EVERYONES HERO CREDITS & PRODUCTION NOTES
EVERYONE'S HERO
IDT ENTERTAINMENT Presents
Directed by...............CHRISTOPHER REEVE
Directed by....................DANIEL ST. PIERRE
................................................COLIN BRADY
Screenplay by......................ROBERT KURTZ
.............................................And JEFF HAND
Based on a story by............HOWARD JONAS
Produced by................................RON TIPPE
...................................................IGOR KHAIT
Executive Producers........................................
........CHRISTOPHER REEVE, DANA REEVE
Executive Producers........................................
.......................JANET HEALY, JERRY DAVIS
Executive Producers........................................
....STEPHEN R. BROWN, MORRIS BERGER
Edited by.................................JOHN BRYANT
Music by................................JOHN DEBNEY
Music Supervisor.....................DAWN SOLÉR
In memory of
CHRISTOPHER & DANA REEVE
ROB REINER
WILLIAM H. MACY
BRIAN DENNEHY
RAVEN-SYMONÉ
ROBERT WAGNER
RICHARD KIND
DANA REEVE
JAKE T. AUSTIN
MANDY PATINKIN
JOE TORRE
FOREST WHITAKER
And
WHOOPI GOLDBERG
Casting by............................MARY HIDALGO
Production Designer..... DANIEL ST. PIERRE
Art Director.........................KEVIN R. ADAMS
Lead CG Supervisor.....................JEFF BELL
Directors of Photography...........JAN CARLEE
..................................................ANDY WANG
CAST
(alphabetical)
Officer Bryant........................RITCHIE ALLEN
Yankee Irving...................... JAKE T. AUSTIN
Rosetta Brewster............... CHERISE BOOTH
Sandlot Kid #1............... JESSE BRONSTEIN
Sandlot Kid #2.................. RALPH COPPOLA
Babe Ruth......................... BRIAN DENNEHY
Darlin’......................... WHOOPI GOLDBERG
Announcer............................ JASON HARRIS
Hobo Louie................................... ED HELMS
Conductors / Umpire........... RAY IANNICELLI
Bully Kid Tubby................. GIDEON JACOBS
Hobo Andy / Maitre.......... D’ RICHARD KIND
Lefty Maginnis.................. WILLIAM H. MACY
Willie............................. MARCUS MAURICE
Emily Irving................... AMANDA PARSONS
Stanley Irving....................MANDY PATINKIN
Emily Irving............................. DANA REEVE
Big Kid...................................... WILL REEVE
Screwie.................................... ROB REINER
Marti Brewster................... RAVEN-SYMONÉ
Hobo Jack....................................RON TIPPE
Yankees’ Manager......................JOE TORRE
Mr. Robinson...................ROBERT WAGNER
Lonnie Brewster........... FOREST WHITAKER
Bully Kid Arnold..................... CONOR WHITE
Additional Voices...................RITCHIE ALLEN
.............SEAN OLIVER, ROCHELLE HOGUE
........CHARLES PARNELL, SONDRA JAMES
..DENNIS PRESSEY, MATT LABYORTEAUX
..............JAMES WILLIAMS, GRETA MARTIN
...CORNELL WOMACK, CHRISTIE MOREAU
Production Manager........................................
............................PATRICIA CHUNG ADAMS
STORY
Head of Story ....................KEVIN JOHNSON
Assistant Production Manager
Script & Story................. KRISTEN HUDECKI
Story Artists..............................JOHN FLAGG
................CHRISTIAN LIGNAN, JAMES FUJII
..............JAMES MITCHELL, ELIZABETH ITO
..............DAVID STEPHAN, NAEIM KHAVARI
.........SPYROS TSIOUNIS, ANGELO LIBUTTI
Additional Story Artists...............RUI ALBENE
...............JUN FALKENSTEIN, PHIL ALLORA
...WILLY HARTLAND, WILLIAM ASHWORTH
...................BRIAN MITCHELL, ROBIN BUDD
.........MICHAEL NETZER, RICHARD CODOR
.........ILYA SKORUPSKY, REGINA CONROY
.................DAVID SMITH, RICARDO CURTIS
.......................HANK TUCKER, RAY daSILVA
Consulting Producer ...........CHERYL ABOOD
LA Production Manager...................................
.................................... CHRISTINA DeSILVA
LA Production Coordinator. JENNIFER HSYU
LA Production Support......... DREW TOLMAN
................................KATHY CAVAIOLA-HILL
LA Production Assistants....... SARA GEIMER
.............................................LARS KENSETH
ART DEPARTMENT
Head of Visual Development...........................
....................................... SAMUEL MICHLAP
Character Design............. KRISTEN LESTER
Assistant Production Manager
Art & Surfacing...................... LAURA SMALL
Art Department....................RICHARD CHEN
..................................ANDY NG, PETER LEE
...................TIGH WALKER, HONG-MAO LIN
Additional Character Design............................
................................... MORGAN GINSBERG
Additional Art Department.........DAN PHILIPS
........................AVI A. KATZ, PAUL DOBSON
.......................JESSE LICKMAN, JASON KIM
...............................................KYRAN KELLY
Matte Painters..................HYE YOUNG COH
...............GREG GIBBONS, JULIE EBERLEY
..........................................MARISA FIDANZA
MODELING
Head of Modeling.............. MARK NEYSMITH
Assistant Production Manager.........................
..................................NATASHA ABRAHAMS
Character Lead.........................JEFF DRIVER
Facial Lead...................ANGELA GUENETTE
Environment and Prop Lead............................
.................................... MICHAEL GAUTHIER
Modeling and Rigging.........TITO BELGRAVE
..JENNIFER LATAWIEC, JONAH FRIEDMAN
.............MAX LAZZARIN, MICHAEL HABJAN
........PATRICK PAUTLER, STEVE KAHWATI
.......................JENNY RIUTTA, JOSEPH KIM
.........MICHELLE ZHANG, TARAS KOUZELA
..........................................MARC SOULIERE
Additional Modeling and Rigging......................
................SHERVIN SHAHIDI, DOUG SMITH
...................................ARCHIE VILLAVERDE
CHARACTER TECHNICAL DIRECTION
Lead Character Technical Director..................
.............................................ADRIAN TSANG
Character Technical Directors.........................
...................... IAIN McLUCKIE, BRAD PITRE
............................................SEAN SULLIVAN
.......................FAIZAL “GRAHAM” SUKHIANI
...........................................LOUIS VOTTERO
SURFACING
Head of Surfacing............ DANIEL HORNICK
Surfacing Leads...............................................
........................PAMELA PAULENKO HOUPT
................................................ALWYN HUNT
Surfacers.........................RICKY TARO BABA
...................JUHJUN LEE, DAVE BACHELOR
..................ZACHARY LOWE, WOOJIN CHOI
.........DERIAN McCREA, WOOK JAE CHUNG
......................CAROLINE MUIR, PHIL DAKIN
........AARON WEBSTER, DANIEL DRESSER
............VINCENT YAN, HEATHER GAGNIER
..........JUN YUE, JULIA EUNKYOUNG HONG
LAYOUT
Assistant Production Manager.........................
...................................BARBARA FOERSTER
Layout Artists...TIM DEACON, PAUL KOHUT
...................ROB ELLIOTT, MICHAEL LOPEZ
...................BRIAN FOSTER, JEAN PILOTTE
.............................TOM KLOC, ROB SADLER
ANIMATION
Supervising Animators... STEPHEN BARNES
...........MIKE CHAFFE, MORGAN GINSBERG
......................................PETER LEPENIOTIS
Animation Manager............. RIA WESTAWAY
Animators.......................MOYSIS ANTONIOU
.......................JOHN LEE, VANESSA ARSEN
.............ALEXANDER K. LEE, PETA BAYLEY
....................PAUL McLENNAN, ADAM BECK
......PRAVEEN NADARAJU, MARY BEKIARIS
.......................JEFF PANKO, ROB BEKUHRS
.............CAROL PRINCE, PATRICE BERUBE
.........PETER REYNOLDS, DANA BOADWAY
.........ALLISON RUTLAND, SHAUN CHACKO
DARRYL SAWCHUCK, RAHUL DABHOLKAR
............................SUE SHIM, SHANE DOYLE
...........NICK STARCEVIC, ANDREW GRANT
..............BENJAMIN SU, SCOTT JOHNSTON
....GLENN SYLVESTER, MICHAEL KITCHEN
.......JOHN D. WILLIAMSON, JUSTIN KUPKA
Additional Animators............MIKE BEAULIEU
.................ANDREW LAM, EMILY BEAULIEU
.......MIKE LANGFORD, MICHAEL DHARNEY
..............................................ERIC MURRAY,
.........................SEBASTIAN KAPIJIMPANGA
.........THAI-MY NGUYEN, SHELAGH KITNEY
.........................................ALEXANDER POEI
Production Assistant ..........NEIL FOERSTER
CHARACTER FINALING
Lead............................................ ROGER LIU
Character Finalers..................... TIM SORMIN
.........................BRAD WILLIS, LIMOR SHANI
EFFECTS
Head of Effects.................WARREN LAWTEY
Assistant Production Manager
Effects & Character Finaling............................
............................... MATTHEW VOYNOVICH
Effects and Cloth Simulation...........................
........NADAV BRILL, TZAHI (ISAAC) KESHET
.....ALON DAVID, HARRY MUKHOPADHYAY
................ALEX FEIGIN, DAN WRIGHTSELL
...........PAUL JEWELL YIFENG, EDDY XUAN
..................................................KEVIN KELM
Crowd Systems Lead.... DANIEL W. BISSELL
Crowd Simulation Artist ALLANLEE CALDER
Crowd TD............................ DAVID HERZOG
LIGHTING
Lead Lighters.................. BELMA ABDICEVIC
...................BERNARD O. CEGUERRA, P. E.
............................MAHSA GHORBANKARIMI
..........NIKOLA MILOSEVIC, RYAN T. SMITH
.........ANJA STITIC, ANNA WAGNER-LOPEZ
Head of Lighting......... SCOTT SANDERSON
Assistant Production Manager
Lighting & Compositing.... JASON McKENZIE
Lighters..............SIMON FUNG, TOM PERRY
..............................IRIT HOD, RICK SANDER
.MAGED HENEIN, CORNEIL VANDERSPEK
..........MANFRED KRAEMER, ROSS WALLIS
...........................SHUN SING, EDWARD LEE
.................BOOGAB YOUN, KANG SUB LEE
........................IAN KH WOO, JING JING LIU
COMPOSITING
Head of Compositing.......... ALAN KENNEDY
Lead Compositor.................. STEVEN CHEN
Senior Compositors............ BRIAN COOPER
...................CHERYL DAVIS, BRYAN LUREN
............PAUL STODOLNY, ROLPH THOMAS
...........................................RODED YIZHAKY
Compositors. ROB DALE, RIAN McNAMARA
...............DAVID MITROVIC, ZEBULON PIKE
.............................................JERRY SEGUIN
Assistant Compositors.....................................
...NATHAN ENGLBRECHT, TIBOR KOVACS
.............................................SCOTT MacKAY
Compositing Technical Assistant.....................
............................................ RYAN QUAGLIA
TECHNOLOGY
Chief Technology Officer........ NICK FOSTER
Vice President
of Technical Production........... TERRY DALE
Technology Production Manager ....................
........................................MARY ANDERSON
SYSTEMS
Head of Systems................. JOHN HICKSON
System Administrators...... MARK ANDREWS
......DAMIAN UPTON, GREGORY WHYNOTT
System Support.........................MARKUS NG
......................................FABIO COLANGELO
......AARON BURR, VATSANA KONGAKANE
..............WARRAN BUTLER, ADI SHACHAM
Render Wranglers............................VINCENT
......................JINGHUA XU, KAMRAN KHAN
..............................CHRISTOPHER MUSCAT
...............MARNIE GOODMAN, GARY SMITH
.......................................REBECCA CORDEN
PRODUCTION ENGINEERING
Head of Production Engineering......................
................................................MIKE AQUINO
Senior Staff Engineer................... YAN CHEN
Supervising Technical Director.... AVI J. KATZ
Production Coordinator. JOANNA FERRARO
Pipeline Technical Directors..... RAN AVIGAD
.....KENNEDY BEHRMAN, CAROLINA CHEN
.MICHAEL S. HARRIS, JESSE LaCHAPELLE
.........ALEXI MORIARTY, ROBERT PRINGLE
....................STEPHEN SLOAN, ASI SOUDAI
...........................................DANIEL WEXLER
Outsource Technical Director..... IRFA NISAR
Animation Technical Director... ALBERT TAM
Lighting Technical Directors............................
........... MATTHEW COLLIE, MARK BODANIS
.........OLIVER HEIJMANS, VICKEN MALVIAN
Character Finaling Technical
Director ........................OMAR McCLENDON
Visual Effects Technical Director.....................
.......................................... NEIL YAMAMOTO
Support Technical Directors.. HERVE BIZIRA
...........................................SEAN DRIEDGER
SOFTWARE
Head of Software.................... NEIL GOWER
CG Software Supervisor..................................
....................................MIGUEL SEPULVEDA
Senior Software Engineer ............ERI RUBIN
Software Engineers................ TOD BAUDAIS
...........MICHAL ELDAR, JOS’H R. L. FULLER
...........YARON GAVISH, JAMES MONTEATH
...................................................TOMMY ZHU
Software Support Engineers...........................
.. DANIEL DRESSER, DANIEL JUHYUN LEE
SWEATBOX
Production Coordinato.......r MARIO ARANGO
EDITORIAL
Assistant Production Manager.........................
............................................. GORDON KATZ
1st Assistant Editor.............. ADAM GARNER
Assistant Editors.......... MATTHEW ARHENS
.................................................MHAIRI KERR
Consulting Editor........ ROBERT FISHER, JR.
Additional Editor..................... TONY ROCCO
Additional Assistant Editors ............................
..........SHERI GALLOWAY, LOIS A. HOOVER
PRODUCTION
Production Accountant....................................
................................... GREIG HUTCHINSON
Assistant Accountant........ ALLEN SARAFIAN
Assistants to the Producers
and Directors....................JULIE McARTHUR
.......GENEVA PESCHKA, KRISTEN HARRIS
Marketing and Publicity Liaison........................
........................................ JASON McKENZIE
Additional
Production Management .....DENISE MINTER
Additional Production ...ROBERT AITCHISON
......................................MARISSA COLLYER
RECRUITING & ARTISTIC
DEVELOPMENT
Head of Artistic Development..........................
.................................... FRANK GLADSTONE
Head of Studio Recruitment.............................
.....................................DEBRA BLANCHARD
Recruiting and Training....................................
Coordinator.............................. DAVID WYKA
Artistic Development Coordinator....................
.............................................. RUTH GIBSON
REEL FX
Executive Producers............. DALE CARMAN
.............................................STEVE O’BRIEN
Producer................................... KYLE CLARK
Lighting /Compositing Supervisor ...................
...................................AUGUSTO SCHILLACI
Animation Supervisor.............. CHRIS SAUVE
Technical Supervisor.......................................
................................ HARRY MICHALAKEAS
Production Manager.. SHANNA BASSINGER
Additional Animation Supervision
................... MARK DONALD, KEN DUNCAN
Animation................................DREW ADAMS
..........................MIKE MURPHY, TIM ALLEN
..................JAMIE OLIFF, JUSTIN BARRETT
.......................JASON OWEN, JOHN BERRY
.........................DAVE PATE, ROB DOLLASE
.......................RAY PENA, BRYAN ENGRAM
...................JEREMY SHAW, THOM FALTER
...............MIKE SPOKAS, SHAUN FREEMAN
..............YOSHI TAMURA , JOSH GUNTHER
..............................OSKAR URRETABIZKAIA
.........................................SHAUN FREEMAN
Crowd Animation................BRYAN BREWER
............KURT FUTRELL, BRANDON BRUCE
.........................TIM LANNON, STEVE EGER
............................................VINCE SIDWELL
Lighting, Comp, VFX.........JEFF ALCANTERA
..................JOHN LYNCH, CHRIS BANKOFF
..............JORGE OBREGON, RICK COLLINS
..........MARC RIENZA, ELIZABETH HAUSER
...........................SEAN RIVET, ISAAC IRVIN
........MACIEK SOKALSKI, KENNY JACKSON
Lighting Assistants............... JULIE MARLING
.....................................JOHN NESSELRODT
.............................KARTHIK SWAMINATHAN
Technical Directors....... JOHN ANDERHOLM
...............GEORGE DECHIARA, JOE MAJER
Rigging / Cloth.........................DREW DALEO
..........ROGERIO MENDES, BEAU HAWKINS
.....................................................JINNAH YU
Texture............................. HOLLAN HOLMES
..............BENNY MIN HUANG, FRANCIS WU
Production Coordination....... CASSIE FAUSS
.................BARBARA GERALD, PAM KOLBE
..................GREG LYONS, RYAN WOODALL
Editorial .............................BRAD WETMORE
...............................................GRAY WILCOX
Render Support........ KENNY FRIESENHAHN
..................CHRIS KULLA, KEVIN MacPHAIL
...............CHRIS MAPP, MATT McPHERSON
Technology Support...........SONIA BARBOSA
.........DENNIS McGRATH, SCOTT CORRELL
...................................................JOEY WRAY
Administrative
Executive Vice Presiden.... DAVID NEEDHAM
Vice President Finance...... STEVEN MILLER
Director of Insight Development......................
........................................... ROSS MOSHELL
General Counsel...................... DAVID ROSS
Human Resources........ BRAD WALLACE 19
Executive Coordinator.... ASHLEY MOSHELL
Special Thanks................................... TOM K.
POST PRODUCTION
Post Production Supervisor ............................
.........................................CHERYL MURPHY
Supervising Sound Editor /
Sound Designer............... SEAN GARNHART
Sound Editors FX .......................MARK FILIP
..........................COLL ANDERSON, M.P.S.E.
Supervising Dialogue Editors .CAROL LEWIS
.............................BETH STERNER, M.P.S.E.
Assistant Sound Editor ..........BILLY ORRICO
Foley Supervisor ...........STEVEN VISSCHER
Foley Editor............................ IGOR NIKOLIC
Foley Artist ...................MARKO COSTANZO
Foley Mixer...................... GEORGE A. LARA
Post Production Additional
Sound Services Provided by ............C5, INC.
