Cast

Filmmakers

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

One of the best decisions I recently made was writing a screenplay on spec for THE LODGER based on the bestselling 1913 novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes. Adapting a novel written almost 100 years ago posed significant challenges and yet was also oddly liberating. Despite setting the film in present day Los Angeles, I was able to develop the novel’s intoxicating premise of a couple taking in a mysterious stranger at the same time that a series of bizarre murders take place in their neighborhood. On the other hand, I quickly realized that telling a fresh, intensely visual and dark contemporary psychological story would require adding emotional complexity to the existing characters and their relationships, creating new characters and moving away from much of the original novel.

Seeking to add to the audience’s disorientation, I decided to create a dual storyline structure in which two independent plotlines set in very different physical environments inevitably converge. The story carefully alternates between the complex and uncertain psychological world of Ellen (Hope Davis), her husband (Donal Logue) and their enigmatic lodger (Simon Baker) set almost entirely inside their house in West Hollywood; and the more dark, dynamic world of Chandler (Alfred Molina) and his police partner (Shane West) struggling to control personal and professional events spiraling out of control as they pursue the elusive killer.

It is interesting how different the creative processes were of writing and then directing THE LODGER. One was highly solitary, the other intensely collaborative. And though I had pre-imagined a significant collection of distinctive visual shots when writing the screenplay, the process of directing and working with exceptionally talented actors and collaborating with a well-managed crew was a distinct and uniquely exciting creative process. To quote a famous director: “It’s not just the story, it’s how you tell it.” Many viewers might find it interesting that the novel, The Lodger, by Marie Belloc Lowndes had long ago also been made into a silent black and white film in 1927 by Alfred Hitchcock. Given that my screenplay is not based on that film but is instead a very liberal and contemporary interpretation of the 1913 Belloc Lowndes novel, it may invite some interest in the choices made with each literary adaptation.

Hitchcock’s lifelong exploration of form and unique talent for employing a range of cinematic techniques in telling the subjective story, however, has had a significant influence on my love of filmmaking. Some viewers may enjoy knowing that in much the same way that Hitchcock inserted himself into each of his films, I have metaphorically inserted him in THE LODGER through references to a few specific shots from some of his films. It was an enormously fulfilling and enjoyable creative process in writing and directing THE LODGER.

– David Ondaatje

Synopsis

Life-hardened private detective Chandler Manning hunts a cold-blooded serial killer responsible for murdering prostitutes on West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. But there’s a catch: not only is the perpetrator copying the crimes of Jack the Ripper…He’s replicating the brutal techniques of a murderer Manning already put behind bars.

A terrifying adaptation of the book by Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes on which Alfred Hitchcock’s silent classic is also based, The Lodger stars Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2, The Da Vinci Code), Hope Davis (The Hoax, The Matador), Simon Baker (In Timbuktu) and Donal Logue (Zodiac, Ghost Rider).

THE LODGER is a Stage 6 Films presentation of A Michael Mailer/Merchant Pacific Production. Written and Directed by David Ondaatje, Produced by Michael Mailer and David Ondaatje, Scott Putman is Executive Producer. Cinematography is by David A. Armstrong. Production Designer is Franco-Giacomo Carbone. Music by John Frizzell and Edited by William Flicker.

When a ruthless killer begins slaughtering prostitutes along West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, Malcolm Slaight (Simon Baker) arrives at the home of Joe (Donal Logue) and Ellen Bunting (Hope Davis), expressing interest in renting their secluded guesthouse. As a married women who is struggling to preserve her fragile marriage after plans to start a family ended in tragedy, Ellen Bunting is at first relieved to find a renter who pays in cash but soon becomes enamored by the charm and eccentricities of the mysterious Lodger. Meanwhile, police detective Chandler Manning (Alfred Molina), shunned by both his daughter Amanda (Rachael Leigh Cook) and his suicidal wife Margaret (Mel Harris) as a result of his single-minded dedication to police work, and teams up with unlikely rookie partner Street Wilkenson (Shane West) to track the killer. It soon becomes clear that the murderer’s grisly methods are identical to that of London’s infamous 19th century psychopath Jack the Ripper – a relentless – serial killer who was never caught by police and who was notorious for removing the internal organs of his victims. The discovery is especially troublesome for Manning because earlier in his career he brought a killer to justice who also mimicked Jack the Ripper with the same level of diabolical detail. With the same type of killings starting again Manning soon comes under the suspicion of Los Angeles police Captain Smith (Phillip Baker Hall) who suspects that Manning may have planted evidence that led to the conviction and execution of an innocent man. But all hope is not lost. As Captain Smith closes in, Manning finds himself on the killers trail…a trail that leads to a secluded residence located just off the Sunset Strip…the Bunting home.

