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[UPDATED] TOMIRIS: Well Go USA Takes Kazakh Hit Warrior Queen Epic

The official trailer I caught in January for Akan Satayev’s Herodotean action adventure, Tomiris, was such a find that I hated not catching it sooner. The film eventually opened in October (not September as previously noted) and at some point, Gary Hamilton’s Arclight Films snagged gloabl sales rights, and the word now from Screen Daily‘s Jeremy Kay is that film get treated to a U.S. release on September 29, courtesy of Well Go USA. Starring Kazakhstan standouts Almira Tursyn (as Tomiris), Adil Akhmetov (as Argun), and Aizhan Lighg (as Sardana)––who perform all of their own action-packed stunts––THE LEGEND OF TOMIRIS tells the real life story of the great queen who, along with her female warriors, united divided nomadic tribes to create a powerful nation capable of repelling the likes of Persia. According to historical accounts, Tomiris and her army very likely served as the downfall of Cyrus the Great, who […]

THE RUNNERS: Tom Sizemore Stars In New Kidnap Thriller From Uncorked Entertainment This July

Lee B. Golden III

Micah Lyons and Joey Loomis’s new kidnap thriller, The Runners, hits DVD and Digital beginning July 14 from Uncork’d Entertainment. In addition to starring, both are in the director’s seat, and with a cast that includes Tom Sizemore (Heat, Saving Private Ryan) and Glenn Morshower (“24”, “Friday Night Lights”). After losing their parents in a car accident, Ryan must raise his rebellious teenage sister, Zoe. One night, Zoe sneaks out to a party and is abducted by a charming older boy who intends to sell her to the cartel for human trafficking. Now, Ryan and his best friend have just hours to track them down and save her before she is sold and dragged across the Mexican border, never to be seen again. The Runners also stars Netty Leach, Neal McCoy, Jason Peter Kennedy, and Swayde McCoy.

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Trailer: Dark Russian Superhero Thriller MAJOR GROM: THE PLAGUE DOCTOR Terrorizes Evil

Lee B. Golden III

Award-winning Ice director Oleg Trofim is hitting the markets this summer with Bubble Comics adaptation, Major Grom: The Plague Doctor. The new superhero thriller is based on the hit Russian comic book franchise which has produced 80 issues and 20 books with up to a million copies printed overall in its eight-years of longevity. St. Petersburg’s quiet life drastically changes when a mysterious vigilante dressed as a medieval plague doctor appears in the city. Declaring that modern Russia is “plagued by injustice”, he begins to “cure” it by murdering the people who at some point of their lives have escaped retribution for their crimes because of their financial and social positions. The society is shaken up: everyone questions the Plague Doctor`s true status – is he an agent of chaos or a noble justice warrior? However for Police Major Igor Grom and his rookie partner Dima Dubin what matters most […]

Trailer: Daniel Zirilli’s INVINCIBLE Retooled As ULTIMATE SOLDIER For Japan DVD Release

Lee B. Golden III

Provided Covid-19 doesn’t impede director Daniel Zirilli’s current production deal with Shogun Films anymore than one might predict, the workload may finally add to the current stack of actioners rolling out for the Hollow Point and Acceleration helmer. For this, we turn to Ultimate Soldier – best known in the states as Invincible – which pits actor Johnny Strong against international action star Marko Zaror in a tale of an experimental program involving nanites gone haywire. AMG Entertainment has local dibs in Japan for a release on DVD beginning June 3. Colonel John Taylor enlists billionaire inventor Leor Teska to fund a secret black site, testing Teska’s new nano technology for military applications, developed by scientists. When one of the test subjects, Brock Cortez, escapes, Teska’s head of security, Cam Devore is given the dangerous task of tracking him down. Also starring are Vladmir Kulich, Paul Kennedy and Sally Kirkland.

COVID-19: THE IMPACT ON ASIAN CINEMA Trailer: Sunny Pang, Oka Antara And Nick Khan Headline Ranjeet S. Marwa’s New Doc

Lee B. Golden III

Updates on Blood Rush and Traced notwithstanding, director Ranjeet S. Marwa’s independent documentary, Covid-19: The Impact On Asian Cinema, looks to further arouse a discussion on the Coronavirus and its deadly affect on the world and global industries therein, principally the film industry at large since the top of the year. Featured interview subjects include two of Marwa’s Blood Rush co-stars, Singaporean actor Sunny Pang and British fight choreographer Nick Khan, as well as Balinese actor Oka Antara (The Raid 2, Foxtrot Six). I haven’t seen it yet, though I suspect there will be discussions regarding all-too prevalent racist fallout on a global scale, in addition to the financial collapse of various markets and closures, as well as the overall outlook in an industry that’s long been aware of streaming companies who’ve gained a foothold on home entertainment since January. Indeed the industry continues to suffer to this day, as […]

