Just 15 months ago, Thomas, then an East Bay eighth-grader, came home to find a phone message from his school's secretary informing his family that a Hollywood casting agency was trying to track him down. It turns out Thomas' appearance - and $31,800 win - that summer on "Kids Jeopardy!" had grabbed the attention of producer Scott Rudin ("The Social Network").
Thomas' father first thought the message might be a prank. "We were bemused, I guess, when we got the call from Hollywood," says the whip-smart boy, sitting on a bayside bench at Jack London Square during a recent interview. "We didn't know anything about the entertainment industry or even what a casting agency was. But I thought, what do I have to lose? It's not every day a great opportunity presents itself."
Based on the 2005 novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, the movie follows 11-year-old Oskar Schell (newcomer and former young “Jeopardy” champ Thomas Horn), a borderline autistic loner who loses the father he idolizes (Tom Hanks) in the World Trade Center attacks. Trying desperately to find some logic in the senseless, Oskar stumbles on a key that may unlock a final message from his father, and begins a two-year quest that seems to drive him away from his grieving mother (Sandra Bullock).
“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,” Daldry says.
“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.”
Whether American moviegoers are ready to relive Sept. 11 is an open question. “Loud” opened to decidedly mixed reviews. Warner Bros.’ marketing makes it clear that it is not a 9/11 movie.
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