Vince Vaughn, Liam Hemsworth, and Clark Duke will topline Arkansas, a mafia pic that will mark the first directorial outing for Clark, who also wrote the script. Shooting begins this week in Alabama. Patrick Hibler, Jeff Rice, Martin Sprock, and Storyboard Media are producing the project, which is slated to go before buyers at the upcoming American Film Market that kicks off October 31.

The film follows a pair of low level drug runners in the Dixie Mafia, Kyle (Hemsworth) and Swin (Duke), who live by the orders of an Arkansas-based drug kingpin Frog (Vaughn), whom they’ve never met. But when a deal goes horribly wrong, deadly consequences are soon to rattle the duo’s routine lives.

Those serving as executive producers are Media Finance Capital’s David Gilbery and Charles Dorfman, who also funded the film, Don Kee Productions’ Jason Allison, Michael S. Smith and Franchesca Lantz, along with Hercules Film Fund, which also provided financing, and Rhea Films’ Paris Kasidokostas-Latsis, Terry Dougas and Jean-Luc De Fanti, as well as Andre Relis, Elisabeth Costa de Beauregard, Phil Kim, Patrick Muldoon, Cindy Cowan, and Stephanie Celeb.

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JD Beaufils and Julie Paquit via VMI Worldwide will handle sales in conjunction with Elisabeth Costa de Beauregard of Storyboard Media.

Vaughn, who was known for comedic turns in films like Wedding Crashers, Old School, and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, has recently taken on more dramatic pics such as Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge and the S. Craig Zahler-helmed crime drama Brawl in Cell Block 99. Repped by WME and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer, he recently reteamed with Zahler and Gibson for Dragged Across Concrete, which screened at this past Venice Film Festival.

Hemsworth, best known for starring opposite Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Game franchise, has appeared in films like The Expendables, Independence Day: Resurgence, and up next co-stars in the romantic comedy Isn’t It Romantic with Rebel Wilson, and the action-thriller, Killerman from Malik Bader. Hemsworth is repped by Hemsworth is repped by WME and Fourward Management.

Duke’s film credits include the Hot Tub Time Machine and Kickass films as well as Bad Moms and The Croods, which he’s set to return for the sequel. Duke, who also stars in Showtime’s I’m Dying Up Here, is repped by WME and Mosaic.