DONA GRANATA (Costume Designer)

DONA GRANATA's (Costume Designer) career as a costume designer encompasses film, television, theater and opera. She earned an Emmy Award and a Costume Designers Guild Award for the 2001 ABC biographical drama "Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows," for director Robert Allan Ackerman, and additional Emmy nominations for Showtime's "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone," also for Ackerman, and Robert Altman's musical documentary "Jazz '34."

Granata's designs for film include this year's "Ramen Girl," reuniting her with Ackerman; "Dr. T and the Women," "Cookie's Fortune," "The Gingerbread Man" and "Kansas City" for director Robert Altman; "Earthly Possessions" for James Lapine; "Gloria," "Critical Care," "Deathtrap" and "The Wiz" (as associate designer) for Sidney Lumet; as well as "Shadrach," "Love Is All There Is," "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills" and "Lust in the Dust." Television credits include "The Reagans," Showtime's "Fat Actress," David Steinberg's "It Had to be You," the American Playhouse production of "Mrs. Cage" and the CBS series "Sons and Daughters."

Granata's association with director James Lapine includes the theatrical productions of "Modern/Orthodox" and "Amour." Among her stage credits are Broadway's "Canciones de Mi Padre" for Linda Ronstadt and productions at the Mark Taper Forum, the Kennedy Center, the Goodman Theatre and the Old Globe Theater in San Diego. She has also designed costumes for opera, including Robert Altman's "A Wedding" at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, as well as productions for the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Covent Garden, Welsh National Opera and Australian Opera.

Granata is currently at work on Tommy Tune's Broadway musical "The Turn of the Century." Among her upcoming projects is a new theatrical production of "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" in Tokyo, for director Robert Allan Ackerman.

JULIA MICHELS (Music Supervisor)

JULIA MICHELS (Music Supervisor) is an independent movie music supervisor who has enjoyed a successful 17-year career in the film music industry. She recently finished working on "Sex and the City," and her other recent theatrical credits include the acclaimed 2007 music-driven drama "August Rush" and the 2006 summer blockbuster "The Devil Wears Prada."

Michels is currently supervising the upcoming "Marley & Me," starring Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson, based on the New York Times best-selling book.
Prior to her independent status, she was Senior Vice President of Music for MGM Pictures, overseeing all the music for such films as "Be Cool," "Beauty Shop" and the remake of "The Pink Panther," among others.

Additionally, Michels held the post Vice President of Soundtracks at EMI Records, overseeing soundtracks for all the labels in the EMI family, including Capitol, Virgin, Priority and Blue Note Records. Previously, she spent four years as Vice President of Music for Twentieth Century Fox. In this role, which also encompassed the Fox 2000, Fox Searchlight and Fox Animation film divisions, she was the music executive on a diverse slate of projects, including "Daredevil," "Unfaithful," "Down with Love," "Like Mike" and "The Banger Sisters."

Before joining Fox, Michels was the Director of Soundtracks for Capitol Records and was instrumental in the creation of such soundtracks as "Hope Floats," "Good Will Hunting," "There's Something About Mary" and "Never Been Kissed." During her extensive career in the film/soundtrack business, she has also been a music editor, co¬owner of an independent record label and an agent for film composers.

RACHEL PORTMAN (Composer)

RACHEL PORTMAN (Composer) holds the distinction of being the first female composer in history to win an Academy Award, for her score to the 1996 period romantic comedy "Emma," directed by Douglas McGrath. She also earned Academy Award nominations for her scores to Lasse Hallstrom's "The Ciderhouse Rules" and "Chocolat."

Portman has worked with numerous renowned filmmakers, among them Roman Polanski, Jonathan Demme, Robert Redford, Robert Benton, Garry Marshall, Alan Parker, Mike Leigh, Beeban Kidron and Wayne Wang.

She has received acclaim for her diverse scores to such films as "Infamous," "The Lake House," "Oliver Twist," "The Manchurian Candidate," "Because of Winn Dixie," "Benny & Joon," "The Joy Luck Club," "The Legend of Bagger Vance," "Hart's War," "Beloved," "Nicholas Nickleby," "The Human Stain" and "Mona Lisa Smile."
Portman's first opera, "The Little Prince," based on the classic children's book by Antoine de Saint-Exúpery, premiered at the Houston Grand Opera and is now available on DVD.

MELISSA KENT (Editor)

MELISSA KENT (Editor) was nominated for an American Cinema Editors Award for her work on the 2003 Showtime movie "The Reagans."

Most recently, she served as editor on the television drama "A Raisin in the Sun," the Showtime original drama "An American Crime" and the independent feature "Something New," for director Sanaa Hamri.

Among her film editing credits are "Crazy/Beautiful," for director John Stockwell, "The Virgin Suicides," for director Sofia Coppola, "Supernova," for director Walter Hill and "Reaching Normal," for director Anne Heche, a short film that screened at the Sundance Film Festival. She provided additional editing for "The Outsiders: The Complete Novel," the 2005 re-release and director's cut of Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 classic, and was a co-editor on Coppola's "The Rainmaker." She also served as additional editor on the features "The Fantasticks" and "My Family, Mi Familia."

Kent's work on network and cable television includes Showtime's "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone," the TNT drama "Baby," "HBO's First Look: The Rainmaker" and various episodes of the hit series "Medium," as well as the pilot for "October Road."

GAE BUCKLEY (Production Designer)

GAE BUCKLEY (Production Designer) most recently served as production designer on "He's Just Not That Into You," "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" and the romantic comedy "License to Wed," for director Ken Kwapis; Kevin Costner's Western drama "Open Range," starring Robert Duvall, Costner and Annette Bening; and the action-filled "Death and Life of Bobby Z."

As an art director, Buckley's film credits include "What Women Want," "Coyote Ugly," "Tin Cup," "The Craft," "The Little Rascals," "Indecent Proposal" and "Three Wishes." Her set designer credits include "Wayne's World," "Coneheads" and "Good Night, and Good Luck."

Buckley began her career as an architect and segued into filmed entertainment with work on music videos and commercials in New York City. She received a degree in architecture from Cornell University, and has also studied drawing at The Brooklyn Academy of Art, and scenic painting at The Lester Polikoff School of Scenic Painting in New York City. She grew up painting with her mother, New Jersey artist Jean Buckley.

JIM DENAULT (Director of Photography)

JIM DENAULT (Director of Photography) most recently worked with director Jay Roach on the HBO drama "Recount," about the 2000 presidential election, which debuted in May. He also served as director of photography on the recent feature releases "Freedom Writers," for director Richard LaGravenese, and "The Passage."
His work will next be seen in the romantic comedy "She's Out of My League," currently in post-production.

Denault's credits encompass a diverse range of films, including the Merchant-Ivory production "Heights"; the HBO film "Maria Full of Grace," which won the Audience Award at Sundance in 2006; "City of Ghosts," for writer/director Matt Dillon; HBO's "Real Women Have Curves" and "The Believer," both honored with Sundance awards; "Our Song"; the groundbreaking drama "Boys Don't Cry"; "Clockwatchers," a 1997 nominee for Sundance's Grand Jury Prize; and "Illtown." His work on the thriller "Nadja" earned a 1996 Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Cinematography.

Denault went on to receive a 2005 Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Cinematography on a Single-Camera Series for his photography on the acclaimed HBO series "Carnivàle." His additional television credits include HBO's "Six Feet Under" and a number of network pilots, including "Push, Nevada" for ABC.

BOB LEVY (Executive Producer)

BOB LEVY (Executive Producer) is Executive Vice President of Film and Television Development and Production at Alloy Entertainment. He has worked in the entertainment industry for more than two decades, spanning network, cable and public television. Levy joined Alloy Entertainment in 2001 following ten years at NBC, where he was the vice president of prime-time series and closely involved with such shows as "Mad About You," "Caroline in the City" and the critically acclaimed "Working."

As head of Alloy Entertainment's West Coast office, Levy oversees the company's extensive involvement in film and television development. He is an executive producer of all of Alloy Entertainment's television projects, including the CW series "Gossip Girl" and "Surviving the Filthy Rich," and producer of the company's feature films "Sex Drive" and "The Clique."

Levy holds a BA cum laude from Brown University. He is married to filmmaker Elizabeth Allen.

LESLIE MORGENSTEIN (Executive Producer)

LESLIE MORGENSTEIN (Executive Producer) has served as President of Alloy Entertainment and its predecessor, 17th Street Productions, Inc., since 1999, overseeing the company's operations, strategy, and creative mission. He produces or executive produces Alloy Entertainment's television and feature film projects, including the current hit series "Gossip Girl" and the fall premieres of "Surviving the Filthy Rich" and "Samurai Girl," as well as the feature films "The Clique" and "Sex Drive." In 2005, he served as an executive producer on "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants."

In addition to film and television, Alloy is the most successful independent packager of fiction in the world. Approximately 50 of the company's titles have achieved New York Times best-seller status, including The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Gossip Girl, The Clique, The Luxe and Pretty Little Liars.

Morgenstein has an undergraduate degree in writing and photography from Sarah Lawrence College, a MBA in finance from New York University's Stern School of Business, and completed his master's work in English and creative writing at The City College of New York.

ALISON GREENSPAN (Executive Producer)

ALISON GREENSPAN (Executive Producer), as President of Di Novi Pictures, helped to develop the script for the 2005 film "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" and served as one of the film's executive producers.

Previously, Greenspan executive produced the features "New York Minute," "Catwoman" and "What a Girl Wants," as well as the telefilms "Eloise at the Plaza" and "Eloise at Christmastime" for ABC. She also helped develop the romantic drama "A Walk to Remember."

Greenspan began her career with a two-year stint at Creative Artists Agency and then spent three years as a creative executive at ImageMovers, Robert Zemeckis and Jack Rapke's production company. She joined Di Novi Pictures in 1999 as Vice President of Development.

Greenspan graduated Suma Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994. At U Penn, she enjoyed a four-year stint as performer, writer and director in the nation's only all-female collegiate comedy troupe, Bloomers.

Greenspan serves as executive producer on the romantic drama "Nights in Rodanthe," based on Nicholas Sparks' novel, which reunites Richard Gere and Diane Lane and is slated for a September 2008 release. Her additional upcoming projects include "The Jetsons," to be directed by Robert Rodriguez, and "Ramona," based on the best-selling series of books by Beverly Cleary, both of which are currently in pre-production.

CHRISTINE SACANI (Executive Producer)

CHRISTINE SACANI (Executive Producer) is a veteran producer of more than 40 film and television productions.

She most recently served as co-producer on the romantic comedy "License to Wed," starring Robin Williams, John Krasinski and Mandy Moore. Sacani held the same position as co-producer on "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" and "New York Minute."

With television production as the foundation of her producing career, Sacani counts among her accomplishments the Emmy Award-winning family dramas "Eloise at Christmastime" and "Eloise at the Plaza," starring Julie Andrews and Sofia Vassilieva; the musical drama "South Pacific," starring Glenn Close and Harry Connick Jr.; the crime drama "Thin Air," with Joe Montegna and Marcia Gay Harden; and the critically acclaimed productions "Trapped in a Purple Haze," starring Jonathan Jackson and JoBeth Williams, and "The Rosa Parks Story," starring Angela Bassett.

Born in New York, Sacani graduated from New York University with a BFA in film and television and moved to L.A. soon after to pursue her career as a producer.

ANDREW KOSOVE (Executive Producer) and BRODERICK JOHNSON (Producer)

ANDREW KOSOVE (Executive Producer) and BRODERICK JOHNSON (Producer) are co-founders, co-presidents and co-CEOs of Alcon Entertainment.

Alcon has financed, and/or co-financed/produced 14 films, including "My Dog Skip," which led to an ongoing Warner Bros. Pictures distribution deal.

Among Alcon's titles are "Dude, Where's My Car?," starring Ashton Kutcher; "Insomnia," starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank and directed by Christopher Nolan; "Chasing Liberty," starring Mandy Moore; "Love Don't Cost a Thing," starring Nick Cannon and Steve Harvey; the live action/animated "Racing Stripes"; "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," the ensemble hit romantic comedy starring Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrara, Blake Lively and Alexis Bledel; the action-thriller "16 Blocks," starring Bruce Willis; "Wicker Man," starring Nicholas Cage and directed by Neil LaBute; the romantic comedy "P.S. I Love You," starring Hilary Swank and directed by Richard LaGravenese; and the thriller "One Missed Call," starring Edward Burns.

Alcon has enjoyed a long-standing distribution relationship with Warner Bros. Pictures, which has just been renewed for another five years and 15-film slate. Timed to the renewed arrangement, Alcon has also privately raised a new $550 million production and P&A facility via limited investor/partners, including CIT Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Lehman Bros., among others.

KIRA DAVIS (Producer)

KIRA DAVIS (Producer) began her film career in 1994 on a small film called "Love Is All There Is," starring Angelina Jolie. It was on this production that she met the two co-presidents of Alcon Entertainment and began working with them as an assistant in 1997. After a decade with Alcon Entertainment, Davis left her post as Senior Vice President of Production and Marketing in 2006. During her tenure at Alcon, she oversaw the production and marketing of "Lost & Found," "My Dog Skip," "The Affair of the Necklace," "Insomnia," "Love Don't Cost a Thing," "Chasing Liberty," "Racing Stripes," "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" and "16 Blocks."

In 2007 Davis entered into a long-term first-look producing deal with Alcon Entertainment and formed 8:38 Productions. Her first produced film under this deal is "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2."

Davis is a native of Santa Fe, New Mexico. She studied theatre with an emphasis in directing and graduated magna cum laude from New Mexico State University. After graduating, she worked in a series of professional theatres, including La Jolla Playhouse and the Mark Taper Forum, before becoming Alcon's first official employee. In 2006, Davis was presented with the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Arts and Sciences at New Mexico State University.

DENISE DI NOVI (Producer)

DENISE DI NOVI (Producer) made her producing debut on the cult hit comedy "Heathers," for which she won an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. She then began a long association with groundbreaking filmmaker Tim Burton, during which time she produced such diverse hits as "Edward Scissorhands," "Batman Returns," "The Nightmare Before Christmas," "Ed Wood" and "James and the Giant Peach." Her early credits also include the 1994 remake of "Little Women," as well as "Practical Magic" and "Message in a Bottle," both of which took first place at the box office in their opening weekends.

Her more recent film producing credits include "Original Sin," "A Walk to Remember," "What a Girl Wants," "New York Minute," "Catwoman," "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" and Curtis Hanson's "Lucky You," as well as the upcoming release "Nights in Rodanthe," a romantic drama based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane reunited under the direction of George C. Wolfe.

In addition to her film credits, Di Novi has also ventured into television production. She served as an executive producer on the longform projects "Eloise at Christmastime," "Eloise at the Plaza," and "The '70s," as well as the critically acclaimed series "The District."

Di Novi started out in journalism, rising from copy editor at the National Observer (a Dow Jones weekly) to staff writer for "Canada AM" in Toronto. Segueing to the film industry, she began her career as a unit publicist. In 1980, she became a principal in the Montreal-based production company Film Plan, acting in various production capacities on nine major studio releases, including "Scanners" and "Videodrome." In 1983, Film Plan relocated to Los Angeles and merged with Arnold Kopelson's Film Packages.

She then joined New World Pictures as Executive Vice President of Production, later shifting into an overall deal as an independent producer. From 1989 to 1992, she headed Tim Burton Productions, where she produced several of the director's most successful films. In 1993, she set up her own production company, Di Novi Pictures, at Columbia Pictures.

Di Novi currently has a production deal at Warner Bros. Pictures. She has a number of projects in various stages of development, including "The Illustrated Man," with director Zack Snyder, based on a collection of Ray Bradbury stories; the love story "Last Summer of You and Me," based on the book by Ann Brashares; "The Jetsons," written and directed by Robert Rodriguez; and "Larklight," based on a Philip Reeve novel.

DEBRA MARTIN CHASE (Producer)

DEBRA MARTIN CHASE (Producer) is a two-time Emmy Award-nominated motion picture and television producer. Her company, Martin Chase Productions, has been an affiliate of the Walt Disney Company for over seven years, making Chase the first African-American female producer to have a solo producing deal at a major studio.

Chase was a producer on "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." She also produced "The Princess Diaries" and its sequel, "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement," and was an executive producer on the Lifetime series "Missing," which at the time had the most watched debut in the network's history. She served as an executive producer on "Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella," starring Brandy, Whitney Houston and Whoopi Goldberg, which attracted over 60 million viewers, received seven Emmy nominations and won the Emmy Award for Art Production.

Chase is the executive producer of The Disney Channel's hit movie and music franchise "The Cheetah Girls," starring Raven-Symoné, Sabrina Bryan, Adrienne Bailon, Kiely Williams and Lynn Whitfield. The premiere of "The Cheetah Girls 2" was the network's highest rated debut and launched a platinum-plus soundtrack, following the double platinum soundtrack for the first movie. "The Cheetah Girls: One World," the third of the franchise, debuts in August 2008. Additionally, she is the co-creator and producer of the double platinum-plus-selling "Byou," a dance/fitness workout DVD for teens and 'tweens, starring Sabrina Bryan and distributed by SONY BMG, that combines pop and hip hop movements with strength and cardio training to make fitness fun.

Chase was Whitney Houston's BrownHouse Productions producing partner from 1995 to 2000. She ran Denzel Washington's Mundy Lane Entertainment from 1992 to 1995, overseeing the release of "Devil in a Blue Dress" and executive producing, with Washington, the documentary "Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream," which earned Oscar and Emmy nominations, won a Peabody Award and the Crystal Heart from the Heartland Film Festival and was voted Best Documentary by the National Association of Minorities in Cable.

Previously, she executive produced "Courage Under Fire," starring Washington and Meg Ryan for director Ed Zwick. She co-produced "The Preacher's Wife," starring Washington and Whitney Houston for director Penny Marshall, a project Chase originated and developed at Mundy Lane.

Prior to Mundy Lane, Chase held several positions at Columbia Pictures, joining the studio in 1989 as an attorney and rising to Director of Creative Affairs.

Chase began her career as an attorney and worked at several major law firms and Fortune 500 corporations in Houston and Manhattan. She received her J.D. from the Harvard Law School and graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude from Mount Holyoke College. She serves on the Board of Trustees of Columbia College of Chicago, the Board of Directors of the Center Dance Association of the Los Angeles Music Center, the Board of Directors of the San Francisco-based Museum of the African Diaspora, the Board of Directors of the United Friends of Children, the Producing Mentor Board of USC's Peter Stark Program and the Advisory Board of the Heartland Film Festival.

In 2002, she was honored by Girls Inc. for inspiring young women. She has also been honored by Women in Film, the Corporate Counsel Women of Color, the Heartland Film Festival, the New York Times/Blackfilm.com, the I Have a Dream Foundation, the National Summit of Black Women Lawyers, and the National Association of Black Female Executives in Music and Entertainment.

In 2003, Savoy Magazine named Chase one of the 100 most influential Blacks in America and Essence Magazine named her one of the 50 African-American women shaping the world. In 2007, Black Enterprise Magazine named her one of the Top 50 Powerbrokers in Hollywood; and in 2007 and 2008, Ebony named her one of the 150 Most Influential Blacks in America. In May 2007, Chase received an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from her alma mater, Mount Holyoke College.

ELIZABETH CHANDLER (Screenwriter)

ELIZABETH CHANDLER (Screenwriter) rejoins the "Sisterhood" team on this second film, having been a screenwriter on "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" in 2005.

Chandler's screenwriting credits include "What a Girl Wants," starring Amanda Bynes and Colin Firth; the romantic comedy "Someone Like You," starring Ashley Judd and Hugh Jackman; and Alfonso Cuarón's acclaimed fantasy drama "A Little Princess."

For the small screen, she wrote and co-produced "Eloise at Christmastime" and the HBO film "Afterburn."

SANAA HAMRI (Director)

SANAA HAMRI (Director) made her feature directorial debut with the romantic comedy "Something New" in 2006, which earned her an NAACP Image Award nomination. She has directed episodes of the hit series "Desperate Housewives" and "Men in Trees," as well as commercials.

In 1992, at age 17, Hamri emigrated from her native Morocco to study theater at Sarah Lawrence College. Shortly after receiving her degree, she trained under legendary music video cinematographer Malik Sayeed. Under Sayeed's tutelage, Hamri was given the video-editing job for the reggae/hip-hop fusion group Born Jamericans that ignited her subsequent career as an up-and-coming editor.

She made the transition into directing two years later, building a portfolio of artists including Sting, Lenny Kravitz, Dr. Dre, Mariah Carey, Brandy, D'Angelo, Missy Elliot, Christina Aguilera, DMX and Ja Rule. Her big break was a low-budget, hardcore Bronx rap video for LaFace recording artists 1 Life 2 Live for their song "Blind Love," which caught the attention of Mariah Carey. She subsequently directed Carey's "Thank God I Found You" remix as well as her video for "Don't Stop," featuring Mystikal, her video for "Cry Baby," featuring Snoop Dogg, and "Oh Holy Night," a Christmas video to benefit children in need. These projects were soon followed by videos for such artists as Destiny's Child, Common, Kelly Rowland, India.Arie and Jay Z.

Her most recent work includes Prince's "Black Sweat" and "Musicology," both of which earned her MTV VMA nominations, and "Call My Name" and "Million Dayz"; the Notorious B.I.G. duet video "Nasty Girls," featuring Diddy, Nelly, Usher, Pharrell and Jagged Edge; Mariah Carey's "Bringin' on the Heartbreak," featuring Dave Navarro and Randy Jackson; Sting's "Send Your Love"; and Mary J. Blige's "It's a Wrap."

Among her accolades, Hamri was honored with an NAACP Image Award in 2003 for India.Arie's "Little Things," which was also nominated for an MVPA Award for Best Direction of a Female Artist. She was again nominated for an NAACP Image Award in 2004 for "The Truth." Hamri earned an MTV VMA nomination for Mary J. Blige's "Come Close to Me," for which she also received an MVPA Award nomination for Hip-Hop Video of the Year. She received additional MVPA Award nominations for Hip-Hop Video of the Year for Heather Headley's "He Is."

JESSE WILLIAMS (Leo)

JESSE WILLIAMS (Leo) makes his big-screen debut in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2."

Williams starred in award-winning playwright Edward Albee's off-Broadway production "The American Dream and The Sandbox" from March through April of this year at the Cherry Lane Theatre.

He will soon begin production on the feature "Brooklyn's Finest," for director Antoine Fuqua, starring opposite Ethan Hawke, Richard Gere and Don Cheadle.

On television, Williams will next be seen in a guest-starring role on ABC Family's "Greek." His previous television credits include an appearance on "Law & Order."

TOM WISDOM (Ian)

TOM WISDOM (Ian) most recently appeared on screen as Astinos in the drama "300," starring Gerard Butler. He also starred as Adrian in the Sci Fi Channel's telefilm "Fire & Ice."

Wisdom trained at the Academy Drama School in London.

In the theatre, he appeared in the world premiere of Sharman MacDonald's "Borders of Paradise" at the Palace Theatre Watford and played Algernon in "The Importance of Being Earnest" at the Open Air Theatre Wimbledon. At the Arts Theatre, London he played the leading role of Stephen Carter in the much-acclaimed production of "What's Wrong With Angry?" and then starred as Bennett in the revival of "Another Country." Most recently he starred in the leading role of Stanhope in "Journey's End" in London's West End and on a UK tour.

Wisdom's television credits include roles in "The Good King," for the Family Channel; "Black Hearts in Battersea," for the BBC; "Wycliffe," for HTV; the leading role of Edward in "Children of the New Forest," for the BBC; "The Castle," for ABC; "Wavelength," for Richmond Films; and the series regular role of Tom Ferguson in "Coronation Street." He also played the lead role of Matthew in the TV film "Escape to Somerset," for ITV; Ivor Claire in "Sword of Honour," for Talkback/C4; Stephen Clarke in the ITV two-parter "Suspicion"; and series lead Marco in "Mile High," for Sky TV.

Wisdom's next big-screen project is the Richard Curtis comedy "The Boat That Rocked," currently in production and set for a 2009 release.

MICHAEL RADY (Kostos)

MICHAEL RADY (Kostos) made his feature film debut in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," for which he earned a Teen Choice Award nomination for Best Male Breakout Performance.

Since then, Rady has appeared opposite Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Costner in the Andrew Davis action adventure "The Guardian" and on Showtime's "Sleeper Cell," as well as episodes of "CSI: NY" and "ER." He has a major recurring role in the CBS series "Swingtown."

He will soon be seen starring in the feature drama "In Search Of."

Rady is a graduate of Temple University.

LEONARDO NAM's (Brian McBrian)

LEONARDO NAM's (Brian McBrian) breakout role was in the 2004 Brian Robbins comedy "The Perfect Score," starring Scarlett Johansson and Erika Christensen.
In 2005, he went on to star in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," directed by Ken Kwapis, and the festival hit "Little Athens," with Shawn Hatosy and Michael Peña.

Nam most recently appeared in the thriller "Vantage Point," directed by Pete Travis, starring Forest Whitaker and Matthew Fox. In August he will star alongside Harrison Ford, Sean Penn and Ashley Judd in the feature "Crossing Over" for writer/director Wayne Kramer, about immigrants struggling to achieve legal status in Los Angeles; and, early in 2009, is part of an ensemble cast including Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore and Ben Affleck in the romantic comedy "He's Just Not That Into You," based on the popular book, which reunites him with director Ken Kwapis.

Nam's upcoming projects include the comedy "The Two Bobs," for writer/director Tim McCanlies, in which he will star as the art director of a gaming company in pursuit of stolen software, set for a 2009 release.

Among his film credits are roles in "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," for director Justin Lin in 2006; the comedy "10 Items or Less," directed by Brad Silberling, with Morgan Freeman and Paz Vega; the short film "Room 10," opposite Robin Wright Penn for director Jennifer Aniston; "American Pastime," directed by Desmond Nakano, about Japanese internment camps in the US during World War II; and "Finishing the Game," which reunited Nam with director Justin Lin.

