PRODUCTION DESIGN & LOCATIONS
Filming of Breach took place in Toronto from mid-November 2005 through the end of January 2006. In the provincial Ontario capital, many of the film's interior locations were constructed at the Toronto Film Studio's soundstages. At the end of January, production moved to Washington, D.C., where the crew spent almost three weeks shooting exteriors and interior scenes that could only be lensed in our nation's capital.
"The reason you shoot on location in Washington, D.C.," says Ray, "is because it is loaded with icons that simply can't be duplicated anywhere else--like the FBI Building, the Department of Justice, the Potomac and the Lincoln Memorial." While weather in February can be precarious, Ray also insisted on setting the film in the same time of the year in which the real events took place.
"In a film about a very real time and very real people, the producers were committed to honoring the integrity of the story and the reality of the world," offers production designer Wynn Thomas.
The FBI was extremely cooperative in assisting the team in telling Hanssen and O'Neill's story in an accurate manner. While access to the FBI buildings was limited, the filmmakers were given the honor of shooting key interiors--including the FBI Plaza (the central inner courtyard in the FBI Hoover Building) and the Hoover lobby, which has never before been allowed.
For example, one interior scene depicted O'Neill's first day at FBI Headquarters, his first day working with Hanssen and his first day reporting to Room 9930. "You can't duplicate the FBI Building," says Ray. "It's so unique in terms of architecture. It goes up seven floors on one side and eleven floors on the other. It's built by design to get people lost. And Eric did get lost on his first day, which we are documenting in the film."
From the beginning of production, the FBI proved to be quite an asset. Susan McKee and Debra Weierman of the FBI's Public Relations team took the filmmakers on a tour through the FBI building and the Washington field office. As so much of the story takes place in these two worlds, accessing those buildings was essential for Thomas and his creative team; it allowed them to design and duplicate locations for the film.
Thomas' group was actually allowed to document and duplicate all the signage, name plates and various other items, right down to the old FBI movie posters in the cafeteria.
"The sets are dead on," Ray proudly states of the design team's work. "Wynn Thomas can do it down and dirty, and he can do it big and beautiful; he has a sensibility that was dead on for this movie. It was exciting to see it all through Eric O'Neill's eyes. When Eric came to visit, when he walked the halls of the FBI and went into his office, he was amazed at how authentically it had been created."
Thomas also worked very closely with cinematographer Tak Fujimoto and costume designer Luis Sequeria to make sure that the choices of color palette in lighting and clothing were in sync. "Billy was looking for someone who could nail the look of American studio movies from the '70s, and you can't do much better than Tak," says Thomas, who likewise credits a team including set decorator Gordon Sim, construction coordinator Jim Halpenny and scenic artist Ian Delms.
To recreate Hanssen's 2001 arrest on Fairway Drive in Vienna, Virginia, close to
the agent's home on Talisman Drive, Ray insisted the scene be filmed at the location of the actual arrest. "That was something I fought hard for," the director notes. "It took a bit of arm twisting, because it's expensive to shoot anywhere around D.C., but I wasn't going to shoot that scene anywhere else."
To assist the filmmakers in accurate recreation of the arrest, the FBI gave them an edited tape of the event so they could match it down to the last detail. Then, to bring even further authenticity to the scene, two FBI agents who were part of the team that arrested Hanssen walked cast and crew through a "dress rehearsal," ensuring that every detail--right down to putting the handcuffs on Hanssen--was correctly executed.
Another powerful exterior sequence was shot on the Potomac Parkway, with the iconic Lincoln Memorial serving as the backdrop. In this scene, O'Neill is in the car with Hanssen, mandated to delay him for several hours so the FBI can search his car. O'Neill contrives to get them stuck in a traffic jam, but when Hanssen decides to get out and walk back to headquarters, O'Neill must do some quick thinking to stop him.
Cooper sums up, "When you're dealing with locations and sets with so much veracity, it's bound to impact your performance. When you walk the bridge where this man gave away untold, huge secrets to the Soviets, it makes a huge impression."
While most of us will never understand why Robert Hanssen did what he did--whether it be revenge, malice, exposure of flaws within our security--our government will continue to reel from the financial and human fallout concomitant with his deception.
For the crimes he committed against our country, approximately 500 people worked to bring Hanssen to justice. The fact that this occurred without one leak that would have warned Hanssen to permanently run into hiding speaks to the dedication, honor and loyalty of the agents involved in the case. It has also earned the admiration of everyone involved with the film.
Writer/Director Ray concludes, "From the beginning, the FBI has been incredible. They were helpful all through preparation, and they have been amazing during the shoot. They were initially a little nervous about what part of the story we were telling. But the fact is…we're telling the piece in which Hanssen's caught. The FBI behaved heroically, professionally and extremely efficiently during that stretch."

THE FILMMAKERS AND WRITERS

BILLY RAY (Directed by/Screenplay by) previously wrote and directed the critically acclaimed feature Shattered Glass, starring Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard and Chloë Sevigny. Ray also co-wrote Flightplan, starring Jodie Foster, and Hart's War, starring Bruce Willis and Colin Farrell. He recently finished the adaptation of the book 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers, for Sony Pictures. Ray's next project is Hurricane Season, which he will be writing and directing for Universal Pictures.

ADAM MAZER (Screenplay by/Story by) is the creator and writer of the new CW pilot Ghosts, to be produced by Ben Silverman's Reveille Prods. Ghosts is a one-hour drama about the personal and professional lives of the twenty-something operatives who work in the FBI's Special Surveillance Group (the SSG) an elite counterintelligence unit.
Prior to Breach, Mazer sold the family comedy Big Baby (co-written with Gregg Lichtenstein) to Warner Bros., with Neal H. Moritz and Richard Suckle producing and Raja Gosnell attached to direct.
Mazer was a founding partner of Point Blank Entertainment, where he was an associate producer on the outrageous ensemble comedy Super Troopers. The film was sold at the Sundance Film Festival and released in 2002 by Fox Searchlight.
Mazer's solo efforts include his screenplay The Amateur, which was set up with the Kennedy-Marshall Company. Based on true events, The Amateur tells the story of 19-year-old golfer Francis Ouimet's remarkable underdog victory at the 1913 U.S. Open. He also wrote the police corruption thriller Officer Down; the dark romantic comedy Absolute Faith; the comic-book fantasy adventure The Last Ride of Waterloo Clyde; and Shelter from the Storm, an adaptation of Stephen Miller's southern murder mystery novel "A Woman in the Yard."
Upon graduation from Syracuse University, Mazer moved to Los Angeles and partnered with Bill Rotko. They sold their first screenplay, Freeze--a harrowing Antarctic action-adventure--to Columbia Pictures and Mandalay Films. They sold the crime drama High and Dry to Universal Pictures and also set up a television pilot for a high-tech police drama entitled Group One.

WILLIAM ROTKO (Screenplay by/Story by) came to Los Angeles to study acting under the legendary teacher Stella Adler. After a few small parts in indie films (including Barry Primus' Mistress, David Salle's Search and Destroy and Richard Glatzer's Grief), he co-founded and produced productions for The Dryland Theatre Company. After producing several first runs, he turned his focus to writing. In 1993, Rotko started a long screenwriting partnership with Adam Mazer. At 23, Rotko sold the first Mazer/Rotko authored screenplay to Columbia Pictures. This partnership yielded many spec, rewrite and development deals, including associate producing Fox Searchlight's Super Troopers.
Currently, Rotko is developing several television pilots for 2007, among them Waterfall for NBC/Universal and an untitled FBI drama for Sony/A&E.
Rotko lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Carol, and their daughter, Sasha.

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