May112016

Simon West's SALTY Peppers Its Cast With Antonio Banderas To Lead

Lee B. Golden IIINewsantonio banderas, cannes 2016, filmcombatsyndicate.com, salty, simon west0

As lackluster as most of The Expendables 3 felt back in 2014, the film had some delightful moments worth basking in, namely the parts with actor Antonio Banderas playing an aging mercenary going through a midlife crisis. He continues to leave a presence for me long after my first viewing of him in the 90’s sequelizing the title role of El Mariachi in Desperado and I’m glad to see him sticking around.

Nowadays, the star of the 2014 sci-fi thriller, Automata and co-star the 2015 rescue biopic, 33 días can be expected to appear in a few noteworthy titles in the next few years. More relevantly, you can add the new independent action comedy effort, Salty, which attached filmmaker Simon West (Con-Air, The Mechanic, The Expendables 2) successfully broke records upon meeting its crowdfunding target of £1.8 million pound sterlings via the Syndicate Room last year.

via THR:

Billed as “The Hangover-meets-Spinal Tap” and adapted from the novel by Mark Haskell Smith – the story will see Banderas star as Turk Henry, a bassist for a recently split mega-platinum band who takes his pampered wife on an exotic luxury holiday to Chile only for her to be snatched by a group of renegade ship-less buccaneers trying to raise money to buy a boat. Despite having never organized anything more challenging than a club sandwich from room service, Turk embarks on a rescue mission, navigating the back alleys of Santiago through to the jungles of South America.

West also added the following about his vision for the film:

“I’m going to shoot Salty in a style that will exude energy, fun and glamor with elaborate and exciting action sequences very much in the vein of my previous films. With Antonio on board, it’s going to be a phenomenal picture.”

Carnaby, who have been shopping tge film around since early last year in Berlin will continue onward this week at Cannes. West will still make headlines for the next few years with several titles of his own as he is currently tapped to direct period thriller, War Wolf, this November, before rolling cameras early next year for the 2003 Iraq war action flick, Thunder Run starring Gerard Butler. His latest completed ex-SBS thriller, Stratton, starring Dominic Cooper, still awaits a release of its own.

Banderas recently completed Alain DesRochers’s forthcoming Bulgaria-set action thriller, Security, which also has Ben Kingsley, Liam McIntyre and MMA star, actor Cung Le to its roster for a likely release in 2017.