Born in Argentina and raised in Sydney, Australia, Nam began his career studying in Sydney's prestigious Actor's Lab under Annie Swann while appearing in numerous local theatrical productions, including "Shakespeare in the Park." In New York, he trained with the legendary Uta Hagen, Austin Pendleton and Billy Carden and was a member of Sigourney Weaver and Jim Simpson's The Bat Theatre Company. His work in New York included the New York Public Theater/Shakespeare in the Park Shakespeare Lab Company.

His most recent stage appearance was the opening night performance of "365 Days/365 Plays," by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, who committed to writing a play per day for 365 days. The National Festival's Los Angeles performance was produced by The Center Theatre Group and directed by Bart DeLorenzo. It was the largest collaboration in the history of American theater.

BLYTHE DANNER (Greta)

BLYTHE DANNER (Greta) is a prolific, Emmy Award-winning actress who has appeared in numerous stage, television and film roles.

Danner first appeared on stage with the Theater Company of Boston and the Trintity Square Repertory Company (now Trinity Repertory Company) in Providence. She gained national attention at age 25 by winning the Theatre World Award for her performance in the Lincoln Center Rep's production of "The Miser," and went on to win a Tony Award in 1970 for her Broadway debut in "Butterflies Are Free."

Danner received three additional Tony nominations: in 1980 for the original Broadway production of Harold Pinter's "Betrayal"; in 1988 for a revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "A Streetcar Named Desire"; and in 2001 for a revival of Stephen Sondheim's "Follies." For more than 25 years, she has been a regular performer at the Williamstown Summer Theater Festival, where she also serves on the Board of Directors.

Her earliest starring film roles were opposite Alan Alda in "To Kill a Clown" and in the title role of "Lovin' Molly," directed by Sidney Lumet. She has appeared in two films based on novels by Pat Conroy, "The Great Santini" and "The Prince of Tides," as well as two television movies adapted from books by Anne Tyler, "Saint Maybe" and "Back When We Were Grownups." For director Woody Allen, she has appeared in "Another Woman," "Alice" and "Husbands and Wives."

More recently, Danner starred with Robert De Niro in the hit comedy "Meet the Parents" and its sequel, "Meet the Fockers," with Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman; the romantic comedy "The Last Kiss," for director Tony Goldwyn; and the biographical drama "Sylvia," about poet Sylvia Plath, in which she shared the screen with daughter Gwyneth Paltrow. Danner also lent her vocal talents to the animated adventure "Howl's Moving Castle."

In 2005 she was nominated for three Emmy Awards, for her work on "Will & Grace," Showtime's acclaimed series, "Huff" and "Back When We Were Grownups," winning the Emmy for her role as Izzy in "Huff."

Among her upcoming projects is the FX Networks' original drama "Pretty/Handsome," with Joseph Fiennes and Carrie-Ann Moss.

Danner sits on several environmental advisory boards and holds honorary Doctorates of Arts from her alma mater Bard College, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

SHOHREH AGHDASHLOO (Professor Nasrin Mehani)

SHOHREH AGHDASHLOO (Professor Nasrin Mehani) earned an Academy Award nomination and won an Independent Spirit Award for her role, opposite Ben Kingsley, in the 2003 drama "House of Sand and Fog." Her poignant performance as the supportive and sympathetic wife of a proud Iranian immigrant in that film also brought her Best Supporting Actress honors from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics Circle and the Online Film Critics Society.

More recently, she starred in the box office hits "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" and "X-Men: The Last Stand," as well as the romantic drama "The Lake House" and "The Nativity Story."

On the small screen, Aghdashloo received acclaim for her role as Dina Araz in season four of the award-winning series "24." In 2006, she starred alongside Ray Liotta in the John Wells series "Smith." She has also guest starred on such series as "Grey's Anatomy," "ER" and "Will & Grace." She will next be seen in the BBC Worldwide dramatic miniseries "Between Two Rivers," and will soon begin filming the feature "The Rhythm of Chaos" for director Sarah Knight.

A noted film and theatre actress in her native Iran, Aghdashloo began her career on the stage with the Drama Workshop of Tehran at age 19. She debuted on screen a few years later in the 1977 feature "Gozaresh" ("The Report"), for renowned director Abbass Kiarostami, which won the Critics Award at the Moscow Film Festival. She followed this triumph with a role in "Shatranje Bad" ("Chess with the Wind"), also a film festival favorite. While her initial projects were banned in her home country, she scored a huge success with "Sooteh-Delan" ("Broken Hearts"), directed by the late Iranian filmmaker Ali Hatami, which established her as one of Iran's leading actresses.

Just as her career began to crest, the Shah of Iran's regime crumbled, forcing the Tehran-born actress to flee her home country during the 1978 revolution. Aghdashloo settled in England, where she completed her education in International Relations at the International University Europe in Waterford while putting her acting career on hold.

She resumed her career onstage in 1984 in a Farsi-language play that was also staged in several U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, and married playwright Houshang Touzie. Aghdashloo has since performed in several of Touzie's works while forming Drama Workshop '79, a theatre company created in memory of the revolution and dedicated to producing plays in her native language.

Aghdashloo has appeared in several independent films, including "Guests of Hotel Astoria," "Twenty Bucks," "Surviving Paradise," "Maryam," "America So Beautiful," "Possessed" and "Pulse" (the latter two from filmmaker Shirin Neshat's trilogy).

RACHEL TICOTIN (Carmen's Mom)

RACHEL TICOTIN (Carmen's Mom) began her career in New York City as one the founding members of the Ballet Hispanico of NY dance company. She then segued into acting with a starring role in "Fort Apache The Bronx."

Among Ticotin's more recent film work are roles in "Something's Gotta Give," "Man on Fire" and the upcoming drama "The Burning Plain," set for a 2009 release.

She also performs on stage, most recently in the acclaimed Chichester Festival Theater production of "Macbeth" on Broadway, starring alongside Patrick Stewart.

RACHEL NICHOLS (Julia)

RACHEL NICHOLS (Julia) most recently wrapped production on the highly anticipated feature "Star Trek," directed by J.J. Abrams, and the action adventure "G.I. Joe," alongside Channing Tatum and Sienna Miller. Both are scheduled for release in 2009.
In 2007 Nichols starred as the lead in the thriller "P2," also starring Wes Bentley, for director Franck Khalfoun and producer Alexandre Aja. She also appeared in the sports drama "Resurrecting the Champ," with Samuel L. Jackson and Josh Hartnett, and in "Charlie Wilson's War," with Tom Hanks, directed by Mike Nichols.

In 2005 and 2006 Nichols starred as Rachel Gibson in the final season of the ABC hit drama "Alias." In 2005, she starred in the Fox drama "The Inside" and, that same year, starred in the remake of the classic thriller "The Amityville Horror," produced by Michael Bay, in which she portrayed the unforgettable role of the family babysitter. This film also starred Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George.

A small-town New England native, Nichols first caught the attention of a modeling scout while attending Columbia University, from which she graduated with a double major in math and economics. After campaigns with such brands as Guess, L'Oreal, Abercrombie & Fitch and Nicole Miller, she broke into the world of acting when her agent sent her out on her first-ever audition-for a "Sex and the City" episode called "The Vogue Idea," in which she guest-starred as the restaurant hostess who becomes a birthday present from Samantha to her boyfriend, Richard. She followed that with a role in "Autumn in New York," with Richard Gere. In 2003, she starred in "Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd," the prequel to "Dumb and Dumber." Nichols has also guest-starred on the ABC series "In the Line of Fire."

AMERICA FERRERA (Carmen)

AMERICA FERRERA (Carmen) received critical acclaim and widespread recognition with her starring role in the Patricia Cardoso film "Real Women Have Curves." Her performance earned a Sundance Jury Award for Best Actress, an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Debut Performance and a Young Artist Award nomination for Best Performance for a Leading Young Actress.

She went on to star in the 2005 hit film "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," for which she was nominated for an ALMA Award. She also appeared in Catherine Hardwicke's "Lords of Dogtown" and the 2005 Sundance Film Festival entry "How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer," written and directed by Georgina Riedel and co¬starring Elizabeth Peña. In recognition of her work, she received a 2005 Movieline Breakthrough Award.

Currently, Ferrera stars as the title character in ABC's hit series "Ugly Betty," based on the enormously successful Colombian series "Yo Soy Betty, La Fea" and executive produced by Salma Hayek. Her portrayal of Betty has earned Ferrera numerous honors, including an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and an additional Golden Globe nomination, a Screen Actors Guild Award and an ALMA Award. She is a current Emmy nominee for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

Among Ferrera's credits are a starring role in the feature drama "Steel City," which premiered in dramatic competition at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. On stage, she starred off-Broadway in "Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead," directed by Trip Cullman.

In 2007, she starred in a Spanish-speaking role as a woman who has a complicated relationship with a young kidnapping victim in the bilingual independent film "Towards Darkness," which she also executive produced. Directed by Antonio Negret, the film is based on his short film "Darkness Minus 12," in which Ferrera also starred. Later that year she starred in the independent film "La Misma Luna" ("Under the Same Moon"), which screened at the Austin Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival and the Internacional de Cine Expresion en Corto Festival in Mexico, and went on to gross more than $20 million worldwide box office. Directed by Patricia Riggen, it chronicles a 9 year-old Mexican boy's journey to the United States to find his migrant mother after the grandmother who is taking care of him passes away. The film also stars Mexican actors Kate DelCastillo and Eugenio Derbez.

Among Ferrera's upcoming projects are the animated features "How to Train Your Dragon," for which she lends her vocal talent along with Gerard Butler, and "Tinker Bell," due on October 28th, in which she joins a voice cast which includes Lucy Liu, Kristin Chenoweth and Jesse McCartney.

ALEXIS BLEDEL (Lena)

ALEXIS BLEDEL (Lena) made her television debut in the critically acclaimed series "Gilmore Girls." For seven successful seasons, she starred as Rory Gilmore, the teenage daughter in this dramedy about a close-knit relationship between a single mother and a savvy daughter. Her portrayal earned Bledel the 2005 and 2006 Teen Choice Award for Actress in a Comedy and the 2002 Family Friendly Forum Award for Best Actress in a Drama. Named by the Television Critics Association as 2001's Outstanding New Program, "Gilmore Girls" also starred Lauren Graham, Kelly Bishop, and Ed Herrmann.

She will next be seen starring in the feature comedy "The Post-Grad Survival Guide," set for a 2009 release.

Bledel made her feature film debut in 2002 in "Tuck Everlasting," based on the acclaimed novel by Natalie Babbitt, in which she starred as Winnie Foster, a free-spirited teen trapped in a repressed Victorian household who meets up with the mysterious Tuck Family. "Tuck Everlasting" also starred Ben Kingsley, William Hurt, Sissy Spacek and Jonathan Jackson. Bledel was also part of the ensemble cast of the Robert Rodriguez action thriller "Sin City," with Bruce Willis, Josh Hartnett, Rosario Dawson and Brittany Murphy.

Her additional film credits include "Bride and Prejudice," an Indian musical version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, for "Bend it Like Beckham" director Gurinder Chadha; and the independent films "Orphan King," with Bill Pullman and Andrew McCarthy, and "I'm Reed Fish," opposite Jay Baruchel.

Bledel began her acting career in community theater in her hometown of Houston, Texas. She also modeled in New York during her school breaks. Before winning the role of Rory Gilmore, she attended NYU Film School to study writing and directing.

BLAKE LIVELY (Bridget)

BLAKE LIVELY (Bridget) currently stars in one of the lead roles on the hit CW series "Gossip Girl," a comedy drama about teens at an elite private school in New York City.

In 2007, Lively starred in the independent feature "Elvis & Annabelle," directed by Will Geiger and co-starring Max Minghella and Mary Steenburgen. Previously, she starred opposite Justin Long in Steve Pink's comedy "Accepted" and in the 2005 hit "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," which earned her a Teen Choice Award nomination for Best Breakthrough Performance.

Among Lively's upcoming projects is the romantic drama "New York, I Love You," set for a 2009 release, and the drama "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee," currently in production, in which she stars with Keanu Reeves, Robin Wright Penn, Julianne Moore and Alan Arkin for writer/director Rebecca Miller.

AMBER TAMBLYN (Tibby)

AMBER TAMBLYN (Tibby) just signed to star as the female lead in ABC's new dramedy series "The Unusuals," written by Noah Hawley ("Bones") that will feature her as a smart detective who is also the black sheep of a wealthy family. She recently wrapped production on a remake of the 1956 noir classic "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt," scripted and directed by Peter Hyams, in which she stars opposite Michael Douglas.

She recently starred in the title role, opposite Tilda Swinton, in "Stephanie Daley," for which she received tremendous critical acclaim and a 2007 Independent Spirit Best Supporting Female Actress nomination. The film, written and directed by Hilary Brougher, premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews and went on to the 2007 Milan International Film Festival and the 2006 Locarno International Film Festival, where Tamblyn received a Golden Bronze Leopard Best Actress Award. Tamblyn also received raves for her role in the telepic "The Russell Girl."

Tamblyn will next star in the comedy "Spring Breakdown," with Parker Posey, Amy Poehler and Rachel Dratch; and the independent thriller "Blackout," directed by Rigoberto Castañeda.

She started her professional career at the age of 11 on "General Hospital," for which she received the Hollywood Reporter Young Star Award for Best Actress in a Daytime Series two years in a row. She is best known for two seasons as the title character in "Joan of Arcadia," the highly lauded CBS family drama that earned her a 2003 Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in a Drama Series and a 2004 Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Her additional film credits include Gore Verbinski's "The Ring," Takashi Shimizu's "The Grudge 2" and Wim Wenders' "10 Minutes Older."

Also an acclaimed writer, Tamblyn published her first poem at age 12 in the San Francisco Chronicle, an Editor's Choice for their "Young Female Poets To Watch" issue. At 14 and 17, she self-published two collections of poetry, art and photography, entitled Plenty of Ships and Of the Dawn. In 2006, she signed with Simon & Schuster to release her debut full-length book of poetry, Free Stallion, which won the 2006 Borders Book Choice Award for Breakout Writing. Her work has also been published in New York

Quarterly Magazine, New York Magazine, L.A. Weekly, Writers and Poets, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, Jane, Interview Magazine and, currently, Nylon Magazine.

She hosts a private writers' forum at rebelasylum.com, for more than 200,000 teens and young adults looking to publish or workshop their writing with other writers and Tamblyn herself. She is also co-founder of The Best Contemporary American Poets Series, a bi-annual event showcasing some of the country's best performance artists. She will be publishing her second anthology of poetry and non-fiction stories in fall 2008.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 A Broad Canvas

A Broad Canvas

"The movie covers a lot of ground," says Di Novi, referring not only to emotional growth but, quite literally, to miles. Concurrent storylines scatter the four friends to Alabama, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Maryland and Turkey before delivering them, all together, to the spectacularly beautiful Greek island of Santorini. "It's a broad canvas; rich and exciting in many ways."

In the first film, the pants began their summer journey in Santorini, the most distant of the locales visited. Likewise, production on "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" began in the Greek Islands, revisiting some of those original sets and vistas, such as the home of Lena's grandparents and the place where, three years ago, she met Kostos.

Production designer Gae Buckley, who also made the return trip for the "Sisterhood" sequel, says "The family's cliff-side home and café were the same sites used in the first film. We reproduced the exterior construction and dressing and then created a brand new bedroom in a nearby location for the girls to sleep in."

Picturesque Amoudi Bay, in Oia, is the place where passenger boats disembark and where the four young women hire burros to navigate the steep trail up to the house. The production team artfully rearranged existing boats in the harbor, replaced modern signage with more subdued graphics, and dressed the entire area in lush greens with an overall focus, says Buckley, "on making it appear less touristy and more like a traditional small fishing village."

From there, they selected another Greek locale with contrasting topography to stand in for the archeological dig Bridget attends in Turkey. The excavation set was built from scratch in four weeks, modeled on existing dig sites from the Hellenic period in both Greece and Turkey, and proved convincing enough to warrant approval from local archeologists.

Production then moved to the U.S., where various spots in Connecticut served as a range of East Coast cities. Carmen's Vermont theater world was created from portions of Connecticut, including the KenMont Camp for Boys, the University Theater at Yale in New Haven and the Westport Country Theatre. Bridget's Bethesda home was shot in Bridgeport and her grandmother's suburban Alabama property in Stamford. Exteriors of Lena at the Rhode Island School of Design campus were captured at Western Connecticut State University. Tibby's world was filmed in New York City, from the Weinstein Building at NYU and Washington Square Park to familiar East Village restaurants Two Boots and Yaffa's Café.

By far, the scenes the four stars shared in Santorini were their favorites. And among these, a highlight was the burro ride-not only for the breathtaking perspective of the Santorini harbor it offers and the playful humor it catches on screen, but for the fact that it reunited them in a place that stirred such wonderful memories of their first "Sisterhood" experience.

Says Bledel, "It's very natural when the four of us get together. It's a jumble of noise and nonsense so we don't really have to work very hard on getting that element across in the story's lighter scenes where we're all laughing and having a great time."

Adds Lively, "It's chaos. We get along way too well and sometimes things just happen."

Illustrating this point perfectly is another cast favorite, the cliff-diving scene in Santorini, a purely spontaneous moment away from the cameras that was then incorporated into the story at their suggestion-and with Hamri's enthusiastic support. While enjoying some downtime on a stroll around the village one day prior to filming, the actresses spotted three boys taking turns leaping into the ocean from a rocky perch. The boys were fans. After talking awhile about the movie, they invited their guests to give the dizzying high-dive a try.

Recalls Ferrera, "I was the first to say 'no way! I'm not jumping!' But they talked us into it and it really was exhilarating."

"We did it five times in a row," says Tamblyn, who cannot resist teasing Ferrera by adding, "When we were recreating it for the film, America and I were supposed to jump together but she was being a wuss and didn't go," she laughs. "I didn't realize it until I was underwater and looking around for her. She scared me half to death. I was afraid she hit a rock."

"To me," Hamri concludes, "Carmen, Tibby, Bridget and Lena leaping from that cliff is about them feeling free-with life, and with each other. It's very symbolic. They've all faced their various difficulties and we know there will be more to come because that's life. But for that moment they can just have fun and be girls again, laugh and scream and let it all go. They take the plunge one at a time and in their own way. But, at the same time, they are all together."

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 Lena

Lena

Three years ago, budding artist and shy soul Lena had a near-storybook romance with the charismatic Kostos, a young Greek student she met while visiting her grandparents in Santorini. Though their brief connection was heartfelt, it proved difficult to sustain miles away from the Mediterranean.

Says Alexis Bledel, "Lena and Kostos had real feelings for each other, but the distance was too great. It was too much to ask, and Lena finally ended it for both their sakes, though it broke her heart. At this point, she claims to have moved on, but it's clear that she has not been very successful at putting Kostos out of her thoughts."

Michael Rady, who made his feature film debut as Kostos in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" in 2005, believes that anyone who has attempted a long-distance relationship will relate. "It's not easy being an ocean apart from your love. To make things worse, following Lena's decision, Kostos had a romantic tryst with someone from the village and did the honorable thing-as befits his character-by marrying her. It's a tragic blow to Lena when she finds out."

Lena pretends everything is fine and immerses herself in her studies at the Rhode Island School of Design. Beginning the summer with a figure-drawing class, she gets the chance to prove that she has, in fact, moved on when she makes an impression on her striking model and fellow art student, Leo, a free spirit unlike anyone she has ever met.

Their meeting is one of Hamri's favorite scenes. "It's so unexpected when Lena finds out that Leo is the model. It's one of the funniest moments in the movie and so aptly illustrates how different they are. Her reactions are priceless, so natural; she's completely embarrassed, and his nonchalance is equally priceless because, to Leo, this is nothing unusual. It's who he is."

Jesse Williams makes his feature film debut in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" as Leo, whom he describes as "confident without arrogance, happy, a guy who is fully at ease in his own skin. Unlike Lena, his uninhibited approach to life also makes him comfortable flowing in and out of relationships in a way that is foreign to her."

Lena's interest in Leo and her curiosity about his lifestyle marks a significant turning point, notes Hamri. "Will she adapt herself to his easygoing nature and see where it takes her, or will she remain true to herself even if it means missing an enticing opportunity for romance?"

As Lena struggles to sort out her feelings and values, Bridget learns how her mother's history affects her own future, Tibby faces the risks and rewards of love, and Carmen gains focus through new challenges, the Sisterhood strives to keep in touch.

The pants-their old messenger imbued with so much of the optimism and magic of their young lives-continue to make the four-point circuit although, now, there is often no time for an accompanying note.

"The pants have a more subtle presence this time around," notes Hamri, who cites one scene that indicates how the girls' perspective on their former touchstone and good luck charm has changed. "Carmen is going through a particularly stressful period at the theater camp. When her roommate Julia notices the pants that she has earlier tossed into a corner, Carmen dismisses them with an impatient, 'Oh, they're just an old pair of jeans.'"

Still, the director adds, "Whether they know it or not, these young women are not finished with this pair of pants. The pants still have one very important message to deliver."

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 Bridget

Bridget

Bridget also has difficulty getting close, although in her case the situation is complicated because the person she yearns most to know is the mother she lost years ago and whose memory is rarely acknowledged by her taciturn father-a role played, for the second time, by Blake Lively's own father, Ernie Lively.

Says the actress, "In the first film, Bridget is just running away from her problems. By the end, and with the help of her friends, she is able to recognize this enough to begin talking about it, which is a phenomenal breakthrough but still far from a solution. In this film, we see her really start to face things head-on. It takes a lot of strength."

The new story finds Bridget poised between her first year at Brown University and an excursion to Turkey as a student volunteer on an archeological dig. As usual, Bridget is on the move; her physicality conveniently shifting focus and energy away from introspection.

In the brief time she spends at home, she makes the stunning discovery of a box of decade-old letters addressed to her from her maternal grandmother, Greta-letters Bridget never received or even dreamt existed. After a heated confrontation, Bridget's father explains that by diverting these messages he had hoped to spare his young daughter the pain of being reminded of her loss. But Bridget does not see it the same way and leaves for Turkey in a tumult of emotion.

Once on site, excavating the bones and relics of a domestic Hellenic household, Bridget realizes her avid interest in uncovering the past goes deeper than the academic. "While reconstructing the daily lives of an unknown, centuries-old family, she is finally able to understand that what she needs to dig up and examine are the details of her own past," states Kira Davis.

A candid encounter with the insightful professor leading the dig, played by Academy Award nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo, helps Bridget realize what she must do and returns her to the U.S. to track down the grandmother she barely remembers.

Blythe Danner, who stars as the patient and loving Greta, believes, "Both women are drawn to one another by their heartbreak and by the same need to talk about Bridget's mother: one to ask the questions and the other to provide the answers."

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 Tibby

Tibby

Meanwhile, Tibby has been honing her talent for documentary filmmaking at NYU, while, in typical Tibby fashion, offering her hilariously razor-sharp movie reviews to bewildered patrons at the East Village video store where she works part-time.
"People are always remarking on Tibby's sense of humor, which is stellar, but a large part of her sarcasm and humor is just to deflect attention from her feelings," Amber Tamblyn observes. "It was fine when she was younger but she's come to a point where it could really hold her back from experiencing life."

Tibby has also been falling in love-though she'd never admit it-with her formerly platonic friend and fellow videophile Brian McBrian, whom we met in the first film. Now, as Chase says, "It's the real deal."

Unfortunately, taking their relationship to the next level results in a crisis that not only mars the emotional delicacy of the moment but could separate them for good, throwing Tibby into a tailspin of panic and self-recrimination.

Says Hamri, "It's traumatic, but something young people often go through in relationships."

Leonardo Nam, returning as the straightforward and sensitive Brian, points out, "Just as the girls have matured, left high school and are navigating their way in the world, so Brian has grown up. He's not the awkward video-game playing geek we first met. Although they're both freaked out by what's happening, their reactions are different: Brian is focused on working things out, but Tibby's impulse is to shut him out."

That, as her friends would attest, is typical Tibby behavior.

Notes Chase, "Tibby has never been a person who lets others get close, and this is a crucial juncture at which she'll either come to a deeper understanding of what love and intimacy are all about or she'll shut the door and stay where she is. It's a journey of maturity for her."

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 Carmen

Carmen

After a year at Yale, Carmen has kept pace with her classes but finds her personal life less manageable. Still not sure what she wants to do with her future, she returns to Bethesda with high hopes of reuniting with the sisterhood and is crushed to learn they've all made other plans for the summer. Her mother, played again by Rachel Ticotin, has recently remarried and is now simultaneously preparing for the birth of a baby and moving to a new house, her happiness adding poignantly to Carmen's sense of displacement and disconnection.

"Carmen accepts an invitation from Julia, a drama student she knows at Yale, to work backstage at a theater over the summer because she really has nothing else to do," says America Ferrera. "But she's surprised at how much she grows there."

To her amazement, and with some trepidation, Carmen is cast as the lead in Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale" and discovers a dormant passion for acting. At the same time, she shyly captures the attention of her charming leading man, Ian, played by British actor Tom Wisdom.

Ian's genuine affection encourages Carmen to shine on stage. But it's the demanding nature of her mercurial director that will test her confidence and conviction like never before and, consequently, lead Carmen to consider whether this accidental turn of events is just a pleasant diversion or possibly a bold new direction for her life.

Interestingly, notes Hamri, "It is not Carmen's success on stage or Ian's flattering overtures that empower her as much as it is Julia's aggressively jealous reaction to these triumphs and the subsequent steps Carmen must make to stand up for herself."

Rachel Nichols, who plays Julia, points out that the role is not that of a simple villain or merely a foil for Carmen-a testament to the attention given each character by Ann Brashares and translated to the screen by Chandler. "Julia is a real person with her own problems and, though she behaves hideously, she is not completely devoid of good qualities. It's possible that Julia might even learn something from this experience... although, clearly, it is Carmen's moment of revelation."

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 Production Information

"For as long as I could remember, the four of us shared everything. I
believed that the Sisterhood could survive anything. But we had to learn
on our own how to become ourselves...without losing each other."
-Carmen

Three years have passed since audiences last saw Tibby, Carmen, Bridget and Lena. They were 16 then, best friends, and just beginning to realize the possibilities that lay beyond the Bethesda neighborhood where they all grew up. That summer marked their first brief separation, as Lena visited her grandparents in Greece, Bridget attended soccer camp, Carmen adjusted to her divorced father's new household, and Tibby took a local job to fund her first major video project.

