Dog Soldiers
Short description
A British Army unit is sent into the remote Scottish Highlands for a routine training exercise. The soldiers arrive to find a Special Forces camp destroyed and its commander badly wounded, the rest of his team torn apart. Cut off from help and running low on ammunition, the men take shelter in an isolated farmhouse. What began as a field exercise becomes a fight for survival against attackers far more dangerous than any opposing army.
Neil Marshall wrote and directed Dog Soldiers, his first feature, released in 2002. It came before The Descent, Doomsday and Centurion in his filmography. Sean Pertwee plays Sergeant Harry G. Wells, with Kevin McKidd as Private Cooper, Emma Cleasby as Megan, Liam Cunningham as Captain Ryan, Thomas Lockyer as Corporal Bruce Campbell and Darren Morfitt as Spoon Witherspoon. Christopher Figg, Tom Reeve and David E. Allen produced, and 43 crew members are credited.
Made for about 2 million US dollars, the film took roughly 4 million worldwide, a solid return on a small production. On IMDb it holds 6.8 out of 10 from around 71,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.7 out of 10 from about a thousand votes. A critics' rating of 7.1 out of 10 from 44 reviews places it slightly above those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The events in the film take place in Scotland, however, the filming took place in Luxembourg.
- The musical piece Megan plays on the piano is “Clair de Lune,” which translates to “moonlight strip.” A reference to werewolves is unavoidable. However, it is also a possible homage to “An American Werewolf in London” (1981), whose soundtrack consisted entirely of compositions including the word “Moon” in their titles.
- One of the soldiers in the film is named Bruce Campbell, which is a reference to “The Evil Dead” (1981), where Bruce played the main role.
- At the beginning of the film, a group of soldiers discovers a tracking device in a radio, and one of them mentions the Kobayashi Maru scenario, which is a reference to “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” (1982).
- In the scene where Wells asks Cooper to knock him out, Kevin McKidd (Cooper) miscalculated his second hook and genuinely hit Shaun Pertwee (Wells). However, Shaun didn't feel anything, as he was completely drunk, just like his character.
- Shaun Pertwee’s character, Sergeant G.D. Wells, was named after the renowned science fiction writer, Herbert George Wells.
- The film features almost no computer-generated special effects, as the filmmakers believed that cinematographers use computer graphics far too often, distracting viewers from the plot.
- Kevin McKidd is Scottish, and he is well aware that there are no locations in Scotland as remote as those depicted in the film.
- The film contains several references to 'Zulu' (1964).
- The events of the film most likely take place on September 1st and 2nd, 2001. On the evening of September 1st, the English national football team won against the German team with a score of 5-1.
- Jason Statham was originally supposed to play Cooper, however, at the last moment, he chose to star in John Carpenter's 'Ghosts of Mars' (2001).
- Simon Pegg was offered one of the roles in the film, but he preferred to star in Edgar Wright's "Shaun of the Dead" (2004).
- Very early on, when Cooper is caught by special forces soldiers and Ryan points a gun at him, it is clearly visible that the gun does not have a magazine. But in the next scene, Ryan kills a dog with the same gun.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
