Bringing solid martial arts action to the forefront of cinema is always a game of patience and endurance. SAG-nominated rising star Jean-Paul Ly knows this full well having committed for nearly a decade to keeping the genre alive in stunts, and ultimately, acting.
Following his stellar reception on Jailbreak, his next role on the recently-completed thriller, Nightshooters, has been rescheduled from its July release in the U.K. to a September 10 release on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download. Magpie and Colin helmer Marc Price directs this, the debut premiere rollout from Ascendant Releasing who are contributing their endeavors with Ly and his team for upcoming production, 14 Fists.
NIGHTSHOOTERS is a non-stop action-thriller about a group of filmmakers who find themselves on the run from a violent mob of criminals, after witnessing a brutal gangland execution. Unable to escape their set, the hapless film crew must use their technical skill and cinematic knowledge to survive.
As the hoods draw near to eradicate all witnesses, stunt man Donnie (Jean-Paul Ly) is forced to take his martial arts capabilities off script, putting his skills to practice for survival. The sound team resourcefully use their equipment to track their surroundings as the special effects guru disregards all the rules of set, abandoning safety to set lethal traps as the cat and mouse game of survival ensues!
This film is a fusion of The Raid mixed with Blow-Up (or Blow Out if you’re a DePalma fan) and the popular British Gangster genre with lots of humour and characters you’ll love, hate and admire all at the same time.
The film hails largely as a contained action thriller and brings a solid cast that also enlists Doug Allen (Band of Brothers, Law & Order, The Royals), BAFTA award winner Nicolas Aaron (Touching the Void, Outlander, Planet of Apes: Last Frontier), Rosanna Hoult (The Lobster, Captain America: The First Avenger, Kill Your Friends, Adulthood), Wendy Glenn (You’re Next, The L Word) and Philip Barantini (Band of Brothers, Ned Kelly). The announcement on Thursday is also a peculiar one in that it signals the need to combat piracy; it’s been about a few months since post-production wrapped so I reckon they’re not taking chances while further plans for a U.S. release will hopefully follow promptly.
Bart Ruspoli, CEO of Ascendant Releasing, comments on the new release date: “The decision has been made to release NIGHTSHOOTERS in Q4 in order to combat the problem of piracy in our industry. This change in date allows the many international partners that will be showing the film to fulfill their own release plans and mitigate the damage done by illegal downloading”.