The Panic Room

Genre: Action/Suspense.

Studio: Columbia Pictures.
Production Company: Fine Line Features.

Project Phase: Post-production.

Who's In It: Jodie Foster (Meg Altman); Forest Whitaker (Raoul); Dwight Yoakam (Burnham); Jared Leto (Junior); Kristen Stewart (Sarah Altman).

Who's Making It: David Fincher (Director); David Koepp (Screenwriter); Cean Chaffin, Judy Hofflund, David Koepp, Gavin Polone (Producers); Kevin Haug (VFX Supervisor), Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff (Make-up Effects, ADI); Darius Khondji (Director of Photography); Arthur Max (Production Designer); Michael Kaplan (Costume Designer).

Premise: A woman and her daughter struggle to elude a trio of intruders who break into their brownstone apartment by hiding in a "panic room". Stockpiled with food, water and watching the progress of the intruders via closed-circuit TV, the mother soon must face grave problems both inside and outside of her sanctuary.

Release Date: February 1, 2002.

Comments: None.

Rumors: None.

[Page draft supplied by the escaped 'fjbfour'.]

Scoop Feedback:

March, 2000... Fincher (Fight Club, Seven, The Game) is as yet still in talks to direct this film. Timing is a little touchy as he is also close to getting involved with either USA Films' Passengers or a film adaptation of the book The Black Dahlia. Writer Koepp (Snake Eyes) recently sold the script for The Panic Room for multiple millions. [Scoop by 'fjbfour'.]

April 24, 2000... The latest script review is now online at Stax's Flixburg website, and this time he's turned his focus on Koepp's script to The Panic Room. ['Stax' locked himself in a room to write it.]

August 4, 2000... Maynard James Keenan, the singer formerly with Tool, now with A Perfect Circle, recently quoted this during his band's tour with Nine Inch Nails at a European interview:

Maynard: "I don't know, but I guess my performance isn't completely beside the point. Fincher has offered me a casting for one of the three leading roles in his next film. And of course, I immediately accepted. If he really wants to cast a big movie with someone who hasn't got experience or a name then it's really a fantastic opportunity for me."

[Scooped by anonymous.]

August 9, 2000... Today's Variety reports that Forest Whitaker and Dwight Yoakam are in negotiations to star in this film. Whitaker and Yoakam would play two of the three thieves that break into the brownstone, forcing the mother and her child to retreat into the so-called "panic room". Interestingly, Variety reports that the part of the single mom/homeowner is to be played by Sandra Bullock. That's the first we've heard about it. [Sent in by 'fjbfour'.]

Now, while Variety says Bullock is playing the mom in the film, the last we heard is that Nicole Kidman was still looking at taking the part. The Kidman involvement was repeated as recently as today to CA, by a different scooper: "I know for a fact that Nicole Kidman is set to star in this project. They are currently searching for a young girl to play her daughter." [Anonymous.]

So is Bullock in or out? The industry website 4Filmmakers, which tracks developing film projects, lists Bullock as in the project -- but they also list Ridley Scott as the project's director, which is incorrect. Upcoming Movies' listing for this feature states that Kidman is out due to a scheduling conflict with her filming of another movie. In any case, until we see it with our own eyes, we're listing both Kidman and Bullock as potentials for the film.

August 10, 2000... Interesting. A few short hours after posting yesterday's entry we received a follow-up email, sent anonymously -- saying that there might be some truth to 4Filmmakers listing Ridley Scott as this feature's director.

"4Filmmakers is more correct than not in listing Ridley Scott as the director of The Panic Room," writes the mysterious scooper. "Fincher has recently bowed out, for reasons unknown (that interview with Maynard is obsolete). Scott is currently in talks, and seems the most likely candidate to direct the film at this stage." [Anonymous.]

If this is true, 4Filmmakers is the only site (that we've heard of) that's reported this development.

Then another anonymous email: "The Daily Variety published a 'correction' to yesterday's story on page 6 today, stating that Nicole Kidman, and not Sandra Bullock, is the star of The Panic Room." We haven't seen the retraction with our own eyes -- we can't find it in the online version of the paper -- so if you've got proof, either email it or fax it to us and we'll gladly report it.

August 11, 2000... We've got proof that the Variety mention of Bullock was an error. Thanks to our buddy Greg Dean Schmitz, we can show it to you: follow this link to read the Yahoo!/Variety story and note the correction notice at the top of the page. [Greg's the one who broke the news to Sandra.]

August 19, 2000... IGN FilmForce has confirmed that Fincher is in the chair for this project and was involved recently in meetings at the production offices in L.A. They also snagged character names for the three baddies, but we don't have confirmation on the actors up there--so we just added those names. For the full article from IGN FF, click here. [Originally appeared on IGN FilmForce; thanks to Zoro for the pointer.]

September 1, 2000... An anonymous scooper writes in to tell us that the following names have been confirmed to join the project: Cean Chaffin (Producer), Judy Hofflund (Producer), Gavin Polone (Producer), David Koepp (Producer), Kevin Haug (VFX Supervisor), Alec Gillis & Tom Woodruff (Make-up FX: ADI, Darius Khondji (Director of Photography). [Thanks to Anonymous; reported by Reg.]

September 12, 2000... As of yesterday, the cast list consisted of Nicole Kidman, Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam, Jared Leto and Hayden Panettiere. This is the first we've heard of Leto and Panettiere's names connected with the project. Also worth noting is the absence of Maynard James Keenan from the list. ['Farrah's Panties'.]

September 21, 2000... Variety recently confirmed our last scoop of Jared Leto joining the cast. Now that our last scooper's been proven right, we've added the other name they dropped, Hayden Panettiere, to our cast listing. [Appeared at Variety; reported by Reg.]

September 29, 2000... One of our sources dropped by to tell us that production on Fincher's Panic Room is slated to commence October 2nd in Los Angeles and New York. [Thank you 'NatasMoon'.]

October 10, 2000... Here's the complete cast listing as of today (with the actors' character names included):

Meg Altman/Nicole Kidman
Sarah Altman/Hayden Panettiere
Burnham/Forest Whitaker
Raoul/Dwight Yoakam
Junior/Jared Leto
Evan/Ian Buchanan
Lydia Lynch/Ann Magnuson

And making for an interesting cameo: Andrew Kevin Walker plays the role of 'Sleeping Neighbor'. Walker was the screenwriter on Fincher's Seven and did an uncredited touch-up on The Game.

[It's time for 'Farrah's Panties' to come off.]

December 1, 2000... Like to read a positive review of The Panic Room? Then maneuver over to C.H.U.D. and read Nick "The Man" Nunziata's thoughts on David Koepp's latest script. Follow the yellow brick road and read. [Originally appeared on C.H.U.D.]

December 4, 2000... We've just been scooped by our informant that actress Hayden Panettiere is now out as Sarah Altman, the daughter of Nicole Kidman's character and her companion in the panic room. We're also told that rehearsals for new actresses to play the part are scheduled to take place next week. The loss of Panettiere will not delay the start of shooting, still planned to commence January 8, 2001. ['Farrah's Panties' has not worn out their welcome.]

January 10, 2001... The film will be out later this year, according to Sony Pictures. [Info provided by Sony.]

January 24, 2001... We were able to clean up our crew listings a bit, thanks to a press release by Columbia Pictures. We also learned that the actress now portraying Sarah is Kristen Stewart (The Safety of Objects). [Info provided by Columbia Pictures.]

January 26, 2001... Hollywood Reporter says that the project is now in jeopardy. Why? Another injury. Somebody needs to check the diets of these stars or something. Seriously. Nicole Kidman has been advised by physicians that she can't remain in this project due to a knee injury that she's been dealing with for some time. The role is pretty physically demanding, so you can see where a knee problem could only get worse. Production continues today sans Kidman, but execs are now trying to figure out if they can recast or if the entire shebang just needs to get put on hold. [Originally appeared at Hollywood Reporter.]

January 29, 2001... Reporter confirms that Kidman's left the production. Current actresses the trade magazine cites as frontrunners to replace Kidman are Jodie Foster and Robin Wright-Penn. We've heard from our sources that Foster's name is the favored among the two. [Scooped by anonymous; with confirmation appearing in The Hollywood Reporter.]

February 4, 2001... Jodie Foster has pulled out of her jury presidency at Cannes and is jumping on board this project instead. An anonymous type also told us that Foster hit the set this past Thursday, will shoot for 98 days, and kick off again this Wednesday. Rehearsals occurred this weekend. [Sent in by Anonymous, and also by B.D., MattW, bjudd, and Lucio.]