afm 2017

AFM 2017: ‘The Walking Dead’ Actress Lauren Cohan Joins MILE 22

Indeed, STXfilms is moving forward with the new action thriller, Mile 22, and with its initial cast of Mark Wahlberg, John Malkovich, Ronda Rousey and Indonesian import Iko Uwais. The film has been on the move for a year and change now with Peter Berg directing from a script by Graham Roland and Lea Carpenter and while movement has been albeit slow, it looks as if the goalpost nears later this month for start of production. This little tidbit also brings news by way of Variety with the addition of actress Lauren Cohan, best known for the role of Maggie on the hit AMC series, The Walking Dead, which is well into the release of its eighth season. Character details are pending whilst the premise remains with a story telling of an elite American intelligence officer who, aided by a top-secret tactical command unit, tries to smuggle a mysterious police officer […]

AFM 2017: Antonio Banderas Action Thriller, BEYOND THE EDGE, Nabs Sales In Europe, Latin America And Asia

Lee B. Golden III

AMBI Distribution has reportedly landed major overseas sales this week with the new action thriller, Beyond The Edge. Helmers Aleksandr Boguslavskiy and Francesco Cinquemani paired up for the film which shot in Italy, Russia and Georgia. Set in Moscow, Russia, a talented gambler gathers a team of con artists with supernatural powers to win big at a casino. But, their plan unravels when they encounter a stronger mystical rival. The film is the latest action genre title to feature Antonio Banderas following roles in action heavy roles in Gun Shy, Security and Isaac Florentine’s Acts Of Vengeance. According to Screendaily AMBI’s latest round of sales have gone to France and French-speaking Europe (Program Store), Japan (Klockworks), Germany (Eurovideo), China (Turbo Film), Spain (Selecta Vision), Russia (Karoprokat), Latin America/Eastern Europe/Turkey (SPI), Switzerland (Impuls), Middle East (Falcon), Greece (Feelgood), Portugal (NOS Lusmundo), Singapore (Shaw), South Korea (AiasPlus), Malaysia and Vietnam (Rainfilm) and […]

AFM 2017: LUCKY DAY Sees Crispin Glover On The Hunt In The Latest Photo

Lee B. Golden III

Academy Award winner Roger Avary is currently underway as of last month in Toronto shooting upcoming action thriller, Lucky Day. FilmNation has since entered international sales this week for the acclaimed Pulp Fiction scribe since helming Glitterati in 2004. Red, a safe cracker who has just been released from prison, is trying to hold his family together as his past catches up with him in the form of Luc, a psychopathic contract killer who’s seeking revenge for the death of his brother. The film is described as the culmination of many characters aimed at assembling a single neo-noir, aggressive, violent, funny, irreverent, politically incorrect film. Starring is actor Crispin Glover in the role of Luc as seen in the latest photo from the film via Screendaily below. Also starring are Nina Dobrev, Luke Bracey, Clifton Collins, Clé Bennett, Nadia Fares, David Hewlett, Tomer Sisley, Josie Ho and Mark Dacascos who […]

AFM 2017: Action Thriller BORDERLINE Teases Cult Appeal With Diego Hallivis To Direct

Lee B. Golden III

Screen Media has been hitting the floor this week selling its package to buyers including sci-fi drama, Curvature from helmer Diego Hallivis. In wake of this, Variety is now reporting the director will be working on the new action thriller, Borderline, marking the latest project under his shared 1inMM Productions banner with sibling and prod. partner Julio Hallvis. Story details are being kept quiet while the plot itself is being described as a cross between David McKenzie’s Hell Or High Water and the 2014 hit movie, John Wick. In that case, it’s reasonable to imagine this being a desert hitman western heist thriller with a Wick-ton of gun fu and BJJ scrapping and personally, I hope that’s the case. Phillip Tarl Denson wrote the film which 1inMM is financing. Hallvis’s Curvature screened recently at Sitges and will release early next year with Lyndsay Fonseca and Terminator 2: Judgement Day actress Linda […]

AFM 2017: THE THOUSAND FACES OF DUNJIA Gets A U.S. Day-And-Date Release In December

