Upon reading a headline informing you that Harrison Ford is expected to star in a new film entitled Official Secrets, it’s natural to feel overwhelmed for a moment by deja vu. “Didn’t that already happen?” you might ask yourself, flipping through your mental Rolodex of Ford films with drably governmental names. “Isn’t that the one where he becomes the president?” you ask no one, your Ford-questioning words bouncing off empty walls. “Or maybe there are nukes?” No answer. “Was it one of the ones where he was a lawyer?”
It was not.
No, this new film is not, in fact, about a steely-eyed elected official and/or Blade Runner demanding terrorists get off his plane or flying car; instead, it’s based on the true story of a British whistleblower who worked to expose alleged NSA fabrications in the run up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. And rather than embodying the noble bringer of truth—instead played by Natalie Dormer, finally ready to expose the secrets of how you all can date her, we presume—Ford will play a CIA agent, which doesn’t sound like one of his traditional good guy roles.
Paul Bettany, meanwhile, will play the dashing journalist Dormer’s character—Katharine Gun, a real-life member of British intelligence—leaks her story to, while Martin Freeman plays his boss. Anthony Hopkins, meanwhile—who luckily has looked pretty much the same for 20 years now, and thus doesn’t have to deal with these sudden Ford-esque bouts of filmic amnesia—will play a retired British general.