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Centurion
The Highland fling
ETA 27 august 2010
Director Neil Marshall
Stars Michael Fassbender, Dominic West, Olga Kurilenko,
Noel Clarke
"We have a big battle with hundreds of extras.
I’m amazed nobody got hurt."
Britain, AD 117, Mud, Cold, Fighting, Brit Horror savior Neil Marshall’s moving out of the caves of The Descent and into the Caledonian plains for his historical epic, Centurion. "The film is about the failed Roman invasion of Scotland by the legendary 9th Legion, who marched up into Scotland to take on the Picts and who vanished without a trace," Marshall effuses. "I grew up in that part of the world. As soon as I heard about the legend of the 9th Legion I was hooked. What happened to this legion that was so bad? Who were these Picts? I've seen Hadrian's Wall – they must have been pretty bad for the Romans to build this massive wall to keep them out. It's like King Kong or something... What is being this wall that's so terrifying...?"
Olga Kurilenko for starters. The former Bond girl's playing a Pict, daubed in war paint and in full-on warrior mode, opposite some of the best Brits around. "Our story is told through one character, a centurion called Quintus Dias, played by Michael Fassbender," says Marshall. "He starts out on one of the frontier posts and is captured by the Picts. His is something of an epic journey from the beginning to the end of the film".
Shooting took place on location in Scotland and Surrey and lasted seven weeks. By all accounts it was an ordeal. "It was the toughest shoot I've ever done", Marshall says, with tales of blizzards, torrential rain. And scary incident where one of his actors (Tormented's Dimitri Leonidas) "turned green and started vomiting everywhere" after a scene in a near-frozen river. You've got to suffer for your art... And it sounds like Centurion will be packed with stunts, battle scenes and set-pieces...
"We have people jumping off a cliff into a freezing river, several bits in the snow, major fight sequences, a big battle with hundreds of extras beating the shit out of each other... I'm amazed nobody got hurt". Earthy, gritty and full of 'ferocious reality', this a brutal historical actioner. Fans of 300, Gladiator and Braveheart, this way please...