About the Cast

ALFRED MOLINA (Chandler Manning) is a two-time BAFTA-nominated actor known the world over for playing the malicious villain Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2. But starring as THE LODGER’s life-hardened Hollywood detective Chandler Manning, says Molina, was an altogether different challenge.

“I was fascinated by the way the screenplay drew parallels between murders taking place in the 21st century and the crimes Jack the Ripper committed in 1888,” explains Molina, who says he ranks the notorious shower scene in Hitchcock’s Psycho as one of the finest movie moments ever. “The idea on two murder incidents from different times working in parallel really caught my imagination.

“And then there’s my character,” continues Molina. “I play a detective who’s got all these demons to exorcise: he’s estranged from his wife and his daughter and he’s realized that he may have accidentally sent the wrong man to the electric chair in the past. So, after landing this role, I immediately phoned the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Department and hung out with real police officers so I could get a better hold on what my character’s job entailed. I wanted to smell what a police car really smells like.”

Molina’s depiction of Chandler Manning is just one of the many roles he’s completely immersed himself in over his illustrious 30-year career. Having first realized he wanted to act after watching Kirk Douglas in Spartacus aged 9, Molina enrolled in London’s world-famous drama school Guildhall School of Music and Drama before making his movie debut in Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. His big break, however, came in 1985 when he bagged the main role in the BAFTA-nominated Brit comedy Letter to Brezhnev, followed swiftly by a lead part in Prick Up Your Ears. Credits since then have included, amongst many others, Ron Howard’s The Da Vinci Code (the second highest-grossing movie of 2006), Frida (for which he was BAFTA-nominated), Chocolat, Boogie Nights and Magnolia (both directed by Paul Thomas Anderson). He’s also played himself opposite Night At The Museum star Steve Coogan in Coffee and Cigarettes, appeared in Kenneth Branaghs’s film version of Shakespeare’s As You Like It and been twice nominated for a Tony Award. The first time was for his 1988 Broadway debut in Yasmina Reza’s Tony Award-winning play Art, the second for his show-stopping performance in the musical Fiddler on the Roof. Molina can next be seen in Humboldt Park (opposite John Leguizamo) and alongside Steve Martin and Jean Reno in Pink Panther 2.

Yet in spite of Molina’s expansive career, he admits getting to play a character as twisted and world-weary as THE LODGER’s Chandler Manning was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “Manning’s desperate to redeem himself because he’s lost sense of who he is,” he says. “So he realizes his attempt to bring down THE LODGER’s serial killer is his last real chance at redemption. Plus there’s nothing quite like working with a first-time director like David [Ondaatje] because he hasn’t got that weariness some old directors have where they’re just going through the motions. Instead he’s really passionate about the story, which makes him really inspiring to work with and watch.”

HOPE DAVIS (Ellen) is a distinctly versatile Golden Globe-nominated American actress, and was the ideal choice to play Ellen Bunting, a character she describes as “a possibly schizophrenic landlady who owns the boarding house where THE LODGER comes to stay.” Not only had Hope seen every single Hitchcock movie (“My favorite is Rear Window,” she says), she’d also developed a strong working relationship with co-star Alfred Molina (Chandler Manning) before the shoot. Having previously appeared together on the 1988 sea-faring comedy The Impostors, they’d then followed this up by both starring in the 2006 publishing drama The Hoax, also featuring Richard Gere and directed by twice Oscar®-nominated helmer Lasse “The Shipping News” Halstrom. “The only problem with shooting a movie with Alfred,” laughs Davis, “is that he keeps telling me funny jokes just before the cameras roll.”

