20 for 2010 - The Debt

That's right, we're at number 13 in the countdown of top films to look out for in 2010 and already we've had 3 titles starring Helen Mirren.



The Debt is a remake of the 2007 Isreali drama Ha-Hov which was nominated for 4 Awards for the Isreali Film Academy. The script has been Westernised by Matthew Vaughn and Peter Straughan making it onto the prestigious "Blacklist" before it was picked up for productioon by Miramax.

The story relates how three mossad agents (Sam Worthington, Martin Csokas and Jessica Chastain) round up and assassinate a Nazi War Criminal, only for the same criminal to unmask himself 30 years later. The agents (now grown into Ciaran Hinds, Tom Wilkinson and Helen Mirren respectively) must reunite to discover whether he is who he says he is and how their mission went wrong.

Without reading the script it's fair to say this could go one of two ways. It could be an introspective drama about the desire for vengeance and the way it rots the soul or it could be a gung ho kill the Nazis adventure. Director John Madden is certainly more experienced with the former, so I'll be happy if that's the way it goes.

Curiously, even though principle photography finished over 8 months ago we haven't seen a single still from the production of this film, and the cast have been extraordinarily tight lipped on where it is. You would have though someone might has asked Sam Worthington where it was during the Avatar publicity tour.

Apparently not which is why I would probably gues that this film may just disappear without trace by the end of the year.