Deadline reports that Jasmine Cephas Jones has joined the cast of HBO’s Lanterns. The upcoming live-action drama stars Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights) as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre (Rebel Ridge) as John Stewart, “two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.”
The report states that Cephas Jones will play a key guest-starring role as Bernadette, “Stewart’s resilient mother and forever the family fixer. She is a perceptive, big-picture thinker who demands excellence from herself and her family.” Nicole Ari Parker (And Just Like That…) plays the present-day version of Bernadette. Cephas Jones is best known for playing Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds in Hamilton and for playing Ashley Rose in both the Blindspotting movie and the TV series which followed.
The rest of the Lanterns cast includes Kelly MacDonald (Boardwalk Empire) as Sheriff Kerry, a “no-nonsense woman deeply devoted to her family and close-knit town,” Garret Dillahunt (Fear the Walking Dead) as William Macon, a modern cowboy described as “a self-righteous, conspiracy-minded man who masks his ruthless ambition behind a charming and calculated facade,” Poorna Jagannathan (The Night Of) as Zoe, who is described as “effortlessly confident and poised in any setting, even those where she stands out. She is every bit as composed and cunning as the influential men around her,” and Ulrich Thomsen (Banshee) as Sinestro. Jason Ritter (Matlock) also recently joined the cast as Billy Macon, “a good-looking charmer who does his father’s (Dillahunt) bidding. Capitalizing on his family’s reputation, he clings to his small-town ego and has everything to lose.“
Chris Mundy (Ozark) will serve as showrunner and executive producer and will co-write the series alongside Damon Lindelof (The Leftovers) and Tom King (Supergirl), who will also executive produce. James Hawes, a prolific TV director best known for Black Mirror and Slow Horses, will helm the first two episodes. Lanterns was given an eight-episode straight-to-series order last summer. Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and Max content, said: “We are elated to be reuniting with both Chris Mundy and Damon Lindelof as they partner with Tom for this fresh take on DC’s ‘Green Lantern.’ As part of James and Peter’s vision for the DC Universe, this first new live action series will mark an exciting new era.“
Alan Ritchson has gotten into some scraps during his time on Reacher, but a fight in the recent season 3 finale was on another level, as the actor told Entertainment Weekly that he was actually knocked unconscious while filming the sequence.
“I get the bright idea to shoot a stunt in a way, because I was like, ‘I want the audience to know that I’m doing this for us. I’m taking one for Reacher and we’re all in this together,’” Ritchson explained, “and so I wanted the camera to come up and just stay on my face the whole time while I get smashed through a table on the barn floor.“
Ritchson says he got into a “huge fight” with his stunt team because they didn’t want him to do it for obvious reasons. “I was like, ‘I’m doing it. We’re doing it,’” he said. “And I won. Reluctantly, they’re like, ‘You better not die because we said you’re going to die, and we tried to warn you.’” Unfortunately, the stunt became an “I told you so” moment as Ritchson was knocked out almost immediately.
“I got picked up and we worked out the camera thing a few times and he slammed me through the table so hard, I went through it into the seventh circle of hell,” Ritchson said. “And I woke up a day and a half later. When I came to, I had to tell my kids that I felt great, because they were on set, and I didn’t want them to think that like, dad died and was going to not be okay. It was the worst few minutes of my life.“
Our own Alex Maidy was a big fan of the new season, saying it “may be the best Reacher adaptation yet.” You can check out the full review right here.
Reacher has already been renewed for a fourth season. “Reacher has become a phenomenon that continues to resonate with our global customers beyond our wildest expectations and we are thrilled to bring the series back for an additional season,” said Vernon Sanders, head of television at Amazon MGM Studios. “We are looking forward to more action and adventure from the immensely talented team behind the series including Nick Santora, Alan Ritchson, Lee Child, Skydance, and CBS Studios.” A spinoff series focusing on Frances Neagley (Maria Sten) is also in the works and started shooting last month.
Deadline reports that Lili Taylor has joined the cast of Daredevil: Born Again season 2 in what will be a recurring role. Details on her character are sparse, but the report states that she will play “a political foe for Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk.” Production on the new season is already underway in New York.
