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Bird Box (film)

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Bird Box
Film release poster
Directed bySusanne Bier
Screenplay byEric Heisserer
Produced by
Starring
CinematographySalvatore Totino
Edited byBen Lester
Music by
Production
companies
  • Bluegrass Films
  • Chris Morgan Productions
Distributed byNetflix
Release dates
  • November 12, 2018 (2018-11-12) (AFI Fest)
  • December 14, 2018 (2018-12-14) (United States)
Running time
124 minutes[1]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$19.8 million[2]

Bird Box is a 2018 American post-apocalyptic horror thriller film, directed by Susanne Bier from a screenplay written by Eric Heisserer, and based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Josh Malerman. The film follows a woman, played by Sandra Bullock, as she tries to protect herself and two children from malevolent supernatural entities that make people who look at them go insane and commit suicide. Bird Box had its world premiere at the AFI Fest on November 12, 2018, and began a limited release on December 14, before streaming worldwide on Netflix on December 21, 2018.

Plot

Five years after an ominous unseen presence drives most of society to suicide, a mother and her two children make a desperate bid to reach safety.

Cast

Production

Development

The film rights to Bird Box were optioned by Universal Pictures in 2013, prior to the book's release.[3][4] Scott Stuber and Chris Morgan were set to produce the film, with It and Mama director Andy Muschietti attached as director.[4] Screenwriter Eric Heisserer was in negotiations to pen the script.[5] In July 2017, after Stuber became head of the feature film division of Netflix, it was announced that Netflix had acquired the rights to the book and would develop the film, with Sandra Bullock and John Malkovich starring.[6][7] Susanne Bier was announced as the director.[6]

Casting

In July 2017, Sandra Bullock and John Malkovich were cast in the film as Malorie Hayes and Douglas.[6][8] In October 2017, Danielle Macdonald, Trevante Rhodes, Jacki Weaver, Sarah Paulson, Rosa Salazar, Lil Rel Howery, and Amy Gumenick joined the cast.[9][10] In November 2017, Machine Gun Kelly and David Dastmalchian were also added.[11][12]

Filming

Principal photography began in California in October 2017.[13] Wilderness scenes were shot on the Smith River in the far northern part of the state.[14] The house exterior is from a place in Monrovia.[15] Cinematography partially took place in Santa Cruz,[16] and the final scene was shot at Scripps College.[17][18][19][20]

The production used real-life birds during filming as much as possible, replacing them with digital birds for sequences when the birds became "agitated."[21]

The film uses footage of the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster, which caused the death of 47 people in the town of Lac-Mégantic, Canada on July 6, 2013. The stock-footage was purchased from a vendor and Netflix stated it would stay in the movie even after a request to remove it from survivors of the disaster.[22] Netflix later removed the footage and replaced with an outtake from a canceled U.S. TV series. [23] The same footage was also used in another Netflix production, Travelers, but has since been removed.[24]

Release

The film had its world premiere at the AFI Fest on November 12, 2018.[25] However, due to the Woolsey Fire that hit California and out of respect for the victims of the Thousand Oaks shooting, Netflix cancelled AFI Fest’s red carpet coverage scheduled for the premiere.[26] The film began a limited theatrical run on December 14, 2018, before streaming on Netflix on December 21, 2018.[27] A week later, Netflix reported that Bird Box had the biggest seven-day viewership for any of its original films to date, with over 45 million accounts, with views defined by the company as the film streaming for over 70 percent of its time.[28][29] This claim has been met with skepticism from analysts, who cited a lack of independent verification of the view count.[28][30][31] According to Netflix, the film was viewed by 80 million households in the month following its release.[32]

Bird Box blindfold challenge

In Australia, Netflix originally partnered with four Twitch streamers in performing what they called a Bird Box challenge, in which they would play some popular video games while blindfolded.[33] However, the challenge became widely mimicked on the Internet by individuals wearing blindfolds while trying to do ordinary activities, causing injuries to some. In response, Netflix released several messages over social media advising people not to undertake the challenge or hurt themselves.[31] Nevertheless, in January 2019, a 17-year-old in a blindfold taking part in the craze drove into oncoming traffic in Utah and crashed her car, prompting the police in the state to issue the same warning as Netflix.[34]

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 62% based on 145 reviews, with an average rating of 5.69/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Bird Box never quite reaches its intriguing potential, but strong acting and an effectively chilly mood offer intermittently creepy compensation."[35] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[36]

Brian Tallerico for RogerEbert.com, maligned that "Most of the problems with Bird Box come back to a thin screenplay, one that too often gives its characters flat, expository dialogue and then writes itself into a corner with a climax that's just silly when it needs to be tense."[37] Amy Nicholson, in a review for British newspaper The Guardian, gave a negative appraisal, awarding the film 2 out of 5 stars and concluding that "as the film staggers on in its quest to give us entertainment satisfaction or death, we're tempted to identity [sic] with the movie's first victim, a woman in a tracksuit banging her head against the glass, ready to get this painful sight over with."[38] Writing for Forbes, Sarah Aswell described the movie as one "that embraces everything about the (horror genre) formula, both good and bad – this movie has moments of true, delightful, fright, but it also has some of the corniness and shallowness that many horror movies can't shake."[39]

