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Trailer: THE ROUNDUP: NO WAY OUT Rounds Up A June 2 U.S. Release!

Capelight Pictures is proudly releasing Lee Sang-yong’s hotly anticipated threequel, The Roundup: No Way Out, on June 2 in North American theaters. The film returns actor Don Lee back in the spotlight for another round as the no-frills and no BS detective Ma, following 2017’s The Outlaws in which he tracks down a notorious mobster in South Korea’s Chinatown district, and in last year’s The Roundup in which he hunts down a vicious killer. Cue the obligatory “…but wait, there’s more!”: The beast cop Ma Seok-do returns — This time, to the Metro Investigations! Seven years after the roundup in Vietnam, Ma Seok-do (Don LEE) joins a new squad to investigate a murder case. Soon, he finds out this case involves busting a synthetic drug and starts to dig deeper… Meanwhile, the guy behind it all—Joo Sung-chul (LEE Jun-hyuk)—doesn’t stop looking for trouble, and the Japanese drug distributors, Ricky (Aoki […]

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SHELTER: ‘SAS: Who Dares Wins’ Star Ant Middleton To Make Feature Debut In British Action Thriller, Filming Starts July

British action thriller Shelter is in development from filmmaker Scott Vickers. The film is set to roll cameras in July and will star former British special forces operator, actor and TV personality, Ant Middleton. Vickers will direct Shelter from his own script which follows Middleton as hitman Rob Shaw, who travels to a remote location after a distress call from his ex-wife. Upon arrival, he is met by his ex-wife and their two young daughters, as well as her new husband, and also Shaw’s estranged father Jim, who happens to be the ex-director of the Ministry of Defence. The rest of the synopsis reads as follows: “Jim explains that a global nuclear event is imminent and invites Rob to join them in a bunker beneath the house. Rob rejects the invitation and attempts to leave just as the bombs begin to fall – he has no place or purpose in […]

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MERCY ROAD Leads To Well Go USA

Chappaquiddick and The Painted Veil helmer John Curran’s new psychological thriller, Mercy Road, has been acquired by Well Go USA for release in late 2023 from Arclight Films. Curran directed from a script by Chris Pelletier and Jesse Heffring. Mercy Road stars Luke Bracey (G.I. Joe: Retaliation, One True Loves), and is described as “a tense, psychological thriller about a flawed everyman who commits an impulsive and vicious crime. In this ultimate journey to redemption, he soon learns just how far he is willing to go to save his child.” Also starring are Susie Porter (Netflix’s Cargo) and Huw Higginson (IFC Films’ The Nightingale), and acclaimed stage and screen actor Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, First Cow, Happy End). Doris Pfardrescher, President and CEO at Well Go USA negotiated the deal on behalf of the company with Ryan Hamilton from Arclight Films. Arclight is handling international rights and jointly […]

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‘Mulan’ Stunt Double Starring In New Kung Fu Feature From ‘Freaks VS. The Reich’ Director

‘Mulan’ Stunt Double Starring In New Kung Fu Feature From ‘Freaks Out’ Director Gabriele Mainetti

What you’re seeing above is proof that stunt performer Liu Yaxi is the real deal on the action front, as she’s done accordingly for lead actress Crystal Liu on Disney’s live-action Mulan. Her latest move now brings her talents to Rome’s Piazza Vittorio quarter set in Italy for a title-TBA kung fu movie, now filming from They Call Me Jeeg and Freaks Out director Gabiele Mainetti. Details from Variety’s Nick Vivarelli: Set in the cosmopolitan melting pot of Rome’s Piazza Vittorio hood, Mainetti’s latest work will see two very different souls intersect. One is the son of an indebted local restaurant owner who disappeared with his lover. The other is a young mysterious woman who has just arrived in the Italian capital in search of her missing sister. “United by fate, the two will find themselves catapulted into the slums of Rome’s criminal underbelly,” reads the synopsis. “To survive they […]

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THE ROUNDUP: PUNISHMENT Announces ‘The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil’ Reunion Casting Kim Moo-Yul, ‘The Roundup’ Stunt Coordinator Debut Directing

