News

Chicago – When a filmmaker makes a significant feature debut – in this case writer/director Christian Swegal for “Sovereign” – the movie world takes notice. This ripped-from-the-headlines emotional story features Nick Offerman in a searing lead performance, supported by Jacob Tremblay, Dennis Quaid and Martha Plimpton.

Based on real events, the story centers on Jerry (Offerman), an advocate and speaker regarding “Sovereign Citizens,” a society of anti-government and off the grid anarchists, who deflect on any law due to the perception that all law is not applicable to an individual’s rights of existence … so Jerry pays no mortgage on his house, or taxes, or driver’s license fees, etc. His home-schooled son is Joe (Tremblay), who travels the country with his father, helping to conduct seminars for other sovereign citizens.

’Sovereign,’ Written & Directed by Christian Swegal

Photo credit: Briarcliff Entertainment

When they encounter the law, a detective named Joe Bouchart (Dennis...

Nick Offerman‘s Sovereign, loosely inspired by the real-life West Memphis police shootings involving a father and a son, who were part of the sovereign citizen movement, explores the psychological impact of extremist ideologies. Starring Offerman and Jacob Tremblay, the movie offers a bleak overview of ideologies and circumstances that can drive people to such radical actions.

Marking director Christian Swegal’s debut feature, the movie sees Jerry Kane, a self-proclaimed sovereign citizen, indoctrinating his son, Joe, into his beliefs. The movie leans towards the tragedy of Joe grappling with his father’s dogmatism and his desire to pursue a normal life, illustrating how radical ideologies can hurt both parents and children caught in their grip.

What is a Sovereign Citizen?

The sovereign ideology is essential to the movie, and it constitutes the belief that an individual is not subject to the laws of the government, often pledging their allegiance...

The Hollywood Insider 'Sovereign'

Nick Offerman and Jacob Tremblay deliver an unsettling, performance-driven look at the human cost of radical ideology. Christian Swegal’s 'Sovereign' delivers an assured and calculated feature film directorial debut, a political thriller that never once utters a politician’s name yet pulses with the utmost relevance. Anchored by two powerhouse performances from Nick Offerman and Jacob Tremblay, the film doesn’t attempt to explain away the anger bubbling under its characters; it simply lets us feel it. Set against the backdrop of economic despair and ideological fragmentation in rural America, 'Sovereign' is a slow-burning, intimate exploration of 'Sovereignty: personal, political, and parental. Subscribe to The Hollywood Insider’s YouTube Channel, by clicking here. Limited Time Offer – Free Subscription to The Hollywood Insider Click here to read more on The Hollywood Insider’s vision, values and mission statement here – Media...

Just when it seemed like Nick Offerman may have reached the peak of his career, the star somehow manages to surprise his most firm believers with bigger hits than before. Most recently, we saw him playing the role of General Sidney in Tom Cruise‘s Mission: Impossible- Final Reckoning.

And now, people are able to witness him again in the role of Jerry Kane in the newly-released crime drama film Sovereign. Seeing as he has been in nothing but classic films and TV series lately, with positive reviews of this film coming out, it looks like his hot streak of having nothing but hits will continue.

Nick Offerman’s Sovereign Continues His Streak of Critically Exceptional Projects Nick Offerman in the trailer of Sovereign | Credits: Briarcliff Entertainment

The stars for Offerman started to align from his role as Bill in the critically acclaimed TV series The Last of Us. While...

Christian Swegal’s “Sovereign” (2025) is based on the true story of a father and a son who tragically lost their lives in a violent shootout, and the ending reconstructs the real-life incident that led to their deaths. However, the film is far from being your run-of-the-mill action thriller that banks on the kicks of their lust for violence. Instead, it presents a bleak portrait of the effects of a kind of radicalization that has become normalized in today’s world. At its core is a man (played by Nick Offerman) whose extremist beliefs make him a suspect in the eyes of the law. However, he is not one of the innocent civilians tortured while merely trying to make a decent living.

Offerman’s character is associated with the sovereign citizen movement, which has been prominent in predominantly English-speaking countries. Despite pretending to be a savior, he is a victim of...

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review for the new film “Sovereign,” written and directed by Christian Swegal in his feature film debut and featuring an essential performance by Nick Offerman. In select theaters since July 11th and also available through digital video on demand.

.

Based on real events, the story centers on Jerry (Offerman), an advocate and speaker regarding “Sovereign Citizens,” a society of anti-government and off the grid anarchists, who deflect on any law due to the perception that all law is not applicable to an individual’s rights of existence … so Jerry pays no mortgage on his house, or taxes, or driver’s license fees, etc. His home-schooled son is Joe (Jacob Tremblay), who travels the country with his father, helping to conduct seminars for other sovereign citizens. When they encounter the law, a detective named Joe Bouchart (Dennis Quaid) puts his focus on them,...

At some point we all took a vote and decided Nick Offerman was our go-to Heartland of America man. I’m not sure why that was on the ballot, since it seems like a pretty minor issue politically, but I did vote for him.

The point is, Nick Offerman’s everyman aura, his Midwestern drawl, and his fascinating ability to be intense and laidback in one scowling breath have served him well. He can poke gentle fun at smalltown Indiana in “Parks and Rec” and look perfectly at home as a U.S. Army General in “Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning.” He can even host a lovable, cozy gameshow about woodworking. Every single time the audience thinks, “Yeah, that tracks.”

Offerman’s versatility gets pushed to new levels in the true crime drama “Sovereign,” a sobering and frightening American tragedy based on a real police shooting. The film stars Offerman as Jerry Kane,...

Nick Offerman knows that his “Parks and Recreation” character Ron Swanson would have hated Donald Trump – he just can’t seem to convince the president’s supporters of that.

During a conversation with IndieWire about his upcoming film “Sovereign,” Offerman was asked about the legacy of his beloved, libertarian “Parks and Rec” character and having to constantly debunk people on the right assuming he would side with them on issue. Although it’s something he always believed true, Offerman revealed he went to the character’s creator Mike Schur just to confirm.

“Ron Swanson, a wonderful creation from much more brilliant minds than my own, people hold up for the wrong reasons, and take their own reading of this true Libertarian who was cool with everybody,” Offerman said. “And they somehow say, ‘Well, he had a shotgun, so he must be one of us.’ Like, dumb people insist that Ron...

(l-r) Jacob Tremblay as Joe Kane and Nick Offerman as his dad Jerry Kane, in Sovereign. Courtesy of Briarcliff Entertainment

It is not kings but citizens as sovereign, as Nick Offerman stars as a father of a teen-aged son, played by Jacob Tremblay, in the true story-based thriller in Sovereign, about these followers of the extremist, anti-government Sovereign Citizen belief system. The film also features Dennis Quaid, who plays a police detective, also a father but of a grown son who is training to become a policeman, who the father and son extremists encounter. This tale of two fathers is tense, moving and heartbreaking, as their world views come into conflict.

A little research uncovers that “Sovereign Citizen” is an actual far-right, anti-government world view, based on pseudo-legal beliefs derived from their interpretation of parts of the U.S. Constitution, a version of the Magna Carta and British common law.

Writer/director Christian Swegal’s “Sovereign” dramatizes the true story of the final days of sovereign citizens Jerry and Joe Kane before their 2010 flight from law enforcement ended in a violent exchange of gunfire. The film fits thematically into a cinematic continuum with recent releases like “Civil War” and “Warfare,” exploring the complexities of American life and belief systems at a time of heightened tribalism. But for fans of its star Nick Offerman, Jerry Kane also aligns with a handful of other roles — including in “Civil War”, where he played the President — where the outspoken progressive has portrayed characters with conservative or extreme right-wing ideologies.

Of course, Offerman is best known for playing Libertarian Ron Swanson for seven seasons on the NBC sitcom “Parks and Recreation.” But the juxtaposition between — and conflation of — the actor’s personal and professional lives has only grown more complicated since the show went off the air,...

In writer-director Christian Swegal’s impressively realized feature debut, Sovereign, Emmy Award-winner Nick Offerman, best known for his long-running role on Parks & Recreation as Ron Swanson, a curmudgeonly libertarian with a heart of gold press latinum, delivers a powerhouse performance as Jerry Kane, a full-time grievance merchant, charter member in the virulently anti-government “sovereign citizen movement,” and the widowed father of an unfortunate, home-schooled teen, Joseph. Based on the real-life confrontation between a heavily armed Jerry and Joe on one side and law enforcement officers on the other in West Memphis, Arkansas 15 years ago, Sovereign opens closer to the end than the beginning of their individual and collective stories: A police shooting has left left two police officers...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

It’s the article we’ve all read 100 times. A liberal journalist from the mainstream media goes down to some diner in Ohio or Tennessee to talk to ordinary folks who are Trump supporters, trying to put together a sympathetic understanding of their point-of-view. The crusty true believers will inevitably say they think Trump is too this or too that (“The man is far from perfect”). But then they’ll explain why he speaks for them anyway. Your typical diner-in-Trump-land article will reference such topics as the collapse of American manufacturing, the opioids epidemic, and the stubborn resentment that festers around immigration. Yet the persistent folly of these articles is that they never really, truly explain the rise of the new right-wing politics. They don’t explain it the way a movie like “Sovereign” does.

Written and directed by Christian Swegal (it’s his feature filmmaking debut), “Sovereign” is a...

