Writer/director Alex Proyas set about imagining the Kafka-esque world
of Dark City before making The Crow, the acclaimed and highly successful
action-thriller starring the late Brandon Lee. A lover of science fiction
in his youth, Proyas had long been intrigued by one of the genre's wilder
branches, in which the very nature of reality is called into question. "I
always thought that was a very powerful idea that hadn't been explored in
films," Proyas recalls.
"The paranoid aspect of the story came out of dreams I had as a child
-- that while I was asleep, dark figures would come into my bedroom and
rearrange things. Maybe the way I envisioned it was a bit bizarre, but I
think being afraid of the dark is a very basic childhood fear. Whenever
I'd come across that concept in a book as a kid, it would haunt me and make
me re-examine the way I looked at things.
Proyas believes that fantasy and science fiction films should allow filmmakers
and audiences to think. "In literature, science fiction has always
been a genre for ideas that can alter your perspective on things; in film
it's almost never used for that -- it's used to have big spaceships blow
up cities. I think we're a little tired of that," Proyas says.
A thought-provoking, existential screenplay, the story evolved as Proyas
worked on Dark City successively with Lem Dobbs (Steven Soderbergh's Kafka)
and David Goyer (New Line's upcoming Blade). Recalls Proyas' long-time producing
partner, Andrew Mason, "Lem comes from a very artistic and literary
background, so he was able to introduce a vast depth of humanity into what
was a very complicated plot. David Goyer sharpened the material and made
it more accessible."
In the process, the project's focus shifted significantly. "The idea
I initially had was a story about a film noir detective who's on a case
that doesn't quite jell," says Proyas. "As he unearths more clues,
he begins to discover the existence of a mystery that challenges his very
sanity."
During the months Proyas worked with Dobbs and Goyer, the emphasis switched
from the investigator to the harrowing mystery surrounding John Murdoch.
"I thought Murdoch was a more emotional viewpoint for the story, whereas
centering it on the detective made it more cerebral and less visceral. The
detective ended up being the character played by William Hurt, who is still
my favorite character in the movie," says Proyas.
According to Proyas, Dark City is an ensemble piece, where all the characters
are strong. "You can examine the story from anyone's perspective --
from Murdoch's perspective, or Bumstead's, Schreber's or Emma's -- and it
would be just as interesting. We played with all those points of view, and
I knew how the film would be told from each one, but I finally chose Murdoch
because having him in the center gave the other characters the most room
to breathe."
To lead the ensemble, Proyas enlisted Rufus Sewell (Carrington, Cold Comfort
Farm), whom Andrew Mason discovered during a trip to London when a friend
suggested he see Sewell's latest play. "I was told he was the most
exciting new actor coming out of England in years," says Mason. "I
went to see him and thought he was extraordinary." After meeting with
Alex Proyas and reading the script, Sewell accepted the role of John Murdoch,
which was a departure from the kinds of film roles he has played to date.
"I never thought about being in a science fiction film before,"
says the young actor. "Normally, there's not much for an actor to do
in a film like that, except to point at things and say, ëOh, look at
the size of that!' or ëI've never seen one of those -- they've been
extinct for 4,000 years!' But this is part film noir, part science fiction,
part fairy tale, and it has really vibrant roles for actors."
"My character is on a quest to find out who he is. I've had experiences
in my life when I thought I was on the edge of madness, and I drew on those
experiences to play Murdoch."
Stage and screen actor Ian Richardson, who plays the leader of The Strangers,
Mr. Book, is also a newcomer to the science fiction genre. "At the
age of 62," he comments, "I relish a challenge. It's terribly
gratifying working for such an imaginative director."
Alex Proyas says he was "blessed" to have William Hurt playing
the impassive and meticulous, but not unemotional, Inspector Bumstead. Reciprocally,
Hurt was proud to have been part of Dark City, which he says is "unlike
anything I've ever read before."
"Bumstead is a very fastidious man, very precise," says Hurt.
"He reminds me of someone who has a vast collection of jazz and has
categorized it all perfectly -- I like that about him."
"William Hurt brings a sort of gravitas and dignity to any role he
plays," observes Richard O'Brien, who plays John Murdoch's chief antagonist,
Mr. Hand.
O'Brien has had a distinguished stage career in England, but is best known
for his performance in the immortal screen version of a musical comedy he
wrote in the `70s, "The Rocky Horror Show." In the film version,
The Rocky Horror Picture Show, O'Brien reprises the role of the hunchbacked
butler, Riff-Raff, whose status as a pop icon was confirmed by the character's
memorable cameo in Men In Black. Alex Proyas says he wrote the part of Mr.
Hand with O'Brien in mind.
"I had to find a way to play a character who has no human qualities,
without making him flat," says O'Brien. "I based it on the kind
of person we've all met who just goes completely blank on you. Whether it's
because they're deaf, or stupid, or mean-spirited, you don't get anything
back from them when you say ëhello,' and it kind of blows you away.
For me, that was the key to The Strangers: that complete indifference about
any of the humans. Humans don't matter -- they simply don't count."
The casting of Kiefer Sutherland as Doctor Schreber brought humor and light
to a role that was originally written as a much older man, says the director.
"Kiefer came up with some spectacularly unusual ideas for the character."
