Flightplan

Flightplan
Directed by	Robert Schwentke
Produced by	Robert DeNozzi Charles J. D. Schlissel Brian Grazer
Written by	Peter A. Dowling Billy Ray
Starring	Jodie Foster Peter Sarsgaard Erika Christensen Kate Beahan Greta Scacchi and Sean Bean
Music by	James Horner
Cinematography	Florian Ballhaus
Editing by	Thom Noble
Studio	Touchstone PicturesImagine Entertainment
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release date(s)	September 22, 2005 United States September 23, 2005
Running time	98 minutes
Country	Germany United States
Language	English, German
Budget	$50 million
Box office	$223,387,299

Flightplan is a 2005 thriller film directed by German film director Robert Schwentke and starring Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Erika Christensen,Kate Beahan, Greta Scacchi, and Sean Bean. The movie was loosely based on the 1938 mystery film The Lady Vanishes. It was released in North America on September 23, 2005.

Plot

Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) is a US aircraft engine engineer employed in Berlin, Germany. After her husband David (John Benjamin Hickey) fell off the roof of their building to his death, Kyle decides to bury him on Long Island, USA, flying there with her six-year-old daughter Julia (Marlene Lawston) aboard a passenger aircraft which Kyle helped design. After falling asleep, Kyle wakes to find that Julia is missing. She begins to panic, and Captain Marcus Rich (Sean Bean) is forced to conduct a search. None of the passengers remember seeing her daughter, Julia has no register in either the Berlin airport or the passenger manifest, and Kyle cannot find Julia's boarding pass. Marcus and the other crew members suspect that Kyle has become unhinged by her husband's death, and has imagined bringing her daughter aboard. One flight attendant Stephanie (Kate Beahan) is particularly unsympathetic. Faced with the crew's increasing skepticism regarding her daughter's existence, Kyle becomes increasingly desperate. Because of her increasingly erratic, panicked behavior, air marshal Gene Carson (Peter Sarsgaard) is ordered to guard and handcuff her.

Marcus receives a wire from the hospital in Berlin that says Julia was with her father when he fell off the roof and also died of internal injuries. Kyle furiously denies it. The crew believes she is delusional. A therapist (Greta Scacchi) on board tries to console her, causing Kyle to doubt her own sanity until she notices that a heart Julia had drawn earlier on the window next to her seat is real. Kyle is emboldened and convinces the therapist to let her use the bathroom. Instead of doing so, she climbs into the upper compartment and sabotages the aircraft's electronics, deploying the oxygen masks and interrupting lighting. She uses the chaos to take an elevator to the lower freight deck. She desperately searches for Julia and finally opens her husband's casket to which she emotionally breaks down. Carson finds her, puts her in handcuffs and escorts her back.

Kyle makes a final plea to Carson that she needs to search the plane upon landing. Carson considers for a moment, then "goes to speak to the captain." He sneaks back into the freight deck to remove two explosives and a detonator concealed in David's casket, then climbs down to the avionics section, revealing Julia who is sleeping (presumably drugged). He attaches the explosives to the side of the platform. At this point, it is revealed that Carson, Stephanie, and the mortuary director in Berlin (Christian Berkel) are part of a conspiracy. Carson tells the captain that Kyle is a hijacker and is threatening to blow up the aircraft unless the airline transfers $50 million into a bank account. The conspirators killed Kyle's husband and abducted Julia in order to frame Kyle. Carson tells an unnerved Stephanie that he intends to blow up the aircraft, killing the unconscious Julia, and leave Kyle dead with the detonator in her hand.

After making an emergency landing at Goose Bay Airport in Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada, the passengers exit the aircraft as the tarmac is surrounded by U.S. FBI agents. As the captain is leaving, Kyle runs to speak to him with Carson in tow. The captain demands she give up her charade having stated that $50 million demanded by her has been paid. This is the moment she realises how she has been manipulated. Thinking quickly, Kyle demands that Carson stay on board and the crew disembark. Carson hesitates and too realises that if he refuses then it would be seen that the charade would be his.