Lee B. Golden III

Well Go USA has been doing awesomely in the last few years accommodating Asian film titles for its designated niche. Their latest acquisition should be of no surprise with Yuen Woo-Ping’s The Thousand Faces Of Dunjia currently selling at the American Film Market this year under Distribution Workshop. This is a martial arts world of exceptional talents which defy nature. They live in a secluded life and secretly protect the humans against the threat of outer space creatures. What takes them by surprise is that their rivals are becoming more powerful beyond imagination. To save the world, the warriors are ready to face the impossible again. The film is a reinterpretation of Yuen’s own wuxia comedy, Miracle Fighters, which released in 1982 under Golden Harvest. Variety’s report on Sunday cites a December 15 day-and-date release in North America to coincide with the film’s China release. Rounding out the cast are […]

AFM 2017: Heist Action Thriller, POACHER, Nabs Bracey, Nolte To Star

Lee B. Golden III

Arclight is at work at the American Film Market this week with presentations and announcements, including international sales outside the U.S. on the forthcoming production of action thriller, Poacher. Kriv Stenders will direct from a script by Thomas Martin (All That Way for Love), with Luke Bracey (Hacksaw Ridge, Point Break) and Nick Nolte (Prince of Tides, Warrior, Graves) starring. Inspired by true events, Poacher is the cautionary tale of a young man (Bracey), motivated by vengeance, who goes to war with a fishing baron (Nolte) who rules the town, sending him on a journey which transforms him from a small-time abalone poacher into a criminal gang boss. The thrilling heist adventure will be shot against the stunning Tasmanian coastal landscape. Ashley McLeod (The Offer, upcoming Storm Warning) is producing with Teresa Ticehurst (Mad Max Fury Road, Thor 3, Hunger Games, Storm Warning) and James M. Vernon (Hacksaw Ridge, In […]

AFM 2017: THE BOUNCER Taps Jean-Claude Van Damme To Star

Lee B. Golden III

International sales outlet Other Angle has been at work this week at the American Film Market shopping its package to buyers. Their efforts currently include $10 million dollar actioner, The Bouncer, obliging fans of action star Jean-Claude Van Damme for a their attention as production readies for a January shoot. Van Damme will star as Lukas, a nightclub bouncer in his fifties who’s taken punches, literally and figuratively, and struggles to raise his 8-year-old daughter. One day, Lukas loses control during an altercation with a client and ends up in jail, while his daughter gets placed under the care of social services. But things take an unexpected turn when Interpol recruits Lukas to bring down a Dutch ringleader operating from Belgium in exchange for his daughter’s custody. A Bluebird In My Heart and Yves Saint Laurent, writer Burn Out and The Night Eats the World co-scribe, fledgling screenwriter Jérémie Guez […]

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PADMAVATI: Don’t Miss The Official Trailer For Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Sweeping War Epic

Lee B. Golden III

I’m never informed enough about Indian cinema to give an expert opinion. What I can tell you is that the ones I have seen have all been a fascinating and striking experience in some capacity, most recently S.S. Rajamouli’s two-part sword epic, Bahubali, which all but signals the continued reptutation of just how insanely big Indian films can get. Especially period pieces. Moving forward, I suspect Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ninth film to date, Padmavati, will be no different in leaving a similar impression with actress Deepika Padukone (Hollywood breakout co-star of xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage) starring in the title role. The film takes its cues from a 14th century poem which tells of an ancient Mewar ruler, and his wife, a legendary Rajput queen who commits self-immolation in defense of her own honor in the wake of a Warlord’s attacks and invasions motivated only by his lust for her. […]

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AFM 2017: FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY Wraps Production In Time For Buyers

Lee B. Golden III

Carmel Winters, the award-winning helmer of the 2010 Dublin Critics’ Circle favorite, SNAP, is back in the limelight seven years later. Her new film, Float Like A Butterfly, is currently shopping around at the American Film Market and Screendaily presented a first look photo for the upcoming Irish boxing drama which you can take a gander at below: Teenage Irish Traveller Francis lost her mother in a fight. The same fight which led to her father being locked up in jail for the last ten years. Francis has never forgiven the police sergeant who she feels is responsible for this. She’s got fighting in her blood, just like her idol Muhammad Ali inspiring her to be the Greatest. When her father gets out of jail, Francis is starry-eyed. Together they can take on the world. But her father doesn’t turn out to be the hero she remembers. Required to keep […]

AFM: Sci-Fi Thriller TAU Picked Up By Netflix

Lee B. Golden III

Netflix has reportedly snatched up sci-fi thriller Tau this week over at the American Film Market according to Screendaily. The film marks the feature debut for noted storyboard artist Federico D’Alessandro whose credits include a raft of Marvel movies, as well as I Am Legend and Terminator: Genysis. Once a street-smart grifter, Julia is the latest young woman held captive, a body and a mind to be exploited in a fatal experiment. The only thing standing in the way of her freedom is TAU, the advanced artificial intelligence developed in secret by Alex, her masochistic and enigmatic captor. TAU is armed with a battalion of drones and robots that automate Alex’s futuristic smart house and laboratory, the walls lined with screens that visually transport it from grassy plains to the depths of space. TAU’s potential is only limited by his understanding of the world he exists in, but TAU is […]

