Issue Date: October 12, 2008
Behind-the-scenes and tidbits about the season's upcoming movies
By Jamie Malanowski
There was a time when our end-of-the-year movie preview covered the films that debuted over Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now it has been stretched to include Veterans Day, Arbor Day, Halloween, Columbus Day, Be Bald and Be Free Day and World Menopause Day. Why? Because even if you don't need an excuse to see a movie, it never hurts to have one.
Here is a behind-the-scenes peek at some of the most talked about films opening between now and 2009.
Body of Lies (Oct. 10) When filming began on this thriller about an intelligence operative (Leonardo DiCaprio) who infiltrates a Middle East terrorist network, David Ignatius, the author of the novel that inspired the film, received a call from Russell Crowe. The actor wanted to talk about his character. "Dave," Crowe said in a thick Australian accent, "where is [CIA veteran] Ed Hoffman from?" Ignatius couldn't recall, but he said he'd imagined the guy was from a blue-collar town in Massachusetts. "No, he's not -- he's from Arkansas," said Crowe, who knew better and had been studying tapes of Bill Clinton to nail the accent. "And you know what?" Ignatius says. "He was right. Hoffman's from Arkansas. And that's how I learned what makes a serious actor."
The Secret Life of Bees (Oct. 17) For this adaptation of the acclaimed novel about three African-American sisters who take in a white girl with a mysterious past, director Gina Prince-Bythewood insisted the cast get a feel for what it was like to live in the 1960s Deep South. As an exercise, actresses Dakota Fanning and Jennifer Hudson were told to shop at a North Carolina drugstore, where the "workers" were instructed to be openly hostile to Oscar-winner Hudson and exceedingly nice to Fanning. The improv may have gone too far. "Jennifer almost hit a guy who called her the N-word," says Prince-Bythewood.
W. (Oct. 17) Director Oliver Stone's take on George W. Bush is not premiering on Animal Planet, but there was an animal theme to the production. During filming in Shreveport, La., the set was intruded upon by snakes, including a 7-foot water snake and a poisonous copperhead, which bit a cameraman. On the lighter side, Josh Brolin, who plays Bush, found a puppy under his trailer and adopted it. The pup, christened Budrow, now lives with Brolin in Los Angeles.
Synecdoche, New York (Oct. 24) Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind") delivers another cinematic head trip in his directorial debut. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a theater director who builds a replica of New York City in a cavernous warehouse. Samantha Morton is the box-office clerk he falls for whose house is burning throughout the movie. "In one scene, Morton mixes drinks in the kitchen, which is on fire, and takes them to Hoffman in the living room, which is on fire," says producer Anthony Bregman. "They have a discussion there and end up in the bedroom, which is on fire." The flames and smoke were controlled by special-effects artists who rigged a house in Brooklyn slated for demolition. After filming, the cast and crew would walk out covered in soot.
Changeling (Oct. 24) "Everyone tries to be professional on a movie, but sometimes [when you're working with big stars] your inner fan escapes," says Amy Ryan. This happened when the actress was shooting a fight scene for the Clint Eastwood-directed thriller set in the 1920s. Eastwood yelled "Cut!" in the middle of the scene, Ryan says, "and he came over and began instructing me on how to fight. And I thought, 'How cool is this? I'm being taught how to throw a punch by Dirty Harry!' I admit it, I was star-struck."
High School Musical 3 (Oct. 24) On a set rife with practical jokes, no one was more of a prankster than Zac Efron, who liked to lob water balloons at anyone in his vicinity. Director Kenny Ortega recalls when the other members of the cast joined the crew in planning an elaborate ambush. "Everyone had a water gun or a balloon and hid all over the lot," Ortega says. "The moment he got out of his limo, they started. If he went left, somebody was there. If he went right, somebody else. When he ran between the trailers, people soaked him. And when he finally ran into his trailer, somebody was inside and dumped a bucket of water on him. Zac looked like a drowned rat."
