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State of Play (film)
Encyclopedia
State of Play is a 2009
French-British-American political thriller
film. It is an adaptation
of the six-part British television serial of the same name which first aired on BBC One
in 2003. The plot of the six-hour serial was condensed to fit a two-hour movie format, with the location changed to Washington, D.C. The film was directed by Kevin Macdonald
from a screenplay written by Matthew Michael Carnahan
, Tony Gilroy
, Peter Morgan
, and Billy Ray.
The film tells of a journalist's (Russell Crowe
) probe into the suspicious death of a Congressman
's (Ben Affleck
) mistress. The supporting cast includes Rachel McAdams
, Helen Mirren
, Jason Bateman
, Robin Wright Penn, and Jeff Daniels
. Macdonald said that State of Play is influenced by the films of the 1970s
and explores the topical subject of privatization of American Homeland Security
and to a minor extent journalistic independence, along with the relationship between politicians and the press. It was released in North America
on April 17, 2009.
. The following morning, a young woman is killed by a Metro train in an apparent suicide
. Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck
) of Pennsylvania
is distraught to hear the news, he claims because the woman was Sonia Baker (Maria Thayer
), a lead researcher on his staff. Collins, who has military experience, is leading an investigation into PointCorp, a private defense contractor
with controversial operations involving mercenaries
. Collins tells his old friend Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe
), an investigative reporter, that he had been having an affair with Sonia and that she had sent him a cheerful video message on the morning of her death, which he says is inconsistent behavior for someone about to commit suicide.
Della Frye (Rachel McAdams
), a reporter and blog
ger with the online division of Cal's newspaper and its editor, Cameron Lynne (Helen Mirren
), discover that Sonia's death occurred in one of only three CCTV blind spots in the Metro system. Cal believes the shootings are related to Sonia's death and finds a link between the thief and a homeless girl who sought out Cal. The homeless girl gives him photographs that the thief, a friend of hers, had stolen from the killer's briefcase. The photos show surveillance images of Sonia talking to a well-dressed man. Della visits the hospital where the pizza delivery man is regaining consciousness. While at his room she witnesses the pizza delivery man shot dead by an unseen sniper. Later, she reviews CCTV footage and recognizes a man she saw at the hospital.
It is revealed that PointCorp stands to gain $40 billion annually from its mercenary activities in the Middle East
and domestically. Cal speaks with Collins, who shares his research findings — PointCorp is cooperating with other defense contractors to create a monopoly
and purchase government surveillance and defense contracts, essentially privatizing United States security. Cal's PointCorp insider returns with the address of someone linked to the suspected assassin. Cal finds the assassin living there and calls the police, who force the man to disappear after he shoots at Cal.
Della, following a lead, finds the identity of the well-dressed man speaking to Sonia in the photographs. He is Dominic Foy (Jason Bateman
), a PR
executive working for a subsidiary of PointCorp. Cal blackmails him into talking about his activities with Sonia and secretly tapes their conversation. The PR executive reveals that Sonia was paid to spy on Collins for PointCorp, but that she fell in love with Collins and was pregnant with his child when she was killed.
Before Cal's newspaper goes to press, Collins goes on record to present his research into PointCorp. Collins' wife Anne (Robin Wright Penn) reveals that she knows the amount of money Sonia received from PointCorp, after just hearing Collins' statement to the newspaper. After the couple leaves, Cal realizes that Collins knew already that Sonia was working for PointCorp. Cal then wonders what Collins would have done had he known he had been tricked and whether Collins himself is connected with the assassin. A picture of Collins from his military days, with the assassin in the frame, confirms Cal's hunch. Collins reveals that he had been suspicious of Sonia, and that he hired the assassin to watch her. The assassin is U.S. Army Corporal Robert Bingham (Michael Berresse
), whose life Collins had once saved. Collins says that Bingham hated PointCorp more than he did and killed Sonia with no authorization from him.
Cal tells Collins that he has three minutes to leave his office before the police arrive, as he has already contacted them. As he leaves the building, Cal is confronted by Bingham. Officers arrive and shoot Bingham before he opens fire. At the office, Cal and Della type up their story with an altered version of Bingham's death (the story indicates that Bingham had committed suicide), noting that Collins was arrested.
in May–June 2003 and on BBC America
in April 2004. Abbott was initially reluctant to sell the film rights to State of Play, fearing a compressed version of his mini-series would be unworkable, but in May 2004 a seven-figure Paramount Pictures
-backed bid led by producer Scott Rudin
was accepted. The bid prevailed over an offer from Andrew Hauptman's Mission Pictures (backed by Warner Bros.
), but the deal fell through before completion. After a second bidding war
, Mission acquired the rights for Universal Pictures
in December 2004.
Director Kevin Macdonald
had long been attached to the project, though an early report suggested screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan
was set to make the film his directorial debut. Macdonald was a fan of the original mini-series, 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 "[ask] questions of how independent the press is, how much real investigating is conducted, and how much is taken on faith from lobbyists
or PR
sheets." Macdonald cited the films of the 1970s
, All the President's Men
in particular, as major influences, saying that while he was scared of comparisons with the film account of the Watergate scandal
, 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 they were 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 Bourne film series
screenwriter Tony Gilroy
, who performed a small rewrite based upon Carnahan's notes. Further rewrites were carried out by The Queen
screenwriter Peter Morgan
and Shattered Glass writer/director Billy Ray.
The film was made for Universal Pictures by Working Title Films
. Eric Fellner
and Tim Bevan
produced for Working Title, alongside E. Bennett Walsh, and Andell Entertainment
's Andrew Hauptman and Eric Hayes. Paul Abbott executive produced alongside Liza Chasin
and Debra Hayward
. Kristen Lowe and Maradith Frenkel were overseers for the studio. State of Play was to be released in the United States towards 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.
