The Making of Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

An asteroid is nearing the planet Earth and a man finds he is alone, his wife having left in some panic moment. The man then decides to take some road trip to reunite with a high school heartthrob and a neighbor accompanies him in the process and unintentionally wrenches his plans along the way. That is the surface and summary of the film, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, starring Steve Carell, a Golden Award winner and Keira Knightley, a nominee for an Academy Award.

Keira Knightley

 The movie also features the directorial debut of Lorene Scafaria, a screenwriter. It is set in a future not so far and sets out to explore the actions of people after they realize they have only a few days to the end of the world. The journeys of Dodge (Carell) seemingly converge with that of Penny (Knightley) and there is some spark among the two leading to some brightening of the outlook of both individuals, including that of the world.  

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World brings together a Golden Globe Award winner and a nominee for an Academy Award with Lorene Scafaria showing what she can do beyond being a screenwriter for most of her film career. In production of the movie, the director, Lorene Scafaria, was looking forward at first to tell a unique story of how a boy meets a girl with a ticking clock in the background, courtesy of some events that affected her life, right from a family member’s death, a breakup, plus some budding new relationship. The story ends up as a wholly unexpected romance that blossom among two strangers after a rather impromptu kind of road trip, a story that is Scafaria’s territory as a result of her previous work, a similar screenplay to her work on Nick and Norahs Infinite Playlist.

The filming of Seeking a Friend for the End of the World started some time in 2011 in the month of May in LA.  The movie’s reception had mostly diverse reviews from the critics with the Rotten Tomatoes putting the film at 51 percent in terms of positive reviews. In all this, the consensus was that it is a well-acted, charming and tender movie that has been hum-strung in an unfortunate way courtesy of grating tonal shifts while the final act is disappointing if anything.

 Steve Carell with wife Nancy Walls (Also stars in the movie)

A number of film critics intimated that the script of the Seeking a Friend for the End of the World required some good editing but the performance of both Carell and Knightley were commended, described as two comedians who are proficient enough in the trade to sell the chat. On its opening weekend, the movie did not perform well, making $3 million only.

Focus Features however announced release of Blu-ray and DVD versions of Seeking a Friend for the End of the World by fifth of November 2012 in time for the Christmas period that sees an appetite for such movies.