Movie reviews, production notes, and more! - "The Hunted"

Movie : The Hunted

Notes provided by Paramount Pictures Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son" Abe says, "Man, you must be puttin' me on" God say, "No." Abe say, "What?" God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but The next time you see me comin' you better run" Well, Abe says, "Where do you want this killin' done?" God says, "Out on Highway 61." -- Bob Dylan, "Highway 61 Revisited" (recited by Johnny Cash in the film's prologue) Director William Friedkin gave us a cop pushing hard against the criminal element deep within himself in the classic crime thriller "The French Connection." He enhanced the meaning of "devil" for an entire generation and gave us a rare look at a man of God fighting a malignant force by admitting that he, too, was sinful in "The Exorcist." And in "To Live and Die in L.A.," he locked a single-minded cop and a career criminal into a power struggle that mapped the hypocrisies of their entire society. Now, in "The Hunted," Friedkin explores man's inner conflict over his own evils in the most primal, elemental way, by telling the story of a retired teacher of warfare (Tommy Lee Jones) who must battle his former student (Benicio Del Toro), a top special-forces assassin gone renegade. Paramount Pictures presents, in association with Lakeshore Entertainment, a Ricardo Mestres/Alphaville Production. A William Friedkin Film starring Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro, "The Hunted" also features Connie Nielson, Leslie Stefanson, John Finn, Jose Zuniga, Ron Canada, Mark Pellegrino and Lonny Chapman. The film is directed by William Friedkin and written by David Griffiths & Peter Griffiths and Art Monterastelli. Ricardo Mestres and James Jacks serve as producers. The executive producers are David Griffiths, Peter Griffiths, Marcus Viscidi and Sean Daniel and the co-producer is Art Monterastelli. Paramount Pictures is part of the entertainment operations of Viacom Inc., one of the world's largest entertainment and media companies, and a leader in the production, promotion and distribution of entertainment news, sports and music. The film is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for strong bloody violence and some language. ABOUT THE STORY Revealing the bond between these two men almost entirely without words, Friedkin first introduces Aaron Hallam (Benicio Del Toro) in 1999, during the bloodiest of the fighting in Kosovo. Serbian soldiers are carrying out scores of atrocities against Albanian civilians while U.S. Special Forces operate covertly nearby. Aaron -- at this time a soldier in good standing -- penetrates a demolished building and slips unseen past guards. As he moves without a sound, there is a tense moment when the path to his target is blocked by a small child praying over her mother's dead body. But Aaron is so skilled at melting into the shadows that the Serbian officer who has ordered all this butchery has no clue anyone is even in the room until Aaron has killed him. Awarded the Silver Star for valor for this murder, Aaron feels no honor as he lies awake, tormented by nightmares. In 2003, light years from what happened in Kosovo, we meet L.T. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones) tracking an injured wolf through the bright snows of northernmost British Columbia. He runs with the rubbery, bandy-legged gait of a professional tracker, not making a sound, soft on the soles of his feet. This, along with his gentle demeanor, allows him to approach the suffering animal. Once he undoes the trap and treats the wolf's wound, the outraged L.T. marches into the nearest tavern and gives a beating to the man who set the trap. A thousand miles to the south, in the green woods of Silver Falls, Oregon, L.T.'s former student, Aaron Hallam -- now AWOL from the Special Forces -- keeps his own brand of wildlife vigil. Two men in hunter's gear, but using rifles with high-powered military telescopes, suddenly hear ghostly taunts from someone they can't see, someone who blends into the trees like a forest goblin. He asks the two riflemen if they think they're being fair to the deer, hunting with such big scopes, then he swirls a knife into the tree, purposely just missing one of them. This triggers a fusillade of gunfire from the two hunters, who are no match for Aaron's lethal skills. With catlike reflexes, he pounces on them brutally, killing them with animal-like swiftness. But these are not his only victims. In fact, Aaron has viciously killed two other hunters in the area, and the FBI, led by Special Agent Abby Durrell (Connie Nielsen, "Gladiator," "One Hour Photo"), desperate to track down the killer, calls in the one man who can bring him in. Snug in retirement, L.T. resists the mission every way he can. He's closed off the past and this would only open everything up again. But after studying photos of how the men were gutted like deer, every vital organ severed, L.T. knows the killer is a man he has trained. Accepting the assignment on the condition he works alone, L.T. walks into the woods -- unarmed, as if tracking another wounded wolf. His final words: "If I'm not back in two days, it'll mean I'm dead." As Aaron is plagued by bad dreams, L.T. is plagued by bad memories of days spent teaching others to kill. The second he hears Aaron's voice, he remembers his best student very well, and the instant they are eye-to-eye, he is riddled with guilt. L.T. knew that Aaron was slipping over the edge, having received letters from his tortured pupil begging for help. But not wanting to be pulled back into his past, L.T. had ignored Aaron's plea, and now knows he is partially to blame for the horrific result. Finally taken into custody, Aaron is sent to a facility in Portland, but he's soon released to operatives from the covert branch of Special Forces he has been working for. Privy to far too many highly classified government secrets, Aaron can never stand public trial, and the covert agents bundle him into a van and whisk him away. Quickly aware that the agents plan on neatly making him "disappear," Aaron causes the van to crash and slips off into the surrounding Oregon countryside. The FBI sends additional agents in pursuit, while L.T. pleads with the authorities to let him chase Aaron alone. But despite their mounting body count, the Bureau remains confident they will get their man. Still, it is only L.T. who can get close to Aaron, and only because Aaron -- like a cat with a mouse -- allows him to. Furious as he is with his former mentor for not responding to his letters, Aaron knows that he and L.T. share a tragic bond that is unbreakable. And, even as they go into their final combat against each other, neither can say with certainty who is "the hunted" and who is the hunterand who will ultimately emerge as victor. ABOUT THE PRODUCTION Academy Awardâ winners Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro each had quite an