Post-production is now underway on Brawler, the upcoming action thriller that marks the feature directorial debut of Scott Adkins (Prisoner of War, John Wick 4, Ip Man 4).
Written by Matt Venne (Acts of Vengeance, Dexter: Resurrection), Brawler involves former MMA champ who finds himself pulled back into a deadly underworld when his past catches up with him. Armed with only his fists, he’s forced to fight off hitmen, gangs, and his own personal demons to protect the people he loves.
Joining Adkins is Lewis Tan (Mortal Kombat), Larry Lamb (The Hatton Garden Job), Emily Bennett, as well as Adkins’ frequent collaborators Lee Charles (One Shot, Accident Man), Mark Strange (Avengement, Ip Man 4: The Finale), Paul Sparkes (The Crown), Jon Callaway (Double Kill), Phillip Ray Tommy (Edge of Tomorrow), Rebecca Finch (Cyber Bride), Teddy Linard (One More Shot), Tom Leigh (Take Cover), Nik Goldman (One Ranger), Lee Shone (Accident Man), Isaac Beechey (One Last Shot) and Max Feeney, who plays the younger version of Akdins’ character.
Also on board is Tim Man (Hidden Strike), likely as fight choreographer, who has worked with Adkins on many films such as 2024’s One More Shot, 2022’s Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday, 2021’s One Shot, 2019’s Triple Threat, 2019’s Abduction, 2018’s Accident Man, 2016’s Undisputed 4: Boyka and 2013’s Ninja: Shadow of a Tear.
Brawler is produced by Ben Jacques (One Shot franchise), Craig Baumgarten (Universal Soldier) and exec-produced by Signature Films’ CEO Marc Goldberg (Trap House) and Head of Production & Development Sarah Gabriel (Trap House) (via Deadline).
🔥 Footnote: Scott Adkins carries on the tradition of martial arts action stars stepping behind the camera for their own films, following in the footsteps of Bruce Lee in Way of the Dragon, Jimmy Wang Yu in The Chinese Boxer, Sammo Hung in The Iron-Fisted Monk, Jackie Chan in Young Master, Jet Li in Born to Defend, Steven Seagal in On Deadly Ground, Jean-Claude Van Damme in The Quest, Donnie Yen in Legend of the Wolf, Tony Jaa in Ong Bak 2: The Beginning – and more recently – Bren Foster in Life After Fighting and Iko Uwais in Timur. Did I miss any?
We’ll keep you updated on Brawler as we learn more.
Until then, check out a collection of behind the scenes photos from the film, including the latest image of Scott Adkins shooting scenes during a live Caged Steel event in Doncaster:
The director is SA 😉
Link to any source please
Directed by Scott Adkins himself.
i have always thought it looks like he is funding his own films as a joke before lol. he keeps hanging with that mandaylor in his films which i think brings them down. he posted on fb recently that he was looking for a 16 year old to play him and must be good at fighting then he posted he looking for extras for a film and posted what ages they had to be.
“We’ve seen some comments suggesting this could mark Adkins’ directorial debut, but we’ll wait for official confirmation before spreading rumors.”
Huh? Rumors? Just check out the BDS pic posted by the crew:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10324136/mediaviewer/rm812369922/
And check out Tim Man’s instagram stories
https://www.instagram.com/stories/timman79/3890196625922517879?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=MWZlYTE3NG45Zm12Yw==
“Rumurs”… lol
We received a warning threatening legal action for sharing certain details, so we had to scale back the coverage until there was official confirmation. We do appreciate the heads up on the source that supports the story.
P.S. If anything happens to City on Fire, look to Israel.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DYAK5gdjVt5/
DTV Adkins trash😂
Can someone from Cityonfire do a top10 Scott Adkins retrospective feature please. I’ve seen the Boyka movies, the 2 Ninja movies and Avengement which I think might be his best out of all the ones I’ve seen. Am I missing any other minor classics from Mr Adkins.
Ska, this might do.
Thanks! Nice to see Avengement on the list. Are any of Adkins post covid movies worth a watch?
If we go with post covid as 2022 onwards, of the one’s I’ve seen I’d go with –
Day Shift (2022) – A cameo role, but one that leaves a lasting impression.
Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday (2022) – A worthy follow-up to the original!
One More Shot (2024) – Kicks off directly after the events that concluded the original.
Prisoner of War (2025) – Adkins unleashing in a World War II PoW camp against the Japanese!
Criminally I’ve yet to see ‘Diablo’ from 2025, but I only hear good things about it!
Diablo definitely belongs on the new list as well as Reckless.
I hope Bedlam, Brawler, Skyline:Warpath and Deadlocked are good enough to be on the list.
I watched Accident Man 2 on your recommendation. I haven’t seen the first movie but am I missing something from the first movie. Adkins and his best mate are supposed to be hitmen that makes hits look like accidents? But we don’t really see that in the sequel. The fights seemed to go on forever but I did enjoy the irrereverent tone and ray Stevenson does so much with so little screen time.
Also caught up on One Shot and One More Shot. Very ambituous but also kinda pointless making the whole movie be one continuous shot. There were times when the action would hve been better if it was directed and edited normally. For part 3 Adkins needs to protect someone that isn’t a terrorist so there can be actual stakes at play. It was really hard to care if the terrorist made it on not if it was a false flag operation. But I’ll take these movies over big budget stuff like Mortal Kombat 2. Was this movie the reason why The Boys Season 5 was absolute shit?
You’re correct about Accident Man, it’s an adaptation of a short lived British comic (of the same name) written by Pat Mills in 1991, and if you enjoyed Ray Stevenson’s role here he’s much more prominent in the first one (which also contains a killer 2 vs.1 fight pitting Adkins against Michael Jai White and Ray Park).
Diablo and Hitman’s Holiday are the best ones, i’d say.
I’ve never quite grasped the appeal of Scott Adkins – he’s got a very generic, action figure presence, not a great deal of charisma or acting ability, not a lunkhead, but devoid of leading man energy. His martial arts skills are undeniable, but given that most action movies aren’t strong on plot or characterisation, you really need to have true star presence to elevate the material, the way Jet Li or Jackie Chan are still able to do. And I’ve seen almost all of the Scott Adkins oeuvre, too.
The one exception is the Undisputed/Boyka films, where he disappears completely into the Boyka character and delivers an exceptional ACTING performance with menace and depth. In those films, he’s an A-list tier performer, even aside from the mindblowing fights. Basically, he just needs to crank out Boyka films forever.
Acting wise, he’s shown depth in Avengement, and he gave an Oscar worthy performance while wearing a Weird Al fat suit in John Wick 4. Reckless was a good comedy showcase for him where he plays a total fool without being hateful or overly annoying.
The guy has it, and has shown personality in most of his films. Adkins is also someone who’s always trying to improve and doesn’t just stop at “good enough.”
Yes! Couldn’t agree more – Adkins was phenomenal in John Wick 4, and stood out amongst a cast of stellar martial arts talent. I just find him more interesting when he’s not “Scott Adkins” – there’s something about these wildly different characters like Killa Harkan and Yuri Boyka that allows him to really deliver standout performances as both a thespian and a screen fighter.
Side note, was anyone else slightly underwhelmed by his face off with Donnie Yen in Ip Man 4? Two greats of the genre facing off in the finale of one of the most legendary series – should have been explosive, but ended up being something of a damp squib. Bring back Sammo!
I thought their final fight in Ip Man 4 was fantastic. My dream match came true and both actors showed a lot of technique and chemistry. I don’t know if I’d rank it alongside Jackie vs Ken in Drunken Master 2 or Jet vs Billy in Fist of Legend, but it was simply a well done fight and what a finale should be.
It was a good fight, don’t get me wrong, but to me it paled in comparison to the final fights in the other Ip Man films, which had more emotional weight to them. Ip Man 1 – he’s fighting for the pride of an entire nation against aggressors who’ve enslaved and murdered innocents. In Ip Man 2, he’s fighting against colonizers who disrespected kung fu and killed Sammo Hung. In Ip Man 3, it’s technical virtuosity of Wing Chun vs Wing Chun, against the backdrop of his quietly ailing wife.
