About the Physical Production
In a movie in which the planet is a central character, it became crucial for the filmmakers to find a great deal of varied terrain that reflected the changing scenery as the boy and his father made their way from a mountainous region across the country through rolling hills and finally to the ocean. And since the planet is one big disaster area, they had to find many ruined, abandoned or devastated locations as possible.
Over a long pre-production period, more than 50 locations were scouted which suited the production's needs. The majority of these were found in Pennsylvania, with notable detours to the shores of Lake Erie, the Katrina-hit areas of Louisiana and some areas in Oregon.
"Since Cormac never tells us what the apocalyptic event is, we've decided to look around the United States contemporary events that would look like they were apocalyptic events," says Wechsler. "So New Orleans gives us a great opportunity to show what can happen with a natural disaster. There are other areas in the United States that were caused by fire, by volcano, by human decay and the tragedy of society moving from one part of civilization to another part of civilization in terms of the application of money and resources. So we're taking advantage of man-made and natural events around the United States."
"The film crew decided that there were a lot of locations in and around Pittsburgh that could be very useful," Wechsler adds, "especially an abandoned turnpike, which is not far away, as well as abandoned coalmines, surface coalmines, coal dumping areas that would give a quality of blackened earth that we could use. Pennsylvania had some beautiful winter landscapes that were useful and the film commission and the people there were incredibly friendly and incredibly receptive, so it made it a great place to base our film."
For the production designer, Chris Kennedy, the script by Joe Penhall fairly well laid out the course he would take in setting up the long and arduous shoot. "When I read the screenplay, I was pretty impressed by how they had managed to translate it from the book," he says. "Joe managed to pull out all of the key dialogue because really most of the book is the man thinking. It's kind of the ambient sense of the world through his eyes, which was the key to how to think about visualizing it. Plus, we intended to use real locations, so it was pretty much straight away a matter of finding out where they may be. So there was a long search for places across the country that we could use."
When the decision was made to base the production in Pennsylvania, Kennedy was excited by the possibilities. "It's clearly set in America; it's about things American. I did a huge search on the web while I was in Australia before I came out and I pretty rapidly realized that there's a heap of abandoned and destroyed towns, cities, landscapes here, much more so than in Australia. There was a whole collection of things that got me really excited once I realized that the Pennsylvania coal mining areas--the abandoned turnpike down in Breezewood, eight miles of abandoned freeway --all those things that are just quite spectacular. It's The Road, so it seemed like this road actually became like a keystone to why to come here in the first place and then searched out from there and found all sorts of things. And here we have deciduous trees, which is a key to the whole theme--a dead landscape. I kind of covered the whole of America in my research, and the northern areas with deciduous forests in a winter landscape were obviously the place to start.
"Pennsylvania has coal landscapes, devastated mining areas, coal piles, fly ash piles, like blackened landscape. So it's a combination of elements - a depressed socio-economic situation in suburbs like Braddock and Keysport, winter landscape; deciduous trees; devastated landscape."
Kennedy's modus operandi would be to do his research, find likely areas and send photos and notes to his location manager, Andrew Ullman, who by coincidence went to school in one of the Pennsylvania areas where they shot. "They found the area or per se, and we sort of found the places," Ullman says. "Chris was interesting. He kind of fed me some material and said, 'This would be an interesting area to do something like this,' and that's how we came upon a few of the locations."
One of his prize finds was an old theme park in Conneaut, Pa., which served as the setting for some fires and a razed building. The place was a lucky find, according to Ullman. "There aren't a lot of theme parks that show wear-and-tear," he explains, "and this one obviously is a lake park over 100 years old that has gone through some unprofitable restructuring and hence met with decay and abandonment. We were able to make these fires here and they were kind enough to hold off tearing the building down for us."
The lake park, he says, "is a dinosaur. Nobody comes to lake parks anymore. This was for the people that couldn't afford to go anywhere else. They would hop on a train, and they'd come up here, and they'd summer here or spend a week or two weeks. This was for the coal miners the working class."
The parameters of his job on THE ROAD were quite different from what he's used to. "Normally I look for bucolic, beautiful, you know, or something interesting, and it was interesting of Chris--and John--to find these iconic images, these graphic images in these ruins."