experience working on "The Hunted" as they learned everything from knife fighting to how to forge crude weaponry. The two actors also had the experience of working with Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning director Billy Friedkin. Both found it quite rewarding, and Jones, who had previously worked with Friedkin on the military thriller, "Rules of Engagement," particularly appreciated Friedkin's method of working, one he likens to his own. "Billy is a fine director and he gives actors the freedom to exchange ideas, which is very important to me," says Jones. "I also like that he tries to get it right on the first take. That's always my intention, too: to have the first take be the best take, every time. To use a sports analogy, the best offense is designed to score a touchdown every time you hike the ball," adds Jones, who likens Friedkin's directorial approach to the way Jones and his teammates played football at Harvard. "If you only gain 15 or 20 yards, somebody made a mistake, and it's time to try a new play. That's Billy's way of directing." As for L.T. Bonham, the character he portrays, Jones says that what is most interesting and important is that the man teaches something he has never actually done himself: to kill. "He's awfully good at it," remarks the actor, "and he knows everything about it, except the actual experience of doing it." Benicio Del Toro, who portrays Aaron Hallam, one of L.T.'s best students in the art of killing, appreciates Friedkin's drive toward realism. "I'm especially proud of the hand-to-hand combat in the movie," says Del Toro. "We wanted to keep it as real as possible, and although an actual fight between two guys with extraordinary knife skills could easily be over in seconds, ours is very real in terms of how we block and how we react." As for Friedkin, who believes that "casting is 80 to 90 percent of the success of the film," Jones and Del Toro brought different, but equally wonderful styles of acting to "The Hunted." "Tommy is one of the most brilliant actors ever, and I put him on the list with Spencer Tracy, Robert Mitchum and Steve McQueen," says Friedkin. "He does what great actors do: He brings a large part of his own inner nature to each frame of the film. That's why I love working with him. He invests every moment with his own humanity. And Benicio," adds Friedkin, "brings a really strong sense of inner self to every shot. That's exactly what this film needs because most of it is not told in dialogue, but in images. There's no way to write what Benicio does, it just comes through. Very often, the best acting is not only what is written on the actor's face, but what's written in his soul." Having worked with such directors as Sam Raimi on "The Gift and "A Simple Plan" as well as the Coen brothers on "Raising Arizona," producer James Jacks was eager to work with Billy Friedkin. "It took me a long time to figure Billy out," says Jacks. "He shoots differently than just about anybody. He prepares differently. He doesn't do storyboards; he doesn't do any of the stuff that I'm used to dealing with. And what I realized is, Billy came out of documentary filmmaking and shoots his movies as if they're documentaries. He shoots action as if you're there -- as if you're watching it happen. And what makes working with him such a unique experience is that, like a documentary guy, he discovers the essence of his film as he goes, and in the footage he gets along the way." Friedkin had been dreaming of making a film like "The Hunted" ever since he formed a friendship with professional tracker Tom Brown, Jr., but felt it would turn out too much like a documentary until he read a script by David and Peter Griffiths about a trained, Delta Force-style assassin who becomes a serial killer. "Assassins have to be trained by somebody. In fact, they're often trained by guys like my friend Tom Brown, who to this day teaches Special Forces, Delta and other teams the art of tracking, survival and killing," says Friedkin. "I felt that in that teacher-student relationship, you had the seeds of an exciting conflict -- especially if the pupil has been driven mad by the number of killings he's had to do, and the teacher suffers from strong feelings of guilt because he instructs others to kill, even though he's never killed anyone himself." Friedkin recruited Tom Brown himself, to train the actors and serve as a consultant throughout the shoot. "Billy's a perfectionist," says Brown. "I've always liked that about him. He's constantly striving to make a story as authentic as humanly possible." For two hours a day, three or four days a week during production in Portland, Oregon, Brown worked with Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro, training them in the art of survival in the wilderness. Brown has published a wide assortment of books, among them The Way of the Scout and The Wilderness Survival Field Guide. These were the works that brought him to the attention of William Friedkin. Brown also runs a tracking school based in northern New Jersey Tom Brown's Tracking, Nature and Wilderness Survival School. "Tommy Lee has a ranch down in Texas," recalls Brown. "There wasn't much training I had to do with him because he's already a hunter and good in the outdoors. Benicio was less experienced, but at the same time extremely easy to train. He spends most of the first half of the movie in camouflage, and there's a certain, very difficult way of movement, like a shadow, that you have to master, and he nailed it right away." Both Jones and Del Toro were especially grateful to knife specialist Thomas Kier, as well as Rafael Kayanan, another advisor to the film. Kier and Kayanan, who normally train Navy SEALS, spent an average of two hours a day, five days a week working with Jones, Del Toro and their respective stunt doubles. "Both Tommy Lee and Benicio were really into it," recalls Kier. "If there was a conflict, if the day had a heavy shooting schedule, they would often make up for lost time after hours." According to Kayanan, the primal, unrehearsed quality of the Sayoc Kali combat style was what Friedkin was after. "He didn't want anything where there's, like, three beats of some person attacking and the other guy's just looking at him, or where there's taunting, or anything playful. He wanted it to look as real as possible." "Kali is the term that's used here in the west," says Kayanan. "In the Philippines it's usually by the tribe, or the family, which is where the Sayoc-Kali comes in that Tom refers to. It also goes by Arnis-Skrima." Kayanan , who is himself Filipino, explains its history: "It's a fighting style which evolved across hundreds of years, and is drawn from all the cultures that were trading in the region. From about 1550 on you had the influence of English, French and Italian styles of combat, but the Arabs and the Chinese had been visiting the Philippines for many centuries before that. All those sword and knife-styles, west and east, molded