Hong Kong-based Australian filmmaker Antony Szeto has signed to direct the action thriller Weekend Warriors.
Scripted by Trevor Howis, the film follows a young Army reserve officer who tries to save his men and his brother from his psychopathic former mentor who is hell bent on revenge.
Szeto’s latest film is Fist of the Dragon, a martial arts actioner produced by the legendary Roger Corman. Shot in Nanhai, China, the film sees a retired MMA fighter (UFC star Josh "The Punk" Thomson) head to the Far East to meet his new lover Meili (Hong Kong martial artist Juju Chan). When he inadvertently takes possession of a package sought by an international arms dealer, mayhem ensues.
That was Szeto’s second collaboration with Corman following The Haunted, a horror movie about a Western documentary crew who discover a story about a head concubine who violently murdered another concubine.
Howis tells IF he met Szeto a couple of years ago through producer Janice Eymann. He sent the director the screenplay for Weekend Warriors and he replied “within seconds.” Howis says, “He’s an action director and this is an action script so it’s a perfect fit.”
The film will be produced by Howis’ Vincero Productions and Pam Collis’ Silver Wings Films with Paul O’Kane.
Collis was line producer on John V. Soto’s thriller The Reckoning and produced two films set on the Gold Coast: Brian Trenchard-Smith’s Drive Hard and Suri Krishnamma’s Bad Karma.
Howis and Collis will pitch the project to international buyers at next month’s American Film Market in Los Angeles. He says he’s likely to hire a sales agent during the AFM. He has a "wish list" cast that he's not ready to reveal yet.
Originally Howis intended to co-produce the film with David Hannay and the UK’s The Spice Factory, with Trenchard-Smith directing. Howis amicably parted company with David Hannay Productions after more than three years as head of development and decided to look for new producing partners and a new director.