As soon as the plane's door closes, Kyle knocks Carson unconscious with a fire extinguisher, handcuffs him to a rail, and takes the detonator from his pocket. Stephanie comes out of hiding. Carson regains consciousness and fires at Kyle with a concealed gun, sending her running. He chases after Kyle shooting, until she locks herself in the cockpit. She opens a hatch door to the upper level and throws out a binder to fool him. Carson hears the upstairs thud and leaves. Kyle exits and encounters a guilt-ridden Stephanie. Stephanie panics and flees the plane.

Kyle searches avionics and finds the unconscious Julia. Carson soon follows, and while searching, tells her how he gagged and dumped her daughter into the food bin. He disparages the people aboard who would never care enough to notice. Carson points his gun to where Julia lay before, but they're not there. He turns around and sees Kyle carrying Julia into the hatch of the cargo hold, with the detonator in hand. Carson shoots at her as she closes the door. With the wall to protect them, She detonates the explosives, killing Carson. Everyone watches in shock and amazement as Kyle carries her daughter out onto the tarmac.

Later, Marcus approaches and comments how much the two of them look alike. He also apologizes to a seated Kyle for his skepticism. Stephanie was caught by the FBI and is led away in handcuffs. Kyle carries Julia still unconscious through the crowd of passengers. All are stunned, and somewhat guilt ridden for not believing her. Before loading her daughter into a van to take them away, Julia wakes up and sleepily asks "Are we there yet?" as they get ready to leave.

Cast

• Jodie Foster as Kyle Pratt
• Peter Sarsgaard as Gene Carson
• Erika Christensen as Fiona
• Kate Beahan as Stephanie
• Greta Scacchi as Lisa
• Sean Bean as Captain Marcus Rich
• Michael Irby as Obaid
• Assaf Cohen as Ahmed
• Shane Edelman as Mr. Loud
• Mary Gallagher as Mrs. Loud
• Haley Ramm as Brittany Loud
• Forrest Landis as Rhett Loud
• Fred Tungulsten as Jordan
• Jana Kolesarova as Claudia
• Brent Sexton as Elias
• Marlene Lawston as Julia Pratt
• Judith Scott as Estella
• Tonje Larsgard as Flight Attendant
• Amanda Brooks as Irene
• Christian Berkel as Mortuary Director
• John Benjamin Hickey as David
• Matt Bomer as Eric
• Gavin Grazer as FBI Agent
• Christopher Gartin as Mike
• Bess Wohl as Katerina
• Kirk B.R. Woller as Grunick
• Stephanie Faracy as Anna
• Cooper Thornton as West
• Jesse Burch as Row 19 Male Passenger
• Drake Johnston as Main Deck Kid
• Lois Hall as Main Deck Grandma
• Dirk Vahle as Helicopter Pilot
• David Farkas as Steward
• Taylor Luther as director

Production

Writing

Peter A. Dowling had the idea for the film in 1999 on a phone conversation with a friend. His original pitch for producer Brian Grazer involved a man who worked on airport security doing a business trip from the United States to Hong Kong, and during the flight his son went missing. Years later Billy Ray took over the script, taking out the terrorists from the story and putting more emphasis on the protagonist, who became a female as Grazer thought it would be a good role for Jodie Foster. The story then focused on the main character regaining her psyche, and added the post-September 11 attacks tension and paranoia. There was also an attempt to hide the identity of the villain by showcasing the different characters on the plane. Both Dowling and Ray were allowed to visit the insides of a Boeing 747 at the Los Angeles International Airport to develop the limited space on which the story takes place.

Casting

Director Robert Schwentke said that to make the film as realistic as possible, he wanted naturalistic, subdued performances. One of the examples was Peter Sarsgaard, whom he described as an actor "who can all of a sudden can become a snake uncoiling". First-time actress Marlene Lawston became Foster's daughter Julia. Sean Bean was cast to subvert his typecasting as a villain, and mislead audiences into thinking he was part of the villainous plot.The director also picked each of the 300 passengers through auditions.

