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THE ART OF ORIGINAL FILMMAKING
REMEMBER ME

In the romantic drama Remember Me, Robert Pattinson plays Tyler, a rebellious young man in New York City who has had a strained relationship with his father (Pierce Brosnan) ever since tragedy separated their family.
Tyler didn't think anyone could possibly understand what he was going through, until the day he met Ally (Emilie de Ravin) through an unusual twist of fate. Love was the last thing on his mind, but as her spirit unexpectedly heals and inspires him, he begins to fall for her. Through their love, he begins to find happiness and meaning in his life. Soon, hidden secrets are revealed and tragedy lingers in the air, as the circumstances that brought them together threaten to tear them apart. Set in the summer of 2001,
Remember Me is an unforgettable story about the power of love, the strength of family, and the importance of living passionately and treasuring every day of one's life.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
When I first read Will Fetter's script, REMEMBER ME (at that time entitled MEMOIRS), three of its many qualities struck a deep chord within me: first of all, it presented New York City at a particularly important time in its history. As a New Yorker, I reveled in the opportunity to accurately depict that time in a city that I know so well and have loved so long. Second, it presented an honest and unvarnished story of young love--a subject I'd been interested in dramatizing for many years. And third, from its opening scene, the script was imbued with a consistent and timely theme, namely: what happens when a bolt-from-the-blue collides with and shatters our well-ordered world? How does one survive these unexpected and inexplicable shocks? And how does it alter us as human beings?
Simply put, while REMEMBER ME was both an intimate story of the love that grows between two young people and a finely drawn portrait of how two different families are affected by their own particular version of a sudden and tragic event, the script ultimately became an exploration of the larger themes of love, loss and the evanescence of life.

Allen Coulter


ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
The summer preceding September 11, 2001 is looked upon as a time of innocence for all Americans. It is here where the romantic drama REMEMBER ME lives. Honest and gripping, the film stars Robert Pattinson (Tyler) as a rebellious NYU student wrestling with his beliefs about life and love and the realities and complexities of life itself. This becomes evident in his contentious relationship with his father (Pierce Brosnan) and the
unexpected comfort he finds in love interest, Emilie de Ravin, (Ally) a girl he meets through a crass bet he makes with a friend.
Pattinson brings to the role a tough exterior, a sincere emotional depth and a spirit of defiance that comes when a young man tries to move out from under his father's shadow, while at the same time, trying to connect with him.
Soon after the film's opening, it is revealed that both Pattinson's and de Ravin's characters have each experienced a profound loss, a loss which draws them together. As the story develops, we are given a window into their family lives through stellar turns from Brosnan, Lena Olin, Ruby Jerins and Chris Cooper. In each family, it is clear that loss has changed the dynamic-- bringing some members closer, while driving others apart.
Throughout it all, REMEMBER ME remains an unforgettable story of the power of love, the strength of family, and the importance of treasuring every day of one's life.
Describing the film and its author, director Allen Coulter says: "Will Fetters wrote an incredibly touching script. In its simplest form, REMEMBER ME is the story of two young people, both with a tragedy in their past, and the love that grows between these two. He's from a wealthy family, she's from a blue-collar family and they both share this unspoken and unrecognized bond, which emerges as they get to know each other. It's filled with all kinds of humor and poignancy--such a rich tapestry. It's a very beautiful love story."
"The movie is about love and loss," offers producer Nick Osborne. "It's about trying to figure out one's life and why certain events occur and maybe not coming up with the answers, but approaching an answer."
"I think these are questions we all deal with till the end of our days but especially in our early twenties." Robert Pattinson describes his character, Tyler Hawkins, who, in the aftermath of losing his brother is "a young guy who's a little bit lost. He has very wealthy parents, but he's very self-righteous, and a bit of a waster. He has an attitude, which a lot of twenty-one year old guys have, where they think they know better than everyone else, but don't feel the need to prove it in any way whatsoever. And he eventually meets this girl who shows him, in a roundabout kind of way, how to mature."
"It's not your typical love story," says Emilie de Ravin (Ally Craig). "These two characters, Tyler and Ally, meet each other in unusual circumstances and they've both had very traumatic pasts. Their relationship is so beautifully formed and so realistic, and the movie revolves around that. It goes deep into how people really feel about each other, and the reality of, not just the fluff of relationships, but really what goes on."

