Netherlands Production Platform - Nederlands Film Festival

1-900
(06)
Column Film/Ironworks
Netherlands/US
Director John Turturro
Producer Gijs van de Westelaken
Synopsis
1-900 is the story of Patti and Leroy, two
people who ‘meet’ each other through
phone-sex chatting. As their calls become
more frequent, their conversations turn into
hard, explicit and unabashed phone wars.
Gradually, they reveal more of themselves
and of their real lives - a little towards each
other, a lot towards us. But will they ever
really meet
Producer’s statement
Before Theo van Gogh was murdered in
2004, we were working on adapting his successfull
film Interview in English. Interview
was a typical Theo van Gogh film; dialogue
driven, with full attention on the acting,
made in a frantic, uncompromising style.
That had also to do with the technique of
filming Theo used in recent years; Interview
was shot with three digital camera’s, resulting
in an abundance of shots which enabled
him to make the film as tense as in real life.
As one critic commented: Theo van Gogh
has invented a new film language.
After Theo’s death, we felt it would be a
shame not to continue working in that new
language. We decided to remake three similar
Theo van Gogh films: Interview (2007,
directed by Steve Buscemi, starring Buscemi
and Sienna Miller), Blind Date (2008,
directed by Stanley Tucci, starring Tucci
and Patricia Clarkson), and 1-900 (2009, to
be directed by John Turturro).
Director John Turturro
John Turturro studied at the Yale School of
Drama and, for his theatrical debut, created
the title role of John Patrick Shanley’s
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, for which he
won an OBIE Award and a Theater World
Award. Since then, he has appeared regularly
on stage and recently directed Yasmin
Reza’s A Spanish Play at New York’s Classic
Stage Company.
Turturro has appeared in more than 60
films, including Martin Scorsese’s The Color
of Money; Tony Bill’s Five Corners; Spike
Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Mo’ Better Blues
and Jungle Fever; Robert Redford’s Quiz
Show; Peter Weir’s Fearless; Tom DiCillo’s
Box of Moonlight; Francesco Rosi’s La
Tregua; Allison Anders’ Grace of My Heart;
Tim Robbins’ Cradle Will Rock; Robert
DeNiro’s The Good Shepherd; and Joel and
Ethan Coen’s Miller’s Crossing, The Big
Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou
For his lead role in the Coens’ Barton Fink, he
won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film
Festival and the David Di Donatello Award.
For his directorial debut, Mac, Turturro
won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes. He has
since directed Illuminata and Romance
and Cigarettes.
In 2007, Turturro appeared in Michael
Bay’s Transformers, Anthony Hopkins’ Slipstream,
and Noah Baumbach’s Margot at
the Wedding. This year, he has been in
Barry Levinson’s What Just Happened and
the Adam Sandler comedy You Don’t Mess
With the Zohan. He is currently filming the
sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
Producer Bruce Weiss
32 • NPP 2008