|
PRODUCTION NOTES
Filmmaker PAUL GREENGRASS - the
compassionate and socially aware writer/director behind films that study the
impact of terrorism in Northern Ireland in Bloody Sunday and Omagh,
racial violence in The Murder of Stephen Lawrence and one
soldier’s abandonment in Resurrected - now focuses his cameras on the
day that changed the world forever.
In
United 93, Greengrass creates a gripping, provocative drama that
tells the story of the passengers, crew and the flight controllers who
watched in dawning horror as United Airlines Flight 93 became the fourth
hijacked plane on the day of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil:
September 11, 2001.
The filmmaker
explores the events of this day by telling the story of a single flight and
the ordinary, random sampling of flight crew, businessmen, wives,
grandparents, students and others bound for San Francisco aboard a Boeing
757. In the course of the just over 90 minutes that the plane was aloft,
the world below entered a new and violent age - viewed through a fog that
slowly dissipated to reveal that America herself was under attack.
Faced with the daunting
task of re-creating the events that took place onboard the doomed plane and
down below, Greengrass and his researchers called upon a myriad of sources,
conducting countless hours of face-to-face interviews with the families of
the 40 passengers and crew, members of the 9/11 commission, flight
controllers and other military and civilian personnel who took part in the
events of the day. These interviews were distilled and, along with details
from flight recordings, public record and historical fact, became the basis
for the film. It was then played out by an ensemble of talented, yet
largely unknown actors - democratically presented as random people sharing a
flight - whose fact-grounded and acutely directed improvisations provided the
highly charged human drama captured by Greengrass' cameras.
The result is
a trenchant study - chronicled and filmed in real time - of the incendiary
collision of modern day and old world…and the courage
that was born from such a crucible.
Greengrass asserts, "One
of the reasons why United 93 exerts such a powerful hold on our imaginations
is precisely because we don’t know exactly what happened. Who among
us doesn’t think about that day and wonder how it must have been and how we
might have reacted?"
Painstakingly
researched with the support of the families of the passengers and crew who
lost their lives, United 93 paints an unforgettable and inspiring
portrait of everyday people confronted with an unthinkable situation…who
unwittingly become the first denizens in the new era of global terrorism
that began that September morning.
Greengrass
writes, directs and produces United 93 and, along with producer LLOYD
LEVIN (Hellboy, Boogie Nights), joins with powerhouse
producers and co-chairs of Europe’s leading film production company, Working
Title (Pride & Prejudice, Love Actually), TIM BEVAN and ERIC
FELLNER. Greengrass is joined behind the camera by director of photography
BARRY ACKROYD (Ae Fond Kiss, Bread and Roses). Many previous
collaborators of Greengrass return for United 93, including editors
CLARE DOUGLAS (Bloody Sunday, A Way of Life), CHRISTOPHER
ROUSE (both Bourne films) and RICHARD PEARSON (Rent, The
Bourne Supremacy); production designer DOMINIC WATKINS (Alpha Dog,
The Bourne Supremacy); costume designer DINAH COLLIN (Shooting
Dogs, Bloody Sunday); and composer JOHN POWELL (X-Men: The
Last Stand, both Bourne films). Working Title's DEBRA HAYWARD (Nanny
McPhee, The Interpreter) and LIZA CHASIN (Pride & Prejudice,
Wimbledon) serve as the film's executive producers...
Read all 64 pages
(Word .doc file) |
