maria tran

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ECHO 8: Maria Tran’s Asian-Aussie Indie Hit Lands A New Trailer Ahead Of West Coast U.S. Premiere!

Lee B. Golden III

The ceremony is no laughing matter when it comes to Australian psych-action thriller sci-fi, Echo 8. Heralded as a beacon of success for indie film locals in the region as a low budget sensation, the film has been tracking more than well at festivals with ample reception, and I’ve happily contributed as much through my platform. The US $8,000-produced feature debut from film duo Maria Tran and Takashi Hara, and screenwriter Elizabeth H. Vu, now makes headway at this weekend’s freshman Big Bad Film Fest action film festival. Further anchoring the festivities is a brand new trailer for the film which you can view below. An assassin flashes between a nightmarish dream and her reality at a secret underground organization. When her latest mission involves killing a grieving mother, she discovers her target is closer to home than she realizes-much closer. Echo 8 stars Tran who makes her feature-directing debut, […]

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ECHOES AHEAD: A Word With ‘Echo 8’ Scribe Elizabeth H. Vu

Lee B. Golden III

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.) In the film, Tran plays the member of a clandestine organization of assassins, whose latest mission now finds her brought face to face with someone connected to her past. The film was written by Elizabeth H. Vu who is more well-learned in the horror arena, which makes Echo 8 her inaugural dip in the action arena, and with suspense now hanging in lieu of the film’s upcoming trilogy slate which now includes Echo 8: Beyond and Echo 8: Five By Five. Vu […]

It’s Maria Tran-Versus-Lara Balog In TIGER COP: YES, MADAM!

It’s Maria Tran-Versus-Lara Balog In TIGER COP: YES, MADAM!

Lee B. Golden III

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!

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Asian-Australian Independent Action Thriller ECHO 8 Lands Two Back-To-Back Sequels Shooting In 2025

Lee B. Golden III

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. Reviews are also making the rounds in addition to mine which you can take a gander at here. For the sequels, Tran is reteaming with Echo 8 screenwriter Elizabeth H. Vu to outline the next two chapters. Plot and further casting details remain pending, while Tran and the producers rev up a script reading table event for this Fall, before announcing […]

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ECHO 8 Review: A Lean, Inspiring DIY Psych Action Drama With A Beating Heart

Lee B. Golden III

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. I’ve been writing about Maria Tran for about as long as I’ve been… well… writing. Her 2013 action comedy short with Adrian Castro, Hit Girls, was a fine catch at the time and provided ample introduction for me to the kind of artist and performer Tran is, further highlighting her caliber as a film creative with a number of short film projects, and often collaborating with fellow independent film cohort Castro in the process, along with select television projects and a few feature film appearances to top off her resumè nicely in the meantime. Such credits include working with the likes of legendary producer Roger Corman on Antony Szeto’s Fist Of […]

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Asian-Australian Psych Action Sci-Fi ECHO 8 Gets A Short-But-Sweet Exhilirating Teaser

Lee B. Golden III

Film duo Maria Tran and Takashi Hara have been keeping busy with their theatrical stage work in the weeks since completing sci-fi action thriller, Echo 8. The film is currently preparing for screenings going into the New Year for their debut pic which they crowdfunded and produced tenaciously during the pandemic, and all leading up to the official trailer debut back in August. The team has since released a brisk new teaser to whet the appetite before then, with both Tran and Hara starring in the film from a script by Elizabeth H. Vu. A highly trained assassin flashes between a nightmarish dream and her reality at a secret underground organization. When her latest mission involves killing a grieving mother, she discovers her target is closer to home than she realizes—much closer. Echo 8 also stars Gabrielle Chan, David Vuong, Mike Leeder, Michael Quan, Eliza Nguyen, Fellino Dellosa, Joe June […]

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ECHO 8: Asian-Australian Psych Action Thriller Launches Official Trailer And Indiegogo

Lee B. Golden III

An ambitious and exciting new feature production began over two years ago from film duo Maria Tran and Takashi Hara with psychological action thriller, Echo 8. Backed by a crew comprised of mostly women (including a prominent Asian-Australian cast), as well as volunteers from the local Western Sydney community, the film was shot in fourteen non-consecutive days following the start of principal photography a month before COVID-19 restrictions set in. Filming wrapped nearly a year ago followed by a lengthy post-production process, and a fresh new campaign that recently saw an exclusive live trailer broadcast last week which directors/stars/producers Tran and Hara are now sharing to the world as of Sunday. A highly trained assassin flashes between a nightmarish dream and her reality at a secret underground organization. When her latest mission involves killing a grieving mother, she realizes her target is closer to home than she realizes—much closer. If […]

