Tagline: They said it was an accident, but the reality is it hasn’t happened yet.
Linda Hanson (Sandra Bullock) has a beautiful house, a loving husband and two adorable daughters. Her life is perfect, until the day she receives the devastating news that her husband Jim (Julian McMahon) has died in a car accident. When she wakes up the next morning to find him alive and well, she assumes it was all a dream, but is shaken by how vivid it felt.
She soon realizes it wasn’t a dream, and her world is turned upside down as the surreal circumstances lead her to discover that her perfect life may not have been all that it appeared. Desperate to save her family, Linda begins a furious race against time and fate to try everything.
When the first draft of PREMONITION was submitted to producer Ashok Amritraj and his company Hyde Park Entertainment, Amritraj thought the screenplay had all the ingredients of a terrifically twisty motion picture. What especially sparked Amritraj to the screenplay was not just the opportunity to mix a domestic drama with a time-shifting suspense movie, but the chance to keep an audience engaged without the liberal doses of violence so often associated with thrillers. “The movies that keep you on the edge of your seat aren’t about blood and gore, but have a psychological angle that really unnerves you, like old Hitchcock movies,” says producer Amritraj. “This is an extremely original story and script.”
As with all great stories, PREMONITION began as a very simple idea: how would it feel to lose the most important person in your life, only to wake up the next day and find them alive? Would you assume it was a dream or regard it as a foretelling of tragedy yet to come? When producer Sunil Perkash posed these questions to writer Bill Kelly, he took the idea a step further. “What if the days of that week were like playing cards – you throw them up in the air and however they land is how they play out?”
By taking the emotional tension of such an incredible loss, and adding this component of uncertainty, the story questions notions of fidelity, love and fate. “If Linda had become so complacent about her life, such that every day felt the same,” says writer Bill Kelly, “then this phenomenon she experiences becomes the conduit for making her realize what is important to her.”
Founded upon the premise of a woman unsure of her surroundings, torn between the complete control by which she has been leading her life, and accepting her fate, PREMONITION’s narrative was inherently cinematic. Equally important, it had a strong female protagonist who is placed in an extraordinary situation which she must solve in order to right her world. “It has this wonderful premise about an everyday housewife who is faced with the possibility of her husband dying and the power to prevent it,”
Amritraj explains. “We thought that was something both men and certainly women could relate to.”
Having Visions
With the PREMONITION screenplay in hand, the filmmakers began the search for a director who could bring more than “conventional” genre elements to the project; someone who would have a sure touch with tone and actors yet show a flair for reality and un-reality. “I wanted a filmmaker who had new ideas for the genre,” says Amritraj, “so that PREMONITION would be more than just a thriller.”
The filmmakers met with at least 35 different directors before choosing German-born Mennan Yapo, who had made an unconventional, dreamlike thriller called “Soundless”, about a hit man at a crossroads. “We were really impressed by that film” explains Amritraj, “It was clearly the look and feel we were looking for. He had all the right ideas from casting to lighting.”
Perkash agreed, “Mennan’s movie was fresh, interesting and stylish. And, more importantly it didn’t feel Hollywoodized. Mennan has his own ideas, and his own un-Hollywood creative way of thinking.”
Yapo shared their enthusiasm for the project: “The non-linear structure of the story posed a distinctive technical as well as creative challenge that I couldn’t wait to get started!”
Assembling the Cast
Once Yapo came aboard PREMONITION, finding the right actress to play Linda Hanson was crucial. It was important to find someone with whom audiences could instantly identify – an actress with that unique mixture of empathy and emotional versatility. “I think it was crucial to cast Sandra Bullock,” Yapo notes. “She is the most believable actress that I know. She embodies the character and it was crucial to have someone that audiences believe. I felt she was the only actress that could do this.”
Bullock, meanwhile, was in the frame of mind to do, as she puts it, “not a horror film, but a scary film, scary because of the subject matter, but also that element where you’re walking down the stairs, and just the creak of the stairs makes everything more charged. And within the first couple of pages of ‘Premonition’ I just loved it. Loved it!”
According to Amritraj, Bullock was the ideal match to convey Linda’s complexities.“Sandra was always my first choice, and I know she was also Mennan’s. She is an extremely talented actress who has done a variety of different roles and this is her movie start to finish. This is a thriller but has all these great dramatic moments. We had to balance that very carefully. Sandra’s performance is subtle while at the same time highly dramatic. She is an everywoman while at the same time wakes up in the morning looking stunning.”
