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Warning: Major spoilers for Canary Black below!Canary Black delivers a major twist involving mystery assassin Kali during the third act - but this comes far too late. Canary Black cast Kate Beckinsale as CIA agent Avery who is forced to go rogue to save her kidnapped husband, David (Rupert Friend). The film is the latest thriller from director Pierre Morel, who specializes in action thrillers like Taken or The Gunman that take famed dramatic actors like Sean Penn or Liam Neeson and have them punching and shooting their way out of trouble.

Of course, with her years of experience battling vampires and werewolves in the Underworld saga, Beckinsale is no stranger to action. She also proves to be the Canary Black's highlight, making up for the story's leaps in logic or falling back on genre clich. Canary Black's ending makes the movie's franchise intentions very clear, with Avery having...

"The agency will hunt you to the grave." Amazon MGM Studios has unveiled an official trailer for an action thriller film titled Canary Black, yet another of these generic, derivative action movies being dumped on video these days. This one is also skipping theaters entirely, and will be streaming on Prime Video starting in October. Does anyone care? Will anyone even watch anyway? From the director of District B13, Taken, From Paris with Love, The Gunman, Peppermint comes a new action film called Canary Black starring Kate Beckinsale. "It's more than a mission." It follows CIA operative Avery Graves as she is blackmailed by terrorists into betraying her own country to save her kidnapped husband. She must rely on her cutting-edge training and primitive fighting skills. Of course. This also stars Saffron Burrows, Ray Stevenson (Rip), Rupert Friend, Jaz Hutchins, Goran Kostic, and Ben Mills. This movie looks so exceptionally unoriginal,...

Sean Penn is giving his take on straight actors playing roles of gay men, saying in a recent interview that he would not play Harvey Milk today.

Penn portrayed the openly gay politician in 2008’s Milk and earned his second Oscar for the film.

“I went 15 years miserable on sets,” Penn told The New York Times. “Milk was the last time I had a good time.”

He continued, “It could not happen in a time like this. It’s a time of tremendous overreach. It’s a timid and artless policy toward the human imagination.”

After starring in the film directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Dustin Lance Black, Penn went on to star in films like Fair Game (2010), The Tree of Life (2011), This Must Be the Place (2011), Gangster Squad (2013), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013), The Gunman (2015), The Professor and the Madman (2019), Licorice Pizza (2021), and many more.

Exclusive: Pierre Morel, the veteran action director behind Taken, has been tapped to direct a feature based on the popular racing Nft Reactor Motors from the company of the same name, Deadline has learned.

The film will be produced by Morel, Mike Bundlie and Barry Levine of Abstract Entertainment, and Renee Tab of Sentient Entertainment.

Created by artist and Abstract co-founder Bundlie, Reactor Motors‘ storyline follows geophysicist Eva Mason as she accidentally discovers a new mineral she calls Reykium while researching geothermal energy in Iceland’s volcanoes. The mineral is energetically reactive to metal which she and her team convert into the future of clean energy race cars in hopes of making it globally available. Subsequently, her team’s racing wins catch the attention of an energy conglomerate that will do anything to acquire the Reykium engine.

“Pierre is the perfect director for Reactor with his...

European production powerhouse StudioCanal has announced the launch of its first-ever genre label and has appointed former Studiocanal UK exec Jed Benedict to run it.

Benedict held various positions at Studiocanal from 2012 through 2020 including as senior acquisitions manager in the U.K., picking up such titles as David Mackenzie’s Hell or High Water, Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to Busan, S. Craig Zahler’s Dragged Across Concrete, and Thomas Vinterberg’s Oscar winner Another Round. In 2020, Benedict shifted to Danny Perkins’ CAA-backed U.K. distributor Elysian Film Group, becoming its head of acquisitions and development.

Benedict will be based in the U.K. and report to StudioCanal’s executive vp, global production Ron Halpern. The new, as-yet-unnamed genre label will encompass film and TV series development, production, and distribution, focusing on exploiting StudioCanal’s catalog of some 9,000 titles across a century of movie history. In a statement, Benedict said...

Zorro and Expats are the big shows coming to Prime Video in January. The former is what Amazon are calling a “bold reinterpretation” of the classic hero El Zorro for 2024. Starring Miguel Bernardeau as Diego de la Vega and Renata Notni as Lolita Marquez, it’s definitely an intriguing-sounding action-adventure series, with a ten-episode first season based on the iconic character originally created by Johnston McCulley all the way back in 1919.

