''State of Play'' is a 2009
political thriller film
A political thriller is a thriller that is set against the backdrop of a political power struggle, high stakes and suspense is the core of the story. The genre often forces the audiences to consider and understand the importance of politics. The ...
directed by
Kevin Macdonald. It is based on the 2003 British television serial
of the same name.
The film tells of a journalist's (
Russell Crowe
Russell Ira Crowe (born 7 April 1964) is an actor. He was born in New Zealand, spent ten years of his childhood in Australia, and moved there permanently at age twenty one. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maxi ...
) probe into the suspicious death of the assistant and mistress of a
Congressman
A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...
(
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Volpi Cup.
Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educationa ...
). The supporting cast includes
Rachel McAdams
Rachel Anne McAdams (born November 17, 1978) is a Canadian actress. After graduating from a theatre degree program at York University in 2001, she worked in Canadian television and film productions, such as the drama film ''Perfect Pie'' (200 ...
,
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. ...
,
Jason Bateman
Jason Kent Bateman (born January 14, 1969) is an American actor, director and producer known for his roles of Michael Bluth in the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox/Netflix sitcom ''Arrested Development (TV series), Arrested Development'' and of Mart ...
,
Robin Wright
Robin Gayle Wright (born April 8, 1966) is an American actress. She has won a Golden Globe Award and a Satellite Award, and has received eleven Emmy Award nominations for her work in television.
Wright first gained attention for her role in t ...
, and
Jeff Daniels
Jeffrey Warren Daniels (born February 19, 1955) is an American actor, comedian, musician, and playwright, known for his work on stage and screen playing diverse characters switching between comedy and drama. He is the recipient of several accol ...
.
Macdonald said that ''State of Play'' is influenced by the
films of the 1970s. He explores the privatization of American
Homeland Security
Homeland security is an American national security term for "the national effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards where American interests, aspirations, and ways of life can thrive" to ...
and, to a minor extent, journalistic independence, along with the relationship between politicians and the
press
Press may refer to:
Media
* Print media or news media, commonly called "the press"
* Printing press, commonly called "the press"
* Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers
* Press TV, an Iranian television network
People
* Press (surname), a fam ...
. Released in North America on April 17, 2009, the film received generally positive reviews.
Plot
In
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, fleeing thief Deshaun Stagg is shot dead by a man carrying a metal briefcase. A passing witness is also shot and left in a coma. Sonia Baker is killed by a
Washington Metro
The Washington Metro (or simply Metro), formally the Metrorail,[Google Books search/preview ...](_blank)
train. Reporter Cal McAffrey of the ''Washington Globe'' newspaper investigates the shootings while his junior colleague Della Frye probes Baker's death.
Baker was chief researcher for Congressman Stephen Collins' investigation into private defense contractor PointCorp. Collins tells his old friend McAffrey that he had been having an affair with Baker and doesn't believe she was suicidal. Frye questions McAffrey about Collins' relationship with Baker; McAffrey suggests she review the metro
CCTV
Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...
footage, which proves fruitless.
McAffrey finds Baker's number in Stagg's phone. Homeless girl Mandi seeks out McAffrey to sell him items from a bag stolen by Stagg, they include covert photographs of Baker meeting a well-dressed man, and a gun with handmade hollow point bullets. McAffrey sends Frye to the hospital where the witness is coming out of his coma, while he visits Collins' wife Anne with whom he had had an affair. Before Frye can talk to the witness he is killed by a sniper. She realizes she saw the same man at the hospital and in the metro footage.
Collins confirms to McAffrey that PointCorp is secretly the power behind other contractors and are thus seeking a virtual monopoly on both foreign and domestic government defense and security contracts. If McAffrey can produce evidence that PointCorp had Baker killed, Collins will go public with his findings.
A PointCorp insider gives McAffrey an address, where McAffrey encounters the assassin who shoots at him before fleeing. Baker's flatmate Rhonda Silver identifies the well-dressed man as Dominic Foy, a
PR executive at a subsidiary of PointCorp. Silver says she had a threesome with Baker and Collins, and that Collins paid off a $40,000 debt of Baker's. McAffrey resists Frye's urge to publish and ''Globe'' editor Cameron Lynne is furious when the story is published elsewhere instead. Mandi turns up killed.
