Changeling
Short description
Set in Los Angeles in 1928, Changeling follows Christine Collins, a working single mother whose young son Walter disappears while she is at work. A citywide search yields nothing until, months later, police present her with a boy they say is Walter. Christine doubts the child is hers, despite his resemblance to her son, and the authorities dismiss her objections. As she keeps pressing for the search to continue, she finds an ally in Reverend Gustav Briegleb, and her insistence on the truth brings her into conflict with a police department more concerned with its public image than with her case. The film is a crime drama based on a true story.
Clint Eastwood directed, and the screenplay is by J. Michael Straczynski. The film sits between Gran Torino and Invictus in Eastwood's directing career; counting in chronological order, it is the twenty-ninth of the forty films he has directed. Eastwood produced with Brian Grazer and Robert Lorenz. Angelina Jolie plays Christine, with John Malkovich as Reverend Briegleb. The supporting cast includes Jeffrey Donovan, Michael Kelly, Colm Feore and Jason Butler Harner.
Made for a budget of 55 million dollars, the film took about 113 million dollars worldwide, roughly doubling its cost. On IMDb it holds 7.7 out of 10 from around 275,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.6 out of 10 from just over 4,600 votes: strong, widely held audience approval. A critics' rating of 6.7 out of 10 from 208 reviews is noticeably lower than those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Hilary Swank and Reese Witherspoon were considered for the role of Christine Collins.
- At the 79th minute of the film, an electric current is applied to one of the clinic's patients, while orderlies hold her bare ankles. In this case, the current should have affected them as well, but it does not.
- Clint Eastwood agreed to direct the project the same evening he read the script.
- Ron Howard was initially intended to direct the film, but a tight schedule prevented him from participating in the project, and he remained only as a producer, suggesting Clint Eastwood for the director's chair.
- Screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski first heard the story of Christine Collins (played by Angelina Jolie in the film) from an unnamed source at Los Angeles City Hall. Once, he stumbled upon documents from some case that were intended for destruction but were instead thrown away. The source passed these documents on to Straczynski, who was so captivated by the story that he spent the next year conducting his own investigation and even decided to create a television project based on it. Nothing came of this idea. As for the film, everything in it actually happened in real life (as documented evidence shows), and the characters’ dialogue is often taken verbatim from court transcripts. Straczynski wrote the first draft of the script in just 11 days.
- After filming, director Clint Eastwood "invited" the entire film crew to room 18 of a psychiatric hospital (the very one where patients received electroshock therapy).
- Translated from English, the word 'changeling' which gave the film its title means a child of a magical creature – an elf, troll, or fairy – which they leave in place of a kidnapped human child.
- The film is based on real events. A series of kidnappings and murders of boys in California committed in 1928 is known as the "Wineville Chicken Coop Murders".
- In some cinemas, the film was released under the title "Wanderer" ("Nomad").
- Some scenes from the film were shot at the San Bernardino train station in California during the 2007 wildfires. Due to the thick smoke, it was difficult to breathe on set.
- Principal photography began on October 15 and was completed in November 2007. Filming took place in the vicinity of Los Angeles.
- 1920s Los Angeles was created using computer graphics.
- The film shows the audience that electroshock therapy was used in psychiatric hospitals at that time, although in reality it did not begin to be used until ten years later.
- Twice in the film, the character of Angelina Jolie, Kristina, says: 'Never start a fight, but always finish it.' This is the same expression that, according to Captain John Sheridan, his father told him, and which featured in the 1990s series 'Babylon 5' (1994-1998), whose script was also written by J. Michael Straczynski.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
