Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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March 18, 2007

Sandra Bullock Stars in New Romantic Thriller "Premonition"
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=16B2A35:A6F02AD83191E160E610A6033A9637309574F7DCC14957C0 She plays a woman
caught between what she knows is reality and a nightmare that she
fears will come true Sandra Bullock stars in a new romantic thriller
as a woman caught between what she knows is reality and a nightmare
that she fears will come true. Alan Silverman has a look at
Premonition.







Sandra Bullock "Premonition"The apparently idyllic life of suburban
housewife Linda Hanson is devastated by what the police officer at the
door tells her. Then she awakens the next morning to find her husband
Jim in bed next to her and very much alive.

But when the pattern starts to repeat ...when she wakes up to find her
family in mourning ...Linda begins to believe that she is experiencing
a Premonition and becomes determined to change the tragic fate it
foretells.

Sandra Bullock stars as Linda and says she had to come to terms with
her own beliefs about the unsettling feeling that something is about
to happen. "I do think that there is something to human nature. You
can call it intuitiveness or 'gut instinct' ...people who know things
that have happened. It has happened to a lot of people, so when
someone says to me 'I had a bad feeling that something is going to
happen and then it did,' I don't know how to explain it. It can't be
explained by science, but I believe in that happening," says the
actress.

Jim McMahon, a co-star of the edgy TV series Nip/Tuck, plays Linda's
husband, Jim. The Australia-born actor says his character is unaware
of the fate his wife believes awaits him. "He had to live his life
normally, but with this wife of his who is becoming a little strange,
telling him 'don't go to work tomorrow, don't go there, don't do this
...' crazy stuff and particularly at a point in time when their
relationship is pretty far on the rocks. So I felt like my part was
kind of to solidify things a little bit, just in regards to the fact
that we were, at some point, a normal family and this is the way we
live our life. While she's going all haywire, living days out of order
and doing all that kind of stuff, still whenever she came back to us
it was just kind of normal life," he says.

If it seems confusing to describe, Sandra Bullock says imagine what it
was like to act that out. I had a really hard time. I thought I was
going to lose it. I went to the director and said 'I'm having a hard
time. I don't know what to do.' There was a smile on his face when he
heard that and he said 'no, this is exactly where you need to be.' I
answered 'no, it's not' ...but in my unraveling we played the levels
right. We played the levels right. Is she just pure grief here? When
does the grief go into denial and anger? And when does she get angry
at [events]? You have to start infusing ...it just wasn't pretty," she
says.

"For me it was important that you believe her emotional journey," says
Director Mennan Yapo. He says he could not worry about loose ends in
the plot that might confuse the audience. The German-born filmmaker
says the film balances on believing in the emotions that Bullock's
character is going through. "Once you believe that, the details and
all that become less important ...and they should, because at some
point the story and the film should elevate into something else, and I
feel it does. It goes to a place where you clearly understand that
it's not only a thriller about this-and-that; it's about loss [and]
much more. It's about what goes on inside of her."

Bullock says that once she accepted that premise and stopped
questioning the details, she could take the character's emotional
journey. "It was all about 'what is Linda going through at this point?
What did she do with her kids? What wouldn't she say? Why doesn't she
say anything to him, because he's going to think she's crazier.' So
you feel it when you see it, but you don't know it until the pieces
get together. Then, at the end, there's that feeling of 'what would I
have done? Would I have gone back and changed or would I have let him
die?' What would you have done?"

Premonition is written by Bill Kelly. The cast also features Peter
Stormare as a psychiatrist to whom Linda turns for answers; and Amber
Valletta is a woman in the husband's life who may hold a key to
averting the tragic outcome.