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Los Angeles-based Great Escape has kicked off sales talks in Toronto on heist thriller Stranglehold starring Ashley Benson from Spring Breakers and Jake Lacy from The White Lotus alongside Justin Long, and Ron Perlman.

Clark Duke directs the feature, which shot this summer and is in the vein of Dog Day Afternoon, Die Hard and the Coen Brothers oeuvre.

Benson stars as a stripper with aspirations of becoming a professional dancer who ekes out a living with her husband (Lacy). They decide to pull off a Christmas party heist at the strip club where she works, unaware that a group...

Actor Clark Duke made his feature directorial debut with the 2020 crime film Arkansas (you can read our 8/10 review at This Link), and now Deadline reports that he has just wrapped production on his second feature, a comedic thriller called Stranglehold, which also happens to be set in Arkansas. The cast includes Ashley Benson (Pretty Little Liars), Justin Long (Barbarian), Jake Lacy (Apples Never Fall), and Ron Perlman (Hellboy).

Described as “a Southern-fried siege, with shades of Dog Day Afternoon and Die Hard,” while also being “in the vein of the Coen Brothers’s oeuvre,” Stranglehold follows Bailey (Benson), an exotic dancer with big dreams. She and her Army vet husband Tim (Lacy) are fed up with their lives of barely getting by in small-town Arkansas, so they decide to rob the strip club that employs her. Clark Duke wrote the screenplay with Chandler Duke and Billington Garrett.

Coming our way from Yale Productions,...

Exclusive: Actor-turned filmmaker Clark Duke (Arkansas) has wrapped production on Stranglehold, a new comedic thriller in the vein of the Coen Brothers’s oeuvre for Yale Productions. Cast for the pic includes Ashley Benson (Wilderness), Emmy nominee Jake Lacy (Apples Never Fall), Justin Long (Barbarian) and Golden Globe winner Ron Perlman (The Instigators).

Written by Chandler Duke, Billington Garrett and Clark Duke, the film is billed as a Southern-fried siege, with shades of Dog Day Afternoon and Die Hard, which centers on Bailey (Benson), an exotic dancer with big dreams. She and her Army vet husband Tim (Lacy) are fed up with their lives of barely getting by in small-town Arkansas, so they decide to rob the strip club that employs her.

Producers include Jordan Yale Levine, Jordan Beckerman and Michael Day of Yale Productions, along with Clark Duke. Exec producers are Rabbits Black’s Lawrence Minicone, Ronnie Exley, Jeremy Ross,...

Newly arrived on home video -- Apple, Amazon, and On Demand platforms, plus Blu-ray and DVD -- the dark comic crime flick Arakansas features a plethora of familiar faces, affecting accents and pretending to be tough guys. Taken straight, I think I would pass, but since it's billed as a 'dark comedy,' it sounds much more palatable. Actor Clark Duke, known for broad comedies like Hot Tub Time Machine, makes his feature directorial debut and also plays a leading role, alongside Liam Hemsworth, Michael Kenneth Williams, Vivica A. Fox, Eden Brolin, and Chandler Duke with John Malkovich and Vince Vaughn. Those names alone draw my interest. Add to that the source material, the debut novel by John Brandon, which likely gives the film a broader...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

As Kyle (Liam Hemsworth) shares during an early voiceover, organized crime in the backwoods of southern America isn’t very organized. This is good since few of the people in the wholesale drug dealing business of which he’s operated for just a little while are smart. He probably wouldn’t call himself very smart either since he’s content to follow his orders to the letter rather than harbor ambitions about becoming the boss. He’s perceptive in ways that ensure he maintains an upper hand in all situations, but never greedy enough to tip things so far off-balance that he has nowhere to go but down. Kyle sees the angles, parses secrets, and plans ahead in the hopes of staying alive long enough for none of it to matter.

So it’s no surprise he’d end up getting paired with his antithesis in Swin (Clark Duke). Kyle...

In Clark Duke’s directorial debut Arkansas, Kyle (Liam Hemsworth) and Swin (Clark Duke) live by the orders of an Arkansas-based drug kingpin named Frog (Vince Vaughn), whom they’ve never met. Posing as junior park rangers by day, they operate as low-level drug couriers by night under the watchful eye of Frog’s proxies (John Malkovich and Vivica A. Fox). Swin then settles into his day job by taking up a relationship with Johnna (Eden Brolin) against orders to blend in while Kyle continues to question his night job by trying to figure out who Frog really is. Their world is then upended after one too many inept decisions, and Kyle, Swin, and Johnna find themselves directly in Frog’s crosshairs, who mistakenly sees them as a threat to his empire. Based on John Brandon’s best-selling book of the same name, Arkansas weaves together three decades of Deep...

Liam Hemsworth and Clark Duke retaliate against their drug dealer boss in the trailer for Lionsgate's Arkansas.

The thriller follows Kyle (Hemsworth) and Swin (Duke), who work for an Arkansas-based drug kingpin named Frog (Vince Vaughn). By day they pose as park rangers, while by night they work as low-level drug couriers. Their world is then upended following many inept decisions, which leave Kyle, Swin and Johnna (Eden Brolin) directly in Frog’s crosshairs.

Michael Kenneth Williams, Vivica A. Fox, Chandler Duke and John Malkovich also star in Clark Duke's directorial debut. The film is based on John Brandon'...

Liam Hemsworth and Clark Duke retaliate against their drug dealer boss in the trailer for Lionsgate's Arkansas.

The thriller follows Kyle (Hemsworth) and Swin (Duke), who work for an Arkansas-based drug kingpin named Frog (Vince Vaughn). By day they pose as park rangers, while by night they work as low-level drug couriers. Their world is then upended following many inept decisions, which leave Kyle, Swin and Johnna (Eden Brolin) directly in Frog’s crosshairs.

Michael Kenneth Williams, Vivica A. Fox, Chandler Duke and John Malkovich also star in Clark Duke's directorial debut. The film is based on John Brandon'...

Lionsgate has launched a new trailer for the Liam Hemsworth led comedy-thriller ‘Arkansas’

In Clark Duke’s directorial debut, Kyle (Liam Hemsworth) and Swin (Clark Duke) live by the orders of an Arkansas-based drug kingpin named Frog (Vince Vaughn), whom they’ve never met. Posing as junior park rangers by day, they operate as low-level drug couriers by night under the watchful eye of Frog’s proxies (John Malkovich and Vivica A. Fox). However, after one too many inept decisions, Kyle and Swin find themselves directly in Frog’s crosshairs, who mistakenly sees them as a threat to his empire. Based on John Brandon’s best-selling book of the same name, Arkansas weaves together three decades of Deep South drug trafficking to explore the cycle of violence that turns young men into criminals, and old men into legends.

Directed by Duke who co-wrote the story alongside Andrew Boonkrong the film also stars Duke,...