LAW ABIDING CITIZEN
SYNOPSIS
When a home invasion robbery turns deadly, the lone survivor will stop at nothing to avenge his lost loved ones in Law Abiding Citizen, an explosive examination of blind justice from the director of The Italian Job.
Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is an upstanding family man whose wife and daughter are brutally murdered during a home invasion. When the killers are caught, Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), a hotshot Philadelphia prosecutor, is assigned to the case. Nick offers one of the suspects a light sentence in exchange for testifying against his accomplice.
Fast forward ten years. The man who got away with murder is found dead and Clyde Shelton coolly admits his guilt. Then he issues a warning to Nick: Either fix the flawed justice system that failed his family, or key players in the trial will die.
Soon Shelton follows through on his threats, orchestrating from his jail cell a string of spectacularly diabolical assassinations that can be neither predicted nor prevented. Philadelphia is gripped with fear as Shelton’s high-profile targets are slain one after another and the authorities are powerless to halt his reign of terror. Only Nick can stop the killing, and to do so he must outwit this brilliant sociopath in a harrowing contest of wills in which even the smallest misstep means death. With his own family now in Shelton’s crosshairs, Nick finds himself in a desperate race against time facing a deadly adversary who seems always to be one step ahead.
Law Abiding Citizen stars Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx (Ray), Gerard Butler (300), Bruce McGill (Obsessed), Colm Meaney (The Commitments), Leslie Bibb (Iron Man), Michael Irby (“The Unit”), Regina Hall (Scary Movie) and Viola Davis (Doubt). The film is directed by F Gary Gray (The Italian Job, Be Cool) from a screenplay by Kurt Wimmer (Street Kings). The producers are Lucas Foster (Mr & Mrs Smith), Gerard Butler, Alan Siegel, Mark Gill (The Rebound), Kurt Wimmer and Robert Katz (The Rebound). Jeff G Waxman (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead) is co-producer. Michael Goguen (The Rebound), and Neil Sacker (The Illusionist) are executive producers. Jonathan Sela (Powder Blue) is director of photography. Alex Hajdu (W.) is production designer, with costumes by Jeffrey Kurland (Collateral).
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Gerard Butler, the star and one of the producers of Law Abiding Citizen, has starred in the CGI-enhanced blockbuster 300, the film adaptation of the Broadway phenomenon The Phantom of the Opera and Guy Ritchie’s most recent crime epic RocknRolla, but he says this film is a standout for him. “I don’t recall ever working on a movie that has gotten me so excited,” says Butler. “I feel like its themes are quite profound in some ways and should make us think about how lucky most of us are.”
Law Abiding Citizen follows Butler’s character, Clyde Shelton, a seemingly ordinary crime victim and Nick Rice, a Philadelphia prosecutor played by Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx, down a rabbit hole of violence and revenge, where nothing is as it seems and the law always is one step behind. Producer Lucas Foster worked with screenwriter Kurt Wimmer to develop the initial script. “The basic idea was that a man who had been betrayed by the system decided to teach the system a lesson - from inside jail,” says Foster. “We want to believe that when someone is arrested and they’re put into the system, that’s more or less the end of it. Whatever the outcome, proven innocent or proven guilty, that’s the end of the story. In our movie, it’s just the beginning.”
That unconventional starting point convinced Butler that Law Abiding Citizen was not a standard psychological thriller. “The story hit me in a way that most thrillers don’t,” Butler says. “In a lot of ways, it’s completely unexpected. You know right from the start that horrific events take place and you’re completely with one character. It is a very intense, scary story, yet at the same time you end up with empathy and emotion for both characters.”
The film also takes an incriminating look at the inconsistencies of an overloaded justice system. “The government is a great apparatus,” says Foster. “But sometimes it’s a broad sword when a scalpel is called for, especially in complicated matters like justice.
