Taglines: She’s having the time of his life.
Horrible Bosses’ Jason Bateman and Bridesmaids’ Melissa McCarthy pair up to lead the cast of Identity Thife, an all-star comedy in which a regular guy is forced to extreme measures to clear his name. With everything to lose after his identity is stolen, he’ll find out how crazed you can get trying to settle a bad credit score.
Unlimited funds have allowed Diana (Melissa McCarthy) to live it up on the outskirts of Orlando, where the queen of retail buys whatever strikes her fancy. There’s only one glitch: The ID she’s using to finance these sprees reads “Sandy Bigelow Patterson” and it belongs to an accounts rep (Jason Bateman) who lives halfway across the U.S. in Denver.
Accused of a litany of crimes, the innocent man attempts to defend himself to police that are just as hamstrung and overworked as they are disinterested in his protestations. Left with just one option, the real Sandy Bigelow Patterson must head south to track her down himself.
With only one week to hunt down the con artist before his world implodes, Sandy hits the road to confront the woman with an all-access pass to his life. And as he attempts to bribe, coax and wrangle her the 2,000 miles to Colorado, one easy target will discover just how tough it is to get your name back.
Traveling America: Locations and Design (2013)
While a majority of IDENTITY THIEF takes place during Sandy and Diana’s epic road trip from Winter Park, Florida, to Denver, Colorado, the crew shot the lion’s share of the production in Atlanta, Georgia. “We scouted a lot of states, but the interesting thing about Georgia was that there are a lot of very different landscapes and terrains throughout the state that are not far from downtown Atlanta,” explains Abdy.
“By shooting in Georgia we were able to find locations to cover all of the states [including Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Colorado, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky and naturally, Georgia] the story tracks through. All we had to do was send a small unit to get some of the iconic landmarks and landscapes of various cities traveling in motion.”
Gordon expounds upon his producer’s note: “We needed to make Georgia look like Diana and Sandy traveled from just outside Orlando all the way to Denver. We had to capture the look of all the states that were on that journey, so it was a real challenge. Shepherd Frankel, our production designer, did an amazing job finding all of the different looks we needed to make it feel like a long journey.”
For Frankel, who has collaborated on all of Gordon’s movies, the challenge wasn’t just shooting a road trip movie in one state, but also creating the enormous number of sets needed for the film. “When I first read the script, I thought, ‘Wow! This is fantastic!'” recalls Frankel. “But when I broke down the screenplay, I saw that it covered 10 states and 94 sets. I asked myself, ‘How are we going to get 10 states and all of those environments in and around the Atlanta area?’
“In a road trip film, the key is to show topography and the geography when our actors are in various places,” he continues. “So one of the first things I did was put together a roadmap that showed the journey and made sense of the timeline and where they were in relation to the script, and how long it actually took to get places. That way, we could have a roadmap that we could scout and figure out how to pull it off.”
Another challenge for the production was putting the lead actors in the small confined space that was Sandy’s rental car for significant periods of time. Explains Stuber: “When you shoot a road movie, there is obviously a lot of driving and the various car rigs give you an advantage of being able to cross-shoot in the car scenes so you don’t have to do each actor’s coverage separately. This way, all the jokes feel organic. However, the actors are stuck in a car with seat belts and can’t move around their environment, so we better be funny.”
From the first shot that involved Bateman chasing down McCarthy on the shoulder of a Georgia highway, it was clear that the chemistry between the two actors was dynamic. Abdy recalls that day: “It was awesome to watch Jason and Melissa together for the first time. You envision how it’s going to be, but until you’re there with the lights, costumes and cameras you just don’t know. So when the chemistry between your actors comes alive, it’s one of the most exciting parts of filmmaking.”
For McCarthy, the driving scenes with Bateman were among her favorite moments during the shoot. “I loved a lot of the driving scenes with Jason because they made me laugh out loud,” shares McCarthy. “I ruined so many takes because Jason just kills me, and it was so fun to sit in the car and say the most insane things back and forth.”
For Bateman, the feeling was mutual: “I loved the scenes where Melissa and I were sitting in the car and my character has to deal with all of her absurd behavior and endless stories. During those scenes, I would pinch the inside of my thighs so that I wouldn’t laugh in the middle of the take. It was somewhat effective, but by the end of the film, my legs were covered in pinch marks. In the car I also had a great seat to watch Melissa create moments and be as nimble as she is. She’s constantly pivoting and keeping things fresh and making the next take better. As she became more familiar with how I would react to what she said, she would bend that next beat to where it needed to go. She’s a comedic ninja, and it was so much fun to work with her.”
Identity Thief (2013)
Directed by: Seth Gordon
Starring: Amanda Peet, Melissa McCarthy, Jason Bateman, Genesis Rodriguez, Robert Patrick
Screenplay by: Jerry Eeten, Craig Mazin
Production Design by: Shepherd Frankel
Cinematography by: Javier Aguirresarobe
Film Editing by: Peter Teschner
Costume Design by: Carol Ramsey
Set Decoration by: Maria Nay
Music by: Christopher Lennertz
MPAA Rating: R for sexual content and language.
Studio: Universal Pictures
Release Date: February 8, 2013
Visits: 72
