#1
Posted: 1/26/05 at 3:48pm
He filmed the movie listed below last summer (18 days shooting, starting in mid-July.)
Pretty intense. I think it's now time to do something light--like "Barefoot in the Park" on Broadway in the fall... C'mon Patrick, please ink a deal!
Aan article about the premiere screening of Hard Candy:
http://www.parkrecord.com/Stories/0,1413,122~8140~2674161,00.html
INDUSTRY, CROWDS TURNOUT FOR MIDNIGHT PREMIERE
'Hard Candy' attacks with intensity
By MATT JAMES, Of the Record staff
Somewhere along the line, over the course of the first three days of the Sundance Film Festival or in the weeks before that, "Hard Candy" gained some critical mass, garnering enough buzz to make its premier an event. Whatever created that buzz, it certainly wasn't a lush suite of industry screenings.
"We literally finished the film a day and a half before I came out," said director David Slade.
Nevertheless, there were more than a few studio executives and film buyers in the ticket line for "Hard Candy," and others who crowded around the doors of the Egyptian Theatre trying to gain admission to the midnight premier. Exacerbating the problem, the surround-sound system at the theatre failed almost immediately before the audience was set to enter, creating a further delay.
It all added up to a mass of humanity pushing toward the single entrance of the theatre, and while the group was not a heartless mob, there was a sense that the best way to gain admission was to push, prod and squeeze one's way in.
Before the screening, earlier in the day, Slade said he didn't know what the audience's reaction to the film would be.
"The thing will be whether the people chase the film from the screening, puke in the aisles or walk away blank-facedly," he said.
"The other two movies that I just finished were much bigger," explained Patrick Wilson, who plays Jeff in the movie. "I really wanted to do something very small."
"I first got the script and fell in love with it," said Ellen Page, who plays Haley. The emotional range and originality of the role both attracted her to the role, said Page.
"I don't want to play what the mainstream media thinks teenage girls are," she concluded.
From the movie's opening scenes with Jeff Kohlver's careful seduction of Haley Stark, the movie gradually takes hold of the viewer. At first, he or she is interested in the dialogue between the pair, and then entranced. As the pair's situations change, the movie holds viewers tighter and tighter, entrapping them and moving them from intrigue to surprise, from surprise to shock and then further.
"Hard Candy" is the pot of water whose temperature is slowly but steadily rising; the audience is that pot's frog. With each new step, the intensity grows.
And the characters evolve to trigger that intensity. At one moment, Jeff is in power and at another, he is the victim. Haley goes from a state of navet to one of power in seconds, even occasionally throwing off her childhood for the role of an adult.
"I wonder why they teach Girl Scouts things like camping and cooking," she says. "This is what's really useful."
As the movie progresses, the characters' roles and their situations reverse and reverse again. The viewer never knows exactly what might come and what might go.
"I knew going into it that it would be a very, very difficult shoot," said Page.
The movie's unique combination of factors, from its subject matter, to its budget, to its time-frame, made the movie that way.
"I guess what was difficult about it was not just the content but that we had to shoot it in 18 days," said Page. "It was kind of like acting boot camp."
"With that short amount of time, it just needed to be as real as it could," said Wilson, adding his key philosophy was simply to commit completely to the role.
"You just know that you're going to go there, and if you're going to go there, go all the way," he concluded.
Wilson had nothing but positive words for his co-star, as well.
"Ellen Page is pretty wonderful in the movie," he said. "Certainly for a 17-year-old with the subject matter, she pulls it off. She came at it in a very open, giving way."
Her spot-on performance, combined with Wilson's full-on approach, give the film almost everything it has, which is a lot.
The industry executives certainly think so. Monday evening Slade said he had barely stopped. "I'm still in shock," he said. "I haven't gotten any sleep."
"The sales end of it is insane," he said. "I can't talk about figures, I can't talk about names."
He did say, however, that he and his team had been talking to industry representatives through the night, and almost all of Monday.
Slade also talked about his reaction to the film's first screening.
"I became obsessed with just watching people's reactions," he said. "I saw one guy just get out of his chair and squat with his hands on his head."
The screening, and the positive reactions been vindicating, rewarding and satisfying, said Slade.
"It was terrifying; it was crazy," he said.
But now the business side of the film equation is staring him in the face. Slade, however, said he would not waver artistically in his discussions with the companies.
"I had to say there's a caveat," he said, "that you can't cut any scene. It cannot be, and it won't be."
Pretty intense. I think it's now time to do something light--like "Barefoot in the Park" on Broadway in the fall... C'mon Patrick, please ink a deal!
