Road to Nowhere

Road to Nowhere (2010)

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

A passionate filmmaker creating a film based upon a true crime casts an unknown mysterious young woman bearing a disturbing resemblance to the femme fatale in the story. Unsuspectingly, he finds himself drawn into a complex web of haunting intrigue: he becomes obsessed with the woman, the crime, her possibly notorious past, and the disturbing complexity between art and truth. From the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina to Verona, Rome, and London, new truths are revealed and clues to other crimes and passions, darker and even more complex, are uncovered.

Date of release
2010-09-11
TMDB
5.8 / 10 (47)
Runtime
2h 1m
Genres
Mystery, Thriller, Romance
Director
Monte Hellman

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Los Angeles, London, and North Carolina

Road to Nowhere is a 2010 American romance thriller film directed by Monte Hellman, written by Steven Gaydos, and starring Cliff De Young, Waylon Payne, Shannyn Sossamon, Tygh Runyan, and Dominique Swain. It was Hellman's first feature film in 21 years, as well as his final feature film before his death in April 2021.

Production

Road to Nowhere was Monte Hellman's first feature film in 21 years. The film was written by Variety executive editor Steven Gaydos. Shannyn Sossamon was the first actor to be cast after Gaydos saw her in a restaurant rehearsing a scene with another person.

On a budget of under $5 million, principal photography took place almost entirely on location in western North Carolina between July and August 2009. Hellman shot with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, which recorded 12 minutes at a time on a flash card (as opposed to 10 minutes with a 35mm film). Scenes were shot at the Balsam Mountain Inn in Balsam for four to five weeks. Several other scenes were shot in the Boyd Mountain Log Cabins in Waynesville.

Jim Rowell, a Cullowhee resident got a deal with the filmmakers that allowed him to make a fuel pump repair at the airport in exchange for flying his 1966 Piper Cherokee four-passenger plane as a stuntman. Rowell did eight to nine passes over the lake, flying 300 to 500 feet above the water.

Hellman still needed to shoot some scenes in Europe, but was over budget. His daughter, co-producer Melissa Hellman, raised more money through private equity. Hellman shot in the streets of London and traveled to Italy to shoot at Lake Garda. Other scenes were shot in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, and in front of Michelangelo's Moses and the tomb of Pope Julius II in Rome.

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