 |
|
The Return
|
|
|
|||
 The Return Production NotesTagline: The past never dies. It kills.
The story follows a tough, successful saleswoman whose vivid nightmares drive her to investigate the mysterious death of another young woman 25 years earlier.
A new supernatural thriller starring Sarah Michelle Gellar ("The Grudge," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") as Joanna Mills, a tough young Midwesterner determined to learn the truth behind the increasingly terrifying supernatural visions that have been haunting her. Joanna has made a successful career for herself, as sales representative for a trucking company.
But her private life has been difficult; estranged from her father (Sam Shepard), stalked by an obsessed ex-boyfriend (Adam Scott), and with few friends, Joanna fears that she is losing control. She sees and feels the brutal murder of a young woman she's never met, at the hands of a heartless killer - a man who appears to be making Joanna his next target.
Determined to fight back, Joanna is guided by her nightmares to the murdered woman's hometown. Once there, she will discover that some secrets can't be buried; some spirits never die; and that the murder she is trying to solve may be her own.
Plot Description
In 2001 British director Asif Kapadia's debut feature, The Warrior, a lyrical, beautiful movie set in the Himalayas, was named Best British Film at the BAFTA Awards. For his second film, Kapadia headed to Hollywood for the suspenseful horror flick The Return, written by first-time screenwriter Adam Sussman.
Sarah Michelle Gellar stars as Joanna Mills, an aggressive young woman who works as a successful saleswoman in the trucking industry. She pushes hard to go after a big deal in Texas, even though she had previously deemed the state off limits--something that happened to her when she was a little girl has kept her away from her hometown for many years.
Plot Description
Filled with fear, trepidation, and determination, she goes back to Texas, even visiting her estranged father (Sam Shepard). As she sees familiar places, she has frightening flashes of deja vu, remembering bits and pieces of a tragic incident involving an ex-con (Peter O'Brien), an unseen man, and a bad traffic accident. The visions haunt her dreams, sending her back to her childhood (where she's played by Darrian McClanahan). Reunited with an old friend (Kate Beahan), Joanna tries to move forward, but her unfinished past keeps dragging her back. Kapadia keeps things at a slow, suspenseful pace, every scene adding another piece of the plot--as well as a touch more mystery. Gellar, who has also starred in such horror films as The Grudge, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Scream 2, plays Joanna with an involving sense of dread that is echoed by Dario Marianelli's score.
About The Production
After a close friend endured a personal loss, screenwriter Adam Sussman felt that he “wanted to write something about the dead reconnecting with the living. Nothing was really clicking until I came across scientifically documented cases of very young children who had spontaneous memories of things and people and places that they could never possibly have known about.
"After doing more research and reading about the memories and stories that these children were accessing, I found that usually there was violence involved; a life had been cut short – and there was a reason for ‘the return.’"
Using these stories as a foundation, Sussman created the lead female character of Joanna Mills and then built a supernatural thriller storyline around her. "I enjoyed writing the scares, the big horror set pieces, and the – hopefully – surprising twists,” he says. “I set it in the Midwest because, although I’m from New York, I love the heartland – and because I thought remote locales would be scarier.”
Producer Aaron Ryder was immediately drawn to Sussman’s script. “I tend to gravitate towards movies that are a little more complicated than standard fare, and I hadn’t read anything quite like this before," remarks Ryder. "The Return is a terrifying story about being haunted, in a ghostly manner, by things you don’t understand – and it’s a haunting story in a different way, because it’s also very much a love story of two soul mates trying to get back together. The complexity of the psychological thriller aspect also allows for an emotional core.
"I loved the idea of a powerful woman working in a man’s world, as well as the journey that Joanna presses ahead on, which is filled with intense visions and extraordinary situations. She has to learn who or what is trying to possess her, and why.”
Producer Jeffrey Silver adds, "She’s on a search – but for what, she doesn’t know. We did our research, but as filmmakers, the facts of specific cases were less important to us than what can be inside every human being. When we have the sense of déjà vu, what do we envision as the cause of it?”
Ryder remarks, “Adam did a lot of homework. I spoke with a gentleman who told me about just how you could wake up and sense another presence in your soul.
“I think we all harbor universal fears of losing control and being chased by our own demons. For Joanna, this starts happening quite literally."
"Anticipation makes for a good thriller. The most terrifying aspect of The Return is the expectation that something awful is going to happen at the very next moment," offers Silver. "This story is told with a serene surface point of view – but you’ll expect the worst to happen at any moment. That expectation permeates the landscapes in the movie.”
