Twelve years. When a filmmaker refers to his latest project as being twelve years in the making, he’s usually creating a casual euphemism for development hell. In Austin-based director Richard Linklater’s case, though, he’s been shooting his new film Boyhood for more than a decade.
In 2002, he approached actors Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette with a bold and secretive idea: Let’s shoot for one week every year for 12 years to tell the evolving story of one family in what amounts to real time. Enter Ellar Coltrane, just an 8-year-old Austinite back then, who was cast in the titular role and who we now have the unique pleasure of seeing grow up, quite literally, on screen before our eyes.
Feeling like a more narrative-driven spin on the English-produced Up series of documentaries, Boyhood blends fact with the fictional advances and curveballs of time. Linklater has said that every story thread in the film was plucked from real life experiences, either those from his past or anecdotes shared by his cast, young and old.