(pictured at the film's premiere in Mexico City, 2006) did not read the novel the film is based on, only a summary. The option for the book was acquired by
Beacon Pictures in 1997. The adaptation of the
P. D. James novel was originally written by
Paul Chart, and later rewritten by
Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby. The studio brought director
Alfonso Cuarón on board in 2001. Cuarón and screenwriter Timothy J. Sexton began rewriting the script after the director completed
Y tu mamá también. Afraid he would "start second guessing things", Cuarón used the film
The Battle of Algiers as a model for social reconstruction in preparation for production, presenting the film to Clive Owen as an example of his vision for
Children of Men. In order to create a philosophical and social framework for the film, the director read literature by
Slavoj Žižek, as well as similar works. The 1927 film
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans was also influential. While Cuarón was preparing the film, the
London bombings occurred, but the director did not consider moving the production. "It would have been impossible to shoot anywhere but London, because of the very obvious way the locations were incorporated into the film", Cuarón told
Variety. "For example, the shot of
Fleet Street looking towards St. Paul's would have been impossible to shoot anywhere else." Cuarón added a
pig balloon to the scene as homage to
Pink Floyd's
Animals. Other art works visible in this scene include
Michelangelo's
David, and
Banksy's
Kissing Coppers.
The Shard tower was digitally added to London's skyline based on early architectural drawings as when the film was made the skyscraper had not yet been built but would have been by the time of the film's setting.
Style and design "In most sci-fi epics, special effects substitute for story. Here they seamlessly advance it", observes Colin Covert of
Star Tribune. Billboards were designed to balance a contemporary and futuristic appearance as well as easily visualizing what else was occurring in the rest of the world at the time, and cars were made to resemble modern ones at first glance, although a closer look made them seem unfamiliar. Cuarón informed the art department that the film was the "anti-
Blade Runner", rejecting technologically advanced proposals and downplaying the science fiction elements of the 2027 setting. The director focused on images reflecting the contemporary period. References to the
2012 Summer Olympics were included in the film as London had been announced as the host city in July 2005, a few months before filming took place.
Single-shot sequences Children of Men used several lengthy
single-shot sequences in which extremely complex actions take place. The longest of these include a shot in which Kee gives birth (3m19s); an ambush on a country road (4m7s); and a scene in which Theo is captured by the Fishes, escapes, and runs down a street and through a building in the middle of a raging battle (6m18s). These sequences were extremely difficult to film, although the effect of continuity is sometimes an illusion, aided by
computer-generated imagery (CGI) effects and the use of 'seamless cuts' to enhance the
long takes. Cuarón had experimented with long takes in
Great Expectations,
Y tu mamá también, and
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. His style is influenced by the Swiss film
Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000, one of his favourites. He said "I was studying cinema when I first saw [
Jonah], and interested in the
French New Wave.
Jonah was so unflashy compared with those films. The camera keeps a certain distance and there are relatively few close-ups. It's elegant and flowing, constantly tracking, but very slowly and not calling attention to itself." The creation of the single-shot sequences was a challenging, time-consuming process that sparked concerns from the studio. It took fourteen days to prepare for the single shot in which Clive Owen's character searches a building under attack and five hours every time they wanted to reshoot it. In the middle of one shot, blood splattered onto the lens, and cinematographer
Emmanuel Lubezki convinced the director to leave it in. According to Owen, "Right in the thick of it are me and the camera operator because we're doing this very complicated, very specific dance which, when we come to shoot, we have to make feel completely random." Cuarón's initial idea for maintaining
continuity during the roadside ambush scene was dismissed by production experts as an "impossible shot to do". Fresh from the visual effects-laden
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Cuarón suggested using computer-generated imagery to film the scene. Lubezki refused to allow it, reminding the director that they had intended to make a film akin to a "raw
documentary". Instead, a special camera rig invented by
Gary Thieltges of Doggicam Systems was employed, allowing Cuarón to develop the scene as one extended shot. A vehicle was modified to enable seats to tilt and lower actors out of the way of the camera, and the windshield was designed to tilt out of the way to allow camera movement in and out through the front windscreen. A crew of four, including the director of photography and camera operator, rode on the roof. However, the commonly reported statement that the action scenes are continuous shots is not entirely true. Visual effects supervisor Frazer Churchill explains that the effects team had to "combine several takes to create impossibly long shots", where their job was to "create the illusion of a continuous camera move". Once the team was able to create a "seamless blend", they would move on to the next shot. These techniques were important for three continuous shots: the coffee shop explosion in the opening shot, the car ambush, and the battlefield scene. The coffee shop scene was composed of "two different takes shot over two consecutive days"; the car ambush was shot in "six sections and at four different locations over one week and required five seamless digital transitions"; and the battlefield scene "was captured in five separate takes over two locations". Churchill and the
Double Negative team created over 160 of these types of effects for the film. In an interview with
Variety, Cuarón acknowledged this nature of the "single-shot" action sequences: "Maybe I'm spilling a big secret, but sometimes it's more than what it looks like. The important thing is how you blend everything and how you keep the perception of a fluid choreography through all of these different pieces." Ambient sounds of traffic, barking dogs, and advertisements follow the character of Theo through London, East Sussex and Kent, producing what
Los Angeles Times writer Kevin Crust called an "urban audio rumble". can be heard during an early scene in Jasper's house. During a conversation between the two men,
Radiohead's "
Life in a Glasshouse" plays in the background. A number of
dubstep tracks, including "Anti-War Dub" by
Digital Mystikz, as well as tracks by
Kode9 & The Space Ape,
Pinch and
Pressure are also featured. For the Bexhill scenes during the film's second half, Cuarón makes use of silence and cacophonous
sound effects such as the firing of automatic weapons and loudspeakers directing the movement of refugees. Classical music by
George Frideric Handel,
Gustav Mahler, and
Krzysztof Penderecki's "
Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima" complements the chaos of the refugee camp. Throughout the film,
John Tavener's
Fragments of a Prayer is used as a spiritual motif. ==Themes==