That'll Be the Day (film)
That'll Be the Day is a 1973 British coming of age drama film directed by Claude Whatham, written by Ray Connolly, and starring David Essex, Rosemary Leach and Ringo Starr. Set primarily in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it tells the story of Jim MacLaine (Essex), a British teenager raised by his single mother (Leach). Jim rejects society's conventions and pursues a hedonistic and sexually loose lifestyle, harming others and damaging his close relationships. The cast also featured several prominent musicians who lived through the era portrayed, including Starr, Billy Fury, Keith Moon and John Hawken. The film's success led to a sequel, "Stardust", that followed the life of Jim MacLaine through the 1960s and 1970s.
Plot.
In an urban area in early 1940s England, a young child, Jim MacLaine, lives with his mother Mary and grandfather. His seaman father returns, spends time with him, and works in the family's grocery shop. However, he finds himself unable to settle down and soon leaves again for good, abandoning his wife and son, and Mary continues to run the shop and raise Jim on her own.
In the late 1950s. Jim is now a very bright but bored schoolboy in his final year at the local secondary school. His mother wants him to do well on his final exams, qualify for university, and have many opportunities—but Jim is far less enthusiastic about continuing his education, preferring to draw, write poetry, listen to rock n' roll, and chase girls—unsuccessfully. Instead of going with his friend Terry to take his exams, he runs away to the coast to work as a deckchair attendant, disappointing and upsetting his mother. He moves on to a barman job at a holiday camp, where he befriends the experienced barman Mike, who helps him hook up with willing women for his first sexual experiences. Jim is also drawn to the music and lifestyle of the resident singer, Stormy Tempest, and his drummer, J.D. Clover.
Mike and Jim next get jobs at a funfair, supplementing their meager pay by short-changing customers. Jim quickly becomes a heartless fairground Romeo, having one-nighters with a wide variety of women, including a young schoolgirl whom he rapes. He lies to Mike about the encounter, but Mike sees through it and berates him. Shortly afterwards, Mike short-changes a gang member and is attacked by the whole gang. Jim sees Mike being beaten, but instead of helping him, Jim hurries away, pretending he saw nothing, and has a tryst with another fair worker. The severely injured Mike is hospitalized, and Jim gets a promotion that was supposed to be Mike's.
Jim contacts Terry, who is now at university, but discovers that Terry and the girls there look down on his lifestyle and musical tastes. After two years gone, Jim decides to return home, finding his resentful mother struggling to run the grocery shop and care for her father, who is now an invalid. Jim helps his mother with the shop and starts dating Terry's sister Jeanette over the objections of her mother and Terry. Unlike all his previous dates, Jim does not have sex with Jeanette, even though she is willing to do so out of love for him. Jim and Jeanette marry, with Terry and her mother wrongly assuming she must be pregnant. Jim, angry at Terry and ambivalent about losing his freedom, has sex with Terry's girlfriend Jean the night before his wedding.
Jim and Jeanette live with his mother and grandfather. Jim pretends to be going to night school, but is secretly spending his nights at rock n' roll shows. Jeanette gets pregnant and they have a son. Jean and Terry plan to get engaged, and Jean makes suggestive remarks to Jim in front of Jeanette.
After talking with friends in a band, Jim leaves home, repeating his father's pattern. Jeanette cries, but his mum is unsurprised. The film ends as Jim buys a secondhand guitar.
Cast.
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Production.
Development.
David Puttnam and his producing partner Sandy Lieberson met with Nat Cohen of EMI Films who agreed to provide half the budget. The other half, £100,000, was obtained from Ronco Records on the condition that the film include 40 songs from Ronco's catalog of old hits, which they could then sell on TV as a soundtrack album. According to "Filmink" the film:
Wasn’t an obvious slam dunk – Puttnam had some credits, but they included only a mild success (Melody) and a disaster (The Pied Piper), the story was downbeat, and the lead was not a big name at the time (David Essex). But Cohen could recognise Puttnam’s talent, not to mention the opportunities for a killer soundtrack – always a factor at a company like EMI – and the fact that the script had sex in it, thus it might be another "A Kind of Loving" or "Poor Cow".
Writing.
According to screenwriter Ray Connolly, the film was Puttnam's idea, who had worked in advertising and recently moved into film production. Connolly says Puttnam was inspired by Harry Nilsson's song "1941", in which an early-1940s father deserts his young son, who subsequently joins a circus; Puttnam suggested changing the circus to a fair.
Puttnam hired Connolly, a journalist friend, to write the script. Connolly worked on it in the evenings, and said they would "ransack our own lives as we created the fictional character of Jim Maclaine, and steal moments from our favourite films, a bit from East of Eden here, something from Francois Truffaut’s 'The 400 Blows' there."
Puttnam offered the directing job to Michael Apted, who turned it down. Director Claude Watham was given the job when Puttnam was impressed with period detail of his TV movie "Cider with Rosie". He also liked the fact that Watham was not that interested in rock 'n roll, and thought Watham would provide an objective counterbalance to Puttnam and Connolly.
Casting.
Connolly said that he cast David Essex, then starring in a West End production of "Godspell", in an effort to make the selfish Jim MacLaine character more likeable, because Essex "was so good-looking and likeable an audience would forgive him anything."
Ringo Starr was cast as Mike after Connolly, who had never been to a holiday camp, consulted him and former Beatles road manager Neil Aspinall about their Butlins memories. Aspinall also helped to put together the camp band that appeared in the film. Several roles were played by prominent musicians who had lived through the film's era, including Starr, Billy Fury, Keith Moon of the Who, and John Hawken of the Nashville Teens.
Filming.
Filming began on October 23, 1972, on the Isle of Wight, which still had a late-1950s look in the early 1970s. Essex received a seven-week break from his "Godspell" role to film the picture.
Puttnam clashed with Watham during filming, saying the director did not understand all the script's subtext. When Watham fell ill, Alan Parker directed for two days.
Soundtrack.
The tie-in soundtrack to "That'll Be the Day" was released by Ronco and listed as a 'various artists' album rather than the official soundtrack. It spent seven weeks at the #1 position on the Official Albums Chart Top 50. However, beginning with the week ending 18 August 1973, all compilations listed as 'various artists' were removed from the chart, with only those billed as 'official soundtracks' (to films such as "A Clockwork Orange" and "Cabaret") remaining, causing "That'll Be the Day" to be excluded from the chart countdown.
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Release.
The film was a hit at the box office (by 1985 it had earned an estimated profit of £406,000). Nat Cohen, who invested in the film, said it made more than 50% profit on top of its cost. It was one of the most popular movies of 1973 at the British box office.
Connolly said "At the time, I was astonished by its success. A sixth form drop out, who throws his school books into a river when he should be sitting his A-level history, writes poetry in the rain while hiring out deck chairs, and lets down just about absolutely everyone was hardly an obvious subject. But, on reflection, I can now see that there was nothing else like it at the time. And the music soundtrack was fantastic."
U.S. release.
