FESTIVE FILMS
PROUDLY PRESENTS
FUNNY GAMES U.S.
TBA
10 APRIL 2008
TBA
ENGLISH
TBA
THRILLER
MICHAEL HANEKE
NAOMI WATTS, TIM ROTH, MICHAEL PITT, BRADY CORBET + DEVON GEARHEART
http://www.festivefilms.com/funnygames/
http://wip.warnerbros.com/funnygames/ (US website)
~ DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT ~
Recently a friend and critic who recently watched the American remake of FUNNY GAMES said to me
"now the film is where it belongs." He is right. When I first envisioned FUNNY GAMES in the middle of
the 90s, it was my intention to have an American audience watch the movie. It is a reaction to a
certain American Cinema, its violence, its naïveté, the way American Cinema toys with human beings.
In many American films violence is made consumable.
However, because it was a foreign language film and because the actors were not familiar to an
American audience, it did not reach its audience. In 2005, British producer Chris Coen approached me
with the idea to do a remake in English. I agreed under the condition that Naomi Watts star in the
movie.
- Michael Haneke
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~ SYNOPSIS ~
In this provocative and brutal thriller from director Michael Haneke, a vacationing family gets an
unexpected visit from two deeply disturbed young men. Their idyllic holiday turns nightmarish as they
are subjected to unimaginable terrors and struggle to stay alive. Remade from his own acclaimed
1997 film, FUNNY GAMES is written and directed by Michael Haneke (“Caché”), and stars Naomi
Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet and Devon Gearhart.
~ THE STORY ~
The vacation begins with Anna, George and their son Georgie on their way to their summer home. The
neighbors, Fred and Eva, are already there. They make a date to play golf the next morning. It’s a
perfect day.
Anna begins to make dinner, while her husband and son are busy with their newly restored sailboat.
Suddenly, Anna finds herself face to face with a polite young man, the neighbors’ guest Peter, who
has come to ask for some eggs because Eva has run out. Anna is about to give Peter the eggs, but
hesitates. How did he get onto their property? Peter explains that there’s a hole in the fence – Fred
showed it to him.
Things seem strange from the beginning. Soon, violence erupts.
Michael Haneke began to explore his favorite subject, violence and the media, with the original 1997
film, FUNNY GAMES, and revisits it here with the same eye. “I’m trying to find ways to show violence
as it really is: it is not something that you can swallow. I want to show the reality of violence, the pain,
the wounding of another human being.”
~ THE DIRECTOR ~
MICHAEL HANEKE
For a film director whom once famously wished his audience a "disturbing evening" at a London
retrospective of his films, Michael Haneke insists that he is an optimist at heart. His debut feature in
1989, The Seventh Continent's bleak and austere portrayal of a family deadened and ultimately
destroyed by modern convenience served as a deeply disturbing cautionary tale, made all the more
effective by the final revelation that it was based in reality.
Haneke took the modern obsession with cinematic violence to a level rarely attempted in 1997, with
the tale of a happy family relentlessly tortured in Funny Games. Though shocking on a number of
levels, Haneke's goal was to shatter the numbness instilled by countless depictions of inconsequential
violence in modern media. Haneke took home the Grand Prize at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival for
The Piano Teacher, a compelling tale of sexual repression that also won that film's stars, Benoit
Magimel and Isabelle Huppert, the Best Actor and Actress awards at the festival.
In 2005, Haneke yet again garnered unanimous acclaim with Cache (Hidden), a simmering
psychological thriller about the disintergration of a bourgeois nuclear family threatened by forces from
within and from without. Coming full circle in 2008, Haneke releases his own re-interpretation of Funny
Games, but this time round, the story is set in the United States, starring Naomi Watts, Tim Roth and
Michael Pitt.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2008 Funny Games U.S.
2005 Cache (Hidden)
2001 The Piano Teacher
1997 Funny Games
1989 The Seventh Continent
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~ THE CAST ~
NAOMI WATTS
Naomi Watts had her big breakthrough role as an aspiring starlet in David Lynch’s "Mulholland Drive"
(2001) – one of the director’s most bizarre, darkly nightmarish vision of Los Angeles. After its premiere
at Cannes, "Mulholland Drive" went on to confound or captivate critics and audiences alike, but nearly
all were certain that Watts emerged as an actress to be reckoned with.
The actress successfully reinvented herself yet again in the brooding drama "21 Grams" (2003),
playing a reformed party girl who slips back into her self-abusing ways after losing her family in a car
accident. With that performance Watts found herself at the center of much critical acclaim and awards
buzz, and earned her first Oscar nomination as Best Actress.
Watts' post-Oscar entries elevate her status as a rising star in Hollywood. Most notably, Watts was
cast in the iconic Fay Wray role of Ann Darrow for director Peter Jackson's long-dreamt-of, much
anticipated remake of "King Kong."
Proving her versatility, Watts returned to arthouse cinema in “Eastern Promises” (2007), where Watts
played a London midwife who delves into the past of a Russian prostitute after she dies during
childbirth, only to stumble into a dangerous web of crime surrounding Russian mafia prostitution rings.
