(Welcome to Tales from the Field Workplace, our column that examines field workplace miracles, disasters, and every little thing in between, in addition to what we are able to study from them.)
Horror films might not typically get a complete lot of respect, critically talking. For no matter motive, they’re typically handled as a lesser type of leisure. It is solely the rarest of uncommon style choices that may go on to turn out to be embraced each critically and commercially, with Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” serving as a shining instance from comparatively current instances. That is an outlier although. One simple reality although is that these films are a dependable spine for Hollywood studios, delivering constant income in opposition to comparatively low investments. Good films, dangerous films, it typically does not matter.
Hardcore horror followers will let you know that the variety of dangerous films far outweighs the great in any given yr. It is about looking for that diamond within the tough. That is why, sometimes, a style image that the vital group has decried can nonetheless handle to interrupt by means of and make a boatload of money. Such was the case in 2005 when “Cover and Search,” a little-remembered thriller starring Robert De Niro and a younger up-and-comer by the title of Dakota Fanning, managed to make straight-up financial institution earlier than vanishing into relative obscurity. It is a relic of a time that has lengthy since handed.
On this week’s Tales from the Field Workplace, we’re wanting again at “Cover and Search” in honor of its twentieth anniversary. We’ll go over the way it got here to be, what the panorama of moviegoing appeared like on the time, how its stars elevated the proceedings, what occurred when the film hit theaters, what occurred within the aftermath of its launch, and what classes we are able to study from all of it these years later. Let’s dig in, we could?
The film: Cover and Search
The movie facilities on psychologist David Callaway (Robert De Niro) who’s reeling after his spouse (Amy Irving) takes her personal life. In search of a contemporary begin, he decides to take his daughter Emily (Dakota Fanning) away from New York Metropolis to a home within the nation. A grief-stricken Emily struggles to make new pals, save for an imaginary pal named Charlie. Or is he? Issues get twisted and lethal as a sequence of unlucky occasions unfolds earlier than reaching a twisted conclusion.
Fox picked up the script for “Cover and Search” in November 2002 and commenced creating it for the large display screen. It was written by Ari Schlossberg, serving as his first characteristic writing credit score. Maybe tellingly, he has just one different characteristic credit score to his title. Initially, Albert Hughes, recognized for his collaborations along with his brother Allen Hughes reminiscent of “From Hell,” was set to make his solo directorial debut however left the undertaking in late 2003 over “inventive variations,” per Selection. Hughes would later go on to direct the 2018 movie “Alpha,” in addition to episodes of the “John Wick” spin-off sequence “The Continental.”
John Polson (“Swimfan”) stepped as much as the plate after Hughes departed. De Niro, in the meantime, had been hooked up to star within the lead position and, regardless of the change in administrators, remained on board as he was receiving a multi-million-dollar payday for his companies. It is not simply that De Niro was probably the most revered actors working on the time (and arguably nonetheless is), with classics like “The Godfather Half II” and “Goodfellas” to his title, however he was vastly bankable presently as effectively.
This was the period of De Niro making an attempt to play in opposition to sort. It was working fairly effectively. He was coming off of 2000’s “Meet the Dad and mom,” which was a smash hit grossing $330 million worldwide, paving the way in which for an excellent larger sequel, 2004’s “Meet the Fockers.” A few of his different hits from this period embrace “Analyze This” and “Males of Honor.” Now, he was going to entrance a mainstream horror movie, which was one more surprising flip.
Cover and Search was the flawed film on the proper time
It was little question due to De Niro’s involvement that “a $5 script will get the $50 million therapy,” as Selection put it in 2005 forward of the movie’s launch. It additionally helped safe an A-list forged round De Niro, together with Famke Janssen (“X-Males”), Elisabeth Shue (“Leaving Las Vegas”), and most significantly, Dakota Fanning. The younger actress had been making headway in Hollywood from a really younger age, holding her personal in opposition to large film stars like Denzel Washington in “Man on Hearth” and Sean Penn in “I Am Sam.”
Regardless of having her tenth birthday on the set of “Cover and Search,” Fanning had earned a terrific popularity, one which was rising with every film. “I simply forgot she’s a toddler,” Janssen mentioned to IGN of Fanning in 2005. “There’s nothing childlike about her. She’s a miniature grown-up. She’s very sensible and really collectively, very proficient clearly.”
It is that rising star of Fanning, coupled with a beloved vet like De Niro, that elevated that so-called $5 script into one thing audiences truly needed to see. In that very same interview, Fanning demonstrated simply how ahead-of-the-curve she was for her age, eloquently laying out why she needed to be on this movie:
“I learn the entire thing and I simply needed to do it so badly, such a unique character that I might by no means performed earlier than, so totally different from myself. All the opposite characters I’ve performed, I might all the time discover one thing in them that is like me however with this one, there’s nothing like me in any respect … I used to be filming it, it was so intense and I needed to preserve all these feelings all through the sequences. We frequently had fun after we weren’t doing stuff like that.”