The film was initially acquired by Continental Releasing, a unit of the Walter Reade Organization, but after disappointing test engagements in Boston, Indianapolis, and Austin, they chose to shelve the film. Based on a well-received screening at Filmex in Los Angeles, programmer Jerry Harvey, partnering with Richard Chase and Kenneth Greenstone, created a small company, Mayfair Film Group, to take over distribution.
Reception.
The "Los Angeles Times" called it "a very special, strange and fascinating movie."
According to Anne Billson in the "Time Out Film Guide", the film was a "hugely overrated dip into the rock 'n' roll nostalgia bucket, ... " also commenting "Youth culture my eye: they're all at least a decade too old. But good tunes, and worth catching for Billy Fury's gold lamé act."
Awards and nominations.
At the 27th British Academy Film Awards in 1973, the film received two nominations. Rosemary Leach for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and David Essex for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles.
Sequels.
Essex returned as Jim Maclaine the following year, in the 1974 sequel, "Stardust", which continues the story into the early 1970s.
An independent radio drama recording project, "That'll be the Stardust!", was released in 2008. The story follows the musical journey of Jim Maclaine's son, Jimmy Maclaine Jr.
References.
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Night and Day (upcoming film)
British comedy film

Night and Day is an upcoming British/German film adaptation of the Virginia Woolf novel of the same name. It has an ensemble cast including Haley Bennett, Timothy Spall, Jennifer Saunders, Jack Whitehall, Sally Phillips, and Lily Allen.
Synopsis.
Set in Britain at the turn of the 20th century, a female astronomer tries to avoid the patriarchal attitudes of the day.
Production.
The Virginia Woolf novel "Night & Day" is adapted for this project by Justine Waddell. The film is directed by Tina Gharavi. It is produced by FilmHedge and producers include Christopher Figg, Meg Thomson and German co-producers GLISK.
An ensemble cast is led by Haley Bennett, Timothy Spall and Lily Allen, and also includes Jennifer Saunders, Jack Whitehall and Sally Phillips.
Principal photography began in Newcastle upon Tyne in late 2024, and was completed in February 2025, ahead of an intended autumn release.
Filming locations included the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne, Common Room of the Great North, Ryhope Engines Museum, Tanfield Railway and Beamish Museum. Additional filming took place in Cologne, Germany.
References.
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Day of Days (film)
Day of Days is a 2016 American drama film directed by Kim Bass and starring Tom Skerritt and Claudia Zevallos. The film is loosely based on Bass's grandfather, Clarence Bass.
Production.
The film was shot in Los Angeles in 12 days from late February to early March 2015. Filming wrapped in April 2015.
Release.
The film premiered on November 4, 2016, at the 11th Women's International Film & Arts Festival in Miami.
Accolades.
Skerritt and Zevallos won best actor awards at the Women's International Film & Arts Festival.
References.
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There Will Come a Day (film)
2013 film directed by Giorgio Diritti
There Will Come a Day () is a 2013 Italian drama film directed by Giorgio Diritti. It premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. For her performance Jasmine Trinca won the Nastro d'Argento for Best Actress.
References.
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1 Day
2009 film directed by Penny Woolcock
1 Day is a 2009 British crime film about gangs and their communities in the urban areas of inner city Birmingham, with the majority of the film being shot in Handsworth, Birmingham and Winson Green. The story follows a young drug dealer, Flash as he attempts to get £100,000 to his boss Angel in less than 24 hours or face certain death. Directed by Penny Woolcock, the film is street-cast and features no professional actors. It stars Dylan Duffus, Duncan Tobias, Yohance Watson, and Ohran Whyte.
Plot.
Drug dealer, Flash (Dylan Duffus) receives a phone call from Angel (Yohance Watson) announcing that he's being released early from prison and wants the £500,000 he's left Flash for safekeeping during his incarceration. Flash is £100,000 short of the full amount and is pushed for time. Flash is forced to strike a deal with a rival gang member and drug dealer, Evil (Duncan Tobias) who more than lives up to his name. The film also includes the daily issues Flash faces due to his past actions as he is pressured by his three irate baby mothers and his grandmother due to his lack of involvement in his children's lives and constant upkeep of trouble. The movie follows Flash's race against time as he is pursued by a rival gang called The Zampa Boys as Flash is part of OSC (Old Street Crew). The movie reflects the reality of many young males involved in drug and gang activity within Birmingham and is said to give an insight into the notorious rivalry between the Burger Bar Boys and Johnson Crew.
Reception.
The film has received a mixed reception amongst film critics.
In Birmingham it was withdrawn from the Odeon Cinemas chain, on the advice of the West Midlands Police. The West Midlands Police say they did not give such a statement.
References.
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Life in a Day (2011 film)
2011 crowdsourced documentary film
Life in a Day is a crowd-sourced documentary film comprising an arranged series of video clips selected from 80,000 clips submitted to the YouTube video sharing website, the clips showing respective occurrences from around the world on a single day, 24 July 2010.
The film is 94 minutes 53 seconds long and includes scenes selected from 4,500 hours of footage in 80,000 submissions from 192 nations. The completed film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival on 27 January 2011 and the premiere was streamed live on YouTube. On 31 October 2011, YouTube announced that "Life in a Day" would be available for viewing on its website free of charge, and on DVD.
Production.
The film was produced by Scott Free Productions and the YouTube video sharing site. The film was distributed by National Geographic Entertainment. The visual effects were produced by Lip Sync Post.
The film was the creation of a partnership among YouTube, Ridley Scott Associates and LG electronics, announced on 6 July 2010. Users sent in videos supposed to be recorded on 24 July 2010, and then Ridley Scott produced the film and edited the videos into a film with Kevin Macdonald and film editor Joe Walker, consisting of footage from some of the contributors. All chosen footage authors are credited as co-directors.
The film's music was written by composer and producer Harry Gregson-Williams, along with Matthew Herbert. The film's opening song, written by Herbert, was performed by English singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding. The film also features the song "Jerusalem" by Kieran Leonard and "Future Prospect" by Biggi Hilmars.
Macdonald told "The Wall Street Journal" that the project was initially conceived as a way to commemorate the fifth birthday of YouTube, and that he wanted to "take the humble YouTube video, ... and elevate it into art." Editor Joe Walker said that as he understood it, the concept for the crowd-sourced documentary came from Ridley Scott's production company "Scott Free U.K." and from YouTube, while Macdonald explained more specifically that "the inspiration for me was a British group from the 1930s called the Mass Observation movement. They asked hundreds of people all over Britain to write diaries recording the details of their lives on one day a month and answer a few simple questions. ... These diaries were then organised into books and articles with the intention of giving voice to people who weren't part of the "elite" and to show the intricacy and strangeness of the seemingly mundane."
