THE CREATIVE TEAM
"Murder by Numbers" was initially conceived by producer Richard Crystal. Crystal had always been fascinated by the historic 1924 Leopold & Loeb case. The case involved two intelligent young men, who concocted a murder/kidnap scheme, as an elaborate game to get away with the "perfect" crime.
The film was put into development with writer Tony Gayton hired to write the screenplay. Gayton had previously written Castle Rock's upcoming "The Salton Sea." Gayton brought the project into focus when he introduced Cassie Mayweather, the tenacious homicide detective, as the central character. This brought a modern element and point of view to the telling of the story.
"As the project developed, the layers of the story began to build," says Crystal. "It becomes a real cat and mouse game between Cassie and the young men. It's like watching a chess match."
Academy Award®-nominated director Barbet Schroeder and his longtime producing partner Susan Hoffman were enlisted. Schroeder was filming "Our Lady of the Assassins" in Medellin, Columbia. Hoffman was working on "The Believer," directed and written by Henry Bean and starring Ryan Gosling, when she read the script for "Murder by Numbers."
"There are many 'pretty OK' scripts in Hollywood," Hoffman explains, "but because it takes at least a year of your life, we look for a challenging and unusual project. 'Murder by Numbers' was unusual. We liked the basic story and the possibility of really developing the psychological part of the story."
"Like many people, I am intrigued by the Leopold and Loeb story," says Schroeder, "but I was most interested in developing the current events aspect of Richard and Justin's story. Having a complex female protagonist, who is also a master at the kind of police science that did not exist in the time of Leopold and Loeb, brings a whole new level of mind games, as well as making this undeniably a story of today."
Hoffman says, "Our inspirational references were more contemporary: Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and also the Dartmouth murders of 2000 where two young men killed two college professors primarily for the thrill."
"I think that Barbet likes to make films that pay respect to all the characters in the film," says Hoffman. "And these boys are pretty tragic figures. They're sort of the bad guys in the movie, but somehow you feel for them. And he also loves female protagonists. He's much happier when the person driving the film is female. The film had everything for him, really appealing bad guys, a very formidable female lead, and psychological material."
Sandra Bullock, having just produced and starred in Castle Rock's hit comedy "Miss Congeniality," was interested in working on a psychological thriller that offered a great puzzle.
Bullock describes her character as "a detective, who up to this point has performed her job without complication, finds herself becoming emotionally attached to this new case and to the woman who was murdered which causes concern in the department and threatens the case itself."
For Schroeder, Sandra Bullock was the perfect choice for Cassie Mayweather. "It was very exciting to offer Sandra Bullock a part bringing back to life the tradition of the complex tough ladies of the 40's, making the vulnerable side of Cassie that much more moving."
"Barbet has an understanding of, and is very comfortable with, the uncomfortable," says Sandra Bullock. "A psychological thriller is so much what you don't say and what you don't show, and how you set the camera and what you allow the actor to show. Barbet's very specific about how he wanted things played out. He has that sense of the dark that I think really lends itself to a story like this."
A new homicide detective, played by British actor Ben Chaplin, is forced upon Cassie as a new partner. "I play her new partner who's just transferred from vice to homicide," Chaplin explains. "He's a good man, but not a particularly streetwise cop. He's gotten to homicide because he's good, but he's a little bit of an outsider."
In addition to the film's human storyline, Chaplin was attracted to the science of forensics that is showcased. "However perfect the crime, or murder, that you may commit, you will make mistakes, you will leave traces," he says. "I found that really fascinating in a reassuring kind of way."
Sam recognizes that Cassie is brilliant, but he also sees right through her tough exterior. Her unwillingness to let people in won't work on Sam. Richard Crystal explains, "Sam is really smart and has an easygoing manner about him. He brings a nice counterpoint to Cassie's kind of energy."
"Sam's forced to work with me and it's like oil and vinegar," says Bullock. "He's very square. Everything he does is so by the book, it drives me insane. I don't care for it. I feel like I can walk all over him and I pretty much do. I don't treat him with a great deal of respect at the beginning because he's green. But later on you see something else unraveling too. That's one of the nice things about this film, in that nobody is quite what they seem."
In targeting Richard and Justin as suspects, Cassie relies on her instincts more than any incriminating evidence. "It's a hunch," Bullock explains. "As we start unraveling things, I start noticing a pattern, and no one else seems to feel that the pattern is right. I take special notice of these two young men from good, upstanding neighborhoods, but there's no real evidence that they had anything to do with it. It's totally personal. Things seem too perfect with them and their alibis. Slowly things start to surface to help support my case."
