Draft:Apt Pupil

Apt Pupil is a 1998 American thriller film directed by Bryan Singer  and starring Ian McKellen  and Brad Renfro . It is based on the 1982 novella Apt Pupil by Stephen King . In the 1980s in southern California, high school student Todd Bowden (Renfro) discovers fugitive German war criminal Kurt Dussander (McKellen) living in his neighborhood under the pseudonym Arthur Denker. Bowden, obsessed with National-Socialism and acts of the Holocaust, persuades Dussander to share his stories, and their relationship stirs malice in each of them.

The novella was first published in King's 1982 collection Different Seasons. Producer Richard Kobritz sought to adapt the novella into a film during the 1980s, but two actors he invited to play Dussander died. When filming began in 1987, a loss of financing led to the production being shut down. Forty minutes of usable footage existed, but production was never revived. In 1995, when rights to the novella returned to King, Bryan Singer petitioned King for an opportunity to adapt the novella. With King's support, Singer filmed Apt Pupil with McKellen and Renfro in Altadena, California, in 1997. Singer shortened the novella's storyline, reduced its violence, and changed the ending. Singer called Apt Pupil "a study in cruelty" with National-Socialism only serving as a vehicle for the capacity of evil.

During the $14 million production, a lawsuit was filed by several extras, including some underage who alleged that they were told to strip naked during a shower scene. There was no cause to file criminal charges, and a civil-case lawsuit was dismissed due to insufficient evidence. The film was released in the United States and Canada on October 23, 1998 by Sony Pictures Releasing to mixed reviews and made $8.9 million against a $14 million budget. The main actors won several minor awards for their performances.

Opening Sequence

Opening (October 23, 1998)

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  Title Card

Logo: TriStar Pictures  (1993)/Phoenix Pictures  (1996)

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Closing Sequence

Closing (October 23, 1998)

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