BREAKDOWN - ABOUT THE MOVIE

The American Southwest is a land of vast, desolate spaces and rugged terrain, sometimes beautiful, but always harsh and unyielding. Its long, lonely highways stretch to the horizon and beyond, with a hundred miles and more from one tiny oasis of civilization to the next.

What happens if your car breaks down on one of the West's remote back roads, and you are stranded alone in the desert, under the merciless sun? "Breakdown," starring Kurt Russell, J.T. Walsh and Kathleen Quinlan is a taut, suspenseful action thriller that cleverly preys upon ones paranoia of being stranded miles from any vestige of civilization.

"Breakdown" is produced by Martha and Dino De Laurentiis from a story by Jonathan Mostow. The Paramount Pictures presentation in association with Dino
De Laurentiis and Spelling Films is directed by Jonathan Mostow from a screenplay by Jonathan Mostow and Sam Montgomery. The executive producers are Jonathan Fernandez and Harry Colomby. The film will be distributed by Spelling Films International outside the U.S. and Canada. Paramount Pictures is part of the entertainment operations of Viacom Inc., which also owns a majority interest in Spelling Entertainment Group Inc., Spelling Films' parent company.

ABOUT THE STORY...

When Jeff (Kurt Russell) sets off cross-country from Boston to San Diego with his wife Amy (Kathleen Quinlan), he thinks he is leaving his troubles behind and moving on towards fantastic new beginnings.

Then, while taking the 'scenic route' through the beautiful but vast, desolate spaces of the desert Southwest, their car breaks down. Jeff and Amy find themselves stranded on a seldom-traveled road, many miles from the nearest human habitation. Fortunately, help appears at had as an 18 wheeler semi truck comes into view on the horizon.

The driver is Red (J.T. Walsh), an over-the-road trucker. Immaculate and professional, he seems to harken back to a time when long-haul truckers were "knights of the road." He offers Jeff and Amy a ride to Belle's Diner, the nearest place along this lonely stretch of highway, where they can escape the hot sun and call for a tow truck. After initial hesitation, Amy agrees to go with him, since it's obvious there might not be any other way to get help; she'll call the tow truck from the restaurant while Jeff waits with the car.

In the meantime, Jeff locates the problem -- a loose wire -- and fixes it. With the car back in working order, he drives on to Belle's Diner to catch up with Amy so they can continue on their way... but Amy isn't there. The diner isn't exactly a bustling place, yet the bartender and customers claim they never saw either Amy or Red. When Jeff continues to question them, he gets only cold stares and furtive glances -- as though he were delusional, driven crazy by the heat and the long lonely highways. Jeff's growing anxiety is only made worse by his gnawing suspicion that they aren't telling him the truth.

Getting back on the road, Jeff searches for Red's truck -- but when he finds it, Red who just hours before so charmingly offered his assistance, denies ever having seen Jeff or his wife. The police are of no help, as they view Amy's disappearance skeptically. They've seen many couples fight and split while making long distance car trips. Who's to say this is any different?

With nowhere and no one to turn to, Jeff sets forth on his determined, increasingly desperate search for Amy -- who has vanished utterly into the immense, sun baked emptiness of the West...

If only the car hadn't broken down in the middle of nowhere...

"Breakdown" takes an ordinary man into the vast open spaces where the law does not reach -- and into the dark spaces of the human soul.

According to producer Dino De Laurentiis, "everybody can be in this situation. Thousands of people disappear in the United States every year and nobody knows where they go." To Martha De Laurentiis, "this story has real characters put into a situation that could happen to anyone. You're traveling in a car and it breaks down in the middle of nowhere. You've tried to fix it yourself and that doesn't work, so what do you do?"

Writer-director Mostow recounts the genesis of his story: "When I wrote this script, I wanted to explore the universal feeling of unease that people get when they're out in the middle of no place, far from home, far from civilized society, far from a place where rules and cops protect you."

