jessica wolff

LAYERS OF LIES Review: Ramin Sohrab’s Calling Card To Action Stardom

Layers Of Lies is currently playing in Finland at select theaters. Actor and martial artist Ramin Sohrab has been climbing the latter in entertainment for the better part of fifteen years now. Little did many of us know that he also had hopes of sitting in the director’s chair – an aspiration that slowly became clear in the years since he came on radar with multiple site coverage and buzz with a 2014 short film titled “Malek”. Eight years later, Sohrab’s efforts now arrive full circle with Layers Of Lies, a new thriller billed as the first joint Iranian/Finnish action film culminating Sohrab’s feature directing debut. Penning the script also came with time and effort, prior to screenwriter Chris Larsen’s addition to the team to update a previous draft by Sami Laulajainen and Joe Leone. Of course, the script wasn’t the only challenge as much as the production itself brought […]

STAR SNATCHERS: Three Minutes Of Mayhem In Mikko Löppönen’s New Sci-Fi Action Short

Lee B. Golden III

Leave it to Finnish filmmaker Mikko Löppönen to put some fire under my fingertips and get a post going for his latest creative offering, Star Snatchers. Löppönen directed the project at a location that was still available to him when another project before that was cancelled, and with the casting of actress Jessica Wolff to lead the charge comes another promising feat from the same duo that brought Eliza to life seven years ago in short film form… …And yes, you better damn well believe I still want that full feature. For now, I’ll take Star Snatchers, a snackable sci-fi delight full of R-rated, (and very NSFW) action and violence cheese and gory glitz guaranteed to put some hair on your chest. Also starring are Risto Liskola and Judit Sziva along with Hosanna Megumi and Francesca Saglietto Briones.

SURVIVING THE GAME: A Word With ‘Layers Of Lies’ Star And Director Ramin Sohrab

Lee B. Golden III

What you’re seeing above is just one major bookmark of actor and martial artist Ramin Sohrab’s life – the result of years of training and hardship earned through his craft up to this point, as he now makes his way to the festival circuit outside Iran for the first time with rescue action thriller, Layers Of Lies. In addition to starring, he also directs this, his debut feature, a choice which be one of necessity. A result of unending searches for a good crew to hire within his means eventually confined him with the authority of directing tfilm himself. The result? Four years of principal photography, during which Sohrab would be, as he puts it in our first interview, “fighting” for his life. Government and local industry restrictions within Iran, stifled funding, and broken commitments due to a fickle film market, a Covid-19 infection, and a broken leg are all […]

THE COLD DARK: Watch The Chilling New Teaser For Mikko Lopponen’s Finnish Survival Western Shortfilm

Lee B. Golden III

The relative chemistry between an actor and a director is a pivotal one for a film to succeed, much like that of Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron, or even Scott Adkins and Jesse Johnson of late. To that affect, I loved observing what independent filmmaker Mikko Löppönen and I discussed in our recent interview having follwed his work in the last several years, partly with fellow film cohort, actress Jessica Wolff and seeing how well they gel together. Their latest pairing now awaits the festival circulation of The Cold Dark, Löppönen’s latest Finnish survival Western thriller tale stretching nineteen minutes. That’s nineteen minutes of chilling suspense and character development followed by a brutal second half in which our heroine is forced to fight for her life – something I’m always keen on with Wolff on screen with projects like The Finnisher and Löppönen’s blood-gushing action-packed short proof, Eliza, the latter […]

FURROW Teaser: Jesse Haaja’s Action Horror Pitch Sounds The Drums Of One Woman’s War On The Undead

Lee B. Golden III

The wheels have officially begun turning for filmmaker Jesse Haaja with the new action horror, Furrow. It’s a thoroughly exciting endeavor for me, personally, having kept up with its star talent in actress Jessica Wolff in the last few years and now with Furrow next in line as something I hope sees her land a feature that will grant her the audience she so deserves. As such, Furrow was filmed a few days in early cold Spring as a proof of concept Haaja plans to pitch for significant backing following his breakout festival success with Finnish debut superhero thriller, Rendel. Haaja steers a new script rewrite now with screenwriter Petra Forsten that sees Wolff as Laura, a young farm girl forced to fend off hordes of Swombies (swamp zombies) after unleashing an unspeakable evil that ensues their arrival. Haaja is in good company with much the DNA in the Rendel […]

FURROW: Female Bad-Ass Action Horror Proof-Of-Concept Sets Up ‘Rendel’ Director’s Next!