Group ADR Casting................... REEL TEAM
Group Leader........................ HANS TESTER
Group Leader, NY.............. SONDRA JAMES
ADR Group....................COOPER COWGILL
....................RIF HUTTON, CASEY SANDINO
........................JUAN POPE, ROBBY BRUCE
..................MATT ADLER, KEVIN BUITRAGO
.........BRIDGET HOFFMAN, MARY MOUSER
...............JACKIE GONNEAU, KRISTA SWAN
........CLAUDETTE WELLS, DAVID COWGILL
...........ANNE LOCKHART, SANDY SIMPSON
Post Production Facilities Provided by............
......................................BUENA VISTA POST
.............................PRODUCTION SERVICES
Re-Recording Mixers ........TERRY O’BRIGHT
.............................................KEITH ROGERS
Recordist............................... ERIK FLOCKOI
ADR Mixer................................... DOC KANE
ADR Recordist...... JEANNETTE BROWNING
Dialogue Recording Services...........................
....................................... THE L.A. STUDIOS
........................................SOUNDTRACK, NY
Additional
Dialogue Recording Services...........................
...................... MCS RECORDING STUDIOS,
......................................................TORONTO
...........WILSHIRE STUDIOS, LOS ANGELES
..........THE SOUND COMPANY, LONDON 21
...................TAPEWORKS INC., HARTFORD
......................................DELUXE, TORONTO
Digital Intermediate Services by
TECHNICOLOR DIGITAL INTERMEDIATES,
........................A TECHNICOLOR COMPANY
Digital Film Colorist............. JASON FABBRO
Digital Intermediate Producer
........................................DENISE DeCUNZO
Color Timer ......................TERRY CLABORN
Negative Cutter.............. MARY BETH SMITH
End Titles............................... PACIFIC TITLE
MUSIC
Score Composed
and Conducted by .................JOHN DEBNEY
Music Recorded and Mixed by.........................
.................................... BOBBY FERNANDEZ
Supervising Orchestrator.... BRAD DECHTER
Additional Orchestrators..................................
...................FRANK BENNETT MIKE WATTS
....DON NEMITZ, CHRISTOPHER KLATMAN
..........ANDREW KINNEY, JOHN A. THOMAS
...................KEVIN KASKA, PETE ANTHONY
Electronic Score Engineer ..............................
................................WOLFGANG AMADEUS
Music Score Coordinator....... LOLA DEBNEY
Score Production Supervisor...........................
..................... MELANIE MULLENS HOYSON
Orchestra Contractor SANDY DeCRESCENT
Music Editors......................... LIQUID MUSIC
.....................................ANDREW DORFMAN
.........................TANYA HILL, JEFF CARSON
Music Preparation ...........................................
....................JOANN KANE MUSIC SERVICE
Score Recorded and Mixed at.........................
....................................BARBRA STREISAND
.........................................SCORING STAGE,
.......................SONY STUDIOS CALIFORNIA
Assistant Music Supervisor..............................
..................................TONY VON PERVIEUX
Music Business Affairs ...............JILL MYERS
IDTE ANIMATION MANAGEMENT TEAM
Sr. Vice President of Animation,
Canada .........................................ABDI SAMI
IDTE Toronto
Head of Studio Production..............................
.................... KATHLEEN HELPPIE-SHIPLEY
Vice President
of Production Finance...... ROBERT TAYLOR
IDTE Toronto Head of Finance........................
.......................................... NEPHI SANCHEZ
IDTE Toronto Director of HR ..........................
...........................................SARI SCHWARTZ
Chief Admin. Officer of Animation ..................
............................................TRANG NGUYEN
Creative Development – Features...................
............... KARINA KLISS, CLAIRE GLIDDEN
..............................................LAURA KNIGHT
IDTE Toronto Vice President
of Business and Operations... JOHN MORCH
IDTE Toronto Operations....... RON MARINIC
IDTE Toronto Facilities Manager.....................
...................................... DAVID McCARTNEY
IDTE Toronto Finance Manager......................
.......................................... LENA ISHKANIAN
IDTE Toronto
Administration Manager... RENA DALMASSO
IDTE Toronto
Executive Coordinator............. LISA GRIFFIN
Front Office Support .....CHRISTIE NORRISH
IDTE Newark Art Coordinator... JOSH WHITE
IDTE Newark
Production Coordinator...................................
..................................... SRULI GELDWERTH
IDTE Newark Administrative
Software Developers. YAAKOV ROZENBLAT
..............................................NISAN FASTEN
Executive Assistants.......... JESSICA STONE
.................CHRISTIN PSAK, EMILY RUDOLF
IDT ENTERTAINMENT EXECUTIVE
TEAM
Chief Operating Officer......... JOHN W. HYDE
President, Feature Films & TV .......................
...................................................NEIL BRAUN
Senior Vice President, Marketing....................
....................................... AMORETTE JONES
General Counsel............ MARTIN LEBWOHL
Business and Legal Affairs .............................
.....PETER BAGHDASSARIAN, DIXON DERN
.........................................MICHELE CAYLOR
Chief Financial Officer ..........SAM ABRAHAM
Operations............................ BRETT COKER
..................................HARLEY GREENBAUM
SONGS
“THE BEST”
Written and Produced by John Ondrasik
Performed by John Ondrasik of Five For
Fighting
Courtesy of Columbia Records
by arrangement with SONY BMG MUSIC
ENTERTAINMENT
“BABY CORN BLUES”
Written and Performed by Igor Khait
“KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL”
Written by
Matthew Gerrard, Bridget Benenate &
Raven-Symoné Pearman
Performed by Raven-Symoné
Produced by Matthew Gerrard
Raven appears courtesy of Hollywood
Records 25
“SWING IT”
Written by Ronnie Dunn
Performed by Brooks and Dunn
Produced by Ronnie Dunn & Kix Brooks
Courtesy of Arista Nashville
by arrangement with SONY BMG MUSIC
ENTERTAINMENT
“THE TIGERS”
Written and Produced by John Debney
Performed by Paris Bennett
“WHAT YOU DO”
Written by Sy Oliver, James Oliver Young,
Wyclef Jean and Jerry “Wonder” Duplessis
Performed by Wyclef Jean featuring
Kontrast
Produced by Wyclef Jean, Jerry “Wonder”
Duplessis
& Keith “Lil’ Wonda” Duplessis
Wyclef Jean appears courtesy of J Records
Kontrast appears courtesy of Clef Records
Inc.
by arrangement with SONY BMG MUSIC
ENTERTAINMENT
Contains a sample of
“’Tain’t What You Do (It’s The Way That
You Do It)”
Performed by Ella Fitzgerald
Courtesy of The Verve Music Group
Under license from Universal Music
Enterprises
“CHICAGO (THAT TODDLING TOWN)”
Written by Fred Fisher & Jack Segal 26
Performed by Chris Botti Featuring Lyle
Lovett
Produced by Bobby Colomby
Chris Botti appears courtesy of Columbia
Records
by arrangement with SONY BMG MUSIC
ENTERTAINMENT
Lyle Lovett appears courtesy of
Curb / Lost Highway Records and Mike
Curb Company, L.L.C.
“KEEP ON SWINGING”
Written by John Ondrasik & Kix Brooks
Performed by Brooks & Dunn
Produced by Kix Brooks & Ronnie Dunn
Courtesy of Arista Nashville
by arrangement with SONY BMG MUSIC
ENTERTAINMENT
“THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE”
Written by Matthew Gerrard and Bridget
Benenate
Performed by Jon Randall and Jessi
Alexander
Produced by Mark Wright
Jon Randall appears courtesy of Epic
Records
Jessi Alexander appears courtesy of
Columbia Records
by arrangement with SONY BMG MUSIC
ENTERTAINMENT
“TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME”
Written by Albert Von Tilzer, Jack Norworth
Performed by Lonestar
Produced by Mark Bright
Courtesy of BNA Records
by arrangement with SONY BMG MUSIC
ENTERTAINMENT
“DREAM LIKE NEW YORK”
Written by Tyrone Wells and Elina
Performed by Tyrone Wells
Produced by Chris Karn
Courtesy of True American Records /
Position Music
Soundtrack available on COLUMBIA/SONY
MUSIC SOUNDTRAX
The Major League Baseball trademarks
depicted in this motion picture were
licensed by MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
PROPERTIES, INC.
Completion Bond provided by
FILM FINANCES, INC.
WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO
CHICAGO CUBS, SAN FRANCISCO
GIANTS, NEW YORK YANKEES, THE
SEVEN GROUP, AUTODESK INC.,
BLUEARC, EMC CORPORATION,
PIPELINE FX, EYEON SOFTWARE,
ASSIMILATE INC., SYFLEX,
and YEHUDA WURTZEL.
Color by TECHNICOLOR®
Prints by DELUXE
No. 42852
© 2006 IDT ENTERTAINMENT, INC.
All Rights Reserved. Ownership of this
motion picture is protected by copyright
and other applicable laws, and any
unauthorized duplication, distribution or
exhibition of this motion picture could result
in criminal prosecution as well as civil
liability.
This motion picture depicts a fictional story
and the portrayal of any actual individual,
living or dead, in this motion picture is
fictional.
“I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to
persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. They are the real
heroes, and so are the families and friends who have stood by them.”
-- Christopher Reeve
What if you had a chance to be a hero? Would you take it? Or play it
safe?
Shepherded by the film’s originating director and Executive Producer
Christopher Reeve, the animated feature, Everyone’s Hero is a funny and poignant
tale of a young boy who believes he can make a difference if he just hangs in
there despite overwhelming odds.
It is Depression-era America and though times are hard, there is a giant
bright spot in pinstripes: Yankee slugger Babe Ruth (voiced by Brian Dennehy).
He thrills fans with his monster home runs and sensational exploits on and off
the baseball field. “The Great Bambino” has no bigger admirer than 10-year-old
Yankee Irving (voiced by Jake T. Austin, “Go, Diego!, Go!”).
The kid knows all of Babe’s stats and he lives for the Babe’s storied
Yankees. In fact, Yankee’s namesake team is a constant source of inspiration on
the sandlot when he steps up to the plate. All swagger and style, Yankee Irving
swings! He swings! And, again, he swings! Despite his enthusiasm, inevitably,
Yankee Irving strikes out. A frustrated Yankee gives up on his beloved game.
Despite his best efforts, Yankee Irving just can’t hit a ball.
However, he does befriend one, a wiseacre of a baseball named Screwie
(Rob Reiner) who has his own disheartened relationship with the national
pastime. And that’s when Yankee’s adventures really begin. These two misfits
form a special bond as they travel across the country on a mission to return Babe
Ruth’s stolen bat Darlin’ (voiced by Whoopi Goldberg) before the deciding game
of the 1932 World Series. Along the way Yankee meets a quirky array of
characters that aid him on his comic journey. In the process, he learns about the
value of hope, family, friendship and, of course, baseball.
IDT Entertainment presents, Everyone’s Hero, directed by Christopher
Reeve, Daniel St. Pierre and Colin Brady. Based on a story by Howard Jonas.
Screenplay by Robert Kurtz and Jeff Hand. The voice cast includes William H.
Macy, Rob Reiner, Brian Dennehy, Raven-Symoné, Robert Wagner, Richard
Kind, Dana Reeve, Jake T. Austin, Joe Torre, Mandy Patinkin, Forest Whitaker,
and Whoopi Goldberg. Casting by Mary Hidalgo. Music Supervisor Dawn
Soler. Music by John Debney. Produced by Ron Tippe and Igor Khait.
Executive Produced by Christopher Reeve, Dana Reeve, Stephen R. Brown,
Morris Berger, Janet Healy, and Jerry Davis.
20th Century Fox will release Everyone’s Hero nationwide on Friday,
September 15. The film is Rated G by the MPAA.
* * * *
FROM BEDTIME STORY TO THE SCREEN
Everyone’s Hero began as a bedtime story that IDT Entertainment founder
and chairman Howard Jonas wrote for his children. The story of a young boy
who overcomes the odds and several harrowing and amusing situations to travel
across the country and achieve something he never thought possible, doing it as
any good batter would: He just keeps swinging.
“I had been telling the story of Yankee Irving to my kids for years. It was
one of their favorites. They just loved how the family stuck together and how a
young boy could overcome all sorts of obstacles to become a hero to his family,”
Jonas recalls. “One day, I told the story to our creative executives and everyone
thought it would be a great film.”
Jonas says there was never any question of who should direct the project.
“I always knew I wanted to bring in the biggest hero I could think of to direct. To
me, there is no bigger hero than Christopher Reeve,” Jonas says.
Through mutual connections, Jonas reached Reeve, who invited Jonas and
Robert Kurtz, an IDT Entertainment creative development executive, to his home
to discuss the project. Reeve was immediately drawn to the story of Yankee
Irving. “He related to the vision of a boy’s perseverance and overall theme of
love between parents and their kids,” says Jonas. “We left him a copy of the
story and as we drove back, both Rob and I really felt that we had just
experienced something very transforming. To be honest, even if Christopher
hadn’t ended up making the movie, I would still think of that day as incredibly
special.”
Appropriately enough, the decision to do the movie was a family affair, as
Jonas recalls. “Apparently that night, Christopher’s son Will had picked up the
story and started reading it. When (his mother) Dana called everyone for dinner,
Will said he couldn’t come down because he was in the middle of reading a great
story. After he was done, Dana read it to Christopher. The next morning, we
had a phone call and he agreed to do the movie,” Jonas says.
Producer Ron Tippe says: “There's no question in my mind the reason
that Christopher Reeve was in love with this story was because of its meaning.
The story is about a young boy who has to keep on swinging. If you look at
Chris' life, and I don't mean post-accident, I mean from day one; that was his
philosophy. That vision that he had -- of never giving up, of believing in oneself,
is a beautiful thing and certainly informed the film. And Dana Reeve (executive
producer and voice of Emily, Yankee’s mother) was marvelous and equally
committed to those ideals, in the film and in life,” Tippe says.
Producer Igor Khait says: "I’ve never been involved with a project that
meant so much to the filmmakers on a personal level. What’s really amazing
about the making of this movie is how everyone who came in contact with it fell
under its spell. It was impossible to work on the film and not have it grow into a
labor of love. This kind of passion for filmmaking helps you overcome the most
incredible obstacles. I guess that’s what the movie is about anyway: prevailing
against all odds because you believe in what you’re doing."
Reeve worked closely with writer Robert Kurtz to transform Howard
Jonas’ bedtime story into a movie. He completed much of the storyboarding and
prep work before his death. Soon after, Janet Healy joined IDT Entertainment as
president of animation and brought in two animation veterans to direct and to
continue Reeve’s vision. Daniel St. Pierre, an alumnus of Disney and
DreamWorks animation, and Colin Brady, an ILM and Pixar veteran, stepped in,
with Reeve’s spirit and intention in mind. St. Pierre joined the team first.
“I knew Dan when we both worked at Disney,” Healy explains. “I was
heading up the use of computer graphics in the traditional movies and he was
the fellow who was pushing for the use of painterly artwork in 2-D animation.
So, Tarzan was the first time we started to work together. He oversaw what was
one of the biggest selling points of Tarzan, which was deep canvas – the moving
shots through the brush strokes. After we both left Disney, we went to
DreamWorks. I was the producer on Shark Tale and I hired him as the
production designer. I knew he was a visionary in our industry for movies that
had great camerawork and a great look. I came to IDT after Shark Tale and the
movie was underway in Toronto but, after Chris’ death, not really finding its
way. That’s when I brought Dan in.”
Healy adds that often at least two directors helm animated films. “It’s
because there are so many places to be at one time, so many departments to
oversee and so many tasks, it’s really hard for one person to do it alone. We
started looking for a partner for Dan, knowing that Dan comes from production
design and from layout; we knew that we had the look of the movie in really
great hands, and knowing that Dan is a really great storyteller, we felt really
good there too. So, we were looking for someone to complement him, someone
who had an animation background. One of our favorite movies is Toy Story II
and one of the people who really shaped that film in a big way was Colin Brady.
Dan met with Colin and they just seemed like they were a good team. They’re
both funny and smart about the choices they make as directors. Between them,
they have very strong specialties and they are both the full package,” Healy says.
“The thing that attracted me to the movie in the first place was the idea --
and it was Christopher Reeve’s idea -- of this whole keep-on-swinging kind of
perseverance in the face of adversity that Yankee Irving has,” says Daniel St.
Pierre. “That theme was very important to me. It had such honesty and sincerity
and heart. I took it upon myself to make sure that we retained the spirit of the
film that Christopher was originally making and I was steadfast and absolutely
adamant that we had to do that. In fact, after one of the first cuts of the movie,
Dana (Reeve), said, ‘This is a movie that Christopher would have wanted to
make.’ That validated it for me, I felt really good about that afterwards.”
Everyone’s Hero was a labor of love for all concerned and it was crucial to
everyone to produce a movie that reflected Christopher Reeve’s vision and spirit.
“We were determined to complete the movie Christopher Reeve began,” says
Janet Healy. “We put together the best team of experienced creative people,
alongside our producers and Dan. Our mandate was to honor Christopher
Reeve’s vision and, in many respects, the way he lived his life. The theme of
never giving up resonated with Chris and became the backbone of the film.”
Brady says he was deeply honored to help realize Christopher Reeve’s
vision and adds that he had been a big fan since childhood. “In fact, the first
movie I ever made when I was eight years old was based on his movie Superman.
I was so excited after seeing it that I went home from the theater and made little
characters out of clay and made a stop-motion film based on Superman. So, to
know that he was part of this project and to be able to help bring his integrity to
it, that’s what appealed to me,” Brady says.
THE STORY
“The movie fires on so many levels,” says St. Pierre. “It’s a comedy. It’s
an adventure. It’s about friendship. It’s about following your dreams and
sticking to it, even when it seems hopeless. It’s a heartwarming story about
families. It has something for everyone, really. It is also Christopher Reeve and
Dana Reeve’s movie and all those themes reflect them.”
“Everyone’s Hero is the story of a young boy who, with the help of a talking
baseball and a talking bat helps the New York Yankees win the 1932 World
Series. But it’s not just about that, it’s the story of a father and a son, because
Yankee’s mission begins because he believes it will help his father get his job
back. But, to do this, Yankee gets to jump on trains, leap off fire escapes, run
through the woods, meet a bunch of interesting characters, and travel 1,000 miles
to new places. I mean, don’t you wish you could have done that? So, it’s a romp
and a road trip and a buddy picture, but the buddies happen to be a talking
baseball and a talking bat and a little boy,” says producer Ron Tippe.
