UK: David Cronenberg's film 'Eastern Promises' premieres at the opening of the London Film Festival

Canadian director David Cronenberg, along with English actress Naomi Watts and French actor Vincent Cassel were all in London's Leicester Square for the opening of the 51st London Film Festival on Wednesday night (October 17). The film which took home the top prize at the Toronto International Film Festival in September is in a prime position to begin its bid for an Oscar in 2008. The London set thriller, reunites multi-award winning director David Cronenberg with his 'History Of Violence' leading man, Viggo Mortensen. Mortensen stars as a Russian gangster and driver for a prominent mob family, who is tied to one of London's most notorious organised Russian crime families. The actor, who did not attend the London premiere, took himself to Russia ahead of production to get his head around speaking English with a Russian accent, which he worked very hard to perfect. Mortensen also spent several weeks nailing down slang and learning about Russian nuances. The return of the film's director and cast to London is on the back of a very real life event which saw former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko die after being poisoned by a dose of radioactive polonium-210 in November 2006. At the time of the murder the film 'Eastern Promises' was in production. "Well I guess we don't know if it is really mafia, or political, or KGB, or what. But it happened in the middle of our shoot," Cronenberg said. "We started with the Russian mob in London being a very obscure subject and it ended up being front page news everywhere in the world. And it happened, literally some of it happened right down the street from us from where we were staying. They (police) found traces of polonium poisoning at a building owned by Berezovsky, so it did come quite close to home. It made us feel like we really had our finger on the pulse of something critical that was emerging right at that moment." But the real life death of a Russian spy in London failed to dent the sprits of director Terry Gilliam who believes that London is a better place thanks to the influx of Russian billionaires to the capital. "Where is London now if it wasn't for the Russians? The Berezovskys, the Abramovichs, London would be a little third world city, but luckily we have taken all the money those guys managed to squeeze out of the good people of Russia and they brought it here so we are living like kings. Thank you very much Russians." The 51st London film festival runs for two weeks in which 180 film from over 40 countries are available for the London public to see. The festival will also host Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep for the world premiere of Robert Redford's 'Lions for Lambs'. Other stars attending the festival include Halle Berry, John Cusack, Steve Buscemi and Sienna Miller along with directors Ang Lee and Michael Moore, Sean Penn and David Lynch.. 'The Darjeeling Limited," a comedy about three American brothers who set out on a train journey across India to find spiritual enlightenment will bring the festival to a close on November 1.

ITN Source | October 25, 2007

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