Rice Ahmed Cut out a niche in action thriller space. After leading the “The Night of” series, the Oscar -nominated actor (he won for his card film “The long goodbye”) expands its action chops with David Mackenzie“Relay.” The critical darling movie debuted on TIFF 2024 and was later acquired by Bleecker Street.
Ahmed stars as a world -class “fixer” that specializes in brokers lucrative profits between corrupt companies and individuals who threaten to reveal them. He is an unnamed character and keeps his identity secret by using a message team service called Relay, usually used by people with a hearing or speech barrier to make and receive telephone calls via text. Yet when a message comes from a potential client (Lily James) Who needs their protection just to stay alive, Ahmed’s character abandons their own iron -clad communication rules.
“It was just the idea that this person does everything without any direct communication with other people, adding loneliness to it and the kind of strange type of tension and paranoia,” Mackenzie told indifire to direct the function, which was written by Justin Piasecki.
“This is not a High concept AI, Internet type of movie“Said Ahmed.” Definitely one of the most distinct aspects if that is how the main characters communicate or not communicate. From an actor, it was really exciting to me, that you have a director like David who can only bring characters to life with so little and get these complex relationships. It felt like a lot of fun. “
Sam Worthington.
Black Bear funded “relay” and produced together with the Thunder Road pictures and Sigma films. The producers include Basil Iwanyk for Thunder Road, Gillian Berrie for Sigma, Teddy Schwarzman for Black Bear and Mackenzie. The executive producers are Black Bears Michael Heimler and John Friedberg and Thunder Road Erica Lee and Charlie Morrison.
The Indieview review credited “relay” as an “OLDFASHIONED MOVIE About an Oldfashioned Guy. The Movie is a Modern Paranoid Thriller That Harkens Back to the Genre’s’ 70s Heyday (With) Justin Piasecki’s Knotted Script Absolutely Delighting in the process of ahmmed’s charact Anonymous, Desperate to Provoke A Human Response But Willing To Do Whatever IT Takes to Get the Job Done, ‘Relay’ Isn’t Out to Set The World on fire, It just wants to be a handmade thriller that communicates a real sense of personal investments at a time when companies would rather kill a single whistle than to spare 1,000 life for 1,000 life for 1,000 life for 1,000 customers.
Bleecker Street will premiere “Relay” in the theaters August 22, with a PVOD release on September 16. Check out the teaser below.