In 2004, director Asif Kapadia signed on to the project. The young British filmmaker’s first feature, The Warrior, had won praise all around the world, including two BAFTA Awards.
"The appeal of Adam’s script was the simplicity of it. The story is told more through imagery than dialogue. When we first met with Asif and talked about The Return, he said it would be about set undressing," reveals Silver. "In terms of sets, costumes, acting, and dialogue, he wanted to generate the dramatic tension that a supernatural thriller requires with a spare quality to the presentation and imagery.”
Ryder confirms, "Asif a true storyteller, and is rather remarkable in his ability to pare away and shave down a story to its very essence, to its very core. There’s nothing superfluous in this movie. Orson Welles once said, ‘The absence of limitation is the enemy of art.’ It’s something Asif believes in. He likes to know what his parameters are, because then he can increase his creativity.
“As an emerging filmmaker, he has a strong vision and voice. He reminds me a lot of Christopher Nolan [with whom Ryder has made two films] in that regard, with the sensibility."
The director responded to the screenplay’s “creepiness and suspense, and its series of layers. We unravel one, then another, then another…and you learn that everything has a motivation.”
Kapadia was also drawn to playing up the elements of fate and spirituality within the thriller framework. From his European perspective, "it was essentially a very American movie," he admits. "But it had a sensual central idea of something spiritual, something otherworldly – which excited me; I felt this was something I could hook into.
"Different people – in different religions – have been brought up with the concept that people might die and come back in another life in another form."
To tell Joanna’s story, Kapadia sought to create a specific interpretation. Accordingly, he says, "The point of view of The Return is that people are on some sort of path and that we’re not all separate beings. Somehow, there’s a force out there that links things up. You can try to come back to correct something that happened to you in another life."
A few months after Kapadia began working with the producers and screenwriter, the casting process began in earnest once Ryder learned that Sarah Michelle Gellar had read the screenplay and responded positively to the material.
"Sarah has a huge and loyal fan base,” notes Ryder. "In The Return, they will be excited to see her really flexing her acting muscles. She’s playing a role that you haven’t seen her do before, and you’ll be seeing her in a different way. I think the complexities and seriousness of Joanna attracted her."
Silver says, "In line with Asif’s approach, she really strips everything away and gets at Joanna’s basic motivations. Joanna undergoes a frightening psychological dissemblance, and Sarah took risks to play all that and to make the part her own. She’s done a marvelous job."
“Sarah understood Joanna,” adds Sussman. “They’re both driven, I think.”
Of her character, Gellar notes, “When we first meet her, she’s fairly lost; living her life, but not experiencing it. She had a rough childhood, ran away, took a job that she wasn’t necessarily passionate about but was good at – and allowed her to travel, so that she was never in one place long enough to worry about belonging. But things start happening, and she starts to deteriorate very quickly and goes on a frightening and passionate journey. She does violent things to her body; I spoke with people who have done what she does to herself, and we discussed the pleasure/pain principle. First comes pain, and then a euphoria.”
When Gellar first met with Kapadia, their conversation was more about concept than about the actual story. As Gellar relates, "I think we were both fascinated with its underlying Buddhist themes of life, that life is cyclical; you come and live your life and then you come back and fix the things from the past. The Return is about how you need to finish your life before you can truly transcend to what is essentially the next life – and what happens if you don’t finish what you were meant to do on Earth. If emotions carry over, what happens?
“One of the things that I particularly liked about Joanna was that she speaks so well for everybody – young girls, middle-aged women – who understands what it’s like to not belong. She feels that she never did belong, that her place was never her own – and then finds out that these feelings are true. She takes action to find her identity and find where her place is."
When Joanna’s journey mysteriously takes her to the town of La Salle, Gellar explains, “She starts having memories and feelings about a place she’s never been. She meets Terry and is drawn to him. Together, they find out what they have to offer each other and the ways they can help each other.”
“They’re two loners but there’s a powerful connection between them from when they meet, and they don’t know why,” says Sussman. “When they come together, they start to figure things out.”
|
|||||
Peter O'Brien and Sarah Michelle Gellar in The Return.
Sitemaps, RSS Feeds & Social Networks
|
|||||||
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Movies Central
Movies Central website is created and designed by Atlantis, 2000 - 2010
All film stills, posters, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners and may not be reproduced for any reason whatsoever. If proper notation of owned material is not given please notify us so we can make adjustments. Copyright © 2009 HTML Sitemap