Lee B. Golden III

EXCLUSIVE: Having amply proven himself to the masses with his breakout Finnish superhero thriller, Rendel, director Jesse Haaja is now poised to move forward this Spring for ambitious action horror proof-of-concept Furrow. Haaja took to social media on Monday to break the news regarding the series/feature film hopeful, thus signaling the latest update since development began a year-and-a-half ago. Described as a cross between Ash Vs. Evil Dead and the sprawling Resident Evil film franchise of late, Furrow sees actress and musician Jessica Wolff in the role of Laura, a young farm girl who accidentally releases unspeakable evil lurking in the swamps and is forced to fend off an entire army of swamp-zombies (or Swombies). Several core members from Rendel are also joining the project, including actors Rami Rusinen and Renne Korppila, and director of photography Tero Saikkonen. The project has been on hold for a few months now but […]

THE HIT LIST – April 18, 2016

Lee B. Golden III

This week’s installation of The Hit List presents some great pieces to share, and without a doubt I will be resurrecting another lovely piece of shortfilm worth viewing for those not in the know. Right now and as the script usually goes, we kick the festivities off with a playlist full of entertaining reels full of stunts and action by some of today’s talented performers. Actor and stuntman Eric Jacobus starts it off with a continuation of his epic journey through Katsuhiro Harada’s Tekken gameverse with a movelist attributed to the Dark Talon of Death himself, Raven. Following that is a reel from actress Jessica Wolff who has been on my radar for the last few years having worked with indie filmmaking familiars like Fernando Jay Huerto of Jabronie Pictures, and Mikko Löppönen whom I had the pleasure of helping promote his 2015 shortfilm, Eliza. Aside from being a recording […]

Vengeance Runs Cold In The Night In ELIZA. Watch The New Shortfilm And Help Make It Longer!

Lee B. Golden III

Not twenty-four hours since we published our Hit List for the week, Finnish filmmaker Mikko Löppönen is officially kicking off his latest ambitious venture with Eliza. The project is exactly the kind of film that is representive of the state of most territories around the world when it comes to a taste for action cinema and filmmakers like Löppönen are left to their own means, and so here begins a new effort toward a 30-minute revenge thriller with all the trimmings and tropes one could hope for in a violent revenge noir such as this. Here are the current plot details, and as for some disclosure, I wrote the following synopsis approved by Löppönen himself: Eliza is an homage to brilliant Revenge films of the past. When a vicious drug gang discovers they’ve been infiltrated by an undercover cop, they move in and invade his home, killing him, torturing his […]

HMCIndie Presents: THE BREAK-UP

Lee B. Golden III

Just several days after sharing his latest 48 Hour Film Fest action comedy short, The Finnisher with actress Jessica Wolff, it was about a day later that fans of indie action performer Fernando Jay Huerto would get another dose of his misadventures in Finland back in May, this time, with the release of the new shortfilm, The Break-up. Directed by fellow indie action neighbor, Finnish independent filmmaker and 13-year lensman Mikko Löppönen back in May, the project marks their first collaboration together this year upon finally meeting in person just a few years after knowing each other online. The project is also Huerto‘s first collaboration with Wolff, prior to The Finnisher, and marks as one in a handful of hopeful projects that are on the way between now and next year. Löppönen is also in the middle of putting together another project in the form of a sci-fi short called […]

Self High Five! Watch Jabronie Pictures' New 48-Hour Film Fest Action Comedy Short, THE FINNISHER!

Lee B. Golden III

Fans of online action cinema well-knowing of the comedic misadventures that take place in the body of work from award-winning independent filmmaker and actor Fernando Jay Huerto will be pleased to stick around in the coming years. He’s got some things brewing with a few friends from overseas, including Finnish singer, actress and Wushu purveyor Jessica Wolff who can now be seen in the latest 48-Hour Film Festival project from Jabronie Pictures titled, The Finnisher. The story takes off with Wolff in the role of Joyce, a Finnish I.A. investigator who coerces an unsuspecting fellow named Tim to help her allocate the sensitive info she has against the will of a corporate goon squad hot on her tail. The project was completed within two-days on the week of June 28, with Jabronie Pictures, representing the project for its festival premiere in San Diego in mid-July, ultimately winning best fight choreography […]