The San Diego Traveler

Behind the Scenes of Whiteout

by Carole A. Lane on August 21st, 2007

 When Joel Silver came to Comic-Con this year, he had more than one project to promote. This busy producer is involved in projects all over the convention, including Speed Racer, Masters of the Universe, Logan’s Run and Wonder Woman. But the preview that I attended was for his upcoming film, Whiteout, starring Kate Beckinsale. (Love her.)

Whiteout is based on the Eisner Award-winning graphic novel series, Whiteout, by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber. It’s directed by Dominic Sena, best known for his films Gone in Sixty Seconds,  Swordfish, and Kalifornia. Rucka has both producer and writer credits on this film.

Silver describes this story as something fresh and new. It’s about the first murder in Antarctica ever. A U.S. Marshall must investigate and solve the crime within three days, before the dark six-month winter begins and she’s left alone with the murderer. I wish that I could share the preview with you, but it’s not available online yet. It was very intense and suspenseful, with an ominous warning that this is the land where . I only hope that it didn’t include all of the best moments of the film, as can so often be the case.

Whiteout was filmed in upper Manitoba, Canada, where the weather was 30 below zero. The cast wore 6-8 layers of clothes, and had hot packets to stuff everywhere. They also had at least one tow truck call each day, because one or another of them was always stuck in a snowbank.

There was a real Antarctic Marshall on set to advise them. There was also some shooting on sound stages in Montreal.

Sena described the novel as so terrific, with a 1st, 2nd and 3rd act, and a rich story to tell. He said that was what he responded to.

In the novel, Lily Sharpe drives the drama; however, the role of Lily will not be in the film. Instead, Price will serve as a sort of surrogate for her, giving the film a male-female dynamic that will be different from the novel. Beckinsale will play the main character, Carrie Stetko, a U.S. Marshall.

If you’re wondering how Kate Beckinsale came to the cast, she was Silver’s choice from the beginning. He said his least favorite thing was putting her in a parka for the whole thing.

 Starring with Beckinsale is Gabriel Macht, a U.N. operative also investigating the murder. Tom Skerritt is also a member of the predominantly male cast.

When Rucka was asked about this adaptation of his graphic novel, he expressed his enthusiasm for the film, saying, ”They’ve taken the best of what Steve Lieber and I created…There are things we would’ve loved to have done on the comic book page, that we couldn’t do.” He said, without telling them, the writers/directors instinctively put those things into the film. He was amazed.

Asked about the shoot, the audience was told that it was a very serious set, except for Kate, who is very sardonic. This is completely evident in this video of Beckinsale’s appearance at Comic-Con:

Silver was asked about Speed Racer, and he said that they’ve seen it as it hasn’t been done before. The Wachowski brothers [directing] are huge fans of Japanese animation; they captured that, but they made it into something you’ve never seen before. It has a fantastic cast [Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Fox, among others], and it’s a spectacular look and feel. According to Silver, it’s really colorful, very effective, and the races are just unbelievable.

Silver’s next films are Invasion (with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig), The Brave One (with Jodie Foster) and Fred Claus (with Vince Vaughn). Wonder Woman is also coming “down the line,” but they don’t have a script that they like right now. He also has a new TV series, Moonlight, that starts airing in the fall.

Last of all, Silver was asked, “If Mel Gibson and Bruce Willis faced off, who would win?” Joel Silver would, of course.

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