McAffrey convinces Foy that he is in danger and can best protect himself by talking on the record. Foy reveals that Baker was being paid $20,000 a month to spy on Collins for PointCorp, but had fallen in love and was pregnant with Collins' baby. She was killed when she refused to continue spying. McAffrey plays the tape of the interview to Collins, who lashes out at McAffrey for not telling him in person about the pregnancy. He accuses McAffrey of caring about his story above their friendship, and storms off. That evening, McAffrey confronts Congressman George Fergus, the chief whip who had mentored Collins and recommended Baker to him. He informs Fergus he plans to run a story about Fergus' link with PointCorp and his undermining of Collins's investigation.
At the ''Globe'' offices Editor Lynne refuses to run the story without named sources on the record, when Collins and his wife Anne come in. Collins confirms the story on PointCorp, his affair with Baker, and his belief that PointCorp had Baker killed. Anne mentions to McAffrey that Baker was sleeping with her husband "for $26,000 a month".
As the story is going to press McAffrey realizes the specific sum was never mentioned to Collins. He recognises the assassin as "Robert Bingham" in a military photograph featuring Collins. He leaves, telling Frye to tell Cameron to hold the story. He confronts Collins, who confirms Bingham is an unstable veteran whose life he saved in Kuwait, and whom he asked to follow Baker once he became suspicious of her. He says he never asked him to kill her, and initially thought, as did McAffrey, that PointCorp had done it. McAffrey says this isn't about Fergus or PointCorp, but about decisions Collins made that resulted in four deaths. He says the police are on their way.
Leaving the building, McAffrey is confronted by Bingham, who is shot by the police. Back at the newspaper McAffrey types up the story, headlined "Congressman Implicated in Murders". He puts Frye first on the byline and has her submit the story for publication.
Cast
For the movie adaptation, certain names of characters were changed:
*Della's surname was changed from "Smith" to "Frye".
*Cameron's surname was changed from "Foster" to "Lynne," and the character's gender was changed.
*Andrew's surname was changed from "Wilson" to "Pell".
*Det. Bell's first name was changed from "William" to "Donald".
Production
The television miniseries was written by Paul Abbott and aired on British television channel
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
in May and June 2003 and on
BBC America
BBC America is an American basic cable network that is jointly owned by BBC Studios and AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary ser ...
in April 2004. Abbott was initially reluctant to sell the film rights to ''State of Play'', fearing a compressed version of his miniseries would be unworkable, but in May 2004 he accepted a seven-figure
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
-backed bid led by producer
Scott Rudin
Scott Rudin (born July 14, 1958) is an American film, television, and theatre producer. His films include the Academy Award-winning Best Picture ''No Country for Old Men,'' as well as ''Uncut Gems'', '' Lady Bird, Fences, The Girl with the Dragon ...
. The bid prevailed over an offer from Andrew Hauptman's Mission Pictures (backed by
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
), but the deal fell through before completion. After a second bidding war, Mission acquired the rights for
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
in December 2004.
Director
Kevin Macdonald had long been attached to the project, though an early report suggested screenwriter
Matthew Michael Carnahan
Matthew Michael Carnahan (sometimes credited as Matt Carnahan) is an American screenwriter who wrote the feature film '' The Kingdom'' (2007), and the film adaptation of the hit BBC television drama serial '' State of Play''. Carnahan also wrot ...
was set to make the film his directorial debut.
Macdonald was a fan of the original miniseries, and said it would be a "hard act to follow".
He said it was the blend of fiction and the topical subjects of journalism and politics that attracted him to the project, adding that he wanted to examine the ways in which American and European societies learn what is going on in the world, and to what degree newspapers and the nightly news could be trusted. He said that in an age when people read fewer newspapers, he wanted to explore the necessity for reliable information and the threat to the journalistic profession from collusion between reporters and politicians,
and that the film would "
skquestions of how independent the
press
Press may refer to:
Media
* Print media or news media, commonly called "the press"
* Printing press, commonly called "the press"
* Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers
* Press TV, an Iranian television network
People
* Press (surname), a fam ...
is, how much real investigating is conducted, and how much is taken on faith from
lobbyists
In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...
or
PR sheets."
Macdonald cited the
films of the 1970s, ''
All the President's Men
''All the President's Men'' is a 1974 non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, two of the journalists who investigated the June 1972 break-in at the Watergate Office Building and the resultant political scandal for ''The Washington ...
'' in particular, as major influences, saying that while he was scared of comparisons with the film account of the
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...
, ''State of Play'' would primarily be a piece of entertainment.
According to Carnahan, the story's core issue (and main factor behind his desire to write the adaptation) was the question it raised about whether a person would be justified in doing "a pretty awful thing" if performing great deeds in other areas of their life.
