American Ultra

is a fast-paced action comedy about Mike [Jesse Eisenberg], a seemingly hapless and unmotivated stoner whose small-town life with his live-in girlfriend, Phoebe [Kristen Stewart], is suddenly turned upside down. Unbeknownst to him, Mike is actually a highly trained, lethal .

With the bible developed for the film in hand, director Nima Nourizadeh and director of photography Michael Bonvillain went through the script scene by scene to design their shots.

With the bible developed for the film in hand, director and director of photography Michael Bonvillain went through the script scene by scene to design their shots. The biggest challenges the filmmakers faced involved creating the explosive action envisioned by the director and the writer, while sticking to a relatively modest budget.

“If you take the story down to its most , it’s about this guy who wants to propose to his girlfriend but his world gets turned upside down,” says director Nima Nourizadeh. For the director, who earned accolades in Hollywood for his 2012 debut film, Project X, this script stood out in the action-comedy genre.

The inspiration for the action/comedy is a real-life CIA attempt to create super warriors that lasted three decades. The formerly covert program, known as MK Ultra, was launched in the 1950s in an effort to turn ordinary citizens into superhero-level operatives. Using psychotropic drugs to enhance psychological conditioning, better known as torture, government scientists treated the human brain like a computer and attempted to radically reprogram their subjects to be the most effective and dangerous assets possible. The attempt to turn out a generation of Jason Bourne-like super assassins failed miserably.

and director first met in April 2013 to exchange ideas about future projects. Landis told Nourizadeh about American Ultra, a no one outside of his team had read yet. “The script really exceeded my expectations,” says the director.

Jesse Eisenberg, whose previous roles have included The Social Network, Adventureland and Zombieland, was the filmmakers’ first choice to play the slacker-turned-superspy. “We knew it had to be Jesse,” says Alpert. “You just buy him as an innocent, small-town stoner.” Eisenberg was quick to sign on after reading the script. “I’d never read anything like it,” he says. “The characters felt totally real, the situations are surprising and the way we deal with them seems very truthful.”

Mike’s girlfriend, Phoebe, played by Kristen Stewart, is much more driven than she lets on. Stewart and Eisenberg, who starred in 2009’s Adventureland, had instant chemistry, Nourizadeh says. After meeting with the pair together, the filmmakers were sure they would be convincing and appealing as a couple dedicated to getting baked together. Stewart admits she jumped at the chance to work with Eisenberg again. “We should make a movie together every five years,” she says.

Louisiana, which has seen a dramatic uptick in production over the last decade, provided the filmmakers with a first-rate support system under sometimes trying circumstances. “We had to deal with everything from snakes and gators to torrential rain,” says Alpert. “A lot of crews would have rebelled, but these people were like Marines. If we said take the beaches, they took the beaches.” Production designer Richard Bridgland transformed rural Louisiana into small-town West Virginia using a palette of reds and other warm, homey colors in contrast to the icy neutrals of CIA headquarters.

MoreMovieDetails

All Posts
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Share this article: American Ultra

Facebook
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Pinterest
Email

MORE TOPICS

Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer

Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer is a comedy film based on Megan McDonald’s Judy Moody book series. The film’s star Jordana Beatty in the main role, Heathet Graham, Parris Mosteller and Jaleel White.

Dirty Dancing is in large part based on screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein's own childhood: She is the younger daughter of a Jewish doctor from New York, spent summers with her family in the Catskills, participated in "Dirty Dancing" competitions, and was herself called "Baby" as a girl.

Dirty Dancing

Dirty Dancing is a 1987 romantic film made in the United States. Written by Eleanor Bergstein and directed by Emile Ardolino, the film features Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, Cynthia Rhodes, and Jerry Orbach.

Filth

Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson wants a promotion. He is clearly the best man for the job – the rest of his colleagues are just idiots. Annoyingly, there’s been a murder and Bruce’s boss wants results. No problem for Bruce. He’s in control and when he solves the case and wins the promotion, his wife will return to him. No problem.

n The Other Woman, Emilia is a Harvard law school graduate and a newlywed, having just married Jack, a high-powered New York lawyer, who was her boss when she began working at his law firm.

The Other Woman

The Other Woman (original title: Love and Other Impossible Pursuits) is a drama directed by Don Roos and adapted for film by himself. The film is based on the Ayelet Waldman novel Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, and distributed by Incentive Film Distribution in the US.

Toy Story 3 has received universal critical acclaim. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 99% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 236 reviews, with an average score of 8.8/10. The critical consensus is: Deftly blending comedy, adventure, and honest emotion, Toy Story 3 is a rare second sequel that really works.

Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3 is a 2010 American 3D computer-animated film. It is the third film in the Toy Story series. The film is produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures.

Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Estelle Harris, John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn, Jeff Pidgeon, Jodi Benson, R. Lee Ermey, John Morris, and Laurie Metcalf all reprised their voice-over roles from the previous films. Jim Varney, who played Slinky Dog in the first two films, and Joe Ranft, who portrayed Wheezy and Lenny, died before production began on the third film.

In 2007, Farrell joined other celebrities to become an official games spokesman for the Special Olympics World Games in Shanghai, China.

Colin Farrell

Colin Farrell was born in Dublin, the son of Rita (nÊe Monaghan), a housewife, and Eamon Farrell, a footballer who played for Shamrock Rovers F.C. and owned a company importing and exporting canned goods in Dublin City. He was raised as a Roman Catholic. He was inspired to try acting after being brought to tears while watching E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Farrell unsuccessfully auditioned for the Irish group Boyzone when he was still unknown.