By Jason Apuzzo. • One of the most intriguing things I’ve seen recently is the promotional trailer (see above) for director Renny Harlin’s new, $20 million Russian-invasion-of-Georgia thriller 5 Days of August, which is set for release in March.
The film stars Val Kilmer, Andy Garcia (as Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili) and Heather Graham among others – and deals with a group of war correspondents caught behind enemy (i.e., Russian) lines when the Russians invaded Georgia back in 2008.
When the journalists videotape a series of horrific Russian war crimes, they have to fight to get the footage out of the country. The film was apparently shot on-location in Tbilisi, with the approval of the Georgian government.
From the look of the promotional trailer (which does not appear to be the final, theatrical trailer), it looks like Harlin is going hard-core in his criticism of the Russians – so this is going to get very interesting come March. Bravo to everyone involved for their courage in doing this, and please do try to avoid assassination.
Harlin (Die Hard 2) also seems to have squeezed a lot out of his $20 million budget, as the scale of the project seems impressive. We’ll be keeping an eye on this project here at Libertas. Val Kilmer really needs to drop some weight, by the way.
• In related news, Putin’s ballerina-mistress just appeared on the cover of Russian Vogue. (Did the old Politburo guys have mistresses? It’s hard to imagine Brezhnev sneaking off with his secretary.)
• Angelina Jolie’s The Tourist opened poorly (see the LFM review here), but fortunately there’s always Salt – which just hit Blu-ray and DVD. The new Salt disks apparently contain several different cuts of the film, including an ‘extended’ cut and also a ‘director’s’ cut – the differences between these cuts are explained here – and the cuts actually seem to represent legitimately different visions of the film, particularly with respect to the film’s ending. Without giving anything away about the new scenes, suffice it to say that sequels were definitely on everyone’s mind at the time of the production.
So will there be sequels? It’s too early to say, but director Phillip Noyce – who’s out doing media for the new DVDs – probably won’t be doing them himself (see here) as he seems to have moved on to other ventures.
We liked the retro, commie-hunting vibe of Salt here at Libertas (see our review here), and we’re hoping this film gets its franchise. If it does, it will be noteworthy for having done so without the aid and assistance of the talking heads on either Fox News or talk radio, ironically enough.
• Charlize Theron and Armie Hammer (The Social Network) have apparently been offered roles in the new Clint Eastwood/Leonardo DiCaprio biopic of J. Edgar Hoover. Hammer would reportedly be playing Hoover’s ‘lover’ Clyde Tolson, although there is still some controversy about the exact nature of Tolson’s relationship with Hoover. Theron would be playing Hoover’s personal secretary of 54 years, Helen Gandy.
Speaking of Hoover and the FBI, by the way, the LA Times recently ran a piece clarifying Ronald Reagan’s rumored cooperation with the FBI in their hunt for communists in Hollywood.
• The Jack Bauer/24 movie has apparently been put on temporary hold, after the last version of the screenplay didn’t satisfy Fox executives. However the latest rumor apparently has Tony Scott – who still intends to direct the Top Gun sequel – pitching a new 24 idea to Kiefer Sutherland himself, so there’s still some momentum left on that project.
• The new Bond film is currently scheduled for a November 2012 release, incidentally.
• Take a few minutes to enjoy this animated short below, called Pigeon: Impossible from Lucas Martell. It’s about a rookie CIA agent who gets into hot water after a pigeon gets trapped inside his nuclear briefcase and sets off an ICBM toward Moscow. It’s a cute little story, and the quality of the animation is quite high.
• In other Cold War News & Notes: another Die Hard sequel is apparently a ways off; the CW’s Nikita just got a full season ordered; there are a bunch of new set photos from Atlas Shrugged; and, odd to say, but the Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz spy thriller Knight and Day actually ended up being Fox’s #1 hit of the year, grossing $262 million worldwide. Granted, $186 million of that came from overseas … [Read the LFM review of Knight and Day here.]
• … and speaking of Tom Cruise, by the way, some incredible set footage from Mission: Impossible 4 emerged recently of Cruise swinging around outside the upper floors of the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai, where he’s roughly 2,000+ feet up. He even waves and smiles at the tourists watching him. I’ll say this for the guy, he always gives people their money’s worth. One other bit of related news: Ving Rhames may not be back for Mi4 – although, weirdly, he may be returning for the next Piranha film (didn’t he get chewed to pieces?).
• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … January Jones – who will be playing Emma Frost in the swingin’ 60s/Cold War-themed X-Men: First Class – just did a series of provocative handbag ads for Versace, which is odd because she herself really doesn’t look like a bag at all.
And that’s what’s happening today in the Cold War!
Posted on December 20th, 2010 at 2:05pm.