Co-Director Colin Brady notes that the story also intrigued him because it
was about the triumph of the underdog. “Yankee loves baseball but, at first, he
thinks he doesn’t have the talent for it. So, this certainly discourages him and he
gives up on the game. He learns not to give up on his dreams because he has to
overcome all these obstacles to bring Babe Ruth’s bat back to him, thereby saving
his dad’s job. In doing this unselfish act, he learns all the tools and skills he
needs to actually be a good baseball player and plenty of life lessons as well. So,
this boy, who at first, doesn’t seem to have the stuff required to do all the
amazing things he does in the course of the film, really rises to the occasion. He
seems to be that underdog in each of us.”
His companion, a discarded and decidedly cantankerous baseball named
Screwie, initially doesn’t seem the sort of character anyone would want around
for a long – or even short – journey. His blunt manner results from a lingering
disenchantment directly related to his failure at baseball, like Yankee.
“Screwie kind of represents Yankee’s inner thoughts because only he can
hear the baseball speak. And instead of saying, ‘Hang in there, kid, just keep
trying,’ the baseball actually says the opposite. He says, ‘Baseball is a field of
broken dreams.’ And then we learn that Screwie has a very sad story – during his
one appearance in a major league game, he fouled out of the stadium and
nobody came to look for him. It was his moment to shine and instead he was
forgotten. But, at a pivotal moment in their cross-country journey, Screwie
encourages Yankee and gives him hope and Yankee does likewise for Screwie.
And they both end up regaining their confidence and self-respect and rekindling
their love of the game,” says Brady.
Through various misadventures, Yankee and Screwie rescue a mellifluous
Southern belle named Darlin’ who also happens to be Babe Ruth’s lucky bat. The
trio’s friendship offered the directors several creative, character-driven comedic
opportunities that always had to be tethered to a certain level of reality.
“Yankee goes on the road with these two fantasy characters, Screwie and
Darlin,’ whom he manifests out of his needs – for attention, guidance and his
love of baseball. All of that comes into play and they become alive for him and
the dynamics, comedy and situations between them are born out of the fact that
the ball and the bat hate each other and Yankee’s in the middle,” St. Pierre
explains. “So, we had to create certain rules for the characters and hopefully, if
we followed them, audiences will believe that they are actual personalities,
actual characters and will go along for the ride. For instance, Darlin’ has to be
carried; she doesn’t have her own locomotion. So, there was a limit to the
fantastical element that kept it grounded in a kind of reality and as long as we
respected that, we had the fun of a talking bat and a talking ball and the absurd
situation of a boy talking to them while nobody else can hear them.”
THE VOICES
It was, of course, the human voices that initially gave the characters life.
While Yankee, Screwie, Darlin’ and company began on the page, in script and
storyboard form, many of their characteristics were informed by the actors who
voiced them.
The impressive roster of actors includes Rob Reiner, Whoopi Goldberg,
William H. Macy, Mandy Patinkin, Raven-Symoné, Brian Dennehy and
newcomer Jake T. Austin. All the actors wanted to help complete Christopher
Reeve’s vision and fell for the story of Yankee Irving.
“Generally, we tried to have storyboards that would begin the process so
we’d know where to go,” says St. Pierre. “We usually start out with what we call
a ‘scratch recording’ which is so we’re able to build a reel that gives us an idea of
what the movie is going to be like. In fact, Ron Tippe did the scratch dialogue for
Screwie – he was Screwie for the longest time. Then we’d go record the voice of
the actors. It’s an amazing experience to watch actors do this, as they try new
things and suddenly land in a very comfortable place that feels original but
completely right. That’s where the characters begin to develop. Sometimes it
was verbatim to the page and sometimes it wasn’t, but that’s always where the
treasure was, when the character begins to speak on its own.”
Of course when you have the kind of talent we had behind the
microphone, that was a great gift,” adds Brady. “The actors gave us a lot of ideas
through their performance, in a visual respect, but specifically, vocally. We
loved little nuances, imperfections, any stutter or stammer. That’s like gold to an
animator.”
“Rob Reiner as Screwie is the quintessential foul ball,” says St. Pierre. “He
did a terrific job with Screwie’s sort of disgruntled leave-me-alone-I’d-rather-sit-
here-and-rot-in-peace attitude. Of course, he begins as this embittered thing and
becomes a real pal to Yankee, in spite of himself, and actually ends up bringing
him out of his despair. And Rob has been a comedian, actor, writer, producer
and director, so he knew how to serve that whole emotional arc as well as mine
the humor in it. It was a little intimidating to meet him and work with him at
first. What was great was he was an artist that I got to not only collaborate with
but also I got to learn from him on this project.”
“Rob has such a wonderful sense of comic timing – he knew exactly when
a line was landing and when it wasn’t and how to say it better than anything we
could think up,” Brady adds.
As a lifelong baseball aficionado, Reiner brought a keen and personal
insight to his character who is a baseball. Everyone’s Hero also marks Reiner’s
debut as an animated character.
“I love baseball. I’m a ridiculously huge fan, so it was the perfect
opportunity for me,” says Reiner. “As a kid, I used to go to 50 to 60 games a year.
Now, as an adult, I have sons and a daughter who love baseball. I take them to
games all the time, I probably get to 20, 30 games a year. Plus, I’ve never been
involved in a feature-length animated film, so it was a real thrill to be a part of
it.”
He points out that the story of Screwie and Yankee also appealed to him
because the lessons they learn through their adventures change their outlook and
are inextricably linked not just to baseball but also to life itself.
“Even though Screwie is curmudgeonly at first, he softens up, even as he
constantly gives Yankee a dose of reality. And the two of them come together
and find each other and find baseball again because they learn not to give up.
And that’s a lot like baseball itself and it’s a great metaphor for life. I mean, you
can be down by ten, 12 runs at the bottom of the ninth inning and you can still
win – if you keep trying,” Reiner adds.
The biggest trial for Reiner was creating Screwie in the void of a recording
studio. “It was a challenge – I mean, you’re sitting by yourself and interacting
with characters you don’t see. So, I relied heavily on the directors and the other
people making the film because they had the vision of how it was going to lay
out and what the tone needed to be,” he says.
The fact that Screwie wasn’t human per se didn’t affect Reiner’s portrayal.
“For me, Screwie was a character with real emotions – anger, sadness, humor –
all the things that come with playing a part,” Reiner continues. “So, it was easy
to forget that he was an inanimate object. He could be a person except that he is
a baseball. The whole idea is to try to bring him to life, to give him a soul. And
that’s just like any other kind of acting.
As fan and a student of baseball history, one of Reiner’s favorite parts of
Everyone’s Hero is when Yankee, Screwie and Darlin’ hook up with a busload of
players heading for a game in the Negro League. On this bus, Yankee literally
finds his footing and Screwie begins to recall what he loved about baseball.
“You know, my father was a big New York Giants fan until Jackie
Robinson came into the major leagues. And then he became a Dodger fan
because the Dodgers were the first team to break the color line. And that was
very significant, not only for baseball but for America. I think it’s an important
section of the film, about the history of the game and this country, of course told
through the journey of Yankee Irving,” Reiner says.
Whoopi Goldberg voices Darlin,’ Babe Ruth’s lucky – and purloined – bat.
Her honeyed southern accent and slightly diva-esque attitude constantly
infuriates Screwie but like the irascible Screwie, she too proves to have a huge
heart.
Goldberg found a kindred spirit in her character. “Well, Darlin’ is Babe
Ruth’s bat, so she is the Queen of the Louisville Sluggers,” says the Oscar®-
winning actress. “And when the filmmakers approached me to play her, they
showed me some very raw animation of the story and I saw Darlin’ and thought,
there I am! I knew it was me the minute I saw her. She didn’t have dreads or
anything; she did have these very long, luxurious lashes. She was quite the
woman!”
Christopher Reeve had directed Goldberg previously, in the telefilm “In
the Gloaming.” “Christopher’s spirit was involved throughout production,”
Goldberg says. “He was a friend and I would do anything for him, so I knew I
had to do this. All the filmmakers carried on his commitment – this was as much
a labor of love for Chris as it was for the kids who will actually get to see it. So it
made me feel quite good to be a little piece of the pie.”
Goldberg adds that adults could learn a thing or two from Everyone’s Hero
and enjoy themselves as much as the children. “The idea of persistence towards
a goal you set for yourself, the notion that there is nothing we can’t do if we put
our minds to it; it’s always the best to see that in young people, in kids. But, there
are also great lessons in that for adults. We often think we’ve failed, we’re done.
And that’s not how we are as children. We would keep going and going, it’s only
as adults that we decide we’re out of the running,” she says.
She adds that, like Darlin,’ children and adults can learn a thing or two
about themselves in striving to attain their goals and dreams. “Along the way,
Darlin’ learns about team work, about doing things with other people and not
making it all about herself. So, it’s really a slice of life lesson told in a beautifully
realized fashion,” she says.
Goldberg finds voicing animated characters to be “more freeing than
being in front of the camera. “It’s just fun. To me, it’s the greatest expression you
can have and you have more options when you’re in animation because you can
play a bat or a hyena or whatever. That’s really why I became an actor; I thought
you could do anything as an actor but, in the real world, people have limitations
in their minds. But, in animation, there are no limits. Nobody says, oh, well,
you’ve put on some weight or gosh, you know, it turns out you’re black and we
don’t think this part would ever be something you could relate to. You don’t
hear any of that in animation. For me that’s heaven because you can literally do
anything or be anything,” Goldberg says.
Goldberg’s passion for and innate understanding of Darlin,’ as well as her
process for communicating that, thrilled and mesmerized the two directors.
“Whoopi is very, very smart and she would not read a line unless she
understood what it was about and she brought so many of her own ideas to
Darlin’ that were so much better than what we had,” says Brady. “Very often,
she would say, ‘Well, I don’t think Darlin’ would say it that way, let’s try it this
way, “Brady recalls.
“Whoopi was an absolute delight to work with because she imbued the
part with so much that wasn’t on the page. And once she found the character,
she knew exactly how Darlin’ should speak and it was extraordinary to watch
this unfold,” says St. Pierre.
William H. Macy plays Lefty, the would-be pitcher of the Chicago Cubs
and a hapless thief, hired to steal Darlin’ from Babe Ruth. Without his lucky bat,
Babe Ruth will be unable to deliver his trademark home runs and the World
Series will go to Chicago. However, Yankee Irving, Screwie and Darlin’ foil
Lefty’s plans, which results in some embarrassing and painful situations for the
wannabe thief. Taking Macy through these sequences sometimes proved slightly
embarrassing and painful for the directors.
“William H. Macy is a fantastic actor, one of my favorites, and has been in
so many classics and brought so much professionalism to the project. So, of
course, we had him play our often ludicrous villain, and sometimes we would
say, ‘Well, could you just read the line a little goofier?’ I’m certain he was used to
getting much more sophisticated direction, but he was a great sport about the
whole thing,” recalls Brady.
Macy, who has played his share of oddball characters, had no problems
incarnating Lefty, adds St. Pierre. “He was an absolute dream. Right off the bat,
he was Lefty – he gave him all these quirky mannerisms and a little bit of
Chicago. And we wanted to make him a guy who was really inept, a bad liar, a
clumsy person who managed to become a pitcher for a major league baseball
team. He likes to cheat to get ahead, to take short cuts so he doesn’t have to really
do what it takes. He’s the complete opposite of Yankee, actually. And Bill
understood that right away and really ran with it.”
As it turns out, Chicago baseball came naturally to Macy and the tale of
Everyone’s Hero spoke to him for several reasons. “I’m an old Chicago boy and
this had the old Chicago written all over it. For me, Wrigley Field is as close to
heaven as you can get. I used to live on Waveland when Dave Kingman played
for the Cubs. Every once in a while, you’d hear a SMACK and a baseball would
be rolling down the street. Besides that, I thought it was a great story, really well
written and heartfelt, and I thought the sketches I saw were original and stylish,”
Macy says.
He adds that the actual voice work did not come as naturally as the
Chicago setting. Lefty, who finds himself in all sorts of uncomfortable physical
situations, plays to Macy’s strengths and allowed him to explore some new ones.
“I’ve done a bit of voice work over the years, yet I still find it challenging,” says
Macy. “I have a tendency to be a physical actor and, of course, it doesn’t show
up on a microphone. But Lefty gets the stuffing whooped out of him throughout
the film so I got to do a lot of oofing and ahfing. Sometimes we’d get lucky and
I’d make a funny sound and they’d animate it,” Macy says. “I also have a
tendency to read the lines as written, so it was interesting to be encouraged to
make stuff up, to go for the joke. It was fun to sort of rock out and come up with
all kinds of variations.”
Newcomer Jake T. Austin portrays young Yankee Irving. Like Yankee,
Austin is a baseball nut. Unlike Yankee, he is quite good at it. “We couldn’t have
asked for a better Yankee than Jake,” says Brady. “He knows all the stats and it
was very natural for him to talk about not just baseball but to get inside the
emotional aspects of Yankee. He was just a goldmine, a wonder to work with
and very talented and smart. He helped us a lot, in terms of our writing and
storyboarding and certainly helped shape the character.”
“We had an initial outing where I met him and a bunch of his friends on a
baseball field,” adds St. Pierre. “It was freezing cold. And they played a game of
pick-up, very much like we have in the movie and we filmed the whole thing.
We asked him to do some typical things, like to show us his stance and how he
threw. And we grabbed some of that, showed it to our animators and started to
incorporate some of Jake’s mannerisms into that of Yankee. Jake is pretty good
at baseball but it was also fun to see him make mistakes. He’d miss a pop fly and
get really angry at himself, there was a little bit of Yankee in that and some of it
seeped into the character.”
In fact, Austin is not just a baseball fanatic, he is a Yankee devotee. One of
the highlights of Everyone’s Hero for him was meeting Joe Torre who plays – what
else? – The Yankees’ manager. “I’m the biggest baseball fan you ever want to
meet, the biggest Yankee fan,” Austin says. “I have a baseball collection of many
things, from autographed balls to pictures with players. I painted my room blue
for the Yankees. Meeting Joe Torre was just crazy; it was a dream come true.
When I got this project, I was stunned.”
While Austin, who was 10 when he recorded the part of Yankee, certainly
enjoyed the project, he liked certain scenes better than others. “Some scenes are
more melodramatic than others and those were more difficult for me. The scenes
between Yankee and Screwie, when he yells at Screwie, those were more like me
and were easier. Fortunately, we have a very talented producer. Ron Tippe
helped me with my lines, taught me how to breathe correctly. Ron and Colin
and Dan helped me become a better actor, they deserve a lot of the credit.”
One of the people Yankee Irving meets along the way is a young woman
named Marti, voiced by Raven-Symoné. Marti teaches Yankee Irving the physics
of the perfect pitch as she helps fend off some bullies with some strategically
thrown apples.
“I thought that Everyone’s Hero was a great story of someone coming into
themselves and sometimes you have to take some risks to follow your dreams,”
Raven-Symoné points out. “And I like that Marti, who’s a bit tomboyish, helps
him along the way, not just in terms of learning about baseball but by becoming
his friend. And why not? You always need a girl to push you along a little bit.”
Raven-Symoné, an animation veteran, enjoys voice-over work but can’t
help bringing some physicality to her performance, even if it never ends up on
film. “I like animation because I can come to work in my pajamas,” she says. “I
had a great relationship with everyone in the recording booth; we laughed a
bunch and had fun. But, as an actress, I’ve done a lot of comedy and most of my
emotion comes through my face and I tend to favor big gestures. I like to move
around a lot and, hopefully, that comes through in my voice. I don’t go as crazy
as I would on television but I do try to embody the character.”
While the Georgia native is, of course, a fan of the Atlanta Braves, she
doesn’t see Everyone’s Hero as “a baseball movie.” “I think the story is about
following your dreams, whether that be baseball or basketball or swimming or
singing, whatever your dream is. Sometimes that means taking chances and
sometimes it’s a lonely road. But, like Yankee, along the way you make great
friends who help you overcome obstacles. You see some of that in Yankee and
Marti. She’s one of the people he meets along his journey, and she teaches him a
few things that help him on the path towards realizing his dreams,” Raven-
Symoné says.
Mandy Patinkin, who voices Yankee’s father, had known Christopher
Reeve since they were students together at Juilliard. “He was an old dear
friend,” says Patinkin. “When the accident happened, it changed the world for
everyone, in terms of having an inspirational figure who was just off the charts.
When Chris asked me to do anything, whether it was a benefit for the
Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation or a movie or a recording for a
children’s book, I was there. I think Chris and Dana’s life was about hope and
belief and promise. And Everyone’s Hero is a story of a child who believes that a
supposedly unattainable dream can come true. He is the little boy in Chris and
in all of us. This boy is a believer and that is what Chris and Dana Reeve were.”
Everyone’s Hero is also the veteran actor’s first animated feature and
Patinkin relished every minute of it. Playing Yankee’s father allowed him to
revisit his own childhood as well as his sons’ childhoods. Like William H. Macy,
Patinkin was a Chicago baseball fan, though he rooted for the cross town team.
“I loved being able to talk to Yankee, as his father, through the memory of
my own boys, who are now grown,” says Patinkin. “And my father loved
baseball; he would take me to Comiskey Park every Saturday to watch the White
Sox. So he was with me in the booth for a line or two. I always wanted to do one
of these and now I want to do more. I particularly loved seeing those tiny
sketches initially and then early, jerky computer images that then become more
fluid. Then with some of the voices added, it takes on a feeling that’s
unbelievably real.”
Patinkin approached the process slightly differently than the other actors
in that he often did not perform just his part but others as well. “Mandy had the
most fascinating method – he read the other guy’s lines to himself and repeated
lines and out of that came this outpouring of performance,” says St. Pierre. “It
was incredible to watch. What you get is this incredibly deep-rooted, soulful,
heartfelt thing. You believe that he really is
Stanley Irving, Yankee’s father, because all this warmth and sweetness comes out
in this extraordinary, golden voice.”
Several other actors contributed in large and small ways to Everyone’s
Hero, from Richard Kind, who plays a helpful hobo and a maitre d’, to Robert
Wagner, who voiced the Yankees’ general manager. Brian Dennehy brought the
legendary Babe Ruth to life but unlike the other actors, his schedule did not
allow him to record his lines in the usual fashion.
“Brian was working in London, and he was not available for us in the
studio,” says St. Pierre. “We had to record his dialogue via telephone lines. So
we never got to meet him but directing over the phone is an interesting
experience. We described what Babe Ruth would be doing during the scene and
everything we knew about it and then Brian imagined and interpreted it. Darn if
Babe Ruth didn’t come out of his mouth when he delivered the lines. We forgot
he was Brian Dennehy the actor, he just was Babe Ruth. It was a great fit.”
