The Invasion
Short description
A space shuttle breaks apart on re-entry, scattering debris across a wide stretch of the United States. Something alien travels with it, and those who come into contact with the material begin to change once they fall asleep, waking without emotion as part of a collective mind. Carol Bennell, a Washington psychiatrist, notices the shift in the people around her and, with colleague Ben Driscoll, works out that the contagion is not earthly in origin. Its spread is already global. Carol's son may hold the answer to stopping it, and she sets out through an increasingly hostile city to reach him.
The Invasion is a 2007 science fiction thriller directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, his fourth feature after Trickser, The Experiment and Downfall, from a screenplay by David Kajganich. Nicole Kidman plays Carol, with Daniel Craig as Ben, Jackson Bond as her son, Jeremy Northam as Tucker Kaufman and Jeffrey Wright and Veronica Cartwright in supporting roles. It updates the body-snatcher premise to a story about contagion and conformity, produced by Warner Bros. with Village Roadshow and Silver Pictures.
The film was released in August 2007. Made for about 80 million dollars, it returned roughly half that amount worldwide, a poor result against its cost. On IMDb it holds 5.9/10 across more than 81,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.1/10 from a much smaller pool. A critics' rating of 4.7/10 from 163 reviews puts professional response below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on Jack Finney's novel "The Body Snatchers" (1955).
- The film's initial US premiere was planned for September 2006. However, for unknown reasons, the release was postponed by the studio first to January 26, 2007, and then to November 2 of the same year. The original title, The Visiting, was changed to The Invasion. The final premiere date in the US was August 17, 2007.
- Daniel Craig received news of his casting as James Bond right during the filming of “The Invasion.” The actor had to take a short break to return to London for a press conference.
- The film required additional reshoots, as producers felt it wasn't thrilling enough.
- On January 25, 2007, an emergency report surfaced about a car accident involving Nicole Kidman during the film’s reshoots. The actress was driving when a scene of her character being chased by a group of zombies was being filmed. The car collided with another vehicle, resulting in eight injuries (one stuntman broke his arm). Nicole Kidman herself was taken to the hospital in shock but was released after two hours and insisted on continuing filming overnight. This was already the second accident on set involving Kidman: earlier in 2005, during initial filming, she was also in a vehicle that lost its brakes and crashed into the set. The actress was unharmed in that incident.
- The film was completed as early as the beginning of 2006, but in 2007 it was essentially reshot – the script was rewritten by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, and James McTeigue served as the director.
- Actress Veronica Cartwright (known for her role as Lambert in "Alien" (1979)) played one of the main roles in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1978). She is the only one of all the characters who retained her human nature by the end of that film.
- At the 27th minute of the film, the Russian ambassador named Yuri Kaganovich states that the word "Czechoslovakia" in Russian means "doormat" (originally - doormat).
- The film was initially planned as a remake of the classic horror film “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1978) (which, in turn, was also a remake of the 1956 film of the same name, and an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Jack Finney). However, at the pre-production stage, the filmmakers decided to write an original screenplay.
- In March 2007, the Los Angeles Times published information about the problems facing the film. According to Alan Horn, one of the executives at the film’s production company, Warner Brothers, the film needed reshoots due to a lack of action. The original director, German Oliver Hirschbiegel, was unavailable to participate in additional filming at the time this decision was made, so the producers hired Lana and Lilly Wachowski to write additional scenes, and then invited James McTeigue, director of “V for Vendetta,” to reshoot the film, allocating him a $10 million budget.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
