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State of Play
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Release Date: April 17, 2009
Starring: Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren, Jason Bateman
Language: English
Country: United States
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State of Play is an American political thriller scheduled for release in 2009. It is a film adaptation of the critically acclaimed British television serial State of Play, which first aired on BBC One in 2003. It is directed by Kevin Macdonald and written by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy, Peter Morgan, and Billy Ray. The film tells of a journalist’s probe into the suspicious death of a Congressman’s mistress.
Russell Crowe plays the journalist and Ben Affleck plays the Congressman. Support comes from Helen Mirren, Jason Bateman, Robin Wright Penn, Rachel McAdams, and Jeff Daniels. The plot of the six hour mini-series has been condensed to fit two hours, and the location changed to Washington, D.C. Macdonald said State of Play would be informed by the films of the 1970s, and explore the topical subjects of journalistic independence and the relationship between politicians and the press.
The film is being produced by Andell Entertainment and Working Title Films for Universal Pictures, which acquired the rights after they were subject to two bidding wars. Brad Pitt was to star in the role ultimately filled by Crowe, but he left the production after disagreements with the studio over the direction of script rewrites. Pitt’s departure led to the postponement of filming, which was originally scheduled to start in November 2007.
The delay meant that Edward Norton could not play the role of the Congressman due to a scheduling conflict, and he was replaced by Affleck. Principal photography took place from January 11, 2008 to April 6, 2008 in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. State of Play was to be released in the United States towards the end of 2008, but the production delay saw the date changed to April 17, 2009.
The plot will be similar to that of the original six-hour program, retaining several main characters, but condensing and changing certain aspects to fit the two-hour format. The film is set in Washington, D.C. and tells of Stephen Collins (Affleck), a fast-rising United States Congressman with ambitions to become his party’s presidential candidate. This goal is threatened after his mistress (a former research assistant) is found dead in suspicious circumstances, while right-wing opponents to Collins’ campaign for social reform attempt to use the scandal to kill his political career. During a probe into a series of seemingly unrelated murders, Cal McCaffrey (Crowe), an investigative journalist and Collins’ former campaign manager, finds himself tasked with solving the case, becoming romantically involved with the Congressman’s estranged wife (Wright Penn) in the process.
Cast:
- Russell Crowe plays Cal McCaffrey. The character is a “street smart” reporter, described by Kevin Macdonald as “representing the old world journalist, the shining knight who is after the truth”. Brad Pitt had a long association with the part. He was initially attracted to the project after watching Macdonald’s documentary Touching the Void (2003), and had enjoyed the director’s film The Last King of Scotland (2006). Macdonald had also been working with Pitt’s production company Plan B Entertainment on a potential future project. Pitt officially committed to star in State of Play in August 2007 after a Tony Gilroy script rewrite was completed. He visited the newsroom of The Washington Post with Macdonald in September 2007 to research the role, spending four hours “talking shop” with political and investigative reporters, but one week before filming was to begin in November 2007, he left the productionProducer Eric Fellner attempted to convince Pitt to remain in the film, but Pitt was in disagreement with the studio over changes that had been made to the script since he originally agreed to star. Talent agency CAA (which represents Pitt) maintained that he never officially signed off on the changes; Macdonald delayed filming by a week to perform a scene-by-scene review of the script with Pitt; by the end, the director told the actor “I don’t think we want to make the same film.” When Pitt decided to drop out of the film he called the director himself to say so. Pitt preferred a version closer to the original Carnahan draft and wanted to postpone filming until the after the resolution of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, which would have enabled a further rewrite. The studio preferred to press on with production, and initially said it was to sue Pitt for reneging on his “pay or play” deal, which would have earned him $20 million. Settlement talks later led to a thawing of relations between the parties. Pitt later said of the situation: “I had definite beliefs of what the film should be, and the director had his definite beliefs and we got up against this writers’ strike where we couldn’t fuse the two.”Macdonald traveled to Australia to court Crowe’s involvement, which averted the film’s abandonment after Pitt left. Crowe also had to negotiate with the studio over shooting dates to avoid a conflict with Nottingham, which he was due to star in for director Ridley Scott in March 2008. Crowe said jumping immediately into the part was similar to immediately taking roles as a jobbing young actor. He had not seen the series, and was unlikely to as one could not compare a six hour telling of the story to a two hour adaption. The majority of Crowe’s three hours per day in hair and makeup preparation was spent hiding his “extremely long” hair, which he grew for Nottingham. During filming in Washington, D.C., Crowe acquired an education in journalism from The Washington Post’s Metro editor, R.B. Brenner. Universal president of production Donna Langley said Crowe’s performance was a naturalistic one, and claimed State of Play was a different film than the one that would have been made had Pitt remained. British newspaper The Independent noted that hiring an A-list American actor for the lead role was sidelining original McCaffrey actor John Simm, who it said was “widely considered one of the best television actors to emerge in recent years” and that the recasting was “the latest example of the trend for British actors to be replaced by Americans”. The Stage television writer Liz Thomas said that while it was frustrating for British actors, such casting made good commercial sense, expressing hope that the film’s high profile would be a “huge advert” or “shop window” for other such projects to come out of the UK in recent years.
