The Box - BEHIND THE SCENES

"The Box"
BEHIND THE SCENES
by Tim Nasson
October 28, 2009

Watch "The Box" Trailer

"There are always consequences."

"At the heart of 'The Box' is a moral dilemma," says writer/director Richard Kelly. "What would you do if offered the opportunity for great wealth but it came at the cost of a human life, someone you don't know?"

That is the question posed in the original short story Button, Button, written by master of suspense Richard Matheson, which captured Kelly's imagination and serves as the basis and inspiration for "The Box." "I've always admired Matheson for his ability to create stories that both haunt and entertain," he says. "I was immediately taken with this deceptively simple tale and I wanted to know more. Where does the box come from? What does it mean? Could the people who push that button ever hope to redeem themselves...and how? It had a tantalizing, cliffhanger of an ending that made me want to jump to the other side to see what happens next."

Producer Sean McKittrick, whose first feature film collaboration with Kelly was the director's acclaimed debut, "Donnie Darko," sees "The Box" as "a classically told suspense tale and character study--with a twist. Any time you're dealing with money, it can affect people's morality or ethics. But you have to remember there are always repercussions."

Cameron Diaz, who stars as Norma Lewis, takes a similarly analytic approach. "It's a question we all kept asking ourselves. I feel that no one really knows what they would do until they're faced with that kind of decision. On the surface, it's easy to say, 'I know exactly what I'd do.' But circumstances could be different at any given time, for any person. It's not as simple as it seems."

Norma and Arthur Lewis are an average couple, with the same concerns and aspirations as anyone. Says Kelly, "The idea is that the people faced with this fate-altering dilemma are just like you or me, our parents or neighbors. There is nothing fatally flawed about the Lewises, nor is there anything special about them. They're good, hard-working, loving people who are raising a child, trying to get by, and living a little bit beyond their means--a situation as relevant today as it was when the story was written."

As the story opens, Arthur receives the bitter news that he has been denied the promotion he was expecting, meaning that their bright young son will no longer be able to attend the area's best school and Norma will have to forgo reconstructive surgery on a lifelong, painful injury. It's at this vulnerable point that they receive a visit from Arlington Steward and his bizarre proposition, in the form of a modest wooden box with a red button.

What Steward offers them, says Kelly, "is the possibility of an escape." In a larger sense, the director notes, "What fascinates me is the complexity of the instant-gratification, push-button society we live in today, with our handheld devices, TV remotes, computers, and all the ways in which we effortlessly solve our problems or meet our needs, large and small. We toss off messages without much thought to the consequences or ramifications. It was a little different 30 years ago, when the story is set, and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to keep it in the 1970s, when the story was first published. Pushing a button was a more deliberate act back then. For Norma and Arthur, it could be the most deliberate act of their lives."

It's a theme James Marsden immediately picked up on, commenting, "We live in a world where we can achieve almost anything with the press of a button. And I know it's supposed to be making our lives easier, but something tells me we may be paying a higher price for it in the long run." Marsden, who stars as young husband and father Arthur Lewis, also sees their intimate story having larger implications. "It's a story about one couple's experience but it could have a societal reach."

Or, it could possibly reach far beyond that...

Another reason Kelly timed "The Box" to 1976 was to tie it to a milestone human achievement that year: NASA's landing of the first robotic research unit on Mars, the Viking Mission. "Maybe our landing on Mars was a significant enough accomplishment that some greater intelligence 'out there' decided it was now worth taking our measure as a species. Embedding our story into this historic setting introduces the possibility that there could be forces at work behind the Lewis' morality test that are beyond anything they can imagine--and that we can only speculate about," he suggests.

This, in turn, raises deeper questions about who, or what, is Arlington Steward.

"'The Box' isn't big on violence or gore; it's more of a thriller in the retro style of the movies I grew up on as a kid, and that kept me on the edge of my seat," says Kelly.

Producer Dan Lin says, "It's scary on a visceral level, because this family is being pursued by a mysterious man who seems to be watching their every move, but it's also scary on a psychological level because of the provocative issues it raises. To what end will you go to save your family? How well do you know the people around you? How well do you know your own family, your husband, your wife? As a fan of 'Donnie Darko,' I knew Richard wouldn't make a typical couple-in-jeopardy scenario; he would find a way to expand and elevate it with his own unique style and point of view."

