The Best War Games can share an exclusive clip from Bad Man, a newly premiered action comedy film directed by Michael Diliberti, based on a screenplay by Diliberti and JJ Nelson. The movie itself marks the final film appearance of the late Chance Perdomo.
Co-produced by Hemlock Circle Productions and Brian Levy, Bad Man is set against the backdrop of a methamphetamine crisis in fictional Colt Lake, Tennessee. American Pie and Final Destination star Sean William Scott plays the lead role of one Bobby Gaines, an undercover state narcotics agent whose arrival in Colt Lake upends a small-town murder investigation led by Deputy Sam Evans, played by Johnny Simmons.
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New 'Bad Man' Clip Teases Complex Small-Town Dynamics
In the lead-up to the film's wider theatrical release, Vertical Entertainment shared a new clip from Bad Man, which The Best War Games can exclusively reveal. The video features Gaines, Evans, and a mysterious character known as DJ—played by the late Gen V star Chance Perdomo—walk on the compound of a sketchy-looking family, while a tense banjo melody plays. In an unexpected turn of events, the sound of the banjo turns out to be diegetic, played by a member of a local group who ambushes the trio.
Following a brief exchange, Gaines manages to diffuse the tense situation, preventing the standoff from turning bloody. The scene itself teases how the agent's presence will ignite a fraught dynamic that peels back layers of trust and suspicion in Colt Lake. Its unexpected banjo reveal also offers a hint of Bad Man being an action comedy rather than a movie that takes itself too seriously, despite the subject matter.
Distributor Vertical Entertainment is treating Bad Man to a theatrical release later today, September 5. The movie originally premiered in late August 2025 at the Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, Alabama. The principal photography on Bad Man also took place in the general area, specifically Helena and Graysville. Birmingham was the production hub for the movie, with Bad Man marking the third film that producers Todd Friedman and Warner Davis shot in the city.
The film itself was inspired by a 2008 true story involving one Bill Jakob—also known as Sergeant Bill—in Gerald, a city in Franklin County, Missouri. First reported by Katie Couric, the real-life events could be considered spoilers for Bad Man. Diliberti's writing debut, the 2011 action comedy 30 Minutes or Less, was also inspired by true events. Speaking of the film's significance as Chance Perdomo's final screen appearance, the writer-director called him "a friend, the life of the set, and boundlessly talented." Perdomo died in a motorcycle crash, aged 27, in late March 2024, just under 10 weeks after the principal photography on Bad Man wrapped up.