Meanwhile, upcoming drama series Expats is based on the bestselling 2016 novel The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee, and follows “the vibrant lives of a close-knit expatriate community” in Hong Kong. Nicole Kidman has been known for picking the right kind of shows to lead in the past, so let’s hope this is another banger for the actress, who is also on board as an executive producer here.

Here’s everything coming to Amazon Prime Video and Freevee this month.

Director Pierre Morel is the man who made Liam Neeson into an action icon. His movie Taken established the middle-aged character actor as perhaps the 21st century’s biggest action icon, and it was an unlikely transformation. Truly, Morel is an ace action director, with his film District 13 being one of the best action movies of the last twenty years. Since Taken, he’s specialized in transforming actors into action stars, directing Sean Penn in The Gunman and Jennifer Garner in Peppermint. Both were pretty grim movies, so now Morel is turning to somewhat lighter material with Freelance.

In it, John Cena plays a former special forces operative who’s become a suburban dad and lawyer. He seeks to recapture some of the excitement of his youth by taking a job as a bodyguard for a high-profile journalist (Alison Brie) who’s interviewing a dictator. In the middle of the assignment,...

“Taken” director Pierre Morel is turning his lens to action-comedies with latest film “Freelance.”

Alison Brie stars as a washed up journalist who travels to Colombia for a high-profile interview with a local dictator. She hires a private security guard, played by John Cena, to protect her while abroad; yet of course, things go horribly wrong and the duo are on the run.

The official synopsis reads: An ex special forces operative stuck in a dead-end desk job (Cena) reluctantly takes on a gig to provide private security for a struggling journalist (Brie) as she interviews a ruthless — but impeccably dressed — dictator (Juan Pablo Raba). When a military coup breaks out just as she’s about to get the scoop of a lifetime, the unlikely trio must figure out how to survive the jungle, the assassins, and each other in order to make it out alive.

Alice Eve and Christian Slater also star.

Season 6 of Canadian cop show “Hudson & Rex,” one of the world’s most successful television brands, has been given the greenlight. The new season has been added to the sales slate of Beta Film at next week’s MipTV television conference and market in Cannes.

The canine star of the police procedural, German Shepherd Diesel, who plays Rex, will walk the pink carpet on Sunday at TV series festival Canneseries, which runs in parallel with MipTV. He will be joined by John Reardon, who plays detective Charlie Hudson. The crime fighting duo are presenting the French premiere of the first episode of Season 4, followed by a Q&a with the talent.

“Hudson & Rex,” which is produced by Shaftesbury and Pope Productions for Citytv, was first unleashed in Austria in the 1990s under the title “Rex, the Cop’s Best Friend.” It is one of Beta’s most successful series,...

The sprawling ensemble cast of Amy Heckerling's 1982 classic high school comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High is full of great actors who went on to have a wide variety of careers. An iconic coming-of-age movie based on Cameron Crowe's book of the same name, Fast Times at Ridgemont High revolves around a group of high schoolers as they contend with their first loves, thankless entry-level jobs, and awkward early sexual encounters. Some cast members from Fast Times at Ridgemont High went on to become huge stars with Academy Award wins, like Sean Penn and Forest Whitaker, whereas others have been more underrated, like Brian Backer and Amanda Wyss.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High was praised for being a more accurate reflection of high school life than the average teen comedy. It has stood the test of time as one of the best-remembered teen comedies of the 1980s and...

The 2014 title Ryu Ga Gotoku: Ishin! will finally be brought to audiences outside of Japan with the upcoming Like A Dragon: Ishin!, which falls somewhere between a remaster and remake. The game is developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio alongside publisher Sega, and features various changes and quality of life improvements for players while remaining true to its roots. Screen Rant attended a special hands-on preview event for Like A Dragon: Ishin!, which illuminated more of what fans can expect from the title.

The preview for Like A Dragon: Ishin! focused on the soon-to-be-released samurai spinoff's third chapter, entitled Mibu Wolves. Set in 1860s Kyo, the story follows protagonist Sakamoto Ryoma on a quest for justice. After Ryoma is framed for the murder of his father figure Yoshida Toyo, he flees to Kyo, adopts the alias of Saito Hajime, and embarks to find the true killer, who he knows practices...

Lionsgate offered up a new “John Wick 4” poster during their presentation at this weekend’s Ccxp (also known as the Brazil Comic-Con). The poster is just an extreme close-up of a suited-up Keanu Reeves. The appeal of the series, not discounting the relative quality of its predecessors, is the mere hook of watching Keanu Reeves going full “gun-fu” on a new batch of bad guys, random henchmen and upper-level adversaries. The appeal of “John Wick: Chapter 4” is quite simply that it’s another “John Wick” movie.

