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Miike Takashi’s BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL Gets A Stylish New U.S. Poster

Miike Takashi fans have two terrific reasons to enjoy going to the movies this November. One of them now comes branded with a fantastic new poster from ComingSoon for the hit manga adaptation, Blade Of The Immortal which hits screens on November 3 from Magnet Releasing. Samurai Manji has taken a lot of lives, both innocent and guilty, and now lives life in feudal Japan as a criminal. After being cursed with immortality until he kills enough evil men, Manji meets a young girl who enlists him to be her body-guard. Swearing loyalty, protection and vengeance against the group of sword fighters who slaughtered her family, the unlikely duo set on a remarkable quest to make right against those who did them wrong. I’ve written plenty on this adaptation and having gotten the gist of reactions since the film’s release in Japan and subsequent festival rounds, I’m eager to see […]

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 […]

Image Comics Action Sci-Fi, NONPLAYER, Moves Forward At Legendary

Lee B. Golden III

Moving into more comic book lore, we now get an IP that mingles tones shared by The Matrix and Guardians Of The Galaxy. Such is what Legendary now hopes to achieve in its treatment of Nate Simpson’s 2011 Image Comics publication, Nonplayer with Thor: Ragnarok scribe Eric Pearson scripting, according to Deadline on Thursday. The comic, split between two issues with the second released in 2015, tells of Dana Stevens, a tamale delivery girl whose mundane life, remedied only by her prowess as a high-ranking badass and boundless warrior in an augmented reality video game, finds her swept into a rip-roaring adventure when a mysterious AI causes the game to spill into the real world. Here’s a quick summary with more on the property: The future kind of sucks, and that goes double for Dana Stevens — she’s stuck in a dead-end mail delivery job, and she’s way too old to […]

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 […]

GODZILLA: MONSTER PLANET Takes To The Skies In A Spectacular New Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

With longstanding monster movie mainstay, Godzilla, still a relevant factor in film fandom, Polygon Pictures (Knights of Sidonia, BLAME!) are well on their way with their latest high-end offering, Godzilla: Monster Planet. The film opens in Japan on November 17 and with a likely rollout on Netflix sometime thereafter, while this one is certain to leave a mark among fans who’ve followed the franchise in all its glory. Taking it to animation only seems fitting and this newest treatment rocks judging by the latest trailer now online. The last summer of the 20th Century. That day, the human beings learn that they are not the only ruler of the planet Earth. The appearance of the giant living creatures “Kaiju’s” and the ultimate existence that destroys all monsters: Godzilla. Through the battle against kaiju’s that lasted for half a century, human beings have experienced continuous defeat, and finally plan to escape from […]

HUMMINGBIRD Recasts Its Winged Assassin Thriller With Olivia Munn

Lee B. Golden III

Fundemental Films is switching gears in its casting for forthcoming action thriller, Hummingbird, according to Deadline’s exclusive on Tuesday. With scheduling conflicts now a factor, X-Men Apocalypse co-star Olivia Munn is replacing actress Zoë Saldana, the latter who is currently filming the first of several more installments of 20th Century Fox’s fantasy action saga, Avatar. Swedish duo Marcus Kryler and Fredrik Akerström are attached to direct the project from a Black List script by John McClain, telling of a female black-ops assassin whose latest mark forces her to rethink her identity and her purpose. The film was announced last October with a vision and tone keen on echoing thrillers like John Wick and Luc Besson’s 2014 blockbuster, Lucy. Mark Gao and Gregory Ouanhon, whose Fundemental Films are financing the film with Gary Glushon executive producing, will produce with Todd Garner of Broken Road Productions. Munn’s next appearance will be in […]

DEATHSTROKE: DC Comics Adaptation Takes Aim At ‘The Raid’ Helmer Gareth Evans To Direct

