Charlie St. Cloud

Burr Steers came late to the project. Universal and producer Marc Platt won Ben Sherwood’s novel in a scramble between 3 studios in 2003, before the book was published; Joe Johnston was the first choice to direct and Steers replaced him in 2009. James Schamus and Lewis Colick wrote drafts, Craig Pearce the script used, and Steers polished it. Zac Efron turned down the lead in Paramount’s Footloose remake to take this part. In October 2009 Chris Massoglia was signed to play a teenaged Sam, but he is not in the final film. In some markets it went out under the novel’s full title, The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud. The story sits on the Washington coast while the shoot split between upstate New York and British Columbia, using the town of Gibsons and a school in North Vancouver. Against a budget of 44 million dollars the film took 48.2 million worldwide. Charlie Tahan was nominated for younger actor at the 37th Saturn Awards, losing to Chloë Grace Moretz for Let Me In. A good fit if you want the film’s rule read as a dilemma rather than a sorrow: keeping the promise holds the dead brother in place and stops him leaving. Not for viewers who cannot take the opening collision staged directly rather than implied.