Zack and Miri Make a Porno (Oct. 31) Director Kevin Smith had a problem on this comedy about two friends who decide to make an X-rated movie: He didn't want to make his stars, Elizabeth Banks and the pudgy Seth Rogan, uncomfortable by rushing to shoot the lovemaking. And, besides, he hadn't decided how to film it. So he put it off and put it off, until the last scene. And that's when he told his stressed-out stars he had decided to shoot the scene by focusing the camera entirely on their eyes. "Thanks a lot!" Rogan barked at Smith. "You might have told me. I could've eaten lunch once or twice over the last few weeks."
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (Nov. 7) Among the performers joining the cast of this animated sequel about citified zoo animals is hip-hop producer will.i.am, who plays the boyfriend of Gloria the hippo. He's named Moto Moto, which translates to "Hot Hot" in Swahili. "As soon as Will came into the recording booth, he began innovating," recalls Tom McGrath, who co-directed the film with Eric Darnell. "He began banging out a beat on a piano bench and making up lyrics on the spot. It was creative and spontaneous, and the song he made up is in the film, in that form."
Role Models (Nov. 7) In this comedy about two foul-ups sentenced to community service, actor Paul Rudd makes his debut as a screenwriter. He says his big contribution was to make his character more of a curmudgeon and that he didn't have to look too far for inspiration. "That's me," Rudd says, admitting that there was something therapeutic about being able to address onscreen everything he finds annoying. "But my dad's even worse. He's got a pretty short fuse. This is really a love letter to my dad."
Soul Men (Nov. 7) The climax of this comedy about an estranged singing duo (Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac) was shot in a concert hall in Shreveport, La. "We shot for two days under difficult circumstances," recalls director Malcolm Lee. "It was hot, and the extras were getting bossed around a lot." Unannounced, Mac, who died in August, went onstage to thank them and do a stand-up routine, which included a hilarious bit about the donation plate going around and around at black churches. "Afterward, I told Bernie he didn't have to do that, and he just shook his head and said, 'Those are the people who made me.' Apart from his act at a Barack Obama fundraiser," Lee says, "I believe that was the last stand-up performance Bernie ever gave."
Quantum of Solace (Nov. 14) Director Marc Forster still cracks up when he recalls how his assistant director mixed up a telephone "line" with a "line" of dialogue during the making of the new Bond installment. "In the scene, Judi Dench, reprising her role as M, is preparing a bath when the phone rings. Off camera, an editor aping the voice of Dench's husband shouted, 'It's your line!' Well, the assistant director thought Judi had forgotten her speaking line in the movie and was being rather roughly prompted. 'My God,' he said, 'he can't yell at Dame Judi like that!' " Amused, Dench later had the editor nastily berate her again in front of the assistant director, who slunk away in shock.
Twilight (Nov. 21) As director Catherine Hardwicke explains, in this
adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's best seller, vampires must be kept out of
the sun. To ensure a suitably gloomy environment, the production filmed in a
section of Oregon, which doubled as the Olympic National Rain Forest, where
the sun almost never shines < except, as it happened, on the day a pivotal
scene was being shot of the characters discussing vampire history and lore.
"Everyone started trying to make it rain," Hardwicke says. "We had 200
extras doing a cloud dance, kids lying on the ground spelling the word
OEclouds.' For four hours, it made no difference. Then it clouded up, and we
got one shot. And then it poured rain. And then it began hailing pellets.
And then it snowed!"
Bolt (Nov. 21) John Travolta and Miley Cyrus headline this animated adventure about a German shepherd who thinks he has superpowers. But some of the biggest laughs come from Rhino the hamster, voiced by Mark Walton. "He's one of our storyboard artists," explains Byron Howard, who co-directed the film with Chris Williams. "Early in the process, we pulled in people from around the studio to recite the dialogue over rough sketches of the animation, just to see how the film is playing. And Mark nailed it!" According to Walton, whose previous acting experience consists of "some honking and squawking" for a goose in 2005's "Chicken Little," there are no plans as of now for a spinoff film with Rhino. But Walton says, "I could only hope and pray."
The Road (Nov. 26) Based on Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a man (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who survive an unexplained catastrophe, the drama constitutes a kind of perverse travelogue of America. "We shot in the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, around Mount St. Helens and in western Pennsylvania, by these ash heaps left from the strip mining," says director John Hillcoat. "In New Orleans, we had to wear masks and gloves to protect us from the mold, and in Pennsylvania we were nearly arrested when we filmed too close to a maximum security prison and the authorities swept in to find out why all these vehicles with tinted windows were suddenly idling nearby."
