A PRODUCTION ANNAPURNA PICTUR ES STEVE C H A N N I N G M A R K CARELL TATUM RUFFALO INTERNATIONAL SALES INTERNATIONAL PRESS ANNAPURNA INTERNATIONAL PR WORKS INTERNATIONAL Alyson Dewar & Melody Monfreda [email protected] [email protected] A FILM BY BENNETT MILLER 134 MINUTES SYNOPSIS Based on true events, FOXCATCHER tells the dark and fascinating story of the unlikely and ultimately tragic relationship between an eccentric multi- millionaire and two champion wrestlers. When Olympic Gold Medal winning wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) is invited by wealthy heir John du Pont (Steve Carell) to move on to the du Pont estate and help form a team to train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics at his new state-of-the-art training facility, Schultz jumps at the opportunity, hoping to focus on his training and finally step out of the shadow of his revered brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo). Driven by hidden needs, du Pont sees backing Schultz’s bid for Gold and the chance to “coach” a world-class wrestling team as an opportunity to gain the elusive respect of his peers and, more importantly, his disapproving mother (Vanessa Redgrave). Flattered by the attention and entranced by du Pont’s majestic world, Mark comes to see his benefactor as a father figure and grows increasingly dependent on him for approval. Though initially supportive, du Pont’s mercurial personality turns and he begins to lure Mark into an unhealthy lifestyle that threatens to undermine his training. Soon du Pont’s erratic behavior and cruel psychological game-play begin to erode the athlete’s already shaky self-esteem. Meanwhile du Pont becomes fixated on Dave, who exudes the confidence both he and Mark lack, knowing that these are things even his money cannot buy. Fueled by du Pont’s increasing paranoia and alienation from the brothers, the trio is propelled towards a tragedy no one could have foreseen.. FOXCATCHER is a rich and moving story of brotherly love, misguided loyalty and the corruption and emotional bankruptcy that can accompany great power and wealth. As with Academy Award® nominee Bennett Miller’s previous feature films, CAPOTE and MONEYBALL, he explores large themes in society through his complex character portraits of real people. A B OU T T H E PRODUCTION All of Bennett Miller’s films, including something beneath the story, that I sensed his first, the documentary THE CRUISE, wasn’t strange at all. In fact the opposite.” are centered on real people with vivid While his initial impulse to take on the personalities in unusual circumstances. project was immediate, the subsequent And despite the stockpile of evidence time and energy Miller ended up pouring that was collected during the years of into it was expansive. As he had previously preparation for FOXCATCHER, in the done with CAPOTE and MONEYBALL, end those stark facts become the seeds for Miller embarked on a research journey drama, and many of them, as the actors have that would last several years. “I wanted to indicated, were distilled and transformed learn what hadn’t been known about the through the process. “It’s fact to fiction as story and that takes time. It takes years a vehicle back to truth, says Miller. Some and it takes interest and care, he says. months after CAPOTE was released I This is a story with some uncomfortable received a letter from Harper Lee. She said truths, everyone I spoke with seemed to be the film was a demonstration of fiction as guarding some aspect of what happened.” a means towards truth. There was, as she pointed out, a great deal in the film that we Miller traveled all over the country—to had invented, but that ‘The film told the Iowa, California, Colorado, Missouri, and truth about Truman.’ That’s what I have Pennsylvania—to find materials and to tried to do with FOXCATCHER.” interview dozens of people including Mark Schultz, Dave’s widow Nancy, their friends Miller first heard about the story of and fellow wrestlers, people who had eccentric multi-millionaire John worked for du Pont, police, and anyone Eleuthère du Pont (Steve Carell) and a who had lived any part of the story. In pair of world champion wrestler brothers, addition to all the first-person accounts, he Mark (Channing Tatum) and Dave Schultz assembled a trove of video of both du Pont (Mark Ruffalo) when executive producers and the Schultz brothers. Michael Coleman and Tom Heller showed him a newspaper article about the story. While Dave was only a little older than “The circumstances seemed comical and Mark, they didn’t have a typical brother