Eye in the Sky (2015 film)

Last updated

Eye in the Sky
Eye in the Sky 2015 film poster.jpg
British release poster
Directed by Gavin Hood
Written by Guy Hibbert
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Haris Zambarloukos
Edited byMegan Gill
Music by
Production
companies
Distributed byEntertainment One
Release dates
  • 11 September 2015 (2015-09-11)(TIFF)
  • 8 April 2016 (2016-04-08)(United Kingdom)
Running time
102 minutes [1]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$13 million [2]
Box office$35.4 million [2]

Eye in the Sky is a 2015 British thriller film starring Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman, and Barkhad Abdi. [3] Directed by Gavin Hood and written by Guy Hibbert, the film explores the ethical challenges of drone warfare. Filming began in South Africa in September 2014.

Contents

The film premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on 11 September 2015. Bleecker Street distributed the film in cinemas in the United States with a limited release on 11 March 2016 and then a wide release on 1 April.

It is the last live-action film to feature Alan Rickman, who died on 14 January 2016 (his last film overall, Alice Through the Looking Glass , features his voice acting only). The film was dedicated to his memory.

Plot

The film opens in Nairobi, Kenya, where Alia Mo'Allim, a young girl, twirls a hula-hoop in her backyard.

British Army Colonel Katherine Powell wakes up and hears that an undercover British/Kenyan agent has been murdered by the Al-Shabaab group. From Northwood Headquarters, she takes command of a mission to capture three of the ten highest-level Al-Shabaab leaders meeting in a safe house in Nairobi.

A multinational team works on the capture mission, linked by video and voice systems. Aerial surveillance is provided by a USAF MQ-9 Reaper drone controlled from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada by Second Lieutenant Steve Watts. Undercover Kenyan field agents, including Jama Farah, use short-range ornithopter and insectothopter cameras to link in ground intelligence. Kenyan special forces are positioned nearby to make the arrest. Facial recognition to identify human targets is done at Joint Intelligence Center Pacific at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The mission is supervised in the United Kingdom by a COBRA meeting that includes British Lieutenant General Frank Benson, two full government ministers and a ministerial under-secretary.

Farah discovers that the three high-level targets are now arming two suicide bombers for what is presumed to be an attack on a civilian target. Powell decides that the imminent bombing changes the mission objective from "capture" to "kill". She requests Watts to prepare a precision Hellfire missile attack on the building and solicits the opinion of her British Army legal counsel. To her frustration, her counsel advises her to seek approval from superiors. Benson asks permission from the COBRA members, who fail to reach a decision and refer the question up to the UK Foreign Secretary, presently on a trade mission to Singapore. He does not offer a definite answer and defers to the United States Secretary of State, who immediately declares the American suicide bomber an enemy of the state. The Foreign Secretary then insists that COBRA take due diligence to minimise collateral damage.

Alia, who lives next door, is now near the target building selling her mother's bread. The senior military personnel stress the risk of letting would-be suicide bombers leave the house. The lawyers and politicians involved in the chain of command argue the personal, political, and legal merits of and justification for launching a Hellfire missile attack in a friendly country not at war with the US or UK, with the significant risk of collateral damage. Watts can see the more direct risk of little Alia selling bread outside the targeted building, and they seek to delay firing the missile until she moves.

Farah is directed to try and buy all of Alia's bread, so she will leave, but after paying her, his cover is blown, and he is forced to flee without collecting it. Seeking authorisation to execute the strike, Powell orders her risk-assessment officer to find parameters that will let him quote a lower 45% risk of civilian deaths. He re-evaluates the strike point and assesses the probability of Alia's death at 45–65%. She makes him confirm only the lower figure and then reports this up the chain of command. The strike is authorised, and Watts fires a missile. The explosion destroys the building and injures Alia, but one conspirator survives. Watts is ordered to fire a second missile, which strikes the site just as Alia's parents reach her. They rush Alia to a hospital, where she is pronounced dead.

In the London situation room, the under-secretary berates Benson for killing from the safety of his chair. Benson counters that he has been on the ground in the aftermath of five suicide bombings and adds as he is leaving, provoking her to tears: "Never tell a soldier that he does not know the cost of war."

Cast

Crew

Production

"Drones are new but still a weapon of warfare. It doesn't matter if it's a drone or a sniper rifle, the question is: 'Did we kill the right guy?'"