For Bullock, the part of Linda offered many intriguing possibilities: “Linda becomes what I think the American dream is – a house, two kids, married to your sweetheart – that sort of idealized life we think we want. Then there’s the mortgage, the monotony of the day-to-day, and the separation that happens to a lot of people when the love starts to pull apart because of the pressures in life. And that’s where we start the story, when these strange events start happening. You have a woman who’s complacent, sort of numb, a husband who’s the same, not feeling anymore, and these events bring up the question: if you had the chance to make a u-turn to fix something, would you, or would you just continue on and change your life? To reconnect or start afresh, that’s the fork in the road that’s presented to her.”
And after meeting with Yapo for the first time, Bullock knew that all the elements she loved in the script would come to fruition. “We have an excellent painter in him. He can tell a story in a way that is very unique, and very unexpected, which I think everyone’s looking for.”
Yapo, meanwhile, has one more thing to add about his leading lady: “Besides the fact that she is a wonderful person to work with and be around …she speaks German!”
Throughout her illustrious career, Bullock has excelled at playing comedic characters, most notably the wallflower police officer in the “Miss Congeniality” movies. But it’s Bullock’s inherent pathos, a kind of mesmerizing melancholy that’s all her own, that was important in breathing life into Linda. “Sandra is a beautiful and talented actress but there is something more in her eyes, you know that she has experienced more than she is revealing” Yapo points out. “And that’s Linda, and that’s definitely a quality of Sandra’s that we wanted.”
The role of Jim Hanson had to be the perfect counterpoint to Linda; a good husband and father, who although worn down by his role, is practical until the end. For this character, the filmmakers cast Australian actor Julian McMahon.
“Firstly, I am a fan of “Nip/Tuck,” says Yapo, referring to the FX series McMahon stars in about plastic surgeons. “In his age range he is one of the most interesting actors out there. He can play anything, he can do anything, there’s no problem. You believe whatever he does.”
McMahon says when he read the script, he was immediately hooked. “The first few times I read it I was just fascinated by the juxtaposition of time vs. the traveling of the characters, and what they mean to each other. Then I started getting into the whole psychology of it, and after the fifth or sixth time I read it I realized how draining the whole thing is. It’s a devastating psychological thriller.” Jim, says McMahon, is the catalyst for everything that is happening in the movie. “This isn’t a character I have played before: a more middle-American regular guy who is just living his life while his wife is going through an extraordinary experience. There were so many interesting things for me to dig my teeth into… the character, the script, the director and, Sandy,” explains McMahon.
About working with Bullock, McMahon says, “I’ve admired her from afar for a long, long time, so I was pretty excited to get the opportunity to work with her. And I found she is everything we think she is: fun, funny, sweet, gorgeous and a wonderful actress.”
Bullock was equally charmed by her onscreen husband. “I loved working with him,” says Bullock. “He knew who his character was, and what we didn’t know we were going to find together. And when he wasn’t there, we all wanted him back on the set because he was the joy, the energy, the spark.”
To play the part of Linda’s best friend Annie, the filmmakers cast the beautiful and talented Nia Long, who immediately sparked to the unexpectedness of the script. “I liked the fact that it was this mind-twisting story that you have to keep up with,” says Long.
“I think we all have a little bit of curiosity when it comes to a spiritual realm that we can’t really explain,” continues Long, “so there’s that fine line between seeing and believing, knowing and believing, and then saying, should I question this or accept it for what it is?”
Kate Nelligan was cast in the crucial role of Linda’s mother Joanne, who knows her daughter is going through a rough time but isn’t privy to the peculiarities of Linda’s experience. She, too, was intrigued by the delicately intertwined nature of the story. “The script is very well-written, compressing time, moving backward and forward so you never know whether you’re in real time or the future. It’s very clever – like a puzzle.”
While Nelligan had to do her share of playing different versions of similar scenes because of the time-bending nature of the script – “you just do it like you never did it before, because each minute of everybody’s reality, except for Linda, is the only one they know,” she says – she was especially impressed by how her onscreen daughter handled the Herculean task of playing the confusion and drama of living through an unexplainable reality alone.
