About the Film
From his screenplays for such blockbusters as The Fugitive and G.I. Jane to his directorial efforts including the sci-fi classics Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick, filmmaker David Twohy has long enjoyed playing with established genres as he designs his signature stories. For A Perfect Getaway, it was an exotic location that drove both his characters into action and plot into madness. While on vacation on the lush island of Kauai, Hawaii, Twohy was inspired to plot his latest project, one that happily breaks the conventional rules of three-act linear storytelling. As he hiked the switchbacks of Kauai’s remote trails, Twohy began imagining an intricate thriller of switchback deceptions about two serial killers who track and eliminate their victims.
The writer/director begins his story with a raucous wedding reception at the W Hotel in Westwood, Los Angeles. Well-wishers at a party for Cliff and Cydney pass around a video camera that records the crowd’s enthusiasm for the blissful newlyweds beginning their life together. The camcorder tracks Cliff and Cydney’s departure for Hanalei and their honeymoon on the legendary hiking trails of Kauai.
A sightseeing chopper banks to reveal Waimea Canyon, Wai’ale’ale Crater and waterfalls that plunge 3,000 feet. Pods of whales breach the waters on the Na Pali Coast and Kalalau Beach, a golden crescent of sand, is cordoned off from civilization by steep green mountains that dip into the Pacific. There are only two ways in and out of this paradise-by kayak or by the Kalalau Trail, an 11-mile trek along the island’s north shore. The trail spans from Ke’e Beach to Kalalau Valley and requires up to two days to complete. The island promises an adventurous Cydney and Cliff check out their surroundings. beginning to Cydney and Cliff ‘s new life together…until they learn that serial killers are on the loose.
Twohy had no interest in creating a paint-by-numbers thriller and refused pressure from other would-be financiers to make the story more conventional. “I could see the temptation,” he says. “The story does set up fairly conventionally, like a straight-ahead thriller. But then halfway through, it kind of explodes in your face as I turn over all the cards, revealing who the killers are. In doing so, that messes with the audience’s sympathies and expectations. The second half of the movie then goes dark and dire and fairly extreme.”
His wide-eyed city dwellers become fascinated with two new friends they meet on the trail. Nick and Gina are a rugged pair who hike and hunt together, and Twohy’s newlyweds find them exhilarating. In addition to the tough-but-charming couple, Cliff and Cydney come across two mysterious hitchhikers named Kale and Cleo. Unfortunately, they can’t decide whether their new acquaintances are dangerous or harmless.
When news spreads among the group that there has been a series of tourist murders on Oahu-and law enforcement believes the psychopaths have come to their tropical paradise of Kauai-the travelers band together for safety in numbers. The problem is that they begin to suspect the killer is among them.
The director explains the rationale and motivations of his characters: “When we’re on vacation, we often do things we otherwise wouldn’t. We talk to people in different ways. We tell more about ourselves than maybe we should. That’s one of the key things that allows the serial killers in our midst to keep learning and to keep changing identities.”
While the script’s arrhythmic structure was initially a roadblock to setting up financing, Twohy remained passionately committed to his story in which the characters’ motives dictate the plot. He found his ideal production partners in Ryan Kavanaugh and Tucker Tooley of Relativity Media.
Producer Robbie Brenner, who received the spec story from Twohy’s agent, was quickly interested in developing the story with Kavanaugh and Tooley for Relativity. “David’s a fantastic writer,” commends Brenner. “He writes incredible characters that are authentic, and this was something very different from anything he had done before. Tucker and I shared the same passion for getting this movie made.”
To manage a distant location shoot where unpredictable weather and rough terrain would undoubtedly be factors, the four filmmakers turned to producer Mark Canton to complete the core team. As he had previously worked with Twohy on The Fugitive, Canton understood the director’s process. “David had written the script for Kauai, and because I’ve been there, I could visualize what he wanted to do,” explains Canton. “While the tax incentives drove the decision to shoot in Puerto Rico, we produced CG shots in Hawaii so it would feel like we’re there.”
