Just a little clip of a sequence that was filmed in Dublin of Gina’s upcoming movie “Knockout”.  This is just a taste and a tiny sneek peek of what’s to come. Hopefully we will see more of her during the filming.

Thanks to Amber Rae for posting the link in the chatbox

Gina Carano in Dublin, Ireland for filming of
“Knockout”.

credit: unbreakable

Fear not ladies and gentleman (mostly gentleman), Carano hasn’t been taken to another planet, nor is she the victim of some horrific act by a less than balanced fan.

Hollywood has taken up the time of many fighters within the sport of mixed martial arts and Carano just happens to be one of them.

Ryan Couture, son of UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture, was able to shed some insight yesterday via email when he wrote, “I saw Gina briefly over the holidays and it sounds like she’s been working long days in preparation for her upcoming film role.”

Hollywood seems to wear out even the most conditioned of athletes. The time spent preparing for a fight is grueling, to say the least, but let’s not take anything away from the hours spent working in front of the camera.

“It won’t be until shooting wraps on that project that she’ll be able to shift her focus back to fighting,” Couture continued. “At the time that I spoke to her she didn’t have a timeframe [for a return] in mind, but did mention that she missed training and was eager to get back to it.”

To read more:

‘Knockout’, a new feature film to be directed by Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s Thirteen, Erin Brockovich) will start a three week shoot in and around Dublin and Wicklow next month. The film which was written specifically for Dublin will feature an A-list cast including Ewan McGregor (The Men Who Stare at Goats), and IFTA nominee, Michael Fassbender (Fish Tank).

US stars Dennis Quaid (The Day After Tomorrow) and Michael Douglas (The Game) are also in talks to star in the film which will mark the debut of martial arts expert Gina Carano.

‘Knockout’ tells the story of Mallory Kane, a young, tough, beautiful freelance covert operative, played by Carano. She is hired out by her handler to various global entities to perform jobs which governments can’t authorize and heads of state would rather not know about. For all her looks and youth, Mallory is still the best in her field, and her skills are in constant demand. After a mission to rescue a hostage in Barcelona, Mallory is quickly dispatched on another mission to Dublin. There she partners with another operative, the suave and debonair Paul.

When the operation goes awry and Mallory finds she has been double crossed, she needs to use all of her skills, tricks and abilities to escape an international manhunt, make it back to the United States, protect her family, and exact revenge on those that have betrayed her. Fassbender will be a member of her commando spy unit, and a potential candidate for Kane’s betrayer. McGregor is set to play the owner of the private military company who Mallory works for. The film will also shoot on location in New Mexico, Turkey and Barcelona. (more…)

Gina came in at #68 in the “Top 99 Most Desirable Women of 2010 list by askmen.com
Why She’s No. 68

Imagine starting up a conversation with a woman in a bar only to have her respond to the inevitable “So what to you do?” with “I’m a professional mixed martial arts fighter.” Gina Carano, known by many as the “Face of Women’s MMA,” started her fighting career by training in Muay Thai and won her first MMA match by submission against Tonya Evinger by using a rear naked choke. As sexy as “rear naked choke” sounds, rest assured, you don’t want to get on Gina’s bad side (which is why you probably voted for her this year to bump her up from her No. 73 ranking on our Top 99 list last year). If you saw her on a recent cover for ESPN the Magazine’s Body Issue, you know that the girl packs serious punch, quite literally. But the ring and magazine covers aren’t the only places where you can see this femme fatale; look for her in Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming spy thriller Knockout. Hey, if the director can find raw talent in the likes of fellow Top 99er Sasha Grey, we’re curious to find out how Carano will flex her acting muscle.

Source: Askmen.com

Gina secured #9 on the list. For the rest of the top 10 visit Sherdog.com

9. Gina Carano (2007-Present)

Not women’s MMA, but Gina Carano. An important distinction.

Prior to Carano’s EliteXC debut in 2007, the idea of hosting female fighters was seen as too absurdly progressive for a sport that still nauseated a good portion of mass media. If they couldn’t accept men exchanging blood, observers figured, seeing a woman mounted and pummeled might be cause for a defibrillator.

“Conviction” — the daughter of football great Glen Carano — rejected that sexist attitude not by challenging it, but by ignoring it. She conducted herself as a fighter, displaying sharp skills in the ring and presenting herself as an articulate personality outside of it. Her looks? Absolutely a factor, but curiosity would’ve quickly given way to disgust if she had nothing to offer as an athlete.

