For 36 days, Spab, Wendy Pfister (REESE WITHERSPOON) and Spab's best friend Joe Dice (JACK NOSEWORTHY) are held hostage in their local convenience store. Four terrorists, armed with guns and a video camera, record the bizarre and sometimes violent crisis, which captivates an entire nation. The networks are forced to air the videotapes on prime time newscasts under threat of death to the hostages. And with mounting frustration amongst the hostages due to their close quarters and a diminishing supply of beer and junk food, a tragic showdown ensues.

Having played the camera for weeks, Spab emerges as America's favorite celebrity. Now famous for his comically belligerent behavior and nihilistic attitude, Spab soon dominated magazine covers around the glob. Upon Spab's hospital recovery, older brother Scott (DAVID BARRY GRAY) arrives in a stretch limo. As they head for the car, the ferocious media descend on Spab. People sporting "Free Spab" t-shirts, greedy relatives and an obsessed public create an oppressive level of hype that disgusts Spab. After all, he was just being himself on the tapes, a cocky 20-year-old with an irreverent point of view.

Soon, the publicity machine pursuing Spab becomes unbearable, and he makes a run for it, held hostage again -- this time by the media. Distanced from Wendy, who takes the talk show circuit, he hooks up with pal Morrow (JAKE BUSEY). They subsequently stumble upon an array of eccentric characters who are affected by Spab's celebrity; among them are Spab's ex-girlfriend, Joe's sister (JOEY LAUREN ADAMS), and Morrow's sister (PAMELA GIDLEY), an avaricious lawyer. All the while, Spab is pursued by a paranoid FBI agent (RICHARD PORTNOW).

Following an increasingly bizarre series of events, Spab and Wendy are finally driven off the front pages by the media's craving for the next and newest idol. And in the film's stunning climax, as they're forced to ponder the notion that life does matter, Spab and Wendy face death because of believing in ...S.F.W.

PolyGram Filmed Entertainment presents an A&M Films Production in association with Propaganda Films: Stephen Dorff and Reese Witherspoon star in the Jefery Levy Film "S.F.W.," co-starring Jake Busey, Joey Lauren Adams, Pamela Gidley and David Barry Gray. "S.F.W." is based on Andrew Wellman's prize-winning novel. The film is directed and written by Jefery Levy, produced by Dale Pollock and executive produced by Sigurjon Sightvatsson. Mike Nelson co-produces, and Gloria Lopez is associate producer. Eve Cauley is production designer, and Peter Deming is director of photography. Lauren Zuckerman is the editor. Gramercy Pictures will release.

Producer Dale Pollock explains, "I read 'S.F.W.' on an airplane, and it was unlike any book I had ever read. I felt it completely captured the world of its 20-year-old protagonist, and that it was a unique story Having been a journalist myself, the comments about the media were extremely pertinent and timely, and I just said this is a movie I have to make."

When negotiations were finally settled with Pollac and A&M Films, screenwriters began to adapt the story for a motion-picture. And when Director Jefery Levy ("Inside Monkey Zetterland," "Drive") joined the project, the film was on its way towards production.

"We tried to make the film with many edges of reality that parodies the interchangeability of the media," Pollock says. "The irony of the story is really the fact that these kids are exchanging one hostage situation for another -- first it's the terrorists, then the media."

Working from a 70-page shot list, down to critical camera movements and specific dolly locations, the director gave all 76 speaking cast members a copy of the 35-day schedule which included 23 Los Angeles area locations. And although the entire film was shot in Southern California, "we intentionally excluded palm trees, beaches and mountains from every shot in order to establish a bleak, blue-collar America, void of any hope or prosperity. The story we watch on the screen could happen anywhere at any time," Pollock explains.

In addition to the normal 35mm filming, three other formats were used in the final film. Spab's memory sequences were shot at slower 35mm shutter speeds with dim colors and diffused lighting to make his recollections haunting and completely different from the actual film; a high-8 video camera was used for the hostage tapes; and the newscasts were drawn from professional-quality betacam.

All of the characters were portrayed by actors playing close to their real age. The actors also took realistic artistic liberties with their lines, which is why the strong language may be offensive to some audience members. Levy explains, "It's the way a lot of kids really talk, as well as adults. Spab's world is an overwhelmingly dangerous playce; the characters speak the way they do because of their hopeless environment. After a while their language becomes meaningless and is used as a source of humor. Spab is the prime example of someone who uses his sense of humor to survive -- it's a major element of his charisma."

