Taglines: Let the countdown begin.
Director / producer Garry Marshall is joined by a stellar ensemble cast to ring in the 2011 holiday season with the romantic comedy “New Year’s Eve.” The film celebrates love, hope, forgiveness, second chances and fresh starts, with intertwining stories told amidst the pulse and promise of New York City on the most dazzling night of the year.
The film’s all-star cast includes Academy Award winner Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Academy Award nominee Abigail Breslin, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, two-time Academy Award winner Robert De Niro, Josh Duhamel, Zac Efron, Hector Elizondo, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Seth Meyers, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Academy Award nominee Michelle Pfeiffer, Til Schweiger, two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank and Sofia Vergara.
Reuniting with Marshall from last year’s hit romantic comedy “Valentine’s Day” are screenwriter Katherine Fugate and producers Mike Karz and Wayne Rice. Serving as executive producers are Toby Emmerich, Samuel J. Brown, Michael Disco, Josie Rosen and Diana Pokorny, with Heather Hall as co-producer.
The behind-the-scenes creative filmmaking team includes director of photography Charles Minsky, production designer Mark Friedberg, editor Michael Tronick, Oscar-nominated costume designer Gary Jones and Oscar®-nominated composer John Debney.
About the Production
Fresh Starts and Second Chances New Year’s Eve… the great reset button of life.
Director Garry Marshall, renowned for a catalogue of films that capture love in so many rich, warm and funny ways, calls it “the perfect opportunity to take stock of things, to think about the mistakes of the past year and about how maybe you can do better. A time to be thankful for what you have. But it’s also a fun, exciting, wonderful time, full of anticipation—and yes, some craziness. Mostly it’s about hope, when everything you want seems possible again, if you’re willing to take another chance.”
Marshall means what he says. It was on New Year’s Eve nearly 50 years ago that he became engaged to the love of his life, his wife, Barbara. “She was wearing a dress the same color as the dress Halle Berry wears in the movie. We were in love, we were dancing, and we said, ‘Well, let’s see how it works out,’” he recounts. “It’s always been her favorite holiday.”
Undeniably, romance steals the show in the countdown hours of December 31st as many couples look forward to that special midnight kiss, others seize the magic of the evening to make lifelong commitments, and still others decide to take a chance on someone new who might just be “the one.” But the emotional reach of the holiday goes further. While “New Year’s Eve” serves up romance in some of its myriad delicious and maddening stages, it also looks at love in some of its other forms: forgiveness, compassion, and the everyday miracle of people opening their hearts to a different point of view.
The movie addresses these ideas in a collection of individual stories told as if randomly selected among the countless tales that play out every day. Each stands alone but some touch briefly upon one another, while others ultimately cross paths to a perfect closure. Marshall, a one-time jazz-band drummer, says, “I hear the music under every scene, the beats and the notes in the dialogue. In ‘New Year’s Eve’ there are some very touching moments and a lot of comedy, a lot of different stories to tell, and each one has its own rhythm. I like to move things around, to balance the intensity of one scene against the lightness of another.”
Producers Mike Karz and Wayne Rice reunited with Marshall and their “Valentine’s Day” screenwriter Katherine Fugate to explore dozens of potential characters and scenarios before narrowing the field to the most resonant. “We talked about the kinds of experiences and circumstances that would best convey the themes of the movie across a range of different relationships,” offers Fugate. “We wanted a story of first love and one of forgiveness, as well as stories about taking a risk, letting things go, revisiting an old flame, making amends, having a baby, starting fresh… with love being the mitigating force through all of them.”
Says Karz, “We were also looking for characters that move in directions you don’t necessarily see coming, or interact with characters who may or may not be the ones you expect them to connect with. Katherine is so skillful, not only in creating these individuals, but also in interweaving their storylines in a natural way.”
“What’s also interesting about this kind of ensemble piece is that it’s designed so the entire sequence takes place in one day,” adds Rice “The third act of a movie is often about a ticking clock, and in this case, there’s an actual clock that triggers the action for everyone. You can take the audience on a roller coaster ride through all these possibilities, but that ball is going to drop at midnight and they all have to conclude simultaneously.”
Not surprisingly, Marshall’s “New Year’s Eve” celebration attracted a multitude of Hollywood’s A-list talent, primarily for the pleasure of working with the renowned director. The film’s remarkable multi-generational starring cast includes Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Abigail Breslin, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Robert De Niro, Josh Duhamel, Zac Efron, Hector Elizondo, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Seth Meyers, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Til Schweiger, Hilary Swank and Sofia Vergara.