Mostow's partnership with the De Laurentiis' occurred when Dino De Laurentiis, whose work includes more than 500 films in four decades, among them "The Bible," "War and Peace," "Serpico," "Three Days of the Condor," "King Kong," "Blue Velvet," "Conan The Barbarian," "The Valachi Papers," "Crimes of the Heart" and "Bound," saw the filmmakers first directorial effort. "I like to use my experience with a younger director," says De Laurentiis, "and when I saw Jon Mostow's first film, 'Flight of Black Angel,' I wanted his next picture."

Another key decision according to De Laurentiis and Mostow was casting the part of Jeff Taylor. Says Dino De Laurentiis: "Jeff is an odd hero to begin the picture since he is a normal human being who is not looking for trouble. He suddenly finds himself in a position where he must find the courage and strength to save his wife.

When the audience sees this picture, they will be able to see that they could be in a similar situation tomorrow if they're driving while on vacation." De Laurentiis and Mostow decided at once that they wanted Kurt Russell for the part. "Within a week we had an answer from Kurt," he says, "and we were making this picture."

Casting Kurt Russell as Jeff Taylor was pivotal in making this movie believable to audiences. Says Martha De Laurentiis, who has teamed with Dino De Laurentiis since the production of "Ragtime," "Kurt is every man's actor. He's vulnerable so that men can relate to him and he's handsome so that women like him. The emotion he brings to this character is perfect for this story about a situation that could happen to anybody." Adds writer-director Mostow, "Kurt can convey that emotion in a way that you care about."

Dino De Laurentiis' reputation is what brought mega-star Russell onto the production. According to Russell, "He is one of the few people in this town that -- just out of my own interest -- when I'm an old man I'd like to say, 'I worked with Dino De Laurentiis.' Dino has an ingrained passion for movie making that this town always, always, always desperately needs."

Russell, whose wide range of work includes "Silkwood," "Stargate," "Tombstone" and "John Carpenter's Escape From L.A.," explains why he liked the role. "The whole point of this movie is to make this a relatable concept for everyone. It's basically about the fear that something like this could happen, does happen when you're driving in the middle of nowhere. I liked the credibility of what the character does. The actions he takes are very believable, though strictly personal to him -- the same as yours would be different from mine. By putting the audience in a situation they can relate to, hopefully they will see portions of themselves and be able to experience some of their worst fears and nightmares."

Kathleen Quinlan, nominated for an Oscar for her role in "Apollo 13," plays Amy Taylor. Says Quinlan, "Amy is intelligent and strong. She loves her husband, and knows that they are at a crossroads and that she must be decisive. When she leaves in Red's truck, she feels she's taken action to help them out of their situation."

Mostow elaborates on casting Quinlan: "I wanted everything in this movie to feel real and truthful. I wanted a real person that could be married to Kurt's character; not some damsel in distress. Kathleen has turned out to be fabulous."

J.T. Walsh, recently seen in Oliver Stone's "Nixon," plays Red, the seeming Good Samaritan trucker who offers the couple his assistance. According to Walsh: "Red is an ethically challenged, Good Samaritan who is presented with an opportunity. Driving a truck is a hard living and out in the wide open spaces of the barren Southwest, there's not too many people or policeman which makes it easier for him to operate on his own terms."

Also featured in the cast are such notable actors as Jack Noseworthy as 'Billy,' M.C. Gainey as 'Earl' and Ritch Brinkley as 'Al.' They represent many of the unsavory people one might run into at a roadside diner or small-town bar while on the road, and their hostile demeanors help feed the paranoia of being a stranger in a foreign land.

According to Mostow, "They're victimizing people that are traveling long distances and they've been getting away with it."

Doug Milsome, B.S.C., who has worked extensively with Stanley Kubrick and most recently with Michael Cimino on "Sun Chaser," served as the director of photography. Other key behind-the-scenes people include Victoria Paul ("Greedy") as production designer and Terry Dresbach ("Red Rock West") as costume designer. Second unit director Jim Arnett ("Congo," "Basic Instinct") coordinated the stunt sequences while Jeffrey Sudzin ("Bound") served as line producer. Film editing was performed by editors Derek Brechin ("Stargate") and Kevin Stitt ("Nick of Time").

