The Flock | |
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Directed by | Andrew Lau |
Written by |
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Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Enrique Chediak |
Edited by | Martin Hunter |
Music by | Guy Farley |
Distributed by | The Weinstein Company |
Release date |
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Running time | 105 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | US$35 million [1] |
Box office | $7,119,846 |
The Flock is a 2007 American thriller film directed by Andrew Lau, the co-director of the Infernal Affairs trilogy. The film, which marks his first English-language film, stars Richard Gere and Claire Danes.
A hyper-vigilant agent of the Department of Public Safety Erroll Babbage checks on registered sex offenders. Burnt out after a long career, he has become frustrated with the system of sex offender monitoring. With little faith in humanity left he takes on one last job to find a missing girl.
He is three weeks away from taking early retirement and his final job is to train his young female replacement Allison Lowry. After being left a newspaper with his characteristic headline circling, he is convinced the case of kidnapping is connected to a paroled sex offender he's monitoring and he takes it upon himself to find the victim at all costs.
Errol is eventually forced to leave the department early due to his relentless interrogation of sexual offenders and occasional vigilante actions against them. His efforts center on Viola, a woman who has a history of being abused but is known to have a connection to another culprit that Errol suspects to have taken the girl. Together with his partner they figure out that Viola has become an abuser herself and is the ringleader in a kidnapping and torture syndicate. They track her down to a deserted scrap heap where they find the latest kidnapped girl as well as corpses of previous victims. The movie ends with Viola being brought to book after Errol considers killing her. Errol and Allison realize that in fighting the monsters involved in sexual offenses, they must not become monsters themselves.
In August 2005, it was announced Richard Gere would star in The Flock, the English-language debut of Andrew Lau with producer Philippe Martinez fully financing the film's entire $35 million budget. [2] After production had wrapped, The Flock had its release held up due to disagreements over the final cut. [3]
The film was released theatrically in several countries throughout the world in late 2007 and early 2008. In the United States, it premiered April 11, 2008, at the Palm Beach International Film Festival, before being released on DVD on May 20, 2008, by Genius Products. [4] [5]
Infernal Affairs is a 2002 Hong Kong action thriller film directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak from a screenplay written by Mak and Felix Chong. The film stars Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, Sammi Cheng and Kelly Chen. The film follows an undercover Hong Kong Police Force officer who infiltrates a triad and another police officer who is secretly a spy for the same triad. It is the first in the Infernal Affairs series and is followed by Infernal Affairs II and Infernal Affairs III.
Infernal Affairs III is a 2003 Hong Kong crime action film directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. It is the third and final installment in the Infernal Affairs film series, and is both a sequel and a semi-prequel to the original film, as it intercuts events before and after the events in the first film. Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Kelly Chen, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, and Chapman To reprise their roles again, joined by new cast members Leon Lai and Chen Daoming.
Infernal Affairs II is a 2003 Hong Kong crime-action film directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. It is a prequel to the 2002 film Infernal Affairs. Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, Edison Chen, Shawn Yue and Chapman To reprise their roles from the original film alongside new cast members Carina Lau, Francis Ng, Hu Jun and Roy Cheung. Neither Andy Lau nor Tony Leung, who played the central roles in the original, appear in this film as they are replaced by their younger versions portrayed by Chen and Yue respectively. The events of the film take place from 1991 to 1997. It was followed by Infernal Affairs III (2003), which is both a sequel and a semi-prequel to the original film.
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Andrew Lau Wai-keung is a Hong Kong film director, producer, and cinematographer. Lau began his career in the 1980s and 1990s, serving as a cinematographer to filmmakers such as Ringo Lam, Wong Jing and Wong Kar-wai. In the 1990s, Lau decided to have more creative freedom as a cinematographer by becoming a film director and producer. Apart from making films in his native Hong Kong, Lau has also made films in China, Korea and the United States. A highly prolific filmmaker, Lau has made films in a variety of genres, and is most notable in the West for his action and crime films which include the Young and Dangerous film series, the Infernal Affairs trilogy, and Revenge of the Green Dragons.
A sex offender is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crimes of a sexual nature; however, some sex offenders have simply violated a law contained in a sexual category. Some of the serious crimes which result in a mandatory sex-offender classification are sexual assault, statutory rape, bestiality, child sexual abuse, incest, and rape.
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