together with indigenous methods to form Kali." "I now know a lot more about fighting with knives than I want to know," muses Jones. "But I have to admit it was fun to come to an understanding of the fighting techniques used in the film." As for Del Toro, the fact that Aaron never uses a gun gave his character a certain kind of dignity. "Aaron is a knife guy all the way, which I think is noble," Del Toro points out. "Even in Kosovo, with guns all around him, he only fought with a knife." Because Brown developed his own survival weaponry, he also consulted in the building of props for the film. Here again, Friedkin's exacting nature drove the effort. "If you tell Billy about a device or a trap that might be useful to the story, the first words out of his mouth are, 'I want to see how it's made,'" says Brown. "He wants to know for his own sense of authenticity. So, I would build something and show him how it kills. Then the props and effects people took over and made it actor-friendly." The flint and steel knives used in the film were cast in hard rubber from originals Brown manufactured for Friedkin for use in the sequence in which L.T. and Aaron each forge combat-ready knives -- one from raw stone and the other from a shank of rusted steel. In fact, by the time Brown was through training the actors, they were capable of making the crude weaponry by themselves. Still other experts were brought in -- including Mark Stefanich of Navy SEAL Team 6 -- to teach Jones and Del Toro other aspects of military combat. "Billy was adamant that we show a style of knife-fighting nobody had ever seen in a movie before," recalls producer James Jacks. "At one point, when Tommy and Benicio were training, it went a little too much in the wrong direction and became like a Chuck Norris type of fight. But one of our experts was on hand to set us straight, explaining that if someone were to try a high kick [like those Norris does] his opponent would cut his Achilles tendon, and the fight would be over." According to members of the SEAL team, everybody bleeds in a knife fight. The question is how to make your opponent's cuts more debilitating and your own wounds merely painful. That's the reason why Benicio Del Toro's costume in the wild is covered with a small network of ropes -- ready-to-wear tourniquets -- allowing his character Aaron to stanch a blood-flow at any point on his body and keep fighting. One of the most spectacular stunts in the film is the jump Aaron makes from Portland's Interstate Bridge to the waters of the Williamette River below. Recalls producer James Jacks: "We had to shut down an entire bridge, which is one of the major points of access to Portland, four weekends running. In fact, we arranged for a fifth weekend just as a precaution, and we ended up using that, too. The big problem of course was matching one shot to the next, because weeks would go by, and the weather would change. It was like shooting on a boat." There was also a mixture of actual police with actors, by way of maintaining authenticity. Adds Jacks: "Most of the FBI guys were actual FBI agents from the west coast, who are friends of Billy's. They were always there to make sure we were doing things that were at least in the realm of what would really happen. Some spectacular things are necessary for action and surprise, such as when Benicio dives off the top of the bridge, but even there, you're trying to make it as authentic as possible. It might not happen, but could it happen? In reality, a man might hit terminal velocity and splatter against the water's surface, jumping from that height. But we talked to enough people who said, if he was really skilled, and he hit the water just right, he could make it." Costume designer Gloria Gresham says that the quest for authenticity made her job a lot less complicated. "Both Tommy and Benicio had their set 'looks,' whether it was Tommy in his checked flannel shirts, or Benicio in either camouflage or all black." Gresham had previously worked with Friedkin on "The Brinks Job" and "Rules of Engagement," and on a number of films with director of photography Caleb Deschanel. From her standpoint, it was an exciting marriage of two talents. "Billy is the smartest person I know -- so charming, so talented and somewhat eccentric," says Gresham. "He definitely challenges people. And Caleb is a strong personality, too. I had a hunch they would get along beautifully, and in fact, I think they brought out the best in each other. The harmony certainly shows onscreen." As for Deschanel, working with Friedkin was definitely an enjoyable experience. "Billy has such a strong point of view that it's fun to work with him and you really know where you stand, all the time," says Deschanel. "Also, because he creates an environment where you often do only one take, you have to be ready and at your best, right from the very beginning. That creates energy on the set for the actors and everybody else. You can't be lackadaisical and save it for the third take; you've got to be on the ball for Billy." Jones agrees: "If everyone is prepared, no one has to labor over a single moment. You can take advantage of however fresh a moment might be and create a meticulously planned spontaneity." Emmy-nominated film editor Augie Hess, who worked with Friedkin on "The Exorcist" and, more recently, on "Rules of Engagement," says that "a studied roughness" is integral to the director's style. "Billy likes to set the stage and let the actors go, and if they get it right on the first take, there's a natural sort of impromptu imperfection to it. He definitely likes to keep the spontaneity alive." As Hess learned, Friedkin's drive for capturing the moment also extended to technical details. "During a flashback in which L.T. is instructing Aaron how to fight, Deschanel used a light hand-held camera, but it made a chattering noise that got all over the dialogue," Hess remembers. "So I asked Billy if he wanted to loop it, and he said to leave it as it is. We did do some noise reduction to soften the effect, but you can still hear the chattering, and the funny thing is, it actually enhances the scene, giving it a documentary feel." According to Deschanel, Friedkin's directorial style also includes the ability to listen if someone doesn't feel something is right. "Billy wants your best instincts, and that has an exciting effect on everybody, especially the actors. In fact, Tommy and Benicio were inspired to keep trying things that would ultimately inspire all of us." The only time such enthusiasm backfired was during the staging of the first major fight between L.T. and Aaron. In that moment, both men are diving toward the forest floor, lunging for a single knife. "Perhaps we could've used stunt people," recalls producer Jacks. "But the actors were there, their blood was up, and they wanted to do it. Unfortunately, Benicio leapt high and came down hard on his wrist, jamming it. Had that been all, we might've been okay, or