Another topsy-turvy aspect of the filmmaking was the quality of light the crew needed to simulate a planet devoid of bright sunlight. "We need overcast weather for subdued lighting," says Kennedy. "We're talking about a post-apocalyptic world under a nuclear winter or an equivalent. So, direct sunlight is a problem. In fact, Javier Aguirresarobe, the cinematographer, says, 'The sun is our enemy.'  Both here and in Oregon another aspect of why it's good to shoot there is the amount of overcast days in the period that we're there."
While other film crews would rejoice at a bright sunny day, that is when THE ROAD crew got depressed and went inside to shoot interiors. "Working out in the snow in extremely cold weather and in mud and in awfully difficult conditions--if it's snowing or raining, then it's great. We rush out into it," Kennedy says. "I think it took people a while to get that into their head that actually this is an environmental film that's set out in a real environment, and what we want is the drama of that, not a nice, clear day."
Mortensen, who is such an intense incorporator of the environment into his method, describes the day-for night quality of the shoot as a test of the subconscious. On the set in Oregon, after most of the grueling weather scenes are behind him and he's preparing for some flashback scenes with Theron, he muses about the effect of the weather on filming. "We started out the whole shoot almost all the exteriors; we've had snow, mud, rain," he says. "We are inside now shooting interiors so we don't have to worry about it.  It's this beautiful late spring day here in Oregon.  And this morning was the first time in the shoot where I actually sat down for a second in the grass and I just looked at the green, watched a bird. I am someone who enjoys being outdoors, I like the change of seasons. I like to learn about trees and flowers. I am interested in places and natural places, but because of this movie I've ended up thinking always about no green, no sun, no anything.
"Mostly we've been lucky with the weather in that way," he continues. "So in a way, for the first time in my life, I've denied the coming of spring and I have denied life in a way.  That's what talk in the story about carrying the fire really means to me. You can read that many ways, that idea, being someone who is a leader in a way is someone who carries the fire also. But carrying the fire means carrying some life force, and because everything is dead around us it's on us to keep that hope of life, of spring, whatever you want to call it, alive. It's been interesting that today I just realized I've been going to some quiet beautiful places, but looking but not seeing the natural environment, and I have never done that. Today, I am starting to let go a little, and look, it's very nice!"
The task of translating a world totally devoid of sunlight into the grey-toned brush strokes that were nonetheless photographed in color, the desolate yet exciting world that's up there on the screen fell to the director of photography, Javier Aguirresarobe, a veteran of 35 productions, including THE OTHERS and VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA.
"A dull land is very difficult visually to bring to a film. So my life became more enriched with this film but also more difficult," Javier says. But to hear him tell it, he wouldn't have it any other way.
"I think the most important thing for me as a director of photography is finding new aspirations, new places, new spaces that are absolutely different for me. I encountered this with THE ROAD. Its really is the film of my dreams, because part of the book Cormac McCarthy portrayed an apocalyptic land, a land naked of sun."
An early decision by John Hillcoat was to keep the use of CGI--computer generated imagery-- to a minimum. If anything, the processing of the film stock to take out some of the colors that might have made their way into it was the primary use of digital manipulation on THE ROAD.
"On the technical side, I have to say that I've experimented a lot with different techniques," Javier says. "The film will be treated in different ways in the lab to get the film visually to the point where it's looking where we want it. I found a fantastic team that I have worked extremely well with and to whom I am very close and frankly I'm ecstatic to have been a part of THE ROAD. I think it's an incredible project and it was worth the effort even with the many challenges. This is day number 59 and that's a lot of days. I'm not so much tired as much as I am particularly satisfied with a job that I believe in visually, and I feel confident in saying that. THE ROAD is definitely the high point of my professional life and I think it's also the biggest of all my films"
The biggest challenge for a cinematographer, he says, was working with the weather, and maintaining visual continuity over more than 50 locations and 60 days of exterior shooting. And maintaining the "confidence to do the job correctly. Because this is an exterior film, we're always outside and dealing with the different climates and the changing weather. I came up with two sayings on the film that became popular with the crew. One is, 'The sun is the enemy' and the other is, 'Anything is possible on THE ROAD.' We were actually very lucky with the weather in the end and the sun stayed away most of the time.
"In this movie, the sun doesn't exist and the earth is apocalyptic. The color green doesn't exist; in fact colors don't exist cinematically either. At night the only light and color is from the red fire. We ended up using a lot of fireballs to create the light. They illuminate the sky and give the film an authenticity, realness.
