THE HIT LIST: November 6, 2017
…and drink responsibly!
…and drink responsibly!
Peep the teaser and poster below.
The second pic reveals Film Combat Syndicate favorite, actress and filmmaker Yadi Nieves, in the first of a few teaser images now viral for an upcoming project from Distinctive Light Entertainment.
So…how was your weekend? I spent mine reviewing a few titles – one which apparently led people to think I was picking a fight with a martial arts expert who lives thousands of miles away from me, which is…STILL hilarious.
Anyway, I also got to look at some great shortfilm items in the past week and I’ve gladly collated them for this week’s installment of the Hit List, kicking off with another round of awesome stunt reels and other cool film bits from around the web. Stuntwoman Ellette Craddock gets a spotlight twice over this week, beginning with her new stunt reel, followed by reels from Brady Jo Merriman, Josh Schmitt, Michael Hartwick and Beni Alexander with action actor and filmmaker Jarrod Crooks, stunt players Tom Caserto, Girvan Bramble and Anton Guryanov, and 3Run Ambassador, stuntman and traceur Bogdan Pascal trekking the terrain in Bilbao, Spain.
Promotional bits are few this week, but ample enough to serve your needs and first up is a trailer from Gunsavior Pictures’s latest action comedy short, Iron Jade which made the rounds this weekend at the Action On Film Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada. Angela Lynn and David Norton star while an online date remains pending.
The other is a cool, new and inventive offering from award-winning short film director Daniel Vogelmann who, after earning his acclaim with projects like Dubois (2005) and Welk (2011) makes his return to fray with Hard Way: The Action Musical. Produced by Sebastian Bandel and Florian Gengnagel, Hard Way chronicles the story of Jake, a S.W.A.T. officer bent on vengenace for the death of his partner at the hands of notorious terrorist, The Mother, and with an arsenal that isn’t the usual song and dance for an action movie venture.
The project hails from Fireapple in association with University Of Television And Film Munich and Bayrischer Rundfunk and with funding by Filmfernsehfonds Bayern. The film is now available through Vimeo On Demand with more information and goods pertaining to supporting the project at its official website.
Before we get to this week’s action bits, stuntwoman and staff professor/extraordinare Michelle Christa Smith just made her most stunningly badass appearance in the past week in a new music video featuring recording artist Jackson Harris for the new song, “All Your Love”. Links to purchase for downloading or streaming are in the description, but more importantly, for as long as I’ve been following Smith since the launch of her Facebook, it makes me proud to see her showcase herself in such high-energy and filling fashion. If nothing else, this video is three minutes and fifteen seconds of sexy and sweet!
The action is where its at this week and you’re more than welcome to pay a visit to the aforementioned Ellette Craddock’s official website where her latest judo-themed mix-up, Date Fight, can be spotted in the videos section. Also on deck are Film Combat Syndicate favorites Felix King and Tony Vittorioso in a gem of their own called New Approach, and a brief fight practice short from Ieisha Auyeung with David Van Le and Mig Buenacruz – all viewable exclusively on Vimeo before we commence with this week’s hit-loaded YouTube playlist starting with a quick minute-long fight piece by Daniel Nelson and Ebony De La Haye, and a couple of cool concepts by Team STAMA‘s own Tanguy and Anthony Guinchard.
Continuing the momentum is Mikko Löppönen with a little night time fun featuring Jessica Wolff and Judit Sziva, and a late entry I found titled Dispute with Craig Canning opposite Andy Whitmarsh, and with Ashley Beck lensing before The Beat Down commences for helmer Jennifer Li with Keanu Lam, Matt Kennedy and Oshima Haruka.
Devin Supertramp returns to the Hit List this week with freerunner Calen Chan to bring Sonic The Hedgehog to real-life in 4K before we meet up with vlogger, stuntman and filmmaker Federico Berte in a new experimental comedy bit involving rapiers for The Duel (his intro explains it all by 1:55).
