The Fog (2005)

The Fog is a 2005 American horror film directed by Rupert Wainweight and starring Tom Walling, Selma Blair and Maggie Grace. It is a remake of John Carpenter's 1980 film of the same name and was produced by Carpenter and Debra Hill who co wrote the original film.

Plot
The backstory of the film is somewhat similar of the orinigal film: In 1871, a group of men conspired to mislead and murder the crew of the Elizabeth Dance, a clipper carrying a group of lepers seeking santuary. The Dane was captained by William Blake, a wealthy man infected with leprosy who made an agreement with the town's founders to buy half of the island for a leper colony. However, when the islander's leaders meet with Blake onboard the Dane to make the purchase, the islanders double-cross the lepers, loot the ship and then set the ship on fire, slaughtering everyone onboard. In this film, the town by Antonio Bay is preparing to celebrate a new staute dedicated to the "founding fathers" of the town. This awakens the ghostly crew of the Elizabeth Dane, who have sworn revenge on the town for what the "founding fathers" did to them.

Cast

 * Tom Weling - Nick Castle
 * Maggie Grace - Elizabeth Williams
 * Selma Blair - Stevie Wayne
 * Adrain Hough - Father Robert Malone
 * Sara Botsford - Kathy Williams
 * Cole Heppell - Andy Wayne
 * Mary Black - Aunt Connie
 * Rafe Serbedezija - Captain Blake
 * DeRay Davis - Spooner
 * Jonathon Young - Weathernman Dan
 * R. Nelson Brown - Mr. Machen
 * Sonja Bennett - Mandi
 * Meghen Heffern - Brandi/Jennifer
 * Kenneth Welsh - Tom Malone
 * Matthew Currie Holmes - Sean Castle

Production
The film green lit by Revolution Studios before the script was written. When the remake was announced, rumors circulated the Internet that Charisma Carpenter had been cast as Jessica Biel as Elizabeth. Later reports stated Carpenter was deemed 'too old' for Stevie Wayne and Biel simply did not want to do any more horror films. Similarly, reliable websites announced that Chris Isaak had signed on to play Nick Castle, which was completely untrue as the character was being rewritten to be in his mid-twenties, Before Tom Welling was cast, actors connsidered by Nick Castle included David Boreanaz, Jesse Metcalfe, Matthew Davis, Henry Cavill, Adam Garcia, Michael Cassidy, Oliver Hudson, and Peter Facinell. Matthew Fox and Benjamin McKenzie were also considered for the role and met with the director, but due to conflicting television schedules they did did not read for producers. Tom Welling had three weeks left on Smallville (2005) season 4 when he began shooting The Fog (2005). Selma Bair often joked that the director kept two cameras running during his scenes - one for The Fog, and one for Smallville.

During early development, Julia Stiles expressed interest in the role of Elizabeth. The screenplay was subsequently tailored, the character matured, and the role expanded. When Stiles did not come aboard, Maggie Grace was immediately cast, and characer of Elizabeth was rewritten to be younger and more innocent than in previous drafts. Maggie Grace beat Emilie de Ravin, her Lost (2004) co-star, for the role of Elizabeth.

Selma Blair did almost all of her own stunt work for the film, and spent 12 hours in a water tank (with only short surafce breaks) for two straight days to shoot her underwater scenes.

The film was partially shot in and around Cowichan Bay, British Columbia.

Reception
The film was poorly received by critics and movie fans. The film was further negatively viewed due to its numerous plot holes and abandonment of many of the elements from the original film. To date, the film has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 5%. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 27 out of 100, based on 16 reviews.The Fog was widely considered an unsucessful remake of the original movie made in 1980, with the Hollywood Reporter stating that the movie "lack[ed] the scares necessary to satisfy its target audience", and Variety commented that "interest lags between the grisly deaths, and, worse, none of the cahracters generates rooting interest." The film was rated D- by Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly.

The film grossed $29,550,869 domestically and further $16,650,563 internationally.