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Changeling is an American period thriller set for release in 2008. The film is set in 1920s Los Angeles and based upon the true story of a woman who believes that the son returned to her after a kidnapping is not her own. It was directed by
Clint Eastwood and written by J. Michael Straczynski. The film was produced by Imagine Entertainment and Malpaso Productions for Universal Pictures. Ron Howard was originally slated to direct, but scheduling difficulties and Universal's desire to fast track the project led to his replacement by Eastwood.
Angelina Jolie stars in the lead role with support from Jeffrey Donovan, John Malkovich, Jason Butler Harner, Amy Ryan, Michael Kelly, Geoff Pierson, and Colm Feore. Principal photography began on October 15, 2007 and was completed in November 2007. Filming took place on location in Los Angeles and its surrounding areas. Changeling is scheduled for general release in North America on October 31, 2008 after a limited release beginning on October 24, 2008. It premiered in competition at the 61st Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2008, where it received largely positive reviews. It had its North American premiere on October 4, 2008 as the centerpiece of the 46th New York Film Festival.
The film is set in 1920s Los Angeles and is based upon a real-life incident related to the Wineville Chicken Murders, an infamous kidnapping and murder case that spanned 1928–1930 and received nationwide attention in the United States. When single mother Christine Collins (Jolie) returns home from her job as a telephone operator, she finds that her nine-year-old son, Walter, has vanished. An exhaustive search for the boy proves unproductive, but five months later a child claiming to be Walter is returned to her by police. Despite knowing that the boy is not Walter, overcome by conflicting emotions in the crowd of police and reporters, Collins is persuaded to take the boy home. When Collins urges the authorities to continue looking for Walter, she is vilified as an unfit mother and branded delusional. With the help of Reverend Gustav Briegleb (Malkovich), Collins confronts the city authorities and corruption in the Los Angeles Police Department to find out the truth.
After twenty years working in television, writing and producing shows such as Babylon 5 and Jeremiah, screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski felt he needed a break from the medium. Having been a reporter before moving into television, Straczynski still kept in touch with people from his previous profession. One such contact at Los Angeles City Hall told him that officials were planning to burn numerous archive documents, and that amongst them was "something he should see".
This was a series of transcripts of the City Council welfare hearings in Collins' case. Straczynski became fascinated with the story. He spent a year researching it through archived criminal, county courthouse, and city hall records, before obtaining enough information on the case to be able to "figure out how to tell it". He wrote the first draft of the script within twelve days. Straczynski's agent passed the spec script to Ron Howard, who optioned it immediately.
In June 2006, Universal Studios and Howard's Imagine Entertainment bought the script with the intention for Howard to direct. The film was on a shortlist of projects for Howard after coming off the commercial success of The Da Vinci Code. Straczynski indicated that the film was talked about as a "prestige" project for the studio, and said a number of female stars were interested in the project before Jolie "jumped to the front of the line".
In March 2007, the production was fast tracked by Universal. When Howard instead opted to direct Frost/Nixon, following that with Angels and Demons, it became clear that he could not direct Changeling until 2009. After Howard stepped down, it began to look as if the film would not be made, despite the script being admired in the industry (a situation Straczynski said he had "gotten very Zen" about). Howard and producer Brian Grazer instead began looking for other directors to helm the project. Straczynski said that five A-list directors were interested,[10] before Clint Eastwood agreed to direct immediately after reading the script.
The film marked a repeat visit to territory visited by Eastwood in earlier films: the Great Depression. Explaining his attraction to the project, Eastwood said his memories of growing up during that time meant that whenever a history concerning the Depression era landed in his hands, he "redoubled his attention" upon it. He agreed that the film could be considered an companion piece to his 2003 film Mystic River, which also depicted a community contaminated by an isolated, violent act against a child. Eastwood also noted a correlation with the corruption of the 1920s Los Angeles Police Department and the corruption of 2008.
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