Her CV, however, is no laughing matter. Raised in New Jersey by her engineer father and librarian mother, Davis graduated from the esteemed Vassar College in cognitive science, before turning to the world of acting. It was a shrewd move.

After appearing in such indie classics as Superbad director Greg Mottola’s adultery comedy The Daytrippers (starring Live Schreiber, Parker Posey and Stanley Tucci) and Next Stop Wonderland (with future Oscar®-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman), she was cast alongside Jeff Bridges in the terrorist thriller Arlington Road. Roles in Flatliners (directed by Joel Schumacher) and Mumford (written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan) followed, culminating with her infamous part as Jack Nicholson’s disgruntled daughter in the Oscar®-winning movie About Schmidt. Meanwhile Davis’ future projects include the highly anticipated Synecdoche, New York (written and directed by Charlie Kauffman, in which she’ll once again appear alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman), and director Michael Winterbottom’s ghost drama Genova, both out this year. But Davis says she was blown away by the prospect of working on David Ondaatje’s THE LODGER.

“I loved the story from the moment I read it,” she says. “And Jack the Ripper’s always been an intriguing subject. I remember when I lived in London briefly there were all these curious Jack the Ripper walks you could go on. Plus there was THE LODGER’s twist and the end. I don’t want to reveal too much but it’s huge.”

SIMON BAKER (Malcolm Slater) is the phenomenal Australian actor and Golden Globe-nominated star of the multiple award-winning TV legal drama The Guardian. It was his experience on this show as well as in such high-profile movies as The Devil Wears Prada (starring Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Adrian Grenier), George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead (John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper) and The Ring 2 (starring Naomi Watts and Sissy Spacek) that stood him in perfect stead to play THE LODGER’s mysterious Malcolm Slater. It is this character, played in Hitchcock’s original movie by classic Brit actor Ivor Novello, that catalysis so many haunting events in the film. “My character’s very detached from the rest of the world,” says Baker, “so as an actor it was a great part to get my teeth into.”

Despite being Antipodean, Baker’s no newcomer to Hollywood films. He’s also appeared in L.A. Confidential (starring Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce), Red Planet (with Val Kilmer, Carrie Anne-Moss and Terence Stamp), and Ride With The Devil (starring Tobey Maguire), amongst others. “But what also makes my character so appealing to play,” continues Baker, “is that you’re never quite sure whether my character’s just an affectation of Ellen’s (Hope Davis) imagination.

About the Filmmakers

DAVID ONDAATJE (Writer and Director) is a first-time filmmaker whose visual style is closely associated with David Fincher (Se7en) and Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream). Ondaatje came to prominence after winning the Bronze Plaque Award for his outstanding 1997 movie June 8.

He then followed this triumph a year later with the darkly comic Waiting for Dr. MacGuffin, starring Karen Black (House of 1000 Corpses) and Janet Rotblatt (star of the critical hit Resurrection Mary). The movie, which, like THE LODGER, he also wrote, was one of two personal tributes to Alfred Hitchcock – a legendary director whose entire cinematic cannon Ondaatje has studied extensively. Waiting for Dr MacGuffin was the story of an elderly couple who visited a dentist, only for the entire narrative to be told in a series of dreams-within-dreams. Impressively, that film also incorporated a significant collection of movie shots from Hitchcock’s own body of work into the structure of his film.

Ondaatje then embarked on another celebrated short film, the explanatory Undressing Hitchcock, in which he linked those 24 Hitchcock tribute shots from Waiting for Dr. MacGuffin to their original source material.

The similarities between Ondaatje and Hitchcock, however, don’t end there – both directors’ first full length films have been adaptations of author Marie Belloc Lowndes’ bestselling novel. The Lodger, released in 1913, was inspired by a conversation the author had with a woman she met at a dinner party who claimed Jack the Ripper had once stayed at her boarding house. The novel went on to sell over a million copies worldwide.

Yet unlike Hitchcock’s black-and-white version (1927), Ondaatje’s film, released 79 years later, is a completely original tale based on Lowndes’ premise. “Set in modern-day West Hollywood,” says Ondaatje, “the story is told from the perspective of Ellen (Hope Davis), a character with psychological problems and whom we slowly come to realize has lost touch with reality. So as a filmmaker, it’s wonderful to be able to tell the story from the standpoint of somebody who’s not completely there.”

