Tower Heist | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Brett Ratner |
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Screenplay by | |
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Starring | |
Music by | Christophe Beck |
Cinematography | Dante Spinotti |
Edited by | Mark Helfrich |
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Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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104 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $75–85 million |
Box office | $152.9 million |
Tower Heist is a 2011 American heist comedy film directed by Brett Ratner and written by Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson, based on a story by Bill Collage, Adam Cooper and Griffin. The plot follows Josh Kovaks (Ben Stiller), Charlie Gibbs (Casey Affleck) and Enrique Dev'reaux (Michael Peña), employees of an exclusive apartment building who lose their pensions in the Ponzi scheme of Wall Street businessman Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda). The group enlist the aid of criminal Slide (Eddie Murphy), bankrupt businessman Mr. Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick) and another employee of the apartment building, Odessa (Gabourey Sidibe), to break into Shaw's apartment and steal back their money while avoiding the FBI agent in charge of his case, Claire Denham (Téa Leoni).
Tower Heist began development as early as 2005, based on an idea by Murphy that would star himself and an all-black cast of comedians as a heist group who rob Trump International Hotel and Tower. As the script developed and changed into an Ocean's Eleven–style caper, Murphy left the project. Ratner continued to develop the idea into what would eventually become Tower Heist, with Murphy later rejoining the production. Filming took place entirely in New York City on a budget of $75 million (after tax rebates), with several buildings provided by Donald Trump used to represent the eponymous tower. The film score was composed by Christophe Beck and released commercially on November 1, 2011.