James Badge Dale in ‘King Ivory’ Tulsa Drug Cartel Thriller Full Trailer
by Alex Billington
October 7, 2025
Source: YouTube
“We’ll never win this war. Their lives depend on this sh&!” Roadside Attractions + Saban Films revealed an official trailer for a crime thriller titled King Ivory, currently scheduled for release starting in November. Set for a wide release in theaters – yet another new movie about fentanyl and the opioid drug crisis. This acutally premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival last year in the “Orizzonti Extra” section, and it also played at Rotterdam and the Newport Beach Film Festival earlier this year. Based upon extensive research with law enforcement, gangs, inmates, migrants, addicts – an exposé on fentanyl trafficking, and its effect on all walks of life. Set in Tulsa, it’s about a cop whose son becomes addicted, sending him deep into the underbelly of the drug world. King Ivory features an ensemble including James Badge Dale, Ben Foster, Michael Mando, Rory Cochrane, Ritchie Coster, George Carroll, Sam Quartin, newcomer Jasper Jones, Academy Award-nominee Graham Greene, and Academy Award-winner Melissa Leo. Despite all the hype, this looks like another generic, cliche action thriller with nothing new that we haven’t seen before.
Here’s the main official trailer (+ poster) for John Swab’s crime thriller King Ivory, direct from YouTube:
Based upon extensive research with law enforcement, gangs, inmates, migrants, and addicts, all walks of life intersect in this fentanyl exposé. With potency 100 times that of heroin and nearly undetectable at the border, fentanyl has flooded the market, triggering a tidal wave of overdoses, crime, and addiction. Work hits too close to home for Tulsa drug cop, Layne West, when his son, Jack, also becomes an addict. In conjunction with his partner, Ty, and FBI counterpart, Beatty, West makes it his mission to take down those responsible, including the Mexican cartel’s local shot-caller, Ramón Garza, Indian Brotherhood War Chief, Holt Lightfeather, who controls state-wide trafficking from inside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester a.k.a. “Big Mac,” and the local Irish Mob family outfit, led by George “Smiley” Greene, along with his mother, Ginger, and uncle, Mickey. As Holt educates West: “The cartels want your kids, the next generation, who want what is new, and fentanyl is new.” King Ivory is written and directed by American filmmaker John Swab, director of the movies Let Me Make You a Martyr, Run with the Hunted, Body Brokers, Ida Red, Candy Land, Little Dixie, One Day as a Lion, Lone Gone Heroes previously. Produced by Jeremy M. Rosen. This initially premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival last year. Roadside + Saban will debut Swab’s King Ivory movie in theaters nationwide starting November 14th, 2025 this fall. Any good?