page_title: The East (film)
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: The East (film) / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: Zal Batmanglij speaking at Wondercon 2012 in Anaheim, California on March 16, 2012.
context_page_description: The East is a 2013 English-language film directed by Zal Batmanglij and starring Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgård, and Ellen Page. Writers Batmanglij and Marling spent two months in 2009 practicing freeganism and co-wrote a screenplay inspired by their experiences and drawing on thrillers from the 1970s. The American studio Fox Searchlight Pictures had bought rights to distribute Batmanglij's previous film Sound of My Voice and also collaborated with the director to produce The East. With Ridley Scott as producer and Tony Scott as executive producer, Fox Searchlight contracted Scott Free Productions, headquartered in London, to produce the film. The East was filmed in two months in Shreveport, Louisiana at the end of 2011. The film premiered to strong reviews at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2013. It was released in theaters on May 31, 2013.
context_section_description: Zal Batmanglij – director, screenwriter
  Brit Marling – producer, screenwriter
  Ridley Scott – producer
  Michael Costigan – producer
  Jocelyn Hayes-Simpson – producer
  Tony Scott – executive producer
  Roman Vasyanov – cinematographer
  Andrew Weisblum – editor
  Bill Pankow – editor
  Halli Cauthery – music
  Harry Gregson-Williams – themes for score
  Alex DiGerlando – production designer
  Jenny Gering – costume designer
  Nikki Black – art director
  Cynthia Slagter – set decorator
  The East is directed by Zal Batmanglij. He co-wrote the screenplay with Brit Marling, who also stars in the film. Batmanglij and Marling also wrote the screenplay for Sound of My Voice and went to Los Angeles in 2009 to produce a film. Due to the economy, they could not make the film that year. They were then inspired by the concept of Buy Nothing Day, an international day of protest against consumerism, and decided to experience a Buy Nothing summer. They spent two months in 2009 with proponents of freeganism, which is a practice of eating "discarded food in their pursuit of a moneyless existence". Marling said, "We wanted to have some adventure, and we didn't have any money. We learned to hop trains, we learned to sleep on rooftops, we learned to claim the space that feels so private. We joined this anarchist collective." The pair drew from their experiences as well as thriller films like All The President's Men, The Bourne Identity and Michael Clayton to craft The East, which they wrote before they began filming Sound of My Voice for a 2011 release.
  Batmanglij and Marling wrote to have the anarchist organization target a multinational corporation instead of a government. Marling said, "Multinational corporations are outside of the purview of any nation-state. These are the entities that are shaping and running the world... The modern anarchy movement is about rebelling against the corporate structure." Batmanglij said the film focused on the pharmaceutical industry due to the writers hearing stories about the side effects of drugs, such as a drug to help quit smoking that resulted in some people committing suicide. He said they considered focusing on banks due to the financial crisis of 2007–2008, but they chose the pharmaceutical industry so the mission in the film would have emotional resonance. They titled the film The East to make a variety of references. The director explained, "'The East' is ... the East Coast, which is like something in our American collective consciousness—New England, tony, center of power. The Wicked Witch of the East in the Oz mythology was the bad witch because the book was about how the Midwest was getting screwed over by the east, by Washington. And then of course we have the Middle East or the Far East, which is seen as different or other. The ultimate Other. So, it's funny that this word means two things, and I thought that was an interesting name for a resistance group that is combined of kids from New England who want to make themselves the Other."
  Sound of My Voice, directed by Batmanglij and starring Marling, screened at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in January. Producer Michael Costigan, who liked Sound of My Voice, got a copy of the screenplay for The East. Costigan liked the screenplay and approached Batmanglij to say that he and his fellow producers Ridley Scott and Tony Scott at Scott Free Productions were interested in making the film. After the festival, Fox Searchlight Pictures acquired distribution rights for Sound of My Voice and Another Earth (also starring Marling). In the process, the distributor greenlighted production of The East. By September 2011, Marling and Alexander Skarsgård were cast in the starring roles. Felicity Jones was attached to play Izzy, but she dropped out to promote Like Crazy. Jones was replaced by Ellen Page.
  Production of the film, which had a budget of $6.5 million, took place in Shreveport, Louisiana. Production designer Alex DiGerlando converted an alternative lifestyle club in Shreveport into a house for The East. The club was originally painted black and gold, and it was repainte
caption: Director Zal Batmanglij
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