Much of the first season cast has returned for the second season, including Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, Deborah Ann Woll, Jon Bernthal, and Elden Henson. Taylor won’t be the only new cast member in the new season, as Matthew Lillard is also set to join the cast for a recurring role. As I happen to have The X-Files on in the background while I write, I’m reminded that Taylor once played a blind woman (with special abilities) in an episode of the sci-fi series. Maybe she can swap some stories with Cox.
The official synopsis for Daredevil: Born Again reads: “Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), a blind lawyer with heightened abilities, is fighting for justice through his bustling law firm, while former mob boss Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) pursues his own political endeavors in New York. When their past identities begin to emerge, both men find themselves on an inevitable collision course.”
Our own Alex Maidy enjoyed the first season and is quite excited to see where the second season takes our heroes. “Once you have all finished the first season of Daredevil: Born Again, I have no doubt that you will be anxious to see where the story goes next,” Maidy wrote in his review. “A mid-credit scene at the end of the season finale will give you a taste, but I think you will also enjoy it more than I have. Binging the nine episodes did not leave much room to enjoy the week-to-week tension that will build for you as you learn about the twists and turns the story will take, but it may also magnify some of the season’s shortcomings. Whether they be subplots that build up but do not quite pay off or the way the series transitions from the prior seasons to Born Again, there will be some contentious conversations from legacy Daredevil fans and newcomers. Personally, I enjoyed seeing Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio back and as good as they have ever been. Just be prepared that this series does not pull any punches and may have some of the most violent deaths outside of Deadpool & Wolverine. The Man Without Fear is back, and I cannot wait for season two.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.
Sinners, a genre picture and a period piece from frequent collaborators Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan – who have worked on Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever together as director and cast member, and have other collaborations that Coogler didn’t direct – is set up at Warner Bros., has a budget of around $90 million, and is scheduled for a theatrical release on April 18, 2025 (having moved back from a previously announced March release date). As we get closer to that date, the marketing department keeps unveiling more and more posters for the film. We’ve already seen several (there were even 13 character posters), and now there are several more to be seen at the bottom of this article! Our friends at Bloody Disgusting got the first look at the 4DX ones.
Directed by Coogler with Jordan playing dual roles, Sinners has the following official synopsis: Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers (Jordan) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back. “You keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home.”
This project is being kept so tightly under wraps that when it was looking for a studio to call home, “executives and buyers were forced to make the pilgrimage to the Beverly Hills offices of WME, the agency that represents Coogler and Jordan, in order to take a gander on the script and get details.”
Coogler (who is also developing a reboot of the TV series The X-Files) is producing the film with Proximity Media partners Zinzi Coogler and Sev Ohanian. Rebecca Cho serves as executive producer alongside Will Greenfield and two-time Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Goransson (who won his first Oscar for his work on Coogler’s Black Panther and his second for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer). The Motion Picture Association ratings board gave the film an R rating for strong bloody violence, sexual content and language.
Jordan is joined in the cast by Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit), Wunmi Mosaku (Loki), singer Miles Caton, Delroy Lindo (Get Shorty), Jack O’Connell (Unbroken), Omar Benson Miller (CSI: Miami), Li Jun Li (The Exorcist TV series), Yao (The Last Bout), Jayme Lawson (The Batman), Lola Kirke (Mozart in the Jungle), and musician / cinematographer Peter Dreimanis.
Will you be catching Sinners on the big screen next month? Take a look at the posters, then let us know by leaving a comment below. Here’s a behind-the-scenes featurette to check out as well:
Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water, Josh Brolin is in talks to star opposite Austin Abrams (Wolfs) in the Brian Duffield-directed (No One Will Save You, Cocaine Bear, Spontaneous) adaptation of the Daniel Krauss novel Whalefall.
Described as The Martian meets 127 Hours, the scientifically accurate story focuses on a scuba diver searching for his deceased father’s remains, only to get swallowed by an eighty-foot, sixty-ton sperm whale with only one hour to escape before oxygen runs out. While struggling to survive, the young diver discovers a new reason to live in the most unlikely place.
Here’s a synopsis for Krauss’s novel courtesy of Amazon:
Jay Gardiner has given himself a fool’s errand—to find the remains of his deceased father in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Monastery Beach. He knows it’s a long shot, but Jay feels it’s the only way for him to lift the weight of guilt he has carried since his dad’s death by suicide the previous year.