Carnahan began working on revisions to his script with Macdonald,
but the process was disrupted when Carnahan's daughter fell ill. When he chose to concentrate his time on his family, the task was handed to screenwriter
Tony Gilroy
Anthony Joseph Gilroy (born September 11, 1956) is an American filmmaker. He wrote the screenplays for the original ''Bourne'' trilogy (2002–2007) and wrote and directed the fourth film of the franchise, '' The Bourne Legacy'' (2012). He also ...
, who performed a small rewrite based upon Carnahan's notes. He is known for the
''Bourne'' film series.
Further rewrites were carried out by
Peter Morgan
Peter Julian Robin Morgan, (10 April 1963) is a British screenwriter and playwright. He is the playwright behind '' The Audience'' and '' Frost/Nixon'' and the screenwriter of ''The Queen'' (2006), '' Frost/Nixon'' (2008), ''The Damned United ...
, screenwriter of ''
The Queen
In the English-speaking world, The Queen most commonly refers to:
* Elizabeth II (1926–2022), Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 1952 until her death
The Queen may also refer to:
* Camilla, Queen Consort (born 1947), ...
'' and writer/director
Billy Ray, associated with ''
Shattered Glass''.
The film was made for Universal Pictures by
Working Title Films
Working Title Films is a British film studio that produces motion pictures and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a division of Comcast. The company was founded by Tim Bev ...
.
Eric Fellner
Eric Fellner, (born 10 October 1959) is a British film producer. He is the co-chairman (along with Tim Bevan) of the production company Working Title Films.
Early life and education
Fellner was born to a Jewish family in England. From 1972 t ...
and
Tim Bevan
Timothy John Bevan, (born 20 December 1957) is a New Zealand-British film producer, the co-chairman (with Eric Fellner) of the production company Working Title Films.
Bevan and Fellner are the most successful British producers of their era, ...
produced for Working Title, alongside E. Bennett Walsh,
and
Andell Entertainment's Andrew Hauptman and Eric Hayes.
Paul Abbott served as executive producer alongside
Liza Chasin
Liza Chasin is an American film producer. She is the president of the American production company 3dot Productions.
Life and career
Chasin is a graduate of NYU Film School. and
Debra Hayward
Debra Hayward (born 15 April 1964) is a British film producer. As Head of Film at Working Title Films, Hayward frequently served as an executive producer for the company's feature films, working alongside fellow Working Title executive Liza Chas ...
.
Kristen Lowe and Maradith Frenkel were overseers for the studio.
[ ] ''State of Play'' was to be released in the United States toward the end of 2008,
but the delayed start to production saw the date changed to April 17, 2009. ''State of Play'' was released in the United Kingdom on April 24, 2009, and was released in Australia on May 28, 2009.
Casting
Brad Pitt
William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. ...
had a long association with the main role.
He was initially attracted to the project after watching Macdonald's documentary ''
Touching the Void'' (2003), and had enjoyed the director's film ''
The Last King of Scotland
''The Last King of Scotland'' is a novel by journalist Giles Foden,
published by Faber and Faber in 1998. Focusing on the rise of Ugandan President Idi Amin and his reign as dictator from 1971 to 1979, the novel, which interweaves fiction and ...
'' (2006). Macdonald had also been working with Pitt's production company
Plan B Entertainment
Plan B Entertainment, Inc., more commonly known as Plan B, is an American production company founded in November in 2001 by Brad Grey, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and Kristin Hahn. In 2005, after Pitt and Aniston divorced, Grey became the CEO of ...
on a potential future project.
Pitt officially committed to star in ''State of Play'' in August 2007 after a Tony Gilroy script rewrite was completed.
He visited the newsroom of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' with Macdonald in September 2007 to research the role, spending four hours "talking shop" with political and investigative reporters.
But one week before filming was to begin in November 2007, he left the production.
Producer Eric Fellner attempted to convince Pitt to remain in the film, but Pitt disagreed with changes that the studio had made to the script since he originally agreed to star.
Talent agency
CAA
CAA may refer to:
Law
* Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 of India
** Citizenship Amendment Act protests, Protests regarding the Citizenship (Amendment) Act
* Copyright transfer agreement, Copyright assignment agreement, to transfer copyright to ...
(which represents Pitt) maintained that he never signed off on the changes;
Macdonald delayed filming by a week to perform a scene-by-scene review of the script with Pitt; by the end, the director told the actor "I don't think we want to make the same film." When Pitt decided to drop out of the film, he personally called the director to tell him.