Rounding off the playlist is something truly, awesomely special from actor and filmmaker Jay Kwon who puts morsels of depth, artfulness and energy into his latest piece, Fixed Cost, centered on two partying women lured by a group henchmen against their will, ensuing a deadly fight for freedom from their captors. Katie O’Donovan is another prospect re-emerging once more in the weekly Hit List and if she keeps this up, I may end up becoming a fan!
Also starring are Hester Jean Lee and Oscar Leiva along with Anisha Gibbs and Nick Krawiec.
Enjoy the hits!
Last week’s treats still a blast. If this is your first stop via the Hit List, take a gander and get an even greater whiff of what we collect every week and then subscribe to the channels for your show of support. And, if you or someone you know is an equally talented filmmaker or stunt performer with a solid new reel or a project they’d like to either promote or present, run it by us at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com and let us be the judge!
My weekend was good! Well… not terrible anyway. Atomic Blonde was on my agenda and I stand by my last words in that piece as we now approach a new week with another installment of The Hit List.
From there, Stanton Chong – by way of this weekend’s festivities at the Film Fu Fight Festival – makes his return to the Hit List this week representing Eunoia Creations with a ‘Game‘ of his own and with none other than stunt player Sean Kohnke beating up a LOT of Canadians…and all for a good cause!
Last week’s Hit List is a fully loaded one in case you’re new to this site, so feel free to endulge, as well as subscribe to the channels for own enjoyment. As always, if you or someone you know works in the stunt or screenfighting profession, has a fanatstic new reel or film project worthy of support or presentation online, talk to us at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com and we’ll be happy to weigh in!
I actually planned on seeing John Wick: Chapter Two this past weekend but ultimately ended up staying in. A few things factored into that with lack of sleep being one of them – as tasking as the Hit List is, I kinda needed the energy.
My weekend was ridic. Fun at the very top but ended up with quite a plateful that I almost couldn’t get this week’s Hit List done.
…I think I might take next week off too… we’ll see. As for this week, it’s a guarantee and we’re starting off with playlists host to some great stunt action and demo reels from around the web. And far from hiding my fandom in the age of Wonder Woman is the very soundtrack that now consumes you in a new stunt reel by Jessi Fisher, followed by an oldie-but-goodie revival from David Neyts, a late entry with Alix Schwartz (more on her later), John Nania and Alex Marshall-Brown. Rounding out the playlist are reels by Giordano Sabatini, Hannah Betts, Jerome Gaspard, Tianna Webberly, Jérémy Margalle and hard-hitting action star and co-star of Jesse V. Johnson’s Savage Dog, Cung Le!
As for promotional assets, a select number of stills are now out along with a new poster for director Samuel Smith’s new upcoming short, I Am Not The Devil. It’s his second venture following Tengu: Birdmen Of The Mountains, and features UK actor and martial artist David Cheung, and a plot summary of no kind can currently be found online so we don’t have much to go on. However, this isn’t Cheung’s first rodeo in film as I’ve all but enjoyed covering him in the last three years off and on, and considering his recent accolaces with Tengu in its current festival run, I wouldn’t write this one off. Footage may be long to arrive but I’ll be sure to follow up on this project as soon as things make headway some more, but we do have some stills below as well as a poster to start with, designed courtesy of artist Isabel White.
Just beneath is an exhilirating proof of concept teaser for Intrepid which released over the weekend. It features actor Booboo Stewart leading the action-packed sequences centered on a rogue clarvoyant gifted with the ability to predict and prevent his own death, and you can read more of my thoughts on it by clicking HERE.
