Beginnings
“Knight and Day has everything I love in movies,” says Tom Cruise. “It’s a perfect mix of action, comedy and fresh, identifiable characters with a love story that feels very organic. What interested me so much about the story of Roy and June is that everything that happens to them happens through the prism of action. The challenge and joy for Cameron and me was finding ways to reveal our characters in the middle of these manic moments of danger — showing how Roy and June start to bring out the best in each other, which is the ultimate romantic idea.”
Cameron Diaz, who was already attached to the project when Cruise came aboard, appreciated the characters’ interplay, their romance – and the chance to take the journey with her leading man. “I was drawn to Knight and Day not only for its high-level action, but because I saw it as an impassioned love story between two people who find each other from opposite worlds,” Diaz says. “Roy and June have that thing where they each bring out something interesting and unexpected in the other, and I thought that would be so much fun to explore on this thrilling ride with Tom.”
Director James Mangold has a history of taking creative, edgy approaches to classic genres – he most recently helmed the Oscar®-winning biopic of Johnny Cash, Walk the Line; and brought wit and speed to the Western in the critically acclaimed 3:10 To Yuma. Now he makes another departure, mixing global espionage action with witty romance, and wrapping an intricate web of high-speed chases, battles and escapes inside a love story full of glamour and fun.
Unlike most action films of this scope, Knight and Day did not begin as a comic book, TV series or franchise property — but as a spec script by Patrick O’Neill. For Mangold, it was a chance to make something classic new again. “We saw Knight and Day as an update of those wonderful, Hollywood cinematic confections — a movie full of travel, glamour, humor, love and adventure – but with modern characters and dynamic, intense action,” he says.
“One of the things important to me, as a director who has done both dramatic and comedic films, was not to let Knight and Day become a James Bond movie. We wanted to do something more fanciful, more like Charade or North by Northwest; a modern action picture with a light heart. We wanted to take audiences on a fun journey around the world, a journey filled with comedy, yet with characters who feel completely real and actors who would commit to that.”
He continues: “To do all that, you need the right people. With Tom and Cameron, I knew it could happen. One of the things I’ve really missed about Tom’s movies in the last several years, and what I really wanted to see again in Knight and Day, was Tom in a role that is both human and funny. I was really excited by the opportunity to take that step with him playing Roy Miller, a character who is suddenly second-guessing everything that he wants in life. And then into Roy’s world walks Cameron Diaz, as June Havens, who puts him in a position to do things and feel things he’s never done or felt before.”
Another person key to the project was Mangold’s long-time filmmaking partner and behind-the-scenes marriage partner, producer Cathy Konrad, with whom he has developed a tight-knit creative shorthand that it verges on telepathy. Konrad was drawn to Knight and Day by the story’s originality. “It’s hard to find fresh material that isn’t superhero based or something like that,” she observes. “What spoke to us is that Knight and Day is about two great characters, even more so than the action. It reflects something that I think is found in all of our work: the idea that behind every good story there are always great people.”
Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz
Roy Miller is a spy whose mission is unexpectedly detoured by his brush with ordinary love. Cruise, an actor of a very rare breed who mixes iconic action hero roles with finely tuned character portrayals, brings unexpected dimensions to the film’s twist on a classic movie character. His work as Roy Miller leaves audiences to wonder, just who is this guy, really? Roy had to come off alternately as hero or anti-hero, a framed agent or a seductive traitor – or as a man so in love he’s ready to make a 180- degree turn in his life.
“When we first meet Roy, he’s an enigma, and you don’t know if he’s good or bad, what he’s up to or why,” says Mangold. “And with Tom you have somebody who instantly brings the credibility of being an action icon, yet who also has the ability to lighten up and reveal that Roy Miller is changing.”
Adds Cathy Konrad: “Tom gets to the sense of longing just beneath the surface of Roy. He’s endearing and charming, yet he keeps people wondering what he’s all about until the last minute.”
Cruise has come to define the suave, bold, quick-witted action hero in contemporary movies – in roles ranging from Top Gun to the hugely popular Mission: Impossible series – while at the same time earning three Academy Award® nominations for emotionally complex dramatic roles in Magnolia, Jerry Maguire and Born on the Fourth of July. He was thrilled to now have a chance to playfully upend just the kind of debonair, unflappable hero audiences expect him to evoke. From the minute he came onto the project, his motto was “Make it fun and make it cool.”
“I couldn’t wait to make this movie,” sums up Cruise. “Knight and Day sweeps you into this grand adventure and love story – and we did everything we could to make it non-stop, unpredictable fun. I think Jim [Mangold] is a terrific storyteller and I really wanted to work with him and Cameron on this.”
A large part of the attraction lay in the way Cruise’s consummate action hero is suddenly shaken — not by the dangers of his mission or the sheer numbers of people after him, but by his own heart when he meets June. Cruise enjoyed the idea that the start of Roy and June’s rapid-fire romance isn’t like any other, but that their relationship has much in common with every love story.
Cruise explains: “Inside this wild plot, these two characters each have a dream of what might come true ‘someday.’ But then they begin to see that this dream can actually be fulfilled. I think it’s something audiences will relate to. Every couple has a story about how they met – it’s just that Roy and June have a truly extraordinary tale behind the start of their relationship. Roy and June have the same dilemmas everyone always has in love – can I really trust this person? And who are they really? – but Roy and June’s comes with higher stakes. The fun lies in how their relationship builds as the excitement around them mounts. That romantic tension in every scene made it some of the most intriguing action I’ve ever done.”
Key to crafting that romantic tension was Cruise’s long-awaited reunion with Cameron Diaz, with whom he previously starred in the suspense-fantasy Vanilla Sky. “As soon as we took on these roles, I could not wait to see what Cameron was going to do with her character. I always wanted to make this kind of movie with Cameron,” he says. “I was really excited about it because I enjoy her work in action movies. She’s talented, funny, athletic and a great actress, and this was such a winning character, I knew she’d give a winning performance.”
Their chemistry began simmering from the first day on the set. “The repartee between us was just like boom-boom-boom,” says Cruise. “Cameron’s style of humor is unique and I love the way she can mix physical comedy with a really authentic feeling of romance.”
Knight and Day (2010)
Directed by: James Mangold
Starring: Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard, Viola Davis, Olivier Martinez, Paul Dano, Maggie Grace, Mark Blucas, Jordi Molla, Falk Hentschel, Gal Gadot, Jack O’Connell, Rich Manley
Screenplay by: Scott Frank, James Mangold
Production Design by: Andrew Menzies
Cinematography by: Phedon Papamichael
Film Editing by: Quincy Z. Gunderson, Michael McCusker
Costume Design by: Arianne Phillips
Set Decoration by: Jay Hart
Art Direction by: Greg Berry, Gregory S. Hooper, Iñigo Navarro, Jeff Wisniewski
Music by: John Powell
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of action violence throughout, brief strong language.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: June 25, 2010