FROM VOICES TO ANIMATED CHARACTERS
Once the directors culled all the voice performances, it was time to
transform them into animated characters and to create the world in which they
lived. This is when their duties divided and also coalesced. They shared the
responsibilities, working together on the storyboards, tag-teaming the recording
sessions, deciding what bits should stay, collaborating on selection of the actors’
voice performances. However, each brought their particular specialties to bear
on the look and feel of the film and characters.
“My forte is in visual design and layout and camera stuff, while Colin
came in as a CG animation specialist,” explains St. Pierre. “So, I spent the bulk of
my time with the art department, the layout team, with an eye towards design
and the color aspects and the final output of the film.”
Brady says that their different specialties and backgrounds were
complementary and made for a richer collaboration. Which is not to suggest
they always agreed on everything. “We were like Lennon and McCartney; our
differences were really the strengths of the film,” says Brady. “Dan’s
background in art direction and production design on such beautiful films as
Tarzan and The Hunchback of Notre Dame was tremendous. And I think he
brought a certain kind of live action sensibility to the film as well. My
background is much more cartoon-y, from my school experience at CalArts to
Pixar. I think I contributed more of a comic style and attitude. I think these
opposites ended up being the best of both worlds. For instance, there were times
I might take it into a goofy direction and Dan would say, ‘That just doesn’t feel
like this film.’ In a similar vein, this is an animated film and there is a reason for
that, otherwise we would have shot it live action. So, all in all, it ended up being
a very good balance of skills and talents.”
St. Pierre found inspiration for the look of the film in the paintings of
Norman Rockwell, whose work depicted simple American vignettes realistically
but with candor, warmth and humor.
“Although Everyone’s Hero is set during the Depression, we didn’t want it
to be monochromatic or sepia-toned or in any way somber. We were trying to
make it look as though Norman Rockwell had a hand in the design. If you look
at a Rockwell drawing, he tended to find characters with interesting faces and his
color choices are similar to ours. Ours were a little more saturated because, I
think especially for youngsters, its fun to see a more colorful, lively palette. But,
tonally, it’s very similar to Rockwell’s style,” says St. Pierre.
Like Rockwell’s studies of ordinary American life, St. Pierre says the
camerawork was similarly straightforward. Much of this had to do with the
atmosphere he and director of photography Jan Carlee were trying to create.
Some of this stylistic economy was more practical.
“We had a very short schedule in which to complete the movie,” St. Pierre
explains. “But, all that worked to our advantage. It kept us moving at a faster
rate so we had to always consider if that extra ‘dazzle’ was really important to
the story. It forced us to focus on what was essential to the story and the staging
of the scenes. Jan Carlee really understood that. He was very economical in the
way he used the camera but he had a real style and sense of play in terms of how
he moved the camera.’
Carlee’s “camera” is programmed into the computer but other than that,
the process is akin to a live action movie. “We set up the CG models with break-
away walls so the camera can get around and the ceiling can come off. And we
arranged it just like you'd shoot-a live action film; even though we have a
mathematical camera, the camera still does need to operate that space,” Carlee
explains.
One of Carlee’s biggest challenges was to be true to the era without
seeming overly nostalgic. He had to create an artful balance that was true to the
story and period, but would also underscore the film’s universal themes and
appeal to modern audiences.
“As head of layout, I’m responsible for the visual storytelling,” says
Carlee. “And the camera ends up becoming one of the characters in the show,
whether it’s an observer or an active participant. Because it is a period piece, a
lot of the shots have a more classical feel, in the style of old movie making, not a
lot of really crazy camerawork. At the same time, we have to balance that kind
of cinematography with elements that acknowledge a nostalgic feel but find a
contemporary audience.”
Some of that, Carlee adds, came not from the eye-popping sequences that
typify animation, but from the film’s smaller but no less intense emotional core.
“Everyone’s Hero had to work on an emotional level and have a lot of heart. So,
while a lot of animated films are lensed so that everything is set up for a big
spectacle, often that distances the audience. I thought this needed to have a more
intimate feel to embrace the emotional content and that’s how we staged it,”
Carlee says.
That said, Yankee, Screwie and Darlin’ absolutely enjoy some phenomenal
adventures and they provided Carlee a few “spectacles.” One of the most
complicated – and for Carlee, very satisfying – begins in Penn Station and veers
between moving trains before ending in another excruciating predicament for
Lefty.
“There were three train sequences,” Carlee explains. “They began with
Yankee going to Penn station and, being a New Yorker, I have a great
appreciation for that piece of architecture. It was very rewarding to recreate it for
the film. It also offered a lot of cinematic possibilities, in terms of staging, and
allowed the audience to see it as it was back then, to feel like they were there.
Later on, Yankee sneaks into a train and then we had some fun business, where
he does all kinds of kid stuff, like slithering under seats. It ends with a huge
chase, which was very exciting for the layout department. We took the initial
storyboards and did a lot of visual embellishing. We really tried to dial it up. It
was more than just finding shots; we tried to create a lot of sight gags and
business for the characters. It was very challenging and incredibly rewarding
and lots of fun.”
Key components of the camerawork were the color and lighting design.
These began with beautiful renderings that now hang in the hallways of IDT.
“The movie has a really rich palette,” says Janet Healy. “The colors and the
camerawork in conjunction draw the eye to certain parts of the frame in a
sophisticated, viewer-friendly way. The other thing is that the characters and
their world are so much of the same cloth that you can be transported. A lot of
times in animated movies, characters don’t fit into the background. Everyone’s
Hero has a level of design that is one of its real strengths. Sam Michlap is the
head of our visual development in Los Angeles. He is one of the best colorists in
the business; he is just a fantastic designer and painter. He did a whole series of
lighting keys; they are just beautiful paintings, they are framed and hung here in
the hallway. Those are what the lighters used as their references. So, it really
does come from a well thought out, painterly world that is translated into
computer graphics.”
Michlap adds that his color scheme reflected not only the story but also
the emotions conveyed from scene to scene. “We had to decide which sequence
should be what color and how to tie it to the story. But, for instance, there was
some concern about the color sequences at first because it is set in the 1930s and
all the photography from that period is in black and white. Obviously, there was
tons of color in the world but that’s not our association with this era. Color works
basically on emotion, so color scheme for a given scene was determined by its
emotion. There are high and low notes to color and ranges to them, but overall,
the tones we went for tried to reflect the optimistic spirit of Yankee Irving. So we
tried to be as robust with the colors as we could,” Milchap explains.
Colin Brady says that Yankee Irving’s adventures and struggles and the
film’s 1930s setting, give the film a unique and engaging emotional quality. The
combination of animated people and fantastical manifestations like Screwie and
Darlin’ offered endless comedic opportunities but also, ultimately, affected the
film’s character designs.
“So many animated films have talking animals or cars, some kind of
fantasy creature, and of course, ours does too, with Screwie and Darlin’ and you
couldn’t ask for a better contrast,” says Brady. “The comic tension between them
is hilarious and we never ran out of gags we could do with them. But the humor
had to come out of the situation and the emotional arc. However, the humans
are much less forgiving, in terms of animation, because we see them every day
and if they were a little off, it looked odd. If a baseball is talking and his mouth
is open a bit too wide, there’s nothing in the real world to compare it to. If we
stylize the humans’ design, the animation is more forgiving. I worked on films in
the past, especially at ILM, where we actually tried to recreate humans photo-
realistically and we’ve done a pretty good job. But, oddly, as you get closer to
reality, the further away you are. It looks real but something is not quite right.
Now if you put that character next to a talking baseball, it really seems off. So,
we stylized Yankee Irving’s design. We made his head and ears a little bigger,
for instance. That helps the character from being scrutinized with the standard of
absolute reality.”
Supervising Animator Mile Chaffe says the animation team’s biggest
challenge was to convey the characters’ emotional lives. Occasionally, this meant
heightening Yankee’s reactions and anthropomorphicizing Screwie only to a
certain point.
“It’s a fine line, in terms of copying what we do in real life versus what
you actually see in animation,” Chaffe points out. “If we were to animate
precisely what we do in reality, we’d get a very dead kind of look that isn’t fun
to watch. So the trick is to make sure that the rigs are good so we can get a lot of
good facial animation. Dealing with human characters is always the toughest
because we recognize what they are doing and if we get it wrong, the audience
knows it,” he says. “Screwie was a challenge in that we had to make it look like
a hardball but still has some life, to give him all the character he needed to have
some fun.”
The animation team relied on filmed reference shots of baseballs,
including Austin’s pick-up game, to begin to create Screwie. After that, it was
imagination coupled with trial and error.
“We had to create a set of standards, like, how does his mouth move?
How do we maintain the look of a hardball but still allow the squash and stretch
we need to get the life we need out of him?” says Chaffe. “The good thing about
shooting the reference, even the simplest things, like touching the ball and
watching it move is that I don’t really have to guess at something like that then.
I’d rather put my efforts into the characters’ performance. If I have that
reference, the movement just becomes more accurate and believable. And if it’s
believable, people will invest themselves in the picture or the shot.”
As Screwie is a talking ball, design and placement of his mouth was, of
course, important. Supervising Animator Morgan Ginsberg concentrated on one
of Screwie’s first soliloquies and worked closely with Dan St. Pierre and Colin
Brady on this anatomical conundrum.
“Screwie and Yankee have just become acquainted and Screwie is telling
Yankee the story of how he came to be. I was trying to come up with simple
mouth shapes, very graphic and very readable. Dan and Colin and I worked on
getting the stitching line to come down so that it would hook up with the corners
of his mouth and line up almost like his bottom lip. It was organically integrated
as part of him as opposed to something that was pasted on.”
Another animation challenge was the amount of characters populating the
story, coupled with a very short production schedule. Supervising Animator
Peter Lepeniotis explains: “Certain animation studios will assign supervisors to a
character. We had to move a little faster on this one which was good, mostly,
because we had less time to pontificate and more time to actually work and get
our characters out as quickly as possible. So we all worked on the characters but,
for instance, Yankee, who is the lead and has to carry the entire film, has to carry
more of the weight. So, when he had shots with Yankee, we tended to put more
emphasis on those sequences. It’s his story and we basically helped him along
through it, digitally manipulating him as we went. Having said that, this is
probably the largest cast I’ve ever seen on an animated feature, from little kids to
mothers to grandparents. We littered cityscapes with them, and we had to create
facially expressive emotions for each of them.”
Much of this was accomplished during pre-production, for practical
reasons, and was honed throughout the production. “These facial shapes take a
long time because we have to design each one, including the eyebrows, eyes,
mouths, all the limitations of head movements,” adds Lepeniotis. “This has to
be done to set parameter. That was a huge amount of work when you consider
there are at least ten talking characters. Of course, Yankee was number one,” he
says.
Like the filmed baseball references, the animators required physical real-
life examples of facial articulation and body movement. In a time-honored
fashion, the animators photographed themselves. “It’s a traditional method,
used for at least 80 years. This kind of reference is always extremely important,
whether it be done with mirrors or cameras. The nice thing about having it
videotaped is that we didn’t spend any time trying things out over and over.
Reality is the best reference and also you can isolate certain actions, like how the
face stretches or wrinkles with certain expressions,” Lepeniotis explains.
While the photographic references were handy tools, Brady adds they
were just templates to be use in concert with the animators’ imaginations and, of
course, the talented actors. “All kinds of great ideas come from real life; all the
things you don’t think about when you’re animating a shot come from getting
out of your chair and acting the shot out,” says Brady. “So whether it was
Yankee swinging a bat and missing and falling on his butt, or a very emotional
close-up, we required that every single shot had a reference we could study, to
use all that information. However, if the reference couldn’t entirely do what we
needed, we were certainly free to deviate from it and come up with something
more playful. With Screwie, for example, we referenced the footage of Rob
Reiner reading his lines. But, because Screwie is a ball that bounces all over the
place, we had to pick and choose where and when to draw from reality and
when to have pure animation fun.”
The fun was always grounded in the emotional truth of Yankee, Screwie
and Darlin’s quest to reunite Darlin’ and Babe Ruth, to vindicate Yankee’s father
and, in many ways, to prove to Yankee as much as anyone, that he could
persevere, especially when circumstances didn’t completely go his way. It was
also uniquely anchored to Christopher and Dana Reeve.
* * * *
ABOUT THE CAST
ROB REINER voices Screwie, the wise cracking ball that enjoys solitude
versus being around people. On their journey, with the help of Irving and
Darlin’, he rediscovers his dreams and they become reality.
In addition to his position as principal and co-founder of Castle Rock
Entertainment, Rob Reiner is a well-known actor and one of Hollywood's top
directors.
Prior to his directorial career, Reiner acted in many television and feature
films and wrote for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. It was, however, his
Emmy® Award winning portrayal of Michael Stivic, the son-in-law of Archie
Bunker in the hit series All in the Family, that made him a household name.
Prior to the creation of Castle Rock, Reiner’s credits as a feature film
director included the now-legendary This is Spinal Tap, The Sure Thing, Stand By
Me, and the much loved fantasy The Princess Bride, adapted for the screen by
Academy Award winner William Goldman from his original novel.
Castle Rock Entertainment’s first feature film release in 1989 was Reiner’s
now-classic When Harry Met Sally…, a chronicle of romance in the ‘80s which was
both a critical and box office success, earning him Best Director nominations
from both the Hollywood Foreign Press and the Directors Guild of America. He
next directed Misery, a psychological thriller based on Stephen King’s bestseller
of the same title, which earned Kathy Bates an Oscar in 1990. The mega box office
hit A Few Good Men, starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore,
followed in 1992, garnering another DGA Best Director nomination as well as
four Academy Award nominations, including that for Best Picture. In 1994,
North was released, starring Elijah Wood, Bruce Willis, Jon Lovitz, Jason
Alexander and
Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Reiner directed the hit comedy The American President in
1995, which starred Michael Douglas and Annette Bening. In 1996, Ghosts of
Mississippi chronicled the re-prosecution of the murderer of civil rights leader
Medgar Evers and starred Alec Baldwin, Whoopi Goldberg and James Woods.
The Story of Us, starring Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer, followed in 1999.
Reiner's most recent films are the 2003 romantic comedies Alex & Emma,
starring Kate Hudson and Luke Wilson, and 2005's Rumor Has It…, with Jennifer
Aniston, Kevin Costner, Shirley MacLaine, and Mark Ruffalo.
In addition to his work behind the camera, Reiner has continued to act,
appearing in such films as Bullets Over Broadway, Bye Bye, Love, Sleepless In Seattle,
The First Wives Club, Primary Colors, EDtv, The Muse, and Dickie Roberts: Former
Child Star.
Reiner has long been one of America’s leaders on public policy issues
ranging from early childhood development to environmental protection. In
1997, Rob and his wife Michele founded the I Am Your Child Foundation (now
Parents’ Action for Children) and began a national public awareness and
engagement campaign to communicate the importance of early childhood
development. The Foundation’s efforts, including two White House conferences,
a primetime network television special, numerous statewide initiatives and the
distribution of over 8 million videos, have helped give American parents the
tools to raise happy and healthy children. In 1998, Mr. Reiner led the fight to
pass California Proposition 10, which, through First 5 California, now provides
over $600 million each year to early childhood development services.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG voices Darlin’, a conceited, self absorbed, bat who
expects nothing but the best and getting her way. She learns through the journey
that sometimes you have to put causes and friends before yourself.
In 2002, Whoopi Goldberg became one of a very elite group of artists who have
won the Grammy (Whoopi Goldberg, 1985), the Academy Award (Ghost, 1991),
the Golden Globe (The Color Purple, 1985 and Ghost, 1991), the Emmy (as host of
AMC’s Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel, 2002) and a Tony
(as a producer of “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” 2002). She is equally well-known
for her humanitarian efforts on behalf of children, the homeless, human rights,
education, substance abuse and the battle against AIDS, as well as many other
causes and charities. Among her many charitable activities, Goldberg is a
Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations.
Born and raised in New York City, Goldberg worked in theatre and
improvisation in San Diego and the Bay Area, where she performed with the
Blake Street Hawkeyes theatre troupe. There, she created the characters that
became The Spook Show and evolved into her hit Broadway show, Grammy
Award-winning album and the HBO special that helped launch her career.
Goldberg made her motion picture debut in Steven Spielberg’s film
version of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, for which she earned an Academy
Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award. Her performance in Ghost
earned her the Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting
Actress. Goldberg has also appeared in such films as Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Clara’s
Heart, The Long Walk Home, Soapdish, The Player, Sarafina!, Sister Act, Made in
America, Corrina, Corrina, The Lion King, Boys on the Side, Eddie, The Associate,
Ghosts of Mississippi, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Girl, Interrupted, Kingdom
Come and Rat Race, which reunited her with her Ghost director, Jerry Zucker. She
voiced characters in the animated features Racing Stripes and Doogal.
On television, Goldberg appeared for five seasons on Star Trek: The Next
Generation, she co-starred with Jean Stapleton in Bagdad Café and hosted her own
syndicated late-night talk show. She appeared in the Emmy-nominated HBO
drama, In the Gloaming, directed by Christopher Reeve, as well as The Wonderful
World of Disney’s Rogers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella and A Knight in Camelot and
appeared in the mini-series Alice in Wonderland and The Magical Legend of the
Leprechauns. She starred in the NBC sitcom, Goldberg, which she executive
produced with Carsey-Werner-Mandabach and Bonnie and Terry Turner. She
appeared on Nick Jr.’s Goldberg’s Littleburg, a series of three, half-hour TV
specials set in The Preschool Capital of the World, which she also produces.
As she has in every other facet of her career, Goldberg has made her mark
as a producer. She executive produced the Lifetime original drama series Strong
Medicine, the longest-running original drama created for basic cable and the first
cable show to go into syndication. Goldberg was also an executive producer of
the musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie, which won six Tony Awards, including
Best Musical.
Goldberg has appeared on many television series and specials, including
her own HBO specials, three-time host of ABC’s A Gala for the President at Ford’s
Theatre and eight Comic Relief telecasts with Billy Crystal and Robin Williams.
Goldberg received Emmy Award nominations for hosting the 66th, 68th and 71st
Academy Awards telecasts and returned to host the 2002 telecast at the new
Kodak Theatre.
Goldberg’s TV movies include It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie
for NBC and Showtime’s Good Fences, co-producing and co-starring with Danny
Glover. In early 2003, Goldberg returned to Broadway, co-starring with Charles
“Roc” Dutton in August Wilson’s acclaimed Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which she
also produced. She had last appeared on Broadway in 1997, in A Funny Thing
Happened on the Way to the Forum.
JAKE T. AUSTIN voices Yankee Irving, an ordinary 10-year-old boy with
an extraordinary heart. Yankee embarks on a grand adventure restoring his
family’s honor, while making true friends along the journey. He believes dreams
come true if you don’t give up.
