Stranglehold: Ashley Benson, Justin Long, & more star in Southern-fried comedic thriller

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, the film is being produced by Jordan Yale Levine, Jordan Beckerman, and Michael Day, along with Clark Duke. Executive producers include Rabbits Black’s Lawrence Minicone, Ronnie Exley, Jeremy Ross, and Sean Krajewski, as well as Will Hirschfeld, Edmund Lowell, Aden Darmody, Michael Becker, Jeffrey Tussi, Michael J. Rothstein, Nick Donnermeyer, Andy Rich, David Nazar, Jason Kringstein, Scott Levenson, and Brian S. Unger. Jourdan Henderson is co-producing, with Carol and Joseph Tufaro serving as co-executive producers.

Levine and Beckerman provided the following statement: “Clark Duke is a phenomenal talent, we are thrilled to be working with him, along with this fantastic cast. Stranglehold is a singular film– it is equal parts action-packed, horrifying, and hilarious — from a singular filmmaking voice.“

Clark Duke added, “I am thrilled to be making my follow-up to Arkansas with such an amazing cast. Stranglehold is a continuation of many themes I explored in Arkansas, very much a movie about where we are right now, and I cannot wait for people to see it.“

In addition to directing the film, Duke starred in Arkansas alongside Liam Hemsworth, John Malkovich, Eden Brolin, and Vince Vaughn. Scripted by Duke, Andrew Boonkrong, and John Brandon, that movie told the following story: Kyle and Swin live by the orders of an Arkansas-based drug kingpin named Frog, whom they’ve never met. But when a deal goes horribly wrong, the consequences are deadly.

Have you seen Arkansas, and does Stranglehold sound interesting to you? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.