Moviegoers looking forward to seeing Once Upon A Time In Mexico and Savages co-star Salma Hayek become a Yakuza butt-kicking femme fatale in Knights Of Badassdom director Joe Lynch‘s upcoming contained action thriller, Everly, have something to celebrate this week. Reports from the film’s activity at the European Film Festival in Berlin have concluded that Dimension and RADiUS/TWC have snagged the North American rights to the film, co-written by Yale Hannon, and starring Hayek as a down-on-her-luck woman forced to defend herself against swarms of Yakuza assassins sent to torture and kill her when her crime boss lover finds out she’s an FBI informant.
The news comes three months after Lynch Instateased a few new stills from the film’s production, for which Hayek reportedly received exclusive training in twenty different weapons with special forces in Belgrade, Serbia where the film was shot and completed. “You’ve never seen me like this before,” said Hayek in a previous statement last year. “And I love it. Because you really see a transformation in this character that’s noticeable and shocking. I become a badass.”.
Executive produced by Rizal Risjad, Everly also stars Jennifer Blanc-Biehn, Togo Igawa, Caroline Chikezie, Gabriella Wright, Jelena Gavrilovic, Masashi Fujimoto and Hiroyuki Watanabe. The film is produced by Adam Ripp, Rob Paris and Luke Rivett, and is co-produced by Brett Hedblom, with action sequences designed by Akihiro “Yuji” Noguchi (Special Forces, Ninja, Travelers).
In the meantine, you can catch Lynch‘s latest release, Knights Of Badassdom, when it becomes available through VoD and Digital Download this Tuesday.
Stay tuned for further updates.
H/T: Dread Central