Macdonald began his "Around the world in 80,000 clips" article in "The Guardian" by posing the questions, "What do you love? What do you fear? What's in your pocket?" and explaining that "one day last summer, I asked ordinary people around the world to answer those three questions and spend a day filming their lives." The 80,000 individual clips received amounted to 4,500 hours of electronic footage. Macdonald explained that about 75% of the film's content came from people contacted through YouTube, traditional advertising, TV shows, and newspapers; the remaining 25% came from cameras sent out to the developing world, Macdonald pointing out "It was important to represent the whole world." At a reported cost of £40,000, "we did resort to snail mail for sending out 400 cameras to parts of the developing world – and getting back the resulting video cards." Macdonald later remarked that he regretted not sending out a far smaller number of cameras but providing training in camera operation and desired type of content: "Naively, I hadn't realised how alien, not only the concept of a documentary is to a lot of people (in the developing world), but also the idea that your own opinions are worth sharing."
Macdonald expressed to "The Wall Street Journal" that the film "could only be made in the last five years because ... you can get enough people who will have an understanding of how to shoot something." Walker told "Wired" magazine's Angela Watercutter that the film "couldn't have been made without technology. Ten years ago it would've been impossible." Macdonald explained that YouTube "allowed us to tap into a pre-existing community of people around the world and to have a means of distributing information about the film and then receiving people's 'dailies'. It just wouldn't have been organizationally or financially feasible to undertake this kind of project pre-YouTube."
The filmmaking team "used YouTube's ability to collect all of this material and then we had this sort of sweatshop of people, all multilingual film students, to sift through this material. It couldn't have been done any other way. Nobody had ever done a film like this before, so we had to sort of make it up as we went along." "To put (the 4500 hours of raw footage) in context, I just cut a feature film for Steve McQueen and there's 21 hours of [film] for that."
Walker, whose team edited the whole film over seven weeks, remarked to Adam Sternbergh of "The New York Times" that "The analogy is like being told to make Salisbury Cathedral, and then being introduced to a field full of rubble. You have to start looking for buttresses and things that connect together." Walker indicated that a team of roughly two dozen researchers, chosen both for a cinematic eye and proficiency with languages, watched, logged, tagged, and rated each clip on a scale of one to five stars. Walker remarked that "the vast amount of material was two stars", and that he and director Kevin Macdonald reviewed the four-star and five-star rated clips.
In addition to the star rating system, the editing/selecting team also organised the 80,000 clips according to countries, themes and video quality as part of the selection process, and further had to convert from 60 different frame rates to make the result cinematically acceptable. All the logging and researching was done using the Quantum CatDV media asset management software.
Themes and content.
Macdonald said that the film focused on a single day "because a day is the basic temporal building block of human life—wherever you are," with Walker adding that the particular day, 24 July 2010, was chosen because it was the first Saturday after the World Cup.
Concerning the chronology of the film and the order of the clips, Macdonald explained that he let the 300 hours of "best bits" tell him what the themes and structure of the film should be, likening the material to a Rorschach test—"you will see in it what you want to see in it." Joe Walker further explained that "We always wanted to have a number of structures, so it's not just midnight to midnight, but it's also from light to dark and from birth to death. ... bashing things together and making them resonate against each other and provoking thought."
Macdonald said he saw the movie "as a metaphor of the experience of being on the Internet. ... clicking from one place to another, in this almost random way…following our own thoughts, following narrative and thematic paths." Betsy Sharkey wrote in the "Los Angeles Times" that "this fast-paced documentary is shaped as much by Internet savvy as traditional filmmaking, which doesn't make the experience of it any less satisfying, or the implications any less provocative." "The story is told through the voices of the contributors, but mostly it's the images that do the heavy lifting."
Macdonald explained that the film "doesn't have a traditional story or a traditional narrative, but it has thematic movement [and] recurring characters." He praised certain specific contributions, including "the most technically amazing skydiving shot I have ever seen in any film" and "a hand going up to a window pane and picking a fly off and filming the hand walking through the house and letting the fly go—and you see the fly take off in the distance." Asked if there any particular submission crystallised the film's theme, Macdonald cited "the family who had been going through cancer." More generally, Macdonald praised the immediacy that a handycam permits.
Ian Buckwalter of "Washingtonian" magazine said that "the familiar beats of the day (were) cut together to show that we're actually far more similar than we are different." "The Washington Post"'s Michael O'Sullivan similarly noted that "the people whose lives form the spine of "Life" feel familiar... Their hopes and joys, disappointments and fears are our own." Liz Braun, writing in the "Toronto Sun", said that "The overall sense of the project appears to be: It's good to be alive. ... According to the film, there are things that divide us as humans, but far more things that unite us." "Toronto Star" critic Peter Howell was in accord, observing that the "film shows things (what) billions of us do every day, perhaps thinking that we are somehow alone in our pursuits. Yet we couldn't be more connected." However, "The Boston Globe's" Tom Russo gave director "Macdonald and crew credit for picking out good, clear, telling contrasts, and not sweating potential heavy-handedness," citing contrasts between "one smug contributor pull[ing] a set of Lamborghini keys from his pocket, ... then mov[ing] on to ragged-looking Third Worlders amusedly scoffing at the idea that they'd have anything in their pockets," and a Westerner "quietly worries about losing his hair, while an older Afghan man quietly worries about getting through the day alive."
Sharkey described the progression of the film: "Beginning with videos that start pre-dawn then moving through morning, afternoon and evening, ... the rituals that define a day begin to emerge. Beyond an extraordinary range of cultures, terrain and styles reflected, which are captivating on their own, the film stands as a stirring reminder of how ordinary and yet eclectic humanity can be. If "Life in a Day" is any measure, we are a quirky, likeable, unpredictable and yet predictable bunch."
Yumi Goto of "TIME LightBox" remarked that "the most striking aspect of this documentary is that it's the first crowdsourced, user-generated content to hit the big screen." O'Sullivan said that, being "alternately funny, scary, boring, moving, amateurish and gorgeous, it is a pretty spectacular thing: a crowdsourced movie that manages to feel singular and whole." Anthony Benigno wrote in Filmcritic.com that the film "is pretty much the first social-media movie ever made."
"The New York Times"' Adam Sternbergh wrote that "the film's most memorable moments are the ones of unexpected intimacy. ... The film aims to tell the story of a planet, but it's the vulnerability of these individual moments, contributed as part of a larger project, that lingers." The "Los Angeles Times"' Betsy Sharkey wrote that "The fact that we all experienced that day is part of what gives the documentary an unusual kind of relatability."
Sharkey characterised the film as being "the most hopeful yet from Macdonald, a director who's made his reputation by digging into the more corrupted and conflicted side of human nature with "One Day in September", his Oscar-winning documentary on the 1972 Munich massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes... [T]he lightness [Macdonald has] unearthed in "Life in a Day" has an earthy and at times euphoric appeal."
Reception.
"Life in a Day" has received generally positive reception from film critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 82% of 52 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.1 out of 10. Metacritic gave the film a rating average of 58/100, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Helen O'Hara from "Empire" stated that the film was "moving and insightful. Not a classic by any means, but a fascinating glimpse of the way we live today." Michael O'Sullivan of the "Washington Post" gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying that ""Life in a Day" is, without exaggeration, a profound achievement." Peter Howell, a critic of the "Toronto Star", gave the film three out of four stars, saying "the vast majority of the film feels undeniably real and incredibly inspiring." "Wired" magazine's Angela Watercutter wrote that the film "brims with intimacy and urgency."
CNN's Mark Rabinowitz wrote that the film is "a rousing success of an experiment: quite possibly the first large-scale, global use of the Internet to create meaningful and beautiful art," with "CNN Newsroom"'s Josh Levs remarking that the film is "the best time capsule in the history of the world." Ian Buckwalter of "Washingtonian" called the condensed experiences "breathtaking" and "as riveting as any narrative."
Liz Braun, writing in the "Toronto Sun", said that "a lot is predictable" and "It's all familiar for the most part, and it's all mildly interesting," but also cited several "sequences that fully engage a viewer emotionally." Andrew Schenker from Slant Magazine criticised the film by stating: "Only a few snippets escape the uncritical narcissism that the film celebrates." Contentions such as Schenker's were contradicted by "The New York Times' " Adam Sternbergh who wrote that "if the knock against the Internet... is that it stokes our collective narcissism, this film, in its best moments, proves the opposite: not a global craving for exposure but a surprising universal willingness to allow ourselves to be exposed."
Though saying "Life in a Day" "isn't a bad movie" and there are "fits and spurts" in which the film is "actually quite beautiful," "funny" and "moving", Anthony Benigno from Filmcritic.com asserted that documentaries should have a point, narrative, conflict and goal, but called this film "scattershot" and "at its worst, veering closer into exploitation...and even voyeurism." V.A. Musetto, a critic from the "New York Post", said about the film: "Judging by the National Geographic doc "Life in a Day", a lot of nothing happened on 24 July 2010." A counterpoint was expressed by the "Los Angeles Times"' Betsy Sharkey: "the world community had a lot of interesting things on its mind, but it still took filmmakers like Macdonald and Walker to help us say it with feeling."
Two writers for "The New York Times" adopted opposing opinions. Mike Hale's review asserted that "much of the material is interesting in its own right... but... the problem is the resolutely conventional and soft-headed way in which that material has been assembled," and that "the overall tone remains gee-whiz." In contrast, Adam Sternbergh concluded that "the montages of ordinary acts, repeated from Japan to Dubai to Las Vegas, take on a kind of profundity."
Criticism of free labour.
The film has been criticised for its use of free labour. In the film industry, the production teams required to produce images and sounds are normally paid. However, in the case of "Life in a Day", the labour undertaken by YouTube users to shoot the content used in film was not compensated, even though the film was screened in traditional cinema venues for a profit.
List of contributors.
All authors of the videos are credited as co-directors.
Follow-on projects and legacy.
In October 2011, BBC News announced that "Britain in a Day" would be funded by BBC Learning as part of BBC's "Cultural Olympiad," with the "Britain in a Day" YouTube channel accepting video contributions from the public about their lives on a specific day: 12 November 2011. Scott oversaw the project with executive producer Macdonald (both from "Life in a Day") and director Morgan Mathews.
In 2012 directors Philip Martin and Gaku Narita teamed up to create "Japan in a Day" which accounts of the aftermath from Japan's devastating tsunami in 2011 featuring YouTube videos shot by survivors living in and near the affected areas.
Macdonald and Scott also created "Christmas in a Day" (November 2013) a forty-eight-minute YouTube documentary on which a 3.5-minute advertisement for U.K. supermarket Sainsbury's was based. The film constituted crowd-sourced clips recorded on Christmas 2012.
"Italy in a Day" (September 2014), directed by Gabriele Salvatores, included clips selected from 45,000 crowd-sourced video submissions recorded on 26 October 2013, and premiered during the 71st Venice International Film Festival.
The production house behind "Italy in a Day" is teaming with Scott Free Productions to produce "Israel in a Day", with Germany and France also working on their own versions in the format.
"India in a Day" was released in 2015.
"Spain in a Day" by Isabel Coixet was released in 2016.
"Canada in a Day" was released in 2017.
"UN in a Day," directed by Rubén Mendoza which count a day (August 24) to all the members of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in celebration of its 150th anniversary. That Movie was released in 2017.
"Panama in a Day" was released in 2019.
"Life in a Day" "2020" was released in 2021.
References.
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Judgement Day (upcoming film)
American comedy film

Judgement Day is an upcoming American comedy film written and directed by Nicholas Stoller, and starring Will Ferrell, Zac Efron, Regina Hall, Jimmy Tatro, and Billy Eichner.
Premise.
A reality television judge is taken hostage on air by a disgruntled man who blames him for his life spiraling into incarceration.
Production.
The film was announced as in pre-production for Amazon MGM Studios in February 2025, with Nicholas Stoller directing from his own script and a cast led by Will Ferrell and Zac Efron. Producers include Stoller with Stoller Global Solutions, and Gloria Sanchez Productions with Ferrell, Jessica Elbaum and Alex Brown. Regina Hall, Jimmy Tatro and Billy Eichner joined the cast in March 2025.
Principal photography began in March 2025, in Atlanta.
References.
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Day One (2015 film)
Day One is a short film directed and co-written by Henry Hughes with Dawn DeVoe. A woman who is on her first day of working as an interpreter for the United States Army is forced to deliver a baby for the wife of an enemy bomb maker. It was made as a thesis film at the AFI Conservatory.
In 2016, the movie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film at the 88th Academy Awards.
References.
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Britain in a Day
Britain in a Day is a crowdsourced documentary film that consists of a series clips of footage shot by members of the public in Britain on 12 November 2011. Scott Free Films and the BBC produced the film, which was made in conjunction with YouTube.
The film is 90 minutes long and includes shots from 314 different perspectives out of the 11,526 submitted onto the video sharing website YouTube.
The film was premiered in cinemas and broadcast on BBC2 on 11 June 2012 for a general audience, as part of the Cultural Olympiad.
Billed as a follow-up to the 2011 documentary film "Life in a Day", the film was similarly executive produced by Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald.
The film was directed by Morgan Matthews.
Cast & Crew.
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3 Day Weekend
2019 thriller film
3 Day Weekend is a 2019 feature-length puzzle thriller notable for being made with no dialogue. It was written and directed by Wyatt McDill, and produced by Megan Huber who together own the film's production company, Sleeper Cell Films. "3 Day Weekend" stars Maya Stojan, Morgan Krantz, Nathan Phillips, and Scott MacDonald through the events of a kidnapping over the course of a three day weekend.
First appearing at a special screening of the film at the Twin Cities Film Festival, "3 Day Weekend" had its world premiere at the 2020 Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, California. In 2020, Showtime bought the broadcast rights for larger distribution, opening availability to North American audiences. "3 Day Weekend" was formally released in North America on October 23, 2020.
Plot.
"3 Day Weekend" follows the point of view of four different characters through the same events of one three day weekend. Each point of view creates a different perspective of what is happening, initially as an amateur camper stumbling across a kidnapping in progress, then a jailhouse rendezvous, a double-cross, and eventually a revenge plot, depending on which character is misinterpreting the story.
Production.
"3 Day Weekend" was shot in the countryside near Park Rapids, Minnesota over the course of 17 days.
Reception.