Pollock continues, "Another reason why the public is captivated and responds to Spab so passionately is that he embodies a particular part of the American character -- a stiff back. He will not give in. He will not bow down to the terrorists who try to intimidate and harass him. His attitude is 'don't tread on me.'"

According to Jefery Levy, the story is fundamentally about 20-year-old Cliff Spab, and how his character evolves amidst unique circumstances. "There are definite unavoidable cyclical images which we capitalized on," Levy says. The whole process of how the media begins the cycle of creating celebrities (i.e. Amy Fisher, Michael Faye, Tonya Harding, etc.), glorifying them and subsequently tearing them down, enabled the filmmakers to incorporate something circular in almost every frame, whether it was designs twirling, cameras circling or Spab simply spinning in the rain with his arms extended.

In "S.F.W.," Spab is explicitly turned into a commodity by the mass media. His trauma is packaged and sold to a worldwide audience. Levy explains, "What's disturbing about Spab is that he finds himself swirling in an absurd vortex; when the newest idol comes along, Spab is spit out, and he becomes an individual again, ending up in a hospital bed, which is where we discover him at the film's start...another 360 visual degrees prior."

Associate producer Gloria Lopez continues, "There's also an underlying love story here. Despite Spab's belligerent outlook on life, he really cares about his best friend, Joe, his brother, Scott, and ultimately Wendy. At the end of the story, his tenderness and vulnerability are exposed...Spab's philosophy changes, and he can contemplate the future with Wendy very different from the circumstances that brought them together."

Stephen Dorff was enthused to portray Cliff Spab for several reasons: "The role really gave me a chance to go completely mad and free for two hours. The people Spab meets during the film appear from nowhere, and they provide Spab's different emotional levels for each scene. They're the cause of his rage and laughter." Despite his various moods, the role required a sustained sense of humor throughout the character's journey. "As an actor, I've never really done comedy before, but Spab's character enabled me to show a humorous side of my work that no one has seen in my other roles," Dorff explained.

The role of Wendy Pfister intrigued Reese Witherspoon because she could relate to the character and the film's notion of celebrity. "I'm sure it's a worry for a lot of celebrities that their privacy is invaded -- as it is for Wendy Pfister. Personally, celebrity is a slightly different thing to me at this point in my career. When you're a huge celebirty, people tell you: 'You're great. You're great. You're great.' But for me, it's more like people throwing their opinions at me, 'You were good in this. You were bad in that. I didn't like this. I loved that.' Spab and Wendy have to deal with so many opinions at one time, I can relate to their anxiety," Witherspoon explains.

Dorff continued, "I loved my role because of the blatant relationship I got to have with the camera. When I work, I always feel like I need some sort of relationship, and in "S.F.W." I have a relationship with a video camera. It was like another person, and through the whole movie, the camera is never a camera, and it's especially not the American public. Spab has this whole frontal thing, but underneath he's a really smart, sensitive person; the camera knows this." Spab's public instinctively understands his appeal, and, by the story's end, Spab comes to accept it himself.

The music also plays an integral part of the film. Before production began, Levy gave Dorff some music to hear, rock and roll that appeals to young people in middle-America, most of which is on the movie soundtrack. "This music was played a lot during shooting," Dorff says, "and with my input, as well as Reese's, the music helped shape our roles. The director was sensitive to our concerns and took character suggestions seriously."

REESE WITHERSPOON (Wendy Pfister) made her future film debut in "The Man in the Moon." Starring opposite Sam Waterston, she earned wide critical acclaim as a 1950s tomboy who falls in love for the first time. She followed this performace with a sparkling performance in "Jack the Bear" as a 12-year-old hippy, circa 1970, opposite Danny DeVito and Gary Sinise.

Next, Director Diane Keaton invited Witherspoon to play the lead role in the telefilm, "Wildflower," with Patricia Arquette and Beau Bridges. She starred as a 1940s teenager whose sympathy and encouragement changes the life of an epileptic child.

Following her performance in the NBC Movie, "Desperate Choices: To Save My Child," Witherspoon starred as Nonnie Parker in the Walt Disney motion-picture "A Far Off Place." In this film, she embarks on a voyage of self-discovery, journeying across Africa's Kalahari Desert. To prepare for the role, she had to perfect the Bushman language by studying with a Matabele tribe.

She also starred in the CBS mini-series, "Return to Lonesome Dove" as the salty Ferris Dunnegan with Jon Voight and Barbara Hershey.

Witherspoon begins her freshman year at Stanford University this fall.