DARK NEW WORLD `CHILDREN OF MEN' PAINTS A BLEAKER VERSION OF TODAY.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

The future, as Alfonso Cuaron envisions it, is not an ultra-modern mecca of technology, radically different clothing or high-tech conveniences.

Rather, the dystopia in year 2027 depicted in Cuaron's film ``Children of Men'' looks quite a bit like what you might see today.

And like what we've seen yesterday.

``The art department came up with the most amazing (stuff) ... I think they heard this would be a movie set in the future, and they undusted this concept design,'' says the 45-year- old Mexico-born director. ``Supersonic cars, buildings, the whole thing. They were really beautiful. But I said, `This is not the movie we're doing. The movie we're doing is this.' ''

``I had my own file of photographs from Iraq, from Sri Lanka, from the Balkans, Northern Island, Chernobyl, the Balkans, Somalia. This is the movie we're doing,'' continues Cuaron. ``Rule No. 1: Whatever we see has to have a visual reference to stuff that has become part of human consciousness. That iconography mostly came out of the media.''

Not science fiction

The point is made. ``Children of Men,'' which opens Christmas Day, may be set 20 years from now in a world where the human race faces extinction because all women have become infertile, but it is no more a science-fiction film than Cuaron's ``Y Tu Mama Tambien'' was a simple road sex comedy. Even ``Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,'' Cuaron's film between ``Y Tu Mama'' and ``Children of Men'' broke several of the genre's conventions.

``I think, as a person, he's very specific. He wants everything to be just so, and rightly so, because the end result is fantastic,'' actress Clare-Hope Ashitey says of her director. ``He has this phenomenal eye for detail.''

Sociological issues

Cuaron, who couldn't envision himself tackling a close adaptation of British crime writer P.D. James' 1992 novel or directing a straight-up sci-fi project, nonetheless was taken with James' notion of humanity gone sterile and the sociological consequences for a nation like Great Britain facing an influx of illegal refugees.

In ``Children of Men,'' terrorism is constant as Britain, through the use of force, tries to quell the social chaos about to erupt as the downtrodden and illegals fight back.

The director, who proclaims himself optimistic about the future while being decidedly the opposite when examining the present, saw ``Children of Men'' as an avenue to examine the current ``state of things.''

``The movie's not about homeland security. It's part of the observation of the reality we're living,'' says Cuaron, who also co-wrote the film with Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby. ``The whole idea was that we try to bring the state of what is happening outside the green zones we happily live in ... into the green zone. We experience the waste of things and then try to make our own conclusions about the possibility of hope.''

Cuaron's own perspective on the world's direction was in a state of evolution as well. His first draft of ``Children of Men'' came in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. As he was coming to terms with a world gone mad, Cuaron was falling in love with actress and freelance journalist Annalisa Bugliani.

``Love and hope are so connected,'' says Cuaron who has two children with Bugliani. ``How do you consolidate love with a reality that is so hopeless? That was pretty much the point of departure.''

In the film, as in the novel, it's been nearly 20 years since the last birth. Theo Faron (Clive Owen), a burned-out government functionary, is asked by his old flame and now terrorist leader Julian (Julianne Moore) to help secure transit papers for a refugee. As it turns out, Kee (newcomer Ashitey) is eight months pregnant -- a miracle, but as you'd expect, the first pregnant woman on Earth in nearly 20 years. With Theo and Kee both targeted, and amid the constant threat of militia attacks, it falls to a newly motivated Theo to help engineer Kee's escape.

Archetypes, metaphors

``I didn't want to make an easy movie about delivering messages,'' says Cuaron. ``We were trying to work with archetypes but also with certain metaphors. The fact that this child will be the child of an African woman has to do with the fact that humanity started in Africa. We're putting the future of humanity in the hands of the dispossessed and creating a new humanity to spring out of that.''

Owen maintains his character presented unique challenges, since the film's erstwhile hero is ``so listless, so reluctant.''

``It's not the kind of movie where you go in and do your acting. It wasn't about acting scenes,'' says Owen. ``It sounds strange, but I felt the most important thing was (for Theo) to become a device through which you see this vision of the future, a window through which you see Alfonso's very unique vision.''

Cuaron and the crew managed to find the bleakest, most rundown areas of London, embracing rather than shunning foul weather and less-than-ideal shooting conditions.

``Even when we shot in studios, we would create these derelict buildings,'' says Owen.

``It was pretty relentless. It all sort of feels like Alfonso's version of London, of what would happen if it all gets worse and deteriorates,'' continues Owen, who lives in London. ``It all felt not very farfetched, to be honest with you.''

Had the stars aligned differently, ``Children of Men'' would have been Cuaron's immediate follow-up to ``Y Tu Mama Tambien.'' Cuaron and writing partner Sexton had written a draft of a script, but the project never advanced.

Instead, Cuaron -- whose script for ``Y Tu Mama Tambien'' had received an Oscar nomination -- was tapped to succeed Chris Columbus at the helm of ``Harry Potter.''

Two years later, with ``Potter'' successfully behind him, Cuaron and Sexton returned to ``Children of Men.'' By that point, the studio was as enthusiastic about the notion of pursuing Clive Owen to play Theo as Cuaron was to have him.

The journey begins

Cuaron sent Owen a copy of the script as well as Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 acclaimed film ``The Battle of Algiers,'' which dealt with French brutality during the Algerian Revolution. Owen says he didn't necessarily ``get'' ``Children of Men'' or understand why Cuaron thought he was the man for the job, but he signed on anyway.

``He's a very sort of galvanizing character,'' Owen says about Cuaron, ``and I just knew I would go on a journey with him.''

Cuaron, meanwhile, professes that he ``couldn't have done this with any (other) person,'' and credits Owen as being an unofficial co-writer of the project since the two of them and Sexton spent so much time together on rewrites.

``The solutions (Owen) would come up with ... I said, `Have you ever thought about writing?' '' Cuaron says. ``He said, `No way. I'm not interested at all in writing. This is just survival.' ''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

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4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) EVOLUTION REVOLUTION

`Children of Men' imagines humanity on the edge of extinction

(2) ``I felt the most important thing was (for Theo) to become a device through which you see this vision of the future, a window through which you see Alfonso's very unique vision,'' Clive Owen says of his role. Clive Owen, above and below left, stars with Julianne Moore in ``Children of Men,'' set in the dystopian world of 2027, as envisioned by director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki, below center, and director Alfonso Cuaron, below right.