Perhaps “John Wick” was initially perceived as a knock-off of Liam Neeson’s “Taken”, with Keanu Reeves playing a retired hitman who leaps back into action after his wife dies and Russian mobsters murder his new puppy. However, its impact on the action movies that followed is akin to if “Speed” (which was a loose variation on the “Die Hard” formula) caused...

Them Crooked Vultures — the supergroup of Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones — reunited onstage for the first time in over 12 years Saturday as part of the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert at London’s Wembley Stadium.

The surprise reunion took place following a video tribute to the late Foo Fighters drummer from Elton John; soon after, Grohl, Homme, Jones and guitarist Alain Johannes appeared onstage together to cover John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”

After that performance, Homme reminded the audience, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are Them Crooked Vultures,...

Watching “Thirteen Lives, Ron Howard’s new docudrama, is a lot like having deja vu all over again — all over again. It’s the third film in four years based on the seemingly impossible rescue of 12 trapped children and their soccer coach from a flooded cave system in Thailand in 2018, and although it’s extremely competent, it fails to add a new perspective to the story or a distinctive approach to its telling.

Hot on the heels of Tom Waller’s 2019 drama “The Cave” and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s award-winning 2021 documentary “The Rescue,” Howard’s film stars Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell as Richard Stanton and John Volanthen, two highly experienced cave divers who traveled to the Tham Luang Nang Non cave after an unexpectedly early start to monsoon season trapped 13 people deep in its recesses, behind incredibly long, narrow, dangerous underwater caverns.

The Thai government had...

The first trailer for Jasmine Trinca’s “Marcel!” features Alba Rohrwacher’s eccentric artist searching for her beloved lost dog Marcel, and in the process reconnecting with her neglected young daughter.

The film, which is a Special Screenings title at the Cannes Film Festival this year, has secured distribution in France with Rezo Films. Paris-based sales agent Totem Films, which handled sales for hit movie “Compartment No. 6” at last year’s festival, is representing international sales and also serves as a co-producer on the project.

Florent Bugeau, head of sales and acquisitions for Rezo Films, described “Marcel!” as “a cry from the heart in homage to the Italian art and cinema, of poetry and staggering beauty.”

Trinca, an actor best known for roles in “Fortunata” and “The Gunman,” makes her feature debut with “Marcel!” In describing her vision for the project, the helmer says: “‘Marcel!’ doesn’t necessarily tell the truth,...

Exclusive: F9: The Fast Saga and The Suicide Squad star John Cena is in negotiations to star in Pierre Morel (Taken) action-comedy film Freelance, which Stuart Ford’s AGC will be selling at the upcoming virtual AFM.

Endurance Media’s Steve Richards will produce the package alongside Sentient Entertainment’s Renee Tab and Christopher Tuffin. Endurance will co-finance with AGC. UTA is handling domestic.

The project, which is budgeted in the $40M range, follows a special forces operator (Cena) who decides to retire from the Army and start a family back in the states. After several years of mortgage payments, school drop offs, backyard barbecues and trying to conform to life in suburbia, he decides to come out of retirement to take a gig providing security for a female journalist as she interviews a cruel dictator who may or may not have ordered the attack on him and his men.

An intricate tapestry of 17th-century political intrigue and family feuding is bolstered by fabulous costumes as Chinese invaders are dealt with

The Swordsman, a pacy, crisply choreographed South Korean action film set in the 17th century handicaps itself by opting for such a bland, generic title. It’s like naming a Hollywood action movie The Gunman or The Cop. Debutant writer-director Choi Jae-Hoon could have been a little more specific about the protagonist Tae-yul (played by boy-band-beautiful star and sometime rapper Jang Hyuk) by calling it The Blind Swordsman, given the character’s vision impairment. But then that title has already been used several times. Also, Tae-yul is not quite blind yet, although the threat to his vision and his need to access an expensive medicine hang over the plot throughout.

As it happens, the intricate tapestry of action, family drama, political intrigue and period spectacle is anything but generic.

After production was halted on David Tennant drama Around The World In 80 Days amid the escalating coronavirus pandemic last March, filming has resumed in Romania. In all, the shoot will be spread across locations and studios in Romania and South Africa over a five-month period.

A Slim Film + Television and Federation co-production for the European Alliance, the project has also been boarded by co-production partners Masterpiece in the U.S., Peu Communications in South Africa, and Belgium’s Be-films and Rtbf. Daro Film associate produces.

Joining Tennant in the eight-part adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic adventure are French actor Ibrahim Koma (Oss 177) as Phileas Fogg’s irrepressible valet, Passepartout, and Leonie Benesch (The Crown) as determined journalist, Abigail ‘Fix’ Fortescue.