Onto the shortform end of things and for this, we get a look at Angie Kim and her latest bit of fight practice with Jay Kwon and Allen Quindigan, followed by stuntman Dylan Hintz’s latest contribution with Andrew Kim as promised per last week from his visit to NYC. Michael Lehr keeps the pace going some with Suzuki Kimmy and Jenna Hellmuth while Bueno keeps the zany going with Suzaku‘s latest misadventures over at Garage Hero, and by way of the legendary Cynthia Rothrock’s own approval, a fan fight inspired by Sammo Hung’s 1986 Hong Kong classic, Millionaire’s Express, sets the example with performances by Gabriela Rodriguez and Chris Jynx McClure. The playlist finishes with Rising Tiger Films‘s own Edmond Shum breaking in new talent with performers Geoffrey Boggs, Lekir Stunt Action’s The Bondsman, Flawless Films’s Lord Of The Rings-inspired short, The Ranger, and a thrilling new fantasy action shortfilm, Salem: The Witch Hunters Chronicles, starring the aforementioned Alix Schwartz and Caitlin Hutson, and directed by Lou Giannopoulos.
Last and far from least is the limited-time availability of The Danger Element a webseries which eventually saw its way to a feature film edit currently in waiting for a release with John Soares starring and directing. The project saw a truly long and incredible journey for Soares in his efforts and he shared his story in a lengthy and candid interview with us late last year and you’re more than welcome to check it out.
Soares stars as the member of a secret order of vigilantes, afflicted by a demonic entity while faced with a deadly and dangerous mission to protect a certain element from falling in the wrong hands. Soares is joined by Cassie Meder and Doug Jones.
That about wraps up this week’s edition of The Hit List and if you want more action, there’s always plenty to view from last week. Follow the channels and lend your support and share the Hit List with your friends, and if you or someone you know has a smashing demo reel or an equally kick-ass project you would like for us to weigh in on, hit us up at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com
The short is just the latest to arrive from Shakesheff in the weeks since the announcement of his latest starring and directorial debut, Kamikaze which is now available on DVD in the U.S. courtesy of Indican Pictures. It’s the first film of its kind to come out of Wales and Shakesheff’s work, stemming from his credits as a bonafide Hollywood stuntman and extended further to online netizens and fans of martial arts action is sure to further put Wales on the map for years to come.
This week’s Hit List was an absolute blast to help put together. We’ve got new action shorts and reels of all kinds to snack on this week in addition to some brief updates on major projects that are forthcoming!
For now though, let’s face it: The only way I’m starting off this Hit List is if I do it with one of the most popular videos online to date, and if you’re a Jason Statham fan, you’ll understand. It’s a supercut of every single punch Statham has ever thrown. Ever. And it needs no further introduction than that.
Beneath that will be the week’s stunt playlist with a slew of action, stunt and training reels by Noah Fleder, Awaken star Natalie Burn, stuntman Djibril Newik Chase, independent filmmaker Shahaub Roudbari, Mirkos Radas, John Renyolds, Uros Certic, Amiee Zannoni, Cornered webseries co-star, actor Bobby Hernandez and action actor Angel Vasquez.
Now we get to brings things here into focus just a bit with the latest installment of actor and Ameritoku mainstay Jason David Frank’s online doc series, My Morphin Life. For this, we venture into a behind-the-scenes look into the spectacular episode featuring Frank and action actors Peter Jang and Alvin Hsing in the epic duel between the Green Ranger and legendary Street Fighter character Ryu. As always, these things come with a few snags and Frank sure had his, but it didn’t stop him from powering through. Check it out!
Up next are a couple of other new director reels featuring a small variety of things, including action. The first comes with great revere for French action director Godefroy Ryckewaert who never ceases to impress, and his latest trailer for the new shortfilm, Hiro, samples that fact quite a bit with Alex Duong starring as a man forced back into the Yakuza underworld in order to save his daughter. Hiro is set to premiere at the Toronto Independent Film Festival and you can purchase your ticket by clicking right here for the screening.
The second video comes from Canadian cascadeur, actor and filmmaker Taz Garcia in the form of First Bust, a story of two odd couple undercover cops well on their way to their first major arrest, as long as they don’t get in each other’s way, and you can imagine the hilarity that ensues. The project was initially going to be a two-minute short story which eventually expanded into something slightly longer when more people got involved, and as it stands, it could very well present a meaty concept for television if things go favorably.
