What attracted you to this project?
I liked the twists and turns in the story - I didn't know what was going to happen. I kind of liked the panorama as well, the international nature of it and the conspiracy element.
What did you set out to achieve with this movie?
I think often times when you do a genre film, you get into the plot and you don't necessarily deal with the people that populate that plot. So what we tried to do was just pay a little more attention to the emotions and the relationships between the people. Hopefully that's the difference. I see it as a drama and a thriller, not one or the other. There's a real partnership between the dramatic moments and the thrills.
How did you go about creating the military as the threat in the story?
We relocated the original story, which was a novel set in Boston, and set it in San Francisco. That enabled us to use this old military base at Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco. The Alameda naval base is an art-deco complex which I think gives off a kind of sinister feeling. It meant that Ashley Judd's character would really look out of place in this tough military threatening environment, and that would enhance her feeling of being the outsider trying to fight an enemy she doesn't know or understand.
How was it working with Ashley and Morgan?
Working with Morgan and Ashley is like working with Seattle Slew and Seabiscuit [champion race horses] or something. When you've got a couple of thoroughbreds, it definitely makes my life easier.