6:45 Teaser Brings Timely Death On Repeat

Lee B. Golden III

The first teaser and poster are now online for Craig Singer’s time loop slasher, 6:45. The film stars Michael Reed (The Haunting of Alice D, The Disco Exorcist), Augie Duke (Exit 0), Armen Garo (The Departed), Thomas G. Waites (The Thing, The Warriors), boxing Hall of Famer-turned-actor Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, hip-hop DJ The 45 King, and Grammy-nominated rapper Remy Ma (“Love & Hip Hop: New York”). Bobby Patterson is hoping a weekend getaway will save his rocky relationship with his girlfriend Jules Rables. The couple arrives in the quiet island resort of Bog Grove. To their bewilderment, the sleepy beach town is curiously deserted and they quickly learn about the deadly history that’s about to repeat itself. Bobby’s struggles with Jules are cast aside in order to overcome a dementing cycle of terror they find themselves trapped in. No matter what he does to try to avoid it, he […]

Horror Thriller TRACED To Star Sunny Pang For Fall Start; BLOOD RUSH Shoot Moves To Spring 2021 [EXCLUSIVE]

Lee B. Golden III

Filmmaker Ranjeet S. Marwa is turning his focus over to Traced, a new horror thriller which has already locked Sunny Pang to star. The film is aimed as “a crime thriller with elements of extreme violence” along with a tone and vision akin to the works of directors like Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin), Takashi Miike (Ichi The Killer), Lynne Ramsay (You Were Never Really Here) and Park Chan-wook (Old Boy) to name a few. Traced follows King (Pang), a troubled man with a violent past, hired by a multimillionaire to rescue his daughter, Hannah, from being exploited for her rare blood type, by a criminal gang known as Blood Thieves. As King battles his own inner-turmoil, his mission unravels an even larger conspiracy, and so King will do whatever it takes to find and save Hannah – no rules, no exceptions, no remorse. Marwa is producing via his Rocket Sky […]

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DECO TRUCK GAL NAMI SAGA Review: Carrying The Legacy Of Trucker Yaro, In A Thrilling Journey With Redemption As Final Destination

Mike Garcia

Deco Truck gal Nami (Hideo Jojo), is a 4 movies series from 2008 to 2012, strongly influenced by Trucker Yaro (Noribumi Suzuki) a 10 film series that were produced by Toei from 1975 to 1979, and starred by the legendary Bunta Sugawara, in the role of Momojiro, a truck driver who in each movie falls in love with a different woman, while lives crazy adventures in the road and always ends with a broken heart. Trucker Yaro original poster (1975) Deco Truck Gal Nami carries the legacy of Noribumi Suzuki´s creation in essence and style, following a same patterns of truck chases, action and adventures on the road, including numerous homages and even fanservice for fans of the original movies, having in every installment a cameo of an actor that resembles to Bunta Sugawara playing Momojiro. However, the storylines between both sagas are completely different, introducing a female version […]

PANOPTICON: ‘Narcos’ Series Director To Helm Prison Thriller, Ridley Scott To Exec Produce

Lee B. Golden III

There was once a project titled The Panopticon back in 2014 for which Keanu Reeves was being primed to star for director Tarsem Singh. This week’s update, in particular looks completely seperate from the aforementioned project announced seven years ago despite the title. As Brian Welk notes at The Wrap, Panopticon is a new prison thriller that will be directed by Andrés Baiz (Netflix series Narcos), from a Black List script by Emily Jerome. The main headliner in the report is Ridley Scott‘s attachment to the project as exec producer ahead of its Fall shoot. Casting is already underway for the female-led thriller which will center on Chase, a rising hedgefund manager who initiates a plot to secure a big coffer from a little known private correctional facility in Arizona that reaps big profits, and the inmates are running the show. Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios is financing and co-producing the […]

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UPGRADE: Leigh Whannell’s Explosive Sci-Fi Action Horror Lands A TV Sequel Series

Lee B. Golden III

Leigh Whannell’s 2018 Blumhouse-produced hit sci-fi action thriller, Upgrade, is officially headed for television. Whannell directed the SXSW Audience Award-winner, which centers on a tetraplegic imbued with STEM, an advanced A.I. tech that enables him to physically carry out his own campaign against the four supersoldiers that injured him and killed his wife, only to put him face to face with an even more nefarious conspirator. As Deadline‘s own Nellie Andreeva exclusively reports, Whannell, fresh off directing a reboot of The Invisible Man for Universal Pictures, is returning to direct the series, on which he will serve as co-creator and executive producer with Tim Walsh (Treadstone). Per the report, Upgrade, in its series form “picks up a few years after the events of the film and broadens the universe with an evolved version of STEM and a new host – imagining a world in which the government repurposes STEM to […]