Pitt preferred a version closer to the original Carnahan draft and wanted to postpone filming until after the resolution of the
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, which would have enabled a further rewrite. The studio preferred to press on with production, and initially said it intended to sue Pitt for reneging on his "
pay or play" deal,
which would have earned him $20 million. Settlement talks later led to a thawing of relations between the parties.
Pitt later said of the situation: "I had definite beliefs of what
he film
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
should be, and the director had his definite beliefs
ndwe got up against this writers' strike where we couldn't fuse the two."
Macdonald traveled to Australia to court Crowe's involvement,
[ ] which averted the film's abandonment after Pitt left. Crowe had to negotiate with the studio over shooting dates to avoid a conflict with ''Nottingham'' (later renamed ''Robin Hood''), which he was due to star in for director
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades thr ...
in March 2008. Crowe said jumping immediately into the part was similar to immediately taking roles as a jobbing young actor. He had not seen the series, and was unsure about taking the role, as he could not compare a six-hour telling of the story to a two-hour adaption. The majority of Crowe's three hours per day in hair and makeup preparation was spent hiding his "extremely long" hair, which he grew for his title role in ''
Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depic ...
''.
During filming in Washington, DC, Crowe acquired an education in journalism from ''The Washington Post''s Metro editor, R.B. Brenner.
Universal president of production Donna Langley said Crowe's performance was a naturalistic one, and claimed ''State of Play'' was a different film than the one that would have been made had Pitt remained.
British newspaper ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' noted that hiring an
A-list
An A-list actor is a major movie star, or one of the most bankable actors in a film industry.
The A-list is part of a larger guide called ''The Hot List'', which ranks the bankability of 1,400 movie actors worldwide, and has become an industry ...
American actor (Pitt) for the lead role was sidelining original McAffrey actor
John Simm
John Ronald Simm (born 10 July 1970) is an English actor, director, and musician. He is best known for playing Sam Tyler in ''Life on Mars'', the Master in ''Doctor Who,'' and DS Roy Grace in ''Grace.'' His other television credits include '' S ...
, who it said was "widely considered one of the best television actors to emerge in recent years" and that the recasting was "the latest example of the trend for British actors to be replaced by Americans". ''
The Stage
''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. It was founded in 1880. It contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at those wh ...
'' television writer Liz Thomas said that while it was frustrating for British actors, such casting made good commercial sense, expressing hope that the film's high-profile would be a "huge advert" or "shop window" for other such projects to come out of the UK in recent years.
In a scene shot at the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
, the production employed several real-world journalists among the extras in a scene in which Wright-Penn's character makes a statement to the press. The group included
Bob Woodward
Robert Upshur Woodward (born March 26, 1943) is an American investigative journalist. He started working for ''The Washington Post'' as a reporter in 1971 and now holds the title of associate editor.
While a young reporter for ''The Washingto ...
,
Margaret Carlson
Margaret Carlson is an American journalist, political pundit, and an opinion columnist for Bloomberg News. She is known for being the first female columnist for ''Time'' magazine. She was a regular panelist for CNN's '' Capital Gang'' from 1992 ...
,
Bob Schieffer
Bob Lloyd Schieffer (born February 25, 1937) is an American television journalist. He is known for his moderation of presidential debates, where he has been praised for his capability. Schieffer is one of the few journalists to have covered all f ...
,
John Palmer John Palmer may refer to:
People
Politicians
* John Palmer (fl. 1377–1394), English politician
*Sir John Palmer, 5th Baronet (1735–1817), British politician
*John Palmer (1785–1840), U.S. congressman from New York
*John Palmer (1842–1905) ...
,
E. J. Dionne
Eugene Joseph Dionne Jr. (; born April 23, 1952) is an American journalist, political commentator, and long-time op-ed columnist for ''The Washington Post''. He is also a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a profes ...
,
Katty Kay
Katherine "Katty" Kay (born 14 November 1964) is a British-Swiss journalist, author and broadcaster. She presented BBC World News America and, with Christian Fraser, hosted ''Beyond 100 Days'' on BBC Four, BBC News and BBC World News. She has an ...
, and
Steven Clemons
Steven Craig Clemons (born 1962) is an American journalist and blogger. In March 2022, he became Founding Editor at Large of '' Semafor'', Justin Smith and Ben Smith’s new media startup, to create their global events vertical. He spent three ye ...