FINDING THE SCRIPT
Osborne recalls, "It was four years ago that Trevor Engelson read the script. Trevor said, 'I think there may be something here. You should read it.' And so I read it. Will Fetters' first draft blew me away. I was utterly moved by it and I called Trevor and I said, 'We have to make this movie.'
"We took it around to a lot of financiers," he says, "we took it to one actor who wanted to do it, who then fell out. And then at some point I got it to Allen Coulter. And Allen and I worked on it with Will for a while. Then Rob came on board, which really helped. It was just before Twilight though, so it was bizarre. He read the script before he really had any, I suppose, 'juice' or real name recognition within the industry."
Producer Nick Osborne describes what REMEMBER ME screenwriter Will Fetters meant to the production, saying, "Without Will, we have nothing. He thought of this story and where it was going, and when Allen, Rob and I read it initially, we all felt that this is something we're going to commit to and we're going to stick with.
Because it's not easy getting movies made in Hollywood nowadays, and it's definitely not easy getting dramas made. Dramas are the hardest of all."
"What's interesting is that Will was Tyler when he wrote the script. He was this young, angry guy wanting to make something of himself in the world. But he didn't know how to do it and how to get there. And he had all these deep thoughts and all this kind of angst... I think what comes out of Tyler Hawkins is Will during that time. And that's why it feels authentic."
All the major preliminary aspects of the production fell together based on the strength of the script. Says Osborne, "What Will brought to this is a testament to the writing on this script. Because we got the actors we wanted, we got the director we wanted, and we've built off that. We have a phenomenal film."
Pierce Brosnan says the script provides a great role for an actor to play, and attests that, "Will Fetters created dimensional characters and emotional characters caught in the conflict of life. And when you get to the end of it, it really just punches you in the gut. I'm very grateful for this role. I'm at a place in my career now where I can go off and do anything I want. This is a really, really good role in the hands of a really fine director and an ensemble cast which is so well matched to their parts," he adds.
Allen Coulter reflects, "Everyone who read the script, virtually to a person, was moved by it and drawn to it. It's all because Will Fetters had this inspiration. When I signed on to do it, the only thing that I really wanted was to continue to push for the story to be as truthful as I knew how to make it."
"For instance, as a New Yorker I felt I needed to address the very small things that you have to be New Yorker to know, whether it has to do with character, location or just some kind of atmosphere. This was not something that Will could know because he's not from here," he points out.

A 'LOVE LETTER' TO NEW YORK
Both director Allen Coulter and producer Nick Osborne felt that filming on location in New York City would ensure that the city became a character in itself.
Coulter remarks, "As a person who lives here, I always feel very fortunate to find anything that takes place in New York. It's a running joke with my wife--if it says on the first page, 'We open in New York,' I say, 'I like this script,' even before I've read the rest of it."
"We really looked at the locations where we wanted to shoot. We didn't want to shoot at ridiculously iconic places, but at the same time we wanted to give it a real New York feel," Osborne says.
"Naturally, there are obstacles you have to navigate shooting in the city but it was particularly difficult this time because of the enormous popularity and notoriety of Rob."
"It's been a little crazy with the paparazzi following us around" says Coulter. "Some days we've had thirty paparazzi, some days we've had three, four hundred fans at our locations. But we got it done and I think it looks beautiful. Jonathan Freeman, the D.P., is phenomenal and I think it shows in what we've shot. But it's a New York story and something of a love letter to New York, so it's worth it because the city…there's no replacing it."

CASTING REMEMBER ME: AN 'AMAZING' ENSEMBLE
Allen Coulter and Nick Osborne were both intensely involved in the casting process from the very beginning.Says Coulter, "We had a meeting with Rob Pattinson after Summit expressed some interest. We had lunch with him about a year ago and liked him and were interested in him right away and he was interested too, so that sort of started the process."One of a director's greatest advantages is a production well cast and it is in Coulter's nature to be involved in the casting process every step of the way. "I can't imagine working on a project where I was not as involved as I can be in the casting," Coulter remarks. "It was just me and Nick Osborne, working with Joanna Colbert and Rich Mento, and then Summit weighed in, but really only on two or three principal roles. We ended up with a cast that both Nick and I were thrilled with. I think you'd be hard pressed to say what kind of cast it is because it's so eclectic. It has elements that you might say were from a big-budget film and elements that you might think of as an independent film," he says. Read more

ON ROBERT PATTINSON AS TYLER HAWKINS
Allen Coulter says "Nick's and my feeling was that Robert could embody a young man who's filled with complexity -- his anger, his guilt around the circumstances of the story, his frustration in his relationship with his father and his impotence to change his situation; a young man who feels lost and who ultimately doesn't know who he is." Read more

ON EMILIE DE RAVIN AS ALLY CRAIG
Osborne says that Tyler's relationship with Ally is different, Ally brings calm to his life: "She's the first person who walks into his life and doesn't buy his act. This is a guy who doesn't have trouble getting young women to fall for him or come home with him and she's the first that challenges him. She strips away the protective layers he's created for himself and gets to who the true 'Tyler' is."Read more

