Articles
SEPTEMBER
4 2005: Hollywood Reporter review of Montreal world premiere of Red
Mercury
By Etan Vlessing
TORONTO -- The Montreal World Film Festival, which got under way over
the weekend, hosted a controversial film about British Muslim bombers
that foreshadowed the July 7 suicide bombings in London.
The world premiere of "Red Mercury" came as the Montreal World Film
Festival so far has disappointed film buyers for the lack of quality
American films, most of which are unspooling in Toronto or waiting
for the rival New Montreal FilmFest, also in September.
"Red Mercury," the drama starring Ron Silver and Peter Postlethwaite
from veteran British director Roy Battersby, recently was turned down
for screening at the upcoming London Film Festival, prompting the
shift to Montreal.
Phil Blackburn, a producer on "Red Mercury," said the thriller about
three homegrown Islamic terrorists taking over a Greek restaurant
in London and threatening to complete and detonate a "dirty bomb"
was shot over six weeks in February and March.
But what originally was billed as a "Dog Day Afternoon" or "Con-Air"
drama about Muslim bombers battling with police negotiators, their
hostages and themselves became suddenly prescient with the July 7
terrorist attack on London, which killed 52 people, and a failed attack
July 21.
"We knew it was a possibility when we made the movie, but I was shocked
as anyone," Battersby said of the bombings and the parallels with
the film.
The film's producer, Inspired Movies, had a private showing for "Red
Mercury" at the Festival de Cannes. But, timing being all, the real-life
bombings made British movie distributors reluctant to profit from
the prophets, according to Blackburn.
Although the film was completed before the attacks, Blackburn senses
film buyers are sensitive about a backlash against "Red Mercury" from
within Britain's Muslim community, which numbers 1.6 million people.
So Inspired Movies is seeking a U.S. distributor and a platform release
for the thriller in the U.S. before it possibly secures a theatrical
release in Britain, likely early next year. Los Angeles-based Conquistador
Entertainment is handling a possible U.S. deal.
"Red Mercury" also stars Stockard Channing as the Greek restaurant
owner and Juliet Stevenson as a security services negotiator. Silver
is a combative American held hostage in the restaurant siege.
Similarly betting that the British are not yet ready to see a movie
about Muslim bombers, the Cambridge Film Festival last month canceled
screenings of Hany Abu-Assad's "Paradise Now," a drama about two Palestinian
men recruited as suicide bombers in Israel. The Arabic-language film
earned awards in Berlin and will unspool at the Toronto International
Film Festival in September.