Two of the key players behind iconic 1996 action feature “Con Air,” namely actor Nicolas Cage and director Simon West, are re-teaming for the World War II espionage thriller “Fortitude”.
Joining Cage will be a strong list of talent including Matthew Goode, Michael Sheen, Lukas Haas, Ed Skrein, Jordi Mollà, Alice Eve, Art Malik, Paul Anderson, Adrian Topol, Emilio Sakraya and Ben Kingsley.
The story centers on officers Dudley Clarke and Thomas Argyll ‘Tar’ Robertson, who masterminded military deception campaigns and the Double Cross disinformation operations during WW2.
This included using fictional orders of battle, visual deceptions and a network of double agents to mislead Nazi Intelligence and try and shift the war’s trajectory. Operation Mincemeat, which was dramatised to film recently, was a small part of this larger effort.
Clark went on to become instrumental in the founding of the British Commandos, the Special Air Service (SAS), and naming the US Rangers.
One key character in the film is expected to be the Yugoslavian playboy and double agent Dusko Popov, one of the big inspirations (along with legendary spy Sidney Reilly) for Ian Fleming’s James Bond character.
Shooting on the project is currently underway in London from a script by Simon Afram (“Lear Rex”). West is coming off a number of flops like “Stratton” and “Bride Hard” which have been widely panned.
Source: Deadline
