Grimsby

Grimsby (2016)

1:23 (83 min)

Action, Comedy

United Kingdom, United States

6.3/10
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6/10
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6.2/10
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All about film

Video 17

Photo 31

Actors and characters

1:23

Photo 31

Production

Working Title Films, Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Releasing

Release date

24 February 2016

Budget

$35 000 000

Revenue

$27 979 040

Director

Louis Leterrier

Scenario

Sacha Baron Cohen

Author

Composer

Erran Baron Cohen

Producer

Sacha Baron Cohen

All team (87)

Actors

Sacha Baron Cohen

Kyle 'Nobby' Butcher

Mark Strong

Agent Sebastian Graves

Isla Fisher

Jodie Figgis

Penélope Cruz

Rhonda George

Rebel Wilson

Dawn Grobham

Gabourey Sidibe

Banu

Nick Sampson

WHN Newscaster

David Harewood

Black Gareth

All actors and roles (10)

• All filming for the town of Grimsby took place in Essex County. No shots were filmed in Grimsby itself. Sacha Baron Cohen also did not insist on this.
• Penélope Cruz plays an actress named Ronda George in the film. In real life, Ronda George is the name of Sacha Baron Cohen's assistant.
• While playing Nobby Butcher, Sacha Baron Cohen imitated the mannerisms and speech of actor Sean Connery in his role as James Bond.
• One of the film's posters, featuring Sacha Baron Cohen, Rebel Wilson, and Gabourey Sidibe, parodies James Bond movie posters, where the British Secret Service agent is pictured alongside two slender beauties.
• Guy Pearce, Clive Owen, and Colin Farrell were considered for the role of MI-6 agent Sebastian Grimbsy, but Mark Strong was ultimately approved.
• As the British newspaper "Mirror" wrote, "according to legend, Grimsby was founded in the 9th century by a Danish Viking named Grim. It is believed that the city's name comes from the words "Grim's settlement."
• The actors who starred in the film, and the dates of their official joining the project (in 2014): Mark Strong — April 24; Annabelle Wallis — April 25; David Harewood, Ian McShane, Gabourey Sidibe, Johnny Vegas — June 11; Isla Fisher and Rebel Wilson — June 12; Penélope Cruz — July 9.
• Screenwriter and one of the producers Peter Bainham played a traffic warden.
• Louis Leterrier became the director of the film on December 3, 2013.
• This is the fourth joint film project for the married couple Ayla Fisher and Sacha Baron Cohen. They previously starred together in Larry Charles' films "Borat" (2006), "Bruno" (2009), and "The Dictator" (2012).
• Twelve-year-old Freddie Crowder plays the role of Tsunami, Nobby's son, played by Sacha Baron Cohen. Several weeks after the film's release, Crowder suffered a double leg fracture while playing football for his school team. The plot of "The Brothers Grimsby" revolves around football.
• Some episodes were cut from the theatrical release of the film to avoid receiving an "NC-17" rating in the United States (individuals 17 years of age and younger are not admitted).
• The film debut of actors Freddie Crowder, Youssef Hoffri, Claudia Edshid, Lewis Johnson, Miles Evans, Matthew Baldwin, Gabriel Chai Palmer, and John-John Lockwood.
• Ian McShane plays the director of "MI6". McShane has appeared in spy films before – in the thriller "The Quiller Memorandum" (Daniel Mann, 1975) and the comedy "Agent Cody Banks" (Harald Zwart, 2003). He also played the villain opposing a secret team of special forces in Dean Hamilton's television film "Charlie's Angels" (1999).
• Many residents of the town of Grimsby said they enjoyed the film.
• One of two films about secret operations in actor Barkhad Abdi's career. He debuted in the thriller "Captain Phillips" (Paul Greengrass, 2013), for which he was nominated for an "Oscar" in the "Best Supporting Actor" category. As of April 2016, the films about secret operations in which Abdi appeared were "Eye in the Sky" (Gavin Hood, 2015) and "The Brothers Grimsby" (Louis Leterrier, 2016).
• In October 2013, Sacha Baron Cohen attended a football match between "Grimsby Town" and "Cambridge United". After the match, the actor, wearing a t-shirt with the logo of the "Grimsby Town" football club, went with other fans to drink beer at a pub called "The Blundell Park Hotel".
• This is Sasha Baron Cohen's first action film designed for theatrical release – the actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer.
• While working on the film, Sasha Baron Cohen served in multiple roles – as a producer, actor, lead performer, one of the story and screenplay authors. Furthermore, Cohen had a say in the final editing of the film, as well as the privilege of hiring other actors.
• This is the fourth joint project by screenwriters Peter Baynham and Sasha Baron Cohen, who wrote the screenplay for this film in collaboration with Phil Johnston. Previously, Baynham and Cohen had worked together on the scripts for Larry Charles' films 'Borat' (2006), 'Bruno' (2009), and 'The Dictator' (2012).