Filming

Schwentke described Flightplan as a "slow boiling" thriller, where the opening is different from the faster ending parts. The director added that sound was used to put audiences "off-kilter".^[1]

The art direction team had to build all the interiors of the fictional E-474 from scratch, including the cockpit. The interior design and layout is similar to an actual airplane, the Airbus A380. It is noted that the amount of dead space within the cabin, cargo and avionic areas do not reflect the actual amount of dead space within any aircraft. Of special note in the movie is the avionics computer seen below the cockpit and the clean space between the upper deck passenger areas and the fuselage. To allow for varied camera angles, the set had many tracks for the camera dollyto move, and both the walls and the ceiling were built on hinges so they could easily be swung open for shooting. BE Aerospace provided various objects of the decoration. The design and colors tried to invoke the mood for each scene - for instance, a white room for "eerie, clinical, cold" moments, lower ceilings for claustrophobia, and wide open spaces to give no clues to the audience.^[2]Most exterior scenes of the plane involve a model with one tenth of the aircraft's actual size, with the images being subsequently enhanced through computer-generated imagery. The explosion in the nose involved both life sized and scaled pieces of scenery. A one-half scale set of the avionics area was constructed to make the explosion and fireball look bigger.

Box Office

Flightplan grossed $89,602,378 at the domestic box office and over $223,000,000 worldwide. It also grossed $79,270,000 on DVD rentals.

Critical Reaction

The movie was met with mixed reviews from critics. It has a 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In his review Roger Ebert described the film as 'a frightening thriller with an airtight plot

Controvercy

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants called for an official boycott of the film, which they say depicts flight attendants as rude, uncaring, indifferent, and even one as a "terrorist".

Soundtrack

The score of the movie was released September 20, 2005, on Hollywood Records. The music was composed and conducted by James Horner and the disc contains 8 tracks. Horner stated that film's score tried to mix the sound effects with "the emotion and drive of the music", and the instruments were picked to match the "feelings of panic" Kyle goes on through the film. These includedGamelan instruments, prepared piano, and string arrangements. No brass instruments are used in the soundtrack.

Tracklist:

1. "Leaving Berlin"
2. "Missing Child"
3. "The Search"
4. "So Vulnerable"
5. "Creating Panic"
6. "Opening the Casket"
7. "Carson's Plan"
8. "Mother and Child"

Total Play Time: 50:36

Source :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flightplan 

The Omen

The Omen
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Moore
Produced by	John Moore
Written by	David Seltzer
Starring	Julia Stiles Liev Schreiber Mia Farrow Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick David Thewlis Pete Postlethwaite Michael Gambon
Music by	Marco Beltrami
Cinematography	Jonathan Sela
Editing by	Dan Zimmerman
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	June 6, 2006
Running time	110 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$25 million
Box office	$119,498,909

The Omen (also known as The Omen: 666) is a 2006 remake of Richard Donner's The Omen of 1976 and a part of The Omen series, serving as a partial reboot. Directed by John Moore and written by David Seltzer, the film stars Julia Stiles, Liev Schreiber, and Mia Farrow. It was released worldwide on June 6, 2006.

Plot 

Robert Thorn, an American diplomat stationed in Italy, is told that his son died during birth. Unknown to his unconscious wife, Katherine, Robert adopts an orphaned newborn, due to the suggestion of the hospital's Catholic priest, Father Spiletto. Naming him Damien, Robert and Katherine raise the boy. Robert's career ascends over the course of the next five years. He is named Deputy Ambassador to the Court of St. James in the United Kingdom. Following the bizarre death of the previous ambassador, Robert assumes his position and settles in a large estate just outside London. However, disturbing events begin to transpire, including the suicide of Damien's nanny at his birthday party.

