By Sarah Monius-Hump
Hollywood actor Michael Sheen (The West Wing, Apocalypse Now) and his Welsh son Martin Sheen (Frost/Nixon, Masters of Sex) reunite in the new film Hotel Caliphate from veteran filmmaker Captain Michael Scorsese (Chopper Island, Gangs of Baghdad).
The father-son duo play intrepid LA Times reporters who track Mickey Cohen (played by the unelectable Arnold Schwarzenegger) to the middle-east, where the gangster funds ISIL efforts for world domination so he can reap the benefits of global prohibition.
Michael and Martin last starred together onscreen in 2004’s Three Men and a Baby alongside Michael’s ex-husband Charlie and celebrity infants Natalie Portman and Keira Knightley.
Photos: Gage Skidmore and Gordon Correll
Father-son team Sheen and Sheen (bottom and top respectively) share DNA and Screen
In an interview with Gulp! magazine Sheen claimed to be ‘exceptionally happy with how the flick turned out’ and praised the director’s ‘vision’ while costar Sheen gave a different impression. ‘The thing you’ve gotta know about the director’, Sheen interrupted, ‘is that no amount of licking could make him budge on certain issues.’ ‘In fact,’ Sheen continued puzzlingly, ‘he’s a lot like a stamp. The more you lick, the more he sticks.’
Interested to learn more, I phoned Scorsese’s local post office who confirmed the director doesn’t send many letters, although he does receive plenty of correspondence from fans who presumably use stamps.
Photo: David Shankbone
Brendan Fraser (pictured) is not in the film
Eagle-eyed viewers may spot Michael in the credits for previous Scorsese productions Tank Driver and The Wolf of Saigon, on which he had a role in catering.
Hotel Caliphate is released on September 11th.
Sarah Monius-Hump is a film critic from Exeter. She studied politics at the University of Hard Knoxville, Ohio, and lives vicariously through serial killer documentaries.
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