The dive begins well enough, but the sudden appearance of a giant squid puts Jay in very real jeopardy, made infinitely worse by the arrival of a sperm whale looking to feed. Suddenly, Jay is caught in the squid’s tentacles and drawn into the whale’s mouth where he is pulled into the first of its four stomachs. He quickly realizes he has only one hour before his oxygen tanks run out—one hour to defeat his demons and escape the belly of a whale.
Josh Brolin is extraordinarily busy. He has three other projects in the works beyond Whalefall, including the third chapter of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out franchise, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, starring Daniel Craig, Cailee Spaeny, Glenn Close, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Thomas Haden Church, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, and more. He also plays Dan Killian in Edgar Wright’s upcoming version of The Running Man alongside Glenn Poweel, Katy O’Brian, Colman Domingo, Lee Pace, William H. Macy, Michael Cera, Emila Jones, and David Zayas. Finally, he’s starring in Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars with Margaret Qualley and Guy Pearce.
Who do you think Josh Brolin plays in Brian Duffield’s adaptation of Whalefall? I assume he plays Jay’s father in flashbacks. We’ll need to wait and see. Are you excited about Whalefall? The concept sounds intriguing. I want to read the book, but I’ve got many other things I’m into now.
In 1978, the Sundance Film Festival (co-founded by the head of Robert Redford’s company Wildwood Enterprises, Inc) got its start in Salt Lake City, Utah. As of 1981, it moved over to Park City, Utah, and there it has remained ever since, with the festival being held in January every year (except for recently, when Covid shut it down for a couple of years). But the Park City era is about to come to an end. As of 2027, the Sundance Film Festival will be based in Boulder, Colorado.
We first heard rumblings that Sundance might move in July of 2023, when it was revealed that the festival’s Park City contract would be expiring after the 2026 show and executives were thinking of doing “a dramatic reset with a new location.” While there was a chance that the Park City contract could be renewed, multiple cities pitched themselves to be the new home of Sundance, with the list of potential new hosts including Cincinnati, Ohio; Atlanta, Georgia; Louisville, Kentucky; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Bentonville, Arkansas; and Boulder, Colorado. The list was whittled down to finalists Park City, Cincinnati, and Boulder a few months ago, and Deadline has confirmed that Boulder has come out the winner in this competition to host Sundance.
According to Deadline, “With a financially deep and culturally deep proposal, Boulder, which houses of the University of Colorado, put $34 million in tax incentives on the table over the 10-years. Directly facing the challenges and inconvenience that have hobbled Sundance in Park City in recent years, the Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau detailed in their winning pitch a plethora of venues and lodgings that aim to make Sundance much more accessible and affordable for streamer and studio bosses as well as first time filmmakers going to Sundance on their own dime.“
Acting Sundance Institute CEO Amanda Kelso said, “Part of the decision-making process was around opportunity for growth. That is also an important factor for us. Knowing that we can be in a town that has 100,000 people means that it has more venues, more spaces, and more opportunities in how we can be expansive of the festival moving forward. From a sense of space perspective, it’s this really vibrant town that’s surrounded by nature. You can imagine walking from venue to venue, metabolizing the film you just watched and communing with nature which is something Robert Redford felt so strongly about. When you think about a sense of place perspective, Boulder is a cool town, it’s an arts town. There are poets, musicians and filmmakers who live here. It’s a tech town. It’s also a college town — 38,000 students attend University of Colorado Boulder, and that creates an opportunity for us to think about audience development in a more expansive way.“
Colorado Governor Jared Polis added, “Colorado is thrilled to welcome the Sundance Film Festival to its new home in Boulder starting in 2027. Here in our state we celebrate the arts and film industry as a key economic driver, job creator, and important contributor to our thriving culture. Now, with the addition of the iconic Sundance Film Festival, we can expect even more jobs, a huge benefit for our small businesses including stores and restaurants. Thank you to the Sundance Institute and all of the partners like the City of Boulder, Visit Boulder, the Boulder Chamber of Commerce, and I also want to thank the bipartisan legislators and leadership who have worked tirelessly to make this possible.“
The very last Sundance in Park City is scheduled to take place from January 22nd through February 1st, 2026, and now it’s expected to be “a bit of a blowout.”
