'Mile 22' was shot in 42 days

Director Peter Berg says it was a remarkable experience to shoot "Mile 22" in just 42 days.

The movie was filmed between November 2017 and February 2018, filming the majority of its interior shots in Atlanta, Georgia during the first five weeks, before moving to Bogota, Colombia for the remainder of the shoot, where the exterior action scenes were filmed.

"It was remarkable how President Santos (former Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos) and his government really opened up their city to us," Berg said in a statement to IANS.

Written by Graham Roland and Lea Carpenter, "Mile 22", featuring Mark Wahlberg, is the story of an elite American intelligence officer who, with the help of the top-secret tactical command unit, tries to smuggle a mysterious police officer with sensitive information out of a foreign country.

To lay the groundwork for filming an action film, which involves multiple car chases, gunfire and explosions, the filmmaker started talking to officials of the Colombian government and the city of Bogota back in June of 2017. One of the most important special permits the makers had to get was to allow aerial filming in what were normally the city's no-fly zones.

"We were basically given keys to the city. We were allowed to go into their equivalent of Times Square and shut it down for 10 days and do some pretty hectic stuff. The fact that we were able to use the real city and interact with the real city in a pretty kinetic way really helped give us the look we were going for," he added.

Being brought to India by PVR Pictures, the film will release in India on Friday.

--IANS

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