Also starring as series regulars are Jason Watkins (Des) and Peter Sullivan (Poldark).

Guest actors now joining the cast include Lindsay Duncan (A Discovery Of Witches...

Idris Elba definitely possesses the screen presence, charisma and acting abilities to become a standout action hero, but for inexplicable reasons, his ventures into the genre have been overwhelmingly disappointing. The Losers and Takers both bombed at the box office a decade ago, and since then he’s gone on to star in a number of mediocre titles.

As well as being given very little to do as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Heimdall, the 48 year-old has lent support in the tedious Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and The Gunman, headlined infamous dud The Dark Tower, buried himself under prosthetics as Star Trek Beyond‘s one-note villain and seen his archetypal bad guy get blown off the screen by the combined star power of Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham in Hobbs & Shaw.

With the notable exception of Pacific Rim‘s memorable monologue where he canceled the apocalypse, Elba has so...

AGC Studios’ actioner “The Blacksmith” will feature actor-singer Nick Jonas as a “very modern and updated” MacGyver, according to the film’s director, “Taken” helmer Pierre Morel.

The studio’s pre-recorded Cannes market presentation featured a conversation between AGC boss Stuart Ford and Morel, who discussed the action thriller’s international potential, particularly with its young lead now cast. The film is set to go into production in September.

Jonas plays Wes Loomis, a go-to weapons expert for the intelligence community who goes on the run after his lab is destroyed and his colleagues murdered. With the aid of a young CIA analyst, Noelle Hazlitt, Wes seeks out his mentor, Mather (Laurence Fishburne), a retired blacksmith, to guide Noelle and him as they look for answers.

“I’m a James Bond fan and my big question as a kid was, what would it be like if Q had to do the mission himself?...

Meander is sci-fi horror thriller. In production since 2020, this title involves a woman who is kidnapped. Strangely, she finds herself trapped in a series of pipes, with little time to escape each section. This film has been developed by Mathieu Turi (Hostile). As well, Meander stars Gaia Weiss ("Vikings") and Peter Franzen (The Gunman). More story details have been released for the film, along with two early stills. A longer synopsis mentions a fire burning in a series of pipes. The protagonist only has eight minutes to escape each length, before fire burns the section. Lisa must crawl her way to safer sections, while confronting memories of her dead daughter. The two new stills show Lisa in frame. In one still, she looks at her daughter, with little light. In another, Lisa is navigating the system of pipes, in search of a way out. Both stills focus on few characters and a tight squeeze.

Production earmarked for later this year.

Singer-songwriter and actor Nick Jonas and Laurence Fishburne have signed on to Pierre Morel’s action thriller The Blacksmith, which Agc Studios will finance and produce.

Ben Ripley adapted the screenplay from the graphic novel from Kickstart Comics by Malik Evans and Richard Sparkman and production has been earmarked for later this year.

Jon Shestack (Air Force One) is also producing with Kickstart Productions’ Jason Netter (Wanted), and Jeremy Stein. Agc Studios CEO Stuart Ford and Linda McDonough are executive producers alongside Samantha Shear and Bob Sobhani.

Jonas will play a weapons expert or...

Cannibal Comedian mixes horror with laughs. From director Sean Haitz (Big Top Evil), this title forces a psychopath onto the stage, after struggling with a lack of ambition. Cannibal Comedian stars: Aaron Prager (The Gunman), Austin Judd (The 4th Letter of Ponce De Leon) and Robert Dunne. A teaser trailer has been released for Cannibal Comedian this week and it can be found below. Haitz has spoken of the film and its unique charm. He says of the film's drawing points: "we nailed it out of the park with scare factor, disturbing cannibalism and the comedic charm and sort of innocence to it all (Dread Central). The first teaser shows lots of blood effects. Haitz also says of the effects: "we had laugh out loud times where we had to cut because I couldn’t hold it in. Then disgusting times like the human meat grinder watching actual meat come through with blood and guts!

Ahead of the UK premiere of serial killer thriller Anderson Falls at Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow 2020, director Julien Seri reflects on the his first ‘American’ experience, challenging fight scenes and the importance of personal vision.

It has been five years since we premiered Night Fare at FrightFest London, what have you been up to since then?

I worked on two, very singular, projects as a producer and/or director. I signed for both with Wild Bunch, but we’ve failed to produce them yet. So I keep fighting. And I did a lot of commercials, TV series and music videos.

When did you first hear about the Anderson Falls script and why did you think it was perfect for you to direct?