Milk (Nov. 26) Citizens from all over San Francisco helped filmmaker Gus Van Sant create this ode to Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician elected to public office. For the re-creation of a candlelight vigil held shortly after Milk's assassination in 1978, close to 1,000 people showed up, some of whom were at the real-life vigil. "A lot has changed," says Cleve Jones, a gay rights pioneer portrayed by Emile Hirsch. "Gay people have become much more accepted. Back then, you could lose everything."
Australia (Nov. 26) When viewers of this sprawling epic set in the years leading up to World War II watch the scene in which 200 Brumbies (a kind of wild horse) gallop across the plains, they will be seeing something rare in this era of computer-generated movies: That's the real Hugh Jackman riding horseback in the middle of a stampede.
Frost/Nixon (Dec. 5) Actors like to do tons of research when they sign on to play historical figures. "But sometimes you get insights in the most [unexpected] way," says Michael Sheen, who stars as British talk-show host David Frost in this post-Watergate drama from director Ron Howard. "We shot some scenes at Nixon's villa in Southern California, and all the while I had this electric feeling, knowing that this is where the events in the movie actually happened," Sheen says. "At one point, I noticed this row of trees obscuring a view of the ocean, and I thought, 'How odd. Who lives by the ocean and blocks the view?' Then I was told that the Secret Service planted the trees so nobody could come by in a boat and take a shot at Nixon. And I thought, 'So that's what it was like to be him.' "
Defiance (Dec. 12) History was inescapable for the makers of this true story about three Jewish brothers (Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell) who mount an armed resistance against the Nazis during World War II. On one day of filming, director Edward Zwick supervised the creation of a fake mass grave in the forests of Lithuania. It was not long before Zwick realized that he was shooting only a few miles away from a real mass grave, now the site of a power plant. "It was very spooky," says Zwick, noting that it was a solemn reminder of the human consequences of the era.
Yes Man (Dec. 19) "Yes" was the battle cry behind the scenes on this Jim Carrey comedy about a man who begins to embrace every opportunity offered to him. Director Peyton Reed reported that several crewmembers tried saying "yes" to everything for a day, sometimes with surprising results. "A crewmember, who had avoided a guy for a while, finally went out with him, and they continue to date to this day," Reed says. And other people reported that the "yes strategy" helped them with parenting.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Dec. 25) It never hurts to be nice. In this film based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story about a man (Brad Pitt) who ages in reverse, the character's house has a special significance. Producer Ceán Chaffin recalls that after fruitless searches for a suitable home, director David Fincher spotted the perfect home in New Orlean's French Quarter. "We weren't optimistic about getting permission," Chaffin says. "The family that owned the house had occupied it since 1881 and had never allowed filming." Fortunately, the matriarch had been given a screen test by [the studio behind "Curious Case"] as a young woman. She fondly recalled how nice everyone had been to her, and this opened the door.
The Spirit (Dec. 25) In the big showdown of this action picture featuring a hero from the Golden Age of Comics, the script called for Samuel L. Jackson's villainous Octopus, facing Gabriel Macht's Spirit, to pull out bigger and bigger guns. Examining the weapons, Jackson felt Octopus needed something even larger, so director Frank Miller got the two biggest machine guns in the prop department's arsenal and taped and hot glued them together. As it turned out, the hybrid was so heavy that Jackson needed fish wire to lift it.
Valkyrie (Dec. 26) While shooting Bryan Singer's film about the German officers who plotted to assassinate Hitler, the filmmakers scouted out locations for the conspirators' weapons storehouse. The production chose a building in East Berlin that had remained virtually unchanged since the war. "Three days into filming," says screenwriter Chris McQuarrie, "a German member of the crew brought his grandmother to the set. She explained that her father had been a member of the conspiracy and had been executed, and that the actual conspirators, including the officer played by Tom Cruise, in fact, worked out of that house."