“Sandra has as much stamina, emotional and physical, as anybody I’ve ever seen in my life,” says Nelligan. “You have to be able to get torn up and repair yourself, and I’ve never seen anybody as resilient as she is. It’s astonishing to me.”
Making It Real
Although PREMONITION was set to film in New Orleans, Louisiana, the filmmakers had to make a last minute change when Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. After postponing the start of production for a few months, the filmmakers opted to remain in the state and film in Shreveport. “We had the opportunity to go to various other parts of the United States,” recalls Amritraj. “Then the Governor of Louisiana called and asked for our support, so we decided to stay. It worked out beautifully. It’s a great city and the people have been wonderful.”
A great many of the crew were experienced production personnel from New Orleans who were displaced by the hurricane. Happy to have film production staying in the state, they staged an impromptu Mardi Gras party on set. The spirit of New Orleans was alive and thriving in Shreveport.
As for the serious business of making the film, however, it was decided early on that PREMONITION was going to be a thriller rooted in the familiar of the everyday. No hocus pocus magic tricks. Says Yapo, “I wanted to focus in on the characters and stay in reality. I wanted to elevate inwards and not put something on top of it, visually or effects wise. I wanted this movie to be real.”
Production designer Dennis Washington was given the task of making a small town atmosphere feel both recognizable and foreboding. Filmed in primarily practical locations, the filmmakers wanted to create the feeling of “anywhere USA.”
“My longtime art director Tom Taylor and I mixed many locations with a mix of alterations, adjustments and additions to make reality “real.” “The atmosphere was very important,” says producer Ashok Amritraj. “We wanted to make sure it didn’t feel too claustrophobic, that there is enough breathing room while at the same time letting the audience experience what Linda is feeling.”
Yapo brought in his “Lautlos” director of photography Torsten Lippstock to help him create the look of the film, which had to closely hew to Linda’s psychological state. Says Yapo, “When Linda was experiencing something strange, we changed to a handheld camera. This was a more vivid nightmarish approach that we added to a few scenes. The tone changes right away. When we are in regular classic composition we jump to hand-held. It elevates the whole experience and puts the audience very close to Linda.”
Of the many things the camera had to accomplish, it had to lead the audience, but also show things that Linda may have not yet noticed. “It’s all about Linda’s emotional journey and technically, we need to do whatever we can to support that journey through the film,” says Yapo.
One of the ways Yapo thought he could stretch the confines of reality was in the car crash. “The film is about loss, grief. A woman loses her husband in a car accident. So, if we do this car crash it has to be the most devastating car crash ever seen on film. It’s the only time we can exaggerate in the movie.” The scene was shot on a remote highway outside of Shreveport with the help of veteran stunt coordinator Joel Kramer and co-coordinator Steven Ritzi.
Out of Order
One of the challenges in shooting a movie where the days are out of order is coming up with a shooting schedule that allows the actors to stay focused. Yapo had a clear idea on exactly where the actors were in the trajectory of the story.
“My main directive was to get a shooting schedule that was pretty much in the continuity of the movie, not a continuity of the shooting days. Bullock had an emotional line that she needed to follow. For example, in the bedroom she awakens six or seven times. We did not go into that bedroom for two days and shoot all the different wakeups.
That would have been fatal because we would have run out of ideas. You aren’t fresh anymore. So, we scheduled it where we could come back several times,” says Yapo.
It was a unique challenge for Bullock to keep her own linear life and Linda’s jumbled existence in the same mindframe, and even though Bullock had a script to consult and the character of Linda has a secret calendar she keeps, it was never easy. Says Bullock, “It was insanity. We had a really hard schedule, and it was pretty much a state of chaos. At one point I went to Mennan and said ‘I feel like I’m going insane.’ He said, ‘You need to be in this place. This is the character.’ I’m like, ‘Oh great.’ So it was really interesting for me to just let go and use the fact that I was so frustrated as Sandy trying to figure out this schedule, and then on a daily basis immerse myself into this woman’s life and unravel. There was a method to his madness, and I got to the very core of myself.”
Bullock knows it’s those scenes of internal terror that are as effective as any surface surprises in a classic psychological thriller. “Everyone’s fascinated by the breakdown of the mind. Is she crazy? Is everyone else crazy? That sort of film. But when those films are lacking in emotion, lacking a grounding story, they don’t work. If there’s a story that is very real, I think it makes everyone on edge in a good way. Maybe this will scare everyone into living their life.”
