Magnet Releasing, Lightstream Pictures, Walk The Walk Entertainment,

Wild Eddie Productions

in association with Ingenious, 2929 Productions, Screen NSW

Presents

A Magnet Release

2:22

A film by Paul Currie

Starring: Michiel Huisman, Teresa Palmer & Sam Reid

99 minutes

FINAL PRESS NOTES

Distributor Contact:
Press Contact:
Matt Cowal
Tina Theriot
Arianne Ayers
Ginsberg Libby
Magnolia Pictures
(323) 645-6819 phone
(212) 924-6701 phone
Tina.Theriot@ginsberglibby.com
publicity@magpictures.com

49 west 27th street 7th floor new york, ny 10001

tel 212 924 6701 fax 212 924 674

SYNOPSIS

New York City air traffic controller Dylan Branson (MICHIEL HUISMAN) is the embodiment of a guy at the top of his game, until one day at 2:22pm, a blinding flash of light paralyzes him for a few crucial seconds as two passenger planes barely avoid a midair collision. Suspended from his job, Dylan begins to notice the increasingly ominous repetition of sounds and events in his life that happen at exactly the same time everyday. An underlying pattern builds, mysteriously drawing him into Grand Central Station everyday 2:22pm. As he’s drawn into a complex relationship with a beautiful woman who works in an art gallery, Sarah (TERESA PALMER), disturbingly complicated by her ex-boyfriend Jonas (SAM REID), Dylan must break the power of the past, and take control of time itself.

COUNTDOWN TO 2:22

US based Australian director and producer PAUL CURRIE’s first encounter with the bewitching riddle of 2:22 came in the form of a bold, visionary script written by TODD STEIN.

“Todd Stein had this wonderful karmic view of life”, recalls Currie. “When he first conceived of the story Todd had some medical issues, which put him into a really interesting frame of mind to write such a story. As soon as I read his script I thought: ‘This is something that’s in my DNA as a director’. Todd’s script was dark, but I felt that inside the thriller was an idea, a conceit around time and love through time, that was expansive.”

The script was well thought of in Hollywood. It had previously been set up at a major studio and was likely going to go move to another major studio, but Currie was determined to give it a different type of life.

“I said to Todd: ‘We don't have the money that a studio may be able to offer you up front, but I deeply connect to the themes and ideas of this movie and I will dedicate myself to getting this movie made, no matter what it takes.” That was how the journey began.”

Currie continues “From the moment I first read the script, I realized that 2:22 was one of those rare commercial projects that appealed on many levels. I pitched Todd my take on how I saw the film from a director’s perspective, which in a nutshell, was to make an intelligent high-concept romantic thriller; a film that is highly cinematic, visceral and mysterious, offering viewers a compelling and thrilling ride from the first frame to the last.”

“Co-writer, Nathan Parker also came in at an important moment in our development to help us refine the characters and some of the nuances of the plot. Nathan is a very talented writer with a proven track record writing fantastic independent films like “Moon”. Nathan was instrumental in helping with the ultimate structure of the story and working the air traffic control sequences into the screenplay. From a director’s and writers perspective, I’ve felt blessed to be working with two such passionate and talented craftspeople.”

Towards the end of 2013, STEVE HUTENSKY, who’d acted as a consultant on the film when Currie was trying to set it up through a US based financier, came on board as a partner producer. Like Currie, Hutensky felt the pull of 2:22 and its mysterious, unique universe.

The financing structure that worked eventually came from a combination of government subsidies in Australia, equity from Screen Australia and Screen New South Wales, presales secured by international sales agent Good Universe, UK based financer Ingenious, as well as lead private equity investors 2929 Productions and Flywheel Entertainment.

Filming would take place in Australia, with some location filming in New York. Hutensky says: “For us, it had always been about not necessarily letting the tax structure or the financing drive where we shot the film, but figuring out where we could make the highest quality film within our budget range. It all just came into place naturally in Australia - Paul being an Australian director and producer, actress Teresa Palmer being Australian, having access to amazing crews, realizing we could convincingly double Sydney for New York - the creative pieces gelled so that it made sense to shoot in Sydney.”

JODI MATTERSON soon came on board as an Australian based producer. Hutensky says: “In terms of an Australian producing partner, Jodi was the first name on my list. Luckily she loved the script.”

Matterson recalls: “When Steve and Paul sent me the script, I loved the idea of doing a thriller that had romance at its core, and that’s what I think really set 2:22 apart from other films in the genre. Having these characters whose bond and love is so strong that it transcends time - I thought it was a really interesting concept to build a film around.”

The producers knew the challenges they would face making a genre film outside of the Hollywood system. Hutensky says: “We were going to make, for a modest independent budget, a movie that would aim to compete with $30 to $35 million studio movies. It’s very ambitious to do that, and to do that within the time table and budget we needed to work.”

Matterson agrees. “It was always going to be a film where we wanted to get more up on screen than we had the resources for. We were making a film that competes with genre movies in America with twice our budget. The task was: “How do we do this in the most clever, out of the box way? ”

Key to the success of this bold undertaking would be the Australian based crew. Engaging people like Barbara Gibbs, Line Producer, was crucial. Jodi Matterson explains: “Making any film in Australia, for me the first call is always Barbara Gibbs, one of the best, if not the best, line producers in the country.”

“With Barbara came the rest of the amazing, world-class crew that we managed to pull into the production. We were incredibly lucky.”

Producer Steve Hutensky credits the exceptional Australian crew, the exceptional cast, and believes that core to the cohesion and passion of the team as a whole was the script, which Paul Currie had so carefully shepherded. Hutensky says: “I think that’s what drew the crew, the actors, the financiers. The script resonated with people in a deep way.”