Ryan Gosling (Richard Haywood) wowed audiences at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival for his searing portrayal of a Jewish skinhead in Henry Bean's "The Believer," which subsequently won the prestigious Grand Jury Prize. In addition to taking the top prize at Sundance, Ryan received a prestigious Independent Feature Project Spirit nomination for Best Actor and was also nominated for Best Actor by the London Film Critics' Circle.
The 19-year-old actor brings the same intensity and charisma to his role as Richard Haywood, a troubled youth that manipulates his friend Justin into partnering with him to commit the perfect murder.
Gosling, who read numerous scripts following "The Believer," thought that "Murder by Numbers" was different from anything else he had read. "In so many films of this genre there's a death every five pages," he says. "In this one, this does not happen. I thought it was an interesting opportunity to deal with the ramifications of murder. And it made me realize that you really only have control of your life until a certain point, until you make that one decision that changes your life forever."
Gosling explains that, for Richard and Justin, the killing goes way beyond the thrill and satisfaction of getting away with murder. "They just want to feel something," he says. "They want to have some sort of intimacy that they can't find anywhere else. They don't really have relationships with their parents or with their friends. They want to do something great. And I think in Richard's mind, this is a way of sealing Justin and him forever."
"Murder by Numbers" producer Susan Hoffman, who also produced "The Believer," was eager to work with the talented young actor again. "Ryan is a transcendently gifted actor in a way that you hardly ever see," says Hoffman. "Ryan is good because he's sympathetic. Even in 'The Believer' when he was playing a Jewish Nazi, the audience was rooting for him. Once I saw the effect that his screen presence had on the public, I knew that Ryan could basically do anything."
"Ryan is light year's ahead of his age," enthuses Bullock. "He's just so exciting to watch, because he can say things with a smile, but what the smile is saying is, 'I'm going to kill you.'"
New York-based actor Michael Pitt is the brooding, introspective Justin Pendleton, the brilliant-yet-shy young man well steeped in the methods of criminal investigation and forensic evidence. Pitt has recently been featured in such diverse films as Gus Van Sant's "Finding Forrester," Larry Clark's "Bully" and John Cameron Mitchell's "Hedwig and the Angry Inch."
"In casting," recalls Schroeder, "I came across a few actors who could have played Richard in case Ryan Gosling was not available, but for Justin, Michael Pitt was the only one. I had no replacement for him."
Pitt enthuses that he's never played a character like Justin before. "Justin is insanely intelligent, but misguided," Pitt says. "He's really kind of reserved and he does everything in order, like he's thinking all the time, and then he snaps, which is fun to play. Both he and Richard are a little weird and sick and they cling to each other because they feel the world is screwed up for them."
Pitt explains that Justin looks at the murder as a science experiment or math problem. "He conceives it slowly, out of boredom mainly, because he doesn't have anything else to do and wants to feel challenged." Justin's conscience finally comes into play during the killing when he starts to feel the guilt and remorse he hadn't thought about beforehand.
"Justin is so complex," says Bullock. "For that role you needed somebody who looked feeble, but rivers ran really deep. And by just not saying anything and looking at his face, you'd be able to really wonder what's going on there. And you get that from Michael. He's really intense and very internal."
"Michael's acting comes from such a deep place you don't even realize it's happening. But when you see it on the screen there is a level of humanity that is inescapably touching and real. He's a naturalist," says Hoffman.
"Murder by Numbers" also stars Chris Penn ("Reservoir Dogs") as Ray, the high school janitor who Richard and Justin try to frame for the murder. "For more than 10 years we have been trying to work together and I was thrilled when he accepted the part. I knew he would bring tension and humanity to the part of Ray who first appears very dangerous and evil but in the end is an innocent harmless victim," says Schroeder. Newcomer Agnes Bruckner plays Lisa Mills, a pretty classmate of Richard and Justin's who becomes the source of a rivalry between the two friends. "When Agnes came to read for the part we felt immediately that her mixture of assurance, freshness and sensuality would become one of the main secret weapons of the movie," says Schroeder. R.D. Call is Rod, a fellow homicide cop in the San Benito Police Department.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
"Murder by Numbers" began production on February 27, 2001 and was filmed on location in and around southern California, in San Luis Obispo County in Central California, and on stages at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood.
