'For God And Country'

Last seen in the 2003 flops 'The In Laws' and 'It Runs in the Family,' Michael Douglas returns to movie screens as a presidential Secret Service agent set up as a possible assassin in the new thriller 'The Sentinel.'

Secret Service agent Pete Garrison (Michael Douglas) finds himself a suspect in a murder investigation when a mysterious person blackmails him — Garrison's been sleeping with the first lady (Kim Basinger). Stripped of his duties and reduced to fugitive status, he's convinced that someone is going to kill the president. Agents David Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland), once Garrison's protégé, and Jill Marin (Eva Longoria) are assigned to apprehend the disgraced Garrison and prevent the assassination.

Chatting one-on-one with the man himself, I wondered if he had missed his screen time in the three years it had taken to get this next project out to the masses? "I would say that my priorities have changed dramatically and I think part of that comes with your career ambitions. Obviously when you start out in your career, you don't ever think of this as a business that you can kind of balance family and career so early on you're working hard on your career, particularly being second generation, and trying to establish your identity. I did the best I can as a father for my first son but, was away a lot and then you get older and fortunate enough to recognise you've got a good marriage, good kids, something to nourish, protect and enjoy and you don't see anything really on the horizon that, makes you say I've just got to do this."

What lured you back to make 'The Sentinel' then? "Well, I always like those flawed characters that dig themselves a big hole and, if we properly make the story solid, proper and believable, then audiences seem to enjoy watching how you get out of it. I think it's pretty, unpredictable about who did it and where it's going to go, which always helps with these things. There's nothing worse than, always knowing. I'd taken three years break and you work on materials and you look at what they offer you and say, well, I gotta go back to work and I think we can do a good job with this piece."

The timeliness of another film dealing with the Presidential politics is mighty evident here - especially with the successes on TV with the likes of 'The West Wing' and 'Commander-in-Chief.' Do you yourself have a fascination with the goings on within The White House? "I think, ultimate power seems to be the interest for me ... and playing on that field. I mean I'd like to think that all of my pictures kind of have something to do with what's going on in the world and current events and I get a kick out of seeing what's going on, the leaks coming out of Washington, homicide detectives working for the mob."

Do you think your self-induced absence from the big screen may have been more of a risk than you first imagined? "I mean it crosses your mind, but I think when you've been there, you change. I certainly probably would have worried more if I wasn't happily married and starting a new family, but then you're interest is going to be much more about career. Yet I've always, kind of done my own thing and my pictures have been fairly unpredictable. Most of the films I've done people told me I shouldn't have done, but there was an audience for them and they worked out okay , so the appetite of this celebrity media print is so insatiable that, it's just nice to take a break and have somebody else worry about it."

What do you have lined up after 'The Sentinel' "I've got a picture coming out called 'You, Me and Dupree' with Owen Wilson, Katie Hudson and Matt Dillon. I had a lot of fun doing kind of a broad, broad comedy with the Russo brothers directing, and I think it should be good. I play Katie Hudson's dad, who's marrying Matt Dillon who works in my Southern California real estate company and Owen Wilson - who is Matt's best buddy - ends up kind of moving in with Matt and Katie as a new couple and it's just ... pretty funny. I'm also going to do this thing called 'The King of California,' produced by Alexander Payne and Michael London - a lovely, lovely little script that Mike Cahill, a first-time, director also wrote. It's about a jazz musician living in Southern California who's had a bit of a breakdown and ... it's actually kind of a bipolar dark comedy."