Actress and filmmaker Maria Tran’s bolstering independent film career is making headway in the festival circuit with the new psychological action drama, Echo 8. Filming took a few years with the film ending up in post-production with trailer footage finally making its debut late last summer, followed by a series of screenings already underway since ramping up local screening efforts last Fall. (My review can be found here.)
Film duo Maria Tran and Adrian Castro have been filmmaking for longer than I’ve been writing, and that includes paying homage to 80s Hong Kong action fanfare with a series of shorts dubbed Tiger Cop. With a feature treatment still somewhere down the pipeline, one can only hope they’ll reach their destination seeing as the two clearly have what it takes to recreate the desired aesthetic. Until then, here’s another humble offering with Tran and actress Lara Balog in Tiger Cop: Yes, Madam!, rendered in 4K for your enjoyment if you have but a couple of minutes to spare!
Actress and filmmaker Maria Tran and her good folks at Phoenix Eye are currently tracking the festivals in 2023 with their debut feature, Echo 8. The new psych action thriller, about an assassin who finds herself at an impasse with her organization when she’s assigned her latest target, has already lined up several official nominations and awards including and not limited to Tokyo and Singapore, while the company is now priming a continuation of the story in two back-to-back sequels, Echo 8: Beyond and Echo 8: Five By Five.
Echo 8 is currently circulating festivals and will screen this Spring as part of the “Badlands” series at The Art Gallery of New South Wales. Click here for more info, and ollow the movie on Facebook for future updates.
Aussie film duo Maria Tran and Takashi Hara are now days away from premiering the official trailer for their feature debut, Echo 8. The two jointly direct the pic as well as star in the film, which could arrive to audiences commercially as early as 2023.
Paramount+ Australia is getting gears rolling for new ten-episode hourlong crime drama, Last King Of The Cross with actor Ian McShane (John Wick franchise) announced as the lead antagonist back in March alongside Lincoln Younes (Little Monsters).
I’m having a bit of a slow day here, so there isn’t a whole lot coming through in my inbox. All that aside, I thought I’d share this little tidbit from a rare night out I had on Wednesday evening here in New York City when filmmakers Takashi Hara and production partner Maria Tran of Australia-based Phoenix Eye Film Productions came to visit.
Believe it or not, twenty months have passed since Maria Tran and Takashi Hara turned on the ignition for their latest first narrative feature project, Echo 8, two Decembers ago. Obviously with a deadly and sweeping pandemic making the rounds in 2020, getting anything even remotely done involving numbers of people was going to be a challenge, and thus, Tran and Hara have since faced their hurdles head on leading up to the film’s final shots back in February.
A little over a year and a half since our last update, director Maria Tran’s feature debut, Echo 8, is finally breathing signs of life once more with an official poster as of last week Friday.
If you’ve followed the work of Adrian Castro and actress Maria Tran at all in the last ten years, then you’re probably familiar with their usual style and aesthetic as it instantly clicks for fans of throwback Hong Kong action cinema.
Three new visuals are online for the production of Maria Tran’s feature debut, Echo 8. Principal photography commences in January in Western Sydney, Australia with Tran directing her first feature, in addition to starring.
Phoenix Eye Transmedia/Fideo Films/JusMedia
Production is already underway with the first few photos now online for Australian actress and filmmaker Maria Tran‘s new self-funded documentary, Femme Fatales: Seen & Unheard. Tran and her crew at Phoenix Eye Film Production Company have already begun their first travels into Hong Kong and just recently in Vietnam with further journeying throughout South East Asia to bring a broad spotlight to embolden women climbing the action entertainment ladder.
Believe it or not, we’re coming down the wire with the Hit Lists of 2017! December 4 will be the last entry before I recommence things in January. Until then, I am also preparing content for the next several weeks in which I discuss upcoming films to look out for in 2018, so stick around for those as well.
For now though, it’s business as usual for The Hit List assembling the week’s stunt and demo reels and projects.
Stuntman, actor and filmmaker Diego Ramiro gives us an impressive showing this week with an spirited action comedy reel showcasing just what a versatile talent he is. He kicks off this week’s playlist with more reels by Kimberly Root, Andrew Nadanyi, Valisa Tate, Adam Carson, Marina Volkova, Geoffrey Boggs, Molly Thomas, Felix Cortes, Jeffrey Mayfield, Trevor de Groot and Chad Riley.
It’s time for some trailer gems and thus, the past decade or so have seen a sizeable raft of creatives among which only a handful have provenly taken the initiative in emulating visions that pay such organic, visceral homage to 80’s Hong Kong action filmlore. Australia’s own Adrian Castro continues this effort once more with three-part Girls With Guns action webseries, Tiger Cops, in reunion with actress Maria Tran who has performed at the forefront on similar conceptual proofs from Castro. The two are joined by Steven Oliver and legendary Hong Kong cinema star, actor and martial artist Richard Norton also star among the raft of characters now available in the latest trailer before we venture into the new promo for Noah Fleder’s own forthcoming endeavors at Force Storm with the new series, Legend Of The Kickmaster kicking off on January 18.
It’s time to round out the week’s fights and films and Dardrex’s Darren Holmquist set it off with a lesson in Anger Management with R Marcos Taylor and Angela Lynn among the cast. The next video sees the resurfacing of a group called Legionarius and their latest is called Combate Escencio, and that’s really all I have to go on since there’s nothing in credits or in the description while the short itself is a worthy view.
Pirhana Stunts members Danang and Evan, and director Majid shepherd Man Of Jungle with some fantastic and speedy fight execution before we make two revisits: a recent re-upload of action comedy skit, Invisible Danger, with David “Dax” Bauer and Seth Austin, and, and Juan Bofill’s Karate-infused Tatakai: The Battle, which proved itself twice with award-winning fruition at the Urban Action Showcase and Expo seventeen days ago.
Kingslayer Joey Min makes his final bid to akwaken a kingdom of live-action role players and their deluded king in the webseries finale of The Forbidden Kingdom: A Kung Fu Larp Story, and writer and Samuel Delitans Lee sets the stage for a shady businessman’s underworld brawl to rescue the love of his life in the new short, Rescue Before Dusk, led by Peps Goh and Shian Wen.
I’m looking forward to December 4 guys. If you have some time to spare then last week’s Hit List should be more than appealing! Sub to the channels and SHARE the Hit List with friends, and as always, if you or someone you know does action as badass as some of today’s crowdpleasing badasses and you would like a stake in our weekly Hit List, hit us up at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!
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