To help them keep in touch back then, they relied upon a unique messenger: a pair of vintage jeans, found in a thrift shop, that miraculously fit each of them perfectly and even seemed to bring them luck. They made a pact to mail the pants to one another throughout the summer months, with notes enclosed from each wearer to the next about everything that had happened during the time the pants were in her possession.

But things are different now. The issues they face now are more adult and the pace of life is faster.

Producer Denise Di Novi, who was also a producer on the original film, says, "The story picks up after the girls' first year of college. They have matured; their concerns and relationships are more complicated. We can see how their friendship has changed as they themselves are changing."

"It's a classic coming-of-age story, but these are modern 21st-century young women," says director Sanaa Hamri. "One of the things I like about the story is how authentic it is and age-appropriate. It's a time of fun and freedom and trying new things, but also a time when we all begin to deal seriously with relationships, self-discovery and confidence. There are often no easy answers to the fundamental questions about who we are and what we want."

It's also a time for learning how to stand up for yourself and what you believe in, as the girls will discover. Unexpected events can uncover painful truths or lead in exciting new directions. Strengths and talents emerge. And love-in its myriad forms-is everywhere.

"The 'Sisterhood' is popular because it's so relatable," observes returning producer Debra Martin Chase. "The movies I like best, and strive to make, are what I call 'universal in the specific.' They're simply about life, with themes that touch people, regardless of gender or generation. This is a story about four young women, but it's also about the kinds of things we all go through to find ourselves and our place in the world."

Equally relatable is that fact that, as Carmen, Tibby, Bridget and Lena pursue their chosen paths, they find it increasingly difficult to stay in touch.

The subtle disconnection becomes evident in the hurried messages they do exchange. Blake Lively, who stars as Bridget, explains. "Previously, the girls knew every facet of each others' lives and it took no time to catch up. Now, Tibby will start to tell Carmen something or Lena will break some new development to Bridget and realize they don't know enough about what's been going on to put this new information in context. They're just not in the loop anymore."

To some extent, that's a good thing. America Ferrera, who stars as Carmen, suggests, "Sometimes you need to see what you're capable of accomplishing on your own. It's time for them to step away from the safety net and find out who they are individually before they can truly appreciate what they have together. It's scary, but a tremendously exciting prospect."

Amber Tamblyn, starring in the role of Tibby, agrees. "When I was that age it was a very turbulent time for me and this film reflects exactly my state of mind. 'Do I really want to do what I'm doing; or do I even know what I'm doing?' Sometimes you have to spend some time alone with those questions."

And sometimes these separations, when they occur, become permanent.

"If you decide the distance is too much or you've grown too far apart, it might be best to let a relationship go. Other times, you fight to keep it," notes Alexis Bledel, who stars as Lena and whose storyline reveals not only the evolution of her bond with the sisterhood but with her former long-distance love, Kostos.

"The challenge," offers Chase, "is how to establish independent lives, accommodate change, and still hold on to each other. That's the challenge of any relationship and ultimately marks the difference between associations of the moment and ones that stand the test of time."

This dichotomy shapes the film's structure. "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" relates Carmen's, Tibby's, Bridget's and Lena's stories as parallel lines that cross and re-cross throughout-a feat of style, logistics and, remarks producer Broderick Johnson, "expert pacing. The stories have to balance one another, connect and separate organically in a way that makes you feel that you're watching one continuous flow rather than four independent vignettes."

Essentially, says Di Novi, "It's five stories, because you have each of the girls' individual dramas contained within the larger framework that holds them together and moves them in the same direction. In adapting the novels, we had to be very judicious about what to include and what to omit. We tried to select the moments that best defined each character. What are their primary struggles? What are the highlights in their lives?"

Screenwriter Elizabeth Chandler, a writer on the original film in 2005, drew upon volumes two, three and four of Ann Brashares' award-winning and internationally best¬selling book series for the sequel, with an emphasis on the fourth, Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood, which brings the friends to precisely this point. "It was decided that the new film would jump three years forward, after the girls had spent a year living very separate lives at different colleges. This allowed us to explore more mature issues and dramatize how the girls deal with these problems while the bonds of their friendship are beginning to unravel," she says.

"However, in trying to craft the most compelling storylines for each character, I incorporated certain dramatic elements from all three books that were particularly meaningful. For example, I adjusted the Turkey sequence to culminate in Bridget's realization that she has unresolved questions to pursue elsewhere, which then takes her to her grandmother's home in Alabama. By combining plotlines from the second and the fourth books, I was able to enhance Bridget's overall arc within the time span of the movie."

Developing the script was a collaborative process involving at times not only the director and producers but also input from the four lead actresses.

Says Hamri, "Our goal was to satisfy the fans of the original movie and the books and, at the same time, create a self-contained saga for an audience that may not have seen 'The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' or know the books. That really is the job of a sequel. I knew we had a tough act to follow. But I also knew that these characters had been so well-developed and presented with such honesty that it was clear to see they had a future."

"They really have a life of their own," says producer Kira Davis. "After the first movie, I believe we felt that these characters deserved to live on and, as filmmakers, we approached the sequel with as much anticipation as fans. We wanted to see what these women were going to do next."

And the pants?
Well...
Maybe it never really was about the pants.
The Sisterhood...and Significant Others
"Of course, we would never have considered a sequel without the four actresses who introduced these wonderful characters to audiences everywhere," states Chase, echoing the sentiments of her colleagues.
As life often imitates art, the four young women who met on the set of the first film struck a genuine rapport and have remained friends off-camera since that production wrapped, in their own way reinforcing the "Sisterhood" principle even as their film, stage and television careers keep them very busy and take them around the globe.

Says Di Novi, "I've made many films over the past 20 years and rarely have I seen the kind of chemistry that these women create together."

"The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" reunites the foursome with key characters from the first film while introducing several important new ones, expanding the term "significant others" beyond its standard romantic application to include a wide range of influential people in their lives-family members, mentors and new friends.
Not that there isn't plenty of romance...

Audiences will recognize two familiar handsome faces: Lena's love Kostos, and Tibby's longtime boyfriend Brian McBrian. These young men have also progressed in the ensuing three years on their own trajectories toward adulthood, and returning stars Michael Rady and Leonardo Nam convey that deeper maturity in their roles.

Help, as well as heartache, continues to spring from new and unpredictable sources and every encounter has the potential to help define Carmen, Tibby, Bridget and Lena as the women they are becoming.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

Following freshman year at college, best friends Tibby (Amber Tamblyn), Lena (Alexis Bledel), Carmen (America Ferrera) and Bridget (Blake Lively) find it increasingly difficult to stay in touch. As their lives take different paths, it may take more than a shared pair of well-worn blue jeans to keep their bonds from completely unraveling.

Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrera, Blake Lively and Alexis Bledel reunite onscreen in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" as the lifelong best friends audiences fell in love with three years ago.

Based on Ann Brashares' best-selling series of novels about four young women who share an unbreakable bond through the unpredictable events of their lives, the new story catches up with Tibby, Carmen, Bridget and Lena in the months following their first year of college.

Having been apart all year, their plans for the summer will take them even further along separate paths as each experiences the freedom, love, choices and challenging life lessons that mark their individual journeys toward adulthood. Now it will take more than a hurried note...or even a treasured pair of pants passed back and forth among them to keep their lives connected.

Feeling displaced at home with her mother expecting a new baby, and disappointed that her friends opted to spend the summer away, Carmen (America Ferrera) accepts a chance invitation to work backstage at a theater festival in Vermont. There, she surprisingly finds herself thrust into the spotlight for the very first time and simultaneously becomes the focus of the play's handsome young leading man.

Tibby (Amber Tamblyn), meanwhile, remains in New York City to wrap an NYU film project while cautiously taking her relationship with Brian McBrian (Leonardo Nam) to the next level. When an unexpected crisis complicates everything, she must finally face her fear of getting close if she wants to let love in.

Bridget (Blake Lively), still struggling with the loss of her mother and questions about her past, travels to Turkey for an archeological dig before realizing that the truths she needs to uncover are buried closer to home.

And Lena (Alexis Bledel), separated from first love Kostos (Michael Rady) and studying at the Rhode Island School of Design, meets a free-spirited fellow art student (Jesse Williams) who forces her to choose between holding on to her memories or mending her heart and pursuing an exciting new love.

For Tibby, Carmen, Bridget and Lena, communication was always as easy as breathing. Now, new priorities and rapid changes make it harder for them to keep in touch. Messages are sometimes missed... or misunderstood. But when it matters most, they will still reach out to those who know them best.

Finding a way to share their experiences as they always have, with heart and humor, they will come to value more than ever the immeasurable power of their friendship.
Alcon Entertainment presents a Di Novi Pictures / Debra Martin Chase Production, in association with Alloy Entertainment: "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2," reuniting stars Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrera, Blake Lively and Alexis Bledel. The film also stars Rachel Nichols, Rachel Ticotin, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Blythe Danner.

Directed by Sanaa Hamri from a screenplay by Elizabeth Chandler, based on the novels by Ann Brashares, the film is produced by Debra Martin Chase, Denise Di Novi, Broderick Johnson and Kira Davis. Andrew A. Kosove, Christine Sacani, Alison Greenspan, Leslie Morgenstein and Bob Levy serve as executive producers, with Steven P. Wegner, Yolanda T. Cochran and Gaylyn Fraiche as co-producers.

The creative team includes director of photography Jim Denault, production designer Gae Buckley and editor Melissa Kent. Music is by Rachel Portman, with music supervisor Julia Michels. Costumes are designed by Dona Granata.

"The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" will be released worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company. Rated PG-13 for mature material and sensuality.

Oliver Wood, Clayton Hartley, Brent White, Susan Matheson

OLIVER WOOD (Director of Photography) most recently worked on the films The Bourne Ultimatum, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Fantastic Four, The Bourne Supremacy and Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. The London-born cinematographer began his career in 1970 with The Honeymoon Killers and went on to work on an array of television and film projects that includes the television series "Miami Vice" and the motion pictures Die Hard 2, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, Rudy, Terminal Velocity, Mr. Holland's Opus, Celtic Pride, 2 Days in the Valley, Face/Off, Switchback, Mighty Joe Young, U-571, The Bourne Identity, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, I Spy, National Security and Freaky Friday. He is currently filming The Surrogates for director Jonathan Mostow.

CLAYTON HARTLEY (Production Designer) most recently designed the films Semi-Pro and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. His many other credits as production designer include Kicking & Screaming, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and American Wedding. Beginning his career as an assistant art director on The Return of the Living Dead and Hoosiers, he became an art director on such motion pictures as Getting Even with Dad, Jerry Maguire, The Other Sister and Double Take, and co-designed Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous. He also was production designer for the television series "Going to California."

BRENT WHITE (Editor) worked with Adam McKay on Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and with producer Judd Apatow on The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up as well as on the television productions "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared." He began his career as an editor for the Sundance Film Institute's summer lab program and has assisted on such films as The Milagro Beanfield War, Glory, Fluke and Home for the Holidays. His other credits as editor include A River Runs Through It, "And The Band Played On," Matilda, Wildflowers, Panic, The Slaughter Rule, and the television series "Desperate Housewives."

SUSAN MATHESON (Costume Designer) started her costume career by designing for Barbie. The Vassar College graduate went on to design costumes for both film and theater. Most recently, she has designed costumes for Semi-Pro, The Kingdom, and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Other credits include the films Best Laid Plans, Crazy/Beautiful, Blue Crush, and Friday Night Lights.

DAVID HOUSEHOLTER (Executive Producer) Step Brothers

DAVID HOUSEHOLTER (Executive Producer) previously collaborated with Will Ferrell on Semi-Pro for New Line Cinema, on Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby for Columbia Pictures, on Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy for DreamWorks, and on Elf for New Line Cinema.

For DreamWorks, Householter executive produced 2007's hit comedy Norbit, starring Eddie Murphy, and the Reese Witherspoon/Mark Ruffalo romantic comedy Just Like Heaven. He also served as Co-Producer/Unit Production Manager on the 2003 Paramount sci-fi film The Core, directed by Jon Amiel, as well as the teen action movie Clockstoppers for Paramount and director Jonathan Frakes.

Householter began working on films in 1984 as a set production assistant on Wes Craven's seminal horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street and soon took the next step up the ladder as a second assistant director on Paul Verhoeven's Robocop. His credits as a first assistant director include Drugstore Cowboy, The Marrying Man, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Heavyweights, and The Nutty Professor. As a unit production manager, Householter worked on a number of projects, beginning with The Chamber and including such films as Mystery Men and Little Nicky.

Jon Brion - Step Brothers, Punch-Drunk Love, Magnolia

In a decade, JON BRION's (Music) film music career has developed in exponential proportions. Brion is a singer, songwriter, composer, music producer, and instrumentalist. As a performer, he plays an instrument or two ... or three ... or four ... or even five, simultaneously on stage. With his multifaceted musicianship and knack for improvisation, Brion has become popular in both the music and film industry.

As a film composer, Brion recently scored and wrote songs for the comedy film I (heart) Huckabees. In 2006, he composed the score to The Break Up. He also composed the score to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, for which he received a Best Score nomination by the World Soundtrack Awards. Additionally, Brion also composed scores for the recent films Punch-Drunk Love (2001) and Magnolia (1999), the latter of which earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Score.

High in demand as a producer and studio musician, Brion often finds himself working with a number of major industry names, collaborating with artists that include Kanye West, Dido, Macy Gray, Rufus Wainwright, The Crystal Method, Jude Cole, Susanna Hoffs, Sam Phillips, and the Eels. Brion contributed much of the sound on Aimee Mann's two solo albums and produced Fiona Apple's debut album "Tidal." He also produced much of Apple's second album.
In addition to his collaboration with top artists, Brion as a performer has released his own work. His first solo album, "Meaningless," was released in 2001. He had previously released "Ro Sham Bo" with his former band, the Grays, which included popular Jellyfish guitarist Jason Falkner.

As a live performer, Brion is well known for his live one-man improvisational act at the famous West Hollywood nightclub Largo. Every Friday night for the past eight years, fans and newcomers have come to see Brion's popular show, which consists of his multi-instrumental performance, song improvisations (often mixes of songs shouted from the audience), and eclectic cover versions of songs by Cheap Trick and the Beatles.

Brion's versatile talent is no surprise. His father was director of Yale's concert and marching bands, and his mother was a singer for various jazz bands. After leaving his hometown of New Haven, Connecticut, Brion moved to Boston. In Boston, he fine-tuned his melodic and improvisational skills, eventually leading to periodic studio work in California, where he eventually moved in the '90s.

Brion is currently in the studio recording a second solo album.

HAL WILLNER (Music supervisor)

HAL WILLNER (Music supervisor) is among the most eclectic and original producers in contemporary music, helming a series of wildly ambitious concept albums that tapped the talents of artists running the gamut from pop to jazz to the avant-garde. Born in Philadelphia in 1957, he first earned notice in 1981 with "Amarcord Nino Rota," a tribute to the legendary composer best known for his collaborations with filmmaker Federico Fellini. In addition to contributions from pop icon Debbie Harry and jazz-piano great Jaki Byard, the collection also featured appearances by then unknowns Wynton Marsalis and Bill Frisell. That same year, Willner also signed on as the music supervisor for the long-running NBC sketch comedy series "Saturday Night Live," a position he holds to this day.

"That's the Way I Feel Now -- A Tribute to Thelonious Monk," a showcase for acts ranging from Dr. John to Joe Jackson to John Zorn, followed in 1984, and a year later Willner launched "Lost in the Stars -- The Music of Kurt Weill," which featured contributions from Sting, Tom Waits, and Lou Reed. A year later, after turning to film, he worked on a pair of 1987 projects: Heaven and Candy Mountain. Willner earned considerable notice for "Stay Awake," a tribute to the classic music of Walt Disney's animated films that featured Ringo Starr, Sun Ra, and Sinead O'Connor. Music for animated films remained one of his preoccupations in the years that followed and, in 1990, he assembled "The Carl Stalling Project," a collection of vintage cartoon scores from the legendary Warner Bros. studio composer. (A sequel appeared in 1995.)

In 1989, Willner began a stint as producer on the innovative but short-lived syndicated television series "Michelob Presents: Night Music," followed in 1992 by "Weird Nightmare -- Meditations on Mingus," another all-star tribute, this time featuring Elvis Costello, Keith Richards, and Henry Rollins. A year later, he collaborated with filmmaker Robert Altman on the acclaimed Short Cuts, a working relationship that extended to 1996's Kansas City and its accompanying "Robert Altman's Jazz '34." After wrapping up 1998's "Closed on Account of Rabies: Poems and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe" (spotlighting performances by Iggy Pop, Ken Nordine, and Jeff Buckley), Willner signed to Howie B.'s Pussyfoot label to release his proper solo debut "Whoops, I'm an Indian!"

Other record-producing assignments followed, notably albums for Lou Reed ("Ecstasy," Warner Bros.), and Laurie Anderson ("Life on A String," Nonesuch), as well as a series of live-event tributes to Edgar Allan Poe, Allen Ginsberg, Harry Smith, Lenny Bruce, and the Marquis De Sade. These tributes featured an incredibly diverse group of performers including Lou Reed, Wynton Marsalis, Elvis Costello, Will Ferrell, Gavin Friday, Beck, Steve Earle, Anthony and the Johnsons, Marianne Faithful, David Johannsen, Chloe Webb, and Philip Glass.

More recent music supervision projects in film include building a score from obscure Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman recordings for Gus Van Sant's Finding Forrester, collaborations with Bono, Daniel Lanois, and Brian Eno on Wim Wender's Million Dollar Hotel, and Adam McKay's Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, both starring Will Ferrell.

JUDD APATOW (Producer)

JUDD APATOW (Producer) made his feature directorial debut with the 2005 summer box-office smash The 40-Year-Old Virgin and followed up with the Universal release Knocked Up. His next film as a writer, director and producer is Funny People, starring Adam Sandler, Leslie Mann, and Seth Rogen, which will start production in September.

Apatow recently co-wrote the hit film You Don't Mess with the Zohan. He also recently produced April's Forgetting Sarah Marshall, last December's comedy Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (a film he also co-wrote), last summer's Superbad, the summer 2006 hit Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and 2004's Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

Apatow also produced and co-wrote the story for this summer's Pineapple Express and serves as producer of 2009's Year One.

Apatow's credits on the small screen include the critically praised, award-winning series "Freaks and Geeks," as well as the series "Undeclared," which was named one of TIME magazine's Ten Best Shows of 2001. Apatow also worked as a writer, director, and producer on the award-winning and widely acclaimed series "The Larry Sanders Show."

Born in Syosset, New York, Apatow aspired to become a professional comedian at an early age. While still in high school, he created a radio show and began interviewing comedy personalities he admired, including Steve Allen, Howard Stern and John Candy. Inspired, he began performing his own stand-up routines by the end of his senior year.

JIMMY MILLER (Producer) - Step Brothers

JIMMY MILLER (Producer), founder of The Miller Company and currently a principal in Mosaic Media Group, manages some of the most sought-after comedy talent in the industry, including actors Jim Carrey, Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen.

He has also helped shape the careers of some of the most talented writers and directors in the comedy genre, such as Jay Roach of the Austin Powers trilogy, Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers; Judd Apatow, of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad; Adam McKay of Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Anchorman; and Steve Rudnick and Leo Benvenuti of The Santa Clause trilogy and Kicking & Screaming.

Miller's film producing credits include Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Elf, Semi-Pro, and the current release Get Smart.

He is currently in production on the adventure comedy Land of the Lost, starring Will Ferrell, and the romantic comedy She's Out of My League.

ADAM McKAY Director Screenplay by Story by Executive Producer

ADAM McKAY (Director/Screenplay by/Story by/Executive Producer) co-wrote and directed Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, which he followed up by co-writing, directing, and executive producing Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

McKay co-wrote both films with Will Ferrell. The two had been longtime friends since spending several years together on "Saturday Night Live," where McKay served as head writer and the creator of many of that series' most memorable sketches and short films from 1995-2001.

Along with Will Ferrell and Chris Henchy, McKay started the comedy site Funny or Die, which now gets 35 million hits a year. McKay also wrote and acted in The Landlord, which starred his then-20-month-old daughter, Pearl.

Born in Philadelphia, he trained in improvisational theatre with the Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade performance groups in Chicago. He also wrote for Michael Moore's TV show "The Awful Truth."

KATHRYN HAHN (Alice Huff)

A natural talent with an engaging presence and undeniable energy, KATHRYN HAHN (Alice Huff) has made her mark through a variety of entertaining and memorable character roles. Through a number of upcoming projects, Hahn is poised to become one of Hollywood's leading actresses.

Currently, Hahn stars in her Broadway debut in the Tony-winning play "Boeing-Boeing" alongside Bradley Whitford, Gina Gershon, Mary McCormack, and Christine Baranski. Boeing-Boeing won the 2008 Tony in the category of "Best Revival of a Play."
Additionally, she will appear in Sam Mendes' next film, Revolutionary Road. The film centers around a young couple, played by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, living in a Connecticut suburb during the mid-1950s. Kathryn plays Milly Campbell, the couple's neighbor. Paramount Vantage will release the film December 26, 2008.

Also upcoming, Hahn co-stars in The Goods: The Don Ready Story, directed by Neal Brennan. The film revolves around salesman Don Ready (Jeremy Piven) and his crew who are asked to help save an ailing local car dealership from bankruptcy. Paramount Vantage will open the film February 27, 2009.

ADAM SCOTT (Derek Huff)

A dynamic young actor, ADAM SCOTT (Derek Huff) has crafted a distinguished career in theatre and television and is quickly becoming one of the finest newcomers to hit the big screen.

Scott will soon be seen in August, a drama that centers on two brothers (Scott and Josh Hartnett) who continue to fight to keep their start-up company afloat on Wall Street during August 2001, a month before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In addition, he recently completed production on two independent features; Lovely, Still, a holiday fable that tells the story of an elderly man discovering love for the first time, with Ellen Burstyn and Martin Landau, as well as The Vicious Kind, a dramedy about a man who becomes obsessed with the girlfriend his brother brings home for Thanksgiving.

Scott also stars in the critically acclaimed HBO series "Tell Me You Love Me" which features an ensemble cast and returns to HBO later this year.

Scott recently appeared in the blockbuster comedy Knocked Up, directed by Judd Apatow, as well as The Great Buck Howard, opposite John Malkovich. The previous year, Scott appeared in the dramatic thriller First Snow, directed by Marc Fergus and co-starring Guy Pearce; the dark comedy Corporate Affairs, alongside Breckin Meyer for director Dan Cohen; and the romantic comedy Who Loves The Sun, starring with Lukas Haas and Molly Parker for director Matthew Bissonette.

Prior to that, Scott appeared in Art School Confidential with John Malkovich and Anjelica Huston, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Terry Zwigoff, for Sony Pictures Classics. Additional feature film credits include The Return, The Matador, opposite Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, and Hope Davis, and New Line Cinema's romantic comedy, Monster-In-Law, directed by Robert Luketic and starring Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda. In addition, he portrayed Johnny Meyer, Howard Hughes' smarmy press agent, in Miramax's Oscar®-winning film The Aviator, alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, John C. Reilly and Alec Baldwin for legendary director Martin Scorsese. Scott was previously seen in the Warner Bros. action feature Torque, Carl Franklin's High Crimes, the independent black comedy Two Days, Christopher Haifley's independent film Ronnie, Star Trek: First Contact and numerous independent films including Robert Mickelson's Off the Lip, Jonathan Kahn's Girl, Ted Melfi's Winding Roads, David McKay's The Lesser Evil, Lawrence Trilling's Dinner & Driving and Derek Simonds' Seven and a Match.

In a notable two-episode stint on HBO's acclaimed "Six Feet Under," Scott played the role of Ben Dooley, a public defender and boyfriend to Michael C. Hall's character, David Fisher. Additional television credits include "Law & Order," "Veronica Mars," Ken Cameron's "Payback," an ABC movie-of-the-week with Mary Tyler Moore and Ed Asner, "Wasteland," "Party of Five," "Murder One," "NYPD Blue," and "E.R."

Stage credits include roles in "Uncle Bob," a two-man show with Austin Pendleton in Los Angeles, New York and Edinburgh; Richard Greenberg's "Everett Beekin" for South Coast Repertory; "Romeo and Juliet" at the California Shakespeare Festival in Berkeley; "Dealer's Choice" and "Buffalo Hunters" for The Mark Taper Forum; "Beirut" for Gardner Stage; "Water and Wine" for the Met Theatre; and "Bloody Poetry" for the Globe Theatre.

MARY STEENBURGEN (Nancy Huff)

MARY STEENBURGEN (Nancy Huff) won an Academy Award® for her role in Melvin and Howard. She recently wrapped production on Open Roads, starring Jeff Bridges and Justin Timberlake. Steenburgen also recently finished her work on Four Christmases, starting Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn. She was last seen in The Brave One, starring Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard and directed by Neil Jordan. In 2006, she shot Nobel Son, starring opposite Alan Rickman and Bill Pullman. She also starred for two seasons on the Emmy-nominated CBS series, "Joan of Arcadia."

In February 2006, Steenburgen starred in the David Mamet directed play "Boston Marriage" at The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. She was seen co-starring in the independent feature Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School. In 2003, she was seen in the CBS television film "It Must Be Love," co-starring her husband, Ted Danson. Steenburgen also co-starred in New Line Cinema's Elf, alongside Will Ferrell and James Caan. She has appeared in two films for director John Sayles, Sunshine State and Casa De Los Babys.

In 2002, Steenburgen was seen starring with Danson in a CBS television miniseries entitled "Talking to Heaven." They had previously worked together in 1996 on the critically acclaimed NBC miniseries "Gulliver's Travels" and in the 1994 feature film Pontiac Moon. In 2001, Steenburgen appeared alongside Kevin Kline in Irwin Winkler's Life as a House, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. She has constantly redefined herself through challenging roles in films such as Philadelphia, Parenthood and What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

Steenburgen starred with Jon Voight and F. Murray Abraham in Robert Halmi's "Noah's Ark" for NBC and was also nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for her role in "About Sarah," a two-hour made-for-television movie for CBS in which she played a developmentally disabled adult.

