Exclusive: Mayday interviews with Ryan Reynolds, Kenneth Branagh, John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein
Hitting Apple TV on Sept. 4 is the action comedy thriller Mayday, co-written and co-directed by the filmmaking duo John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein and starring Ryan Reynolds & Kenneth Branagh.
Along with Reynolds & Branagh, the cast also includes Marcin Doroncinski, Maria Bakalova, David Morse, Lovell Adams-Gray, Clark Johnson, Wendy Crewson, Louis Cancelmi, Donald Sales, Patrick Kerton, and Alex Mallari Jr..
Ryan Reynolds & Kenneth Branagh team up for a genre-bending, action-packed buddy comedy that flips the spy thriller on its head. When hot shot U.S. Navy pilot Lieutenant Troy "Assassin" Kelly (Reynolds) is sent on a top-secret mission into Russian territory at the height of the Cold War, the operation implodes, leaving him stranded behind enemy lines. Discovered by Nikolai Ustinov (Branagh), a gruff ex-KGB agent with a penchant for American culture, Troy thinks he's toast – but could an unlikely alliance between the two lead to Troy's rescue, and a bond neither saw coming?
It's produced by David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Ashley Fox, and Johnny Pariseau. Made by Skydance Media, Maximum Effort, GoldDay, and Apple Studios.
The film also reunites Apple with Reynolds, who starred in the hit Christmas musical Spirited. He did Deadpool 3for Marvel Studios, and Imaginary Friends for Paramount. He’s also the co-creator and executive producer of the FX doc series Welcome to Wrexham.
Branagh was recently seen in The Devil Wears Prada 2. He was also in Christopher Nolan’s Best Picture winner Oppenheimer. He directed A Haunting in Venice, the latest installment in his Agatha Christie trilogy for Disney, in which he reprised his role of Hercule Poirot opposite Tina Fey, Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Dornan. In 2021, Branagh won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Belfast, which also received an additional six nominations including Best Picture and Best Director.
Goldstein and Daley directed the action-adventure comedy Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thievesstarring Chris Pine. The film premiered at SXSW festival has become one of best-reviewed tentpoles of the year, with a 90% grade on Rotten Tomatoes. Their writing and directing credits also include Game Night as well as writing Horrible Bosses, its sequel and Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Blackfilmandtv.com's Wilson Morales talks to Ryan Reynolds, Kenneth Branagh, filmmaking duo John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein on the Cold-War buddy comedy movie called Mayday.
