'Take Shelter' takes friends

In 2007, writer/director Jeff Nichols, an alumnus of the UNC School of the Arts, drew critical acclaim for his debut film, "Shotgun Stories." And now his latest film, "Take Shelter," is following suit.

"Take Shelter" won the Grand Prix, one of the most prestigious prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. It has also been an official selection at such high-profile events as the Sundance and Toronto film festivals. And last week, it earned five nominations — including film, director and male lead — in the Spirit Awards, which honor independent films.

It opens Friday at Aperture Cinema.

Michael Shannon plays Curtis LaForche, a working-class father who is plagued by visions of an apocalyptic storm and begins building a storm shelter to protect his family. Jessica Chastain co-stars as LaForche's wife, Samantha, who doesn't know what to make of her husband's visions.

When he was working on "Take Shelter," Nichols said, "I felt a good amount of pressure just in life in general." After all, it's not easy to follow up a freshman film that made best of the year lists of critics including Roger Ebert.

"I generally had a lot to live up to as a filmmaker, coming out of the gate with those reviews," Nichols said by phone from Austin, Texas, where he lives. "Luckily, it didn't make any money, so I didn't have to top its box office.

"But when you combine that 'second at bat' anxiety with what was going on in my personal life, just getting married and talking about a family, and the world is falling apart at the time…. It was a fair amount of anxiety in a 28-year-old's life. The answer to the stress about a second film became what the second film is all about."

The economic downturn led to fewer investors being willing to finance the movie. "There was just nobody there," he said. "I got a lot of pats on the back, but people weren't lining up to throw money at a Jeff Nichols film."

He worked for a while on a different project, the as-yet-unfilmed "Goat," then came back around to "Take Shelter." He got Michael Shannon, his friend and frequent collaborator, on board.

Shannon also appears in a supporting role in Nichols' next film, "Mud," a drama about two 14-year-old boys who befriend a fugitive, which recently wrapped filming in Arkansas. Why work with the same actor so often?

"He's the greatest actor in the world, is really the simplest answer," Nichols said. "I've only made three films, and he's been in them all. He's just amazing; he's incredible. And now, having worked with him, we have genuinely developed a working relationship…. We're friends, but beyond that we've got a style of working that's beneficial to both of us."

He also recruited Jessica Chastain to co-star; lined up cinematographer Adam Stone, a 1999 alum of UNCSA, to be the director of photography; and found a company to do the visual effects for the film, which are elaborate by indie film standards. "One by one those boxes get checked off," Nichols said. "Suddenly, it starts to warrant getting blood out of the rock."

Nichols, who turned 33 on Wednesday, is a 2001 alum of UNCSA's School of Filmmaking. Like many alumni of the school, he often works with people he met through the school. About 10 to 15 fellow alumni worked with Nichols on "Take Shelter" and "Mud."

"I think far and away the most important thing I got out of the School of the Arts is the people I met," he said. "The most valuable thing at that school is the guy or the girl sitting next to you. On 'Mud,' a big part of the crew were alumni. You embrace one another, and all ships rise…. It's made my projects exponentially better."

Nichols said that the response to "Take Shelter" so far "has been incredible."

"When you go making these things, you really have no idea," he said. "If anyone tells you they know how a film is going to do, they're lying.

"You never know how an audience is going to react. It's not a formula; it's not a cheeseburger that's been served up to the public before. You hope that it resonates somehow with them. The alternative is, 'meh,' and they go to the bathroom and go home and never think about it again, and all the effort you made to make this film gets sprinkled away."

He is now planning to take a break from filmmaking and spend some time writing and editing "Mud" for its release. "My personal goal would be to make a film every year and a half or two years," he said. "That's kind of the dream."