• Oliver Wood, the cinematographer for 'The Brothers Grimsby,' previously worked on creating spy films such as 'Falling Speed' (Deran Sarafian, 1994), 'Rollercoaster' (Jeb Stuart, 1997), 'The Bourne Identity' (Doug Liman, 2002), 'The Bourne Supremacy' (Paul Greengrass, 2004), 'The Bourne Ultimatum' (Paul Greengrass, 2007), as well as Betty Thomas' comedic spy film 'Undercover' (2002) and Dennis Dugan's comedic action film 'National Security' (2003). In addition, Wood worked as a cinematographer on 'Access Code: Cape Town' (Daniel Espinosa, 2012).
• The film features a number of popular musical tracks, however, a soundtrack album for the film was never compiled or released.
• Mark Strong, who plays Sebastian Graves, the head of the "Tiger Tail" division, previously starred in the following spy films: "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (Tomas Alfredson, 2011), "Zero Dark Thirty" (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012), "The Imitation Game" (Morten Tyldum, 2014), and "Kingsman: The Secret Service" (Matthew Vaughn, 2015). Strong is friends with actor Daniel Craig, who plays James Bond, and they starred together in Bailey Walsh's "Choke" (2008) and the mini-series "Our Friends in the North" (1996).
• This parody of spy films, featuring a number of overweight actresses, was released on the 50th anniversary of the premiere of the low-budget film "Fat Spy" (Joseph Cates, 1966) – a parody of teen beach party films.
• This is the second spy film parody in the career of actor, screenwriter, and producer Sacha Baron Cohen. In 2003, he released an 8-minute short film titled "Spyz," in which Cohen played Ali G portraying James Bond. James Bobin directed this parody. He also directed "Alice Through the Looking Glass" (2016), which also starred Cohen and was released after "The Brothers Grimsby."
• The film was released in the UK on February 24, 2016. As promotion, a poster was released featuring Rebel Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen with the inscription "Happy Valentine's Day!" – this was further proof of Cohen’s outrageousness, as Valentine's Day had already passed ten days prior.
• In the US, the film was released the same weekend as the premiere of the highly publicized Disney animated film "Zootopia" (2016), which immediately soared to the top of the charts, while "The Brothers Grimsby" landed in 8th place. It is worth noting that Phil Johnston was one of the screenwriters for both films.
• According to a report on «iSpot» (a website created by the British Open University), Sony Pictures spent approximately $7.7 million on television advertising for the film during its opening weekend. For comparison, Paramount Pictures spent $16.3 million on the same purpose for Dan Trachtenberg's «10 Cloverfield Street» during the same weekend.
• Norman «Nobby» Butcher, played by Sacha Baron Cohen, nicknamed his wife, Dooly Grobham, portrayed by Rebel Wilson, «Kim Kardashian (Kardashian-West) from Grimsby».
• Part of the film's plot unfolds in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe in southern Africa. Sacha Baron Cohen voiced King Julien in the «Madagascar» animated films from «DreamWork Animation» (2005, 2008, and 2012). Madagascar is an island nation in the Indian Ocean near the eastern coast of Africa, and is associated with that continent.
• Rebel Wilson began work on «The Brothers Grimsby» just two weeks after finishing filming on the musical comedy «Pitch Perfect 2» (Elizabeth Banks, 2015).
• Some of Nobby's children, played by Sacha Baron Cohen, were named Skeletor (one of the villains from the "Masters of the Universe" franchise), Tsunami, and Django Unchained (the title of Quentin Tarantino's western). His grandson was nicknamed Gangnam Style (the name of a single by South Korean singer and songwriter PSY, released on July 15, 2012). Cohen is the only actor in "The Brothers Grimsby" whose name is mentioned in the credits of "Django Unchained" (he is one of those to whom the filmmakers express special gratitude).
• When Sacha Baron Cohen advertised the film "The Brothers Grimsby" on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" (2003), the audience was shown a clip involving an elephant's vagina. Its full broadcast was deemed unsuitable, so television viewers only saw the moment of ejaculation, while the studio audience saw the entire unedited clip. Despite the rather provocative nature of the excerpt, people in the studio laughed hysterically. The same reaction was elicited by those invited to the British "ITV" studio, where it was shown as part of the film's promotional campaign during an episode of "The Jonathan Ross Show" (2011).
• Grimsby is a real city in England. "Wikipedia" describes it as "a large town and port on the south bank of the Humber estuary in England, near its outflow into the North Sea. Originally, the city was administratively part of Lincolnshire, but in 1974 it was included in the newly formed county of Humberside. In 1996, Humberside County was abolished, and Grimsby returned to Lincolnshire, where it became the administrative center of the unitary authority of North East Lincolnshire. Developing as a seaport on the east coast of England, by the mid-20th century, Grimsby possessed the largest fishing fleet in the world."