Director Paul Currie feels that his promise of persistence to Todd Stein, more than five years earlier, was realized to the best of everyone’s ability and resources. “We have all done our best to create a film that, we hope is fresh and original. Everyone has pushed it to the ‘nth’ degree from pre-production right through to the very end of a long and exhausting post production process.”

THE ENIGMA OF 2:22

Every day, on the main concourse of Grand Central Terminal, Dylan Branson sees a businessman at the ticket counter reading a newspaper, a couple kissing, six school children, and a pregnant woman standing under the famous clock. It’s not always the same businessman, but it’s always the same pattern.

Earlier in the day – other patterns play out and haunt Dylan – a plane flies overhead, glass shatters, a car screeches. It becomes clear to Dylan, and to Dylan alone, that these supposed random series of events, in this busy, noisy city, are not so random.

This is the enigma of 2:22.

For director Paul Currie, “the film is a mysterious love story, a romantic thriller about a guy who has a particular gift that could be considered part genius or insanity. A gift that involves a dangerous secret that has to be unraveled in order to stop a devastating karmic pattern from continually repeating itself.”

“2:22 is about the fear of love. It’s also about the past that can secretly haunt us all. It’s a story about a guy who is trying to protect his girl at all costs, against time itself. Time is both Dylan’s ally, and his enemy.”

THE CHARACTERS

The trio at the center of the film are key to understanding the mysteries of 2:22. Dylan Branson (played by MICHIEL HUISMAN)

When we meet Dylan Branson, he’s something of a loner. He seems to thrive off his life’s routine, but is also trapped by it. He mechanically glides along on the city’s rhythms from his East Village apartment along the streets of Manhattan, into Grand Central, to his work as an air traffic controller at JFK.

In the tower above the tarmac, Dylan’s mind is focused and calm, his accuracy flawless, until one fateful day at 2:22pm when the rhythms inexplicably freeze and he nearly causes a tragedy. Suspension from work means his focus has gone. He’s in limbo until he fatefully meets Sarah, who he gradually discovers he’s connected to in powerful and disturbing ways.

Actor MICHIEL HUISMAN, who portrays Dylan, feels that: “On one hand, Dylan’s life is spiraling out of control because of these events that keep happening to him and that become more and more threatening. On the other hand, he’s never felt as much passion in his life as he has since meeting Sarah.”

“As the patterns that he starts to track become more and more threatening to him, Dylan realizes that he needs to do something about them - he needs to get ahead of the repeats in order to bring Sarah and himself to safety.”

Preparation for the role of Dylan, whose singular perspective is the audience’s ultimate experience of the film, was complex for Huisman.

The actor says: “One of the reasons I wanted to do the role was because it gave me the opportunity to really establish this character in his own world, in this case the world of air traffic controllers, a world I knew nothing about. I'm taking a plane almost every other week, playing roles in different parts of the world, but I had no idea how many people communicate back and forth in order to get that plane on and off the ground.”

As well as listening to air traffic controllers through apps, as soon as he arrived in Australia to prepare for the shoot, Huisman spent two days with air traffic controllers, observing their work, their mannerisms, and their coiled energy. “I came to a point where I felt I was able to understand everything I'm saying in the movie. That was the first step. Going deeper into it, every morning in makeup I would go through the plane numbers, over and over again, so that by the time we started shooting I could almost dream it, because Dylan can dream those numbers.”

Sarah Barton (played by TERESA PALMER)

Sarah works as a curator at a slick, downtown Manhattan art gallery. When she and Dylan meet by chance at the ballet, they fall under each other’s spell instantly – sharing intimate details, regrets and dreams.

TERESA PALMER, who plays the character, says: “Sarah is complex. She’s grounded, she has a lot going on in her life. She grew up in the art world, but always had this dream to be a dancer. She isn't really living the life that she feels she’s destined for, and with that comes complex emotions. When she meets Dylan, it feels like he’s the missing piece to her puzzle. They have the sort of chemistry that only comes around once in a lifetime.”

Sarah breathes life back into Dylan, who is numbed and directionless after the trauma of the near accident that caused his suspension. Soon, though, the connection between them – starting with the near accident itself – begins to be haunted by strange forces that are external, but that also seem to lie deep inside each of them. It’s as though their souls have met before, but in a place of both love and fear.

Michiel Huisman says of forming the couple onscreen: “When Teresa and I really broke it down and analyzed it, we only had five or six scenes to establish how unique and special Dylan and Sarah’s attraction is - after that, things begin spiraling so quickly.”

“We felt that in those five or six scenes we had to show their love, their connection, their passion. We realized the best way to do that was to find those moments you can't necessarily write on a page. Sometimes they have to happen in the moment, and I think we allowed a couple of those moments to happen.”

Jonas Edman (played by SAM REID)

Jonas is a successful multimedia artist represented by the gallery at which Sarah works. He’s preparing a technologically challenging work, based around an element of Grand Central, as the story begins.

Sarah and Jonas were once lovers, a fact that initially hovers awkwardly on the periphery – trace feelings seem to linger. Jonas seems confident and resolved, but it slowly emerges that Sarah was, and is, more than just a muse for him.

SAM REID, who plays the character, says: “Jonas is still suffering the repercussions after his breakup with Sarah. He gets slowly sucked into the time warp of the film, but unconsciously - he’s not conscious like Dylan is - and gradually the past comes back to haunt him.”

Of the preparation for playing the role, Reid says: “Paul Currie and I thought it was fundamental that I understand how the artwork that Jonas makes actually functions, particularly the Grand Central projection, so I spent time with the team who created it for the film.”

“I watched them create it, I talked to them about how the program they crafted it with works. I went to art school when I was nineteen, so I had an idea of how young artists with strong conceptual ideas hold themselves, so those observations I also brought into the character.”

Teresa Palmer feels that: “When Dylan comes into Sarah’s life, he’s an incredible threat to Jonas. There’s still a sense of camaraderie between them, but Jonas starts sensing he’s going to completely lose Sarah, and it’s an intensely vulnerable feeling for him.”

To sum up the complex triangle formed by the three core characters, Michiel Huisman says: “The three of us are bound to play out a repeat of something that happened years ago. All three are victims of the past, but we don't realize that. Dylan finally does figure it out, takes action, and finds a way to save the love of his life.”

THE CASTING PROCESS

Casting the trio who would unfold the complex tale of 2:22 was a finely balanced process. Producer Steve Hutensky feels that the film was blessed with its core cast members, who united in the film at just the right moment in their careers.

“We got the right people at the right time, extremely talented and collaborative actors whose stars are rising quickly. They’re exceptional. We were so lucky.”

TERESA PALMER

Young Australian actress Teresa Palmer had a long connection to the project, becoming involved in 2011 when she read the script and first met with Paul Currie.

Palmer says: “I was blown away by the complex themes - it was something that I was very attracted to. I met with Paul and he showed me a mood reel that he’d edited, and I knew in that moment I wanted the job.”

Palmer auditioned, and was immediately struck by the way Currie worked with her in the room – finding his passion and his sense of experimentation refreshing.

Paul Currie says: “Teresa is a beautifully elegant actress. She’s got a wonderful range, she’s emotionally available every second and also extremely authentic to her ideas. What I love about Teresa is she’s not afraid to also be a bit of a loose cannon. Her impulses can go anywhere.”

Palmer’s availability shifted as the film’s production schedule went through its stops and starts. Other actors came in and out of consideration, but Palmer remained attached, until finally the stars aligned.

“I always hoped that Teresa would do the film,” says Currie, “and she remained loyal through the whole journey to get it made. It’s wonderful that we came full circle, which is a metaphor for the love story in the film.”

Michiel Huisman says of Palmer: “I've really enjoyed working with Teresa. I'm very happy with what we did and I'm very proud that she and I found the heart of Dylan and Sarah’s story and were able to bring that to life.”

Palmer feels that she “had a voice in who Sarah is, how she looks, how she walks, what her back story is. Paul is such an open director - he embraced and was passionate about my vision of who she could be.”

MICHIEL HUISMAN

The most difficult character for Paul Currie and the producers to cast was Dylan. Many names were considered and rearranged, influenced by the multitude of considerations that would determine who would be the right actor for this crucial and complex role.

Paul Currie says: “Steve and Bruna (Papandrea, Hutensky’s wife and an established Hollywood producer) had just worked on the film WILD, in which Michiel was cast, and Bruna was raving about him. She said to me ‘Paul, this guy is incredible, he is so authentic in what he does. He’s so likeable and is also such a great human being’.”

Huisman was sent the script, before he and Currie connected via Skype, when Currie says they “bonded on the material”.

Huisman recalls: “I was lucky enough that the script landed in my world. I got the feeling that working with Paul would be very much a collaboration, an opportunity for me to bring some of my own ideas to the project, and I got very excited about the possibility and thank God, so did Paul.”

For Currie and Huisman, Skype would be an important initial tool in their process – separated geographically, they used the software to rehearse two to three times a week for around six weeks.

Huisman says: “We used Skype because even though I could arrive about two weeks before we started shooting, that was not going to be enough preparation time for us to make sure that we tracked all the beats in the story.”

“For the audience to be able to experience the story in a clear way, I had to make sure that I really understood every step in our plot. We talked about every scene, everything about Dylan’s background. On the day, when something wasn’t quite working, we’d laid the groundwork and could refer back to something we’d played with in one of our Skype conversations.”

Huisman feels that “I've rarely had the feeling that I had so much liberty to step up to the director and say: ‘We've talked about this scene a million times, but now I realize that it’s not this, it should be this, do you agree?’ And almost always, Paul’s reply was ‘I think you’re right, let’s do it’. That was so much fun.”

SAM REID

UK based Australian born actor Sam Reid read the script of 2:22 a year before principal photography began. He was committed to another project which clashed with the production dates, but when the competing project fell through, Reid happened to be in Australia and was called in to meet with Paul Currie.

Reid recalls: “Paul and I just clicked. We shouted at each other for two hours, and I left thinking, ‘God, I have to do this film’. As I was walking out, Barbara Gibbs, the line producer, called me into an impromptu fitting and all of a sudden I was doing measurements and trying on costumes. I still wasn’t sure if I could do it in terms of dates, but everything fell into place.”

In the weeks before filming began, Reid was working in New Orleans, so he too used Skype to rehearse with Teresa Palmer, with whom he’d be sharing most of his scenes.

Reid says: “I'd never rehearsed over Skype before, but it’s a little like you’re in the movie already. I also talked a lot to Paul Currie in the weeks before. Jonas is quite a complicated character - he has dual energies running through him, dual personas. That was a really wonderful thing to approach - exciting and challenging.”

Director Currie says: “Sam is a very smart actor, he was able to bring a subtle kind of duality to his character, and Jonas, in some ways, is the trickiest character of the piece, because he has feelings for Sarah and yet they’re hidden, and we’re not quite sure what to make of them.”

“Sam reminds me of a young William Hurt. I was lucky enough to get to know William Hurt on another project - he was just extraordinary - and Sam Reid reminded me a lot of him, his intellect, his passion for truth and his subtlety of performance.”

THE VISUAL WORLD OF 2:22

The universe that 2:22 exists in is incredibly precise. The film is set in the present day, but is constantly haunted and distorted by the past. It’s is a world in which time contracts and expands. The colors and rhythms of New York City are overlaid with the fragmenting world that Dylan experiences, the complexity of Jonas’ artwork, and visions of a tragedy that played out thirty years before.

It would be a multilayered visual undertaking that was crucial to get right.

Director Paul Currie says: “The movie is a love story through time. One of the ways we approached time in the film is that it is not linear, time can be almost holographic.”

“Dylan has a unique gift in that when he is in the zone he is able to perceive time in a different way, so we played with the dimensionalizing of our lead character’s point of view, that also connected to a larger visual idea of the film having a slightly holographic visual style. There are key beats in which Dylan sees layers of an incident through time and we always looked for unique visual ways to express this vision.”

The events that surround Dylan – which repeat that begin as quite abrasive repeats and slowly transform into more of a choreographed predictable world – were shot in a way to heightened by music, sound effects and VFX. Currie says: “The staccato broken rhythms in the early part of the story needed to come together to be almost symphonic by the end of the movie. The shot design and the filmmaking techniques employed are designed to give you a first person experience of what the character Dylan is both thinking and feeling.”

Director of Photography DAVID EGGBY had met Paul Currie four years before principal photography of 2:22 began, spending six weeks shooting second unit on the film THE MOON AND THE SUN, for which Paul was the Second Unit Director.

Eggby recalls: “During that shoot, Paul was talking a lot about this movie, 2:22, and how he was going to get it financed, and as it turned out, just before Christmas 2014 he said: ‘We've got the money, we’re up and running, let’s go and make a movie!’”

Given the financing structure, 2:22 would be filmed in studios and on location in Sydney, with additional key location filming in New York City.

Producer Steve Hutensky says: “I lived in New York for 21 years, so I was a litmus test for what would work and what would not. In Sydney, there’s enough of a modern look that we could cheat for New York on the exteriors and interiors - we were able to find locations that made sense.”

Producer Jodi Matterson agrees: “We've done a lot of location shooting and it’s quite extraordinary how many little pockets of Sydney can become New York, with the right angles and the right art department.”

How to shoot around location red flags were well known to DP David Eggby, having filmed extensively in both the US and Australia. “You’ve got to watch your framing and street signs. One of the big giveaways are pedestrian crossings. You can use a long lens and throw things out of focus in the background, and use oblique angles that don't give the landscape away, but it’s always a challenge.”

Location filming in New York City was scheduled before the Sydney based elements.

Paul Currie says: “We did some referencing and plate work, to ground us and to establish the geography of where different locations in the script actually were in New York. When we came back to Sydney, it was with the authentic geography and visual aesthetic of New York in mind - we made sure that streets matched the color palette, the architecture and also matched the lighting direction of existing plates that we had already shot.” Currie continues: “If 2:22 does one thing for the Australian film industry, it shows that even on a modest budget, with good planning and some solid filmmaking techniques, you can make movies here in Australia that can be set anywhere.”

A GRAND CHALLENGE: RECREATING GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL

The focal point of the film – visually and narratively – is New York’s Grand Central Terminal. The station lives and breathes in the film, like any other character, pulsing with beauty and danger. An enigmatic location, but one that so many people know, if only from reproduced images, it would have to be convincingly recreated in Australia on a studio set.

Of this enormous challenge, director Paul Currie says: “The quintessential, iconic train station on the planet is Grand Central. It’s one of the few train stations where people aren’t just racing through, they’re looking up in awe at those beautiful windows, at all its different, beautiful elements. It had to have an almost cathedral-like quality. The challenge was ‘Can you make Grand Central work in a movie that you’re shooting in Australia?’”

The production design team carried out a meticulous scout of Grand Central, following on from Currie’s initial immersive visits during the script development period. They examined millimeter accurate plans of the station, and put this data into the digital and physical models which Paul and the team would refer to during pre-visualization of sequences, the set building phase and also all of the time during the shoot.

Currie says: “Everything was based on Grand Central being absolutely accurate – from the overall palette, lighting direction, fabrication, textures, right down to the smallest design detail.”

From the moment MICHELLE MCGAHEY was hired as the film’s Production Designer, the custodianship of this challenge was entrusted to her and her team. They would eventually build around a quarter of the famous main room of the station. Michelle McGahey says: “One of the things about Grand Central, now, is that there are buildings all around it. For our scenes set in the eighties, and for the general ambience we had to pretend that there were no buildings around the station, so that our director of photography David Eggby could create some beautiful soft lighting, and evoke the film noir mood that Paul was trying to create for the film.”

McGahey, Eggby and their teams sourced a vast array of reference photographs and concept art from across the past century.

David Eggby says: “All the concept art I saw had these beautiful striations, almost like Notre Dame, these ‘God’ rays coming from windows sixty feet up in the air, or they were photographs from the thirties, before the high rise apartments blocked the sun. You do get some direct sunlight in Grand Central, but it’s an overall ambience, lit by the chandeliers and practicals. Paul wanted to get a little more style in the frame, a bit more shadow, some chiseled lighting.”

Eggby and gaffer Reggie Garside devised a system, which enabled them to light the entire floor space, with one shadow and one direction of light, without having to floodlight the whole ceiling - hence avoiding a flat ambience.

Paul Currie says of Production Designer Michelle McGahey: “Her eye for detail, and that of the whole team that she employed, was fantastic. From the broad geometry to the smallest design elements Michelle made sure everything was accurate.”

Producer Steve Hutensky agrees in his praise: “Michelle McGahey and her department did an unbelievable job. I walked through Grand Central for twenty years, and walking through the set they created, it felt like you were actually there. It was the key piece of production design for us, and that I think is really what has helped make our film look so grand, and so impressive.”

The ultimate approval came in the form of tears. Producer Jodi Matterson says: “One of our distributors, who was born and bred in New York, came in and literally started crying because she was so blown away by the set that the team had created.”

COSTUMES

Veteran Australian costume designer LIZZY GARDINER (THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II, HACKSAW RIDGE) came on board as a member of the creative team early in the process.

Costuming explorations began several months before final casting had been completed. Gardiner recalls: “I gathered a lot of Pinterest boards of concepts, ideas of where I wanted to take the characters. Paul Currie, the production designer Michelle McGahey and I would send these boards back and forth to each other, wherever we were in the world. When the film was fully cast I took those boards and adapted them to the actors.”

The costuming was based on a cool palette that the creative team developed. Gardiner says: “I didn’t use brown once in the entire film, which was hard. Not even a watchband. I worked very much with black, ice blue, steel blue and midnight blue, grays and charcoal.”

For Gardiner, the minutiae of the New York setting was key. “I wanted to know where each character lived. New York is so specific in terms of where someone lives. Teresa’s character lives in SoHo, she works in a Chelsea gallery - those people go to work dressed in high heels and it’s a fabulous world in terms of fashion, so I really wanted to go there with the character of Sarah. Teresa is incredibly beautiful, so it wasn’t hard.”

Of the male characters, Gardiner feels that the differences in the way she would costume them were clear from the script. “Jonas is a New York high fashion, high art, high concept guy. Dylan is a deep thinker who’s very grounded, almost reclusive, the last thing he’s interested in is that sort of high concept world.”

The Grand Central Terminal scenes meant, of course, a lot of extras. Given budget constraints, their costumes had to come into careful consideration.

Gardiner says: “We were in a quandary – how do we dress all these extras within budget? Michelle McGahey and I came up with the idea to dress them all in black, so they move like black ants in the background of every shot. It’s not completely black, there are a couple of breaks in the color scheme, but it solved a lot of problems. When you have a look at footage of Grand Central, most people are dressed in black, and our design looks stylish and noir ̧ so I think it was a good decision.”

Overall, Gardiner feels that “for not a lot of money we managed to pull off a high fashion film, which is great. We really did try to make it as ‘on point’ as possible.”

HAIR AND MAKEUP

Renowned Australian Hair and Makeup lead SHANE THOMAS (STAR WARS: EPISODE III, UNBROKEN, THE DRESSMAKER, HACKSAW RIDGE) was working on THE MOON AND THE SUN, which Paul Currie was producing with Executive Producer of 2:22 Bill Mechanic, when Currie passed him the script of 2:22 to read.

Thomas was immediately captivated. “I was really, really keen to be involved in 2:22. At one point I wasn’t going to be able to work on it, but fortuitously the dates shifted and I was able to jump on board.”

Working closely on the palette and character details with Michelle McGahey and Lizzy Gardiner, Thomas was likewise influenced by the specificity of New York and its neighborhoods. Feeling that films set in the present day can sometimes suffer from being ‘overdesigned’, his idea with 2:22 was to keep the hair and makeup design subtle, and let the performances tell the story.

“New York has a very specific look”, says Thomas, “not just in terms of fashion, but also hair and makeup. It’s generally a very understated, stylized look. When I go to New York, in the cooler months, I notice there’s not a great deal of color, it’s very dark and chic.

Like Lizzy, I also put vision boards together of people on the streets in New York and tried to replicate that.”

In terms of the character differentiations, Thomas says: “Jonas is quite a dark character and the actor who portrays him, Sam Reid, is almost like an English gentleman, so I wanted to separate him from Michiel Huisman’s character, Dylan, because they’re at opposite ends of the spectrum. I gave Jonas long hair. Sam Reid, the first day we put the wig on him, said: ‘You’ve pretty much done all of my preparation for me, this just solved all of my problems!’”

“Sarah had to have a sense of cool and chic about her, but at the same time a certain vulnerability. Michiel Huisman is a great actor, but it was more about trying to move him, playing Dylan, away from how he often appears in films. I wanted to make him look like the particular New York character that he is, and again, keep the approach simple and let the performance tell the story.”

WORKING WITH PAUL CURRIE

Cast and crew reflect on working with Director/Producer Paul Currie, and with the lead cast:

Teresa Palmer: “Paul has amazing energy and seems to be hyper aware of his positive energy and how that affects other people. He never seemed to have a bad day - he was switched on and very focused. He would throw ideas at me in the middle of performance. I would be moving one way within the take, then all of a sudden he’d throw something from left of center, and it would steer me down a new path that was radical, interesting and dynamic.”

Sam Reid: “Paul’s wonderful. He has so much energy, the guy never stops running. He’s a wonderful director to work with because he gives you so many options, and wants to explore them all. I felt I could trust him completely.”

Steve Hutensky: “Paul Currie is an exceptionally talented guy, and the heart and soul of his talent lies in his ability with actors. Michiel, Teresa, and Sam have completely different acting styles, yet there was a communication with Paul that I think brought out the best work I've seen in any of the lead actors. Paul knows how to speak to each person in their own language, how to motivate and challenge them in a way that is exceptional. 2:22 is a romantic thriller with some tough underlying themes, and he had a beautiful touch in balancing the romance and the thriller aspects, and keeping the story propelled.”

WORKING WITH MICHIEL HUISMAN, TERESA PALMER AND SAM REID

Teresa Palmer: “Michiel is a breath of fresh air. His star is on the rise, but he’s so unaffected by it all - he’s a humble man who’s dedicated to his craft. Paul Currie would say: “Michiel is exciting because he is just so moment to moment.”

Paul Currie: “Michiel has a great actor’s brain for both logic and what behavior and psychology is emotionally authentic. He makes for a really strong romantic lead, and because he’s grounded at the same time possessing great energy, he could hold both the romance and the action of 2:22.”

Sam Reid: “Teresa’s beautiful, very talented and so funny. We had a great time, I felt very lucky to be working with her because she’s such a fantastic actress.”

Teresa Palmer: “Sam Reid is an amazing human being. He’s not only a very technical actor, he’s also very instinctual. It was amazing to see how he bounced between the two. Jonas was a very challenging role, because he is a dark character, but you still need him to be likeable, and Sam was able to achieve both.”

THE CREW

Many of the Australian based crew of 2:22 had worked on THE MOON AND THE SUN, which had primarily filmed in Australia, and on which Paul Currie was a producer with Bill Mechanic and Steve Hutensky an executive producer.

Common key crew members included Production Designer Michelle McGahey, Costume Designer Lizzy Gardiner, and Hair and Makeup Lead Shane Thomas, and Director of Photography David Eggby.

Lead cast and key crew are universal in their adulation of the entire Australian team. David Eggby says of the camera and lighting department: “I can't fault them. Australia has got some great technicians, all very experienced, very well equipped. It’s a very talented, a very good team.”

Michiel Huisman feels that: “We had an amazing crew. I don't know if that’s an Australian thing or if it was unique to our movie, but it felt like a great collaboration between all the departments. It was addictive, I was happy every morning when they picked me up at 5:30am!”

Teresa Palmer says of working in her home country: “It feels more like a collaborative process - I think because typically I'm doing a smaller budget movie in Australia. There’s a certain camaraderie that you find with Australian crews, a partnership in that we’re all working together to create this thing that we all love. I saw how happy the crew of 2:22 were coming to work, how they went above and beyond for the film.”

Actor Sam Reid says: “The crew did such an incredible job with the production design, the costume design, the hair and makeup, the visual effects - some of the best talent in Australia put this world, this very specific New York high art world together, in such a stylized and beautiful way.”

For Paul Currie: “We can do reasonably priced quality genre films in Australia that can work well in the international market. We've got the people and the expertise to do them, and to do them for a budget that makes Australian teams competitive in a global market, and that’s very exciting.”

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

PAUL CURRIE – Director and Producer

Paul Currie is a founding shareholder of Lightstream Pictures. His directorial work spans commercials, TV series, feature films and the staging of massive live events. Currie directed and produced ONE PERFECT DAY, for which he was awarded Best Debut Director from the Screen Directors Association of Australia. He also produced the Australian action feature film UNDER THE GUN, and co-authored the best selling book, A HERO’S JOURNEY (forwarded by Bryce Courtney, author of THE POWER OF ONE).

Currie directed the acclaimed documentaries LIONHEART - THE JESSE MARTIN STORY and EVERY HEART BEATS TRUE: THE JIM STYNES STORY and also served as Creative Director for World Reconciliation Day, a live and multi-camera broadcast event that featured Nelson Mandela and Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter. Paul Currie was nominated as Australian of the Year for co-founding a charity organization called Reach Youth, which has affected the lives of over 500,000 young Australians.

He directed the ABC TV series TWENTY-SOMETHING and Executive Produced the cop thriller RAMPART, written by James Ellroy and starring Woody Harrelson, Sigourney Weaver and Robin Wright, and MAX ROSE starring Jerry Lewis, which screened at Cannes in 2013. Currie produced the $40M fantasy adventure film THE MOON AND THE SUN with Bill Mechanic staring Pierce Brosnan and William Hurt, and co-produced the documentary GREAT BARRIER REEF WITH DAVID ATTENBOROUGH. Paul Currie again recently collaborated with Bill Mechanic, producing the Mel Gibson directed award winning HACKSAW RIDGE, which stars Andrew Garfield, Vince Vaughn and Sam Worthington, and which was released in 2016.

STEVE HUTENSKY – Producer

Steve Hutensky is one of the top independent dealmakers in the Hollywood community and a film producer. He represents clients in the motion picture and television business as lead negotiator in a wide variety of transactions including talent deals, acquisitions, development, production, financing and distribution. Steve served as senior executive vice president and head of business affairs for Relativity Media from 2009 to 2011 where he oversaw such hit films as THE FIGHTER and LIMITLESS. From 1995 to 2004, Steve worked as a top executive at Miramax Films, holding a variety of senior positions (head of business & legal affairs, creative executive, etc.) and serving as one of the principal advisors to the company’s co-chairman, Harvey Weinstein. In addition, Steve oversaw Miramax’s various non-film businesses including its book division and investments in magazines, real estate and restaurants.

Steve also operates the independent production company Walk The Walk Entertainment. He produced 2:22 and the documentary film WAKE UP. His credits include executive producer on THE MOON AND THE SUN and THE HUMAN STAIN and production executive on COLD MOUNTAIN. Upcoming producing projects include SINGLE HAPPINESS, LOVE THE ONE YOU’RE WITH, PERSONAL STATEMENT and THE STATISTICAL PROBABILITY OF LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.

JODI MATTERSON – Producer

By the age of 20 Jodi had been running her own theatrical production company for three years, producing more than a dozen children’s concerts and pantomimes that toured Australia.

At 21, Jodi put her company on hold to work with Australian producers Al Clark (THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT, CHOPPER) and Andrena Finlay (PAWS, ME MYSELF I).

She moved to London, working in development for various UK producers including Nick O’Hagan (PANDAEMONIUM) and Paul Raphael (ROGUE TRADER).

Returning to Australia in 2000, Jodi became marketing manager for highly successful children’s television show Hi-5, releasing numerous multi-platinum selling albums and videos, as well as designing clothing lines and managing more over 35 categories of merchandise.

Jodi produced her first feature film – THUNDERSTRUCK - with director, Darren Ashton.

A rock’n’roll road movie set to the music of AC/DC, Jodi negotiated more access to the AC/DC brand and music from the notoriously protective group than had ever been granted before – or since. The film was released by Icon in 2005 with the soundtrack released through Sony Music.

Jodi’s second film, RAZZLE DAZZLE was also directed by Darren Ashton was completed in 2007. It screened at more than 20 film festivals around the world including Berlin, and was picked up for theatrical release in the UK by Sony.

In 2012 Jodi completed and released her third film NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN starring Ryan Kwanten (TRUE BLOOD) and directed by Oscar nominated, Peter Templeman.

In 2013 Jodi completed producing the miniseries POWER GAMES: THE MURDOCH- PACKER STORY with John Edwards / Southern Star for Channel Nine in 2013. It was nominated for six AACTA awards including best mini series (and won three) and was nominated for a most outstanding mini series Logie award.

Jodi recently completed, Abe Forsythe’s DOWN UNDER – a violent black comedy set during the Cronulla riots.

Jodi has also been television commercial producer at Exit, Australia’s most awarded commercials company since 2007. During that time – Jodi has produced over sixty commercials with both Exit’s local and international roster of directors for clients that include: Sony, Vodaphone, Optus and McDonalds.

BILL MECHANIC – Executive Producer

Through his company, Pandemonium Films, respected industry veteran and independent producer Bill Mechanic continues to produce high quality films with directors such as Paul Verhoeven and David Fincher. In 2016, Mechanic produced the award winning HACKSAW RIDGE, with Mel Gibson directing and starring Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Vince Vaughn, Luke Bracey, and Teresa Palmer, and in 2015, he produced THE MOON AND THE SUN directed by Sean McNamara and starring Pierce Brosnan. This year he’ll commence production on UNION SQUARE, a romantic comedy with Ben Lewin directing; the historical epic THE DIVIDE, to star Gerard Butler and William Hurt, from a script by Mechanic, Werb & Colleary, and Christopher McQuarrie; and DEADWORLD, to be directed by Gregor Jordan, based on the long running comic book/graphic novel series of the same name.

Prior to Pandemonium, Mechanic was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox Filmed Entertainment for seven years. During his tenure at Fox, Mechanic revitalized the comic book genre with X MEN, the first successful adaptation in nearly a decade. Under his reign, the company produced such hit films as CAST AWAY, TITANIC, INDEPENDENCE DAY, THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY, BRAVEHEART, BOYS DON’T CRY, MRS. DOUBTFIRE, SPEED, TRUE LIES, DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE, THE FULL MONTY, THE THIN RED LINE, and WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO & JULIET. Under Mechanic, Twentieth Century Fox in 1998 was the number one studio in worldwide box-office gross. For three years of his tenure, Fox produced the number one grossing movies worldwide, shared the Best Picture Oscar for two years (BRAVEHEART and TITANIC), and won the Best Actress Award for BOYS DON’T CRY. In all, Fox earned 42 Oscar nominations and 2 Best Picture Oscars under Mechanic’s tenure.

BRUCE DAVEY – Executive Producer

Academy Award® winner Bruce Davey is Chairman/Producer at Icon Productions (US) and Chairman of Dendy/Icon Group, one of Australia’s leading independent cinema and film distributors that comprises Icon Film Distribution, Dendy Cinemas and video on demand service Dendy Direct.

Co-founding Icon Productions in 1989 ahead of the company’s first feature film HAMLET, Davey is the driving force behind Icon’s slate of films and TV shows. Overseeing every facet of Icon’s day-to-day operations from the creative to the financial, producing credits for Davey and Icon Productions include critically acclaimed and award winning titles such as BRAVEHEART, FAIRYTALE: A TRUE STORY, WE WERE SOLDIERS, THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, APOCALYPTO and GET THE GRINGO.

Launching Icon Film Distribution in the UK in 1999 and Australia in 2002, Davey’s aim was to establish a company that focused on distributing quality feature films, TV and alternative content. Icon Film Distribution’s multi award winning catalogue includes THE QUEEN, LA VIE EN ROSE, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, THE IRON LADY, ZERO DARK THIRTY, 12 YEARS A SLAVE, STILL ALICE and LAST CAB TO DARWIN.

JACKIE O’SULLIVAN – Executive Producer

Jackie O’Sullivan is a senior screen executive and producer in the film and television industry in Australia and the UK.

Jackie produced THE PROPOSITION written by NICK CAVE and directed by JOHN HILLCOAT. More recently Jackie was a consultant on the feature film SWALLOWS AND AMAZON (BBC/STUDIO CANAL/HANWAY) and the Development Producer with Matchbox Pictures on the miniseries DEADLINE GALLIPOLI (NBCU/FOXTEL).

Jackie has held senior executive roles and consulted to numerous leading production companies across development and production including at the UK Film Council as Head of Business Affairs, at Ausfilm as Chief Executive where she set up the annual Co Production Forum with the UK, at Animal Logic as Head of Development and at Columbia TriStar (Sydney) as General Manager and Executive Producer/Executive In Charge Of Production.

Jackie produced WITCH HUNT (Columbia TriStar/Channel Ten) and was the executive producer on NEVER TELL ME NEVER (Columbia TriStar/Channel Ten), THE SOUND OF ONE HAND CLAPPING (directed by RICHARD FLANAGAN) and SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR’S BABIES (ABC).

Jackie is currently consulting on a UK/Canadian coproduction television series.

TODD STEIN – Writer

Todd Stein is an award-winning screenwriter based in Portland, Oregon. He broke into the film industry after winning the prestigious Monterey Screenwriting Award in 2003. Since then, he has written scripts for Universal, Dreamworks, New Line Cinema, among others. He presently has three projects in the pipeline along with 2:22 that include sci-fi thriller TIPPING POINT, to be directed by Ric Roman Waugh (Felon, Snitch) for Relativity Media; and the adaptation of the best-selling YA novel UNWIND by author Neal Shusterman, to be directed by Roger Avary (RULES OF ATTRACTION) for Constantin Films.

NATHAN PARKER – Writer

Nathan Parker was born in London in 1974. His first produced screenplay, MOON, directed by Duncan Jones, received its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009. Nathan won Best Screenplay for MOON from the Sitges Film Festival, a 2010 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, and a Best First-Feature Length Screenplay from the Writers Guild of Great Britain. In addition, Nathan was nominated for a British Independent Film award for Best Screenplay, and received a BAFTA nomination for Best British Film, which he shared with Duncan Jones, Stuart Fenegan, and Trudie Styler. His other credits include BLITZ directed by Elliott Lester, starring Jason Statham, Paddy Considine, and Aidan Gillen. And EQUALS, directed by Drake Doremus, and starring Kristen Stewart, Nicholas Hoult, Guy Pearce, and Jacki Weaver. EQUALS received its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 2015. Nathan is a member of the WGA and BAFTA. He lives in Los Angeles.

ABOUT THE CAST

MICHIEL HUISMAN - Dylan Branson

Huisman originates from the Netherlands and has been working there as an actor and musician since his childhood, prior to his international career.

In 2016, Huisman reprised his role as Daario Naharis in the sixth season of HBO’s fantasy drama series GAME OF THRONES, and on the big screen will be seen in Joseph Ruben’s MOUNTAINS AND STONES, alongside Josh Harnett and Hera Hilmar, and Karyn Kusama’s thriller THE INVITATION. He also starred in the hit mini-series HARLEY AND THE DAVIDSONS.

Film credits include Lee Toland Krieger’s turn of the century romantic drama THE AGE OF ADALINE, starring opposite Blake Lively, Harrison Ford and Ellen Burstyn; Jean- Marc Vallee’s WILD, opposite Reese Witherspoon; Marc Forster’s adaptation of Max Brooks' best-selling novel WORLD WAR Z, opposite Brad Pitt; Jean-Marc Vallee’s THE YOUNG VICTORIA with Emily Blunt; Janusz Kaminski's AMERICAN DREAM; Otto Bathurst’s MARGOT for BBC Films in which he plays Rudolph Nureyev opposite Ann- Marie Duff; and Alexis Dos Santos’ UNMADE BEDS. In the Netherlands, his film credits include Paul Verhoeven’s BLACK BOOK.

Previous television credits include BBC America’s original sci-fi series ORPHAN BLACK; HBO’s hit series TREME; and ABC's musical drama series NASHVILLE, in which he starred opposite Connie Britton.

TERESA PALMER - Sarah Barton

Hailing from Adelaide, Australia, Teresa Palmer, has starred in many major films including Summit Entertainment's box office hit WARM BODIES with Nicholas Hoult and John Malkovich, as well as Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg's I AM NUMBER FOUR with Dianna Agron and Alex Pettyfer.

In 2016 she starred a trio of well-received films - Mel Gibson’s critically-acclaimed HACKSAW RIDGE with Andrew Garfield, Vince Vaughn and Luke Bracey the indie hit thriller LIGHTS OUT and MESSAGE FROM THE KING with Chadwick Boseman.

Previous film credits include the Warner Bros. remake of POINT BREAK opposite Edgar Ramirez and Luke Bracey; Lionsgate’s THE CHOICE, with Benjamin Walker; the crime thriller TRIPLE NINE, with Kate Winslet, Casey Affleck and Chiwetel Ejiofor; Terrence Malick’s KNIGHT OF CUPS with Christian Bale; PARTS PER BILLION with Josh Hartnett and Rosario Dawson; the 1960s period drama LOVE AND HONOR, with Liam Hemsworth; the Australian thriller WISH YOU WERE HERE with Joel Edgerton; the coming-of-age comedy TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT with Topher Grace and Anna Faris; Jon Turteltaub's THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE for Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Walt Disney Pictures; Adam Shankman's comedy BEDTIME STORIES with Adam Sandler; DECEMBER BOYS with Daniel Radcliffe; and RESTRAINT with Stephen Moyer.

SAM REID - Jonas Edman

Australian born, UK trained Sam Reid graduated from the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art early to appear as the Earl of Essex in Roland Emmerich’s historical thriller ANONYMOUS.

In 2016 Reid appeared in the feature film THE LIMEHOUSE GOLLUM, opposite Douglas Booth and Olivia Cooke, and in a leading role in DESPITE THE FALING SNOW, opposite Charles Dance and Rebecca Ferguson. Previously, he played John Glenn in ABC’s ASTRONAUT WIVES CLUB; starred in Lone Scherfig's THE RIOT CLUB opposite Natalie Dormer and Sam Claflin; and Yann Demange’s film ’71 opposite Jack O’Connell. Reid played the lead in BELLE, opposite Tom Wilkinson and Miranda Richardson; starred opposite Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence in Susanne Bier’s SERENA; and in THE RAILWAY MAN, opposite Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman. He was one of the leads in HATFIELDS & McCOYS, opposite Kevin Costner.

He’s currently starring in the TV series Prime Suspect 1973 for ITV.

CREDITS

Director: Paul Currie

Producers: Steve Hutensky Paul Currie Jodi Matterson Bruce Davey

Writers: Todd Stein, Nathan Parker

Starring: Michiel Huisman, Teresa Palmer and Sam Reid

5

Danielle

2017-06-01

Tess Ornstein