It’s rare for any sports figure to have the weight of an entire genre on their shoulders. Even Ali, in rewriting boxing’s history, was still toiling in an institution that had a past before him and would have a future after him. But try to find even one piece about the females of the sport without a mention of Carano. She didn’t just define a division: She was the division.

Sources close to the project have confirmed to The Playlist that the principal cast members supporting Carano include Michael Fassbender (“Inglourious Basterds,” “Hunger”), Ewan McGregor, Dennis Quaid, Michael Douglas, Channing Tatum and in current talks to join the cast, Antonio Banderas.

continued below (includes plot and character info)

Ultimately, “Knockout” is now more of a revenge action-spy thriller. Essentially it’s hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and especially one who kicks serious ass. Double crossed by someone on her own team, Mallory Kane (Carano)— a black ops super soldier — seeks to uncover who has set her up to take the fall for a job that goes bad and involves a murder.

The male actors are all part of Carano’s special forces team. Douglas plays a government figure not unlike Chris Cooper or Brian Cox from the ‘Bourne’ movies. Fassbender and one other actor who has yet to sign-on officially (we’ve been asked not to say who because it’s not 100% confirmed, but the actor is male and a fairly big name; though it’s possible scheduling conflicts may prevent him from participating) play members of her commando spy unit, and one of these two plays the central antagonist that betrays Carano’s character (this is still being kept under wraps for now). McGregor’s role is that of the owner/guy who runs a Blackwater private military company-type group that the female fighting champion is a part of (and apparently many of the males take a beating at the hands of Carano). And as noted, Carano’s Kane character is no longer a girl from the “wrong side of the tracks,” she now has a solid background and was raised around military honor and academia. She leaves the military to go to work for a Blackwater-esque company to make better money and then is eventually betrayed by one of her teammates….

Both Douglas and Quaid have worked with Soderbergh before in his Academy Award-winning 2000 film, “Traffic” and Douglas is set to star in the filmmaker’s “Liberace” film if that happens according to plan this summer. Fassbender is the quickly rising, in-demand actor that everyone wants to work with (Tarantino, et. al) and the director is certainly one of those people — Fassbender’s role was written with the actor in mind.

And Soderbergh has been circling McGregor for some time now. The “Trainspotting” actor was originally pegged to have a role in the ‘Ocean’s’ films, but his commitments to Lucas’ “Star Wars” prequels unfortunately precluded his participation.

“Knockout” — it’s still officially a working title, but now we’re told that people are warming up to the name and that it might eventually stick — was written by Lem Dobbs, the screenwriter behind Soderbergh’s “Kafka” and “The Limey” also well-known for his contentious (and hilariously candid) DVD-commentary arguments with the director (“The Limey” commentary is like two friends with the gloves off and an amusing must-listen).

The director has previously said the film will take elements from “La Femme Nikita,” the ‘Bourne’ films, the Bond Film “From Russia with Love” and John Boorman’s 1967 crime film “Point Blank,” starring Lee Marvin (which is known as the slightly arty, thinking man’s, tough guy picture). But he’s also noted that the action will be distinctinly different than the Greengrass vibe evinced in his ‘Bourne’ films. As reported last year, David Holmes, the composer behind Soderbergh’s “Oceans 11-13″ series, not to mention the brisk and funky “Out Of Sight” film, will be writing the score.

Soderbergh’s deal for “Knockout” through Relativity Media and Lionsgate is a typically unique one for the adventurous filmmaker. He will be paid no upfront fee for directing the film, but eventually will retain full ownership of the film once its released. It’s a bold and unprecedented move. Having just finished up his media-saturation play “Tot Mom” in Australia, Soderbergh is now in New Mexico doing scouting for his February production start date expected to shoot there, Ireland and Turkey among other possible locations.

Carano has been training in L.A. for two months and test fight footage has already been shot (she’s already accidentally knocked out one stunt coordinator in practice sessions… no, really). Lionsgate is eyeing an August release. Producers on the project include Relativity Media’s Ryan Kavanaugh, Soderbergh’s longtime cohort Gregory Jacobs, and Tucker Tooley as an executive producer.

Channing Tatum has joined the cast of Steven Soderbergh’s action-revenge spy thriller “Knockout” which will star Mixed Martial Arts champion and non-actor Gina Carano in the lead role of a black ops spy that is betrayed by her team. Meanwhile, a last minute addition to the cast is in the works. Antonio Banderas is in talks to join the cast playing the head of a Black-ops European unit. Last Thursday, The

Tatum will play one of the elite specialists on Carano’s team named Aaron — a military gearhead-type who’s sent to try and bring her back in once she’s been double-crossed and gone rogue; trying to figure out who exactly is setting her up. But there is no love lost between the characters which makes his mission more difficult. But we’re told the role is actually relatively small in the scope of things.