Additionally, film fans will recognize numerous surprise cameos and supporting roles filled by such stars as Jake T. Austin, Jim Belushi, Cary Elwes, Carla Gugino, Cherry Jones, Jack McGee, Joey McIntyre, Alyssa Milano, Sarah Paulson, Sarge and Yeardley Smith, among others, to help welcome the New Year in style.
Ashton Kutcher and Jessica Biel rejoin Marshall on this second holiday outing, following “Valentine’s Day,” in which they portrayed entirely different characters. “When they told me Garry was directing, I said yes before I even read the script,” says Kutcher.
4 Michelle Pfeiffer, who starred in Marshall’s “Frankie and Johnny,” would agree. “I love Garry. He has tremendous energy and he’s always ready for anything. He’s one of the best when it comes to giving audiences a story they’re truly going to enjoy, something to relate to and laugh about, and who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?”
Others cast members were new to what’s known as the “Garry Marshall experience,” including Hilary Swank, who quickly understood what that meant. “I can see why he’s a comedy legend. His instincts are right on. He’s always coming up with a funnier line or finding that balance between the drama and comedy, and he brings humor out of a story in a way that makes you laugh not just because it’s funny but because it’s so true,” she says.
“He’s incredibly cool,” attests Zac Efron, a fan of Marshall’s movies long before he became an actor, himself, and who recalls how easy it was to fall into sync with the veteran director at their first meeting. “You could say we’re from different eras, but we still had so much to talk about. I think it’s impossible to meet Garry and not instantly pick up his enthusiasm. We just try to keep up.”
In the way that “Valentine’s Day” revolved around Los Angeles and featured some of its most beautiful locales, “New Year’s Eve” showcases New York in a blend of the iconically familiar with some lesser-known gems for a portrait of the city at its breathtaking best—dazzling, kinetic, glamorous, and all lit up for its close-up on the biggest night of the year.
An estimated 500,000 people traverse Times Square on an average day, but on December 31st that number doubles, with over a billion more watching on television across the globe. “There are parties in other big cities–London, Paris, Moscow–but I think people everywhere still look to see that ball drop in New York,” says Halle Berry. “There’s just something about The Big Apple.”
Marshall, born and raised in The Bronx, has always been closely associated with New York and draws upon an endless supply of vivid memories for the film. “It was always a big night for me, even as a kid,” he says. “It’s really an adult holiday, but the kids like it because there’s such an excitement in the air, they can’t help feeling that something special is going on, and if they’re lucky, their parents will get them up at midnight, half asleep, to make a little noise. In our family it was all about banging pots and pans and yelling out the window. Then, when I was a little older, I went to Times Square to watch the ball drop and later, as a musician, I played in some of the clubs there. “It was terrific to relive those moments making this movie,” Marshall continues.
“But that’s what New Year’s Eve does to people; it stirs up memories. It makes you look forward and back at the same time, and think, ‘Where will I be this time next year?’”
Five… Four… Three… Two… One… Happy New Year!
The focal point for all this “New Year’s Eve” action is the countdown to 2012, represented by the ceremonial “ball drop” in Times Square. Imagine one person being responsible for seeing that this spectacle goes off without a hitch, live, while the eyes of the world watch… and that would be Claire, the newly promoted Vice President of the Times Square Alliance, portrayed by Hilary Swank.
Swank, who trained with her real-life counterpart for the role, admits, “I had no idea of what goes on behind the scenes. As an audience member you think someone pushes a button and it just happens, but there is so much that can go wrong. Is it going to drop or isn’t it? From the time you meet Claire to where the story ends there are a lot of dramatic and funny things that happen on that platform, any of which could potentially ruin the entire event—not to mention her career.”
As she struggles with the logistics of keeping it all on track, while holding the media at bay and trying to keep everyone’s midnight appointment with tradition, she is privately mindful of another important appointment she means to keep when all the hoopla is over. The details of this late date she has confided to only one other person: her dear friend Brendan, an NYPD officer, played by Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, accompanying her on the Times Square night shift.
“Brendan wasn’t even supposed to be working that shift, but he wanted to be there to help Claire because he knows what a big night it is for her, and what a huge responsibility,” says Bridges. “He’s there to boost her confidence if she needs it, to help smooth the way and make sure she’s 100% up for everything she has to do.”
