UNITED KINGDOM: The stars and director of Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire re-unite for the London premiere of the remastered and re-released version of the classic movie

Record ID: 220999

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: The stars and director of Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire re-unite for the London premiere of the remastered and re-released version of the classic movie
  • Date: 10th July 2012
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JULY 10, 2012) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR BEN CROSS, ON THE ORIGINAL FILMING, SAYING: "It was a very happy time apart from him. The only fly in the ointment was Nigel Havers. (Havers says: "I think we'd run round Leicester Square, couldn't we!") Hello how are you mate? [They embrace] Sorry. It's been a while." ACTOR NIGEL HAVERS
  • Embargoed: 25th July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Communications
  • Reuters ID: LVA19VRT4XTWDEK9TZPK5CAKNXSC
  • Story Text: It may have been made more than 30 years ago, but the premiere of the remastered version of the Oscar-winning Olympics movie Chariots of Fire generated plenty of excitement in London on Tuesday (July 10).
    The film is being re-released in UK cinemas ahead of the London Games.
    Actor Ben Cross, who played the lead role of Harold Abrahams, a Jewish student at Cambridge University who went on to compete in the 1924 Paris Olympics, said he was delighted it would now be seen by a new generation of movie-goers.

    "It comes as a tremendous shock, a very pleasant shock but it's extraordinary after thirty years that a film that had its premiere thirty years ago can apparently generate such excitement -- it's wonderful," he said.
    Reminiscing about the enjoyable time he had making the movie, Cross was reunited with his old friend and co-star Nigel Havers after joking that working with the actor was the only downside.

    "It was a very happy time apart from him. The only fly in the ointment was Nigel Havers. (Havers says: "I think we'd run round Leicester Square, couldn't we!") Hello how are you mate? [They embrace] Sorry. It's been a while."
    Havers, who played Lord Andrew Lindsay, added that the message of the film, which follows two men competing in the Paris Olympics, still applies today.

    "It's a film that doesn't date because it was already dated when we made it. It's about people who had a spirit and a heart and they overcame things so that's a wonderful lesson for us all. Also it was well written -- things that are well written and well directed and well produced, they kind of do alright," he said.
    The film, which was inspired by the Scottish athlete Eric Liddell, won four academy awards when it was first released in 1981.
    Its opening scene of runners on a beach in St Andrews and the extremely well-known Academy Award-winning theme music by Vangelis have become synonymous with the Olympics.

    "The writing, the music and the cast -- fantastically important. A wonderful cast -- unknowns so they didn't come with any baggage behind them so you believed them and you went with them and they just became runners, frankly," said the director Hugh Hudson.
    British double Olympic gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes was also on the red carpet and spoke of how the film had inspired her.

    "I suppose when it came out in 1981 it wasn't something that I really realised was an impact from a sporting point of view but as years have gone on, when you look at the drama, the emotions, the power of what sport brings and how it can shape and change people's lives -- that's what's happening right this minute. It happened to me and it happens to Olympians every day." she said.
    The remastered 'Chariots of Fire' is released in the UK on July 13.
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