"...three engaging and rewarding performances. " Tony Toscano TALKING PICTURES U.S.A "...the makers of The Clearing could apparently not care less about capturing the youth market, so they've actually gone with veteran actors who know their stuff." Luke Y Thompson NEW TIMES "Redford gives one of his best performances ever in this taut, emotionally engrossing thriller." David Sterritt CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR "The pleasures of this endeavor, directed with a keen eye for detail by Pieter Jan Brugge, come from what the actors bring to the material." Peter Travers ROLLING STONE "You'll be with it every second and intrigued to its last, carefully constructed frame." Steve Rhodes STEVE RHODES' INTERNET REVIEWS

"...may not be the most exciting or well-focused drama of the year, but it manages to engage our intellect most of the time and keep us guessing well up to the end." John J Puccio DVDTOWN.COM "A mature, character-based film in which kidnapping is the story, but the people are the substance." Eric D Snider ERICDSNIDER.COM "An unusual combination of the suspenseful and the thoughtful, a character-based drama that grabs hold and digs deeply under the surface." Arthur Lazere CULTUREVULTURE.NET "This anti-thriller radiates dread rather than suspense; it delivers creeping apprehension rather than adrenaline-pumping kicks, and the uniformly strong and finely calibrated performances more than compensate for the absence of technical razzle-dazzle." Maitland McDonagh TV GUIDE'S MOVIE GUIDE "The performances by the three principals are first-rate." Jack Mathews NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

At A Glance

"There is not just chemistry between Redford and Mirren, but a palpable tenderness, passion, and the kind of comfortable amiability that comes with the passage of years." ...... Pam Grady FILMSTEW.COM