As it turns out, Claire needs all the support she can rally when it appears that the ball’s propulsion mechanism is in dire need of a gifted engineer—namely, the recently laid-off Kominsky, played by Hector Elizondo in a part written specifically for him. A longtime member of the Marshall repertory and often cited as the director’s good luck charm, the versatile actor has appeared in every one of his seventeen feature films.
Kominsky has tended this complex machinery for years and knows it better than anyone. The question is, even if he can be located in time, will he be willing to return to his former job and coax his “baby”? Says Elizondo, “When he gets the call he’s not sure he wants to help. He doesn’t know if Claire was the person who fired him, so he’s wary. But they need his expertise. If he comes back it will be for that and, frankly, for the sake of what the night itself means.”
But the ball drop is only part of the show. Claire is also charged with coordinating the evening’s headline act, rock superstar Jensen, set to kick off the festivities at 12:01 following an earlier gig at a private party nearby. Jensen is played by the multi-talented Jon Bon Jovi, who worked his shooting schedule into a break in his recent worldwide tour. Says Karz, “Bon Jovi is the most successful touring act in the world. Apart from that and raising his family, Jon wasn’t really thinking about making another movie, but when he read the script he really responded to the character and wanted to do it.”
Even single-named international rock stars have problems and what’s troubling Jensen on this festive night is a heartache he’s been carrying too long, over a woman he left behind for the wrong reasons. “Now he’s trying to think of a way back into her life, a way to get back into her good graces, if that’s even possible,” Bon Jovi explains.
Katherine Heigl plays Laura, the girl he let slip away. Although still hurt and angry about the way they parted a year ago, Laura has gone on with her life and earned her own measure of success, parlaying her culinary talents into a growing catering business. Tonight she’s handling her highest-profile job ever: an exclusive New Year’s Eve bash for the rich and famous… at which Jensen is scheduled to perform.
“It all comes to a head at the party,” says Heigl. “Their meeting is immediately contentious. Without warning, Laura just slaps him, out of nowhere, and storms off, and then you realize they have a history. They were serious about each other once but he moved on without any explanation. He broke her heart and she’s been harboring a lot of resentment ever since, just dreaming of the day when she could let him have it.”
Clearly, the singer would have a better chance with Laura’s vivacious sous-chef, Ava, played by Sofia Vergara. Ava is thrilled to be working this fantastic venue, doubly thrilled to catch an up-close-and-personal glimpse of Jensen and then shocked to see her boss take a swing at him. Still, she recovers quickly enough, Vergara confirms, to help Laura vent: “We did a scene in the kitchen where Laura is so mad she’s just throwing food and Ava is there to help, handing her tomatoes and fruit to toss. It was a lot of fun.”
Because “Jensen and Laura have a love story with a serious side, we put Sofia into the middle of it to help bring out the humor of the situation,” Marshall explains. “And she does so, beautifully.”
Unbeknownst to Jensen, there could be more trouble ahead. Making her feature film debut, Broadway and television star Lea Michele appears as Elise, the rocker’s newly hired back-up singer, who just got unexpectedly delayed en route to the concert. It’s the worst possible luck, tonight of all nights, on the brink of her first big break.
Adding insult to injury, Elise is stuck for the unknown duration with what appears to be the only guy for miles around who could make things even worse: Randy. Played by Ashton Kutcher, Randy is a too-cool-to-care killjoy who has nothing good to say about anything, and especially about New Year’s Eve, against which he seems to hold some kind of grudge. Kutcher admits, “He’s a bit of a jerk. His holiday plan is to stay home and avoid the whole celebration because all the amateur partiers are crowding the streets—all those guys who don’t go out all year and then suddenly go bananas on New Year’s Eve— and he thinks he’s above all that.”
“In ‘Valentine’s Day’ Ashton was the classic romantic, and here he couldn’t be more cynical; it’s a 180 degree turn,” says Rice.
Revealing that the actor chose the role of Randy, Marshall remarks with a laugh, “Ashton’s smart. He wanted to be the guy working indoors because he knew it would be freezing outside, because we were shooting winter in New York City.”
“It doesn’t start well,” says Michele of the strained exchange between Elise and Randy. “Out of the thousands of people celebrating that night, Elise can’t understand why she got stuck with this one. But as time passes they get to know each other a little. She’s a singer and he’s an artist so they discover that they have more similarities than differences. She’s also curious about what happened to make him feel the way he does.”