AFM 2017: Thirby, Ritchson And Fox Enter The Arena For MMA Romance Tale, SHADOW GIRL

Lee B. Golden III

Acclaimed Fort Bliss and Kettle of Fish helmer Claudia Myers is set to bring MMA action and romance to the forefront of her new movie, Shadow Girl. Lining-up the cast are Olivia Thirlby (The Stanford Prison Experiment, Dredd, Nobody Walks), Alan Ritchson (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), and Megan Fox (Transformers franchise, This is 40, “New Girl”) for the new film hailing from Hipzee, Boundary Stone Films and Wrangle Entertainment. SHADOW GIRL is a magic-realist tale about a young woman who has faded to the point of becoming invisible and must find her way back into the world. After more than a decade of solitude and making a living in the shadows as a paparazzi photographer, Holly (Thirlby) meets the one man who can see her, Shane Blackwell (Ritchson), a disgraced MMA fighter working as a bouncer. Holly discovers that it was one […]

AFM 2017: Swen Group Picks Up Jackie Chan Sci-Fi, BLEEDING STEEL, For A Multiterritorial December 22 Release

Lee B. Golden III

Leo Zhang’s China-Australia co-production, Bleeding Steel is readying releases worldwide thanks in large part to its worldwide acquisition by Swen Asia, excluding China. The Swen Group’s Swen Asia shingle is prepping a simultaneous day-and-date theatrical and digital rollout in association with WME-IMG China on December 22 with territories slated for North America, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Latin America and most Asian territories. Jackie Chan, fresh off of impressing audiences in Martin Campbell’s The Foreigner, stars in the Zhang’s sophomore effort which centers on a hardened special forces agent who fends off a criminal gang whilst in protection of a young woman with whom he feels a deeper connection. The news comes just as Chan has already made landfall at the American Film Market ahead of the production of director Vash’s new action adventure fantasy, Knight Of Shadows. Bleeding Steel joins Chan with Taiwanese star Show Lo, actor Callan Mulvey […]

AFM 2017: WWII Action Drama, THE BOMBING, Gets Sales Movement Going Under Blue Box

Lee B. Golden III

The Hollywood Reporter is offering its first look at actor Bruce Willis in the upcoming World War 2 action drama, The Bombing. The new photo comes just as Blue Box International has launched sales at the American Film Market this week ahead of a hopeful 2D and 3D China release early next year. Based on the infamous air raid attack on Chongqing during WW II, US Air Force Commander Jack Johnson (Willis) trains the Chinese people under harrowing conditions how to battle against the Japanese and leads his own aviation squadron against the trained Japanese Air Force. The film, currently in post-production, hit a stalemate with investors last summer which led to a delay in its China release. Xiao Feng (Hushed Roar) directs with art direction led by Mel Gibson (Hacksaw Ridge), joining Willis with Bingbing Fan (X-Men: Days of Future Past, Iron Man 3) and Nicholas Tse (The Stool […]

AFM 2017: Revenge Thriller Remake, HARD POWDER, Goes To Lionsgate

Lee B. Golden III

Lionsgate Variety is reporting that Lionsgate has officially nabbed the U.S. rights to the upcoming black comedy crime thriller remake, Hard Powder. Liam Neeson stars in the remade tale of a humble ski town snowplow driver in the Rocky Mountains who ensues a gang war between opposing sides while seeking bloody vengeance for the murder of his son. Neeson is joined by Emmy Rossum, Laura Dern, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Julia Jones, John Doman and Aleks Panouvic from a script by Frank Baldwin. Hans Petter Moland returned at the helm following the hit Norwegian original, Kraftidioten, which he directed for Magnet Releasing’s 2014 U.S. release re-titled In Order Of Disappearance with Stellan Skarsgård starring. Neeson’s next stop will be in theaters this January in Jaume Collet-Serra’s The Commuter, also from Lionsgate.

