S1m0ne
Short description
Viktor Taransky is a filmmaker whose career has hit a low point. When the temperamental star of his new project, Nicola Anders, walks off the set, the studio, run by his former wife Elaine Christian, pulls the plug. Left with unusable footage and few options, Viktor receives a revolutionary piece of software from a fan and uses it to complete the film with a computer-generated actress named S1m0ne. The fabricated performer is taken for a real newcomer, and her success turns into a global phenomenon that Viktor must protect by keeping her true nature hidden.
Andrew Niccol directed, wrote and produced the film, his second feature after Gattaca and the second of the eight titles he has directed through I, Object. Al Pacino plays Viktor, with Rachel Roberts as the virtual actress, Catherine Keener as Elaine, Evan Rachel Wood as Lainey, Jay Mohr as Hal Sinclair and Winona Ryder as Nicola Anders. The production had a budget of about 10 million US dollars and took roughly twice that amount worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.1 out of 10 from around 64,000 votes, on TMDB 6 out of 10 from just over a thousand, while the critics' rating stands at 6 out of 10 from 159 reviews, placing the two audience scores close to the critical one.
What's left behind the scenes
- The song that Simone sings at her concert – You Make Me Feel (Like A Natural Woman) – is performed by Mary J. Blige. According to the plot, Viktor synthesizes the actress’s voice from the voices of other performers – Whitney Houston and Madonna.
- After watching the animated film “Final Fantasy” (2001) and seeing how realistically the computer-generated characters were depicted, the producers began to lean towards the idea of making Simone entirely computer-generated. However, they abandoned this idea due to objections from the Screen Actors Guild, who feared that actors would soon be replaced by computer imagery in all films.
- Filming took place in California from September 7 to November 2000.
- In one episode, Victor’s daughter, Lainey, can be seen reading the legend of Pygmalion on her laptop. Pygmalion is a sculptor in Greek mythology who created a beautiful statue of ivory and fell in love with his creation, pleading with the goddess to breathe life into the cold sculpture.
- The name of one of the characters, Hank Alino, is an anagram of the word “Alone”.
- To keep her involvement in the film a secret, Rachel Roberts took the pseudonym Anna Green. Footage of Roberts was computer-processed to create the image of the artificial Simone.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
