Raimi Gets Metaphysical
by Alex Lewin
July 2000There's a rumor going around that the place is haunted. The crew of The Gift (tentative title) is shooting through the night at an abandoned Sheraton resort a few miles outside of Savannah, and, says director SAM RAIMI (The Evil Dead, A Simple Plan), "there are a lot of wild and terrible tales" about the old hotel, supposedly the site of some gangland killings. The eerie location, combined with the misty, mysterious city as a whole, lends suitable atmosphere to this supernatural thriller, in which a psychic single mom (CATE BLANCHETT) is called on to help solve the murder of a beautiful and shallow deb (KATIE HOLMES). In the meantime, she uses her visionary powers to help some tormented townsfolk — including a violent mechanic (GIOVANNI RIBISI) and a battered wife (HILARY SWANK, in her first role since winning an Oscar for Boys Don't Cry). In a bit of unlikely casting, KEANU REEVES plays Swank's abusive husband. "Keanu is a nice, nice person," Swank says, noting that in this movie, his sweetness could have been an obstacle. "We've had to talk through that. I gave him the permission to go where he needed to go," she explains, and wouldn't "take it personally if he shoves me or pulls my hair in a scene."
The script — by BILLY BOB THORNTON and TOM EPPERSON (who collaborated on One False Move) — was, in a previous life, envisioned as a directing vehicle for Thornton, with JODIE FOSTER in Blanchett's role. But eventually, the screenplay found its way to Raimi's reading pile. "I got about halfway through it and said, 'This is too intense, too depressing for me,' " the director recalls. "Then I thought, 'Well, is that something I should be running from?' " Among the story's more gruesome elements is its central murder. The killer, says Holmes (who appears partially nude in the scene), "strangles me, throws me in a pond, and smashes my head."
The action being shot on this balmy Georgia night, however, is a bit less traumatic: GREG KINNEAR, who plays Holmes's fiancé, will dance at a country club party. The actor, who was nervous about shaking his booty, took some shuffling tips from his director. "[Raimi] asked Karen Golden, the script supervisor, to turn away," recalls Blanchett, who observed the dance lesson, "because what he was showing Greg drives women insane with passion. I saw it. I didn't go insane with passion." The actress did some homework, too, consulting several psychics before shooting began. "I had five readings in one week, and they were quite contradictory," she says. (One of them told her that she needed a bodyguard.) Does Blanchett believe in psychic ability? "I believe in things that are unexplainable. I was looking for a house to stay in in Savannah, and there were definitely places I didn't want to live. Whether they were haunted, I don't know, but I didn't want to stay there."
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