• Many residents of Grimsby did not appreciate Cohen portraying their city as a trash-strewn ghetto where drunks urinate directly onto the street from windows, and mothers offer beer to their children.
• Many scenes set in Santiago, Chile, were actually filmed in Cape Town, South Africa. The stadium shown in the film is a city stadium that hosted the 2010 World Cup semi-final match between the Netherlands and Uruguay.
• Sacha Baron Cohen plays the role of the older brother to the character played by Mark Strong. In reality, Cohen is 8 years younger than Strong.
• In the initial script versions, the role of the main villain was assigned to a man named Clayton Lamb. Eventually, this character became a woman named Ronda George, who was played by Penélope Cruz.
• Nobby’s jersey (played by Sacha Baron Cohen) features the number 19. Paul Gascoigne wore this number for the England national team at the 1990 FIFA World Cup. That year, the cup went to West Germany, and the England team finished fourth. In the film “The Brothers Grimsby” (2016), the national teams of these countries compete in the final match for first place. At the 1990 championship, the England and West Germany teams played each other in the semi-finals, and the English lost in a penalty shootout, missing one shot and scoring three goals, while the West Germany team missed one shot and scored four goals. Midfielder Gascoigne was one of the key players for the England team when it performed well at the 1990 FIFA World Cup and the 1996 UEFA European Championship. In 1990, footage of a distraught Gascoigne crying went viral worldwide. He couldn’t hold back tears during the match against West Germany after receiving a yellow card from the referee, which meant he would be disqualified from the final match if England won the semi-final. Gascoigne’s performance in the 1990 World Cup matches earned him the title of “Sports Personality of the Year” by the “BBC”. Gascoigne was the first footballer to win this title after Bobby Moore (1941-1993), who became “Sports Personality of the Year” in 1966. The film “The Brothers Grimsby” is released on the 50th anniversary of Moore receiving this title.
• A sign on the inside of the door at the “Trawler Pub” hotel in Grimsby reads: “Before going outside, don’t forget to adjust your dress.”
• The film was released approximately a decade after the premiere of “Borat” (Larry Charles, 2006). Thus, “The Brothers Grimsby” was released in the year of the tenth anniversary of Sacha Baron Cohen’s classic comedy, which was nominated for an “Oscar” in the “Best Original Screenplay” category.
• Spy gadgets and special technologies are presented in the film in the form of weapons, drones, “Green Earth” (a visual communication system used within the intelligence community), and a global facial recognition system.
• To film the scene involving an elephant's vagina, the filmmakers consulted with a number of zoologists, who couldn't understand why anyone would need to know if two adults could fit inside. One of the dialogues in the film states that during mating, an elephant's uterus expands to a volume of 25 cubic feet, or 0.7 cubic meters.
• According to a post in 'The Huffington Post' regarding the episode with Donald Trump and AIDS, 'studio representatives feared provoking the politician, known for his vindictiveness and tendency to sue his detractors, and even worse—a politician who could become the next President of the United States.' Furthermore, 'this scene did not inspire any enthusiasm at Sony's Hollywood headquarters. Three different sources in the film industry stated that Sony made its opinion very clear and demanded the episode be cut... however, Sacha Baron Cohen stood firm, and his opinion was decisive, which is rare in contracts between a studio on one side and a producer and actor—on the other.'
• In the episode where Nobby, played by Sacha Baron Cohen, goes on his first assignment under the alias 'Mr. Sheldon,' he meets Annabelle Wallis at a hotel, who plays a girl just like in James Bond films. The background music during this scene is also reminiscent of the 'Bond' films.
• The first official news about the film 'The Brothers Grimsby' appeared around August 2013. At that time, it became known that Sacha Baron Cohen was planning a parody of spy films like James Bond, in which the main character, a secret agent, is forced to carry out a mission while on the run with his brother—a football hooligan.
• Norman 'Nobby' Butcher, played by Sacha Baron Cohen, has 9 children.
• Sebastian Butcher, played by Mark Strong, worked for one of the secret divisions of the secret service «MI6», which was called «Tiger's Tail».
• At least in one of the early script versions, Ayla Fisher's character – Jodie Figgess from the British secret service – was named Sarah Wells. Nobby, played by Sacha Baron Cohen, found his long-lost brother Sebastian Graves, a secret «MI6» agent played by Mark Strong, just as Graves and Wells were about to become intimate. The romantic connection between Graves and Figgess remained in the final version of the film.