Robert is approached by Father Brennan, who claims to have been involved with events surrounding Damien's birth. Meanwhile, photographer Keith Jennings finds that several of his photographs contain mysterious omens, including premonitions regarding people's deaths. A new nanny, Mrs. Baylock, is hired. Tension rises when Baylock starts to make decisions without their consent, including adopting a Rottweiler for Damien's protection.

Following an incident near a chapel, in which Damien attacks Katherine, she begins experiencing vivid dreams about Damien, each involving a red-hooded jackal skeleton. When the Thorns visit a zoo, the animals react violently at the sight of Damien. Katherine begins to wonder if Damien is not all that he seems to be. Father Brennan confronts Robert, telling him that Damien's mother was a jackal, making him the Antichrist. He explains that Damien must die and a man called Bugenhagen, located in Megiddo, could assist. After being rebuked, Father Brennan is killed in a freak lightning storm.

Katherine discovers she is pregnant and is determined to get an abortion, in fear of having a child similar to Damien. Soon afterward, Damien severely injures Katherine with his scooter, causing a miscarriage. In the hospital, Katherine confides with Robert that Damien is evil. Robert decides to rendezvous with Jennings and search for Damien's biological mother, Maria Avedici Santoya. They discover the hospital where Damien was delivered has since been incinerated. They then go to Subiaco and meet Father Spiletto, who directs them to a graveyard. They find the grave of Santoya, who is revealed to indeed be a jackal. In the neighboring tomb, Robert discovers the corpse of his murdered biological son. He and Jennings are attacked by a pack of dogs and barely escape.

Baylock visits Katherine in the hospital and kills her via an air embolism. Learning of Katherine's death, Robert goes to Megiddo, meeting Bugenhagen, who instructs him to kill Damien with seven sacrificial daggers on consecrated ground. Bugenhagen tells Robert to examine Damien for the 666 birthmark. Robert refuses to kill his son, while Jennings picks up the daggers. Jennings is suddenly decapitated by a falling sign.

Robert arrives home and is attacked by Baylock's Rottweiler, which he subdues. In Damien's room, he finds the 666 birthmark. Baylock attacks Robert, but he fends her off and after killing her with his car, escapes. Pursued by the police, he drives to a church to kill Damien, but is killed by a Diplomatic Protection officer.

Robert's funeral is attended by the President of the United States, who holds Damien's hand.

Cast

• Julia Stiles as Katherine Thorn
• Liev Schreiber as Robert Thorn
• Mia Farrow as Mrs. Baylock
• Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick as Damien Thorn
• David Thewlis as Keith Jennings
• Pete Postlethwaite as Father Brennan
• Michael Gambon as Bugenhagen
• Harvey Spencer Stephens, who portrayed Damien in the original movie, has a cameo role as a reporter

Production 

Principal photography began on October 3, 2005 at Barrandov Studios in Prague, Czech Republic, where the film was shot mostly. The ‘Jerusalem’ scenes were filmed in Matera, Italy.

Box Office

The film recorded the highest opening Tuesday box office gross in domestic box office history in the United States, by earning more than $12 million. Fox initially stated that the film earned US$12,633,666 on its first day, but later Bruce Snyder, Fox's president of distribution, admitted that they were "having a little fun" by manipulating the figure to contain the number of the beast in the last three digits.

The film ended grossing $119,498,909 worldwide, making it a modest success on a budget of $25 million. It finished as the 59th highest-grossing film of 2006, the 12th highest-grossing R-rated movie of 2006 and the 2nd highest domestic gross of The Omen series when adjusted for inflation. The 1976 original remains the top earner in the series.

Critical response 

The film received negative reviews. The film currently has a rating of 43 out of 100 on Metacritic denoting that overall the film has received mixed feedback or reviews of an average nature.26% of reviews collected on Rotten Tomatoes were positive.

James Berardinelli commented: "On every level, The Omen isn't just bad filmmaking, it's bad storytelling." He especially criticised the film's similarity to the original film, which he also greatly disliked.Rolling Stone also made the latter point: "Not since Gus Van Sant inexplicably directed a shot-by-shot remake of Hitchcock's Psycho has a thriller been copied with so little point or impact".