The inspiration for the Pieter Jan Brugge film, "The Clearing" comes from an actual kidnapping in the Netherlands which occupied the Dutch media for 200 days and "inspired Brugge to deeply ponder the effect the tragedy would have on all parties." Brugge, who was nominated for an Oscar® for producing "The Insider", appeared to be at a crossroad in his film life. Having worked as a producer for acclaimed directors Alan Pakula, Warren Beatty and Michael Mann, Brugge wanted to make a move. A move into the director's chair. "I’ve produced with some remarkable directors for many years, and since film school I’ve always had the dream and desire to direct," he explained. "But I felt that I wanted to learn the craft of filmmaking first. The best way to learn the craft is as a producer because you can stand at the very genesis of an idea and you can see it all the way through the final release and watch the effect it has on an audience." With the story mapped out in his mind, Brugge needed someone to write the screenplay. Brugge approached author Justin Haythe who was just completing his first novel "The Honeymoon: A Novel". "I saw it as a thriller that is unflinching in its portraits of people and the mistakes they’ve made," Haythe says. "In the pursuit of success there are winners and losers. But there is an enormous cost for both of them that is not simply material; it’s what we fritter away while chasing our goals and how we lose track of some of the people around us in achieving those goals. The idea of not being successful can seem so terrifying. But when you open that door and see what’s behind it, it’s often not a great deal." Brugge, "convinced that Haythe fully understood his vision for the film," immediately hired the author. It would take three years of collaboration before Brugge and Haythe had a finished script. A script which featured not one story, but two. "One is the story of Eileen, whose life is turned inside out and upside down by the presence of the FBI in her home investigating Wayne’s abduction," Brugge notes. "The other story is the kidnapping itself, and what happens to Wayne Hayes after he has been abducted." They took their script to Jonah Smith & Palmer West who, in 1998, co-founded Thousand Words the privately owned, Los Angeles based development, production and finance entity. "“I was surprised at how brave Justin was in his writing," West said. "It broke outside the conventional realm of storytelling and gave us something different," Smith added. "The script was unique and engaging, with complex characters. Pieter Jan had a distinct vision for the movie, which we believed in and wanted to develop." That devolpement saw Thousand Words co-financing the project with Fox Searchlight Pictures. The biggest standout for "The Clearing" is it's superb lead actors. Three in all. Three with excellent pedigrees. Academy Award® winner Robert Redford, BAFTA Award winner Helen Mirren and 2001 Independent Spirit Award winner Willem Dafoe. Right from the start, Brugge had a vision for his debut directorial feature film. That vision was to have Helen Mirren and Robert Redford in the roles of Eileen and Wayne Hayes. "I was extraordinarily lucky on my first outing as a director to have both of them and for them to respond the way they did to the script. They had to have a sense of faith, trust and confidence to allow themselves to be vulnerable. It is out of that vulnerability that they could breathe life into the characters." And breathe life they do! Redford, like Omar Sharif did with "Monsieur Ibrahim", proves there is still plenty of acting life left in him yet. "The script had what I always look for, a good story with interesting characters," he says. "It was extraordinarily well crafted and had a simple elegance to it that was appealing to me. It had a first-time writer and a first-time director, which fits comfortably with what I believe in supporting. So what better way than to put your money where your mouth is and get in it?" For Mirren it was the chance to do something more personal after "Gosford Park""One is constantly looking for an interesting, relevant role in a good script," says acclaimed British actress Helen Mirren. "I often look for a kind of reaction to the thing that I’ve just done. If I’ve done something big and extreme, then I look for something quieter and more personal." Mirren was full of admiration for the man who plays her onscreen husband remarking that "If Robert Redford was a Brit he would be Lord Robert Redford by now because he has given so much to my profession. I’m immensely respectful of that and love him for that." Redford says he felt a debt of gratitude both his co-stars Mirren and Willem Dafoe. "It’s a joy to work with really wonderful actors because you have more options, more to work with. And you cut through any nonsense," he said. "It’s about the work and that’s when I’m the happiest." But while Pieter Jan Brugge had realized his dream for the roles of Eileen and Wayne, the search for the right actor to play the villian Arnold Mack wasn't so easy. "It’s a three-character piece that stands or falls with each one of these performances," Pieter Jan Brugge emphasized. "You have to have an actor who can hold his or her own against each of the others." Brugge's "instincts guided him to Willem Dafoe" who thought the script had "with wonderful possibilities," adding, "It was a very smart, character-driven movie that I wasn’t sure what exactly it meant or what would come out of it. But it had a complexity that interested me. It had the pleasure of being a suspenseful movie," he says, "but it wasn’t a genre piece. It went very deep. It’s a story about human character and identity." That is what defines "The Clearing". Crew Bytes "The Clearing" was .......
directed by Pieter Jan Brugge ["The Insider", "The Pelican Brief", "Glory" and "Fatal Instinct"]; screenplay by Pieter Jan Brugge and Justin Haythe ["The Clearing"]; executive produced by Karen Tenkhoff ["The Horse Whisperer", "The Legend Of Bagger Vance" and "The Motorcycle Diaries"]; costume design by ["Charlie's Angels", "The Little Princess", "Not Another Teen Movie" and "Perfekt"]; production design by Chris Gorak ["The Man Who Wasn't There", "Fight Club", "Minority Report" and "Lords Of Dogtown"]; edited by Kevin Tent A.C.E ["Blow", "Girl, Interrupted", "About Schmidt" and "Election"]; director of photograhpy Denis Lenoir A.S.C/A.F.C ["Dingo", "The Old Man Who Read Love Stories", "Carrington" and "The Secret Agent"]; original music by BAFTA and Ivor Novello Award winner Craig Armstrong ["Moulin Rouge", "The Quiet American" and "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet"] produced by Co-founders of Thousand Words Jonah Smith & Palmer West ["Requiem For A Dream", "Waking Life", "Speed Of Life" and "United States Of Leland"]. Casting About "The Clearing" stars .......
Academy Award®, Golden Globe®, BAFTA and Directors Guild of America Award winner Robert Redford ["Ordinary People", "The Horse Whisperer", "The Sting", "Barefoot In The Park and "Spy Game"]; BAFTA, Emmy and Golden Globe winner Helen Mirren ["Teaching Mrs Tingle", "Last Orders", "The Pledge" and "Gosford Park"]; Alessandro Nivola ["Laurel Canyon", "Jurassic Park III", "Mansfield Park" and "Face/Off"]; Matt Craven ["Timeline", "The Life Of David Gale", "A Few Good Men" and "The Juror"]; Melissa Sagemiller ["Black and White", "Soul Survivor", "Get Ovet It" and "Sorority Boys"]; Wendy Crewson ["I'll Never Get to Heaven", "Air Force One", "Bicentennial Man", "The Santa Clause 2" and "Suddenly Naked"]; Larry Pine ["Dead Man Walking", "The Ice Storm", "The Shipping News" and "Maid in Manhattan"]; Diana Scarwid ["Ladies Club", "Truman", "A Guy Thing" and "What Lies Beneath"]; Elizabeth Ruscio ["Heartbreak Ridge", "Desperate Hours", "A Perfect World" and "Burglar"]; Mike Pniewski ["A Time to Kill", "Remember the Titans", "Out Of Time" and "Runaway Jury"]; Peter Gannon ["Lost in Yonkers" and "Whatever"] and 2001 Independent Spirit Award winner Willem Dafoe ["Shadow Of The Vampire", "The English Patient", "Auto Focus" and "Spider-man"] as Arnold Mack. The Story

