Auto Focus
Short description
Auto Focus is a biographical crime drama about Bob Crane, the American actor who became a household name in the 1960s as the star of the comedy series Hogan's Heroes. To the public, Crane appeared to be a devoted family man, but his private life told a different story. He was consumed by an obsession with sex and with recording his encounters on camera, a habit encouraged by his friend John Carpenter, a technician who shared his interests. As Crane's compulsions grew, they damaged his marriage, his career and his sense of self. The film follows this double life and its consequences without resolving the questions surrounding his death in 1978.
Paul Schrader directed the film, the twelfth of the twenty-three features he has made in chronological order, arriving after Affliction and before Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist. Michael Gerbosi wrote the screenplay, and Scott Alexander, Alicia Allain and Patrick Dollard produced. Greg Kinnear plays Crane opposite Willem Dafoe as Carpenter, with Rita Wilson, Maria Bello, Ron Leibman and Kurt Fuller in supporting roles.
Released in October 2002, the film had a budget of about 7 million US dollars and took roughly 2 million dollars worldwide, a modest return. On IMDb it holds a 6.4 rating from 224 votes, while the critics' rating stands at 6.7 from 163 reviews, so the two are close, with critics slightly more favourable.
What's left behind the scenes
- The names of the strippers on the strip club sign are derived from the names of Frank Sinatra (Fran Sinatra), Dean Martin (Deana Martin), and Jerry Lewis (Jerry Lewis).
- According to Greg Kinnear, who played the lead role, he did not act in the scene of his character's death (where a sleeping Bob Crane is beaten to death). Instead, the filmmakers used a rubber mannequin, and it was this mannequin that appeared in the crime scene photographs.
- Willem Dafoe and Greg Kinnear (who played John Carpenter and Bob Crane, respectively) both have blue eyes, so they wore brown contact lenses on set. According to Dafoe, he wore the lenses to look, at least partially, Native American, while Kinnear did so to more closely resemble Crane. To get used to the contact lenses, Kinnear began wearing them about a week before filming began.
- The leather jacket Greg Kinnear wore as Bob Crane in the scenes of the comedic television show 'Hogan's Heroes' was the actual piece of clothing Crane wore during the filming of 'Hogan's Heroes.' It was loaned to Kinnear by Crane's son, Robert David Crane.
- The electronic watch worn by Willem Dafoe's Carpenter (which he used to seduce women) bears a striking resemblance to real watches advertised in adult magazines in the 1970s and 1980s. The watches, sold by the company Leisure Time Products, featured a gold-plated case and a black faux-crocodile leather strap. Unlike the watch shown in the film, those were mechanical. The watch face displayed an obscene phrase that lit up in red every 30 seconds. In today's equivalent, the watches retailed for $150.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
