- Title: 'Comrade Detective' fuses 80s Romania with Channing Tatum
- Date: 4th August 2017
- Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 3, 2017) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT, SAYING: "I mean, this is sort of meta on a meta. It's a satire of what a hyper-masculine detective show would have been like behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War in 1980s Romania and on the one hand, it's a lot of fun, it's just a funny kind of bizarre thing to watch and on the other hand I think it has a lot to say which is my kind of comedy." TATUM, SLATE AND GORDON-LEVITT AT PHOTOCALL (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT, SAYING: "Talking about Eastern Europe under the rule of communism, you can say a lot about what it means to unquestioningly believe that your country is the best, that your enemies are the worst and what you believe in is right and your propaganda is true. I think it has a lot to say that's applicable not only in 1980s Eastern Europe but probably today and really throughout all of civilization." WRITER PRODUCER BRIAN GATEWOOD BEING INTERVIEWED (SOUNDBITE) (English) WRITER AND PRODUCER, BRIAN GATEWOOD, SAYING: "You know, we're not even aware and I lump myself into that group of not even realizing often where you're getting your information from or where it's coming from. Sometimes you have to take a step back and think about the perspective and looking at the world, maybe try and look at it from someone else's perspective from time to time to see how complex it is because it's not as simple as a lot of propaganda would lead you to believe." TATUM AND GORDON-LEVITT WITH PIERSIC JR. AND ULICI (SOUNDBITE) (English) ROMANIAN ACTORS, CORNELIU ULICI AND FLORIN PIERSIC JR., SAYING: Corneliu Ulici: "For me at least, I didn't believe it until I saw it and read it and given before we were stepping here and we were seeing them and meeting them, it was something unreal...." Florin Piersic Jr.: "City of dreams, right? City of dreams...." TATUM ON RED CARPET
- Embargoed: 18th August 2017 19:42
- Keywords: Channing Tatum Joseph Gordon-Levitt Comrade Detective Romania 1980s propaganda dubbing
- Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES; UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS
- City: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES; UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Television
- Reuters ID: LVA0046SQSQQ5
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Channing Tatum may be often cast as the hunk in numerous Hollywood films, but his latest outing sees him break type, playing a gruff 1980s Romanian cop in a communist propaganda television series - or at least the voice of.
"Comrade Detective" is a six-part series which follows the exploits of police detectives Gregor (Florin Piersic Jr.) and Iosif (Corneliu Ulici) as they try and discover who killed their colleague. However, the Romanian dialogue is gone and the voices are clumsily dubbed over by Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Speaking at the premiere of the show at the Arclight theater in Hollywood, Tatum said "It's so wild, I really have no idea what people are going to think. I think a lot of people think we're just saying whatever, we're ad libbing or coming up with whatever we think is funny and that's not it at all. We actually shot a Romanian cop show and we are just translating what they said in Romanian. I have no idea. We didn't intend with the political climate and everything that's going on, we had no intention of diving into the choppy waters that it is at the moment. That wasn't planned. It just sort of worked out this way."
Tatum, who also executive produced the show, was joined on the red carpet by Gordon-Levitt, who described the show as "sort of meta on a meta."
"It's a satire of what a hyper-masculine detective show would have been like behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War in 1980s Romania," explained Gordon-Levitt. "Talking about Eastern Europe under the rule of communism, you can say a lot about what it means to unquestioningly believe that your country is the best, that your enemies are the worst and what you believe in is right and your propaganda is true. I think it has a lot to say that's applicable not only in 1980s Eastern Europe but probably today and really throughout all of civilization," he added.
"Comrade Detective" goes on release on Amazon Prime on August 4. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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