Writer/Director Daniel Roby's Most Wanted On Blu-ray From Paramount Home Media On Sept. 29

Paramount Home Media has selected Sept. 22 as the Blu-ray debut date for writer/director Daniel Roby’s true-life suspense drama, Most Wanted, starring Josh Hartnett, Jim Gaffigan and Antoine Olivier Pilon.

 

A Canadian import, with a brief theatrical showcase up there, Most Wanted ran afoul of the Covid-19 pandemic and unfortunately gets a direct-to-video launch in the domestic market.   It is, nevertheless, an A-list thriller based on actual events … a few name changes, some events altered, but basically a true story.

 

A Canadian addict and would-be drug dealer, Daniel (Antoine Olivier Pilon — Mommy), agrees to work with Canadian authorities relating to heroin shipments being smuggled into the country from Thailand.   He’s undercover, working for Canadian authorities … they have his back, what can go wrong?

 

In a word, plenty.   In the real world, the drug bust in Bangkok was all set up and then something went wrong and one of the Canadian agents was killed.   That’s been changed around a bit here, but basically the result turns out the same.   His “cover” abandons him to Thai authorities and Daniel soon finds himself facing the death penalty unless he confesses.  

 

Parallel to this is the real-life Victor Malarek (play by Josh Hartnett), an investigative journalist, who comes across the “human interest” story of a Canadian citizen, Daniel, facing a possible death sentence in Thailand for drug smuggling.   He decides to investigate the background of what happened, but comes up against a stonewall with Canadian authorities.   A cover up.

 

Roby’s film jumps back and forth between Malarek getting to the bottom of what happened and Daniel’s Thai prison existence.   Eventually, Malarek will meet up with and interview Daniel, advise him on a course of action and then set about to be his advocate.

 

It will take eight long years of Malarek working on the story and Daniel surviving in a Thai prison before he is released.   Most Wanted is that story.

 

With the success of The Crown, which chronicles the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II, it was a natural that the life and times of the great Russian monarch, Catherine the Great, would also get a look-see.

 

In May of this year, HULU launched The Great, a satirical look at Catherine’s rise to power (she is played by Elle Fanning), which spins around the court intrigue involving her husband, Peter III (Nicholas Hoult).   

 

Paramount Home Media announced this past week The Great: Season One — all ten episodes — will be available as a four-disc DVD collection on Oct. 20.

 

So successful was this first season that HULU ordered a full second season … stayed tuned.

 

Bonus features include a gag reel and pair of production featurettes — “Bold and Brash: Inside The Great” and “Palatial Panache: The Style of The Great.”