Roger Ebert, however, gave the film "thumbs up" and "three stars" in contrast to his negative review of the original, praising John Moore for letting the strong story unfold itself rather than foregrounding visual effects,while the Washington Post's Stephen Hunter praised the film: "It's handsome in the way it's fast-moving: sleek, well-engineered, full of gooses and honks. Some of the casting seems a little off. Still, it works."

Other critical quotes are as follows:

• "John Moore's remake – while arguably better than its source – can't help but feel a bit stale." – BBC fim review
• "This film is for people who've never seen the original, and who are easily scared by mediocre horror films"- Eric D. Snider
• "Director John Moore has added some creepy visuals and assembled an unusually strong cast for a horror flick." – New York Post
• "Competently made, and enjoyably played. But you do really end up wondering what the point was. Cinematic déjà vu is the most likely response." – Empire Magazine

While Seamus Davey-Fitzpatricks performance did win him a Chainsaw award from Fangoria magazine for "Creepiest Kid", David Thewlis was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor in 2007, but lost to M. Night Shyamalan for Lady in the Water.

Home Media

The film was released in the US as a Region 1 DVD on October 17, 2006. It was released in the UK as a Region 2 DVD on October 23, 2006. It was released in Australia as a Region 4 DVD on March 7, 2007.

The film was released on Blu-ray on November 14, 2006

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Omen_(2006_film)

House of Wax

House of Wax (also titled Wax House, Baby) is a 2005 Australian-American horror film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and stars Elisha Cuthbert,Chad Michael Murray, Brian Van Holt, Paris Hilton, Jared Padalecki, Jon Abrahams, and Robert Ri'chard. Released theatrically on May 6, 2005, the film received a general negative critical reception, but was a financial success.

Plot

In 1974, a woman is making a wax sculpture in the kitchen while her son eats breakfast in his highchair. Her husband enters with another son who is shouting and kicking. The boy is forced into a highchair and strapped in place. He scratches his mother's hand, causing her sculpture to fall to the floor.

In 2005, six teenagers are on their way to a highly anticipated football game in Louisiana. Night falls and the group decides to set up camp for the night. The campsite is later visited by a stranger in a pickup truck who shines his lights at the campsite, but refuses to leave or address them until one of the boys smashes a headlight with a bottle. The next morning, one of the cars fan belts is found to be damaged. The group meets a disheveled, rural man named Lester, who offers to drive two of the teens to the nearby town of Ambrose to get a new fan belt, while the rest of them go to the football game.

The two arrive at Ambrose, which is virtually a ghost town. Unable to find an attendant at the auto mechanics shop, they wander into the church, disrupting a funeral. There, they meet a mechanic named Bo, who offers to sell them a fan belt after the funeral. While waiting for the services to end, the two teens visit the wax museum, which itself is made of wax and is the central feature of the town. Afterward, they follow Bo to his house to find a proper fan belt. The teens make the realization that Bo is the stranger that had appeared at the campsite previously, but not before being attacked. The teens are separated and one of them runs to the church, only to find that the funeral is ongoing, populated only by wax sculptures. She is captured by Bo and imprisoned in a cellar, taped to a chair with her lips glued together.

The rest of the group arrives in search of their compatriots, only to be attacked as well. After most of them (including Paris Hilton) are rightfully dispatched, it becomes apparent that the only inhabitants of the town are the sons of the wax museums proprietors, who have been trapping their victims for the creation wax sculptures. The two owners were Siamese twins separated at birth, leaving one of them horribly disfigured and mentally deranged. The two remaining teens set fire in the building's basement to cut their attackers off. The fire spreads through the museum, slowly melting it down. The two teens soon kill the brotherly owners and escape from the wax museum as it melts to the ground, burying the two tragically disturbed brothers in their own work.