Check out both videos below!
Up next is a bit of a teaser from the folks over at EMC Monkeys who have been very busy working on their own individual projects and other obligations in the past couple of years. Such things tend to get in the way of content creation which is what they’ve largely been known for, and now the team’s teaser is officially circulating online with a number of exciting new projects that are either completed, still being filmed or already in post, including an upcoming collaboration with Corridor Digital, as well as the long-awaited Evolution Of Fight series, Vs. Ninjas series, and the upcoming Nerf Cops tete-a-tete sequel with the first part arriving on Friday, September 4 upon which fans can expect even more content every week thereafter. (If you haven’t seen the first Nerf Cops installment yet, your chance to do so is right here).
Also up for viewing are two other new director reels, including Desciple‘s latest reel full of action and dialogue gems, with snippets from two of his latest hyper-reality action shorts, Hetja and Hetja 2; The latter title is also being groomed for a possible award win at this year’s Action On Film Festival with acting nominations for two of its lead performers, Disavowed webseries star Will Yick, and The Stunt People’s own Bridger Fox.
The second reel comes from Darren Holmquist of Dardrex Productions with a new director’s reel full of long-awaited goods that are pending with planned releases before the end of 2015.
Time to pepper thing up a bit with some fighting, and following Holmquist‘s production reel is a fresh new fight featuring himself opposite Leonard Zhang, proceeded by some sweet Karambit/Gun choreo from director Evan Taylor, a quick little scene of action from Rising Tiger Films‘s own Leroy Nguyen and Edmond Shum, and a superb test fight from Jay Kwon with Alex Meglei and Brett Easton.
And lastly, it’s been a long and incredible journey for independent filmmaker and film student Anthony Pellino for his latest labor of love, Mortal Kombat: The Chosen One. Inspired by the popular fighting game of the same name, and featuring fight design by Cinematic Fight Studio’s own Lawrence Yip, this one takes a slightly derivative approach to the source material. Jonathan Lee, David Chen and Craig Zisel are joined by lead actor Kage Yami in the role of former Shaolin monk, Liu Kang who is about to receive the most unexpected visit of his life.
Pellino’s goal was originally to create something more than a fan film, which is why it took so long to finish, aside from school, two crowdfunders, reshoots and other hurdles. Fan film or not, a project like this is just what we need to help keep the pulse beating among fans as a new webseries season is still pending, in addition to further details regarding the revived hopes for a film as recently as the top of last month. It’s a great case for more similar content with dozens of characters to experiment and play with, and I hope this isn’t the last we see from the creative field we have today in that regard.
Mortal Kombat: The Chosen One can now be viewed on YouTube in the player below, as well as on Vimeo!
Further worth mentioning is the current completion post-production of independent action director Eric Nguyen with the new short, Of Martial Arts And Men, with a September airing planned, and it just so happens that his Spring actioner, El Guerrero, has been nominated with a mention among a slew of other shortfilms for this year’s Action On Film Festival which kicks off on September 18 through 26.
Other news includes the upcoming comic-book fan film sequel, Black Panther And Deadpool: The Gauntlet, which just finished filming over the weekend, and a trailer can be viewed here as well in case you missed it. In addition, further pending are updates for Robot Underdog’s forthcoming episodes for the Dragon Ball Z: Light Of Hope webseries with actor Tim Neff (Flowers Of The Night) set to play Trunks. Major creative differences have currently invoked restructuring of the original script, while Dragon Ball Z enthusiast and former series writer Derek Padula has since made his case in a recent blog post after announcing his departure from the project; As pot-stirring as these things tend to be, the least we can do is hope for a great sequel after this year’s stellar offering, which you can check out here.
Indeed, this week is another loaded one with more to come, and hopefully you’ve been able to keep up with all the craziness as last week’s Hit List is just as awesome. Beyond that, subscribe to the channels above and by all means, if you or someone you know creates exciting, QUALITY content, just hit us with an e-mail filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com.
I kinda think K&K are onto something!