It was the year 2005, and Andrew Niccol, then a name of considerable renown thanks to films like Gattaca and S1m0ne and to his screenplay for The Truman Show, directed Nicolas Cage in a strange and captivating film titled Lord of War, in which the American actor portrayed in his own distinctive way an eccentric and fearless international arms dealer named Yuri Orlov, inspired by the real-life figure Viktor Bout. Now, more than twenty years later, Cage returns to play the same character in a sequel titled Lords of War, which, just as before, has Niccol writing the screenplay and behind the camera.
In the film, which will debut in the USA on January 22, Orlov will confront the discovery that a son with whom he had long since lost contact has become a ruthless mercenary who is exploiting the conflicts in the Middle East in which Americans are involved to assemble a kind of incredibly powerful private army. The young man, named Anton and portrayed by Bill Skarsgård, does not seem at all interested in joining his father’s business but rather in eclipsing him, thereby giving rise to a violent family feud that will evolve into a full-blown military war. The cast also includes Laura Harrier, Sylvia Hoeks, and Greg Tarzan Davis.
Who knows, this sequel might also become a cult movie in its own right, just as Lord of War did, which used dark humor and political satire to reveal some real economic mechanisms behind the world’s conflicts. Here is the official trailer for Lords of War.
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