Hollywood star Eric Bana interested in starring in Croatian film about the Battle of Vukovar

Eric Bana

Hollywood star Eric Bana could be set to star in a Croatian film about the battle of Vukovar. 

Bana, who starred in blockbusters like ‘Black Hawk Down’, ‘Troy’ and ‘Hulk’, is interested in playing the starring role in the Croatian film ‘The Sixth Bus’. 

The film portrays the battle of Vukovar from the Homeland War from its very start to the massacre committed on the Ovčara farm outside the town and trials conducted for those crimes. 

The film is directed by Eduard Galić with his son Dominik as producer. 

Dominik Galić revealed to 100posto that Bana is very interested in acting in the film. 

The Australian-born actor claims Croatian heritage. His father Ivan Banadinović emigrated to Australia from Croatia after World War II.

“We sent Eric the script in hope that he would read it. We did not know if he would be able to work with us because of his obligations and that is why I was very pleasantly surprised when we got a message from him that he was interested. He obviously read the script as he said it reminded him of Dunkirk,” Galić told 100posto. 

The Battle of Vukovar was an 87-day siege of Vukovar by the Yugoslav Army (JNA) between August and November 1991.  

Vukovar water tower  – the symbol of Vukovar (Photo: Anjči under cc)

Vukovar was defended by around 1,800 lightly armed Croatian soldiers and civilian volunteers, against as many as 36,000 JNA soldiers. A total 1,624 people were killed and 1,219 were wounded. 

The Ovčara massacre was the killing of Croatian prisoners of war and civilians by Serb paramilitaries at the Ovčara farm southeast of Vukovar on 20 November 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence.  

Ovčcara farmhouse (Photo: Perun under CC)

Filming is set to start early next year and will also be a five-episode series. Funding from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre has already been secured.