Hollywood comes to Georgia

It was a case of deja vu for the residents of a small town in Georgia when a Hollywood crew turned up to make a film based on last year’s Georgian-Russian war.

Using the same streets and settings, locals not only watched the unfolding drama but actively participated in the story set in the five day conflict.

Executive producer, Michael Flannigan:
“ I think our main concern was to show war as a bad thing. You know there are a lot of wars going on and this one kind of landed on us and we had an opportunity to really make an anti-war film and that is, I think, really a primary goal.”

Playing Georgia’s flamboyant President Mikheil Saakashvili is movie star Andy Garcia of Ocean’s Eleven fame.

The film’s plot revolves around a journalist and a cameraman caught up in the conflict – but history according to Hollywood aside, both governments of Russia and Georgia are more keen to push their own version of events.

Copyright © 2009 euronews

tags: Georgia, Hollywood, Russia