Production is set to begin today in New Orleans on the Lionsgate action comedy film American Ultra. Directed by Nima Nourizadeh (Project X) and written by Max Landis (Chronicle and the upcoming Frankenstein), the film stars Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Topher Grace, Tony Hale, John Leguizamo, Bill Pullman and Walton Goggins. A PalmStar/Likely Story/Circle of Confusion production, the film is produced by Anthony Bregman (Begin Again and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Kevin Scott Frakes, Raj Brinder Singh, David Alpert (The Walking Dead) and Britton Rizzio, with Ray Angelic as executive producer. Jason Constantine, President of Acquisitions and Co-Productions and Eda Kowan, SVP of Acquisitions, will oversee the project on behalf of Lionsgate. FilmNation Entertainment is handling international sales.
American Ultra is a fast-paced action comedy about Mike (Eisenberg), a seemingly hapless and unmotivated stoner whose small-town life with his live-in girlfriend, Phoebe (Stewart), is suddenly turned upside down. Unbeknownst to him, Mike is actually a highly trained, lethal sleeper agent. In the blink of an eye, as his secret past comes back to haunt him, Mike is thrust into the middle of a deadly government operation and is forced to summon his inner action-hero in order to survive.
About Lionsgate
Lionsgate is a leading global entertainment company with a strong and diversified presence in motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, family entertainment, digital distribution, new channel platforms and international distribution and sales. Lionsgate currently has 34 television shows on 22 networks spanning its primetime production, distribution and syndication businesses, including such critically-acclaimed hits as the multiple Emmy Award-winning Mad Men and Nurse Jackie, the comedy Anger Management, the network series Nashville, the syndication success The Wendy Williams Show and the critically-acclaimed series Orange Is the New Black.
Its feature film business has been fueled by such recent successes as the blockbuster first two installments of The Hunger Games franchise, The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the first installment of the Divergent franchise, Now You See Me, Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain, Warm Bodies, The Expendables 2, The Possession, Sinister, Roadside Attractions' Mud and Pantelion Films' breakout hit Instructions Not Included, the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S.
Lionsgate's home entertainment business is an industry leader in box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rate. Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of approximately 15,000 motion picture and television titles that is an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the foundation for the growth of the Company's core businesses. The Lionsgate and Summit brands remain synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.