• The final match of the World Football Championship in the film took place in Chile. The national teams of England and Germany competed for the championship title.
• Penélope Cruz plays a villain named Ronda George in this parody of spy films. Her real-life husband, Javier Bardem, played a villain in the Bond film "Skyfall" (Sam Mendes, 2012). The villainous schemes in "The Brothers Grimsby" are very similar to those concocted by the millionaire psychopath Drax in the eleventh Bond film, "Moonraker" (Lewis Gilbert, 1979).
• Throughout the film, the bald «MI6» agent Sebastian Graves, played by Mark Strong, is called Vin Diesel, Ben Kingsley, and "that guy from the "Despicable Me" (2010) cartoon."
• To perform a responsible task, the secret agent of "MI6", Sebastian Graves, played by Mark Strong, was given the alias "Mr. Sheldon", which was often used by his brother Norman "Nobby" Butcher, played by Sacha Baron Cohen. Nobby deliberately called his brother by the wrong name, saying "M.R. Sheldon" instead of "Mr. Sheldon" (in English).
• On February 13, 2014, production of the film transitioned from "Paramount Pictures" to "Columbia Pictures."
• In appearance—particularly his hairstyle and sideburns—Sacha Baron Cohen’s character strongly resembles Liam Gallagher, the vocalist and frontman of the band Oasis, whose peak popularity was in the 1990s and 2000s. Cohen and Gallagher had a falling out around 2012. Cohen later stated: "I decided that for my next movie role I would get a haircut like his." The newspaper "The Mirror" also confirmed that Cohen "based the look of his new character in the future film «The Brothers Grimsby» on the former frontman of Oasis."
• Nobby refers to Pavel Lukashenko as "Ben Affleck from Ukraine." Scott Adkins, who plays this character, auditioned for the role of Batman in Zack Snyder’s "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" (2016), which was ultimately played by Ben Affleck.
• Leterrier said he gladly seized the opportunity to work with Sacha Baron Cohen, whom he had always admired. “I remember the early days of DVDs, when people crowded around the shelves with ‘Ali G Show’ (2000) and ‘Ali G Show’ (2003) discs and asked each other, ‘Have you seen this?’ I remember going to see ‘Borat’ (2006) on the very first day of its release, even to the very first 11 a.m. showing. I just laughed throughout the screening, and then I dragged my friends to the same movie on the weekend,” Leterrier said. “That’s what I like about Cohen’s films. You absolutely have to see them first, and then go back with friends and watch their reactions. Cohen is a brilliant actor, one of those I sincerely admire.”
• During one interview during the pre-release promotion of the film, Sacha Baron Cohen stated: “Grimsby is a wonderful town in the northeast of England, a sister city to Chernobyl. I am proud of Grimsby. It recently rose to a respectable third place in Europe in the number of obese children and became the first city in England with 100 percent unemployment. It’s a friendly town where newcomers inevitably find themselves the center of attention, so you should remember small things like basic politeness and cleanliness before the law.”
• Sacha Baron Cohen is married to actress Isla Fisher. In the promotional campaign for the film ‘The Brothers Grimsby’ (2016), Cohen said: “And my brother is married to an Australian, so it runs in the family.”
• “Watching Sacha film comedies is like watching Michael Jordan make two-point shots,” Isla Fisher once said (she played Jodie Figgs, the character Sebastian, played by Mark Strong, is in love with). “I learned a lot from him about how to look funny on camera. And as for everyone else, Sacha’s character turned out to be so elevated that neither he nor his role could be compared to us.”
• Sebastian Grimsby is played by Mark Strong, who recently successfully played Merlin in Matthew Vaughn’s ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ (2015). “It was decided that we needed an actor who could perform in action films, and that’s Mark Strong,” Sacha Baron Cohen said. “He’s really cool. He does all the stunts himself, he fights beautifully. And most importantly, he gets so into the role that you start to believe him.”
• "I had seen previous films featuring Sasha, but to be honest, I had no idea what my involvement in one of them would turn into," said Mark Strong in response to a question about participating in a comedy with Sacha Baron Cohen. "It was something else. Sasha was constantly joking and making witty remarks. Wherever he appeared, chaos immediately ensued. But laughter aside, everything was strictly by the rules. We all had scripts with lines marked for each of us, and we had to say everything word for word. Otherwise, the audience might miss some nuances or ultimately stop understanding what's what."