Eleven-year-old newcomer Jake T. Austin stars as the voice of Diego in the
new animated Nick Jr. series Go, Diego, Go!. He has appeared on The Late Show
with David Letterman, Blue’s Clues and the film Martin and Orlove, as well as
several commercials and voiceovers.
Austin will also be featured in the upcoming animated film The Ant Bully.
An avid sports fan, Jake loves baseball, soccer, basketball, skateboarding
and snowboarding. He also enjoys traveling, especially to visit his Abuelo and
other relatives in Puerto Rico. Jake lives in New York’s Rockland County with
his parents, Giny and Joey, and his younger sister, Ava.
WILLIAM H. MACY voices Lefty, the gross, disgusting henchman who
will do anything to succeed and get what he wants, including the destruction of
Irving, his family and their hero.
William H. Macy appears in the independent feature Thank You for
Smoking, the animated feature Doogal, for which he voiced Brian the Snail and
Sahara, opposite Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz.
Macy co-stars in the independent feature Bobby. The film is based around
fictionalized events leading up to the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy
in 1968. Directed by Emilio Estevez, the film also stars Anthony Hopkins, Demi
Moore, Lindsay Lohan, Sharon Stone, Christian Slater, Mandy Moore, Helen
Hunt, Elijah Wood, Heather Graham, Laurence Fishburne, Martin Sheen, Shia
LeBeouf, Freddy Rodriguez and Ashton Kutcher. Macy also recently wrapped
production on Umney’s Last Case based on an anthology of Steven King short
stories. The mini-series aired on TNT in 2006. Macy also recently completed
production on Edmond, an adaptation of the David Mamet play, also starring
Dylan Walsh, Julia Stiles, Joe Mantegna and Mena Suvari. Macy will soon begin
work on Bee Movie, another animated feature.
Macy is best known for his portrayal of Jerry Lundergaard in Fargo, for
which he received an Oscar nomination and won an Independent Spirit Award
as Best Supporting Actor. He also garnered nominations for Funniest
Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (American Comedy Awards), Best Actor
(Chicago Film Critics), Best Supporting Actor (Dallas/ Fort Worth Film Critics),
and Best Actor in a Drama (International Press Academy).
Other films include the thriller Cellular starring opposite Kim Basinger,
The Cooler, Seabiscuit, for which he earned a Golden Globe nomination, Spartan, In
Enemy Hands, Magnolia, Pleasantville, Happy Texas, State and Main, Jurassic Park 3,
Focus, Welcome to Collinwood, Psycho, A Civil Action, Boogie Nights, Wag The Dog,
Air Force One, Ghosts of Mississippi, Mr. Holland's Opus, The Client, Shadows and
Fog, Murder in the First, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Radio Days and Panic.
In 2005, Macy was seen in TNT's The Wool Cap. Macy joined writing
partner Steven Schachter for this new take on the 1962 comedy Gigot, which
originally starred Jackie Gleason and was directed by Gene Kelly. Macy was
nominated for an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a SAG Award for his
performance. He and Schachter, who also directed the piece, were also
nominated for a Writers Guild Award. In addition, the movie was nominated for
an Emmy and a Critics' Choice Award.
In 2002, Macy received outstanding critical acclaim for his role as Bill
Porter in TNT's Door to Door opposite Kyra Sedgwick, Helen Mirren, Kathy Baker
and Felicity Huffman. The movie, which Macy also co-wrote, tells the true story
of Porter, an award-winning door-to-door salesman with cerebral palsy. The
movie aired to unprecedented ratings for a TNT original movie premiere and
received a SAG Award, Peabody Award, an AFI Award, a Critic's Choice
Award, a Golden Satellite Award, a Writer's Guild nomination, an American
Cinema Editors nomination and a Golden Globe nomination. The movie was
nominated for 12 Emmys and won 6 including Outstanding Made for Television
Movie as well as winning Macy the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Television
Movie statue and Outstanding Writing for a Television Movie with Steven
Schachter.
In 2003, Macy was seen in the Showtime Original Picture Stealing Sinatra,
which depicts the 1963 botched kidnapping of Frank Sinatra, Jr. Macy received
an Emmy nomination in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a
Miniseries or a Movie for his performance.
He received an Emmy nomination as Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series
for his recurring role as Dr. David Morgenstern on ER. Macy also had a
recurring role on Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night and was nominated for an Emmy
for his performance. His movie of the week credits include Reversible Errors, A
Murderous Affair, Heart of Justice, Standoff at Marion, and the miniseries
Andersonville, The Murder of Mary Phagan and The Awakening Land. In addition to
the politically charged BBC telefilm The Writing on the Wall, Macy also appeared
in two Mamet vehicles, The Water Engine and Showtime's Texan. In 1999, he
starred opposite his wife Felicity Huffman, on the TNT television film A Slight
Case of Murder and received another Emmy nomination. Macy and his writing
partner Steven Schachter wrote the film and Schachter directed. Also with
Schachter, Macy has written several television scripts.
In 1998, Macy was honored by Showest when he was named Best
Supporting Actor of the Year for his body of work.
MANDY PATINKIN voices Yankee’s Dad, who works at the famed
Yankee Stadium where Babe Ruth’s bat Darlin’ is stolen.
Mandy Patinkin who is not only an accomplished actor; he is also a
renowned tenor. He attended Kenwood High School, University of Kansas and
Juilliard School of Drama. His first real break was when he played Che in Evita
on Broadway in 1979. He went on to win a Tony Award for that role.
After this initial musical theater success he moved to film, playing a
number of parts in movies such as Yentl and Ragtime, before returning to
Broadway in 1984 to star in Sunday in the Park with George, which saw him earn
another Tony Award nomination.
He is beloved by fans for his inimitable portrayal of Inigo Montoya in Rob
Reiner's The Princess Bride.
Over the next decade he continued to appear in various movies such as
Dick Tracy and Alien Nation, on Broadway in The Secret Garden and released two
solo albums called Mandy Patinkin and Dress Casual.
In 1994, he burst onto the small screen playing the role of Dr. Jeffrey
Geiger on CBS's Chicago Hope and promptly won an Emmy Award.
He returned to Broadway in 2000 in the New York Shakespeare Festival's
The Wild Party, earning another Tony Award nomination. He has also been seen
in the Showtime comedy-drama Dead Like Me.
He currently stars in the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds.
RAVEN-SYMONÉ voices Marti, a fun-loving, energetic, tomboy who
exemplifies “girl power.” She becomes a good friend of Yankee Irving’s who
helps him through tough situations and in achieving his goal.
Raven-Symoné currently stars as Raven Baxter, a confident teen whose
ability to see flashes of the future compel her to embark on a series of comical
misadventures on the hit show, That’s So Raven. She also voices the character of
Monique on the animated action/comedy series Kim Possible. She starred in the
Disney Channel movie The Cheetah Girls.
Born in Atlanta, GA, she began her career in entertainment at age 3. Best
known as the adorable Olivia on The Cosby Show and as Nicole on Hangin’ with
Mr. Cooper, she also appeared as Eddie Murphy’s rebellious daughter in the
feature films Dr. Doolittle 1 and 2.
The multi-talented teen has been nominated for 2 NAACP Image Awards
and is also a recording artist. She released her hit single, “That’s What Little
Girls Are Made Of” when she was five and that same year she debuted on
Broadway with The Boys Choir of Harlem for their 25th anniversary celebration.
More recently, she toured with N’Sync in support of her latest CD, Undeniable.
* * * *
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
CHRISTOPHER REEVE (Director / Executive Producer)
Actor, director and activist are just some of the words used to describe
Christopher Reeve. From his first appearance at the Williamstown Theatre
Festival at the age of 15, Reeve established a reputation as one of the country’s
leading actors. However, ever since he was paralyzed in an equestrian
competition in 1995, Reeve not only put a human face on spinal cord injury but
he motivated neuroscientists around the world to conquer the most complex
diseases of the brain and central nervous system.
After graduating from Cornell University in 1974, Reeve pursued his dream
of acting, studying at Juilliard under the legendary John Houseman. He made his
Broadway debut opposite Katharine Hepburn in A Matter of Gravity in 1976 and
then went on to distinguish himself in a variety of stage, screen and television
roles with passion. Film credits include: Superman in 1978 and its subsequent
sequels, Deathtrap, Somewhere in Time, The Bostonians, Street Smart, Speechless,
Noises Off, Above Suspicion and the Oscar-nominated The Remains of the Day. Stage
credits include: The Marriage of Figaro, Fifth of July, My Life, Summer and Smoke,
Love Letters and The Aspern Papers.
Reeve made his directorial debut with In the Gloaming on HBO in April
1997. The film was met with rave reviews, was nominated for five Emmys and
won six Cable Ace Awards, including Best Dramatic Special and Best Director.
Reeve’s autobiography, Still Me, was published by Random House in April 1998
and spent 11 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. His audio recording
of Still Me earned Reeve a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album in February
1999. In his first major role since becoming paralyzed, Reeve starred in an
updated version of the classic Hitchcock thriller "Rear Window," for which he
was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won the Screen Actors Guild
Award for Best Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries. He also served as
Executive Producer of the film.
Reeve continued his directing work in television and film as well as his arts-
advisory service as a board member of the Williamstown Theatre Festival. In
early 2001, Reeve began combining his directing efforts with his activism when
he directed four commercials featuring Ray Romano, Randy Newman, Toni
Morrison and himself for Johnson & Johnson that focused on helping parents
talk to their kids. The same year he filmed a spot for the American Red Cross that
celebrated volunteerism.
In 1999, Reeve became the Chairman of the Board of the Christopher
Reeve Foundation (CRF). CRF, a national, nonprofit organization, supports
research to develop effective treatments and a cure for paralysis caused by spinal
cord injury and other central nervous system disorders. CRF also allocates a
portion of its resources to grants that improve the quality of life for people with
disabilities.
As Vice Chairman of the National Organization on Disability (N.O.D.), he
worked on quality of life issues for the disabled. In partnership with Senator Jim
Jeffords of Vermont, he helped pass the 1999 Work Incentives Improvement Act,
which allows people with disabilities to return to work and still receive disability
benefits. Reeve served on the Board of Directors of World T.E.A.M. Sports, a
group that organizes and sponsors challenging sporting events for athletes with
disabilities; TechHealth, a private company that assists in the relationship
between patients and their insurance companies; and LIFE (Leaders in
Furthering Education) a charitable organization that supports education and
opportunities for the underserved population.
In addition to his work on behalf of CRF, Reeve’s advocacy efforts included:
• Lobbying on behalf of the National Institutes of Health to double the NIH
budget in five years. In part because of his leadership, the NIH budget grew
from 12 billion dollars in 1998 to nearly 27.2 billion dollars in fiscal 2003;
• Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health
and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies in favor of federally
funded stem cell research;
• Providing instrumental and crucial support for the passage of the New York
State Spinal Cord Injury Research Bill (7287C), landmark legislation that makes
available up to $8.5 million annually in funds collected from violations of the
state’s motor vehicle laws to be appropriated among the leading research
facilities in New York. Reeve was also involved in lobbying efforts for similar
bills in New Jersey, Kentucky, Virginia and California;
• Working tirelessly to obtain increased funding from both the public and
private sectors to cure Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, MS, ALS, stroke, as well as to
repair the damaged spinal cord; and
• Helping to establish the Reeve-Irvine Research Center at the UCI College of
Medicine. The center supports the study of trauma to the spinal cord and
diseases affecting it, with an emphasis on the development of therapies to
promote the recovery and repair of neurological function.
While Reeve raised public awareness about the significance of medical
research and the challenges facing those with disabilities, he also educated
families about the importance of having adequate health and disability coverage.
In 1997, Reeve joined with HealthExtras, the first company to offer subscribers a
tax-free non-accountable payment of 1 million dollars in the event of a
permanent accidental disability. The cost of this policy is a mere $10 a month and
is available through Visa, American Express or via the Internet. Reeve served as
company spokesman.
Reeve’s community and political involvement pre-dates his spinal cord
injury. Over the course of many years, he served as a national spokesman on
behalf of the arts, campaign finance reform and the environment. A founder and
Co-President of The Creative Coalition, he helped to create recycling in New
York City and to persuade state legislature to set aside one billion dollars to
protect the city’s water supply. Since 1976, he was actively involved with Save
the Children, Amnesty International, Natural Resources Defense Council, The
Environmental Air Force and America’s Watch. In 1987, he demonstrated in
Santiago, Chile on behalf of 77 actors threatened with execution by the Pinochet
regime. For this action, Reeve was given a special Obie Award in 1988 and the
annual award from the Walter Briehl Human Rights Foundation.
His second book, Nothing is Impossible: Reflections on a New Life, was
published by Random House in September 2002. The audio rendition of Nothing
is Impossible garnered Reeve his second Grammy nomination for Best Spoken
Word Album. At the same time, a documentary film about his advocacy and
road to recovery entitled “Christopher Reeve: Courageous Steps” aired on ABC
television in the United States. The documentary was directed by Reeve’s son
Matthew and has been distributed around the world.
In September 2003, Reeve was awarded the Mary Woodard Lasker Award
for Public Service in Support of Medical Research and the Health Sciences from
the Lasker Foundation. Recognized for perceptive, sustained and heroic
advocacy for medical research in general, and people living with disabilities in
particular, Reeve was selected for this distinction by a jury of scholars and
scientists.
In August 2004, Reeve completed directing The Brooke Ellison Story. This
fact-based A&E cable television movie was based on the book Miracles Happen:
One Mother, One Daughter, One Journey. Brooke Ellison became a quadriplegic
at age 11 but with determination and the support of her family, Ellison rose
above her disability and went on to graduate from Harvard University. The film
starred Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Lacey Chabert and John Slattery.
Christopher Reeve died October 10, 2004 of heart failure. He was 52 years
old.
DANA REEVE (Executive Producer, voice of Yankee’s Mother)
Dana Reeve was a founding board member of the Christopher Reeve Foundation
and Dana Reeve succeeded her late husband, Christopher Reeve, as chair in 2004.
The Foundation is wholly committed to finding cures and treatments for spinal
cord injuries as well as improving the quality of life for people living with
disabilities.
Ms. Reeve established the Foundation’s Quality of Life initiatives: the
Quality of Life grants program and the Christopher & Dana Reeve Paralysis
Resource Center. Since its inception in 1999, the Quality of Life grants program
has awarded more than $8 million to support programs and projects that
improve the daily lives of people living with paralysis.
In addition to her work with the CRF, Ms. Reeve also served on the boards
of The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey,
TechHealth, and The Reeve-Irvine Center for Spinal Cord Research and as an
advisory board member to the National Family Caregivers Association.
She received numerous awards for her work, most notably the Shining
Example Award from Proctor & Gamble in 1998 and an American Image Award
from the AAFA in 2003. In addition, the American Cancer Society named her
Mother of the Year in 2005. Ms. Reeve authored the book Care Packages, which
was published by Random House in 1999.
First and foremost an actress, Ms. Reeve’s many singing and acting credits
included appearances on television, where she had starring roles on Law & Order,
Oz, and All My Children, among others. She performed in plays on Broadway,
off-Broadway, and at numerous regional theatres, and performed as a singer on
national television and at various New York venues. In 2000 she co-hosted a live
daily talk show for women on the Lifetime Network.
Ms. Reeve graduated cum laude from Middlebury College where she also
later received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, and she pursued
graduate studies in Acting at the California Institute of the Arts.
Dana Reeve passed away of lung cancer at the age of 44 on March 6, 2006.
Reeve is survived by her father, Dr. Charles Morosini, sisters Deborah Morosini
and Adrienne Morosini Heilman, her son Will and two stepchildren, Matthew
and Alexandra.
DANIEL ST. PIERRE (Director)
Daniel St. Pierre previously served as the production designer on the hit
film Shark Tale. He earned an Annie Award nomination for Outstanding
Individual Achievement for Production Design in an Animated Feature for his
work as an art director on Tarzan. He also served as a story artist and visual
consultant on 102 Dalmatians.
St. Pierre’s additional credits include work as a layout supervisor on the
animated features The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Lion King and Mickey’s The
Prince and the Pauper. He was also a key layout artist on such films as The Little
Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. Everyone’s Hero marks his debut as a
director.
COLIN BRADY (Director)
Colin Brady during his six years at Pixar, was co-director on Toy Story 2
when the film transitioned from direct-to-video to a theatrical release. During
those 18 months, Brady oversaw the design and development of new characters,
and contributed significantly to story and dialogue. Brady was a lead animator
on Toy Story, animation director in Pixar's shorts division, and a supervising
animator on A Bug's Life.
On Hulk and Lemony Snicket, Brady and his team pioneered the motion
capture of attack dogs and even eight-month-old infants. On Lemony Snicket,
Brady helped develop an inexpensive system to reliably track facial motion.
In addition, Brady was supervising animator on Men in Black 2 and E.T.
The Extraterrestrial Special Edition.
RON TIPPE (Producer)
Ron Tippe has been integrally involved in the development and
production of live action films, traditional 2-D and computer animated films and
visual effects. He produced the 2D and CGI animation on the hit film Space Jam
and served as producer of Shrek during the pre-production phase.
He also produced the Academy Award-nominated short animated feature
starring Mickey Mouse, Runaway Brain. He served as associate producer on the
American Playhouse/PBS telefilm In A Shallow Grave. He also was the executive
vice president of creative affairs and co-founder of the Digital Character Group,
an animation studio.
He went on to become vice-president of creative development at Route 66
Productions before becoming president and co-founder of Woof! Entertainment.
IGOR KHAIT (Producer)
Igor Khait has been making animated films for more than 17 years.
Beginning his career in 1989 at Amblin Entertainment, he has since worked at
many of the most prestigious animation studios in the field. In that time Khait
has built a strong reputation for creativity and versatility as well as for nurturing
talent.
Khait was the producer on Disney’s just released Leroy and Stitch. The film
is the final chapter in the highly popular Lilo & Stitch: The Series.
In 2003, Khait was the associate producer on Walt Disney Studios’ Brother
Bear, an Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Feature. Prior to that, he
served as production manager on Disney’s Atlantis, the Lost Empire, Warner Bros.’
Quest for Camelot, and Paramount’s Bebe’s Kids. Additionally, he has worked in
production on the CBS animated series Family Dog, executive produced by
Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton, an animated Christmas special A Wish for
Wings That Work, based on the popular Bloom County comic strip, and on a
number of industrial and corporate films.