Contributing: Adam Dorsky
Go to top
Online bonus: More movie secrets and sneak peeks
Pride and Glory (Oct. 24) Gavin O'Connor had good reason to be tense directing this gritty drama about a family of New York City police officers tested by a corruption scandal. His star, Colin Farrell, was fresh out of rehab and "pretty vulnerable," he says. "Yet financing hinged on his participation." Farrell responded by going deep into his role, keeping a journal about what his character was thinking and feeling. "He kept coming up with suggestions for things his characters would say or do." One can be seen in a key emotional scene, which takes place in a bar. "Colin brought some photos to the set," O'Connor says. "He told me they were pictures of his character's family, and he wanted to be looking at them at the bar, to show what was at stake in the scene."
The Soloist (Changed from Nov. 21 to March 2009) In filming this drama about a schizophrenic, homeless musician who dreams of performing at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the production employed roughly 500 homeless people. This included a core group of 20 individuals who had been diagnosed with a mental illness, and were all given speaking parts. "They worked with us, rehearsed with us and through them we really came to understand this film," director, Joe Wright says. When shooting finished, the group sponsored an awards ceremony. "Everyone got one," says Wright, "and like all awards ceremonies, it went on longer than planned."
Four Christmases (Nov. 26) At one moment in this film about a couple, played by Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn, who get roped into celebrating a part of Christmas at each of their divorced parents houses, a baby barfs on Witherspoon. The effects department did such a good job that a revolted Vaughn started to gag. Sensing that he had stumbled onto comic gold, he played up his nausea. Although his reaction changed the shape of the scene, it made the final cut, and is one of the high points of the movie
Transporter 3 (Nov. 26) Fight scenes take weeks of rehearsal, and the crew worked especially hard on a scene where Jason Statham has to kick his nemesis through a pane of glass. A change of schedule forced the scene to be shot five days earlier, but the art department objected. "They told us they could not supply the [special "sugar glass" used in films for safety] so quickly," producer Steven Chasman says. In the end, they took special precautions, and shot the scene with real glass. "The stunt man still got a few nicks on his face," Chasman says.
The Tale of Despereaux (Dec. 19) Much of the action in this animated film takes place in the dungeon of a castle--and it's not one of your nice, resort-like dungeons. One particularly gruesome section of it is called Ratworld, which has been constructed from the bones of long-dead prisoners. Art lovers will recognize Ratworld's inspiration as coming from the works of Hieronymus Bosch, a medieval artist who used demons, skulls, and other creepy imagery in his paintings.
The Brothers Bloom (Dec. 19) Apparently humans aren't the only ones who appreciate Oscar-winner Adrien Brody's acting. While filming this comedy about con men who go on a globe-trotting adventure with a rich heiress, Brody had to film a scene in the desert where he watches a camel drink a bottle of scotch (actually filled with water). "It was actually a lady camel," says director Rian Johnson. "After every take it went straight to Adrien and kissed him."
Bedtime Stories (Dec. 25) In this magical fantasy in which Adam Sandler plays a father whose bedtime stories begin to come true, crew members had to take a real-life white horse and paint it completely red! To pull off the feat, the crew used red vegetable product on the horse's hair, and brushes to paint around its eyes. The process took two days before the horse was red enough for the film.
Hurricane Season (Dec. 24) For this true-life film about a Louisiana high school basketball team that travels to the state championships following the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, director Tim Story constructed such an authentic recreation of destroyed New Orleans that he even fooled local residents. The director destroyed an entire city block for the film, flipping over cars and knocking over trees. "People were stopping by," Story tells us, "confused why this street wasn't cleaned up [by authorities]." He also added that some residents stood at the end of the street crying from the memories his set brought back of Katrina. Others residents shouted at crew members, still angry over the government response to the disaster.
Marley and Me (Dec. 25) David Frankel, the director of this film about a family and its dog, was warned about the difficulty of working with animals and children. "In fact," he says, "the dogs were terrific, and our child actors were impressive. But the babies acted like babies." Much time was absorbed waiting for the babies to stop crying, "but in one key scene where the baby was supposed to cry, he stopped as soon as I said 'Action!' We took 20 takes, Jennifer Anniston was literally begging this six-month old, "Cry, baby, cry!" Finally the assistant prop master made scary faces until he cried and we got the shot. It was a triumphant moment that brought us all closer ... Of course we cut the scene."
|
