‘Cocaine Bear’ Star Aaron Holliday Joins ‘Faces of Death’ Remake From ‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’ Helmer Daniel Goldhaber (EXCLUSIVE)

“Cocaine Bear” and “Euphoria” actor Aaron Holliday has joined a remake of “Faces of Death” from “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” director Daniel Goldhaber. The project began filming on Monday in New Orleans.

Holliday will join cast members Barbie Ferreira (“Euphoria”) and Dacre Montgomery (“Stranger Things”), who Legendary had previously announced. Helmer Goldhaber’s most recent film “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” is currently on international release, from a script co-written with Ariela Barer and Jordan Sjol.

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Holliday recently broke out in Elizabeth Banks’ buzzy horror comedy “Cocaine Bear” for Universal Pictures. He stars in the Lord-Miller produced comedy-thriller alongside Keri Russell, Ray Liotta, Margo Martindale, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Holliday recently wrapped a leading role in James Kimball’s feature debut “For the Night,” alongside Will Block and Odessa A’zion. He also appeared in the Season 2 finale of HBO’s “Euphoria,” playing ‘Skye’ opposite Jacob Elordi and Eric Dane.

The new “Faces of Death” remake is a reimagining of the infamous 1978 movie of the same name which purportedly showed real footage of actual deaths (many of the deaths were in fact staged). In the new version, a woman employed as a content moderator for a YouTube-style website comes across a series of violent videos reproducing death scenes from the original film. But are the killings really fake, or in fact genuine murders?

Although the original “Faces of Death,” directed by John Alan Schwartz, had a successful theatrical release, its notoriety was amplified considerably when it was released on video cassette.

The film effectively mixed real footage of atrocities and death with staged scenes, such as an electric chair execution. Various countries sought to ban it — though the figure cited in the film’s own promotional material of 52 countries is exaggerated — and in the U.K. it was added to the “video nasties” list of proscribed films.

The filmmakers will explore the current anxiety about internet culture which echoes that moral panic caused by the home entertainment boom of the early eighties. “‘Faces of Death’ was one of the first viral video tapes, and we are so lucky to be able to use it as a jumping off point for this exploration of cycles of violence and the way they perpetuate themselves online,” said Goldhaber.

A Legendary film, Angry Films’ Don Murphy and Susan Montford will produce with Divide/Conquer’s Adam Hendricks and Greg Gilreath. Isa Mazzei and Rick Benattar will executive produce and Cory Kaplan and Derek Bishé are onboard as co-producers.

Holliday is represented by Paradigm and 111 Media.

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