AFM 2017: Zhang Yimou’s SHADOW Goes To Bloom For Buyers

Lee B. Golden III

Bloom is taking The Great Wall helmer Zhang Yimou’s new movie, Shadow to the American Film Market this month. The film is currently in post-production according to Wednesday’s exclusive at Screendaily, with a story set in the Three Kingdoms era about a king who attempts to lead his displaced people out of exile, and those who play a role in his mysterious plans. Starring are Deng Chao, Sun Li, Zheng Kai, Wang Qianyuan, Guan Xiaotong, Wu Lei and Wang Jingchun from a script by Zhang and co-scribe Wei Li, and hails from Village Roadshow Pictures Asia (VRPA) and Le Vision Pictures who are co-producing the pic with Ellen Eliasoph and Catherine Pang serving as producers. Endeavor Content, forged early last month from WME Global and IMG has North American rights.

AFM 2017: Bareknuckle Brawl Pic DONNYBROOK Starts Filming As Sierra/Affinity Readies Sales

Lee B. Golden III

Following news from two weeks earlier, Sierra/Affinity will be handling international sales at the American Film Market this month for writer and director Tim Sutton’s new bareknuckle fight thriller, Donnybrook. Hailing from Rumble Films and Backup Media, cameras have begun rolling in Cincinnati for the film now being planned for a 2018 release with Frank Grillo (Beyond Skyline), Margaret Qualley (Death Note), James Badge Dale (Spectral), and Jamie Bell (6 Days) headlining the cast. Adapted from Frank Bill’s 2013 noir novel of the same name, DONNYBROOK is a wild, backwoods version of FIGHT CLUB meets NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, a man hard up for cash and determined to support his family competes in the Donnybrook, a legendary, bare-knuckle brawl where a $100,000 prize goes to the last man standing. Tim Sutton’s previous writing/directing credits include the critically acclaimed Memphis (2013) and Dark Knight (2016), which premiered last year at […]

AFM 2017: Jean Reno Hitman Thriller, THE LAST STEP, Lands At Goldcrest

Lee B. Golden III

Going into next week’s 36th American Film Market, buyers can expect to catch international sales agent Goldcrest Films on hand with upcoming action thriller, The Last Step, in its package. The French-Ukranian co-production is readying a February 2018 production start date with noted screenwriter Frédéric Petitjean (Madame Irma, Turning Tide) making his directorial debut. The Last Step is the story of Henry (Reno), a legendary hitman enjoying the isolation of his lakeside cabin set deep within the Canadian wilderness. When the solitude of a well-earned retirement is broken by the arrival of a young woman (Lind), the survivor of a massive snowmobile accident, Henry must decide whether to risk his own life to save hers. Jean Reno (Léon: The Professional, The Adventurers) is headlining the new movie with Sarah Lind (The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford), Tom Hopper (Black Sails) and Gary Dourdan (Alien: Resurrection) rounding out the […]

Nicolas Cage Will Have A SCORE TO SETTLE For Director Shawn Ku

Lee B. Golden III

Nicolas Cage is returning to the set soon with the new action thriller, A Score To Settle, according to Variety. The actor, who just made waves this year at Fantasia Festival with horror thriller Mom And Dad, will star under the direction of Beautiful Boy helmer, award-winning director Shawn Ku. Cage will play a convicted mob enforcer battling a terminal illness. He’s released from prison many years after taking the fall for a crime he didn’t commit and sets out on a path for revenge against the people who wronged him. The film will be Ku’s second feature pic and reunite him with Beautiful Boy producers Lee Clay from First Point Entertainment and Eric Gozlan from Goldrush Entertainment. Executive producing are Arianne Fraser and Delphine Perrier whose Highland Film Group will showcase the film to buyers at Cannes. Cage is also set to star in York Alec Shackleton’s heist thriller, […]

POLAR: Mads Mikkelsen To Star In The New Political Assassin Thriller Graphic Novel Adaptation

Lee B. Golden III

Never to stray too far from a physical acting gig, Casino Royale and Marvel’s Doctor Strange co-star Mads Mikkelsen will be returning to the comic book fray with the new political assassin thriller, Polar. Swedish helmer Jonas Åkerlund is directing with Mikkelsen is taking on the Duncan Vizla character inspired originally in the 2013 Dark Horse publication from creator Victor Santos, and with Jayson Rothwell. Mikkelsen will play the world’s top assassin Duncan Vizla, A.K.A the Black Kaiser who is retiring when his former employer marks him as a liability to the firm. Against his will, he soon finds himself being hunted by an army of younger, faster, ruthless killers who will stop at nothing to have him silenced. Having no choice but to return to the shadowy life he thought he’d left behind, he must use his arsenal of deadly skills to outsmart his enemies and protect an innocent […]