- Cast: Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Adrienne Pickering, Ben Mendelsohn, Chandler Canterbury, Nadia Townsend, Terry Camilleri, Liam Hemsworth, Angie Diaz, Lara Robinson, Sally Anne Arnott, Brett Robson, Anna Anderson, Tamara Donnellan, Giovanni Bartuccio, Clem Maloney, Jayson Sutcliffe
- Director: Alex Proyas
- Writers: Ryne Douglas Pearson, Juliet Snowden, Stiles White, Stuart Hazeldine, Alex Proyas, Richard Kelly
- Producers: Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Alex Proyas, Steve Tisch
- Co Producers: Aaron Kaplan, Sean Perrone
- Executive Producers: David Alper, David J. Bloomfield, Topher Dow, Norman Golightly, Stephen Jones, Aaron Kaplan, Sean Perrone
- Art Direction: Sam Lennox
- Castings: Gregory Apps, Teresa Redlin
- Costume Design: Terry Ryan
- D.O.P.: Simon Duggan
- Editor: Richard Learoyd
- Music: Marco Beltrami
- Production Design: Steven Jones-Evans
Storyline
Academy Award® Winner Nicolas Cage ("National Treasure: Book of Secrets," "Leaving Las Vegas") stars in "Knowing," a gripping action-thriller of global proportions about a professor who stumbles on terrifying predictions about the future—and sets out to prevent them from coming true.
In 1958, as part of the dedication ceremony for a new elementary school, a group of students is asked to draw pictures to be stored in a time capsule. But one mysterious girl fills her sheet of paper with rows of apparently random numbers instead.
Fifty years later, a new generation of students examines the capsule’s contents and the girl's cryptic message ends up in the hands of young Caleb Koestler. But it is Caleb's father, professor John Koestler (Nicolas Cage), who makes the startling discovery that the encoded message predicts with pinpoint accuracy the dates, death tolls and coordinates of every major disaster of the past 50 years. As John further unravels the document's chilling secrets, he realizes the document foretells three additional events—the last of which hints at destruction on a global scale and seems to somehow involve Ted and his son. When Ted's attempts to alert the authorities fall on deaf ears, he takes it upon himself to try to prevent more destruction from taking place.
With the reluctant help of Diana Wayland (Rose Byrne) and Abby Wayland, the daughter and granddaughter of the now-deceased author of the prophecies, Ted's increasingly desperate efforts take him on a heart-pounding race against time until he finds himself facing the ultimate disaster—and the ultimate sacrifice.
Basic Information
- Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
- Filming Locations: Melbourne, Australia
- Production Budget: $50 million
- Production Companies: Escape Artists, Goldcrest Pictures, Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment, Mystery Clock Cinema, Summit Entertainment
- Production Schedule: 25 March 2008 - July 2008
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Trivia
Knowing was originally written by novelist Ryne Pearson, and the project was set up at Columbia Pictures. Both Rod Lurie and Richard Kelly were attached as directors, but the film eventually went into turnaround
Proyas used a Red One digital camera, marking the film the first time the director used digital cameras.
The film is set in Lexington, Massachusetts and Boston, and to represent the city, filmmakers used Australian locations such as Geelong Ring Road, Melbourne Museum, Mount Macedon, and Collins Street.
Filming also took place at Camberwell High School, which was converted into William Dawes Elementary, set in Lexington in 1959.
Interior shots took place at the Australian Synchrotron to represent an observatory. Filming also took place at the Haystack Observatory in Westford, Massachusetts.
In addition to practical locations, filming also took place at the Melbourne Central City Studios in Docklands.
The film contains a continuous two-minute take in which Cage's character sees a plane crash and attempts to rescue passengers. The take was an arduous task, taking two days to set up and two days to shoot.
