Eric Bana was joking with us when he said that Edward Snowden was a fiction created entirely for the purpose of promoting Bana’s new movie, “Closed Circuit.” The actor was, virtually without a doubt, also joking when he said that Snowden was stashed in a nearby room and that we could interview the whistleblower if we so desired (for the right amount of money).
“Closed Circuit” is, in part, a tale of government overreach, of security services going too far, and that instantly brings to mind the recent Snowden reveals. As Bana told us with “the subject matter that the film deals with there’s always going to be something that happens that makes a story like this relevant.” Bana certainly doesn’t believe that the Snowden material is going to be the last time this sort of information comes to light.
The new movie doesn’t represent the first time the Australian actor has made a film dealing with government overreach. He is not, however, becoming paranoid that they’re out there, watching him. “I figure they’d just fall asleep watching me.” Bana then added that government spy agencies have “bigger fish to fry.”
A large part of “Closed Circuit” features a look at terrorism (which can, hypothetically, lead to overreach on the part of security services), the post-7/7 British legal system, and the system’s closed sessions. In the interview, Bana told us of getting to watch a court case and repeatedly hearing a witness say that he couldn’t answer questions in open court, that they had to be discussed in private. It is an area rife for discussion and “Closed Circuit” will almost certainly not be the last film to tackle it.
Directed by John Crowley, tackle it “Closed Circuit” does. The movie also features Rebecca Hall and Ciaran Hinds in addition to Bana. It opens in theaters on August 28.