REPORT
Not just Barack Obama,
Hollywood’s going Fast &
Furious on Cuba too!
W
hen it comes to providing stock villains to Hollywood, nobody has been more prolific and
creative as Russia. When in doubt, American
filmmakers fell back upon the tried and tested Communist menace and eureka, a Russian villain.
But when there were too many Russian villains, they invented Cuban ones (cue Red Dawn). That was before
Barack Obama offered a hand of friendship to this tiny
island.
The country checked all the boxes for US’ frenemy: The
US severed diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961 after
Fidel Castro’s revolution sparked fears of communism
spreading to the Western Hemisphere. Domestic politics
in both countries contributed to the continued estrangement well after the Cold War ended. It didn’t stop Hollywood from giving us famous Cuban characters like Tony
Montana in Scarface but there was little else thanks to
the ban.
After the revolution, American actors and filmmakers
were banned from shooting scripted movies and shows
since the ‘50s. Hey, but you saw films set in Cuba, didn’t
you? Well, here is how Hollywood did it without putting a
foot in the country…
* In The Godfather 2, Micahel Corleone confronted his
traitorous brother Fredo in Havana. Actually, Dominican
Republic had to stand in for the Caribbean island.
* In the 2006 movie Miami Vice, Sonny Crockett jet
boats to Cuba to drink mojitos. The scenes were really
shot in Uruguay.
* In Golden Eye and Die Another Day, James Bond
fights villains in Cuba. In reality, Puerto Rico and Spain
stood in for the island.
The United States spent decades trying to topple Cuba’s
communist government. Washington attempted economic strangulation, the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, and CIA assassination plots against Fidel Castro
-- including the legendary, but unproven story of sending
him an exploding cigar.
Now, Obama has bet that soft power will achieve what
muscle could not. So the economic sanctions have been
lifted, Obama is in Cuba and so is Hollywood. Shows
are being shot on
Havana’s
streets,
big-ticket projects are
looking at the country and one indie film
has already been finished there.
Don Cheadle shot
for Showtime series
House of Lies in Havana. The actor said,
“It’s definitely so cinematic, the places to
shoot are so scenic.
You would hope there
would be more crews
here, if that works
for the governments.
It’s a place that deserves to be brought onto the world
stage.” Conan O’Brien has shot his show in the country.
Papa, which premiered at this year’s Festival of New
Latin American Cinema in Havana, was the first American production to be shot on the island in over 50 years.
It has Ernest Hemingway as its protagonist, a man loved
both in Cuba and the US.
However, the Caribbean country’s big break, cinematically, could be Fast and Furious 8 known for their gravity-defying stunts and screen-flooding explosions. After
blowing up cars in Dubai, Rio and other scenic locations,
the film’s director F Gary Gray is scouting Havana for
the next in the series. An Ethan Hawke film is reportedly
also in the works which will be a collaboration between
Hollywood and the island’s underfunded film sector.
It seems, like Obama, Hollywood is also asking Cuba,
“What’s up?”
24 | BOOM