William Moseley honors his veteran grandfathers with 'Murder Company' film

NEW YORK, July 5 (UPI) -- Chronicles of Narnia and The Royals alum William Moseley says he wanted to star in the new action-drama, Murder Company , to honor his grandfathers, who were World War II veterans.

"This is the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. This story happens during D-Day, and so, when you get films like this, you have to take them very seriously and you have to give your best," Moseley, 37, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.

"You have to really, 100% commit, and I felt like we made a good movie in the end."

Directed by Shane Dax Taylor and written by Jesse Mittelstadt, the film premieres in theaters and on video-on-demand platforms Friday.

It follows a group of U.S. soldiers on their mission to smuggle a member of the French resistance behind enemy lines to assassinate a high-value Nazi target during World War II.

The cast includes Pooch Hal, Gilles Marini, Joe Anderson and Kelsey Grammer.

"We need historical stories because it's very easy to forget the past," Moseley said.

"It's very easy for us to forget how lucky we are to have our freedom. The Nazis were very close to taking over the United Kingdom," he added. "War is always at everybody's door, and so it's important to remember the atrocities that have already taken place and to try to stop them from happening in the future."

Moseley's character, Southern, is part of the film's titular battalion.

Although he and his fellow soldiers know their mission is highly dangerous, they are not aware of all of the details or how critical it is to the overall war effort that they succeed.

"it was very important for me to play the naivety of Southern," Moseley said.

"There really is little to no hope of them surviving," he added. "I wanted the audience to feel like this was kind of an innocent guy, the normal guy, probably never left the country, never left his state, was thrown into this completely foreign land and had to find his own strength along the way."

Southern kept going, Moseley emphasized, even though he hadn't set out to be a hero.

"I know my grandfathers were just normal people," the actor said, noting his ancestors -- a paratrooper and a sailor -- were both lucky to survive the actual war. "it's important for everybody to remember we are not all born soldiers."

The film was shot at a breakneck pace over 12 days in Bulgaria.

"We were shooting multiple scenes at once," Moseley said. "We were running from one place to another. We had all of our uniforms on. It was extremely hot. Shane, our director, really is an incredibly driven, determined guy, and he made it happen."

The cast quickly formed a brotherhood and helped each other through the arduous production.

"We were going through this thing together. We'd be running up a mountain. We'd be covered in mud," Moseley said.

"There would be bombs going off. We'd be getting shot and somebody's bleeding to death and then someone's on fire next to you and then you're falling on the ground, shooting someone," he added.

"It's pretty tiring, and so everybody had to be there for everyone else. When one guy was losing his energy, the other guys would come in, pick him up, which was awesome."