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BANK ROBBERY SCENE FROM SEAN BEAN’S CA$H COMES TO LIFE WHEN A REAL ROBBERY OCCURS AT THE SCENE OF THE SHOOT

Art imitates life, or vice versa?

A Feb 24th 2009 robbery at Lincoln Park Savings Bank could pass for a play-by-play reenactment of a major film, titled Ca$h! shot at the same location, according to the film’s representatives.
“I couldn’t believe it. It was almost the same scene we shot for the movie, at the exact same location,” said film producer Naveen Chathappuram.
Lincoln Park Savings Bank was robbed by Melvin Reese, 46, of Gary, Indiana. Reese handed the teller a note demanding money, then fleeing with $1,665 in cash. He was later apprehended by Chicago Police, partly with the help of bank vice president Peter Volpe, who followed the robber on foot. All of the money was recovered.
In Ca$h!, a similar scenario arises when notorious bad boy Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings trilogy) and Chris Hemsworth (Home and Away, Star Trek Movie), are led on a wild chase through Chicago, eventually ending up at Lincoln Park Savings Bank, in pursuit of the obvious-- cash.
“I’d say it was déjà-vu from the movie. You get an adrenaline rush,” said Volpe.
While the similarities between the robbery and the movie scene are uncanny, Chathappuram says there is an “additional twist” in Ca$h.
“It certainly plays out a bit differently in Ca$h. You’ll have to watch it to find out,” he said.
Film representatives are not worried that Tuesday’s robbery was inspired by Ca$h. Both film representatives and bank officials had agreed to exclude the name of the bank on camera, to avoid any such circumstances.
“It’s certainly not a copy-cat action since the movie has not been released yet,” Chathappuram said.
“Security is always our primary concern, and that’s why we decided to omit the name of our bank from all movie footage,” added Volpe.
Ca$h is a psychological thriller that explores the power money has over humans. It is set to release later this year and “places Chicago on the film map,” according to film representatives. The film is the work of acclaimed director Stephen Milburn Anderson of South Central fame.
Recently, “MovieMaker Magazine” ranked Chicago as the country’s number one city for indie filmmaking in its ninth annual ranking of U.S. movie cities.

The Villain as Suitor

The second time I saw Sean Bean was on American Public Television (PBS) as Mr. Lovelace, in the BBC production of Samuel Richardson’s novel, Clarissa. For Richardson and his contemporaries, Robert Lovelace was the consummate rogue and rake, scheming to steal the virtue of the beautiful but pious Clarissa Harlowe. But for Sean Bean, Lovelace was the perfect character to flex his acting muscles. Handsome and cruel, his character grows before us into a soul tortured by love. Sean plays Lovelace as a man trapped in his own myth. So how does he manipulate our sympathies so that we turn away from the innocent but cold Clarissa (Saskia Wickam), and towards the flawed but repentant Lovelace Sean has created?


A few years later I saw Sean playing another evil, handsome and rich character in the American mini-series Scarlett. As a sequel to “Gone with the Wind”, the series was difficult for me to warm to, but Sean as the charming yet sadistic Lord Fenton is perfection. Sean makes you believe this man can easily go from courting Scarlett O’Hara, to killing revolutionary priests, while never soiling his immaculate clothes. But you have to be a clever viewer, for I agree that the shades of emotion are conveyed by Sean in the flicker of an eye, or a smile that morphs into a snarl. Even mediocre writing can’t stop Sean Bean from creating an unforgettable character.

So imagine my excitement that in Ca$h! he will be playing not one, but two characters. I am really very intrigued by the physical transformation between Pyke and Reese. It will be interesting to see how this physical transformation liberates Sean the actor.

--Myriam

Humanizing the Villain

Living in America, the first time I ever saw Sean Bean in a film was in 1990 in The Field where he starred alongside such acting stalwarts as Richard Harris and John Hurt. Seeing him play a mentally slow son of a bullying father (Harris) drew me in from the start. Here was a young man who wanted to please his father but was led to do bad things, usually through the guidance and coercion of others. On the surface, one could look at the character of Tadgh as played by Sean as a one-dimensional entity especially since he had very little dialogue throughout the film. However, it was an early hallmark of his talent and skill to convey conflict in a myriad of emotions that flickered across his face and pulsed in his body language as he struggled to convey his inability to understand and obey his father’s inexhaustible demands.

That emotional conflict is what drew me back to see him again and again. The next time I saw Sean Bean was in 1992 in Patriot Games with Harrison Ford. Here he played an IRA terrorist who goes after Ford and his family in retribution for the killing of his younger brother. The first glimpse of the simmering hatred on Bean’s face as he stared down Ford in the courtroom was enough to scare the living daylights out of me. Yet I couldn’t help but feel a bit of sympathy for the man who had lost his younger brother to a cause he fervently believed in. This is Sean Bean’s forte. The ability to play a villain and no matter how bad, how corrupt that character may be, he manages to find something in them that makes him human and therefore relatable to those who watch him onscreen. He breathes uncommon life into villains that normally one would find despicable and entirely unsympathetic. It can be a small hesitation in the way he delivers a line, a palpable swallow, a look that flickers across his face for a fleeting second that makes you sit up and have second thoughts about whom you are actually seeing unfold before you on the screen. He makes his characters real. He makes his villains in particular, more human and three-dimensional than most of the good men you see played onscreen.

Many movie goers know Sean as “that bad dude” in films such as Golden Eye, Scarlett, National Treasure, and more recently, The Hitcher. In The Hitcher he came into the role of John Ryder which brought with it literally no background. A man bent on killing as much and as savagely as he could until somebody stopped him. But why? Only Sean’s flair for conveying the unspoken could he communicate a man with a death wish so fervent that he was pleading for his own violent end, as savage as any he had committed. It was what Ryder felt he deserved and Sean proved he could portray this villain without explanation or apologies for his behaviour.

His most recent turn as real estate developer John Dawson in the 1974 and 1983 installments of The Red Riding Series is a new achievement for Bean, as vile and nasty a character as any he has portrayed to date yet gilded with a sense of open magnanimity that betrays the evil that lies in wait.

And these are only some of the reasons that I am eagerly waiting for Ca$h! to come out. The thought of seeing Sean Bean play two roles, perhaps two sides of the same coin is yet another new feat for him and a challenge I am certain he'll excel at. When it comes to playing bad, no one does it so very good.

--Traci

Waiting in Anticipation

Excitement is building! Ca$h! the new film starring Sean Bean is coming out sometime in 2009. and we as life-long Bean fans cannot wait.

In Ca$h! a man meets up with two good people to recover what is unlawfully his, taking them on a whirlwind ride, manipulating them to do things they never would have imagined, just to survive. This highly anticipated film stars everyone's favorite bad guy Sean Bean as Pyke Kubic in the new thriller from Stephen Milburn Anderson and Naveen Chathappuram.

When news first broke that Sean was filming a new movie in Chicago, all attention turned on what looked like an exciting new story being played out against the backdrop of one of America’s most electric, vibrant cities. Glimpses from both fans and passers by wondered what was going on as two different Seans appeared for duty. What was the man known to millions as Boromir doing in their neighborhood???

In this film, we will soon be treated to Sean in the twin roles of Pyke and Reese. Again, Sean will show us an evil character that is fully human, the good and evil side that resides in all of us as part of human nature. It begs the question is it nature or nurture that brings out a particular side?

Now it looks as if the last touches are being put in place to get Ca$h! out to cinemas later this year. Join us for continuous breaking news, special features and exciting announcements regarding Ca$h in the weeks to come!

Myriam and Traci