Cellular
Short description
Cellular follows Jessica Martin, a high school teacher abducted from her home and confined in an attic. Working from a damaged telephone, she manages to reach a stranger, a young man named Ryan, and tells him she has been taken and that her husband and son are in danger too. She has no idea where she is, and the connection is fragile. Ryan, who has no connection to her beyond her voice, sets out to find her before the phone fails.
The film was directed by David R. Ellis, who had previously made Final Destination 2, and it was written by Chris Morgan. It was Ellis's third feature, released between Final Destination 2 and Snakes on a Plane. Kim Basinger plays Jessica, with Chris Evans as Ryan; Jason Statham appears as Ethan, William H. Macy as Sgt. Bob Mooney, Noah Emmerich as Jack Tanner and Valerie Cruz as Dana Bayback. It runs 94 minutes.
The production had a budget of 25 million USD and took about 58 million USD worldwide. Audience ratings are moderate on IMDb and TMDB, around the middle of the scale, and the critics' rating is somewhat lower, based on 148 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- While Ryan is at Los Angeles Airport, an announcement can be heard regarding the start of boarding for flight 180 to Paris. This is the same flight on which the heroes of 'Final Destination' (2000) perished.
- Larry Cohen worked on the film's script while trying to sell the script for "Phone Booth" (2002). In an article in "The New Yorker," he stated that his intention was to create a film that was the complete opposite of "Phone Booth," where the protagonist cannot move away from the phone, while in the new film he is tied to the phone but can go anywhere. His friends didn't understand the concept and said he had simply written the same script twice.
- Chris Evans performed all of his car stunts himself without the help of professional stunt performers. He underwent five weeks of training at a Los Angeles stunt school for this purpose. Most of the other stunts in the film were also performed by the actors themselves.
- On August 5, 2004, on an American talk show, Kim Basinger recounted that when she was talking on her cell phone while standing outside a movie theater restroom waiting for her friend, she was greatly annoyed by a small, rude crowd that had gathered around, laughing and pointing at her. Only when her friend came out of the restroom and pointed out that she was standing directly in front of the 'Cellular' poster depicting Kim Basinger talking on a cell phone did she understand what had caused such a reaction from those around her.
- The film was supposed to be Dean Devlin's directorial debut, but in the process of preparing for filming, he decided to step down and became one of the film's producers.
- The tattoo on Ryan's right arm is a Japanese kanji meaning 'loyalty' and 'honor,' the only hint of heroism in this ordinary guy.
- Erik Bress and J. Mackie Grubber reworked the screenplay, but they were never credited in the film's titles.
- Throughout the film, various references to New Line Cinema, which financed the project, can be noticed repeatedly. The head of the studio, Robert Shaye, appears in a cameo as an irritated man at the police station. The film's producer, Dean Devlin, appears in a cameo as a taxi driver who drives Ryan in one of the film's scenes. On Ricky's school backpack, you can see a poster for "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001), and "Final Destination" (2000) is playing on the television in the kidnappers' house. Both films were also produced by New Line Cinema.
- The mobile phone model used by Ryan in the film is a Nokia 6600.
- The cell phone Chris Evans had throughout the filming of the movie didn't actually work. He heard Kim Basinger's lines intended for him through a small earpiece.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
