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SEEKING A FRIEND
FOR THE END OF THE WORLD
A Lorene Scafaria Film
Production Notes
SEEKING A FRIEND
FOR THE END OF THE WORLD
Synopsis
Taking audiences on a humorous, moving, and intimate journey against an epic backdrop of Earth’s final days, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is the feature directorial debut of screenwriter Lorene Scafaria (Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist). Set in a too-near future where time at once stands still and is slipping away forever, the writer/director explores what people will do and how they will feel when humanity’s end is near.
A 70-mile-wide asteroid is en route to Earth, and the last best attempt to counter it has failed. Also failing is the marriage of soft-spoken insurance salesman Dodge (Golden Globe Award winner Steve Carell); the breaking news that the world will end in an estimated 21 days cues his wife to leave him on the spot.
Dodge is a man who has always played by the rules of life, while his neighbor Penny (Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley) is an extroverted woman who hasn’t. From these opposite perspectives, both initially choose to navigate the impending end of the world with blinders on. Dodge declines joining his friends in increasingly reckless behavior, while Penny fixates on her relationship issues with a self-absorbed musician.
The two misfits meet first when Penny has a rough night and then again when she belatedly delivers Dodge a lost letter. That letter could alter Dodge’s future; it’s from his high-school sweetheart Olivia, the love of his life. When a riot breaks out around their apartment building, Dodge realizes that he must seek Olivia out before it’s too late while Penny makes the decision to spend her last days with family in England. Seizing the moment, Dodge promises to help Penny reach her family if she will provide transport for the two of them in her car immediately. She agrees, and they escape.
On the road together, the unlikely traveling companions’ respective personal journeys accelerate, and their outlooks – if not the world’s – brighten.
A Focus Features, Mandate Pictures, and Indian Paintbrush presentation of an Anonymous Content production. A Lorene Scafaria Film. Steve Carell, Keira Knightley. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Connie Britton, Adam Brody, Rob Corddry, Gillian Jacobs, Derek Luke, Melanie Lynskey, T.J. Miller, Mark Moses, Patton Oswalt, William Petersen. Casting by Jeanne McCarthy, CSA and Nicole Abellera. Line Producer, Patty Long. Co-Producers, Kelli Konop, Jeff Sommerville. Music by Rob Simonsen and Jonathan Sadoff. Music Supervisor, Linda Cohen. Costume Designer, Kristin M. Burke. Film Editor, Zene Baker. Production Designer, Chris Spellman. Director of Photography, Tim Orr. Executive Producers, Nathan Kahane, Nicole Brown. Produced by Steve Golin, Joy Gorman Wettels. Produced by Steven Rales, Mark Roybal. Written and Directed by Lorene Scafaria. A Focus Features Release.
SEEKING A FRIEND
FOR THE END OF THE WORLD
About the End of the World
We’ve all imagined the end of the world – along with the attendant floods, fires, earthquakes, pandemic viruses, and the asteroid hurtling towards Earth which will be destroyed at the last possible moment by human intervention of epic proportions. That is not the end of the world as Lorene Scafaria sees it.
In writing her feature directorial debut Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Scafaria was more intrigued by what could happen to ordinary people – and how they would interact with each other – in the days preceding The Event.
Scafaria found herself casting a cockeyed glance at “apocalyptic tradition.” She notes, “I had a small obsession with ‘the end is near,’ and a larger obsession with love. So it became a fun challenge to see what would happen when worlds collide – so to speak.
“I figured I would keep the screenplay at a very human level in scope and tell a story of relationships; what people would do, and how a person with feelings towards another person would be affected.”
The writer/director didn’t necessarily want to make “a ‘road movie.’ I kept trying not to write it as that, though eventually I gave in and started to embrace the concept a little more – but I keep halting the lead characters’ road trip because of basic things like gas. They find themselves in some pickles along their route.”
A couple of drafts were written, but work stopped and Scafaria’s perspective changed once her father fell ill and passed away. She reflects, “I took six months off. Then I came back and rewrote the script, concentrating more on the concept of time – having it, and losing it.”
Ultimately, she offers, “There is a lot in this story that is me; of the two lead characters, I’m more the Penny type, but I have a strong dose of Dodge in me as well.
“Up until this tipping point, these two people have lived their lives very differently. As much as Dodge has avoided life, Penny has been diving in head first. Together, they find they can face the end of the world.”
Mandate Pictures, which had backed the Scafaria-scripted Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, came aboard the new project as co-financier, while Anonymous Content’s Steve Golin and Joy Gorman Wettels committed to produce the movie. Golin recounts, “Joy and I liked Lorene’s pitch – a small story of two people set against a looming bigger background – and how she would combine humor and drama.”
Next to come aboard was co-financier Indian Paintbrush with producers Steven Rales and Mark Roybal. The latter notes that he found the script “wholly original and surprising. The story has a big concept, yet never loses sight of its humanity because Lorene is always in tune with evoking real emotions. I was tremendously moved by it – I found myself laughing and crying by the end of the script, which is very rare.
“I think my strong response was emotional because Lorene is telling a story about a thrilling, thought-provoking situation in which you are potentially going on the most important journey of your life by yourself.”
Seeking a Cast
With complete faith in Lorene Scafaria’s script and her ability to realize it as director, Mark Roybal notes, “The first thing that we asked Lorene about was the casting. She told us that she didn’t want to veer toward broad comedy, and that the actors had to be able to maintain a balance between humor and pathos.”
Joy Gorman Wettels adds, “The lead role of Dodge is that of a man who, with the world now coming to end, realizes that he regrets his entire life. An insurance salesman by trade, he hasn’t taken risks in his existence. He thinks of his long-ago love – and is moved to act on that yearning.
