‘Mosul’ launched on Netflix on Thanksgiving and is becoming one of the most watched movies in Europe and the Middle East.
Joe and Anthony Russo talk about their Netflix action project “Mosul” following its cast that allegedly received death threats from ISIS. ‘Mosul’, produced by the Russo brothers and directed by Matthew Michael Carnahan, premiered on Netflix on November 26, 2020 and is one of the most watched films in Europe and the Middle East. Starring Suhail Dabbach and Adam Bessa, ‘Mosul’ is an Iraqi Arab war thriller that follows a SWAT police mission to wipe out ISIS members who killed their loved ones.
“When I posted on my social media that the film was going to appear, there was a lot of ISIS the first day,” Dabbach told Deadline. “They put up a lot of videos and bad words. As they said, we know you now, and you need to keep an eye on yourself. Touch your head every day to make sure it’s still on. They said, “We know where you live and we will reach you.” ‘
Carnahan said the death threats were a terrible byproduct of the large number of viewers abroad, and Joe Russo added that it was “definitely a terrific experience for the actors.”
“It’s never a comfortable feeling to have your privacy violated, and it’s scary to receive death threats from anonymous sources,” Joe Russo said. “We feel it is handled expertly by Netflix and by our own security team.”
During the production of ‘Mosul’ in Morocco, the Russian brothers’ AGBO production company used the TigerSwan security service to protect the cast and crew from potential ISIS threats and took extra measures to prevent the ISIS storyline from leaking from the film. . AGBO again turned to TigerSwan to ensure the cast’s safety after the release of the film and the increase in death threats.
“I’m just going to say we took it very seriously,” Anthony Russo told Deadline. “We knew the film was challenging and potentially dangerous for everyone involved. We took the highest security measures we could think of and we were familiar with the process after working on the Marvel movies. ”
“It was a whole new level in terms of secrecy,” Anthony continued. ‘We did not distribute texts, we had a code name for the film and removed every reference from ISIS from the texts when we had to distribute it, so it was never explicitly mentioned as in the film. We had the best security people working with us, but still there was danger, but we had to be in a Middle Eastern country to make the film the way we did. We were exposed and had to do as responsibly as we could, but everyone thought it was worth the risk. ”
According to Deadline: “Dabbach’s family has received similar scary threats, and his co-star Adam Besa, who plays the policeman who is included in the SWAT team, saw his Instagram page wiped clean and he was threatened on WhatsApp. These threats have been detected in Turkey. Both the film’s financiers AGBO, Netflix and 101 Studios took it seriously enough to order internal security forces to step in and make sure everyone is safe. ”
“Mosul” is now streaming on Netflix.
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