The cynical among us might want to see a lot of modern politicians take a fall, but for Mora Stephens and Joel Viertel—the filmmaking couple behind 2005’s critically acclaimed The Conventioneers—that fall had to be portrayed in a very specific and realistic way on screen.
“When the Eliot Spitzer scandal hit, Mora and I knew we wanted to base a character and film on that situation, because no movie had done anything quite like that before and done it right,” says Viertel, who co-wrote Zipper and is editing the film, too.
Their script was completed in 2009.
As with many independent films, though, the project took several years to find financing, and the story switched locales from New York City to the Deep South in the process, but Watchmen star Patrick Wilson was always the first choice to play the dual-natured Sam Ellis.
“That’s why Patrick was so important,” Stephens says. “He brings such a genuine guy sensitivity from his own nature.”
Zipper co-producer and 2014 Sundance Film Festival award winner Mark Heyman (The Skeleton Twins) calls Zipper a dark drama. “It’s intense,” Heyman says. “There’s not a lot of room for humor in the places that this story goes.”
That intensity is triggered by the three-front war Wilson finds himself waging after cheating on his spouse. Suspicions and challenges arise from his wife–played by Game of Thrones and 300 star Lena Headey–local law enforcement and the public, too, in the form of Ray Winstone’s investigative journalist.
“Those are really the three adversaries one would face in that situation,” Viertel says. “Those are all of the people you wouldn’t want to find out.”
Zipper used a number of practical locations including nk boutique, Blend wine and cocktail bar, an alleyway off Third Street downtown and a gorgeous A. Hays Town home on Highland Road.
Amy Mitchell-Smith, the film’s Baton Rouge-based co-producer along with Bryan Wright, says the unexpectedly blistering cold and snowfall that hit the area during production played right into the film’s chilly feel. “Blue skies and sunshine just would not make sense,” she says.
As post-production continues this spring and summer, Zipper is aiming for a fall release, Smith says. “This feels like a Toronto [International Film Festival] movie.”
Release date: Fall 2014 Status: Wrapped shooting in February. Director: Mora Stephens Cast: Patrick Wilson, Lena Headey, Richard Dreyfuss, Diana Agron and Ray Winstone. What we know: Wilson stars as a rising politician whose compulsive infidelities threaten the family he loves and the powerful career he hopes to sustain.
Release date: Sept. 19, 2014 Status: Wrapped shooting last fall. Director: Wes Ball Cast: Dylan O’Brien, Will Poulter and Patricia Clarkson. What we know: Set in a dystopian future in the vein of The Hunger Games and Divergent, a teenager has his memory erased, gets trapped in a maze-like enclosure and is forced to survive among others like him against a group of tormentors called the Grievers.
Release date: Sept. 12, 2014 Status: Wrapped shooting last fall. Director: Scot Armstrong Cast: Alison Brie, Krysten Ritter and Adam Pally. What we know: A pair of friends set out to reunite their lonely and very best guy pal with the woman he once thought he was going to marry.
