Wonder Boys
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Curtis Hanson
Michael Douglas
Tobey Maguire
Frances Mcdormand
Robert Downey Jr.
Katie Holmes
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
On the first day of Wordfest, a Pittsburgh university's annual February literary event, the crises in professor Grady Tripp's life are making it difficult for him to concentrate on his creative writing class. His wife Emily has just left him, his once promising career has languished in the seven years since his first novel was published and he is having an affair with married university chancellor Sara Gaskell. After most of the students in Grady's advanced writers' workshop offer inane criticism of a story written by classmate James Leer, Grady drives to the airport to pick up his agent, Terry Crabtree, hoping Terry will not discover that Grady's long overdue novel is still unfinished. Terry has just met Miss Antonia Sloviak, assumed to be a transvestite by everyone but Terry, and takes her along to the Wordfest reception at Sara's house. Sara's pedantic husband Walter is too self-absorbed to be aware of Sara's affair, and while Walter expounds on his favorite topic, the cultural implications of the marriage of Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, Sara takes Grady into her bedroom. There she tells him she is pregnant, but realizes that complications in their lives make their future uncertain. Later, when Grady goes outside, he is startled to see the mysterious James standing in the snow, holding a pistol. James says that the pistol only shoots caps and explains that he is waiting there for Hannah Green, a sweet-natured student who rents a room in Grady's house. After James says that he and Hannah enjoy watching old movies together, Grady invites him into the house to see something. He takes James into Sara and Walter's bedroom and opens a locked closet that contains the prize of Walter's memorabilia collection, Monroe's fur-collared wedding jacket. When James starts to cry, saying the jacket looks lonely, Grady suggests they go, but as Grady leaves the bedroom, Poe, Walter's suspicious dog, starts to growl and lunges at Grady's ankle. James shoots the dog dead, shocking Grady, who grabs Poe's body and places it into the trunk of his beat-up car. Before going to the Wordfest keynote address, Grady finds a bottle of codeine in Terry's suitcase, takes a drink and offers some to James. In the auditorium, successful author Quentin Morewood, known to his friends as "Q," is giving the address, but is interrupted by periodic outbursts of laughter from James. Feeling weak, Grady leaves the auditorium and passes out in the foyer. Sara is kneeling over him when he awakens, worried about the panic attacks he has been having. She tells Grady that she has decided not to have the baby, but whispers "I love you," then leaves. When Q's address is over, Grady drives Antonia home while Terry and Q take James to a local bar called the Hi-Hat. On the way to her house, Antonia tells Grady that Terry's job is in jeopardy and he is depending upon Grady's new book to put his career back on track. At the Hi-Hat, Grady joins Terry, Q, Hannah and a passed out James. After the bar closes, Terry, Q and Grady pile into his car, while Hannah drives James to Grady's house because no one knows where James lives. As they start to leave, a man whom they earlier had jokingly named "Vernon Hardapple" approaches and says that Grady's 1965 maroon Ford Galaxy 500 is his car. Grady dismisses Vernon's strange behavior, then returns to the auditorium to pick up James's forgotten backpack, which he discovers contains a completed manuscript entitled The Love Parade . Later, at his house, Grady sees Monroe's jacket in the backpack. The next morning, after Grady lights his first marijuana cigarette of the day and starts page 2,611 of his novel, James awakens, and Grady tells him about shooting the dog and stealing the jacket. A young policeman comes to the door to say Walter has reported the jacket, as well as his dog, missing, and James is suspected. Grady does not reveal that James is there, and later drives with him to Sara's house. Although he tells her that he wants to be with her, she says that she still has not made a decision. Grady then takes James with him on the long drive to Emily's parents' house, and while Grady smokes more marijuana, James tells him increasingly more complicated stories about his life. Emily is not at her parents' house, but her physician father wraps Grady's injured ankle and tries to tell him that Emily left because Grady "wasn't there." On the trip back to Pittsburgh, Grady tells James he is a terrific writer then, when they stop at a highway restaurant, learns from directory assistance that "Carvel," the town which James claimed is his home, does not exist. Now realizing that James has made up everything, Grady searches his backpack and finds James's home phone number. Some time later, James's wealthy parents arrive. James reluctantly leaves with his cold parents, but again forgets his backpack. Grady spends much of the evening sitting in his car, smoking marijuana and reading James's novel. He arrives home while Terry is throwing a party and finds Hannah in