ON PIERCE BROSNAN AS CHARLES HAWKINS
Coulter was drawn to Pierce Brosnan because of the film, "Matador", where Brosnan showed he was willing to take chances as an actor. "You know, I was thinking about that while I was also trying to imagine someone who could be the father of a guy this good looking, and I thought, 'Well, Pierce Brosnan could do it.' Nick liked the idea and when we pitched it to Summit they were also thrilled with the possibility."Read more

ON CHRIS COOPER AS SGT. NEIL CRAIG
According to Nick Osborne, there's not much more you can say about Chris Cooper except that he's a "brilliant, brilliant actor..." "Everything he does in this film," he says, "from the opening scene where he's grieving for his wife... the way he's protective of Ally -- he just brings it."Read more

ON LENA OLIN AS DIANE HIRSCH
Nick Osborne and Allen Coulter talk about what Lena Olin brings to the role of Tyler's mother. Osborne remarks, "I really felt for Lena as I was watching the dailies. This is a woman who's still grieving her son who committed suicide six years earlier. Yet as the movie progresses, you feel life start to flow back into her -- that there's a certain level of enjoyment of life, so you don't want her to be hurt anymore."Read more

ON RUBY JERINS AS CAROLINE HAWKINS
Pierce Brosnan has called her "a button of a beauty," and Nick Osborne too was wowed by Ruby Jerins' talents.Read more

ON TATE ELLINGTON AS AIDAN HALL
Tate Ellington provides some comic relief in contrast to Robert Pattinson's character, Tyler Hawkins.

ENGAGING THE AUDIENCE
One of the filmmaker's primary goals is to engage the viewers to identify with conflict of the characters. "Everyone has felt loss in their life," says Osborne, " at some point or other. Everyone has felt frustration; most people have had that incredibly passionate first love affair, which I think this invokes. We've all been frustrated by our parents and I think what's wonderful is that, to a certain extent, our characters work out those issues through the course of the film."Read more

GETTING THE LOOK DOWN
Director Allen Coulter talks about working with director of photography, Jonathan Freeman, and other department heads and how they came up with the look and color palate of the film.Read more

DIALECT: GETTING IT DOWN
Rob, Emilie and Pierce all have there own indigenous accents in real life, and this is a New York movie, in a New York voice... Was there a worry about making sure everyone could play the New York characters?Read more

ALLEN COULTER'S FAVORITE SCENES
REMEMBER ME offered some unique challenges and unexpected pleasures for the director. Allen Coulter describes a few moments in detail: Read more

ALLEN ON NICK
On Coulter's experience in working with Nick, he says:  "Well, it's just been the most difficult, difficult situation. No (Laughs), Nick has been great from the beginning. I mean he's really the most even-tempered guy. There are times when you're in the early stages of these things, before they're a reality, when you start thinking, 'Well, is this the right film for me to do?' You begin to fill yourself with doubt because you're questioning everything. On this project I had a few of them and Nick was cool as can be." Read more

NICK ON ALLEN
"Well, I've always loved "Hollywoodland," I thought it was a fantastic film and I sent the script to his agent.Read more

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

ALLEN COULTER, DIRECTOR
Born and raised in Texas, Mr. Coulter started in the film business as a messenger for a small New York production company. While supporting himself doing virtually every job in the motion picture industry, he wrote and directed "The Hobb Case," a short that served as his entree into full-time directing.
The byzantine path of his career eventually lead to "The Sopranos," "Sex & the City," "Six Feet Under" and "Rome."
His first feature, "Hollywoodland," starring Adrien Brody, Diane Lane and Ben Affleck, opened in September 2006 to critical acclaim.
More recently he has directed the pilots of "Nurse Jackie" starring Edie Falco for Showtime, the FX Network pilot, "Sons of Anarchy" and the upcoming series "Rubicon" for AMC.
He also received his fifth Emmy nomination for the pilot of FX Network's "Damages," starring Glenn Close.

WILL FETTERS, WRITER
Will Fetters was studying Political Science and Finance at the University of Delaware in 2003 with every intention of attending law school, when a misunderstanding with local law enforcement dovetailed with an idea for a film. He finished school, started writing and that misunderstanding eventually inspired the narrative foundation for his first original screenplay, Memoirs, which became the film, Remember Me. He has since adapted the Nicholas Sparks novel "The Lucky One" and drafted a remake of "A Star is Born" for Warner Bros.  Scott Hicks (Shine) is in line to direct "The Lucky One", while Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook) is in talks to direct "A Star Is Born". Will is currently adapting Norman Ollestad's survival memoir "Crazy for the Storm", also for Warner Bros., and he recently signed a deal to develop a TV pilot with Gossip Girl co-creator Stephanie Savage.
Will currently has no plans to attend law school.

THE ART OF ORIGINAL FILMMAKING

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