Post by DizzyMissLizzie on Oct 25, 2009 13:14:54 GMT -5
A film about the war in Georgia* Rupert is playing the lead...American journalist Thomas Anders.
here's a video from the filming...Rupert's not there but you can see Andy Garcia giving a speech as President Mikheil Saakashvili.
by the way they're filming now in Georgia*
GEORGIA: HOLLYWOOD TAKES OVER TBILISI FOR FILM ABOUT WAR WITH RUSSIA
Actor Andy Garcia fills the shoes of Saakashvili. (For EurasiaNet)
Hollywood occupied downtown Tbilisi on October 20 to shoot scenes for a movie about the 2008 Georgia-Russia war. The government made available tanks to serve as props for the film, which stars one-time Oscar nominee Andy Garcia in the role of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
The Hollywood version of events seemed a lot more glamorous than the actual conflict last year. With scores of Georgians waving flags and posters declaring "Stop Russia," Garcia, as Saakashvili, in one scene delivered a fiery speech to supporters at a nighttime rally in front of parliament. "Today the forces of occupation are gathered at our gates!" Garcia declared, speaking in an attempted Georgian accent that bore some resemblance to the voice of Vincent Mancini, the character he played in The Godfather: Part III. The scene was meant to reenact an August 12, 2008, rally with the leaders of Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania who traveled to Tbilisi to support Georgia against Russia.
Val Kilmer, whose credits include Top Gun and Batman Forever, is also expected to join the production, according to movie co-producer Davit Imedashvili. His role has not yet been defined, he added.
The movie, as yet untitled, tells the story of an American journalist, portrayed by British actor Rupert Friend (Libertine), who arrives in Georgia after a stint in Iraq to pursue a scoop that there may be an armed conflict in the Caucasus, film crew members told EurasiaNet. The film is being directed by Renny Harlin, whose previous credits include Die Hard 2.
American actor Johnathon Schaelch (Doom Generation) portrays a Georgian soldier who wants to help the journalists tell "the truth" about the war.
But that truth may be in the eye of the beholder. The Georgian government, still waging an international PR battle with Moscow, is assisting the film production by providing military hardware and personnel for battle scenes.
Last year, Russia’s First Television Channel grabbed regional attention with a state-financed action movie about the war that featured an American entomologist struggling to escape from the Georgian military’s onslaught. The Harlin movie gives Tbilisi a chance to even the score.
"The military gave us helicopters, tanks, all kinds of things," a film crew member, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, told EurasiaNet.
President Saakashvili lent the crew his hilltop palace this past weekend to shoot scenes of government meetings. The Georgian leader also had dinner with some film participants, according to a blog reports posted by Schaech.
A parliamentarian from Saakashvili’s governing United National Movement for a Victorious Georgia with no known prior experience in the film industry, Papuna Davitaia, is another one of the movie’s co-producers.
Much speculation has also surrounded the film’s financing, with some observers arguing that the Georgian government is footing the bill. GoldInvest, a Georgian firm, gets official billing for sponsorship from the movie, according to production spokesperson Tamuna Liluashvili.
Government supply of military hardware has meant a considerable budget savings. "To shoot such a movie in the United States would probably cost some 70 to 100 million dollars," said Georgian co-producer Davit Imedashvili. "Here, it is going to be at least 10 times cheaper."
The Iraq scenes were shot in Georgia’s hard-scrabble southern Samtskhe-Javakheti region. Imedashvili, one of the authors of the film’s storyline, says that he and his friends had long wanted to bring Hollywood to Georgia. The country’s shoestring film industry has been trying to pique the interest of foreign producers by offering Georgia as a low-cost location for big-budget movies. [For background information see the Eurasia Insight archive].
"In the beginning, we thought of writing a script on [the breakaway region of] Abkhazia and pitching it to Hollywood," Imedashvili said. "But then the war happened and we thought it could become a great topic for an action movie."
With funding from the Georgian National Film Center, Imedashvili travelled to the annual American Film Market, a gathering-place for motion picture producers and actors. Film producer Michael Flanagan ("Beyond a Reasonable Doubt") signed on as executive producer; documentary filmmaker and screenwriter Mikko Alanne, also working on Oliver Stone’s upcoming Vietnam war epic "Pinkville," wrote the script.
Imedashvili said that Harlin was chosen as director for his reputation of making action movies that become box office successes. The Georgia project may strike a chord for the Finnish-born Harlin; his most recent project, the uncompleted "Mannerheim," details Finland’s 1939-1940 war against the Soviet Union.
Harlin was not available for interviews during filming. "Another busy day here in Tbilisi, Georgia," he wrote on his blog last month. "We shoot in little over two weeks, and the crew is working hard, building sets, getting hundreds of military uniforms ready, prepping helicopters, jets, tanks, and other vehicles for massive action sequences."
But, ironically for many Georgians, those "massive action sequences" do not come free of Russian influence. One film crewmember said that several Russian experts have been invited to do the special pyrotechnics effects. "So here we go again -- just like during the real war, the Russians are again the ones who are doing the explosions part," he said wryly.
