Taglines: Matt never saw her coming… but all his friends had!
The Girl Next Door is a story of an intelligent and very ambitious High School Senior who has never experienced any type of personal exciting or thrilling event. His life, up to this point, has been preparing for his future of attending Georgetown University and eventually following his dream of becoming president.
Although he is happy for being accepted to the school of his dreams, he feels unfulfilled and longs to do or achieve something outrageous as he sees his fellow students doing. This all changes when the girl of his dreams moves in next door. At first sight of her, he is astounded by her beauty and style. They then meet under humorous circumstances when he is seen by her, watching her through his bedroom window.
She possesses the ability to make him take risks and do the things that he never believed that he could allow himself to do. Slowly they begin to “see” each other and fall in love. This again changes when he discovers that her former profession, which she avoids mentioning, lies in the adult film industry. More conflicts arise when she is persuaded, by her prior producer, to return to “the business.”
The Girl Next Door is a comedy about opposite worlds, views and backgrounds colliding. It is about a boy with a future and a girl with a past. A boy who is about to lose his innocence and a girl who is trying to regain it. It stars Emile Hirsch, Elisha Cuthbert, Timothy Olyphant, James Remar, Chris Marquette and Paul Dano and is directed by Luke Greenfield. The film grossed $14,589,444 in the USA, plus $15,821,739 outside the USA, for a combined gross of $30,411,183.
Mix of Humor, Risk and Love
The film asks, How far are you willing to go for the person you love? Are you willing to risk everything? If you want The Girl Next Door, you had better be willing to risk it all and experience a journey for which you never could have prepared.
Director Luke Greenfield wanted to bring a combustible mix of humor, risk and love to The Girl Next Door. The story – an innocent young man falls for his beautiful, seemingly innocent neighbor, only to discover she’s an ex-porn star – could easily have been turned into a raucous teen comedy. But Greenfield was on a different track.
“I like exploring life’s wild side, and I envisioned the film as being about a normal guy who’s thrown into a wild and dangerous situation,” he says. “I was looking for a mix of realism and volatility. Of course, the film had to be funny, but at the same time it had to be heartfelt, edgy and a little bit scary.”
Greenfield wanted to depict a comedy of real life – humor derived from the vulnerabilities of its characters and the challenges they must meet head on. The lead character, high school senior Matthew, has his sights are set on a political career. Now, for the first time in his life, he’s out of his element when he falls for Danielle.
The project originated four years ago when the screenwriting team of Brent Goldberg and David T. Wagner came up with a concept, and then a screenplay, about a high school student dating an adult film star. Producers Charles Gordon, Harry Gittes and Marc Sternberg sparked to the idea right away, and brought Luke Greenfield on board to direct after Gordon and Sternberg watched a screening of Greenfield’s 10-minute comedy film, “The Right Hook.” “I see a thousand shorts a year,” says Gordon, “but nothing as good as Luke’s film.”
Greenfield set to work on taking what he calls “a great concept” and making it his own, adding realism, danger and surprises. As development continued on The Girl Next Door, Adam Sandler hired Greenfield to direct the Rob Schneider comedy “The Animal,” which Sandler’s company was producing. “I would call Chuck Gordon all the time, begging him, `Please wait for me!’,” says Greenfield. “I couldn’t stop thinking about the project. The second I finished production on `The Animal,’ I was meeting with Chuck, figuring out how we could get The Girl Next Door made.”
Greenfield and the producers brought in screenwriter Stuart Blumberg who, under Greenfield’s supervision, infused the story with a more realistic sensibility, fleshing out some characters and adding new ones. The project continued to move forward until, nearly four years after its inception, a read-through of the script landed a “green light.”
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The Girl Next Door (2004)
Directed by: Luke Greenfield
Starring: Emile Hirsch, Elisha Cuthbert, Timothy Olyphant, James Remar, Christopher George Marquette, Timothy Bottoms, Amanda Swisten, Olivia Wilde, Donna Bullock
Screenplay by: Brent Goldberg, Stuart Blumberg, David Wagner
Production Design by: Stephen J. Lineweaver
Cinematography by: Jamie Anderson
Film Editing by: Mark Livolsi
Costume Design by: Marilyn Vance
Set Decoration by: Traci Kirshbaum
Art Direction by: Jason Weil
MPAA Rating: R for strong sexual content, language and some drug / alcohol use.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: April 9, 2004
Views: 211
