Production Companies Regency Enterprises (presents), Davis Entertainment (producer), New Regency Pictures (producer), Epsilon Motion Pictures (in association with), Atchity Entertainment International (AEI), Monarchy Enterprises S.a.r.l.
Studio AEI Entertainment, Davis Entertainment, Epsilon Motion Pictures, New Regency Pictures
What's the most important thing in life? Is it love or is it your career? Is it work or is it your family? Lanie Kerrigan must ponder these questions after a street savant tells her that she will die in seven days.
Ambitious, glamorous and a top reporter at the That's Seattle Life morning show, Lanie has risen from her blue-collar roots and is on her way to capturing a dream job with one of the major networks. She has carefully planned her career path to be a major television celebrity and has redesigned her life for a certain public image. Lanie finds happiness in trivial and material things right down to her engagement to Cal, a superstar batting champion with the Seattle Mariners. That is until she learns her fate from Prophet Jack.
When LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT producer John Davis first read the script he responded to its comedic and inspirational elements. "I believed that Lanie was a strong woman who ultimately finds herself, and I was captivated by the story's humor and warmth, as well as the emotional journey Lanie takes in the story," Davis comments.
Lanie's strength and complexities called for an actress who could bring those special qualities, plus the expected star wattage, to the character. Davis and Regency Enterprises executives had their sights set on Angelina Jolie. However, Jolie had planned on taking a break from acting after the rigors of shooting Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. "I didn't want to do another film," she recalls. "I wanted to stay at home and work and focus on family and other important things in life. Then I got this script and somebody said to me it's about everything you've been talking about. So when I read it, I realized it meant so much to me, and I thought it had a beautiful message in it."
"Lanie is very ambitious and takes herself very seriously, but because she's so serious about perfection she's slightly funny," Jolie elaborates. "When she realizes she's going to die she kind of flips out and through that somehow is forced to be broken down to be human, much like a very pretty princess falling in the mud."
The film also offered Jolie her first opportunity to star in a comedic role. "I've never done a comedy and when I read it I thought it was a challenge because I was thinking there's no way I could possibly play a woman like this because I'm far too serious," Jolie laughs. "Then I started to play with the ideas of how she'd look, or things she'd do, and I couldn't get the story out of my head."
John Davis, delighted to have Jolie aboard the project, takes special note of what became the perfect convergence of "reel" and real life for the actress. "I think the way Angelina embraced the script and attached herself to the movie is very interesting. She found a piece of material that helped her complete the transition she was going through in life and that's one of the reasons why she is so good as the character."
Director Stephen Herek worked to seamlessly mix and expand upon the story's humor and pathos. "The story is about redemption and saving one's soul," Herek notes. "What we think is important in our lives a lot of times is very superficial and what we find is truly important is finding peace within your inner self."
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