Deaf Niche The horror movie A Quiet Place is already a major success at the theaters and became the second top box office hit this year after Black Panther! The addition of a deaf character adds another layer of horror and makes effective use of American Sign Language as a plot/coping device, making A Quiet Place one of this year’s unique films.
We bet you’ll find these facts as interesting as we found them:
1. The main actor John Krasinski is also the director; he and the writers pushed for a deaf actress to play the role of Reagan.
“We always had a deaf character in the script, but John really pushed for them to hire Millicent,” Beck [writer Scott Beck] said. “She came to set and taught everyone sign language. It was really amazing and brought an extra depth to the film.” Source: Huffington Post
2. The film crew had an ASL expert on set during the entire film shoot.
Douglas Ridloff served as the set’s ASL mentor, ensuring that all the actors appear natural. He is an ASL consultant, teacher, and performer. Ridloff’s main focus is on ASL poetry.
3. Reagan’s character was from an older script that was never made into a movie.
The writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods both wrote a script together a long time ago that was based on the story of the Pied Piper of Hamlin, there was a deaf character in the story. That character was Reagan, the writers used her in the film A Quiet Place instead.
4. Paramount Pictures pushed for A Quiet Place to be a sequel to the Cloverfield films.
The plot of A Quiet Place fits right in with the Cloverfield films (10 Cloverfield Lane, The Cloverfield Paradox, Cloverfield) because of the monsters’ similiarities. Paramount Pictures pushed for the inclusion of A Quiet Place into the series, however the writers and director Krasinski fought for it to be a standalone film. The trio believed that A Quiet Place was strong enough to stand independently and that it did.
5. A Quiet Place‘s first trailer was released during the 2018 Super Bowl.
The first time A Quiet Place was announced publicly with a film trailer was during the playoffs at Super Bowl. It was a 30 second trailer that aired with seven other film trailers, including Red Sparrow with Jennifer Lawrence. It actually received one of the lowest views on its Facebook and Youtube pages, which is ironic compared to its success at the box office.
6. Actress Millicent Simmonds had a strong influence on how the hearing characters signed and behaved.
Simmonds taught her co-stars sign language and helped with characters’ tones; for example, the script originally called for Simmonds’ character to act passive and shy when her father is scolding her in sign language. Simmonds insisted that the most realistic and appropriate reaction for teenage Reagan would be rebellion, not submission. Another example is Krasinski’s character as the father who signs very short and blunt, clearly reflecting his survivalist mentality.
7. The producers originally didn’t plan on using subtitles at all for the signed dialogue in the film.
Originally, the only dialogue planned for the ASL scenes was “I love you,” and when filming started, subtitles became required with additional signed dialogue. The subtitles added a new dimension to the film; it pushed the concept of survival in silence further.
8. The 67-page script had only one line of dialogue.
The script had 67 pages and only one line of spoken dialogue. The rest of the 67 pages described actions and showed photoshopped images of the environment; one photo was the Monopoly game board with the new soft game pieces that made zero noise. This was definitely an experimental screenplay by Bryan Woods and Scott Beck; both writers were sure that Hollywood studios would reject it. Until Michael Bay at Paramount Studios stepped in.
9. The producer of A Quiet Place is Michael Bay, the director of the Transformers series.
Yes, THAT Michael Bay. The director of the well-known series Transformers read the script for A Quiet Place and loved the concept. He passed the script to John Krasinski who then shared with his wife Emily Blunt and the movie was made with Krasinski directing.
10. A Quiet Place is one of the very few Hollywood films that utilizes a cochlear implant as part of the main story plot.
Reagan’s cochlear implant played a super important role in the film– we won’t spoil the movie for you– her dad is constantly tinkering with her cochlear implant and it pays off in the film. How many Hollywood films can you name that uses a cochlear implant as part of the story?
Sources:
FoxNews-‘A Quiet Place’ surprises with second-biggest opening of 2018 behind ‘Black Panther’
A Quiet Place Interview With John Krasinski
http://www.indiewire.com/2018/04/a-quiet-place-screenwriters-emily-blunt-john-krasinski-bryan-woods-scott-beck-1201948205/
