EXCLUSIVE: Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler, Iron Man 2), Lou Diamond Phillips (La Bamba, Young Guns), Penelope Ann Miller (Riverdale, Carlito’s Way), Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Goonies), Kelly Arjen (Strange Ones) and Thomas Ian Nicholas (Please Give, Rules of Attraction) will star in Adverse, an indie neo-noir drama written and to be directed by Brian A. Metcalf.
The film hails from Red Compass Media in association with Black Jellybeans Productions. It’s about a man who tries to save his younger sister after he discovers she is addicted to drugs and caught in a seedy underworld. Rourke will star as Kaden, the underworld boss who runs operations and who hires Ethan (Nicholas), a rideshare driver who discovers his younger sister (Arjen) has become entangled in drugs and debt.
Phillips will play Dr. Cruz, a parole officer who tries to prevent Ethan from going back to his old habits. Astin’s character is Ethan’s unscrupulous boss, Frankie, while Miller plays Nicole, Ethan’s mom who tries to keep him in line with the law.
Matt Ryan (Constantine, Legends of Tomorrow), Jake T. Austin (Wizards of Waverly Place, The Fosters), Andrew Keegan (Living Among Us, Independence Day), Luke Edwards (True Detective, Jeepers Creepers II), Aaron Schwartz (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2), Jesse Garcia (The Avengers, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), and Charlene Amoia (How I Met Your Mother) round out the core cast of the pic, which will shoot later this month in Los Angeles.
Metcalf, Nicholas and Ben Chan are producing.