Murder by Numbers
Short description
Murder by Numbers follows homicide detective Cassie Mayweather, a seasoned investigator in the California coastal town of San Benito, where the body of a young woman is found in a wooded ravine. Cassie is assigned the case alongside Sam Kennedy, her new and less experienced partner. The physical evidence points toward a random act of violence, but Cassie reads the scene differently and comes to suspect that the killing was planned rather than impulsive. Her attention settles on two wealthy, intelligent teenage boys, Richard Haywood and Justin Pendleton, who appear to have constructed solid alibis. Cassie pursues her theory while Sam pushes for a more conventional approach, and the murder echoes an earlier case from her own past.
Sandra Bullock plays Cassie and also served as an executive producer; Ben Chaplin is Sam, with Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt as the two suspects. Barbet Schroeder directed from a screenplay by Tony Gayton, and the film sits between Our Lady of the Assassins and Amnesia in Schroeder's directing career, following earlier work such as Reversal of Fortune and Single White Female.
Released in 2002, the film runs 120 minutes and cost about 50 million dollars, returning roughly 57 million worldwide. Audiences rate it 6.2 out of 10 on IMDb and 6.2 out of 10 on TMDB, while its critics' rating stands lower, at 5.4 out of 10 from 126 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on the story of Leopold and Loeb, American criminals who committed one of the most famous murders in the United States.
- Ryan Gosling vomited during the filming of the murder scene.
- The old hunting lodge on the cliff was built specifically for filming and dismantled after it was completed. Interior scenes were filmed on a soundstage.
- Richard drives a Mustang, a car of the same model that appeared in Peter Yates' (1929-2011) 1968 thriller 'Bullitt'. Gosling is a long-time fan of Steve McQueen (1930-1980), who starred in the film, and suggested using the exact same car himself.
- Originally, it was planned to film the school scenes at the high school in the city of San Luis Obispo, California, but the principal reviewed the film's script and withdrew permission to film.
- In one scene, a cinema is briefly shown screening Frank Capra's (1897-1991) war drama "Bitter Tea of General Yen" (1932). Frank Capra III, the assistant director, is the director's grandson.
- The scene towards the end of the film in which Ryan Gosling licks Sandra Bullock's face was not in the script. Gosling came up with it after shooting a few takes and asked Bullock for permission, deciding it would better emphasize the nuance that his character is actually ill.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
