‘Road Dogs’, ‘Holiday Twist,’ ‘A Miracle Before Christmas’, ‘A Haitian Wedding’, ‘Braek’, ‘Open’ Castings; Acquisitions By Freestyle, Screen Media, Vision Films, Kaczmarek; More – Film Briefs:

EXCLUSIVE: Dallas Roberts (Big Sky), Arden Myrin (Orange Is the New Black) and Harvey Guillén (Reacher) have signed on to star in the comedy Road Dogs, from Bustled Knuckle Productions and Residue Remains Productions, which goes into production in Minnesota this summer.

The film centers around three stand-up comedians who hit the road for a simple weekend showcase but soon find their plans derailed by a crooked club owner and her homicidal bouncer. Vanessa Leigh is directing from her and Aaron W. Bennett’s script, which was based on Bennett’s time as an improv comic and comedy club owner in Central Washington. The duo will produce alongside Kris Black from Residue Remains Productions, with Hunter G. Williams of Busted Knuckle Productions serving as executive producer.

Roberts is represented by UTA and Circle of Confusion; Myrin by Innovative Artists, Vault Entertainment and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller; Guillén by Innovative and Yorn, Levine, Barnes; and Leigh by Heroes and Villains Entertainment.

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EXCLUSIVE: Kelly Stables (Superstore), Billy Zane (Titanic) and James Maslow (Big Time Rush) have boarded the feature comedy Holiday Twist, from writer-director Stephanie Garvin and her ETM Pictures. They join an ensemble that also includes Alison Eastwood, Melody Thornton, Hugh Sheridan, Caylee Cowan, Montana Tucker, Sadie Stratton, Blake Leeper and more.

The film centers on a Grinch workaholic CEO (Stables) whose world comes crashing down. Subsequently, with help from a Supermarket Santa and a little holiday magic, she realizes the key to letting go of her painful past is to become the twinkling light that both her town and her family needs. Garvin is producing alongside Home Alone‘s Scott Rosenfelt, Amanda Archer and Joe Dadic.

Stables is repped by Patino Management Company and Innovative Artists; Zane by APA and Canopy Media Partners; and Maslow by Defining Artists Agency and 3 Arts Entertainment.

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EXCLUSIVE: Black Lightning star Marvin ‘Krondon’ Jones III has come aboard Legion M’s Defiant as a producer.

The film currently in development tells the true story of enslaved harbor pilot Robert Smalls who, in the midst of the Civil War, pulled off the most audacious heist in history by stealing a Confederate warship, disguising himself as the Captain, filling it with family and friends and sailing to freedom.

The Spirit of Adventure
TINCUP is Mountain Whiskey. Straight Bourbon married with Colorado single malt and cut with Rocky Mountain Water.

Defiant was scripted by Robert Blake Whitehill. The Wolper Organization (Roots) has also come aboard to produce, with actor, director, producer and Legion M advisor Bill Duke (Mandy) to serve as executive producer. Jones is repped by Buchwald, Framework Entertainment and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman; Duke by Pantheon Talent, Priluck Company and Abrams Garfinkel Margolis.

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EXCLUSIVE: Demetrius Shipp Jr. (All Eyez on Me), Paula Jai Parker (Hustle & Flow) and Porscha Coleman (Dad Stop Embarassing Me!) have boarded the holiday film, A Miracle Before Christmas, from writer-director Lazrael Lison (#Unknown), which is in production in Los Angeles. They join an ensemble that also includes LeToya Luckett, Romeo Miller and Keith David, as previously announced.

The love story centers on Mercedes Wright (Luckett), a famous, fast-talking relationship therapist who has the answers to fixing everyone else’s marital issues but is challenged by problems faced with her own husband (Miller), leaning on help from an angel (David) to get past them. Leslie M. Segar, Megan Chelsea Johnson, Tyler Capri Clark, Jasper Cole and Tatiana Chekhova will round out the cast.

Lison and Chekhova are producing the film under their Summer House Pictures banner, with Charles F. Porter of Black Bench Productions, and Jasper Cole (Never and Again). Marlon D. Haynes is serving as exec producer. Shipp is repped by A3 Artists Agency; Parker by SMS Talent and ATN Entertainment; and Coleman by Realm Talent and Schumacher Management.

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EXCLUSIVE: Skyh Alvester Black (All the Queen’s Men) has boarded the romantic drama A Haitian Wedding from director Jamal Hill as an exec producer and cast member. He joins an ensemble that also includes Barton Fitzpatrick, Maryam Basir. Jeryl Prescott, Bechir Sylvain, Starletta DuPois and newcomer Deborah Lynn Lherisson, as previously announced.

The film written by Dieuveny Jean Louis D.J. centers on the love story of Stephanie Durant (Basir), a smart and driven young woman who has the answers to everyone else’s issues, but is challenged by problems faced with her own self-discovery and her soon-to-be husband. The two must travel to her native country of Haiti for her parents’ approval and for her fiancé to ask them for her hand in marriage. However, we soon find out there is more to this trip regarding herself, family, and a final decision she will need to make.