"What I love about Richard's work is that he asks the questions you don't ask yourself because you're afraid of the answers," notes Diaz. "He knows a lot about human nature and the lies we all tell ourselves."

"His is a mind that thinks outside the box, if you'll forgive the expression," offers Frank Langella, who stars as the enigmatic Steward. "The story has a delicious premise with a 'what if' factor that I like very much. To borrow one of Steward's lines from the film, when someone says, 'This is all so mysterious,' he responds, 'Well, I like mystery. Don't you?'"

Like their previous work, McKittrick acknowledges, "There are some things left intentionally unanswered, open to interpretation. It's an intriguing idea that Matheson introduced and we've hopefully made that into an elegant and scary tale that will take audiences into unknown territory."

Ultimately, Kelly believes, "It's about responsibility. What would you sacrifice for your loved ones and what responsibility are you willing to take for your actions? What does it mean to be responsible for another human being and what are the parameters--where does it begin and where does it end? I like to think that I wouldn't push the button but I don't know. Maybe I already have. Maybe we all have.

"Richard Matheson's story stirred my imagination and set my mind abuzz with the kinds of questions we've all pondered at one time or another," he continues. "My intention with 'The Box' is to put audiences into Norma's and Arthur's shoes, so they can ask themselves, 'What would I do?'"

"We just want this to go away. We don't want anyone to get hurt."

In developing the short story into a feature film, Kelly needed to expand the characters of Norma and Arthur Lewis and personalize them in a way that would make their crisis of conscience really hit home. And home is exactly where he went for inspiration. "It was important that Norma and Arthur are decent, likeable, honest people, the kind of people audiences can identify with. That being pretty much the definition of my own parents, it seemed natural to integrate parts of their lives into the characters."

Kelly's father was an engineer at NASA Langley for 15 years, and, like the Lewises, the family lived in Richmond. His mother was a victim of medical malpractice resulting in the kind of injury that Norma copes with in the film. But beyond these specific details, the most important thing Kelly drew from his parents' life and gave to Arthur and Norma was the quality and depth of their relationship.

The Lewis' love story is an essential ingredient in "The Box," and is severely tested. "You have to believe in their love and their marriage or everything else is ornamental," states Marsden. "At the heart of the movie is the relationship between Norma and Arthur, and the roller coaster ride they go through together. Everything that happens to them, however difficult, brings them closer together."

Kelly's assertion is that, if the box is indeed some kind of morality test, it would be best administered to people least likely to fall prey to it. Offering this choice to the obviously greedy or amoral would serve no purpose; their response would be predictable and immediate. "To prove that anyone, given the right circumstances, can be tempted by such an offer is likely part of Steward's agenda."

Speaking from Norma's perspective, Cameron Diaz explains, "Pushing the button is not a decision she takes lightly but, at the moment it happens, after so much intense thought, it's like something just comes over her. I think we've all been in situations where we know the consequences of an action but hope desperately that somehow it's not going to happen--that we can ignore it or take it back if we have to, that we can say, 'No, nevermind, I was just kidding.' It doesn't necessarily have to be a life-or-death situation. There are so many examples in our daily lives when we take the easy way out if we think we can get away with it. It comes down to the difference between living consciously or not, and that, to me, is even more relevant than the big question about whether or not you would push the button. Look at all the little buttons you are offered every day.

"What I like about this story is that the consequences are immediate and in-your-face, as if to say, 'You did this and now you must deal with the responsibility,'" Diaz continues. The bottom line, she cautions, is "Nothing is free."

Says McKittrick, "Cameron brought a tremendous amount of thought to the evolution of Norma's storyline. We had some great discussions about redemption and self-sacrifice. The more she analyzed the story as it moved off the page, the more she brought to the shoot."

For Norma's husband, the box is more of a practical puzzle. "Arthur has a scientific mind," says Marsden. "He takes a logical, tangible approach, takes the box apart and discovers there's nothing inside of it. He figures it's a trick, some kind of elaborate sales pitch, and doesn't really take it seriously. How would anyone even know if they pushed the button or not? That all changes, though, when the button is pushed, and he sees everything turned upside down in front of him."

