Filming recently wrapped in New Orleans, Louisiana, on the erotic thriller The Paperboy, starring Matthew McConaughey (The Lincoln Lawyer), Zac Efron (Me And Orson Welles), Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman (The Hours), and John Cusack (2012), with David Oyelowo (The Help), Macy Gray (For Colored Girls), and Scott Glenn (Bourne Legacy) co-starring. New York Times’ best-selling author Pete Dexter, writer of such American classics as Paris Trout and Deadwood, adapted his book of the same name with Director Lee Daniels for the big screen. Daniels, who last helmed the Academy Award winning Precious, has directed this unique character-driven film set in central Florida during the late 1960s.
The story follows two brothers: Ward Jansen (Matthew McConaughey), a reporter for the esteemed daily newspaper, The Miami Times, and Jack Jansen (Zac Efron), a recent college dropout who lives in a small town in central Florida with their overbearing father, W.W. Jansen (Scott Glenn). When Ward shows up with his writing partner, Yardley Acheman (David Oyelowo), to investigate a story for their paper, Ward offers Jack the job of driving them around. The reason Ward is in town is that Charlotte Bless (Nicole Kidman), an enigmatic loner who writes to prisoners on death row, has convinced them that Hillary Van Wetter (John Cusack), an unsavory alligator hunter from the backwoods, was wrongly convicted at a trial that took place near their hometown.
As the investigation unravels, it becomes clear that these brothers are on a journey that is filled with betrayal. The only thing that remains constant is that there is this strange, beautiful woman who falls in love with killers.
The film’s producers are Daniels, Hilary Shor (Children Of Men) and Ed Cathell (Secret Lives of Bees). Nu Image/Millennium Films’ Avi Lerner, Trevor Short, Danny Dimbort, Boaz Davidson and John Thompson join Michael Benaroya (The Romantics), and Cassian Elwes (Blue Valentine) to executive produce. Co-Producers Asger Hussain (Tennessee) and Simone Sheffield (Precious) completed the filmmaking team.
Behind the scenes on The Paperboy were Director of Photography Roberto Schaefer, ACS, AIC (Monster’s Ball) Production Designer Daniel T. Dorrance (upcoming Playing The Field) Costume Designer Caroline Eselin-Schaefer (Leaves Of Grass), and Academy AwardÒnominated Editor Joe Klotz (Rabbit Hole).
Filmed around New Orleans, the Louisiana locales doubled as Florida of the late 1960s. Principal photography began on August 1, and wrapped on September 15, 2011.
A U.S. release date will be determined once a domestic distribution deal is finalized.