What do you think of the Sundance Film Festival moving from Park City, Utah to Boulder, Colorado? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Plot: After receiving a diagnosis of Stage IV cancer, Molly leaves her husband Steve and begins to explore the full breadth and complexity of her sexual desires for the first time in her life. Her best friend Nikki is by her side throughout the journey, on hand for medical appointments, vibrator emergencies, topping lessons and oh so many laughs..
Review: It would be an incredible understatement to say that every dying person’s journey is powerful, but the impact lingers even longer for those close to the person who passes. After experiencing her best friend succumbing to a terminal illness, Nikki Boyer chronicled the ups and downs of Molly Kochan’s final year in the beautiful podcast Dying for Sex. Full of hilarious moments in equal measure with heartbreakingly sad ones, the story of Molly’s exploration of herself has become the eight-episode limited series of the same name. With Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate playing Molly and Nikki, Dying for Sex is a hilariously blunt look at one woman facing her own mortality while embracing her sexuality, her past trauma, and the mystery of what comes next. At the same time, her best friend accompanies her until the very end. It is a wonderfully funny story that will have every viewer in tears when they reach the final episode.
With her breast cancer in remission and struggling with her marriage, Molly (Michelle Williams) learns that her cancer has returned and is no longer treatable. With her husband Steve (Jay Duplass) unwilling to have sex with her, Molly leaves him and asks her best friend Nikki (Jenny Slate) to take care of her through the final months and years of her life. Nikki, an actress and a bit of a flake, takes on the momentous challenge of doctor’s appointments, bills, treatments, and more while also trying to keep her relationship with Noah (Kelvin Yu) going. Molly, meanwhile, decides she wants to experience sex in ways she was never bold enough to do before, which fills the series with subcultures and fetishes that have not often been shown on television in such a frank and honest manner. From domination and submission to role-play, sex toys, and some casual urination, Dying for Sex is at once blatantly funny about the subject at hand but also honest and respectful.
The series explores those in Molly’s orbit, including a counselor and friend, Sonya (Esco Jouley), who helps Molly recognize what she can still be as a sexual being even as her life is coming to an end. Her old-school doctor, Jerry Pankowitz (David Rasche), serves as the logical and scientific voice of Molly’s pat,h even if he does not always understand how she is exploring her options. Sissy Spacek plays Gail, Molly’s mother, who has a distant relationship with her daughter caused by a trauma they share from Molly’s youth. There is also Molly’s neighbor, played by Rob Delaney, who becomes one of the closest people in her quest to achieve orgasm despite initially seeming like he may be an antagonist rather than a partner. The series also features Molly’s many sexual partners as well as friends she makes along the way, each of whom factors into her blossoming self. It is a wonderful and touching ensemble that hits the perfect balance of funny and sad while making every new discovery one that compounds the inevitable end of Molly’s life.
The core of Dying for Sex is Molly, with Michelle Williams turning in another astounding performance. While Williams is no stranger to powerful roles, playing Molly may be one of her career’s best. Embracing the pain of cancer invading Molly to give strength to the numerous orgasms she experiences, Williams delivers an unvarnished and nakedly honest portrayal of a human being favoring the opportunity of living rather than allowing the fear of death to drive her. There is depression, sadness, pain, heartache, and anger throughout the series, but they are always overshadowed by the joy, love, happiness, and positivity that Molly brings to the world. As good as Michelle Williams is, I was blown away by Jenny Slate as Nikki Boyer. Slate has consistently been an underrated talent in comedies as much as her dramatic work in films like Obvious Child. In Dying for Sex, Slate is hilariously funny but also embodies the deepest love and friendship Nikki shared with Molly, something that goes beyond acting to something more tangible. Williams and Slate achieve chemistry in their performances that surpass any sexual partnerships seen in the series.
