The Soloist Research & Production Practices

The Soloist

The Soloist is a 2009 drama film which was directed by Joe Wright, and starred Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. The screenplay was made by Susannah Grant and is based on the book, The Soloist by Steve Lopez. The film is based on the true story of Nathaniel Ayers, a musician who develops schizophrenia and becomes homeless.

Jamie Foxx plays Nathaniel Ayers, who is a cello prodigy, and Robert Downey Jr plays the part of Steve Lopez, a Los Angeles Times columnist who discovers Ayers and writes about him in the newspaper. The film was released in theatres on 24 April 2009 and on DVD and Blu-Ray on August 5.

Plot

The Soloist is based on the true story of Nathaniel Ayers who is a musical prodigy that develops schizophrenia during his second year at Juilliard School. Ayers becomes homeless and plays a two-stringed violin in downtown Los Angeles. One day Steve Lopez an LA Times Columnist meets Nathanial and decides to write a newspaper column for the Los Angeles Times about him and his homelessness. An old woman takes sympathy and sends Steve a cello for Nathaniel to play. In attempting to help Ayers, Lopez is forced to grapple personally with the complex issues and frustrations surrounding the thousands of mentally ill who are homeless on the streets of L.A.

Cast

Jamie Foxx as Nathaniel Ayers
Robert Downey Jr. as Steve Lopez
Catherine Keener as Mary Weston (formerly Mary Lopez)
Tom Hollander as Graham Claydon
Lisa Gay Hamilton as Jennifer
Rachael Harris as Lopez's co-worker
Jena Malone as a lab technician.
Diana Gomes as a Psychologist
Stephen Root as Curt Reynolds
Marcus Carl Franklin as Young Nathaniel Ayers
Lorraine Toussaint as Flo Ayers


Production

The Soloist, who is directed by Joe Wright, was written by Susannah Grant, based on a series of columns written by Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez, who wrote about the plight of Nathaniel Ayers, a musician with schizophrenia, and eventually was chronicled in Lopez' book, The Soloist. Grant drew elements of the story from a book written by Lopez, which got published in the spring of 2008. The film was budgeted at $60 million, twice the budget amount of Atonement. Production began in January 2008 and was filmed mostly in Los Angeles, with some scenes shot in Cleveland.


Box office

On its opening weekend, the film opened #4 behind Fighting, 17 Again, and Obsessed, grossing $9,715,000 in 2,024 theaters with a $4,800 average per theater. The film went on to only recover about half of its total budget bringing in $31,720,158. This was blamed on the film's initial release date being postponed, as well as the film's release coming one week before the 2009 summer movie season.