Wendell Pierce & Lauren Holly Joins ‘Don’t Hang Up’ True-Crime Thriller On Bounce

Bounce, the leading broadcast and multi-platform entertainment network serving African Americans, today announced the new original movie “Don’t Hang Up,” an action-thriller based upon real-life events starring Wendell Pierce (“The Wire,” “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan”) and Lauren Holly (“NCIS,” “Picket Fences”).

The thriller revolves around Chris Daniels (Pierce), a husband and father whose life is upended when he gets a phone call that hurls him into a harrowing journey to save his family. Told his daughter has been taken hostage, Chris is ordered by the kidnappers to complete a series of missions to get her back, all while maintaining one deceptively simple rule: Don’t hang up.

Meanwhile, the growing number of unanswered texts and calls from his wife Tracy (Holly) leads to escalating fear and even police interference – which unwittingly puts the safe return of their daughter (Eden Cupid, “Umbrella Academy”) in even greater jeopardy.

“Don’t Hang Up” is currently in production in Toronto and will world premiere on Bounce in the spring of 2022.

“We are elated to have Wendell Pierce and Lauren Holly in the starring roles of ‘Don’t Hang Up,’ ” said David Hudson, Head of Original Programming, Scripps Networks. “We are elevating our original programming with superlative artists in unique, high-quality, high-octane stories. This stellar cast will take writer William ‘Byl’ Caruthers’ fantastic page-turner screenplay to incredible heights and ‘Don’t Hang Up’ will be an edge-of-your-seat thriller.”

“As an actor, I always look for opportunities to do good work with good material. ‘Don’t Hang Up’ is a film that meets this standard,” said Pierce. “I’ve always wanted to do a thriller, where an ordinary man is thrown into an extraordinary situation. Based on a true story, it’s evidence that sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.”

“Don’t Hang Up” is being directed by J.B. Sugar (“Faith Heist,” “Bitten”) from a screenplay by Byl Caruthers and produced by Sugar and Ella Myers for No Equal Entertainment.