Certainly, there are a lot of movie sequels these days. There are times during the calendar year when it feels like all we get are sequels in theaters. Still, every so often, the announcement of a sequel can surprise you all the same.
Case in point: The 2005 arms-dealer drama Lord of War will now get a sequel titled, fittingly, Lords of War. The movie will feature the original’s star, Nicolas Cage, and it will be written and directed by Lord of War creator Andrew Niccol. The hook of the follow-up is that Cage’s character will be partnered in the arms dealer business with his own son, played by It‘s Bill Skarsgard.
The official press release describes the sequel’s premise this way:
In Lords of War, Yuri Orlov (Cage), the world’s most notorious gunrunner, discovers he has a son, Anton (Skarsgård), who isn’t trying to right his father’s wrongs – he’s trying to top them. Not only selling guns but the “trigger pullers” too, Anton is amassing a mercenary army to fight America’s Middle East conflicts. This is the story of Yuri and Anton’s bitter rivalry – even at odds over the same woman. Who will prevail when father and son go to war? Lord of War’s Yuri Orlov is a composite character based on numerous arms dealers.
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In the original film, Cage’s Orlov takes viewers into the world of illegal arms dealing. As that synopsis suggests, Niccol based the character on real-life arms dealers.
Here was Niccol’s comment on the news of this sequel, which is coming almost 20 years after the original film.
There is so much more to explore with these characters… Plato said it best – ‘Only the dead have seen the end of war.’ I’m looking forward to spending more time in the company of the charming devil that is Yuri Orlov and now his illegitimate son – who turns out to not be legitimate in any way.
FilmNation will be looking to sell international rights to the movie at the Cannes Film Festival later this month. The original Lord of War grossed about $72 million in theaters worldwide against a reported budget of $50 million.
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