This month, efforts toward Liam Neeson actioner, Retribution have taken years to formulate but the project has officially attached Predators helmer Nimrod Antal to direct. A remake of Dani de la Torre’s El Desconocido (2015), Retribution centers on a bank executive forced to complete a series of tasks whilst trapped in his car with his children, lest the captor holding them hostage via phone detonates the bomb in his car.
Jaume Collet-Serra and Juan Sola at Ombra Films and Andrew Rona and Alex Heinemann at The Picture Company are producing the pic which rolls cameras from next March through June. Studiocanal reportedly sold the film in a raft of territories worldwide following AFM.
Actor Cole Hauser is starring alongside Mel Gibson and Kate Katzman for action thriller, Panama, which will shoot in Puerto Rico. The Mark Neveldine-directed pic has added Charlie Weber and Victor Turpin to star from a script by Daniel Adams and William R. Barber, centered on “James Becker (Hauser), an ex-Marine who is sent undercover by his former commander, Stark (Gibson), to execute a high-value arms deal with untrustworthy adversaries”. Gibson currently stars in Fatman, and will appear opposite Frank Grillo in Joe Carnahan’s Boss Level exclusively on Hulu in 2021.
The latest casting update on David Leitch’s Sony Pictures production, Bullet Train saw the addition this week of actor Hiroyuki Sanada (The Wolverine, HBO’s Westworld, upcoming Mortal Kombat). He joins Brad Pitt, Joey King, Andrew Koji, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Zazie Beetz, Michael Shannon, Logan Lerman and Masi Oka for an action-packed story of assassins based on Kotaro Isaka’s 2010 Kadokawa Shoten publication “Maria Bettle”.
Julius Avery (Overlord) is being tapped to direct an original horror thriller set in the world of Dracula IP, Van Helsing, for Universal Pictures. The move is part of the studio’s efforts to recalibrate its priorities for their monster movie IPs following the short-lived Dark Universe. Avery is rewriting the script with Eric Pearson, and with James Wan producing for Atomic Monster with Michael Clear, and with Judson Scott exec producing. Stephen Sommers previously directed the 2004 rendition of Van Helsing starring Hugh Jackman.
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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.
