Glenwood native actor and filmmaker Clark Duke has completed production on a new movie, Deadline reported Tuesday. Like “Arkansas,” the debut film Duke released in 2020, “Stranglehold” — his second directorial effort — is also set in The Natural State.
Described as a “comedic thriller in the vein of the Coen Brothers’s oeuvre” and “a Southern-fried siege, with shades of Dog Day Afternoon and Die Hard,” the film stars Ashley Benson (“Pretty Little Liars”) and Jake Lacey (“White Lotus) as a small-town, down-on-their-luck couple who decide to rob the strip club where Benson’s character works as an exotic dancer. The cast includes Justin Long and Ron Perlman as well, but their exact roles haven’t been announced.
Duke wrote “Stranglehold” alongside Billington Garrett and his brother Chandler, who appeared in “Arkansas” with Liam Hemsworth and several other notable actors. Clark himself starred in “Arkansas,” too. Though mostly filmed in Alabama for tax incentive reasons, some of “Arkansas” was shot around these parts, with a few scenes taking place at the Arlington Hotel, Maxine’s and the Fordyce Bathhouse in Hot Springs. There’s no word yet on whether any of “Stranglehold” was made in Arkansas.
“I am thrilled to be making my follow-up to Arkansas with such an amazing cast. Stranglehold is a continuation of many themes I explored in Arkansas, very much a movie about where we are right now, and I cannot wait for people to see it,” Duke said to Deadline.