Aan article about the premiere screening of Hard Candy:
http://www.parkrecord.com/Stories/0,1413,122~8140~2674161,00.html
INDUSTRY, CROWDS TURNOUT FOR MIDNIGHT PREMIERE
'Hard Candy' attacks with intensity
By MATT JAMES, Of the Record staff
Somewhere along the line, over the course of the first three days of the Sundance Film Festival or in the weeks before that, "Hard Candy" gained some critical mass, garnering enough buzz to make its premier an event. Whatever created that buzz, it certainly wasn't a lush suite of industry screenings.
"We literally finished the film a day and a half before I came out," said director David Slade.
Nevertheless, there were more than a few studio executives and film buyers in the ticket line for "Hard Candy," and others who crowded around the doors of the Egyptian Theatre trying to gain admission to the midnight premier. Exacerbating the problem, the surround-sound system at the theatre failed almost immediately before the audience was set to enter, creating a further delay.
It all added up to a mass of humanity pushing toward the single entrance of the theatre, and while the group was not a heartless mob, there was a sense that the best way to gain admission was to push, prod and squeeze one's way in.
Before the screening, earlier in the day, Slade said he didn't know what the audience's reaction to the film would be.
"The thing will be whether the people chase the film from the screening, puke in the aisles or walk away blank-facedly," he said.
"The other two movies that I just finished were much bigger," explained Patrick Wilson, who plays Jeff in the movie. "I really wanted to do something very small."
"I first got the script and fell in love with it," said Ellen Page, who plays Haley. The emotional range and originality of the role both attracted her to the role, said Page.
"I don't want to play what the mainstream media thinks teenage girls are," she concluded.
From the movie's opening scenes with Jeff Kohlver's careful seduction of Haley Stark, the movie gradually takes hold of the viewer. At first, he or she is interested in the dialogue between the pair, and then entranced. As the pair's situations change, the movie holds viewers tighter and tighter, entrapping them and moving them from intrigue to surprise, from surprise to shock and then further.
"Hard Candy" is the pot of water whose temperature is slowly but steadily rising; the audience is that pot's frog. With each new step, the intensity grows.
And the characters evolve to trigger that intensity. At one moment, Jeff is in power and at another, he is the victim. Haley goes from a state of navet to one of power in seconds, even occasionally throwing off her childhood for the role of an adult.
"I wonder why they teach Girl Scouts things like camping and cooking," she says. "This is what's really useful."
As the movie progresses, the characters' roles and their situations reverse and reverse again. The viewer never knows exactly what might come and what might go.
"I knew going into it that it would be a very, very difficult shoot," said Page.
The movie's unique combination of factors, from its subject matter, to its budget, to its time-frame, made the movie that way.
"I guess what was difficult about it was not just the content but that we had to shoot it in 18 days," said Page. "It was kind of like acting boot camp."
"With that short amount of time, it just needed to be as real as it could," said Wilson, adding his key philosophy was simply to commit completely to the role.
"You just know that you're going to go there, and if you're going to go there, go all the way," he concluded.
Wilson had nothing but positive words for his co-star, as well.
"Ellen Page is pretty wonderful in the movie," he said. "Certainly for a 17-year-old with the subject matter, she pulls it off. She came at it in a very open, giving way."
Her spot-on performance, combined with Wilson's full-on approach, give the film almost everything it has, which is a lot.
The industry executives certainly think so. Monday evening Slade said he had barely stopped. "I'm still in shock," he said. "I haven't gotten any sleep."
"The sales end of it is insane," he said. "I can't talk about figures, I can't talk about names."
He did say, however, that he and his team had been talking to industry representatives through the night, and almost all of Monday.
Slade also talked about his reaction to the film's first screening.
"I became obsessed with just watching people's reactions," he said. "I saw one guy just get out of his chair and squat with his hands on his head."
The screening, and the positive reactions been vindicating, rewarding and satisfying, said Slade.
"It was terrifying; it was crazy," he said.
But now the business side of the film equation is staring him in the face. Slade, however, said he would not waver artistically in his discussions with the companies.
"I had to say there's a caveat," he said, "that you can't cut any scene. It cannot be, and it won't be."
Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?
Patrick Wilson Fans --New "UnOfficial Fan Site". Come check us out!
Updated On: 1/30/05 at 03:48 PM
thought i'd reply and give you some company. any word yet on US distributers of Hard Candy? it really doesn't look like my kind of movie, but i'll see it for *The Man* 
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