The Contract
Short description
Ray Keene, a former lawman, takes his teenage son Chris into the mountains of Washington State, hoping a hiking trip will help them recover from a family loss. Their outing is interrupted when they pull a man from a river: Frank Carden, a professional contract killer who has escaped from custody. Carden's associates are hunting him, and Ray decides he must hand the fugitive over to the authorities. What follows is a pursuit through the wilderness in which Ray tries to keep his son safe and stay ahead of armed men.
Bruce Beresford directed the film, the sixteenth of the twenty features listed for him in chronological order, arriving between And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself and Peace, Love & Misunderstanding. Stephen Katz and John Darrouzet wrote the screenplay. Morgan Freeman plays Carden and John Cusack plays Ray, with Alice Krige, Megan Dodds, Corey Johnson and Jonathan Hyde among the cast. The production was mounted on a budget of about 25 million US dollars and was shot as a co-production involving Germany and Bulgaria alongside the United States.
Released in 2006, the film runs 96 minutes and mixes action and crime with drama and thriller elements. Its commercial performance fell well short of its cost, with worldwide takings of roughly 6 million dollars. On IMDb the film holds a rating of 3.9 out of 10 from six reviews, while on TMDB it scores 5.8 out of 10 across some 590 votes.
What's left behind the scenes
- The clothing of all the characters remains consistently clean and tidy throughout the movie, even after a night in the forest in the rain or after a helicopter crash. The costume of Frank—played by Morgan Freeman—remains pressed under any circumstances.
- According to director Bruce Beresford, even while working on the film, he was well aware that the script was 'raw' and left an impression of being unfinished. The producers ordered filming to be completed just 50 days after production began, and in order to finish the project, Beresford had to use his own savings.
- According to director Bruce Beresford, Steven Seagal asked for a minor role, but the actor was refused.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
