For this, we look to Nevsky’s next stop at Cannes next month where this year’s festival titles have already lined up. Of course, we also have the sales end where Lightning Entertainment will represent the film in a deal between Nevsky and Lightning’s own, co-president Joe Dickstein. The news comes following the film’s star-studded premiere at the Oktober Cinema Theater on February 9 before its Russia/CIS release the following week and earning 45 million rubles at the box office, with earnings further accrued in VoD, DVD, Blu-Ray and other home services.
Debut directed by action star Mark Dacascos, Nevsky stars alongside Casper Van Dien in the story of two private detectives in Manila who call in old friends for help in the wake of a murder that puts them in the throes of a terrorist organization known as The Wrath. Nevsky also serves as producer via his Hollywood Storm banner with Andrzej Bartkowiak executive producing, and a cast that rounds out with Matthias Hues, Tia Carrere, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Olivier Gruner, Cynthia Rothrock and Don “Dragon” Wilson and Mark Dacascos.
Lightning Entertainment, an established U.S. distributor, worked hard and heavy last year at the American Film Market in pitching Nevsky’s other forthcoming action thriller, Black Rose, starring Kristanna Loken and Robert Davi before selling to seventeen countries around the world.
Black Rose, as per Nevsky’s modus operandi as producer and actor, marked the next progressive step in showcasing Russian action heroes in ways to help diminish outdated “Cold War” stereotypes about Russians in film in the course of bringing exciting and intriguing characters to the world of action cinema. That effort will likely continue with the forthcoming release of Nevsky’s next pairing with Dacascos for Maximum Impact, which Romeo Must Die helmer Bartkowiak also directs for release later this year.
Stay tuned for more info!