While everyone is on the same side initially, “Knockout” features a lot of duplicity, double crosses and even reversals of allegiances. Fassbender plays an untrustworthy teammate, Douglas ultimately proves to be an ally and McGregor, the owner of the Blackwater-type special ops team (and once a romantic interest to the lead) is instrumental in trying to make Carano’s character, Mallory Kane take the fall for an incident that goes wrong and involves a murder. Dennis Quaid plays her father.

Tatum might seem like an odd choice with that cast — initially — but it’s a fight film as much as it is a realistic spy/action film and he obviously has experience in that field. The “G.I. Joe” actor actually relentlessly pursued this project and after working with Kevin MacDonald on “The Eagle of the Ninth,” and it appears he’s eager to work with strong filmmaking talents.

Anecdotally, “Knockout” went out to several key action male stars, but several of them were not very comfortable in a supporting role where a woman beats them senseless. Tatum will likely shoot his role in two or three weeks and then be whisked off to start production on Dito Montiel’s “Son of No One” starring Robert Deniro in March (if everything goes according to plan on that particular project). Montiel directed Tatum in the 2009 film, “Fighting” and “A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints.”

David Holmes, the composer behind Soderbergh’s “Oceans 11-13″ series and “Out of Sight” will be writing the score. It’ll be interesting to see what he comes up with. Spy films aren’t exactly known for their funky scores, that is unless he’s going for a ’70s Bond vibe (which would be pretty fresh).

Soderbergh is currently location scouting as we speak and Turkey is now officially off the locale plan due to poor tax incentives. The film will now be primarily shot in Barcelona, Dublin and New Mexico. The picture is set to start shooting in February and Lionsgate hopes to have the film in theaters for August. That seems fast, but the filmmaker is rather notorious for the speed in which he shoots and edits. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, making this date is definitely feasible.

source: The Playlist
credit: Amber Rae & Scotty

“She’s a cagefighter. She’s this Muaythai expert amazing fighter, and very very pretty too. I checked her out on YouTube, and it’s like, holy sh*t.“

source: Cinemablend.com
credit: Amber Rae

The face of women’s MMA may not be back until summer 2010, according to Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker. Gina Carano, 27, is currently shooting a starring role in the Stephen Soderbergh-helmed film “Knockout.” She reportedly plays a fighter who’s hired by the government to become a spy. When asked for an update on when Carano would return to the Strikeforce cage, Coker said,

“that’s a good question.” “Her agent and I have been in dialogue,” he added. “We had talked about having her fight again, but not fighting on Dec. 19. She’s going to acting classes, I heard, and doing a lot of weapons training, doing what they do.”

The Strikeforce executive has followed this route before. The promotion’s other crossover star, Cung Le, relinquished his middleweight title in September when a blossoming movie career overtook his fighting responsibilities. Le will return to the cage on Dec. 19 after a 21-month absence. Coker said he wanted to meet with Carano before making any decisions on how to manage the situation.

“I’d like to sit down with her face-to-face probably in the next 30 days or so, and sit down and see where her head’s at,” he said. “By all means, we would love to have her back, and we would love to have her fight again. I think in her heart she’s still a fighter.”

Amid much fanfare, Carano lost her Strikeforce debut in August, falling prey to Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos in a bout for the newly created 145-pound divisional women’s title. She went into virtual seclusion afterwards, offering but one comment on the loss.

“I know I am a better fighter than the way I performed that night and was heartbroken to not give more to those who have been inspired,” she wrote in a prepared statement. “However, I find some relief in knowing that this has never been only about me, and now more than ever I feel freedom to learn and grow at my own pace.” (click for more)

Regulars at Xtreme Couture, where she logged most of her training hours, say she’s been MIA since the fight. One of Carano’s chief trainers, Chris Ben-Tchavtchavadze, said Monday that she had been living in San Diego with family and hadn’t spoken of a return. He said the spotlight of her last fight overwhelmed her and she needed to get her mind in the right place for a return.

“She went out and fought Cyborg’s fight,” he said. “If she fought her fight, it would be a different story.”

For those expecting Carano to surface post-movie, Coker had a very conservative timetable.

“What her representatives are saying is something in the summertime,” he said.

source: MMAweekly