“In order for this to play believably on-screen, Dodge has to be someone that you can see yourself in, or your dad, your brother, your husband. Steve Carell engenders so much goodwill and conveys such warmth; he is an Everyman. People relate to him; he was the only choice for Dodge.”
Carell remarks, “I read the script and could not stop thinking about it. It haunted me, to an extent. It was funny, sweet, emotionally intense at times, and a story that I hadn’t seen. This is the flip side of Armageddon; there’s no president with a hot line to the astronauts who are going to blow up the asteroid. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is what’s happening while all of those things are going on; how ordinary human beings respond, and the choices they make when they know that everything is going to be over in a matter of days.
“Lorene delicately maneuvers the comedy and the subject matter together. What I think makes it very funny is the characters being put into a life-or-death situation so that they are stripped down to their essence – it’s really amusing when you see them trying to continue their lives under extraordinary circumstances.”
With that in mind, the actor honed in on his character straight away, noting, “Initially, Dodge doesn’t want to deal with what’s happening; he continues to go to his job. But then he decides to come to terms with his impending demise and with the end of the world; he is going to make a pilgrimage, to visit his high-school sweetheart Olivia and try to reconnect with her. He’s always idealized her as the love of his life, and before it all ends, he wants to be with her.”
“I think this, in a big way, is what our movie is about: people connecting with one another, or attempting to, when faced with something momentous. Your perspective changes,” says Carell.
Scafaria compares Carell to “actors who could do comedy with pitch-perfect timing but also be subtle and still, like Peter Sellers or Jack Lemmon; Steve can do so much with a look.
“We were ridiculously lucky to have him. When making a movie, he is a collaborative, generous, kindhearted gentleman.”
For the role of the more free-spirited Penny, the filmmakers sought out Keira Knightley. The actress recalls, “My agent sent me the script. I thought it was one of the most strangely optimistic pieces that I’d read, and I instantly said, ‘Yeah, I want to be a part of it.’ It was one of the best scripts I’d seen in years – and so unique.
“I got on the phone with Lorene and we had a great chat for about an hour. I don’t think we even actually talked about the film. We talked about our mothers, and about family.”
Roybal notes that “there’s a profound depth Keira brings to Penny even when her character’s behavior is whimsical, spontaneous, or flighty. There’s a light in her eyes that reflects her inner light, which is why Penny is Dodge’s beacon.”
Steve Golin adds, “Keira is a lot of fun to watch as Penny. She is well-known for making movies set in different time periods, so playing a funny modern girl – in sneakers! – is a fresh turn for her.”
Knightley admits, “I love doing modern-day movies – because I’m able to get up later in the morning.”
“I knew she’d be amazing and stunning and super-smart,” says Scafaria. “But here’s the surprise; she is so damn funny. So there’s this refreshing blend of Keira, known as a dramatic actress, being more of a comedienne; and Steve, known as a comedic actor, doing a more dramatic role.
“Steve and Keira play off each other so well and have such great chemistry. Getting to hear my words said by these two actors? I couldn’t have asked for more.”
Carell’s real-life wife, actress Nancy Carell, makes a very brief but memorable appearance opposite him in the first scene of the film – as Dodge’s wife Linda, who abandons him upon hearing a breaking news report; namely, Earth has less than one month left because the attempt to obliterate the 70-mile-wide asteroid (“Matilda”) has failed. As Scafaria remembers it, “Since she was so right for the part, I suggested it to Steve’s agent; would his wife be interested in playing his wife? I was secretly a little worried, but Nancy saw the humor in it.
“It was the last scene we shot, and we filmed it on their actual anniversary, which was both very appropriate and very inappropriate.”
A key sequence further dramatizing people coping – or not – with the world ending soon follows with the dinner party hosted by Dodge’s closest friends, Warren (Rob Corddry) and Diane (Connie Britton). Scafaria wrote the set piece as one “which would normally put Dodge in a safe place, but it’s not quite as safe any more. There are couples, and individuals, acting out. Some debauched behavior ensues, which is not what Dodge is looking for even at this critical time.”
Dodge’s journey is jump-started after he and his barely acquainted neighbor Penny are set on their course – by a full-blown riot. “I’ve always found the mob mentality to be so strange,” says Scafaria. “I don’t know how people get so caught up in it and lose sight of the fact that they’re human beings and not animals. But if the world were ending, I do think some people would get violent.
“So, in the story, people are rioting but it’s like, for what? Against what? For what possible result? I wanted it to feel not only scary but also ridiculous.”
Roybal sees the sequence as “crucial, because Dodge and Penny reach their decisions to trust each other. The presence of Adam Brody as Penny’s very-soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend Owen brings comic absurdity to a dangerous situation.”
Knightley found filming the sequence rewarding, above and beyond what it meant for her character’s evolution. She reports, “Penny has parked her car in a small space and can’t get it out easily, so I got to bash these other cars! I don’t know that Steve Carell enjoyed it so much, but I really did.”
Carell confirms, “I’m not a big mayhem guy. Now, I do think it was highly cathartic for Keira, because she’s not much of a driver back in the U.K. and she readily admits that. Here was a good learning experience for her, actually feeling a car smashing into another car, giving her a sense memory of reality for that day when she does in fact start to drive.”
“Our amazing crew got the scene done, with stunt work and pyrotechnics and vermin, as how I had envisioned it,” enthuses Scafaria. “Which was, basically, as a mini-version of a sequence I admired in Children of Men.
“I also had fun filming our Friendsy’s [restaurant] scenes, where things get chaotic for Dodge and Penny. Our Friendsy’s extras should win MVP awards.”
Knightley laughs, “Penny thinks it’s excellent at Friendsy’s, then all of a sudden it goes a little bit wonky…T.J. Miller and Gillian Jacobs are so funny – completely brilliant – in this crazy sequence.”