Revenge Thriller ‘Due Justice’ Partly Inspired by Tragic Sandy Hook Shooting (Exclusive)

There are a number of motivating factors behind a good revenge thriller movie. For writer-director Javier Reyna, it was the tragic Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012 that fueled his nightmares and partly inspired Due Justice, his new film out on Nov. 24. In the film, Twilight actor Kellan Lutz plays Max, a former Marine who “experiences a devastating loss when his beloved wife and daughter are brutally murdered in a cold blooded act of violence. Consumed by grief and driven by revenge, Max embarks on a relentless mission to hunt down those responsible.”

PopCulture.com had a chance to speak with Reyna about the movie and, when asked what led him to pen the script, he very candidly admitted that he felt driven to craft the story while exploring his feelings following the terrible elementary school shooting that took place more than a decade ago. “I’m a dad and it was right after the Newtown, Connecticut murders, Sandy Hook, that really punched me in the stomach,” Reyna told us. “I was taking my kids to kindergarten the next day and I saw the little kids holding hands, so cute. I felt like crying and I kept thinking … I kept seeing parents saying, ‘I have to let it go and forgive.’ I realized I might be one of those parents that completely loses his mind.”

Reyna then went on to explain that witnessing parents show forgiveness in the face of such devastating tragedy is what sparked inspiration for the character Detective Santiago, played by Efren Ramirez (Napoleon Dynamite). “That’s where Santiago came from, which is somebody who thinks like that, but there is a restraint, especially being a lawman,” he told us. “Then you have that he bumps into this guy [Max] who’s actually, is not very stable, and he does what Santiago or I would like to do, should anybody do anything to our kids.”

“That was the beginning of trying to be rational versus just being instinctively,” Reyna continued, going on to offer some insight into the villain, Ellis, played by Jeff Fahey. “But then I wanted to have some fun with Ellis and Santiago where you have two, to me, corporate climbers in their careers. I just want to portray Jeff Fahey’s character, Ellis, as just a bad guy, but he has his own shit going through. He’s a bad guy, but you have a boss and just to have to deal with your boss being an asshole or micromanaging you. So that was like, I wanted to… have some fun with it.” Due Justice will be available in theaters, on-demand, and via digital on November 24, 2023.