In The Adjustment Bureau, screenwriter and first-time director George Nolfi has createdan unusual and intriguingfilm that is currently enjoying well-deserved critical andcommercial success.
Nolfi had been working on the project for a number of years, the idea having originally been suggested to him by his friend and producing partner Michael Hackett. Hackett had a connection to late author Philip K. Dick’s estate and wanted to develop Dick’s short story Adjustment Team for the big screen.
The concept that fate itself would conspire to prevent a man from being with the woman he loves was one that got Nolfi hooked immediately, striking him as a film that could tackle some of life’s big questions in a compelling and thrilling way.
When Nolfi first worked with actor Matt Damon on Ocean’s Eleven (2004) (they would meet again on The Bourne Ultimatum in 2007 – Nolfi having written both films), he and Hackett were certain they wanted Damon to headline The Adjustment Bureau, so much so that Nolfi began work on the screenplay with the actor in mind as the film’s protagonist David Norris.
Damon himself expressed interest in the film on reading the first draft. He was fascinated by the idea, and was impressed by Nolfi’s adaptation of Dick’s original story to make it relevant to a modern audience.
“George was specific about everything – from the look of it to the types of people that he wanted to cast. He saw what he wanted to do with the piece.
“This is the most romantic lead I’ve ever had,” the actor continues, “so it was definitely new territory.”
Casting Elise, the dancer who would make Matt Damon’s affable politician fall head over heels in love proved harder. Because the character is a dancer, Nolfi originally envisaged a dancer or an actress with many years of ballet training for the role. This also had to be someone that had obvious chemistry with Damon.
The company auditioned hundreds of dancers and actresses to no avail. Enter Emily Blunt, who on reading the script called her agent to say she thought that “this is tricky stuff and an actor should play the part, for if that love and relationship doesn’t work, you don’t have a movie”.
Luckily for her, Nolfi agreed, and on seeing Blunt read with Damon knew he had found his leading lady.
Despite having to go through extensive dance training (of which she had previously had none) Blunt relished the opportunity to play the part. “Nolfi has written a feisty, strong, layered, complicated girl who can hold her own. There was a lot to play with, the dialogue was witty and the connection they have and how they fell in love didn’t seem contrived”.
Pursuing the lovers is this group of strange people who manipulate events from a position of unseen immutable power. Explains Hackett, “They have a bureaucratic system that allows them to manipulate things in such a way that our lives are subtly adjusted, nudged, bumped, moved, encouraged, coaxed and cajoled in the direction that they have determined we are going in.” To play the impeccably well-groomed bureaucrats who enter Norris’s life, Nolfi assembled a superb trio.
As Harry, the agent working Norris’ case, the director cast Anthony Mackie, in one of those ‘only in Hollywood’ moments. Nolfi was having trouble casting the role, but pretty much cast him on the spot when he saw the actor in last year’s Oscar-winner The Hurt Locker.
Similarly, after a chance meeting with John Slattery, the director asked him to read a few scenes on film – Slattery loved the script, Nolfi loved his work and the actor signed on.
As for the mysterious Thompson, the highest-ranked agent brought in to ‘adjust’ Norris’s life for good, and who would do anything to put David’s life on the right track, as it were, Nolfi cast British veteran actor Terence Stamp. “You look atTerence Stamp, and there’s a certain amount of gravitas that comes with him”.
Stamp was attracted to the project by Nolfi’s intricate screenplay, and like the rest of the cast could not help but reflect on the powerful forces of destiny and fate at the centre of the story. The actor remembers something his mother once said about his father. “She said to me, ‘he wasn’t what I would have chosen. He wasn’t what I wanted at all but I couldn’t help myself.’ I’ve thought about that a lot. Because that’s the destiny isn’t it. Where your mind doesn’t want something, but you have to do it anyway.”