Other films from Steenburgen's career include The Grass Harp, with Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, and Piper Laurie; Back to the Future III, Time After Time, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, Cross Creek, One Magic Christmas, Dead of Winter, and End of the Line, in which she also served as the film's executive producer.

Steenburgen's career on the stage includes starring roles in "The Beginning of August," "Holiday," George Bernard Shaw's production of "Candida" at New York's Roundabout Theater, and, most recently, "Marvin's Room" at the Tiffany Theater in Los Angeles.

In addition to her professional work, Steenburgen has devoted a great deal of time to causes close to her heart. In 1989, she and fellow actress Alfre Woodard founded Artists for a Free South Africa and in 1996, Steenburgen and Danson were presented with Liberty Hill Foundation's prestigious Upton Sinclair Award for their work in human rights and environmental causes.

Steenburgen is a native of Little Rock, Arkansas, the daughter of a railroad conductor and a public high school secretary. She began her career at the age of 19 in New York. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California with her husband. They are the parents of four children: Kate, Lilly, Charlie, and Kat.

RICHARD JENKINS (Robert Doback) Step Brothers

RICHARD JENKINS (Robert Doback) is one of the most in-demand character actors in Hollywood, having made over 50 feature films.

Jenkins can currently be seen as Walter Vale, a disillusioned Connecticut economics professor whose life is transformed by a chance encounter in New York City, in Thomas McCarthy's The Visitor. The film premiered to rave reviews at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival and the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. For his critically acclaimed performance, Richard was honored with the John Garfield Award for Best Actor at the 2008 Method Fest independent film festival, as well as with a Career Achievement Award.

In 1997, Jenkins received an Independent Spirit Award nomination as Best Supporting Male for his performance in David O. Russell's comedy Flirting with Disaster, appearing with Ben Stiller, Tea Leoni, Josh Brolin, and Lily Tomlin.

In 1986, Jenkins had his first starring film role in Oscar®-winning writer Horton Foote's On Valentine's Day. Numerous film roles followed, including George Miller's The Witches of Eastwick, opposite Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, Cher and Michelle Pfeiffer; Richard Benjamin's Little Nikita, opposite River Phoenix and Sidney Poitier; Sea of Love, with Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin; Mike Nichols' Wolf, appearing again with Jack Nicholson; with Charlize Theron in 2005's North Country; opposite Jim Carrey and again with Tea Leoni in the comedy Fun with Dick and Jane, co-written by Judd Apatow; and in Peter Berg's 2007 film, The Kingdom.

Over the years, Jenkins has worked with such esteemed filmmakers as Clint Eastwood in Absolute Power; the Farrelly brothers in There's Something About Mary and Me, Myself & Irene, opposite Jim Carrey; and Sydney Pollack in Random Hearts, opposite Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas.

In 2001, Jenkins began a collaboration with Joel and Ethan Coen when he appeared with Billy Bob Thornton, James Gandolfini and Scarlett Johansson in The Man Who Wasn't There. He went on to work again with the Coen brothers in 2003's Intolerable Cruelty, opposite George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

On television, Jenkins is best remembered as Nathaniel, the deceased patriarch of the Fisher family on HBO's immensely successful drama, "Six Feet Under." His occasional appearances as the heart of this often-dysfunctional family helped earn the cast a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination in 2002 for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. He also appeared in numerous made-for-television films, including "Sins of the Father" and the Emmy-winning HBO film, "And the Band Played On."

In theater, Richard has amassed an impressive list of credits as a company member for 14 years at Rhode Island's Trinity Repertory Company and served an additional four years as its Artistic Director.

Later this year, Jenkins will be seen in his third film with the Coens, Burn After Reading, which stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and John Malkovich. Focus Features plans to release the film in September 2008.

WILL FERRELL (Brennan Huff/Screenplay by/Story by/Executive Producer)

WILL FERRELL (Brennan Huff/Screenplay by/Story by/Executive Producer) has come a long way since his days on "Saturday Night Live," crossing over from television icon to motion picture star shortly after joining the "SNL" cast in 1995.

He most recently starred in Semi-Pro, the story of a 1970s-era ABA team trying to earn its way into the NBA, opposite Woody Harrelson and Andre Benjamin for director Kent Alterman. Prior to that, in 2007, he starred in the comedy hit Blades of Glory with Jon Heder. The film took in over $118 million at the box office.

In 2006, Ferrell demonstrated that his dramatic gifts equal his comedic talents, earning his second Golden Globe nomination (Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical) for his portrayal of IRS agent Harold Crick in Stranger than Fiction, starring opposite Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah and Maggie Gyllenhaal for director Marc Forster.

Earlier that year, Ferrell starred in the hit comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, with co-stars John C. Reilly and Sacha Baron Cohen. Earning nearly $150 million at the U.S. box office, the film became the season's #1 comedy (non-animated) and set records on DVD.

In the summer of 2004, Ferrell starred in the comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy for DreamWorks Pictures, which grossed over $85 million domestically. Ferrell co-wrote the script with "SNL" writer Adam McKay. Judd Apatow ("Freaks and Geeks") produced, with David O. Russell (Three Kings) executive producing. Ferrell portrayed Ron Burgundy, a 1970s anchorman with an inflated ego threatened by the arrival of an ambitious female newscaster who, unlike him, has mastered journalism.
Ferrell completed his seventh and final season on the legendary NBC late-night hit "Saturday Night Live" in 2002, having taken the nation by storm during "Indecision 2000" by impersonating George W. Bush on the show. Some of his most memorable "SNL" characters include Craig the Spartan Cheerleader, musical middle school teacher Marty Culp, and Tom Wilkins, the hyperactive co-host of "Morning Latte." Among his many impressions are Janet Reno, Alex Trebek, Neil Diamond, and the late, great Chicago Cubs sportscaster Harry Caray. His work on "SNL" earned two Emmy nominations in 2001 (Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program and Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Program).

Previous film credits include Zoolander, Elf, the Woody Allen feature Melinda and Melinda, the comedies Bewitched and Old School, and the screen adaptation of The Producers, which earned Ferrell his first Golden Globe nomination in 2006 for Best Supporting Actor. He recently wrapped production on his next feature film, Universal's Land of the Lost.

Raised in Irvine, California, Ferrell attended USC and graduated with a degree in sports information. Upon graduation, he worked as a sportscaster on a weekly show broadcast over a local cable channel. Soon after, he enrolled in acting classes and stand-up comedy workshops at a nearby community college and was eventually asked to join the esteemed comedy/improv group The Groundlings after just one year of training. It was at The Groundlings that Ferrell was discovered for "Saturday Night Live."

Nominated for an Academy Award® and a Golden Globe® for his work in the hit musical Chicago, JOHN C. REILLY (Dale Doback/Story by) has garnered a reputation as an actor with great range. He most recently starred in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, for which he was honored with a Golden Globe® nomination; in addition, he received another nomination for co-writing the title song.

Born in Chicago and raised as the fifth of six children in an Irish-Lithuanian family, Reilly studied at the Goodman School of Drama. Later, he became a member of Chicago's renowned Steppenwolf Theatre.

Reilly's first film role came in a 1989 Brian De Palma motion picture, Casualties of War. That was followed by appearances in a wide array of films, including Days of Thunder, Shadows and Fog, We're No Angels, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Hoffa, Georgia, Dolores Claiborne, and The River Wild.

As a regular in director Paul Thomas Anderson's films, Reilly began attracting attention for his roles in Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, and Magnolia. He also starred in Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line.

In 2002, Reilly scored well with audiences and critics with acclaimed performances in a number of high-profile films, including The Hours, The Good Girl, Gangs of New York, and Chicago.

His recent film credits include Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, A Prairie Home Companion, Dark Water, The Aviator, and Criminal. Other films include The Perfect Storm, For Love of the Game, and Never Been Kissed.

For the stage, Reilly starred on Broadway in "The Grapes of Wrath." He also starred in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Othello" at the Steppenwolf and earned an Outer Circle Critics Award and a Tony nomination for his role in "True West."

Step Brothers Production Information

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
For the filmmakers, the primary objective was to plant subtle, not-so-subtle, and just-plain-obvious clues that Dale Doback and Brennan Huff have refused to grow up. Production designer Clayton Hartley and costume designer Susan Matheson collaborated with each other and with McKay, Ferrell, and Reilly to achieve a design and look that would express the characters' sensibilities.

Matheson reunites with the team after designing the costumes for Talladega Nights. In fact, it was Matheson who chose one of the strangest costumes in that film -- Ricky Bobby's pink Crystal Gayle t-shirt, which Ferrell liked so much that he wore it to the premiere of the film.

"I'm always on the hunt for t-shirts, even when I'm not working on a movie," she says. "Whenever I'm in another city, I go to thrift stores -- I'm talking Salvation Army, not chic boutiques. Or I'm on eBay all the time, looking for things. In movies in which people wear contemporary clothes, it's very hard to distinguish yourself in an interesting way, so I always try to make sure there's a distinct personality to every character. One way you can do that is through a unique, cool t-shirt."

Matheson was charged with two distinct tasks in the costumes. First, she had to help differentiate what might seem, on the face of it, two similar characters in Dale and Brennan. "Brennan is a bit sweeter than Dale, more of a mama's boy, so I wanted his t-shirts to have a sensitive side," laughs Matheson. "For example, he wears a purple shirt with an airbrushed horse running across it. He also wears shirts featuring juvenile travel destinations, which hints that he's been living with mommy. Dale, on the other hand, wears shirts that center on his interest in martial arts -- and, at the beginning of the film, a vintage Yoda shirt."

"The great thing about Adam McKay is that he's incredibly supportive of people with an absurdist sense of humor," Matheson continues. "As long as the joke is subtle, and as long as I can justify it, he's all for it."

She cites an example that didn't make it into the movie but still shows off the sensibility. "I gave Will a pair of plaid Christmas pants and socks with vinyl bottoms -- the kind children wear. Will had tucked his pants into the socks, which got a huge reaction from the crew. You can't even see it in the film, but I thought those socks were just right for Will's character."

Step Brothers marks production designer Clayton Hartley's fifth collaboration with Ferrell, and from a design standpoint, it might be their most straightforward film yet. After recreating the 1970s in Anchorman and Semi-Pro and larger worlds of soccer and NASCAR in Kicking & Screaming and Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, with a few exceptions, takes place in one house in Los Angeles. In that way, Hartley's goal was to provide a design that would underscore the fact that the characters are stuck in time as teenagers, without calling attention to itself. "The art department is not funny; Will Ferrell and Adam McKay and John C. Reilly are funny," he says. "Our goal was to take a subtle approach, never going over the top, to make an environment that was true to the reality of the characters, so that we could enhance the comedy and not distort it."

The way they did that, he says, is "to leave around puddles of stuff, like a teenager does. A teenager will leave his bike in the driveway, his coat in the hall, empty bags of snacks in the den... it was those little touches that would make this nice house look like two children lived in it."

Which is not to say that they didn't have ample opportunity to be creative. The boys' shared bedroom is a hodgepodge of teenage memories culled from the entire art department. Set decorator Casey Hallenbeck filled the room with -- in Hartley's words -- "all sorts of goofy stuff. There was this magic kit, the kind with the swords... a beer can collection... posters of rock bands and sexy girls, like a teenage boy would pin up. It was definitely a great chance for him to go to town and remake a teenage bedroom."

Step Brothers: Mary Steenburgen, Richard Jenkins, Dale and Brennan

WE ARE FAMILY

Though Ferrell and Reilly's characters were already in place, it was key that the filmmakers find believable parents for Dale and Brennan. After all, it is the parents who serve as the guides into Dale and Brennan's world.

Mary Steenburgen takes on the role of Nancy Huff. Ferrell was thrilled to be re-teaming with the Academy Award® winner after collaborating on the hit holiday comedy Elf. "I played his step-mom in Elf," Steenburgen says. "We're trying every variation of me being Will's mother. This time, I'm his birth mother. It was an amazing experience that was just so much fun. The hardest part of this job is to get through a take without the giggles."

Ferrell comments: "In Elf, my character was just visiting their world, so I didn't have a lot of one-on-one contact with Mary's character. It was fun to see her perform this type of comedy. She fits so well in terms of playing the right tone. It's a hard part: the character has to get tough while being an enabler the whole time."

"Mary is such a polite, graceful, lovely person. She has amazing manners. She has a grace about her, so to be rude to her is so funny," Reilly says. "We do and say all these awful things to her."

It seems that everyone is mesmerized by the sight of Steenburgen's genteel, almost angelic visage spouting obscenities. "For some reason, it cracks them up to have really filthy things coming out of my mouth," Steenburgen says.

"I would not have traded places with any actress in the world," Steenburgen says. "There's nowhere else I'd rather be. Every single day was a total adventure. I had no idea what was going to happen. Plus, I'm a laugh junkie and what better place to be? This is the center of the universe for a laugh junkie."

Having honed her improvisational skills during her stint on HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Steenburgen was ready to hang with Ferrell, Reilly, and McKay. "They did say that they liked to be loose on the set," she says. "To me, that was great. We do that on Larry David's show, and I was with an improv group in my early years in New York."

Richard Jenkins, who portrayed the deceased patriarch in "Six Feet Under" and some memorably comedic roles in David O. Russell's I (heart) Huckabees and Flirting with Disaster, plays Robert Doback, Dale's father.

Jenkins was incredibly enthusiastic to work with Steenburgen. He had been a longtime fan of her work. "When I heard she was doing it, I thought 'Oh good, this is great,'" Jenkins says. "We had a lot of fun. She's there all the time for you in a scene. She's so beautiful and so funny and so sweet."

Jenkins notes the unique way in which the husband-wife team has made their children incapable of embracing responsibility. "He has been a distant parent. He knows there are problems, but he really hasn't dealt with them. Because of the new situation, he's forced to deal with it and he's just not capable. For these last 40 years, he's found a way to avoid paying attention to his son, and now that he's forced to, it ain't pretty."

"Richard Jenkins has always made us laugh and he's an actor we've always respected," says Apatow. "He's worked with the Coen brothers and Woody Allen. He was on 'Six Feet Under.' Casting him puts everyone on their game: 'I better do a good job today. Richard Jenkins is here.'"

Kathryn Hahn joins the cast as Alice, the frustrated wife of Nancy's other son, Derek. After years of putdowns, petty arguments, and standing in the shadows, she is ready to break free. And when Dale sucker-punches her husband, it sets free her primal urges and she reacts in unexpected ways.

"She's a shattered shell of a woman who is beaten down by her husband, Derek, and her kids. She takes harbor in the arms of Dale Doback," Hahn says. "They have a love affair for the ages."

Hahn worked with McKay and Ferrell briefly on Anchorman. "I had a very-small-yet-hilarious-to-me part. I played Helen, the assistant to Veronica Corningstone. I would have shown up just to be in the background. I couldn't believe what I was seeing."

What she was seeing was a set where actors felt free to get the story across in the way they felt best fit the characters they were playing. "One of Adam's many talents is that he creates such an environment of safety that you feel like you could do anything. That feeling opens something in your mind; there's no line to cross and you can do whatever comes out in the moment."

"Kathryn is so fearless," Reilly says. "She is probably the most fearless actress I've ever worked with. She is very much like me and Will and Adam, where if something's funny, we'll chase it all the way down. We won't stop and say, 'All right, it's getting inappropriate now.' We'll just keep chasing it down and stay committed to the idea wherever it goes. It was great to have that with Kathryn."
Playing Hahn's husband and Ferrell's brother is Adam Scott, who currently stars in HBO's "Tell Me You Love Me." Scott was happy to work with the comedy team of Ferrell and McKay. "They're probably the funniest guys around. They're hilarious and they're also just the nicest guys around. It's been really great."

Columbia Pictures' comedy Step Brothers

PUTTING THE FUN IN DYSFUNCTIONAL

Will Ferrell, the star of Columbia Pictures' comedy Step Brothers, sums up the central characters by describing two grown men in a state of arrested development. "Dale and Brennan never outgrew their adolescent ideas about what's cool, how they'd spend their time when they grew up, what they found entertaining. It was a lot of fun to explore that, thinking, 'What if you actually became, at 40, the guy you thought you'd be when you were 13?'"

Step Brothers re-teams Ferrell with John C. Reilly and writer-director Adam McKay after the trio's successful collaboration on the hit comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Immediately after wrapping photography on that film, Ferrell, McKay, and Reilly decided that the experience was so creatively satisfying that they wanted to repeat it. "We sat down, had dinner, and spit-balled all these ideas," Ferrell remembers.

"When we worked on Talladega, the funniest scenes were the ones that were loose -- like the 'Baby Jesus grace' at the dinner table," says McKay. "That scene didn't have a lot of story directive -- it was just about meeting the characters and establishing the tone. It was important to us to find an idea that, like Talladega, was loose enough but also had enough of an engine to drive the story along."
At the dinner, Ferrell, McKay, and Reilly came up with "pages and pages of ideas, all pretty solid, but all a little restrictive," says McKay. Then, the next day, as he was trying to come up with the perfect idea, inspiration struck. "Someone mentioned bunk beds for their kids and I thought, 'I got it.' Two grown guys, still living at home, their single parents get married, and now they have to share a room."

"As soon as we heard the idea, we immediately went for it," Reilly adds. "Imagine if your kids just never really matured and never left the house. I mean, I love my kids, but I really hope they grow up and move out eventually."

"What do you do if your kids are a mess?" asks producer Judd Apatow. "Richard Jenkins and Mary Steenburgen play the parents, and what's funny about their fights in the movie is that they really just don't know what to do. Interestingly, it's a pretty common problem: how do you get your kids out of the house?"

"Brennan and Dale are very leery of each other. Neither of them likes the new situation at all," Ferrell says. "All that changes when Dale meets Brennan's younger brother Derek, who comes to dinner one night with his family. Derek is the complete opposite of Brennan. He's successful, handsome, and has everything going for him. He's also tormented Brennan his entire life. Dale comes to Brennan's defense by sucker-punching Derek, and from that moment on, Dale and Brennan are best friends."

Reilly explains his character's unique brand of self-centeredness: "Dale is an extreme case of arrested development. His dad's a doctor, so he's never really had to work for anything. He's just into the things that he likes and everything else doesn't interest him at all. He's into the drums, sling shots, karate, and fireworks. He's a guy who already feels like he's got the greatest life ever and he doesn't have to really work."

Still, although they'd be playing the "kids," Ferrell found that the movie's central conflict was in two other characters. "When we started writing, we came up with crazy scenarios from every kind of brotherly fight we could think of and any adolescent scenario that made us laugh," Ferrell says. "But as we continued, we really started identifying with the parents."

McKay says that when he and Ferrell sit down to write together, the first step is often improvisation. "It's like we're on stage doing it -- he's a character, and I'm a character, and we're flipping back and forth who plays each part," says the writer-director. "The entire goal is to come up with something that makes the other person laugh. We take turns, tossing out ideas -- I'll lie on the floor, saying anything that comes to mind, and Will types. He'll make sense of it all and then we'll flip it -- I'll rewrite the scenes and he'll take the job of sitting on the couch throwing out insane ideas."

"I've known Adam for about 12 years now," says Ferrell. "We were both hired at 'Saturday Night Live' at the same time. He had a long career as an improviser and a stage performer before he become solely a writer, and I think that influenced his directing style. It allows for a lot of freedom."

"I like working with Will and Adam because they are truly two of the nicest guys in the industry," says producer Judd Apatow. "They're really funny, they really enjoy making movies, they make each other laugh, and they make the set a really happy place. In fact, when I'm directing a movie and something comes up, I think, 'What would Adam McKay do?'"

As they wrote, Ferrell and McKay tried to ensure that characters that seemed similar on the surface had differences between them that the actors could explore. "John would play Dale, and he would be more of a planner with a 'business mind' -- even though he has terrible ideas," Ferrell jokes. "He's the one with the drive and initiative, such as it is. Brennan was going to be a little more sensitive, a little more soft-spoken. And he thought of himself as a beautiful singer, but of course has a terrible fear of singing in public.

"From there, we followed those guidelines to build the characters and to write the scenes appropriately, in terms of what these characters would say and do, even though they cross over at times," Ferrell continues. "I love that about the characters and the movie. Brennan becomes the leader at times and Dale's the follower. I think that makes it so much more interesting."

When the script was completed, Ferrell and Reilly started the work of shaping the performances that would bring the characters to life. "I would go home, watching my kids react to not getting something they wanted, or a petty grievance between siblings, and that stuff definitely informed my character," says Reilly. "In that way, even though it's an R-rated movie and we get into adult situations, the movie has a lot of innocence and joy to it."

"With these characters, there's a fine line between them complementing each other and enabling each other," adds McKay. "They really should never have met each other -- but somehow it works out."

With the freedom to explore their roles, however, came a responsibility. "There were no easy days on this movie," says Reilly. "You might start your day thinking, 'Oh, I just have two lines in this scene, I'm just walking through,' and hours later you'll find that your role in the scene has been expanded. You always have to come to the set fully prepared."

Reilly says that though he's best known as a dramatic actor who has lately performed in comedy roles, for him, there's been no change in focus. "It's still the same kind of work," he says. "It doesn't feel all that different to me; it's just the way the circumstances in the scenes change that make it absurd."

"John and Will have incredible chemistry," says Apatow. "I don't know where it comes from, but they're really fun to watch together and there's something about their comedic styles that really balance each other out. They're like a great comedy team."

Step Brothers Production Information

Step Brothers

Brennan Huff (Will Ferrell) and Dale Doback (John C. Reilly) have one thing in common: they are both lazy, unemployed leeches who still live with their parents. When Brennan's mother and Dale's father marry and move in together, it turns the overgrown boys' world upside down. Their insane rivalry and narcissism pull the new family apart, forcing them to work together to reunite their parents.

Production Information

Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, who last teamed in the box-office smash Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, now star in Step Brothers, directed by Adam McKay (Talladega Nights, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy). In Step Brothers, Ferrell plays Brennan Huff, a sporadically employed thirty-nine-year-old who lives with his mother, Nancy (Mary Steenburgen). Reilly plays Dale Doback, a terminally unemployed forty-year-old who lives with his father, Robert (Richard Jenkins). When Robert and Nancy marry and move in together, Brennan and Dale are forced to live with each other as step brothers. As their narcissism and downright laziness threaten to tear the "new" family apart, these two middle-aged, immature, overgrown boys will orchestrate an insane, elaborate plan to bring their parents back together. To pull it off, they must form an unlikely bond that maybe, just maybe, will finally get them out of the house.

Columbia Pictures presents, in association with Relativity Media, an Apatow Company / Mosaic Media Group / Gary Sanchez production, a film by Adam McKay, Step Brothers. The film stars Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Richard Jenkins, Mary Steenburgen, Adam Scott, and Kathryn Hahn. Directed by Adam McKay. Produced by Jimmy Miller and Judd Apatow. Screenplay by Will Ferrell & Adam McKay, from a story by Will Ferrell & Adam McKay & John C. Reilly. Executive producers are Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, and David Householter. Director of Photography is Oliver Wood.

Production Designer is Clayton Hartley. Editor is Brent White. Costume Designer is Susan Matheson. Music by Jon Brion. Music Supervision is by Hal Willner.

Step Brothers has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for crude and sexual content and pervasive language. The film will be released in theaters nationwide on July 25, 2008.

About The X-Files

About The X-Files

Created and executive produced by Chris Carter, The X-Files, which premiered on FOX on September 10, 1993, chronicled the lives and adventures of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, two disparate FBI agents assigned to investigate unsolved cases within the Bureau – cases that often involved the paranormal, the supernatural, and the inexplicable.

The X-Files won numerous awards and honors, including a George Foster Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting, three Golden Globes® for Best Dramatic Series, a Golden Satellite Award for Best Drama Series, Science Fiction and Fantasy Saturn Awards for Outstanding Television Series, and a Parents’ Choice Honor for Best Series. In 1997, Gillian Anderson won an Emmy® for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

he X-Files was as much of a phenomenon abroad as it was in the United States. The show’s conspiratorial tone and blend of paranoia, horror and suspense made it the most popular television series in Canada, the highest-rated series on Britain’s BBC2, and one of the biggest sensations ever in Japanese television.

The show’s nine-season run came to an end in 2002. In 1998, Twentieth Century Fox released the first feature film based on the series. The film – produced and written by Carter and co-written by Spotnitz – became a worldwide success, taking in $187 million in theatrical box office.

The decision to shoot THE X FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE

Coming Home

During pre-production, the filmmakers made the decision to shoot THE X FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE where it all began – Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which served as the series’ home base for its first five years. “Vancouver is where we first succeeded,” states Carter. “I think that if there are ten things to credit with the success of The X-Files, then Vancouver ranks near the top of that list.”
“From the beginning,” confirms Spotnitz, “we liked the idea of coming back home to Vancouver. It was a heartbreaker for us, leaving Vancouver after season five. There were a lot of tears shed. And so, revisiting The X-Files gave us a chance to also revisit familiar faces and friends that we had left behind. As Chris and I wrote the movie, we imagined we’d be shooting it in Vancouver and taking advantage of the locations that are in and around the city. The locations were everything we hoped they would be.”

Carter, Spotnitz, Duchovny and Anderson were thrilled to reconnect with many of the original crew from The X-Files (as well as with crews from other Vancouver-based shows from Carter’s Ten Thirteen productions, including Millennium, The Lone Gunmen and Harsh Realm). Those on hand for this “reunion” included Tom Braidwood (first assistant director-second unit – who also played “Lone Gunman” Frohike on The X-Files and on the spin-off “Lone Gunmen” series), John S. Bartley, ASC, CSC (second unit director of photography), Dave Gauthier (special effects coordinator), William Terezakis (special makeup effects designer), Mat Beck (senior visual effects supervisor), Michael Williamson, CAS (sound mixer), Shirley Inget (set decorator) and Portia Belmont (script supervisor).

Principal photography began last December in Vancouver. Cameras rolled for three months throughout the city and some of its surrounding municipalities. Cast and crew also traveled about 100 miles north, past the famed Whistler Ski Resort (home of the 2010 Winter Olympics) to shoot for three weeks in and around the snow-shrouded community of Pemberton, where temperatures often dropped below 0 degrees Celsius. (One evening, Gillian Anderson was so cold she had trouble moving her lips to deliver her lines.)