If you enjoyed the brutal melee of bludgeoning fists and retribution delivered by Don Lee in last year’s The Roundup and you’re ready for impending threequel The Roundup: No Way Out, you’d be wise to stay the course for its fourth outing, The Roundup: Punishment. The production is announcing actor Kim Moo-yul to the cast as the villiain, rejoining him with Lee following their brooding 2019 action thriller, Lee Won-tae’s The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil, which landed a surprise addition to the screening slate for Fantasia Festival that year before releasing in North America through Well Go USA. Seasoned Korean action veteran Heo Myeong-haeng (Hunt, Extreme Job) makes his feature directorial debut on the fourth chapter of The Outlaws franchise. Heo’s credits extend as far back as more than twenty years collaborating with directors like Kim Sung-su, Kang Woo-suk, Ryoo Seung-wan, Na Hong-jin, Kim Jee-woon, Park Hoon-jung, actor Ha […]

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GUNNER: Hemsworth And Freeman Featured In First Look As Deals Land At Cannes

Highland Film Group has locked distribution deals in key international territories for action thriller Gunner. The new film is directed by Dimitri Logothetis from a script by Gary Scott Thompson. Gunner follows Special Ops veteran Lee Gunner (Luke 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 (Morgan 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! The deals sealed this week include Daro Film Distribution for Germany and Eastern Europe, Premiere TV Distribution for Benelux, Spentzos Film for Greece, IIF for Italy, NOS Lusomundo Audiovisuais for Portugal, […]

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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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DEEP WATER: Renny Harlin To Direct New Survival Thriller Launching New Film Pact For Cannes Sales

Bodies at Rest and The Misfits helmer Renny Harlin will direct new survival thriller Deep Water later this year. The film marks the launchpad of Simmons/Hamilton Productions (w/t), partnering KISS rock band member Gene Simmons and Arclight Films Chairman Gary Hamilton. Deep Water will tell the adventurous tale of an eclectic group of international passengers whose plane, en route from LA to Shanghai, is forced to make an emergency landing in shark infested waters.  The terrified group is forced to work together and overcome their differences if they hope to escape their sinking plane and the frenzy of sharks drawn to the wreckage. Simmons and Hamilton are producing alongside Arclight’s Ying Ye and Rob Van Norden (Martin Campbell’s The Protégé). Arclight is launching worldwide sales at the Marché du Film, and “expects this action epic to create a feeding frenzy among the international buyers,” a statement reads. “I’ve had my […]

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

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 […]

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COBWEB: Song Kang-Ho Is An Artist Trapped In Inspiration In The First Trailer

COBWEB: Song Kang-Ho Is An Artist Trapped In Inspiration In The First Trailer

Fully immersed in vibrance for its introspection is Cobweb, a dramatic new thriller with a trailer now online and ripe with energy. It’s the latest from director Kim Jee-woon who has been best known for delivering pulsating actioners and cult favorites like A Bittersweet Life, I Saw The Devil and manga adaptation Ilang: The Wolf Brigade, now reteaming with leading man Song Kang-ho for a fifth time since 1998’s The Quiet Family, and the hit 2000 comedy, The Foul King. Kim, who recently delivered Apple TV+ series “Dr. Brain,” directs from a script he wrote with Shin Youn-shik (Rough Play), with a story that, according to the film’s press kit, is inspired by Kim’s own mid-pandemic ruminations and reflections on the filmmaking process re: “creativity” and “originality,” and what kind of impact cinema will have in the future. As Kim himself noted in the director’s statement of the press kit, […]

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FAST X: Universal Hits The Gas With A Heavy-Duty Four-Minute Final Trailer

Hats off to the franchise with no stop signs that is The Fast Saga, as Universal is full-speed ahead with this week’s release of Fast X. Coupled with at least two more recently-announced sequels that’ll total the franchise in whole to a baker’s dozen, peppered with the apparent (and…surprising?) return of actor Dwayne Johnson, the studio is more than ready to try and keep things fresh, and they’ve launched an extensive, fully loaded AF final trailer to firmly seal the deal. That’s about all I’ll throw in here for my two cents. Roll that “Fast And Furious” footage!

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MEDELLIN: Don’t Miss The Trailer For Franck Gastambide’s New Action Comedy Coming To Prime Video!