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
(2006). Macdonald had also been working with Pitt's production company Plan B Entertainment
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
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 was in disagreement with the studio over changes that had been made to the script since he originally agreed to star. Talent agency CAA (which represents Pitt) maintained that he never officially 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 called the director himself to say so. 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 was 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 [the film] should be, and the director had his definite beliefs [and] we 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 also 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
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 unlikely to as one 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 roles as Robin Hood and Sheriff of Nottingham in Nottingham. During filming in Washington, D.C., Crowe acquired an education in journalism from The Washington Posts 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
noted that hiring an A-list
American actor (Pitt) for the lead role was sidelining original McAffrey actor John Simm
, 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
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
in Washington, D.C., the production employed the presence of several real-world journalists amongst the extras in a scene in which Wright-Penn's character makes a statement to the press. The group included Bob Woodward
, Margaret Carlson
, Bob Schieffer
, John Palmer
, E. J. Dionne
, Katty Kay
, and Steven Clemons
. Additionally featured are cameos by real-life news media commentators Lou Dobbs
of CNN and Chris Matthews
of MSNBC. Long-time Washington, DC area sportscaster Frank Herzog
also has a non-speaking cameo as a congressman present at the PointCorp hearings.
Affleck replaced Edward Norton
, who had joined the project in September 2007, but when the start of production was delayed due to Pitt's departure, a scheduling conflict developed for Norton with Leaves of Grass
, which he was committed to film for Tim Blake Nelson
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 (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
to research his role, meeting with Speaker
Nancy Pelosi
, Representative
Anthony D. Weiner
of New York's 9th congressional district
, 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, Elliot Spitzer, and John Edwards while preparing for the role.
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
'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 "massive" 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
s newsroom to help her develop the journalists' looks. The production moved to Washington, D.C. for five weeks of location filming towards the end of the shoot, commencing on March 6, 2008. More than a third of State of Play was shot in Washington, D.C., 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
, 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 to shoot a chase scene for the film's opening sequence.
Filming took place on various streets in Washington, D.C., including the U Street Corridor
, and at "practically every major landmark", including outside the headquarters of the World Bank
on Pennsylvania Avenue
, around Capitol Hill
, at the Supreme Court building
, outside the Library of Congress, and at the Washington Monument
. Other locations included landmark restaurant Ben's Chili Bowl
, where restaurant workers were employed as extras, and the Maine Avenue Fish Market
. 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
building was used to double as a hospital entrance. In preparation for filming, eighteen two-foot by three-foot photographs of Secretary
Alphonso Jackson
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 in Washington, D.C. doubled 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
. Filming for the scene took place at the Rosslyn Metro station
in Virginia
. 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
.
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, D.C. in other films that have come up against the Metro's rules, because "To shoot any other subway, you would know you're not in Washington."
Scenes were filmed at the Watergate complex
, for which the production was granted permission to use the roof of a George Washington University campus building. Scenes were also filmed in the morgue
of the St. Mary Medical Center
in Long Beach, California
. Washington, D.C. 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
temple in Washington, D.C. Maryland's Montgomery Blair High School
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
's Winter guard
to act as color guard
for the scene. Macdonald's aim was to recreate a famous 1970s Canadian photograph, which depicts rifle-twirling majorettes
, 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 in the principal photography stage.
Rodrigo Prieto
indicated that the film was shot in two distinct visual styles: scenes featuring the media were shot in the anamorphic format
on 35 mm film
, while scenes focusing on the world of politics were shot in high-definition video
with the Panavision Genesis
digital video camera. Hand-held camera
s have been used. For color management
, Prieto employed Gamma & Density Company's 3cP color management and correction software, using the American Society of Cinematographers
' Color Decision List to keep color consistent throughout shooting, dailies
, post and DI
. The digital effects were handled by Rhythm and Hues.
, who provided the music for Macdonald's One Day in September
, Touching the Void
, and The Last King of Scotland
, 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 will be conducting the orchestra himself to enable re-scoring as the recording session proceeds. Macdonald prefers to involve Heffes 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
-winning record producer "Flood" (aka Mark Ellis) is working 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.
, State Of Play currently has an 84% "fresh" rating from critics, with an average
score of 6.9/10. Metacritic
, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 64 out of 100 based on 36 reviews from mainstream critics. Philip Kemp from Total Film
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
of the Chicago Sun Times 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".
As of April 1, 2011 the film has grossed a total of $91,445,389.
2009 in film
The year 2009 saw the release of many films. Seven made the top 50 list of highest-grossing films, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that as of this year, their Best Picture category would consist of ten nominees, rather than five .- Highest-grossing films :Please note...
French-British-American political thriller
Political thriller
A political thriller is a thriller that is set against the backdrop of a political power struggle. They usually involve various extra-legal plots, designed to give political power to someone, while his opponents try to stop him. They can involve national or international political scenarios....
film. It is an adaptation
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of the six-part British television serial of the same name which first aired on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
in 2003. The plot of the six-hour serial was condensed to fit a two-hour movie format, with the location changed to Washington, D.C. The film was directed by Kevin Macdonald
Kevin MacDonald (director)
Kevin Macdonald is a Scottish director, best known for his films One Day in September, State of Play, The Last King of Scotland and Touching the Void.-Personal life:...
from a screenplay written by Matthew Michael Carnahan
Matthew Michael Carnahan
Matthew Michael Carnahan is an American screenwriter who wrote the feature films The Kingdom , Lions for Lambs and the film adaptation of both the hit BBC television drama serial State of Play and the novel White Jazz. Carnahan wrote the screenplay for Lions for Lambs for United Artists...
