Georgia: "Godfather" Actor Andy Garcia Comes to Georgia for War Film

Filming on a US-Georgian-produced movie about the 2008 Russia-Georgia war ticked up a notch on October 18 with the arrival of American actor Andy Garcia.

Garcia, nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Vincent Mancini in The Godfather: Part III, is expected to play the role of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in the film, directed by veteran action movie director Renny Harlin.

In an August 3 interview with Variety, Harlin, best known for the 1990 blockbuster Die Hard 2, termed the movie a chance to work on a project "with substance and reality."

"I saw it as my opportunity to use my experience in action films to tell the story of a complex conflict that is impartial but makes a strong anti-war statement," Harlin said.

In the film, British actor Rupert Friend plays a journalist who travels to Georgia shortly before the war; few additional plot details have been released. The film as yet has not been named.

Georgian television reported on October 19 that filming will take place over the next few days at the presidential palace, and near parliament to re-enact the post-war Tbilisi visit of the leaders of Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Estonia and Ukraine.

Filming so far has occurred in Gori, a Georgian town on the border with breakaway South Ossetia that was occupied by Russian troops during the war, and Tsalka, a village near the southern region of Samtskhe-Javakheti.