Exclusive: Jake Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim talk Guy Ritchie's The Covenant
Hitting theaters this week from MGM is the action thriller Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant, directed by Guy Ritchie from a script co-written by Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson & Marn Davies. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Dar Salim, Antony Starr, Alexander Ludwig, Bobby Schofield with Emily Beecham and Jonny Lee Miller.
Gyllenhaal plays Sgt. John Kinley, who is on his last tour of duty in Afghanistan when he is teamed with local interpreter Ahmed (Dar Salim) to survey the region. When their unit is ambushed on patrol, Kinley and Ahmed are the only survivors and with enemy combatants in pursuit, Ahmed risks his own life to carry an injured Kinley across miles of grueling terrain to safety. Back on US soil, Kinley learns that Ahmed and his family were not given passage to America as promised. Determined to protect his friend and repay his debt, Kinley returns to the warzone to retrieve Ahmed and his family before the Taliban reach them first.
The film is total departure for Ritchie, who’s best known for offbeat films such as Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Revolver, RocknRolla, Sherlock Holmes and sequel A Game of Shadows, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Disney's Aladdin, The Gentlemen, Wrath of Man, and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre most recently.
Gyllenhaal recently starred in Michael Bay action pic The Ambulance, and before that starred in Antoine Fuqua’s The Guilty. He also voiced the character Searcher Clade is Disney’s Strange World. Upcoming is Doug Liman’s Road House, a remake of the 1989 film 'Road House' about a bouncer at a rowdy bar.
Salim is a Danish actor who had recurring roles in Danish thrillers The Bridge and Below the Surface. He also co-starred in the Swedish TV series Springfloden (Spring Tide).
Blackfilmandtv.com’s Wilson Morales spoke with Gyllenhaal and Salim on their roles in Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant.