DELIVER US FROM EVIL Trailer Sees Hwang Jung-Min On The Run From Assassins

Lee B. Golden III

The Yellow Sea? The Chaser? Office? Hopefully one of these among writer and director Hong Won-chan’s filmography has gotten your attention in the past decade or so, and if you know your trivia, you know Indonesian action star Iko Uwais is a fan of the man’s work. This, of course, brings us to CJ Entertainment’s newest prospective thriller, Deliver Us From Evil, which has Hwang Jung-min (Veteran, A Violent Prosecutor) and Lee Jung-jae (Svaha: The Sixth Finger, Along With The Gods franchise), leading the tale of a man about to sacrifice everything to survive a contract killing. The film also stars Time To Hunt and Tazza: One Eyed Jack actor Park Jung-min, and Anarchist From Colony actress Choi Hee-seo. There’s no exact date, but the trailer sells, and I’m excited to catch this one in full after its July release.

SyFy’s VAGRANT QUEEN Rules In The UK This July From Dazzler

Lee B. Golden III

Dazzler Media is ready to divy out pre-orders the interstellar action adventure and hijinks in the UK for season one of SyFy’s space opera series, Vagrant Queen. Actress Adriyan Rae leads the single-season series for ten episodss on a three-disc set which will hit Digital, DVD and Blu-Ray shelves beginning July 13. She’s a royal gone rogue! Based on the comic of the same name, this colourful, trend-setting “space opera” adventure series follows Elida, child queen turned orphan who scavenges the galaxy, attempting to stay hidden from the Republic government. She must embark on a dangerous quest across the galaxy with an old friend, facing cannibalistic aliens, dangerous planets, shootouts and karaoke. Get ready for your new favourite sci-fi show!

#ALIVE Trailer: Yoo Ah-In And Park Shin-Hye Fight For Their Lives

Lee B. Golden III

Not to be confused for stuntman-cum-director Johnny Martin’s latest horror, Alone, Jo In-hyeong’s own feature debut, #Alive, couldn’t have come in a more timely fashion in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The film is penned by Jo along with co-writer Matt Naylor who shares credits on both titles. Similar in nature, Jo’s film is aptly stylized in its title for its upcoming June release from Lotte Cultureworks in Korea. It stars Yoo Ah-in (Burning) and actress Park Shin-hye (Heart Blackened) who find themselves as two quarantined sole survivors of a deadly pandemic in which the masses have all turned into zombies. There’s no word on any dates outside the region, but this looks to be another solid edition for those in the market for thrilling Korean zombie epics.

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INDIANA JONES 5 Confirms James Mangold For The Director’s Chair

Lee B. Golden III

2019 would’ve been the year that Disney franchise staple Indiana Jones returned to theaters per the stifled development of a fifth entry into the franchise. A 2022 date is likely inbound following an exclusive at Variety back in February, pre-empting at what now confirms James Mangold as the director of the new installment. Producer Frank Marshall offered the following to Collider via IGN: “I think [James Mangold] also has a relationship with Harrison [Ford]. It was all of the right pieces coming together, at the right time,” the famed producer explained, adding that, “Steven [Spielberg] is staying on as a producer, so we’ve got the best of everything.” Ford has headlined the franchise as the titular famed archaeologist and explorer since 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, inducted as one of AFI’s 100 Greatest American Films of All Time. With Spielberg at the helm for follow-ups in Indiana Jones and […]

UNLEASHED: Vengeance, Redemption, And ‘Guyver Kicks’ In The Latest Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

With an IQIYI stream launch back an April, Sun Entertainment Culture seems to be on approach to a more theatrical outing on June 4 with underground fight thriller, Unleashed. The edit here on the final trailer now running online definitely pulls out all the stops thusfar on teasing the action, with the last shot being the obvious attention grabber for the Boyka crowd – a nod no less by actor and fight choreographer Chris Collins (SPL: Paradox) to his Wolf Warrior co-star Scott Adkins a la Steve Wang’s 1994 Guyver adaptation. For the thick of it, Unleashed stars Sun Feng Zhen, Ken Low, Zheng Zi Peng and Sam Lee, and is directed by first-timers Kwok Ka Hei and Ambrose Kwok. It tells of an underground boxer who is out to settle the score with his master’s rival, a former champion fresh out of prison and looking for retribution. Unleashed also […]

