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Daily News
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Open Ready to Open
Lions Gate schedules shark-ridden 2004 Sundance hit for release in theaters this summer.
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
By Mark Umbach
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Having premiered to a warm welcome at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, Lions
Gate Films has announced that it will be bringing fest fave Open Water
to theaters in the top ten markets on August 6, 2004, before taking the film
wide in 2000 theaters on August 20. Written and directed by Chris Kentis, and produced by his wife Laura Lau, the thriller follows the harrowing adventures
of a SCUBA diving couple stranded in the middle of the angry, shark-infested
ocean.
Based on real events and described as The Blair Witch
Project meets Jaws, the thriller stars Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis as Susan and Daniel, a vacationing couple who decide to take their SCUBA skills into
the tropical waters of the Caribbean. After being inadvertently abandoned in
the middle of the sea, they must spend the next 24 hours fighting the
elements, which include an ominous shark, to stay alive.
Unlike Jaws and Deep Blue Sea, the filmmakers behind Open
Water did not rely on special effects to create their fear. During the shoot,
which took place in the ocean off the coast of the Bahamas, Ryan and Travis
spent over 120 hours in the open water while a local shark expert would manipulate
real-life sharks, which sometimes numbered close to 50, by throwing blood and
guts into the water.
In reference to the shoot, Kentis said, “We would throw bait in the water to get the sharks to move. But once too many pieces are in the water, the sharks get really worked up, and then the actors would have to get out of the water.”
Kentis and Lau also served as the cinematographers on the film, and Kentis
edited the feature.
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