. Additionally featured are cameos by news media commentators
Lou Dobbs of CNN and
Chris Matthews
Christopher John Matthews (born December 17, 1945) is an American political commentator, retired talk show host, and author. Matthews hosted his weeknight hour-long talk show, ''Hardball with Chris Matthews'', on America's Talking and later on M ...
of MSNBC.
Long-time Washington, DC, area sportscaster
Frank Herzog
Frank Herzog is a former American sportscaster known for his role as a play-by-play announcer for Washington Redskins
The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Comma ...
also has a non-speaking cameo as a congressman present at the PointCorp hearings.
Journalist and Clinton confidante Cody Shearer is credited as a consultant on the film. Steve Clemons observed that "Crowe's style, language, posture, everything — just had to be modeled on Cody Shearer."
Affleck replaced
Edward Norton
Edward Harrison Norton (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received numerous awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe Award and three Academy Award nominations.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised ...
, who had joined the project in September 2007,
but when the start of production was delayed due to Pitt's departure, Norton had a scheduling conflict, as he was committed to film ''
Leaves of Grass
''Leaves of Grass'' is a poetry collection by American poet Walt Whitman. Though it was first published in 1855, Whitman spent most of his professional life writing and rewriting ''Leaves of Grass'', revising it multiple times until his death. Th ...
'' for
Tim Blake Nelson
Timothy Blake Nelson (born May 11, 1964) is an American actor and playwright.
Described as a "modern character actor", his roles include Delmar O'Donnell in ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' (2000), Gideon in ''Minority Report'' (2002), Dr. Pendan ...
early in 2008. Norton asked Universal Pictures if he could be replaced,
[ ] and a deal was struck between the studio and the
Endeavor Talent Agency
The Endeavor Talent Agency was a Beverly Hills-based talent agency founded by Ari Emanuel, Rick Rosen, Tom Strickler, and David Greenblatt. It was launched in March 1995 and went on to represent a wide variety of acclaimed film and television sta ...
(which represents Norton and Affleck) to enable Norton to leave the production amicably.
Crowe had partly been attracted to the project because of Norton's involvement, but he and Affleck had "so many touchstones in common", he was fine with the recasting.
Affleck visited
Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...
to research his role, meeting with
Speaker
Speaker may refer to:
Society and politics
* Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly
* Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture
* A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially:
** In ...
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Patricia Pelosi (; ; born March 26, 1940) is an American politician who has served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2019 and previously from 2007 to 2011. She has represented in the United States House of ...
,
Representative
Representative may refer to:
Politics
* Representative democracy, type of democracy in which elected officials represent a group of people
* House of Representatives, legislative body in various countries or sub-national entities
* Legislator, som ...
Anthony D. Weiner of
New York's 9th congressional district
New York's 9th congressional district is a congressional district for the United States House of Representatives in New York City, represented by Yvette Clarke.
The district is located entirely within Brooklyn. It includes the neighborhoods of ...
, and members of the
Massachusetts congressional delegation. In an April 2009 interview to promote the film, Affleck said he drew on the experiences of
Gary Condit
Gary Adrian Condit (born April 21, 1948) is an American former politician who represented California's 18th congressional district in the House of Representatives from 1989 to 2003. He gained significant national attention for an extramarital af ...
,
Eliot Spitzer
Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959) is an American politician and attorney. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was the 54th governor of New York from 2007 until his resignation in 2008.
Spitzer was b ...
, and
John Edwards
Johnny Reid Edwards (born June 10, 1953) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as a U.S. senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004 alongside John Kerry, losing to incumbents George ...
while preparing for the role.
Filming
Principal photography
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production.
Personnel
Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...
took place between January 11, 2008, and April 6, 2008.
Filming was originally scheduled to start in November 2007,
but was postponed due to
Brad Pitt
William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. ...
's unexpected departure from the production.
Eric Fellner indicated that the film was close to being abandoned, and credited Universal's chairman and co-chairman (Marc Shmuger and David Linde) with seeing the film to production.
The first eight weeks of filming took place in Los Angeles,
which accounted for the majority of the shooting schedule.
A newsroom set was built to act as the hub of operations for the fictional ''Washington Globe'' newspaper. Costume designer Jacqueline West indicated that she looked to the newsroom of ''The Washington Post'' for inspiration, and used photos of ''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...
''s newsroom to help her develop the journalists' looks.
The production moved to Washington, DC for five weeks of location filming toward the end of the shoot,
commencing on March 6, 2008.