"3 Day Weekend" world premiered at the 2020 Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, California after winning an Indie Vision Screenplay Award at a special screening of the film at the Twin Cities Film Festival. Showtime bought the North American broadcast rights in 2020. The film has been called "suspenseful and entertaining" by Randy Myers of The Mercury News.
References.
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A Day Will Come (1950 film)
1950 film
A Day Will Come () is a 1950 West German historical drama film directed by Rudolf Jugert and starring Dieter Borsche, Maria Schell and Lil Dagover. It was shot at the Göttingen Studios. The film's sets were designed by the art director Walter Haag. It is based on Ernst Penzoldt's novella "Korporal Mombour", set at the time of the Franco-Prussian War.
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A Day Will Come (1934 film)
1934 film
A Day Will Come () is a 1934 comedy film directed by Gerhard Lamprecht and Serge Véber and starring Käthe von Nagy, Jean-Pierre Aumont and Simone Héliard. It was made by the German studio UFA as the French-language version of "Just Once a Great Lady".
The film's sets were designed by the art directors Otto Erdmann and Hans Sohnle.
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Where the Day Takes You
1992 American film by Marc Rocco
Where the Day Takes You is a 1992 American drama film directed by Marc Rocco. The film stars Sean Astin, Lara Flynn Boyle, Peter Dobson, Balthazar Getty, Ricki Lake, James LeGros, Dermot Mulroney and Will Smith in his film debut. Its plot follows a group of teenage runaways trying to survive on the streets of Los Angeles. The film was released on September 11, 1992.
Plot.
Fleeing various hardships, a group of young people form a protective family of their own on the streets of Los Angeles, led by King. In his early twenties, King has lived on the street for several years. After being released after two months in prison for assault, he feels the group (him, Greg, Little J, Crasher, and Brenda), fell apart in his absence. He is introduced to Heather, a 17-year-old from Chicago, whom he includes in his revenge on Tommy Ray, who killed his girlfriend, Devon.
One night, Greg and Little J get into a fight while stealing car stereos. Greg, mad the group always sides with Little J, seeks refuge with his drug dealer, Ted, and Ted's girlfriend, Vikki. He is rejected, however, due to not having any money. Going home to look for money, his father and stepmother have him arrested for grand theft.
Meanwhile, King and Heather have trouble earning money, but he won't turn to prostitution, unlike Little J's friends Rob and Kimmy. Rob entices Little J, but while servicing his client Charles, Little J recalls the childhood sexual abuse from his uncle. In jail, Greg admits to drug addiction, so a social worker gets him into a rehabilitation center and he is paroled.
Meanwhile, Tommy Ray, after threatening and assaulting King's legless friend Manny, finds out where King is living. Tommy Ray beats up King and nearly stabs him to death until Little J kills him. King, Heather, and Little J escape, but Crasher is arrested. King advises Heather to return to Chicago, but she refuses to go without him.
After a day spent begging for money, they decide to go to a hotel and spend the night making love. She admits she fled home because her brother raped her. Little J, meanwhile, temporarily takes refuge at Rob's and Kimmy's, but he is eventually kicked out by Rob and decides to contact Charles again. Greg flees from the rehabilitation center in the meantime, but unable to find the group, he goes to Ted, who is worried about him because he hasn't slept for four days and tries to 'help' him by shooting him up with heroin.
Once out of jail, Crasher tries to convince King and Heather to go with him to Dallas, as the police are looking for them. King doesn't want to leave without Greg and Little J, and starts looking for them. He is shocked to find Greg lying in his own vomit, high on drugs at Ted's place. Greg promises to go with him, but he is arrested by the police before he can.
They next find Little J under a bridge, having been kicked out of Charles' house and regretting having shot Tommy Ray. The three decide to leave without anyone else. Meanwhile, Greg, out of jail after informing the police about King's whereabouts, returns to Ted, overdosing to death. On their bus, King decides to get out to look for Greg, but he is held at gunpoint by the police. Little J tries to save him and attempts to shoot them, causing them to shoot back. King, however, jumps in front of him and is shot and killed, shocking a witnessing Heather. She decides to stay in the city and wait for Little J's release from jail. Accompanied by Brenda, she returns to the streets, doing as King taught her.
Production.
The film's director, Marc Rocco was attracted to the production when he read the script from Michael Hitchcock. Hitchcock was inspired to write the script due to his experience on working at a shelter for teenage runaways in Hollywood.
Despite the low budget, the film features an ensemble cast. Most cast members worked, against the advice of their agents, for a small salary. They prepared for their role by spending days with actual teenage runaways in the Hollywood district. Rocco explained their enthusiasm to work on the project in a 1992 interview: "So few scripts let these actors actually act, so few studios give these actors anything but light comedies, there are so few chances to let these actors create dimensional people." Shooting of the film concluded in August 1991. The shooting has involved locations all over Hollywood, and meant the closing of the boulevard on some nights. People who passed by were paid $40 to appear as extras in the film.
Supporting cast member Alyssa Milano initially auditioned for the role of Heather, but fear of casting a former child actress initiated the producers to find her a smaller role instead. The role of Heather eventually went to Lara Flynn Boyle. On why she accepted the role, Boyle commented in a 1991 interview that the script smacked her with reality: "One day when I was thinking about doing the movie, I passed Hollywood and Highland Avenue, and looked over and saw 30 kids hanging out. I thought of the movie and that sight made me eager to do it."
Reception.
The film received generally positive reviews but was a box-office disappointment, earning $190,961 at 93 theaters during its opening weekend. Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" wrote in his 1992 review: "The movie is effective, well-acted and convincing. [..] Mulroney carries the movie. [..] Many of the other characters are sharply drawn, including Greg, played by Astin. [..] Getty is very effective in a scene where he tries to be a male prostitute but hates himself for it. And Boyle is good in the somewhat stereotyped role of the pretty newcomer to the group. [..] It is not a poetic or pseudo-romantic view of runaway life (which seems like a hell interrupted by occasional laughs), but on the other hand it isn't hysterical, either. [..] The story is convincing up until the end, which feels manufactured for movie purposes."
Home media.
In 2003, the film was released in a full-frame edition DVD by Columbia TriStar Home Video, with this release reaching Australia in 2005. In October 2009, Anchor Bay released a widescreen edition DVD. In 2019, Sony released a widescreen Blu-ray release.
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The Day (1960 film)
The Day is a 1960 short film co-written and directed by Peter Finch. It is a fictionalized documentary on a young boy's life on the Spanish island of Ibiza. Music by Sir Eugene Goossens, for string quartet, percussion and flute.
Plot.
A little Spanish boy (Antonion Costa) goes from his village with his donkey and cart to the city to bring the news of the birth of a child.
Production.
Although Finch was best known as an actor, he had worked as a writer and director before, notably on stage. He also helped make the documentary "Primitive Peoples" (1949).
Reception.
The film won awards at the 1961 Venice Festival of Children's Films, and Cork Festival in Ireland. Finch had hopes to direct a feature film, an adaptation of Derek Monsey's World War II novel "The Hero" but could not get the finance.