Production greenlit, it was time to find the group of murderers and innocents who would play a very dangerous game with one another in Hawaii. For the three couples that form the heart of A Perfect Getaway, Twohy and the producers looked to cast a seasoned group of action and suspense film veterans, as well as newcomers to the genre. They found their Cliff & Cydney, Nick & Gina and Kale & Cleo after an extensive search.
When considering the role of the rugged Iraq war veteran Nick, the team asked actor Timothy Olyphant to come aboard. From Hitman to Live Free or Die Hard, Olyphant has a number of thrillers on his resume and jumped into the role. It didn’t hurt that the native Hawaiian was very familiar with the land about which Twohy had written.
Olyphant enjoyed the complex narrative created for his role; he wasn’t sure whether Nick was going to be a victim or the killer. “Every character has information you assume means one thing and then, when given more information, you realize it means something completely different,” the actor offers. “This movie really challenges the audience at all times.”
Survivalist Nick jumps at the opportunity to brag to aspiring screenwriter Cliff about his exploits in the military as a self-proclaimed “American Jedi.” “He is this gregarious, special-ops guy who has all kinds of stories to tell,” says Twohy. “Nick’s like a drive-by shooter with his stories. At first you believe this guy, but then you aren’t so sure. You want to start questioning the guy about the legitimacy of his stories, but by then he’s on to the next one. I told Tim: `Do it fast, almost rat-a-tat-tat, with no breath in between…so everybody is left playing catch-up to your monologue.’”
To play opposite Nick, the production team had to next fill the role of the shy writer Cliff; like his coun- terpart, he has to fight for his life if he hopes to escape the island alive. Producer Brenner had previously worked with Steve Zahn on a Western, so she and Twohy flew to Kentucky to discuss the part with the actor on his latest film set. The unassuming Cliff was a welcome departure for Zahn. “Steve’s always seen as the funny guy,” says Brenner, “so the straightman role of Cliff gave him an opportunity to do something different.”
Zahn’s background made him a disarming choice for Cliff, concurs Twohy. Indeed, he felt the actor was “scope-locked” on the part as he prepared to film. “His script was tabulated and indexed; he had everything worked out and was ready to go,” recalls the director. “He was usually the first one on set, happy to do just about anything I wanted with very little input required.”
Zahn appreciated that A Perfect Getaway was nonlinear and unpredictable. He describes his reaction upon reading the screenplay: “You have all these characters that are vulnerable and endearing, and you’re interested in them. Then someone kills somebody, and it might be the one you like.” The actor also appreciated that his character struggles with the unforgiving nature of the Hawaiian trails…no matter how much gear he has piled into his pack. Acknowledges Zahn: “Cliff is a little out of his element.”
Cast as Nick’s girlfriend, the perky-buttough Southern girl Gina, was actress Kiele Sanchez. “Kiele is a revelation, and I have a soft spot in my heart for her,” relates Twohy. “She was simply the best of about a hundred people we read for the role.”
It was several weeks into shooting before the director realized that one of his leading ladies had a secret of her own. Sanchez had learned her character’s spot-on accent not from one of Hollywood’s master dialect coaches…but by watching hours of Designing Women to nail Gina’s cadence.
The longtime-thriller fan enjoyed attempting to decode Twohy’s screenplay upon first read. “Whenever I read thrillers or murder mysteries, I always think, `I know who did it,’ or `This is who they want you to think did it,’” says Sanchez. In this case, the actress admits she didn’t foresee what was coming. “I was really surprised by the ending, which is how I knew it was a good one.”
The final performer to join the ensemble was worldwide action star Milla Jovovich. Having created unforgettable characters in thrillers from The Fifth Element to the Resident Evil trilogy, Jovovich was no stranger to grueling shoots and treacherous stunts. Several years ago, producer Tooley had made the crime drama .45 with the actress and was keen to work with her again, so he reached out to get the script in Jovovich’s hands. She responded to the multifaceted Cydney and agreed to the part.