Fugate uses the plot point to suggest, “Sometimes the best thing that can happen is what you think is the worst thing. Sometimes it’s about taking a breath and paying attention to what’s happening right in front of you.”
Leaving Randy and Elise to test that theory, the story moves to a man who has reason to feel even more trapped than they are. Confined to a hospital bed, Stan, played by Robert De Niro, is an acclaimed photojournalist who spectacularly cheated death in war zones around the world throughout his hard-driving career but is now coming to terms with an enemy he can’t evade. Citing his conversations with De Niro during production, Marshall touches on the actor’s consummate focus and attention to detail. “He said, ‘I want to get my eyes right for the part.’ So he got contact lenses and we spent some time working on that aspect of the character. It was that precise.”
Stan admits to having alienated everyone he’s ever known. Now, refusing treatment, he is determined to hold on just long enough to watch the ball drop in Times Square one last time. Alone. But that’s not something Nurse Aimee, played by Halle Berry, will allow. As the evening progresses, says Berry, “Stan reflects on his life and there’s a point when he starts to hallucinate and believes Aimee is someone else, someone who was once close to him. It’s a sweet and touching moment. Aimee is away from her own loved ones on New Year’s Eve and doesn’t expect it to be a joyous occasion, but she’s going to make the best of it, and tonight that means caring for her patient. I think there’s a part of her that understands what it’s like to have regrets.”
Another expert on the subject of regrets would be Ingrid, “a meek, unassuming soul who has walked the same small circuit of her neighborhood and worked the same thankless job without complaint her entire adult life,” says Michelle Pfeiffer, who takes on the role of the easily overlooked assistant. “Afraid of her own shadow, she’s carved out a simple, safe existence that won’t throw her any surprises.”
Even so, there are surprises in store for her. Ingrid has a heart-pounding brush with mortality and it turns her life around in a dramatic way. Reviewing a list of longunfulfilled New Year’s resolutions, she finally summons the courage to quit her job, which is the first item on it, and embarks on a quest to cross off as many of the remaining items as possible before the clock strikes twelve. But she’s going to need some help.
The filmmakers paired Ingrid with an unlikely yet perfect companion for her impromptu adventure: a confident young bike messenger named Paul, played by Zac Efron, with whom Pfeiffer previously co-starred in “Hairspray.” If Paul provides the wheels and resourcefulness Ingrid needs to beat the clock, then she, in turn, can offer him the one thing he covets most on this night of revelry: tickets to the hottest party in town, the Ahern Records Masked Ball. Intended for her ungrateful boss, the tickets were the last thing Ingrid purposefully picked up on her way out the door.
Efron sees Paul as “an energetic, fun-loving guy who prides himself on being a wheeler-dealer, a guy who gets things done and nothing breaks his stride. When Ingrid strikes this deal with him, he knows he’s definitely the man for the job. But along the way, the party becomes secondary to what turns out to be an amazing New Year’s Eve, and he spends every minute of it helping her and making her happy. It’s a real testament to the power of spreading joy.”
“We wanted the juxtaposition of a character who’s seen enough of life to have felt some missed opportunities, with someone who’s younger and doesn’t really think in terms of resolutions and regrets,” offers Rice. “We thought, let’s put these two together and watch them bring awareness to each other in a way that will change both their lives.”
“It’s sensational when you see this shy woman burst out of her shell and come alive. When you see that beautiful smile, it’s just magical,” says Marshall. “And Zac is a natural at being cool, which is the definition of Paul. But then you see other elements of his character come out as he gets to know her better.”
If Ingrid’s story is about not waiting to fulfill your dreams, that philosophy would surely get a thumbs-up from 15-year-old Hailey, a young woman on the edge of independence, with big plans to celebrate this New Year instead of sitting it out, as usual, with her mom and a bowl of popcorn. Abigail Breslin appears as the spirited teen, while her loving but overly cautious single mother, Kim, is played by Sarah Jessica Parker, without whom, Marshall simply states, “New York wouldn’t be the same.”
Hailey and her friends have secured a spot in Times Square to witness the countdown together. Then, if all goes well and a certain boy steps up—that would be Seth, played by Jake T. Austin—she might even get that first kiss she’s been dreaming about. But not if mom has anything to say about it.
Says Parker, “It’s probably been a great source of comfort for Kim to have her daughter and this routine in her life, but what we discover is that Hailey is no longer willing to play that role. She’s at an age where she wants to be out experiencing life. For many parents that’s a hard transition, and in particular for Kim, because she’s alone and has been more reliant upon Hailey for company than she’ll admit.”