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Day of the Fight (2023 film)
Film by Jack Huston
Day of the Fight is a 2023 American drama film written and directed by Jack Huston in his directorial debut. It was inspired by and named after Day of the Fight, Stanley Kubrick's famed 1951 short-subject documentary. It stars Michael Pitt, Nicolette Robinson, John Magaro, Steve Buscemi, Ron Perlman, and Joe Pesci. It premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 5, 2023.
Plot.
Follows a once-renowned boxer (Pitt) as he takes a redemptive journey through his past and present, on the day of his first fight since he left prison.
Production.
In December 2022, it was announced that production on the film had begun in New York and New Jersey. In June 2023, it was announced that principal photography had been completed.
The cast features several actors who starred in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire previously, including Pitt, Buscemi, and Yusef, as well as Huston himself who played disfigured World War I veteran Richard Harrow.
Release.
In 2024, Falling Forward Films had acquired the U.S. distribution rights, and set a limited release date for November 15, followed shortly by a nationwide expansion, with intent on qualifying for the upcoming awards season. The film premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 5, 2023.
Reception.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, of 31 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.9/10.
Guy Lodge of "Variety" gave the film a positive review despite noting that "the cliché count edges into drinking-game territory". He praised the cinematography, writing, "The light and shade here is all in Peter Simonite's splendid, inky-shadowed monochrome lensing; Huston's visual sense outweighs his screenwriting."
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The Day (1914 film)
The Day is a 1914 Australian silent film directed by Alfred Rolfe. It is a propaganda film about German brutality in Europe during World War I. It is considered a lost film.
Archie Fraser, who produced, called it ""Der Tag", a little one-act scene, to be played whilst the celebrated poem by the English railway porter on "The Day" was being recited."
Production.
The Fraser brothers were two distributors and exhibitors who occasionally dabbled in production. They had just made a number of films with Raymond Longford but he had left and Alfred Rolfe became their in-house director instead.
The script was adapted from a popular poem by railway porter Henry Chappell. The screenplay was written by actor Johnson Weir. Weir would recite the poem during screenings.
Actor Jame Martin played a Belgian civilian attacked by two German soldiers. During filming he was struck by a bayonet and had to be treated at St Vincents Hospital.
The "Referee" wrote that the film " is a theme patriotic from opening to end, and it promises to prove a crowded house magnet."
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Every Day Isn't Sunday (1959 film)
1959 film
Every Day Isn't Sunday (German: Alle Tage ist kein Sonntag) is a 1959 West German comedy film directed by Helmut Weiss and starring Elisabeth Müller, Paul Hubschmid and Dietmar Schönherr. The title refers to a traditional song by Carl Clewing which features in the film.
The film's sets were designed by the art directors Willi Herrmann and Karl Schneider. It was made at the Tempelhof Studios in West Berlin with location shooting also taking place around Freiburg im Breisgau in the Black Forest.
Plot.
While Eva is in the hospital after an accident, her son, Peter, goes in search of his long-missing father. Learning he has died, Peter then prepares himself for the new man in his mother's life.
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London Day by Day
London Day by Day was the first newsreel produced by British filmmaker Will Barker in 1906. The newsreel was a short, Silent film documentary film compilation regularly released in a public presentation place and contained filmed news.
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Our Day Will Come (film)
Our Day Will Come () is a French 2010 drama film co-written and directed by Romain Gavras. It stars Vincent Cassel, who is also one of the producers.
Plot.
Rémy (Barthélémy) is a red-headed teenage outcast living in north-western France. He meets the troubled psychiatrist Patrick (Cassel) and together they set off on a voyage with no predetermined destination in their newly acquired red Porsche. They decide to go to Ireland on the assumption that redheads are well treated there.
Reception.
On the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 45%, based on 11 reviews with an average score of 5.79/10. Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" gave it 2/5 and called it "a road movie that runs out of road – and out of ideas."
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Days When the Rains Came
American drama film
Days When the Rains Came is an upcoming film starring and written by Marisa Coughlan and co-starring Beau Bridges and Bridey Elliott.
Synopsis.
Jane (Coughlan) is an LA-based actress who is a married mother of two when she returns to her suburban Minnesotan home town in order to visit her charming but ailing dad (Bridges).
Production.
Development.
Coughlan wrote the screenplay which is being produced by Conroy Kanter, Stephen Wallack, Bianca Goodloe, Louise Spinner and Jeremy Alter. Coughlan has said the script was inspired by her relationship with her dad and her time as a creative person and a mom.
Casting.
After being cast Beau Bridges described the script as a “beautifully done piece of work". The cast also includes Sam Trammel, Freddy Rodriguez, and Lisa Gay Hamilton.
Filming.
Filming took place in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, twin cities area of Minnesota in October and November 2022. With filming taking place in Excelsior, Wayzata and Columbia Heights.
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The Day Will Come (2016 film)
2016 film
The Day Will Come () is a 2016 Danish drama film directed by Jesper W. Nielsen. It won six prizes at the 2017 Robert Awards.
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These Days (film)
2016 film
These Days () is a 2016 Italian drama film directed by Giuseppe Piccioni. It was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival.
Reception.
David Rooney of "The Hollywood Reporter" praised the role by Margherita Buy, saying that "[the film] makes you long for the clear-eyed introspection of the Nico song". Jay Weissberg of "Variety" wrote: "Four young women on the brink of adulthood make a road trip to Belgrade in this cliché-riddled piece of banality".
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Days (2020 film)
2020 film
Days () is a 2020 Taiwanese drama film directed by Tsai Ming-liang. Typical of slow cinema and many Tsai films, "Days" is minimalist, slowly paced, and features little dialogue, without subtitles. Lee Kang-sheng plays Kang, and Non is portrayed by Anong Houngheuangsy, a Laotian immigrant to Thailand in his first film role.
"Days" was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Teddy Award.
Plot.
Minimalist long takes of daily life show the middle-aged and middle class Kang (Lee), and the younger Non (Houngheuangsy). Kang lives alone, relaxing in his big house with a view of a goldfish pond in his backyard. Non lives in a spartan apartment. His day begins with religious worship at an altar. He then completes chores, namely the washing of vegetables. Kang travels to the city, seeking treatment for pain in his head and neck. After an acupuncture session, he schedules a massage at the parlor where Non works. Kang pays Non after the full body massage ends, and also gives him a gift, a small music box. Kang watches Non use the box, then shares a meal with him at the fast food restaurant nearby. Kang returns to his home where he tends to his fish and sleeps alone. In the street one night, Non sits on a bench and takes the music box out of his backpack. He plays it again, but it can hardly be heard over the roadway noise.
Production.
Principal photography took place starting in 2014, during and after Tsai Ming-liang, Lee Kang-sheng, Claude Wang, and a cinematographer attended a theatre tour in Europe, followed by medical treatment in Hong Kong for Lee, which was also filmed. The film's opening scene was shot in Tsai's living room in Taiwan. In 2017, Tsai met Houngheuangsy and the two maintained contact via videotelephony, through which Tsai recognized Houngheuangsy's skill in cooking. Some earlier scenes featuring Lee were not used, and Tsai traveled to Bangkok to film on location, including scenes of Houngheuangsy making food. Tsai discussed with his cinematographer about ways to incorporate the captured footage into a film. The film underwent a long-term post-production in Taiwan. In May and June 2019, Tsai secured funding from the Public Television Service to complete post-production. Prior to the release of "Days", Tsai Ming-liang discussed the film without naming it, stating that he was working without a concept for film in mind, adding only that it was to feature Lee Kang-sheng and another actor.