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ECHO 8: Catch The Brand New Poster Before The Official Trailer Launch On Friday

Lee B. Golden III

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. A highly trained assassin flashes between a nightmarish dream and her reality at a secret underground organization. When her latest mission involves killing a grieving mother, she realizes her target is closer to home than she realizes—much closer. It’s actually been almost three years since the start of production on Echo 8, hampered by some of the typical challenges of independent film – augmented by the severity of the Covid-19 no less. Production completed last February while Tran and Hara moved onto other work while plotting post production, with Tran herself having since taken up casting for upcoming Paramount+ Australia crime series, The Last […]

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LAST KING OF THE CROSS Adds Cast For Paramount+ Australia Crime Series

Lee B. Golden III

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). Casting this week is also announcing Callan Mulvey (Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice), Tess Haubrich (Spiderhead, Alien: Covenant), Claude Jabbour (Eden, Stateless), Maria Tran (Truy Sat, Echo 8), Matt Nable (Riddick, Bikie Wars: Brothers In Arms) and Damian Walshe-Howling (Underbelly, Janet King) according to Deadline‘s Max Goldbart. Deadline broke news of the show in March introducing McShane as Ezra Shipman, the most feared and venerable crime boss in Sydney’s Kings Cross. Well up in age however and forced to confront his own mortality with no one to hand his legacy to, he crosses paths with John Ibrahim (Younes), a poverty-stricken immigrant who otherwise reflects much of Shipman’s own similar traits: young, brash, ambitious, and intelligent. With […]

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ECHOES FROM DOWN UNDER: Swords, Swings And New Beginnings With Maria Tran And Takashi Hara

Lee B. Golden III

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. The two had just wrapped up a journey with the Vingroup Elite Tour and had a gig shortly after at the New York International Auto Show this week, and so their schedule was certainly something to factor in our planning. We were supposed to link up on Tuesday evening and sadly, those plans got derailed that morning when a Brooklyn subway was terrorized by a lone gunman causing multiple injuries, several of which were critical and thankfully, none of them were fatal… You’d think a pandemic that’s […]

ECHO 8 Gets A Behind-The-Scenes Look At The New Aussie Indie Action Thriller Two Years In The Making

Lee B. Golden III

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. All that’s left now is post-production and the long haul that is the film market sales points as Echo 8 inches closer to a trailer launch and the possibility of acquisition news to come. Both Tran and Hara will also be relocating from Australia to their new home in Las Vegas, Nevada sometime in the not-too-distant future, which means film locals in the state should be in luck if they need […]

OBSIDIAN: Don’t Miss The Trailer For The New Psych Action Sci-Fi Short Thriller From Takashi Hara

Lee B. Golden III

Phoenix Eye’s Maria Tran and Takashi Hara are back with another shortform thriller coming soon in Obsidian. It’s one of several projects from their repetoire that will be slowly rolling out in the weeks and months ahead, and it’s got an enticing trailer you can view above. A young couple’s dangerous run-in with loan sharks is thwarted by the arrival of a mysterious stranger. “Obsidian” is a contemporary drama with sci-fi elements written in the same vein as “Looper” and “Predestination”. With a gripping storyline, dynamic characters and a twist ending, “Obsidian” will captivate the audience, leaving them hopeful for the future. If you’re not subscribed to Phoenix Eye anywhere on social media just yet, consider this your heads-up, especially if you follow burgeoning creators and filmmakers alike. Hara directs as well as stars with Tran from a script by Elizabeth H. Vu, and with action sequences by Tran, and […]

ECHO 8: Maria Tran’s Aussie Feature Debut Thriller Spawns Premiere Key Art

Lee B. Golden III

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. Written by Elizabeth H. Vu (Mr. Ghost, The Perception) Echo 8 centers on a highly trained assassin who finds herself in a strange house with no memories of how she got there, in the wake of a specialized mission gone awry; Think: Jaume Collet-Serra’s Unknown by way of Renny Harlin’s The Long Kiss Goodnight. The self-funded project, with filming completed safely in-part during the 2020 pandemic, hails from Tran’s Phoenix Eye banner where she and production cohorts Therese Chen and Nancy Trieu have been working on their film slate with a number of titles. Echo 8 also stars Tran along with Takashi Hara and David Vuong. Peep the art below and stand by for more […]

OPERATION KUNG FLU Trailer: Maria Tran Takes Racism To Task In The New Action Comedy Short From Phoenix Eye

