‘Looking for a Friend for the End of the World’ was the first feature film production of the later ‘Hustlers’ director Lorene Scafaria in 2012. In the strong 4-star FILMSTARTS review, our author Robert Cherkowski calls the work an almost beautiful experience and concludes with the question:
“Looking for a Friend for the End of the World” airs today, January 12, 2024 at 9 p.m. on One. The station shows a repeat that same night at 1:45 am. Alternatively, the FSK-12 title is available as Blu-ray, DVD or paid video on demand:
Steve Carell and Keira Knightley star. The American became world famous with the TV sitcom ‘The Office’ and cinema hits such as ‘Little Miss Sunshine’, ‘Anchorman’ and ‘Virgin (40), Male, Looking for…’. You know the Brit of course from the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ series, ‘The Imitation Game’ and ‘Love Actually’.
Other parts feature a long list of stars – such as Melanie Lynskey from “Two And A Half Men”, Adam Brody (“OC, California”), Derek Luke (“Game to Win”), TJ Miller (“Deadpool 1 +2”) and Patton Oswalt of “King Of Queens”. Also on board are Connie Britton (“American Horror Story”), Rob Corddry (“Hot Tub”), Gillian Jacobs of “Community” and “The West Wing” president Martin Sheen.
“Looking for a friend before the end of the world” on One: that’s the story
As the gigantic asteroid Mathilda is on a collision course with Earth, the end of the world is nigh. Most people start to go crazy; panic, looting and fighting are ubiquitous. It seems like Dodge (Carell) is the only one who isn’t impressed. He stoically continues with his office work, while his colleagues and friends let loose.
The man in his mid-forties has just been left by his wife and meets his slightly younger, endearingly distant neighbor Penny (Knightley). Together they decide to leave the city. Both have come up with something they would like to do before the end: Dodge wants to find his old lover and Penny wants to find a plane that will take her to her family in England…
The soundtrack to the downfall
Lorene Scafaria, who previously appeared in supporting roles in films such as ‘The Nines – Your Life is Just a Game’, has wanted to bring her own story to the screen for some time. She had “a love story with a ticking clock” in mind – similar to Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise.” Initially, however, she lacked inspiration.
This came in an unexpected way in the form of her own response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Scafaria is from the New York area and had only recently moved to Los Angeles from there. After the attacks, she spent several days contacting all her acquaintances in the eastern United States to make sure everything was okay. And this despite the fact that she had not had contact with some of them for years. Years later, when she saw Roland Emmerich’s disaster hits ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ and ‘2012’ and especially heard the song ‘Preaching The End Of The World’ by the now unfortunately deceased rock singer Chris Cornell, it finally clicked. she and the author began writing down her film, which until then had only existed as an idea in her head.
As with the script for “Nick and Norah – Soundtrack of a Night”, written by Scafaria a few years earlier, music played a huge role during the creation process. The filmmaker spent weeks selecting suitable songs from, among others, The Beach Boys, The Walker Brothers, Frank Black, Wang Chung, PM Dawn, The Hollies and Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass. She was assisted by her boyfriend, actor Adam Brody, who she said helped her incorporate a male perspective into the title choice.
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