"In this film, there isn't a manipulation of lights or a manipulation of things that are real," he adds. "For me I need the people when they leave the theater to have an impression of what can happen to this earth and that this can happen to them. I want them to feel while they watch the film that it's real and sincere. I think the biggest victory will be if the audience can believe in the reality of the story while watching it in the artificial world of the theater--that they see there is a truth to this story.
"In reality it's a recreation but it also morphs with reality and the photography is there to serve that. To create true light and the truth of the apocalyptic world; that is my role."
After a long and difficult shoot, Javier says he is blessed to have worked on THE ROAD. He tips his hat to the two people who carried the burden of filming--and the fire.
"Another reason I feel very satisfied on this film is because of a lot of people, but in particular two people," he says. "One of them is Viggo Mortensen and the other is Kodi, the principal protagonists. In creating this sort of reality I think I have also benefited from their performance because their acting form is truly natural. It's an extremely lucky coincidence having two extraordinary actors for this film. I think this is another of the many circumstances on this film that lead me on a path to great satisfaction, making a film that a lot of people are going to remember. I am truly convinced of that."

VIGGO MORTENSEN as The Man
Viggo Mortensen has consistently earned acclaim for his work in a wide range of films, including most recently EASTERN PROMISES, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE and the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. In 2008, he was honored with Academy Awardâ, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and BAFTA Award nominations for Best Actor for his performance in EASTERN PROMISES, directed by David Cronenberg. In addition, Mortensen won a British Independent Film Award and several critics' groups awards for his work in the film. He had previously collaborated with Cronenberg in the 2005 drama A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, in which he starred with Ed Harris.
Mortensen earlier shared in a SAG Award, a Critics' Choice Award and a National Board of Review Award as a member of the ensemble cast of the Oscar®-winning Best Picture THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING. He also starred in the previous two installments of the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, "THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING" and "THE TWO TOWERS."
Most recently, he starred again with and was directed by Ed Harris in APPALOOSA. Also in 2008, Mortensen starred in GOOD, based on the play by C.P. Taylor, which explores the rise of National Socialism in Germany. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Mortensen was born in New York City to an American mother and a Danish father. His family traveled extensively, however, and he spent most of his first eleven years living in South America. He later spent a few years living and working in Denmark. He began acting in New York, studying with Warren Robertson, and appeared in several plays and movies before moving to Los Angeles.
Mortensen made his feature film debut as a young Amish farmer in director Peter Weir's WITNESS and has since delivered a steady string of memorable performances in more than 40 feature films. He has received praise from critics for his work in such films as ALATRISTE, G.I. JANE, A WALK ON THE MOON, LA PISTOLA DE MI HERMANO, THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, CRIMSON TIDE, CARLITO'S WAY, THE INDIAN RUNNER and THE REFLECTING SKIN, to name only a few.
Apart from his acting, Mortensen is also an accomplished poet, photographer, and painter. In 2002, he founded Perceval Press, an independent publishing house specializing in art, poetry and critical writing. Perceval's mission is to publish texts, images and recordings that might not otherwise be presented.
Most recently, Mortensen exhibited the photographic series "Skovbo" in Iceland, at the Reykjavik Museum of Photography, and "The Nature of Landscape and Independent Perception," with George Gudni, at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica. Past shows include "Miyelo" at both the Stephen Cohen Gallery in Los Angeles and the Addison Ripley Gallery in Washington, D.C. Mortensen has also shown his work at the Robert Mann Gallery in New York City, as well as in New Zealand, Denmark and Cuba. In October 2008, his photographic exhibition "Sådanset" opened in Roskilde, Denmark, at the Palæfløjen exhibition space. His books of photography and writing are available from Perceval Press.

KODI SMIT-MCPHEE as The Boy
Kodi leaped into prominence in 2007 after starring opposite Eric Bana, Marton Csokas and Franka Potente in the critically acclaimed ROMULUS, MY FATHER, directed by Richard Roxbury. For his work in the film, Kodi received the Australian Film Institute's Young Actor Award and was also nominated for the Institute's Best Lead Actor prize.  He also received the Best Newcomer award from the 2007 Film Critics Circle of Australia.