Nikki Boyer’s podcast is wonderfully adapted by showrunner Elizabeth Meriweather (New Girl, The Dropout), who co-created Dying for Sex with Kim Rosenstock. The pair are joined by writers Sheila Callaghan, Keisha Zollar, Madeleine George, Harris Danow, Sasha Stewart, and Sabrina Wu, who find a way to fill a lot of story into eight half-hour chapters without any episodes feeling wasted. Six of the eight episodes were directed by Shannon Murphy (Babyteeth), with Chris Teague on the remaining two. Dying for Sex is never shy about sexual content, with multiple sequences featuring full male nudity in addition to sex acts showing just enough without turning the series into something more exploitative. A quirky sensibility pervades the series, allowing the surreal and strange to share space with the deeper subject matter. The visual approach to showing Molly’s final days is handled respectfully while still allowing comedy to lighten things without becoming disrespectful.
Having experienced the final moments of a loved one’s life, Dying for Sex hit me harder than I anticipated. The series filled me with as much joy and happiness as laughter, something you would not think would work as well as it does with such heavy subject matter. Nikki Boyer’s podcast has become a wonderful narrative journey that showcases two of the year’s best performances. Dying for Sex will break down even the most stoic and emotionally distant person watching it as it builds up wave after wave of feelings that come crashing ashore in the final chapter of Molly’s tale. I was left devastated in the best way possible, and I am sure countless viewers will feel the same way. This is a standout series, with everyone involved doing some of the best work of their careers. Dying for Sex boasts stellar leading performances amongst a fantastic ensemble. Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate are as close to perfect as you can get.
Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, Do the Right Thing, The Electric State) is ready and willing to play another comic book villain after playing Sidewinder in Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World. According to the actor, he wants to chill in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Universe as the sub-zero-suit-wearing villain Mr. Freeze. While Matt Reeves’s The Batman operates outside the primary canon of the rebooted DCU, The Brave and the Bold, featuring Batman and Robin, is on the docket. Esposito could play the mad scientist Victor Fries in the DCU’s upcoming Batman film, and fans would love to see it happen.
In DC lore, Mr. Freeze is a tortured, unfeeling villain relentlessly striving to bring his beloved Nora back from the brink of a cryofreeze chamber. Nora suffers from a terminal illness for which Victor is determined to find a cure. Across multiple storylines, her illness has been portrayed as neurological, bloodborne, lung cancer, or heart disease, contracted either genetically or externally. As Mr. Freeze searches for answers, his experiments require funding, rare parts, and patience. To get what he needs to run his lab, Mr. Freeze uses an arsenal of cold-based technology to bring Gotham to its knees. He and Batman continue to fight each other despite the Dark Knight’s best efforts to work alongside Victor on a potential cure.
Giancarlo Esposito recently spoke with IGN at FanExpo Cleveland, saying he’d be interested in playing Mr. Freeze for James Gunn’s DCU.
There are no talks or official plans for Esposito to play Mr. Freeze, but you never know. After planting the seed, the idea of Esposito wielding Mr. Freeze’s Freeze Ray could gain traction.
Meanwhile, work continues on Mike Flanagan’s Clayface movie, with Speak No Evil director James Watkins getting behind the camera. Gunn notoriously had reservations about bringing Clayface to the silver screen. However, Flanagan’s concept and script were so good that Gunn could not pass on the opportunity.
It remains unclear if Flanagan’s Clayface will feature Basil Karlo, the mediocre actor whose interaction with a mystical clay transforms him into the monster we know and love, or Matt Hagen, a scuba diver who finds a mysterious pool of protoplasm that turns his body into a malleable clay-like weapon and means of disguise. Flanagan’s script could introduce a new Clayface, though I could see him leaning into the Basil Karlo version. Previously, Dave Bautista (Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Dune: Part Two) expressed interest in playing Clayface, but that was years ago. Still, Bautista has excellent ties to James Gunn through their work on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which could give Bautista an edge in the audition department.
Should Giancarlo Esposito play Mr. Freeze in James Gunn’s DCU? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Jason Statham and Sylvester Stallone have collaborated on multiple projects over the years, and we’re not just talking about the four Expendables movies they made together. Stallone also wrote the screenplay for the 2013 Statham action film Homefront, which was directed by Gary Fleder and based on a novel by Chuck Logan. Now, Statham and Stallone are continuing their working relationship with the action thriller A Working Man, which also reunites Statham with his The Beekeeperdirector David Ayer – and looks to be very much along the same lines as that film. A Working Man is set to reach theatres on March 28th, and in anticipation of its release, we decided to put together a list of everything we know about the movie. Here we go:
SOURCE MATERIAL
A Working Man is based on the novel Levon’s Trade, written by Chuck Dixon and originally published in 2014. Dixon is best known for his work in the comic book world, and over the last forty-plus years he has written for the likes of The Punisher, Conan, The Simpsons, G.I. Joe, Moon Knight, Freddy Krueger, and many more. He was DC Comics’ most prolific Batman writer in the 1990s and even took part in the famous Knightfall story arc – you know, the one where Bane (a character Dixon co-created) breaks Batman’s back.
