At Venice Film Festival, Jude Law debuts ‘The Order’ about FBI manhunt for a domestic terrorist

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Jude Law plays an FBI agent investigating the violent crimes of a white supremacist group in “The Order,” which premiered Saturday at the Venice Film Festival.

An adaptation of Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt’s nonfiction book “The Silent Brotherhood,” Nicholas Hoult was cast as Robert Jay Mathews, the charismatic leader of the group, which was considered the most radical hate group since the Ku Klux Klan. Their crimes, including bank robberies and armored car heists that the group was using to fund an armed revolution, led to one of the largest manhunts in FBI history, in 1983.

“What amazed me was it was a story I hadn’t heard about before,” said Law, who also produced. “It like a piece of work that needed to be made now.”

He added: “It’s always interesting finding a piece from the relative past that has some relationship to the present day.”

Law made the trip to Italy with his director, Justin Kurzel, and co-stars Hoult, Jurnee Smollett and Tye Sheridan for the premiere.

His character, called Agent Huss, is an amalgam FBI agent and not based on a specific person. This, they said, was important for positioning him within this story.

“He represents an awful lot of us,” Law said. “He felt his hardest work was behind him and in fact he had his biggest battle ahead of him.”

Kurzel, an Australian filmmaker known for the 2015 adaptation of “Macbeth” with Michael Fassbender, said he had always wanted to make an American film in the vein of dramatic thrillers from the 1970s like “The French Connection,” “Mississippi Burning” and “All the President’s Men.” He tried to make this film with the simplicity he admired in those classics.

Hoult felt it was a “difficult story to tell and difficult characters to inhabit,” but he praised his director for helping to create a safe and creative environment as they explored the darkness of Mathews. He had just recently learned, on the boat over to the Lido, that Kurzel had told Law to actually follow him around one day to get into character.

“The first time we spoke was in the first scene we interact,” Hoult said. “It gave a great energy.”

And all were struck by the parallels to today. Though no one wanted to comment directly on the upcoming U.S. presidential election, the film, they hope, speaks for itself.

“The history of America is very complex,” Smollett said. “This level of bigotry is not new, and it has existed in our nation since it was founded. As artists we get to hold a mirror up to society … explore the very complex sides of humanity, the ugliness, the darkness in order for us to learn from it and hopefully not repeat it.”

“The Order” is playing in competition at Venice, alongside “ Maria,” “ Babygirl,” “The Room Next Door," “Queer” and “Joker: Folie à Deux.”

Vertical Entertainment will release the film in theaters later this year.

For more coverage of the 2024 Venice Film Festival, visit https://apnews.com/hub/venice-film-festival

Jurnee Smollett poses for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'The Order' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Jurnee Smollett poses for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'The Order' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Jurnee Smollett poses for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'The Order' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Nicholas Hoult poses for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'The Order' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Nicholas Hoult poses for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'The Order' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Writer Zach Baylin, from left, Phillip Forest Lewitski, Tye Sheridan, Jude Law, director Justin Kurzel, Jurnee Smollett, Nicholas Hoult and Matias Lucas pose for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'The Order' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Jude Law, left, and director Justin Kurzel pose for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'The Order' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Jude Law poses for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'The Order' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Jude Law poses for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'The Order' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Jude Law poses for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'The Order' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Tye Sheridan poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'The Order' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)

Nicholas Hoult poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'The Order' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)

Jude Law poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'The Order' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)

Jude Law poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'The Order' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)

Jude Law poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'The Order' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)

Jude Law poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'The Order' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Three Americans, two Spaniards and a Czech citizen were arrested Saturday after Venezuelan officials accused them of coming to the South American country to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro.

The arrests were announced on state television by Diosdado Cabello, the nation's powerful interior minister. Cabello said the foreign citizens were part of a CIA-led plot to overthrow the Venezuelan government and kill several members of its leadership. In the television program, Cabello showed images of rifles that he said were confiscated from some of the plotters of the alleged plan.

The arrest of the American citizens included a member of the Navy, who Cabello identified as Wilbert Joseph Castañeda Gomez. Cabello said that Gomez was a former navy seal who had served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Colombia. Spain's embassy in Venezuela did not reply to a request for comment on the arrests of its citizens.

The U.S. State Department late Saturday confirmed the detention of a U.S. military member and said it was aware of “unconfirmed reports of two additional U.S. citizens detained in Venezuela.”

“Any claims of U.S. involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro are categorically false. The United States continues to support a democratic solution to the political crisis in Venezuela,” the statement said.

The announcement of the arrests comes just two days after the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on 16 allies of Maduro who were accused by the U.S. government of obstructing voting during the disputed July 28 Venezuelan presidential election, and carrying out human rights abuses.

Earlier this week, Spain's parliament recognized opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the winner of the election, angering Maduro allies who called on the Venezuelan government to suspend commercial and diplomatic relations with Spain.

Tensions between Venezuela's government and the U.S. have increased as well following the election, whose result sparked protests within Venezuela in which hundreds of opposition activists were arrested.

Venezuela's Electoral Council, which is closely aligned with the Maduro administration, said Maduro won the election with 52% of the vote, but did not provide a detailed breakdown of the results.

Opposition activists, however, surprised the government by collecting tally sheets from 80% of the nation's voting machines. The tally sheets collected by the opposition were published online, and they indicate that Gonzalez won the election with twice as many votes as Maduro.

Despite international condemnation over the election's lack of transparency, Venezuela's supreme court, which has long backed Maduro, confirmed his victory in August. Venezuela's attorney general then filed conspiracy charges against Gonzalez, who fled to Spain last week after it became clear he would be arrested.

Maduro has dismissed requests from several countries, including the leftist governments of Colombia and Brazil, to provide tally sheets that prove he won the election. Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, has long claimed the U.S. is trying to overthrow him through sanctions and covert operations.

The Maduro administration has previously used Americans imprisoned in Venezuela to gain concessions from the U.S. government. In a deal conducted last year with the Biden administration, Maduro released 10 Americans and a fugitive wanted by the U.S. government to secure a presidential pardon for Alex Saab, a close Maduro ally who was held in Florida on money laundering charges. According to U.S. prosecutors, Saab had also helped Maduro to avoid U.S. Treasury sanctions through a complex network of shell companies.

FILE - Socialist Party President Diosdado Cabello gives his weekly press conference, in Catia La Mar, La Guaira, Venezuela, Aug. 19, 2019. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

FILE - Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro addresses government loyalists gathered at the presidential palace in support of his reelection one month after the presidential vote, in Caracas, Venezuela, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)