I received the script late 2017. I read it and said ‘yes’ in the same day. It was a perfect American experience for me because it was low budget,...

Exclusive: Veteran international sales executive Harold van Lier, who has served as a partner and President of Distribution at London-based financier Anton since 2015, is stepping away from the film business to join art publisher Taschen in a sales capacity.

Belgian van Lier, a well known figure in the distribution world and a regular fixture at movie markets, is leaving Anton today but will continue to be based in Europe in his new role.

Former Global Road, eOne and Protagonist executive Charlotte van Weede has been brought on to handle sales on Anton’s strong slate of projects at the upcoming Afm.

At Anton, which he has helped grow into a formidable European mini-studio with CEO Sebastien Raybaud, Van Lier worked closely on upcoming movies including Gerard Butler thriller Greenland and Intouchables producer Laurent Zeitoun’s animation Fireheart. Anton launched an La office earlier this year and is also investing in...

Revenge has no limits for Riley North in the action-packed thriller, Peppermint, arriving on Digital on November 20, 2018 and on Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD and On Demand on December 11, 2018 from STXfilms and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. A powerful story about an underdog hero fighting for justice, the high-octane film is directed by Pierre Morel and stars a stellar cast including Golden Globe® winner Jennifer Garner, John Ortiz, John Gallagher, Jr., Juana Pablo Raba and Annie Ilonzeh.

Young mother Riley North (Garner) awakens from a coma after her husband and daughter are killed in a brutal attack on the family. When the system frustratingly shields the murderers from justice, Riley sets out to transform herself from citizen to urban guerilla. Channeling her frustration into personal motivation, she spends years in hiding honing her mind, body and spirit to become an unstoppable force – eluding the underworld, the Lapd and the FBI – as she...

French director Pierre Morel has come on board an untitled movie project about notorious French gangster and jailbreaker Rédoine Faïd.

Condé Nast Entertainment and Sentient Entertainment are producing the project, based on Julie Miller’s Vanity Fair story “How Hollywood Inspired France’s Most Daring Prison Escape.”

Faïd had been on the lam for three month after a daring helicopter escape from a penitentiary in July before he was re-captured last week. Faïd has an obsession with Hollywood films, which has inspired his career of armed robberies and breakouts from prison and led to him being called “The Jailbreak King.”

In 2013, Faïd was on the run for more than a month after he broke out of the Sequedin prison, using explosives to blast through five prison doors, holding four prison wardens hostage during the escape and employing the use of a getaway car, which he burned in Lille and left in another vehicle.

It seems like a long time since Peppermint star Jennifer Garner has kicked some major butt when we last saw her on the small screen in creator J.J. Abrams's spy series  Alias. In fact, Garner is no stranger to action-oriented butt-kicking on the big screen either (remember her feisty assassin in the frenetic yet forgettable 2005 superhero bomb Elektra?). Now Garner is back in raw form looking to bang heads in the name of retaliation courtesy of director Pierre Morel's toothless revenge thriller Peppermint. Morel and screenwriter Chad St. John ("London Has Fallen") look to breathe some lurid, excitable life into this cockeyed confection of furious feminine-driven strife. Garner is such an adventurous actress. Her range in various genres, for the most part, is considered reasonable and resilient. Whether it...

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

Italian distributor Lucky Red has responded to anger from local exhibitors that its Venice-bound film On My Skin (Sulla Mia Pelle) will screen on Netflix soon after its festival debut.

In a statement sent to me today, the distributor has said it is “proud” the drama will be shown in Venice and that the film’s near-day-and-date global release is an “extraordinary event” and a “big opportunity” for audiences.

The Italian-language film about police brutality is due to open Venice’s Horizons strand and get a global release via Netflix soon after on September 12. It is also due to have a theatrical component in Italy.

However, earlier this week, trade bodies repping local cinemas issued a strongly worded statement criticizing day-and-date releasing for its impact on traditional models. The statement also took a pop at Venice chief Alberto Barbera for condoning a shortening of the theatrical window.

“Every exhibitor will...

Jennifer Garner is a mother with a very particular set of skills in “Peppermint,” the upcoming revenge thriller from “Taken” director Pierre Morel.

The “District 13” helmsman probably feels like he could do with a hit after his last feature, 2015’s Sean Penn vehicle “The Gunman,” bombed at the box office and fared no better with critics.

Continue reading ‘Peppermint’ Trailer: Jennifer Garner Goes Back To The Kick-Ass Action Days Of ‘Alias’ at The Playlist.

