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6 Days trailer: 1980 Iranian Embassy siege recreated in tense new thriller

The first full-length trailer for Toa Fraser's 6 Days, a tense thriller based on the 1980 Iranian Embassy Siege, has been released.

Starring Mark Strong as hostage negotiator Max Vernon, Abbie Cornish as  BBC news reporter Kate Adie (Abbie Cornish) and Jamie Bell as Rusty Firmin, leader of one of the SAS assault teams that eventually entered the Embassy to end the siege, the film is a dramatic retelling of the events of April 30 to May 5 that year.

Twenty-six people were taken hostage inside the embassy by six gunmen, who demanded the release of Arab prisoners in the Khuzestan Province of Iran, as well as their own safe passage out of the UK.

The poster for 6 Days
The poster for Toa Fraser's 6 Days

After Margaret Thatcher's government refused to accede to their requests, the gunmen murdered one of the hostages – leading to an SAS assault on the building.

Bell carried out SAS-style training to prepare for his role in the film.

“A lot of it was carrying your own kit, being in kit all day long, doing multi-room clearances, handling weapons, being in situations where you would be out of breath and they would make you do it again," he previously told The Standard.

“We’d do 11-minute runs of multi-room clearances which would involve capturing hostages, bringing them out, using explosives, putting them in rooms, running into rooms that are literally exploding, people shooting blanks at you, us firing blanks at targets, very much the training that you go through once you have kind of already got into the SAS. Although the truth is we missed the selection process, which is the tricky part.”

Bell also met Firmin, who is now in his 60s, to help prepare for the role – and earned the approval of the former SAS man.

“If I had to pick anybody [to play me] now I’ve met the guy I would pick him," Firmin said.

6 Days is released in the UK and Ireland on August 4

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