Io Man 4 should have been more powerful especially given the state of affairs between the US and China today, but like Detective Chinatown 1900, it ends up being a very shallow treatment of the topic. Doesn’t help that all the “Americans” are actually Brits doing terrible accents! The Hartman character was also annoying, and I was actually cheering Scott Adkins on. Ultimately, only Wu Yue had anything like an emotional arc, and the better fight scene with Adkins too, IMHO.
Adkins vs Yen wasn’t even the best fight in Ip Man 4. I would give that to Yen vs the Chinese looking American bad guy who went to far against the woman sifu at the chinatown matchups. Its like a scene from a much better movie. adkins can obviously fight but for whatever reason…time or Yen having a Rock/ Vin diesel clause in his contract not etting his opponents look more awesome than him….for this to be the final fight in the franchise is a massive let down. But to be fair this is the case for all the Ip Man movies except part 3. he best fight in Part 1 for example was Yen vs 10 avenging his his firend over a sweet potato.
Ip Man 4 definitely catered to the Chinese market. I saw it in a theatre in China back in 2019 and the audience were crying at various times during the movie. Keeping Wu Yue’s dialogue in Mandarin is defintely pandering and revisionism considering the setting and time period. From my understanding Taishanese and Cantonese would have been the dialects of the day.
That’s the thing with Ip Man 3. I felt like there was nothing at stake there. Donnie vs Max was technically well done fight, but since it wasn’t happening in front of an audience, Max became a villain for no reason, and Ip Man had nothing to prove, that’s why I wasn’t emotionally invested.
The plot of Ip Man 4 did feel a bit DTV with it coming down to him stopping the bullies in the army, but I was willing to accept it just as long as there was a healthy dose of action. (If you were cheering Adkins on, that’s a problem even if Vaness Wu isn’t that good of an actor)
I was emotionally invested in the finally since after everything Adkins did including assaulting the people of Chinatown and crippling Wu Yue, he got his just desserts.
All fair points. The main issue with Ip Man 4 , production values aside, if you remove Ip Man does it even make a difference. I felt he wasn’t even the protagonist of the movie.
also they really laid it on thick with the evil gweilos. Every single white person was evil LOL from the schoolkids, to the teachers, to the police to the army. Ip man 2 did this tongue in cheek but part 4 felt more of government warning message to its citizens not to think the grass is greener over in the States.
You don’t rate Ip Man 3 but it closed out the trilogy really well. He fights an opponent worthy of him and he finally makes his wife a priority and its bittersweet that she passes away at the end.
Ska, Andrew, both fair points. Check out Accented Cinema’s take on Ip Man 4 on Youtube for a good exegesis of why it works.
Yes, my tongue was slightly in cheek – of course Barton Geddes is irredeemable. Wu Yue’s character, to me, is the true hero of the film, and his emotional arc carries weight. Donnie’s Ip Man is just his usual sainted self, floating beatifically above the fray and dispensing platitudes. In the final fight he doesn’t even talk, he just fights and leaves.
Yes, I found Vanness Wu’s character to be super annoying, and his English delivery was cringe. “This is Master Ip Man, and he’s here to kick your ass.” I cheered for Ip Man to beat down the villains in 1 and 2, but in 4, they were just cartoon villains. It was just too OTT. The KKK villains in A Man Called Hero seemed more subtle by comparison!
I normally watch the dude’s videos but I skipped that one cos the video title was How to write Racism or racism donr right or something like that . I assumed he meant it was a great way to show the Chinese struggle in 60s America. Which I don’t agree with cos I think part 4 is a bad movie that ends the franchise on a sour note.
Max Zhang is still underrated – hopefully he makes a mark in the new Highlander reboot.
I don’t want to be mean but he isn’t leading man material. He was oh so good in The Grandmaster and delicously campy evil in SPL2. But the movies where he is leading man does show his limited range. Master Z was ok cos the world building done by the previous movies. But The Brink and The Invincible Dragon are evidence he cannot lead a movie. If anything he might be Hong Kong Scott Adkins
“Hong Kong Scott Adkins” – hope Max Zhang has a good doctor on standby, because that was a burn!