More than a third of ''State of Play'' was shot in Washington, DC,
with filming taking place throughout the city.
The filmmakers estimated that ''State of Play'' may have set a record for the longest studio shoot in the city.
Locations included the neighborhoods of Adams Morgan,
Shaw
Shaw may refer to:
Places Australia
*Shaw, Queensland
Canada
*Shaw Street, a street in Toronto
England
*Shaw, Berkshire, a village
*Shaw, Greater Manchester, a location in the parish of Shaw and Crompton
*Shaw, Swindon, a List of United Kingdom ...
, and
Mount Pleasant. Scenes set on Mount Pleasant Street were also filmed at the Los Angeles studio, where a full replica of the strip's facade was built. In
Georgetown, menswear store The District Line was transformed into a household goods store for the shooting of a chase scene for the film's opening sequence.
Filming took place on various streets in Washington, DC,
including the
U Street Corridor
The U Street Corridor, sometimes called Cardozo/Shaw or Cardozo, is a commercial and residential district in Northwest Washington, D.C., most of which also constitutes the Greater U Street Historic District. It is centered along a nine-block st ...
,
and at "practically every major landmark",
including outside the headquarters of the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
on
Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue is a diagonal street in Washington, D.C., and Prince George's County, Maryland, that connects the White House and the United States Capitol and then crosses the city to Maryland. In Maryland it is also Maryland Route 4 (MD 4) ...
,
around
Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...
, at the
Supreme Court building,
outside the Library of Congress,
and at the
Washington Monument
The Washington Monument is an obelisk shaped building within the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army (1775–1784) in the American Revolutionary War and the ...
.
Other locations included landmark restaurant
Ben's Chili Bowl
Ben's Chili Bowl is a landmark restaurant in Washington, D.C., located at 1213 U Street Corridor, U Street, next to Lincoln Theatre (Washington, D.C.), Lincoln Theatre, in the U Street Corridor (a.k.a. Cardozo/Shaw neighborhood) of Northwest, W ...
, where restaurant workers were employed as extras,
and the
Maine Avenue Fish Market
The Maine Avenue Fish Market also known as the Fish Wharf, or simply, the Wharf, is an open-air seafood market in Southwest Washington, D.C., a local landmark and one of the few that remain on the east coast of the United States. It is the oldes ...
.
The Americana Hotel in
Crystal City was also used for the scenes in which McAffrey interrogates Dominic Foy.
The exterior of the
Department of Housing and Urban Development
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the Secretary of Housing and Urb ...
building was used to double as a hospital entrance. In preparation for filming, eighteen two-foot by three-foot photographs of
Secretary
A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a w ...
Alphonso Jackson
Alphonso R. Jackson (born September 9, 1945) served as the 13th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He was nominated by President George W. Bush on August 28, 2004 and confirmed by the Senate on August 31, 2004. Jac ...
were removed from the entrance.
The production's "working week" was Wednesday to Sunday, because several of the government buildings featured could not be used for filming during regular work days.
The Harbour Square Owners Cooperative complex was used as the home of Affleck's character.
A key scene in which a character is struck by a train takes place on the
Washington Metro
The Washington Metro (or simply Metro), formally the Metrorail,[Google Books search/preview ...](_blank)
. Filming for the scene took place at the
Rosslyn Metro station in
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
. The Rosslyn station was chosen because it was the only station in the Metro system to have a long escalator leading to a platform, with trains passing at the same times on upper and lower levels.
Filming also took place at night aboard two railcars at the
Forest Glen Metro station in
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
.
Permission to film at the stations was granted after the script was vetted by the Metro's media relations office, which is notoriously discriminating about which productions it allows to film on the Metro. After the deaths of three Metro employees in 2006, the office was reluctant to allow filming of the scene, but because the script did not explicitly show a death, the office assented. Scenes on the Metro had to meet strict standards for logistics and safety. The portrayal of anything illegal in the system was not allowed, nor was showing characters eating, drinking, jumping over fare gates, or running on the tracks. The production also had to agree to film scenes at the busy Rosslyn station at times when the system was least busy: late at night and after rush hour. Producer E. Bennett Walsh said that the production chose not to shoot on the less restrictive
Baltimore subway, which has substituted for Washington, DC in other films that have come up against the Metro's rules. He said, "To shoot any other subway, you would know you're not in Washington."