• As in previous appearances on screen, Sacha Baron Cohen focused on creating the most believable image possible. "When we worked on the films 'Ali G,' 'Borat,' and 'Bruno,' everything had to be perfect there too. All the images had to be fleshed out down to the smallest detail," the actor said. "In general, the believability of the image is the foundation on which we build all our work. Sometimes someone comes up with a genuinely funny joke, but you have to put it aside because it wouldn't be characteristic of that particular character. All words and actions must match the character, otherwise credibility is lost. That's why we create a real world for our characters."
• The second film, distributed by 'Columbia Pictures,' a subsidiary of 'Sony Corporation,' has sparked near-political controversy for the second year in a row. In 2015, 'The Interview' (2014) by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen caused outrage in North Korea over its depiction of the country's leader, Kim Jong-un. It was even claimed that 'Sony Corporation' was subsequently subjected to a hacking attack, as a result of which confidential correspondence of the company's management and information about Sam Mendes' upcoming film 'Spectre' (2015) became public knowledge. 'The Brothers Grimsby' (2016) was released during the US presidential primaries, and a scandal erupted over the use of a joke about Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president.
• Married to Isla Fisher, who also stars in 'The Brothers Grimsby' (2016), Sacha Baron Cohen said about his co-stars Rebel Wilson and Penélope Cruz: "I work according to the Stanislavski system, so I go home in the evening with Rebel Wilson. Frankly, she's pregnant, and the producers are putting pressure on her to give birth on the premiere day," he paused. "No, that's not true. It's just nice to work with someone during the day on set and at night – in bed." And then, with a stone face: "I want to thank Penélope Cruz. She is unparalleled in bed."
• Director Louis Leterrier later said that the comedy genre places completely different demands on directing, something he had not encountered before. "It took longer to shoot individual scenes, up to 45 minutes. We shot with multiple cameras at once. There were other nuances. All of this was new to me," he said. "But when Sacha Baron Cohen is on set, it can't be any other way. Sacha is just a continuous stream of consciousness. He never shuts up. It's just surreal."
• "Sacha is always ready to do himself everything he demands of other actors, and does it conscientiously. Especially when there's an opportunity to make everyone laugh," director Louis Leterrier recounted, who himself didn't shy away from experiencing firsthand everything that fell to Sacha Baron Cohen and Mark Strong. "If they had to get wet on set, I got wet too. When they undressed, I undressed too. Sacha was one of the scriptwriters, so he was prepared for anything, but Mark was a different story, so I voluntarily subjected myself to all these inconveniences as moral support."
• Actress Isla Fisher about director Louis Leterrier, with whom she starred in 'Now You See Me' in 2013: "I'm glad Louis moved away from working in familiar genres and made a comedy, because his directing style is simply amazing. The cameras on set are constantly moving, creating an incredible feeling. Besides, Louis is quite capable of filming a world of 'knights in shining armor' and doing it with his inherent sense of humor."
• One of the Grimsby town council members, Matthew Brown, said about the film: "It's a shame that the town is not portrayed in the most favorable light in the film. After all, everything related to football hooliganism is negative by definition. I hope that viewers won't develop a prejudice against Grimsby afterwards."
• In one interview, Sacha Baron Cohen compared the secret agent from 'MI6', Sebastian Graves, played by Mark Strong, to James Bond.
• Manohla Dargis's review, published by 'The New York Times' on March 10, 2016, of this parody of spy films came with the subtitle 'From Sacha with Love.' The subtitle alludes to the classic Bond film 'From Russia with Love' (Terence Young, 1963). The words 'Sacha' and 'Russia' rhyme in English.
• The fictional international health organization is called "Healing the World".
• ITV sports commentators, Clive Tyldesley and Andy Townsend – the latter a former midfielder for the Irish national team – played the roles of television commentators in the film.
• On the red carpet before a number of premieres of the film "The Brothers Grimsby," as well as during some photoshoots as part of the promotional campaign, Sacha Baron Cohen was dressed as Nobby, surrounded by bikini-clad women, as in James Bond films. Ahead of the French premiere, the women were dressed in gold-colored suits – a reference to "Goldfinger" (Guy Hamilton, 1964), the third film in the Bond series.
• In the film, whose plot is closely related to football, you can hear the song "Tubthumping" by the British rock band Chumbawamba (1982-2012). The American company "Electronic Arts" acquired the rights to use this song in the 1998 computer game "World Cup 98." In 1997, "Tubthumping" was released on CD with four other tracks, one of which was called "Football Song."

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