Khait worked with John Kricfalusi, creator of the Emmy-nominated Ren
and Stimpy. During his years at Kricfalusi’s company, Spumco, Khait managed
the production of the Spumco comics and toys, and was the associate producer of
a collector’s edition of The Flintstones, The Early Episodes laser disc set.
Art, animation, and film have always been Khait’s passions. He received
his first B.A. in Fine Art from University of California, Santa Cruz and his second
B.A. in Film Graphics and Animation from CalArts in Valencia, CA. Originally
from Odessa, Ukraine, Igor Khait lives in Studio City, CA with his wife and two
children.
ROBERT KURTZ (Writer)
Robert Kurtz is a two-time People's Choice Award winner, for writing and
producing the acclaimed TV shows Cosby and Grace Under Fire.
He served as supervising producer for the WB animated series Baby Blues
when he joined the creative development department at IDT Entertainment.
JEFF HAND (Writer)
Jeff Hand has worked in theater, television and animation. He was an
associate producer for the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club, and worked in
production management for Walt Disney Feature Animation for ten years before
writing development treatments for feature animation development.
His writing credits include Ruckus, a game show produced by Merv
Griffin Enterprises, the children's video Newton: Fun with Colors, Farm Force as
well as the animated features Brother Bear and Brother Bear II.
JAN CARLEE (Director of Photography)
Jan Carlee has been active in the animation and special effects industry for
over twenty years. Prior to his involvement in Everyone's Hero, Carlee
supervised the digital 2D and 3D digital elements at Don Bluth Entertainment for
such films as Thumbelina and Rock -A- Doodle. Later working at Blue Sky Studios
in New York he directed many award winning commercials before directing
animation for such feature films as Alien Resurrection, Joe's Apartment and Titan
A.E. Carlee was also the sequence director for the film Ice Age and more recently
worked at Dreamworks on the film Shrek 2.
* * * *
ABOUT THE SOUNDTRACK
Just like the incredible talents voicing the film, the soundtrack is also full
of a diverse group of talented artists who wanted to come together for this
project. Music Supervisor Dawn Solér was as eager as all the talent to come on
board for the film.
“Christopher Reeve was such a hero to me,” said Solér. “With his
involvement, I knew the project would be filled with so much heart. This gave
me a passion to find the best songs, songwriters and musicians for the
soundtrack.”
Solér has worked as a music supervisor for 16 years, but ”Everyone’s
Hero” is only her second animated film. She has worked on such acclaimed
soundtracks as “Don Juan De Marco,” “Notting Hill,” “French Kiss” and
“Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.”
One of the first musicians Solér sought out was John Ondrasik from the
platinum certified and Grammy-nominated band Five for Fighting. “Ondrasik is
one of the most gifted and current songwriters who can write emotional songs on
a very a sophisticated level,” said Solér. Ondrasik was told the story and was
shown a few stills, and from that had agreed to work on the project. His Song,
“The Best,” was incorporated into the film twice and became a theme for Yankee.
“The music and emotion in the song were perfect to show Yankee’s
excitement in the beginning of the film, but also the song has very tender lyrics,
which we were able to use later in a more tender moment with Yankee,” said
Solér. Ondrasik also wrote the song “Swing It” for the film, for which Solér and
he brought on board country duo Brooks & Dunn to perform.
Raven-Simoné agreed to do a song for the soundtrack, as she was a
natural fit for “Keep Your Eye On The Ball.” “This is a fun song that kids will
really enjoy,” said Solér. “To give the song a more classic feel, we decided to use
an acoustic guitar, rather than an electric guitar.”
Other songs on the soundtrack include the baseball classic “Take Me Out
To The Ballgame” performed by country super group Lonestar. “This version
will be played at many ballgames to come,” said Solér.
For a more urban flavor, Wyclef Jean was brought on board to remake Ella
Fitzgerald’s jazz standard, “It’s Not What You Do, But The Way You Do It” and
created a timeless remake with “What You Do.” Another surprising musical
turn is Lyle Lovett’s rendition of Sinatra’s “Chicago (That Toddling Town).” In
this version Lovett is almost unrecognizable as his gritty voice has been soothed
by the amazing musical rendition.
Another surprising appearance is from Paris Bennett of “American Idol”
whose vocal performance on John Debney’s “The Tigers” will “take you out of
the park,” said Solér.
# # # #
©2006 IDT Entertainment. All rights reserved.
Permission is hereby granted to newspapers and periodicals to reproduce this
text in articles publicizing the distribution of the Motion Picture.
All other use is strictly prohibited, including sale, duplication, or other transfers of this material.
Oscar®-winner Russell Crowe reunites with “Gladiator” director Ridley Scott in A
GOOD YEAR, a Fox 2000 Pictures presentation of a Scott Free production. London-based
investment expert Max Skinner (Crowe) moves to Provence to sell a small vineyard he has
inherited from his late uncle. Max reluctantly settles into what ultimately becomes an
intoxicating new chapter in his life, as he comes to realize that life is meant to be savored.
A GOOD YEAR is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Peter Mayle.
(Mayle and Ridley Scott, who are longtime friends, together came up with the idea for the
novel.) Scott produces from a screenplay by Marc Klein. The film also stars the esteemed
Albert Finney as Max’s late Uncle Henry, who imparts wisdom to his young nephew; Marion
Cotillard (“A Very Long Engagement”) as a café owner who catches Max’s eye; Abbie
Cornish (“Sommersault”) as Max’s supposed long-lost cousin, who may hold the vineyard’s
title rights; Tom Hollander (“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”) as his best friend;
and Freddie Highmore (“Finding Neverland”) as the young Max.
Confident and cocky, headstrong and handsome, Max Skinner is a successful London
banker who specializes in trading bonds. A financial barracuda on the banks of the Thames,
Max devours the competition in his efforts to conquer the European market. His latest
conquest has netted a tidy seven-figure profit, much to the chagrin of his Saville Row-draped
rivals. Max’s triumph is in perfect keeping with his philosophy: winning isn’t everything,
it’s the only thing!
Soon thereafter, Max receives word from France alerting him to sad news: his elderly
Uncle Henry has passed away. Max, Henry’s closest blood relative, is the sole beneficiary of
his estate, which includes a Provençal chateau and vineyard, La Siroque, where Henry
cultivated grapes for over thirty years.
Max travels to the chateau where he spent his boyhood summers vacationing with his
eccentric uncle, whom he hasn’t seen or written to in years. While Max tends to the legal
affairs of his inheritance, he is suspended from his firm, pending an investigation into his
questionable bond transaction.
With his future in London in flux, Max reluctantly begins settling into life at the
chateau. He reunites with the chateau’s longtime vigneron, Francis Duflot (still tending the
vines after three decades), whom Max remembers from his boyhood visits. Duflot’s
exuberant wife, Ludivine, the estate’s housekeeper, warmly welcomes Max back.
Max is uncertain as to whether life in the South of France suits him. He rings up his
best friend, London realtor Charlie Willis, to inquire as to what a small chateau and winery
like La Siroque would command on the current market. Charlie advises Max that small
wineries with a good product can bring several million dollars, as boutique wine, made in
small batches, is the rage in wine shops. It’s money in the bank for Max should he lose his
job.
As Max fondly embraces the memories of summers past (spent with a man whose
wisdom and philosophy helped Max chart his successful career) while contemplating a
cloudy future, a complication arises with the sudden arrival of a determined,
twentysomething California girl, Christie Roberts. Christie, a Napa Valley native, claims to
be the illegitimate daughter of the deceased uncle. The revelation, if true, makes her Max’s
cousin and, according to French law, the beneficiary of La Siroque.
Suspecting Christie may be a fraud, Max questions her about her past while bickering
with her over the fate of the vineyard, whose plonk (as the French define bad wine) rivals the
worst vinegar imaginable. Max, who has tasted La Siroque’s awful vin de pays, also finds
some other bottles in Uncle Henry’s cellar bearing the name Le Coin Perdu (‘the lost
corner’). This mysterious, legendary vin de garage has fetched thousands per bottle on the
black market for years, according to the fetching local cafe owner, Fanny Chenal, with whom
Max has become smitten.
Where does the wine come from, and why is Duflot so insistent on staying at La
Siroque whatever the vineyard’s fate? And, what about some unusual vines discovered on
the property by Christie, which the crusty vintner claims are experimental in nature, and a
renowned oenologue has deemed unworthy?
Max’s memories and the passage of time bring forth emotions and feelings he
thought were long lost, and afford him a new appreciation of his late Uncle Henry’s
philosophy on life – and on life in Provence: “There’s nowhere else in the world where one
can keep busy doing so little, yet enjoy it so much!”
Peter Mayle is a native Brit who abandoned a successful advertising career and
reinvented himself as a best-selling author and novelist. He has been writing about the good
life in the South of France for over fifteen years. Critics have praised his books, both fiction
and nonfiction, calling the writer “the world’s foremost literary escape artist” because of his
knack for setting his colorful yarns in a locale one magazine called “the most enticing place
this side of paradise.” Mayle’s first book, a memoir called A Year in Provence, has sold
over five million copies (in 28 languages) since its publication in 1991.
It was over a bottle of Provençal wine that Mayle (who lives full-time in the Luberon
area of Provence) and filmmaker Ridley Scott (who has maintained a vacation home and
vineyard there for fifteen years) came up with the idea for Mayle’s breezy 2004 novel A
Good Year. “Ridley used to work in the commercials business and I used to work in the
advertising agency business in London,” Mayle recounts about his early history with the
filmmaker; their friendship stretches back to London’s advertising world of the 1970s. “He
was about the best there was, so we would always use his company for shooting commercials
if we could afford him. We worked together intermittently in London, and then he went off
and did movies and I went off and (wrote) books.”
Almost three decades later, Scott and Mayle had a memorable lunch. “Ridley arrived
with a newspaper clipping which reported on new wines in Bordeaux – ‘garage’ wines –
which commanded huge prices without a chateau or pedigree. Yet, people paid a fortune for
them.”
“I saw this piece in the newspaper business section of the Times about a vineyard in
France that was selling garage wine for over £30,000 a case,” Scott recounts about the 1996
clipping, which he still keeps in his files in London. “I was looking for an excuse to come
back to France to shoot a film, and this story idea offered the perfect opportunity.
“I bounced this idea off Peter Mayle and he said, ‘That would make a good novel,’”
Scott remembers. “And I said, ‘You write the book, then I’ll get the film rights.’ So, he
wrote the book, which was successful.”
Mayle labored at his laptop for nine months in 2003, researching the subject in both
in his adopted Provence and in one of the world’s renowned wine regions, Bordeaux, on
France’s Atlantic coast. Le Pin, located in the appellation called Pomerol, cultivates what
many believe to be the best Merlot on the planet.
In the meantime, Scott went off to Morocco and Spain to film his epic saga,
“Kingdom of Heaven.” A month after the author turned in his manuscript, a deal was
finalized for the film rights – and Scott and Mayle were back in business together.
Scott also suggested the book’s (and film’s) title. “A winemaker has a difficult life.
But if he gets it right, he’s had a good year,” says the filmmaker. “That’s what a French
winemaker will say: ‘It’s been a good year.’”
Scott chose New York native Marc Klein (“Serendipity”) to adapt Mayle’s novel for
the screen. Klein admits that when he accepted Scott’s offer, he knew nothing about wine or
Provence. Scott advised Klein to visit the South of France to conduct research and get a
flavor of the area. Klein visited Provence in 2004, met with Peter Mayle, and spent almost a
year researching the region and the wines.
Adapting Mayle’s novel provided Klein with some formidable challenges. “Peter
writes books that are like travelogues,” says the screenwriter. “They're more about
atmosphere – the kind of book one likes to read on vacation, where you want to be swept
away to a certain place. We needed to provide additional narrative structure on it. At the
same time, we wanted to give moviegoers the same experience they would have reading the
book.”
“Peter’s book is a jolly romp,” Scott adds. “It’s very much embedded in the lifestyle
of Provence. For the movie, I found that the mechanism for the story needed to be adjusted a
little bit, to turn up the volume on the character of Max, who needed to learn an important
life lesson. The philosophy that Uncle Henry was trying to instill into this young Max really
didn’t take.”
A key change from the novel was the screenplay’s depiction of Uncle Henry, who is
only referred to in the novel. After toying with the idea of making Henry a ghostly figure,
Scott and Klein decided to depict the character in flashbacks, which, says Scott, “allows us to
see the grooming of Max as a child, which pays off as the story unfolds.”
According to Russell Crowe, these flashback scenes accent one of the film’s principal
themes: “That as long as people are in your heart, they never die.
“I thought that was a wonderful metaphor,” Crowe continues. “When Ridley and I
worked on ‘Gladiator,’ the metaphor was death. But on A GOOD YEAR, we discussed the
themes in terms of reincarnation – not necessarily from the dead to the living, but having the
‘living dead’, like Max, become revitalized from his experiences in Provence. Every
character in this story has a situation that changes his or her life for the better.”
Says legendary actor Albert Finney, who portrays Henry: “Max has these memories
of his uncle when he had his summer holidays here as a child. He remembers them
favorably, which suggests he had a good time with Henry. Young Max enjoyed his
company. The philosophy Henry imparts on the boy has mostly to do with wine in particular,
but around that is a philosophy of enjoying life. I think he's a good influence on the boy.”
Max isn’t the only character that undergoes transformation. Says Crowe: “For every
character, something happens within the story that elevates, changes or revitalizes his or her
life. I've had the same thing happen in my own life, when I married and we had a baby. So it
is possible to get yourself out of a rut and change things. That's what the title refers to –
Max’s life. He comes to Provence, reconnects with the memory of his uncle and the things
that his uncle taught him, which opens his heart. And his life changes.”
“I think audiences will come out with memories of their childhood after seeing this
film,” says 14-year-old Freddie Highmore, who portrays the young Max. “The film will
make you look back on the things that have happened in your own life. Young Max didn't
know at the time how important the lessons were that Uncle Henry was giving him. But, as
he got older and comes back to visit this place, he realizes how important they have been in
making him grow up.”
THE CAST AND CHARACTERS
“As a story teller, a novelist, I don't think you can ever completely divorce yourself
from your main characters,” says Peter Mayle. “Bits of you creep in there, whether you like
it or not, whether it's intentional or not. Your characters are often reflections of what you
yourself feel, and Max is representative of a very strong feeling that I had when I was his
age, which is I wanted to basically get out of London and try something else. Of course, Max
does it in a rather more dramatic fashion than I did.”
“You live with these characters by yourself all the time in your own head,” Marc
Klein offers about the craft of screenwriting. “Then, you work with someone like Russell
Crowe, who's a genius. He came to me in between takes and gave me ideas about the
character. He inhabited his character in a way that's even deeper than I could have ever
hoped.”
While looking for a vehicle on which to re-team with Ridley Scott, Crowe remembers
chatting with the director during the production of ‘Gladiator’ about getting together again
for another film. “I enjoy working with Ridley because we have a really good rhythm
together. We talked about what the next project could be, knowing we wanted to do
something entirely different from ‘Gladiator.’ So, we decided to work together on a comedy.”
“I always thought that Russell would be perfect for the character of Max,” Scott adds.
“Russell is like Max. Russell carries a lot of the innocence in him and manages to keep that
innocence fresh, untrammeled somehow.”
Crowe found much to dig into when he took on the role. “Max has had a fortunate
childhood in that he had this wonderful bon vivant uncle who put all the information in him
that he needed in order to become a good bloke. But, he's taken his uncle's advice on
competition and edge and made it his life's mantra, to the point where competition isn't really
any fun for him anymore.
“One of the key things that Ridley said to me when we first talked was, ‘There's a
Provençal saying that you don't own the chateau; the chateau owns you,’” Crowe continues.
“That's one of the things we worked on. Max must travel to Provence in order to receive his
inheritance. From the time that he gets there, events conspire to keep him here. It's very
definitely a fish-out-of-water/coming-of-age adult comedy with humanity, which gives it
realism.”
While the film represented the second Crowe-Scott collaboration, it was the fourth
reteaming for the director and five-time Oscar-nominee Albert Finney. The stage-and-screen
legend essays the role of Uncle Henry, a character that existed in name only in Mayle’s
novel, but comes to life throughout the film.
Finney relates that he did not indulge in creating much backstory for the character,
but acknowledges that a long-ago, fateful trip Henry made to the U.S. West Coast – a visit
that is discussed but not depicted in the film – is an important part of the character’s history. Another AuMax’s inheritance of the property and his future at the chateau.
The actress, who did a videotaped audition for Scott only weeks before filming was to
begin, is well-known Down Under but less so outside of her native country. She has been
winning critical acclaim for several years for her work in such films as “The Monkey’s
Mask” and the sexual drama, “Somersault,” the only Australian film screened at the 2004
Cannes Film Festival, where the actress won a standing ovation.
“Christie is a twenty-one year old American girl from the Napa Valley in California,”
says Cornish, who hails from the Aussie wine region of the Hunter Valley near Sydney. “She
learns that she has a birth father and that he's alive and lives in France. So, she makes the
journey to his front door (which is when we meet Christie in the film). Unfortunately, she
finds out the bad news about Henry, but meets a cousin, Max, whom she never knew she had.
When Christie arrives on the doorstep, it throws something into the mix which changes Max.
He doesn't really believe this girl and of course, he's wary of her. Eventually, the two
characters find something in each other that they can both relate to.”
Also joining the starring cast is Marion Cotillard (“A Very Long Engagement”) as
Fanny Chenal, a Provençal beauty who owns the local café – and who catches Max’s eye. “I
liked the script’s spontaneity,” the Parisian beauty states. “I also appreciated Max’s journey
– how he comes to understand what he really needs is right there at the chateau and in
Provence.
“Fanny is the owner of a restaurant,” she continues. “She's a broken heart who
decided that life would be much easier, less painful, without love. She organized her life not
to be hurt again. Her café is called La Renaissance, which means ‘rebirth’. But, sometimes,
hopefully, life brings you what you need, even if you don’t know what that is. Even if Fanny
doesn't want to confess that she needs love, she definitely needs love. And she deserves it,
too.”
From his homeland, the director cast British character actor Tom Hollander (“Gosford
Park,” “Enigma,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”) in the role of Charlie
Willis, Max’s best friend, who guides Max on the possible sale of the property; Archie
Panjabi (“Bend It Like Beckham,” “East Is East,” “The Constant Gardener”) as Max’s
reliable London assistant, Gemma; and Freddie Highmore (“Finding Neverland,” “Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory”) as the young Max, seen in flashbacks with Uncle Henry at the
chateau.
“I'm the young Max, who’s based on the older Max, because they're the same
character,” Highmore offers. “I watched Russell work a bit and we talked about the character
and how each of us thought he was going to be. It just came from that. It was just great fun
from the moment I stepped onto the set to be with Ridley and Albert and Russell.”
