Alcon Entertainment

Production Company: Alcon Entertainment
Other Production Companies: 8:38 Productions, Madhouse Entertainment 

Cast:

Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Movie 43)
Jake Gyllenhaal (Prince of Persia, Source Code, Love & Other Drugs)
Viola Davis (The Help, Beautiful Creatures, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close)
Maria Bello (Grown Ups, Touch - TV)
Terrence Howard (Iron Man, The Brave One, Movie 43)
Paul Dano (Looper, Cowboys & Aliens, Where The Wild Things Are)

Crew:

Scriptwriter: Aaron Guzikowski
Director: Dennis Villeneuve 
Cinematographer: Roger Deakins (10 time Oscar nominated - Skyfall, True Grit, The Shawshank Redemption)
Editor: Joel Cox - Oscar winning - (Best Film Editing) Unforgiven (1992),  (Best Achievement in Film Editing) Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Budget: $46 million
Box Office: $118,433,958

US Cinema Release - 20th September 2013
UK Cinema Release - 27th September 2013

First Began Development: July 2009
Pre-Production: July 2010
Filming:  February 2013
Post-Production: June 2013
Complete: August 2013 (set for September release)
Sneak Screening: Telluride Film Festival 2013 - 29th August - 2nd September 2013
World Premiere: Toronto Film Festival 2013 - 5th September 2013



Alcon Entertainment
Based in: LA

Founders: Broderick Johnson, Andrew Kosove
Initial Financier - 1997: Frederick W. Smith
COO: Scott Parish
Senior Vice President of Physical Production: Yolanda T. Cochran



8:38 Productions
Founder: Kira Davis
Davis brought the script for "Prisoners" to Alcon.

Kira Davis Background:

• 1994 - Met Founders of Alcon Entertainment on set of Love Is All There Is working as a costume assistant
• 1997 - Became an assistant for Johnson and Kosove, becoming their first employee
• 1998 - 2006 Worked at Alcon Entertainment - Vice President of Production & Marketing
• 2007 - Founded 8:38 Productions

Madhouse Entertainment

Other Significant Movies - Safe House, Contraband
Twitter

Founder: Adam Kolbrenner (Interview Here)

Madhouse entertainment work as literary managers, developing writers' material.

Distribution - Warner Bros. Pictures (Worldwide)

Pre-Production Process

• Open Casting Call (extras/some speaking roles etc. At this point, the main roles were already cast) -
• Prisoners was initially set to be released in 2010 (the movie was fast tracked following the conception of the idea in 2009).

Production

• The first time it was submitted to the MPAA, it received an NC-17 rating due to its tone and subject matter. The film's torture scenes were later cut by a couple frames along with scenes suggesting pedophilia and it then received the R rating.
• http://www.slashfilm.com/from-the-set-an-oral-pre-history-of-prisoners/

Post Distribution

• NY Times Review - Captivating, may be disappointed by the ending but it doesn't matter
• LA Times Review - Strong piece of cinema, disappointing ending
• Total Film - Edge-of-your-seat thriller
• Moviefone - Prisoners Cast & Crew Interview

Other Press

• Hollywood Journal - Adam Kolbrenner on Prisoners
• Entertainment Weekly - Aaron Guzikowski on writing Prisoners

The film's journey:

• 2006: Scriptwriter Aaron Guzikowski sends Adam Kolbrenner a letter, containing his initial script.
• Adam Kolbrenner reads the script, doesn't think he can sell it. Likes Guzikowski's writing, thinks he has talent.
• Several months later, Guzikowski sends Kolbrenner a PDF of a film idea that he came up with in a flu-induced haze. A movie called Prisoners.
• Kolbrenner & Madhouse would give Guzikowski notes, he'd work on these in the supply closet of his job.
• Draft after draft of the screenplay written
• 2009: Screenplay complete
• Screenplay sent to agencies (Madhouse think get Guzikowski an agent then get the script out and maybe sell it)
• Agencies pass (Too tough a script to get made. To dark, not commercial, not good enough to get a movie star)
• One agent says to write something like Avatar and they'd reconsider.
• Adam Levine from Endeavour (before it became WME) and says it's the best script he's ever read.
• Guzikowski flies to LA for first time to meet with Endeavour along with Kolbrenner. Suddenly occurs to Kolbrenner that he's never actually met Guzikowski before.
• A week later: Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale attached to the movie. Bryan Singer to direct.
• Hundreds of people reading the script practically overnight. Hottest screenplay out there.
• 6 months later: Script still hasn't sold. Guzikowski still working a temp job.
• Kira Davis from Alcon Entertainment reads and champions the script.
• 4th July 2009: Call from Alcon Entertainment. Alcon Purchases the script outright with no actor attachments.
• Kira Davis set to Produce alongside Madhouse.
• Guzikowski gets paid.