DON’T TELL A SOUL: Rainn Wilson Thriller Heads To Saban

Lee B. Golden III

Alex McAulay’s feature directing debut, Don’t Tell A Soul, was recently acquired by Saban Films. McAulay penned the film, shot in Kentucky, and sees a security guard (Emmy-nominated Rainn Wilson), fighting for survival after falling into a forgotten well when two brothers set out to rob a home to pay for their sick mother’s medical bills. Also starring are Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk) and Jack Dylan Grazer (Shazam!) and Mena Suvari (American Pie franchise). Mangano Movies & Media’s Chris Mangano, and Unbridled Films’s Merry-Kay Poe, produced with Steve Poe, with Matt Bronson and John Neace exec producing, and Brian Tanke, Max Neace and McAulay co-producing. Don’t Tell A Soul was an official Tribeca Film Festival selection this past Spring for Mangano prior to the festival’s cancellation earlier this year. “During these trying times, we at Saban thrive to continue bringing entertainment to our audiences and provide a platform for indie films.” […]

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RED SWORD (2012) Review: The Red Hood Tale That They’ve Never Told You

Mike Garcia

A long time ago, there was a tribe of werewolves that had no women. Throughout history, these desperate werewolves have attacked and raped human females as a way to continue their species, but werewolves have a terrible legend that every hundred years, on a night of the red moon, a girl will be born, destined to destroy the werewolf tribe. The red hood tale that you would never tell to your children, passed through the filter of the political incorrectness of Japanese V-cinema, in a twisted tale directed by Naoyuki Tomomatsu, that turns the lovely and innocent Red Hood into an avenger, slasher of rapist werewolves, that carries a katana instead of a basket. An explosive bizarre twisted cocktail of action, horror and erotism, in which Asami portrays the character as an angel of death and justice, that fights her way through, under the excellent action direction of Shigeki Hayase […]

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Shinichiro Ueda’s SPECIAL ACTORS To Head Virtual Kick Off For Japan Cuts 2020 In July

Lee B. Golden III

Director Shinichiro Ueda’s hit zombie romp, One Cut Of The Dead, has seen scores of upward reviews and buzz quotes since becoming a landmark low budget hit last year. That film gets a Steelbook release from Image Entertainment/Shudder on June 2, and so with the 14th annual installment of Japan Cuts making headway this summer, Ueda is bringing his latest Rotterdam selection, Special Actors, to the festival’s inaugural day as the official opening selection for 2020. Taking a turn to VOD for its presentation, the festival’s organizers at Japan Society will partner with Festival Scope and Shift72 for its restructuring in light of the ongoing situation with Covid-19. The move marks the first time the festival will be made available to audiences around the country, including and beyond New York City, and with limited number of tickets will soon be made available for online festival attendees as the event stamps […]

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Takashi Miike’s SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO: COLLECTOR’S EDITION Arrives This June From FilmRise

Lee B. Golden III

I’m personally not holding my breath since recent announcements in the last three years with anything Django-related until some more news surfaces. Until then, it’s nice to know that some jewels remain celebrated, and Sony Pictures’s 2007 soba Western from Takashi Miike, Sukiyaki Western Django, is inarguably one of the most notable. FilmRise took notice as well at some point, and is now proudly touting a Collector’s Edition on Blu-Ray, releasing on June 16, along with some key art folks can expect to catch on shelves by then. The film will be presented in 5.1 DTS-HD MA, 2.0 DTS-HD MA and 5.1 Surround, 2.0 Stereo, and jam packed with an extended version of the film, as well as optional English, Spanish and Japanese subtitles, a behind-the-scenes featurette, deleted scenes and much more. Pre-order the film now at Diabolik DVD. Famed Japanese auteur Takashi Miike, best known for cult classics Audition, […]

TENET: John David Washington Reverse-Engineers Saving The World In The New Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Director Christopher Nolan (Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception) has had every intention of releasing his latest theatrical endeavor, Tenet, on July 17, even now in the wake of an industry left atrophied by a pandemic with a reported $160 billion dollars in the hole. With some exhibitors around the world slowly coming back to life, time will tell if Nolan and Warner Bros. Pictures get their way and get moviegoers to come and undertake the full-on theatrical experience the film offers. Judging by the grand-scale feats of storied imagination through action and spectacle in the latest trailer – all shot with a mix of IMAX and 70mm film, it looks positively worth it. John David Washington is the new Protagonist in Christopher Nolan’s original sci-fi action spectacle “Tenet.” Armed with only one word—Tenet—and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage […]