The Ghost Writer
Short description
A professional ghostwriter is hired to finish the memoirs of Adam Lang, a former British prime minister, after the man previously doing the job dies in an accident. He travels to Martha's Vineyard, where Lang is staying in a secluded house with his wife Ruth, his assistant Amelia and a security detail, and begins working through a draft left behind by his predecessor. Soon after his arrival, a former minister publicly accuses Lang of allowing suspected terrorists to be seized and handed over to the CIA while in office, turning the quiet island retreat into a media spectacle and drawing protesters to its gates. What began as a writing assignment becomes an investigation, as the ghostwriter notices inconsistencies in the manuscript and starts looking into his predecessor's death.
Roman Polanski directed and co-wrote the film with Robert Harris, whose novel the story is based on, and produced it with Robert Benmussa and Alain Sarde. It is the eighteenth of the twenty-three films Polanski has directed, following To Each His Own Cinema and preceding Carnage. Ewan McGregor plays the ghostwriter and Pierce Brosnan plays Lang, with Kim Cattrall, Olivia Williams, Tom Wilkinson and Timothy Hutton in supporting roles.
The production, a German, British, American and French co-production, cost about 45 million US dollars and took roughly 60 million worldwide. On IMDb and TMDB, audience ratings sit around 6.8 out of 10, while critics rated it 7.6 out of 10.
What's left behind the scenes
- Lang's beach house in the film was shot in a pavilion, and the seascapes are the result of working with green screens.
- The designer of the end credits forgot about punctuation, resulting in amusing combinations such as "ass designer" and "ass painter" when denoting the positions of assistants (assistans).
- Roman Polanski was declared persona non grata in the US, so filming took place in Germany and other European countries – they depicted Massachusetts.
- Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in 2009, but post-production continued uninterrupted. Polanski continued to participate in the film's work and completed editing the footage while in Swiss custody.
- The film is based on Robert Harris's novel "The Ghost" (The Ghost Writer, 2007).
- There is a certain similarity (intentional or unintentional) between the career and memoirs of Adam Lang, played by Pierce Brosnan, and the lives of world leaders. In particular, Lang's career draws parallels with that of Tony Blair, the 73rd Prime Minister of Great Britain. The title of his autobiography, "My Life," is identical to the title of the autobiography of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton. The circumstances of the attempt on Lang's life just before the release of his scandalous memoirs are similar to those surrounding the assassination attempt on Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007), the first woman in modern history to head the government of Pakistan (she too was killed shortly before the publication of a book with a highly critical assessment of other political leaders). The plot to get Lang elected, concocted by his wife in conjunction with the CIA, is reminiscent of accusations by conspiracy theorists against the wives of some prominent politicians – in particular, Barbara Bush (1925-2018), Hillary Clinton, and Elizabeth Edwards.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
