Grindstone Entertainment Group now has the rights to the upcoming crime drama, One Day as a Lion, reports Deadline. The film is currently in production. The story of One Day as a Lion follows Jackie Powers, a father of a juvenile delinquent son, who struggles to escape his past life of crime as he turns to a job as a collector for local mobster Dom Lorenzo and his mob boss Pauly Russo.

After failing to collect from Walter Boggs, a local cowboy legend, he makes a run for it with waitress Lola Brisky as a hostage. Seeing no way out of the chaotic situation, he makes a deal with Lola and poses as her fiancé to impress her terminally ill mother in return for money to pay for his son’s defense lawyer.

The film features the acting talents of Academy Award winner J.K. Simmons (Whiplash), Frank Grillo (Captain America, The Purge), Michael Carmen Pitt (Boardwalk Empire), Marianne Rendón (Charlie Says), Taryn Manning (Orange is the New Black), and Academy Award nominee Virginia Madsen (Sideways). One Day as a Lion was written by Scot Caan (Hawaii Five-O), with John Swab (Ida Red) serving as director. Jeremy M. Rosen (Ida Red, Charlie Says) is producing for Roxwell Films. Executive producers are Barry Brooker, Stan Wertlieb, Joshua Spector, Viviana Zarragoitia, and Ali Jazayeri.

Swab and Rosen have worked together on several other projects as well; One Day as a Lion will be their seventh creative collaboration. It also serves as the fourth creative project between the Rosen, Swab, and Grillo, with their most recent project being Ida Red, a crime thriller starring Grillo, Josh Hartnett, and Melissa Leo. The three also have two films expected to release in the later 2022.

The movie, written by Peltz, is set in 2002 middle America and revolves around 19-year old Lola James, who is working to save enough money to get her little brother, Arlo, out of their toxic home. All Lola wants is for Arlo to have a chance at life she never had. While trying to keep her head above water she spirals into a drug addiction that threatens to consume her. Arlo’s bright outlook on life keeps her hopeful until one tragic night when her whole world gets uprooted. From that moment on, nothing will ever be the same. The movie, we hear, is already in production in Los Angeles.

Virginia Madsen will play Mona, who leads the family with fierce obedience on the wrong side of religion; she herself dealing with demons and raised by an abusive mother. Peltz will star alongside Sideways Oscar nominee Virginia Madsen. Peltz is also producing in what is her feature debut as a writer, producer and director. Lola James is also Vinaite’s feature directorial debut. Will McCance is producing with Ryan Kirby executive producing.

Madsen stars in the upcoming Lionsgate movie The Devil’s Light and also starred in the CW streaming series Swamp Thing as well as CBS’s Elementary with a recurring role on ABC’s Designated Survivor. Her feature credits include the upcoming Lionsgate title American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story and Road to Capri, Red Riding Hood, The Astronaut Farmer, A Prairie Home Companion, Dune, The Haunting and Candyman. Madsen is repped by Buchwald and Untitled.

Candyman actors Tony Todd, Virginia Madsen, Xander Berkeley and DeJuan Guy are joined by writer/director Bernard Rose in a virtual panel from Wizard World Virtual Experiences 2021 to discuss this classic horror movie, their careers and to answer fan questions.

Tony Todd is the The Candyman / Daniel Robitaille in Candyman but is also known for roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Stargate SG-1, Jake and the Fatman, The Crow and the voice of Zoom in CW’s The Flash. Virginia Madsen played Helen Lyle in Candyman, but is also known for her roles in Dune, The Prophecy, Sideways, Swamp Thing, Elementary, Designated Survivor, American Gothic, Witches of East End and Hell on Wheels.

This panel is presented by Reveel Movies and moderated by Mike Gregorek.