- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: LONDON FILM PREMIERE OF RIDLEY SCOTT MOVIE "BLACK HAWK DOWN"
- Date: 17th January 2002
- Summary: LONDON, UK (JANUARY 17, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRODUCER, JERRY BRUCKHEIMER SAYING: "Well it's a different type of movie. Pearl Harbor was a love story that's fictional tacked on top of a real event, this is the real event. There's no love story. (Journalist asks how he thinks it will be received). Well if it goes by the two cities we've rel
- Embargoed: 1st February 2002 12:00
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- Location: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Reuters ID: LVAE681NQ2FIXCHSRSYXC7TR32SF
- Story Text: Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor and Orlando Bloom were among the stars who braved the weather for the London premiere of Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down." The drama is based on the actual events of October 1993 when a team of elite U.S soldiers were sent into Mogadishu, Somalia to abduct two of warlord Mohammed Farrah Aidid's top lieutenants, but who instead found themselves in a deadly combat with civilians when the operation went horribly wrong.
Veteran Producer Jerry Bruckheimer teamed up with Oscar nominated director Ridley Scott for the first time on military drama "Black Hawk Down." Scott and Bruckheimer were both in town for the film's London premiere along with some of the young cast, including Josh Hartnett and Orlando Bloom who were greeted by crowds of screaming girls as they arrived at the Empire cinema in Leicester Square.
Based on, 'Philadelphia Inquirer' journalist, Mark Bowden's novel of the same name, the film follows a group of elite U.S.
soldiers sent to Somalia in 1993 on a peacekeeping operation.
Their mission to capture two of warlord Mohammed Farrah Aidid's lieutenants as part of a strategy to whittle away his power and quell the civil war and famine ravaging the country goes horribly wrong when their Black Hawk helicopters are shot down. Then the race begins to rescue their fallen comrades while averting a war.
The events of the day may well have been a footnote to history but Director Ridley Scott, still glowing from the success of "Gladiator," said, "I think too often mainstream isn't used enough in the process of taking slightly more serious subjects and actually just saying to the audience this is really what it's like and this is really what it's about and this is really what happened and I think that's why I did it."
Scott set out to keep the events of that day as real as possible while assembling a team of actors and production staff who could make it happen. An international search for the forty plus principal roles resulted in a selection of talented actors being cast from both sides of the Atlantic.
To create as much authenticity as possible the actors were thrown into a rigorous military training program but that wasn't to say they were any less prepared for some of the surprises Scott was going to throw at them.
British actor, Jason Isaacs said, "Ridley doesn't do any faking stuff he said on the first day we shot, he said right you got to come round that corner right and everything's just going to explode right, stuff's going to fall on your head, people are going to be shooting at you, just get to the end and do your lines. I said, "What, couldn't I just have something a bit more specific than that. He said, "Oh, we'll just shoot it all right." So we shot this thing and I was just going like that the whole time we got to the end and he said, "That was good you looked really scared." I said yeah but I'm playing Mike Steele he's in charge of the soldiers, I look like Norman Wisdom, I mean surely he's a bit butcher than me and he said, "No, I bet he was scared as well." So you know it was very real and it's amazing that none of us were injured maybe it was less dangerous than it felt but it felt very dangerous."
"Moulin Rouge" star Ewan McGregor who plays "Ranger Spec.
Grimes," jumped at the chance to work with Scott. He also felt the subject matter deserved an honest portrayal on his part.
"It's a war very few people ever remember happening and a lot of guys lost their lives out there, a lot of Somalis lost their lives out there and a lot of American soldiers did and I thought that was important really." said McGregor.
"Black Hawk Down" also stars Eric Bana, Tom Sizemore, Sam Shepard, and William Fichtner. The film had a limited opening in Los Angeles and New York on Friday, December 28. It goes nation-wide in the States and the UK on January 18th.
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