News Briefs: LAW ABIDING CITIZEN Sequel, Saban Nabs AMERICAN METAL, SISTER DARKNESS For Proyas; KID SNOW Gets In The Ring
• Rivulet Films and Village Roadshow Pictures are pairing up for a sequel to F. Gary Gray’s 2009 thriller, Law Abiding Citizen. The original starred Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx in the story of a prosecutor in a battle of wits when a frustrated father commits a grisly act of vengeance for the murder of his wife and daughter ten years earlier. Plot details are under wraps but Kurt Wimmer is back to pen the sequel along with Butler who will produce with his partners via G-Base. (Deadline)
• Nicholas Maggio’s feature debut now has a home at Saban Films with American Metal. The film stars John Travolta and Stephen Dorff and “tells the story of a desperate and struggling family man who robs a pill mill. However, when the theft turns violent, he finds himself hunted by both the police and the Dixieland mafia.” Shiloh Fernandez, Ashley Benson and Kevin Dillon also star. (Deadline)
• Alex Proyas will direct independent horror thriller Sister Darkness. The film is set in the 1930s UK and tells of Alice, an unhappy newlywed “who stumbles across her doppelganger Isla, whose existence is a mystery seeped in a tale of bloody retribution against her oppressors, the hellish supernatural nightscape and a dreaded uprising against the deceitful aristocracy.” The film pairs Proyas’ Heretic Foundation with his Mystery Clock Company in a new co-production/financing partnership with U.K.-based 108 Media, which has launched world sales and packaging in Cannes. (THR)
• Kicking off production this week in Australia’s Goldfields-Esperance region is 1970s boxing drama, Kid Snow, about a young boxer who, upon scoring a rematch with the opponent who changed his life ten years earlier, is forced to consider his future after falling in love. Paul Goldman will direct a cast that lists Billy Howle, Tom Bateman, and Phoebe Tonkin from a script by John Brumpton and Stephen Cleary. Elle Driver launched world sales at the Marché du Film on Saturday. (Variety)
Native New Yorker. Lover of all things pizza, chocolate, pets, and good friends. Karaoke hero. Left of center. Survivor. Fond supporter of cult, obscure and independent cinema - especially fond of Asian movies and global action cinema. Author of the bi-weekly Hit List. Founder and editor of Film Combat Syndicate. Still, very much, only human.
