THE SCRIPT
Director Gregory Hoblit is well known for keeping the screenwriter within arm's reach during production, and Glenn Gers was no exception, spending months on set with the cast and crew.
"The script is the blueprint for the movie," asserts Hoblit. "Once it gets on its feet in the hands of gifted actors, it becomes organic and takes on a life of its own. If the blueprint is good, you stick to its intentions pretty closely, making sure you hit every specific point."
"This script is also a puzzle piece in terms of the emotional life of the characters," Hoblit continues, "so we had to be very careful, yet still give the actors room to move. Glenn was great at understanding that. I don't think going in he anticipated that a scene could take such a left or right turn, but he quickly realized the special things that can happen with a story with when you let the moments happen with good actors. Our blueprint was first rate."
Hoblit read more than 100 scripts before agreeing to direct Fracture. "It was the surprises you don't see coming," he says when asked what made this script outshine the many others. "I knew this one was going to be fun and I knew what to do with it, how to make it," he says succinctly.
Similar to Hoblit's debut film, Primal Fear, the director likens Fracture to such smart murder mysteries as Jagged Edge and The Verdict, calling them "brainy popcorn thrillers."
The characters jumped off the page into Hoblit's consciousness, especially the scene in which Crawford and Willy first meet. Crawford has confessed to his wife's murder, and Willy, feeling all the power of his position as an assistant district attorney, questions Crawford believing his case to be a neat slam dunk. "When I read that scene, I couldn't wait to shoot it," Hoblit acknowledges. "Everything else just radiated from the confrontation between them. Being able to shoot the creative dynamic of that sequence was probably the single most exciting day I've had in 25 years in this business."
"This story is about growing up and growing a soul," says screenwriter Glenn Gers. "Willy's a little slick at the beginning, but he has no choice but to mature as he encounters tragedy and real loss. He's a little careless with other people and he discovers the cost of that carelessness."
"The movie is like a chess game," says Gregory Hoblit. "It's got moves and countermoves and finally a checkmate. Crawford is the chess master who's thought out every possible move, from beginning to end, and Willy is like one of those speed players you see in Central Park, an Energizer bunny up against this stolid, methodical guy. I liked the striking difference between their physiognomies; one is grown up, and clearly, the other is not. But Willy goes from being a callow youth to being a man at the end of the day."
More Production Notes:
THE ORIGINS OF FRACTURE THE MALE LEADS THE LEADING LADIES SUPPORTING CAST ACHIEVING VERISIMILITUDE FILMING FRACTURE