The next morning, the smoke from the fire has drawn help from outside and police and rescue workers sift through evidence throughout the town. The sheriff informs the group that the town has been abandoned for a decade, since its sugar mill closed down, and it doesn't even appear on maps anymore. Over the radio, police discuss the Sinclair's third son. The film closes and implies that Lester, who had driven the teens to the town earlier, is the third son.

Cast

• Elisha Cuthbert as Carly Jones
• Chad Michael Murray as Nick Jones
• Brian Van Holt as Bo Sinclair / Vincent Sinclair
  • Thomas Adamson as young Bo
  • Sam Harkess as young Vincent
• Paris Hilton as Paige Edwards
• Jared Padalecki as Wade Dalton
• Jon Abrahams as Dalton Chapman
• Robert Ri'chard as Blake Johnson
• Damon Herriman as Lester Sinclair
• Andy Anderson as Sheriff
• Dragitsa Debert as Trudy Sinclair
• Murray Smith as Dr. Victor Sinclair
• Emma Lung as Jennifer

 

Production

Principal photography of House of Wax took place in Queensland, Australia in 2004

Lawsuit

In January 2006, it was announced by Warner Roadshow studio owners Village Theme Park Management and Warner Brothers Movie World Australia that they were suing special effects expert David Fletcher and Wax Productions because of a fire on the set during production.

The $7 million lawsuit alleges that the Mr. Fletcher and Wax Productions were grossly negligent over the fire which destroyed part of the Gold Coast's Warner Bros. Movie World studios. The alleged grounds of negligence included not having firefighters on stand-by and using timber props near a naked flame. The set where the fire broke out has now been demolished and a field kept for Movie World for future projects.

Box office[edit]

Opening in 3,111 theaters, the film grossed $12 million in its first three days. Though most critics did not recommend the film, many of them acknowledged that it was well made and/or better than other recent similar films. House of Wax earned $70,064,800 worldwide. 46.6% of that total came from domestic receipts. House of Wax also earned $42,000,000 in VHS/DVD rentals.

Reception 

The film received negative reviews from critics, with Rotten Tomatoes giving it a 25% "rotten" rating. It was also nominated for three Razzie Awards including Worst Picture and Worst Remake or Sequel, with Paris Hilton winning Worst Supporting Actress.

Soundtrack

House of Wax: Music from the Motion Picture is the title of a publicly released soundtrack used for House of Wax, consisting of commercially recorded songs. A second album, simply titled House of Wax, was released containing the film score, composed by John Ottman.

House of Wax: Music from the Motion Picture
No.	Title	Performer	Length
1.	"Spitfire"	The Prodigy featuring Juliette Lewis	5:08
2.	"Helena"	My Chemical Romance	3:52
3.	"Minerva"	Deftones	4:17
4.	"Gun in Hand"	Stutterfly	3:29
5.	"Prayer"	Disturbed	3:38
6.	"Path to Prevail"	Bloodsimple	3:17
7.	"Dried Up, Tied and Dead to the World"	Marilyn Manson	4:15
8.	"Dirt"	The Stooges	7:00
9.	"Not That Social"	The Von Bondies	3:00
10.	"Cut Me Up"	Har Mar Superstar	3:10
11.	"New Dawn Fades"	Joy Division	4:46
12.	"Taking Me Alive"	Dark New Day	4:43
Total length:			50:41

Original Motion Picture Score
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Opening/Tantrum"	3:28
2.	"Ritual/Escape the Church"	4:15
3.	"Story of the Town"	1:39
4.	"Up in Flames"	3:42
5.	"They Look So Real"	2:16
6.	"Sealed Lips"	3:56
7.	"Brotherly Love"	2:28
8.	"Hanging with Baby Jane"	3:36
9.	"Paris Gets It"	3:07
10.	"Curiosity Kills"	2:33
11.	"Bringing Down the House"	5:08
12.	"Three Sons"	2:28
13.	"Endless Service"	2:45
Total length:		41:21

There is a song appearing in the film which is not integrated in the Soundtrack. It is "Roland" by Interpol, and appears in the scene when the group decides to camp over the night at the beginning of the film.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Wax_(2005_film)