For Jerry Kane, the sovereign citizen movement is something between a political philosophy and a burgeoning psychosis. He criss-crosses the motel foyers of the American Midwest, giving sparsely attended seminars about how to avoid home foreclosures — a curriculum that hinges upon insisting that bank loans are “fictitious,” among other conspiratorial tactics. Clutching onto the character’s beliefs with a death grip as tight as it is tremulous, Nick Offerman’s volcanic performance makes it difficult to know where Jerry’s belief ends and his desperation begins.

That’s especially true for the extremist’s teenage son Joe (an unrecognizably grown-up Jacob Tremblay), who’s been raised in the shadow of his father’s anti-government rage, but also crushes on the girl next door and harbors secret fantasies of going to school like a normal kid. The Daniel Plainview of the “power to the people” lecture circuit, Jerry ropes his own...

The Last of Us and Parks and Recreation star Nick Offerman has a new project coming out: Sovereign. The actor has chosen many exciting projects after Parks & Rec ended, and the upcoming one seems to follow the same trend as his most recent work.

The action film is based on true events and is set to premiere in theaters this weekend. Ahead of the film's premiere, Sovereign has debuted with a thrilling Rotten Tomatoes score of 87%. The action crime thriller had an enthusiastic response, not just for the film, but for the Emmy-winning actor's performance as well.

The action thrillerSovereign is based on the true events of the West Memphis police shootings from 2010. The official logline reads, "The story follows a father and son who identify as Sovereign Citizens, a group of anti-government extremists, as they venture across the country and find themselves in a standoff with a chief...

Christian Swegal’s “Sovereign” opens not with fanfare but with the quiet desperation of foreclosure notices piled on a kitchen table—a fitting metaphor for a nation drowning in its own contradictions. Set against the backdrop of Arkansas in 2010 (when the Tea Party was brewing and economic anxiety was curdling into something darker), this feature debut examines the true story of Jerry Kane, a self-proclaimed “sovereign citizen” whose rejection of governmental authority would spiral into tragedy.

The film follows Jerry (Nick Offerman) and his teenage son Joe (Jacob Tremblay) as they exist in a liminal space between society and its margins. Jerry conducts seminars on tax avoidance and property rights to audiences of the economically desperate, while homeschooling Joe in both mathematics and conspiracy theories. Parallel to this narrative runs the story of police chief John Bouchart (Dennis Quaid) and his son Adam (Thomas Mann), creating a diptych of American...

“Sovereign,” the crime thriller starring Nick Offerman (“Parks & Recreation”) and Jacob Tremblay (“Room”), has been acquired by Signature Entertainment for the U.K. and Ireland.

The film, written and directed by Christian Swegal in his feature film debut, follows an anti-government fanatic and his son who venture across the country while constantly finding themselves on the wrong side of the law. It’s loosely based on real-life events surrounding the West Memphis police shootings in 2020 and recently had it world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Alongside Offerman and Tremblay, Dennis Quaid (“The Substance”), Megan Mullally (“Will & Grace”) and Martha Plimpton (“The Goonies”) also star.

“Sovereign” is produced by Nick Moceri (“A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night”), Barbara J. McCarthy (“Don’t Sleep”), Shelley D. Needham (“American Cherry”), Jeff Hall, Jeffrey Drader and Maribeth Derry.

The deal was negotiated between Signature’s acquisitions and development manager Katie Wilkinson-...

“Sovereign” is a new action thriller, directed by Christian Swegal, starring Nick Offerman, Jacob Tremblay, Dennis Quaid, Martha Plimpton, Thomas Mann and Nancy Travis, releasing July 11, 2025 in theaters:

“…inspired by true events, this gripping thriller follows ‘Jerry Kane’ (Offerman), an out-of-work roofer and struggling single father who desperately tries to provide for his home-schooled 15-year-old son, ‘Joe’ (Tremblay).

“Searching for control in an unforgiving world, Jerry embraces the ‘sovereign citizen’ movement, indoctrinating Joe into believing that laws are mere illusions and freedom must be seized by force.

“As they travel around the country selling ‘debt relief seminars’ to desperate homeowners, Jerry's ideology becomes increasingly extreme and his grip on reality deteriorates…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

From one of the best movies about the space race in The Right Stuff, to disgusting audiences to wonderful effect in Coralie Fargeat's Oscar-winning The Substance, Dennis Quaid has been involved in many high-rated projects. After his earlier 2025 project alongside Wyatt Russell, Broke, shot to a huge 91% from critics on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, attention has now turned to his second big-screen project of the year: Sovereign.

Set to debut in theaters on July 11, the same day as James Gunn’s Superman, eyes have turned to the early Rotten Tomatoes score of Sovereign to see whether it can keep up with Quaid's strong recent record of well-received projects. Despite receiving just 11 reviews at the time of writing, Sovereign officially has a strong Rotten Tomatoes critics' score of 82%, which, although lower than both Broke and The Substance, still marks Quaid's joint third-best critics' score on the site since all...

