“WHAT HAPPENED TO MONDAY?” PRODUCTION NOTES Synopsis In a not so distant future, where overpopulation and famine have forced governments to undertake a drastic One-Child Policy, seven identical sisters live a hide-and-seek existence pursued by the Child Allocation Bureau. The Bureau, directed by the fierce Nicolette Cayman, enforces a strict family planning agenda that the sisters outwit by taking turns assuming the identity of one person: Karen Settman. Taught by their grandfather who raised and named them - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday - each can go outside once a week as their common identity, but are only free to be themselves in the prison of their own apartment. That is until, one day, Monday does not come home...... THE FOLLOWING PRODUCTION NOTES CONTAIN SPOILERS. DO NOT REVEAL KEY ELEMENTS OF THE SCRIPT IN FUTURE AND ANY ARTICLES. “WHAT HAPPENED TO MONDAY?” An Introduction… “WHAT HAPPENED TO MONDAY?” is set in 2073, a near-future, post- dystopian world where cataclysmic weather conditions, over-population and dwindling resources plague the planet. Civil and political unrest, wars and the refugee crisis have changed the landscape of the world. Most of the world powers have fallen and the European Federation has risen as the new superpower. For the human race to survive, the populace is forced to exist in an Orwellian society, where the draconian “One Child Policy” is law and The Child Allocation Bureau dictates that any family reproducing more than one child, will have them removed for cryofreezing until the world’s resources can sustain them. Acclaimed Swedish actress NOOMI RAPACE (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Prometheus) takes on the challenge of playing seven identical Settman sisters: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, who have been raised in secret by their grandfather. The siblings share one public face, the stoic, uber-professional and successful Karen Settman who acts as the cover identity for all the sisters. Karen’s objective is to blend in and remain under the radar of the Child Allocation Bureau. She is the means by which the Settmans can earn money and survive. Helmed by Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow, Dead Snow 2: Red vs Dead, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters), who received the Best Director accolade at the Puchon International Film Festival, the stellar supporting cast includes GLENN CLOSE as Nicolette Cayman, the head of the Child Allocation Bureau and WILLEM DAFOE as Terrence Settman, the siblings’ grandfather. The original screenplay for “WHAT HAPPENED TO MONDAY?” made it onto the prestigious Hollywood Blacklist. Screenwriter Max Botkin first came up with the concept back in 2001 and the identical siblings were originally male. When director Tommy Wirkola boarded the project, he felt that making them female would add a more exciting dynamic and having long admired the work of Noomi Rapace, he figured she could pull off the challenge of portraying the seven siblings. Wirkola called Rapace and said that he wanted to pitch her to the producers as the lead. Botkin called this development, “A stroke of genius on Tommy’s part”. Raffaella De Laurentiis and her production executive Matthew Feitshans had optioned the script from Botkin and their agents, CAA took it to market and Vendome picked it up. When the film became a European co-production, Kerry Williamson took on the rewrites and when Noomi Rapace and Glenn Close signed up, SND boarded to fully finance the movie. © SEVEN SIBLINGS LIMITED AND SND 2016 “Kerry came on board when we made the decision to make the protagonists female” explains director Tommy Wirkola, “we spoke to a lot of writers and Kerry just felt right from the first moment. Her ideas and her way of thinking were great. She grew up with a lot of siblings, which was of course important and fun, considering what she was going to write” he recalls. “We worked hard on the seven main characters, making them real. Separating seven dudes hanging out would have been harder. One of the things we spent time on was making sure the audience could separate the siblings from each other. We also spent time refining the character of Nicolette Cayman, to make her more of a realistic character rather than just being black or white. When you have an actress like Glenn Close on board, you want to give her a lot to chew on. We also created a bigger role for Terrence, the grandfather who is played by Willem Dafoe” concludes Wirkola. Production commenced in the Fall of 2015 in Romania, principally at the Castel Studios on the outskirts of Bucharest. The studios have a long and colorful history and have played host to a raft of successful