Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/610353
60 P E R S P E C T I V E | N OV E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 I had to laugh, because no amount of dissuasion could have kept me from wanting to design one of the best scripts I had read in years. I did my best to tamp down my excitement and remain calm for the duration of our first meeting. That evening, I emailed Billy a list of places I thought would add dimension to the story and ratchet up the visual tension. I even did a quick concept comp depicting a potential location modified to become the script-required mosque, just to get Billy excited about the possibilities of a downtown-centric film. At noon the following day, I got the call: "Wanna do a movie? Can you scout this afternoon?" And we were off to the races. I wanted to introduce Billy, and line producer Jeremiah Samuels, to the downtown Los Angeles I knew, in hopes of fashioning a contemporary or neo-noir look, evocative of classic movies set in LA. That cold scout of potential downtown sites (and hidden gems that eventually wound themselves into the movie) was one of the best days of scouting ever, and even included some fence jumping and construction site trespassing. Beginning life as a best-selling Argentinian book, La pregunta de sus ojos (The Question in Their Eyes) by Eduardo Sacheri, then fashioned by Juan José Campanella into El secreto de sus ojos, the 2010 Oscar- winning foreign-language film from Argentina, Secret in Their Eyes was five years in the making. Oscar-winning producer Mark Johnson, chair of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foreign Language Film Committee, waited a year after El Secreto collected the Oscar before moving in to secure the rights. Billy Ray was initially brought on to write the script, and find ways to convert the politics of Argentina, so much a part of the original, into a cohesive, more layered American movie. The original was set in two different eras, twenty-two years apart: a few months post 9/11, and the present day. Billy infused the script with tensions related to the vigilance against terrorism. Not long into the process, Mark asked Billy if he would direct as well. As different cast options were explored and attached, Billy had refashioned the script for various cities including London, San Francisco and Boston; but by our first meeting, Los Angeles was chosen and Top: A SketchUp ® model of the Los Angeles District Attorney investigators' office bullpen and adjoining offices. Inset: Material samples for the office set with elements for both 2002 and 2015 versions. Center: The bullpen set circa 2002. Older monitors and electronics are indicative of the technology lag in the public sector. Above: The District Attorney's Office set circa 2015 on Sunset Gower's Stage 14, as inhabited by Claire (Nicole Kidman).