Lee B. Golden III

Indonesian action thrillers, Merantau, and the current dual-part installments of The Raid were all director Gareth Huw Evans needed to all but cement his name in the history of martial arts film fandom. Going into 2018, his most recent work will soon start stirring in the news cycle and film fest circuit with Dan Stevens thriller, Apostle, but that won’t be all we hear from Evans who is also in line to executive produce a reinstallation of his 2011 hit, The Raid, for helmer Joe Carnahan to direct. Going forward, it just so happens the cult favorite is in line to helm a potential comic book spin-off in the form of Deathstroke, with actor Joe Manganiello (True Blood, upcoming Rampage) attached to the role as of last Fall. The brainchild of Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, Deathstroke is the alterego of Slade Wilson, a soldier since the age of sixteen […]

THE SIEGE: Paul Allica Leads Ensemble Medeival Robin Hood Redux Action Thriller Now Underway In Australia

Lee B. Golden III

Crowdsourcing proved to be a hurdle early on, but that’s not putting a stop to Australian actor Paul Allica (Wolf Warrior 2, Sky Hunter: Locked On Target) from completing his newest starring and producing endeavor, The Siege. Production is already underway and hailing as the first-ever medeival action film in Australia’s movie history with Allica headlining something of a re-invention of Robin Hood folklore, assembling a tale of six heroes of legend who set out to bring down an evil tyrant and his minions. Its a time of chaos and tyranny… The once great country of England is splintering as its people struggle to pay for the crusades, with the King away and his territories being controlled by the corrupt Prince John, the country is on the verge of revolution. The people need a hero, and one shall rise and fight to restore honour to its people. When his mother […]

The Hunt Is On For Christian Gudegast’s DEN OF THIEVES In The First Official Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Saving humanity from cataclysmic weather events may not have been an easy feat at the box office for Geostorm star Gerard Butler, but he’s slated to return to the big screen at the top of next year bringing some good old-fashioned bang for your buck in writer director Christian Gudegast’s new crime pic, Den Of Thieves. STX Entertainment teaser the trailer on Tuesday and has officially launched the campaign with a full-on sampler along with a first official poster featuring Butler opposite Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson among the cast. A Los Angeles crime saga in the vein of “Heat”, DEN OF THIEVES follows the intersecting and often personally connected lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff’s Dept. and the state’s most successful bank robbery crew as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank of downtown Los Angeles. Pablo Schreiber and O’Shea Jackson […]

BRIGHT Shimmers With Promising Action And Adventure In The Newest Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

We have a brand new trailer for David Ayer’s new fantasy crime flick, Bright. For that matter, it’s a great sell as an original property for Netflix in lieu of its own move toward investing amply in its own feature film content through next year. Mixing Humans, Orcs and Elves in a way fans of properties like Alien Nation can appreciate is certainly appealing…only let’s not hope the rest of the film doesn’t befall from the same lazy writing that this trailer exhibits in the first ten seconds. Yeesh, Max. Set in an alternate present-day where humans, orcs, elves, and fairies have been co-existing since the beginning of time. Bright is genre-bending action movie that follows two cops from very different backgrounds. Ward (Will Smith) and Jakoby (Joel Edgerton), embark on a routine patrol night and encounter a darkness that will ultimately alter the future and their world as they […]

ALONG WITH THE GODS: Kim Yong-Hwa’s Two-Part Epic Takes To North America For Well Go USA

Lee B. Golden III

200 Pounds Beauty and Mr. Go helmer Kim Yong-Hwa’s latest is something of a mystery to me. I remember spotting a trailer online for the new film, Along With The Gods, earlier this month only to suddenly lose track of it after seeing it mysteriously disappear from my YouTube viewing history. Now all of a sudden reports are coming in via Variety as of a few days ago that Well Go USA have nabbed the rights to the film which turns out to be a two-part epic – the first of which is now branded Along With The Gods: The Two Worlds, and seeing the trailer here again has only inspired that same fascination and excitement I felt the first time around. Having died unexpectedly, firefighter Ja-hong is taken to the afterlife by 3 afterlife guardians. Only when he passes 7 trials over 49 days and proves he was innocent […]

