UNITED KINGDOM: Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess and Saoirse Ronan in London for The Way Back premiere

Record ID: 220445

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess and Saoirse Ronan in London for The Way Back premiere
  • Date: 9th December 2010
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (DECEMBER 8, 2010) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR COLIN FARRELL, SAYING: "There was a plethora of tattoos that I could choose from. I had two books of stuff, and I kind of designed Valka's upper torso because each tattoo had an incredible significance, more significance than any of my tattoos have. Each one represented either a crime committed or an amount of time spent in a particular institution, or the title of a particular criminal, and what status they had within the system. The Stalin ones were... I mean there's an irony to it where, as I said, Valka was a victim of that regime, a victim of that time in history, and a victim of that dictator, but at the same time, would speak highly of Stalin and what a great man he was." VARIOUS OF ACTOR ED HARRIS SPEAKING TO THE MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR ED HARRIS, SAYING: "Then there was a great book that was written in 2008 called 'The Forsaken', which was about the thousands and thousands of Americans that went over to Russia during this time and a lot of them didn't come back, and that [the book] was really helpful because it was very specific and had a lot of individual stories, you know, a lot of things that pertained to my character. So that was really helpful."
  • Embargoed: 24th December 2010 12:00
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  • Location: United Kingdom, United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVA9SSSTKH51ZDYNPUX9IM1LHH9T
  • Story Text: Stars Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess and Saoirse Ronan join writer/director Peter Weir in London on Wednesday (December 8) for the premiere of the epic story of survival, solidarity and indomitable human will, "The Way Back".
    Shot in Bulgaria, Morocco and India, the film stars Farrell, Harris and Sturgess as prisoners of a Soviet Union labour camp in Stalin's Reign of Terror, who, along with four others, flee their Siberian Gulag in 1940, and begin a treacherous journey across thousands of miles of hostile terrain, where they come across a lone traveller (Ronan) who joins their adventure.
    Driven by animal instincts - survival and fear - while relying on evolved human traits - compassion and trust - the group endures transformative experiences that are profound and abysmal, anguished and estatic.
    Farrell spoke about his character, Valka, a violently unpredictable Russian criminal, and his origins, and that he had a trusted 'friend' in a knife he calls 'the Wolf' that he always carries around with him. The actor also said he played a big part in designing the emblem on the knife, a wolf, and the masny tattoos on his character's torso:
    "Each one represented either a crime committed or an amount of time spent in a particular institution, or the title of a particular criminal, and what status they had within the system. The Stalin ones were... I mean there's an irony to it where, as I said, Valka was a victim of that regime, a victim of that time in history, and a victim of that dictator, but at the same time, would speak highly of Stalin and what a great man he was."
    Asked about what kind of homework Weir set them on the period and there characters, Harris who stars as the quiet and enigmatic American, Mr. Smith, said one book, in particular, helped him understand why Americans were subjected to elements of Stalin's harsh regime.
    "Then there was a great book that was written in 2008 called 'The Forsaken', which was about the thousands and thousands of Americans that went over to Russia during this time and a lot of them didn't come back, and that [the book] was really helpful because it was very specific and had a lot of individual stories, you know, a lot of things that pertained to my character."
    Harris also explained the one moment that he will never forget from filming, and how he was 'sicker than a sick dog' at the time: Sturgess who plays a young Polish outdoorsman, Janusz, said they experienced a real sand storm on set, which stopped them filming a sand storm scene, and how Weir had a magical control over the weather.
    "So, we were just about to film it, and we then we all had to sort of get all the equipment out there and get it all under cover, and all get in the trucks and the lorries and sit there for, sort of, two hours as this giant sand storm sort of like went past. Peter was running around trying to photograph it, and everyone was trying to keep him out of danger, and it was all very exciting."
    The British actor also described his most memorable moment on set, looking at the stars.
