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Hereafter is a forthcoming American thriller film directed by Clint Eastwood from a screenplay by Peter Morgan. It stars Matt Damon as "a reluctant psychic", and co-stars Cécile de France, and Lyndsey Marshal. Hereafter is being produced by Eastwood's Malpaso Productions and will be distributed by Warner Bros. Filming commenced in October 2009.

Premise

Variety has described the script as a thriller "in the vein of The Sixth Sense."^[2]

Peter Morgan told The Hollywood Reporter, "It's quite spiritual material, and quite romantic, too. It's the sort of piece that's not easy to describe and in the hands of different filmmakers could end up as wildly different films. Quite unlike some of my other material, which I think there were only certain ways that you could shoot it."^[3]

Eastwood told MTV.com, "It's a story that's actually three stories of people who have had traumatic experiences in their life [...] and how these stories converge towards one another. It ends up with all three stories culminating in one big sequence."^[4]

Cast

• Matt Damon as "a reluctant psychic [...] who can talk to the dead but prefers not to".^[5][6]
• Cécile de France as a French television journalist who survives a tsunami.^[6]
• Lyndsey Marshal as a drug addict single mother.^[6]
• Frankie and George McLaren as Marcus and Jason, twin brothers. Jason is killed in a car accident early in the film, and Marcus later attempts to contact him in the afterlife.^[7]
• Thierry Neuvic as the husband of Cécile de France's character. Neuvic was holidaying in Corsica in September 2009 when he was called to audition for a role in the film. His audition, which took place at a Paris hotel, lasted 15 minutes, and he read two scenes for Eastwood. Most of Neuvic's scenes were filmed in Paris, though some took place in London.^[8]
• Bryce Dallas Howard^[9]
• Mylène Jampanoï^[10]
• Jenifer Lewis^[11]

Production

Morgan wrote the script on spec, and it was bought by DreamWorks in March 2008. The deal was reportedly worth a "low-seven-figure advance".^[12] DreamWorks had originally retained the script following its split from Paramount Pictures and began talks with Clint Eastwood to direct. Eastwood was signed on in November 2008.^[2] By the time of Matt Damon's casting in 2009, the script was being developed under the supervision of Eastwood's Malpaso Productions for Warner Bros. Eastwood was attracted to the script because he was keen to direct a supernatural thriller, and liked how Morgan incorporated real-world events into fiction. Eastwood told LA Weekly, "There's a certain charlatan aspect to the hereafter, to those who prey on people's beliefs that there's some afterlife, and mankind doesn't seem to be willing to accept that this is your life and you should do the best you can with it and enjoy it while you’re here, and that'll be enough. There has to be immortality or eternal life and embracing some religious thing. I don't have the answer. Maybe there is a hereafter, but I don't know, so I approach it by not knowing. I just tell the story."^[7]

Filming commenced in France on October 19, 2009.^[6] A days filming was done at the old Belle Epoque hotel in the village of Planet, near Chamonix. The hotel building was transformed into a Swiss hospital for scenes between Cécile de France and Marthe Keller. A cordon was set up around the area to prevent local residents and paparazzi taking photographs of the set, though the mayor of Chamonix was allowed through for a brief meeting with Eastwood.^[10] Production then moved to Paris for four days.^[10] On October 21, a short scene between de France and Mylène Jampanoï was filmed in a stairwell inside the France Télévisions building.^[13]

In the first week of November, production moved to London, England for three weeks of filming in locations including Bermondsey and in Walworth. Scenes were also filmed on the Heygate Estate.^[14] On November 7, scenes were filmed in Petticoat Lane Market^[15] and at the Cafe Le Jardin in Bell Lane from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.^[16] Scenes were also filmed in an auditorium at Red Lion Square. The room was redressed to represent a fictional Center For Psychic Advancement, where the Marcus character tries to contact his dead brother.^[7] After these scenes were shot, production was halted, as Matt Damon is working on another film.^[17]

Filming resumed on January 12, 2010; Eastwood filmed scenes with de France for three days on the Hawaiian island of Maui.^[18] On the first day, a scene was filmed in Kaanapali.^[19] On January 13, scenes were filmed on Front Street in Lahaina. A hundred crew worked on the scenes.^[18][20] The location managers were given permission by Lahaina authorities to close a small section of the street in order to film scenes depicting "an unnamed, South Pacific-type outdoor marketplace, complete with outdoor shopping stalls and street vendors".^[20] The location manager explained to the Lahaina News, "Front Street's proximity to the water and the architecture of its buildings help supply a look that will require much less transformation towards this goal than other locations which were under consideration".^[20] The street was closed off to vehicles on the evening of January 12.^[20] The scene—the first scene of the film—depicts Cécile de France's character coming out of her hotel just as a tsunami hits the island. The aftermath of the tsunami was filmed on January 14 at a property in Kapalua. de France filmed scenes of her character in the floodwaters while in England.^[19]

Eastwood will also shoot key scenes with Damon in studios in San Francisco before returning to England for the final scenes.^[17][10]

References

External links

• Hereafter at the Internet Movie Database
• Wray, James (January 13, 2010). "In Pictures: 'Clint Eastwood Shoots 'Hereafter' in Hawaii'". Monsters and Critics.com. Retrieved on January 14, 2010.