The feature film “Felon” is currently enjoying great success on the Netflix platform. Focus on this prison drama led by Stephen Dorff and Val Kilmer.
It is a surprise success of this beginning of the year on Netflix. Available since January 1, Felon is one of the most popular films of the moment on the platform, alongside Glass Onion: a story at loggerheads. Close-up on this prison drama led by Stephen Dorff and Val Kilmer, released in American theaters in 2008.
Felon tells the story of Wade Porter (Dorff), a man who accidentally kills a burglar. Arrested and accused of murder, he finds himself within the walls of the high security section of a state prison, a place where violence reigns and in which he will meet John Smith (Kilmer), a dangerous criminal.
Felon (a title that could be translated here as “inmate”) is directed by Ric Roman Waugh, to whom we owe the recent The Fall of the President and Greenland – The Last Refuge. The feature film is inspired by real events that took place inside the state prison in Corcoran, California, in the 90s.
In this famous prison which notably hosted Charles Manson and in which the actor Robert Downey Jr. stayed for a year, fights between prisoners were organized by guards.
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For the record, Felon’s fight scenes were not choreographed. With director Ric Roman Vaugh wanting absolute realism and most of the actors being ex-prisoners, the fights in the film were improvised, giving them a bestial look.
Finally, note that we find in the credits of Felon the actor Harold Perrineau, who embodies the character of the sadistic Lieutenant Bill Jackson. Funny, when you know that the American was revealed nearly ten years ago by the prison series Oz, in which he played a prisoner this time!
The trailer of “Greenland – The Last Refuge”, the latest film by Ric Roman Waugh: