The extra features on the second disc of the 2 Disc Special Edition DVD set of The Terminal open with a menu modeled after the airport's flight information board as seen in the picture. There are six 'destinations' on the first page and a seventh, the photo gallery, on the second page. We will be discussing the first six, five of which links to a short subject by Laurentz Bouzereau while one leads to three separate segments. All of them combined compromise the complete making of the picture from script to post production. Amusingly, the titles reflect the various stages of traveling by airplane, from booking a ticket to departing after landing.
So, we begin with "Booking the Flight: The Script, The Story" and naturally the first interviewee is director Steven Spielberg, who talks about airports on the whole and then explains the story of The Terminal. In doing so, he uses the expression 'snafu' which is probably the closest we'll ever get to hearing Steven utter a dirty word. We get a little insight into the way Spielberg picks his scripts: he usually sits down with a stack of them he refers to as a "weekend reading package" and goes through about 3 a day. The Terminal happened to be the last one he read on a Sunday, but it intrigued him enough to forget the five that had come before.
Also interviewed are screenplay writers Sacha Gervasi and Jeff Nathanson and producers Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald. Gervasi recounts how he researched living in an actual airport. Nathanson talks about getting into the mindset of Americans and immigrants while Parkes mentions that the casting of Catherine Zeta-Jones changed the tone of the movie from being an 'in like' story to an 'in love' story.
Of course the interviews are illustrated with appropriate clips from the finished film and snippets of behind the scenes footage, many of which feature Kumar Pallana in and out of character as Gupta. After 8 minutes, this documentary ends rather abruptly, leading the viewer to continue with the next destination in this series: "Waiting for the Flight: Buildint the Terminal".
8 out of 10
So, we begin with "Booking the Flight: The Script, The Story" and naturally the first interviewee is director Steven Spielberg, who talks about airports on the whole and then explains the story of The Terminal. In doing so, he uses the expression 'snafu' which is probably the closest we'll ever get to hearing Steven utter a dirty word. We get a little insight into the way Spielberg picks his scripts: he usually sits down with a stack of them he refers to as a "weekend reading package" and goes through about 3 a day. The Terminal happened to be the last one he read on a Sunday, but it intrigued him enough to forget the five that had come before.
Also interviewed are screenplay writers Sacha Gervasi and Jeff Nathanson and producers Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald. Gervasi recounts how he researched living in an actual airport. Nathanson talks about getting into the mindset of Americans and immigrants while Parkes mentions that the casting of Catherine Zeta-Jones changed the tone of the movie from being an 'in like' story to an 'in love' story.
Of course the interviews are illustrated with appropriate clips from the finished film and snippets of behind the scenes footage, many of which feature Kumar Pallana in and out of character as Gupta. After 8 minutes, this documentary ends rather abruptly, leading the viewer to continue with the next destination in this series: "Waiting for the Flight: Buildint the Terminal".
8 out of 10