Taglines: Undependable. Unpredictable. Unforgettable.
Wonder Boys movie storyline. On the day his third wife leaves him and his literary agent arrives to pressure him to finish a novel seven years in the writing, Carnegie Mellon professor, Grady Tripp, also learns that his married mistress is pregnant. Seven years before, with his first novel, he was a wonder boy. So was his agent. Both now need something.
Over the weekend, instead of making choices, he vacillates in a pot-induced haze. One of his students, James Leer, perhaps stirs paternal feelings in Grady and raises homo-erotic urges in the agent. Academic politics complicate things: Grady’s mistress is the college chancellor, her husband chairs Grady’s department, James has just shot the husband’s dog. What to do?
Wonder Boys is a 2000 comedy-drama film directed by Curtis Hanson and written by Steve Kloves. An international co-production between the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan, it is based on the novel of the same name by Michael Chabon. Michael Douglas stars as professor Grady Tripp, a novelist who teaches creative writing at an unnamed Pittsburgh university. He has been unable to finish his second novel, his young wife has left him, and he is having an affair with the Chancellor of the university (Frances McDormand), who is the wife of the chairman of his department. Grady’s editor (Robert Downey, Jr.) is in town to see his new book and becomes interested in a book that one of Grady’s students (Tobey Maguire) has just completed.
The film was shot in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, including locations at Carnegie Mellon University, Chatham University, and Shady Side Academy. Other Pennsylvania locations included Beaver, Rochester and Rostraver Township. After the film failed at the box office, there was a second attempt to find an audience with a new marketing campaign and a November 8, 2000 re-release, which was also a financial disappointment.
In its opening weekend, Wonder Boys opened at #7 in the North American box office and grossed a total of USD$5.8 million in 1,253 theaters. It went on to gross $19,393,557 domestically and $14,033,031 overseas for a worldwide total of $33,426,588. Based on a $55 million budget, the film was a box office bomb.
Filming Locations
Paramount suggested shooting Wonder Boys in Toronto or New York City but after reading the book, Hanson realized how important Pittsburgh was to the story, that it was a “wonder boy”, much like the film’s main protagonist Grady Tripp, “it’s a city that had this glorious past of wealth and success that ended. And then it had to deal with figuring out what’s next. What happens after triumph?”
Wonder Boys was filmed in Pittsburgh, including locations at Carnegie Mellon University, Chatham College, and Shady Side Academy. Other Pennsylvania locations included Beaver, Rochester, and Rostraver Township. Hanson felt that Pittsburgh was “right, emotionally and thematically” for the film. The city was experiencing a mild winter during the film’s shoot and they had to use a lot of artificial snow.
Hanson contacted Dante Spinotti about working on the film in November 1998. They had worked previously together on L.A. Confidential. Spinotti had six weeks of pre-production, which he used to perform a variety of tests and shoot a number of important background plates for several scenes that take place at night, in cars. He knew that these scenes included some very critical acting and suggested using the green screen process for greater control.
During pre-production, Hanson and Spinotti used the Kodak Pre View System to storyboard complicated sequences by altering digital still images in a way that simulated the imaging characteristics of camera films. Hanson suggested Spinotti see The Celebration for its technique of keeping the camera extremely close to the actors and carrying deep focus from one actor to the other. Spinotti suggested using a hand-held camera so that the film would not look static. On the first day of shooting, they incorporated some hand-held shots. Hanson liked the results and they used the technique extensively for the rest of the shoot.
Wonder Boys (2000)
Directed by: Curtis Hanson
Starring: Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Katie Holmes, Rip Torn, Robert Downey Jr., Jane Adams, Michael Cavadias, Richard Thomas, Philip Bosco
Screenplay by: Steve Kloves
Production Design by: Jeannine Oppewall
Cinematography by: Dante Spinotti
Film Editing by: Dede Allen
Costume Design by: Beatrix Aruna Pasztor
Set Decoration by: Jay Hart
Art Direction by: Donald B. Woodruff
Music by: Christopher Young
MPAA Rating: R for language and drug content.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures (North America), Warner Bros.Pictures (International)
Release Date: February 25, 2000
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