absurd, but the outcome was horrible and relationship. Their parents split up early, real, says Miller. The deeply strange things and Dave took on a parental role for Mark that happened down there were unlike as they moved between their parents’ anything I had personally experienced and homes, fending for themselves. Mark had yet they felt immediately familiar. There an incredible love, reverence, and need was something about the story, or perhaps for his brother—he relied upon him for emotional support, a partner to wrestle connection between them and what some important to him because it was a vocation “There were certain affectations that were with, and as a coach—but at the same people might call a codependency which of his own choosing. It didn’t apply to any specific to him which I thought were time he was very jealous of Dave’s success, became unhealthy as they moved into other part of his upbringing. His mother important, says Carell. I listened to his and his inner turbulence escalated as the world. As Dave started transitioning, was not a fan of wrestling, thought it was cadence and how he spoke. Not only how the years went by. “Mark was always that embarking on his adult life, Mark saw it as barbaric, so he stepped out from her he spoke physically, but the words he little brother that just couldn’t break out, a betrayal, and honestly, it was a betrayal. It shadow in that way.” chose to express himself. Bennett would couldn’t figure out how to do it on his own, was just an impossible situation, as Dave sometimes have us improvise, so I tried to says Tatum. He always had to rely on Dave, had to get on with his life even though he Carell is reluctant to pass any easy judgment have some context for that.” Says Ruffalo: and this kept him from having his own life, knew that Mark didn’t have anything at all on du Pont. “I don’t see him as a monster, “When Steve first walked out as du Pont, it his own career, and the thing he wanted in his life aside from wrestling and their he says. I see him as someone who did gave me a shiver. In the thousands of hours most—his own respect from people.” relationship.” something terrible who was suffering from I watched videos to prepare, two hundred Mark’s confused vulnerability makes him mental illness. He was a very sad, damaged of them were with du Pont, so I was very turn his pent-up anger on himself as It’s at this time, when Mark is at his lowest human being.” intimate with that man physically, who he much as on his wrestling opponents—at ebb, that du Pont invites Mark for a life- was, how he sounded, how he moved. It times he literally hits himself in the face. changing meeting at Foxcatcher. There he Du Pont had previously tried numerous was creepy and uncanny, Steve’s ability to Says Tatum: “I don’t think anybody could showers him with the words of praise and ways to make his mark on the world: as a capture the physical qualities of that guy.” punish Mark more than he could himself respect that Mark had always wanted to ornithologist, conchologist, philatelist and Says Nancy Schultz, Dave’s widow: “It was and I think he hardens himself against the hear, albeit in an aloof and peculiar manner. philanthropist, a trainee for the Olympic very uncomfortable to be around Steve as world by punishing himself.” “I think Mark had a lot of trepidations, says pentathlon, and a benefactor to sports of John du Pont. He stayed in character most Tatum. I don’t think he really trusts anyone. all kinds. But ultimately he focused on of the time, and it was very unsettling to The intricate dynamic between the brothers But finally he is hearing somebody see him becoming the savior of USA wrestling, catch him out of the corner of my eye.” is vividly illustrated through the scene in and Dave the way he thinks they deserve. building the Foxcatcher facility and being which they practice wrestling with each Du Pont is saying that the brothers are the leading funder of the sport. “He was While waiting for financing for the film other: It begins like a dance, with Dave heroes. They literally fight for their country highly competitive, says Carell. He yearned to come through, Miller was able to cast effortlessly ushering Mark through some and no one supports them, no one cares for respect. I think he wanted people to his three primary actors long before the moves, lightly correcting and instructing. about them like he does. I don’t think look up to him in the way they naturally film began production, and they were all “There is real tenderness between them Mark knew completely but I think he looked up to Dave Schultz.