The young thespian -- he was born June 13, 1996 -- comes from an acting family. His older sister Sianoa starred on the popular Australian television show NEIGHBOURS, and she recently landed her first U.S. role, filming the HBO pilot HUNG, which was written and directed by Alexander Payne. Kodi's father Andy has appeared in dozens of films and television shows in his native Australia and serves as his children's acting coach.
Besides ROMULUS and THE ROAD, Kodi had had a busy last two years of acting with the Australian feature films STRANDED and END OF TOWN, along with the television productions of Stephen King's NIGHTMARES & DREAMSCAPES. He also appeared in Richard Frankland's theater production Walkabout.
Kodi Smit-McPhee and lives with his family in Melbourne Australia. Besides acting, Kodi enjoys skateboarding and making music on his computer.

CHARLIZE THERON as The Woman
With her ability to capture a plethora of characters, Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron relentlessly demands the audience's full attention as soon as she appears on screen. This South African native is continuously being praised and admired for her inspiring and powerful performances.
Theron captivated audiences as female serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the independent gem MONSTER. For her emotionally devastating performance in that film, she received the Academy Award®, the Independent Spirit Award and the National Broadcast Film Critics Association award for Best Actress. She also won the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, San Francisco Film Critics Circle, New York Film Critics Online and Southeastern Film Critics awards and the Breakthrough Performance Award from the National Board of Review.
Charlize was next seen in the drama NORTH COUNTRY, opposite Frances McDormand and Sissy Spacek for director Niki Caro. Based on the real-life story of a group of women coal miners and the hostile work environment they faced on a daily basis, NORTH COUNTRY received great praise. Her incredible performance as Josey Aimes garnered her nominations for a Golden Globe, SAG, Critics Choice and an Oscar. 
Theron also captivated audiences in HBO's THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PETER SELLERS, opposite Geoffrey Rush, for which she received a Best Supporting Actress nomination from the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Emmys.
Charlize was recently seen as Detective Emily Sanders in the film IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH written and directed by Paul Haggis. Soon after she received rave reviews for her film SLEEPWALKING, in which she both produced and co-starred alongside Dennis Hopper, Woody Harrelson, Nick Stahl and AnnaSophia Robb.
Most recently she was seen in HANCOCK, starring alongside Will Smith and Jason Bateman. Directed by Peter Berg, HANCOCK is an action comedy which was released by Sony Pictures in the summer of 2008. In addition, Theron recently finished filming and executive producing Guillermo Arriaga's directorial debut THE BURNING PLAIN in which she plays Sylvia, a woman who is forced to take an emotional journey to rid herself of a sin from her past. Theron stars alongside Kim Basinger in this upcoming drama produced by 2929 Productions.   
Moviegoers were first introduced to the seductive charm of Charlize Theron in her feature film debut, MGM's 2 DAYS IN THE VALLEY, with James Spader, Eric Stoltz and Jeff Daniels. She has also been seen co-starring alongside Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves in DEVILS ADVOCATE; with Tom Hanks in THAT THING YOU DO; and in Jonathan Lynn's TRIAL AND ERROR. In addition, Theron starred in Woody Allen's CELEBRITY, which she then followed with MIGHTY JOE YOUNG with Bill Paxton. In 1999 Theron starred in the Oscar®-nominated THE CIDER HOUSE RULES and in New Line Cinema's THE ASTRONAUT'S WIFE, with Johnny Depp. In 2000, the much in-demand Theron tackled back-to-back roles in the following movies: Robert Redford's THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE, with Will Smith and Matt Damon, Fox 2000's MEN OF HONOR, with Robert DeNiro and Cuba Gooding, Jr., John Frankenheimer's REINDEER GAMES, with Ben Affleck and Miramax's THE YARDS, co-starring Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, James Caan and Faye Dunaway.
In 2001, Theron illuminated the screen in the Warner Bros tearjerker SWEET NOVEMBER, alongside Keanu Reeves, as well as in Woody Allen's CURSE OF THE JADE SCORPION, co-starring Helen Hunt, Dan Aykroyd and David Ogden Stiers. In the fall of 2002 Theron starred opposite Patrick Swayze, Natasha Richardson and Billy Bob Thornton in WAKING UP IN RENO. She then moved on to star alongside Kevin Bacon, Courtney Love, Stuart Townsend, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Dakota Fanning in the feature film TRAPPED, directed by Luis Mandoki.

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