Richard Linklater started filming Boyhood in 2002. Ellar Coltrane, his lead actor, was seven years old.
The film required everyone to show up every year for the next twelve years. Nobody had a contract that forced them to. If Coltrane had decided at twelve that he was done, or if any of the four main cast members had died, the film was over. Linklater was betting twelve years of work on a first grader.
The shoot wrapped in 2013. Coltrane was nineteen. The film cost four million dollars and earned fifty-seven million. It became the highest-grossing film in IFC history.
It's back in theaters July 31. Linklater skipped the ten-year anniversary. "Everyone does 10 and 20 and 25," he said. Twelve made sense because that's how long it actually took.
If you haven't seen it, this is the week.
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