shut down for a shorter period. But then Tommy came crashing down on him with his full weight, Benicio broke a bone and dislocated seven others. He had to be operated on, with pins put in, and we were shut down for seven months." The forest floor, according to Jacks, had been padded just like the dojo that the actors practiced in, but the ground was uneven and filled with other unpredictable elements. In fact, it was a small plant that caught Del Toro's hand and bent it underneath him a split second before he fell. "I've played it over in my mind many times," says Jones. "We'd certainly practiced it enough in the gym. In fact, we even called the move our 'Double Pete Rose,' because we were both diving the way Rose would dive for second base." A good sport, Del Toro shrugs off the whole incident. "It was a stunt that went wrong, is all," he says. "Everybody landed on my wrist, including me. But it's completely fine now." "The worst was learning how terrible the injury was for Benicio," recalls Friedkin, who used the seven-month block of time to look at the film and find ways to improve it once the star was strong enough to resume shooting. "I spent a lot of time contemplating the film, and I began to ponder the story's parallels to Abraham and Isaac," says the director. "Then I met with Johnny Cash, who wrote us an original song for the film, and I asked him to recite the opening lyrics to Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited. We got permission from Dylan, and that became our scene setter." Del Toro's injury occurred with only seven days of shooting left. The second half of the first fight between Aaron and L.T., and their climactic battle beside an enormous waterfall outside Portland, remained to be shot. Happily, everything proceeded without a hitch, despite the risks of moving a cast and crew along such vast expanses of wet rock. "Billy filmed it with great care, choreographing every move very precisely, with an eye to bringing you inside the action." says Jacks. "The combination of his eye and Caleb's camerawork made the scene more immediate than ever." ABOUT THE CAST Academy Award® winner TOMMY LEE JONES (L.T. Bonham) was awarded the Best Supporting Actor Oscar® for his uncompromising portrayal of U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard in the box office hit "The Fugitive" in 1994. For this performance, he also received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. Three years prior, Jones had received his first Oscar® nomination for his portrayal of Clay Shaw in Oliver Stone's "JFK." Most recently, audiences saw Jones re-team with Will Smith and director Barry Sonnenfeld in the box office hit, "Men In Black II." Jones starred in "Space Cowboys" with James Garner and Donald Sutherland for director/actor Clint Eastwood. Before that, he starred in William Friedkin's "Rules of Engagement," with Samuel L. Jackson. Jones starred with Ashley Judd in the box office hit "Double Jeopardy." In 1998 he reprised his role as U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard in "U.S. Marshals," the follow-up to "The Fugutive," and in 1997 he starred with Will Smith in the No. 1 box office hit of the year, "Men In Black," which grossed over $500 million worldwide. Jones made his feature film debut in the classic "Love Story" and, in a career spanning three decades, has starred in such films as "Eyes of Laura Mars," "Coal Miner's Daughter" for which he received his first Golden Globe nomination "Stormy Monday," "The Package," "Under Siege," "Heaven and Earth," "The Client," "Natural Born Killers," "Blue Sky," "Batman Forever," "Cobb" and "Volcano." In 1995, Jones made his directorial debut with the critically acclaimed telefilm adaptation of the Elmer Kelton book "The Good Old Boys." Jones also starred in the telefilm with Sissy Spacek, Sam Shepard, Frances McDormand and Matt Damon. For his portrayal of Hewey Calloway, he received nominations for both a Screen Actors Guild Award and a CableACE Award. Jones had had previous success on the small screen. In 1983, he won an Emmy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Gary Gilmore in "The Executioner's Song" and, in 1989, was nominated for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for the miniseries "Lonesome Dove." His numerous network and cable credits include the title role in "The Amazing Howard Hughes," the American Playhouse production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," "The Rainmaker" for HBO, the HBO/BBC production of "Yuri Noshenko, KGB" and "April Morning." In 1969, Jones made his Broadway debut in John Osborne's "A Patriot for Me." His other Broadway appearances include "Four on a Garden" with Carol Channing and Sid Caesar, and "Ulysses in Nighttown" with the late Zero Mostel. Born in San Saba, Texas, he worked briefly with his father in the oil fields before leaving for Harvard University, where he graduated cum laude with a degree in English. Oscar® winner BENICIO DEL TORO (Aaron Hallam) is currently in production on "21 Grams" with Sean Penn and Naomi Watts, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Del Toro was most recently seen in Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic," for which he won an Academy Award® for his raw and compassionate portrayal of a Mexican cop trying to stay one step ahead of the corrupt system. He also received the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, the BAFTA Supporting Actor Award and the Screen Actors Guild Best Actor Award. Critics groups, including the National Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Circle and the Chicago Film Critics Association, also gave him Best Supporting Actor honors and he garnered the Silver Berlin Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival for Best Actor. Del Toro followed this with another distinctive role in Guy Ritchie's critically acclaimed "Snatch," and Sean Penn's "The Pledge," with Jack Nicholson and Robin Wright-Penn. He was also recently seen in "Way of the Gun," reuniting him with Chris McQuarrie, who directed him in "The Usual Suspects." Born in Sanegerman, Puerto Rico, Del Toro grew up in Pennsylvania. He attended the University of California at San Diego where he divided his time between painting and acting classes. He appeared in numerous student productions, one of which led to performing at a drama festival at the Lafayette Theater in New York. Del Toro remained in New York to study acting at the Circle in the Square Acting School and won a scholarship to the Stella Adler Conservatory in Los Angeles. He studied at the Actor's Circle Theatre, which led to guest starring roles on various television series and movies for television. Del Toro made his motion picture debut in the James Bond film "License To Kill." He has been honored with back-to-back Independent Spirit Awards for Best Supporting Actor for his work in "The Usual Suspects" and for Julian Schnabel's "Basquiat." Del Toro's other motion picture credits