Phone Booth
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Short description
Stu Shepard is a publicity agent in New York who works the streets with a phone in each hand, playing clients and contacts against one another while keeping his marriage and his mistress apart. When he steps into a public phone booth to call Pamela, the phone rings before he can dial. The man on the line tells him that hanging up will get him killed, and the red dot of a laser sight on his chest backs up the threat. A disturbance nearby brings the police, led by Captain Ramey, who treat Stu as the suspect rather than the victim, while the caller stays hidden in a building overlooking the street.
Joel Schumacher directed the film, the fifteenth of the twenty-one features listed for him, arriving between Bad Company and Veronica Guerin. Larry Cohen wrote the screenplay, and David Zucker and Gil Netter produced it for Fox 2000 Pictures. Colin Farrell carries most of the film as Stu, with Kiefer Sutherland as the unseen voice, Forest Whitaker as Ramey, and Radha Mitchell, Katie Holmes and Paula Jai Parker in supporting roles.
Made for about 13 million dollars, the film took in roughly 98 million worldwide, a strong return on its budget. On IMDb it holds 7.1 out of 10 from around 301,000 votes, on TMDB 6.9 from a much smaller pool, while a critics' rating of 6.7 from 187 reviews places professional opinion close to the audience response. It runs 81 minutes.
What's left behind the scenes
- The sniper's rifle used by the maniac, which he mentions in conversation as "Model 700, Carbon One modification" – is a Remington 700 modified by Christensen Arms, and not the Accuracy International AW shown at the end of the film. The case carried by Kiefer Sutherland's character at the end is too short for an Accuracy International, so it is highly likely that it was left as bait for the police, along with the dead pizza delivery guy.
- Michael Bay could have directed the film.
- Jared Leto played a small role, but the scene with him was cut from the film.
- All the scenes were shot in the exact same order as in the film.
- The toy robot speaks Swahili.
- The main role could have gone to Jim Carrey, Will Smith, Mel Gibson, and Tony Curtis.
- All the actors wore small headphones and lavalier microphones so that everyone on set could know what other characters in the film were doing at the same time.
- The phone was actually working, and Colin Farrell was genuinely talking to someone reading the role of the sniper. However, Kiefer Sutherland's voice was only recorded during post-production.
- The film was originally scheduled to premiere in the US on November 15, 2002. However, following the tragic events in Maryland and Washington, the studio decided to postpone the premiere. The film was released in the US on April 4, 2003.
- In the scene where the sniper tells Stew about how he was following him, Sutherland can be seen following the victim wearing a dark wool cap.
- The scene where we indistinctly see the sniper was originally shot with Ron Eldard and then reshot with Kiefer Sutherland.
- Kiefer Sutherland played the role of the sniper, but his character was not featured on the posters.
- Despite appearing in the film for less than three minutes, Kiefer Sutherland's name is listed second on the posters and in the credits. However, we hear his voice throughout the entire film.
- The film's events take place in New York, but it was actually filmed in Los Angeles.
- The film is partially based on the New York University student short film "End of the Line" (1996).
- The film takes place in real time – it lasts exactly as long as the events it depicts.
- The phone booth is reportedly located in the northern part of West 53rd Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue.
- The shooting period lasted 12 days. Shooting scenes inside the phone booth took 10 days, and 2 days were spent shooting scenes taking place outside the phone booth.
- The extras were deliberately not told what the film was about or what would happen in each scene, so the reaction of most people to what was happening was genuine.
- Larry Cohen wrote the screenplay for the film in one month.
- The pistol left by the sniper in the booth, which Stu (Colin Farrell) later finds – a Smith & Wesson Sigma 380 – is, according to the sniper, "the best cop-killer you can buy."
- In Ireland, the film was released under the title “Phone Box”.
- The shot of Katie Holmes in the restaurant was taken during a break between takes. The director liked her expression and decided to add this episode to the film.
- The scene in which Stu confesses his sins was filmed in one take. Immediately after the director called "cut," the film crew gave a standing ovation to Colin Farrell.
- In the 1960s, Larry Cohen pitched the concept of a film (the entire action taking place inside a phone booth) to Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock liked the idea, but neither he nor Cohen could come up with a convincing reason why the protagonist couldn't leave the phone booth. Cohen returned to the script in the late 1990s, at which time he came up with the idea involving a sniper.
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