Olyphant, Zahn and Sanchez were not the only members of the troupe affected by the screenplay. “When I read David’s script and realized that everything I thought about the story was completely wrong, I said, `I have to be involved, because he really pulled one over on me,’” says Jovovich. She also enjoyed that Cydney is a naive newlywed who is having the time of her life being young and in love in Hawaii. The performer laughs, “That was fun for me because it’s not every day I get to play a nice girl.”
Naturally, Jovovich and Zahn had distinct approaches to their craft, and the director believed that helped the chemistry between them. Twohy elaborates: “Milla likes rehearsals and wants to hear the other lines before she can understand how she’ll respond to them. She doesn’t lock in until the last minute. Their work approach was so opposite, yet they were so damn funny that they kept each other in stitches and made it all work on the set. Hopefully, that results in chemistry you see on the screen.”
Completing the core group of mysterious hikers are Chris Hemsworth and Marley Shelton, cast to play unpredictable boyfriend and girlfriend Kale and Cleo. Australian actor Hemsworth’s American theatrical debut occurred this summer in Star Trek, while Shelton has been seen in a number of successful films.
When casting the parts, Twohy knew he needed two actors who could come across as both sane and a little crazy. He notes: “Cleo and Kale are two hitchhikers that Cliff and Cydney quickly regret stopping for. As written, the script doesn’t give the actors a lot to go on, so I looked for inventive actors who could, with my blessing, co-create the characters. To that end, I invited both Chris and Marley down to Puerto Rico early, put them in costume, and told them to go out and spend their days together in character. I even gave them a camera so they could snap photos of themselves that we used in the movie. They both worked out great.”
Twohy imagined an ambitious shooting schedule when he wrote A Perfect Getaway. From Cliff and Cydney’s entry into the reef lagoon of Ke’e Beach to their dangerous walk across a narrow trail aptly named “Crawler’s Ledge,” re-creating the terrifying island getaway set on the pristine expanse of Pacific would prove challenging to all involved. To lens the thriller, the production would travel from Puerto Rico to Jamaica and on to Kauai for certain aerial and cover shots.
Originally, Twohy planned a guerilla-style shoot for the film. Since the majority of his suspense thriller was to be shot in exteriors, he wondered if he even needed a production designer. But when the production eventually landed in Puerto Rico, production designer Joseph Nemec III came in to help Twohy re-create Kauai, one of the most beautiful and distinct places on earth.
Puerto Rico’s El Yunque National Forest was a rich stand-in for the lush Na Pali Coast State Park, home to Kauai’s rugged hikes and the crescent-shaped beach that spoons the emerald coastline at the end of the 11-mile trail.
“Since the script takes place in the jungles of Hawaii, along the Kalalau Trail, my first thought was that there’s not really a lot to do here as a production designer,” recalls Nemec. The challenge was to “take this existing place and make it interesting for the audience.”
The volcanic range that the Kalalau Trail follows has dramatic cliffs that can reach almost 4,000 feet high. The production used visual effects to top off the Puerto Rico vistas to turn them into Kauai. Nemec counts almost 50 sets that his crew created during an eight-week shoot that spanned the entire island.
While some locations stood on their own, such as a bamboo forest or the slippery valley spillways that hikers cross, others demanded complex greens installations or large-scale builds. A portion of the trail that forces intrepid adventure seekers to their knees, the mythic Crawler’s Ledge, was, as Nemec explains, “one of the larger builds that works in concert with matte painting.”
Though the story constantly moves along the waterline, the characters zigzag throughout the inland and then return to the coast. The cat-and-mouse game outlined in Twohy’s script gave the production many opportunities to interweave different landscapes- from forests and cliffs to rock walls-and gives the audience a sense that it is only a matter of time before another murder happens.
Some of the locations were incredibly treacherous, and it was impossible to bring ATVs and gators (four-wheel drive equipment) directly up to the set. The grip and camera departments often had to lug their gear to places that were difficult to reach. “The crew was constantly exposed to the elements, and what we did in the time we did it was pretty incredible,” says Brenner.
