film downloading nancy

When Albert Stockwell (Rufus Sewell) comes home from work one day, he finds a note from his wife of 15 years, Nancy (Maria Bello), saying she has gone to see friends. It is a lie. After waiting several days, Albert realizes that his wife is missing. Nancy has met her salvation on the Internet in the form of Louis Farley (Jason Patric). Nancy and Louis, both wounded souls, take comfort in one another through e-mail, pictures, and promises of perverse sexual encounters. Nancy has finally found the one and only thing that can liberate her from the pain in her life. But will this couple be able to see it through to the end?

Though disturbing and at times relentlessly raw, Downloading Nancy is stunningly executed; director Johan Renck forces the viewer to succumb to the darkness these characters face in the world—if not with empathy or sympathy, at least with understanding. His finely crafted narrative moves strategically through the plot points, relying heavily on a superb cast so talented that they leave indelible impressions in their wake. Watching Downloading Nancy is like prolonging the instance—if you even see it coming—when the anticipation of extreme pain takes your breath away.
- Sundance Film Guide

The story follows the fate of the unhappy wife Nancy who orders the guy she meets over the Internet to kill her, but the two of them fall in love.
–IMDb.com

Press Release - PR NewsWire:
World Premiere Entertainment is pleased to present "Downloading Nancy". The film, one of this year's most heavily anticipated dramas will be premiering in the dramatic category at this year's Sundance Film Festival. This marks famed music and commercial
director Johan Renck's feature directorial debut with renowned director of photography, Christopher Doyle. The film boasts an all star line-up including Maria Bello, Jason Patric, Rufus Sewell and Amy Brenneman.

World Premiere Entertainment's Jason Essex and Cole Payne and Tule Rivers' David Moore and Igor Kovacevich are producing with executive producers Mark Johnson ("The Chronicles of Narnia" and "The Notebook"), Maddox Pace Clinkscales, Philip H. Clinkscales III, Chris Hanley ("American Psycho"), Adam Batz, Sean McVity, Mark Mueller, Julie Aaron and Stephen Onda. This original screenplay is scribed by Pamela Cuming and Lee Ross.

Set in Baltimore, shot on location in Regina, Saskatchewan, the story is centered around a very mentally disturbed woman, Nancy (Maria Bello), whose negligent relationship with her husband (Rufus Sewell) leads her into a sadistic affair with a man (Jason Patric) she meets over the internet. Based on true events, "Downloading Nancy" takes the viewer down a dark and
twisted path of loneliness and abuse in the search for love; ultimately unraveling the core of human guilt, absolution and the need for redemption.

Founded by Jason Essex, Maddox Pace Clinkscales and Philip H. Clinkscales III in late 2006, "Downloading Nancy" marks the production debut for World Premiere Entertainment. The company, spearheaded by president Jason Essex, is actively working on projects for 2008 and is currently preparing for the film's premiere on January 21st, 2008 at the Sundance Film Festival. Screenings begin on January 22nd and continue through January 25th. For more information please contact Cara Morrissey at
(310) 454-3080.

Pr: David Moore, Igor Kovacevich, Jason Essex, Cole Payne

Ci: Christopher Doyle

Ed: Johan Soderberg

Please introduce yourself.

I grew up all over the world, including countries such as Sweden,Norway, USA and Kuwait. As for now, I still "live" in Sweden, even though my work hardly allows for me to be here.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking? What other creative outlets do you explore?

I started out as musician and recording artist, but quite soon started to do my own videos. One thing led to another, and soon I was making videos for a living. I guess I found the life as a musician too counter productive, as so much time was spent in tour buses & remote hotel rooms. As I am moderately hyper-active, this didn't suit my temper. Besides, the self destructive sides of it didn't help what I looked upon as stagnation. Further more, I've always been attracted to images (through photography) and stories (through reading). Along the way I found that merging the two gave access to a whole new world.

Have you made other films?

Nope, this is my first feature. I have done my fair share of shorts (besides all the music videos and commercials that, somehow, has functioned as my education), but this is my first go at this format. But I already feel as if I found what I have been looking for through all these years.

What prompted the idea for this film and how did it evolve?

Ever since the beginning of videos I knew I wanted to make films. Thus, I have been exploring ideas around getting to this. So, apart from trying to write something myself, I read scripts. In this flood of crap, one script contained something that I found interesting. I wrote a massive document of script notes that went to the writers (on a nothing-to-lose-basis) and they actually agreed with everything. After this we started a fruitful process of re-writing until we had something we all liked. As the nature of the film is kind of "unsafe," it then took quite some time to get finances in place. Along the way, casting wasn't really a problem as I believe actors found the characters and the story interesting. Still, we had our share of problems within this as well, as it is like building a card house with money, schedules, actors, logistics and so on.

"Downloading Nancy" director Johan Renck. Image courtesy of Sundance Film Festival.

Please elaborate a bit on your approach to making the film.

With my years of promos & commercials I actually have a massive amount of experience with regards to production. There, pretty much, isn't one thing I haven't tried at least once. Thus, my cinematic approach to making this film came very easy; I knew exactly what I wanted, how I wanted it to taste, smell and feel. The thing that was new to me was obviously working with characters over such a length of time, developing and fine-tuning them whilst nurturing and, actually, evolving the story. But after a day or two methods settled in. Luckily, I had intelligent and brilliant actors who supported me and accepted a not so cookie-cutter approach. Also, primarily Jason Patric was great as we started to get into work, since he has such an understanding for characters and dramatization on one side and not settling for anything else than perfect on the other. Over beers, at O'Hanlons in Regina, I learnt a lot from this charmingly grumpy but brilliant man.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in either developing the project?

Well, apart from scraping the dough together, getting the cast seemed the biggest challenge - I mean, one week into shooting we weren't even fully cast due to someone bailing out at last minute. A
year earlier we had been ready to go, but it all fell together due to our "Nancy's" pregnancy. It all was feeling very "Lost in La Mancha"... One night in Regina I went to the cinemas and saw "The Illusionist" and was blown away by Rufus Sewell's performance in there so we went for him. A few days later he was with us, literally on the brink on when the rest of the cast was starting to think about return tickets...

What are your specific goals for the Sundance Film Festival?

Well, I obviously wish for the film to be picked up by some distributor so that people can get to see it... And so that people who invested in this project can feel that they did the right thing. Apart from that, my personal goal is to go there, see a lot of films, meet people, light the fireplace and have a glass of wine.

What are some of your all-time favorite films?

Still, as a teenager, the films "The Shining", "The Exorcist" and "A Clockwork Orange" as well as the TV series "Brideshead Revisited" had a fundamental impact on a developing bafoon of a boy. As I was talking to Jason Patric about this, and how underrated I think "The Exorcist" is, how brilliant the direction and several of the performances, I got into talking about the young priest Damien, who is losing his faith, but, through guilt to his dying mother hangs in there and bla bla bla, and how much I liked the character-his performance Jason just calmly went "Yeah... Jason Miller... Well, that guy was my father."

How do you define success as a filmmaker?

Doing films that affect you. Like with music. Or literature. Or art. Simple as that.