“Open Water” is based on real events and follows a vacationing couple scuba diving in tropical waters who are mistakenly abandoned in the middle of the ocean. As the hours pass, the couple realizes they are not alone as a shark’s fin breaks the surface water. Over the next 24 hours, the couple must fight to stay afloat and alive, surrounded by miles of ocean. The film chillingly reminds viewers how much fun it is to be frightened by our most primal fears, namely what we think may lurk just below the surface.
Unlike previous shark movies, such as “Jaws” and “Deep Blue Sea,” “Open Water” does not employ special effects or CGI. Instead, actors Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis spent over 120 hours in the water many miles off shore amid all kinds of sea life, including the real-life sharks that give the film its chilling authenticity. Referred to as “The Blair Witch Project meets Jaws” by Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Premiere and the Wall Street Journal, the film was embraced by audiences and critics alike when it world premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.
“Open Water” was written and directed by Chris Kentis and produced by Laura Lau, a husband-and-wife team. To create the drama inherent in the dilemma of a stranded couple potentially becoming food, Kentis and Lau shot most of the film in the open ocean off of the Bahamas. They worked with a local shark expert, who would manipulate the sharks’ movements by throwing chunks of bloody tuna into the water, often near the actors. Says Kentis, “We would throw bait in the water to get the sharks to move. But once too many pieces are in the water, the sharks get really worked up, and then the actors would have to get out of the water.” The sharks, mostly gray reef sharks with a few bull sharks averaging seven to eleven feet in length, numbered between 45 and 50.
Lions Gate Films will release “Open Water” in major cities August 6th, with a national date of August 20, 2004.
