Barry Levinson On 'The Bay,' Shooting With An iPhone

Legendary director Barry Levinson is known for his bold approach to tackling serious subjects. In his latest project, The Bay, he finds a fresh and very modern form for his spine-tingling faux-documentary, which is partly based on the very real environmental emergency in the Chesapeake Bay. "The facts kind of rattled around in my head, and then it sort of lead to a scenario of The Bay," Levinson told Uinterview exclusively. "And I thought, 'Gee, I take this fictitious story and bring 85% of this factual information into it, kind of infuse it, make it interesting, scary.' And that's how it evolved."

Levinson, 70, who was raised in Baltimore, first worked as a screenwriter for Mel Brooks' comedies in the 70s and then moved on to directing in the 80s. Focusing many of his films around the Baltimore area, he found hits with Diner and Tin Men, as well as a sports fan favorite, The Natural with Robert Redford. He is perhaps best known for his work with 1988's critically and commercially successful Rain Man, which stars Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman and garnered four Academy Awards including Best Picture and a Best Director nod for Levinson.

In The Bay, shot using more than 20 different types of cameras, including iPhones, Skype, Apple Photobooth and squad car cams, Levinson sets out to tell the tale of the Chesapeake Bay, which suffers from 40% marine dead zones due to toxic pollution. The director found the perfect villain in the form of the isopod, a real marine creature that enters the gills of fish and then eats out its victims' tongues and replaces them with their own bodies.

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