EXCLUSIVE: Former UFC Middleweight champion turned actor Michael Bisping (Red Sonja) has partnered with Storyman Pictures to launch Punch It Films, a new production and finance company. The team will be open for business at this year’s Cannes Market.
The company will be based in Los Angeles. Their inaugural slate includes the action thriller Atlas King, written and directed by Nika Agiashvili (Daughter of the Wolf). Bisping and George Finn lead the flick. Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead) and Emmy Award winner Anne Winters (13 Reasons Why) have also joined the cast.
Atlas King follows a hardened ex-fighter (Bisping in the titular role), who comes back to town after years in exile to bury his best friend and settle old debts. Reunited with his godson (Finn), a street-level enforcer tied to a criminal syndicate, the two forge an uneasy alliance and plot a high-stakes heist to escape the grip of a ruthless mob boss.
Nika Agiashvili is producing alongside frequent collaborators John Edward Lee and George Finn from Storyman, with Michael Bisping also producing, and Giga Chikadze associate producing. The film is set for production this summer in Downtown Los Angeles.
“Storytelling and fighting aren’t so different. Both are about conflict, struggle, and heart. With Punch It Films, we will be bringing that to the big screen,” Bisping said in a statement.
Storyman Pictures is a fully financed film production company based in Los Angeles. It was founded by filmmakers Nika Agiashvili and George Finn, with producer John Edward Lee subsequently joining the team. The company’s credits include The Harsh Life of Veronica Lambert (2009), Green Story (2012), and Tbilisi, I Love You (2014).
Callies is repped by Gersh and More / Medavoy Management. Winters is repped by Brave Artists Management and Yorn, Levine, Barnes, Krintzman, Rubenstein, Kohner, Endlich, Goodell & Gellman.