—Gavin Hood, speaking on the film's subject matter. [9]

Eye in the Sky is directed by Gavin Hood based on a screenplay by Guy Hibbert. The screenplay was a project initially being developed at BBC Films, and FilmNation Entertainment acquired Hibbert's screenplay from BBC in September 2011 for Oliver Hirschbiegel to direct. [10] Production did not happen as anticipated, and Hood sent the screenplay to Xavier Marchand, president of Entertainment One. Marchand decided to develop it to produce a film with Hood directing. [11] Entertainment One partnered with Raindog Films in April 2014 to produce Eye in the Sky with Colin Firth as one of the producers. [12] Actors Helen Mirren and Aaron Paul joined the cast the following month. [13]

Hood, born in South Africa, chose to film Eye in the Sky in his home country. [14] Filming began in South Africa in September 2014. [11] Since the South African Civil Aviation Authority did not grant filmmakers permission to fly real drones in the country's airspace for the production, they used visual effects to display the drones. [15] Hood found practical locations throughout South Africa that substituted for settings in the film: an area that looked like Surrey for Mirren's character, clubs that had the appearance of Las Vegas establishments, and Beaufort West which was a backdrop for the state of Nevada in the United States. The bombed town square was built as a movie set at Cape Town Film Studios. Filming concluded on 4 November 2014. [16] None of the four lead actors—Mirren, Rickman, Paul, and Abdi—met one another during production, instead filming alone with Hood due to their characters' separate locations in the film. [17] For example, despite the two costarring in a pair of films (Eye in the Sky and the animated feature Help! I'm a Fish ), Aaron Paul and Alan Rickman had never met each other in person, according to Paul. [18]

Mark Kilian and Paul Hepker, who scored Hood's films Tsotsi (2005) and Rendition (2007), reteamed to score Eye in the Sky [19] as did editor Megan Gill.

Release

Eye in the Sky premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on 11 September 2015. [20] The film had its United States premiere on 7 January 2016 at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. [21]

Bleecker Street distributed the film in the United States, [22] [23] releasing it in New York City and Los Angeles on 11 March 2016 and gradually expanding to additional markets on the following two weekends. On 1 April 2016, the film received a wide release. Deadline said this release was positioned to take place after the 2015–2016 awards season. [17]

Entertainment One distributed the film in the United Kingdom on 8 April 2016 and Malta in May 2016. [3] It also distributed the film in Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Australia, and New Zealand. [13]

Reception

Box office

Eye in the Sky grossed $6.6 million in the UK, [24] $18.7 million in the US and Canada, [25] and $32.8 million worldwide.

The film grossed $113,803 in the US on its opening weekend of 11–13 March 2016 from five screens, an average of $22,761 per screen. In its wide release, the film grossed $4 million, finishing ninth at the box office.

Critical response

Eye in the Sky received positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 95%, based on 175 critics, with a weighted average score of 7.5/10. The site's consensus reads, "As taut as it is timely, Eye in the Sky offers a powerfully acted – and unusually cerebral – spin on the modern wartime political thriller." [26] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [27]

Rickman's performance was well received by critics, with Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times saying, "Mr Rickman was never nominated for an Academy Award and it's probably a long shot for a posthumous Supporting Actor for this film - but his work here is a reminder of what a special talent he possessed." [28]

Peter Asaro on Science & Film reviewed the accuracy of the advanced military technology depicted in the film, concluding, "Keep in mind that while some of the advanced technologies depicted are not yet out in the field, many are only a few years away from being a reality". [29]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Rickman</span> English actor (1946–2016)

Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman was an English actor and director. Known for his distinctive deep, languid voice, he trained at RADA in London and became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), performing in modern and classical theatre productions. He played the Vicomte de Valmont in the RSC stage production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses in 1985, and after the production transferred to the West End in 1986 and Broadway in 1987, he was nominated for a Tony Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colin Firth</span> English actor (born 1960)

Colin Andrew Firth is an English actor and producer. Over his career he has been the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2011, Firth was appointed a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for his services to drama. That same year, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and appeared in Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Mirren</span> British actor (born 1945)

Dame Helen Mirren is a British actor. With a career spanning 60 years, she is the recipient of numerous accolades and is the only performer to have achieved both the American and the British Triple Crowns of Acting. Mirren has received an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for portraying the same character in The Audience, as well as three British Academy Television Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards for her role as DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect.

<i>Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves</i> 1991 film

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is a 1991 American action adventure film based on the English folk tale of Robin Hood and loosely set in the 12th century. Directed by Kevin Reynolds and written by Pen Densham and John Watson, the film stars Kevin Costner as Robin Hood, Morgan Freeman as Azeem, Christian Slater as Will Scarlett, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Marian, and Alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham.

