into it." John Lithgow said the film was ""a change of pace" for him. "The script appealed to me, and the subject matter was intriguing, too. It's a cut above the teenage science movies that have been filling the theaters this summer." $13 million of the budget – the actual cost of making the movie – was provided by Thorn-EMI Screen Entertainment. The rest of the budget consisted of consultancy fees for Gladden. Filming The Manhattan Project was filmed in and around New York City, including Rockland County, the village of Suffern (including Suffern High School) and the INCO, Ltd. Research and Development Center in the hamlet of Sterling Forest. The producers held an actual science fair at the New York Penta Hotel, paying $75 each to actual students from the tri-state area who "participated in the science fair and contributed their own individually created projects." The nuclear sets and effects were designed collaboratively by the production designer Philip Rosenberg, and Bran Ferren who is credited with the special effects. Ferren used literally tons of technical gear purchased surplus from Los Alamos National Laboratories, and performed most of the visual effects work, including robotics, live on set. "As I start to develop as a director, I wanted to do projects that were inherently more cinematic," said Brickman. "Where the freight was not so much in the dialogue, where it would be carried more by the camera. I have long sequences in this film that are nearly diaolgue-less . . . and it's a subject I wanted to do. It's different than anything else I've done, and I like that. A lot more moving camera, a lot more attention to a certain type of style, more active and less parochial, in a way, than films I've done in the past." Release and reception Box Office The film earned $2 million in film rentals to theaters in the United States during its first year of release. Some attributed this poor performance to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster around the same time. However Brickman downplayed this. "When Chernobyl happened, other people said to me, 'God, what great timing,' as if I had some kind of foresight to do the film. But when you think about it, something's always popping up about nuclear weapons or reactors every couple of months. I don't think it matters. If the film works, it works." Critical response The Manhattan