include Sean Penn's "Indian Runner," John Baily's "China Moon," Peter Weir's "Fearless," George Huang's "Swimming With Sharks," Abel Ferrara's "The Funeral," Tony Scott's "The Fan," Marco Brambilla's "Excess Baggage" and Terry Gilliam's "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas." CONNIE NIELSEN (Abby Durrell) is best known for her star-making portrayal of Princess Lucilla opposite Russell Crowe's Maximus in the 2001 Academy Award-winning "Gladiator." Performances such as this have made Hollywood take notice. Next, Nielsen will star in "Basic" opposite John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, in which she stars as a high-level Army interrogator investigating a murder. The action thriller was directed by John McTiernan and will be released on April 18, 2003. Nielsen recently completed production on "The Great Raid" opposite Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Fiennes and James Franco for director John Dahl. She will portray an American nurse who is one of the leaders of an underground movement liberating prisoners of war in the Philippines at the end of WWII. Nielsen was most recently seen in director Mark Romanek's psychological drama "One Hour Photo." Nielsen stars opposite Robin Williams as the object of his character's (a photo clerk) obsession. She also starred in the suspense thriller "Demonlover," for acclaimed director Olivier Assayas ("Irma Vep"), as an industrial spy in a corporate acquisition war. It was one of the most talked about films at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and also stars Chloe Sevigny and Gina Gershon. Nielsen's other film credits include Brian DePalma's space odyssey "Mission to Mars," "The Devils Advocate" (starring Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves), "Rushmore," "Permanent Midnight" opposite Ben Stiller, "The Innocents" opposite Jean Hughes Angleade, "Voyage" with Rutger Hauer and Eric Roberts and the European films "Le Paradis Absolument," "Okavango" and "Colletti Bianchi." Born and raised in Copenhagen, Denmark, Nielsen currently resides in New York. ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS WILLIAM FRIEDKIN (Director), at 16, began working in the mailroom of a local TV station in his native Chicago, and within months had worked his way up to floor manager in live television. In less than a year, he was directing 8 to 10 live broadcasts a day, and not long thereafter, was handling network dramas and musical shows. Friedkin's most formative experience as a filmmaker nevertheless remains his work in documentaries, primarily for producer David Wolper in the late 1960s. After varied apprentice steps as a feature director, working on such films as Sonny & Cher's "Good Times" (1968), "The Night They Raided Minsky's" (1968), Harold Pinter's "The Birthday Party" (1969) and "The Boys in the Band" (1970), Friedkin directed his critical breakout film, "The French Connection" (1971), for which he won an Academy Awardâ and a Golden Globe for Best Director. Friedkin's next film, "The Exorcist" (1973), set the seal for his place as one of the leading talents of his generation. He followed with "Sorcerer" (1977), which over the past quarter-century has won a devoted cult following, after which he made the critically acclaimed "The Brinks Job" (1979), "Cruising" (1980), "Deal of the Century" (1983), "To Live and Die in L.A." (1985) and "Rampage" (1987), which he wrote and directed. In the mid 1980s, Friedkin worked in television, directing "C.A.T. Squad" (1986) "C.A.T. Squad: Python Wolf (1988). In 1990, he took a fresh stab at the big screen horror genre with "The Guardian" and later, in 1994, he directed the sports film "Blue Chips," followed by the erotic thriller "Jade," in 1995. His Showtime/MGM remake of "12 Angry Men" (1997) was nominated for six Emmys, and in 1998, he made his debut as a director of opera, with Alan Berg's "Wozzek" in Florence, Italy, with Zubin Mehta conducting. He most recently directed the Los Angeles Opera Company production of Béla Bartôk's "Duke Bluebeard's Castle" and Giacomo Puccini's "Gianni Schicchi." These productions will travel to Japan and to the Kennedy Center in 2006. In 2004, he will direct Richard Wagner's "TannHauser" for the Los Angeles Opera. RICARDO MESTRES (Producer) began his industry career at Paramount Pictures in 1981 as a creative executive for Don Simpson and Jeffrey Katzenberg, for whom he later supervised the development and production of the international box office hit, "Beverly Hills Cop." Mestres joined the Walt Disney Studios as a production executive in 1984, where he oversaw such successful films as "Outrageous Fortune," "Three Men and a Baby," "Good Morning Vietnam," "Big Business," "Cocktail" and "Turner and Hooch," among others. In 1988, Hollywood Pictures was formed, and Mestres was appointed president. Under his management, Hollywood Pictures released such hit films as "Arachnophobia," "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle," "Tombstone," "The Joy Luck Club," "Quiz Show" and "The Santa Clause." Mestres became a producer in 1994 and received his first screen credit on Francis Coppola's "Jack," starring Robin Williams. His other credits include "101 Dalmatians," "Flubber," "Home Alone 3," "Reach the Rock" and most recently the French comedy "Just Visiting." JAMES JACKS (Producer) was executive producer of the Coen Brothers' cult film "Raising Arizona" before joining Universal Pictures as vice president of acquisitions. During his 5 years there, Jacks was involved in making such films as "Field of Dreams," "Do The Right Thing," "Darkman," "Jungle Fever" and "American Me." After rising to the position of senior vice president of production, Jacks left Universal in 1992 to form a partnership with Sean Daniel. They founded Alphaville, one of America's most successful independent production companies. Together, Jacks and Daniel have produced "Dazed and Confused," "Hard Target," "Tombstone," "Mallrats," "The Jackal," "Michael," "A Simple Plan," "The Mummy," Sam Raimi's "The Gift," The Weitz' Brothers' "Down to Earth," "The Mummy Returns" and, most recently, Jerry Zucker's "Rat Race" and the action adventure, "The Scorpion King." Upcoming in theatres for Jacks is Ron Shelton's "Dark Blue" and the Coen Brothers' "Intolerable Cruelty," and his future projects include "Walk Like A Dragon," "Red Cell" and "John Carter of Mars." DAVID & PETER GRIFFITHS (Executive Producers/Screenwriters), are brothers, who originally hail from England, and have become one of Hollywood's most sought-after screenwriting teams. Most recently, they collaborated together on "Collateral Damage," the thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. MARCUS VISCIDI (Executive Producer) is presently producing "Wicker Park," starring Josh Hartnett and Rose Byrne. Prior, he produced Tom DiCillo's "The Real Blonde," starring Matthew Modine, Daryl Hannah and Catherine Keener. He previously collaborated with DiCillo on "Living in Oblivion" and "Box of Moonlight" and recently produced DiCillo's forthcoming "Double Whammy" with Denis Leary and Elizabeth Hurley. His other feature credits include Horton Foote's "Courtship," Daniel Petrie's "Rocket Gibralter," "Signs of Life" and "Bed and Breakfast." Viscidi produced "Mad Love" with Drew Barrymore and Chris O'Donnell, and the film version of Lanford Wilson's "Lemon Sky," which won the special Jury award at the Sundance Film Festival. Viscidi's other credits include the American Playhouse production of Katherine Anne Porter's "Noon Wine" and Eudora Welty's "The Wide Net." He also produced Keith Reddin's off-Broadway play "Big Time" and "Honour," which received two Tony nominations and starred Jane Alexander and Laura Linney. Having once served as the executive assistant to Sam Cohn at International Creative Management, Viscidi was an ICM agent before entering the field of film production. SEAN DANIEL (Executive Producer) is a partner with James Jacks in Alphaville Productions based at Paramount Studios. Among the movies Alphaville has produced for Paramount are "Rat Race," " Down to Earth," "The Gift" and "A Simple Plan." Daniel was also a producer on "The Mummy," "The Mummy Returns" and "The Scorpion King," the Nora Ephron, John Travolta comedy "Michael;" the western, "Tombstone;" Richard Linklater's acclaimed high school movie, "Dazed and Confused;" and famed action director John Woo's first American film, "Hard Target;" among others. For cable, the company has produced the TNT Original Film "Freedom Song" about the birth of SNCC in Mississippi, directed by Phil Robinson, and the USA Network mini-series "Atilla." Upcoming films include "Intolerable Cruelty," written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen starring George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and "Dark Blue," directed by Ron Shelton starring Kurt Russell and Ving Rhames. Daniel received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts and began his career with Universal Pictures in 1976 as an assistant. Two years later he was promoted to vice president of production. Between 1984 and 1989 he served as president of production for the motion picture group. At Universal he supervised such films as "National Lampoon's Animal House," "Coal Miner's Daughter," "Missing," "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," "Gorillas in the Mist," "The Breakfast Club," "Fletch," "Brazil," Field of Dreams" and "Do the Right Thing." Daniel has also been a participant in the debate about media and culture, appearing in The New York Times, and as a guest on "The McLaughlin Group" and "Which Way LA." He is also a member of the Hollywood 9/11 committee. ART MONTERASTELLI (Co-Producer/Screenwriter) makes his screenwriting debut with "The Hunted." Monterastalli previously made his mark in television, serving as executive producer of the series "Tiimecop," "Total Recall" and "High Incident." He was supervising producer of "Nowhere Man" and served as a creative consultant on "Moon Over Miami." CALEB DESCHANEL, ASC (Director of Photography) first stunned moviegoers with his photography for "The Black Stallion" and "Being There" He went on to receive consecutive Academy Award® nominations in 1983 and 1984 for "The Right Stuff" and "The Natural." In 1982, he made his directorial debut with "The Escape Artist" starring Raul Julia, Griffin O'Neal and Joan Hackett. He also directed "Crusoe" starring Aidan Quinn, and multiple episodes of the television series "Twin Peaks." Deschanel next photographed "Fly Away Home" in 1996, garnering an Oscar® nomination for Best Cinematography and nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography by the American Society of Cinematographers. He then shot Forrest Whitaker's "Hope Floats," "Message in a Bottle," and most recently, won accolades for his lush camerawork on two epic productions: "Anna and the King" and "The Patriot," for which he received an Academy Award® nomination and won an ASC Award. His forthcoming projects include Richard Donner's "Timeline" and Mel Gibson's "The Passion." WILLIAM CRUSE (Production Designer) has art directed several Paramount films including, "The Hunt of Red October," "Clear and Present Danger," and "The Rules of Engagement." Other production design and art direction assignments have included "The Green Mile," "Rush Hour 2," "Murphy's " Fallen," "Forget Paris," "Basis Instinct" and the thirty-hour mini series, "War And Remembrance," for which he won an Emmy award. AUGIE HESS (Editor) previously worked with William Friedkin on "Rules of Engagement," "Jade," the television adaptation of "12 Angry Men" and the terror classic "The Exorcist." He has also worked extensively in high-profile television editing for such shows as "Chicago Hope" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." GLORIA GRESHAM (Costume designer) is an Academy Award® nominee for her work on "Avalon" and this is her third film for director William Friedkin. She began her career in New York theatre as an assistant to some of the top theatrical designers, and her first solo credit as a film costume designer was for "Urban Cowboy." Most recently, she has worked on "The Kid," "Bandits," Friedkin's "Rules of Engagement," "Liberty Heights," "Six Days Seven Nights," "Sphere" and the upcoming "Envy." William Friedkin helped establish Gresham's career over 20 years ago with the "Brinks Job." Her many other credits include "Ghosts of Mississippi," "The American President," "Disclosure," "Last Action Hero," "A Few Good Men," "Kindergarten Cop," "Misery," "When Harry Met Sally," "Ghostbusters II," "The War of the Roses," "Outrageous Fortune," "Tin Men," "The Natural" and "Diner," among others. BRIAN TYLER (Composer) is an award-winning film composer, classical conductor and songwriter. He got his start in music at a young age and toured extensively playing in concert halls around the world and was inspired by his Academy Award® grandfather (an art director) to enter the film industry. Tyler was recently awarded Best New Film Composer of the Year in Cinemusic Magazine and he received a 2002 Emmy nomination for his score to Henry Bromell's "Last Call," starring Jeremy Irons and Sissy Spacek. He was also nominated for a 2002 World Soundtrack Award for his score for "Frailty," starring Matthew McConaughey in Bill Paxton's directorial debut. Shortly after completing "Frailty," Tyler scored the upcoming "Children of Dune," starring Susan Sarandon, the comedy "The Big Empty," starring Jon Favreau, Kelsey Grammer and Rachel Leigh Cook and "Darkness Falls." Other film scoring credits include the blockbuster hit "The Fast and the Furious," the independent "Panic," starring William H. Macy and Neve Campbell, the cult favorite "Six-String Samurai," "Plan B," starring Diane Keaton and Paul Sorvino and "The 4th Floor," starring William Hurt. WILLIAM FRIEDKIN: A Conversation with F.X. Feeney Shortly after seeing "The Hunted," film critic and