Once upon a time, Shane Black's "The Nice Guys" might have become a hit. That time, however, was not May 20-22, 2016, when the film opened in a distant fourth place behind that weekend's box office champion, "The Angry Birds Movie." Black was coming off the billion-dollar success of "Iron Man 3" when he decided to write and direct his film, an original buddy crime comedy in the same vein as his cult classic directorial debut, "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang." Even then, he probably realized it was useless resisting the once unstoppable tide of superheroes and franchises, but darn it if he wasn't going to try (much like his film's offbeat heroes do their darnedest to curb the ever-turning wheel of systematic injustice).
Based on a screenplay Black co-wrote with Anthony Bagarozzi, "The Nice Guys" winds the clock back for a sordid comical yarn of crime and corruption in haze-ridden...
Based on a screenplay Black co-wrote with Anthony Bagarozzi, "The Nice Guys" winds the clock back for a sordid comical yarn of crime and corruption in haze-ridden...
- 7/22/2023
- by Sandy Schaefer
- Slash Film
Surely, it can’t be long before we see a new addition to “The Film Critic’s Lexicon,” in the chapter devoted to such shorthand similes as “feels like a Hallmark movie,” “resembles an after-school special” and that old standby, “Tarantinoesque.” Chances are very good there will be something on the order of “good enough for lockdown” or “quarantine time-killer,” used to describe the sort of unabashedly derivative and instantly disposable genre fare that might find an audience among undemanding genre enthusiasts in search of something new — anything new — to watch while homebound.
And when that label does indeed appear, don’t be surprised to see a production still from writer-director Christian Sesma’s “Paydirt” alongside it as illustration.
A thoroughly mediocre but sporadically diverting mashup of elements cribbed from the cinemas of Guy Ritchie, Steven Soderbergh and, yes, Quentin Tarantino, “Paydirt” is a crime drama with darkly comical touches...
And when that label does indeed appear, don’t be surprised to see a production still from writer-director Christian Sesma’s “Paydirt” alongside it as illustration.
A thoroughly mediocre but sporadically diverting mashup of elements cribbed from the cinemas of Guy Ritchie, Steven Soderbergh and, yes, Quentin Tarantino, “Paydirt” is a crime drama with darkly comical touches...
- 8/7/2020
- by Joe Leydon
- Variety Film + TV
"They say it's buried out there somewhere..." Dark Star Pictures has revealed the first official trailer for a crime action thriller titled Paydirt, the latest by filmmaker Christian Sesma. This hasn't shown anywhere else, and is debuting direct-to-vod in August. Val Kilmer stars as a retired Sheriff with an "obsession to right past wrongs" who goes after an ex-convict that is searching for a buried bag of cash stolen a decade ago from a DEA bust gone bad. Sounds like every other dusty crime thriller about a con looking for his money. Starring Luke Goss, with Mike Hatton, Paul Sloan, Nick Vallelonga, Mirtha Michelle, Veronika Bozeman, Murielle Telio, and introducing Mercedes Kilmer. This looks so excessively cliche and so painfully mediocre it's hard to even finish this trailer. But at least Val Kilmer is starring in something again. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Christian Sesma's Paydirt, direct from...
- 6/26/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Australia, Japan, Middle East among buyers.
Los Angeles-based sales outfit Octane Entertainment has struck North American and select international deals on its Luke Goss and Val Kilmer action thriller Paydirt, the company’s first in-house production that international buyers continue to circle at the Efm.
Rights have gone in Australia/New Zealand (Eagle Entertainment), South Korea (Jaye Entertainment), Germany (Lighthouse), Middle East (Eagle Films), Japan (At Entertainment), Africa, Eastern Europe (Daro), Indonesia (Pt Falcon), and pan-Asia (Fox-Disney). Uncork’d will distribute the film in North America in August.
Paydirt wrapped recently in the Us and centres on a parolee who...
Los Angeles-based sales outfit Octane Entertainment has struck North American and select international deals on its Luke Goss and Val Kilmer action thriller Paydirt, the company’s first in-house production that international buyers continue to circle at the Efm.
Rights have gone in Australia/New Zealand (Eagle Entertainment), South Korea (Jaye Entertainment), Germany (Lighthouse), Middle East (Eagle Films), Japan (At Entertainment), Africa, Eastern Europe (Daro), Indonesia (Pt Falcon), and pan-Asia (Fox-Disney). Uncork’d will distribute the film in North America in August.
Paydirt wrapped recently in the Us and centres on a parolee who...
- 2/22/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
Christian Sesma (Vigilante Diaries) directs California-set thriller.
Octane Entertainment has wrapped production on its first in-house project, the Luke Goss and Val Kilmer thriller Paydirt, and will show first footage and launch worldwide sales in Berlin.
Christian Sesma (Vigilante Diaries) directs from his screenplay about a parolee (Goss) who teams up with his old crew to find a buried bag of cash stolen five years ago from a DEA bust gone bad. Kilmer plays the dogged retired sheriff on his tail.
Mike Hatton, Nick Vallelonga, Paul Sloan, V. Bozeman, Mirtha Michelle, Murielle Telio, Jay Montalvo and newcomer Mercedes Kilmer round out the cast.
Octane Entertainment has wrapped production on its first in-house project, the Luke Goss and Val Kilmer thriller Paydirt, and will show first footage and launch worldwide sales in Berlin.
Christian Sesma (Vigilante Diaries) directs from his screenplay about a parolee (Goss) who teams up with his old crew to find a buried bag of cash stolen five years ago from a DEA bust gone bad. Kilmer plays the dogged retired sheriff on his tail.
Mike Hatton, Nick Vallelonga, Paul Sloan, V. Bozeman, Mirtha Michelle, Murielle Telio, Jay Montalvo and newcomer Mercedes Kilmer round out the cast.
- 2/12/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
The Nice Guys Review The Nice Guys (2016) Film Review, a movie directed by Shane Black, starring Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Matt Bomer, Kim Basinger , Angourie Rice, Margaret Qualley, Yaya DaCosta, Keith David, Beau Knapp, Lois Smith, Murielle Telio, Gil Gerard, Daisy Tahan, Jack Kilmer, Lance Valentine Butler. The Nice Guys might be the Shane Black-est film of Shane Black films to date. Black has essentially become his own brand at this point, and […]...
- 5/22/2016
- by Samuel Murrian
- Film-Book
Los Angeles is maybe known world-wide as an entertainment mecca, ground zero for all things that glitter, but it’s also the locale for thrillers and the “hard-boiled” mystery. Everybody from Bogie to Bob Mitchum threw on a trench coat, adjusted their fedoras, and strolled down those dark streets and alleys, looking for danger (and dangerous dames). This week’s new flick somewhat echoes those noir “programmers”. Being a big Summer release, we’ve got two “gumshoes” dodging bullets. And it’s not post WWII California, but rather post Vietnam War “la la land” circa 1977 (near Christmas-time). Now, with two bickering private eyes, you might consider this a variation of the standard “cop buddy” actioner. That’s appropriate since this movie is directed by the screenwriter who set the template for police team-up flicks back in 1987 with Lethal Weapon, Shane Black. It turns out that this movie’s heroes are...
- 5/20/2016
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Shockingly, this is not a Christmas movie. In every other way, though, it is a Shane Black movie, and that is reason enough to rejoice. I am more than willing to cop to the fact that part of what I like about Shane Black is that he evidently loves the exact same things I love, and for the exact same reasons. When someone’s making art that hews so closely to my ideal aesthetic, I start half-in-the-bag for the thing. I’ve written often about my love of La detective stories, especially when set in different eras of the city’s development. Walter Mosley, Raymond Chandler, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Towne, James Ellroy, Michael Connelly… lots of guys have mined this territory to terrific effect, and I have no doubt I’ll take my own shot at it someday. What Black does here is very different than what Paul Thomas Anderson did in Inherent Vice,...
- 5/19/2016
- by Drew McWeeny
- Hitfix
After co-starring in the pilot, up-and-coming actress Murielle Telio will recur on Amazon’s original series “Red Oaks,” which boasts Steven Soderbergh, Gregory Jacobs and David Gordon Green among its executive producers, TheWrap has learned. Set in 1985, “Red Oaks” follows David Myers (Craig Roberts), a college student who gets a summer job as an assistant tennis pro at the Red Oaks Country Club in suburban New Jersey. After playing Dawn in the series pilot, which shot last spring, Telio has signed on for a minimum of three episodes in which she’ll return as the country club’s gorgeous massage therapist.
- 5/4/2015
- by Jeff Sneider
- The Wrap
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