"Watching someone take everything from you, it turns you into somebody else." Stx Entertainment has debuted the first trailer for an action movie titled Peppermint, which is currently set to open in theaters in September at the beginning of the fall season. Peppermint is the latest from French director Pierre Morel and is about a fierce momma who becomes an assassin. Peppermint is a revenge story centering on a young mother who finds herself with nothing to lose, and now going to take from her rivals the very life they stole from her. Jennifer Garner stars, with John Ortiz, John Gallagher Jr., Juan Pablo Raba, Method Man, Tyson Ritter, and Annie Ilonzeh. This looks as expected from Morel - heavy on gritty action, a bit cheesy but still entertaining, and kind of badass. Here's the first trailer (+ teaser poster) for Pierre Morel's Peppermint, direct from Stx's YouTube: Peppermint is...

Producers eye October start on sci-fi thriller.

Claes Bang of Swedish Palme d’Or winner The Square will star and Pierre Morel will direct sci-fi thriller The New Mrs. Keller for Lakeshore Entertainment.

Casting is underway for the title role ahead of an anticipated October start.

Lakeshore’s Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi and Eric Reid will produce The New Mrs. Keller and acquired the spec screenplay by Mark Hogan in late 2017.

The story is set in the near future as the sophisticated Vera Keller ensnares her prominent surgeon husband David Keller in a trap.

As virtual reality intertwines with reality...

Producers eye October start on sci-fi thriller.

Claes Bang of Swedish Palme d’Or winner The Square will star and Pierre Morel will direct sci-fi thriller The New Mrs. Keller for Lakeshore Entertainment.

Casting is underway for the title role ahead of an anticipated October start.

Lakeshore’s Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi and Eric Reid will produce The New Mrs. Keller and acquired the spec screenplay by Mark Hogan in late 2017.

The story is set in the near future as the sophisticated Vera Keller ensnares her prominent surgeon husband David Keller in a trap.

As virtual reality intertwines with reality...

xXx star Asia Argento has distanced herself from a letter signed by over 100 women in the Italian entertainment industry, saying that she is waiting for "concrete gestures" before getting involved in their campaign. The letter, titled Dissenso Comune, was published in Italian newspaper La Repubblica and organized by Romanzo Criminale and The Gunman star Jasmine Trinca. The letter calls sexual harassment a "transverse phenomenon." "It is a system indeed. It is part of a…...

Ryan Lambie Jan 19, 2018

For 10 years, Liam Neeson's been throwing punches and shooting guns. We take a look back at his decade of action thrillers...

Nb: The following contains spoilers for Liam Neeson's more recent thrillers. If there's an entry you haven't seen, we'd advise skipping to the next one - apart from The Commuter, which we won't spoil because it isn't out yet.

See related  Hard Sun episode 2 review Hard Sun episode 1 review 28 British TV dramas to watch in 2018

For some, he's an Oscar nominee, thanks to his superb performance in Schindler's List. To others, he's the larger-than-life presence in such blockbusters as The Phantom Menace, Batman Begins and Clash Of The Titans.

Since 2008, though, Liam Neeson's taken an unexpected turn into action-thriller territory; now often seen wearing a leather jacket, a gun in his fist and his knuckles bloodied, Neeson's found a new audience as a hard-hitting macho man.

We haven’t seen much from Sean Penn lately. The actor’s last big screen role was in 2015’s “Taken“-esque “The Gunman,” and his last project, the directorial effort “The Last Face,” was a disastrous flop. Everyone’s gotta eat, and it’s been a while since Penn has been involved in something worth his talents, so he’s gonna kill two birds with one stone by following the growing herd to Peak TV.

Continue reading Even Sean Penn Is Joining Peak TV at The Playlist.

Joseph Baxter Sep 21, 2017

Sean Penn is set to star in a space exploration series on Channel 4 called The First, from the creator of House Of Cards...

Sean Penn, the controversial, two-time-Oscar-winning actor who first achieved notable acclaim for playing one-liner-spouting stoner Jeff Spicoli, is about to do something that he’s never done in his storied acting career: headline a television series, specifically, streaming series The First for Channel 4 and Hulu.

Penn, like an increasing amount of A-list actors, will take the television plunge in this new project, which was given a straight-to-series order by the streaming outlet back in May - a space exploration-themed story set in a near-future that will follow humanity’s first mission to colonise Mars.

Interestingly, the visionary behind the series is not one typically associated with the space/sci-fi/adventure genre. Beau Willimon, who is best known as the creator, writer and...