her room, reading Grady's voluminous manuscript. Grady later tells Terry how good James's book is and Terry suggests that they "rescue" him. In the middle of the night they go to the Leer estate and find James in a large guesthouse. He is happy to leave with them but to make sure that his absence is not detected, Grady places Poe's body, which was still in his trunk, in James's bed. Back at Grady's house, as he places a call to Sara, he spots a van marked "Kraynik's Sporting Goods" slowly drive by. When Walter answers the phone, Grady confesses that he is in love with Sara. The next morning, Sara comes to see Grady and says that James's parents found Poe's body in their son's bed. Just as Grady confesses that James is upstairs, the police come to arrest him. James, who is in bed with Terry, cheerfully goes to jail, happily relating that Terry plans to publish his book and that Grady is the best teacher he ever had. Now Grady discovers that his car has been stolen, and goes to Hannah's room to borrow hers. She tells him that his novel is beautiful, but its length makes it obvious that he does not practice what he teaches, to make choices. Annoyed by her criticism of his "being under the influence" while writing, Grady grabs his manuscript and takes Terry with him to retrieve his car. On the way, Grady tells Terry that the Ford, which was given to him by a friend who owes him money, was probably stolen from Vernon. They then drive to Kraynik's Sporting Goods store and find the missing car. Grady grabs his bag of marijuana and James's gun from the glove compartment but does not find Monroe's jacket. He briefly passes out in another panic attack and awakens to find Oola, a pregnant waitress from the Hi-Hat, smiling at him and wearing Monroe's jacket. Then Vernon arrives and sees the gun. Fearing for Oola, who is his girlfriend, he starts to create a scene, prompting Terry to race across the street in Hannah's malfunctioning car. The car door opens, causing Grady's manuscript pages to fly into the wind as the car crashes into a wall. Vernon then drives Terry and the disconsolate Grady back to the university. Terry proffers that losing the manuscript may have been a blessing in disguise as Grady tries unsuccessfully to explain to Oola what his novel was about. Back on campus, Grady decides to let Oola keep the jacket and realizes that what he wants to do is help his students figure out "where they want to go." Inside the auditorium, Walter is announcing the "plums," publishing contracts given to local authors during Wordfest. James's book is announced as being published by Terry's company, which is also publishing Walter's book on Monroe and DiMaggio, The Last American Marriage . Grady leaves the auditorium and decides to give his remaining bag of marijuana to the janitor and begins to feel faint. Months later, in his study at Sara's house, Grady completes work on his book, writing that James was not expelled, but quit and moved to New York. Hannah is now a junior editor and although Grady lost his wife, his book and his job, he finally learned where he wanted to go. As Sara and their baby drive up, Grady looks lovingly at them, happy that he now has someone to help him get where he is going.
Director
Curtis Hanson
Cast
Michael Douglas
Tobey Maguire
Frances Mcdormand
Robert Downey Jr.
Katie Holmes
Rip Torn
Richard Knox
Jane Adams
Michael Cavadias
Richard Thomas
Alan Tudyk
Philip Bosco
George Grizzard
Kelly Bishop
Bill Velin
Charis Michelsen
Yusuf Gatewood
June Hildreth
Elisabeth Granli
Richard Hidlebird
Screamer
Bingo O'malley
Patricia Cray
Marita Golden
Victor Quinaz
James Ellroy
Lenora Nemetz
Tracey D. Turner
James Kisicki
Rob Mcelhenney
Anika Bobb
Katherine Sweeney
Crew
Jay Adams
Dede Allen
Fran Allgood
George Anderson
Ted Andre
Pete Anthony
William Armstrong
Bruce Babcock
Nancy Mosser Bailey
Joshua A. Baker
Mark Barill
Ron Bartlett
Stacy M. Basil
Donna Belajac
Michael Bigger
Scott Blackwell
Bob Bornstein
Vincent Borrelli
Dennis J. Braun
Casey Brown
Glenn Brown
Nacio Herb Brown
Roger Aaron Brown
Jarrett Buba
Pam Buchignani
Pat Buckley
Kenneth Burgomaster
Susan Burig
Bill Burns
John Butler
Brian Buzzelli
Francine Byrne
Eva Z. Cabrera
Kymbra Callaghan
Nathan Carlson
Dan Casey
Mike Castillo
Konstantinos Christides
June Christopher
Kevin Clark
Stacey S. Clipp
John A. Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Diane Collins
Frank Connor
Joseph Mathew Coscia
Marcus Daniel
Eben Davidson
Sandy De Crescent
Will Dearborn
Autry Dewalt
Norm Dlugatch
Tommy Dolan
Raechel H. Donahue
Regis Donehue
Cameron Douglas
Terri Douglas
Norman Douglass
Ned Dowd
Denny Dressler
Dennis Drummond
Kim Drummond
Dennis Dubart
Bob Dylan
Robert Eckenrode
Gregory Edwards
Ray Edwards
Kevin Elam
Marie Elder
Mercer Ellington
Jim Emswiller
Kendall Errair
John Evans
Ben Famiglietti
Gregory Farrell
Carol Fenelon
Vikki Ferguson
Robert Fernandez
Mali Finn
Bart Flaherty
Rolf Fleischmann
Mark Forbes
Jay Fortune
Kirk Francis
Arthur Freed
Melisa Frick
Don Fullilove
Richie Furay
Frank Garbutt
Eileen Garrigan
Thomas Garrigan
Katy Tatian Genovese
David Giammarco
Jessica E. Giannotta
Thomas Gilligan
Alex Gillis
Dominic Gonzales
Galen Goodpaster
Barbara Goodson
Megan Graham
Dwight Graves
James Graves
James Graves Jr.