Ultimately, what everyone involved wanted to create was a gripping, suspenseful and emotional experience. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to become a director,” says Yapo. “To entertain people and take them on a ride. I want audiences to follow Linda on her journey and say wow, this could happen to me. It’s why psychological thrillers are interesting, because they’re about people, and what’s in their mind.”
Producer Ashok Amritraj loves the idea of giving moviegoers a trip that not only leads them along, but continually overturns their expectations: “You unravel the mystery a little bit, then there’s another layer, and another layer. You’re thrown a curveball often through this movie, and today I think the atmosphere is right for that kind of thriller.”
And who’s to say premonitions don’t exist? Throughout the centuries there have been reported cases of women with this particular foretelling gift. Many of the cast and crew told tales of their premonitions, the most interesting being Kate Nelligan’s, “I did believe long after I should have that I would have a child and he was exactly as I saw him,” recalls Nelligan. “I saw what he would look like in various stages of his life, and that is exactly what he looks like. Actually, it was a dream. The happiest dream I ever had and it was absolutely accurate.”
Premonitions
The word premonition comes from the Latin pramonere, meaning ‘to warn in advance’. In the scientific community the term “precognition” was coined to describe this type of “sixth sense.” Dr. Richard Broughton has dedicated his career to studying this kind of anomalous phenomena: “In the collection of cases we find there are natural groupings. And of course the largest grouping is dreams, the dreams that are frightening.
They have really rather dramatic characteristics that people recognize as being unusual, and they portray something that the person thinks is going to happen to them. And often it does. Often this changes behavior. People will alter their plans and it turns out to be a very beneficial decision.” Physicist Dean Radin has tried to understand how precognition might work, “There are two ways of thinking about it. One way is that the future is actually fixed – there is destiny – there is no way you can change it… The other way of thinking is that the future is probabilistic… that there are almost an infinite number of possibilities playing out each instant.”
The notion of seeing events before they happen has fascinated us for a long time, not only because it’s a nerve-inducing idea, but because it seems to keep happening to people from all walks of life. Tales of everything from disasters dreamed ahead of time to the solving of puzzling crimes to pre-envisioned stock market fluctuations have kept scientists, psychologists, dream analysts, law enforcement officials and a riveted, openminded populace in the thrall of this seemingly unexplainable phenomenon. Below are a few real-life stories:
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A young sales executive named Sunna Roulston had booked a trip to Thailand when she began having terrible premonitions, including the image of herself in a refugee camp surrounded by starved, soaked, and exhausted people. Although she went on the trip anyway, she left her family with a goodbye letter. It was while Sunna was on a small wooden boat off Thailand’s coast that the devastating tsunami of 2004 hit. After surviving an initial couple of waves, a large fishing boat arrived to take them back to shore.
When a voice told her to refuse the offer, to stay in their smaller boat, she demanded she and her friend not get on board. It sounded crazy, but the friend acquiesced to her seemingly crazy whim. The larger vessel left them behind, and as it pulled away an enormous wave capsized it, drowning everyone onboard.
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David Booth has had many dreams of airplane crashes, a number of which came true. This former pilot’s ability to see the future came to a climax in the late 1980’s when he had 10 days of recurring, vivid dreams in which an American Airlines flight flipped over, flew upside down over low buildings, and crashed into flames at an airport.
These terrifying dreams prompted him to call American Airlines, who referred him to the FAA. The FAA documented the details of his dreams, but were unable to take preventive measures because he didn’t have a flight number. Three days later, an American Airlines DC-10 jet, taking off from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, lost an engine, flipped upside down, flew over low buildings and exploded on the runway killing all 271 passengers. It was one of the worst air disasters in American aviation history.
Production notes provided by Sony TriStar Pictures.
Premonition
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Julian McMahon, Jeff Galpin, Nia Long, Amber Valletta, Marcus Lyle Brown, Mark Famiglietti
Directed by: Mennan Yapo
Screenplay by: Bil Kelly
Release Date: March 16th, 2007
Running Time: 97 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some violent content, disturbing images, thematic material, brief language.
Studio: Sony TriStar Pictures
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $47,852,604 (57.0%)
Foreign: $36,143,751 (43.0%)
Total: $83,996,355 (Worldwide)