Twohy felt director of photography Mark Plummer’s interest in shooting in a wider format would work well with the story’s expansive Hawaiian vistas. The perspectives they were able to capture are breathtaking. “I’m happy to see small actors against a big, dangerous backdrop with craggy mountains and great rock formations,” says the director.
He and DP Plummer discussed ways to use a fascinating camera technique while lensing A Perfect Getaway. “One of my favorite films is I Am Cuba,” says Twohy. “Russian filmmaker Mikhail Kalatozov shot it almost entirely on infrared black-and-white film. For our film, we created this extended flashback sequence where it is all shot on digital infrared film, black-and-white, using the RedCam.
“Infrared sees below the surface of the skin, so actors’ faces can take on this creamy, sultry, burnished look,” he continues. “It can be spectacular, but it can also give you some surprises. You can see straight through sunglasses, to the point where they look like they’re reading glasses. We had to put our actors in welder’s glasses when we wanted it to look like they were wearing shades.”
Some of the most difficult sequences for the director, Plummer and cast to film were the kayaking scenes in which Cliff and Nick are out in the ocean. “No matter how many times they tell you it’s tough to film on water, you cannot appreciate it until you actually get on water,” laughs Twohy. “It’s one thing to get the actors up to speed in kayaks; that takes a little time. We went out there with all kinds of image-stabilization equipment to keep the horizon steady and to keep us [on camera boats] steady…so people wouldn’t throw up in the theaters.” When the elements didn’t sync up for the production, he remembers, “We had to go old school, basically throwing the cameras back on our shoulders and using our legs as gyro-stabilizers. It was hell.”
That said, calmer days on set included the scenes in which the director was able to concentrate on the actors’ performances without the distractions that visual-effects scenes can create. “When you shoot action, you chop things up into small pieces and then build the scene in the editing room,” Twohy notes.
“But the scenes I’m most fond of in A Perfect Getaway are those where I could just be an actor’s director. The idea that I could stage Steve and Milla in a foreground tent and let them speak for almost three pages of dialogue? While Kiele skins a goat behind them? I love the staging of a scene like that, and I love that I can let it all play out in real time.”
The rugged backdrop and the goal that the cast would do much of its own stunts required that the actors be in top physical form for the filming of A Perfect Getaway. In addition to the tough cardiovascular and anaerobic training prior, they arrived in Puerto Rico to rehearse two weeks before the beginning of principal photography. They were asked to prepare with serious training and daily kayak lessons.
“It wasn’t the kind of movie where you just prepare before you start,” offers Canton. “They had weapons, there were 20-foot swells out there and we shot in caves. They had to train every day in order to be ready.”
“Tim was a competitive swimmer in college, and both he and Steve were on a serious workout regimen before they came to do this movie,” adds Brenner.
Sanchez, who was well into a rigorous training schedule for an AIDS benefit marathon in San Francisco, felt she was ready aerobically. But she realized she would need to incorporate weight training into her routine to build muscle and, as she relates, “get through how intense it was going to be physically.”
Jovovich trained rigorously in Los Angeles before she came to the islands; she brought her trainer to Puerto Rico and continued working with him during preparation for the shoot. The actress, who had a baby about six months before filming began, admits that the strenuous shooting conditions “were a great opportunity to get back into the swing of things.”
Her on-screen husband agrees. “Any time you’re on location, it’s more demanding-physically and mentally,” admits Zahn. “This one was a lot harder because we’re in the elements, which I prefer. The surf, sand, tents, hiking and the waterfalls add a fantastic ruggedness to the film.”
Production notes provided by Universal Pictures.
A Perfect Getaway
Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Milla Jovovich, Steve Zahn, Marley Shelton, Kiele Sanchez, Chris Hemsworth, Katie Chonacas
Directed by: David Twohy
Screenplay by: David Twohy
Release Date: August 14, 2009
MPAA Rating: R for graphic violence, language including sexual references and drug use.
Studio: Universal Pictures