Steven Seagal stars in Gaddafi: The Movie

Seagal News: Steven Seagal is launching the most ferocious stage of his comeback campaign by playing deposed tyrant Colonel Gaddafi in the winter blockbuster ‘Escape From Libya’.

Seagal, who last year pledged to be famous again by 2015, is way ahead of schedule, first by chopping people up in romcom sensation ‘Machete’ and now by chopping people up in this topical action-thriller-biopic ‘petrol western’.

“Basically I am good at playing bad guys,” Seagal tells fifties film critic Mark Kermode tonight on Sky Four’s ‘A La Kermode’. “Even when I was playing a good guy, I was bad. So when the opportunity came along to play a lead role and be bad, I thought: ‘that’s good’.”

In the vein of ‘Downfall’ and ‘The Damned United’, the film charts the final days of a doomed regime – but will Gaddafi make it out alive?

“We don’t know yet. We’ve filmed three possible endings, so we are ready to roll with whatever happens on the ground,” says Seagal.

“Ending number one: I survive. Two: I don’t survive. Three: my consciousness is downloaded onto the internet where I continue to perpetrate cyber attacks, via the international terror mainframe, from a colourful website no one has ever seen.”

It’s the third installment of the Under Seige franchise – were there any eyebrows raised now that Seagal is playing Gaddafi, rather than knife-happy chef Casey Ryback, as in the previous two films?

“Actually, most of the finance for this movie came from Gaddafi himself,” shrugs the actor. “He didn’t see a problem with it – and after he signed the cheque for 10 million dollars neither did we.”

Story: Jasper Gibson

Image: Q4Nobody