GERMANY: Clive Owen presents his new film project, 'The International' in Potsdam

Clive Owen will be starring in the new Tom Tykwer film, 'The International', one of the movies being produced in Berlin at the moment. The Babelsberg film studios in Potsdam near Berlin are keeping busy at the moment. At the weekend Hollywood star Tom Cruise was in town to film his latest movie, "Valkyrie" about the attempted Hitler assassination, and now Clive Owen is there promoting his latest film, "The International" in which he plays an Interpol agent. "He is a guy who is working for Interpol and being obsessively trying to bring down this big bank, and every time he gets close to doing so, or he has any information that leads anywhere, he is sort of hitting brick walls because the thing is all wrapped-up, and some people think he is a sort of conspiracy theorist, but he is obsessively trying to bring down this bank who are investing in some very dodgy things and basically behaving very dodgy, and throughout the movie he will not let go and travels literally all over the world in pursuit of trying to bring the bank down," Owen said at the presentation of the film in Potsdam on Monday (September 24). The 42-year-old is not the most well-known box-office hit, but was very popular with British television and film audiences throughout the 1990s as a sharp-suited con-man in the series, 'The Chancer', before finally landing on Hollywood's map in the low-budget independent film, "Croupier," in 1998. A series of increasingly higher-profile films including Jerry Bruckheimer-produced "King Arthur" culminated in his winning a supporting role in 2004's "Closer," which was based on a stage play that Owen previously starred in. Owen had been widely tipped as being first in line to take the Bond role for "Casino Royale." The movie's makers were keen on having Owen play the British secret agent and held talks with him, but 2004 Oscar nominee for relationship drama "Closer" said he moved on before a formal offer could be made. But Owen said he hasn't given his decision a second thought, "Children of Men" has earned solid ticket sales of around 32 million U.S. dollars internationally ahead of its U.S. launch, and now he is looking forward to working in one of the busiest film cities in Europe. "I think Berlin is a hugely exciting city at the moment, I have been here a few times before, not many, I came for the World Cup final and had a very good time then. But no, I find I have been coming backwards and forwards for the past few months in preparations with Tom, and from what I have seen, I find it a very very exciting hub of Europe at the moment, so I am really thrilled to be here and to be shooting the movie, and it's not too far from home," he said. The German director Tom Tykwer is best known for his last film, "Perfume", but made his break with "Lola Runs", which became one of Germany's most successful films, scored §7 million at the US box office, and put Berlin firmly on the map for film locations. "Nearly all of us are there who were in the last film, "Perfume", but then most of them were on board for "Lola Runs" or even earlier, it is a prerequisite for me before starting a film, but that is quite typical, that is the case with a lot of American directors who are closely tied with their teams," he said. "It was of course of central importance in this film because there are a lot of film locations in Berlin, we are filming locations which I don't think have ever appeared in films, some of the things are only just finished, and I found that a big bonus for this film, we can say that there are locations which no-one has seen in a film before." "Closer" put Owen on the Hollywood A-list, and Owen said in the past two years he has increasingly been recognized in public, now he will be making an impact in Germany too.

ITN Source | September 27, 2007

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