Paramount Pictures Acquires Rights To John Swab’s Action-Thriller ‘Little Dixie’ Starring Frank Grillo
By Matt Grobar
Film Reporter

January 11, 2022 10:44am

Frank Grillo
Personal Courtesy
Paramount Pictures has acquired worldwide distribution rights to Little Dixie, an action thriller from writer-director John Swab (Ida Red, Body Brokers), which stars Frank Grillo (Captain America and The Purge films, Kingdom). Deadline hears that the studio will look to release the film in the second half of this year.

In the Roxwell Films title, Grillo portrays Doc, who facilitates a fragile truce between the Governor and a cartel, trading prosecutorial leniency for finance. When this truce dissolves, Doc is left to fend for himself and protect the one untainted thing in his life: his daughter, Little Dixie.

The actioner also stars Eric Dane (Euphoria, Grey’s Anatomy), Beau Knapp (The Nice Guys, Mosquito State) and Annabeth Gish (Midnight Mass). Jeremy M. Rosen (Ida Red, Charlie Says) cast the project and produced with Swab and Robert Ogden Barnum (Margin Call, All is Lost) for Roxwell Films, in association with Three Point Capital. Viviana Zarragoitia and Ali Jazayeri served as exec producers, with production taking place in Oklahoma and wrapping in December.

Little Dixie is the sixth feature to come from collaborators Swab and Rosen. Their most recent project, the crime thriller Ida Red—in which Grillo starred alongside Josh Harnett and Melissa Leo—premiered at the 2021 Locarno Film Festival and was released in November.

“Little Dixie is Jeremy’s and my greatest feat to date,” said Swab. “With our dear friend and third time collaborator Frank Grillo carrying the film as the lead and many other friends rounding out the supporting cast, we feel strongly that this is a thriller to be reckoned with for years to come. To work with Paramount, home to many of our favorite classics, is a dream come true.”

Sejin Croninger, EVP and head of Paramount’s Worldwide Acquisitions group, negotiated the deal to acquire Little Dixie with Rosen and Barnum on behalf of the filmmakers.

Grillo is represented by CAA, Management 360 and Paul Hastings LLP; Dane by CAA, Management 360 and Goodman Genow Schenkman; Knapp by CAA, Luber Roklin Entertainment and Morris Yorn Barnes Levine; and Gish by Innovative Artists, Thruline Entertainment and Felker Toczek Suddleson.
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