Scenes were filmed at the
Watergate complex
The Watergate complex is a group of six buildings in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. Covering a total of 10 acres (4 ha) just north of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the buildings incl ...
, for which the production was granted permission to use the roof of a
George Washington University
, mottoeng = "God is Our Trust"
, established =
, type = Private federally chartered research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.8 billion (2022)
, preside ...
campus building.
Scenes were also filmed in the
morgue
A morgue or mortuary (in a hospital or elsewhere) is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal. In modern times, corpses have cus ...
of the
St. Mary Medical Center in
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California.
Incorporate ...
. Washington, DC police officer Quintin Peterson was employed as a consultant on the film. Peterson, who has acted as a script consultant and technical adviser on numerous productions in the city, helped the production to accurately depict the city's police force.
Filming took place on the steps of the
Scottish Rite Freemasonry
The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction in the United States often omits the ''and'', while the English Constitution in the United Kingdom omits the ''Scottish''), commonly known as simply the Sco ...
temple in Washington, DC. Maryland's
Montgomery Blair High School
Montgomery Blair High School (MBHS) is a public high school located in Four Corners, Maryland, United States, operated by Montgomery County Public Schools. The school's total enrollment of 3,600 makes it the largest public high school in Montgo ...
provided a marching band for the background. They were joined by players from the school's production of the
''Beauty and the Beast'' musical and students from
Paint Branch High School
Paint Branch High School is a high school located in the Fairland census-designated place, an unincorporated section of Montgomery County, Maryland; it has a Burtonsville postal address.
It is named after the Paint Branch creek. The school wa ...
's
Winter guard
Winter guard (sometimes spelled "winterguard") is an indoor color guard sport and performance art derived from military ceremonies. Modern winter guard is a competitive, performance-based activity which incorporates choreographed staging, dance, a ...
to act as
color guard
In Military, military organizations, a colour guard (or color guard) is a detachment of soldiers assigned to the protection of Colours, standards and guidons, regimental colours and the national flag. This duty is so prestigious that the militar ...
for the scene.
Macdonald's aim was to recreate a famous 1970s Canadian photograph, which depicts rifle-twirling
majorettes
A majorette is a baton twirler whose twirling performance is often accompanied by dance, movement, or gymnastics; they are primarily associated with marching bands during parades. Majorettes can also spin knives, fire knives, flags, light-up ba ...
, in order to emphasize militaristic themes and to comment upon the place of guns in American society. The aesthetic also appealed to Macdonald: "it's just very colorful and beautiful and very American—like a piece of anthropology in America."
The majority of filming over the last three weeks of the shoot took place at night. Filming for these scenes usually began at 5:00 p.m. and finished at 5:00 a.m.
A scene filmed under the
Key Bridge in Georgetown on April 6, 2008 was the last of principal photography.
Effects
Director of photography
The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...
Rodrigo Prieto
Rodrigo Prieto, American Society of Cinematographers, ASC, AMC (born November 23, 1965), is a Mexican cinematographer. He has been closely associated as cinematographer for Martin Scorsese and Alejandro González Iñárritu, among other directo ...
indicated that the film was shot in two distinct visual styles: scenes featuring the media were shot in the
anamorphic format
Anamorphic format is the cinematography technique of shooting a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film or other visual recording media with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio. It also refers to the projection format in which a distorted ...
on
35mm film 35 mm may refer to:
* 135 film, a type of still photography format commonly referred to as 35 mm film
* 35 mm movie film, a type of motion picture film stock
* 35MM 35 mm may refer to:
* 135 film, a type of still photography format ...
, while scenes focusing on the world of politics were shot in
high-definition video
High-definition video (HD video) is video of higher resolution and quality than standard-definition. While there is no standardized meaning for ''high-definition'', generally any video image with considerably more than 480 vertical scan lines (No ...
with the
Panavision Genesis digital video camera
A video camera is an optical instrument that captures videos (as opposed to a movie camera, which records images on film). Video cameras were initially developed for the television industry but have since become widely used for a variety of other ...
.
Hand-held camera
Hand-held camera or hand-held shooting is a filmmaking and video production technique in which a camera is held in the camera operator's hands as opposed to being mounted on a tripod or other base. Hand-held cameras are used because they are conve ...
s have been used. For
color management
In digital imaging systems, color management (or colour management) is the controlled conversion between the color representations of various devices, such as image scanners, digital cameras, monitors, TV screens, film printers, computer printer ...