It’s amazing that after all these years I get to ask myself “WTF is Mike Tyson doing in another movie?,” and I still don’t know, so I guess come June second with the Amazon Prime release of Taxi 5 star and director Franck Gastambide’s newest action adventure comedy, Medellin, we’re bound to find out. To save his younger brother from a dangerous cartel in Medellín, Reda (Ramzy Bedia) has a plan that is as simple as it is completely insane: Assemble a team and plan a raid in Colombia. But this crazy adventure will spiral out of control when he decides to kidnap the cartel leader’s son in order to exchange him for his brother’s life. Gastambide directs from a co-written with Charles Van Tieghem (Validé). Eric Altmayer and Nicolas Altmayer are the producers via Kowloon Films. Check out both French and English-dubbed trailers below! View this post on Instagram […]

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

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 […]

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

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 […]

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

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 […]

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FSFF 2023: Bruce Lee Comes To The Mockingbird Next Month!

The festivities continue in 2023 for the Fighting Spirit Film Festival as they ready their schedule for the year, including none other than a special day-long tribute to Bruce Lee for The Fighting Spirit Film Festival Presents: The Bruce Lee Marathon on June 3. The festival, to be held at the Mockingbird Cinema, will run the gamut of six indepedent action short presentations and four of the late action star’s toplining classics, with intros and guest paneling in between. The marathon event runs from 11:30am to 11pm, and tickets are avaialble with more information on the programme now online at the venue’s official website.  

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Tsubaraya Prods. Teases ULTRASEVEN IF STORY Seven-Minute Concept Short Releasing Later This Year

From the annals of history made at Tsubaraya Productions comes the return of another classic to the table with Ultraseven IF Story: The Future Of 55 Years. The project is a seven-minute concept flick that explores a connecting aftermath of the events of the original series from 1968, and will also have the show’s original actors, Kohji Moritsugu and Yuriko Hishimi also appearing. The sun was sinking towards the western horizon, and darkness was approaching the industrial area on the bay shore. A silver wing that flew from nowhere crash-landed on a deserted beachside. It was the Ultra Hawk 1 that crash-landed due to a time paradox created by Alien Pegassa to prevent an accident that occurred 55 years ago. Earthlings that survived by deciding to destroy Pegassa City that interfered with the Earth’s orbit. An alien that lived in solitude after the city of its species was destroyed. And […]

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Hit Series KUNG FU Ends At The CW

Christina M. Kim’s CW network upgrade of classic TV series Kung Fu wasn’t exactly targeted to viewers like me, per se. Nonetheless, it was only recently that I binged all three seasons with my mother on HBO Max and found myself enjoying it more than I expected, and even reveling for a little bit in the hopes of a continuation. Alas, when the news broke on Thursday of the show’s cancellation as part of a cost-cutting measure for shows to be filmed in the UK and Canada – per the network’s new business model, I was disappointed to say the least. Feel free to comment in reaction to my post about the series on Instagram, but I’ll just go ahead and say that this was one of the finest shows I’ve ever watched – credited for steering the movement for better AAPI representation in entertainment, and frankly speaking, actor Tzi […]

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Fantasia XXVII: Don Lee, Tokyo Revengers, Werewolf Thrillers, Xavier Gens’ Latest And More In The First Wave!

You know it’s gonna be another good year for films and film festivals when Fantasia’s first wave looks like this. The 27th edition of Fantasia Festival is coming this July and the inaugural round of titles have been announced with more to come in the second wave early June. The best part about this is the announcement comes with the additions of Don Lee’s threequel starrer in The Roundup: No Way Out, among other headlining Korean selects, and Takuya Kitamura’s latest lead role in the two-part Tokyo Revengers finale, as well as the world premiere of Hitman and Gangs Of London vet Xavier Gens’ Mayhem! (or Farang as it’s regionally titled) to name a few. Other exciting titles I see include the latest from Jenn Wexler called The Sacrifice Game, Georgina Campbell starrer Lovely, Dark, And Deep, and Larry Fessenden’s Werewolf thriller, Blackout among others in the current line-up published Thursday. […]

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BLACK LOTUS Trailer: Rico Verhoeven Actioner Lands On Digital In The UK In June

The Movie Partnership is revving up the campaign for Todor Chapkanov’s new action thriller, Black Lotus. The UK outlet has stamped a June 19 digital download release date for the pic which stars 11-time world kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven and The Purge franchise star Frank Grillo. An ex-special forces operative wages a one-man war through the streets of Amsterdam to rescue his friend’s daughter from the local crime syndicate. Chapkanov directed from a script written by Tad Daggerhart (The Expendables 4). Also starring are Marie Dompnier (Black Hearts), and Peter Franzén (The Wheel of Time). Black Lotus will be available on iTunes, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Virgin, Sky and Rakuten. Catch the full UK trailer below!

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