Evan Almighty
November 2, 2007
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Evan Almighty is a 2007 comedy film, and sequel to the 2003 film Bruce Almighty. It was directed by Tom Shadyac and stars Steve Carell, and Lauren Graham, with Morgan Freeman reprising his role as God. Evan Almighty was released in cinemas on June 22, 2007. After jumping from Jim Carrey to Steve Carell as lead actor, production of the film began in January 2006. Several visual effect companies were used to provide CGI for the numerous animals and climactic flood scene at the end of the film.
Director Tom Shadyac focused on ensuring that the film made a positive environmental impact during filming and, along with Universal Pictures, stressed that the animals’ conditions were acceptable despite PETA objections. Evan Almighty had its premiere on June 10, 2007. An immense budget made the film the most expensive comedy film produced at the time. The film received multiple poor reviews and earned $31.1 million in its opening weekend. Shortly after the film’s release, a soundtrack debuted on July 3, 2007.
Plot
Newly elected to Congress, former local TV newsman Evan Baxter (Steve Carell) leaves Buffalo behind and shepherds his family to suburban northern Virginia. His congressional campaign declared that he would change the world, but he never stated how. Once he reaches his new home and job, strange things start to happen. Animals (all different kinds of animals) start following Evan around. He grows a beard that won’t go away no matter how many times he shaves. Eight vacant lots in Evan’s neighborhood are purchased in Evan’s name. Tools used in Biblical times, and wood planks, are sent to his house. And the number 614 appears everywhere he goes. Evan soon learns that the number is a verse in the Bible. In the book of Genesis, 6:14 is the verse in which God instructs Noah to build the ark. Soon after, God (Morgan Freeman) appears and mysteriously commands him to build an ark because a flood is coming. His family comes to believe he is having an extraordinary mid-life crisis, but soon thinks he is truly onto something of Biblical proportions. God tells Evan the flood will come September 22 mid-day.
Animals start following Evan to Congress causing him to eventually be suspended by Congressman Long (John Goodman) from work after he tells everyone that God told him to build an ark. His wife Joan and his three sons leave for her mother’s house after seeing it on a news report, leaving him to build the ark himself, which gains international notice. Weeks after Joan leaves Evan, God appears to her as a waiter at a diner. He tells her that God doesn’t give things, he gives the opportunity to get things. For example, God doesn’t give a family togetherness, he gives the opportunity for families to be together. Seeing his meaning, Joan returns to Evan to finish the ark together. Evan’s old colleagues tell him that Congressman Long built a dam over a nearby lake and cut corners to save businesses money.
September 22 comes with clear skies, and Evan loads the hundreds of animals onto the newly finished ark in front of live news crews and nearby citizens. Minutes pass with clear skies, so spectators start jeering at him. Dark clouds appear and rain starts pouring down. Evan tells everyone to board the ark but no one listens. The rain suddenly stops and everyone starts laughing at Evan. Evan thinks it’s over until the poorly built dam bursts. Panic overtakes everyone and they board the ark. The ark sails down the streets of Washington D.C. from the flooded water of the burst lake until it eventually lands touching the front of the Capitol. Evan tells Long that the flood was caused by his poorly made dam, which incites the other congressmen present to turn on him. Evan and his family go on a hiking trip over the weekend and God reappears to Evan, telling him that the way to change the world is by doing one Act of Random Kindness ("ARK") at a time.
Cast
Jim Carrey and Jennifer Aniston both declined to reprise their roles from Bruce Almighty. Although he did do a sequel to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Carrey has said he is "not a big fan of doing the same character twice."
