'The Box' gets NASA Langley access

Open up "The Box" at movie

theaters Friday and you'll see some 200 local folks. None of them have close-ups, but they're there, co-starring with Cameron Diaz and James Marsden.

A big studio release from Warner Bros., "The Box" marks the feature-film debut for Langley Air Force Base and NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton. Security for the 200 extras was a major operation. This is a place you don't get into unless you've been thoroughly cleared - not even if you're Cameron Diaz. Many other studios have tried. Only this one was approved.

They shot locally in January and February last year. The location was a personal goal of director Richard Kelly, who grew up near the NASA location where his father, Lane, was an engineer. The family moved to Richmond while he was in school, so it is not by accident that the story centers around these locations. For Kelly, it was a case of returning home and, in a way, paying tribute to his father.

"The Box" presents a moral dilemma that will leave audiences in heated debate as they leave the theater. Would you push the button? If the couple pushes the button, they will receive $1 million. The catch is that someone - a faraway stranger - will die.

Diaz plays a teacher; Marsden plays a NASA engineer, obviously similar to the director's father. When they are approached by a mysterious man with a horribly disfigured face (Frank Langella, the "Frost/Nixon" Oscar nominee), the tempting box surfaces. They must make a decision in 24 hours. This is the "Let's Make a Deal" of horror flicks.

Based on the short story "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson, it was rewritten for the screen by Kelly. This is Kelly's third film. His first, "Donnie Darko" (2001), has become a cult classic. His second, "Southland Tales" (2006), was universally panned by critics although it, too, has a devoted, but small, following.

Kelly has come quickly to be recognized as an independent, quirky force in movies. So far, he has directed only films that he wrote. "The Box" is being watched closely in the continuing puzzle of whether he is a one-time wonder or is in the game to stay.

The director's father worked as an engineer on NASA's Viking Mission to Mars in Hampton from 1968 to 1978 on the camera developments that allowed the transmission of pictures from the Red Planet. Father and son returned to Hampton for the 30th anniversary celebration of the successful mission in 2006, and it was then that the son began to think about filming "The Box" there.

Scenes set in Richmond were actually shot in Boston. However, Langley got its moments under the lights in five days of shooting. The film may represent a final moment in the spotlight for the base's wind tunnel, a 30-by-60-foot area large enough to house a plane. It has been in use since World War II and, located near an inlet of the Chesapeake Bay, recently suffered water damage. It is likely to be out of action soon, but is used in "The Box" as a large interior set.

The base's Reid Conference Center auditorium is used for another scene.

Keeping the look of the 1976 setting, Building 1299 was outfitted with period columns. The interior of the building, though, was shot in Boston.

Working with the moviemakers since 2007 has been Chris Rink of Virginia Beach, a public affairs specialist who said "it has been an amazing project of cooperation and planning on all sides. When you include the crew and the extras, we had over 600 movie workers on the base at one time - each of whom had to be processed and cleared through tight security."

And, yes, he did meet Cameron Diaz. Discreetly, he commented, "She's a very professional, hard-working woman and very nice, also."