In Pemberton, Carter and his team staged some of the movie’s most dramatic exterior scenes and stunt sequences. Here, too, secrecy was the order of the day…and of the night. “One of the hardest nights of shooting, we were filming in a place that was not exactly in the script and that was not exactly scripted,” says Carter. “I swear to you, no one – including David [Duchovny] – knew what I was doing. I was just leading people. ‘We’re going to shoot here and we’re going to do this,’ was all I’d say.”

Returning to Vancouver was only one of several ways The X-Files had come full circle. “I think the reason The X-Files series was so successful was that Chris imagined a beautiful universe, perfectly devised,” says Spotnitz. “He created two very powerful characters, perfectly cast, with opposing views of the world – one a believer, the other a skeptic. Mulder and Scully dealt with the limits of what we understand about life and about the universe. It really is an incredibly rich and diverse universe – and an endless source of storytelling I think the voice of this movie is still very clearly the voice that Chris defined in the series’ pilot, sixteen years ago.”

Clearly, a new film based on The X-Files was a long time coming. But Carter thinks the delay worked to the project’s advantage – that the interval between films enhanced the long-standing interest in a new chapter in the franchise. “It certainly helped renew my appetite,” he points out.

And there’s little question that it has peaked the excitement, anticipation and fervor of the legions of “X-Philes” who have long wanted to believe in a new case for Mulder and Scully.

X-Files Production Information

The story in the tradition of some of the show’s most acclaimed and beloved episodes, and takes the always-complicated relationship between Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in unexpected directions. Mulder continues his unshakable quest for the truth, and Scully, the passionate, ferociously intelligent physician, remains inextricably tied to Mulder’s pursuits.

Production Information

Months after shooting had wrapped, Carter remained as circumspect about the story as he was during its development and production. “Mulder and Scully are drawn back into the world of the X-Files by a case,” is all he’ll add about the plot. Perhaps more clues…to something….can be found in the film’s title. “I Want to Believe” is a familiar phrase for fans of the series; it was the slogan on a poster that Mulder had hanging in his office at the FBI. “It’s a natural title,” says Chris Carter. “It’s a story that involves the difficulties in mediating faith and science. It really does suggest Mulder’s struggle with his faith.”

Carter is much more revealing about his goals for the film. “Simply put, we want to scare the pants off of everyone in the audience,” he says. While the scale and scope inherent in the medium of film allowed the filmmakers to take the story and characters where the show couldn’t go, Carter says THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE also marks a return to the series’ roots, when it was the lone beacon on television for fans of thrillers, supernatural tales, and of horror stories. “The film encompasses all the best things people loved about the show. It’s scary, creepy, and has a good mystery. With The X-Files, we often scared people by what they didn’t show, and we use that device for the movie.”

Adds writer-producer Frank Spotnitz: “I think the best part of The X-Files was that it could make you afraid of anything. They didn’t tell typical horror stories or adhere to popular genre conventions. And this movie is in that tradition of showing things that you would not see in most scary movies.”

Unlike the first The X-Files motion picture, released in 1998, Carter and Spotnitz’s story for THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE does not require audiences to understand the series’ complex mythology that stretched across its nine seasons on the air. “The first movie was kind of an epic episode of the show, but THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE is a real, stand-alone movie,” explains Carter. “If the show hadn’t existed, this is a story that still would have found its way to the big screen.”
After ten long years since the first film – and six years since the close of the series – Carter and Spotnitz felt the time was right for a new The X-Files movie, not only to provide the show’s legions of fans with a new case for Mulder and Scully, but to introduce a new generation to these characters already beloved by millions. “It has struck me over the last several years, talking to college-age kids, that many of them really don’t know the show,” says Carter. “A twenty-year-old today would have been too young when the show debuted [16 years ago]. So there’s a whole new audience for The X-Files. And this film was made to satisfy them, as well as our longtime fans.”

“Writing and making this film was far more than an exercise in nostalgia,” adds Frank Spotnitz. “Chris and I took a long, careful and emotional look at Mulder and Scully and where they would be at this point in their lives. We would talk for hours and hours about the story and what it meant to us.”

The two filmmakers decided that the story, and the critical Mulder-Scully dynamic, would take place in what they call “real time” – it’s been six years since we last saw them in the series finale, and the film would reflect that progression. “They’re six years older and six years wiser, and their relationship has evolved quite a bit,” says Carter. “Mulder and Scully have gone through a lot [in that period], so there is much in the movie about the state of their relationship – and its future.”
David Duchovny says that presenting Mulder and Scully as they are today, was a critical decision. “It was important to allow time to go on in the world of The X-Files as it’s gone on in the world at large. I think one of the most interesting things we do as actors is to try and embody the same character as time goes by, working with the changes of life or consciousness that happen to us with time.”
The Mulder-Scully relationship continues to be defined by a unique chemistry – a spark that defies the conventions of screen romances. “The chemistry with David is completely easy,” says Anderson. “It’s something we seem to be able to slip into with our eyes closed. From the second we started working together on this film, it was there.”

On the set of THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE, the electricity between the actors and between their respective characters was impressive even to those who had witnessed it up close for so many years. “The first day of shooting, when I saw David and Gillian working together, I got chills,” says Chris Carter. “David and Gillian have always had that chemistry. Seeing them working together was like having the family back together.”

Beloved by the large subset of fans who call themselves “Shippers” (taking their name from the fourth syllable of the world “relationship”), the Mulder-Scully love story remains a very different kind of screen romance. “It’s always been a chaste kind of relationship,” says Duchovny. “It’s an old-fashioned romance where all the physical intimacy is achieved through looks, or by holding hands, or by kisses on the forehead. “Mulder and Scully are meant for each other,” the actor continues. “But there’s always an obstacle that threatens their relationship. This movie is very much about that obstacle.”

Chris Carter further explores the characters’ bond: “For me, The X-Files has always been a romance – an intellectual romance of the mind that’s very rare and restrained. It is intimate but not physical. That is a big part of the chemistry. And from the beginning of the show, it was David and Gillian who created our success. Without them, the show would not have worked.”

Actor chemistry notwithstanding, it was somewhat easier for Carter and Spotnitz to return to the world of The X-Files than it was for stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. Carter, who guided the show for over 17 years as its creator and executive producer, says simply that coming back to these characters and their universe felt “like the most natural thing in the world.”

Spotnitz elaborates: “When Chris and I sat down to write the film and revisit Mulder and Scully, I was surprised to find that they came right back to me. We had a lot of thoughts about what they’d been doing and where they were in their lives. And it was really nice coming back, because I had missed Mulder and Scully. I had missed hearing their voices.”

However much the filmmakers – and of course, the fans – missed the characters, various issues delayed the start of a new The X-Files movie until late last year. Carter credits David Duchovny as being a key advocate of a new film. “I’d say David was as responsible as anyone for getting this movie made. He campaigned for it. He wanted to do it. David was really the key cheerleader in sustaining our interest in doing another film.”

Indeed, Duchovny had wanted to return to Fox Mulder and The X-Files since the show ended its long run in 2002. “I always felt that The X-Files as a movie franchise had real life in it,” he points out. And having played Mulder for nine years, Duchovny thought he could slip back easily into the character. But when cameras started rolling last winter, Duchovny discovered that finding Mulder was more elusive than he had expected. “I thought I would fall back into Mulder very naturally, but at first playing the character felt a little odd. I didn’t want to make any drastic changes in the way I played Mulder because the character is so well-known. But of course I’m older now – and so is Mulder – so some things had to change.”

Similarly, Gillian Anderson found returning to Dana Scully came not without significant effort. “On the first day of shooting,” she remembers, “I was pretty confident about returning to the role. I am usually terrified when I start a project, but that wasn’t the case with this one.” But the challenges of slipping back into a character Anderson thought she had left behind years before quickly became apparent. “I had a really difficult first couple of days [of shooting the film]. I was having a really hard time finding Scully’s voice, and I think part of that is because since the show ended, I’ve been doing everything in my power to take on roles that were very different from Scully. The work I’ve been doing [since the show ended] has involved creating new characters from scratch.

“For this film,” Anderson continues, “playing Scully was less about always referring to the script and more about going back to the history and memory of the character. So getting back into character was much more work than I had anticipated.”
While the Mulder-Scully dynamic was the nexus of much of The X-Files’ run, the franchise has long been recognized for bringing in top-flight actors who have made invaluable contributions to its legacy. THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE is no exception to this tradition. Amanda Peet, who recently starred in the series “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” joins The X-Files universe as ASAC Dakota Whitney. Like everything else connected to the film, details about Whitney have been shrouded in secrecy. “Whitney enlists Mulder’s help with a case,” Peet does reveal. “She is an FBI agent who may – or may not – begin to feel a connection with Mulder.”

Peet says joining The X-Files team had, not surprisingly, its unusual moments. “It felt a bit odd to be a guest in this phenomenon. But it was enjoyable, too, becoming a part of this world that is so well-established. And to watch David and Gillian portray this iconic couple [Mulder and Scully] was extraordinary.

The shoot’s physical rigors were perhaps her greatest challenge. “I should have suspected…something…when, before production began, Chris Carter asked me if I was fit – could I run in the snow? Now, I had given birth eight months earlier, and I hadn’t exactly been running any marathons. But of course I told Chris, ‘Yeah, I’m in shape! And the first four days of filming had me running, running and running – and hoping I would look cool.” (Adds Duchovny: “It’s impossible to look cool running in snow.”)

Joining Peet’s Dakota Whitney as an FBI agent new to The X-Files is famed rapper (and host of MTV’s “Pimp My Ride”)Alvin “Xzibit” Joiner, who portrays Agent Mosley Drummy. In a strange, very X-Files-like coincidence, Carter had listened to a song performed by Xzibit that referenced The X-Files. “It was weird that Chris had heard that song,” admits the rapper/actor. “But he’s that kind of guy, you know; he’s into what he’s into.” (Carter’s intellectual and cultural pursuits extend beyond rap music – he recently had a fellowship studying string theory.)

Xzibit, a longtime fan of the series, says that “being part of the lineage of this great phenomenon is incredible.” As part of this lineage, Xzibit is well-aware that most details about Agent Drummy must remain classified until the film’s release. He’ll admit that Drummy is a “by-the-book kind of agent who is very intense. He doesn’t take no for an answer, and he has no time for Mulder’s strange ideas. Because if Agent Drummy can’t see it, feel it, touch it, or kill it, then he doesn’t believe it.”

A very different kind of character is essayed by noted actor Billy Connolly, whose Father Joseph Crissman is a dark, complex character with a haunted past. “It will be a character to which audiences will react strongly, which is one reason I was drawn to it,” says Connolly. “When Chris Carter told me about Father Joe, I knew I must do the part – and thus horrify my family and friends.

“But the scariest thing for me was learning that Chris had me in mind when he wrote the character!” (Carter is a longtime admirer of Connolly’s work, especially of his performance in the film Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown.)

Filming an X-Files story can be an inherently strange experience – and fodder for Connolly’s brand of off-kilter humor. “When you’re doing an X-Files movie, you’re not going to be singing ‘Kum Ba Yah’ around a campfire,” he notes. “You know that it’s just going to be a weird experience.” Case in point: “While filming in [the snowy Canadian ski resort] Whistler, we were creeping around for days, looking for weird stuff in the middle of the night.” Weird stuff, indeed – much of it in the form of a threat the likes of which, Connolly promises, “you’ve never before experienced in a film.”

Obviously, it’s nearly impossible to discuss THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE without mentioning the secrecy surrounding its story, production and several of its characters. And the filmmakers wouldn’t have it any other way. “To me,” says Carter, “this movie is like a Christmas present. I want it opened on Christmas morning and not before. I don’t want people shaking the box or sneaking a peek under the wrapping. “I believe that audiences will appreciate and enjoy the moviegoing experience more, if they don’t know the story in advance. So we did everything we could to preserve the surprise.”

To that end, only the director and producers had a copy of the full script. The actors were invited to read the script, only to see it whisked away as soon as they had finished. Select department heads read the script in an enclosed room under video surveillance, after which the script was returned to a locked vault. All who read it were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. More than ninety percent of the shooting crew had little information about the story – an obstacle that failed to prevent them from preparing for the day’s work.

In fact, everyone rose to this new professional challenge. “It truly was entertainment,” states production designer Mark Freeborn. “I’ve never done a film before without having a script close at hand. If you were one of the anointed, you had one with your name watermarked on it. But even then, I could only refer to it in a secure room with three video monitors trained on me.

“There was a running joke amongst a few of us, when we had a question about something, which went along the lines of, ‘Well, let me check my script. Oh, wait a minute, I don’t have one!’”

Cast members received sides (the day’s script pages reduced in size) on the days they were shooting, each individually watermarked with the actor’s name. At the end of each shooting day, the sides were collected and then shredded. Actors and their character names were given aliases on call sheets and shooting schedules. Dubious information and questionable images were leaked to the internet, making it difficult for even the most astute fan to discern fact from fiction.

PHIL LEWIS (Production Designer)

PHIL LEWIS (Production Designer) studied at Twickenham College of Art and Design, and worked as a freelance model maker and art lecturer throughout the 1970s. In the early 1980s, he joined Asylum Models & Effects in London, initially as a model maker and eventually as a designer and director of the company.

During this time, he worked on numerous pop promos, still shoots and commercials, collaborating with such filmmakers as Terry Gilliam, Ridley Scott and Lester Bookbinder, among others.

Moving to Bristol in 1989, Lewis began working with Aardman, serving as an art director on the Wallace & Gromit films “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave,” as well as on many commercials for the studio.

In 1997, Lewis joined forces with scenic artist and set builder Tim Farrington, in response to Aardman’s feature film needs. Their collaboration resulted in Lewis serving as the production designer and head of the art department on “Chicken Run,” and Farrington Lewis Co. Ltd building the sets and models. The partnership lasted until 2001, during which time they designed and built sets for many commercials and other productions.

LOYD PRICE (Supervising Animator)

LOYD PRICE (Supervising Animator) began his association with Aardman on a freelance basis in 1994 and joined the staff two years later. He initially worked primarily on commercials for such campaigns as Chevron, Rice Krispies and Cadbury’s Coronation Street, as well as Wallace & Gromit advertisements for the Japanese Putchin’ Pudding.

Later, he worked as an animator on Nick Park’s Oscar®-winning short “A Close Shave.” More recently, Price was the supervising animator on the clay-animated hit “Chicken Run,” which marked Aardman’s first full-length feature.
Before coming to Aardman, Price worked as a lead animator on Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

From 1984 to 1992, he was an animator for Cosgrove-Hall Films where he worked on many productions, including the BAFTA Award-winning “Wind in the Willows” and “Fool of the World and the Flying Ship.”

In 1996, Price set up and tutored the first two Animator Training Courses run by Aardman in conjunction with the University of the West of England, with the aim of training new character animators to work on Aardman’s feature films.

TRISTAN OLIVER (Director of Photography)

TRISTAN OLIVER (Director of Photography) began working with Aardman as a lighting cameraman on Peter Lord’s Academy Award®-nominated short films “War Story” and “Adam.” His credits as a director of photography include the Oscar®-nominated “Big Story” and Steve Box’s BAFTA Award-winning short “Stage Fright.” He also served as a co-director of photography Nick Park’s Oscar®-winning Wallace & Gromit films “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave,” and, more recently, on Aardman’s first feature film, “Chicken Run.”

Oliver first made his name as a cinematographer lensing more than 170 television commercials in his native England. He won a Kodak craft award for the “Heat Electric – Parrots” commercial, which won an award as the best commercial of the year. He also worked on a number of award-winning short films and television dramas, in addition to shooting several successful stills campaigns.

Oliver graduated from college before enrolling in film school, where he won the Fuji and BP Kodak Cinematography awards for his student film “Casino.” He later attended film school in Moscow as part of the Kodak award.

CLAIRE JENNINGS (Producer)

CLAIRE JENNINGS (Producer), a multi-award-winning animation producer, began her career in 1989 working for John Coates at TVC London. During her five-year tenure there, she worked on such productions as “Father Christmas” and “The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends.”

Moving on to become an independent producer, Jennings produced the animated shorts “Jolly Roger” and “The Canterbury Tales,” both of which went on to earn Academy Award® nominations in 1999. In addition, Jennings won a BAFTA Award for “The Canterbury Tales,” and received another BAFTA Award nomination that year for “Jolly Roger.” In 2000, Jennings produced the acclaimed animated short “Father and Daughter,” which won both the Academy Award® and the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Short, as well as numerous other honors at international film and animation festivals.

Jennings has also been involved in the production of several television series, including “Stressed Eric” and “The Big Knights,” both of which received critical acclaim. In addition, she has worked as an Executive in Charge of Development and as an executive producer for two of the largest animation studios in London, Studio AKA and HIT Entertainment.

In 2003, Jennings joined Aardman’s team as a producer on “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.”

DAVID SPROXTON (Producer)

DAVID SPROXTON (Producer) is the co-owner and Executive Chairman of Aardman. Together with co-founder Peter Lord, he has overseen the company’s growth from a two-man partnership into one of the pre-eminent animation houses in the industry. Over the years, Sproxton has served as a producer, director or cinematographer on a number of animated projects at Aardman.

Sproxton previously served as a producer on 2000’s “Chicken Run,” which marked the first feature collaboration between Aardman and DreamWorks Animation, and was a worldwide hit with both critics and audiences.

Sproxton and Lord met in grammar school and, in 1970, made their first animated film using Sproxton’s Bolex camera. A crude piece using cutouts and chalk drawings, it nevertheless showed enough talent for a BBC Children’s Television producer to offer the pair a chance to make short animated films for his program “Vision On.”

Following graduation from Durham University, Sproxton decided to pursue filmmaking full-time. In 1972, Sproxton and Lord formed Aardman and, in 1976, moved to their permanent home in Bristol, England. Their first professional creation was the character Morph, who went on to star in the BBC series “The Amazing Adventures of Morph.”

During this period, the duo made two short animated films, “Down and Out” and “Confessions of a Foyer Girl,” applying the groundbreaking technique of using recorded conversations of real people as the basis for the script. Later, five more films called “Conversation Pieces,” using the same “vox pop” technique, were commissioned by Channel 4. “Vox pop” was also utilized in Aardman’s “Lip Synch” series for Channel 4, which included Nick Park’s Oscar®-winning “Creature Comforts.”

In addition to Park, the studio is known for discovering and nurturing new filmmakers in the field of stop-motion animation, including Steve Box, who won a BAFTA Award for his direction of “Stage Fright.” Other talents developed under the Aardman banner include the Oscar®-nominated and BAFTA-winning Peter Peake, the director of “HumDrum”; Richard Goleszowski, who directs the “Rex the Runt” series for BBC 2; and Darren Walsh, whose “Angry Kid” series was released directly onto the Internet.

PETER LORD (Producer)

PETER LORD (Producer) is co-owner and Creative Director of Aardman, which he co-founded with his longtime collaborator David Sproxton in 1972. As a director, Lord has been honored with two Academy Award® nominations for Best Animated Short, the first in 1992 for “Adam,” and again in 1996 for “Wat’s Pig.” He has also earned BAFTA nominations for “Adam,” “The Amazing Adventures of Morph” and “War Story.”
In 2000, Lord directed and produced Aardman’s first full-length feature, DreamWorks Animation’s “Chicken Run,” starring the voice of Mel Gibson, which was a commercial and critical smash.

Lord first met David Sproxton in the early 1970s at school, where they started experimenting with animation techniques on their kitchen table. They tried a range of methods before settling on clay model animation. While they were still in their teens, a BBC children’s television producer offered them the chance to make short animated films for his program “Vision On.” Their first character as professionals was Morph, who later starred in his own series “The Amazing Adventures of Morph.” As a testament to Morph’s enduring appeal, he still appears in new productions today.
Moving to Bristol in 1976, Lord and Sproxton built Aardman into one of the world’s leading model animation studios. In 1978, Aardman was commissioned by BBC Bristol to make two short films entitled “Animated Conversations.” The resulting “Down and Out” and “Confessions of a Foyer Girl,” both co-directed by Lord and Sproxton, broke new ground in animation by using recordings of real-life conversations. That led to a series of five “Conversation Pieces” for England’s Channel 4, all of which were co-directed by Lord and Sproxton, including “Early Bird” and “On Probation.”

Expanding into music videos, Aardman collaborated with director Stephen Johnson and the Brothers Quay to create Peter Gabriel’s award-winning video for “Sledgehammer.” In 1987, Lord created the video for Nina Simone’s “My Baby Just Cares for Me.” Two years later, Channel 4 again commissioned Aardman to create the five-picture “Lip Synch” series, which included Lord’s “War Story.” Lord’s other directing credits include “Going Equipped” and “Babylon.”

Together with Sproxton, Lord has also played a major role in encouraging and promoting new directors. His executive producer credits with Aardman include “Creature Comforts,” “Rex,” “HumDrum” and “Stage Fright.”

Aardman’s special brand of animation has also been seen in commercials for such products as Chevron, Lurpack, Mita Copiers, Cadbury’s Crunchies and Polo.

STEVE BOX (Director/Screenwriter)

STEVE BOX (Director/Screenwriter) started his career with a small studio in Bristol called CMTB Animation. Thrown in at the deep end, he quickly mastered the skills of all aspects of animated film production. During Box’s tenure, CMTB produced over 60 short films, mainly for children’s television. One of these, “Trap Door,” is still recognized as a very influential piece of work and is regarded as a cult classic.

After six years with CMTB, Steve joined the Aardman studios. Quickly making his mark as a talented and valued animator, he was asked by Nick Park to join the team filming what became the Academy Award®-winning short “The Wrong Trousers,” starring Wallace & Gromit. It was Box who animated the dastardly Penguin, Feather McGraw. In 1995, he again collaborated with Nick Park on another Wallace & Gromit Academy Award®-winning short, “A Close Shave,” on which Box animated that beauty of the silver screen, Wendolene Ramsbottom.

In 1997, Box directed his first short film for Aardman, “Stage Fright,” which premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Box’s tale of Victorian ambition and deceit went on to win a BAFTA Award for the Best Animated Short Film of 1997, in addition to many other prestigious awards. In 1999, Nick Park and Peter Lord invited Box to be an animator on Aardman’s first feature film, “Chicken Run.”

“Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” marks Box’s feature film directorial debut.

NICK PARK (Director/Screenwriter/Producer)

NICK PARK (Director/Screenwriter/Producer) is a three-time Academy Award® winner in the category of Best Animated Short for the films “Creature Comforts,” “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave.” All three films were created at Aardman, where Park is a Co-Director, together with founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton. “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave” starred Park’s most famous creations, the cheese-loving Wallace and his faithful canine companion, Gromit.

In 2000, Park directed and produced DreamWorks Animation’s “Chicken Run,” the first feature-length film from Aardman, starring the voice of Mel Gibson. The film went on to be an international box office hit and was named the best-reviewed movie of that year.

Park became interested in animation as a child and started making films in his parents’ attic at the age of 13. One of his earliest works, “Archie’s Concrete Nightmare,” shot on standard 8mm film, was shown on BBC Television in 1975.
He went on to earn a BA in Communication Arts at Sheffield Art School in 1980, before moving on to the National Film & Television School in Beaconsfield, England. While there, he began working on “A Grand Day Out,” which marked the introduction of Wallace & Gromit. In February 1985, Park joined Aardman where he completed the film. He then directed “Creature Comforts” for Aardman’s “Lip Synch” series for Channel 4 Television.

In 1990, “Creature Comforts” won the Academy Award® for Best Animated Short and “A Grand Day Out” received a nomination, giving Park the rare distinction of having two films Oscar®-nominated in the same category in the same year. He also garnered BAFTA Award nominations for both films, this time winning for “A Grand Day Out.”

Park won his second Academy Award® and another BAFTA Award for the Wallace & Gromit film “The Wrong Trousers,” and his third Oscar® and BAFTA Award for “A Close Shave,” also starring the beloved duo. Two of the most successful animated shorts ever made, “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave” have won over 80 additional awards between them. Collectively, Park and Aardman were also honored with a BAFTA Special Award for Original Contribution to Television. In 1997, Park was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire).

During his tenure at Aardman, Park has also served as a director and animator on numerous projects, including pop promos, title sequences and inserts for children’s television.

LIZ SMITH (Mrs. Mulch)

LIZ SMITH (Mrs. Mulch) was most recently seen in the role of Grandma Georgina in Tim Burton’s summer hit “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Her upcoming films include Roman Polanski’s screen adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” and the comedy “Keeping Mum.” Earlier in her career, she won a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Malcolm Mowbray’s “A Private Function.”

Smith began her career in 1947 at the Gateway Theatre in London, where she performed in repertory. Over the next seven years, she worked all across England in small theatres and repertory companies. She then left the theatre for a time to raise her two children. Returning to acting, she joined Charles Marowitz’s permanent company, then called The Stage, where she stayed for five years. Following that, she spent six years mainly playing leads with the Forbes Russell Company. Her theatre credits include such titles as “Endgame,” “Playhouse Creatures,” “This is a Chair,” “Just Between Ourselves,” “Cell Block H,” “Why Me?,” “When We Are Married,” “Once a Catholic” and “Enjoy.”
In 1971, Smith made her feature film debut as Mrs. Roberts in director Mike Leigh’s “Bleak Moments.” Two years later, he cast her in the starring role of Mrs. Thornley in the telefilm “Hard Labour.” They more recently reunited in Leigh’s award-winning film “Secrets & Lies.” Smith also played the role of Marta Balls in three of Blake Edwards’ Pink Panther movies: “Trail of the Pink Panther,” “Curse of the Pink Panther” and “Son of the Pink Panther.” Smith’s other film credits include “Dead Cool,” “Tom’s Midnight Garden,” “The Revengers’ Comedies,” “Haunted,” “Pretty Princess,” “Dakota Road,” “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover,” “Bert Rigby, You’re a Fool,” “High Spirits,” “Little Dorrit,” “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” and “The Duellists.”

On television, she has been seen in a long list of miniseries and telefilms, including “A Good Thief,” “Between the Sheets,” “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby,” “A Christmas Carol,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Oliver Twist,” “Imaginary Friends,” “When We Are Married,” “Separate Tables,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Spend Spend Spend” and “David Copperfield.” She has also had regular roles on more than a dozen series over the past 30 years, including “The Royle Family” and “2point4 Children,” in addition to guest starring on numerous series.