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Steve Carell | Evan Baxter |
| Morgan Freeman | God |
| Lauren Graham | Joan Baxter |
| John Goodman | Congressman Long |
| Wanda Sykes | Rita |
| John Michael Higgins | Marty |
| Jonah Hill | Eugene Tenanbaum |
| Jimmy Bennett | Ryan Baxter |
| Graham Phillips | Jordan Baxter |
| Johnny Simmons | Dylan Baxter |
| Rachael Harris | Markie Parkington |
| Molly Shannon | real estate agent Eve Adams |
| Ed Helms | Ed Carson |
| Maile Flanagan | Mail-lady |
| Jon Stewart | Himself |
| Catherine Bell | Susan Ortega (uncredited) |
| P. J. Byrne | Evan’s Staffer #1 |
Production
Screenplay
The film’s screenplay was originally titled The Passion of the Ark, and was written by Bobby Florsheim and Josh Stolberg. It became the subject of a seven-studio bidding war in April 2004. The script was sold to Sony Pictures in a deal worth $2,500,000 plus a percentage of the profits, a record for a spec script from previously unproduced writers. Universal Pictures immediately made a deal to co-produce the script with Sony and have Steve Oedekerk, who was an executive producer and co-wrote the screenplay with Steve Koren & Mark O’Keefe (who both wrote the story) for the first movie, rewrite it into the sequel to Bruce Almighty. The studio discarded the original The Passion of the Ark script completely, and Oedekerk fashioned a new script from scratch (only he received final credit on the finished film as screenwriter). Jim Carrey was asked to reprise his role as Bruce in the sequel, and when he declined, director Tom Shadyac convinced Steve Carell to accept the leading role in the sequel. Shadyac, reflecting on the first film, stated "He [Carell] delivered some of the funniest stuff in the movie. We thought, ‘Why not take that character and spin him off into a different film?’"
Budget
The initial budget, of approximately $140 million, led Evan Almighty to become the most expensive comedy movie ever made. Added costs such as set construction, visual effects, and problems with filming multiple animals in a controlled location brought the budget up to $175 million. Once marketing for the film is also included, the film’s entire budget is estimated to be around $200 million. The ballooning budget caused Sony to drop the project and hand it over entirely to Universal Pictures. Part of the budget was Carell’s payroll, where he earned a reported $5 million for his leading role. The Virginia Film Office estimates that the film brought $20-25 million to Virginia, with the majority of it in the Charlottesville area.
Ark design and construction
Construction of the ark began in January 2006 and the scenes involving the ark were shot in a Crozet subdivision called Old Trail. The ark was designed to meet the actual measurements of the biblical ark, measuring 450 feet long, 80 feet wide, and 51 feet high. The ark’s layout was also based on pictures in several children’s books that crew members had read in their childhoods. When the characters were filmed during the day building the ark or were on location elsewhere, crew members would further construct the ark at night. A concrete base was built to support the weight of the large ark, and after filming was completed, the ark was taken down in a week, and the base in another week.
Costumes and filming locations
To create Evan’s beard and long hair, three designers would take three hours each day adding individual hairs using prosthetic adhesive and making him wear custom wigs. The wigs consisted of both human and yak hair. With his new look, Carell was sometimes nicknamed "Mountain Man," "Retrosexual," or "Unabomber." For his costumes, designers spoke with textile experts, researched historical information on the clothing at the time of Noah, and used aged fibers in the clothing.
Scenes for the film were filmed in various locations in Virginia, including areas in and around Crozet, Waynesboro, Richmond, Charlottesville, and Staunton, though some filming did take place at Universal Studios in Hollywood, California.
Effects
For the CGI used throughout the film, companies Rhythm & Hues (R&H) and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) developed different parts of the film. R&H focused on the animation of the animals, while ILM completed the final scene of the ark rushing through Washington D.C. caused by the flood. Lindy De Quattro, the ILM associate visual effects supervisor, revealed that "This is the first time where we had to do a whole series of shots that were happening mid-day, where you were going to get a really long look at the water and what it was doing." The company initially experienced problems creating the water effects, so had to develop new tools which would choreograph the movements of the water in addition to using similar tools that were used on their prior film Poseidon. Lighting was also an issue as the characters on the ark had been filmed on a greenscreen stage, and the visual effects company had to ensure that the lighting matched that of the characters and the outside setting. Details were added to the ark for long-distance shots to make the design of the ark more appealing and put the ark’s size to scale in comparison to the amount of water. To complete the scene, ILM used thirty to sixty crew members and produced 200 shots over a yearlong period between April 2006 and May 2007.
Rhythm & Hues created 300 pairs of animals for use on the ark and fifteen pairs with higher detail for closeup shots. R&H was also assisted by C.I.S. Hollywood, another visual effects company, who provided a large number of composites, involving hundreds of bluescreen animal elements. In scenes where there are multiple species of animals, crew members would film the animals on the blue screen and R&H and C.I.S would digitally add the animals one at a time, sometimes taking several weeks to a couple months. Andy Arnett, the animation supervisor, declared that "The research was extensive. It took six or seven months to perfect the look and feel of the animals before we had the first shot out the door."