Nick Offerman is now starring in a serious drama titled Sovereign, which recounts the horrifying 2010 West Memphis police shootings. He is known for his deadpan role as Ron in Parks and Recreation and his Emmy-winning turn in The Last of Us. But this time, he is taking on a drastically darker role, and it has already sent shivers down everyone’s spines after the trailer release.

The feature is directed by Christian Swegal, and Offerman stars alongside Jacob Tremblay and Dennis Quaid. Before hitting theaters, the movie has already premiered at the Tribeca Festival, and it promises an honest and gritty descent into the world of anti-government extremism. So here’s all you need to know about the actual incident, followed by our insights on the trailer and Offerman’s character.

The True Events Behind Sovereign Are Disturbing Beyond Fiction Nick Offerman in Sovereign | Credits: All Night Diner

At its core,...

Two years after it was acquired by Briarcliff Entertainment for North American distribution, Sovereign is premiering July 11.

In the trailer for writer/director Christian Swegal’s true crime thriller, Nick Offerman and Jacob Tremblay star as Jerry Kane and his teenage son Joseph, who follow the Sovereign Citizen belief system, a deeply anti-establishment worldview rooted in distrust of government authority.

As the pair travels across the country, delivering self-taught legal seminars and pushing back against systems they believe have failed them, their journey brings them into conflict with Police Chief Jim Bouchart (Dennis Quaid), setting off a tragic chain of events that forces a reckoning with power, principle and the limits of freedom.

“When I first heard about this crime, I was immediately hooked,” said Swegal before filming the movie in Arkansas in late 2023. “Radicalization is a familiar concept, but at a time when our democracy is strained to the breaking point,...

"At some point, you have to let them know that you won't be pushed any further..." Uh oh. Briarcliff Ent. has launched the full official trailer for the movie titled Sovereign, an American thriller which marks the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Christian Swegal. Offerman fights back! This premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival earlier this month, and will be out to watch in July very soon. Inspired by true events and real people, Sovereign is a tense and provocative true crime thriller about a father and his teenage son — Jerry and Joseph Kane — who follow the "Sovereign Citizen" belief system, a deeply anti-establishment worldview rooted in distrust of government authority. Their journey brings them into conflict with Police Chief Jim Bouchart, setting off a tragic chain of events that forces a reckoning with power, principle, and the limits of freedom. The film stars Nick Offerman and Jacob Tremblay, with Dennis Quaid,...

“Sovereign” is a new action thriller, directed by Christian Swegal, starring Nick Offerman, Jacob Tremblay, Dennis Quaid, Martha Plimpton, Thomas Mann and Nancy Travis, releasing July 11, 2025 in theaters:

“…inspired by true events, this gripping thriller follows ‘Jerry Kane’ (Offerman), an out-of-work roofer and struggling single father who desperately tries to provide for his home-schooled 15-year-old son, ‘Joe’ (Tremblay).

“Searching for control in an unforgiving world, Jerry embraces the ‘sovereign citizen’ movement, indoctrinating Joe into believing that laws are mere illusions and freedom must be seized by force.

“As they travel around the country selling ‘debt relief seminars’ to desperate homeowners, Jerry's ideology becomes increasingly extreme and his grip on reality deteriorates…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

It’s shaping up as an award-winning summer for actress-producer Lucy Liu.

On Saturday night Liu received the Rising to the Challenge Award at the Bentonville Film Festival in Arkansas, an honor that “recognizes artists who champion storytelling that breaks barriers and broadens representation.”

It wasn’t her only award of the night. Her new drama Rosemead, directed by Eric Lin, won Best Narrative at the 11th edition of the festival chaired by Geena Davis. Liu produced the film and stars as “Irene,” a Chinese immigrant who simultaneously faces a personal health crisis and the alarming descent of her son into schizophrenia.

“Rosemead captures the terrifying realities of motherhood in our contemporary era,” wrote the jury, comprised of filmmaker Marie Jamora (guest artistic director of AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women) and filmmaker Bomani J. Story (The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster). “When culture, society, and healthcare break down,...

Rosemead, starring Lucy Liu as a terminally ill woman desperate to protect her son, took home the Best Narrative Award at the 11th annual Bentonville Film Festival.

Also a producer on the film, Liu was additionally honored with the Rising to the Challenge Award, a prize "given to a select few artists in the history of Bentonville Film Festival and honoring those who represent the true impact of supporting independent film both in front of and behind the camera."

Cofounded by Academy Award winner Geena Davis, the Arkansas-based fest also handed out Best Documentary, which went to The Librarians, Kim A. Snyder's examination of library workers facing censorship in Texas.

Best Homegrown, an award reserved for filmmakers hailing from Arkansas, was won by Sovereign. Directed by Christian Swegal, the film — inspired by true events — tells the story of a father and son with anti-governmental leanings and stars Nick Offerman,...