Release.
"Days" was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival. It won the jury Teddy Award at the 70th Berlinale.
Its premiere in the United States was scheduled for April 2020, at the Museum of Modern Art. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that showing was cancelled. The film was shown at the 2020 New York Film Festival.
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Wedding Day (film)
Wedding Day (Italian: Giorno di nozze) is a 1942 Italian "white-telephones" comedy film directed by Raffaello Matarazzo and starring Armando Falconi, Amelia Chellini and Anna Proclemer.
It was shot at the Cinecitta Studios in Rome. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Gastone Medin and Gino Brosio.

Day of Reckoning (2025 film)
Day of Reckoning is a 2025 American western action thriller film directed by Shaun Silva. The film follows a struggling sheriff who teams up with a tough U.S. Marshal to detain a cunning female outlaw.
The film premiered at Paleyfest on March 24, 2025, and was released on March 28, 2025.
Synopsis.
A struggling sheriff teams up with a tough U.S. Marshal to detain a cunning female outlaw. As tensions rise within their posse, they must face an approaching gang led by the prisoner's violent husband.
Production.
Filming.
Filming began at Atlanta in December 2024.
Casting.
On January 28, 2025, Scott Adkins and Trace Adkins joined the cast for the film.
Release.
"Day of Reckoning" premiered at the Paleyfest at Los Angeles on March 24, 2025, and was released in the United States on March 28, 2025, by ESX Entertainment. One day before the film's release, a song for the film titled "That Someday", written by Trace Adkins, was released.
Reception.
Alex Z. Johnson of Vocal Media gave the film four out of five stars, and wrote ""Day of Reckoning" is a thrilling, action-packed film that transcends typical genre expectations by grounding its story in real emotional stakes".

Nine Days (film)
2020 American film by Edson Oda
Nine Days is a 2020 American fantasy drama film written and directed by Edson Oda in his feature debut. It stars an ensemble cast consisting of Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Tony Hale, Bill Skarsgård, David Rysdahl, and Arianna Ortiz. In the film, Will (Duke) is a reclusive man residing in a house in the pre-existence with his assistant Kyo (Wong). His job is to interview souls hoping to be born and to observe how the souls he has selected are living on Earth. When one of his previous selections suddenly dies, Will becomes dispirited and confused about the true meaning of life as a new batch of souls arrives to be interviewed.
In 2017, the Sundance Institute selected Oda to participate in its annual screenwriting lab in the state of Utah. The character of Will is based on his uncle, who died by suicide when Oda was 12 years old. Funding the project proved difficult. After a number of specialty distributors turned the producers down, they put together a team of executive producers, including Spike Jonze, to obtain the $10 million budget. "Nine Days" was shot in less than a month in Utah. Locations included a warehouse in West Valley City and an exterior set constructed at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Filming wrapped in the summer of 2019. During post-production, editing was completed by Michael Taylor and Jeff Betancourt, and the musical score was composed by Antônio Pinto.
"Nine Days" premiered on January 27, 2020, at the Sundance Film Festival, where Oda received the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. Following a delay by the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was released in select theaters on July 30, 2021, with a nationwide release on August 6, by Sony Pictures Classics. It received generally favorable reviews from critics as well as various awards and nominations for Oda's direction, Pinto's score, and the performances of Duke and Beetz.
Plot.
Will is an arbiter who judges souls before they inhabit bodies in the living. He lives in an isolated house in the middle of a desert landscape, interviewing candidate souls for the opportunity to be born. If they are not selected, Will gives them an experience of their choosing to enact before their existence is erased. His only company is Kyo, who acts as a sort of supervisor, making sure Will selects the best candidate and assisting him with the process. Unlike Will, who spent a previous lifetime as a living being, Kyo was never alive. Will spends his days watching and taking notes on a multitude of television screens, each displaying the life of a different individual that Will has previously selected. His favorite is Amanda, a 28-year-old violin prodigy. While observing Amanda drive to a major concert, Will sees her suddenly speed on the highway. Amanda crashes into an overpass and dies.
As Will grapples with Amanda's death, candidates begin arriving to interview for the vacancy Amanda left behind, a process that will take nine days. He asks the candidates simple questions about life and has them take notes on what they like or dislike about the lives of others who were chosen. Will is particularly intrigued by Emma, who displays heightened empathy and curiosity despite showing little interest in the selection process. Over the course of the nine days, most of the candidates are dismissed for various reasons, such as self-consciousness and lack of respect for suffering. Will does his best to recreate life events for the failed candidates, such as walking on the beach or bike-riding through a city, before the candidates disappear forever.
Kyo invites another nearby interviewer to meet with Will, as she had previously selected Amanda's cousin for birth. She shows Will a tape shortly after Amanda's death, which reveals that Amanda left behind a suicide note before her crash. Kyo attempts to help Will get over her death, but Will continues to watch tapes from her life, unable to understand why she did it. Will has told Emma that he cannot tell her anything about his previous life, but in response to her showing concern for him, he now indicates that in his previous life, he once gave a theater performance that made him feel alive but never pursued his passion after that. He reacts angrily when another candidate, Alex, points out Will's hypocrisy for judging people's lives when he never did anything meaningful with his own life.
The candidates are narrowed down to two: Emma and Kane. While Emma is carefree and sees the best in people, Kane is more pessimistic, recognizing the evil in the world and showing resolve to fight back against it. Despite Kyo recommending that Will pick Emma, he chooses Kane to be born. When Will offers Emma a last experience, she writes something down that Will says he cannot do. Emma then declines a last experience and opts to walk across the desert until she disappears. Will later finds a note from Emma where she thanks him and explains she wrote happy memories she had during the interview process. Will finds them written all over the house. Feeling regret, he runs across the desert after Emma, passionately recites selections from Walt Whitman’s "Song of Myself", and thanks her.
Production.
Development.
"Nine Days" is an American co-production between Juniper Productions, Mandalay Pictures, Nowhere, MACRO Media, The Space Program, Mansa Productions, Oak Street Pictures, 30West, Baked Studios, and Datari Turner Productions. It is the feature debut of writer and director Edson Oda. Of Japanese descent, he was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil. Oda had a successful career in advertising in São Paulo and was the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Lion from the 2009 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. In 2012, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in filmmaking. He earned his master's in film and production from the USC School of Cinematic Arts but was unmotivated to write. For inspiration, he asked himself, "If I could just make one movie in my entire life, what would that movie be?"