, Prieto employed Gamma & Density Company's 3cP color management and correction software, using the
American Society of Cinematographers
The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), founded in Hollywood in 1919, is a cultural, educational, and professional organization that is neither a labor union nor a guild. The society was organized to advance the science and art of cinem ...
' Color Decision List to keep color consistent throughout shooting,
dailies
In filmmaking, dailies are the raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. The term comes from when movies were all shot on film because usually at the end of each day, the footage was developed, synced to sound, and pri ...
, post and
digital intermediate
Digital intermediate (typically abbreviated DI) is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics.
Definition and overview
A digital intermediate ...
finishing process. The digital effects were handled by
Rhythm and Hues
Rhythm & Hues Studios was an American visual effects and animation company, that received the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1995 for ''Babe'', in 2008 for ''The Golden Compass'', and in 2013 for '' Life of Pi''. It also received four ...
.
Music
Alex Heffes
Alex Heffes (; born 2 September 1971) is a British film composer. His film scores include those for the BAFTA-winning '' Touching the Void'', and Oscar-winning movies ''One Day in September'', ''The Last King of Scotland'', and ''Inside Job''. He ...
, who provided the music for Macdonald's ''
One Day in September
''One Day in September'' is a 1999 documentary film directed by Kevin Macdonald examining the 5 September 1972 murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. Michael Douglas provides the sparse narration through ...
'', ''
Touching the Void'', and ''
The Last King of Scotland
''The Last King of Scotland'' is a novel by journalist Giles Foden,
published by Faber and Faber in 1998. Focusing on the rise of Ugandan President Idi Amin and his reign as dictator from 1971 to 1979, the novel, which interweaves fiction and ...
'',
scored the film. It was recorded in the United Kingdom. Heffes indicated that he had a preference for scoring around the dialogue rather than through it. As with the recording of his previous works, Heffes conducted the orchestra himself to enable re-scoring as the recording session proceeded. Macdonald involved moon early on in production, and in an unusual move for a studio film, he had Heffes write some of the music to ''State of Play'' in advance of principal photography, based purely upon the script. Heffes said this was to provide a hint to the direction the film was going to take. He said that he and Macdonald had decided to take the score down an unusual path, "off the beaten track", and that the prospect was a "liberating" one.
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
-winning record producer "
Flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
" (aka Mark Ellis) worked with Heffes on the score. Heffes said that working with Ellis "opened his mind" and that they attempted to push boundaries. He said that in producing the score, Flood brought an aesthetic to recording the instruments that was atypical for film recording sessions.
The song heard during the end credits is
John Fogerty
John Cameron Fogerty (born May 28, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. Together with Doug Clifford, Stu Cook, and his brother Tom Fogerty
Thomas Richard Fogerty (November 9, 1941 – September 6, 1990) was an American mu ...
's "
Long As I Can See The Light" performed by
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival, also referred to as Creedence and CCR, was an American rock band formed in El Cerrito, California. The band initially consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty; his brother, ...
.
Reception
On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, ''State Of Play'' holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads: "A taut, well-acted political thriller, ''State of Play'' overcomes some unsubtle plot twists with an intelligent script and swift direction."
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 64 out of 100 based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by
CinemaScore
CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data.
Background
Ed Mintz founded Ci ...
gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
Philip Kemp from ''
Total Film
''Total Film'' is a British film magazine published 13 times a year (published monthly and a summer issue is added every year since issue 91, 2004, which is published between July and August issue) by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched i ...
'' called it "a twisty substantial thriller" and said "It's not as exceptional as its source but the changes implemented mostly enhance rather than harm the story."
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
''described the film as "a smart ingenious thriller", and he went on to say, "There are many other surprises in the film, which genuinely fooled me a couple of times, and maintains a certain degree of credibility for a thriller".
References
External links
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{{Paul Abbott
2009 films
2009 drama films
2000s thriller drama films
American political drama films
American political thriller films
British drama films
British thriller drama films
Films about journalists
Films based on television series
Films set in Washington, D.C.
Films shot in Virginia
Films shot in Washington, D.C.
Procedural films
Relativity Media films
Working Title Films films
StudioCanal films
Universal Pictures films
Films about security and surveillance
Films about privatization
Films directed by Kevin Macdonald (director)
Films produced by Eric Fellner
Films produced by Tim Bevan
Films scored by Alex Heffes
Films with screenplays by Matthew Michael Carnahan
Films with screenplays by Tony Gilroy
Films with screenplays by Billy Ray
2000s English-language films
2000s American films
2000s British films