Actor Gerard Butler and Director Donovan Marsh of the new submarine movie Hunter Killer visited Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, CT, Saturday to meet real US Navy submariners, tour the attack submarine USS Hartford, and share a special premiere of the movie with Sailors on base. Hunter Killer is a 2018 American action thriller film directed by Donovan Marsh and written by Arne Schmidt and Jamie Moss, based on the 2012 novel Firing Point by Don Keith and George Wallace. The film stars Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, Michael Nyqvist (in one of his final film roles), Common and Toby Stephens, and follows a group of Navy SEALs who must ride in a submarine to rescue the captured Russian President from a coup. Hunter Killer was released in the United States on October 26, 2018, by Summit Entertainment.
Principal photography on the film began on July 25, 2016, in London, and in Bulgaria. Interior sets of a Virginia-class Hunter Killer submarine were built at Ealing Studios, using blueprints approved by the US Navy, with the spaces expanded slightly to allow freer camera movement. The sets were mounted on a gimbal to simulate the movement of the sea. Ealing also hosted a Pentagon set from where US military personnel track the submarine action. An exterior set of the main Hunter Killer submarine was built in Pinewood Studios’ 806,000-gallon exterior water tank, while underwater scenes were shot using a separate water tank at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, also just outside London. Interiors of the Russian base were built as sets at Nu Boyana Film Studios in Bulgarian capital, Sofia.
