Father And Son In The New Action Thriller

Lee B. Golden III

Currently in post-production is One Way, the new action thriller from Andrew Baird (Zone 414) and currently part of the package being presented to buyers at EFM. Highland Film Group is handling worldwide sales for the pic for which they’ve now released a first look photo which you can above, featuring Colson Baker (The Dirt), and Kevin Bacon (Death Sentence). Baird directs from a script by Ben Conway One Way centers on Freddy (Baker), on the run with a bag full of cash after a robbery of his former crime boss goes awry. With a potentially fatal wound, he slips onto a bus with a one way ticket. After a call for help, Freddy’s estranged father (Bacon) betrays him, notifying the crime boss where he is. With his life slipping through his fingers, Freddy is left with very few choices to survive. There is only ONE WAY. One Way also stars […]

INTERCEPTOR Casts Elsa Pataky For Netflix Action Thriller With Luke Bracey

Lee B. Golden III

Matthew Reilly will direct action thriller Interceptor at Netflix. Elsa Pataky (The Fast and the Furious franchise, Tidelands) will star from a script by Reilly and co-writer Stuart Beattie (Collateral, and Tomorrow, When the War Began), opposite with Luke Bracey (Point Break, G.I. Joe: Retaliation). Interceptor centers on an Army lieutenant (Pataky) who must utilize her years of tactical training and military expertise to save humanity as we know it, when sixteen nuclear missiles are launched at the US, and a violent coordinated attack simultaneously threatens her remote missile interceptor station. Production will take place in New South Wales, Australia. Beattie is producing next to Ambience Entertainment’s Matthew Street and Michael Boughen. Exec producers are Chris Hemsworth, Kathy Morgan, Christopher Mapp, Robert Slaviero and Peter D. Graves Reilly is an acclaimed Australian action/thriller writer known for bestselling books including Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves, Seven Ancient Wonders, and The […]

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GASOLINE ALLEY: Bruce Willis Reteams With ‘Cosmic Sin’ Director For New Crime Thriller

Lee B. Golden III

Edward Drake is set to reunite with Cosmic Sin star, Golden Globe winner Bruce Willis (Red, Red 2, Unbreakable, Glass) for Gasoline Alley, a new crime action-thriller shooting this month across the U.S.. Willis will be joined by Luke Wilson (Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums, MGM’s Legally Blonde, DC’s Stargirl) and Devon Sawa (Hunter Hunter, upcoming Black Friday), with a script by Tom Sierchio (New York City International Film Festival winner The Girl Who Invented Kissing). Sawa will play Jimmy Jayne, a bruised-fisted rockabilly boss-type sucked into a triple murder of three Hollywood starlets drowned in a luxury hotel pool. As the prime suspect for Homicide Detectives Freeman (Willis) and Vargas (Wilson), Jimmy takes up his own rogue investigation, bending the law in ways the police can’t in order to clear his name. With the killer skating through Jimmy’s shadow, he bands together with the two Detectives to dangerously expose […]

News Briefs: MISSION: POSSIBLE Racks EFM Sales; SILENT JOHN In Pre-Prod; ALL U NEED IS LOVE Trailer; VAMPIRELLA In The Works; BOON Casts Up; THE ROOKIES Bows In April; New LEAGUE Poster

Lee B. Golden III

● kth hit the virtual EFM sales floor this week and landed multiple territories for action comedy, Mission: Possible. Kim Hyung-joo wrote and directed the pic which released in South Korea through Merry Christmas last month, starring Kim Young-kwang and Lee Sun-bin in the story of a private investigator and a secret agent who find themselves fugitives on the run in the wake of murders connected to a gun-smuggling case. 815 Pictures nabbed U.S. rights on the pic with CJ E&M for Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesoa, Klockworx for Japan, VS Cinema for Taiwan, and more. (Screen) ● More than fifty years in, the posterity of Dynamite Entertainment comic property, Vampirella, now brings word of a new live-action feature project about the legendary Vampiri from the planet Drakulon who ventures out to save her people, whilst protecting mankind from the dark remnants of her own race. The […]

FEELING ‘THE STING’: Christopher Sheffield Talks His Newest Shortfilm Thriller, ‘Welcome To The Sting’

Lee B. Golden III

One year since the Coronavirus pandemic laid its grip on the world, most countries have slowly but surely begun making progress. Vaccines are finally circulating while certain areas of the world continue to mitigate daily life with safety measures in place, and that inevitably includes film and television production, one of the most hardest hit industries in the globe as the field naturally calls for numbers of people to be in one place at once. Invariably, independent productions are no different when it comes to enforcing guidelines, putting new habits into practice with social distancing, smaller numbers, mask wearing, etc. Independent, low budget, short-duration projects certainly provide some ease in this regard, particularly with filmmaker and exec producer Christopher Sheffield and the team he’s taken to task with his latest investment Welcome To The Sting, starring James M. Black and actor and industry stunt professional Billy R. Smith. Filming took […]