“If I’m a regular person and this terrible tragedy happens to me, I have what I think is the normal redress,” he continues. “I go to the powers that be, believing I am going to get justice. Clyde Shelton doesn’t get justice and he makes a decision to take matters into his own hands. I’m sympathetic to him. If something that horrible happened to people I cared about, I would want justice for them however it came about. He’s doing what he thinks is right, what he thinks is honorable.”
The government is represented by Assistant District Attorney Rice, played by Jamie Foxx. “Nick Rice is almost a mirror image of Clyde Shelton,” says Foster. “He’s working within the system, but the system doesn’t always work well. That’s the moral dilemma he faces.”
“Rice’s commitment to the legal system sometimes gets in the way of his commitment to justice,” says Foxx, whose astoundingly versatile career has ranged from groundbreaking comedy performances on “In Living Color” to an Academy Award-winning portrayal of Ray Charles in Ray. “Sometimes the way the system works doesn’t allow him to get involved the way he wants. Nick’s a good man. He does everything by the law, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right thing ultimately. The system’s never going to be perfect, so he’s always trying to figure out how to maneuver in an imperfect world.”
“This movie is not black and white,” adds Foster. “Our main characters are locked together by tragedy. They’re both right and they’re both wrong.”
Alan Siegel, Butler’s partner in the production company Evil Twins, learned about Law Abiding Citizen after reading Wimmer’s earlier script, Salt. “The script was terrific,” he says. “Kurt introduced himself at an awards ceremony where Gerry won an award for
300. I told him that Gerry and I were great fans and I asked if he had any other scripts. The next day he sent me Law Abiding Citizen and I read it immediately. That night I called Gerry and asked him to read the script because ‘Evil Twins might have its first film.’
“This movie explores our country’s flawed judicial system,” Siegel continues. “Both men want a more perfect system but each has a different threshold of how much he’s personally willing to sacrifice. Their resolve forces them to extremes that will leave audiences questioning if the end really does justifies the means. Law Abiding Citizen will be one of those rare films that will provoke debates after the credits roll.”
The producers (see page 8) selected F Gary Gray to direct the film based on the strength of his previous work, which includes The Italian Job, The Negotiator, Be Cool and Set It Off. “We knew we wanted to work with him,” says Foster. “He continues to make really interesting movies. They’re all different in tone. What they have in common is complex characters. This movie required a very deliberate hand and he was the ideal filmmaker for this particular material.”
Since launching his career in the mid-1990s with the groundbreaking features Friday and Set It Off, Gray has developed a reputation as a director of great thoughtfulness and originality. “He’s very quiet,” says Foster. “But I could see the magic he was making. After watching the dailies, I was always amazed at the character development, and the visual development of the film. It was all in his brain from the beginning. He’s a master at what he does.”
Jamie Foxx has worked with some of Hollywood’s most acclaimed directors, including Oliver Stone, Sam Mendes and Michael Mann, but he had never done a film with Gray. The director remembers getting a phone call from Foxx that got the ball rolling.
“He called me and said, ‘I’m attached to this movie and I think you should get involved. It would be perfect for you,’” recalls Gray. “So I read the script and not only was it right up my alley, but I’ve wanted to work with Jamie for years and there couldn’t have been a more perfect project for us to start with.”
“Gary’s eye is incredible,” says Foxx. “Right off the bat, the movie looks epic because of the way he shot it, and not a lot of directors are able to do that. He’s able to work in larger-than-life proportions and make people want to give him the best they can on screen.”
Butler credits Gray’s passion for the project and non-stop energy for bringing the material to the screen under a great deal of pressure. “Gary came on board and gave life to the words on the page,” says Butler. “We had a great script, but the film is so much better. It’s exciting to look at. The drama comes across brilliantly and he got great performances from all the actors.”
The idea of a man who takes an entire city hostage from behind bars set Gray’s imagination to working overtime. “How can someone in jail instill that much fear? I thought about Al Capone running his syndicate from jail. I love a cool gangster flick and I also love a great thriller.”