<i>Calendar Girls</i> 2003 British comedy film by Nigel Cole

Calendar Girls is a 2003 British comedy film directed by Nigel Cole. Produced by Touchstone Pictures, it features a screenplay by Tim Firth and Juliette Towhidi, based on a true story of a group of middle-aged Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes in April 1999 after the husband of one of their members dies from cancer. The film stars an ensemble cast headed by Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, with Linda Bassett, Annette Crosbie, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton, Geraldine James, Harriet Thorpe and Philip Glenister playing key supporting roles.

<i>Help! Im a Fish</i> 2000 Danish animated film

Help! I'm A Fish is a 2000 animated science fantasy musical film directed by Stefan Fjeldmark, Greg Manwaring, and Michael Hegner, and written by Stefan Fjeldmark, Karsten Kiilerich, John Stefan Olsen and Tracy J. Brown. It stars the voices of Alan Rickman, Terry Jones and a then-unknown Aaron Paul.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gavin Hood</span> South African filmmaker

Gavin Hood is a South African filmmaker, and actor, best known for writing and directing Tsotsi (2005), which won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. He also directed the films X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ender's Game, Eye in the Sky and Official Secrets.

The Austin Film Critics Association (AFCA) is an organization of professional film critics from Austin, Texas.

Guy Hibbert is a British screenwriter and playwright.

<i>The Audience</i> (2013 play) Play written by Peter Morgan

The Audience is a play by the British playwright and screenwriter Peter Morgan. The play centres on weekly meetings, called audiences, between Queen Elizabeth II and her prime ministers. It premiered in the West End in 2013, at the Gielgud Theatre. A Broadway production opened in 2015, also starring Mirren. A West End revival played in London in 2015 starring Kristin Scott Thomas in the lead role.

<i>A Little Chaos</i> 2014 British period drama film

A Little Chaos is a 2014 British period drama film directed by Alan Rickman, based on a story conceived by Alison Deegan, who co-wrote the screenplay with Rickman and Jeremy Brock. It stars Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Rickman, Stanley Tucci, Helen McCrory, Steven Waddington, Jennifer Ehle and Rupert Penry-Jones. It was financed by Lionsgate UK and produced by BBC Films. The second film directed by Rickman, after his 1997 debut The Winter Guest, and the last before his death in 2016, it was also the second collaboration of Rickman and Winslet after their 1995 film Sense and Sensibility. Production took place in London in mid-2013, and it premiered as the closing night film at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival on 13 September 2014.

<i>The Hundred-Foot Journey</i> (film) 2014 film by Lasse Hallström

The Hundred-Foot Journey is a 2014 American comedy-drama film directed by Lasse Hallström from a screenplay written by Steven Knight, adapted from Richard C. Morais' 2010 novel of the same name. It stars Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, and Charlotte Le Bon, and is about a battle in a French village between two restaurants that are directly across the street from each other: a new Indian restaurant owned by an Indian emigrant family and an established French restaurant with a Michelin star owned by a French woman.

Bleecker Street Media LLC is an independent American film company that specializes in film distribution. The company is based in New York City and named after 65 Bleecker Street, the street address of founder Andrew Karpen's prior company Focus Features. Founded in 2014, the studio was established with the goal to distribute "smart house" films that combine the entertainment of studio blockbusters with the artistic indie allure.

<i>Trumbo</i> (2015 film) 2015 film directed by Jay Roach

Trumbo is a 2015 American biographical drama film directed by Jay Roach and written by John McNamara. The film stars Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Louis C.K., Elle Fanning, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg as Edward G. Robinson, Dean O'Gorman as Kirk Douglas, and David James Elliott as John Wayne. The film follows the life of Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, and is based on the 1977 biography Dalton Trumbo by Bruce Alexander Cook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ged Doherty</span> British film and music industry executive

Ged Doherty is a British film and music industry executive. Formerly the chairman of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and BRIT Awards Limited and the chairman and CEO of Sony Music UK, he is the CEO and co-founder of Raindog Films.

Toydrum are an English musical duo formed in 2011 by former Unkle band members and record producers Pablo Clements and James Griffith. The pair work out of their Brighton studio, The Toyrooms, where they wrote and recorded their debut EP, Distant Focus Vol 1 (2014), and the subsequent Evangelist (2015), with Gavin Clark.

