What Do The Critics Say?

"Somber but soulful, Premonition has a strong dramatic performance by Sandra Bullock and a gimmicky plot that doesn't grate until the end. All this unfolds in a surprisingly clear narrative given its jumbled structure. Even if you struggle to keep up, at least, like Linda, you'll have a fighting chance. Though McMahon's role is underwritten, he conveys a decent but conflicted man who's taken his family for granted. His Jim, at least, is no heel. But Premonition is Bullock's film, and she delivers like a dream; a good one, in this case." Bruce Westbrook HOUSTON CHRONICLE "Premonition maintains a chilly grip on the viewer, almost in spite of the spotty storytelling." Terry Lawson DETROIT FREE PRESS "Premonition slips through our fingers, but by gum, it's interesting, and one of the oddest and most abstract mainstream releases I've seen in a long time." Eugene Novikov FILM BLATHER "Confusing, convoluted and yet gripping and emotional almost in spite of itself Premonition is the first movie Sandra Bullock has successfully 'carried' in years. She abandons any pretext of her perkiness and summons every last drop of empathy as a woman whose clairvoyance spells trouble for her life, her family and her marriage." Roger Moore ORLANDO SENTINEL "Sandra Bullock, who proved beyond a shadow of a doubt she could carry her weight as a dramatic actress in "Crash" and "Infamous," is convincing again in a sometimes compelling psychological thriller. Bullock may be easing away from her kooky "Miss Congeniality" persona and into more substantial material at just the right time in her career. While the former star of "Speed," "A Time to Kill," "While You Were Sleeping" and other films is one of the most versatile actors of her generation, it continues to be a joy to see her sink her teeth into a challenging project like this." Larry Ratliff SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

"Bullock's affable performance starts strong then muscles up as a faint but lifesaving strain of humor creeps into the material. You might need to watch Premonition twice to fully sort out its helter-skelter hijinks, though once is more than enough for all other purposes." Nathan Lee VILLAGE VOICE "With her tetchy screen persona, Sandra Bullock is well served by brainteasers like The Lake House and this passable thriller about a woman who seems to be bouncing between two alternate realities." J. R. Jones CHICAGO READER "Premonition, for all its far-fetched nature, never lets go of its momentum and holds the audience every inch of the way." Tom Long DETROIT NEWS "Premonition successfully balances audience satisfaction while staying true to its roots. It doesn’t pull punches and never lets up in its relentless pursuit of a conclusion. The attention to detail of arranging fore and postshadowed sequences make for an interesting and satisfying screenplay. Premonition may avoid the pitfalls of the time-altering plot device, but the fact that it doesn’t molly-coddle the viewer may have been what sunk the film at the box office. Regardless of that fact, it is still one of the more intriguing and artful films of the year." Wesley Lovell OSCAR GUY "Even though Premonition is certainly no Hitchcock-style masterpiece, it still manages to become a gripping psychological thriller that will have you guessing from start to finish. This is one of those perplexing, and, at times, frustrating movie guessing games that can be fairly engrossing to watch." Peter Hammond MAXIM

The Inside Story When the first draft of "Preminition" 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." When producer Sunil Perkash posed the following questions, "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," 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." "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." Once the two producers had a screenplay in their hands, they went looking for the right director. "I wanted a filmmaker who had new ideas for the genre," says Amritraj, "so that "Premonition" would be more than just a thriller." After meeting with at least thirty five different directors they choosing German-born Mennan Yapo whose dreamlike thriller "Soundless", had impressed them. "We were really impressed by that film" Amritraj explained. "It was clearly the look and feel we were looking for. He had all the right ideas from casting to lighting." "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," Perkash added. The director 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!" Their first job was to find the right actress to plat Linda. Someone with whom audiences could instantly identify. Sandra Bullock was the right actress for the role, according to Yapo. "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." The filmmakers were lucky, because Bullock was in the right frame of for a film that was "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!" "Sandra was always my first choice, and I know she was also Mennan’s," says Amritraj. "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." So how does Bullock see her character and the circumstances that unfold in Linda's life? "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," Bullock explained. "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. Besides the fact that she is a wonderful person to work with and be around; she speaks German!" To create the perfect balance, the filmmakers next went looking for the right actor to play Linda's husband Jim. The role went to Australian actor Julian McMahon a.k.a 'Dr Doom'. "Firstly, I am a fan of Nip/Tuck," says Yapo. "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." So what did McMahon think of the script. "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," McMahon says. And what did McMahon think about working opposite Bullock? "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," he notes, "a wonderful actress." Bullock was equally impressed with McMahon. "I loved working with him," she said. "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." The role of Linda’s best friend Annie, went to Nia Long. What was it taht appealed to her? "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. 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 as Linda's mother Joanne. '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," she said. Nelligan too was impressed with star, Bullock. "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." With everything now in place they were ready to start filmimg. That was until Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans. 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." Filming also incorporated the use of hand held cameras. "When Linda was experiencing something strange, we changed to a hand-held 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," says Yapo. But don't expect the storyline in the finished product to be easy to follow. "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," says Amritraj. Synopsis