, Tony Gilroy
Tony Gilroy
Anthony Joseph "Tony" Gilroy is an American screenwriter and filmmaker. He wrote the screenplays for the Bourne series starring Matt Damon, among other successful films. He has been nominated for Academy Awards for his direction and script for Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney...
, Peter Morgan
Peter Morgan
Peter Morgan may refer to:* Peter Morgan , British sports car manufacturer* Peter Morgan , 1978 British Formula Ford champion* Peter Morgan , Wales and British lions international...
, and Billy Ray.
The film tells of a journalist's (Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe
Russell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...
) probe into the suspicious death of a Congressman
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
's (Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...
) mistress. The supporting cast includes Rachel McAdams
Rachel McAdams
Rachel Anne McAdams is a Canadian actress. After graduating from a theatre program at York University, Toronto in 2001, she worked steadily as an actress until finding fame in 2004 with starring roles in teen comedy Mean Girls and romantic drama The Notebook...
, Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
, Jason Bateman
Jason Bateman
Jason Kent Bateman is an American television and film actor. After appearing in several 1980s and 1990s sitcoms including It's Your Move, and The Hogan Family, Bateman came to prominence in the early 2000s for playing Michael Bluth on Arrested Development, for which he won a TV Land, a Golden...
, Robin Wright Penn, and Jeff Daniels
Jeff Daniels
Jeffrey Warren "Jeff" Daniels is an American actor, musician and playwright. He founded a non-profit theatre company, the Purple Rose Theatre Company, in his home state of Michigan...
. Macdonald said that State of Play is influenced by the films of the 1970s
1970s in film
The decade of the 1970s in film involved many significant films.----Contents1 World cinema2 Hollywood3 List of films: # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z.4 Events-World cinema:...
and explores the topical subject of privatization of American Homeland Security
Homeland security
Homeland security is an umbrella term for security efforts to protect states against terrorist activity. Specifically, is a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the U.S., reduce America’s vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do...
and to a minor extent journalistic independence, along with the relationship between politicians and the press. It was released in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
on April 17, 2009.
Plot
One night, a thief fleeing through Georgetown in Washington, DC is shot by a man carrying a briefcase. A pizza delivery man who witnesses the incident is also shot by the killer and is left in a comaComa
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
. The following morning, a young woman is killed by a Metro train in an apparent suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...
) of Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
is distraught to hear the news, he claims because the woman was Sonia Baker (Maria Thayer
Maria Thayer
Maria Thayer is an American actress from Boring, Oregon, known for her roles as Wyoma in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Rory in Accepted and Tammi Littlenut in Strangers with Candy. In Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Thayer plays a Mormon newlywed on her honeymoon with her new husband, played by Jack...
), a lead researcher on his staff. Collins, who has military experience, is leading an investigation into PointCorp, a private defense contractor
Private military company
A private military company or provides military and security services. These combatants are commonly known as mercenaries, though modern-day PMCs refer to their staff as security contractors, private military contractors or private security contractors, and refer to themselves as private military...
with controversial operations involving mercenaries
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
. Collins tells his old friend Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe
Russell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...
), an investigative reporter, that he had been having an affair with Sonia and that she had sent him a cheerful video message on the morning of her death, which he says is inconsistent behavior for someone about to commit suicide.
Della Frye (Rachel McAdams
Rachel McAdams
Rachel Anne McAdams is a Canadian actress. After graduating from a theatre program at York University, Toronto in 2001, she worked steadily as an actress until finding fame in 2004 with starring roles in teen comedy Mean Girls and romantic drama The Notebook...
), a reporter and blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger with the online division of Cal's newspaper and its editor, Cameron Lynne (Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
), discover that Sonia's death occurred in one of only three CCTV blind spots in the Metro system. Cal believes the shootings are related to Sonia's death and finds a link between the thief and a homeless girl who sought out Cal. The homeless girl gives him photographs that the thief, a friend of hers, had stolen from the killer's briefcase. The photos show surveillance images of Sonia talking to a well-dressed man. Della visits the hospital where the pizza delivery man is regaining consciousness. While at his room she witnesses the pizza delivery man shot dead by an unseen sniper. Later, she reviews CCTV footage and recognizes a man she saw at the hospital.
It is revealed that PointCorp stands to gain $40 billion annually from its mercenary activities in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and domestically. Cal speaks with Collins, who shares his research findings — PointCorp is cooperating with other defense contractors to create a monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
and purchase government surveillance and defense contracts, essentially privatizing United States security. Cal's PointCorp insider returns with the address of someone linked to the suspected assassin. Cal finds the assassin living there and calls the police, who force the man to disappear after he shoots at Cal.
Della, following a lead, finds the identity of the well-dressed man speaking to Sonia in the photographs. He is Dominic Foy (Jason Bateman
Jason Bateman
Jason Kent Bateman is an American television and film actor. After appearing in several 1980s and 1990s sitcoms including It's Your Move, and The Hogan Family, Bateman came to prominence in the early 2000s for playing Michael Bluth on Arrested Development, for which he won a TV Land, a Golden...
), a PR
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
executive working for a subsidiary of PointCorp. Cal blackmails him into talking about his activities with Sonia and secretly tapes their conversation. The PR executive reveals that Sonia was paid to spy on Collins for PointCorp, but that she fell in love with Collins and was pregnant with his child when she was killed.
Before Cal's newspaper goes to press, Collins goes on record to present his research into PointCorp. Collins' wife Anne (Robin Wright Penn) reveals that she knows the amount of money Sonia received from PointCorp, after just hearing Collins' statement to the newspaper. After the couple leaves, Cal realizes that Collins knew already that Sonia was working for PointCorp. Cal then wonders what Collins would have done had he known he had been tricked and whether Collins himself is connected with the assassin. A picture of Collins from his military days, with the assassin in the frame, confirms Cal's hunch. Collins reveals that he had been suspicious of Sonia, and that he hired the assassin to watch her. The assassin is U.S. Army Corporal Robert Bingham (Michael Berresse
Michael Berresse
Michael Berresse is an American actor, dancer, choreographer, and director. The son of artist and author Cynthia Berresse Ploski, he has appeared on Broadway in many shows including: Kiss Me, Kate, Chicago, Fiddler on the Roof, Carousel and Damn Yankees, and The Light in the Piazza as Giuseppe...
), whose life Collins had once saved. Collins says that Bingham hated PointCorp more than he did and killed Sonia with no authorization from him.
Cal tells Collins that he has three minutes to leave his office before the police arrive, as he has already contacted them. As he leaves the building, Cal is confronted by Bingham. Officers arrive and shoot Bingham before he opens fire. At the office, Cal and Della type up their story with an altered version of Bingham's death (the story indicates that Bingham had committed suicide), noting that Collins was arrested.
Cast
- Russell CroweRussell CroweRussell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...
plays Cal McAffrey. The character is a "road smart" reporter, described by Kevin Macdonald as "[representing] the old world journalist, the shining knight who is after the truth". - Ben AffleckBen AffleckBenjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...
plays Congressman Stephen Collins. - Rachel McAdamsRachel McAdamsRachel Anne McAdams is a Canadian actress. After graduating from a theatre program at York University, Toronto in 2001, she worked steadily as an actress until finding fame in 2004 with starring roles in teen comedy Mean Girls and romantic drama The Notebook...
plays Della Frye, a popular blogBlogA blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger turned junior political reporter who finds herself in the midst of the career-making story. She is being mentored by Crowe's character, but they have different opinions about presenting the story. Crowe said McCaffrey is more concerned with the corporate viewpoint, with Frye seeing it from a more personal position: "There's a consistent battle between the two of us to try and find out which one of those points of views is right." McAdams said she was fascinated with the evolution of journalism in the United States, and that she said she was curious to examine whether her character's "new breed" of journalism was as accurate as more traditional forms. McAdams visited The Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
in October 2007 in order to research the role. However, she based her look on Baltimore Sun reporter Julie Bykowicz after viewing photos of reporters there. - Helen MirrenHelen MirrenDame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
plays Cameron Lynne. Mirren was cast as the ruthless editor of the Washington Globe (the newspaper investigating the story) in September 2007. Producer Andrew Hauptman said of the character, "She's the one in control... she makes it known that she's strong, old school—a real Fleet StreetFleet StreetFleet Street is a street in central London, United Kingdom, named after the River Fleet, a stream that now flows underground. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s...
type." Mirren indicated that Lynne would be English. The delay to the production caused by Pitt's departure initially put Mirren's participation in doubt, as she was due to appear in the film Love Ranch for husband Taylor HackfordTaylor HackfordTaylor Edwin Hackford is an American film director, and the current president of the Directors Guild of America.-Early life:Hackford was born in Santa Barbara, California, the son of Mary , a waitress, and Joseph Hackford...
in March 2008, but a revised production date enabled her to remain attached to the project. - Jason BatemanJason BatemanJason Kent Bateman is an American television and film actor. After appearing in several 1980s and 1990s sitcoms including It's Your Move, and The Hogan Family, Bateman came to prominence in the early 2000s for playing Michael Bluth on Arrested Development, for which he won a TV Land, a Golden...
plays Dominic Foy, a wealthy public relationsPublic relationsPublic relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
executive who is a pill popping bisexualBisexualityBisexuality is sexual behavior or an orientation involving physical or romantic attraction to both males and females, especially with regard to men and women. It is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation, along with a heterosexual and a homosexual orientation, all a part of the...
who has information that Crowe's character wants. Bateman said the role was "about a 15-page segment of the film" and that Foy "goes from A to Z in 15 pages". he primarily wears leather, and has an OxyContin addiction. None of these elements were present in the original. McAdams said Bateman was "experimenting with his dark side" with the character, but that "it has a lot of humor". - Michael BerresseMichael BerresseMichael Berresse is an American actor, dancer, choreographer, and director. The son of artist and author Cynthia Berresse Ploski, he has appeared on Broadway in many shows including: Kiss Me, Kate, Chicago, Fiddler on the Roof, Carousel and Damn Yankees, and The Light in the Piazza as Giuseppe...
plays Robert Bingham, a "sociopathic assassin", whom Berresse called "the darkest character in the movie". The role is Berresse's largest of his film acting career. - Robin Wright Penn as Anne Collins, Stephen Collins' estranged wife
- Jeff DanielsJeff DanielsJeffrey Warren "Jeff" Daniels is an American actor, musician and playwright. He founded a non-profit theatre company, the Purple Rose Theatre Company, in his home state of Michigan...
as Representative George Fergus. - Rob BenedictRob BenedictRobert Patrick Benedict is an American stage and screen actor. He is perhaps best known for his work on the television science-fiction series Threshold and the college drama Felicity.-Biography:...
as Milt. - Harry Lennix as Detective Donald Bell.
- Viola DavisViola DavisViola Davis is an American actress.Known primarily as a stage actress, Davis won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play and a Drama Desk Award for her role in King Hedley II . She won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her role in the...
as Dr. Judith Franklin, a pathologistPathologyPathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....
and friend of Cal's.
Production
The mini-television series was written by Paul Abbott and aired on British television channel BBC OneBBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
in May–June 2003 and on BBC America
BBC America
BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...
in April 2004. Abbott was initially reluctant to sell the film rights to State of Play, fearing a compressed version of his mini-series would be unworkable, but in May 2004 a seven-figure Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
-backed bid led by producer Scott Rudin
Scott Rudin
Scott Rudin is an American film producer and a theatrical producer.-Early life and work:Scott Rudin was born in New York City, NY, on July 14, 1958, and raised in the town of Baldwin on Long Island. At the age of sixteen, he started working as an assistant to theatre producer Kermit Bloomgarden...
was accepted. The bid prevailed over an offer from Andrew Hauptman's Mission Pictures (backed by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
), but the deal fell through before completion. After a second bidding war
Auction
An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...
, Mission acquired the rights for Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
in December 2004.
Director Kevin Macdonald
Kevin MacDonald (director)
Kevin Macdonald is a Scottish director, best known for his films One Day in September, State of Play, The Last King of Scotland and Touching the Void.-Personal life:...
had long been attached to the project, though an early report suggested screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan
Matthew Michael Carnahan
Matthew Michael Carnahan is an American screenwriter who wrote the feature films The Kingdom , Lions for Lambs and the film adaptation of both the hit BBC television drama serial State of Play and the novel White Jazz. Carnahan wrote the screenplay for Lions for Lambs for United Artists...
was set to make the film his directorial debut. Macdonald was a fan of the original mini-series, 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 "[ask] questions of how independent the press is, how much real investigating is conducted, and how much is taken on faith from lobbyists
Lobbying
Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...
or PR
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
sheets." Macdonald cited the films of the 1970s
1970s in film
The decade of the 1970s in film involved many significant films.----Contents1 World cinema2 Hollywood3 List of films: # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z.4 Events-World cinema:...
, All the President's Men
All the President's Men (film)
All the President's Men is a 1976 Academy Award-winning political thriller film based on the 1974 non-fiction book of the same name by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two journalists investigating the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post...
in particular, as major influences, saying that while he was scared of comparisons with the film account of the Watergate scandal
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
, 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 they were 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 Bourne film series
Bourne (film series)
The Bourne films are a series of dramatic films based on the character Jason Bourne, a former CIA assassin suffering from extreme memory loss, created by author Robert Ludlum. All three of Ludlum's novels were adapted for the screen, featuring Matt Damon as the titular character in each...
screenwriter Tony Gilroy
Tony Gilroy
Anthony Joseph "Tony" Gilroy is an American screenwriter and filmmaker. He wrote the screenplays for the Bourne series starring Matt Damon, among other successful films. He has been nominated for Academy Awards for his direction and script for Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney...
, who performed a small rewrite based upon Carnahan's notes. Further rewrites were carried out by The Queen
The Queen (film)
The Queen is a 2006 British drama film directed by Stephen Frears, written by Peter Morgan, and starring Helen Mirren as the title role, HM Queen Elizabeth II...
screenwriter Peter Morgan
Peter Morgan
Peter Morgan may refer to:* Peter Morgan , British sports car manufacturer* Peter Morgan , 1978 British Formula Ford champion* Peter Morgan , Wales and British lions international...
and Shattered Glass writer/director Billy Ray.
The film was made for Universal Pictures by Working Title Films
Working Title Films
Working Title Films is a British film production company, based in London, UK. The company was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. It produces feature films and several television productions, including films starring comic actor Rowan Atkinson...
. Eric Fellner
Eric Fellner
-Life and career:Fellner went to Cranleigh School in Surrey, England from 1972-77. He attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He is a good friend of Hugh Grant, who is the star of some of Working Title's biggest box office hits. Fellner and his long-time partner, model Laura...
and Tim Bevan
Tim Bevan
Tim Bevan, CBE is a film producer.Bevan was born in Queenstown, New Zealand. He co-founded Working Title Films in London with Sarah Radclyffe in the 1980s....
produced for Working Title, alongside E. Bennett Walsh, and Andell Entertainment
Andell Holdings
Andell Holdings is a Los Angeles-based private investment firm with global business and investment interests.Andell Holdings was named after Andrew and Ellen Hauptman, the two principal owners, using the first portions of each of their names . Andell is the principal investor in both the Chicago...
's Andrew Hauptman and Eric Hayes. Paul Abbott executive produced alongside Liza Chasin
Liza Chasin
Liza Chasin is an American film producer. She is the president of the American production arm of Working Title Films.-Biography:Liza Chasin is a graduate of NYU Film School. Prior to joining Working Title Films Chasin worked for several years in various production capacities in New York-based...
and Debra Hayward
Debra Hayward
Debra Hayward is a British film producer. As Head of Film at Working Title Films Debra frequently served as an executive producer for the company's feature films, working alongside fellow Working Title executive Liza Chasin...
. Kristen Lowe and Maradith Frenkel were overseers for the studio. State of Play was to be released in the United States towards 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 PittBrad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
had a long association with the main role. He was initially attracted to the project after watching Macdonald's documentary Touching the Void
Touching the Void (film)
Touching the Void is a 2003 documentary film based on the book of the same name by Joe Simpson about Simpson's and Simon Yates' disastrous and near fatal attempt to climb the 6,344 metre Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.-Outline:...
(2003), and had enjoyed the director's film The Last King of Scotland
The Last King of Scotland (film)
The Last King of Scotland is a 2006 British drama film based on Giles Foden's novel of the same name, adapted by screenwriters Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock, and directed by Kevin Macdonald...
(2006). Macdonald had also been working with Pitt's production company Plan B Entertainment
Plan B Entertainment
Plan B Entertainment is a film production company founded by Brad Pitt, Brad Grey, and Jennifer Aniston. In 2006, Pitt became the sole owner; the company currently holds a release deal with Paramount Pictures, along with Warner Bros...
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
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
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 was in disagreement with the studio over changes that had been made to the script since he originally agreed to star. Talent agency CAA (which represents Pitt) maintained that he never officially 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 called the director himself to say so. 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
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
The 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, more commonly referred to as simply the Writers' Strike, was a strike by the Writers Guild of America, East and the Writers Guild of America, West ....
, which would have enabled a further rewrite. The studio preferred to press on with production, and initially said it was 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 [the film] should be, and the director had his definite beliefs [and] we 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 also 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
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...
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 unlikely to as one 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 roles as Robin Hood and Sheriff of Nottingham in Nottingham. During filming in Washington, D.C., Crowe acquired an education in journalism from The Washington Posts 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
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
noted that hiring an A-list
A-list
A-list is a term that alludes to major movie stars, or the most bankable in the Hollywood film industry.The A-list is part of a larger guide called The Hot List that has become an industry-standard guide in Hollywood...
American actor (Pitt) for the lead role was sidelining original McAffrey actor John Simm
John Simm
John Simm is an English stage and screen actor. In recent years he is best known for his roles as Sam Tyler in the detective drama Life on Mars and as The Master in the revival of the science fiction series Doctor Who, but he has also starred in many highly acclaimed award-winning television...
, 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
The Stage is a weekly British newspaper founded in 1880, available nationally and published on Thursdays. Covering all areas of the entertainment industry but focused primarily on theatre, it contains news, reviews, opinion, features and other items of interest, mainly to those who work within the...
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
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
in Washington, D.C., the production employed the presence of several real-world journalists amongst the extras in a scene in which Wright-Penn's character makes a statement to the press. The group included Bob Woodward
Bob Woodward
Robert Upshur Woodward is an American investigative journalist and non-fiction author. He has worked for The Washington Post since 1971 as a reporter, and is currently an associate editor of the Post....
, Margaret Carlson
Margaret Carlson
Margaret Carlson is an American journalist and a columnist for Bloomberg News.-Biography:She is best known for being the first female columnist at TIME magazine. Carlson joined Time in January 1988 from The New Republic, where she was managing editor; in 1994, she became the first female columnist...
, Bob Schieffer
Bob Schieffer
Bob Lloyd Schieffer is an American television journalist who has been with CBS News since 1969, serving 23 years as anchor on the Saturday edition of CBS Evening News from 1973 to 1996; chief Washington correspondent since 1982, moderator of the Sunday public affairs show Face the Nation since...
, John Palmer
John Palmer (TV journalist)
John Spencer Palmer is a former news correspondent for NBC News. He worked for the network over the course of 40 years, first from 1962 to 1990; and again from 1994 until his retirement in 2002...
, E. J. Dionne
E. J. Dionne
Eugene Joseph "E.J." Dionne, Jr. is an American journalist and political commentator, and a long-time op-ed columnist for The Washington Post...
, Katty Kay
Katty Kay
Katty Kay is an English journalist and correspondent, based at the Washington, D.C. bureau of BBC News. She also blogs at the website True/Slant and is a Board Member at the IWMF .-Biography:...
, and Steven Clemons
Steven Clemons
Steven Craig Clemons is an American blogger. He is the publisher of the popular political blog, The Washington Note, and a former staff member of Senator Jeff Bingaman...
. Additionally featured are cameos by real-life news media commentators Lou Dobbs
Lou Dobbs
Louis Carl "Lou" Dobbs is an American journalist, radio host, television host on the Fox Business Network, and author. He anchored CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight until November 2009 when he announced on the air that he would leave the 24-hour cable news television network.He was born in Texas and lived...
of CNN and Chris Matthews
Chris Matthews
Christopher John "Chris" Matthews is an American news anchor and political commentator, known for his nightly hour-long talk show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, which is televised on the American cable television channel MSNBC...
of MSNBC. Long-time Washington, DC area sportscaster Frank Herzog
Frank Herzog
Frank Herzog is a former American sportscaster, best known for his role as a play-by-play announcer for Washington Redskins radio broadcasts from 1979 to 2004, where he teamed with Sam Huff and Sonny Jurgensen...
also has a non-speaking cameo as a congressman present at the PointCorp hearings.
Affleck replaced Edward Norton
Edward Norton
Edward Harrison Norton is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and producer. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...
, who had joined the project in September 2007, but when the start of production was delayed due to Pitt's departure, a scheduling conflict developed for Norton with Leaves of Grass
Leaves of Grass (film)
Leaves of Grass is an American black comedy/drama film written and directed by Tim Blake Nelson. It stars Edward Norton, Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon, Melanie Lynskey and Keri Russell. The film, released on September 17, 2010, is in limited release by Millennium Pictures...
, which he was committed to film for Tim Blake Nelson
Tim Blake Nelson
Tim Blake Nelson is an American director, writer, singer, and actor.-Early life:Nelson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Ruth Kaiser Nelson, who is a noted social activist and philanthropist in Tulsa, and a geologist father...
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 (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
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
to research his role, meeting with Speaker
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...
, Representative
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Anthony D. Weiner
Anthony D. Weiner
Anthony David Weiner is a former U.S. Representative who served from January 1999 until June 2011. A Democrat, Weiner held the seat previously occupied by Democrat Charles Schumer and won seven terms, never receiving less than 59 percent of the vote...
of New York's 9th congressional district
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. It includes parts of southern Brooklyn and south central Queens...
, and members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation
United States Congressional Delegations from Massachusetts
These are complete tables of congressional delegations from Massachusetts to the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives. Eleven of the twelve members of the current delegation are Democrats and one is a Republican.-United States Senate:...
. In an April 2009 interview to promote the film, Affleck said he drew on the experiences of Gary Condit, Elliot Spitzer, and John Edwards while preparing for the role.
Filming
Principal photographyPrincipal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
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
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
'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 Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun is the U.S. state of Maryland’s largest general circulation daily newspaper and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries....
s newsroom to help her develop the journalists' looks. The production moved to Washington, D.C. for five weeks of location filming towards the end of the shoot, commencing on March 6, 2008. More than a third of State of Play was shot in Washington, D.C., 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, Washington, D.C.
Shaw is a neighborhood located in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. It is roughly bounded by M Street, NW or Massachusetts Avenue NW to the south; New Jersey Avenue, NW to the east; Florida Avenue, NW to the north; and 11th Street, NW to the west...
, and Mount Pleasant
Mount Pleasant, Washington, D.C.
Mount Pleasant is a neighborhood in the northwestern quadrant of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The neighborhood is bounded by Rock Creek Park to the north and west; and Harvard Street, NW and the Adams Morgan neighborhood to the south; and Sixteenth Street, NW and the Columbia...
. 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
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Georgetown is a neighborhood located in northwest Washington, D.C., situated along the Potomac River. Founded in 1751, the port of Georgetown predated the establishment of the federal district and the City of Washington by 40 years...
, menswear store The District Line was transformed into a household goods store to shoot a chase scene for the film's opening sequence.
Filming took place on various streets in Washington, D.C., including the U Street Corridor
U Street Corridor
The U Street Corridor is a commercial and residential neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C with many shops, restaurants, nightclubs, art galleries, and music venues along a nine-block stretch of U Street. It extends from 9th Street on the east to 18th Street and Florida Avenue on the west...
, and at "practically every major landmark", including outside the headquarters of the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
on Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue is a street in Washington, D.C. that joins the White House and the United States Capitol. Called "America's Main Street", it is the location of official parades and processions, as well as protest marches...
, around Capitol Hill
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
, at the Supreme Court building
United States Supreme Court building
The Supreme Court Building is the seat of the Supreme Court of the United States. It is situated in Washington, D.C. at 1 First Street, NE, on the block immediately east of the United States Capitol. The building is under the jurisdiction of the Architect of the Capitol. On May 4, 1987, the Supreme...
, outside the Library of Congress, and at the Washington Monument
Washington Monument
The Washington Monument is an obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate the first U.S. president, General George Washington...
. Other locations included landmark restaurant Ben's Chili Bowl
Ben's Chili Bowl
Ben's Chili Bowl is a landmark restaurant in Washington, D.C., located at 1213 U Street, next to Lincoln Theatre, in the Shaw neighborhood of northwest D.C. It is known locally for its chili dogs, half-smokes, and milkshakes, and has been an integral part of the neighborhood's history since its...
, where restaurant workers were employed as extras, and the Maine Avenue Fish Market
Maine Avenue Fish Market
The Maine Avenue Fish Market of Washington, D.C., also known as "the Wharf" or "the Fish Wharf", is one of the few surviving open air seafood markets on the east coast. In operation since 1805, it is the oldest continuously operating fish market in the United States, 17 years older than New York...
. The Americana Hotel in Crystal City
Crystal City, Virginia
Crystal City is an urban neighborhood in the southeastern corner of Arlington County, Virginia, south of downtown Washington, D.C.. Its residents can live, shop, and work without going outside, due to its extensive integration of office buildings and residential high-rise buildings using...
was also used for the scenes in which McAffrey interrogates Dominic Foy. The exterior of the Department of Housing and Urban Development
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, also known as HUD, is a Cabinet department in the Executive branch of the United States federal government...
building was used to double as a hospital entrance. In preparation for filming, eighteen two-foot by three-foot photographs of Secretary
United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
The United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development is the head of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, a member of the President's Cabinet, and thirteenth in the Presidential line of succession. The post was created with the formation of the Department of Housing...
Alphonso Jackson
Alphonso Jackson
Alphonso Jackson served as the 13th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development . He was nominated by President George W. Bush on January 28, 2004 and unanimously confirmed by the Senate on March 31, 2004. On March 31, 2008, Jackson announced his resignation, effective April 18,...
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 in Washington, D.C. doubled as the home of Affleck's character.
Washington Metro
The Washington Metro, commonly called Metro, and unofficially Metrorail, is the rapid transit system in Washington, D.C., United States, and its surrounding suburbs. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority , which also operates Metrobus service under the Metro name...
. Filming for the scene took place at the Rosslyn Metro station
Rosslyn (Washington Metro)
Rosslyn is a rapid transit station on the Blue and Orange Lines of the Washington Metro in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia. One of three interchange points on the Metrorail system west of the Potomac River and located in a growing business district, Rosslyn is the busiest station...
in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. 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
Forest Glen (Washington Metro)
Forest Glen is a side platformed Washington Metro station in Forest Glen, Maryland, United States. The station was opened on September 22, 1990, and is operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority . Its opening coincided with the completion of of rail north of the Silver Spring...
in Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
.
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, D.C. in other films that have come up against the Metro's rules, because "To shoot any other subway, you would know you're not in Washington."
Scenes were filmed at the Watergate complex
Watergate complex
The Watergate complex is a group of five buildings next to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. in the United States. The site contains an office building, three apartment buildings, and a hotel-office building...
, for which the production was granted permission to use the roof of a George Washington University campus building. Scenes were also filmed in the morgue
Morgue
A morgue or mortuary is used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification, or removal for autopsy or disposal by burial, cremation or otherwise...
of the St. Mary Medical Center
St. Mary Medical Center (Long Beach)
St. Mary Medical Center is a hospital in Long Beach, California, USA. It is currently operated by Catholic Healthcare West. SMMC has all private acute care rooms for patients.-Services:...
in Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
. Washington, D.C. 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
Scottish Rite
The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry , commonly known as simply the Scottish Rite, is one of several Rites of the worldwide fraternity known as Freemasonry...
temple in Washington, D.C. Maryland's Montgomery Blair High School
Montgomery Blair High School
Montgomery Blair High School is a public high school located in unincorporated Silver Spring in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States...
provided a marching band for the background. They were joined by players from the school's production of the Beauty and the Beast musical
Beauty and the Beast (musical)
Beauty and the Beast is a musical with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice and a book by Linda Woolverton, based on the 1991 Disney film of the same name. Seven new songs were written for the stage musical...
and students from Paint Branch High School
Paint Branch High School
Paint Branch High School is a high school located in Burtonsville, an unincorporated section of Montgomery County, Maryland.It is named after the Paint Branch creek. The school was founded in 1969 and is part of the Montgomery County Public Schools System. The school lies on Old Columbia Pike,...
's Winter guard
Winter guard
Winter guard is an indoor color guard activity, derived from marching band or drum & bugle corps. Unlike traditional color guard, winter guard is performed indoors, usually in a gymnasium or an indoor arena...
to act as color guard
Color guard
In the military of the United States and other militaries, the color guard carries the National Color and other flags appropriate to its position in the chain of command. Typically these include a unit flag and a departmental flag...
for the scene. Macdonald's aim was to recreate a famous 1970s Canadian photograph, which depicts rifle-twirling majorettes
Majorettes
Baton twirling is an activity involving the manipulation of a metal rod and the human body to a coordinated routine and is similar to rhythmic gymnastics or color guard . Twirling combines dance and gymnastics while manipulating a single baton or multiple batons. It is primarily performed with the...
, 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
Francis Scott Key Bridge (Washington)
The Francis Scott Key Bridge, more commonly known as the Key Bridge, is a six-lane reinforced concrete arch bridge conveying U.S. Route 29 traffic across the Potomac River between the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington County, Virginia and the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C...
in Georgetown on April 6, 2008 was the last in the principal photography stage.
Effects
Director of photographyCinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
Rodrigo Prieto
Rodrigo Prieto
-Life and career:Prieto was born in Mexico City, Mexico. His grandfather was mayor of Mexico City and leader of the Chamber of Deputies of Mexico, but was later persecuted by the country's ruler because of political differences. The grandfather escaped with his family to Texas and then to Los...
indicated that the film was shot in two distinct visual styles: scenes featuring the media were shot in the anamorphic format
Anamorphic format
Anamorphic format is a term that can be used either for: the cinematography technique of capturing a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film, or other visual recording media, with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio; or a photographic projection format in which the original image requires an...
on 35 mm film
35 mm film
35 mm film is the film gauge most commonly used for chemical still photography and motion pictures. The name of the gauge refers to the width of the photographic film, which consists of strips 35 millimeters in width...
, while scenes focusing on the world of politics were shot in high-definition video
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
with the Panavision Genesis
Genesis (Panavision)
The Genesis is Panavision's high-end digital movie camera, which uses a proprietary, full frame 35mm-width, 1.78:1 aspect ratio, 12.4-megapixel, RGB filtered CCD. It was first used by a feature crew to shoot Bryan Singer's Superman Returns and was shortly followed up thereafter by the World War I...
digital video camera. Hand-held camera
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 conveniently sized for travel and because they allow...
s have been used. For color management
Color management
In digital imaging systems, color management is the controlled conversion between the color representations of various devices, such as image scanners, digital cameras, monitors, TV screens, film printers, computer printers, offset presses, and corresponding media.The primary goal of color...
, Prieto employed Gamma & Density Company's 3cP color management and correction software, using the American Society of Cinematographers
American Society of Cinematographers
The American Society of Cinematographers is an educational, cultural, and professional organization. It is not a labor union, and it is not a guild. Membership is by invitation and is extended only to directors of photography and special effects experts with distinguished credits in the film...
' Color Decision List to keep color consistent throughout shooting, dailies
Dailies
Dailies, in filmmaking, are the raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. They are so called because usually at the end of each day, that day's footage is developed, synched to sound, and printed on film in a batch for viewing the next day by the director and some members...
, post and DI
Digital intermediate
Digital intermediate is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. It often replaces or augments the photochemical timing process and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie...
. The digital effects were handled by Rhythm and Hues.
Music
Alex HeffesAlex Heffes
Alex Heffes is a British film composer . His film scores include the BAFTA-winning Touching the Void, and Oscar-winning movies One Day in September and The Last King of Scotland....
, who provided the music for Macdonald's One Day in September
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...
, Touching the Void
Touching the Void (film)
Touching the Void is a 2003 documentary film based on the book of the same name by Joe Simpson about Simpson's and Simon Yates' disastrous and near fatal attempt to climb the 6,344 metre Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.-Outline:...
, and The Last King of Scotland
The Last King of Scotland (film)
The Last King of Scotland is a 2006 British drama film based on Giles Foden's novel of the same name, adapted by screenwriters Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock, and directed by Kevin Macdonald...
, 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 will be conducting the orchestra himself to enable re-scoring as the recording session proceeds. Macdonald prefers to involve Heffes 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
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winning record producer "Flood" (aka Mark Ellis) is working 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.
Reception
Based on 178 reviews collected by Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, State Of Play currently has an 84% "fresh" rating from critics, with an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 6.9/10. Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 64 out of 100 based on 36 reviews from mainstream critics. Philip Kemp from Total Film
Total Film
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
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 Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun Times 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".
As of April 1, 2011 the film has grossed a total of $91,445,389.