The Bentonville Film Foundation, in collaboration with founding partner, Walmart, and presenting sponsor, Coca-Cola, announced the winners of its 11th Annual Bentonville Film Festival on Saturday.

“Rosemead,” starring Lucy Liu, took the top prize, winning the best narrative award for a feature film. In addition, Liu was presented with the Rising to the Challenge Award, given to artists who support independent film and “put their talent, passion and experience on the line in the service of empowering stories that are otherwise underrepresented.” Directed by Eric Lin, “Rosemead” premiered earlier this month at the Tribeca Film Festival and centers on a mother faced with an impossible choice. The film has received excellent reviews, particularly for Liu’s transformative performance. In a statement, the jury that voted on the prize noted: “Director Eric Lin sparks real-world conversations about the society we’re living in through an intimate, unflinching film based on true...

"They're willful creatures. You either gonna break them, or they're gonna break you." Briarcliff Ent. has revealed the first look teaser trailer for the film titled Sovereign, an American thriller marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Christian Swegal. It just premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival earlier this month, and will be out to watch in July in just a few more weeks. Inspired by true events, Sovereign is a tense and provocative true crime thriller about a father and his teenage son — Jerry and Joseph Kane — who follow the "Sovereign Citizen" belief system, a deeply anti-establishment worldview rooted in distrust of government authority. Their journey brings them into conflict with Police Chief Jim Bouchart, setting off a tragic chain of events that forces a reckoning with power, principle, and the limits of freedom. Starring Nick Offerman, Jacob Tremblay, Dennis Quaid, Martha Plimpton, Thomas Mann, and Nancy Travis. Reviews...

Before QAnon-ers and Proud Boys, there were sovereign citizens. Originating in the 1970s as a far-right, anti-government movement characterized by a belief system based on misinterpretations of common law, the ideology and others like it have spread like kudzu in our era of economic stagnation and political instability. Now, writer-director Christian Swegal’s feature-length directorial debut, Sovereign, aims to put a human face on a once-fringe movement whose dogmatic belief in hyperindividualism and the illegitimacy of governance has, over the last decade, begun to color mainstream political discourse.

Joe Kane (Jacob Tremblay) is torn. The son of Jerry Kane (Nick Offerman), an Arkansan who travels around the country lecturing small gatherings of working-class Americans on their rights as sovereign citizens, Joe does his best to understand his father’s ideology while harboring secret desires for a more normal life. Meanwhile, former police chief John Bouchart (Dennis Quaid) pressures his adult son,...

It’s been a particular pleasure to watch the blossoming of Nick Offerman’s acting career in recent years. The actor, who rose to fame with his hilariously droll performance as Ron Swanson in the hit series Parks and Recreation, has never stopped working. But his talent has really risen to the fore lately, especially with his heartbreaking, Emmy-winning guest appearance in HBO’s The Last of Us.

Now, with Christian Swegal’s feature debut Sovereign — receiving is world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival before its theatrical release on July 11 — he’s been given his meatiest film role to date. And boy, does he run with it.

He’s playing a role for which he has some previous experience. In Parks and Rec, his character was an anti-government libertarian. But what he played for comedy then is now deadly serious in this drama inspired by real-life events. The film,...

Nick Offerman andDennis Quaid have each featured in major projects already this year, but the duo is teaming up for a new crime thriller that just got its most exciting look yet. Quaid and Offerman will star alongside Jacob Tremblay (The Little Mermaid) in Sovereign, which is due in theaters on July 11, the same day as James Gunn’s Superman. Sovereign will debut at the Tribeca Film Festival on Sunday, and Collider is thrilled to partner with Briarcliff Entertainment to debut an exclusive clip from the film, which can be found below and shows Offerman's Jerry Kane preaching a harmful sermon loaded with propaganda. The movie was written and directed by Christian Swegal, who previously made his screenwriting debut with Proud Mary, the 2018 action thriller starring Taraji P. Henson and Neal McDonough.

Sovereign, which is inspired by true events, follows a father and his teenage son (Offerman and Tremblay), who...

Dennis Quaid and Nick Offerman are gearing up to hit theaters this summer now that their upcoming crime thriller has a release date. Sovereign will hit the big screen on June 20, 2025, a date set by Briarcliff Entertainment, who worked with Quaid on the 2023 baseball film, The Hill. Fans will see Canadian actor Jacob Tremblay star in Sovereign as Offerman's character's son. The independent film production and distribution company also recently released Magazine Dreams,which starred Jonathan Majors.

According to Deadline, the film's plot is based on real events and follows a father and son duo who identify as Sovereign Citizens. As a member of the anti-government extremists, their venture across the country leads them to a standoff with a chief of police, played by Quaid. What follows is an intense manhunt with tragic consequences. Christian Swegal wrote and directed the upcoming thriller that was picked up by Briarcliff Entertainment in...