One of Italy's top cinematographers, Luciano Tovoli, A. I. C., ASC, once again collaborates with his friend, director Barbet Schroeder, to bring a stylish look to the screen in "Murder by Numbers." With Schroeder, Tovoli lent his talents to films such as the Academy Award®-nominated "Reversal of Fortune," as well as "Kiss of Death," "Before and After" and "Single White Female," among others.
"The relationship and creative collaboration between Barbet and Luciano is certainly famous among all the people who ever worked with them," says Susan Hoffman. "Luciano's a master by any standard, a brilliant inventor, and a problem solver. When you see any film that Luciano makes, there's some signature there that is indelible. But it's mainly his relationship with Barbet, their symbiosis which is very impressive, and funny, too. It's fun to sit behind them at the monitors."
Shooting took place in a variety of locations as well as on numerous stages at Raleigh Studios. Upon completion of the stage work, filming began in the city of San Luis Obispo, the halfway point to San Francisco and the city that inspired the fictional town of San Benito in the film.
"We didn't want to locate the film in just any big city," says producer Susan Hoffman. "We didn't want to give a simple explanation for why the young men were committing this crime; that they were rich, or spoiled, or urbanites. We felt that would be too simple of an explanation. So we decided that we wanted a very American environment, slightly non-descript, upscale, but not too wealthy. We scouted all the way from Oregon to Los Angeles and we chose San Luis Obispo. It's a very touching place, it's beautiful, and it seemed like the kind of place that really was in the socio-economic groove that we were looking for."
"The idea of an 'end of the century story' taking place in the furthest Western point of the country was full of resonance to me. I just did not see it in the East, although the Florida of 'Bully' would have worked. There's a tremendous amount of beauty in the coastal region of Central California. And water was an important part of the story," says Schroeder.
"When we were looking for a place to set the film, we needed to find a location where you wouldn't expect such events to happen," says Academy Award®-nominated production designer Stuart Wurtzel. "That's why we ended up in our fictitious town of San Benito, which we based on San Luis Obispo. It has those wonderful qualities of being comfortable and pretty and steeped in tradition with a strong Spanish influence. It lays a real base for the story."
Wurtzel's biggest challenge was to find the house on the bluff where Justin and Richard get together to hatch their plans. "I wanted something that had scale and grandeur," Wurtzel says. "I was going after the lodge architecture that was built in the twenties in the national parks. The interior of the house was based on the Ahwahnee Lodge located at Yosemite National Park, with its stone and timber construction."
Wurtzel designed the stage-erected interiors of the San Benito Police Station, inspired by the County Court House in San Luis Obispo. "It has a wonderful sort of deco quality to it," he says. "I didn't want to do the typical police station, nor did I want it to have the sense of madness and chaos that you see on an everyday basis. This is a much quieter, smaller town where the homicide rate is extremely low."
New York-based costume designer Carol Oditz ("The Ice Storm") worked closely with Barbet Schroeder and Stuart Wurtzel to create the clothing styles for the detectives and the boys. "The southwestern architecture in the town of San Benito set the visual tone for the film," says Oditz. "I carried the western flavor into the costumes, allowing it to permeate the film's supporting cast and background inhabitants, especially the atmosphere lawyers and detectives who populate so many scenes in the film. These western elements - in the architecture, set dressing and costumes - form a strong visual backdrop for the story."
For Sandra Bullock's Cassie Mayweather, Oditz chose a narrow color palette of gray, black, and purple. Cassie frequently sports a well-worn black leather jacket and turtlenecks. "Cassie's a powerful 'can do' detective with a tough, self-assured exterior," says Oditz. "Under this controlled exterior lies a secret, fragile, inner life. Her signature turtlenecks are both practical articles of clothing and metaphors for the secrets that are uncovered in the story."
For Richard Haywood, whom Oditz describes as a 'cocky, self-styled matinee idol - a James Dean/Steve McQueen wannabe,' she tried to build an association between him and his red leather jacket. "Throughout the film, the jacket becomes a metaphor for the boy," she says. "And like the boy, the clothes are edgy, expensive, and cocky."
For Justin Pendleton, Oditz created a look for a brainy boy who doesn't think about his clothes. "Everything he wears is brown, tailored to his slim frame and hunched shoulders," says Oditz. "Even the heels of his shoes are uneven to give him a particular walk that implies gravity is pulling on him."
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