Playing God | |
---|---|
Directed by | Andy Wilson |
Written by | Mark Haskell Smith |
Produced by | Marc Abraham Laura Bickford Thomas Bliss |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Anthony B. Richmond |
Edited by | Louise Rubacky |
Music by | Richard Hartley |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution (USA and United Kingdom) MDP Worldwide (Overseas) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 94 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $12,000,000 |
Box office | $4,166,918 [1] |
Playing God is a 1997 American dramatic crime thriller film directed by Andy Wilson and written by Mark Haskell Smith. It stars David Duchovny (in his first starring role after achieving success with The X-Files ), Timothy Hutton, and Angelina Jolie.
Eugene Sands, a surgeon has his medical license revoked after operating under the influence of amphetamines and opiates. A crime lord named Raymond Blossom happens upon him in a bar where Sands saves someone's life with an emergency procedure to inflate a collapsed lung. Blossom hires Sands as his personal physician, patching up his accomplices when they cannot go to a hospital, and tending to the crime boss and his girlfriend, Claire. In the final act of the film, Claire and Sands become involved, and he must face up to conflicting loyalties to Blossom, Claire, and the FBI agent who has blackmailed him into being an informant.
Its release was delayed due to initial negative reactions from test audiences. The film's trailer contained a brief glimpse of a sex scene between Duchovny and Jolie. The actress later confirmed that she had filmed two sex scenes for the movie, but were edited out of the final cut.
The song "Spybreak!" by Propellerheads was used in this film two years before its stardom debut as the main song of the blockbuster movie The Matrix (1999).
The film did not fare well financially or with critics, scoring just a 16% at the review site Rotten Tomatoes [2] and making only $4,166,918 at the US theater box office. [3] Popular film critic Roger Ebert however, gave the film three stars, saying: "This may not be a great movie, but for both Duchovny and Hutton, it's a turning point", citing Duchovny's ability to "stand above the action" like Clint Eastwood; and Hutton's ability to create a real character as the villain, instead of merely filling a space. [4]
In an interview with the New York Times dated 9 April 2000, David Duchovny himself, while talking about production difficulties, stated that “Playing God was a mistake only because we didn't have a script ready... I should have just bailed out, but I didn't know." [5]
William Bradley Pitt is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. One of the most influential celebrities, Pitt appeared on Forbes' annual Celebrity 100 list from 2006 to 2008, and the Time 100 list in 2007.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is a 2001 action adventure film based on the Tomb Raider video game series featuring the character Lara Croft, portrayed by Angelina Jolie. An international co-production between the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany, it was directed by Simon West and revolves around Lara Croft trying to obtain ancient artifacts in competition with the Illuminati.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life is a 2003 action adventure film directed by Jan de Bont and based on the Tomb Raider video game series. Angelina Jolie stars as the titular character Lara Croft with supporting performances from Gerard Butler, Ciarán Hinds, Chris Barrie, Noah Taylor, Til Schweiger, Djimon Hounsou and Simon Yam. An international co-production between the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan, the film is a sequel to the 2001 film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
Timothy Hutton is an American actor and film director. He is the youngest recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he won at age 20 for Ordinary People (1980). Hutton has since appeared regularly in feature films and on television, with roles in the drama Taps (1981), the spy film The Falcon and the Snowman (1985), and the horror film The Dark Half (1993), among others.
Beyond Borders is a 2003 American romantic-drama film about aid workers, directed by Martin Campbell and starring Angelina Jolie, Clive Owen, Teri Polo and Kate Ashfield. The original music score was composed by James Horner.
Gone in 60 Seconds is a 2000 American action heist film starring Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, Christopher Eccleston, Robert Duvall, Vinnie Jones, Delroy Lindo, Chi McBride, and Will Patton. The film was directed by Dominic Sena, written by Scott Rosenberg, and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. The film is a loose remake of the 1974 H. B. Halicki film of the same name.
The Falcon and the Snowman is a 1985 American spy drama film directed by John Schlesinger. The screenplay by Steven Zaillian is based on the 1979 book The Falcon and the Snowman: A True Story of Friendship and Espionage by Robert Lindsey, and tells the true story of two young American men, Christopher Boyce and Andrew Daulton Lee, who sold security secrets to the Soviet Union.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a 2005 American action comedy film directed by Doug Liman and written by Simon Kinberg. The film stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as a bored upper middle class married couple, who are surprised to learn that they are assassins belonging to competing agencies and that they have been assigned to kill each other. Incidentally, the filming marked the beginning of Pitt and Jolie's real-life personal relationship, which would later result in a romantic relationship, marriage, and children from 2005 to 2016.
