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Cameron Diaz
movie to be filmed in Hampton
HAMPTON - Richard Kelly, a Newport News native and movie
director with a cult following, will film scenes at NASA Langley
Research Center in January for an upcoming release starring
Cameron Diaz.
"The Box" is based on a short story by sci-fi writer Richard
Matheson, but Kelly wrote the screenplay, which reflects his
family's Virginia roots and affiliation with the NASA center in
Hampton.
In the mid-1970s Kelly's father Lane worked as an engineer at
Langley, helping develop the camera for the Mars Viking program
that would take the first close-up pictures of the Martian
surface. In "The Box," a period piece set in the 1970s, one of
the main characters, played by James Marsden, is a Langley
engineer.
"I don't want to spoil too much," said Kelly, who is 32, quoted
in the Boston Phoenix. "But I can tell you that NASA is heavily
involved in the film and has given us unprecedented access to
research materials and authentic props."
"The Box," described as a tense, science-fiction thriller, stars
Diaz and Marsden as a couple thrust into a moral dilemma. A
stranger, played by Frank Langella, visits them and gives them a
box. A push of the box's button, he says, will magically deliver
$1 million. But it will also take the life of someone they don't
know, somewhere in the world. The stranger gives the couple 24
hours to push the button, or not.
Producers plan on shooting four to six days at Langley in late
January, Langley spokesman Chris Rink said. Shooting sites
include the 230-foot-tall gantry, the full-scale wind tunnel,
the hangar and the H.J.E. Reid Conference Center. The couple in
the movie lives in Richmond, but those scenes and the majority
of the movie is being filmed in Boston right now.
"NASA is a backdrop for the story," Rink said.
NASA has signed an agreement with the filmmakers that governs
use of the NASA logo and lays down other guidelines.
Kelly, who was born in Newport News but grew up in Midlothian,
is best known for writing and directing "Donnie Darko" in 2001.
The film barely grossed $500,000 in U.S. theaters during its
first run, but became a sensation on DVD and earned Kelly a
devoted fan base.
"Donnie Darko," while filmed in California, is also set in
Virginia, in a fictional town, and explores science-fiction
themes like time travel and parallel universes.
Andy Edmunds, a location manager with the Virginia Film Office,
said he has been trying to get Kelly to film in Virginia.
"He's a really creative guy," Edmunds said. "We've been trying
to get him here to make a movie for about six years."
Kelly wrote the screenplay for "The Box" based on "Button,
Button," by Richard Matheson. Matheson is an acclaimed science
fiction writer whose work includes "I Am Legend" and the famous
episode of The Twilight Zone, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet."
"Button, Button" was also made into a Twilight Zone episode
during the series' resurgence in the 1980s.
Edmunds, who has talked with Kelly about the movie, said the
director "used the core elements, but has totally adapted the
story. It's just a great, interesting story that he's put
together here."
Kelly's second feature film, "Southland Tales," opened last
month to mixed reviews. It stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Dwayne
"The Rock" Johnson and SeannÖ William Scott, among others,
living in a post-nuclear holocaust world.
"The Box" also represents more of a mainstream effort for Kelly.
Media Rights Capital is bankrolling the film with about a $30
million budget, according to Variety.
"My hope is to make a film that is incredibly suspenseful and
broadly commercial, while still retaining my artistic
sensibility," said Kelly, quoted in Variety.
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