With the opportunity to work with two gifted actors sweetening the deal, the project was irresistible to him. “This movie doesn’t fit into a normal Hollywood formula,” the director points out. “Normally you have an antagonist and protagonist. You can pretty much predict who they are and what they’ll do. This is a chess game with a twist that you would never expect.
“Nick Rice, the DA., is on the side of the law, but he can be a jerk,” says Gray. “Clyde has been horribly victimized. Throughout the course of the movie, you’re constantly switching allegiances, and depending on the scene, you’re not really sure who to root for.”
Gray calls Foster a hands-on producer. “He definitely wants to be heard,” laughs Gray. “You might think that it wouldn’t be a good idea to put two such strong personalities in a room together, but we had a perfect relationship.
“The best thing about him as a producer was that he knew when to pull the reins tight and he knew when to let them loose,” the director continues. “I respect that. He definitely had a lot great ideas, and he’s someone who is strong in that way, but also creative and caring. I want someone like that on my team.”
Gray says Law Abiding Citizen combines all the elements that keep him excited about filmmaking. “Every day, I woke up with tremendous excitement about the possibilities that awaited me on set,” he says. “With a script like that, with actors and producers who allowed me to open up the material and improvise a bit, I felt like I had an opportunity to create something extraordinary.”
Co-producer Jeff Waxman promises that audiences will be riveted by what they see. “You’re on the edge of your seat from the beginning,” he says. “It’s absolutely gripping. From the minute it starts to the minute it’s over, you’ll be holding your breath and waiting to see what Clyde’s going to do next.”
Butler says Law Abiding Citizen gives him the same feeling that he had when he completed shooting 300. “It’s going to be a memorable experience for the audience. We have a great cast and it’s been brilliantly directed. Jonathan Sela, the cinematographer, has given it such a cool, distinctive look that just watching it is compelling enough. But on top of that, it has a story that turns everything you think you know on its head. It sneaks up and grabs you when you least expect it.”
For Foxx, the film’s appeal is simple. “This movie is going to be so attention-grabbing. Once it starts, the audience won’t know what to expect next and that’s going to keep them glued to their seats.”
HEROES AND VILLAINS
Lucas Foster, Gerard Butler and Alan Siegel began developing Law Abiding Citizen with the idea that Butler would play Nick Rice, the morally conflicted district attorney. During the development process, something changed for Butler. “I found that the more I was arguing for Nick, the more compelling Clyde became for me,” says the actor.
“One of the issues we always had with Clyde was the risk of him seeming to be a garden variety villain,” he continues. “But I thought, ‘he could be me, he could be you. How would we behave in that situation?’ I wanted audiences to understand his pain. You can laugh with him, you’re charmed by him, but you know inside he’s been destroyed. It was interesting to explore a character I could be terrified of and at the same time is a regular guy I could sympathize with.”
Clyde is the law abiding citizen of the title, an ordinary man whose life was changed forever by a random crime. “The one thing that Clyde is left with is at least he’ll have justice,” says Butler. “He puts all his hopes in Nick Rice and the system, thinking these two cads will be properly punished. When that doesn’t happen because Nick is more concerned with his career, Clyde is left abandoned in every way. He’s a lost soul. Unfortunately for everybody else, he has the talent and tenacity to ensure that the system that failed him is brought to its knees. Nobody who was involved in the original case is left untouched, especially Nick.”
Director F Gary Gray describes Clyde as both a victim and a monster to some degree. “And still you have to ask yourself what you have would done,” he says. “Gerard Butler had an immense challenge with this character. Clyde represents the average person, but he acts out thoughts that most of us would never admit to in a million years, let alone act on. Gerard delivered a character who can live in two worlds.”
To prepare for the role, Butler spent time with criminologists, exploring the psychology of serial killers and revenge killers. “I also watched documentaries on killers and I did a good deal of research on the Internet,” he says. “It was enlightening for me.”