8 DAYS | 17new year with a gung-ho action flick set in the early
days of Operation Enduring Freedom, the US-led War
on Terror campaign in Afghanistan. “I love these types
of stories about guys who can sacrifice their lives to
protect our freedom, and these 12 guys did it,” said
uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer who optioned Doug
Stanton’s book, The Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary
Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory
in Afghanistan when it came out in 2009. But
Bruckheimer hopes that audiences outside the US
will see 12 Strong — his first war movie since 2001’s
Black Hawk Down — as not just a flag-waving exercise.
“It shows how the Afghans and Americans can work
together against a common [enemy]”. Elsewhere,
after a string of flops (Blackhat, Rush, The Huntsman:
Winter’s War, and In the Heart of the Sea), can Chris
Hemsworth score big in a non-franchise movie outside
the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
OPENS: JAN 18PHOTOS: GOLDEN VILLAGEHuddle up: CHRIS HEMSWORTH almost said no to the role of Cpt Mitch Nelson, a Special
Forces expert in “unconventional warfare”. He was offered the part while filming Thor:
Ragnarok but was reluctant to take on another physically-gruelling movie that would keep
him away from his family for a few months. He changed his mind only when his wife Elsa
Pataky was cast as well — as his on-screen wife.
STORY (^) DOUGLAS TSENG