- Ben Affleck plays Congressman Stephen Collins. Affleck replaced Edward Norton, who had joined the project in September 2007, but when the start of production was delayed due to Pitt’s departure, a scheduling conflict developed for Norton with Leaves of Grass, which he was committed to film for Tim Blake Nelson early in 2008. Norton asked Universal Pictures if he could be replaced, and a deal was struck between the studio and the Endeavor Talent Agency (which represents Norton and Affleck) to enable Norton to leave the production amicably. Crowe had partly been attracted to the project because of Norton’s involvement, but he and Affleck had “so many touchstones in common” he was fine with the recasting. Affleck visited Capitol Hill to research his role, meeting with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Representative Anthony D. Weiner of New York’s 9th congressional district, and members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation.
- Helen Mirren plays Cameron Lynne. Mirren was cast as the ruthless editor of the Washington Globe (the newspaper investigating the story) in September 2007. Producer Andrew Hauptman said of the character, “She’s the one in control… she makes it known that she’s strong, old school—a real Fleet Street type.” Mirren indicated that Lynne would be English. The delay to the production caused by Pitt’s departure initially put Mirren’s participation in doubt, as she was due to appear in the film Love Ranch for husband Taylor Hackford in March 2008, but a revised production date enabled her to remain attached to the project.
- Rachel McAdams plays Della Frye, a popular blogger turned junior political reporter who finds herself in the midst of the career-making story. She is being mentored by Crowe’s character, but they have different opinions about presenting the story. Crowe said McCaffrey is more concerned with the corporate viewpoint, with Frye seeing it from a more personal position: “There’s a consistent battle between the two of us to try and find out which one of those points of views is right.” McAdams said she was fascinated with the evolution of journalism in the United States, and that she said she was curious to examine whether her character’s “new breed” of journalism was as accurate as more traditional forms. McAdams visited The Washington Post in October 2007 in order to research the role.
- Jason Bateman plays Dominic Foy, a bisexual fetish club promoter who has information that Crowe’s character wants. Bateman said the role was “about a 15-page segment of the film” and that Foy “goes from A to Z in 15 pages”. His hair has blonde highlights and is done as a Mohawk, he primarily wears leather, and has an OxyContin addiction. None of these elements were present in the original. McAdams said Bateman was “experimenting with his dark side” with the character, but that “it has a lot of humor”.
- Michael Berresse plays a “sociopathic assassin”, who Berresse called “the darkest character in the movie”. The role is Berresse’s largest of his film acting career.
The cast also includes Robin Wright Penn as Anne Collins (Stephen Collins’ estranged wife), Jeff Daniels, Rob Benedict, Harry Lennix, and Viola Davis as a pathologist. In a scene shot at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the production employed the presence of several real-world journalists amongst the extras in a scene in which Wright-Penn’s character makes a statement to the press. The group included Bob Woodward, Margaret Carlson, Bob Schieffer, John Palmer, E. J. Dionne, Katty Kay, and Steven Clemons.
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