Return to Me is a 2000 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Bonnie Hunt and starring David Duchovny and Minnie Driver. It was filmed in Chicago and was released on April 7, 2000 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures. It was Carroll O'Connor's final film before his death the following year.
A Mighty Heart is a 2007 American drama film directed by Michael Winterbottom from a screenplay by John Orloff. It is based on the 2003 memoir of the same name by Mariane Pearl.
Joachim Rønning is a Norwegian film director, producer, and writer best known for the Academy Award and Golden Globe nominated Kon-Tiki and the Disney action-adventure films Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales starring Johnny Depp and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil starring Angelina Jolie. Rønning's films have grossed more than 1.3 billion dollars at the box office. Rønning's most recent work is directing Disney's Young Woman and the Sea starring Daisy Ridley.
The Tourist is a 2010 American romantic thriller film co-written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and starring Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, and Timothy Dalton. It is a remake of the 2005 French film Anthony Zimmer. GK Films financed and produced the film, with Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions releasing it in most countries through Columbia Pictures. The $100 million budget film went on to gross $278.3 million at the worldwide box office.
In the Land of Blood and Honey is a 2011 war drama film written, produced, and directed by Angelina Jolie, and starring Zana Marjanović, Goran Kostić and Rade Šerbedžija. The film, Jolie's first commercial release as a director, depicts a love story set against the background of the Bosnian War. It opened in the United States on December 23, 2011, in a limited theatrical release.
Maleficent is a 2014 American fantasy film starring Angelina Jolie as the title character in a live-action retelling of her villainous role in Walt Disney's 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty, itself an adaptation of Charles Perrault's 1697 fairy tale. The film is directed by Robert Stromberg from a screenplay by Linda Woolverton. It also stars Sharlto Copley, Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, and Lesley Manville in supporting roles.
Unbroken is a 2014 American war drama film produced and directed by Angelina Jolie and written by the Coen brothers, Richard LaGravenese, and William Nicholson. It is based on the non-fiction book by Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (2010). The film stars Jack O'Connell as Army officer Louis "Louie" Zamperini, an American Olympian, and Miyavi as Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) corporal Mutsuhiro Watanabe. Zamperini survived in a raft for 47 days after his bomber ditched in the ocean during the Second World War, before being captured by the Japanese and being sent to a series of prisoner of war camps.
American actress Angelina Jolie made her screen debut in the comedy film Lookin' to Get Out (1982), acting alongside her father Jon Voight. Eleven years later, she appeared in her next feature, the low-budget film Cyborg 2 (1993), a commercial failure. She then starred as a teenage hacker in the science fiction thriller Hackers (1995), which went on to be a cult film despite performing poorly at the box-office. Jolie's career prospects improved with a supporting role in the made-for-television film George Wallace (1997), for which she received the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Television Film. She made her breakthrough the following year in HBO's television film Gia (1998). For her performance in the title role of fashion model Gia Carangi, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Film.
Hackers is a 1995 American crime thriller film directed by Iain Softley and starring Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Jesse Bradford, Matthew Lillard, Laurence Mason, Renoly Santiago, Lorraine Bracco, and Fisher Stevens. The film follows a group of high school hackers and their involvement in an attempted theft. Made in the mid-1990s when the Internet was just starting to become popular among the general public, it reflects the ideals laid out in the Hacker Manifesto quoted in the film: "This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch... We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals... Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity."
By the Sea is a 2015 American romantic drama film written and directed by Angelina Jolie, and produced by and starring Jolie and Brad Pitt. Shot in August 2014 during Pitt and Jolie's honeymoon in Gozo, Malta, the film was released by Universal Pictures on November 14, 2015.
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is a 2019 American fantasy film directed by Joachim Rønning from a screenplay by Linda Woolverton, Micah Fitzerman-Blue, and Noah Harpster. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Roth/Kirschenbaum Films, it is a sequel to Maleficent (2014), itself a live-action retelling of Walt Disney's 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty, and the second installment in the Maleficent film series. The film stars Angelina Jolie as the title character, with Elle Fanning, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sam Riley, Harris Dickinson, Ed Skrein, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Lesley Manville, and Michelle Pfeiffer in supporting roles. Set five years after the first film, the film sees the eponymous character face the neighboring kingdom's manipulated perception of herself as a villain, in addition to a subplot of the rise of an endangered, powerful fairy race of the Dark Fey.
Louder Than Words is a 2013 drama film directed by Anthony Fabian and written by Benjamin Chapin. Starring Timothy Hutton, David Duchovny and Hope Davis, the film focuses on a couple John and Brenda trying to deal with the death of their daughter Maria. It was based on events that led to the founding of Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, New York.