Action hero/Iron Chef chairman/Dancing with the Stars competitor/martial arts champion Mark Dacascos hasn't been asked to participate in any of the EXPENDABLES movies to date, but he has assembled his own version of an Expendables team for his feature directorial debut SHOWDOWN IN MANILA.
The film stars Russian bodybuilder Alexander Nevsky, who also came up with the story that DOLLMAN VS. DEMONIC TOYS writer Craig Hamann, who previously worked with Dacascos on the 1998 film BOOGIE BOY, fleshed out into a screenplay.
The synopsis:
Private detectives Nick and Charlie live and work in Manila. A murder investigation leads them to the jungle camp of an international terrorist called The Wrath. Not trusting the police, Nick and Charlie assemble a team of daredevils to walk straight into the Wraith's lair and fight an army of his goons.
Dacascos gave himself the role of a man who gets assassinated, while surrounding Nevsky with a stunning ensemble of action stars from the VHS heyday: Casper Van Dien, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Tia Carrere, Matthias Hues, Olivier Gruner, Don "The Dragon" Wilson, and Cynthia Rothrock.
That's a cast list that's just as impressive to me as any EXPENDABLES movie's cast, and it guarantees that I'll be watching this film as soon as possible – although the fact that it was a Dacascos/Hamann reunion was already enough to get me to watch it.
ITN Distribution will be giving SHOWDOWN IN MANILA a theatrical release tomorrow, January 19th, with a VOD and Digital HD release following next week on January 23rd.
The film was produced by Nevsky through his company Hollywood Storm, with Andrzej Bartkowiak and Alexander Izotov serving as executive producers.