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Freya Tingley in ‘The Sonata.’

Freya Tingley will play the lead in first-time Us director Ali Presley Paras’ mystery-thriller Year of the Detectives, which starts shooting in Los Angeles this month.

The Aussie actor describes her character Nic O’Connell, a recently discharged Army veteran, as “like a grenade with the pin pulled: she’s tomboyish, tough and not afraid of a fight.”

O’Connell jointly inherits her grandfather’s private detective agency in the heart of Chinatown. She must set aside her differences with her co-inheritor (True Grit’s Paul Rae) to solve the mystery of her grandparents’ deaths as bodies pile up.

Chris Johnson wrote the script and the producer is Silversmith Pictures’ Joe Smith. A longtime assistant cameraman, Paras has directed several shorts including Quad, which is available on Hulu as part of the Fun Size Horror anthology.

“I’m pretty well versed in classic films so...

Two indie films have pulled together its cast. First up is Demetrius Shipp Jr., who played the late Tupac Shakur in All Eyez on Me, who is starring along with Essence Atkins from NBC’s Marlon, Terrence Jenkins (Safe Word) and Edwina Findley (Black Lightning) in the indie mystery/drama titled Same Difference. Secondly, Haley Pullos, Haley Webb, and Bryce Durfee will star in another indie film, entitled No Good Deed.

Produced by Datari Turner and written and directed by Derege Harding, Same Difference follows a young woman (Atkins) who is told that her death is imminent by a mysterious group of people who all start dying one by one. The woman becomes compelled to let go of the past and reconcile with her estranged twin sister, also played by Atkins, who is suffering from alcohol addiction.

The film co-stars Kandi Burruss, Affion Crockett, Kris D. Lofton, Gabby Douglas, Lew Temple,...