Meanwhile, a grizzled cop (Alfred Molina) and his rookie partner (Shane West) are trying to discover which of the six suspects accused of Jack the Ripper’s unsolved crimes – dating back to Whitechapel, London, circa 1888 – the modern-day serial killer is trying to emulate. Yet don’t expect gallons of blood: Ondaatje’s film is a far subtler affair. “With horror, the audience ‘sees’ all sorts of terrible things happening, whereas with suspense they’re watching in ‘fear’ that terrible things might happen,” he says. “Surprise lasts for ten seconds, but suspense can last for hours and keeps an audience on the edge of their seats. Our movie has both, but definitely emphasizes the latter.”

MICHAEL MAILER (Producer) is the hugely prolific producer of such well-regarded movies as the romantic comedy Kettle Fish starring Matthew Modine and Gina Gershon and the Kevin Bacon starring-and-directed Loverboy, also featuring Matt Dillon, Marisa Tomei and Kyra Sedgwick. Other notable movie credits include Devour starring Shannyn Sossamon and the Neve Campbell murder movie Lost Junction, directed by Trip to Bountiful helmer Peter Masterson. Mailer, son of legendary US novelist Norman Mailer, also produced Empire starring John Leguizamo, Peter Sarsgaard and Denise Richards, and James Toback’s Black and White starring Robert Downey Jr. Mailer also co-wrote Religion, Inc starring Sandra Bullock and starred in the psychological thriller When Will I Be Loved.

SCOTT PUTMAN (Executive Producer) is the accomplished producer of the critical success Heads N TailZ, starring Billy “Sly” Williams (Happy Feet) and the Dolph Lundgren’s revenge movie The Mechanik, also featuring Ben Cross (soon to be seen next year in JJ Abram’s ‘re-imagining’ of Star Trek). Meanwhile Putman co-producer credits include Wonderland for Lionsgate (starring Kate Bosworth, Val Kilmer, and Carrie Fisher) and Sniper 2 for Sony (with Tom Berenger) – the last two of which Putman also production managed. Putman worked on Prozac Nation (starring Christina Ricci and Jason Biggs), while performing the same duties for Three Seasons on the reality TV hit Survivor.

DAVID A. ARMSTRONG (Cinematographer) is well known for his work on Saw, Saw II, Saw III and Saw IV, and is preparing to start work on the franchise’s fifth installment. Meanwhile his cinematography ensured those four movies alone grossed a combined $537 million at the box office worldwide. Yet Armstrong says working on THE LODGER saw him revel at the opportunity to hint at extreme gore, as opposed to just showing it. “The reason so many audience members came out of the theatre looking horrified after seeing both Psycho and Reservoir Dogs was because the violence was implied,” says Armstrong. “In Reservoir Dogs, you never actually see the cop’s ear get cut off, but it’s all anyone could talk about afterwards because the horror of it was left to the mind’s eye. Ridley Scott’s Alien was the same. You can’t really call that film horror because you only really see the Alien at the end.”

It’s that sense of fear that Armstrong’s brought to his cinematography in THE LODGER, while his resume speaks volumes. Past credits include Skinwalkers (starring Jason Behr, Elias Koteas and Rhona Mitra) and the Seventh Veil, (featuring Lewis Smith and Ren?e Humphrey and Christine Harnos. He also recently produced the upcoming horror movie Two: Thirteen (starring Teri Polo) and was Second Unit Director on the forthcoming Viking alien movie Outlander with James Caviezel, John Hurt and Hellboy star Ron Perlman. “But trying to work out how to toy with the audience’s imagination on THE LODGER,” says Armstrong, “is one challenge I’ve particularly enjoyed.”

FRANCO GIACOMO-CARBONE (Production Designer) first came to major prominence after winning the L.A. Outfest award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement for his production design on the graduate slasher movie Psycho Beach Party. He then worked on the set of Down In The Valley, starring Ed Norton and Evan Rachel Wood. He also provided the backdrop for director Eli Roth’s backpacker slaughter movie Hostel, before working on The Exorcist director William Friedkin’s Bug with Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon. Likewise, his paired down work on Rocky Balboa helped Sylvester Stallone garner his biggest UK box office gross ever and continued to work with Stallone on his latest war shoot-em-up Rambo.