Intrigued by the story's implications, Sutherland eloquently sums up the
question the film poses to each of the characters: "How valuable is
your soul, and what are you going to do to protect it?"
That theme is perhaps best embodied in the character of Emma, who claims
to be Murdoch's wife, although it is possible that they may never have even
met before. Because of his loss of memory, Murdoch has no way of knowing
whether the people surrounding him are friends or foe. This is particularly
true with Emma, a beautiful woman with whom he shares an undeniable attraction.
"John and Emma's love for each other is really what The Strangers'
experiment is all about," says Proyas. "If you're a romantic who
believes that love at first sight can exist -- unconditioned by the past
-- then you'll buy what happens between them; if you're a cynic, you'll
probably say it's a load of bull."
No cynic can deny that as far as the script was concerned, it was love at
first sight for New Line Cinema's President of Production Michael De Luca
and Development Director Brian Witten. The executives immediately responded
to the material and embraced Proyas' ensemble approach to casting, which
they felt perfectly complemented the filmmaker's ambitious vision. Financed
by New Line, production began on August 12, 1996, under the auspices of
Proyas and Mason's Australian company, Mystery Clock Cinema.
Like Proyas' first American film, The Crow, Dark City is set in a distinctive
version of the nightmarish urban environment. In its design, however, Dark
City represented a quantum leap from The Crow, where sets were combined
with practical locations that had been dressed and lit to achieve the stylized
look of an urban hell.
"Out of our entire production schedule, we shot only two days outside
in the daylight -- the two beach scenes" says the director. "Like
the characters in the film, the crew spent several months living in darkness."
"We built 50 sets, " says producer Andrew Mason, "and the
only way to do that without busting the budget was to make the film in Australia."
The new Fox Film Studios in Sydney, which is Proyas and Mason's hometown,
was chosen for the construction of Dark City's sets, including the underground
world of The Strangers, which was the largest indoor set ever built in Australia.
"The sets are supposed to be a composite of different eras," explains
Proyas. "Here and there you see modern cars, for example, but the stylistic
center of gravity is the `40s, because of the look I wanted for The Strangers.
Above-ground they wear long coats with fur collars and fedora hats, so you
couldn't imagine them walking around in modern Los Angeles. The basic `40s
look of the city is an environment that enables them to operate unnoticed."
Instead of constructing sets that would evoke the memory of other recent
science fiction films, Proyas, who is known for creating distinctive, visually
crafted films, drew inspiration from German expressionists like Werner Herzog
and Fritz Lang.
"For this film --to a certain extent -- we went back to Metropolis
as a source of inspiration, and tried to design a city that lacked detail.
We were determined to create a landscape that was very sparse and empty.
Every set that I walked onto, I would spend half an hour removing detail,
because I wanted to isolate the characters within a very empty world."
At the same time, Proyas and his collaborators sought to ground this highly
stylized world in reality. "The film was lit as though from practical
sources," says Andrew Mason, explaining the look created by Proyas
and director of photography Dariusz Wolski, who previously worked together
on The Crow. "All the sets were built as complete environments, with
floors, ceilings, walls and doors."
"Initially we wanted to give the film a gritty, almost documentary
look, even though that wasn't the style that finally evolved," explains
Proyas. "I wanted it to look like it was lit with available light.
"As for including ceilings -- that's just my philosophy in working
with actors. I feel it's better for the performances. In a film like this
that is completely built on stages, I wanted to give the actors the sense
that they're still in a real world, so all the sets we used had four walls
and a ceiling, rather than having one wall removed and a lot of cameras
and lights poking in at them like bugs under a microscope -- although, as
it happens, that's just what the human characters in the film turn out to
be!"
Proyas says he wanted to establish a strong visual contrast between the
human world above ground and The Strangers' underground domain. He elaborates:
"I felt that the Strangers' world, being decrepit, Gothic high-tech,
would contrast with the above-ground sets, which are less dirty and worn
than you would expect a city to be -- kind of like a dark Disneyland."
It was production designer Patrick Tatopoulos (Independence Day), who was
responsible for the look of the Underworld, which took three months to construct.
"Alex and I first began working on the concept for the Underworld two
years before the start of production," he says, "and we always
knew we wanted the metal in that set to have an eroded look. There's a desperation
in The Strangers' work because their world is crumbling and in decay --
that's what the design reflects."
To build such a vast area cheaply and quickly, the filmmakers decided to
make all the columns out of canvas, and employed sailmakers to cut and shape
the canvas. They then hoisted the canvas to the roof and clad it in sheets
of polystyrene, which was textured to give the columns a solid appearance,
and added some copper to create that metallic, decayed look.
Rufus Sewell says that the Underground was his favorite of the film's numerous
sets. "When Alex first sent me the sketches for that set, I was more
excited than I had been when I read the script," he recalls. "The
Underworld was truly remarkable -- a little bit scary, very thrilling, and
full of hundreds of bald people!"
Completion of principal photography was followed by extensive effects work,
including two of the most remarkable sequences yet achieved in film with
the now-familiar techniques of computerized "morphing." Australia's
D-Film accomplished these striking sequences, which show Proyas' vision
of what happens to the city and its inhabitants when the process of "Tuning"
is going on.
The Tuning begins on February 27, 1998, when New Line Cinema opens Alex
Proyas' Dark City in theatres all over America.
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