NICHOLAS SMITH (Reverend Clement Hedges)

NICHOLAS SMITH (Reverend Clement Hedges) graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1957 and has since worked extensively in theatre, film, television and radio. His theatre repertoire encompasses both plays and musicals and includes “Portrait of a Queen,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “The Mikado,” “Ten Little Indians,” “Doctor in the House,” “My Fair Lady,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Who Dunnit?,” “The Plain Dealer,” “School for Scandal,” “The Relapse,” “The Mousetrap,” “How the Other Half Loves,” “Me and My Girl,” “As You Like It,” “Aladdin,” “Lloyd George Knew My Father,” “I Have Been Here Before,” “The Return of Sherlock Holmes,” “Pirates of Penzance,” “Cinderella,” “Dick Whittington,” “Sylvia’s Wedding,” “Taming of The Shrew” and “Macbeth.” He also spent two years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and most recently played the Butler in “Murdered To Death.”

Smith is perhaps best known to television audiences for the role of Mr. Cuthbert Rumbold, which he first played for ten seasons on the acclaimed BBC series “Are You Being Served?,” followed by two seasons on the series “Grace & Favour” (aka “Are You Being Served? Again!”). He more recently appeared in the miniseries “Martin Chuzzlewit” and in two seasons of the BBC sketch show “Revolver.” His extensive television credits also include “Doctor Who”; the 1973 musical adaptation of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” starring Kirk Douglas; “The Door of Opportunity,” based on the story by W. Somerset Maugham; the miniseries “The First Churchills”; the series “Z Cars” and “The Frost Report”; and a myriad of series guest roles, beginning in the mid-1960s.

Smith has also been seen in a number of feature films, most recently including the British comedy “What Rats Won’t Do.” His additional credits include Gene Wilder’s “The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother,” Federico Fellini’s “Casanova,” Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “The Canterbury Tales,” Mel Brooks’ “The Twelve Chairs,” John Huston’s “A Walk with Love and Death” and Richard Donner’s “Salt and Pepper.”

PETER KAY (PC Mackintosh)

PETER KAY (PC Mackintosh) has emerged as one of England’s most popular comedy stars. He recently wrote, directed and starred in the series “Max and Paddy’s Road to Nowhere,” for which he won a Montreux Award for Best Comedy Actor. He is currently working on the release of the series on DVD.

Kay’s first big break as a writer/performer came on a mock-documentary style comedy entitled “The Services,” broadcast as part of Channel 4’s “Comedy Lab.” His inimitable style led to his first series, “That Peter Kay Thing,” which premiered to great critical acclaim in early 2000 and won Kay the Best New Comedy Series Award at the British Comedy Awards.

Following that success, Kay co-wrote, co-produced and starred as three characters in “Phoenix Nights,” a six-part comedy-drama, which originally aired in early 2001 and was later released on DVD due to overwhelming demand. Kay also made his directorial debut during the the second season of “Phoenix Nights,” which won the People’s Choice Award at The British Comedy Awards, and was nominated for Best Television Comedy. In addition, Kay won the award for Best Writer, and earned a nomination for Best Comedy Actor. He was also recognized with two BAFTA Award nominations for Best Comedy Performance and Best Situation Comedy.

Kay’s additional acting credits include the films “The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse” and Michael Winterbottom’s “24 Hour Party People”; the television miniseries “Butterfly Collectors”; and episodes of such series as “Coronation Street” and “Linda Green.” He is also well known in England as the “John Smith Man” for his series of popular commercials.

Born and raised in Bolton, Lancashire, England, Kay started out as a stand-up comedian. He had been performing stand-up for less than a year when he won Channel 4’s “So You Think You’re Funny?” competition in 1997. In 1998, he was nominated for the prestigious Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and for Top Stand Up and Top TV Comedy Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards.

The following year, Kay embarked on a sold-out tour of the North West of England and starred in his first live stand-up video, “Peter Kay Live From the Top of the Tower.” His hugely popular “Mum Wants a Bungalow Live Tour,” began in September 2002 with 75 sold-out nights around the country, and continued selling out during its five-month run. The tour culminated in a record-breaking performance at the Manchester Evening News Arena in July 2003. The resulting television special, “Peter Kay Live at Manchester Arena,” was seen by more than seven million viewers. The “Mum Wants a Bungalow” tour also spawned the DVD “Peter Kay Life at Bolton Albert Halls.” Kay also recorded a remake of Tony Christie’s classic hit “Is This The Way to Amarillo” for Comic Relief, the single of which went to number one in the UK.

HELENA BONHAM CARTER (Lady Tottington)

HELENA BONHAM CARTER (Lady Tottington) has starred in a wide range of film and television projects both in the United States and in her native England. This summer she co-starred with Johnny Depp in the smash hit “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” for director Tim Burton. Bonham Carter will next be heard voicing the title role in the stop-motion animated film “Corpse Bride,” which reunites her with Burton and Depp. The film is due out in September 2005. She also stars opposite Aaron Eckhart in the live-action film “Conversations with Other Women.” Bonham Carter will have a dual presence at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival, as both that film and “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” are screening there.

In 1997, Bonham Carter starred in Iain Softley’s romantic period drama “The Wings of the Dove,” based on the novel by Henry James. For her performance in that film, she was honored with Academy Award®, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Best Actress. She also won Best Actress Awards from a number of critics organizations, including the Los Angeles Film Critics, Broadcast Film Critics, National Board of Review and London Film Critics Circle.

Bonham Carter made her feature film debut in the title role of Trevor Nunn’s historical biopic “Lady Jane,” as the doomed young woman who reigned as Queen of England for only nine days. She had barely wrapped production on that film when director James Ivory offered her the lead in “A Room With a View,” based on the book by E.M. Forster. Bonham Carter went on to receive acclaim in two more screen adaptations of Forster novels: Charles Sturridge’s “Where Angels Fear to Tread” and James Ivory’s “Howard’s End,” for which she earned her first BAFTA Award nomination.
Her early film work also includes Franco Zeffirelli’s “Hamlet,” in which she played Ophelia, opposite Mel Gibson; “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,” directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh; and Woody Allen’s “Mighty Aphrodite.” Bonham Carter has more recently starred in the acclaimed drama “Big Fish” and the sci-fi actioner “Planet of the Apes,” both for director Tim Burton; the independent features “Till Human Voices Wake Us,” “The Heart of Me” and “Novocaine”; and David Fincher’s controversial drama “Fight Club,” with Brad Pitt and Edward Norton.

Bonham Carter has also gained recognition for her work on television. She earned both Emmy and Golden Globe Award nominations for her performance in the Gulf War drama “Live From Baghdad” and for her role in the miniseries “Merlin.” She received her first Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal of Marina Oswald in the historical miniseries “Fatal Deception: Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald.” Bonham Carter more recently played Anne Boleyn in the British miniseries “Henry VIII,” and just finished filming “Magnificent Seven,” for the BBC.

RALPH FIENNES (Victor Quartermaine)

RALPH FIENNES (Victor Quartermaine) is an award-winning actor of the stage and screen. He next stars in the indie films “The Constant Gardener” and “The Chumscrubber,” which debuted at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. He also stars in “Chromophobia, which premiered as the closing night film at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. This fall Fiennes stars in two very different films: first starring in James Ivory’s “The White Countess,” with Vanessa Redgrave and Natasha Richardson; and then playing the dreaded Lord Voldemort in the much-anticipated blockbuster “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.”

A two-time Academy Award® nominee, he earned his first nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1994 for his performance in Steven Spielberg’s Oscar®-winning Best Picture “Schindler’s List.” Fiennes’ chilling portrayal of the cruel Nazi Commandant Amon Goeth also brought him a Golden Globe nomination and a BAFTA Award, as well as Best Supporting Actor honors from numerous critics groups, including the National Society of Film Critics, and the New York, Chicago, Boston and London Film Critics.

Fiennes received his second Oscar® nomination in 1997, this time for Best Actor, for his work in another Best Picture winner, Anthony Minghella’s “The English Patient.” He also garnered Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations, as well as two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, one for Best Actor and another shared with the cast. In 2000, Fiennes was recognized with BAFTA and London Critics Circle Award nominations for his role in Neil Jordan’s “The End of the Affair.”

Fiennes’ film credits also include “Maid in Manhattan,” opposite Jennifer Lopez; “Red Dragon”; Neil Jordan’s “The Good Thief”; David Cronenberg’s “Spider”; Martha Fiennes’ “Onegin,” which he also executive produced; Istvan Szabo’s “Sunshine”; “The Avengers”; “Oscar and Lucinda”; “Strange Days”; Robert Redford’s “Quiz Show”; and “Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights,” in which he made his film debut.

A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Fiennes began his career on the London stage. He joined Michael Rudman’s company at the Royal National Theatre and later spent two seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1994, Fiennes opened as Hamlet in Jonathan Kent’s sold-out production of the play, which became one of the theatrical events of the year. When the production moved to Broadway, Fiennes won a Tony Award for his performance. He reunited with Kent in the acclaimed London production of “Ivanov,” later taking the play to Moscow.

In 2000, Fiennes returned to the London stage in the title roles of “Richard II” and “Coriolanus,” and in a cameo in Kenneth Branagh’s production of “The Play I Wrote” on London’s West End. He is currently on tour in Deborah Warner’s production of “Julius Caesar” and, in early 2006, will again team with director Jonathan Kent for Brian Friels’ “Faith Healer,” which will premiere at Dublin’s Gate Theatre before going to Broadway.

PETER SALLIS (Wallace) Wallace & Gromit

PETER SALLIS (Wallace) has provided the distinctive voice of the cheese-loving inventor Wallace in all of Aardman’s award-winning “Wallace & Gromit” animated shorts, beginning with 1989’s Oscar®-nominated “A Grand Day Out,” and continuing in the Academy Award®-winning shorts: “The Wrong Trousers,” in 1993; and “A Close Shave,” in 1995. He also voiced Wallace in the Wallace & Gromit mini-shorts, collectively known as “Cracking Contraptions.”

Most recently, Sallis completed a cameo role in the upcoming film “Colour Me Kubrick,” starring John Malkovich. He also co-starred in the ITV drama “Belonging,” with Brenda Blethyn, and was a guest lead on the BBC series “Doctors.”

Sallis has been acting for more than 60 years, beginning as an amateur during a stint in the RAF during World War II. Immediately after the war, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and, in 1946, made his first professional appearance on the London stage in Richard Sheridan’s “The Scheming Lieutenant.” He then toured in “The School for Scandal,” before returning to London’s West End in “The Three Sisters,” with Ralph Richardson. Other West End appearances followed, including “The Dark is Light Enough,” with Edith Evans; Orsen Welles’ production of “Moby Dick”; “Look After Lulu,” with Vivien Leigh; “Rhinoceros,” with Laurence Olivier; “Two Stars for Comfort”; “A Shot in the Dark,” with Judi Dench; Hal Prince’s production of “She Loves Me”; “Wait Until Dark,” as Roat, opposite Honor Blackman; and “Cabaret.”

His additional theatre work includes the role of Mr. Bennett in “Pride & Prejudice,” at the Old Vic; Elijah Moshinsky’s production of “The Three Sisters,” at Greenwich; and “Ivanov” and “Much Ado About Nothing” at The Strand. He also spent two seasons at the Lyric, Hammersmith. In the United States, Sallis has been seen on Broadway in Hal Prince’s production of “Baker Street,” as Dr. Watson, and in John Osborn’s “Inadmissible Evidence,” with Nicol Williamson.

On television, Sallis is perhaps best known for the role of Norman Clegg in the series “Last of the Summer Wine,” which is the BBC’s longest-running program. He more recently portrayed his character’s own father in the spinoff series “First of the Summer Wine.” Peter also played the title role in the BBC’s production of “The Diary of Samuel Pepys.” His other television credits include “Come Home Charlie and Face Them,” “Holby City,” “Rumpole of the Bailey,” “The New Statesman,” “The Bretts,” “Mountain Men,” “Strangers and Brothers,” “The Pallisers,” “Bel Ami,” “The Moonstone,” “Leave It to Charlie,” “She Loves Me,” and installments of “Armchair Theatre.”

Sallis has also had roles in such films as “Witness for the Prosecution,” “Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?,” “Full Circle,” “The Incredible Sarah,” “Taste the Blood of Dracula,” 1970’s “Wuthering Heights,” “Inadmissible Evidence,” “Charlie Bubbles,” “The V.I.P.s,” “The Mouse on the Moon” and “The Curse of the Werewolf.”

In addition, together with his wife, Elaine, Sallis has written plays for the radio, as well as his own adaptation of Boucicault’s “Old Heads and Young Hearts,” which was presented at the Chichester Festival Theatre.

Interview with Twilight Star Taylor Lautner

Interview with Twilight Star Taylor Lautner
By ReelzChannel Staff
DAILIES TRANSCRIPT
"Behind the Scenes: Twilight"
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: July 22, 2008

Naibe Reynoso: Thousands of teens are flooding the Twilight fan sites in anticipation of the movie, and a lot of them are talking about Taylor Lautner. He plays the conflicted character, Jacob Black.

In Twilight, Taylor Lautner plays a werewolf trying to keep his identity a secret.

Taylor Lautner: He's very interesting. I love the way Stephenie [Meyer] wrote him in the first movie, ya know, he's a Native American. He's very friendly, and easy to talk with, then in the second one it becomes interesting because, ya know, he turns into a werewolf, and what I find cool is like, he has this Native American side who's just this, happy-go-lucky kid, then he has this werewolf side where, ya know, he's trying to hold back his, temper, and he wants to be violent."

Naibe Reynoso: Violence is something Lautner can deliver, he made his first on-screen kill at the tender age of 10 when he played a killer ninja clone in Shadow Fury.

CLIP: Taylor Lautner playing killer ninja clone in Shadow Fury. "He is impervious to pain and he enjoys killing."

Naibe Reynoso: As a teenager, there were those sharp teeth and super strength in Sharkboy and Lavagirl.

CLIP: Taylor Lautner in Sharkboy and Lavagirl.

Naibe Reynoso: Next he showed his comedic chops in Cheaper By The Dozen 2, alongside Steve Martin.

CLIP: Taylor Lautner in Cheaper By The Dozen 2, with punk hair.
Naibe Reynoso: No punk hair in Twilight, but in this role, where Lautner plays up teen angst, there were a lot of bad hair days.

Naibe Reynoso: How is it having long hair?

Taylor Lautner: Yeah. I've never had it long before so this is very interesting for me. At first it was itchy and I just wanted to take it off, I've actually by now gotten a lot more used to it. It's always like blowing in my mouth and stuff. I'm like saying my lines… and I'm (puts hair in mouth).

Naibe Reynoso: Anticipation for Twilight is building, much of it due to this young and solid cast

Taylor Lautner: I think with Twilight, ya know, the whole series, there's a bit of everything in it, ya know, there's romance, there's action-adventure, there's like a little horror in it, ya know, there's everything. So, I think that's why it attracts so many people because, ya know, it's a little mix of everything in one movie. So, its gonna be interesting to see on the screen December 12th.

Naibe Reynoso: Of course we will be bringing you many more Twilight stories on future editions of Dailies. Mike.

Mike Richards: Thanks Naibe. Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see if if Twilight or the new Harry Potter movie which comes out in November, does better.

Oliver Stone's 'W.' to begin filming in Louisiana, Josh Brolin expected to star

Like a bill being rapidly pushed through legislation, Oliver Stone's film about President George W. Bush is expected to begin shooting within a month with a goal toward being released before the president leaves office next January.

A person close to the film, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because plans were still being formalized, said Stone's "W." will begin filming in late April in Shreveport, Louisiana. The Academy Award-winning director only began shopping his script for financing in January, but has quickly captured the interest of investors and Hollywood.

Stone has said that the film, which will focus on the life and presidency of Bush, won't be an anti-Bush polemic, but, as he told Daily Variety, "a fair, true portrait of the man. How did Bush go from being an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?"

Representatives for Stone would not confirm reports in Variety and elsewhere about casting decisions because of unfinalized contracts. Expected to play the president is Josh Brolin, who played another Texan in the Coen brothers' Oscar-winning "No Country for Old Men."

Expected to portray First Lady Laura Bush is Elizabeth Banks, whose credits include "The 40 Year-Old Virgin" and the upcoming "Zach and Miri Make a Porno."

"W." will be Stone's third film dealing with presidential matters, following "Nixon" and "JFK." The filmmaker has been an outspoken critic of the administration's decision to invade Iraq.

A Hollywood firebrand, Stone's films also include the Vietnam sagas "Born on the Fourth of July" and "Platoon," which won four Oscars including best picture and director, and 2006's "World Trade Center," about two policemen buried in the rubble of the towers after the Sept. 11 attacks.

'Planet 51' heads into Sony orbit

Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group has picked up U.S. distribution rights for the CG-animated kidpic "Planet 51."

TriStar Pictures will release the film, which features the voices of Dwayne Johnson and Jessica Biel, on Nov. 20, 2009.

Alien adventure comedy centers on an astronaut who lands on Planet 51 thinking he's the first to set foot on it. To his surprise, he discovers it's inhabited by little green people who live in a white picket-fenced world reminiscent of 1950s America. Film is produced by Ilion Animation Studios.

Justin Long, Seann William Scott, Gary Oldman and John Cleese round out the voice cast.

New Line previously bought domestic distribution rights for the $50 million plus-budgeted film and had touted it as it as its first-ever CG-animated feature. After New Line was folded into Warner Bros. in February, "Planet 51" became the domain of Warners and was set to be released by the studio in summer 2009.

Sources said Warner decided to let the pic go after the producers insisted on a November release, when Warner is releasing its sixth Harry Potter pic.

Ignacio Perez Dolset and Guy Collins are producing "Planet 51." Peter Graves, Michael Ryan and Jose Rodriguez exec produce.

HandMade Films International is handling worldwide sales on the film. A "Planet 51" videogame is being developed by Ilion.

"We could not ask for a more ideal partner," said Guy Collins, chairman of HandMade Films Intl. "Sony is perfectly positioned to maximize the film's box office potential."

Red Cliff brings in big numbers

John Woo epic snags over $23 million in Asia

John Woo's "Red Cliff," the most expensive Asian film ever, enjoyed a boffo start to its theatrical run across East Asia, where part one of the two-part epic bowed in five territories.

Actuals and distributor estimates point to an opening weekend north of $23 million.

China Film Group reported that the film grossed in excess of $3.65 million Thursday, its first day of release in mainland China. That led CFG's topper Han Sanping to forecast Friday that the pic would pass the $14.6 million mark by the end of the four-day opening weekend.

Showbox, the movie's Korean investor and distributor, reported 139,000 admissions on opening day. That equates to an approximate $973,000 from 437 screens, for a one-day per-screen average of $2,227. On Friday, Showbox forecast that the weekend total would be close to 1 million admissions. That would translate as a four-day weekend cume above $6 million.

In Taiwan, where the pic was released on 120 prints by the film's Taiwanese investor and distributor CMC Entertainment in association with 20th Century Fox, Thursday opening day was a powerful $526,000. That was the biggest first-day figure of the year in that territory and a one-day screen average of $4,380.

On Sunday, CMC reported that the three-day total (Thursday through Saturday) had risen to $1.91 million.

In Hong Kong, where "Cliff" is handled by Mei Ah in collaboration with Edko Films, "Cliff" scaled $257,500 from 60 sites on its Thursday opening frame. That is a single-day per-screen average of $4,280.

In Singapore, pic was released on Friday by distributor Scorpio East on 46 prints, with a single session of sneak previews on Thursday night. Preview earned $33,000, with Friday clocking in at $176,000. Company said it regarded as "very, very positive" a 65% jump on Saturday to $309,000, for a two days plus preview cume of $518,000. Scorpio forecast that cume would comfortably top $625,000 for the three day weekend and expected "Cliff" to beat "Hellboy 2" which was released a day earlier, on Thursday.

Showbox said the figure is the highest ever for a Chinese film in Korea. In comparison, "Hero" enjoyed 58,000 admissions on its opening day and "House of Flying Daggers" tallied 60,000 admissions. Opening day of "Cliff" knocked "Hancock" down to 79,000 admissions Thursday, or an estimated gross of $550,000.

Showbox played the pic, which it trimmed by nine minutes, six times per day in Seoul multiplexes and five times per day in suburbs and second city venues. It occupied five screens at the COEX Megabox, which in several recent years has been the world's busiest cinema, with the 8:30 a.m. screening on Thursday reportedly 70% full. Showbox said the casting of Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro helped the pic score well with older demographic sectors.

Second week will coincide with the beginning of holidays for high schools and competition from local blockbuster "The Good, the Bad, the Weird," which is posting strong advance bookings.

"Red Cliff" received a generally positive critical reception in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, the film faces stiff competition from "Kung Fu Panda" and "Hancock," which are still playing on large numbers of screens.

In China, the path has been largely cleared for "Red Cliff's" outing, with considerably less competition. Additionally, tickets to the biggest movies in China are often priced at premium rates on opening day.

Malaysia releases part one on Thursday, Japan follows in November. Throughout Asia the pic is being released in two parts, with the second part skedded for January 2009, likely coinciding with the Lunar New Year.

Touch of the Panda - Walt Disney Studios

WALT DISNEY STUDIOS AND YING DONG MEDIA ANNOUNCE CHINA PANDA PROJECT


The Walt Disney Studios together with Chinese filmmakers Castle Hero Pictures and Ying Dong Media announced today at the Shanghai International Film Festival, that they are combining creative forces to make a movie tentatively titled Touch of the Panda. The film, shot in Sichuan, China with official cooperation and supervision from the Wolong Giant Panda Nature Reserve, features Giant Pandas bred and nurtured in one of the world’s foremost research and preservation facilities for the endangered species. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures China helped develop the project during the pre production and filming stages creatively with Castle Hero Pictures and Ying Dong Media, and will handle marketing and distribution around the world. The film tells of a story of a panda cub separated from his mother and eventually rescued by a young orphaned boy. As the boy struggles to protect the cub from people he believes would hurt it, the two form a strong bond even as the boy realizes that the best thing he can ever do for the cub is to help him find its way home. Child actor Daichi Harashima portrays the boy and the film is helmed by acclaimed Chinese director Yu Zhong.

The announcement was made by Jason Reed, executive vice president, Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production, Stanley Cheung, executive vice president and managing director, The Walt Disney Company Greater China, Tian Ye, executive producer of the movie and chairman of Ying Dong Media and Jean Chalopin & Jennifer Liu, producers of the film. Commenting on the announcement Reed said, “We're thrilled to be working with a team of talented filmmakers on this exciting film for Chinese moviegoers of all ages, as well as for audiences around the world. Our first Disney branded effort in China, 'The Magic Gourd,' proved to be a tremendous success and the start of a wonderful working relationship. “Touch of the Panda” follows in the tradition of Disney's most memorable family films, and takes audiences on a spectacular adventure with some of the rarest and most fascinating animals on the planet.

We're grateful that Jean Chalopin and Jennifer Liu, the writers/producers, brought this project to us, and we've enjoyed working closely with them throughout the production to make it a film that will entertain family audiences everywhere." Cheung added, “This project truly highlights Disney’s continued efforts to generate locally relevant entertainment content for the modern Chinese consumers. We’re excited to have a film that features a significant icon that the Chinese people truly identify with. We strongly believe that our filmmakers have crafted a wonderful film worthy of the Disney branding. We also believe this picture is going to play a role in highlighting the plight of the Giant Pandas. Our title in Chinese roughly translates to “The Panda’s Road Home,” perhaps made more poignant now in light of recent events in that part of China.” According to Tian, “We felt it was important that we make a film that would appeal to Chinese audiences first and foremost but at the same time potentially find a way to entertain audiences of all ages outside of China.

Having Disney on board clearly gives us the advantage of having one of the most trusted and successful global brand names in family entertainment that will be crucial in ensuring that this labor of love reaches as many audiences as possible.” Chalopin and Liu said “We’ve set out to make a movie that is heartfelt, realistic and brings a message of courage, compassion and friendship set in the amazing world of the Giant Pandas.

And we could not have done it without the official supervision, assistance and cooperation from the Wolong Giant Panda Nature Reserve. We were blessed with a passionate cast and crew that really fell in love with Sichuan and the Giant Pandas throughout the shoot and it’s going to translate on the big screen when this film is released.”

The project began production around the Chinese New Year and recently completed principal photography. It is now in post production and will be released theatrically in 2009. The film represents a significant follow up for the Walt Disney Studios in China after “The Magic Gourd” which was released in 2007. About the Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise with four business segments: media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment and consumer products. Disney is a Dow 30 company with annual revenues of over $35 billion in its most recent fiscal year. About Ying Dong Media Beijing based Ying Dong Media is a full service production and distribution company focusing on feature film, tv series, animated and variety programs. The company is backed by an experienced multi-national team of core executives dedicated to invest in and develop entertainment content that not only suits the Chinese audiences but also the international marketplace.

SHIRLEY HENDERSON (Matron) Wild Child

SHIRLEY HENDERSON (Matron) grew up in Fife in Scotland and studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. After graduating, she embarked upon a stage career that included spells at the National Theatre under the direction of Peter Hall, the Royal Court, the Traverse, Hampstead, the Citizens Theatre and, most recently, in Anna Weiss at the Whitehall Theatre under the direction of Michael Attenborough.

Her first on-screen role saw her playing opposite Robert Carlyle in the popular television series Hamish Macbeth, which led to roles in Rob Roy and Trainspotting. In 1999, Michael Winterbottom cast Henderson in his film Wonderland. This sparked an ongoing relationship that continued with her performances in The Claim, 24 Hour Party People and A Cock and Bull Story.

Following her role in Mike Leigh’s Topsy-Turvy, Henderson attracted the first of many award nominations and wins. These include a Scottish BAFTA for the highly acclaimed Frozen, for which she also won Best Actress at the Cherbourg-Octeville Festival of Irish & British Film (she is the only actress to have won this award twice—the second time for BAFTA-nominated American Cousins), a British Independent Film Award nomination for her portrayal of the feisty cook, Ella, in Frank Van Passel’s Villa des roses and the Best Actress Award at the Bordeaux Film Festival in 2003 for the quirky black comedy Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself. She received a London Film Critics’ Circle nomination for her portrayal of emotionally traumatized Sally in the Irish success story Intermission and, in May 2003, was voted Best Actress at the Bowmore Scottish Screen Awards (the Scottish Oscars®).

Henderson appeared as Bridget’s chardonnay-swilling sidekick, Jude, in Bridget Jones’s Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. She also starred in acclaimed director Shane Meadows’ spaghetti western, Once Upon a Time in the Midlands, which was screened in the Directors’ Fortnight section of Cannes. More recently, she starred in Marie Antoinette, directed by Sofia Coppola for Columbia Pictures and I Really Hate My Job, directed by Oliver Parker; she continues to appear in the Harry Potter films as the tragic Moaning Myrtle.

Other television work for Henderson includes the lavish BBC production Charles II: The Power & the Passion, The Taming of the Shrew, The Way We Live Now, Dirty Filthy Love, an episode of Doctor Who and, most recently, Wedding Belles, written by Irvine Welsh for Channel 4.

Henderson was recently seen in the feature film Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, costarring opposite Frances McDormand.

NATASHA RICHARDSON (Mrs. Kingsley) Wild Child

Trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, NATASHA RICHARDSON (Mrs. Kingsley) started her career at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. She has performed extensively on stage in roles including Helena in A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream and Ophelia in Hamlet at the Young Vic Theatre. In 1986, Richardson was voted Most Promising Newcomer by the London Critics’ Circle for her performance as Nina in The Seagull, with Vanessa Redgrave and Jonathan Pryce. In 1987, she played Tracey Lord in Richard Eyre’s musical High Society.

Playing the title role in Anna Christie in 1992 at the Young Vic, Richardson was voted Best Actress in the London Drama Critics’ Poll. She reprised the role in 1993 on Broadway at the Roundabout Theatre Company, opposite Liam Neeson, and was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for Best Actress, and won a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Debut of an Actress. For her performance as Sally Bowles in Sam Mendes’ and Rob Marshall’s production of Cabaret, she won the 1998 (Triple Crown) Tony, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards for Best Actress in a Musical.

She then played Anna on Broadway in Patrick Marber’s Tony-nominated play Closer in 1999 and in 2003, played Ellida in Trevor Nunn’s production of The Lady From the Sea at the Almeida Theatre in London. She played Blanche DuBois for the Roundabout Theatre’s revival of A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway in 2005 (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination).

Some of her television credits include Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts for the BBC, also starring Dame Judi Dench, Michael Gambon and Kenneth Branagh; the HBO miniseries Hostages, with Colin Firth; and the BBC film Suddenly, Last Summer, based on the play by Tennessee Williams, directed by Richard Eyre and costarring Maggie Smith. In 1993, Richardson was nominated for a CableACE Award for her portrayal of Zelda Fitzgerald in the TNT movie Zelda, directed by Pat O’Connor and costarring Timothy Hutton. In 2001, she starred as Ruth Gruber in the CBS miniseries Haven, based on Ms. Gruber’s book.

In 1987, Richardson made her feature-film debut in the role of Mary Shelley in Ken Russell’s Gothic. Her performance caught the attention of director Paul Schrader, who cast her in her highly acclaimed title role in Patty Hearst. Since then, Richardson has achieved notable success in such films as Pat O’Connor’s A Month in the Country and Roland Joffé’s Fat Man and Little Boy. She then went on to win London’s Evening Standard Award for Best Actress of 1990 for her performance in Volker Schlöndorff’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Paul Schrader’s The Comfort of Strangers. In 1994, she received the Best Actress Award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for her lead role in Widows’ Peak, costarring Mia Farrow and Joan Plowright. She costarred with Jodie Foster and Liam Neeson in Nell in 1995 and then in 1998, starred in Disney’s The Parent Trap, with Dennis Quaid and Lindsay Lohan. Her films also include Blow Dry; Ethan Hawke’s Chelsea Walls; Waking Up in Reno, with Billy Bob Thornton; and Maid in Manhattan, with Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes.

In 2005, Richardson starred with Sir Ian McKellen in Asylum, based on the Patrick McGrath novel adapted by Patrick Marber. For her work in Asylum, she was nominated for Best Actress at the British Independent Film Awards 2005 and won London’s Evening Standard Award for Best Actress. She also received an Achievement in Cinema Award for Acting at the Savannah Film Festival in October of 2005. In 2005, Richardson starred in the title role of Merchant Ivory’s The White Countess, an original screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro, opposite Ralph Fiennes.

Richardson was most recently seen in Evening for Focus Features, based upon the novel by Susan Minot with a screenplay by Michael Cunningham, directed by Lajos Koltai. She is costarred with Claire Danes, Vanessa Redgrave, Toni Collette and Meryl Streep.

EMMA ROBERTS (Poppy), the 2007 ShoWest Female Star of Tomorrow

EMMA ROBERTS (Poppy), the 2007 ShoWest Female Star of Tomorrow, is next starring in Hotel for Dogs, opposite Academy Award® nominee Don Cheadle. In the DreamWorks film, Roberts plays one of two orphaned street kids who convert an old, abandoned hotel into an elaborate fantastical place for dogs. The film is directed by Thor Freudenthal and produced by Lauren Shuler Donner. It is scheduled for release in 2009.

Roberts has recently completed the ensemble drama Lymelife, executive produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by Derick and Steven Martini. In the story, work-shopped for the Sundance Film Festival Lab Series, she stars as a young Long Island Lolita in the late 70s, opposite Alec Baldwin and Rory Culkin.

Roberts starred as Nancy Drew in a big-screen adaptation of the classic teenage detective for Warner Bros. The film was directed by Andrew Fleming and produced by Jerry Weintraub. Roberts’ performance was applauded by critics and featured prominently in numerous magazines, newspapers and television news programs across the world.

Roberts’ breakout role was on the Nickelodeon hit-comedy series Unfabulous, created by Sue Rose. It was one of the highest-rated “tween shows” during its three-year run. The show resonated with millions of kids who related to the protagonist’s (Addie’s) life—a girl who dealt with the trials of growing up, fitting in and being popular by relaying her teen angst through writing music and singing songs.
Seventeen-year-old Roberts has begun to make her mark in a short period of time.

After her very first audition, Roberts booked the role of Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz’s daughter in Blow, which was directed by the late Ted Demme for New Line Cinema. After the successful premiere of Unfabulous, Roberts starred in the Fox 2000 film Aquamarine. Based on the Alice Hoffman novel of the same name, it is the story of two teen girls who discover a mermaid after their coastal town is ravaged by a hurricane. The film was directed by Elizabeth Allen and produced by Susan Cartsonis.

Roberts has also been on the covers of Teen Vogue, Elle Girl, Teen magazine, ym, Sweet 16 and Girls’ Life. Roberts has been profiled in Vanity Fair, Time, People and The New York Times, among others. She has also served as the face for the legendary handbag maker Dooney & Bourke.

While not acting, Roberts enjoys singing, swimming, volleyball, reading and playing with her friends. She is originally from Rhinebeck, New York and now lives in Los Angeles with her mother Kelly Cunningham, stepfather Kelly Nickels and sister Grace.

The girls of Wild Child had quite a good experience

Production wrapped, Nick Moore took off his director’s cap and headed to a place where he was very familiar: the editing bay, with Wild Child’s editor, Simon Cozens.

While he had been advised not to “pre-cut” the film in his mind, he found that old habits die hard. Of that shooting challenge, he reflects, “There were times when I thought, ‘I’m sure I’m not going to use this shot, except for that word. Why don’t we just shoot that word?’ But you can’t; it’s not fair on the actors. I remember being on set of a film I was cutting and there was an emotional scene on a wide shot. Halfway through the dialogue, the director cut it and I thought, ‘Poor actress!’ I tried not to do that with my first film as a director.”

He needn’t have worried, as all the girls of Wild Child had quite a good experience in what was the first film for most. Concludes Roberts of her time on the shoot: “It’s been really fun working with a U.K. cast and crew. I’ve always wanted to visit England. Everyone made fun of me though, because I say things differently,” she laughs. “But they’re all coming to L.A., so then, we can make fun of them…”

Universal Pictures Presents, in association with StudioCanal, a Working Title production: Emma Roberts, Natasha Richardson, Shirley Henderson, Alex Pettyfer and Aidan Quinn in Wild Child. Casting is by Joanna Colbert and Fiona Weir. The line producer is Alexandra Ferguson. The music is by Michael Price; the costume designer is Julia Caston; the editor is Simon Cozens. Wild Child’s production designer is Eve Stewart; the director of photography is Chris Seager, BSC. The executive producers for the film are Liza Chasin and Debra Hayward. Wild Child is produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Diana Phillips. The film is written by Lucy Dahl and directed by Nick Moore.

Malibu to Hertfordshire: Shooting the Comedy

WILD CHILD : Malibu to Hertfordshire: Shooting the Comedy

In order to create Poppy’s move from a Southern California high school to a British boarding school, filming crisscrossed England’s countryside, as well as the city of Los Angeles. The shots of key interior scenes took place at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire; Robin Hood’s Bay, near Whitby, North Yorkshire; and in the historic village of Haworth, situated at the edge of the Pennine Moors in West Yorkshire. This region was made famous by authors who long ago documented the angst of young women—the prodigious Brontë sisters—and is now known as Brontë Country.

In the center of Haworth on Main Street, the exteriors and interiors of local businesses were transformed to accommodate filming. These included the vintage clothing and accessories shop The Souk, which became the charity shop where the girls rummage for fashions for the dance; the Rose & Co. Apothecary, which became the liquor store where Poppy charms her way into buying a few bottles; and Emma’s Eating Parlour, which became the site of Poppy’s transformation into a lovely brunette, Christopher’s Salon.

The majority of the exterior and interior school scenes were filmed at Cobham Hall in Kent, chosen as the setting for the fictional Abbey Mount School for Girls. Today, Cobham Hall is an independent boarding and day school for young women. It is steeped in history and set in 150 acres of Grade II-listed parkland in Kent.

Dating back to the 12th century, Cobham Hall was given by Henry II to a French knight. On two occasions, the manor house was visited by Elizabeth I, and Charles I spent a night of his honeymoon at Cobham. Charles Dickens often passed through the park on his way from his home at Gad’s Hill Place to drink ale at the Leather Bottle Inn in Cobham village—frequently stopping to visit his friend, the Earl of Darnley. The Hall has been home to everything from a priceless collection of old masters to recuperating Australian servicemen in the First World War.

Roberts felt right at home on the storied grounds. Her comfort level even allowed her to nod off while she was supposed to be faking rest during the shoot. She laughingly recounts, “I actually fell asleep in one scene. We were lying in bed and before I knew it, they were cueing everyone and said, ‘Linzey?’ and she had to wake up, then ‘Kim?’ and she had to wake up. Then it was, ‘Emma? Emma? Emma?’ I just woke up and said, ‘What happened? What happened?’ They knew I fell asleep so easily; it was so embarrassing.”

The Honor Court where Poppy is given the chance to clear her name and key classroom scenes were filmed by director Moore and cinematographer Chris Seager at Balls Park in Hertfordshire. The mansion, a building of great architectural interest and beauty, was erected by Sir John Harrison in 1640 during the reign of Charles I. It is situated in more than 100 acres of parkland on the outskirts of the county town of Hertford.

A private residence in Malibu became the location for Poppy’s beachside home. There, she would torture dad Gerry’s love, Rosemary, with an outrageous welcome to the family. Additional Los Angeles filming took place at the landmark Fred Segal shops and in Paradise Cove.

All of the girls had the opportunity to bond during the rehearsal process when they learned how to play lacrosse and dance to a routine that involved krumping. As producer Phillips recalls, “We were scared to death of the lacrosse, because not only did we not know anything about the game as filmmakers, not one of us had ever played it, and none of the girls were lacrosse players. We were very conscious we needed to shoot it authentically and believably, so we went to the experts and did a lot of training with real lacrosse players. In fact, the girls can play; they’ve all grasped it beautifully.”

Wild Child Casting the Film

When it came to selecting the lead role of Poppy, it was important to find a young American actress who could play a self-obsessed, pampered southern California socialite, as well as convincingly carry off a gradual transformation into a considerate, fresh-faced English schoolgirl. In popular teen actress Emma Roberts, Moore and the producers found the perfect blend. With a resume that includes Unfabulous, a successful Nickelodeon television show about the trials of a teenage girl, as well as the big-screen adaptation of Nancy Drew and the comedy Aquamarine, Emma Roberts was just the young woman for the part.

Phillips says, “This movie wasn’t going be made unless the perfect Poppy was found, and Emma stood out as a movie star. She was incredibly natural. She’s a real professional and has had her own TV show for a few years. It was the perfect movie for Emma at this stage in her career, and she’s proven to be incredible.”

For the performer, Poppy was the type of girl she’d often seen while working in Hollywood. Roberts was delighted at the chance to take the fake-tanned, bleach-blonde brat on the journey from the comforts of her swank Malibu home to the perceived confines of an English boarding school. The actress liked that Poppy, for the first time, would be forced to become accountable for her actions.

Roberts offers: “When she first gets to England from L.A., Poppy is a spoiled L.A. girl who just doesn’t want to be bothered with anything; then she starts a transformation when she gets there. She’s kind of mean but nice, deep down. I loved the character and the story. I have never played a character like Poppy before, so it was really cool to play someone different.”

Aidan Quinn was cast as Poppy’s long-beseiged father, Gerry. After reading Dahl’s screenplay, the father of two girls knew he wanted audiences to not only laugh through the film, but also find the humanity he saw in it. Quinn provides: “I hope the audience gets wrapped up in the emotions of the story and the feeling of what it is to be a teenager that’s troubled—then finds her way through it with friends, family and a degree of discipline and direction.”

Asked to portray the glamorous, yet formidable, headmistress Mrs. Kingsley was British performer Natasha Richardson. Too, Wild Child would not be the first time Richardson had worked with Quinn, her co-star in the critically-lauded adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s landmark “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

Richardson wasn’t only impressed with the screenplay, she was keen to work with a first-time director who was receptive to the feedback that she and her fellow performers offered. The actor enjoyed the fact that Moore married his skills as a seasoned editor with a receptiveness to input from cast and crew. Indeed, Richardson felt those attributes contributed to the relaxed atmosphere on set and allowed for better comedic performances.

The students at Abbey Mount School for Girls are supervised by the diminutive but strict Matron, played by Scottish actress Shirley Henderson. Poppy valiantly battles against Matron’s rules and finds herself head-to-head in a losing battle with the disciplinarian.

Henderson has spent much of the past decade as a boarding school student herself, though as a young girl who has been long-departed. As the ghostly Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter film series, the actor was well familiar with the trials of filming academy life. This production, however, reminded her of just what it felt like to be a student. She recounts of her time in school, “I used to get in to a lot of trouble because I was very small and very young for my age. I always used to stand up for myself and just quietly got through it.” Just like Poppy, Henderson admits, “I wasn’t a fan of school; it wasn’t my favorite place to be, but I just put my head down and got on with it.”

Along with the adults in Poppy’s world, it was as important to find the correct ensemble of young British actresses to play alongside Roberts. As her fellow classmates, they needed to be a group of girls that a young audience would identify with and believe would actually populate the academy.

Director Moore says, “Finding the girls was tough. These are parts for young girls, and so the actresses wouldn’t have necessarily had very much experience on screen. The important thing for us was to make sure that there was a group that you believed. We flew Emma over for a few days and had a whole bunch of girls try out. We tried different combinations until we felt we had the best ensemble.”

The casting process led to the mates with whom Poppy begrudgingly shares a dormitory room. Before becoming friends with them, the young American is the bane of existence to the mature Kate (Kimberly Nixon), easily flustered Drippy (Juno Temple), computer savy Kiki (Sophie Wu) and practical lacrosse player Josie (Linzey Crocker).

Poppy’s arch nemesis, the Head Girl named Harriet, is played by Georgia King. RUBY THOMAS and ELEANOR TURNER-MOSS portray her sidekicks, Jane and Charlotte. Finally, RUSTY O’HARA was cast as Harriet’s much-abused school minion.

When it came to selecting the actor to play Poppy’s love interest, Mrs. Kingsley’s son Freddie, the production turned to Alex Pettyfer, star of the spy thriller Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker. Pettyfer was chosen as the perfect young man to turn Poppy’s head. Unfortunately, he also happens to be the object of Harriet’s unrequited affections.

Other staff include DAISY DONOVAN as the nice-but-naïve sports teacher, Miss Rees-Withers; Nick Frost as Poppy’s genius hairstylist, Mr. Christopher; JASON WATKINS as the incompetent French teacher, Mr. Nellist; and SELINA CADELL as the dizzy drama instructor, Miss Loughton.

On the other side of the pond, Poppy’s American friends and family were rounded out by LEXI AINSWORTH as her younger sister, Molly; SHELBY YOUNG as Poppy’s boyfriend stealing ex-best friend, Ruby; and JOHNNY PACAR as the former love of her life, Roddy.

Two Generations of Bad Girls: Wild Child is Born

Two Generations of Bad Girls: Wild Child is Born

Screenwriter Lucy Dahl based her script for Wild Child on two quite different eras in her life. As a girl, she attended boarding school in England, and as an adult, she lived in Los Angeles and became the mother of teenage daughters. As she observed the behavior of her children and their school friends, she grew fascinated by their culture...and the similarities of young women across generations.

When imagining Wild Child, Dahl drew from a difficult time in her life about which she is not so proud. She relates, “I wrote the screenplay based on my antics when I was at school. I did actually set my school on fire, and I was expelled. I did have a real Mrs. Kingsley [the headmistress], and she was lovely.”

Her mentor’s feelings toward Dahl changed the day she learned what happened. Notes the screenwriter: “She was just so disappointed when she found out that I had done it. I called my Dad the day afterwards—because we didn’t get caught right away—and I said, ‘Someone set fire to the school last night!’ My Dad called Mrs. Kingsley and said, ‘There’s a maniac in your school! You’ve got to find her and get her out.’ He was a bit embarrassed when he found out it was me.”

Lucy was not the only Dahl in her family who was prone to acting up and upon whom the characters of Poppy and her clique were based. As she recalls, “I wrote it when I had teenage daughters in L.A. Girls at that age can be so horrible to each other. I’ve seen it and been the mean girl myself, and when you get older you just think, ‘Girls, girls, girls...don’t do it!’” Naturally, with all difficulty, there was humor to be found.

Working Title Films’ Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner responded to the coming-of-age tale and dark humor in Dahl’s script. Offers Bevan, “Wild Child is a fun and fresh departure for us, being the first film we have made specifically for teenage girls. We were drawn by Lucy’s sparky screenplay and the opportunity to show off the talents of a new emerging group of young actresses, led by Emma Roberts.”

Bevan and Fellner asked producer Diana Phillips to work alongside them for the film. As an American living in London and the mother of three daughters, Phillips had a solid understanding of the issues young girls faced as they grew up...and what it felt like to be a fish out of water.

Based on his longstanding relationship with Working Title, prolific editor Nick Moore was brought on to the project as a first-time director. This was the next logical step for the man who had edited a string of commercial and critical hits—including Notting Hill (starring another famous Roberts), About a Boy, Love Actually and Nanny McPhee—for the studio.

As Phillips suggests, Moore’s reputation as an established romantic comedy editor made him a natural fit to helm his own film. “Nick brings so much to the film from his perspective as an editor. His reputation as an amazing editor, much deserved, really does show up in his plans and preparations for the shooting.”

With its comedy, heart and universal themes of growing up and loss, Wild Child’s script struck a chord for Moore. He also saw in Dahl’s work an opportunity to create a film that would appeal to both American and British filmgoers, as well as audiences across the globe.

The filmmaker liked the throughline of teenagers coming to terms with the people they are becoming. He especially enjoyed Poppy’s arc of growing closer to her father again after her mother’s death devastated their family. “There’s a good moral story in there,” Moore provides. “Poppy wasn’t bad; she was a bit lost and needed to find herself.” He admits, however, “I also like to be cheered up by movies; it’s important to send people away feeling positive. If you’re crying a little and then a joke comes along, the joke’s all the better. Or if you’re laughing and then there’s an emotional bit, it feels sweeter.”

With the script set and the director chosen, the filmmakers would begin the search for a spoiled Malibu princess and a band of girls brought in to her life to, alternately, tempt and save her.

WILD CHILD SYNOPSIS OF THE FILM

WILD CHILD

SYNOPSIS OF THE FILM

When 16-year-old Malibu princess Poppy (Emma Roberts) trashes her beach front home in order to “welcome” her dad’s (Aidan Quinn) new fiancée, he carries out a long-promised threat to send her away to boarding school in York, England. There, she’ll finally learn the scholarship, fellowship and loyalty that have so far eluded her.
Very much a fish out of water, Poppy gets off to a royal bad start at the Abbey Mount School for Girls. She refuses to acknowledge the authority of snobbish and cruel Head Girl Harriet (GEORGIA KING) and makes an instant enemy of the fifth-generation Abbey Mount student. She also fails to see the point in bonding with her schoolmates. Why bother? Poppy intends to be out of there and back to the beach in a few weeks anyway.

Several of her roommates—Drippy (JUNO TEMPLE), Kiki (SOPHIE WU) and Josie (LINZEY CROCKER)—give Poppy the cold shoulder once her outrageous behavior starts costing them privileges. But the most mature of the girls, Kate (KIMBERLY NIXON), extends an olive branch when Poppy confides that her mother died in a car accident five years ago and she’s been struggling since. Naturally, the girls decide to help their wounded American sister get back home by aiding her in an expulsion.
Let Operation Freedom begin.

When a series of audacious, humorous pranks doesn’t result in punishment from the school’s headmistress, Mrs. Kingsley (Natasha Richardson), the girls quickly realize they have to up the ante. Kate suggests Poppy target Mrs. Kingsley’s son, Freddie (Alex Pettyfer). The last girl caught snogging with him was sent packing.

When Harriet discovers Poppy is making the moves on Freddie, she’s furious. She’s always had a crush on him and (in her mind) is the rightful recipient of his affections. As Poppy challenges all Harriet holds sacred, the queen bee begins a campaign of sabotage. She has two intentions: leave Poppy friendless and Freddie-less.

Meanwhile, to take her mind off her troubles, Poppy gets in the swing of school life. When challenged by Mrs. Kingsley to make an effort, she launches into training the lacrosse team...American style. Poppy begins to understand her new friends are genuine and truly care about her—versus the vapid hangers-on she left behind at her old high school. All her efforts to leave the academy, particularly her flirtations with Freddie, make her realize that happiness at Abbey Mount might be in her grasp.

Furious at losing her power, Harriet forges emails that suggest Poppy has been using everyone for her own advantage—laughing at the idiocy of her new friends and the foolishness of Freddie. All her mates are hurt and devastated by the lies. Utterly forlorn, Poppy retreats to a quiet corner of the kitchen. She sits in misery, nervously flicking her souvenir lighter. Absorbed and unthinking, she lights a thread at the bottom of the kitchen curtains, and they accidentally alight. Horrified, she quickly puts out the fire and runs from the scene, leaving her lighter behind.

Though Poppy thinks she put out the fire, it has unfortunately been relit. It spreads and chaos ensues throughout the school. She confesses to Mrs. Kingsley and, after doing so, discovers a lacrosse team photo from 1977 and learns her mother both went to her school and was captain of the team. Mrs. Kingsley has no choice but to propose her for expulsion before the school honor court, a trial by peers system. Fortunately, Kate and the other girls have finally realized the emails were doctored and show up to support their close friend.

During her interrogation of Poppy, Harriet accidentally trips up and reveals her own role in restarting the fire. Poppy is found innocent and then leads her team to a triumphant lacrosse win. While on holiday back home, a blissful Poppy and her newly happy dad relish the enjoyment Freddie and the girls find at their taste of the wild child’s world. She realizes the value of her lessons at the Abbey Mount and understands she has finally become the young woman her mother dreamed she’d be.

EMMA ROBERTS stars in the comedy Wild Child

EMMA ROBERTS (Nancy Drew, Aquamarine) stars in the comedy Wild Child as 16-year-old Poppy: a self-obsessed, incorrigible brat who lives a pampered life in her L.A. world. Though she’s handed credit cards with unlimited balances and surrounded by countless hangers-on, Poppy can’t escape the mounting frustration she feels with her family situation. And she makes sure that everyone knows it.

After an over-the-top prank pushes her father, Gerry (AIDAN QUINN, television’s Canterbury’s Law, Dark Matter), one step too far, Poppy is shipped off to an English boarding school. Finding herself in a foreign world of early curfews, stern matrons and mandatory lacrosse, the Malibu princess has finally met her match: a school of British girls who won’t tolerate her spoiled ways.

Under the watchful eye of the school’s headmistress, Mrs. Kingsley (NATASHA RICHARDSON, Evening, The White Countess), and surrounded by a new circle of friends, Poppy begrudgingly realizes her bad-girl behavior will only get her so far. But just because she must grow into a fine young lady doesn’t mean this wild child won’t be spending every waking hour shaking up a very proper system…

Joining Roberts, Richardson and Quinn in the comedy are SHIRLEY HENDERSON (Harry Potter series, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) as the boarding school’s watchful matron; ALEX PETTYFER (Tom Brown’s School Days, Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker) as Poppy’s local distraction (and Mrs. Kingsley’s son), Freddie; and NICK FROST (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) as the hairstylist who helps Poppy in her transformation, Mr. Christopher.

Wild Child marks the directorial debut of NICK MOORE from a screenplay by LUCY DAHL (upcoming Girl of the Moment). The film is produced by Working Title’s TIM BEVAN and ERIC FELLNER (Definitely, Maybe, Atonement) and DIANA PHILLIPS (Death at a Funeral, Alfie).

The behind-the-scenes team includes director of photography CHRIS SEAGER (upcoming Chilled in Miami, The Merry Gentelman), production designer EVE STEWART (Becoming Jane, The Good Night), editor SIMON COZENS (The Last Legion, The Kovak Box) and costume designer JULIA CASTON (Sex and Death 101, What We Do Is Secret). The music for Wild Child is by MICHAEL PRICE (upcoming 7 Lives, Agent Crush). Working Title’s DEBRA HAYWARD (Nanny McPhee, Elizabeth: The Golden Age) and LIZA CHASIN (Definitely, Maybe, Atonement) serve as executive producers.