For the scene in Congressman Long’s office, CGI was used the entire time for the fish that follow Evan around from the fish tank. CafeFX, the visual effects company hired for the scene, ordered ten different kinds of tropical fish from a local store and studied their movements to imitate them on screen using computer animation. Jeff Goldman, the visual effects supervisor, stated "Early in the sequence, we mimicked the actual behavior of the fish in our animation, but as the scene plays out, the fish are a counterpoint to Steve Carell’s comedic timing."
Marketing
In late May during production, the media learned that director Tom Shadyac angrily complained to producers, saying "I’m not seeing any ads, and I don’t know why. I’m not getting answers. People are giving me information that isn’t true…I’m only hearing about all the other summer movies, and nothing about mine." Shadyac also fired his marketing consultants that he had used for prior films due to his thoughts over the mishandling of the marketing. He later apologized for his outburst with producers, and claimed that it was as a result of his nervousness before the film’s release.
Grace Hill Media, a marketing firm that targets religious Americans, held exclusive screenings of the film in mid-June in fifty cities in the United States to reach religious moviegoers. The firm was also used for marketing Bruce Almighty, The Da Vinci Code, and The Passion of the Christ. Grace Hill provided free screenings to blogs in exchange for publicity on the blogs.
The first trailer of the film premiered on March 29, 2007 for a The Office marathon, which also stars Steve Carell and Ed Helms. For online advertising, an eight-minute clip of a scene was released on Yahoo! two days before the release of the film. The premiere for the film was held on June 10, 2007 and guests included Adam Sandler, David Hasselhoff, Kate Flannery, Eddie Murphy, Kevin James, and Mindy Kaling, among others.
Environmental impact
Director Tom Shadyac felt the film reflected environmental themes of how humans are stewards of God’s creation. In keeping with the themes, Evan Almighty became NBC Universal’s first film to offset the production’s carbon emissions. Producer Michael Bostick revealed how the emissions were offset:
"We worked closely with The Conservation Fund to calculate our carbon emissions from what we used on the movie—whether from vehicles used or any of the construction equipment. Once our carbon emissions were calculated, we planted trees that will effectively zero out our climate-changing footprint left behind from the movie."
Shadyac accomplished this by requiring crew members to plant 2,050 trees at the Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Warsaw, Virginia, and the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge near Modesto, California. In addition, he also bought bikes for all the cast and crew. In addition, rather than simply demolishing sets, Shadyac tried to donate houses built for the production and had the Ark set recycled, by donating materials to Habitat for Humanity. During the premiere of the film for cast and crew at Universal Citywalk, the attendees were encouraged to donate to a campaign to plant trees in forests around the world. The after party used recycled cups and plates to offset the use of resources. Shadyac also required that when Industrial Light & Magic developed the final climatic scene, that the CGI flood did not appear to harm any of the trees in the scene.
The film partnered with the website Get On Board Now, which focused on the importance of conservation during production of the film. Donations were taken at the website for The Conservation Fund, which paid for the planting of 15,000 trees.
Animal welfare concerns
The American Humane Association oversaw the 177 species of animals that were used in the film. In scenes including both predators and prey, the animals were digitally added instead to ensure their safety. The American Humane Association gave its permission for the film to display "No animals were harmed in the making of this movie" over the closing credits.
Animal rights organization PETA accused the film’s producers of using animals that had previously been abused. Two chimpanzees who appear in the movie, Cody and Sable, were surrendered by their owner to settle a lawsuit that documented allegations of beatings and mistreatment. The film’s director, Tom Shadyac, said of PETA’s criticisms "They’re not wrong. There’s a certain amount of hypocrisy whenever you work with animals, even to show, which we hope we’re showing, that respect of all of God’s creation…I don’t know. I respect their criticism." PETA was also critical of Birds & Animals Unlimited, the primary animal supplier to the film, for alleged serious and continuing violations of the U.S. Animal Welfare Act, including failure to comply with veterinary care requirements and failure to provide shelter from heat and sunlight, which PETA details and claims it can document. A Universal Studios spokesperson declared:
Tags: almighty, comedy, evan, komedi"The live animals used in the filming of Evan Almighty were supplemented by a great number of computer-generated animals, but it would have been impossible to depend on CGI exclusively as some key scenes in the film demonstrate the need for peaceful and productive co-existence between man and animals. One of the most prominent, inescapable messages of the film is the responsibility that humans have to protect and care for animals."
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