Linda Hanson has a beautiful house, a loving husband and two adorable daughters. Her life is perfect, until the day she receives the devastating news from Sheriff Reilly that her husband Jim has died in a car accident. For this devoted wife and mother, it’s the worst she could imagine. But did she imagine it? When Linda wakes up the following morning her husband is very much alive. At first, Linda believes the accident must have been a nightmare. Then it happens again; some days Linda awakens to find Jim is next to her alive and well, while on others she awakens a widow. Inexplicably, Linda is living the days of her life out of order. Linda’s traumatizing premonition sets off a series of puzzling, time-altering events. 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 and preserve everything she and Jim have built together, including her sanity.

The Verdict "The biggest problem "Premonition" faces is not the cast, for all do well, particularly Sandra Bullock. Nor is it the premiss that's glaringly obvious from the storyline. What it lacks is control over the storyline, which is so convoluted and juxtaposed it tends to run out of control. So badly, it will leave many in its audiences a bit nonplussed by the experience. You'll either find this to be very clever or, very silly. Keep your eyes and ears open for clues in the timeline. In plain english, it's a little too smart for its own good. If you've already experienced everything else on offer at your local cinema complex, it probably means the only thing left to see is "Premonition". Hard to really recommend with conviction. 2 1/2 STARS." Cast & Crew Bytes "PREMONITION" stars .......
1997 & 2001 Blockbuster Entertainment Award & 2005 Women in Film Crystal Award winner Sandra Bullock ["Practical Magic", "The Net", "Two Weeks Notice", "Crash" and "The Lake House"]; Shyann McClure ["Premonition"]; Courtney Taylor Burness ["Thank You for Smoking", "Jesus, Mary and Joey" and "Seraphim Falls"]; Nia Long ["Big Momma's House", "Big Momma's House 2", "Are We There Yet?", "Alfie" and "Are We Done Yet?"]; Irene Ziegler ["", "The Contender" and "Runaway Jury"]; Amber Valletta ["What Lies Beneath", "Hitch", "Transporter 2" and "Man About Town"]; Julian McMahon ["Wet and Wild Summer!", "Meet Market", "Fantastic Four" and "Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer"] and Marc Macaulay ["Tigerland", "The Punisher", "Red Eye" and "Miami Vice"] as Sheriff Reilly.
"PREMONITION" was .......
directed by Mennan Yapo ["Framed"]; screenplay by Bill Kelly ["Blast from the Past"]; art direction by Thomas T Taylor ["The Net", "The General's Daughter", "Thirteen Days", "Life As A House" and "Twisted"]; costume design by Jill M Ohanneson ["Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure", "The Crossing Guard", "The Pledge" and "40 Days and 40 Nights"]; production design by J Dennis Washington ["White Men Can't Jump", "The Fugitive", "Life As A House" and "The World's Fastest Indian"]; director of photography Torsten Lippstock ["Framed" and "Vincent"]; original music by 2002 World Soundtrack Award winner Klaus Badelt ["The Time Machine", "K-19: The Widowmaker", "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" and "Poseidon"]; set decoration by Raymond Pumilia ["Home of Phobia", "Waiting" and "Road House 2 "]. Who's Who?

Sandra Bullock Julian McMahon Shyann McClure Courtney Taylor Burness Nia Long Irene Ziegler Kate Nelligan Marc Macaulay Amber Valletta Peter Stormare Jude Ciccolella E.J. Stapleton Mark Famiglietti Laurel Whitsett Kristin Ketterer Marcus Lyle Brown Jason Douglas David Shaffer Floriana Tullio Phillip DeVona Ritchie Montgomery Matt Moore

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Linda Quinn Hanson Jim Hanson Megan Hanson Bridgette Hanson Annie Mrs Quinn Joanne Sheriff Reilly Claire Dr Norman Roth Father Kennedy Model Home Salesman Doug Caruthers School Aide Receptionist Bob Emergency Room Doctor Doctor's Assistant Nurse Funeral Attendant #1 Funeral Attendant #2 Young Priest

Run Time 92 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2007 - Sony Pictures Entertainment - All Rights Reserved ©2007 All Rights Reserved - Protected by Australian & International Copyright. Trademark Laws Apply.