Hollywood movies over the past two decades, including Cold Mountain, Borat, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Vampire Academy and the more recent projects in the Hellraiser franchise. One of the biggest locations used in Romania was Constanza as producer Raffaella De Laurentiis explains, “Constanza is a great location. There’s a very old part of the city and the mayor allowed us to take it over. It’s one of the biggest harbors in Europe and we got access to that. It was pretty amazing. In Bucharest, we shut off the main boulevard every Sunday between 6am and 10am for big crowd scenes, some with 500 extras. Our talented Romanian production team made those big days easy. In fact, the most challenging part of the film was being in the loft apartment set for ten weeks and figuring out how Noomi would play seven different roles.” The seasoned filmmaking talent gathered for “WHAT HAPPENED TO MONDAY” includes cinematographer Jose David Montero, production designer Joseph A. Hodges, make-up designer Giannetto De Rossi, VFX Supervisor Bryan Jones, costume designer Oana Paunescu and editor Martin Stoltz. Producers Raffaella De Laurentiis and Philippe de Rousselet are thrilled with both Wirkola and the cast gathered for the project, “As young as he is, Tommy is one of the best director we’ve worked with. He’s clear-headed, thinks on his feet and knows exactly what he wants. Noomi is amazing in these seven roles, I can’t think of another actor who could do that. She’s been on set every day, playing each scene against herself from multiple perspectives. It’s been the biggest challenge of the movie – how do we credibly, pull off the seven siblings? Producer Philippe Rousselet adds “Noomi Rapace loves challenging herself. She's didn’t stay in her comfort zone. The role required an actress with talent and guts and Noomi Rapace certainly proved to be the perfect match. It has been fascinating to watch Noomi getting into the roles, to © SEVEN SIBLINGS LIMITED AND SND 2016 witness how she went from one character to another character to another character. All of that in one day with different characters and different looks. Nobody else could have pull that off.” WHAT SETS THE SETTMAN SISTERS APART? Director Tommy Wirkola knew that Noomi Rapace’s presence and personality would shine through in all seven of the siblings: “It was important to create small nuances to help the audience because you only have a short amount of time to establish all of these characters”. Keen to avoid them becoming caricatures, Wirkola wanted to delve deeper than that and of course Noomi was instrumental in finding those touches that steer the siblings in different directions. Monday is highly intelligent, sophisticated, sharp, tough, controlled, ambitious and driven. She has to cope with the worst day of the week – Monday. She most truly represents the character of Karen Settman. “The difference between her and the other sisters is that she’s always stuck to the rules and she’s always done what’s expected. For many years she’s sacrificed herself. When she meets someone and falls in love, a storm happens inside and she starts to question everything she’s learned and the rules she grew up with. She might seem cold and selfish but under that she has a big heart and she’s a girl dreaming of love and following her own dreams”, notes Noomi Rapace. Tuesday is a pot-smoking, easy going, ‘new ager’. “Tuesday is a free soul. She’s very sensitive and smokes a lot of weed to calm herself down. She cares a lot about her sisters. She’s a happy soul who is soft and sensitive and she takes everything in. She’s also funny. She wears big skirts and lots of jewellery. You know she would be a hippy girl if she could live out in the world”, observes Noomi Rapace. Wednesday is athletic, feisty, tough, confident, confrontational and a trained fighter. “Wednesday is quite tomboyish. She loves training and is into martial arts. She’s always boxing, training and working out. The other sisters keep telling her she can’t work out too much because she’s getting too big and they all need to have the same silhouette to protect their cover. She’s practical and tough – a real fighter who puts her fears aside. Wednesday is like a little pit bull”, notes Noomi Rapace Thursday is the rebel. She’s yearns for freedom but she loves her sisters and becomes the leader. “She’s wild at heart and feels trapped in the situation she lives in. When she was growing up, she was always breaking the rules and was the opposite of Monday. She wanted to do things her way and it was difficult to accept authority and the rules set by Terrence their grandfather. During their © SEVEN SIBLINGS LIMITED AND SND 2016 journey, Thursday really becomes the leader.