JOHN FRIZZELL (Composer) “Uhhh…that sucks more than anything in the world has ever sucked before, huh huh,” the voice uttered as the music faded away. The voice was Butt-head’s, the music was John Frizzell’s. He had edited the insult onto his reel to get a meeting with Mike Judge. It worked. Frizzell proposed that Beavis and Butt-head should be accompanied by a massive orchestral sound with brass, soaring strings and a glorious choir singing in latin. “That will be funny,” he told Judge. And thus, Beavis and Butt-head do America was Frizzell’s first feature film score. Frizzell told Barry Hershey when he interviewed for the The Empty Mirror, a cinematic depiction of the putrid mind of Adolf HItler. Frizzell wrote a score which features 20th century techniques labeled “degenerate” by the Nazi’s to brutally distort the music of Hitler’s perverse idol, Richard Wagner. By chance, Frizzell’s score to Barry Hershey’s “The Empy Mirror” ( an arthouse depiction of the mind of Hitler) was heard by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Frizzell met with Jeunet and proposed scoring his film as an erotic fantasy. The film was Alien Resurrection and the music incorporated oddly romantic melodies juxtaposed by shrill industrial electronic chaos. Frizzell thrives when a prevailing concept is used to drive the score and shape a film. Whether a time period, location or emotional idea, Frizzell believes this concept will spontaneously lead to the right instrumentation, technology and production techniques. These will naturally begin to define the music. His first work in music was as a chorus member of the Paris Opera Company at age 12. Later, Frizzell studied jazz at The USC Thornton School of Music and Manhattan School of Music and went on to master the Synclavier (the first digital music workstation). After working as a synthesist and orchestrator for Academy Award Winning composer, Ryuichi Sakamato, Frizzell set his focus on film music. For Joel Silver, Frizzell collaborated to accomplish the logistically and technically complex task of combining the sounds of rap artist DMX with orchestral scoring. To depict the American Civil War in Ron Maxwell’s epic Gods and Generals, Frizzell composed three hours of orchestral music and brought virtuoso violinist Mark O’Connor and the legendary Paddy Maloney together for the first time. For the cult classic Office Space laziness and apathy were represented with dreamy voices and Hawaiian slide guitar. He depicted the life of a relentlessly optimistic yet impoverished mother of ten in The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. This score features playful piano, plinking ukuleles, doo-wop singers and rock-a-billy guitars to set the tone for Midwest life during the 1950′s. For The Reaping Frizzell manipulated orchestra and choir recordings electronically to generate a sound somewhere in between acoustic and synthesized. His latest score to Mark Pellington’s Henry Poole is Here focuses on a gentle blending of duduk (middle eastern wind instrument) erhu ( Chinese bowed instrument) and a violin with orchestral strings and acoustic piano. The melodies in the score are simple and childlike, a reflection of Henry Poole’s emotional journey.

WILLIAM FLICKER (Film Editor) has had a long collaboration with director David Ondaatje, beginning in 1997 when they worked together on the award-winning short, “June 8.” They have continued the alliance on a variety of projects, including the satiric Hitchcock homage, “Waiting For Dr. McGuffin,” which received an invitation to the Venice Film Festival. Known for his careful attention to detail, sure hand for narrative structure and flair for music, Mr. Flicker has worked in many genres. He has been nominated for an Emmy for his television work and received numerous honors for his trailer and commercial projects including invitations to the prestigious Cannes Trailer Festival and the Hollywood Reporter Key Art Awards. Fluent in French, Mr. Flicker lived for a number of years in Paris where he worked and collaborated with Roman Polanski and Andrzej Zulowski, among other notable directors. He has also lived in Italy, where he worked with Bernardo Bertolucci, and in Peru where he was frequently associated with Luis Llosa. Mr. Flicker grew up in New York City and currently resides in Los Angeles. He attended Brown University and was a Fellow at the American Film Institute’s Center for Advanced Film Study. Married to the interior designer Josette Flicker, they have five children together.

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Tags: Alfred Molina, and Shane West, Hope Davis, Simon Baker, the lodger