THESE ARE ORIGINAL HERO PORPS SCREEN USED BY
SHIA LaBEOUF AS KALE BRECHT DURING FILMING OF THE HIT MOVIE: "DISTURBIA".
RECEIVED DIRECTLY FROM THE SET WITH COA FROM DREAMWORKS SKG.



REVIEW:

Disturbia isn't so much a remake of Hitchcock's Rear Window, because let's face it, that would be close to criminal.

Rather, it's a transposition of the basic idea of voyeurism gone awry. In this high-voltage version, directed by D.J. Caruso and executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, the Jimmy Stewart character is Kale, a troubled teen who, after popping a teacher in the mouth, finds himself under house arrest.

What seems at first like a dream opportunity to play video games and eat Twinkies around the clock turns sour when Kale's mom confiscates all his toys, save for a pair of binoculars. Then the fun really begins.

First, because Kale has got the cutest new neighbour ever (the very fetching Sarah Roemer), and second, because he witnesses what he believes just may be a crime.

"We watched [Rear Window] non-stop," says LaBeouf about the process of making this movie. "Jimmy Stewart is incredible. Hitchcock is incredible. We definitely pay homage to the movie - there are scenes where I'm scratching my ankle with the brush, for example, so that's from there. But there's also elements of The Conversation in it - though the technology is so different at this point. It's not tape recorders and listening devices, it's cellphone cameras." Among the twists Disturbia puts on the classic are themes that are of particular interest in this day and age - the prevalence of technology, for example, and how easy spying is today. Even the average digital camera has a zoom on it powerful enough to pick up what your neighbour is eating for dinner.

So while the access Stewart's character had to his great big professional camera in Rear Window had to be complicatedly explained by him being an international photojournalist, Kale is just a regular teen who has daily access to cellphones and digicams. Another theme explored is the isolation of suburbia, while Rear Window was all set in the city. So really, Disturbia quotes from Hitchcock in spirit only. Ahem. Literally. "We shot partly on soundstage - stage 18, which was the Rear Window soundstage," recounts a wide-eyed LaBeouf. "And it felt cursed. I've never seen this happen, but at one point the film just spooled out.

The film, from the cartridge, would just spew out. That doesn't happen, ever. But every time we went on that stage that would happen. We'd go away from the set, the camera would work fine. We'd go back to the stage and the camera would spool out."



BIOGRAPHY OF SHIE LaBEOUF:

Shia LaBeouf burst upon the scene and has quickly become one of Hollywood's most sought-after talents. He just completed production as the lead role in the film The Greatest Game Ever Played, directed by Bill Paxton. LaBeouf was most recently seen in I, Robot, opposite Will Smith for director Alex Proyas. Prior to that, he starred in the HBO Project Greenlight production of The Battle of Shaker Heights, executive produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and in the hit film Charlie's Angels II: Full Throttle. In 2003, LaBeouf made his big screen debut starring opposite Sigourney Weaver and Jon Voight in the film Holes. On television, LeBeouf garnered much praise from critics everywhere for his portrayal of Louis Stevens, on the Disney Channel's original series Even Stevens. In 2003, he earned a Daytime Emmy award for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series for his work on the highly rated family show. LaBeouf attended the Magnet School of Performing Arts at USC and currently resides in California with his family.



FILMING LOCATIONS:

Disturbia was filmed on location in the cities of Whittier, California and Pasadena, California. The homes of Kale and Mr. Turner, which were supposed to be next door to each other, were actually located in two different cities.



THEMES:

For a movie of its genre and budget, Disturbia explores many interesting themes hearkening back to the classic Rear Window. In fact, the movie seems to combine many elements from both Rear Window and American Beauty (the former also distributed by Paramount - but now owned by Universal - and the latter also from DreamWorks) and 1985's Fright Night where a serial-killing vampire lives next-door to a surbunite kid playedy Charles Ragsdale. The title itself refers to the suburbia setting and, just like American Beauty, the film explores suburban life and its effect on both family and personal life. Like both of these films, Disturbia pays particular attention to the themes of privacy and voyeurism, the former being violated and the latter being amplified by the setting. Overall, Disturbia is an amalgamation of the suspense genre along with the horror genre.



RECEPTION AND SEQUEL:

Disturbia opened at #1 in its first week at the box office with $23 million, and it stayed at #1 the following two weeks with $13 and $9 million respectively. As of Sunday August 5, 2007, the film had grossed approximately $100 million worldwide. Disturbia is considered a huge financial success with respect to its small production budget of only $20 million, and talk of a sequel has already begun. However there have been no confirmed reports and none of the cast have signed on. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 68% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 158 reviews, with the consensus that the film is "a tense, subtle thriller with a noteworthy performance from Shia LaBeouf". On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 62 out of 100, based on 28 reviews. The film earned a "two thumbs up" rating from Richard Roeper and A.O. Scott (filling in for Roger Ebert), with Roeper saying, "This is a cool little thriller with big scares and fine performances;" however, many have criticized the change of atmosphere two-thirds of the way into the film, when the initial pacing and action morphs into that of a "run-of-the-mill slasher horror film".