Secret Window (2004)

A successful writer in the midst of a painful divorce is stalked at his remote lake house by a would-be scribe who accuses him of plagiarism.

Director:

David Koepp

Writers:

Stephen King (novel), David Koepp (screenplay)

Stars:

Johnny Depp, Maria Bello, John Turturro

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Johnny Depp	...	Mort Rainey
John Turturro	...	John Shooter
Maria Bello	...	Amy Rainey
Timothy Hutton	...	Ted Milner
Charles S. Dutton	...	Ken Karsch
Len Cariou	...	Sheriff Dave Newsome
Joan Heney	...	Mrs. Garvey
John Dunn-Hill	...	Tom Greenleaf (as John Dunn Hill)
Vlasta Vrana	...	Fire Chief Wickersham
Matt Holland	...	Detective Bradley
Gillian Ferrabee	...	Fran Evans
Bronwen Mantel	...	Greta Bowie
Elizabeth Marleau	...	Juliet Stoker
Kyle Allatt	...	Busboy
Richard Jutras	...	Motel Manager

Storyline

Mort Rainey is a successful writer going through a rather unfriendly divorce from his wife of ten years, Amy. Alone and bitter in his cabin, he continues to work on his writing when a stranger named John Shooter shows up on his doorstep, claiming Rainey stole his story. Mort says he can prove the story belongs to him and not Shooter, but while Mort digs around for the magazine which published the story in question years ago, things begin to happen around Shooter. Mort's dog dies, people begin to die, and his divorce proceedings with Amy continue to get uglier. It seems that Shooter has Mort over a barrel, but perhaps Mort has his own ideas on how to resolve all the problems that plague him lately.

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Plot Keywords:

bloody violence | writer | cabin | investigator | stranger | 

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Taglines:

The most important part of a story is the ending.

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for violence/terror, sexual content and language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 March 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Secret Window, Secret Garden

Filming Locations:

Bromont Sur Le Lac, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$40,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$18,237,568, 14 March 2004, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$48,022,900

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$92,913,171

Company Credits

Production Co:

Grand Slam Productions, Columbia Pictures, Mel's Cite du Cinema

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Johnny Depp and director David Koepp share the same birthday.

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Goofs

When Mort finds Tom in the station wagon he faints. First we see him pitch forwards. Then the camera (from his perspective) pans to the left but we see him land on the ground to his right.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Mort: [voiceover] Turn around. Turn around. Turn the car around and get the hell out of here. Right now. Don't go back. Do not go back there.

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Crazy Credits

At the end of the credits Johnny Depp can be briefly heard singing "Shortnin' Bread".

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Alternate Versions

The camera pans down to the garden, fading to black when it reaches the dirt. The alternate ending continues underground to the roots of the cornstalks, where Ted and Amy's bodies lay.

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Connections

Referenced in The Getaway: Black Monday (2004)

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Soundtracks

Get Down
Written by Ali Dee, Vincent Alfieri and Zach Danziger
Performed by Cham Pain
Courtesy of Deetown Productions
Under license from Spirit Music Group

User Reviews

Great Actor Crap Movie

Well all i can say about Secret Window was that the pace was slow and the ending was the usual Stephan King rubbish, <---- Not a fan The idea was good but the execution was lousy, it all seemed to go a little to Fight Club for me at the end

How Johnny Depp managed to backpack everyone else who had anything to do with that is a mystery, the twist was extremely well acted and well what can be expected.

As a whole Secret Window sucked and Stephen King needs to do us all a favour and stop writing... either that or people need to stop making his books into crappy B movies.