MaryAnn’s quick take… Darren Aronofsky’s self-pitying cinematic rending of garments is repulsive, transparent, and pointless. A grotesquely wrapped gift box of utter banality. I’m “biast” (pro): have mostly been a fan of Darren Aronofsky; love Jennifer Lawrence

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

I cannot recall the last time a film made me as angry as Darren Aronofsky’s mother! has. Maybe never. (Yes, the title is most emphatically with a lowercase “m” and an exclamation point. And yes, that’s emblematic of what’s making me so angry.) As mother! — *grrr* — unfurled over its two-hour runtime, I found myself actually clenching my jaw with ever-increasing fury as Aronofsky’s head wended its way further and further up his own cinematic ass only to declare just how delicious his farts smell. This is a filmmaker for whom...

MaryAnn’s quick take… The franchise finally overstays its welcome with this cacophony of CGI spectacle, a contrived and confusing plot, and a newly cruel and stupid Jack Sparrow. I’m “biast” (pro): loved the original trilogy…

I’m “biast” (con): …but started to lose a little patience with the fourth film

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Okay, make it stop. This amusement-park ride has gone on long enough. It is no longer any fun. I’m feeling a bit nauseated, in fact.

I adored the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy: they were smart, fun popcorn flicks that worked as clever updates on the classic Hollywood swashbuckler, all adventure and movie-movie romance and total, wonderful nonsense. With the third installment, 2007’s At World’s End, the series even managed to whip up some satirical zing, in its plot about gig-economy independent-contractor pirates versus...

Author: Zehra Phelan

This year’s John Wick inspired female kick-ass action thriller, Atomic Blonde, seems to have awoken something in the male-centric world of Hollywood, the has met with positive reactions without even hitting the big screens yet but already Taken director, Pierre Morel has signed up to take the helm in the next female lead actioner, Peppermint.

The simple synopsis for the film reads; Peppermint is a revenge story centering on a young mother who finds herself with nothing to lose and is now going to take from her rivals the very life they stole from her.

Morel signed on the dotted line after a ferocious bidding war for the rights amongst the independent and major studio’s which eventually saw Lakeshore get their hands on the project which they hope to get production up and running by the autumn. A female lead has yet to be announced,...

Tony Sokol May 5, 2017

Taken director Pierre Morel will helm Peppermint, an action movie about a young mother with nothing to lose.

Lakeshore Entertainment, which explored the action horror genre with the Underworld franchise, will bring Peppermint, a 'female John Wick' story, to the screen. The studio announced that the project will be directed by Pierre Morel, who directed Taken, the 2008 action movie that starred Liam Neeson.

The screenplay is being written by Chad St John, who co-wrote London Has Fallen.

Peppermint is a revenge story that centres on a young mother with nothing to lose who goes after her rivals.

Morel also directed Sean Penn’s thriller The Gunman, the French-language thriller District 13, and the upcoming Overdrive, starring Scott Eastwood and Ana de Armas, which he shot in France.

Peppermint is being produced by Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi, Richard Wright and Eric Reid of Lakeshore Entertainment, which won the...

Author: Zehra Phelan

Boxing and the movies are no strangers to each other; not too far away on the horizon is Jawbone – which stars Jimmy Harris in its lead and Ray Winstone as a big-hearted boxing gym owner – a British boxing story that may have you feeling a little punch drunk with its gloomy and heartfelt first trailer.

We all know audiences are a bit of a sucker for the storyline of the down and out boxer who makes a passionate fighting comeback against the odds. Our last venture into this world was with Bleed For This starring Miles Teller towards the tail end of last year but nothing can quite live up to the high standards the Rocky spin-off Creed achieved recently. Will Jawbone with its Great British grit and determination pack an almighty punch for lovers of the genre? Time will tell.

Related: Ray Winstone Interview on The Gunman...

Experienced location manager worked on World War Z, Pirates Of The Caribbean, Harry Potter and Match Point.

UK-based location manager Michael Harm has died unexpectedly in London aged 51.

Harm, who was born in the Netherlands and moved to the UK in the early 1990s, started his career on BBC mini-series You, Me and It before working on features such as Restoration, Bent and My Son The Fanatic.

Harm served as unit manager on UK hits including Elizabeth, Notting Hill, Dirty Pretty Things and Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, before taking on location manager duties for Woody Allen duo Match Point and Scoop.

In 2009 he served as location manager on Jane Campion’s Cannes competition entry Bright Star and Rob Marshall’s musical-romance Nine.

In 2011, Harm renewed scouting for the Harry Potter franchise on Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and in the following year took on Disney juggernaut Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

In recent...

