page_title: City of Angels (film)
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: City of Angels (film) / Production / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: Light and shadow cast by skylight in San Francisco Public Library.
context_page_description: City of Angels is a 1998 American romantic fantasy film directed by Brad Silberling and starring Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. Set in Los Angeles, California, the film is a loose remake of Wim Wenders' 1987 film Wings of Desire, which was set in Berlin. As with the original, City of Angels tells the story of an angel who falls in love with a mortal woman, and wishes to become human in order to be with her. With the guidance of a man who has already made the transition from immortality, the angel falls and discovers the human experience.
  When producer Dawn Steel saw potential to pursue more story ideas in Wenders' original concept, she and her husband Charles Roven acquired the rights for an English-language adaptation. After years of delay, they found support from Warner Bros. and recruited Silberling and screenwriter Dana Stevens to execute the project. Themes were borrowed from Wenders' work, though the ending was altered, to a more tragic effect. City of Angels was filmed around California and dedicated to Steel, who died before the premiere.
  The remake was released to financial success, but mixed reviews, with some critics judging it to be a mawkish adaptation.
context_section_description: Director Brad Silberling praised Wim Wenders' 1987 Franco-German film Wings of Desire, calling it "truly the most incredible cinematic experience of observation of human detail". Silberling, while acknowledging Wenders' film was meant as a tribute to West Berlin, remarked that it became "a larger human discussion". In 1989, at the initiative of producer Dawn Steel, her company reached out to Wenders to purchase the rights for an adaptation. However, production was delayed, as Steel took the project to The Walt Disney Company and Turner Entertainment before finally settling at Warner Bros. Silberling secured the position of director after his success with the 1995 film adaptation of Casper.
  While Steel's husband Charles Roven said she "felt that there was another movie in the idea for Wings of Desire", screenplay drafts by various authors dissatisfied her. She subsequently selected Dana Stevens as screenwriter. Stevens professed admiration for Wenders' original and believed she could "capture its essence", while reconsidering its nonlinear narrative. She also defended the California setting, saying "Los Angeles is metaphorically more representative of America than any other city ... It has every personality, and I like the idea of angels being among all these different ethnic cultures".
  Star Nicolas Cage said that moving the setting from Berlin in the time of the Wall to Los Angeles demanded story changes, with heavier focus on romance. Silberling and Cage noted the project followed other angel-themed films, such as Michael and The Preacher's Wife, both released in 1996. They were unimpressed with these earlier films, and drew angel wings in the City of Angels screenplay to identify parts they felt needed improvement.
  Though Silberling did not use the black-and-white the angels see in the original Wings of Desire and Faraway, So Close!, the remake does borrow the idea of angels inhabiting libraries. Wenders and his crew also developed the costume design of overcoats for angels, with Wenders telling Silberling they experimented with costumes during production before deciding on this look. The ending of the story was altered, so Maggie is killed, a less happy conclusion than the original. Silberling equated this to a scene in Wings of Desire where the angel protagonist goes to the side of a motorcyclist near death.
  Silberling claimed there was minimal supervision from Warner Bros. throughout writing and filming, due to priority given to the Batman film franchise. City of Angels was the last film produced by Steel and Roven before her death, and it is dedicated to her.
caption: San Francisco Public Library was a filming location.[20]
exif: {"Image Tag 0x000B": "digiKam-2.5.0", "Image ImageWidth": "4290", "Image ImageLength": "2856", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Image DocumentName": "Be?-2012-06-27T120042.CR2", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS REBEL T3", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "digiKam-2.5.0", "Image DateTime": "2012:06:27 12:00:42", "Image Artist": "Brylie Oxley", "Image Rating": "0", "Image Tag 0x4749": "0", "Image Copyright": "2012 CreativeCommons - Attribution - ShareAlike", "Image ExifOffset": "438", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 0, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[37, 23377211/500000, 0]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[122, 389859/15625, 0]", "GPS GPSMapDatum": "WGS-84", "Image GPSInfo": "45616", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "45792", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6641", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/2000", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:06:27 12:00:42", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:06:27 12:00:42", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "11", "EXIF ApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4290", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2856", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "45586", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "854400/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "569600/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "142063102495", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[18, 55, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "000027d263"}