Kevin Dillon Talks Sony’s Delay of Crackle’s Hacker Movie, ‘Entourage’ Sequel: ‘Really Good Chance’
”They said, ‘Hold your horses, we’re not doing any interviews — they might push it,'“ actor tells TheWrap of cyberattack fallout. ”I was afraid that it would take a year or two“
When streaming site Crackle’s parent company Sony was hacked at the end of 2014, actor Kevin Dillon worried that comedic international spy thriller “The Throwaways” would never see the light of day.
“They said, ‘Hold your horses, we’re not doing any interviews — they might push it.’ And of course they did,” Dillon told TheWrap of making press appearances for the film’s original Dec. 19 premiere date. “I didn’t know how long they were going to push it for, so I was afraid that it would take a year or two.”
“The Throwaways,” which counts Jeremy Renner among its executive producers, follows notorious hacker Drew Reynolds (Sam Huntington), who is captured by the CIA and given a proposition — work for them or spend the rest of his life in prison. Reynolds agrees to join on the condition that he gets to choose his own team. Instead of picking from the top agents the CIA recommends, Reynolds goes with a group of “throwaways,” those deemed expendable and seemingly the worst in the organization.
One of those is Dillon, who plays legend-in-his-own-mind special forces soldier Dan Fisher. The “hot-headed, battle-hungry” veteran — as the man behind the character described him — is put on a team set up to fail. Together, however, the squad outperforms their unfair individual reputations.
Speaking on the weird situation that he, his fellow cast members — including James Caan — and all of Sony found themselves in last month, Dillon said he understood the gag order placed upon them by Crackle’s parent corporation, but said had he been in charge, he would have gone through with the interviews at the time, capitalizing on the trending topic and irony. After all, look what the controversy did for Sony’s “The Interview.”
“You get lucky,” the optimist told us of the coincidence the little movie suddenly found itself in the middle of. “They stepped in it.”
While Dillon was happy for Crackle afterward, he wasn’t originally thrilled about the prospect of doing something on Crackle. It took a little convincing for him to want to play a soldier on a platform most known for Jerry Seinfeld shooting the breeze with comedians over coffee in vintage cars, the actor told us.
“I originally thought, ‘Well I don’t think that’s something I want to do,'” Dillon admitted, hemming and hawing over the network’s modest size. “I had my people at ICM and my manager tell me, ‘Listen, this is kind of the wave of the future — this is where it’s all going.'”
Plus, “It’s kind of nice to be part of this early digital network, it’s just another way to get films out, more production out there, more work for actors, more work for writers and crew members,” Dillon realized. “TV has gotten real bad with all the reality stuff. We needed another outlet and this is perfect for it.”
And Dillon, co-star of HBO’s long-running hit series “Entourage,” knows a thing or two about quality scripted television.
On a potential sequel to the film iteration of the Mark Wahlberg-inspired and-produced project, the man behind Johnny “Drama” Chase told us there’s a “really good chance,” supposing the first one does well — which Dillon thinks it will.
“I think it’s a really good movie, from what I’ve seen it looks great,” he commented.
Fans will find out on June 5, when Adrien Grenier’s 1966 Lincoln Continental Convertible packed with his Queens Boulevard buddies rolls into theaters.
Loyal fans have endured a long wait for the film; the HBO series concluded in 2011, and even before then there were talks of a movie version.
For his part, Dillon has no real explanation on what took so long — he’s just glad it’s happened at all.
“I don’t know what held it up. I thought we should have already had the first movie out already. We should have been on No. 2 by now,” Dillon said. “A lot of people said, ‘Oh, it’s good to keep them waiting a little bit.’ I thought we kept them waiting a little too long.”
11 Hollywood Hacker Movies: From an Angelina Jolie Stinker to a Potential Oscar Winner (Video)
"Hackers" (1995): It's only on the top of the list because of the name, since this cyberpunk adventure starring Angelina Jolie, Jonny Lee Miller and Matthew Lillard didn't exactly impress critics. It was, however, on the forefront of predicting a cyber crime wave that has finally hit Hollywood.
"The Net" (1995): The trailer tells viewers that "computer analyst Angela Bennett was just doing her job when she stumbled onto something she never should have seen." The same could be said about future Oscar winner Sandra Bullock, who was just doing her job by leading the cast of this terrible science fiction movie nobody should have seen. Still, people around the globe paid $110 million to see it in theaters.
"Antitrust" (2001): This Silicon Valley techno thriller earned "Cruel Intentions" star Ryan Phillippe his first million-dollar paycheck, which ended up being 1/18 of what the entire movie made in theaters. The critically panned MGM release followed a gifted computer programmer being given a dream job by a Bill Gates-like genius who will do whatever it takes to make sure his computer firm remains the most powerful in the world.
"Live Free or Die Hard" (2007): This worthy addition to the beloved Bruce Willis action franchise revolved around John McClane joining forces with a young hacker (Justin Long) to stop a cyber terrorist (Timothy Olyphant) from crippling Washington D.C. with his keyboard. Fortunately for America, the world's toughest cop was too old at that point to understand technology, so his fists won out in the end.
"The Matrix" (1999): Keanu Reeves' character in this sci-fi classic was a computer hacker before he was "the One," and the Wachowski siblings went ahead and ruined the franchise by completing the trilogy that never lived up to fans' expectations. But hey, remember the first time Neo dodged all those bullets in slow motion? Yeah. That was awesome.
"WarGames" (1983): Matthew Broderick proved in this Cold War thriller that hacking into your school's computer system to change your grades is a gateway activity that could lead to accidentally starting global thermal nuclear warfare. In his defense, this movie makes playing global nuclear warfare from your desktop computer look really fun.
"Swordfish" (2001): Long story short, Hugh Jackman plays a hacker hired by John Travolta to help him steal millions of dollars to pay Berry to show her breasts, or something like that.
"Firewall" (2006): Cyber criminals force Harrison Ford into robbing his own bank when they break into his home and hold his family hostage. It wasn't very good, but at that point in Ford's career, just about anything could have been considered a step up from "Hollywood Homicide."
"Blackhat" (2015): This movie hasn't hit theaters yet, but since the majority of movies about hackers aren't memorable for being good, here's to hoping director Michael Mann's will be. Chris Hemsworth stars as the sexiest hacker alive who is released from prison to help law enforcement catch a cyber criminal threatening to take down international financial markets.
"We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists" (2012): We've all read about Anonymous at some point or another -- the hackers united under a Guy Fawkes mask and a mission for truth -- and this documentary charts the organizations rise and evolution, while even unmasking a few members.
"The Internet's Own Boy" (2014): This documentary about hacker and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz just landed on the short list of films competing in the Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature, and for good reason. It explores the computer prodigy's relationship with technology, and how its affecting our civil liberties.
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Sony is reeling from being hacked, but Hollywood has been producing stories around cyber crime for years. Here are 11 of the most memorable.
"Hackers" (1995): It's only on the top of the list because of the name, since this cyberpunk adventure starring Angelina Jolie, Jonny Lee Miller and Matthew Lillard didn't exactly impress critics. It was, however, on the forefront of predicting a cyber crime wave that has finally hit Hollywood.