Urijah Faber and Andre Fili have entered the movie business.
“Green Rush,” a Lionsgate film featuring Fili as an actor and Faber as a producer, is set for an April 14 release date – and you can check out the world premier of the trailer above.
“Green Rush” producer and creator Rick Lee has been around the MMA space for awhile. A longtime MMA producer, Lee has worked on various projects in the industry throughout the years (including with MMA Junkie). Also contributing to the film was longtime MMA writer Danny Acosta.
For this project, Lee paired up with Faber and director Gerard Roxburgh to produce a dark, edge-of-the-seat thriller. According to Lee, the story is based on the wild experiences of a mutual friend he shared with Faber. Lee was not at all surprised by Faber’s interest in delving into the movie business.
“He’s a guy who’s got his hands in everything: real estate, a gym, a team … he’s a fighter, he’s a father,” Lee told MMA Junkie. “Urijah does a lot of everything, but he was really pivotal in making things happen. … He helped bridge the gap for the Lionsgate deal, which is obviously pretty big. Seeing the Lionsgate logo pop up on our film is pretty exciting.”
Lee and Roxburgh had glowing things to say about the UFC featherweight Fili’s participation. They were impressed by Fili’s ability to nail a scene right off the bat. There were no retakes with Fili, Roxburgh said.
“He was a total pro,” Roxburgh said. “He’d call me on Skype and Facetime with our other producer, Misha Crosby. He’s actually an actor in the film. We got him dialed in to make sure he was prepared. When we got on set, we never had to do a second take for Fili. He was ready to go – a total pro.”
Roxburgh, who has directed “The Ultimate Fighter” and the Evan Tanner documentary “Once I Was a Champion,” provided MMA Junkie with a brief synopsis of the movie and what fans can expect from “Green Rush.”
“It’s a story about two brothers who have a cannabis farm while legislation is changing and it forces them into dealing with the legal gray area in terms of how they traffic their cannabis,” Roxburgh said. “What ends up happening is they unknowingly get betrayed by (people) who owe money to some biker gangsters. They come to rob the farm of the cash – and that’s the gist of it. That’s the setup. The movie takes place over the course of only a few hours where these guys get to the farm and things turn violent.”
While Lee thinks MMA fans will enjoy the movie, he made one thing clear: The movie extends to people of all interests. While a few members of the MMA media sphere (including MMA Junkie’s John Morgan) have brief cameos, the film is largely intended for viewers who enjoy a gripping film.
“If you’ve seen ‘Murder Mountain’ and you like ‘Murder Mountain’ on Netflix, you will love ‘Green Rush,’” Lee told MMA Junkie. “Our movie is ‘Murder Mountain’ in reality.
“… The movie involves a lot of twists and turns. It’s pretty dark – it’s pretty dark. I think a lot of people are going to be surprised. It’s not 100 percent true as far as everything that happened in real life, but the movie is based on true events. We did our research.”
“Green Rush” will be available on UHD, On Demand, and Redbox beginning April 14. The cast includes Mike Foy, Paul Telfer, Kriss Dozal, Misha Crosby and Andre Fili.
