Tom Cruise may star in the film adaption of Operation Jaque, the daring 2008 military operation to liberate FARC hostages held in south-eastern Colombia.
British actor Clive Owen is also being considered to star in the Sony Pictures film. With a $10 million plus budget, this is Colombian production company RCN's most ambitious film to date.
Ever since details of the operation came to light, the story has been of great interest to American film producers. And who could blame them? It is the stuff of blockbusters and big bucks.
Colombian military succeeded in placing a mole within FARC leadership a year before the rescue, and spent four months planning their movements, planting motion sensors and video cameras around the rebels' camp. Military intelligence fooled FARC leadership into moving the hostages to a more accessible location. Undercover soldiers took acting lessons to be more convincing in their roles as guerrillas, journalists, and members of a fictitious non-government organization that was to supposedly fly the captives to a camp to meet the rebels' leader. Instead, fifteen hostages were airlifted out of the camp in helicopters piloted by Colombian government agents wearing Che Guevara tshirts - a nice touch. One of the hostages was Ingrid Betancourt, a Colombian presidential candidate.
Operation Check Mate ('Jaque' is Spanish for the chess term 'check') will be shot in English, focusing on the soldiers that made the rescue possible.
Despite not being filmed in Spanish, the director of RCN Cine, Julian Giraldo, has said that he wants the film to have a distinctly Latin feel, to be reflected through the music and supporting actors. Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez will also star.
jack lord
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... Please PLEASE not Tommy for this one, he'll ruin it. His appeal right now is ZERO  |
seattlesounder
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... I hope they include the money transfers to the Swiss bank accounts and the fact that the FARC leaders present were not armed. The whole thing was propaganda. The FARC got the money they needed, and Uribe received the attention he needed at a time his popularity was starting to show signs of vulnerability. I guess this is a good way to distract any attention away from the facts. Para's are rearming. The FARC is alive and well, extreme poverty has increased, and violent crime is skyrocketing throughout the cities, and lets not forget the more than 350,000 internally displaced Colombians in 2008 (an increase over 2007) They better get this movie out quick. |
Andrewmann552
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... How's about hiring COLOMBIANS to be in a Colombian movie! And why in English? Even Tarantino's latest movie was 80% subtitled. Steven Soderbergh, a Jewish-American, made "Che" in Spanish! This is either going to be a bad Hollywood cash cow or just pro-Uribe propaganda. Sylvester Stallone has one coming out next year, "The Expendibles," about a group of US mercenaries on a mission to topple a "South American dictator in an oil-rich country." Who knew the Obama era would recycle the Reagan 80s when it comes to movies? |
Leon
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... Are you saying that the FARC rebels that were present were not armed? Have you seen the video footage? who are you trying to fool, Have you ever seen a FARC militant who is taking care of some kidnapped people without a big rifle? C'mon, let's be true to the facts here! I don't care if you don't like Uribe, and if you say that his popularity was not the best at that time, well who cares, that operation took months of planning, and I don't think that they planed to do it when the popularity of Uribe was low. If a big hit like this one raises his acceptance among Colombians, of course it did, a big hit like this one will raise anybody's popularity in good or bad times. I'm not a fan of Uribe, but this was one of his best moves, and now we have with us 15 hostages that otherwise will still be rottening in the jungle. |
