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Mike Leeder’s Action Digest #2: The news-stories you’ve missed…

Mike Leeder brings another round-up of some of the recent action-industry stories you may have missed…


mechanicresurrection_largeCALL A MECHANIC… The shooting on The Mechanic: Resurrection actually began in late 2014 – with an originally announced release date of Jan 2016. The film is a sequel to the 2011 remake of The Mechanic, which saw Jason Statham (taking the role originally played by Charles Bronson in the 1972 original), as a hitman who trains a protege only to find out someone is out to get him. The original film – which also starred Jan Michael Vincent and Keenan Wynn – came with a great plot twist, that the remake revealed in the trailer!

The sequel’s lot was not an easy one: The Mechanic (Jason Statham) thought he’d escaped his former deadly life and disappeared. But now somebody’s found him and kidnapped the woman he loves. Neither one of them will get out alive unless he completes a diabolical list of assassinations of the most dangerous men in the world…

Statham’s co-stars includes Sin City’s Jessica Alba, veteran Tommy Lee Jones from The Fugitive and Crouching Tiger‘s Michelle Yeoh, with Dennis Gansel (The Fourth State) at the helm. Stunt legend Vic Armstrong also handled the films action sequences with a team that includes fight choreographer extrodinaire JJ Perry. The film shot in Thailand and with the news of a new release date – now August 2016 –  comes the news that some additional photography will take place in Bulgaria, with Statham and Alba shooting more scenes.

We’re big fans of the original Mechanic, and despite the remake’s trailer narrative faux-pas, we’d rate it as one of Statham’s better movies of the last few years. The news of a sequel and the impressive cast and crew has got us quite excited, so fingers crossed.


MacGyverTHIS IS A JOB FOR MacGYVER…  Remember these opening credits? The original MacGyver not only ran for 7 seasons (and a couple of spin-off tv movies) but also saw the moniker become something of a common phrase when referring to someone having to improvise, “He’s got to MacGyver it!”. The series was produced by Henry Winkler (aka ‘The Fonz’) and Richard Dean Anderson, then displaying the world’s most epic mullet,  played the ex-secret agent with an incredible knowledge of science and technology, and a reluctance to pick up a gun unless absolutely necessary. The series saw MacGyver travel the world and fight the Russians, terrorists both home grown and international, corrupt government departments and so much more during the course of its run. 

The character of MacGyver also inspired an ongoing Saturday Night Live spoof of the character with Will Forte (Last Man on Earth) playing a clutzy version of the hero, who was blown up every episode by trying to use over complicated solutions to possible danger. The spoof also spawned a feature length movie with the character battling a villainous Val Kilmer. But one of our favourite outings was when the truth about MacGruber and MacGyver‘s connection was finally revealed.

Anderson himself would later become a mainstay of science-fiction series Stargate SG-1, though the production would have fun with his very different persona Jack O’Neill… with team-member Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) name-checking his series on screen.  The original MacGyver series ran on ABC, but the reboot of the show is being prepped for CBS. At the same time Lionsgate and CBS are working together on the big screen version, with Fast & Furious producer Neal Moritz and original creator Lee David Zlotoff serving as producers.

No word yet on who is stepping into Richard Dean Anderson’s shoes as the title character, or if RDA will be involved or making an appearance in either version of the reboot.


WhiteGhostWHITE GHOST TURNS BLU…  From the director of Brandon Lee’s cult clasic Lazer Mission, BJ Davis, and Gary Scott Thompson (the writer behind The Fast & Furious movies) comes White Ghost, a cult classic 80s action-flick finally hitting blu-ray… with a cast that includes William Katt (Greatest American Hero), Reb Brown (Uncommon Valour), Rosalind Chao (Star Trek: DS9), and Wayne Crawford (Jake Speed himself!).

William Katt plays Steve Shepherd, a Green Beret who has continued to fight on for fifteen years following the withdrawl of American forces from Vietnam. He’s a renegade who continues to wage a guerilla war on the Vietnamese-Cambodian border, referred to as the ‘White Ghost’ of the title  by the Vietcong and the locals due to the kabuki styled makeup he wears on missions. After all this time, he’s finally ready to come home and reaches out to his former Commander Major Cross (Reb Brown), who sends a team lead by Captain Walker (Wayne Crawford) to bring him back. But what Cross doesn’t know is that Walker and Shepherd have a history… and Walker has no intention of bringing him back alive.

White Ghost is often considered a 80s VHS classic: it’s a familiar concept, the idea works – a soldier left behind who continues to be a thorn in the side of the bad guys, but who finds the people sent to save him are more dangerous than the people he’s been fighting. Actually shot in Zimbabwe, it doubles surprisingly well for Vietnam.

The bluray release, out this week from Screen Archives Entertainment, contains a longer version of the film, the film from before the US censors cut it down to make it an R/18 rating, as well as on camera interviews with William Katt and director BJ Davis. In this case it’s also in a region-free format….


shootertvSHOOTER TO BE SHOT FOR TV… The Antoine Fuqua directed 2007 Shooter starred Mark Wahlberg as former Army Sniper Bobby Lee Swagger, set up to take the fall for a shadowy plot by Danny Glover and Ned Beatty. It may not have been the biggest hit of the year, but it did respectable business at the box office and very well on DVD thereafter. Now, as with one of Fuqua’s other more memorable cinematic outings, Training Day, plans are afoot to make the move to the small screen with USA Network picking it up Shooter for a series – with Simon Cellan helming the pilot and Ryan Phillippe (Way of the Gun) playing Swagger. Omar Epps (House), plays Isaac Johnson, Swagger’s former commanding officer, now a Secret Service agent, enlists Swagger for a secret mission that goes terribly wrong.

Shooter was originally adapted from the best selling novel Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter and the series is based on both the novel and elements of the movie, this time with Wahlberg serving as an Executive Producer along with Stephen Levinson and Lorenzo Di Bonaventura (and Phillippe also serving as a producer).

Shooter is an uncompromising exploration of the definition and evolution of a hero,” said Jackie de Crinis, Executive Vice President, Original Programming, USA Network in a statement. “The conspiracy and drama that unfolded throughout the first hour had us completely immersed, and we look forward to more.”

“USA is the perfect home for Shooter,” added  Amy Powell, President of Paramount Television. “Stephen Hunter’s Bob Lee Swagger is a heroic, iconic character and there is so much more of his story to explore in series. This incredible group of producers and actors bring our vision to the next level; we couldn’t be more thrilled to work with Mark, Ryan, Stephen, John, and Universal Cable Productions to take audiences on an exciting journey.”

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