Josh Greenstein
Lisa Grundy
Nicholas Guest
David Gurney
Archie Hahn
Curtis Hanson
Peter Haran
Tim Hardin
Robin Harlan
Jay R. Hart
Lorenz Hart
Todd Hatfield
Roland Hathaway
Lindsey Hayes
Jim Heastings
Adam S. Hernandez
Phil Hetos
Renee F. Hill
Tanya Noel Hill
Lawrence Horn
Stephen Hough
Lubo Hristov
Jeff Imada
Kevin Lamont Jackson
Gary Jay
Christopher Jenkins
Mertis John
Gregory Jones
Eva Kamienska-carter
George Karnoff
Billy Kerwick
Tim Kessler
Graig Kitson
Jonathan Klein
Steve Kloves
Selma Kora
Bethany Koshinski
Gary Kosko
Amy Kovalchick
Donald Kraus
Krystine Lankenau
John Lennon
David Lingenfelser
Annie Loeffler
Loop Troop
Susan Lukondi
Alisa B. Lumbreras
James A. Mahathey
Dennis Maitland
Jim Malone
Duane 'dc' Manwiller
Dana L. Marker
Mike Matesic
Craig Mathieson
Jonathan Mcgarry
Frank Mcgough
Caitlin Mckenna
Douglas C. Metzger
Catherine Middleton
Jamie Midgley
Thomas Milano
John D. Milinac
Karen Minahan
Kama Moiha
Sarah Monat
John Morrisey
Van Morrison
Chris Muchow
Troy Muhammad
Lucia Murillo
Eric Myers
Lee Nagle
Sujin Nam
Bridgitte Nance
Mark Narramore
Hope Anne Nathan
Jean-pierre Nutini
Sean O'connor
Jeannine Oppewall
David Page
Angelique Palozzi
Steve Parys
Barbara Pastorik
Beatrix Aruna Pasztor
Ted Persons
Troy Peters
Buster Pile
Ralph Pivirotto
Ray Pivirotto
Jerry Pooler
Andy Potvin
Phil Proctor
Gregg Puchalski
Steve Purcell
Aaron F. Quarles
Sacha P. Quarles
Eddie Quinn Sr.
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Wins
Best Song
Award Nominations
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Editing
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
In the opening credits, Michael Douglas' name is listed above the film's title. Robert Downey, Jr.'s name is listed in the fifth position after the film's title, preceded by the word "and." In the end credits, Downey's name is the third credited after Douglas. The film is narrated intermittently by Douglas as his character, "Grady Tripp." When the picture ends, Grady is shown at a desk in the "Gaskell" house, completing work on the story that he has described in the narration and has been unfolding throughout the film.
As noted in the onscreen credits, the film was shot entirely on location in Pittsburgh, PA. Although many of the college sequences were shot on the campus of Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, no specific name is used for the university depicted in the film. The house used for Grady's residence is located in the area of Pittsburgh known as "Friendship." According to the film's press book, although it was shot during winter months, unseasonably warm weather in March resulted in the use of snow-making machines for many of the film's exterior scenes.
The term "wonder boys" refers to people who have had great success at an early age but find difficulty living up to, and repeating, that success. The character of "Emily" is seen only in a photograph. Throughout the film, Grady is shown typing his long-overdue novel on an electric typewriter. This fact becomes an important plot point near the end of the film when his only copy of the manuscript is scattered in the wind. At the end of the picture, Grady is shown using a laptop computer.
The film's end credits include acknowledgments of thanks to the city of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Film Office, the Pennsylvania Film Office, Carnegie Melon University, Howard Johnson's Restaurants and the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library & Archive, Cooperstown, NY.
