AFI Fest Confirms Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire as Secret Screening

While most of the films being shown for free thanks to Audi at the AFI FEST (November 3-10) have been screened at other festivals, the AFI FEST has managed to grab some movies that weren’t ready for earlier fall tests. They scored the world premiere of Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar (November 9) for opening night, landed the closing night North American premiere of Steven Spielberg’s December stateside release The Adventures of Tintin, which is scoring enormous box office overseas, and will show (as we already reported) Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire (January 20) as its Secret Screening. That means it’s not an official world premiere—although in effect it is.

The mixed-martial-arts drama stars Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Angarano, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Bill Paxton and MMA star Gina Carano in the lead role performing her own intense stunts; the film will screen November 6 at 9:30 pm. More details and synopsis below.

A dynamic action-thriller, HAYWIRE tells the story of Mallory Kane, a highly trained operative who works for a government security contractor in the dirtiest, most dangerous corners of the world. After successfully freeing a Chinese journalist held hostage, she is double crossed and left for dead by someone close to her in her own agency. Suddenly the target of skilled assassins who know her every move, Mallory must find the truth in order to stay alive. Using her black-ops military training, she devises an ingenious – and dangerous – trap. But when things go haywire, Mallory realizes she’ll be killed in the blink of an eye unless she finds a way to turn the tables on her ruthless adversary.

HAYWIRE marks Steven Soderbergh’s 25th film. Relativity Media will release HAYWIRE in theaters January 20, 2012. Soderbergh’s most recent film, the thriller CONTAGION, was released in September 2011. He earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay for his directorial debut, SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE and the Academy Award in 2000 for directing TRAFFIC, the same year he was nominated for ERIN BROCKOVICH. Among his other credits are the films AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE, BUBBLE, CHE, FULL FRONTAL, GRAY’S ANATOMY, THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE, THE GOOD GERMAN, THE INFORMANT!, KAFKA, KING OF THE HILL, THE LIMEY, THE OCEAN’S trilogy, OUT OF SIGHT, SCHIZOPOLIS, SOLARIS and THE UNDERNEATH.