"I saw the Cuban Missile Crisis not just as a chapter in history, but as a great story - the ultimate cinematic political thriller with the fate of the world in the balance. It's a story of intense human drama surrounding a situation in which the stakes couldn't be any higher. I realised as I read the script that most of us really don't know how close we came and what happened on the front lines - in the White House, the cockpits of spy planes or on the decks of the aircraft carriers enforcing the blockade. That's where the real tension lies - in how the decisions were made, and how these young men handled the toughest dilemma anyone could face." Director Roger Donaldson.

The Heart & Soul of a Nuclear Disaster
When director Roger Donaldson was 16-year-old and living in Australia, he kept a diary of the Thirteen Days in October 1962, when the world stood on the brink of a nuclear showdown between the world's super powers. Decades later, he remained fascinated by this terrifying moment and history and when he was offered the script, he wanted to recapture those days and effectively bring the heroic  story to the big screen.

The challenge of the filmmakers was to find a way to dramatise a story that explores the heart, soul, scope and danger of the crisis.

Screenwriter David Self pored through the vast body of literature and scholarship on the Cuban Missile Crisis, reading memoirs and books with their varied accounts. He examined journalism's vast visual and print record of the events and he studied a number of declassified CIA documents. In addition, he spent hours listening to Kennedy White House tapes, which revealed in strikingly candid detail just how aggressive some advisers were in pushing the President to engage in an all-out nuclear war with the Soviets.

Self was fascinated by the mood among Kennedy's advisers, a group known as ExComm (Executive Committee of the National Security Council) - each arguing with intense passion and determination, each aware that they are participating in a turning point in history.

As Self completed his research, the development process took different turns. In the age of "The West Wing," where audiences peer into the private world of the White House, the producers wanted an original and intriguing screenplay that authentically and accurately captured a President and his advisers. They wanted to delve behind the Camelot myth and emerge with a fresh picture of the Kennedys.

The predictable choice was to tell the story of President Kennedy and his brother Bobby. Because this approach has been explored in countless television movies, books and magazine articles, the filmmakers were looking for a more original way to examine the crisis, and started identifying members of his inner circle who could serve as a window to observe the Kennedys in action.

Self focused on Kenny O'Donnell, a man who was at the President's side throughout his public life, and listened to hours of taped interviews. "He was one of President Kennedy's most trusted advisors and he was the perfect person to use as a creative vehicle to take us through this pivotal time in history,"says Self.

"The film offers a side of the Kennedys that is rarely, if ever, shown. Not the iconic, mythical side, but the real hardcore, backroom Kennedys who emerged so strongly during the crisis with a vision of the world in the balance, not with the glare of Cold War manipulation. This is not flag-waving nostalgia. It's a story that captures them from a human angle - from the perspective of the crisis decision-making involved in defusing a potential catastrophe."

For Donaldson, this was part of the excitement of the script. "All the behind-the-scenes manoeuvrings and power struggles and personal agendas that played out behind-the scenes at the White House are really what the film is about."

Donaldson also undertook intensive research, which included interviews with former White House Counsel Ted Sorenson, former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Navy Air Commander William B. Ecker and CIA Photo interpreter Dino Brugioni. These conversations revealed the depth of chaos and fear during those two weeks.

"When you meet these people, who in some ways have come to seem larger than life, and you hear their fears in their own words, you get a very frightening sense of the incomprehensible fire power and military might that each side was marshalling. The nuclear guns were loaded on both sides in a stare-down of global proportions, and there's never been anything like it."

In Thirteen Days, the Cuban Missile Crisis is experienced through the eyes of Kenny O'Donnell, who has been described as the quintessential Kennedy insider - he was a member of the fabled "Irish Mafia", and was one of the few men who took his orders directly from the President. He was also Bobby Kennedy's classmate and football teammate at Harvard,worked in JFK's Senate and Presidential campaigns, and was one of the President's Special Assistants and Appointments Secretary.

"We had the idea of watching this incredible period of time through the heart and soul of an Everyman,"says produder Armyan Bernstein. "Through his eyes the story is not so much about political policy as it is about the bravery, ingenuity and humanity he witnessed. That's what makes the story both exciting and touching."

"There are a lot of men and women like Kenny O'Donnell who people will never know," says Kevin Costner, who was drawn to the idea of playing someone who participated so actively, yet anonymously, in the vital shadows of history.

Costner was also compelled by the relationship that O'Donnell had with both JFK and RFK, something he wanted to bring out in his performance. "For me it was really at issue how these three men related to each other. I wanted to highlight that their relationship was based on respect, on the idea of not ever backing down, of always saying what's on your mind. That is what their friendship was all about and what makes it so powerful. I think a lot of people have the idea that a President is so powerful that the people who work for him treat him and speak to him very deferentially. What I like about the relationship between my character and the President is that Kenny's job was to give it to him straight, and he did."

Capturing the behind-the-scenes action was a great challenge that faced the filmmakers.

"We wanted to give these events a present, driving action that allows audiences a view of what it felt like from the inside, to experience viscerally the remarkable human pressure of the crisis and how these vital decisions weighed on these young men in unimaginable way," says producer Peter Almond. "There are many, many accounts of the Cuban Missile Crisis. This film joins that vast body of work as one view of the event. It is drawn from the record, but narrowed and focused and dramatised to create a coherent, accessible and entertaining story."

"So many films have been made that glorify men fighting," says  Bernstein. "Here is one that explores the more noble idea of men desperately trying to find a way not to fight. Here is a film that dramatically shows the razor's edge between force, diplomacy and compromise. It is a film about men of goodwill and how they struggled with the tug of war between their instincts, their convictions, and their human fears."

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