Scott also populated his movie with other popular French performers. Didier
Bourdon portrays Francis Duflot, the longtime vintner who has tended to La Siroque’s vines
for three decades and who may know the true secrets of the vineyard’s potential. “Francis
Duflot is a winemaker. Vinyo, as we say in France,” Bourdon describes. “He has a long
history with Max. They knew each other when they were younger. Their relationship is
between friendship and mistrust. When Max returns to Henry’s home, after being away for
years, Duflot is wondering, worried that Max will sell the château.”
Duflot’s wary relationship with Max comes to a head during a tennis match between
the two, which becomes more like a war than a friendly game. “The tennis match scene came
about because Ridley is a great lover of the sport,” Crowe says. “He was bemoaning to me
over a glass of red wine that we didn't have any battle sequences in the movie. That got me
thinking. And we had the whole sequence set up by the tennis court, and a sequence playing
tennis in flashback. And so I made the suggestion that perhaps we find a way of getting these
two men to do battle on the clay court.”
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (“Mon homme,” “Les gens normaux n’ont rien
d’exceptionnel”) plays Nathalie Auzet, the local notaire handling the legal papers on Max’s
behalf; veteran European character actor Jacques Herlin (Visconti’s “The Stranger,” Fellini’s
“Juliet of the Spirits”) plays the irascible Papa Duflot; and French comic actress Isabelle
Candelier (“André le magnifique,” “Versailles rive Gauche”) plays the vigneron’s wife and
chateau’s caretaker, Mme. Duflot. (Scott calls Candelier “the French Lucille Ball.”)
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
In describing the allure of Provence, author Peter Mayle notes the area has three
hundred days of sunshine a year, stunning scenery, remarkably unspoiled countryside, and
extraordinary light. “You don't find that light in many other places in the world. I like the
pace of life down here. It imposes a certain rhythm on you, which, when you get used to it, is
very pleasant. I feel at home here.”
“I loved waking up in Provence,” adds Russell Crowe, who lived there for two
months during production. “There's something extra special about this particular valley, the
Luberon. I think it's got to do with its fertility. The light there is very similar to Australia --
the blues, the pinks and the oranges in the sky. I felt very comfortable there.”
“I loved shooting in Provence…it’s just so beautiful!” adds Ridley Scott, who has
owned a vacation home and operated a vineyard there for fifteen years, but hadn’t filmed in
France since his debut feature, “The Duelists,” almost thirty years ago. “This shoot was one
of my most pleasant experiences.”
Provence itself dates back to 600 B.C., when Phocaean Greeks settled in Massalia,
now modern-day Marseilles on the Mediterranean coast, and the region’s most populous city.
Its history could also be depicted through the history of the wines introduced by these
Phocaeans over 2600 years ago. These ancient vines – the oldest in France – were later
developed by the Romans and, thereafter, in the Middle Ages, by monastic communities.
Comprised of 700 villages, Provence has several regional wine growing appellations
(covering an estimated 27,000 hectares, or 68,000 acres), all designated as A.O.C.
(appellation d’origine controlee), the governmental system established in the 1930s that
regulates production and distinguishes quality French wines from table wines. The region
boasts extraordinarily favorable growing conditions, or terroir, defined as a combination of
conditions in a vineyard site that comprise the vine's total environment and give its wines
what longtime wine writer Matt Kramer calls “somewhereness.”
The Mediterranean climate (year-round sunshine, perfect ventilation from a wind
dubbed "mistral" and good rainfall), combined with the terrain’s siliceous soil, favors red
grapes like Grenache, Syrah, Carignan, Cinsault and Mourvèdre, much of which is used to
produce rosé, the region’s specialty of the estimated 140,000,000 bottles produced annually.
White grape varietals common to the terrain include Grenache Blanc, Clairette, Ugni Blanc
and Rolle.
Scott based the production in the sub-appellation called Cotes du Luberon (where his
own vineyard of eleven hectares is situated), an area whose vines extend over 7500 acres
from Cavaillon to Apt in north-central Provence, where 70% are red grape varietals. Most of
the vintners (some 80%, including Scott) grow grapes and sell them to cooperatives to
produce the local table wine (vin de pays) named for the appellation. However, Scott focused
his scouting efforts on several independent vineyards that bottle their own product.
“I looked at almost a dozen chateaux in the area between Roussillon and Bonnieux
before coming back to the first one we saw, La Canorgue,” the director states about the
location where his company of 125 craftsmen spent most of their nine-week shoot in the
Provençal region, which coincided with the vineyard’s prime harvesting season for the next
year’s vintage.
Scott chose La Canorgue due to its spectacular western view looking out over the
Luberon, and the magical dusk light that bathes the main house in the late afternoon. The film
company, under the watchful eye of veteran location supervisor Marco Giacalone (who
worked with director Scott on “Kingdom of Heaven”) and French location manager Thierry
Zemmour, took over the vineyard and chateau for much of the nine-week shooting schedule
in the South of France.
According to Nathalie Margan, who runs La Canorgue with her father, Jean-Pierre,
the Margans were hesitant when approached by the production, because the shoot coincided
with harvest time. “But, we knew the shoot would be an adventure,” Nathalie says, “so we
took on the challenges that came with it.”
Margan describes the experience of huge trucks, vast amounts of equipment and 125
cast and crew swarming all over her property as “initially strange, but ultimately thrilling. It
was great to participate. We were asked a few times to suggest how a real winemaker would
have done things or what the technical terms were for this or that. They made their movie
without disturbing us, and we made a good wine without disturbing them.”
“La Canorgue was interesting,” says production designer Sonja Klaus, noting the
production worked hard to restore the chateau for the shoot. “We re-landscaped the ground,
putting in statutory and ornamentation. Inside, the whole point was to have this slightly
dilapidated, lived-in, comfortable feeling – a feeling of shabby chic…cluttery, lived-in, and
homey. We wanted the place to feel as if one was staying with your favorite uncle or your
favorite aunt.”
Outside the house, among acres of vines, Klaus had a more daunting task, one she
never expected. “Ridley's words to me, when he first asked me to do it, were, ‘We're just
going to hang out in the South of France and throw a few props around,’” she says with a
laugh. “And I thought that sounded nice – until he added, ‘Oh, and by the way, there's a
tennis court. I think we might have to change the swimming pool, or build another
swimming pool for all the stunts.’
“There was this field at the back of the house, which was actually in a perfect spot for
a tennis court,” says Klaus. “The snag was that it wasn't big enough to put a tennis court on
it. So we actually cheated it, made the tennis court slightly smaller. But, when you watch it
on film you won't know that.”
Another key chateau shooting location was its empty pool, where Crowe got the
opportunity to flex both his comedic and physical muscles. “We have a running gag where
Max falls into the pool and then realizes he has fourteen-foot sheer walls, and he simply can't
get out,” says the actor. “The pool doesn't have any water in it, so he has no way of getting
out.”
Apart from the many weeks of filming at La Canorgue, Scott and his
cinematographer, Frenchman Philippe Le Sourd captured the area’s regal beauty in a series
of celluloid French postcard-like images of other quaint villages scattered throughout the
hills and valleys of the Luberon. Those included Gordes (four days at Cafe Renaissance,
dubbed Fanny’s Café in the film), Cucuron, Lacoste, Avignon and Menerbes (where author
Mayle used to reside, and whose former house is still a popular stop on guided tours that
frequent the village). The company also spent three days at another local vineyard, Chateau
Les Eydins, which doubled for the home of the story’s gruff vigneron, Duflot.
Following the two-month Provençal schedule, Scott relocated the crew to London for
the production’s final eight days of filming, at such recognized spots as Piccadilly Circus, the
architecturally-stunning Lloyds of London building in the city’s financial district, and the
trendy Knightsbridge area.
Like Mayle’s book, the film opens in the London financial world, and Scott liked “the
antithesis and juxtaposition of London and Provence. One place is as attractive as the other.
London’s a great place to live. Provence is a fantastic place to live. Is it better? No, it’s
different. For me, I live in Provence… because I live in London. So, I need one to have the
other.”
Adds Peter Mayle: “Knowing Ridley’s eye for landscape, color and composition, I’m
sure he’s made the Luberon look every bit as gorgeous as it is. I can’t wait to see the movie.”
ABOUT THE CAST
RUSSELL CROWE (Max Skinner) received three consecutive Best Actor Academy
Award® nominations for his performances in Michael Mann’s “The Insider” (1999), Ridley
Scott’s “Gladiator” (2000) and Ron Howard’s “A Beautiful Mind” (2001). He won the Best
Actor Oscar for his performance as Maximus, the Roman general-turned-gladiator, in
“Gladiator,” a role that also brought him Best Actor honors from several critics’
organizations, including the Broadcast Film Critics Association. In addition, he received
nominations for the Golden Globe®, the BAFTA Award and the Screen Actors Guild honor.
In Howard’s 2001 Best Picture Oscar winner, Crowe’s masterful portrayal of Nobel
Prize-winning John Forbes Nash, Jr. earned him his third Academy Award nomination in as
many years and garnered him Best Actor awards from the Hollywood Foreign Press,
Broadcast Film Critics Association, Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA, among other critics
groups.
Crowe received his first Academy Award nomination for his work in Mann’s non-
fiction drama “The Insider,” as tobacco company whistle-blower, Dr. Jeffrey Wigand. He
earned Best Actor Awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics, Broadcast Film Critics,
National Society of Film Critics and the National Board of Review, and nominations for a
Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA and a Screen Actors Guild Award™.
He followed this triple triumph with another commanding performance -- as Capt.
Jack Aubrey in Peter Weir’s epic adaptation of Patrick O’Brian’s novels, “Master and
Commander: The Far Side of the World.” The film collected ten Academy Award
nominations (including Best Picture), with Crowe earning nominations for the Golden Globe
and Broadcast Film Critics honors.
He reunited with director Ron Howard as Depression Era prizefighter James J.
Braddock in the highly-praised drama, “Cinderella Man,” an official entry in the Venice Film
Festival. For his critically-acclaimed performance, Crowe received nominations for best
actor from SAG and the Hollywood Foreign Press. He next reteams with director Scott on
the gritty Harlem-set drama, “American Gangster,” also starring Denzel Washington.
Crowe also earned kudos for his performance as sensitive but brutal vice cop Bud
White in Curtis Hanson’s period crime drama, “L.A. Confidential,” a film which was cited
with nine Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. He later starred in
Jay Roach’s sports drama, “Mystery, Alaska,” and in Taylor Hackford’s action drama, “Proof
of Life.”
He made his American film debut in Sam Raimi’s 1995 western “The Quick and the
Dead,” opposite Gene Hackman, Sharon Stone and Leonardo DiCaprio. He next starred as
the cyber-villain Sid 6.7 in “Virtuosity” alongside Denzel Washington. Additional film
credits include “Heaven’s Burning,” “Breaking Up,” “Rough Magic,” “The Sum of Us,” “For
the Moment,” “Love in Limbo,” “The Silver Brumby” (based on the classic Australian
children’s novel), “The Efficiency Expert” and “Prisoners of the Sun.”
Born in New Zealand, Crowe was raised in Australia (his current residence) where he
has also been honored for his work on the screen. He was recognized for three consecutive
years by the Australian Film Institute (AFI), beginning in 1991, when he was nominated for
Best Actor for “The Crossing.” The following year, he won the Best Supporting Actor
Award for “Proof” and, in 1992, he received Best Actor Awards from the AFI and the
Australian Film Critics for his performance in the controversial “Romper Stomper.” In 1993,
the Seattle Film Festival named Crowe Best Actor for his work in both “Romper Stomper”
and “Hammers Over the Anvil.”
Five-time Academy Award nominee ALBERT FINNEY (Uncle Henry) is the
dynamic British stage and film actor whose career, now spanning a half century, is one of the
most accomplished in the annals of contemporary acting.
Though widely known and praised for inspired performances in such films as “Tom
Jones,” “Night Must Fall,” “Two for the Road,” “Murder on the Orient Express,” “Shoot the
Moon,” “The Dresser,” “Under the Volcano” and “Erin Brockovich,” Finney first achieved
acclaim for his work on the classical theatre stage.
After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (accepted when he was just
17), the Salford, Lancashire, England, native joined the Birmingham Repertory Company and
made his London debut in the company's production of Shaw's “Caesar and Cleopatra” in
1956. During his two years with the BRC, he debuted in the West End opposite Charles
Laughton and Elsa Lanchester in “The Party,” then starred in the title roles of “Macbeth” and
“Othello” before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1959 for the centenary
anniversary season at Stratford-on-Avon.
There, he essayed such roles as Cassio in “Othello” (directed by Tony Richardson,
with Paul Robeson playing the title character), Lysander in “A Midsummer Night's Dream”
(again working with the legendary Laughton) and understudying another English stage
legend, Laurence Olivier, in “Coriolanus,” receiving critical acclaim when he briefly took
over the lead.
While he continued to triumph on the English stage (in such plays as “The Lily White
Boys” and, especially, “Billy Liar” with the Royal Court Theatre), movies beckoned, with
1960 becoming a watershed year for the acting talent. Finney played the small part of
Olivier's son, Mick Rice, in “The Entertainer” (reuniting with director Tony Richardson),
then won critical acclaim and enormous success as the brawling, nonconformist factory
worker, Arthur Seaton, in Karel Reisz’s milestone in British realist cinema, “Saturday Night
and Sunday Morning.” Only his second motion picture role, Finney’s performance earned
him two BAFTA nods (one as Best Actor, the other, winning as Most Promising Newcomer),
as well as the Best Actor prize from the National Board of Review.
That role led Richardson to cast the then 26-year-old as Henry Fielding’s rakish,
picaresque, bawdy “Tom Jones.” The 1963 film, which won four Oscars, including Best
Picture, and earned Finney his first of five Academy Award nominations, cemented his
international stardom. Additionally, he collected his third (of thirteen) BAFTA nomination,
the New York Film Critics honor and two Golden Globe® nods -- Best Actor/Comedy or
Musical, and Best Male Newcomer (which he won).
After the huge success of “Tom Jones,” Finney returned to films (after a sojourn back
on the stage) with Reisz’s 1964 drama, “Night Must Fall” (which the actor also produced),
followed by Stanley Donen’s classic 1967 romantic drama, “Two for the Road,” in which he
starred opposite the luminous Audrey Hepburn. That same year, Finney stepped behind the
camera for his directorial debut on “Charlie Bubbles,” which also marked the debut of actress
Liza Minnelli.
Over the ensuing years, Finney has commanded the motion picture screen in such
projects as Sidney Lumet’s “Murder on the Orient Express” (Oscar and BAFTA
nominations), Ridley Scott’s “The Duellists” (the first of four collaborations with Scott),
Ronald Neame’s “Scrooge” (BAFTA nomination), Alan Parker’s “Shoot the Moon” (BAFTA
and Golden Globe nominations), Stephen Frears’ “Gumshoe” (BAFTA nod) Peter Yates’
“The Dresser” (Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations, as well as the Silver Bear at
the Berlin Film Festival), John Huston’s musical “Annie” and his drama “Under the
Volcano” (Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Award),
Alan J. Pakula’s “Orphans” (a role he originated on the London stage), the Coen Bros.’
“Miller’s Crossing,” Mike Figgis’ “The Browning Version” (produced by Ridley Scott),
Yates’ “The Run in the Country,” Bruce Bereford’s “Rich in Love,” Steven Soderbergh’s
“Traffic” and “Erin Brockovich” (Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations) and Tim
Burton’s “Big Fish” (BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations). He recently reteamed with
Burton, providing the voice for one of the animated characters in his highly-anticipted
feature, “Corpse Bride,” and just completed work on Michael Apted’s 18th historical drama,
“Amazing Grace.”
No less accomplished on the small screen, Finney delivered award-winning
performances in such telefilms and miniseries as HBO’s “The Gathering Storm” (winning
BAFTA, Emmy and Golden Globe Awards for his portrayal of Sir Winston Churchill in the
feature produced by Ridley Scott), “A Rather English Marriage” (BAFTA nomination),
“Karaoke” and “Cold Lazarus” (combined BAFTA nomination for both 1996 Dennis Potter
telefilms), “The Green Man” (BAFTA nomination), “The Biko Inquest” (his second
directorial effort, for which he collected a CableACE nomination for his performance),
HBO’s “The Image” (his first Emmy nomination), and CBS-TV’s “Pope John Paul II,”
playing the title role.
In addition to producing the 1964 feature “Night Must Fall,” Finney also produced
(under his Memorial Enterprises Productions banner) “Charlie Bubbles,” Lindsay Anderson’s
“If...” and “O Lucky Man!” and Frears’ “Gumshoe.”
Even with his success on the big screen, Finney never abandoned his stage roots,
continuing his association with the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic in London,
where he performed in the mid-1960s in Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” and
Chekov’s “The Cherry Orchard.” He won Tony Award nominations for “Luther” (1964) and
“A Day in the Death of Joe Egg” (1968), and also starred onstage in “Armstrong’s Last
Goodnight,” “Love for Love,” Strindberg’s “Miss Julie,” “Black Comedy,” “The Country
Wife,” “Alpha Beta,” Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape,” “Cromwell,” “Tamburlaine the Great,”
“Another Time” and, his last stage appearance in 1997, “Art,” which preceded the 1998 Tony
Award-winning Broadway run. He won Olivier Awards for “A Flea in Her Ear” and
“Orphans” and the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Osborne’s “Luther.”
MARION COTILLARD (Fanny) made her American movie debut as Josephine in
Tim Burton’s “Big Fish.”
Cotillard is well-known in her native France for her performances in Luc Besson’s
“Taxi” (reprising her role in the equally successful sequels, “Taxi 2” and “Taxi 3”), for which
she collected her first Cesar nomination. She is equally recognized for her work in director
Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s romantic drama “Un long dimanche de fiancailles” (“A Very Long
Engagement”), for which she won the Cesar in 2004 for Best Supporting Actress. She earned
her second Cesar nomination in 2001 for “Les Jolies choses” (“Pretty Things”), under the
direction of Gilles Pacquet-Brenner.
The daughter of working theatre actors (her mother runs acting workshops in Paris),
Cotillard started her career at age sixteen, making her film debut in “L’Histoire du garcon qui
voulait qu’on l’embrasse” (“The Story of a Boy Who Wanted to Be Kissed”). She played the
title role in the 2001 production, “Lisa,” and more recently starred in “Une Affaire Privee”
(“A Private Affair”), “Jeux d’enfants” (“Love Me If You Dare:), “Ma vie en l’air” (“Love Is
in the Air”), “Cavalcade” and “Sauf le respect que je vois dois.”
