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Top 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2008: #80 Defiance

Published on January 29, 2008

Director: Edward Zwick
Writers: Clay and Claton Frohman and Zwick
Producers: Pieter Jan Brugger (Miami Vice) and Zwick
Distributor: Paramount Vantage

The Gist: Based on Nechama Tec’s book “Defiance: The Bielski Partisans”, the film revolves around Jewish brothers (Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell) living in Nazi-occupied Poland who escape into the Belarussian forest where they join Russian resistance fighters in battling the Nazis.

Fact: Production took place in the little known country (for Hollywood movies) of Lithuania.

See It: I’m not a Zwick fan, but the material on which this is based upon is intriguing to say the least. It will be nice to see Daniel Craig back to back as Bond and then in a less “suave” role.

Release Date/Status?: Currently filming, Paramount Vantage will take their time to plan the
release of this film – but don’t be surprised to see it as Holiday
fair as Zwick’s The Last Samurai and Blood Diamond were both released
in the month of December.

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Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).