Gold Derby's top news stories for April 18, 2025. 

Darth Maul animated series in the works at Disney+

At the Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo, Lucasfilm announced that a new animated series about iconic, double-ended-lightsaber-wielding Sith lord Darth Maul, titled Maul - Shadow Lord, is coming to Disney+ in 2026. Sam Witwer will return to voice Maul, having voice the character several times previously. The series is set after the events of the final season of animated series The Clone Wars, and follows Maul as he rises again to lead the underworld factions.

Conan O'Brien Must Go Season 2 gets trailer and premiere date

Conan O'Brien Must Go, Max's Emmy-winning travel comedy series, will return for Season 2 on May 8. In the three-episode season, Conan O'Brien visits Spain, Austria, and New Zealand, with guest appearances by Javier Bardem and Taika Waititi. New episodes debut weekly on Thursdays, concluding with the season finale on May...

Exclusive: Briarcliff Entertainment has set a June 20 theatrical release for its Dennis Quaid-Nick Offerman-Jacob Tremblay true-crime thriller Sovereign.

Based on real events, the pic follows a father and son (Offerman and Tremblay) who identify as Sovereign Citizens, a group of anti-government extremists, as they venture across the country and find themselves in a standoff with a chief of police (Quaid) that sets off an intense manhunt with tragic consequences.

Nick Offerman in ‘Sovereign’

Deadline first told you about Briarcliff’s pickup of the film written and directed by Christian Swegal in May 2023.

Sovereign will share the same weekend with such wide entries as Disney/Pixar’s Elio, Sony’s zombie sequel 28 Years Later and Magneta Light Studios’ Simon West-directed Bride Hard starring Rebel Wilson and Anna Camp.

Sovereign was produced by Nick Moceri under his All Night Diner banner, whose credits include Sitting In Bars With Cake...

The sovereign citizen movement in the United States is one of the more ridiculous conspiracy-theory-driven notions to come down the pike during this (thus far) very absurd century. Adherents claim that while they were born in the U.S., they are subject only to their hilariously selective reading of common law. This, of course, exempts them from such civic necessities as paying taxes and registering their cars. How does this work out for them? They get arrested and go to jail, where they fulminate to anyone who will listen via ludicrously overwrought manifestos.

Most sovereign citizens are relatively harmless, but they do tend to be gun fanatics, and, on occasion, they take up arms against people charged with enforcing the laws they wrongly believe do not apply to them. One such incident went down on May 10, 2010. When Jerry Kane Jr. and his 16-year-old son Joe were pulled over by West Memphis,...

Exclusive: Briarcliff Entertainment has snapped up North American distribution rights from Concourse Media to Christian Swegal’s true crime thriller Sovereign, starring Nick Offerman, Dennis Quaid and Jacob Tremblay.

Swegal wrote and will direct later this year in Arkansas. A theatrical release during Q4 2024 is planned.

Based on real events, the story follows a father and son (Offerman and Tremblay) who identify as Sovereign Citizens, a group of anti-government extremists, as they venture across the country and find themselves in a standoff with a chief of police (Dennis Quaid) that sets off an intense manhunt with tragic consequences.

“Sovereign is a timely and captivating story and all of us at Briarcliff are looking forward to working with Christian, Nick, the Concourse team and this stellar cast on what will be a gripping ride for movie audiences,” said Tom Ortenberg, Briarcliff Entertainment CEO.

“We are beyond excited to be partnering with...

Fresh from the acclaim over his performance in HBO’s The Last of Us, Nick Offerman has been cast in true-crime thriller Sovereign alongside Jacob Tremblay and Dennis Quaid. The film, the directorial feature debut from Christian Swegal, is being launched at Berlin’s European Film Market by Concourse Media.

Set to go into production later this year in Canada, Sovereign follows a father and son (Offerman and Tremblay) who identify as Sovereign Citizens, a loosely defined group of anti-government extremists, as they venture across the country and find themselves in a standoff with a chief of police (Quaid) that sets off an intense manhunt with tragic consequences.

A graduate of USC School of Cinematic Arts, Swegal has worked in both film and television, most recently co-writing the feature film Proud Mary for Screen Gems, and scripting the pilot for Solar, a series he created for Syfy Channel. In 2019, Swegal...

ReFrame, the coalition formed by Women in Film, the Sundance Institute and IMDbPro, has designated a total of 20 films among 2018’s 100 highest-grossing titles to receive the ReFrame Stamp, which recognize standout, gender-balanced films.