SUPERCELL: Alec Baldwin Heads Disaster Action Thriller From Highland, Short Porch At EFM

Lee B. Golden III

Alec Baldwin (The Departed, Mission: Impossible franchise) is attached to star in Supercell, a new disaster action thriller that Herbert James Winterstern (NBC’s “Siberia”) will direct from a script by Winterstern & Anna Elizabeth James (Deadly Illusions). The film will serve as the launchpad for a non-exclusive first look output deal for Highland Film Group with Ryan Winterstern (Most Wanted, Inheritance) and Nathan Klingher (Zone 414, Becky) with their new startup, Short Porch Pictures. Supercell is an epic disaster movie that tells the tale of William, a good-hearted teenager, who always lived in hope of following in his father’s footsteps, the legendary storm chaser Bill Brody, killed by a massive super tornado. His father’s legacy has now been turned into a storm-chasing tourist business, managed by the greedy and reckless Zane Rogers (Alec Baldwin), who is now using William as the main attraction to lead a group of unsuspecting adventurers […]

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WAR ARTS SAGA: SPTV, Original Film To Develop Series Based On Bestseller Wesley Chu’s Upcoming Fantasy Martial Arts Novel Series

Lee B. Golden III

Best-selling author Wesley Chu’s latest work is now the subject of a series adaptation from Sony Pictures Television according to details reported via Deadline‘s Nellie Andreeva on Tuesday. The IP in question is War Arts Saga – a trilogy of novels which will be published each in one year of each other beginning in 2022 from Random House’s Del Rey shingle – of which the rights have been reportedly sold to Neal Mortiz of Original Film. This is damn good news for anyone keeping up with the state of martial arts action on the small screen, and you can believe the niche may very well be waiting with baited breath to see what lies ahead for The CW’s upcoming Kung Fu series revisal. It’s the result of a huge awakening with the successes of hit shows like Into The Badlands and Warrior, which our contributor Kyle Wong spent weeks writing […]

Robert De Niro and Jack Huston in "Wash Me In The River"

WASH ME IN THE RIVER: Get A Glimpse Of Robert De Niro And Jack Huston In The New Action Thriller

Lee B. Golden III

Director Randall Emmett (Midnight in the Switchgrass) is in the news with his new action thriller, Wash Me In The River, currently selling online for the EFM from Highland Film Group. The sales agent is offering a first look photo which you can view above, featuring two-time Academy Award Winner Robert DeNiro (The Irishman, Taxi Driver), and actor Jack Huston (American Hustle, Kill Your Darlings). A recovering opioid addict seeks revenge on the dealers responsible for selling the drugs that resulted in his fiancé’s death. Two cops are hot on his trail. Adam Taylor Barker and Chris Sivertson wrote the pic which just wrapped principal photography in Puerto Rico. Wash Me In The River also stars two-time Academy Award nominee John Malkovich (Deepwater Horizon, Being John Malkovich), and actor/recording artist, Quavo (FX’s “Atlanta,” ABC’s “Black-ish”).

WITNESS INFECTION Spreads Mob Zombie Calamity This Month From Freestyle

Lee B. Golden III

Freestyle Digital Media has acquired director Andy Palmer’s (Camp Cold Brook) mobster zombie comedy, Witness Infection. The film had a festive run during festivals last year since premiering at the 2020 HA Comedy Arts Festival. It went on to pick up awards for Best Feature at HorrorHound and the Die Laughing Film Festival, Best Director at Die Laughing and the Frostbite Film Festival, and the Audience Choice Envy Award the Sin Film Festival Witness Infection tells the story of two rival mob families who are transferred from the Witness Protection Program to the same city by mistake. Life has always been pretty protected for Carlo Serrelli. But his past is about to come back and bite him. Carlo’s father has kept him out of the deadly mob business by giving him a job at the family dog groomers, while his younger brother, Dominic, has always done the dirty work. All […]

Mel Gibson in "Panama" (2021)

PANAMA: Take Aim At Mel Gibson In A First Look At The New Action Thriller Selling At EFM