Exclusive: UTA just emerged victorious in a signing derby for Taken director Pierre Morel. The filmmaker had been repped by CAA and had been in play since his agent Spencer Baumgarten left. Baumgarten, now at ICM Partners, was in the mix, as was Verve, but the team at UTA won the day. Morel, who came up as a cinematographer working closely with Luc Besson in France, has directed Taken, District B13, From Paris With Love and most recently the Sean Penn-starrer The Gunman…...

Joseph Baxter Mar 12, 2019

The Professor and the Madman teams Mel Gibson and Sean Penn in a drama about the creation of the Oxford Dictionary.

The Professor and the Madman might sound like the title of a long-running late-1980s crime procedural that no one really watched, but the upcoming historically based drama will showcase some star power in the form of headliners Mel Gibson and Sean Penn.

The long-gestating project of Gibson’s has finally come to fruition. The film adapts the 1998 book of the same name by Simon Winchester, following two key figures in the decades-long endeavor to create what would become the Oxford English Dictionary. Gibson plays Professor James Murray, who was appointed editor of the lexicon in the late 1870s. However, his crucial collaboration with Yale-trained American army surgeon W.C. Minor (Penn) is awkward since Minor is a lunatic and a murderer; nouns that the...

Fantasy meandering twists into something more action-oriented, and there’s little magic in it. This is not what we expect from a master cinematic fantasist. I’m “biast” (pro): big Spielberg fan

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

I have not read the source material

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

We movie fans must be forgiven for supposing that an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s beloved book The Bfg by screenwriter Melissa Mathison and director Steven Spielberg — their first collaboration since 1982’s E.T. — would be cause for celebration. Here is another story about a lonely child who befriends a mysterious creature and has an adventure that changes her life for the better… one that could take huge advantage of the significant FX advances that have occurred since 1982.

And yet my strongest reaction to The Bfg was a constant refrain in my head of: “This is Spielberg?...

Lisa Loven Kongsli (upcoming Wonder Woman, Force Majeure), Sophie Cookson (Kingsman: The Secret Service), and Peter Franzen (History Channel’s ‘Vikings’, The Gunman) have joined 2016 BAFTA Rising Star nominee Bel Powley (upcoming Carrie Pilby, The Diary Of A Teenage Girl), Jonah Hauer-King, and Martin Wallstrom (FX series ‘Mr. Robot’) in Marius Markevicius’ riveting Ashes In The Snow, it was announced by Radiant Films International President and CEO, Mimi Steinbauer.

Rounding out the newly announced cast are Sam Hazeldine (The Huntsman: Winter’S War, Monuments Men), James Cosmo (HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’, upcoming Ben-hur), Adrian Schiller (The Danish Girl, Suffragette) and Tom Sweet.

Currently in production, Radiant will present the project to international buyers at the upcoming Marche du Film in Cannes.

Ashes In The Snow is the poignant story of a 16-year-old heroine Lina Vilkas (Powley) who is separated from her family amidst Stalin’s reign of terror in the Baltic region during WWII.

The bummer reality of Hollywood is that the older you get, the fewer roles you get. This is brutally true for women, whose options for characters and franchises can go from "Leading Lady" to "Mom #2" seemingly over night. But in recent years aging men have gotten a bit of a leading man loop hole, and it's largely thanks to Liam Neeson and his Taken franchise. Those movies were so remarkably successful that it seems like every big name actor who made an action movie in the '80s or '90s is now getting their own movie about a grizzled old guy trying to live a simple life until some bad dudes take someone they love. Neeson's made a whole new career out of it. Sean Penn got in on the action with The Gunman. John Travolta and Nicolas Cage both have a...

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Exclusive: Perennial Brit hardman Ray Winstone has been signed up by Wme. The actor, who’s put in more memorable performances over the years than I have fingers and toes, is one of the film biz’s most dependable character actors. He has provided game support in The Gunman with Sean Penn, Noah opposite Russell Crowe, Snow White And The Huntsman with Charlize Theron, and Martin Scorsese's Academy Award-winning The Departed alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack…...

It’s been nearly a decade since Sean Penn‘s last directorial feature, Into the Wild, and 15 years since he last stopped by Cannes with his own film (The Pledge), but he’ll be back next month. The Last Face, which stars Charlize Theron, Javier Bardem, Adèle Exarchopoulos and Jean Reno, has been selected to premiere in competition at Cannes Film Festival, and today the first look has arrived.

Below, one can see Theron, who plays the director of an international aid agency in Africa, who meets a relief aid doctor (Bardem) during a political/social revolution. In the situation, they are presented with difficult choices when it comes humanitarianism amidst civil unrest. Penn is certainly no stranger to injecting politics into his cinema, so hopefully this one turns out more interesting that the last time he was on screen with The Gunman. Check back for our review next month from the festival,...