Tagline: Would you sacrifice another family to save your own?
Devastated by a hostage situation that resulted in the deaths of a young mother and her child, LAPD negotiator Jeff Talley (Bruce Willis) exits Los Angeles for a low-profile job as chief of police in the low-crime town of Bristo Camino in Ventura County. When three delinquent teenagers follow a family home intending to steal their car, they inadvertently pick the wrong house on the wrong day. The trio find themselves trapped in a multi-million dollar compound on the outskirts of town owned by a corrupt accountant. Panicked, the teenagers take the family hostage, placing Talley in exactly the kind of situation he never wanted to face again.
Soon after, Talley readily hands authority of the hostage situation over to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and leaves the scene. But inside the compound, is digital information critical to the mysterious criminals and their operation. They will stop at nothing to get what belongs to them, including taking Talley’s family hostage and, forcing him to resume the command he had abandoned. The stakes quickly evolve into a situation far more volatile and terrifying than anything he could ever imagine.
Hostage is a mix of suspense, thrills, psychological drama and action with unforeseen twists and turns. The very idea of what it means to be a hostage continually evolves as the various characters’ paths intersect and collide. Security becomes insecurity. Physical escape becomes mental manipulation. Mind games become life and death matters.
In Hostage, director Florent Siri’s first English-language film, nothing is as it appears to be as the action unfolds in and around one house over the course of one day and one night. As in his acclaimed French-language action-thriller, The Nest, Siri’s intricate, mesmerizing shooting and editing style heightens the tension of the multi-layered conflicts, while dazzling the audience with stunning visuals. Hostage is a timeless film noir tale delivering a suspense-filled, visionary spin on thriller and action films.
“In Hostage, we layer the onion, rather than peel it,” said the film’s producer Arnold Rifkin. “Throughout the movie, Bruce never gets away from a hostage situation. The character dilemma, the emotional dilemma, the arc of the character and everything from when we first see him through to film’s end revolves around character arc, psychological redemption and selfawareness.”
Director Florent Siri found the story psychologically compelling while playing the hostage genre in ways reminiscent of classic film noir. The focus on the characters, the story’s contemporary realism and Siri’s love of everyday details made Hostage the first English language film he wanted to make. “It’s a psychological thriller,” Siri said. “The story is about redemption. It’s about people who are lost for a moment. For everybody, particularly Bruce’s character, it’s a story about fighting against their own ghosts.”
“There are certainly twists and turns that we’ve never seen before,” said actor Kevin Pollak, who portrays Walter Smith in the film. “I love films that force the audience to be participants rather than just voyeurs. This is one of those films where you jump in, try to get ahead, try to figure out what the heck is going on, and you get that much more involved.”
Co-star Serena Scott Thomas sums it up: “It’s the ripple effect of little things that we do in life that can be devastating,” she said. “I love in stories and books when a very small thing becomes a very big thing. I love that in movies.”
More than three years ago, in April 2001, Cheyenne, Rifkin and Willis’ production company, were overnighted the book, Hostage, written by Robert Crais. By the next day, they were in negotiations to buy the book and by the end of that day, the novel found a home at Cheyenne. Crais’ novel, Hostage, follows the intersecting lives of different individuals, who through various choices and encounters, all becoming hostage to something or someone. This interwoven tapestry of desperation and chance creates unpredictable action and unexpected plot twists, as in the classic suspense thriller films that Willis and Rifkin love.
“Although all great action movies are suspense movies, all an action film is, is a suspense film with a lot of physicality to it — at least, that’s what makes a really good action film,” said Doug Richardson, who wrote the screenplay. “This movie is a suspense film in its true nature — where you keep loading the story, the plot and the emotion without releasing it, to give you a sense that you were constantly held in suspense.”
After purchasing the novel, Willis, Rifkin and David Wally (Cheyenne executive and Executive Producer of Hostage) met with the author, Crais, and discussed changing elements of the far-reaching, multi-layered story to focus on one character, Jeff Talley. They worked with Crais for several months to develop the story for the screen. “Bruce was instrumental in developing the story,” said Rifkin. “He had to know this character. He had to feel this character. He kept tightening the story, clarifying the conflict.”
Stratus Film Company partner, Bob Yari said, “It was marrying a terrific script with an international star whose great strength is exactly this genre. It was putting Bruce Willis in his most successful type of role, with a fresh and exciting twist and real heart.”
An important part of understanding the character of hostage negotiator Jeff Talley involved tackling the reality and details of his job, his personality and his world. Accuracy in police procedure, demeanor and language, as well as bringing the disparate storylines together, were key to translating from book to screen. In re-focusing on Talley, the filmmakers aimed to keep the audience locked-in and anticipating, much like the characters themselves. This unrelenting tension and pace necessitated a director whose vision and visual style would build upon the story’s compelling and complex structure.
Cheyenne had seen The Nest and immediately attached Siri to one of their projects. But when they began putting Hostage together with Stratus, “We just sort of pillaged him from another one of our projects and put him on this one,” said Wally. “Audiences may not know who Florent Siri is yet, but they’re going to know him. He brings his sensibilities [and a] style of filmmaking that distinguishes this film from others in the genre.”
Hostage (2005)
Directed by: Florent Emilio Siri
Starring: Bruce Willis, Kevin Pollack, Ben Foster, Jonathan Tucker, Serena Scott Thomas, Michelle Horn, Rumer Willis, Serena Scott Thomas, Kim Coates, Marjean Holden
Screenplay by: Doug Richardson
Production Design by: Larry Fulton
Cinematography by: Giovanni Fiore Coltellacci
Film Editing by: Richard Byard, Olivier Gajan
Costume Design by: Elisabetta Beraldo
Set Decoration by: Cindy Carr
Art Direction by: Keith P. Cunningham
Music by: Alexandre Desplat
MPAA Rating: R for strong graphic violence, language and drug use.
Distributed by: Miramax Films
Release Date: January 21, 2005
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