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Domino (2005)
Starring Keira Knightley, Mickey Rourke, Lucy Liu, and Christopher Walken. Cinematography by Daniel Mindel. Edited by Christian Wagner, Tony Ciccone, and William Goldenberg. Produced by Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, and Samuel Hadida. Written by Richard Kelly. Directed by Tony Scott.
Domino Harvey has chosen the most unlikely of professions. She roams the streets and back alleys of Los Angeles hunting down bail jumpers and returning them to the authorities. She is a bounty hunter, and she is about to leap into the most complicated and dangerous case of her career. Unbeknownst to Domino and her team, the action is a ruse invented by their bail bondsman to quickly produce three hundred thousand dollars for his grandchild’s medical welfare. The bounty hunters apprehend, capture, and deliver four supposed criminals, but when the fabricated details begin to fall apart they find themselves in the middle of a deadly game involving millions of stolen dollars.
“Based on a true story… well, sort of.” The real Domino Harvey was born in London in 1969. Being the daughter of actor Laurence Harvey, who starred in such films as Room at the Top and The Manchurian Candidate, and model Paulene Stone, who was a Vogue model, Domino was provided a financially comfortable environment to grow up in. But tragedy struck early when, at the young age of four, she lost her father to stomach cancer.
The effects of this loss would plague her throughout her life. By the time she moved to Los Angeles in the late 1980s, Domino had already been kicked out of four boarding schools, dabbled in clothing design, and ran a dance club. In 1992 she moved to San Diego to work as a volunteer firefighter. She returned to L.A. two years later hoping to get on full time with the fire department, but it was an add for a course in bail recovery that finally caught her eye. Barley into her twenties, Domino became a bounty hunter. The danger and excitement of the job gave her body the adrenaline rush that it so desperately needed, which was supplemented off hours by a steady use of illegal and prescription drugs.
News of her exploits soon found its way back home to England and in the mid 1990s her story was outlined in a British tabloid. The article was forwarded to Tony Scott by his business manager Neville Shulman and he was instantly fascinated with her. Scott tracked Domino down and immediately began to discuss ideas for a big screen biopic. He purchased the rights to her story in 1995 for three hundred and sixty thousand dollars and began working with screenwriters on developing a script. But it would take over ten years and almost half a dozen writers before Scott got what he was looking for.
Production on Domino began in October of 2004 and would run for a brief sixty two days. On June 27th, 2005, while the film was deep in post-production, Domino Harvey died of a drug overdose. She was only thirty five. Her biography, however loose it may be, portrays an energy and intensity that effectively mimics her troubled life. At minimum Domino features enough sex, violence, and action too stay interesting. The film may rise just barely above average, but it’s certainly worth checking out at least once.
Budget: $50,000,000
Total US Gross: TBD
Genre: Action
Runtime: 120 Minutes
US Release Date: 10/14/05
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Awards: TBD
Tagline: I Am A Bounty Hunter
Quote: “Why would a delicate little thing like you want to be a goddamned bounty hunter?”
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