Wonder Boys includes a number of allusions to classic motion pictures. The title of "James Leer's" novel The Love Parade refers to a 1929 Paramount musical directed by Ernst Lubitsch (See AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30). "Carvel," which James says is his hometown, but which Grady discovers does not exist, was the name of the fictional town inhabited by "The Hardy Family," main characters in M-G-M's popular series from the 1930s and 1940s (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40). As acknowledged in the end credits, small excerpts of the films The Picture of Dorian Gray and Babes in Arms (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40 and 1941-50) as well as the television series Route 66 and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles are included in Wonder Boys.
The film was based on the second novel of Michael Chabon, and was the first of his works to be adapted to the screen. Like Wonder Boys, Chabon's first novel, Mysteries of Pittsburgh, was also set in that city. According to a Variety news item, producer Scott Rudin acquired the film rights to Wonder Boys in April 1995 and signed Steve Kloves to write the screenplay. According to a November 12, 1999 Hollywood Reporter news item, the film was partially financed by the Germany company, MFF Feature Film Productions GmbH & Co. KG, which is the copyright holder.
Although the film opened to good to excellent reviews, it did not perform up to the filmmakers' expectations during its initial release. Los Angeles Times and Daily Variety news items reveal that Paramount executives decided to rerelease the film in early November 2000, with a new marketing plan that relied less on the art work of Douglas in the pink chenille bathrobe he wears during parts of the film.
According to news items, following the film's initial release, the family of actor Alan Ladd, who died in 1964, took exception to his name being included in the list of celebrity suicides recited by Tobey Maguire, as James. Ladd's family noted that the circumstances of Ladd's death were unclear and May have been accidental. When the film was released on VHS and DVD, a small controversy erupted over purported artistic changes within the film, as noted in the written statement "Editorial content has been modified." According to news items, director Curtis Hanson stated that the only part of the film that was changed was the line of dialogue mentioning Ladd. As in the original the words were only heard, and not seen while spoken, no footage was altered.
Novelist James Ellroy, who wrote the novel on which Hanson's previous film, L.A. Confidential, was based, can be seen briefly in the party sequence and is credited onscreen as a "Wordfest party guest." This film marked the feature film debut of actor Michael Cavadias as "Miss Sloviak." Wonder Boys screenwriter Kloves, director of photography Dante Spinotti and production designer Jeannine Oppewall also worked on L.A. Confidential.
The film was named to a number of "top ten" lists, including AFI's list of the top ten American films of 2000. Bob Dylan won both the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Song, "Things Have Changed." The film was nominated for two additional Academy Awards, to Kloves for Best Adapted Screenplay and to Dede Allenn for Best Film Editing. Wonder Boys also received three additional Golden Globe nominations in drama categories, for Best Picture, Best Actor for Douglas and Best Screenplay for Kloves. Kloves, along with Chabon, also received USC's Scriptor Award for the year's Best Screenplay Adapted from a Novel.
Miscellaneous Notes
Nominated for the 2000 Award for Best Production Design in a Feature Film - Contemporary from the Society of Motion Picture & Television Art Directors/ Art Directors Guild (ADG).
Nominated for the 2000 award for Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published from the Writers Guild of America (WGA).
Voted one of the 10 best films of 2000 by the American Film Institute (AFI).
Winner of the 2000 Golden Satellite Award for Best Actor - Comedy or Musical (Michael Douglas), from the International Press Academy.
Winner of two 2000 awards, including Best Supporting Actress (Frances McDormand) and Best Adapted Screenplay, along with "Traffic" (USA/2000), from the Broadcast Film Critics Association. Also nominated for the award for Best Picture.
Released in United States Winter February 23, 2000
Wide Release in United States February 25, 2000
Expanded Release in United States March 3, 2000
Limited re-release in United States November 8, 2000
Released in United States on Video January 9, 2001
Released in United States 2000
Shown at Melbourne International Film Festival (Opening Night) July 19 - August 6, 2000.
Began shooting February 2, 1999.
Completed shooting April 28, 1999.
Released in United States Winter February 23, 2000
Wide Release in United States February 25, 2000
Expanded Release in United States March 3, 2000
Limited re-release in United States November 8, 2000
Released in United States on Video January 9, 2001
Released in United States 2000 (Shown at Melbourne International Film Festival (Opening Night) July 19 - August 6, 2000.)
Co-Winner of the 2000 award for Best Screenplay, along with "Almost Famous" (USA/2000), from the Boston Society of Film Critics.