For Levon’s Trade, Dixon crafted the following story: Levon Cade left his profession behind to work construction. He just wants to live an anonymous life and be a good dad to his daughter. But when a local girl vanishes, he’s asked to return to the skills that made him a mythic figure in the shadowy world of counterterrorism. Levon’s hunt for the missing college student takes him to the heart of a vicious criminal conspiracy, and his actions create a chain reaction that threatens all he holds dear. It’s time for him to return to his trade. And Levon’s trade is death. In creating the Levon Cade character, he came up with a character who’s such a badass, one reviewer said he “makes Jack Reacher seem like a crossing guard.”
Sylvester Stallone has long been aware of Dixon’s work – in fact, Dixon has said that he was offered, and turned down, the chance to do a rewrite on the screenplay for The Expendables 2. And when Levon’s Trade hit store shelves, Stallone acquired the adaptation rights. In October of 2018, it was announced that Stallone’s Balboa Productions was developing a Levon’s Trade TV series… but, obviously, it was decided that a film adaptation would be a better option.
CREATIVE TEAM
As mentioned, A Working Man has been directed by The Beekeeper‘s David Ayer, who also worked on the script with Stallone. A couple different synopses have been released for their take on the material. Here’s one: Levon Cade left behind a decorated military career in the black ops to live a simple life working construction. But when his boss’s daughter, who is like family to him, is taken by human traffickers, his search to bring her home uncovers a world of corruption far greater than he ever could have imagined. And here’s the other: Levon Cade left his “profession” behind to live a simple life working construction and spending time with his daughter. But when his boss’s teenage daughter vanishes, he’s called upon to re-employ the skills that made him a legendary figure in the shadowy world of black ops. Levon’s hunt for the missing college student takes him to the heart of a sinister criminal conspiracy creating a chain reaction that will threaten his new way of life. Two different ways of saying the same thing.
Stallone, Statham, and Ayer produced the film alongside Bill Block, John Friedberg, Chris Long, and Kevin King Templeton. When it was announced (and was, at that point, still going by the title Levon’s Trade), Block provided the following statement: “I am thrilled to be reuniting with some of my most talented and longstanding partners on Levon’s Trade. I first worked with David Ayer on Fury and it was immediately clear that he is a director at the very top of his game. Jason and I have worked together on a number of films, and most recently the three of us collaborated on The Beekeeper.Levon’s Trade is going to be another spectacular action movie and I’m confident we’ve assembled the dream team to bring the first novel in this celebrated series to the big screen.“
Although the novel primarily takes place in Florida, the movie was filmed in London. Production began in April of 2024 and wrapped at the end of the following month.
CAST
Statham takes on the role of badass military veteran Levon Cade. Arianna Rivas (Prom Dates) plays Jenny, the girl abducted by human traffickers. Michael Peña (Ant-Man) and Noemi Gonzalez (Selena: The Series) play Jenny’s parents. David Harbour (Stranger Things) plays Levon’s blind, weapons-providing associate Gunny Lefferty. Isla Gie (The Outlaws) shows up as Levon’s daughter Merry. Also in the cast are Jason Flemyng (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), Emmett J Scanlan (Fool Me Once), Eve Mauro (Cypher), Maximilian Osinski (The Walking Dead: World Beyond), Kristina Poli (Leona End Mark), Andrej Kaminsky (John Wick: Chapter 4), Merab Ninidze (Without Remorse), Cokey Falkow (Doomsday), and more. Because Statham always needs plenty of people to beat up.
It’s sort of surprising that Stallone didn’t reserve the role of Gunny Lefferty for himself. It’s worth nothing that, if Stallone doesn’t show up as any character at all, this will be the first movie he wrote without also appearing in it since Homefront in 2013.