The monetary journey
Fox launched “Cover and Search” with a number of endings; one for U.S. audiences and one seen elsewhere on the earth. In whole, 5 endings of the movie have been shot, all of which ultimately made it to DVD. The core film stayed the identical however the ending buttoned up the story otherwise, offering a barely totally different destiny for Emily. The large twist is that David is definitely Charlie, as he has developed dissociative id dysfunction. When a film has this many endings, it is not typically a terrific signal for the film itself.
To that finish, “Cover and Search” was not embraced by critics of the day, to place it flippantly. “‘Cover and Search’ Does Not Deserve To Be Discovered,” declared The Lantern on the time. It did not matter although, as an efficient trailer coupled with its stars piqued the curiosity of moviegoers. It additionally did not damage that the one direct competitors when it opened was Lionsgate’s “Alone within the Darkish,” thought of one of many worst online game films ever made.
“Cover and Search” opened on January 28, 2005, debuting atop the field workplace domestically, pulling in $21.9 million. Towards a reported $25 million manufacturing price range, that was a win for Fox. When “Boogeyman” and “The Marriage ceremony Date” opened the next weekend, De Niro’s thriller fell laborious, dropping practically 60% with an $8.9 million haul. Will Smith’s large hit “Hitch” additional bit into its earnings come mid-February. It hardly mattered.
The movie completed its run with $51.1 million domestically to go together with an outsized $76.2 million internationally for a grand whole of $127.3 million worldwide. These are returns any studio would kill for right now. It will virtually actually get a sequel. In 2005 although? It was only a right here right now, gone tomorrow sizable money cow.
Cover and Search merely got here and went
In 2005, the DVD market was much more wholesome than it’s right now. We have been nonetheless years from Netflix on the spot streaming changing into a factor. Consequently, this film went on to get pleasure from a pleasant second life on house video, boosting Fox’s income. But, 20 years later, it is tough to seek out on Blu-ray, it is not presently on any main, paid streaming service, and presently resides on the free streamer Tubi. Even once-maligned horror films reminiscent of Stephen King’s “Graveyard Shift” have been given Blu-ray and 4K releases by boutique labels.
“Cover and Search,” however, has not been afforded any such launch. It’s infrequently mentioned, it appears. In equity, a number of retrospective items have been printed within the years since, and a few viewers have pushed in opposition to its popularity. Reddit consumer tblroxdanhl4 known as it a “incredible film” on the r/films subreddit a number of years in the past. However exterior of web boards and several other journalists. At finest, somebody who noticed it on the time would possibly say one thing to the impact of, “Oh yeah, I keep in mind that film.”
However that was the film enterprise within the early 2000s. Streaming had not but completely altered viewing habits. Folks nonetheless simply went to the films as a result of they needed to see a film. A film might simply be a film — one thing somebody did on a day ending in y after grabbing dinner. This was additionally when Fox was nonetheless releasing round a dozen films per yr in theaters earlier than Disney acquired the studio in 2019 and enormously lowered that quantity. This film’s journey is actually consultant of what the enterprise used to seem like.
The teachings contained inside
With out even taking inflation under consideration, only a few horror films in 2024 managed to make as a lot cash as this not often mentioned, critically panned thriller. It felt like a giant deal and a cultural occasion when “Longlegs” hit $100 million. 20 years in the past, a horror film with a few large stars might promote the identical variety of tickets with regularity. It was enterprise as ordinary, fairly than a really large deal.
“Cover and Search” now, it is a sobering reminder of simply how a lot the enterprise has modified. For individuals reminiscent of myself who cherish the theatrical expertise, I miss the times when extra of my friends simply determined to go see a film for the hell of it. Now, it seems like one thing must turn out to be a real occasion for most people to hassle. That is unlucky. In 2025, a film like this may both go direct-to-streaming or would most actually flop and flop badly on the field workplace.
Within the age of premium VOD and massive new films like “The Fall Man” accessible at house mere weeks after hitting theaters, we’re in all probability by no means going again to this place. In some methods, that is good. I am not essentially suggesting {that a} January film with awful critiques ought to make financial institution. What I’m suggesting is that on the earth of 2005, extra films had the possibility to thrive. Extra filmmakers acquired the possibility to attempt stuff out. It wasn’t “franchise or bust.”
That’s missed. However preventing the longer term is like preventing the tide. It is best to embrace what’s and work in direction of enhancing the longer term as finest as we are able to, fairly than wishing the previous might return.
