Coventry Telegraph

Coventry’s STARRING role in new action film

- By SIMON GILBERT Chief Reporter news@trinitymir­ror.com

RYAN Reynolds and Samuel L Jackson play the lead characters in a movie which sees Coventry take on a starring role.

The Hollywood A-listers appear in comedy The Hitman’s Bodyguard, which is set to be released on August 18.

Coventry is understood to take centre stage early in the movie with Jackson’s character apparently moved to a safe house in the city, where he ends up in a tussle with co-star Reynolds.

The movie’s plot follows bodyguard Michael Bryce (Reynolds) who is hired to protect hitman Darius Kincaid (Jackson) who has to testify at the Internatio­nal Court of Justice.

Starring alongside Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds and Star Wars’ Samuel L Jackson in the movie are Gary Oldman, Richard E Grant and Salma Hayek.

A descriptio­n of the movie on IMDB reads: “The world’s top bodyguard gets a new client, a hit man who must testify at the Internatio­nal Court of Justice. They must put their difference­s aside and work together to make it to the trial on time.”

Part of the movie is very much set in Coventry, but the actors never actually set foot in the city.

Lionsgate Media, the company behind the film, told the Telegraph that the Coventry safe house scenes had actually been filmed in Kensington, London.

A statement from Lionsgate read: “The production built a number of sets at Ealing Studios, in West London.

“The Bilbao Bar where Darius Kincaid and his future wife meet for the first time, Sonia’s Dutch prison cell, the Coventry safe house and Dukhovich’s prison suite.” It added: “When Bryce and Kincaid venture out of the Coventry safe house, they are immediatel­y confronted by Dukhovich’s mercenarie­s in the hallways of the building. These scenes were shot throughout the night at Blythe House.” Some early reviews also mention gun battles around the city and there are characters billed as ‘Coventry Cop’ and ‘Coventry Police Officer’ played by Andy Merchant and Samantha Bolter respective­ly. A review by Paul Heath on The Hollywood News says: “It has been a really disappoint­ing year in terms of big studio movies, and an action film set in Manchester, Coventry and eventually Holland, looked absolutely set to join a season full of duds.

“But The Hitman’s Bodyguard, starring an on-form Samuel L Jackson and a post-Deadpool Ryan Reynolds, could be the saviour of the summer.”

An article in Total Film says: “Travelling by car, their perilous journey takes in Heat-like running gun battles in Coventry (yes, Coventry) and speedboat chases along the canals of Amsterdam.”

It’s not the first time Coventry has featured on the silver screen.

The Spooks movie, featuring Game of Thrones star Kit Harington, hit the screens back in 2015. Part of the movie was filmed in Coventry city centre.

Minis were filmed driving through Coventry’s sewers for The Italian Job film, starring Michael Caine, back in 1968.

Christmas film Nativity was filmed largely in Coventry during 2009.

Early reviews mention gun battles around the city and there are characters billed as Covcentry Cop and Coventry Police Officer

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