Lee B. Golden III

Hitting the virtual sales floor for Highland Film Group at EFM is Panama, from director Mark Neveldine (Crank, Gamer). The first official photo is out which you can above, featuring two-time Academy Award Winner Mel Gibson (Boss Level), who stars alongside Cole Hauser (Paramount’s Yellowstone) Inspired by true events from 1989 Panama, James Becker (Hauser), a rugged, decorated ex-marine, is sent undercover by his former commander Stark (Gibson) to execute a high-value deal with untrustworthy adversaries. While navigating through the chaos of the local civil war, Becker must fight assassins, court femmes fatales and negotiate with the enemy in order to complete his mission. With Stark always by his side, Becker perseveres against all odds in hopes of making it home alive. Daniel Adams (Roadside Attractions’ The Golden Boys) and William R. Barber wrote the script. Panama is Yale Productions film produced by Jordan Beckerman, Jordan Yale Levine, Michelle Chydzik […]

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THE REFUGE: Renny Harlin To Direct New Horror Thriller Launching EFM Sales For Highland

Lee B. Golden III

Highland Film Group is officially launching film sales at EFM for The Refuge, from director Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard 2, The Legend Of Hercules). Casting efforts are currently underway for the new horror thriller which will commence principal photography in April in Bulgaria. Penned by action sci-fi writer Ben Sztajnkrycer, The Refuge hails from Revelations Entertainment and B2Y Production. Harlin is producing alongside Yariv Lerner (Hellboy, Rambo: Last Blood), Rob Van Norden (Olympus Has Fallen, Rambo: Last Blood), Gary Lucchesi (Underworld franchise, The Lincoln Lawyer), Michael McKay (Brahms: The Boy II), Lori McCreary (Invictus, CBS’ “Madam Secretary”). In this horror-thriller, Sergeant Rick Pedroni comes home to his wife Kate changed and dangerous after suffering an attack by a mysterious force during combat in Afghanistan. Officials say her husband suffered a heavy brain injury, but Kate knows it is more than PTSD. As Rick undergoes unsettling therapy with other traumatized […]

AMERICAN BADGER: Kirk Caouette’s Hitman Thriller Lands Canadian Release From Indiecan

Lee B. Golden III

Actor and stunt multi-hyphenate Kirk Caouette’s new film, American Badger, has been acquired by Indiecan Entertainment for its Canadian release according to Screendaily. News comes following our exclusive trailer and poster reveal upon its sales launch at the virtual American Film Market last November. Caouette, a 25-year stunt industry multi-hyphenate for film and TV, marks his third outing in the director’s chair for which Toronto-based Raven Banner now reps for international sales at this year’s virtual EFM. Featuring action sequences by Stanton Chong, Caouette stars along with Andrea Stefancikova and Michael Kopsa. Meet Badger, because his real name is Dean, and that’s the lamest ever for a hitman. Like all American Badgers, he prefers to be alone, and has hardly spoken a word to anyone except his Handler. But all that is about to change with his latest assignment – make friends with call girl Velvet, extract information about the […]

ZERO Series Teaser Measures True Superhuman Ability

Lee B. Golden III

Netflix has launched its first teaser for upcoming Italian series, Zero. Paola Randi, Ivan Silvestrini, Margherita Ferri and Mohamed Hossameldin are directing the series from a script by rising star author, Antonio Dikele Distefano, whose own novel, “Non ho mai avuto la mia età”, serves as the basis for the new series. ZERO tells the story of a shy boy with an extraordinary superpower: becoming invisible. Not a superhero, but a modern hero who learns about his powers when the Barrio, the district of the Milan suburb from which he wanted to escape, is in danger. Zero will have to wear the uncomfortable clothes of a hero, despite himself and, in his adventure, he will discover the friendship of Sharif, Inno, Momo and Sara, and perhaps even love. Zero is produced by Fabula Pictures with the participation of Red Joint Film, and will stream on Netflix April 21. The official […]

NIGHTSHOOTERS: Indiecan Nabs Long-Awaited UK Martial Arts Comedy Starring Jean-Paul Ly For North America

Lee B. Golden III

It’s been a long time coming for Marc Price’s Nightshooters since its Raindance premiere and subsequent UK release a few years back, but word now brings that North American rights have landed at Canadian outlet, Indiecan for its release. Actor and rising fan favorite Jean-Paul Ly joins a headlining cast that lists Doug Allen, Wendy S. Glenn, Nick Aaron, Rosanna Hoult, Adam McNab and more for the rollicking story of a band of independent filmmakers forced to fight their way out of a condemned tower block one bustling night of filming after witnessing a gangland execution. The film also stars Nicky Evans, Kaitlyn Riordan, Richard Sandling, Mica Proctor and Karanja Yorke, and features signature fight choreography by Ly, best known for delivering the goods on thrillers like Cambodian milestone hit, Jailbreak and The Prey, as well as Ross Peacock’s new shortfilm hit, Acéré, with Law Plancel. Ly’s latest role can […]