Lee B. Golden III

Taking a page from her own Tiger Cop fanfare, 80s Hong Kong nostalgia reigns supreme once more for filmmaker and actress Maria Tran in the official trailer for action comedy, Operation Kung Flu. The short is headed for an online release this month, marking the latest step for Tran and her devoted independent film crew who are more than steadfast and ready to place their stake in fighting back against the kinds of violent and racist reprisals against Asian communites around the world in the past year. Operation Kung Flu hails from Tran’s independent film production banner, Phoenix Eye Entertainment, in association with Diversity Arts Australia’s program “I Am Not A Virus”. The project was shot on a shoestring budget over two days involving sixty cast and crew members, marking a sheer collaborative volunteer effort of Western Sydney filmmakers and creatives to speak out on this topical issue during this […]

Maria Tran’s Hong Kong Lady Inspector Battles The Toilet Paper Bandit In TIGER COP: TOILET PAPER HERO

Lee B. Golden III

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. Such is the continual jump off point for Tiger Cop, built from a spate of proof of concept trailers and even an ABC i-view series back in 2017. They’re back now Tiger Cop: Toilet Paper Hero, the latest installment of the independent IP from Castro’s Five Minute Cinema, showcasing local Australian action and martial arts talent, coupled with a fitting public service nod in the wake of news updates over hoarding as the Covid-19 pandemic swept the world. “When we saw the toilet paper crisis unfold in the media, and people literally fighting over toilet paper, this was seen as the perfect platform to make commentary on the current […]

ECHO 8 Scores A Trio Of Character Posters For Maria Tran’s Action Feature Debut

Lee B. Golden III

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. From Tran’s Phoenix Eye independent company, Echo 8 centers on a highly trained assassin who finds herself in a strange house with no memories of how she got there, in the wake of a specialized mission gone awry; Think: Jaume Collet-Serra’s Unknown by way of Renny Harlin’s The Long Kiss Goodnight. “This will be my first directorial debut of an actioner and a shoe string budget production but with an amazing cast & crew.” said Tran in a Facebook post on Monday. “This production is fueled by the input of the independent artist community of Sydney and with the contributions of our international talents and it feels great to just make films because we can!” Elizabeth […]

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ECHO 8: Maria Tran, Phoenix Eye Fast Track Independent Psych Action Thriller For January Production

Lee B. Golden III

Actress Maria Tran took to social media on Sunday to announce pre-production on upcoming psychological action thriller, Echo 8. Tran will star and make her feature directorial debut, as well as head a cast that also includes local actors Takashi Hara and David Vuong. Echo 8 centers on a highly trained assassin who finds herself in a strange house with no memories of how she got there, in the wake of a specialized mission gone awry; Think: Jaume Collet-Serra’s Unknown by way of Renny Harlin’s The Long Kiss Goodnight. Script is currently in the last stages of development with screenwriter Elizabeth H. Vu (Mr. Ghost, The Perception) finalizing the latest draft. The self-funded project hails from Tran’s Phoenix Eye banner where she and cohorts Therese Chen and Nancy Trieu have been working on their film slate with a number of titles, in addition to journeying between locations to share in […]

HIT GIRLS: Maria Tran’s Award-Winning Aussie Action Short Now In Feature Film Development

Lee B. Golden III

Still in the midst of completing her latest documentary, actress, martial artist and filmmaker Maria Tran (Enter The Dojo, Gaffa, Hong Kong Shogun) is also tacking on a feature-film adaptation of her decorated 2013 action short, Hit Girls, penning the script with screenwriter Elizabeth H. Vu (Mr. Ghost, The Perception). The announcement comes five years since Tran headlined the award-winning short with actress and martial arts star JuJu Chan, which she also directed with film partner and co-helmer Adrian Castro. Tran took to social media on Monday to break the news posting the following along with a photo: “| HIT GIRLS | The joy! When you are in the office and your writers are all collaborating on the same project (in other spaces) and you are just so impatient to see how the story pans out! It’s been so much fun fleshing this one out. More than 5 years ago […]

FEMME FATALES: SEEN & UNHEARD: Photos From The Front Lines For Maria Tran’s New Female-Fronted Action Cimema Doc

Lee B. Golden III

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. The following photos below include Hong Kong pics with Tran interviewing Girls Vs. Gangsters director Barbara Wong, and Vietnam with female traceur athletes of the country’s largest stunt team, Cascadeur Thien Quoc Nguyen Team. Tran’s next stop will soon be the Philippines, home to some of the latest genre film favorites to circulate abroad including Pedring Lopez’s Nilalang and Erik Matti’s sprawling crime opus, BuyBust starring Anne Curtis. Take a look:

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THE HIT LIST: November 27, 2017

Lee B. Golden III

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 […]