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Los Angeles-based Great Escape has kicked off sales talks in Toronto on heist thriller Stranglehold starring Ashley Benson from Spring Breakers and Jake Lacy from The White Lotus alongside Justin Long, and Ron Perlman.

Clark Duke directs the feature, which shot this summer and is in the vein of Dog Day Afternoon, Die Hard and the Coen Brothers oeuvre.

Benson stars as a stripper with aspirations of becoming a professional dancer who ekes out a living with her husband (Lacy). They decide to pull off a Christmas party heist at the strip club where she works, unaware that a group...

Actor Clark Duke made his feature directorial debut with the 2020 crime film Arkansas (you can read our 8/10 review at This Link), and now Deadline reports that he has just wrapped production on his second feature, a comedic thriller called Stranglehold, which also happens to be set in Arkansas. The cast includes Ashley Benson (Pretty Little Liars), Justin Long (Barbarian), Jake Lacy (Apples Never Fall), and Ron Perlman (Hellboy).

Described as “a Southern-fried siege, with shades of Dog Day Afternoon and Die Hard,” while also being “in the vein of the Coen Brothers’s oeuvre,” Stranglehold follows Bailey (Benson), an exotic dancer with big dreams. She and her Army vet husband Tim (Lacy) are fed up with their lives of barely getting by in small-town Arkansas, so they decide to rob the strip club that employs her. Clark Duke wrote the screenplay with Chandler Duke and Billington Garrett.

Coming our way from Yale Productions,...

Exclusive: Actor-turned filmmaker Clark Duke (Arkansas) has wrapped production on Stranglehold, a new comedic thriller in the vein of the Coen Brothers’s oeuvre for Yale Productions. Cast for the pic includes Ashley Benson (Wilderness), Emmy nominee Jake Lacy (Apples Never Fall), Justin Long (Barbarian) and Golden Globe winner Ron Perlman (The Instigators).

Written by Chandler Duke, Billington Garrett and Clark Duke, the film is billed as a Southern-fried siege, with shades of Dog Day Afternoon and Die Hard, which centers on Bailey (Benson), an exotic dancer with big dreams. She and her Army vet husband Tim (Lacy) are fed up with their lives of barely getting by in small-town Arkansas, so they decide to rob the strip club that employs her.

Producers include Jordan Yale Levine, Jordan Beckerman and Michael Day of Yale Productions, along with Clark Duke. Exec producers are Rabbits Black’s Lawrence Minicone, Ronnie Exley, Jeremy Ross,...