Accolades

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) and nominee(s) Result Ref(s)
Visual Effects Society Awards February 5, 2019 Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature Marcus Taormina, David Robinson, Mark Bakowski, Sophie Dawes, Mike Meinardus Nominated [40]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Bird Box". AFI Fest. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  2. ^ Film and Television Tax Credit Program Program 2.0 (PDF) (Report). California Film Commission. p. 9. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  3. ^ "DETROIT PROUD: Josh Malerman". CBS. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
  4. ^ a b Kit, Borys. "'Mama' Director to Helm Adaptation of 'Bird Box' (Exclusive)". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
  5. ^ "Eric Heisserer In Talks To Adapt 'Bird Box' For Universal". Deadline. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
  6. ^ a b c Kroll, Justin. "Sandra Bullock to Star in Netflix Thriller 'Bird Box'". Variety. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
  7. ^ Kroll, Justin. "John Malkovich Joins Sandra Bullock in 'Bird Box'; Eyes Peter Berg's 'Mile 22' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
  8. ^ Kroll, Justin. "John Malkovich Joins Sandra Bullock in 'Bird Box'; Eyes Peter Berg's 'Mile 22' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
  9. ^ Kroll, Justin. "Sandra Bullock's 'Bird Box' Rounds Out Starry Cast (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
  10. ^ N'Duka, Amanda. "James Landry Hebert, Adam Bartley Cast In 'Donnybrook'; Amy Gumenick Joins 'Bird Box'". Deadline. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
  11. ^ Kroll, Justin. "Machine Gun Kelly Joins Sandra Bullock in Thriller 'Bird Box'". Variety. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
  12. ^ N'Duka, Amanda. "David Dastmalchian Joins Sandra Bullock In Netflix's 'Bird Box'". Deadline. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
  13. ^ "Susanne Bier Begins Filming Netflix Movie Bird Box". Nordic Drama. October 31, 2017. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
  14. ^ "Was 'Bird Box' filmed in Sacramento? Well, no". KXTV. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  15. ^ "'Bird Box' Home Becomes Unexpected Tourist Attraction". TMZ. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  16. ^ "Blog". Santa-Cruz. Retrieved January 25, 2019.
  17. ^ "Books to Film: Josh Malerman's Debut 'Bird Box' Lands on Netflix". Publishing Perspectives. December 25, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  18. ^ "Bird Box Location: The river in California where the Netflix movie was filmed". Atlas of Wonders. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  19. ^ Bobrowsky, Meghan [@BobrowskyMeghan] (December 24, 2018). "Last winter break, Sandra Bullock was at @scrippscollege, shooting a scene for her new movie, Bird Box. This winter break, the movie came out on @netflix!pic.twitter.com/7YR9EiR6b0" (Tweet). Retrieved January 3, 2019 – via Twitter.
  20. ^ "You can take off the blindfold and see these Bird Box film locations". Gofamgo. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
  21. ^ Ian Failes (February 26, 2019). "Inside the BIRD BOX of Effects". VFXVoice.com. Retrieved February 26, 2019.
  22. ^ "Angry Canadian Train Crash Survivors Claim Netflix Used Disaster Footage in "Bird Box"". Fortune. Retrieved January 25, 2019.
  23. ^ Mark Kennedy (March 15, 2019). "Netflix will cut Bird Box footage months after outcry". Washington Post. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
  24. ^ "Netflix won't remove controversial Bird Box scene". MSN. Retrieved January 25, 2019.
  25. ^ Hammond, Pete (October 11, 2018). "AFI Fest Adds Gala Screenings 'Green Book', 'Widows', World Premiere Of Netflix's 'Bird Box' With Sandra Bullock And 'The Kominsky Method' TV Series". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  26. ^ Malkin, Marc. "Netflix Cancels Sandra Bullock's 'Bird Box' AFI Fest Red Carpet as California Fires Continue to Rage". Variety. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
  27. ^ Parfitt, Orlando (January 22, 2018). "15 Netflix Original movies to look out for in 2018". Screen International. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  28. ^ a b Spangler, Todd; Spangler, Todd (December 28, 2018). "'Bird Box' Viewed by 45 Million Netflix Members in First Week, Company Says".
  29. ^ Film, Netflix (December 28, 2018). "Took off my blindfold this morning to discover that 45,037,125 Netflix accounts have already watched Bird Box — best first 7 days ever for a Netflix film!pic.twitter.com/uorU3cSzHR".
  30. ^ Alexander, Julia (December 30, 2018). "Netflix says over 45 million accounts watched Bird Box — here's what that means". The Verge. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  31. ^ a b "'Bird Box' challenge: Netflix urges people to stop due to safety concerns". USA Today. January 2, 2019. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  32. ^ "Bird Box drives Netflix subscribers to 140m". January 18, 2019. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
  33. ^ Stevenson, Leo (November 14, 2018). "Netflix teamed up with Twitch streamers to promote the new film Bird Box". powerup-gaming.com. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  34. ^ "US driver in 'Bird Box blindfold' crashes". BBC News. January 11, 2019. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
  35. ^ "Bird Box (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
  36. ^ "Bird Box reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
  37. ^ Tallerico, Brian. "Bird Box Movie Review & Film Summary (2018) | Roger Ebert". www.rogerebert.com. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  38. ^ Nicholson, Amy (November 14, 2018). "Bird Box review – Sandra Bullock's Netflix thriller is a bird-brained mess". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  39. ^ Aswell, Sarah. "I Wrote This 'Bird Box' Review While Blindfolded". Forbes. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  40. ^ Tapley, Kristopher; Tapley, Kristopher (January 15, 2019). "'Avengers,' 'Lost in Space,' 'Ready Player One' Lead Visual Effects Society Nominations". Retrieved January 25, 2019.
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