Oda said the film was an exploration of how a real loss can create both the burden and gift of being alive. The character of Will is based on his uncle, who died by suicide at age 50 when Oda was 12 years old. Oda said people would go on to remember his uncle for how he died instead of for the life he lived. He wanted to write a story about what his uncle was going through "instead of judging him through what he did". In 2017, the Sundance Institute selected Oda as one of fifteen emerging screenwriters to participate in its annual screenwriting lab at the Sundance Resort in Utah. Producers on "Nine Days" were Jason Michael Berman, Mette-Marie Kongsved, Matthew Linder, Laura Tunstall, and Datari Turner. Securing funding for the film proved difficult as the producers had been turned down by several specialty distributors, including A24 and Searchlight Pictures. So, to obtain the $10 million budget necessary to finance it, Berman put together a team of at least a dozen executive producers. Spike Jonze boarded the project as an executive producer in October 2020 after the film's premiere. Oda credited Jonze's "Her" (2013), a film tackling similar themes of humanity and vulnerability, as a major inspiration for "Nine Days", taking notice of Scarlett Johansson's performance as Samantha in the film: "She's almost like a soul ... finding love and all those emotions so dramatically."
Casting.
Winston Duke read the screenplay after working on "Us" and was immediately interested in its depiction of mental illness and depression. Duke sat down with Oda for a meeting, which turned into a four-hour conversation about various topics ranging from filmmaking to content they both enjoyed to a discussion about life as an immigrant. As Oda described it, "It was almost like, I don't know, love at first sight. It was just amazing to see that I could trust this guy so much. I had a feeling that he has this big heart for humanity inside him." Though the lead role was originally set to be played by an Asian actor, Duke got the part the day after the meeting. According to Duke, the film's title is a reference to the funerary tradition practiced in the Caribbean known as the nine nights, where a person is mourned for nine days because it takes their spirit nine days to say goodbye.
On June 7, 2019, Duke, Zazie Beetz, Bill Skarsgård, Benedict Wong and David Rysdahl were announced to star. Beetz described her character as having a "childlike wonder", living in the present and confronting her issues instead of ignoring them like Will. Wong described his character as a romantic about life, eager for company but alone. To prepare for the role, Wong isolated himself from other people: "I locked myself up in a room ... [and] I didn't talk to anyone, solely just to have personal isolation. And when I came out, I wanted human contact, so that was like Kyo who would walk off into the dead of night, and no one knows where he goes."
In August 2019, Tony Hale joined the cast. Hale described his character as a jokester who wants to have a good time. He categorized Arianna Ortiz's character as a romantic and Rysdahl's character as sensitive, stating that "there was a risk that we each took fully being ourselves. For some, for many, it didn't have the result we wanted, but we did take that risk." When asked about Will's response to his character, Hale said their "personalities triggered something that I think he felt he might've lacked. And so, since he didn't understand it, he didn't think we could take it when in actuality, it might've been a piece of him that was missing that could have helped."
Filming.
The cast had rehearsals for two weeks. Cinematographer Wyatt Garfield cited "Schindler's List" (1993), "Seven" (1995), "Taking Off" (1971), and "There Will Be Blood" (2007) as inspirations for the interview scenes and Gregory Crewdson as a point of reference for lighting. Garfield said there were two distinct locations in the film. The "limbo" setting, where Will lives, was captured using an Arri Alexa Mini with anamorphic lenses by Optica Elite because they "wanted to feel that the house itself was subtly bending and breathing and not totally concrete". The "real world" scenes, projected only through the televisions in Will's house, were filmed in the span of three weeks in Salt Lake City, Brazil, and Los Angeles with a number of lightweight cameras rigged to helmets and headgear, including a Sony Venice, a Codex Action Cam, and a Blackmagic Cinema Camera. To create a crying effect for point-of-view shots, Garfield recalled sealing water in cellophane candy bags and squeezing them in front of the lens. As a result of the tight schedule, Oda had to cut fifteen pages from the script, including scenes featuring a symbolic spotlight and others involving Kyo.
Principal photography lasted for 24 days. Filming took place in 2019 between August and September in the state of Utah with support from the Motion Picture Incentive Program. An interior set of Will's house was built in a warehouse in West Valley City. Hale said that the house was built beside an office space, where he would often go to rehearse his lines, and noted the contrast between atmospheres. An exterior set was constructed at the Bonneville Salt Flats, which featured a facade of the house. Oda said the location was supposed to "give you the sense that you're not really on Earth". "Nine Days" was shot entirely in chronological order. Filming would start on Saturdays and end on Wednesdays with two-day breaks in between. The last scene, consisting of a three-page monologue, was filmed over the course of one sunset without any rehearsal or choreography. Filming wrapped early on a Wednesday at 9a.m. The crew remembered leaving the studio that day and spotting a double rainbow. In an interview, Oda recalled an interaction with Duke after filming a monologue from the film's climax: "We had like a lot of days to go, but there was some kind of sense of 'Mission Accomplished' because after we filmed, everyone felt like we had something special in the can. I remember Winston just came up to me — it was sunset, it was just getting darker — and he said, 'Your uncle is going to be really proud of you, you know.' It meant so much to me; that's something I'll remember.”
Post-production.
Editing was completed by Michael Taylor and Jeff Betancourt. "Nine Days" received the Dolby Institute Fellowship, a post-production grant that allowed the sound designers to complete the film in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Antônio Pinto composed the musical score with additional composers David Bessler and Gabriel Ferreira, who composed the violin solos. The theme song, played by Amanda's character on the violin, was composed during pre-production and performed by Brazilian violin virtuoso Michel Bessler. The song played during the bicycle scene was composed by Yaniel Matos and performed in Portuguese by Manuela Julian. The score was released by Warner Classics on July 9, 2021.
Release.
In December 2019, the Sundance Film Festival announced the lineup for the 2020 competition. "Nine Days" premiered at the festival on January 27, 2020, competing in the U.S. Dramatic Competition with a runtime of 124 minutes. At the premiere, Duke said "What's really beautiful about this story is that it doesn't ever try to spoon-feed you. It's not very didactic in any way. It just presents itself and asks you to have a reaction." In February 2020, Sony Pictures Classics acquired distribution rights to the film for North and Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, India, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, South Africa, the Benelux, Thailand and airlines; the company would subsequently acquire rights to Israel, Turkey and remaining Asian and European territories, giving it worldwide rights to the film.
A trailer for the film was released on October 12, 2020. In their review of the footage, "Screen Rant"'s Alex McGuire noted the "impressive cast" and the film's "complex questions about existence". Hoai-Tran Bui from "/Film" said the premise was similar to Pixar's "Soul", an animated film also about pre-existence. "Syfy Wire"'s Jacob Oller said the film would intrigue fans of Duke and that there was "definitely some weirdness going on that belies beauty and the deeper questions in life."
"Nine Days" screened as the opening film of the Austin Film Festival on October 22, 2021. It was originally scheduled to be theatrically released on January 22, 2021. However, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was delayed. "Nine Days" instead opened in four theaters on July 30, 2021, with a nationwide release on August 6. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on Digital HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on November 2, 2021. Special features include a making-of featurette.
Reception.
Box office.
"Nine Days" grossed $694,849 in the United States and Canada, and $273,