Stephen Daldry is 'Extremely Loud Incredibly Close'

Director Stephen Daldry has gone where many film makers fear to go: he has created a movie reliving the terrible events of September 11, 2001 in his newest film, Extremely Loud, Incredibly Close which premiers nationwide on Friday.

London native Daldry, who calls New York his second home, recalls staying on the phone with his wife during the tragic events of 9/11.

According to NY Daily News, Daldry remembers, “I spent the rest of that day on the phone to my wife, who was on the roof of our building. From our roof she had a very clear view of what was going on downtown with the towers.”

After returning to New York, Daldry remembers the haunting visions of his city. He recalls the National Guard standing on corners and seeing posters of the missing covered in somber smoke from the rubble that was once the Twin Towers. Although America just re-lived the 10-year anniversary in September 2010, many are questioning if the wounds are still too fresh to watch such a heart-hitting film.

Daldry comments, “People will have to make up their own minds whether the time is right or whether a story should or shouldn’t be told or what can and cannot be depicted. But for me, it just felt like the decision about making a film — do you want to spend two years of your life getting into this subject? And for me it was also. I suppose it was also a cathartic experience to go into that, and to go into that with as much detail and depth as I could possibly muster.”

Daldry opted to follow the 2005 novel Jonathan Safran Foer, which follows a young boy with Aspergars disease who idolizes his father, who is killed in the unfortunate terrorist attacks. Playing the boy’s father, according to NY Daily News, is Oscar-winner Tom Hanks. Playing Hanks' wife is The Blind Side's Academy Award winner Sandra Bullock.

According to The Boston Herald, when asked to play the role of Hanks’ wife in Extremely Loud Incredibly Close, she states that it was “a no-brainer.” She adds, “I didn’t necessarily want it to work at the time that I was approached, but once Stephen came to my home and we talked about the character, I was blown away. I was just so happy being a mom, that just became my full priority.”

Bullock supports Foer’s novel, noting of that the point of view, "The way that the story was told through the eyes of Oskar allowed me and so many people to grieve the event. I think that’s what this story is: the allowance to talk about the events that have happened in your life and grieve.”