Editor's Note: Giorgi Lomsadze is a freelance reporter based in Tbilisi. Sophia Mizante is a freelance photographer also based in Tbilisi.
here's a video from the filming...Rupert's not there but you can see Andy Garcia giving a speech as President Mikheil Saakashvili.
by the way they're filming now in Georgia*
GEORGIA: HOLLYWOOD TAKES OVER TBILISI FOR FILM ABOUT WAR WITH RUSSIA
Actor Andy Garcia fills the shoes of Saakashvili. (For EurasiaNet)
Hollywood occupied downtown Tbilisi on October 20 to shoot scenes for a movie about the 2008 Georgia-Russia war. The government made available tanks to serve as props for the film, which stars one-time Oscar nominee Andy Garcia in the role of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
The Hollywood version of events seemed a lot more glamorous than the actual conflict last year. With scores of Georgians waving flags and posters declaring "Stop Russia," Garcia, as Saakashvili, in one scene delivered a fiery speech to supporters at a nighttime rally in front of parliament. "Today the forces of occupation are gathered at our gates!" Garcia declared, speaking in an attempted Georgian accent that bore some resemblance to the voice of Vincent Mancini, the character he played in The Godfather: Part III. The scene was meant to reenact an August 12, 2008, rally with the leaders of Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania who traveled to Tbilisi to support Georgia against Russia.
Val Kilmer, whose credits include Top Gun and Batman Forever, is also expected to join the production, according to movie co-producer Davit Imedashvili. His role has not yet been defined, he added.
The movie, as yet untitled, tells the story of an American journalist, portrayed by British actor Rupert Friend (Libertine), who arrives in Georgia after a stint in Iraq to pursue a scoop that there may be an armed conflict in the Caucasus, film crew members told EurasiaNet. The film is being directed by Renny Harlin, whose previous credits include Die Hard 2.
American actor Johnathon Schaelch (Doom Generation) portrays a Georgian soldier who wants to help the journalists tell "the truth" about the war.
But that truth may be in the eye of the beholder. The Georgian government, still waging an international PR battle with Moscow, is assisting the film production by providing military hardware and personnel for battle scenes.
Last year, Russia’s First Television Channel grabbed regional attention with a state-financed action movie about the war that featured an American entomologist struggling to escape from the Georgian military’s onslaught. The Harlin movie gives Tbilisi a chance to even the score.
"The military gave us helicopters, tanks, all kinds of things," a film crew member, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, told EurasiaNet.
President Saakashvili lent the crew his hilltop palace this past weekend to shoot scenes of government meetings. The Georgian leader also had dinner with some film participants, according to a blog reports posted by Schaech.
A parliamentarian from Saakashvili’s governing United National Movement for a Victorious Georgia with no known prior experience in the film industry, Papuna Davitaia, is another one of the movie’s co-producers.
Much speculation has also surrounded the film’s financing, with some observers arguing that the Georgian government is footing the bill. GoldInvest, a Georgian firm, gets official billing for sponsorship from the movie, according to production spokesperson Tamuna Liluashvili.
Government supply of military hardware has meant a considerable budget savings. "To shoot such a movie in the United States would probably cost some 70 to 100 million dollars," said Georgian co-producer Davit Imedashvili. "Here, it is going to be at least 10 times cheaper."
The Iraq scenes were shot in Georgia’s hard-scrabble southern Samtskhe-Javakheti region. Imedashvili, one of the authors of the film’s storyline, says that he and his friends had long wanted to bring Hollywood to Georgia. The country’s shoestring film industry has been trying to pique the interest of foreign producers by offering Georgia as a low-cost location for big-budget movies. [For background information see the Eurasia Insight archive].
"In the beginning, we thought of writing a script on [the breakaway region of] Abkhazia and pitching it to Hollywood," Imedashvili said. "But then the war happened and we thought it could become a great topic for an action movie."
With funding from the Georgian National Film Center, Imedashvili travelled to the annual American Film Market, a gathering-place for motion picture producers and actors. Film producer Michael Flanagan ("Beyond a Reasonable Doubt") signed on as executive producer; documentary filmmaker and screenwriter Mikko Alanne, also working on Oliver Stone’s upcoming Vietnam war epic "Pinkville," wrote the script.
Imedashvili said that Harlin was chosen as director for his reputation of making action movies that become box office successes. The Georgia project may strike a chord for the Finnish-born Harlin; his most recent project, the uncompleted "Mannerheim," details Finland’s 1939-1940 war against the Soviet Union.
Harlin was not available for interviews during filming. "Another busy day here in Tbilisi, Georgia," he wrote on his blog last month. "We shoot in little over two weeks, and the crew is working hard, building sets, getting hundreds of military uniforms ready, prepping helicopters, jets, tanks, and other vehicles for massive action sequences."
But, ironically for many Georgians, those "massive action sequences" do not come free of Russian influence. One film crewmember said that several Russian experts have been invited to do the special pyrotechnics effects. "So here we go again -- just like during the real war, the Russians are again the ones who are doing the explosions part," he said wryly.
Editor's Note: Giorgi Lomsadze is a freelance reporter based in Tbilisi. Sophia Mizante is a freelance photographer also based in Tbilisi.
)
i knew it was going to be bloody and all but not THAT bloody...*wow* 
