Submariners threaten to sue Harrison Ford filmmakers

Veteran Russian submariners are threatening to sue the producers of the new Harrison Ford blockbuster K-19: The Widowmaker, claiming it portrays them as heavy drinkers.

Also starring Liam Neeson, the film is based on a 1961 accident on board a Russian nuclear submarine that came close to a Chernobyl-style meltdown in the North Atlantic.

‘‘This film isn’t about Russians, but about how Americans want to see Russians,’’ said Igor Kurdin, who leads a St Petersburg based group of retired submariners.

Veterans’ groups have said they would sue the filmmakers over alleged inaccuracies such as the heavy drinking habits of the submariners in the film and what they view as an incorrect portrayal of the conflict in leadership between the submarine’s two top officers, played by Ford and Neeson.

Kurdin said he had been offered a look at the script ahead of the film’s production, but was repeatedly put off until he eventually only saw a copy given him by Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov, who was involved with the project.

Vladislav Ilyin, deputy chief of staff of the Russian navy, said the script had been changed at least five times because of suggestions by Russian experts. The film also has changed the names of characters to be different from the actual officers involved in the accident, a move that helped quell concerns voiced by victims’ families, he said.

The film’s Russian premiere is scheduled for October in St Petersburg. Distributors in Russia have pledged 1% of the proceeds for families of victims of the K-19 accident.

The film is especially sensitive in Russia after the Kursk tragedy in August 2000, when one of the country’s most advanced submarines exploded in the Barents Sea and sank, killing all 118 men aboard.

Discontent over K-19 follows similar displeasure in Russia about foreign film portrayals of its military, such as Enemy at the Gates, a 2001 film about the battle of Stalingrad during the Second World War.