"James brought a lot of charm and goodwill to his character and his chemistry with Cameron was fantastic," says Kelly. "He also understood the depth of Arthur's disappointment at not getting into the astronaut training program. He really got how that state of mind would affect the quandary they were faced with at home."

But the real catalyst of their upheaval and soul-searching is Arlington Steward, a well-mannered and impeccably dressed gentleman of unknown origin and unknown motivation, who appears out of the blue one day to offer them the proverbial deal of a lifetime.

"Exactly who he is, and what he is doing, is open to debate," Kelly concedes, jokingly adding, "You might think of him as a kind of interstellar insurance adjustor or maybe a tax auditor. He's powerful, but also, clearly, fallible. He has his own limitations."

The simplest explanation, Langella offers, is, "This is a man who has been struck by lightning and he's obviously not the same as he was before. That's really the only thing that needs to be revealed about him. It's the only thing we are sure about."

Langella presents the formidable Steward in an understated manner, avoiding the cliches of villainy for a more subliminal menace. "We felt that Steward should be a very elegant salesman, someone with the charisma to make this offer sound attractive," says McKittrick. "Frank certainly has charisma. He has the ability to enrapture and bring you into his world as he speaks."

Rounding out the main cast, "Donnie Darko" alum Holmes Osborne stars as Norma's father Dick Burns, a detective who finds himself frustratingly on the periphery of the situation his family has gotten into. Veteran character actor James Rebhorn stars as Norm Cahill, a senior NASA executive and one of Arthur's mentors. And Sam Oz Stone, 13 years old during production, stars as Walter, the Lewis' only child. A precocious and promising youngster, Walter becomes increasingly aware that something strange and dangerous is going on, though Norma and Arthur do everything they can to protect him.

"I may look like a monster but I can assure you that I am... only human"

Langella's elegant portrayal of the enigmatic messenger Steward contrasts sharply with Steward's hideous disfigurement.

"As the victim of a lightning strike, his face is a vivid reminder of what he's gone through," says visual effects supervisor Thomas Tannenberger, whose recent credits include "2012." "On Arlington's face there's a lot of scar tissue. You will actually be able to see through his teeth into his mouth because his left cheek is missing. Production designer, Alexander Hammond, and his team did a great job researching lightning survivors and our make-up department head, Louis Lazzara, designed the make-up."

Combining CGI and practical effects to finalize Steward's raw visage, Kelly describes the process as "subtractive," meaning, "Rather than piling on layers of prosthetic rubber and traditional make-up, we digitally removed that portion of his face. By painting his face green and applying motion-capture tracking dots to it, we created an anchoring mechanism through which we could then imbed the digital make-up, the disfigurement itself, directly onto Frank's face and not interfere with the way he talks or moves."

Langella, who endured two hours of make-up daily for his Oscar®-nominated performance as Richard Nixon in "Frost/Nixon," was pleased to find that his transformation into Arlington Steward took only 40 minutes. "That first day, after we got past all the connect-the-dots jokes, nobody thought anything about it," he recalls. As for his appearance being a distraction to his cast-mates, Marsden attests, "All you have to do is look Frank in the eyes and everything else fades to a blur anyway."

Though not innovative in itself, the motion-capture technique is rarely used this way. Says Tannenberger, "Conventionally, it's either a pre-process or an after-process, where you record an actor's performance in a vacuum and then transfer that to a CGI avatar of him or some other creature. In our case, it was done live, on-set." For every scene that Langella shot, the filmmakers then employed six cameras for a wraparound view of the empty set so they could later replace the backgrounds audiences will see through the space created where his cheek is missing.

It took eight months to complete the digital work on Steward's face.

Richmond, Virginia, 1976: from NASA to the Neighborhood Grocery

The filmmakers recreated Richmond, Virginia, circa 1976, a looming part of which was the NASA Langley facility where Arthur worked--and where, they eventually discover, Arlington Steward has set up his base of operations.

For Kelly, who grew up in Langley's shadow, "Embedding our story in the historic setting of the Viking Mission meant presenting Langley in what some would call its glory days. A lot of it hasn't changed significantly from the way it looked in the 1970s: the same interesting architecture, the gantry, the rocket sled, the wind tunnel where they tested parachutes, the media briefing room. We tried to photograph as much of it as we could in a way that felt organic to the story while also paying tribute to what happened there. We were granted unprecedented access and wanted to make the best of it."

