Unexploded WWII bomb almost derails Woody Harrelson's 'live movie'

Yesterday’s discovery of an unexploded World War Two bomb in London almost derailed the filming Woody Harrelson’s directorial debut, an ambitious ‘live movie’ project.

Over 30 cast-members and 600 extras joined Harrelson on ‘Lost In London’, a multi-location shoot in the city, which was shot live on a single camera, and then broadcast to Soho’s Picturehouse cinema as well as over 500 screens in the US.

But the discovery of the bomb at Victoria Embankment threatened to end the project, which had been in rehearsal since November.

It closed off both Waterloo and Westminster bridges for several hours while the device was dealt with and disposed of by the Royal Navy.

However, filming did commence later, and the movie – based on the true story of how he ended up in jail in London following an eventful night out in 2002, and which included him wrestling a disabled homeless man – was eventually completed and Harrelson said, ‘turned out pretty good’.

Speaking to the Evening Standard, Director of photography Nigel Willoughby said: “Woody said, ‘how much would it take to pay the Royal Navy to get rid of that bomb?’.”

Harrelson also warned others against taking on such a project.

Concluding filming at 4am on Waterloo Bridge, he said: “If someone was thinking of doing it then all they would need to do is talk to me and I would talk them out of it. Unless I didn’t like them.

“I would have liked to have a lot more iconic images – there’s a lot of great images in London – but we had to be all within this area so that confined where we could be.”

The film also starred Owen Wilson and Willie Nelson helping recreate what Harrelson calls ‘one of the worst nights of my life’, which took place while the ‘Hunger Games’ star was in London starring in the play ‘On An Average Day’ in the West End.

“They say that tragedy plus time equals comedy, and even though it was a night I really didn’t enjoy, I thought ‘this could be funny’,” he added.

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