The list released Wednesday includes Fox Searchlight’s Oscar Best Picture-nominated The Favourite, Paramount’s Transformers pic Bumblebee, Disney’s A Wrinkle In Time, Stx’s I Feel Pretty and Lionsgate’s The Spy Who Dumped Me. Nine additional films outside the top 100 were awarded stamps after applying (see the full lists below).

The stamp, launched last June, awarded 12 film stamps in 2017. But the group’s 2018 study found continued disparities in female representation and women of color, with just 4% of the top 100 films directed by a female (down from 6% a year ago), and 23% written by a female. A total of 37% featured female leads, with only 9% being women of color.

“While 2017 saw an uptick in films directed by women,...

The ReFrame coalition of industry leaders and IMDBPro have unveiled 20 movies certified as gender-balanced productions among the top 100 box office films released in 2018.

The list includes Disney’s “A Wrinkle in Time,” Paramount Pictures’ “Bumblebee,” Fox Searchlight Pictures’ “The Favourite,” Stx’s “I Feel Pretty,” Lionsgate’s “The Spy Who Dumped Me,” Fox’s “The Hate U Give,” and Warner Bros.’ “Crazy Rich Asians.”

ReFrame, founded by Women in Film and the Sundance Institute, launched the data initiative last June in an effort to recognize and promote gender-balanced films and television shows. It said Wednesday that the increase in recipients of the ReFrame Stamp from 12 in 2017 to 20 stemmed from gains in the roles of department heads and women-of-color leads and co-leads. Still, the report noted that there remained shortfalls in several key areas.

“This positive news within the top 100 films is offset by the significant discrepancy in female hires with...

To mark the release of Proud Mary on 30th July, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on DVD.

Lethal, professional hit-woman Mary (Taraji P. Henson) works for the most notorious crime family in town, headed by Benny (Danny Glover). When Mary shoots a protected mobster in order to save a young boy, she must take on a rogues’ gallery of crime figures, from the Russian Mafia to those closest to her, including her former lover. Armed with her wits – and a closet full of guns – Mary must do whatever it takes to be the last woman standing in this energetic and explosive action thriller. Directed by Babak Najafi with a screenplay by John Stuart Newman & Christian Swegal and Steven Antin and a story by John Stuart Newman & Christian Swegal, Proud Mary was produced by Paul Schiff and Tai Duncan, with Glenn S. Gainor and Taraji P. Henson as executive producers.

Stars: Taraji P. Henson, Danny Glover, Billy Brown, Jahi Di’Allo Winston, Neal McDonough | Written by John Stuart Newman, Christian Swegal, Steven Antin | Directed by Babak Najafi

Lethal, professional hit-woman Mary (Taraji P. Henson) works for the most notorious crime family in town, headed by Benny (Danny Glover). When Mary shoots a protected mobster in order to save a young boy, she must take on a rogues’ gallery of crime figures, from the Russian Mafia to those closest to her, including her former lover. Armed with her wits – and a closet full of guns – Mary must do whatever it takes to be the last woman standing…

Billed as akin to the classic Blaxploitation films of the 70s, I was Really looking forward to seeing Proud Mary, however that excitement was tempered somewhat by the delay in between the Us release and the film finally debuting in the UK… That’s usually not a good sign.

The first trailer for Proud Mary hit the internet in July of 2017. After that came a few badass 70s-style James Bond-like posters with star Taraji P. Henson in shadows, gun drawn. It was hard not to get excited for what appeared to be a stylized assassin flick in the vein of John Wick with a bona fide bankable black woman in the lead, Tina Turner’s emotional adaptation of John Fogarty’s anthem rocking in the background. But then the release date hit with a January bow. Critics were told it wouldn’t screen for them even in the big cities. And Thursday night shows were canceled despite ticket buyers arriving with excitement. It’s one thing to block out press, but a whole other to do so to the public.

The only fathomable excuse — because I don’t want to believe a studio put up the money for...

Nicolas Cage is set to star in Highland Film Group’s action thriller A Score To Settle, from Beautiful Boy director Shawn Ku. Cage stars as Frank, a convicted mob enforcer battling a terminal illness who is released from prison many years after taking the fall for a crime he didn't commit. Now free, he sets out on a path for revenge against the people who wronged him. John Newman and Christian Swegal wrote the script, which will be produced by Lee Clay (No Good Deed) of…...

Author: Zehra Phelan

Empire and Hidden Figures Taraji P. Henson has taken Cookie’s feisty to a whole new level as she dons her black leather and takes up a gun to turn slick hit woman in the trailer for Proud Mary.

The all new female lead action film is directed by London has Fallen’s Babak Najafi from a screenplay by John Stuart Newman & Christian Swegal and Steven Antin, based on a story by Newman & Swegal. Producers are Paul Schiff and Tai Duncan.

Set to Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary” (predictable), we are introduced to Mary (Henson) as she dresses herself in her lethal black leather outfit including her knee high kinky boots with heels so thin and high any normal woman wouldn’t be able to walk in let alone take out a bunch of musclebound men.

