The Contender

The Contender (2000)

Timing: 2:6 (126 min)

6.667/10
227

6.34/10
1082

6.9/10
26000

All about film

Video 1

Photo 12

Actors and characters

Release date

2000-10-13

Country

Germany, United Kingdom, United States

Production

DreamWorks Pictures, Cinerenta Medienbeteiligungs KG, Battleplan Productions, Cinecontender Internationale, SE8 Group

Genre

Drama, Thriller

Budget

$20 000 000

Revenue

$22 361 811

Website

Director

Rod Lurie

Actors

Joan Allen, Gary Oldman, Jeff Bridges, Christian Slater, Sam Elliott, William Petersen, Saul Rubinek, Philip Baker Hall, Mike Binder, Robin Thomas
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Rod Lurie

Producer

Willi Bär, Marc Frydman, Douglas Urbanski, James Spies, Gary Oldman, Maurice Leblond, Rainer Bienger

Operator

Denis Maloney

Composer

Larry Groupé

Artist

Audition

Mary Jo Slater

Editing

Michael Jablow
All team (24)

• Gary Oldman and producer Douglas Urbanski complained after the film’s release that “DreamWorks Pictures” studio had altered the initially well-balanced script to conform to the liberal worldview of its leadership (Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, David Geffen).
• During post-production, a storyline about the father of Senator Lane Henson was cut from the film. The character was named Oscar Billings, and was played by Philip Baker Hall. He was a former corrupt governor who used his connections to secure a place for his daughter in the U.S. Senate without her knowledge. This became known, and Hall committed suicide. Director and screenwriter Rod Lurie cut all of this from the film for runtime reasons and because he believed audiences wouldn't believe the senator could get away with accusations of nepotism so easily.
• According to Jeff Bridges, he deliberately made his character, President Jackson Evans, resemble his own father, Lloyd Bridges, who passed away in 1988.
• Jeff Bridges and Gary Oldman agreed to star in the film only after learning that Joan Allen would be playing the lead role.
• The idea for the film came to Rod Lurie when he was presenting Joan Allen with an award, and he jokingly said that he should write a script so she could win another award for working in it. Allen replied that if he ever actually wrote a script, she would definitely read it. Lurie only took a couple of weeks to write the screenplay.