She is currently starring in Michael Haneke’s American remake of the critically acclaimed
psychological thriller, Funny Games U.S.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2008 Funny Games U.S. Michael Haneke
2007 Eastern Promises David Cronenberg
2005 King Kong Peter Jackson
2004 I Heart Huckabees David O. Russell
2003 21 Grams Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu
2002 The Ring Gore Verbinski
2001 Mulholland Drive David Lynch
TIM ROTH
Well known for his natural flair and versatility, Tim Roth’s first breakthrough role was as an apprentice
killer epitomizing a mixture of brutality and charm in Stephen Frears’ "The Hit" (1984). He has since
played many a variation of the cool crook in films like Quentin Tarantino’s "Reservoir Dogs" (1992),
“Pulp Fiction” (1994) and his Academy Award nominated supporting turn in Michael Caton-Jones’
“Rob Roy" (1995).
To avoid typecasting, Roth finally shed his bad guy image completely in Giuseppe Tornatore's
English-language debut, "The Legend of 1900" (1998). Cast as a music prodigy who had spent his
entire life on a luxury liner, Roth portrays a character that was more symbolic than real and delivered a
performance which conveyed sweetly touching innocence.
Not one to rest on his laurels, Roth was also amassing critical kudos for his feature directorial debut, in
the incestuous family saga "The War Zone" (2000). Roth meticulously crafted an emotionally
devastating film while exercising care not to sensationalize the subject matter. By eliciting exceptional
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work from his cast and crew, Roth proved that he could easily shine as an accomplished actor-
director.
But for the moment, Roth is content with staying in front of the camera, delivering superb
performances all round with the great directors of our generations, from Werner Herzog (Invincible –
2002), Francis Ford Coppola (Youth Without Youth - 2007) to Michael Haneke (Funny Games U.S. –
2008).
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2008 Funny Games U.S. Michael Haneke
2007 Youth without youth Francis Ford Coppola
2006 Don’t come knocking Wim Wenders
2003 To Kill a King Mike Barker
2001 Planet of the Apes Tim Burton
1998 The Legend of 1900 Giuseppe Tornatore
1996 Everyone says I love you Woody Allen
1995 Rob Roy Michael Caton-Jones
1994 Pulp Fiction Quentin Tarantino
1992 Reservoir Dogs Quentin Tarantino
1984 The Hit Stephen Frears
MICHAEL PITT
A fresh-faced young actor, Michael Pitt became a teen pinup idol when he landed the recurring role of
high school football player Henry Parker on "Dawson's Creek" (The WB) in 1999. Pitt next upped his
acting street cred with a chilling performance as a peer-pressured teenage murderer in the disturbing
"Bully" (2001). This was followed by a prominent co-starring turn with Sandra Bullock in the thriller,
"Murder by Numbers" (2002). After playing an American exchange student caught in the midst of the
’68 Paris riots and an unusual love triangle in Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Dreamers” (2003), Pitt had a
supporting role in “The Village” (2004), M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller about a 19th century village held
at bay by a race of strange forest creatures surrounding their idyllic town.
Pitt then scored an acting coup with Gus Van Sant by essaying troubled rock star Kurt Cobain’s
decline and fall in “Last Days” (2005). This role gave rise to ringing critical praise for Pitt’s sensitive
portrayal of Cobain’s idiosyncrasies and a unique cinematic take on the artist’s tortured life.
Continuing to hone his craft with a varied repertoire of challenging roles, Pitt will next star in Michael
Haneke’s “”Funny Games U.S.(2008), as one half of a teenage psychopathic duo who, frighteningly
without reason, decides to hold an unwitting American family hostage and terrorize them for the entire
film’s duration.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2008 Funny Games Michael Haneke
2005 Last Days Gus Van Sant
2004 The Dreamers Bernardo Bertolucci
2004 The Village M Night Shyamalan
2002 Murder by numbers Barbet Schroeder
2001 Bully Larry Clark
Hedwig and the Angry Inch John Cameron Mitchell
2000 Fnding Forester Gus Van Sant
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CAST
Naomi Watts Anna
Tim Roth George
Michael Pitt Paul
Brady Corbet Peter
Devon Gearhart Georgie
Boyd Gaines Fred
Siobhan Fallon Hogan Betsy
Robert LuPone Rbert
Susanne Haneke Betsy’s sister-in-law
Linda Moran Eve
CREW
Written and Directed by Michael Haneke
Produced by Chris Coen, Hamish McAlpine
Producers Hengameh Panahi, Chistian Baute, Andro Steinborn
Executive Producers Naomi Watts, Philippe Aigle, Carol Siller, Douglas Steiner
Co-Producers Andrea Occhipinti, Rene Bastian, Linda Moran, Adam Brightman, Jonathan Schwartz
Director of Cinematography Darius Khondji, AFC, ASC
Production Designer Kevin Thompson
Editor Monika Willi, AEA
Costume Designer David Robinson
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