Aneurin Barnard was promoting Rogue Trooper at the Annecy film festival when he rugby tackled a bag snatcher to the ground. Rogue Trooper star Aneurin Barnard is, it turns out, a trooper in real life. The actor was at the Annecy Film Festival in France when, minutes before he was due to appear on stage ... Rogue Trooper star Aneurin Barnard foils a bag snatcher at film festival
Aneurin Barnard was promoting Rogue Trooper at the Annecy film festival when he rugby tackled a bag snatcher to the ground.
Rogue Trooper star Aneurin Barnard is, it turns out, a trooper in real life. The actor was at the Annecy Film Festival in France when, minutes before he was due to appear on stage for a Q&A, spotted a thief steal a woman’s handbag.
Leaping into action, Barnard rugby tackled the thief to the ground and kept him there until the police arrived. Needless to say, the lady also got her bag back.
Rogue Trooper director Duncan Jones related the story on his Bluesky feed, and described the moment where, minutes after the incident, Barnard “jogs over to our film panel, sits down, calm as can be, bloody knuckles on display, and regales the audience with tales from the film shoot!”
Deadline reporter Melanie Goodfellow was inside the cinema where the Annecy Making Of Session was taking place, and wrote about the moment when Barnard joined Jones and other collaborators on the stage.
“It feels really weird for me to be telling this story,” Barnard said. “I just helped an old lady who’s been robbed and had to tackle a robber on the way here like an hour ago… I just had to hold them down until the police arrived.”
Jones added, “If the front row can confirm the blood on the knuckles. Sorry, it’s just been a really weird day.”
Adapted from the 2000 AD comic strip, Rogue Trooper is an action sci-fi epic brought to life with motion capture and CG animation. Made on a relatively lean indie budget of $10m, it’s the latest film from the director of the wonderful Moon and Source Code.
It’s received a handful of great reviews so far, though its independent status means Rogue Trooper probably doesn’t have the massive marketing funds of a Hollywood movie. With any luck, Barnard’s heroism will help spread the word about a superb-sounding film with a sterling cast – you’ll find Hayley Atwell, Sean Bean, Jermaine Clement, Matt Berry, Alice Lowe, Reece Shearsmith and Adrian Edmondson among the famous names.
We’ll let you know when we hear of Rogue Trooper's UK cinema release.