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION...

With its sweeping use of the vast, desolate spaces of the Southwest, "Breakdown" has the feel of a Western for the 1990s. As conceived by writer-director Mostow, "There is a bit of the Western genre in the story, because it's about people living at the edge of society where there are no rules.

Westerns are about the new frontier," continues Mostow, "settlers going out and venturing from the safety of their East Coast dwellings to the Wild West where there is no law and they have to survive on their own wits. This movie is very much the same kind of movie in that Kurt Russell as Jeff Taylor is the city slicker and he's in strange territory. The question is, is he going to survive?"

Dino De Laurentiis further highlights the modern-day Western aspect of the film. "The film takes place on the road," he says, "and we shoot in many places over the Southwest United States to create -- nowhere."

Principal photography on "Breakdown" began with the initial "breakdown" scene outside historic Moab, Utah, a location that has seen over 400 film productions in the past 40 years. In the ensuing 12 weeks of shooting, the cast and crew made 17 major location moves that ranged from 50 to 500 miles, taking them to remote locations across Nevada and California.

"Besides the story and acting," explains Martha De Laurentiis, "the backdrop is very important to this movie. This is truly a road picture, where everything is on the road as Jeff goes from point A to B to C to D -- through the alphabet."

No fewer than 25 different locations were used in the picture, because, says Martha De Laurentiis, "Every place you shoot you want to have a beautiful diverse look that all fits together."

Among the notable sites used in location shooting were Nelson's Landing, in Nevada near Hoover Dam; Barstow, California, where the truck-stop sequence was filmed; the American River near Sacramento; and the old Templin Highway outside Los Angeles, which provided a location for the for the film's nail-biting climax.

Continual shifts of location helped the actors capture the feel of their parts. To J.T. Walsh, "By constantly changing our locations, you get a feeling for the pace of people, how they move, how they work in this kind of atmosphere. It enables you to imagine how things like this film could happen," says Walsh, "as you're driving down a road where you don't see anything for a hundred miles and your engine goes out -- and the next guy along happens to be Red."

Martha De Laurentiis elaborates on the atmosphere of suspense developed for the film. "In keeping with this fear, we had our actors involved closely with our stunt doubles and coordinators so that they sensed the terror. The audience will see and feel that it's not fake."

Says Dino De Laurentiis, "You will not see special effects in this movie. When you see something, you'll realize it's real and it'll make you believe that the story could happen to anyone."

Capturing the stark realism of the story was of paramount importance to writer-director Mostow, shaping not only the choice of cast and locations, but also the style of making the film. Mostow emphasizes, "This is first and foremost a suspense film, and my belief is that suspense is best when you really feel what you're watching is authentic." In filming most movies, the order in which sequences are filmed has no relation to the order in which the sequences appear on the screen. But, says Mostow, "We made the extra attempt and extra expense to shoot things in real order to have characters, the events and the film show a texture of reality."

Mostow explains the look of the film he chose with cinematographer Milsome, a look designed to be starkly realistic in tone rather than stylized. "We're going for elegance but with an honest approach. By shooting wide-screen anamorphic, we're trying to give it kind of a classic feel as much as we can, sort of going back to those movies of the 70s that weren't overstyled and pretty straightforward."

The psychological suspense of this story will affect everyone who watches it. To Mostow, "This is a story that can happen to anybody--anybody who has ever driven a car and had a breakdown or run out of gas or anything."

Adds Kurt Russell, "This is a more intimate look at people on a level of real fear, and how you behave when you're experiencing paralyzing fear."

Dino De Laurentiis sums up best what can be expected from this film. "This story could be a true story. When the audience sees Kurt Russell they will have sympathy for his character and will buy into it. That will be its success."