The National Film Awards UK are presented in an annual award show hosted by the National Film Academy (NFA). As of 2015, it has taken place in Central London at the Porchester Hall. The most recent 9th National Film Awards UK was held on 4 July 2023.

Catherine the Great is a British-American television miniseries written by Nigel Williams and directed by Philip Martin for Sky Atlantic and HBO Miniseries. It stars Helen Mirren as the titular Catherine the Great.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Mirren on screen and stage</span>

Dame Helen Mirren is an English actor known for her prolific career in film, television, and on stage.

References

  1. ↑ "Eye in the Sky (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 1 February 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Eye in the Sky (2016)". The Numbers . Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  3. 1 2 Staff (9 December 2015). "Eye in the Sky: watch the UK trailer for the drone warfare drama starring Helen Mirren and Alan Rickman – video". The Guardian . Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  4. 1 2 White, James (22 October 2014). "Exclusive First Look At Helen Mirren In Eye In The Sky". Empire . Retrieved 23 October 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 Reilly, Travis (28 October 2014). "'Breaking Bad' Star Aaron Paul Is a Conflicted Drone Pilot in 'Eye in the Sky'". TheWrap . Retrieved 29 October 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Grierson, Tim (11 September 2015). "'Eye In The Sky': Review". Screen International . Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  7. ↑ Thangevelo, Debashine (2 February 2015). "SA's Beukes to raise hell in Hollywood". Independent Online . Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  8. ↑ Thangevelo, Debashine (2 February 2015). "Kim's kick-a** roles in US productions". Independent Online . Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  9. ↑ Trenholm, Richard (23 August 2016). "Life in the kill box: 'Eye in the Sky' targets the ethics of drone strikes". CNET . Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  10. ↑ McNary, Dave (12 September 2011). "FilmNation flies high with 'Sky'". Variety . Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  11. 1 2 McClintock, Pamela; Anderson, Ariston (5 September 2014). "Toronto: First Controversial Drone Movie Strikes, Questions U.S. Policy". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  12. ↑ Barraclough, Leo (30 April 2014). "Cannes: eOne Partners with Colin Firth, Ged Doherty on 'Eye in the Sky'". Variety . Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  13. 1 2 Sneider, Jeff (16 May 2014). "Aaron Paul, Helen Mirren Join Colin Firth in Thriller 'Eye in the Sky'". The Wrap . Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  14. ↑ Staff (16 January 2015). "Hood tackles Eye in the Sky By". Screen Africa. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
  15. ↑ Staff (4 June 2014). "Drag on drone movie". The Times . Retrieved 3 October 2014.
  16. ↑ Cornelius, Jerome (5 November 2014). "Gavin Hood ready to go to war". The Times . Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  17. 1 2 D'Alessandro, Anthony (7 October 2015). "Aaron Paul-Helen Mirren Drone Thriller 'Eye In The Sky' Spies March 2016 Release Date". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  18. ↑ Anthony, Andrew (10 April 2016). "Aaron Paul: 'It's impossible not to throw our own emotions into the mix'". The Guardian . Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  19. ↑ Staff (29 January 2015). "Mark Kilian & Paul Hepker to Score Gavin Hood's 'Eye in the Sky'". Film Music Reporter. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  20. ↑ Punter, Jennie (28 July 2015). "Toronto Fest to Open With Jake Gyllenhaal's 'Demolition'; 'Danish Girl,' 'Martian' in Lineup". Variety . Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  21. ↑ Fessier, Bruce (18 December 2015). "Complete Palm Springs film festival lineup announced". The Desert Sun . Retrieved 18 December 2015.
  22. ↑ Setoodeh, Ramin; Lang, Brent (14 September 2015). "Toronto: Bleecker Street Acquires 'Eye in the Sky' Starring Helen Mirren". Variety . Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  23. ↑ Fleming, Mike (14 September 2015). "'Eye In The Sky' Deal Done, With Bleecker Street Inching Over Fox Searchlight & Roadside – Toronto". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  24. ↑ "Foreign total gross". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved 3 September 2016.
  25. ↑ Eye in the Sky at Box Office Mojo
  26. ↑ "Eye in the Sky (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango . Retrieved 3 September 2016.
  27. ↑ "Eye in the Sky Reviews". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  28. ↑ Richard Roeper (13 April 2016). "Eye in the Sky': Helen Mirren, co-stars excel in tense war drama". Chicago Sun-Times .
  29. ↑ Asaro, Peter (19 April 2016). "Dr. Peter Asaro on Drone Technology in Eye in the Sky". Sloan Science & Film. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.