Black is playing Stephanie’s American go-getter fiancé, Patrick Casey. Sean Mik’ael Butler and Melkwych Pierre-Louis are producing, with Hill and Louis exec producing alongside Black for Pinetree Park Entertainment. Patrick Strøm is serving as co-executive producer. Black is repped by Gersh and Luber Roklin Entertainment.

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EXCLUSIVE: Kevin Interdonato (City on a Hill) and Nick Baillie (Taken) will star alongside Melissa Anschutz, Alix Lane and Danilo Rocha in the horror-thriller Braek, which has wrapped production in Pennsylvania.

The film from director John Fallon centers on the McCabe family, whose weekend getaway was never meant to be a life-changing experience. Governor William McCabe (Baillie), a respected politician, was looking forward to some rest and relaxation. His beautiful wife Lauren (Anschutz) and aloof stepdaughter Erin (Lane) strain to enjoy their time together, as the facade of the trophy family has worn dangerously thin. Things take a severe turn when a mysterious stranger knocks on their door and triggers a visceral chain of events. Details with regard to the character Interdonato is playing have not been disclosed.

Fallon and Interdonato wrote the film, which Princ FIlms’ Igor Princ serving as its executive producer. Interdonato is repped by Brave Artists Management; Baillie by Oldfield Talent Management in Toronto, Synergy Talent and Tlynn Talent Management.

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EXCLUSIVE: William Forsythe (Boardwalk Empire) and Yohance Myles (2 Guns) have signed on to star alongside Jeremy London, Elena Sanchez, Lindsay Anne Williams and Miles Doleac in Doleac’s genre-bender, Open, which will enter production in Hattiesburg, MS next week.

The film written by Doleac and Williams tells the story of a woman in a troubled marriage who falls for a former TV star, all the while hallucinating that she’s the frontwoman of an ’80s new wave band, populated by the major players in her personal life. Pic will contain 10 original songs, inspired by the ’80s post punk/new wave era. Miles Doleac and Williams are producing, with John Lawrence Doleac serving as executive producer. Forsythe is repped by Innovative Artists; Myles by People Store.

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EXCLUSIVE: Multitude Films and Chicken & Egg Pictures have partnered on Queer Futures, an upcoming series of five documentary shorts directed by emerging LGBTQ directors.

The short films in the series will be directed by Sasha Wortzel, Twiggy Pucci Garçon, Brit Fryer, Noah Schamus, Lindsey Dryden and Ligaiya Romero, showcasing queer and trans, BIPOC, disabled, working-class, and underrepresented experiences as a point of pride and power. Film topics include the process of gaining gender-affirming healthcare; the non-binary future of the ballroom community; fat, queer liberation in the Florida springs; the oldest LGBTQ support hotline in the UK; and science fiction as a way to envision a more gender-expansive future.

Chicken & Egg Pictures is providing Multitude with a $75,000 grant, which will go toward the shorts’ production, and is also bringing the filmmakers together for an in-person story lab. Also taking part in the project is the company Frankly Speaking Films.

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EXCLUSIVE: Freestyle Digital Media has acquired North American rights to writer-director Dean Peterson’s dramedy Kendra and Beth, as well as U.S. rights to Wendy Hill-Tout’s biographical crime drama, Marlene. The digital film distribution division of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group plans to release the former title across internet and satellite platforms on June 7, unveiling the latter across platforms on June 21.

Kendra and Beth tells the story of Kendra (Eleanore Pienta), a woman stuck in the monotony of her daily life who finds a lifeline when live-wire waitress Beth (Kate Lyn Sheil) crashes into her life. Peterson and Reilly Myklebust produced the film, which also stars Whitmer Thomas, Catherine Curtain, Phil Matarese and Jon Gabrus.

Marlene tells a story inspired by Marlene Truscott (Kristin Booth), a housewife who fought to exonerate her husband from a crime he didn’t commit. Marlene became involved in the fight for justice at a young age, when Steven was arrested at 14 and sentenced to be hung. When Steven was released from prison 10 years later, she fell in love with him. Her story is a story of hiding, living under an assumed name and protecting her children. He was free, but now she was in prison. Through it all, Marlene was determined that Steven would get justice, and that they would find light in the darkness—a darkness that buried the truth. Hill-Tout and Cathy Ostlere wrote the pic, which also stars Greg Bryk, Julia Sarah Stone, Dempsey Bryk, Maxim Roy and Ryan Northcott. Hill-Tout and Michael Peterson served as its producers.

Freestyle Digital Media negotiated the deal for Kendra and Beth with Glen Reynolds of Circus Road Films, negotiating the deal for Marlene with Justin Rebelo of Vortex Media. Check out the trailers for both films below.

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EXCLUSIVE: Screen Media has acquired Ty Leisher’s feature directorial debut 11th Hour Cleaning for release on digital and VOD on July 5th.