We had a chance to interview both David Harbour and David Ayer about their work on the film, and that interview can be viewed at THIS LINK.
RELEASE
A Working Man was originally aiming for a January 17, 2025 release date. It was then moved back to March 28th, putting it in direct competition with the horror film The Woman in the Yard, from Blumhouse Productions and director Jaume Collet-Serra, and the oddball A24 horror comedy Death of a Unicorn, starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega. This also happens to be one week after the release of Disney’s live-action Snow White and one week before the release of A Minecraft Movie… but those kid-friendly movies are not exactly going for the same audience A Working Man will appeal to.
The film is set up at Amazon MGM Studios, and the company will be giving it a wide theatrical release in the U.S., while Prime Video holds the streaming rights in many major international territories. Outside of those Prime Video international territories (where it may receive a streaming-only release), the producers have sold the film independently to theatrical distributors in multiple overseas markets.
A Working Man has been rated R for strong violence, language throughout, and drug content.
A clip made its way online at the end of February:
Then a trailer was unveiled at the start of March:
With a final trailer dropping just days before the film’s release date:
Around that time, the first reactions to the film were revealed (you can read several of them HERE), letting us know the movie is “pure ’80s-style action with an absurd body count.” JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray gave the film an 8/10 review that you can read at THIS LINK, or you can check it out in this video:
FRANCHISE POTENTIAL
Chuck Dixon’s Levon Cade series currently consists of twelve novels, as Levon’s Trade has been followed by Levon’s Night, Levon’s Ride, Levon’s Run, Levon’s Kin, Levon’s War, Levon’s Time, Levon’s Home, Levon’s Hunt, Levon’s Prey, Levon’s Range, and Levon’s Scourge. So, if A Working Man turns out to be a box office success, and if Statham is game, this could turn out to be a major franchise for the actor. We’ll have to wait and see how it all plays out.
And that is, for now, everything we know about A Working Man.
Is today Leonardo DiCaprio Day? I ask because DiCaprio is at the center of another massive Hollywood headline after returning to YouTube to share the trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, One Battle After Another. According to reports, Disney is close to sealing a deal for Martin Scorsese‘s latest drama, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Blunt, and Dwayne Johnson leading the cast. The untitled project, set in Hawaii, has the following description: Imagine Robert De Niro’s Goodfellas’ Jimmy the Gent character, but as a ruthless Hawaiian crime boss, also based on a real figure, who battled encroaching rivals for control of organized crime in Hawaii.
In Deadline‘s exclusive report, the outlet describes Scorsese’s latest project in vivid detail. The pitch, written by Nick Bilton, includes crime of all kinds, with shady characters operating a syndicate from outlandish places. It “focuses on a turbulent time on the island paradise when the aspiring mob boss battled elements like triads and U.S. military to wrest control. It was a bloody battle. The character is based on Wilford “Nappy” Pulawa, who led the largest organized crime syndicate on the Hawaiian Islands, The Company, in the 1970s. He ruled through a reputation for brutality and murder, terrain Scorsese covered in both Goodfellas and The Departed. The Company’s rackets included gambling, human trafficking, marijuana trafficking and labor corruption. Eventually charged with two murders, got 15 years for tax evasion in 1973, and he reputedly continued to run the syndicate from his cell in a federal prison before he was . In 1975, Nevada barred him for life from entering the state’s casinos. He continued to run the syndicate from federal prison before his release in 1984.”
Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese go together like Resolve Spray ‘n Wash and blood stains, collaborating on films like Gangs of New York, The Aviator, Shutter Island, The Departed, Killers of the Flower Moon, The Wolf of Wall Street, and more. It’s unsurprising to see them joining forces on another project, but if the chemistry ain’t broken, why add outside solutions? Emily Blunt’s casting is exciting, especially after her role as Kitty Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and part as Jody Moreno in the ode to stuntworkers action comedy The Fall Guy. Still, the most significant score is Dwayne Johnson, who could be looking at his most prestigious role with Scorsese’s latest thriller.
We expect to learn more about Disney’s deal with Scorsese for his Hawaii-set thriller shortly. In the meantime, what do you think about the cast? Let us know in the comments section below.
