The Script is the Blueprint

Director Gregory Hoblit is well known for keeping the screenwriter within arm's reach during production, and Gers was no exception, spending months on set with the cast and crew.

"The script is the blueprint for the movie," asserts Hoblit. "Once it gets on its feet in the hands of gifted actors, it becomes organic and takes on a life of its own. If the blueprint is good, you stick to its intentions pretty closely, making sure you hit every specific point."

"This script is also a puzzle piece in terms of the emotional life of the characters," Hoblit continues, "so we had to be very careful, yet still give the actors room to move. Glenn was great at understanding that. I don't think going in he anticipated that a scene could take such a left or right turn, but he quickly realized the special things that can happen with a story with when you let the moments happen with good actors. Our blueprint was first rate."

Hoblit read more than 100 scripts before agreeing to direct Fracture. "It was the surprises you don't see coming," he says when asked what made this script outshine the many others. "I knew this one was going to be fun and I knew what to do with it, how to make it," he says succinctly.  Similar to Hoblit's debut film, Primal Fear, the director likens Fracture to such smart murder mysteries as Jagged Edge and The Verdict, calling them "brainy popcorn thrillers."

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The Characters
The characters jumped off the page into Hoblit's consciousness, especially the scene in which Crawford and Willy first meet. Crawford has confessed to his wife's murder, and Willy, feeling all the power of his position as an assistant district attorney, questions Crawford believing his case to be a neat slam dunk.