EXCLUSIVE: Frank Grillo (Superman) has attached to star in Show of Hands, a political kidnapping comedy written and to be directed by P.J. Pesce that will shoot in California with a tax credit.
Set during the volatile week leading up to the 2024 presidential election, Show of Hands follows Jimmi Galligan, a broke and ambitious film student who believes the only thing standing between him and his first feature is the money being withheld by his father.
Grillo will play Barlow Galligan, a Cadillac dealership owner, conservative small-town mayor and congressional candidate who talks about capitalism the way other men talk about God.
Desperate to finance his film, Jimmi recruits a ragtag group of perpetually broke activists to kidnap Barlow and extort a production budget from him. The plan quickly spirals out of control as the ransom balloons from $25,000 to $1 million, competing criminals descend on the operation, and the kidnapping becomes entangled with the Galligan family’s political and personal divisions.
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Rob Weiss, Noam Dromi and Grillo will produce the indie.
Of the move to cast Grillo, Pesce said, “Frank brings exactly the combination of force, comic timing and emotional complexity that Barlow requires. It would be easy to reduce this character to a political caricature, but the heart of the movie is the love between Barlow and his son. Frank allows us to make him funny, infuriating and deeply human at the same time.”
Calling securing the California tax incentive “an important step toward moving the film into production,” producer Dromi said, “P.J. has written a fearless and genuinely funny story about a country that has forgotten how to talk to itself. With Frank taking on a role that lets audiences see a different side of him, we believe the film has a strong commercial hook as well as something meaningful to say.”
Known for his work in James Gunn’s Superman, Peacemaker, Tulsa King, Boss Level, Kingdom, The Purge franchise and more, Grillo is repped by CAA, Entertainment 360 and Paul Hastings.
Pesce has directed almost 100 hours of television across drama, action and genre programming, working on everything from Supernatural to The 100 and Quantico. His feature directing credits include The Desperate Trail and Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball. He is repped by CAA and Rain Management.
