Taglines: Looks Can Be Deceiving!
Vanilla Sky movie storyline. Incarcerated and charged with murder, David Aames Jr. is telling the story of how he got to where he is to McCabe, the police psychologist. That story includes: being the 51% shareholder of a major publishing firm, which he inherited from his long deceased parents; the firm’s board, appointed by David Aames Sr., being the 49% shareholders who would probably like to see him gone as they see him as being too irresponsible and immature to run the company; his best bro friendship with author.
BBrian Shelby; his “friends with benefits” relationship with Julie Gianni, who saw their relationship in a slightly different light; his budding romance with Sofia Serrano, who Brian brought to David’s party as his own date and who Brian saw as his own possible life mate; and being in an accident which disfigured his face and killed the person who caused the accident. But as the story proceeds, David isn’t sure what is real and what is a dream/nightmare as many facets of the story are incompatible to be all real. The mysterious man in the restaurant may be able to shed some light on David’s confusion.
Vanilla Sky is a 2001 American science fiction psychological thriller film directed, written, and co-produced by Cameron Crowe. It is an English-language remake of Alejandro Amenábar’s 1997 Spanish film Open Your Eyes, which was written by Amenábar and Mateo Gil, with Penélope Cruz reprising her role from the original film. The film has been described as “an odd mixture of science fiction, romance and reality warp”.
Vanilla Sky stars Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, and Cameron Diaz with Jason Lee and Kurt Russell appearing in supporting roles. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song, as well as Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe Award nominations for Cameron Diaz’s performance. The soundtrack was also critically acclaimed. Vanilla Sky was released on Blu-ray on June 30, 2015 in North America.
Principal photography for Vanilla Sky began in late 2000 and concluded in March 2001. On November 12, 2000, shooting for the scene of the deserted Times Square in New York took place in the early hours of the day. A large section of traffic was blocked off around Times Square while the scene was shot. “There was a limit on how long the city would let us lock everything up even on an early Sunday morning when much of NYC would be slow getting up,” said Steadicam operator, Larry McConkey. “Several times we rehearsed with Steadicam and Crane including a mockup of an unmovable guardrail that we had to work the crane arm around. [Cruise] participated in these rehearsals as well so we shared a clear understanding of what my limitations and requirements would be.”
Filming lasted for six weeks around the New York City-area, which included scenes shot in Central Park, Upper West Side, SoHo, and Brooklyn. One prominent location in the area was the Condé Nast Building that served as Aames Publishing and David’s office. After filming finished in New York, production moved to Los Angeles, where the remainder of interior shots were completed at Paramount Studios. Crowe intentionally left in shots of the World Trade Center after the September 11 attacks in 2001 as a tribute.
Despite the film’s distorted aspects of reality, the style of cinematography remains grounded for much of the film. “I didn’t do anything that was overtly obvious, because the story revolves around the main character not knowing whether he’s in a state of reality, a dream or a nightmare, so we want it to feel a little ambiguous,” said cinematographer, John Toll. “We want the audience to make discoveries as [Cruise]’s character does, rather than ahead of him.” American Cinematographer magazine wrote a feature story on the lighting designer Lee Rose’s work on the film.
Aside from selected works by Icelandic group Sigur Rós, the musical score for Vanilla Sky was composed by Crowe’s then wife, Nancy Wilson, who previously scored Almost Famous. Wilson spent nine months working on the film’s music, which was done through experimentation of sound collages. “We were trying to balance out the heaviness of the story with sugary pop-culture music,” said Wilson. “We made sound collages of all kinds.
We were channeling Brian Wilson to a large extent. I was recording things through hoses, around corners, playing guitars with cello bows, and with [music editor] Carl Kaller, we tried all kinds of wacky stuff. In the murder–sex scene sound collage, Cameron even used Brian Wilson’s speaking voice from a Pet Sounds mix session.”
Vanilla Sky (2001)
Directed by: Cameron Crowe
Starring: Tom Cruise, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Kurt Russell, Jason Lee, Noah Taylor, Tilda Swinton, Delaina Mitchell, Alicia Witt, Carolyn Byrne, Mark Pinter
Screenplay by: Cameron Crowe
Production Design by: Catherine Hardwicke
Cinematography by: Catherine Hardwicke
Costume Design by: Betsy Heimann
Set Decoration by: Cloudia
Art Direction by: John Chichester
Makeup Department: Mark Anthony, Michèle Burke
Music by: Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney
MPAA Rating: R for sexuality and strong language.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: December 14, 2001
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