VENOM Seeps Into Production As Cameras Roll This Week

Lee B. Golden III

Sure to abstain from Tom Holland’s current reign as Marvel hero “Spider-Man”, director Reuben Fleischer has since taken the mantle for Sony’s latest dark superhero pivot, Venom, based on the aforementioned property and currently spinning off with its own film adaptation. Tom Hardy stars in the title character for the film’s slated release next October, and can be seen in the first official set photo shared over at the film’s verified Twitter account. Day 1. #Venom pic.twitter.com/ftkf9pEWn3 — Venom Movie (@VenomMovie) October 24, 2017 Venom was created by Randy Schueller, David Michelinie, Mike Zeck and Todd McFarlane. Having first appearer in 1984, it would gain further prominence as a villain several years later as an alien symbiote who needs a host to survive, ultimately taking on several including Peter Parker rival, Eddie Brock. Hardy’s performance will be the first of the character’s full-fledged return to live-action cinema in eleven years since Spider-Man […]

Cameras Roll On Horror Thriller, HAUNT, For Sierra/Affinity

Lee B. Golden III

Sierra/Affinity, home to hits like Drive and spy thriller Atomic Blonde and has since added upcoming horror thriller, Haunt, to its catalogue with production now underway in Kentucky. Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (upcoming A Quiet Place) share writing and directing duties with a cast that includes Katie Stevens (Freeform’s The Bold Type) and Will Brittain (Kong: Skull Island, Everybody Wants Some) along with Lauryn Alisa McClain, Andrew Caldwell, and Shazi Raja. On Halloween, a group of friends encounter an “extreme” haunted house which promises to feed on their darkest fears. The night turns deadly as they come to the horrifying realization that some nightmares are real. Sierra/Affinity is financing and producing the project for worldwide distribution. Todd Garner is producing via the Broken Road banner, along with Mark Fasano, Ankur Rungta and Vishal Rungta via the Nickel City banner, and scare-master Eli Roth. Sierra/Affinity’s Nick Meyer, Marc Schaberg and […]

IMPOSSIBILITY DEFENSE: Catch The Chilling New Teaser Trailer From The Director Of ‘Sadako VS Kayako’

Lee B. Golden III

Shiraishi Koji (Sadako vs Kayako) doesn’t have much going for its current literary title reading as Impossibility Defense, so I expect something of a change in the next few months. In the meantime, its substance is certainly striking and does wonders for its latest official teaser trailer now online. The film hails from the authored and inked pages of its 2013 Grand Jump manga mag publication adapted by Shiraishi with co-scribe Junpei Yamaoka. Leading the way is actor Matsuzaka Tori who plays a red-eyed contract killer whose suggestive abilities to manipulate his targets become priority for at least one relentless detective unbeholden to his powers. Shinobi and Shinjuku Swan co-star, actress Sawajiri Erika also stars in a female iteration compared to the manga. A J-drama is also expected to air following the film’s February release in Japan. Check out the teaser below.

Action Thriller KILLERMAN Rolls Cameras This Week

Lee B. Golden III

The wait hasn’t been too long seeing as the news broke in May with Liam Hemsworth starring in Malik Bader’s new movie, Killerman. Thus, the film is reportedly underway according to an announcement forwarded at ScreenAnarchy with production slated for locations in Savannah, Georgia and in New York City through December with Bader directing from his own script. Killerman sees Hemsworth as Moe Diamond, a small-time money launderer who finds himself on the run from a horde of gangsters and dirty cops when a deal goes awry and his escape results in a freak accident that renders him an amnesiac. Joining in is actor Nickola Shreli in reunion with Bader since starring in the director’s acclaimed 2015 Fantasia favorite, Cash Only; Shreli who will play a villainous narc-cop in hot pursuit of Diamond. John and Michael Schwarz producing along with The Solution’s Myles Nestel. Executive producing is Lisa Wilson over […]

THE COMMUTER: Non-Stop Thrills For Liam Neeson In The Official Trailer!

Lee B. Golden III

It’s reasonable to expect actor Liam Neeson to end his run as a star in action films any time now. The 65 year-old actor has spoken on this issue before and so what better way to exit than to give the fans another go as he’s doing these days with the new thriller, The Commuter. In this action-packed thriller, Liam Neeson plays an insurance salesman, Michael, on his daily commute home, which quickly becomes anything but routine. After being contacted by a mysterious stranger, Michael is forced to uncover the identity of a hidden passenger on his train before the last stop. As he works against the clock to solve the puzzle, he realizes a deadly plan is unfolding and is unwittingly caught up in a criminal conspiracy. One that carries life and death stakes, for himself and his fellow passengers. The film marks Neeson’s fourth effort with Jaume Collet-Serra […]

Taran Killam’s Hitman Comedy, KILLING GUNTHER, Hits Home This December

Lee B. Golden III

Killing Gunther [Blu-ray] Saban Films’s latest Arnold Schwarzenegger action comedy headliner, Killing Gunther, is currently out in theaters. Home platforms are also about with a Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD release now slated for December 26. An action comedy set in the world of contract killers. A group of young, raw and undisciplined assassins hire a docu-crew at gunpoint, to have undeniable proof that they’re the ones who will kill the most infamous hitman of all time, Gunther. But Gunther is on to them before they know it and he makes it his personal mission to make their lives a living hell. It becomes a race against time of kill or be killed as the hunters quickly become the prey. Feel free to pre-order your copy here! amzn_assoc_ad_type = “smart”; amzn_assoc_ad_mode = “search”; amzn_assoc_tracking_id = “f0654-20”; amzn_assoc_title = “Shop Related Products”; amzn_assoc_default_category = “All”; amzn_assoc_search_bar = “true”; amzn_assoc_search_bar_position = “bottom”; […]

THE HIT LIST: October 23, 2017

Lee B. Golden III

I’m actually a little upset that I came across a few of this week’s entries as late as I did, particularly having tried to been on top of it. Such is why I need at least two more of me (especially since one could use the extra sleep ?). At any rate, tireless and forever tired as I am (a phrase coined by my friend Philippe), my quest continues to help bring notable independent content and stunt talent to the spotlight per our weekly vehicle here at the Hit List. Let’s load up on paramount stunt talent with the latest stunt and training reels from today’s talented stunt performers beginning with Dylan Rampulla, Jessica Barfoot, LeRoyal Tutt, Alina Andrei, Kage Yami, Damali Ross, Tony Vittorioso, Donny Nichols, Niko Dalman, Camran Bostanabad, Johnny Zhao Haitao and Darrell McLean. We round out this playlist with a tasty teaser reel by a fantastic […]

Fumihiko Sori’s FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST To Close Anime NYC 2017!

Lee B. Golden III

The time is nearly upon those who plan on attending Anime NYC’s inaugural three-day spectacle kicking off on November 17 at the Javits Center in New York City. Closing out the event is an early premiere of Fumihiko Sori’s new film, Fullmetal Alchemist, which will mark the film’s debut U.S. screening ahead of its general theatrical release in Japan on December 1. The film takes off from the pages of Arakawa Hiromu’s longstanding manga set in a time where alchemy, one of the world’s most advanced sciences, also bares its share of controversy. Such is the case of two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, ill-fated in an attempt to revive their deceased mother and forced to suffer a terrible sacrifice before setting out on a turbulent quest for a mythological Philosopher Stone to restore alchemical balance to the world. Ryosuke Yamada (Edward Elric), Tsubasa Honda (Winry Rockbell), Dean Fujioka (Roy […]