The horror film centers on a group of crime scene cleaners who struggle to escape a murder house. After becoming trapped by an ancient Nordic demon hell-bent on driving them insane, they must face their most personal regrets and fears through horrific hallucinations. As they uncover what truly happened to the murder victims, they struggle to escape their own deaths by finding and destroying pieces of a relic from Norse mythology that gives the demon power. Chloe Brooks (Embeds), Eddie Finlay (2 Fast 2 Furious), Anita Leeman-Torres (Speed Kills), Ed Morrone (Final Kill) and Dave Baez (Dexter) star.

Leisher and Ed Morrone wrote the script, which was based on their story penned with Eric Brodeur. Thomas Griffith and Carl Katerndahl exec produced the film, with Brodeur serving as its producer. Leisher and Brodeur negotiated the deal for 11th Hour Cleaning, with Logan Taylor and Seth Needle on behalf of Screen Media. Check out the film’s trailer below.

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EXCLUSIVE: Vision Films Inc. has acquired rights to the historical mystery-thriller Mysterious Circumstance: The Death Of Meriwether Lewis, written and directed by Clark Richey of Six Shooter Studios. The company is introducing the film to international buyers at Cannes and is planning a theatrical release in the U.S. in the fall, with Michael Mosca of Equinoxe Films on board to release the film in Canadian theaters in September.

The film looks at various versions of the death of American explorer Meriwether Lewis (Evan Williams)—of Lewis & Clark fame—at a remote wilderness inn, imagined by his friend and renowned ornithologist Alexander Wilson (Billy Slaughter) during a tense encounter with the only witness to Lewis’ final night alive, the innkeeper Priscilla Grinder (Amye Gousset), and her enigmatic husband Robert (Sonny Marinelli). A story of the allegedly unresolved 1809 demise of a national hero, Mysterious Circumstance sheds the light of truth on Lewis’ death by gunshot on the Natchez Trace, an isolated frontier road connecting Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi. Did the Governor of the Louisiana Territory commit suicide as history reports, or was his end far more sinister?

John Schneider, Lance E. Nichols, Marcus Dupree and Rider Mayo also star in the pic produced by Gousset, Fisher Productions’ Robbie Fisher, Morgan Cutturini, and P.J. Leonard of Other Side of the River Productions. Executive producers included Richey, Schneider of John Schneider Studios, Alicia Allain Schneider (Maven Entertainment) and Mosca. Watch the trailer for Mysterious Circumstance below.

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EXCLUSIVE: Kaczmarek Digital Media Group has acquired worldwide rights to The Staircase actor Nick McCallum’s noir thriller Find Her, in which he stars alongside Stelio Savante (Infidel), Anais Lilit (The Walking Dead: Red Machete), Richard Gunn (Clemency) and John James (My Son Hunter), out of the Cannes Market. The film billed as Brick meets Gone Baby Gone is set for release on VOD in October.

Pic tells the story of an ex-cop who arrives in a small town to investigate the murder of a ranch owner and the disappearance of his daughter. Over the course of the crime pic, it slowly becomes clear that he has his own personal agenda, in finding the truth. G. Andrew Ahrens, Rebecca Lines, Randal Gonzalez, Mary Drew Ahrens and John Daniel Gates also star.

McCallum wrote the script and produced alongside Savante and Kelly Knox, with G. Andrew Ahren serving as executive producer. Check out the film’s trailer below.

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EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has an exclusive clip from Kyu-maan Lee’s crime drama The Policeman’s Lineage, starring Woo-sik Choi (Parasite), Jin-woong Cho (The Handmaiden), Myeong-hoon Park (Parasite) and Hee-soon Park (Apple TV+’s Dr. Brain), which Echelon Studios will release on digital, VOD and cable on June 7.

The film centers on Choi Min-Jae (Choi), a rookie police officer and man of principle, who teams up with Park Gang-Yoon (Cho), the chief of an investigation team that has an unrivaled arrest record but includes corrupt methods. Together, the two very different policemen dive deep into a massive case that shakes the police force upside down.

Han-seung Lee (The Tower) produced The Policeman’s Lineage, with Hyun-joo Jung (The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil) exec producing. Check out the new clip from the film below.

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EXCLUSIVE: Mathew Kodath and Benji Lopez’s Guacamaya Films is bringing its indie film Amor En 266 Millas to Dances With Films as an official selection of the festival on June 16. The film will make its world premiere at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood at 9:15 p.m.

The road trip pic tells the story of Marcos (Eli Cay), a divorced man who finds himself broke and stuck in his job. Armed with an idea, he sets out on a journey to achieve his dreams. His younger brother and sister-in-law plot to change his plans with an adventure across 266 miles in the high desert that will be life-changing for all of them. Lopez directed the film, which also stars Fernanda Romero, Laura Aleman and Luis Omar O’Farrill, from his and Jennifer Gomez Castillo’s script. Kodath and Saray D. Guidetti served as its producers.

View this article at Deadline.