"Don't go in expecting a thriller and you might be happily surprised..." ..... JoBlo JOBLO'S MOVIE EMPORIUM

Wayne and Eileen Hayes appear to be living the American dream, until that dream becomes a living nightmare. A self-made tycoon who has the uncanny knack of remembering every person he's ever met, Wayne appears invincible. That illusion is shattered when, in broad daylight, he is kidnapped from their peaceful Pittsburgh estate. When Wayne fails to return by six pm for an important dinner engagement, Eileen becames nervous. He is not at work. Then security find his abandonded vehicle. She searches for clues in their lives. Wayne has had an affair. Could he be with his former employee and lover? Immediately the FBI start investigating, they suspect a kidnapping. Her worse fears are realized when a telephone call comes and a voice tells her to look in the local paper. Now Eileen finds she too has become a victim. Wayne meantime, has come to the realization that his fate rests in the hands of a kidnapper who has nothing to lose and everything to gain. Wayne finds himself in the most important negotiation ever. The Verdict "If you're looking for a whizz bang thriller you'll be disappointed. On the other hand, if you are looking for a character driven film that requires you keep the old thinking cap on, the "The Clearing" will provide a satisfying experience. Very character driven, "The Clearing" features solid performances from Redford, Mirren and Dafoe. A juxtapose thriller with a shock ending that will best suit a mature audience. Worth a look at." The Cast

Robert Redford Helen Mirren Willem Dafoe Alessandro Nivola Matt Craven Melissa Sagemiller Wendy Crewson Larry Pine Diana Scarwid Elizabeth Ruscio Gwen McGee Sarah Koskoff Graciela Marin Mike Pniewski Geoff McKnight Tom E Arcuragi Audrey Wasilewski Peter Gannon Jacqi Loewy Matt Miller Mark Emery Moore Joel S Nunley Ted Manson

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Wayne Hayes Eileen Hayes Arnold Mack Tim Hayes Agent Ray Fuller Jill Hayes Louise Miller Tom Finch Eva Finch Cindy Mack Agent Kathleen Duggan Lane Hayes Graciela Detective Kyle John Dewitt Mr Schmidt Lisa Agent Elkins Agent Crew Another Agent Agent Sullivan Waiter Robert Gidden

The Crew Directed by Pieter Jan Brugge Written by Pieter Jan Brugge & Justin Haythe Produced by Jonah Smith & Palmer West Original Music by Craig Armstrong Cinematography by Denis Lenoir Film Editing by Kevin Tent Casting by Vicki Thomas Production Design by Chris Gorak Art Direction by Paul Huggins Set Decoration by Marthe Pineau Costume Design by Florence-Isabelle Megginson Production Manager Dara Weintraub Production Supervisor Kimberly Rach Run Time 91 minutes Rated M15+ [AUST] Copyright ©2004 - Fox Searchlight & Thousand Words - All Rights Reserved Copyright Protected © 2004 - Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved