An empathic interest in young people has been a hallmark of Gus Van Sant’s work throughout his distinguished career. In films as diverse as My Own Private Idaho, To Die For and Good Will Hunting, Van Sant has portrayed young people on the cusp of adulthood, their identities still in flux. With Elephant, Van Sant takes on the challenge of portraying the contemporary reality of high school, a reality that has been transformed in recent years by school shootings. Between 1997 and 1999, American schools were the site of eight fatal student sprees. Van Sant began to think about addressing the issue in a movie: "American school shootings had reached an all-time high. I wanted to make something that tried to capture the atmosphere of kids going to school in that time." Elephant exposes these shootings as heart-breakingly senseless, with Van Sant declining to offer easy explanations for what, on some level, is simply inexplicable.

He discussed his ideas with actress/filmmaker Diane Keaton and writer/producer Bill Robinson, who are partners in the company Blue Relief, Inc. Comments Robinson, "Diane and I have known Gus for several years and we have always wanted to work with him. Of course, we were fans of his work, particularly his provocative films like Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho. We thought if he had an artistic vision and wanted to create a film about teens and violence in schools, we wanted to support him in it. We knew it could be powerful and effective if told by a fearless director like Gus. And we also thought HBO was a perfect home for Gus to have the freedom to pursue his vision." Says Keaton, "Gus has an intuitive understanding of young people. He is the perfect artist to make a film about this subject matter. I remember saying to Bill that somebody has to take a look at violence in schools in a different way."

Van Sant had been discussing potential projects with the critically acclaimed young novelist JT LeRoy (‘Sarah’), and asked LeRoy to write a screenplay for the HBO project. After writing an initial vignette about a young girl tormented in gym class, LeRoy carried the idea of individual experiences into the screenplay. He wrote the script as interconnecting vignettes, with one character’s story leading into another. "I interviewed kids and adults about their experiences and I wove around that," LeRoy explains.

In the meantime, Van Sant had begun making Gerry, a largely improvisational, non-narrative film. He decided to continue that approach with Elephant, working without a script while retaining some of LeRoy’s contributions. LeRoy didn’t take it amiss that his script was set aside, and continued to work on Elephant as an associate producer. "I believed in the project, and I really wanted to see it happen with Gus," he says. "Gus included me in what was going on, and asked for my opinion. That’s the way he is."

Elephant takes us into the world of a suburban high school, sending us through the halls and into the quad and the classrooms, the library and the cafeteria, the administration office and the locker rooms. We follow several students over the course of their day, revisiting certain moments and intersections as experienced by different characters, including: John (John Robinson); Eli (Elias McConnell), a photographer; the football player Nate (Nathan Tyson) and his girlfriend Carrie (Carrie Finklea); Michelle (Kristen Hicks); the longtime friends Brittany, Jordan and Nicole (Brittany Mountain, Jordan Taylor, Nicole George). Then there are the two boys who have their own plans for the school day, Alex (Alex Frost) and Eric (Eric Deulen). All are part of the dynamic and nuanced high school landscape that Elephant depicts.