screenwriter F.X. Feeney sat down with director William Friedkin at his office on the Paramount lot. Sitting in the book-lined cloister in a building that once housed the creative likes of Ernst Lubitsch, Preston Sturges and Billy Wilder, Friedkin discussed his intriguing film. FXF: "The Hunted" feels true to themes you've explored throughout your career, themes about heroes who are divided against themselves. Much as we're technically rooting for L.T. (Tommy Lee Jones), one has to wonder why he didn't answer the desperate letters he received from Aaron (Benicio Del Toro) back when his former student could feel his own sanity about to slide over the edge. FRIEDKIN: L.T. is totally guilt-ridden. He realizes that he has undertaken the training of assassins and he can't really live with that. That's why he got out of it to work with the Wildlife Fund. Actually, this character is based on our chief technical advisor, Tom Brown, Jr., who is part Indian and a tracker. He was taught by his father, but was never in the military and never had to kill anyone himself. He's also trained Special Forces, Delta and SEALS to track, to survive and to kill. When I met Tom, I saw he had this tremendous guilt because he would show a young soldier how to make his way through some area in camouflage, then kill somebody. Later, he'd find out the victim had been targeted for political purposes; somebody in power had decided that this person deserved to die. That's when Tom's guilt kicked in. He didn't know who the enemy was anymore. Tom was, in fact, one of the guys preparing the troops for Desert Storm. He could look at an aerial photo of Iraq and tell you what roads their heavy transports ran on and where their missile installations were, just by looking at dots on a map. He could come into this room, get down and look at the carpet, and tell you how many people had been there in the last few hours. He could tell whether they were men or women, what size shoe they wore and what emotional anxiety they might have been harboring just by the way they stood or walked. So I started with the notion of doing a film about Tom, whom I'd known for years, but I'd never been able to figure out a way to put it in a story that wasn't a documentary until now. FXF: Other films have this teacher-pupil dimension, but they tend to require a lot of expositional dialogue. You show who L.T. and Aaron are independently of one another in three nonverbal scenes, and then establish their longtime bond in a single line of dialogue: "Hey, L.T." FRIEDKIN: I was fascinated with the nature of a guy who has these skills -- he's able to survive and kill -- but he's never really used those skills in combat. He teaches them to a younger guy who does use them in combat, and who is driven mad by his knowledge. Ironically, when Aaron reaches out to L.T. for some kind of guidance, and doesn't get it, he winds up clashing with his mentor instead. FXF: I saw "The Hunted" last fall when the D.C. Sniper was still at large, identity unknown. It was hard to listen to all the reports without thinking that the culprit might turn out to be like Benicio Del Toro's character in the film, especially since he seemed to have a covert-operative's skill for extracting himself from the crime scenes. FRIEDKIN: There are questions I hope people will consider with when they reflect on the film. I've never made a film where good and evil were entirely separate, because I believe there is good and evil in all of us. It's a constant struggle, on a daily basis. I think that's true of all people. I've never made a film -- from "The French Connection" to "The Boys in the Band" -- in which there were clear-cut bad guys and good guys. Actually, Benicio's character, Aaron, is probably the good guy in "The Hunted." FXF: He's the one with the purer heart. He's the one saying to the hunters, "You don't respect the animal you're hunting." And though that's not the movie's "message," it creates a nice irony. In fact, in that huge posse going after Aaron, L.T. is the only one who actually respects him. That is, of course, why L.T. is the only one Aaron ever lets come within speaking distance. L.T. fulfills the logic of the question Aaron is posing. FRIEDKIN: I prefer a film in which much is left to the audience's imagination. I never try to tell an audience what a picture is about. I really prefer that they think about it, and whatever it's about. FXF: The fights in the film don't feel at all "choreographed," they feel chaotic and very real. How did you prepare for them with the actors? FRIEDKIN: As actors, Benicio and Tommy Lee are both very different in nature, and therefore, they work differently. Benicio needs all the preparation he can get, and time to find his character before each shot. Tommy Lee just instinctively goes out and does it. His first take won't be much different than if I did thirty takes with him, and I never do a lot of takes with him. He's just ready. He has the quality that I most value in an actor: intelligence. I learned how to work with him on "Rules of Engagement." We didn't mess around with a lot of rehearsals, and we didn't "freeze the performance," like it was going onstage. It wasn't going onstage. Tommy is the best actor you can find to do that. He looks like he's making it up as he goes along. But he works for hours alone, getting to the point where, when you say "action," it's there. He's there. Benicio's great, too, but he's different. For example, I would talk for hours with him about the inner life of his character and the backstory. With Tommy, not one conversation. FXF: Benicio Del Toro's physical movements in the Kosovo sequence are absolutely striking, and when he dives headfirst down that ventilator and snakes through it without a sound, it's amazing. FRIEDKIN: All that's completely authentic, and again, I credit Tom Brown. As for the Kosovo sequence, it was important to set the first scene there. Under NATO auspices, the United States decimated that country, while the ethnic cleansing was going on. While the Serbs were shooting up the Kosovars, Albanians and Muslims, the United States was bombing. It was totally surreal. Benicio's character gets an overdose of indiscriminate killing and he's never able snap out of it. FXF: There's a tense moment when the Serbian child comes into the room and you don't know what Benicio's character is going to do. His eyes are terribly expressive at that instant, but you're not sure what he's thinking. He might kill the girl; he might not. That he doesn't is huge a relief, and guarantees Aaron our sympathy even after he slips past the child and kills that Serbian. FRIEDKIN: There are three little girls in the film: the one in Kosovo; the daughter of the woman Aaron lives with; and the little girl that L.T. notices at the airport, playing hide-and-seek. I was thinking of the way Fellini used the young girl at the end of "La Dolce Vita," waving at the hero from a distant shore. He waved back but could never cross