Taglines: Nobody believes a liar… even when they’re telling the truth.
In the teen thriller Cry_Wolf, eight unsuspecting high school seniors playing a game of lies come face-to-face with terror and learn that nobody believes a liar…even when they’re telling the truth. After one too many incidents of bad behavior at his last school, Owen Matthews (Julian Morris) arrives at Westlake Prep – where a young woman has recently been found murdered in the dark woods near the boarding school’s campus.
Owen quickly falls in with the school’s unofficial “liars’ club,” including the beautiful and savvy Dodger (Lindy Booth of Dawn of the Dead and Wrong Turn) and quick-talking, short-tempered Tom (Jared Padalecki of the new television series Supernatural). At Owen’s suggestion, his new friends decide to expand their game’s reach beyond campus, by spreading an online rumor that a serial killer called “The Wolf” committed the recent murder and is planning to strike again.
The mischievous group’s descriptions of “The Wolf’s” intended victims are based on the people they know best – each other. Only when the school’s journalism teacher, Rich Walker (Jon Bon Jovi), warns the group about the kinds of predators that lurk on the internet does Owen begin to regret sending their falsified story into cyberspace. When the described “victims” suddenly start to disappear, Owen, Dodger, and Tom are no longer able to determine where the lies end and the truth begins. As someone – or something – starts hunting the players themselves, the game turns terrifyingly real.
Cry Wolf (stylized as Cry_Wolf) is a 2005 American horror film directed by Jeff Wadlow, co-written by Wadlow and Beau Bauman, and starring Julian Morris, Jon Bon Jovi, Lindy Booth, Jared Padalecki and Gary Cole. The film follows a group of teenagers at a remote elite boarding school who find themselves in legitimate danger after playing a group parlor game called Cry Wolf, ensuing in rumors of a serial killer when a young woman is found murdered near their campus. The film was released in the United States on September 16, 2005, earning $15 million worldwide from a $1 million budget.
About the Project
Cry_Wolf is co-written and directed by Jeff Wadlow, the winner of the first Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival competition. Jeff wrote Cry_Wolf with the film’s producer Beau Bauman. Prior to entering the competition, Jeff and Beau attended the graduate school at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television, where they made the short film The Tower of Babble (co-written and co-produced with Matt Stuecken, and with [uncredited] narration by Kevin Spacey), which qualified Jeff for the Chrysler contest.
After surviving seven months of competition and beating out hundreds of other applicants, Jeff ultimately won the top prize – a million-dollar grant to finance his feature film directorial debut. The competition was produced by Hypnotic (The Bourne Identity, The O.C.), and jointly sponsored by Chrysler and Universal Studios. The Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival consisted of multiple phases, including the creation of two new short films as well as the development and execution of a feature film script.
The first of the two new shorts had to be made as part of the “Extreme Filmmaking” phase of the competition, which found 10 semifinalists casting, shooting, editing, and premiering a film – all within 10 days during the Cannes International Film Festival. In addition, the Chrysler Crossfire and/or PT Cruiser Convertible cars had to make appearances in each short. Jeff’s finished project, Manual Labor, landed him among the 5 finalists who immediately entered a summer-long “boot camp” monitored by film industry mentors. Jeff counts himself as being fortunate enough to have been overseen by Charlie Lyons and Suzann Ellis of Beacon Pictures (Air Force One, Bring it On).
While finishing the screenplay with Beau, Jeff had to fashion a pitch with materials for his movie, including casting ideas and a poster. He also had to shoot a presentation piece for the proposed film, featuring dialogue and scenes from the first draft of the script. The completed piece helped sway the judging panel (which included Hypnotic co-founders [and Cry_Wolf executive producers] David Bartis and Doug Liman, as well as Chrysler’s Freeman Thomas).
For the production of the feature film, the competition sponsors were joined by additional supporters, including AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Efilm, Panavision, Technicolor, the University of Richmond, and the Virginia Film Office. Universal’s Rogue Pictures label took distribution of the film, adding Cry_Wolf to its slate of high-quality suspense, action, thriller and urban entertainment features with mainstream appeal and franchise potential.
Continue Reading and View the Theatrical Trailer
Cry_Wolf (2005)
Directed by: Jeff Wadlow
Starring: Julian Morris, Lindy Booth, Jared Padalecki, Jon Bon Jovi, Ethan Cohn, Sandra McCoy, Sabrina Gilbert, Shauna Sauls, Jesse Janzen, Paul James, Jane Beard, Gary Cole
Screenplay by: Beau Bauman, Jeff Wadlow
Production Design by: Martina Buckley
Cinematography by Romeo Tirone
Film Editing by: Seth Gordon
Costume Design by: Alysia Raycraft
Set Decoration by: Angela Ratliff
Art Direction by: Julie Smith
Music by: Michael Wandmacher
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence, terror, disturbing images, language, sexuality and a brief drug reference.
Distributed by: Rogue Pictures
Release Date: September 23, 2005
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