MISFIRE: Betrayal Begets Blood In Jean-Paul Ly’s New Proof-Of-Concept Action Short
Actor and martial artist Jean-Paul Ly has been tinkering away at his own directorial prospects for some years now, firstly with 2022’s Speed Dating. Fast forward to 2025 and the Jailbreak and Nightshooters star is back at it with some more new building blocks for his Bad Guys Films production label with a blistering neo-noir thriller in Misfire, which is now available to watch online.
Misfire reunites Ly with his 400 Bullets co-star Andrew Lee Potts who stars alongside Karanja Yorke who played against Ly in 2018 action comedy, Nightshooters. The short also rejoins Ly with his Acéré director Ross Peacock who co-wrote, and with producer Haz Dulull with who collaborated with Ly on a 2018 proof of concept that later evolved into the animated sci-fi, Rift.
Also starring are Luke J.I. Smith, Erol Ismail, and actress Mia Foo who last appeared in Ly’s Speed Dating. Definitely no shortage of familiar faces here, which is great for Ly in his efforts to make the UK a more potent ground for martial arts film productions.
There’s also an effort to turn Misfire into a side-scrolling beat ’em up video game which ought to entice gamers reading this and who are into indie action. It’s an interesting trend happening here particularly if you look at what James Couche accomplished with 2023’s Lost Phoenix.
Read the language below, and enjoy Misfire in the player beneath!
Hollywood Stunt Star Jean-Paul Ly Unveils “MISFIRE” – A Proof-of-Concept Short for High-Octane Feature Film in Development
A visceral story of trust, betrayal, and redemption — produced in collaboration with Beyond The Pixels®
London – October 2025:
Acclaimed action performer, director, and filmmaker Jean-Paul Ly (Jailbreak, The Witcher, Marvel’s Doctor Strange) announces his latest short film MISFIRE, an emotionally charged and visually intense story exploring the fragility of trust and the devastating cost of betrayal between friends.
Beneath the film’s hard-hitting action and stylized violence lies a deeper human story — one of love, loyalty, and revenge.
“With MISFIRE, I wanted to tell a story that captures the raw emotion behind betrayal and the struggle for redemption,” says Ly. “It’s inspired by the emotional power of films from Korean cinema, like A Bittersweet Life, Oldboy, and John Woo’s A Bullet in the Head — stories where action serves the heart, not the other way around. I set out to create a cinematic experience that balances visceral intensity with human vulnerability.”
MISFIRE marks a co-production between Jean-Paul Ly’s Bad Guys Films and HaZ Dulull’s Beyond The Pixels®, with Dulull serving as producer alongside Ly.
“JP is a wonderful storyteller who brings just as much heart as he does action,” says HaZ Dulull (The Beyond, 2036 Origin Unknown, Fast Layne, Astro Burn). “When I read the script for MISFIRE, I immediately wanted to help him realise his vision. This short is not just an adrenaline-fuelled action piece — it’s a proof of concept for the feature currently in script development.”
That feature film expands the short’s world into a high-stakes, feature-length thriller:
When a legendary crime boss — secretly an undercover cop — is executed before revealing a file that exposes the city’s entire web of corruption, his young protégé TOMMY, himself a deep-cover officer, must protect the boss’s daughter and survive one night in a city where both the gangs and the police want them dead.
MISFIRE is a neo-noir action thriller set over the course of a single night in a city torn apart by corruption and gang warfare.
It blends the claustrophobic tension and physical intensity of The Raid and John Wick with the moral ambiguity and institutional rot of Sicario and The Departed.
The film is grounded, visceral, and kinetic — prioritizing hand-to-hand combat, practical action, and atmospheric realism over spectacle.
Beneath the violence lies a story of identity, loyalty, and redemption: how far can a man go undercover before he loses himself entirely?
Expanding the Universe — From Film to Game
In true Beyond The Pixels® transmedia fashion, MISFIRE is also being developed as a retro-inspired video game, expanding the world of Jean-Paul Ly’s cinematic universe beyond the screen.
The game — envisioned as a modern-retro beat-’em-up in the spirit of Streets of Rage — will allow players to step directly into the gritty, stylised world of MISFIRE, delivering hand-to-hand combat, cinematic storytelling, and the signature choreography that defines Ly’s action work.
“From day one, JP and I talked about how MISFIRE could live across mediums,” adds Dulull. “The film sets the emotional tone, and the game lets players feel that intensity firsthand. It’s the perfect fusion of cinematic storytelling and interactive action — exactly what Beyond The Pixels® was built for.”
