American Made is an upcoming film about the life and times of Barry Seal. Seal started smuggling guns and drugs into the United States for the CIA after he lost his job as a commercial airline pilot. Estimates of the value of these shipments range from $3bn – $5bn. When the CIA tried to get rid of him he started working as an informant for the DEA.
Barry Seal proved a lot of trouble for the U.S. government when it was revealed he had the private phone number of the then Vice President George H.W. Bush in his possession proving he had worked for the American government contrary to what the official story had been. American Made is the latest project involving Barry Seal, Seal was featured briefly in Narcos as well as last year’s The Infiltrator. His story was first adapted in 1991 as the TV movie Doublecrossed starring Dennis Hopper.
American Made is the second Tom Cruise vehicle to hit the big screen after The Mummy which has just been released (or should I say unleashed?). The Mummy is meant to be the first film in the upcoming cinematic Dark Universe which is set to feature a number of classic Universal monsters such as Dracula, Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein and his Bride, The Creature from Black Lagoon, The Hunchback of the Notre Dame, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, The Phantom of the Opera and possibly The Wolfman.
It’s refreshing to see Tom Cruise star in a film that is not part of a franchise as many of his more recent films including Edge of Tomorrow, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and The Mummy have been. With sequels to Top Gun, Edge of Tomorrow and a new installment in the Mission Impossible series already in the works it is good to see Cruise is still interested in taking on projects without franchise potential.
American Made is directed by Doug Liman and stars Tom Cruise, Sarah Wright, Domhall Gleeson, Lola Kirke, Caleb Landry Jones and Jesse Plemons. It will be released in the U.K. on August 25th 2017 and in the U.S. on September 29th 2017. For international release dates click here.
Are you excited by the first trailer for American Made? Let us know in the comments!
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