over to her. He could never again attain that innocence which would allow him to do that. FXF: This hearkens back to something you once told all the students at AFI back when you were fresh off "The Exorcist." You said that there was a point early in the production where you felt you had a documentary about Iraq, you had shot so much footage. FRIEDKIN: That's the most exciting part of filmmaking. You go to an exotic location. You're not involved with anything but the reality that's going on there, and you try to integrate your fictional story into settings that are real. We did that with "The French Connection." I mixed New York with Brooklyn and Queens, from one cut to another. We'd get to a point where I'd say to Gene Hackman, "Why don't you come down those stairs and try to flag down a car, over there? And I'll have three cars go by, and then we'll see what a guy who's actually on the street driving -- who doesn't know we're filming -- we'll see what he does, if he'll stop." We would attempt all this stuff on the spot, but it all was dictated by locations I had scouted. We hid the camera. We put it on a roof, or inside a moving vehicle, and used long lenses. We integrated the action right into people walking in the park or trying to get to work on the street. None of them are looking at "a film in production." None of them were expecting to see Tommy Lee Jones go running by. We did the same kind of thing in a foot chase down Madison Avenue in "The French Connection." I actually put the three actors into the middle of a noonday crowd. FXF: There's a progression from "The French Connection" through "To Live and Die in L.A." to "The Hunted" in that they all have chase sequences, but the emotional stake seems to have grown from one film to the next. I suppose that's because of the bond between L.T. and Aaron, but also because of the presence of Irene (Leslie Stefanson) and her little daughter in Aaron's life. FRIEDKIN: Part of the emotion might also have grown out of the current political climate. People now live under the notion that they could get whacked just going into a pizzeria. But I've always lived like that. From the time I grew up, I have lived in a constant state of tension and anxiety. But I think we are all beset by irrational fears that very often are real fears. Fear of exposure, fear of failure, fear of success! FXF: How do you cope when you're not making movies? FRIEDKIN: Through music, painting and literature. I read Proust every day. This is the third translation I'm reading right now. It's a new one that has come out in England but hasn't come out here. They haven't excised the poetry, but they've clarified a lot of things that were misunderstood because of the way he wrote. I'm one of those who marks his life "Before Proust" and "After Proust." Reading him has helped me to understand a lot of things about myself and human nature. FXF: Have you ever been tempted to write a novel? FRIEDKIN: No, because I'm so blocked by Proust's achievement. I can still make movies because there's nobody who really intimidates me. There are filmmakers whose work I admire very much, but I don't feel that there's a Proust out there, or a Garcia Marquez, to name another giant who's just made it impossible for me to write fiction. I went to the Lycee Condorcet, which is the school that Proust went to. Still there, still operating. I went in and there was a registrar there, and I said: "Do you have any of Proust's papers from when he was a student?" She asked, "Are you American?" I said yes, and she just looked at me, asking, "Why are you interested in that?" I said, "I've read everything he wrote, some of it in French." So she went into the back and brought back all these files, including Proust's report card, from when he graduated. You know, he was an asthmatic and he failed French! But his headmaster wrote over his final grade, "He worked as hard as his affliction would allow." Yes, I'm deeply steeped in Proust, but you don't see that in any film I've made. FXF: Not in any overt way, but I was thinking, while you were talking, that the power of memory is an affliction that drives a lot of your characters. Even when you don't dramatize that memory with a flashback, the past is very much a presence in your films. Popeye's conscience grows out of a loyalty to something even he can't articulate in "The French Connection." There are the loyalties and might-have-beens that are eating at the cops and criminals in "To Live and Die in L.A." And you have the slippery nature of memory when choices go wrong in "The Rules of Engagement." That seems more true of your films than most American films I can think of offhand, especially action pictures. To that end, which filmmaker has most influenced you? FRIEDKIN: I learned from Antonioni to try to never repeat a shot; to go from one set up to another, to another, without any repetition. I don't ever go over my shoulder to you, then over your shoulder to me, and back and forth. Even if I'm going to do two sets of over-the-shoulder shots in a row, I change the angle on each, and the perspective, and the height and the width. In that way, the story moves laterally, like reading. FXF: Now that you mention it, I don't recall a "repeat" shot even in any of your chase sequences. FRIEDKIN: I'll go 80 shots in a row without a repeat. As in Antonioni, you'll see 80, 90 shots in a row before there's a repeat. Even in the repetition, there is always an alteration to the way it was used before. FXF: When you prepare action scenes, do you storyboard at all? Or do you still go on instinct? FRIEDKIN: No. I'm inspired by the location. I'll often create scenes for that location. I'll sit with the writer -- in this case Monterastelli -- and say "Let's put something here!" The film takes on a life of its own once I'm in the cutting room. It literally tells you what it wants to be. As a director in the editing process, which is the process I love the most, you have to be open and listen to the film. You're not trying to shape it so much, as pay attention to what it's telling you. This happened to me with "The French Connection." The film I shot is not the film that came out of the cutting room. The film kept saying to me, "I am not this. I am that. I had a plan, but it didn't pass muster in the cutting room because I listened to the film the way a composer listens, or a writer hears the words. Stravinsky was asked, "How did you come to compose The Rite of Spring? It's the most radical piece of music of the 20th century." He said, "I was the vessel through which The Rite of Spring passed." I totally understand that. And Flaubert said, "Madame Bovary is me." In the same way, I am all the characters in my films and the stuff they're putting out there is just coming through me. And when I'm in the editing room, I'm just wide open to the shape it wants to take. Official Web Site: http://www.huntedmovie.com/ Back to main movie page Showing Today at: Click here for other showings