By restricting Hailey’s budding social life, Kim keeps herself locked away as well, rather than face the daunting prospect of taking another chance at love and life, a fact that’s not lost on her daughter. “Hailey isn’t trying to be mean. She’s just trying to claim her independence and let her mom know she’s not a baby anymore, and at the same time remind her that there’s a whole world out there that she’s been missing,” offers Breslin.
As Kim and Hailey confront their issues in Brooklyn, over at New York Memorial Hospital in Manhattan two couples are facing parenting issues of another kind. Tess and Griffin, played by Jessica Biel and Seth Meyers, are expecting their first child at the same time that Grace and James, played by Sarah Paulson and Til Schweiger, are due to add another to their growing family. Ordinarily, their chance meeting in the doctor’s office earlier that day and then again, later, at the hospital, would be an opportunity to bond but instead the four become locked in a frantic battle over who will take home the hospital’s $25,000 prize for giving birth to the first baby of the new year.
“Pregnancy is such a miraculous thing but we try to make it funny, too, showing what people will go through and how silly it can become when you lose sight of what really matters,” says Marshall.
“They try all kinds of unusual things to induce labor,” hints Biel. “Then, after a couple of false starts, Grace’s water breaks the same time that Tess’s does and they go into labor simultaneously. It’s really close. You don’t know who’s going to win till the very last minute.”
Even though the women are doing all the work, Schweiger points out, “It’s the men who are competitive. Immediately after the two couples meet in their doctor’s waiting room they’re stumbling over each other in their race to be the first. It’s the men who run from the elevator to the hospital reception desk while the women waddle behind.”
“It was very exciting preparing for the birth of my fictional child, which is something most guys look forward to because real children are so much responsibility,” quips SNL regular Meyers. “Your fictional children you can just leave on the set.”
Meanwhile, as these stories unfold, one New Yorker is desperately trying to get back into the city for two very important appointments. Sam, played by a tuxedoed Josh Duhamel, has just attended his best friend’s wedding in Connecticut and is driving back, pondering the direction of his life, when he collides with a road sign. Out of towing distance and with no body shops or rental agencies available on this special day, he’s forced to take an unconventional route home that could turn out to be the course-correction he needs most.
The evening is especially meaningful as it’s the first New Year’s Eve his family is commemorating since losing Sam’s father, and Sam is set to speak in his place at their annual gathering. As much as this weighs on his mind, he also can’t help thinking about the fascinating woman he met by chance on this very night one year ago.
“She wouldn’t give him her number. She said things were complicated for her and that if he was still interested next year they could meet at the same spot, same time,” Duhamel reveals. “As much as he thinks it’s crazy and tries to dismiss the idea, he wonders if she’ll be there now… and if she’ll be looking for him.” Nothing Beats New York City on New Year’s Eve
Filming on “New Year’s Eve” began in Times Square on December 31, 2010, making it the first feature film to capture the event, live, in its 106-year history. “Rather than try to recreate the scene on a soundstage, we opted for the real thing,” says Mike Karz, who describes some of what that actually meant. “There are a million people there, thousands of policemen, the streets are blocked off, you never know what the weather is going to be like, there are TV schedules and news crews to work around, and it’s being broadcast live all over the world. Other than that, it was a piece of cake.”
“It was the most exciting thing I’ve done in a long time,” attests Marshall’s longtime cinematographer Charles Minsky. “We shot with 12 high-def Alexa cameras. We also had cameras on cranes and rooftops, three on the stage and one down on the street where we filmed for eight hours. It was fantastic.”
To coordinate the shoot, the filmmakers worked with the New York City Mayor’s Office and NYPD, as well as the Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment, the two organizations that produce the ball drop. They also enlisted Anthony Calvano’s Landmark Signs & Electrical, which manages the 1,070-pound Waterford crystal sphere and its 3,500-plus lighting cues. The result was approximately 40 hours of raw footage, including some staged moments involving a crowd of extras decked out in 2012 gear for close-ups.
For Wayne Rice, who had never before celebrated the holiday at its undisputed epicenter, being in Times Square on New Year’s Eve was “an experience difficult to describe. Certainly television can’t do it justice. When you take in that sea of humanity, the confetti is raining down and you hear Sinatra singing ‘New York, New York’ with a million people singing along, it’s electrifying.”
