"'Clockstoppers' is a sci-fi fantasy adventure intended to be a film the entire family can enjoy together," says producer Gale Anne Hurd. "To appeal to a wider audience, we made the protagonists high school seniors, kids who are grappling with who they are now and who they are going to be in the future."
"I really like that it's a family movie that my kids can see," says director Jonathan Frakes, who directed "Star Trek: First Contact" and "Star Trek: Insurrection." Drawn to the project not only because of its sci-fi element, Frakes also liked the humorous bent of the film, adding, "It's a wonderful story.
The film combines comedy, action, special effects and technology to create a character-driven adventure into a fascinating world in which reality is confused with a fateful game. With the added elements of an extraordinary technology that has the potential to be life-threatening in the wrong hands, "Clockstoppers" is also a classic tale of the struggle of good against evil.
The adventure begins when Zak discovers the watch among his father's possessions, and innocently starts having fun with his new powers of invisibility.
"At first Zak has a great joyride with this watch showing it off to his new friend Francesca, a beautiful exchange student," explains producer Julia Pistor. "But soon Zak discovers there are some really bad people out there that want this technology, and who are really furious that he's stumbled upon it. They've even kidnapped his father, and now Zak, using the watch, has to track his father down."
"With the kidnapping, the film takes off on a really high-speed adventure in which Zak has to save his father," interjects executive producer Albie Hecht. "In the process, he reconnects with his dad and finds out that they actually have more in common than he thought."
Hurd observes that science fiction can take audiences away to worlds far, far like "Star Wars" and "Alien," or it can either away, show people a way to look at their own world through new eyes.
"I've always been a fan of speculative fiction," says Hurd, "and I loved the idea that 'Clockstoppers' combines a sci-fi adventure with a comedic family tale, creating a world that I've never seen before in a movie.
The reason "Clockstoppers" can achieve such broad appeal is due to the combination of Hurd's producing credits ("The Terminator," "Aliens" and "Armageddon") with Hecht and Pistor's producing credits in association with Nickelodeon Movies ("The Rugrats Movie," "Snow Day," "Good Burger," "Harriet the Spy"). Together, then, Hurd, Hecht and Pistor, along with Nickelodeon, offer a very accessible sci-fi fantasy that offers both action-adventure and fine family entertainment.
But without the right director, "Clockstoppers" would never have become the mesmerizing film that it is. From the start, the choice was eminently clear Jonathan Frakes, who had already worked on science fiction projects and films in a variety of genres as a producer, director, and most importantly, as an actor.
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