    Ronan who plays Polish traveller Irena said she had her first birthday on set, made all the more special by a personalized cake:
    "Mr. Weir actually designed the top of the birthday cake, and he put little pictures on it and things, and it was just the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen, and everybody sang Happy Birthday to me."
    Asked what his film's message was to audiences, Weir said:
    "The story itself, I think, is really just illustrative of the power of the human spirit to overcome enormous odds and difficulties, and I love that. I loved that in the original book, and you know, I've conveyed that, you know, in the film.
    The film is inspired by novelist Slavomir Rawicz's acclaimed book "The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom", as well as first-hand accounts and anecdotes as told to and researched by Weir and executive producer Keith Clarke.
    The Gulags (an acronym for Glavnoye Upravleniye Lagere - the Soviet security apparatus that ran the camps) were multi-national facilities holding 'citizen' prisoners from across the vast Soviet Union empire and foreigners alike. Northeast Siberia, where the film's protagonists are held, was the most notorious with temperatures sometimes dipping to minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit). Ironically, the Workers Revolution changed the prisons form just incarceration to slave labour camps.
    Anne Applebaum's Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Gulag: A History" estimates some 18 million prisoners went to the Gulags, with close to five million who perished. Stanford Hoover Institution, where the film-makers conducted valuable research, is currently archiving thousands of KGB files released in 1999. It has stated that the average life expectancy of a Gulag prisoner was one winter, and that 12 percent of Russia's 195 million people were incarcerated in them.
    Technical advisor and instructor Cyril Delafosse-Guiramand on "The Way Back" undertook the same journey detailed in "The Long Walk" to see the toll a trek across 4,500 miles would impart. He gave the cast individual survival lessons, and created a small guidebook to aid them.
    The film-makers embarked on a major scout of the actual story locations - Mongolia, Gobi, Russia, China - but they were impractical from a logistical, technical or political perspective. They chose Bulgaria for its ample forests, mountains, plains and large storage facilities in Sofia, and Morocco for its impressive dunes, Atlas Mountains and its well-developed film industry infrastructure.
    Farrell won a Golden Globe in 2009 for his performance in the dark comedy "In Bruges". He also recently starred in William Monahan's feature "London Boulevard". Farrell has just finished filming "Fright Night" for DreamWorks.
    Harris' credits include "Appaloosa" (director, co-screenwriter and star), "The Hours" (Oscar, Golden Globe, SAG (Screen Actors Guild Award) and BAFTA nominations), "The Truman Show" (Oscar nomination, Golden Globe Award), "Apollo 13" (Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, SAG Award) and many more. Harris will next be seen coming-of-age feature "That's What I Am".
    Sturgess has just completed shooting "Upside Down", co-starring Kirsten Dunst. He recently starred in Philip Ridley's "Heartless" opposite Timothy Spall and Clemence Posey as a man tricked into a deal with a demon and then fights to save his soul. Sturgess was last seen in Kari Skogland's independent film, "Fifty Dead Men Walking", opposite Sir Ben Kingsley.
    Ronan earned an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actress for her role in "Atonement" opposite Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, directed Joe Wright. In 2009 she was seen in the heart-breaking drama, "The Lovely Bones", directed by Peter Jackson and based on the best-selling novel by Alice Sebold.
    Weir is one of the most celebrated international film-makers, first achieving recognition, as well as an Australian Film Institute award for Best Director, with "Gallipoli" in 1981, starring then newcomer Mel Gibson. Weir made his excursion onto American soil with "Witness" (1985), starring Harrison Ford, which saw a culture clash between a wounded Philadelphia cop recovering from his injuries in a Pennsylvanian Amish community. The film was a worldwide success, earning Weir and Ford their first Academy Award nomination. Weir's other notable films include "The Truman Show" (1998) and the Napoleonic-era epic, "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (2003).
    "The Way Back" is due for release in the UK and Ireland on December 26, 2010 (Boxing Day).
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