But that was just the beginning. In February they returned and appropriated the site for an additional two weeks of filming with the actors, and rebuilt the stage at 45th and Broadway. Shots focusing on the malfunctioning ball were caught from atop the roof of a building adjacent to One Times Square.
Among their other practical locations were Rockefeller Center’s Radio City Music Hall, the neo-Gothic New York Life Building and Chelsea Market. Additionally, the “New Year’s Eve” crew was the first to film in Lincoln Center’s newly renovated Alice Tully Hall. Audiences will also go inside Queens Museum for a look at what production designer Mark Friedberg calls “one of the most incredible jewels in the city that was created for the 1964 World’s Fair.”
For the film’s big gala, where Jensen makes a heroic effort to win back the woman he lost, the designer dressed the Brooklyn Museum’s Beaux Arts Court. “It’s sophisticated but avant-garde, with a Busby Berkeley kind of stage. We brought in trees for an illuminated forest, and hung hundreds and hundreds of china balls from the ceiling,” he says. Because the museum’s high, open ceiling afforded no structural grid from which cinematographer Minsky could hang lights, he and Friedberg worked to incorporate lighting directly into the party décor, enhancing its magical effect.
Friedberg’s team also transformed a warehouse into a Balinese set and built a freight elevator on a sound stage.
Apart from coordinating the schedules of their extensive cast, the filmmakers cited cold temperatures as their biggest challenge, since they were not cheating any of their outdoor locations during one of the city’s harshest winters in decades. “The weather did get in the way of the kissing,” says Marshall with typical humor. “When you’re leaning in for a kiss and your breath comes out like smoke it looks like you’re in London fog and we can’t see the girl’s face. They were all troupers, though. They had to pile on the heavy coats and hats and then take them off, do the scene, six or seven takes, freeze, and then back into the coats. I never heard any complaints.”
It was all déjà vu for Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, who performed in Times Square for NBC’s “New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly” in 2008. He concurs, “It was freezing. But if you have a warm heart, you’ll survive the cold.” “Have a Little Faith in Me.”
Because it wouldn’t be a New Years’s Eve party without memorable music, audiences will see Jon Bon Jovi—as Jensen—cover Otis Redding’s “I Can’t Turn You Loose” on the Times Square stage, and John Hiatt’s “Have A Little Faith in Me” in the more intimate setting of the masquerade ball.
Grammy Award-winning music producer Don Was produced both songs with Jon. Based on recordings of Bon Jovi performing the songs in concert, he explains, “We shaped the tracks around what Jon would do and then went in with Garry Marshall and got the performances they needed for the film.”
Also, Lea Michele delivers a stirring rendition of the New Year’s classic “Auld Lang Syne,” produced by “Glee” music producer Adam Anders.
Recalling how Bon Jovi worked with the filmmakers on song selection, Rice says, “He came to the table with some songs that fit the themes of his story and spoke of love and optimism, moving forward, the things we would associate with New Year’s Eve.”
“Garry wants to deliver an experience for audiences that’s fun and fulfilling, and he gravitates towards themes and stories that serve those values. He really believes that when people go to the movies they deserve a break, they deserve a happy ending,” says Karz.
“No matter what they tell you, New Year’s Eve is about hope,” Marshall concludes. “A lot of people think about who they’re going to kiss at midnight, who they’re going out with, where’s the best party, and all of that. For others, well, they have other concerns. Maybe things haven’t been going so well. You make plans and sometimes they fall through, and those are some of the things we look at in the movie.
“The fact is, New Year’s Eve means something to a lot of people all around the world and watching that countdown is a shared moment. That’s what I love about it.”
New Year’s Eve
Directed by: Garry Marshall
Starring: Robert De Niro, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ashton Kutcher, Zac Efron, Lea Michele, Jon Bon Jovi, Jessica Biel, Sofía Vergara, Abigail Breslin, Michelle Pfeiffer, Taylor Swift, Hilary Swank, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sara Paxton, Seth Meyers, Josh Duhamel
Screenplay by: Katherine Fugate
Production Design by: Mark Friedberg
Cinematography by: Charles Minsky
Film Editing by: Michael Tronick
Costume Design by: Gary Jones
Set Decoration by: Leslie E. Rollins
Art Direction by: Kim Jennings
Music by: John Debney
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language including some sexual references.
Studio: New Line Cinema
Release Date: December 9, 2011
Hits: 77