Partnering to develop 3-D technology and techniques

Intel, DreamWorks form alliance

Partnering to develop 3-D technology and techniques

Intel and DreamWorks Animation have entered into a strategic alliance aimed at developing 3-D technology and techniques.

The deal combines Intel's visual computing tools with DWA's expertise in content creation. Intel technology will be used to evolve DWA's production infrastructure, including its stereoscopic 3-D pipeline. DWA also will act as a test site for developing Intel technology. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The initiative begins immediately and will affect productions beginning with "Monsters vs. Aliens," DWA's first stereoscopic 3-D release, due March 27. DreamWorks Animation has been bullish about the 3-D format, having committed to producing all of its feature films in stereoscopic 3-D beginning next year.

As the first step, Intel will provide its chips for all of DWA's servers and workstations used to create and render animation. These will replace currently installed AMD chips.

Meanwhile, Intel engineers will develop DWA's software applications for use with its processors.

"Technology plays a significant role in enabling our artists to tell great stories," DWA CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said. "By utilizing Intel's industry-leading computing products, we will create a new and innovative way for moviegoers to experience our films in 3-D."

DWA also will house a test site for future Intel technology. That initially will include future chip technology, currently called Mehalem, and a developing multicore architecture code-named Larrabee.

"Technology like Larrabee will give horsepower required to achieve 3-D in the home," said Nick Knupffer, global communications manager at Intel.

Intel expects its developing Larrabee technology to be used to offer 3-D on platforms including home theater, personal computers, video games, online environments and mobile devices.

The Intel alliance does not have impact on DWA's high-profile technology relationship with HP.

KELLY MATSUMOTO, SANJA MILKOVIC HAYS The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is KELLY MATSUMOTO’s (Edited by) first collaboration with director Rob Cohen. Previously, she co-edited both The Mummy and The Mummy Returns for director Stephen Sommers and producer Bob Ducsay.

She recently edited Smother, a comedy starring Diane Keaton and Dax Shepard for director Vince Di Meglio. Matsumoto’s editing credits also include Van Helsing, directed by Stephen Sommers; The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, directed by Justin Lin; and Meet the Fockers, directed by Jay Roach. Additionally, she edited the Academy Award®-winning short film Two Soldiers with director Aaron Schneider.

SANJA MILKOVIC HAYS (Costume Designer) collaborates with director Rob Cohen for the third time. They previously worked together on xXx and The Fast and The Furious, also for Universal Pictures. She also has a diverse roster of other motion pictures that includes xXx: State of the Union, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Next, Gridiron Gang, Taxi, Cheaper by the Dozen, Big Fat Liar, Along Came a Spider, Mission to Mars, Star Trek: Insurrection, Blade, 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag, Spaced Invaders, Buried Alive and The Masque of the Red Death.

She was also assistant costume designer of the fantasy/science fiction films Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and two smash hits from director Roland Emmerich: Stargate and Independence Day. Hays is currently designing for the fourth installment of The Fast and the Furious franchise: Fast & Furious.

Hays was born in Zagreb, Croatia, where she graduated from the local university.

NIGEL PHELPS, JOEL NEGRON The Mummy

NIGEL PHELPS (Production Designer) has enjoyed a prodigious career as a production designer. His credits include Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy; Michael Bay’s The Island; and Pearl Harbor; and Phillip Noyce’s The Bone Collector.

Phelps began his career working with Academy Award® winner Anton Furst. He started as an illustrator on Neil Jordan’s The Company of Wolves, and then worked as assistant art director on Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. Then Phelps served as art director for Furst on Tim Burton’s Batman.

Shortly thereafter, Phelps moved to Los Angeles, and designed cutting-edge music videos and commercials for a variety of influential directors, including Mark Romanek, Alex Proyas, Michael Bay and Joe Pytka. This work garnered Phelps multiple nominations for MTV Video Awards. His first feature credit as a production designer came on the futuristic science-fiction film Judge Dredd. He followed with Alien: Resurrection for acclaimed filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and he later renewed his collaboration with Neil Jordon on In Dreams. More recently, he has been developing Life of Pi with Jeunet, and Borgia with Neil Jordan.

Phelps is currently designing Transformers 2 for Michael Bay, his third film with the director.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor marks JOEL NEGRON’s(Edited by) second film with helmer Rob Cohen, previously teaming together on the action film tarring Vin Diesel.

Negron’s recent credits include editing the gritty, inspirational film Gridiron Gang, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, directed by Phil Joanou. He was also the editor on Warner Bros.’ remake of the classic film House of Wax, for producer Joel Silver, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. He was the additional editor on Radio, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr.

Negron started his career as a first assistant editor on James Cameron’s True Lies, then went on to four consecutive films with director Tim Burton, starting with Mars Attacks! and moving up to be credited as film editor and additional editor on Sleepy Hollow, Planet of the Apes and Big Fish.

Negron has amassed an impressive list of editing credits working with producer
Jerry Bruckheimer on such blockbusters as Gone in Sixty Seconds, directed by Dominic Sena; Enemy of the State, directed by Tony Scott; and Pearl Harbor and Armageddon, both directed by Michael Bay.

At an early age, Negron worked for his father, production illustrator-designer
David Negron, preparing storyboards for Raiders of the Lost Ark.

SIMON DUGGAN The Mummy

From psychological dramas to heart-pounding sci-fi thrillers, SIMON DUGGAN, ACS (Director of Photography) brings his masterful cinematography to every film he shoots. An award-winning member of the Australian Cinematographers Society, Duggan made his feature debut in America with none other than the box-office smash I, Robot, his second feature with director Alex Proyas, having previously lensed surprise indie hit Garage Days. Duggan’s recent feature credits include Live Free or Die Hard and Underworld: Evolution. Other credits include The Interview, Risk and Guests.

As a master storyteller with the camera, Duggan uses his fluid style and renowned knack for impeccable lighting to create keen tension and powerful emotion, whether for a television commercial or an epic movie. American Cinematographer magazine describes his work as having a “vibrant, whimsical style,” while Variety named his talent “visually inventive.”

To date, he has earned more than 30 Best Cinematography awards and commendations from organizations including the Film Critics Circle of Australia, The Mobius Advertising Awards, the Australian Television Awards, the Melbourne Art Directors Club, the Federation of Australian Commercial Television Stations, the Australian Writers and Art Directors Association and the aforementioned Australian Cinematographers Society.

Duggan is represented by Dattner Dispoto and Associates in Los Angeles.

CHRIS BRIGHAM The Mummy

CHRIS BRIGHAM (Executive Producer) is currently serving as the executive producer on Martin Scorsese’s upcoming drama Ashecliffe. Previously, he was also the executive producer on The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert De Niro; Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed film The Aviator; and Tribeca Productions’ hit comedies Analyze This and Analyze That, directed by Harold Ramis and starring Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal.

Among other films, Brigham has executive-produced The Count of Monte Cristo and The Legend of Bagger Vance and co-produced Extreme Measures and Before and After. Brigham has worked as unit production manager on Kiss of Death, Six Degrees of Separation, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles and Lorenzo’s Oil.

BOB DUCSAY The Mummy franchise

BOB DUCSAY (Produced by) was one of the original creators of The Mummy franchise, having produced and edited The Mummy and The Mummy Returns.

In 2001, he joined with longtime collaborator Stephen Sommers to form Sommers Company. Universal’s release of Van Helsing marked their first film under the banner, with Ducsay serving as both producer and editor.

Ducsay’s credits as an editor include The Adventures of Huck Finn, The Jungle Book and Deep Rising, also for Stephen Sommers, and Impostor, Star Kid and Love and a .45.
He is currently producing G.I. Joe for Paramount Pictures.

Ducsay also executive-produced the Academy Award®-winning short film Two Soldiers. He holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television.

STEPHEN SOMMERS The Mummy and The Mummy Returns

STEPHEN SOMMERS (Produced by) wrote and directed The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. He also wrote and produced the spin-off, The Scorpion King. He wrote and directed The Adventures of Huck Finn, starring Elijah Wood and Jason Robards; The Jungle Book, starring Jason Scott Lee, Cary Elwes, Sam Neill and John Cleese; and Deep Rising, starring Treat Williams and Famke Janssen. Sommers wrote and executive-produced Disney’s Tom and Huck, starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Brad Renfro. For television, he wrote and executive-produced Oliver Twist, again working with Wood as well as Richard Dreyfuss. Sommers is currently filming Paramount Pictures’ G.I. Joe, starring Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, Marlon Wayans, Dennis Quaid, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jonathan Pryce, for a release in August 2009.

A native of Minnesota, Sommers attended St. John’s University and the University of Seville in Spain. Afterwards, Sommers spent the next four years in Europe, working in street theater and managing rock bands.

From there, he relocated to Los Angeles and attended the USC School of Cinema-Television for three years, earning a master’s degree, where he wrote and directed an award-winning short film, Perfect Alibi. With independent funding, he wrote and directed his first motion picture, Catch Me If You Can (1989), which was filmed in his hometown of St. Cloud, Minnesota.

JAMES JACKS The Mummy

JAMES JACKS (Produced by) was executive producer of the Coen brothers’ cult film, Raising Arizona, before joining Universal Pictures as vice president of acquisitions. During his five years there, Jacks was involved in making such films as Field of Dreams, Do the Right Thing, Darkman, Jungle Fever and American Me.

In 1992, he formed Alphaville Productions, one of America’s most successful production companies with partner Sean Daniel. In addition to The Mummy series, they have produced such acclaimed movies as Richard Linklater’s acclaimed Dazed and Confused; William Friedkin’s The Hunted; Dark Blue; Rat Race; the Coen brothers’ comedy Intolerable Cruelty; the Nora Ephron comedy Michael; the acclaimed western Tombstone; John Woo’s first American film, Hard Target; The Gift, starring Cate Blanchett and Hilary Swank and directed by Sam Raimi; and the Weitz brothers’ Down to Earth, starring Chris Rock.

RANDY EDELMAN The Mummy

RANDY EDELMAN (Music by) most recently composed the score for Fox 2000’s 27 Dresses. His other recent work includes Rogue Picture’s Balls of Fury and Spyglass Entertainment’s Underdog.

He has enjoyed multiple collaborations with several filmmakers, including Ivan Reitman (Twins, Ghostbusters II, Kindergarten Cop and Six Days Seven Nights), Rob Cohen (Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Dragonheart, Daylight, The Skulls and xXx), Jonathan Lynn (My Cousin Vinny, The Distinguished Gentleman, Greedy and The Whole Nine Yards), Jeremiah S. Chechik (Tall Tale and Diabolique) and Ronald F. Maxwell (Gettysburg and Gods and Generals).

Edelman’s many other feature scores include Michael Mann’s The Last of the Mohicans (earning BAFTA and Golden Globe Award nominations, with Trevor Jones), Bill Murray and Howard Franklin’s Quick Change, Chuck Russell’s The Mask, Jon Turteltaub’s While You Were Sleeping, Frank Oz’s The Indian in the Cupboard, Luis Llosa’s Anaconda, Ron Howard’s Edtv, Tom Dey’s Shanghai Noon and Chris Gerolmo’s award-winning telefilm Citizen X. He also scored the miniseries The Ten Commandments, directed by Robert Dornhelm.
Edelman won an Emmy Award for composing the theme for NBC’s Olympics coverage (which continues to accompany the broadcasts every two years), and has also composed the themes for several other notable televised sporting events.

Though a conservatory-trained classical musician, Edelman began his career as a singer and songwriter, and in the latter capacity, penned hits for The Carpenters, Barry Manilow, The 5th Dimension and Blood, Sweat & Tears. His songs have also been recorded by such artists as Bing Crosby, Patti LaBelle, Olivia Newton-John and Nancy
Wilson. He performed as the opening act on tour with The Carpenters and Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention, among others. As a solo artist, he has released more than a dozen albums and performed at such venues as the London Palladium, the Drury Lane Theatre and the Royal Festival Hall.

The Teaneck, New Jersey native attended the University of Cincinnati as a pre-med major (and recently earned an honorary doctorate in fine arts from the university) before pursuing music as a vocation. He earned a reputation as an arranger for local bands, and was soon hired by the “Godfather of Soul,” James Brown, to orchestrate songs for King Records.

SEAN DANIEL The Mummy

SEAN DANIEL (Produced by) has produced The Mummy, The Mummy Returns and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. He is currently in production on The Wolfman, starring Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins, for The Stuber Company and Universal Pictures. In 1992, he formed Alphaville Productions with partner Jim Jacks. In addition to The Mummy series, they produced such films as Richard Linklater’s acclaimed Dazed and Confused; the renowned western Tombstone, starring Kurt Russell; The Scorpion King; Nora Ephron’s comedy Michael, starring John Travolta; A Simple Plan, directed by Sam Raimi; the Coen brothers’ Intolerable Cruelty; the Chris Rock/Weitz brothers’ comedy Down to Earth; Jerry Zucker’s Rat Race; John Woo’s first American film, Hard Target; William Friedkin’s The Hunted, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro; The Jackal, starring Richard Gere and Bruce Willis; and The Gift, starring Cate Blanchett and Hilary Swank, also directed by Raimi.

For cable television, Daniel produced the TNT original film Freedom Song, directed by Phil Robinson and starring Danny Glover; HBO’s Everyday People; and the USA Network’s four-hour miniseries, Attila.

Before becoming a producer, Daniel was an executive at Universal Pictures serving as president of production from 1984 to 1989. During his time there, he supervised such films as National Lampoon’s Animal House, Coal Miner’s Daughter, The Blues Brothers, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Field of Dreams, Do the Right Thing, Missing, Fletch, Brazil and Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey.

He received a bachelor of fine arts in film from the California Institute of the Arts in 1973. In addition, Daniel has been a participant in the debate about media and culture, appearing on The McLaughlin Group and NPR’s Which Way L.A.?, and offering commentary in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Huffington Post.

ALFRED GOUGH & MILES MILLAR The Mummy

ALFRED GOUGH & MILES MILLAR (Written by) are prolific writer/producers. Their work on The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor spanned three years, from inception to completion. They collaborated closely with director Rob Cohen to relaunch the incredibly successful The Mummy franchise.

Gough and Millar’s feature credits include the hit action-comedy Shanghai Noon, starring Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson and Lucy Liu, as well as its sequel, Shanghai Knights, directed by David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers). Other screenwriting credits include Spider-Man 2, starring Tobey Maguire; Herbie Fully Loaded, starring Lindsay Lohan; and Lethal Weapon 4, starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.

Gough and Millar’s work also spans the world of television. The duo created and served as executive producers of the critically acclaimed action-adventure series Smallville, which is now in its eighth season. Smallville is the longest-running comic book-based series of all time and was the No. 1 show in the history of the WB Television Network.

Gough and Millar first met as students in the Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California.

They are currently producing Hannah Montana: The Movie. The film, based on the smash hit Disney Channel series, stars teen phenom Miley Cyrus. The feature marks the first for the duo’s Walt Disney-based production company, Millar/Gough Ink. Hannah Montana: The Movie will be released in 2009.

ROB COHEN The Mummy

Combining nearly three decades of motion picture experience, first as an executive, then as a highly prolific producer and finally as one of American film’s most versatile and successful directors, ROB COHEN (Directed by) maintains a unique place in the entertainment industry. In summer 2008, Universal Pictures releases director Rob Cohen’s fourth summer tent-pole film with The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

The action-adventure film is the first major studio release totally set in China and to have its premiere in the new Beijing Opera House, which will take place July 21, 2008. The highly anticipated movie unfolds in Asian movie theaters on July 24 and in America on August 1.

His two recent back-to-back blockbusters, The Fast and the Furious and xXx, prove that Cohen is often on the cutting edge of cultural (pop and otherwise) and technological developments. Those two films have generated over one billion dollars. Cohen’s films as both producer and director have swept across a wide range of topics and backdrops, revealing a filmmaker constantly in search of broadening his cinematic horizons.

Cohen’s critically acclaimed The Rat Pack, an HBO film starring Ray Liotta as Frank Sinatra, Joe Mantegna as Dean Martin and Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis Jr., chronicled an entire era as it told the story of Hollywood and Las Vegas’ most famous swingers in their heyday. The Rat Pack garnered 11 Emmy Award nominations (winning three), won Cheadle a Golden Globe Award and earned Cohen a nomination from the Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television.

Cohen’s previous directorial efforts reveal his expansive storytelling interests. His debut film, A Small Circle of Friends, starred the late Brad Davis and Karen Allen in a romance set against the political turmoil of late 1960s Harvard University (Cohen’s alma mater). Heralded both by critics and audiences, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story—which was both written and directed by Cohen—humanized the legendary Hong Kong-born action hero for new generations, and made stars of both Jason Scott Lee and Lauren Holly.

For Dragonheart, visual effects made a quantum leap in Cohen’s epic fable of an unlikely alliance in mythical times between a knight (Dennis Quaid) and a fierce but noble dragon endowed with the powers of speech (voiced by Sean Connery). Cohen was intricately involved with both the design of the massive creature and implementation of the state-of-the-art effects from Industrial Light & Magic, the first time that a major motion-picture character was fully rendered digitally. The film won the Saturn Award as Best Fantasy Film in 1996, and was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Visual Effects.

Cohen was born in Cornwall-on-Hudson in New York. He attended Harvard University, from which he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in anthropology. He began his career in film during his sophomore year at Harvard, when he assisted director Daniel Petrie in making Silent Night, Lonely Night, an NBC made-for-television movie. After graduation, Cohen moved to Los Angeles, where as a reader for International Famous Agency (IFA), he discovered the now-classic The Sting.

He left IFA for 20th Century Fox Television and quickly acquired the title director of television movies, developing such projects as Mrs. Sundance and Stowaway to the Moon. Desiring to expand into feature films, Cohen joined Motown as their executive vice president of the motion-picture division while still in his early 20s.

At Motown, Cohen produced some key entries in 1970s cinema, several of them antidotes for the “blaxploitation” films of the era. The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings, starring Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor, was a seriocomic look at the Negro Leagues of the 1930s. The television movie Scott Joplin, which also starred Williams, was the story of the great early 20th century ragtime pianist and composer whose music was popularized in the soundtrack for The Sting. Mahogany and The Wiz both starred Diana Ross, the former a romantic drama set against the world of high fashion, the latter a screen adaptation of the smash Broadway hit musical. For The Wiz, Cohen received the NAACP Image Award for Best Picture, and Mahogany received an Oscar® nomination for its now-standard theme song “Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To).”

At Motown, Cohen also produced Thank God It’s Friday, which was the decade’s quintessential disco movie. The film featured superstar diva Donna Summer and such young talents as Jeff Goldblum, Debra Winger and Terri Nunn (later the lead singer of the group Berlin) at early stages of their careers.

Cohen’s television directorial credits include an Emmy-nominated episode of Miami Vice, as well as segments of thirtysomething, Hooperman, A Year in the Life and Private Eye. He also created, wrote and executive-produced the series Vanishing Son, notable for being one of the very few to focus on Asian characters...with Asian actors filling all of those roles. Vanishing Son won two MANAA (Media Action Network for Asian Americans) Awards for positive portrayal of Asians in media, one for the program itself and another for star Russell Wong.

Cohen is an avid surfer and collector of first-edition books and has homes in Malibu, California, and Bali, Indonesia.

MICHELLE YEOH (Zi Yuan) The Mummy

MICHELLE YEOH’s (Zi Yuan) was recently seen in Danny Boyle’s sci-fi thriller Sunshine, for Fox Searchlight, and Rob Marshall’s critically acclaimed Memoirs of a Geisha, for Columbia Pictures. Due out this summer, for Sony Pictures Classics, is the period drama The Children of Huang Shi. At the end of August, Yeoh will be seen opposite Vin Diesel, Charlotte Rampling and Gérard Depardieu in the postapocalyptic action-thriller Babylon A.D. for 20th Century Fox, by acclaimed French director Mathieu Kassovitz. Yeoh also starred in the independent film Far North, directed by Asif Kapadia, in 2007.

Yeoh is best known to international audiences as the intense swordswoman in Ang Lee’s gripping Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and as the charming secret agent in the James Bond hit Tomorrow Never Dies, but the Malaysian-born actress has been knocking audiences out in Asia for more than two decades. Since stepping into the action-packed Hong Kong film world in 1984, she has starred in more than 30 films and challenged traditional views of Asian women with her portrayals of strong female characters.

She clearly demonstrated that she is more than the world’s action queen in the epic film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a performance that brought her Best Actress nominations at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, the Hong Kong Film Awards and the BAFTAs in 2001. She was also named ShoWest’s International Star of the Year in 2001. Yeoh also received a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the 1997 Hong Kong Film Awards for her performance in the historical drama The Soong Sisters.

In 2002, Yeoh added another feather to her cap by producing and starring in The Touch, a contemporary romantic action-adventure. That same year, she was honored with a Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award in recognition of her achievement and commitment to nurture creative talents. Hence, she was named Producer of the Year by CineAsia and received The Outstanding Young Persons of the World Award by Junior Chamber International. She also produced and starred in the futuristic action-adventure Silver Hawk in 2003.

In October 2007, Yeoh was conferred the honor of Chevalier of the National Order of the Legion of Honor by the president of France, in recognition of her contribution to the arts and cultural exchange between Asia and France.

Yeoh does a good deal of work for charity and is also an honorary patron of amfAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research), the Hong Kong Cancer Fund and the ICM (Institute for Cerebral and Medullary Disorders). Recently, she became a global ambassador for the Make Roads Safe campaign for promoting global road safety.

ISABELLA LEONG (Lin) The Mummy

ISABELLA LEONG (Lin), at age 19, already has a string of Chinese movies to her credit, including Spider Lilies (Ci qing); Diary (Mon seung), for which she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards; Isabella, for which she won the Directors’ Week Award for Best Actress at Fantasporto and a Golden Bauhinia Award for Best New Performer and received a Hong Kong Film Award nomination for Best Actress; Dragon Squad (Maang lung); Bug Me Not! (Chung buk ji), for which she was nominated for a Hong Kong Film Award for Best New Performer; and The Eye 10 (Gin gwai 10). She will next be seen in director Tsui Hark’s Missing (Sam hoi tsam yan).

Leong is also an accomplished recording artist, having released several hit albums in Asia. Leong is making her American film debut in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

LUKE FORD (Alex O’Connell) The Mummy

LUKE FORD (Alex O’Connell) is a young Australian actor making his debut in American movies, following a rapid rise to success in his home country. His feature credits include lead roles in The Black Balloon, the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival Crystal Bear Award winner starring Toni Collette and directed by Elissa Down, and Kokoda, directed by Alister Grierson. Ford also appeared in The Junction Boys.

Ford is currently in production on the Australian Broadcast Corporation telefilm Blood in the Sand, which he is filming in Western Australia.Ian David and Sue Taylor (the team behind the acclaimed miniseries The Shark Net) are writing and producing the telefilm. Blood in the Sand follows the strange, real-life tale of a stockman, Snowy Rowles (Ford), who puts the crimes from a murder novel written by his friend Arthur Upfield (played by Robert Menzies) to the test. Rowan Woods (Little Fish) is directing.

On television, Ford starred opposite Elizabeth Perkins in the NBC/Hallmark movie Hercules, had a recurring role in McLeod’s Daughters and appeared in All Saints, No Turning Back, Home and Away, Water Rats and Breakers.

LIAM CUNNINGHAM (Maguire) The Mummy

Irish actor LIAM CUNNINGHAM (Maguire) was recently seen in the award-winning film The Wind That Shakes the Barley, opposite Cillian Murphy and directed by Ken Loach. For his role in the film, Cunningham received an Irish Film & Television Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Feature Film, and the film won Best Irish Film.

Cunningham’s other film credits include The Tournament, Breakfast on Pluto, The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse, The Card Player, Mystics, Dog Soldiers, Revelation, The Abduction Club, The Island of the Mapmaker’s Wife, A Love Divided (for which he won Best Actor at the Cherbourg-Octeville Festival of Irish and British Film), Jude and First Knight. Cunningham will next be seen in Hunger and Blood: The Last Vampire.

Cunningham’s television credits include ITV’s Northanger Abbey; Anner House; BBC’s Murphy’s Law and Hotel Babylon; The Clinic; Granada Television’s Prime Suspect and Messiah: The Promise; and the telefilms The Crooked Man, Stranded (Hallmark Entertainment), Final Demand (BBC), Attila (USA Network), RKO 281 (HBO) and Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke (CBS).

Cunningham’s extensive theater credits include Poor Beast in the Rain (Gate Theatre, Dublin), The Cavalcaders (Tricycle Theatre), A Streetcar Named Desire (Gate Theatre, Dublin) and As You Like It (Royal Shakespeare Company).

RUSSELL WONG (Ming Guo) The Mummy

A charismatic and talented performer, RUSSELL WONG (Ming Guo) is one of Hollywood’s leading Asian-American actors. His most recent feature credits include the upcoming Dim Sum Funeral and Undoing. Other feature credits include Takedown, with Skeet Ulrich, Tom Berenger and Angela Featherstone; Romeo Must Die, with Jet Li, Delroy Lindo, Isaiah Washington and Aaliyah; and The Joy Luck Club.

Wong has recently made guest appearances in several top-rated TV shows including Numb3rs, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Commander in Chief.

Wong made his theatrical debut in the United States in the feature-film adaptation of James Clavell’s “Tai-Pan.” He went on to star in Wayne Wang’s Eat a Bowl of Tea and Abel Ferrara’s China Girl and played leading roles in China Cry: A True Story, the box-office hit New Jack City and the Vanishing Son series and television movies.

In 1994, Wong was honored with two awards: the Organization of Chinese Americans’ Image Award and the Media Action Network for Asian American’s Media Achievement Award, in recognition of his outstanding work in the entertainment industry as well as for being an exceptional role model for Asian-Americans. In October 1997, Wong was honored by the Asian American Arts Foundation in San Francisco (along with John Woo, Terence Chang and Tia Carrere).

A native of New York, Wong is one of seven children. Wong has studied martial arts for several years, which enables him to perform many of his own stunts. There is always something to learn in the filmmaking process. In recent years, Wong has taken classes in film production at the prestigious New York University in order to broaden his entertainment industry knowledge in all arenas, including directing. One of his favorite hobbies is photography.