Follow actor and martial arts star Scott Adkins on Instagram on Friday and you’ll spot a Story post highlighting his continued adventures with gym hype and his latest venture with WanWan Protein. The post also confirms his arrival to Mexico to commece production on the new action thriller, Seized, which was teased in the markets with a sales poster presented by Premiere Entertainment Group.
Carl Rizk, an ex-covert operative who’s moved to a small quiet town in Oregon to raise his son and daughter gets awakened by a phone call and message from a modulated voice telling him that both his children have been kidnapped and buried alive with just enough air to survive for the next 5 hours. In order to ever see his children alive again, Rizk has to take on three distinct groups of highly-skilled criminals and kill each and every one of them. But he has to work alone and face increasing obstacles and levels of weaponry to uncover the identity of the man behind the macabre plot. The clock is ticking and Rizk can’t waste any time or make any mistakes or he will lose his family forever.
Rico Lowry (President Evil, Rapture) penned the script.
Adkins therein confirmed via Instagram Story the addition of actor Mario Van Peebles whose recent appearances in TV and film include Steven C. Miller’s Submerged, SyFy series Z Nation, and his own fourteenth directing credit, Armed, in which he also stars with William Fichtner.
Seized continues the legacy of fitting actor/director pairings with Isaac Florentine back in the director’s chair since shepherding Antonio Banderas’ own action drama, Acts Of Vengeance, and as producer on the hard-hitting, physics-defying Boyka: Undisputed IV. The film will be Adkins’ ninth film with Florentine as star-and-director since surfacing the Holby City, Mile High and EastEnders TV actor to fruition from fighting among stunt professionals opposite the likes of Jackie Chan (The Accidental Spy, The Medallion) and Andy On (Black Mask 2), to his first major film role in the 2003 direct-to-dvd hit, Special Forces.
Adkins’ career in recent history has seen gradual progression into Marvel territory with Scott Derrickson’s Doctor Strange. His latest partnership with stunt professional and director Jesse V. Johnson has seen their own body of work come full circle for a time since the 2005 pic, Pit Fighter, releasing current R-rated crowdpleasers like Savage Dog and The Debt Collector.
Their most recent graphic novel thriller, Accident Man, is the current recipient of three nominations for this year’s National Film Awards UK for Bests in Independent Film, Action and Actor (Adkins). The pair have two new action movies in tow for 2019, the recently-completed Avengement, and the long-awaited ensemble adventure thriller, Triple Threat, which, according to unconfirmed fan blog reports, is slated for a U.S. rollout in March.
Producing are Elias Axume (Incoming, The Nightcrew) and Rafael Primorac (Game Of Death, Kill ’em All). Rumble and Misfire helmer R. Ellis Frazier, currently on the way with his own directing effort for the Gary Daniels-led Repeater, is overseeing production and exec producing with Stuart Alson, Matthew Helderman, Daniel Lief, Daniel Lisanti, Peter Organ, Andre Relis, Michael Rocio and Luke Taylor.