The best new action hero to emerge just last year is back, and he’s breaking bad while breaking bones. The upcoming MMA action drama Beast in Me finds Bren Foster, who smashed onto screens with last year’s Life After Fighting, taking on villain duty as he goes up against a down-on-his-luck fighter trained by Oscar-winner Russell Crowe.
Beast in Me has now been picked up for domestic distribution, with Grindstone Entertainment Group winning the rights to the action drama that promises to tell a classic underdog story set in the world of MMA. Coming via Deadline, Beast in Me follows “a former MMA legend turned family man who is lured back into the cage for a high-stakes rematch with the champion he once defeated. Now the underdog, he must wrestle with guilt, grief, and his violent past to win one last fight for his family and himself.”
Directed by Tyler Atkins, Beast in Me is written by Russell Crowe and Land of Bads’ David Frigerio. The cast includes Crowe alongside Bren Foster, Luke Hemsworth (The Terminal List: Dark Wolf), Mojean Aria (The Correspondent) Kelly Gale (Plane), George Burgess (Land of Bad), Saphira Moran (It Will Find You) and Australian musician Amy Shark in her feature film debut.
While we await a release date and try to keep our excitement at seeing Crowe as a trainer and Foster as a vicious villain at bay, co-writer David Frigerio has provided some serious hype, calling Beast in Me “a true martial arts film with a hero’s journey at the heart. Nuanced characters deliver drama whilst epic fights bring dynamic action, which is sure to thrill and entertain audiences around the world.”
Bren Foster’s ‘Life After Fighting’ Is One of the Best Action Movies in Years
Released in June 2024, Life After Fighting tells the perfect no-nonsense story of a former martial arts champion who has settled into living a quiet life. But, when two of his students are kidnapped by child traffickers, he must put his hard-earned skills to good use to save them. No doubt you now wish you’d taken the advice and stopped what you were doing to watch it.
Directed by and starring Australian actor and martial artist Bren Foster, the supporting cast includes Cassie Howarth, Annabelle Stephenson, Luke Ford, Eddie Arrazola, and Ethan Browne. Life After Fighting is available to stream for free on Tubi in certain territories and on Prime Video in the U.S. and follows a martial arts instructor who is confronted with the disappearance of two of his students, leading him into a direct confrontation with a group of international child traffickers.
Like so many underrated action gems before it, Life After Fighting sadly flew under the radar at the time. Thus, there are not enough reviews from critics to give the action outing a score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, all six reviews that have been tallied on the review aggregator site are “fresh,” with critics declaring the martial arts flick an “amazing crime thriller that also just happens to have some of the best martial arts sequences that you will see on screen” and nothing less than “an action fan’s dream movie.”
- Birthname
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Russell Ira Crowe
- Birthdate
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April 7, 1964
- Birthplace
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Wellington, North Island, New Zealand