To accurately retro-date his imagery, Kelly enlisted technical consultants, one of whom was famed NASA veteran, lecturer and author Gentry Lee, one of the original members of the Viking Mission team fictionally depicted in the film. Lee not only vetted the script but proved invaluable in helping to set the scene visually. He also accepted a small role in "The Box," playing, appropriately enough, a senior NASA engineer working with the young Arthur Lewis.

In addition to his own recollections, Lee provided an unexpected treasure in the form of a book of candid photos of the NASA facility in 1976, taken by the amateur photographer son of one of the Mission scientists. From this, production designer Alexander Hammond drew ideas to transform another practical location--the Lucent Technology building, formerly Bell Labs' 450,000-foot manufacturing floor--into Langley's bustling engineering lab.

The camerawork on "The Box" was also a combination of high-tech and nostalgia, notes cinematographer Steven Poster, using the new Panavision Genesis digital camera for the first time. "In the 1970s we would use a certain kind of filtration and diffusion on the lens. The lighting was also different, in terms of its harshness or softness and the instruments you used to achieve that. It's almost indefinable. I'm using digital technology to capture the images and then, in post-production, incorporating some of the things we did back then to take the look to its final conclusion."

After working on Langley's expansive spaces, Hammond then turned his attention to the more intimate spaces of the Lewis' two-story home, which was built on a soundstage. In keeping with the story's theme, one of the house's design strategies was to form boxes within boxes for a feeling of entrapment. Hammond explains, "Inside the Lewis house there are spaces created where you can see someone framed in a doorway or a square window in a very formal way, and behind that is another doorway or window, then behind that maybe another, so you have a series of portals. When you're looking at someone and then they move, suddenly something that they were blocking is revealed."

Hammond also notes, "What the house tells you is that these people don't have a lot of money. It's nice, but not huge. They're a little bit pushed beyond their means."

Regarding the 1970s decor, Kelly and Hammond agreed it should be subtle and not at all stylized. "The wallpaper, the earth tones that were so popular then," cites Kelly, "we wanted to integrate all that but not go crazy with it."

Costume designer April Ferry applied comparable restraint to the wardrobe, choosing the less-flashy patterns and colors of the time. Regardless of how they looked, there was a unifying element to all of it--the fit. "The clothes were tight and we're not used to that nowadays," she recalls. "When we put an outfit onto an extra they'd often say it was a size too small. Well, it wasn't too small. That's how we wore our clothes in the seventies!"

The wardrobe for Arlington Steward required a more timeless look. Collaborating closely with Frank Langella, Ferry envisioned for his character "a very elegant, well-dressed presentation, with beautiful English fabrics." That took them to renowned New York tailor Leonard Logsdail. The pair then went hat shopping for the perfect classic Homburg, which added formality while also making the 6'4" actor even more imposing on screen.

Much of the filming for "The Box" utilized practical locations. The Milton Academy preparatory school in Milton, Massachusetts, stood in as the school Walter Lewis attends and where Norma teaches; a Motor Lodge in Kingston, near Plymouth, Massachusetts, hosted some inexplicable goings-on; the Turner Hill Country Club in Ipswich was the setting for a party that Norma and Arthur must attend though they are woefully preoccupied; and the Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant in Boston Harbor lends its startling architecture to one of the film's pivotal scenes.

One of Kelly's favorite sets was the Ukrop's Supermarket, a well-known Virginia-area chain, which was made and stocked from scratch for the film with vintage cereal boxes and canned goods, as well as pricing and signage. "I grew up going to Ukrop's. It's a local chain that's been around for more than 50 years. It was fun to recreate that as a specific element of my childhood instead of going with something generic," he says.

Details like this, plus the fact that Kelly set the story in, essentially, his old neighborhood and integrated elements of his parents' lives into the characters of Norma and Arthur Lewis, all contribute to the making of what the director calls his most personal work.

"As much as it's based on larger concepts, in many ways it's the most personal of my three films," says Kelly. "My parents were the ones who introduced me to these kinds of films, the Hitchcock-style psychological thrillers that are still my favorites. Those are the movies that they loved, and they became the movies that I love."