Arming herself with a gun from a wardrobe stocked to the nines,...

Exclusive: Margaret Avery, The Walking Dead‘s Xander Berkeley and Neal McDonough have been cast in Screen Gems’ upcoming thriller Proud Mary, starring Taraji P. Henson as hit woman Mary Goodwin. Danny Glover (Almost Christmas) has also officially joined the film along with Jahi Di'Allo Winston (The New Edition Story), Rade Serbedzija (Taken 2), and previously announced Billy Brown. Babak Najafi is directing from a script by John Stewart Newman and Christian Swegal, with…...

Babak Najafi is in negotiations to direct Taraji P. Henson in the Screen Gems feature Proud Mary.

In the thriller, the Hidden Figures actress will play a hit woman who discovers her maternal side after meeting a young boy.

Najafi will direct from a script written by John Stuart Newman and Christian Swegal. Paul Schiff and Tai Duncan are set to produce.

Last year, Najafi directed Gerard Butler in the action movie London Has Fallen, a sequel to  Antoine Fuqua's 2013 film Olympus Has Fallen. He is repped by UTA.

...

Taraji P. Henson, star of Empire and Oscar-tipped Nasa drama Hidden Figures, has climbed aboard the upcoming drama Proud Mary over at Screen Gems.

Deadline has the scoop, confirming that a production start has been earmarked for April. That doesn’t necessarily leave the Powers That Be at Screen Gems with a lot of time to appoint a director, but Deadline notes that the search is being finalized. John Stewart Newman and Christian Swegal are the brains behind the screenplay, which centers on a hit woman (Henson) “whose life is turned completely around when she meets a young boy who awakens in her a maternal instinct she never knew she had.”

On paper, it’s a fairly compelling lead role for Taraji P. Henson to assume, and one that’s worlds away from the corridors of Nasa HQ. Sadly, there are no further casting announcements to report on, but it...

Taraji P. Henson is moving from checking figures to taking lives, with Variety reporting that the Hidden Figures and Empire star has signed on for the lead role in the new hitman drama Proud Mary. Henson will play a hired killer whose violent life is turned upside-down when a young boy awakens “the maternal instinct she never knew she had.” In other words, it’s pretty much Leon: The Professional, except with a badass Cookie Lyon in the place of loner Jean Reno.

Proud Mary is being produced by Screen Gems, from a script by Christian Swegal and John Stewart Newman. A director has yet to be attached.

“Hidden Figures” star Taraji P. Henson will go from math to mayhem for her next role as she’s set to play a hit woman in Screen Gems’ “Proud Mary,” TheWrap has learned. The film follows a contract killer whose life is upended when she meets a young boy who awakens a dormant maternal instinct within her. There is no director attached yet to the project, which is scheduled to begin production in Boston this April. Also Read: Taraji P Henson on 'Duty' She Felt to Make Historic Drama 'Hidden Figures' (Video) John Stewart Newman and Christian Swegal wrote the movie,...

Exclusive: Empire star Taraji P. Henson has found a feature to follow her Hidden Figures turn. She is set to star in Proud Mary, with production slated to start in April in Boston. John Stewart Newman and Christian Swegal wrote the script, and Paul Schiff and Tai Duncan are producing. Henson will play a hit woman whose life is turned completely around when she meets a young boy who awakens in her a maternal instinct she never knew she had. Screen Gems will set a director…...

Grand Budapest Hotel

Saoirse Ronan ("Hanna," "Atonement") is set to play the female lead in Wes Anderson's next movie "The Grand Budapest Hotel." Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman also star.

The story is set 85 years ago in a Hungarian hotel, is partly inspired by the witty films of Billy Wilder and Ernst Lubitsch. Shooting kicks off early next year in Germany. [Source: Variety]

Wonderful Tonight

Patrick Dempsey and Amanda Seyfried have scored the lead roles in Christine Jeffs' rom-com "Wonderful Tonight"

The story involves a one-night stand which leads to a baby and a stand-off between two sudden parents about what they want from each other and themselves. [Source: Deadline]

The Ardor

Gael Garcia Bernal and Alice Braga are set to star in Pablo Fendrik's revenge thriller "The Ardor" at Bac Films. Shooting begins in the Amazon in March for a Fall film festival run.

Garcia-Bernal plays...

Ray Liotta is lined up to star in "Old Man," a film noir being directed by Christian Swegal, which is being sold by Content at this week's American Film Market. Aiming to film in February 2013, "Old Man" is in pre-production. Ross M. Dinerstein is producing with Jamie Carmichael executive producing this violent revenge thriller about a mob hit man (Liotta) who is lured back into the underworld to seek revenge when his bosses frame him for a murder that he did not commit.  Along the way, he bonds with the son...