The Changeling
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Short description
The Changeling is a 1980 horror film about John Russell, a composer and music professor who loses his wife and daughter in a tragic accident. Seeking a fresh start, he moves into a large, long-empty house in Seattle. Before long he becomes convinced that something in the house is trying to reach him, and his investigation into the building's past uncovers unsettling secrets that tie its history to his own grief.
Peter Medak directed the film, the first entry in the chronological list of his features, which continued with Cosmic Princess, Pinocchio, The Krays, Romeo Is Bleeding and Species II, among others. George C. Scott plays John Russell, with Trish Van Devere as Claire Norman, Melvyn Douglas as Senator Carmichael, John Colicos as Captain DeWitt, Barry Morse and Madeleine Sherwood in supporting roles. The screenplay was written by William Gray and Diana Maddox. Produced by Chessman Park Productions on a budget of 8 million dollars, the film returned 12 million dollars worldwide. On TMDB it holds a rating of 7 out of 10 from 749 votes, indicating a generally favourable response from viewers who have logged it.
What's left behind the scenes
- The word 'changeling' (the film's English title) refers to a creature or object in European folklore used to replace a kidnapped infant.
- Screenwriters Diana Maddox and William Gray spent six months gathering material for the film, studying newspaper articles on paranormal phenomena, reading numerous books, and analyzing nearly two thousand unexplained cases.
- A more accurate translation of the original title is 'The Changeling'.
- According to director Peter Medak, he was somewhat unsettled by stories about how difficult it was to work with actor George C. Scott. His fears proved to be exaggerated, and working with Scott turned out to be no more difficult than working with others—with the sole exception of one incident where someone on set accidentally knocked over a chessboard containing a game the actor was playing against himself between takes.
- Two Britons—Tony Richardson and Donald Cammell—were invited to take the director's chair.
- The film is based on an incident that allegedly happened to writer (and screenwriter of this film) Russell Hunter in the 1960s in Denver, Colorado.
- The house shown in the film never actually existed. The filmmakers were unable to find a suitable building available at an acceptable price (around $200,000), so a Gothic facade was simply attached to a more modern building on a street in Vancouver. The interiors of the haunted house consisted of a complex system of interconnected sets built at a studio in Vancouver.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