Pigeon: Impossible: well at least now we know what the trail of smoke over California was!
I’m hoping Salt ends up in my stocking for Christmas or I’m going to be one grumpy guy until the stores open up the day after Christmas.
Val Kilmer in an anti-Russia movie? Just seems an odd pairing. Wasn’t he in some BushCo conspiracy theory movie just a couple years back? Pegged him as a typical “speak out against the dictator in Washington”-type instead of a guy who would be associated with taking on a real aggressor against world peace. Looks good though, despite the somewhat junior-level trailer.
I still wish we’d get some footage of Atlas Shrugged instead of just photos, but the casting seems to have gone well for the most part. James Taggart still isn’t slimy, smarmy or hunchbacked enough for my taste.
Kilmer really needs to lose some pounds, pronto. I remember seeing him in person once, on Pico Blvd. in LA. He was a handsome guy.
Wow … the “5 Days of August” trailer is fantastic. That being said, it looks like it could be similar to “Behind Enemy Lines” — a deeply jingoistic piece of filmmaking.
I’m not taking the Russians’ side, but there is way more to that episode in history than a home-invasion saga. We obviously know that Russia is the world’s biggest sponsor of Islamic terrorism, so it’s impossible to see them fighting the advancement of Sharia law. But, Mikheil Saakashvili himself sponsored a summit filled with Jihadists, so it seems to me the interesting element of the story would be an examination of how Jihad is dealt with in that region.
Russia has had its problems with Jihad, but their goal never seems to be to defeat it, but rather to control it — its use of Chechen Muslims comes to mind. Also, Russia’s mosques are monitored, and they’re allowed to preach jihad — as long as it’s not against them.
Attacks on Russia that originated in Georgia (and Saakashvili’s famous summit) lead one to think they favor the same policy.
This also presents a great opportunity to examine American foreign policy there, too.
What amazes me here, actually, is how quickly they got around to making a reasonably large-scale movie so quickly on this subject. Usually you would expect 10-15 years to pass by before this kind of thing would get dealt with. I’m stunned at how quickly they moved on this. It shows you what people can do when they’re passionate.
I watched Knight and Day recently. No question, it is without a lick of sense. But it’s still a fun ride, and that seems to be what the filmmakers were aiming for.
Well, improbably enough, it worked out for them.
Here’s Govindini’s review of that film:
https://www.libertasfilmmagazine.com/lfm-review-knight-and-day/
When we first moved to SoCal 5 or 6 years ago Val Kilmer was in this play. Everywhere we went I kept seeing billboards that said “Val Kilmer is Moses”. Really freaked me out.
I can see why it would.
Russia invade Georgia. Fail. Georgia start attacks South Osetia+Abkhazia,where the most of people are Russian citizens. Because georgian state hate them,and dont gave documents(passport,etc) to them. Russia gave.And there was Russian+Georgian peacekeepers(under legal CIS+UN agreement).And the first moment of war was that: Georgia starts BM-21 Grad(susscesor of famous WWII “Katyusha”) Grad fire against Chinval.The main city of S.Ossetia.Where was civilians.And against the peacekeepers camps.And Russia staring the attack one day AFTER georgia start its own attak against abkhazia+ossetia.Not Russia started the war.Georgia was the agressor,but lost.
And other:Karlovi Vary film festival 2010 is not in Czekhslovaika. Czekhslovakia was collapsed at the end of 1992. Now it is indepentend Slovak Republic and Czekh Republic.Karlovy Vary is one of the cities of Czekh Republic.Not Czekhslovakia. Thank you. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
That was a little difficult to follow, but thanks for participating.
I think he’s trying to say that the bad guys here were the Georgians not the Russians. Tell me about it.
I have a close Russian friend who actually used to work in the Kremlin before he got out, and he feels the same way. Personally, I’m disinclined to pop off much further on this subject because I don’t know all the particulars, but I can tell you that a Russia vs. Georgia matchup is not a battle between equals – besides which, I don’t trust Putin, nor should anyone. Democracy is still in its infancy in Russia, alas.
I’m afraid it’s more in its death throes than its infancy. Putin is re-installing the old dictatorship, only without the communist label.
… and he’s making that dictatorship personally lucrative for himself, as well.
Absolutely, but that’s what the commies did too. He’s rewinding the tape and most Russians are letting him. The old trope about the serf mentality of Russians seems truer than ever.
I wonder what ‘system’ he’s putting in place, however, beyond making the Russian state over into a personal fascistic fiefdom – a reign of a handful of ‘approved’ oligarchs. It’s hard to see any other plan behind it.
Low budget Russian movie from 2009.The Olimpius inferno trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aOodLPmVJM
Harlin’s story seems to by a copy of this,and adopted te other side.
Interesting. Thanks for that.