“Dream House” is a film we’re aware of, but it’s honestly something we haven’t taken in; news about the production has been incredibly quiet despite the A-list cast. It’s a psychological thriller about a married couple (Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz) who move their family to a New England town, only to discover that the previous occupants were murdered. Naomi Watts, Marton Csokas and Elias Koteas are also among the cast, and despite the super-generic premise and the presence of director Jim Sheridan, who’s been somewhat off his game since “In America,” we were vaguely intrigued, principally because of the excellent actors involved. But now, news comes via Cinema Blend that the film may be in trouble and might not make its scheduled February release date.
A site called Pop Goes The News reports that, after test screenings in July, producers decided that two weeks of reshoots were necessary, scheduled to begin September 27th. But Daniel Craig hasn’t been able to get away from his duties on “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” so it appears that the additional filming isn’t happening any time soon, or may have even been canceled altogether.
There’s a kneejerk response from Internet movie writers when reports of “reshoots” come in to immediately throw their hands up in the air and declare that a film is in trouble, but this isn’t always the case by any means: some kind of additional photography is scheduled on 90 percent of films for any number of reasons, and it’s by no means the kiss of death on a film. “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, for instance, had annual, fairly lengthy top-up shoots on each of the films, while, just as Sheridan and co. might have to wait for Craig to finish up in Sweden, the modest success of “The Time Traveler’s Wife” was delayed substantially when pick-ups were required, and the production had to wait for Eric Bana’s hair to grow back after he completed “Star Trek.”
On the flipside, however, there’s the likes of “Jonah Hex,” substantially retooled in reshoots by “consultant” director Francis Lawrence, or reshoots for the Nicole Kidman thriller “The Invasion,” where original director Oliver Hirschbiegel was replaced by “V For Vendetta” helmer James McTeigue. And if Cinema Blend’s sources are correct, the film may be something of a mess in its current form: “Craig and Weisz try their best but they are working with weak material, which is a predictable mess, and some of the other acting, which ranges from slumming it to down right being laughably bad.”
Our best guess is that Universal will push the film down the release schedule until they can find a spare couple of weeks in Craig’s diary, but either way, it’s the latest PR disaster for the studio — “The Wolf Man” and “Green Zone” were both beset with substantial reshoots, and neither turned out that well. Meanwhile, rumors that Craig and Weisz will be reuniting for “Beach House,” a biopic of the Baltimore indie rock band are, as yet, entirely within this writer’s head.
