Assassin Club is a sleek new action thriller which is now available to buy on Digital, and will be available on DVD and Blu-ray™ June 6, 2023. The film stars the delightful Henry Golding as a skilled but secretive assassin who is tasked with killing six people around the globe, who also turn out to be deadly assassins themselves. With an excellent supporting cast including Sam Neill, Daniela Melchior, and Noomi Rapace, Assassin Club is a fun adrenaline rush with constant action.

There’s a certain perspective that French filmmakers have given to action cinema, having incorporated classic Hollywood movies, Hong Kong action of the ’80s and ’90s, and cheesy direct-to-video American fun into a unique amalgam that stands out in the genre. From Luc Besson’s La Femme Nikita and Leon the Professional, to Louis Leterrier’s Transporter movies and Pierre Morel’s Taken, District 13, and From Paris with Love, great French filmmakers give a unique twist to a genre traditionally dominated by American and Asian filmmakers.
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Camille Delamarre can be added to this elite list, with his previous films Brick Mansions and Transporter Refueled, and now Assassin Club. It feels like a truly international production, between its globe-trotting narrative and culturally diverse production (a French director, a Malaysian-British actor alongside a Swedish actress and New Zealander Sam Neill, etc.), but it’s uniquely Delamarre’s. The director spoke with MovieWeb about Assassin Club and lead star Henry Golding.

Camille Delamarre Returns with Assassin Club

Paramount Global Content

It had been several years since Delamarre had made a feature film, with 2015’s Transporter Refueled. Since then, he had directed exciting and stylistic episodes of the television series Into the Night, Balthazar, and The Way, but it was Thomas C. Dunn’s script for Assassin Club which brought him back to the big screen. “For me, it was when I got it and I read it,” said Delamarre, “it really clicked for me that I wanted to direct this film. I just found all the ingredients I like to play with — of course action, but we have a love story, we have just a lot of characters we have also some double crosses and a lot of twists.”

“It was like Transporter, something very sturdy and light, but more daft,” continued Delamarre. “I was feeling very much in my universe. It was a real pleasure from the beginning to work on this movie, and also to work with this kind of very talented cast who’ll play with me and give me the maximum to just be better in the end.”

It may just be something in the Delamarre’s internal translation, thinking in French and having to speak in English, but there’s an abundance of meaning when the filmmaker spoke of a cast who would “play” with him. Assassin Club does feel like a kind of playtime, dress-up, or imaginary activity; it has the rambunctious joy of a film that goes for broke and doesn’t care what you think of it. The cast actually seems to be having fun.

Casting and Filming Assassin Club

Paramount Global Content

And what a cast it is. Noomi Rapace has a blast here as a villainous character that feels in the same vein as Alan Rickman’s Die Hard antagonist or even Dennis Hopper’s in Speed. It’s a fun role for an actor who has immersed herself in some very intense and serious roles in the past, from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo films to Prometheus, Lamb, and Black Crab.

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“At the beginning, Noomie Rapace was the first actress attached to the movie,” explained Delamarre, “and then we just searched for who could be of interest. When I met Henry and discussed it with him, we were on exactly the same page. When I started to work with him, I saw that he was a guy who’s very involved, and of course charismatic and sexy. He has a lot of skills, but is also a guy you can just discuss things with. He’s not like a Hollywood star, who’s just only ready for close-ups.” Delamarre continued to rave about Golding:

He was with me for all the action scenes, the stunt scenes he did by himself, everything except like a big fall. But otherwise all the fight scenes, every scene was with him and not a stunt double. So of course, for a director, it’s much easier to shoot and to be on the same team.

Delamarre Considers Henry Golding as James Bond

Paramount Global Content

Henry Golding has been considered by many to be a great potential contender to play the next James Bond, though the idea is likely outside the realm of probability by now. However, Golding has expressed interest in being a part of any Bond film whatsoever, telling Variety, “I’d love to be in the Bond universe, not specifically Bond, but let’s play in that sandpit. I’ll play OddJob, it doesn’t matter. What would I bring? Oh gosh. I’d bring […] a sense of mystery, a sense of charm, and good looks.” In many ways, Assassin Club almost feels like a test-run or precursor to that, some kind of preview to what Golding would look like in the spy thriller universe.

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Delamarre agrees. “I’ve read some press about that,” said Delamarre, “and for me, yeah, he’d be great for sure. He has, again, this charisma, like this singular sensibility, far from just a mystery guy. He was much more to give on screen. And yeah, he’s a good fighter, he’s good at action, but he’s also a really good actor. He’s chic, and sensible. This is a real quality for me, to not be only strong and powerful and just read to kill people; he’s way more. So I think this guy could play just many kinds of genres, many different kinds of film.”

The same could be said of Delamarre behind the camera, but we’ll be happy with whatever action extravaganza he cooks up next. From Paramount Global Content Distribution, Assassin Club is now available to buy on Digital, and will be available on DVD and Blu-ray™ June 6, 2023. You can watch the trailer below.