The busy actress also stars in the current and forthcoming releases “Edy,” “La Boîte
noire,” “Toi en moi,” “Fair Play” and Abel Ferrara’s “Mary,” which unspooled at the 2005
Venice Film Festival, walking off with the Special Jury Prize. She will next play Edith Piaf
in “La Vie en rose,” and also has coming out in 2006 the features “Le Concile de Pierre” and
“Dikkenek.”
Heralded as Australia’s next major acting talent, ABBIE CORNISH (Christie
Roberts) garnered critical-acclaim and the Australian Film Institute Award as Best Actress
for her star turn as a sexually-charged teenager in Cate Shortland’s 2004 coming-of-age
drama, “Somersault.”
For her breakthrough role as Heidi, the sexually tortured teen, Cornish also won the
Inside Film (IF) Award as Best Actress, the Australian Film Critics Circle prize and a Special
Jury Breakthrough Award at the 2004 Miami International Film Festival. “Somersault,” the
only Australian film screened at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival (where Cornish won a
standing ovation) elicited raves from The New York Times film critic A.O. Scott, who called
her “an actress whose delicate and ferocious performance combines classic movie-star
loveliness with serious dramatic ability.”
Cornish hails from Australia’s Hunter Valley, born in Newcastle, New South Wales,
in 1982. Growing up on her family’s farm, she began acting at fifteen after a modelling stint
led to her professional debut on the Australian Broadcasting Company’s series “Children’s
Hospital.” Soon thereafter, she landed a co-starring role on the ABC series “Wildside,” for
which she won her first AFI honor in 1999.
She earned a second AFI nomination in 2003 for her guest-starring role on the ABC
miniseries, “Marking Time.” Other roles include “The Monkey’s Mask” (2000), “Everything
Goes” (2004), “Horseplay” (2003), “One Perfect Day” (2004), and the upcoming feature,
“Candy,” in which she stars opposite fellow Aussies Heath Ledger and Oscar winner
Geoffrey Rush. She has a co-starring role in Shekhar Kapur’s “Elizabeth: The Golden Age.”
TOM HOLLANDER (Charlie Willis) has worked with such acclaimed international
filmmakers as Robert Altman (“Gosford Park”), Michael Apted (“Enigma”), Neil LaBute
(“Possession”), Terry George (“Some Mother’s Son,” his film debut), Richard Eyre (“Stage
Beauty”) and Gore Verbinski (“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men’s Chest” and “Pirates of
the Caribbean: World’s End”). For his work as part of Altman’s ensemble cast in “Gosford
Park,” Hollander shared several critics awards, including those from the Broadcast Film
Critics Association, the Online Film Critics Association and the Screen Actors Guild.
He recently completed a role opposite Ralph Fiennes and Donald Sutherland in “Land
of the Blind” and was just nominated as Best Supporting Actor for a 2005 British
Independent Film Award for his performance opposite Johnny Depp, Samantha Morton and
John Malkovich in Laurence Dunmore’s “The Libertine.” He also recently reteamed with
actor Joseph Fiennes in Finn Taylor’s forthcoming release “The Darwin Awards.”
The Oxfordshire-born, Cambridge-educated actor collaborated with directors Joe
Wright (the current release of “Pride & Prejudice,” for which he won critical acclaim and a
‘breakout performance’ citation in The New York Times), Tom Hunsinger and Neil Hunter
(“The Lawless Heart”), Rose Troche (“Bedrooms and Hallways”) and Nick Hamm (“Martha,
Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence,” released in the U.S. as “The Very Thought of You”).
Hollander’s television work is equally accomplished, with roles in the recent
BBC/PBS Emmy-winning miniseries “The Lost Prince” (acclaimed as King George V
opposite Miranda Richardson’s Queen Mary), the adaptation of “The Life and Adventures of
Nicholas Nickelby” opposite Charles Dance, the prominent, BAFTA-nominated BBC drama
“Wives and Daughters” and a memorable guest stint as Saffie’s boyfriend Paolo on the long-
running BBC comedy “Absolutely Fabulous: The Last Shout.” For his work as Guy Burgess
in the BAFTA-nominated BBC feature “Cambridge Spies,” Hollander won the Best Actor
honor at the International Television Festival in Biarritz 2003.
While at Cambridge, he was a member of the university’s celebrated Cambridge
Footlights revue and was President of the Marlowe Society, where he became well-known for
his performance of “Cyrano de Bergerac,” directed by fellow classmate Sam Mendes. The
London stage veteran also starred in the groundbreaking Donmar Warehouse staging of “The
Threepenny Opera,” directed by Phillida Lloyd.
Onstage, he collaborated with Jonathan Kent in the title role of Moliere’s “Tartuffe”
(Best Actor, Time Out Awards, 1996), and the role of Edgar in Shakespeare’s “King Lear,”
and in Gogol’s stage classic, “The Government Inspector,” all at the Almeida. He also
starred for Oscar-nominee Stephen Daldry in “The Editing Process” and starred in the title
role of the original staging of Jez Butterworth’s Olivier Award-winning drama “Mojo” at
London’s Royal Court Theater. He first worked with theatre director Richard Eyre in his
1998 staging of David Hare’s “The Judas Kiss,” originating his role opposite Liam Neeson in
London’s West End before reprising his performance across the Atlantic on the Broadway
stage the same year. For his work on the English stage, Hollander has won four Ian
Charleson Awards, including one for his performance in "Way of the World" at the Lyric,
Hammersmith, in 1992. Most recently, he returned to the Donmar Warehouse to great
acclaim for his performance as Laurie in “The Hotel in Amsterdam.”
FREDDIE HIGHMORE (Young Max) recently co-starred in two high-profile
motion pictures: as Charlie Bucket in Tim Burton’s box-office hit, “Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory,” and opposite Oscar nominee Johnny Depp, in Marc Forster’s critically-
acclaimed Best Picture Academy Award nominated film, “Finding Neverland.”
For the latter, the young actor won the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award as
Best Young Actor, and collected several other award nominations for his work, including two
nods from the Screen Actors Guild (for Supporting Actor and Best Ensemble).
Highmore, a native of England, began his acting career at age six, playing Helena
Bonham Carter's son in “Women Talking Dirty.” He also appeared opposite Guy Pearce in
Jean-Jacques Annaud’s adventure film, “Two Brothers,” and alongside Kenneth Branagh in
“Five Children and It.”
Highmore has also appeared in a number of television productions in the U.K.,
including the BBC film “Happy Birthday Shakespeare” and ITV's miniseries “I Saw You,” as
well as “The Mists of Avalon” in the U.S. He is currently back on the big screen, filming
“Arthur and the Minimoys” for filmmaker Luc Besson in France. He will next star opposite
Robin Williams and Liv Tyler in “August Rush,” which will be produced by Jim Sheridan
and directed by his daughter Kirsten (screenwriter for her father’s 2003 Oscar-nominated
drama “In America”).
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
RIDLEY SCOTT (Director, Producer) earned consecutive Academy Award
nominations as Best Director for his stunning recreation of the deadly 1993 battle in
Mogadishu, Somalia, in “Black Hawk Down” (one of 2001’s biggest box-office hits) and for
the epic adventure “Gladiator,” his vivid and dramatic evocation of ancient Rome that won
five Oscars (out of twelve nominations), including Best Picture and Best Actor for Russell
Crowe (as well as directing nominations for Scott from the DGA and BAFTA).
“Gladiator” also won both the Golden Globe and British Academy Awards as Best
Picture, and has earned over $800 million at the global box office. Both motion picture
triumphs further solidified his reputation as one of contemporary cinema’s most innovative,
influential and versatile visual stylists.
Scott was born in South Shields, Northumberland, England. Reared in London,
Cumbria, Wales and Germany, he returned to Northeast England to live in Stockton-on-Tees.
He studied at the West Hartlepool College of Art where he excelled in graphic design and
painting, two strengths that would later serve as his signatures on the movie screen. He also
studied at London’s Royal Academy of Art, where his contemporaries included the famous
artist David Hockney. During his studies there, Scott completed his first short film.
Graduating with honors, Scott was awarded a traveling scholarship to the United
States. During his year there, he was employed by Time Life, Inc., where he gained valuable
experience working with award-winning documentarians Richard Leacock and D.A.
Pennebaker. Upon his return to the U.K., he joined the BBC as a production designer and,
within a year, graduated to directing many of the network’s popular TV programs.
After three years, he left to form his own company, RSA, which soon became one of
the most successful commercial production houses in Europe (later adding offices in New
York and Los Angeles). Over the years, Scott has directed over three thousand commercials,
including the captivating spot for Chanel No. 5 entitled “Share the Fantasy” and the
memorable one for Apple Computers that aired but once, during the 1984 Super Bowl. His
work in the commercial arena has collected awards at the Venice and Cannes Film Festivals,
as well as being honored by the New York Art Directors’ Club. RSA still maintains a high
profile in the global marketplace and represents some of the most acclaimed directors in the
film and advertising arenas.
Scott made the leap from commercial production (“pocket versions of feature films”
he calls them) to movies with 1977’s “The Duellists,” the lustrous Napoleonic War saga that
brought him the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. His second film switched genres,
taking the filmmaker from the past into the frightening future with the groundbreaking sci-fi-
thriller, “Alien,” which walked off with an Oscar for Best Visual Effects.
He stayed in the future (and set the stage for future filmmakers) with his next feature,
“Blade Runner,” the landmark masterpiece starring Harrison Ford that is considered one of
the milestones of contemporary moviemaking. The film was nominated for two Academy
Awards -- art direction and visual effects. It was also added to the National Film Archives
(maintained by the U.S. Library of Congress), the “youngest” film to be so honored.
Scott followed this triumph later in the decade with three more films -- the big screen
fairy tale, “Legend,” starring Tom Cruise; the urban thriller, “Someone to Watch Over Me”
with Tom Berenger; and the cross-cultural gangster epic, “Black Rain,” starring Michael
Douglas and Andy Garcia.
In 1987, Scott formed Percy Main Productions to develop and produce feature films.
The first production, which he helmed, was “Thelma and Louise.” Starring Oscar-nominees
Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, the film collected five Academy Award nominations,
including Scott’s first as director (the film won the Best Original Screenplay prize and was
also nominated for two British Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director). He
followed with “1492: Conquest of Paradise,” his historical epic starring Gerard Depardieu as
Christopher Columbus, and “The Browning Version,” produced by Scott and starring Albert
Finney and Greta Scacchi.
In 1995, along with younger brother Tony (also a successful filmmaker), he formed
Scott Free productions, which produced “White Squall,” with Jeff Bridges, “G.I. Jane”
starring Demi Moore, and the blockbuster sequel, “Hannibal,” with Anthony Hopkins and
Julianne Moore (all three directed by Ridley Scott). Scott Free also produced “Clay Pigeons”
and “Where the Money Is,” a caper comedy starring Paul Newman.
Scott directed his own caper comedy, “Matchstick Men,” starring Nicolas Cage and
Sam Rockwell, and the epic story of the Crusades, “Kingdom of Heaven,” which toplined
Orlando Bloom and Jeremy Irons. He will once again step behind the cameras on the gritty
Harlem-set drama, “American Gangster,” reteaming with actor Crowe and collaborating with
Oscar-winner Denzel Washington for the first time.
Scott also recently executive produced Kevin Reynolds’ costume epic, “Tristan &
Isolde”; Curtis Hanson’s family drama “In Her Shoes”; and “The Assassination of Jesse
James by the Coward Robert Ford,” starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck.
The company also produced Showtime’s CableACE-winning anthology series “The
Hunger” (adapted from Tony Scott’s 1983 film) and the Emmy and Golden Globe award-
winning HBO telefilm, “RKO 281,” starring Liev Schreiber as Orson Welles in the
docudrama recreating the making of “Citizen Kane.” Scott Free also executive produced
“The Gathering Storm” for HBO, the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning telefilm (Best Made
for Television Movie) depicting the life of Winston Churchill that starred Emmy-winning
Best Actor Albert Finney and Emmy nominee Vanessa Redgrave. The company also
recently signed a two-year deal with CBS to develop up to three projects for the network, the
first of which is the acclaimed drama “Numb3rs.”
The film director was involved in the combining of the two preeminent European film
studios, Pinewood Studios and Shepperton Studios into a studio complex which houses forty-
two stages, backlots and locations as well as award-winning post-production and production
support services. Scott originally filmed “Alien” at this facility. Ridley together with his
brother Tony Scott were part of the consortium which purchased Shepperton Studios in 1995
which subsequently merged with Pinewood in 2001.
In recognition for his contributions to the arts, Scott was awarded knighthood in 2003
from the Order of the British Empire.
MARC KLEIN (Screenwriter) has established himself as one of Hollywood’s most
sought-after writer/directors following his work with three compelling, well-regarded, and
buzzworthy projects. Combining his ability to work with various genres and his innate sense
of both male and female characters, Klein has proven himself an undeniable filmmaking asset
on the rise.
Klein is currently editing his feature directorial debut, “The Girls’ Guide to Hunting
and Fishing,” which he also adapted for the screen. Melissa Banks’ international bestseller is
an endearing tale of a Manhattan book editor (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who changes her take
on the game of romance after she lures the attention of an influential older man (Alec
Baldwin). The film is scheduled for release in 2007.
Klein is also writing the screenplay for “Golden Gate,” based on his original pitch.
Produced by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner, the Paramount Pictures romance is scheduled to
begin production next year with Cruise attached to star.
Klein made his first impression on audiences worldwide with the acclaimed Miramax
release “Serendipity.” Directed by Peter Chelsom (“Shall We Dance”), the film stars John
Cusack and Kate Beckinsale in an enchanting tale of a long-distance love that stands the test
of time and happenstance. “Serendipity” garnered positive notices for Klein’s richly drawn
romantic characterizations and a narrative economy which branded the film’s time-lapsing
effect.
Prior to his debut as a screenwriter, Klein earned his first stripes in the romantic
comedy genre working for director Jon Turteltaub, whose film “While You Were Sleeping”
charmed audiences worldwide and launched Sandra Bullock to international acclaim. Klein
graduated from New York University Film School, where he honed his skills for
screenwriting while studying film icons such as Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, and John Sayles.
His first sold script, “Love, Jenny,” was purchased by Overbrook Entertainment (“Hitch”) as
a staring vehicle for Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Klein also co-wrote the
script “Instant Message,” currently in development at Village Roadshow/Warner Bros. for
director Jay Roach (“Meet the Parents”).
PETER MAYLE (Author) spent fifteen years in the advertising business, first as a
copywriter and then as a creative executive (for such agency giants as David Ogilvy and
George Lois) in New York and London, before relocating to the South of France to write
educational books for children. His first book, Where Did I Come From (1973), a simple
volume about the ‘facts of life’, has sold over 2,000,000 copies to-date.
A brief return to London precipitated his final relocation to Provence in 1988, where
he still resides with his wife and three dogs. With the intention of writing a thriller, the
author became enchanted with his new surroundings and, in 1990, published the
autobiographical memoir A Year in Provence, which became an international bestseller
(spending three years on the New York Times list) and won the British Book Awards ‘Best
Travel Book of the Year’ honor. In 1993, the book (which has sold over 5,000,000 copies)
was adapted into a successful British TV miniseries starring John Shaw and Lindsay Duncan.
Since then, Mayle has written twelve more books (both fiction and non-fiction),
including Toujours Provence (1991), Hotel Pastis (1993), A Dog's Life (1995), Anything
Considered (1996), Chasing Cezanne (1997), Acquired Tastes (1992), Encore Provence
(1999), French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork and Corkscrew (2001) and Confessions
of a French Baker, (2005). His latest (already available in France) is entitled Provence A-Z,
which hits bookstores Stateside in the Fall.
In addition to his books, which have been translated into more than twenty-five
languages, Mayle, a native of Brighton, East Sussex, England, has contributed to the Sunday
Times, Financial Times, Independent, GQ and Esquire. In 2002, he was made a Chevalier of
the Legion d’Honneur for services to the French-speaking world.
BRANKO LUSTIG (Executive Producer) reteams with filmmaker Ridley Scott for
their fifth project together after serving as executive producer on Scott’s recent release,
“Kingdom of Heaven,” as well as his Oscar-winning (Best Editing and Sound) war drama,
“Black Hawk Down” and “Hannibal.” The pair first collaborated on Scott’s 2000 Best
Picture Academy Award winner, “Gladiator,” for which Lustig captured his second Oscar
statuette, second British Academy Award (BAFTA) and second Golden Globe prize. He
won his first Academy Award (as well as a Golden Globe and BAFTA honors) for his work
as a producer on Steven Spielberg’s epic 1993 Holocaust drama, “Schindler’s List.”
Born in Osijek, Croatia, Lustig survived two years in Nazi concentration camps at
Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. Following the war, he began his career as an assistant
director at Jadran Films, Croatia’s largest film and television studio. He later worked as the
European production manager on two Oscar-nominated titles -- Alan Pakula’s "Sophie’s
Choice" and Norman Jewison’s "Fiddler on the Roof."
Lustig went on to serve as assistant director on Volker Schlondorff’s film adaptation
of Gunter Grass’ novel “The Tin Drum” and as assistant director, associate producer and
European production manager for Dan Curtis’ miniseries “Winds of War” and its sequel,
“War and Remembrance” (winning the Directors Guild of America Award for the latter). He
was also a producer and assistant director on the Emmy-winning telefilm “Drug Wars: The
Camarena Story,” the sci-fi thriller “Deadlock” and also produced two other miniseries --
“The Great Escape: The Final Chapter” and “The Intruders.”
In addition to his longtime affiliation with Ridley Scott, Lustig has also produced
Mimi Leder’s 1997 actioner, “The Peacemaker,” starring George Clooney and Nicole
Kidman.
JULIE PAYNE (Executive Producer) began her association with Ridley Scott as his
assistant on “1492: Conquest of Paradise,” and she continued in that capacity on “White
Squall,” “G.I. Jane” and “Gladiator.”
In 2001, Payne was appointed Managing Director of Scott Free Films London, where
she is currently developing the projects, “Emma’s War, based on the book by Deborah
Scroggins, with Tony Scott attached to direct; “Elegance,” based on a book by Kathleen
Tessaro; and “Potsdamer Platz, written by Louis Mellis and David Scinto.
For Scott Free/BBC and HBO, Payne was executive producer on “The Gathering
Storm,” starring Albert Finney and Vanessa Redgrave. The film was nominated for a Golden
Globe award and an Emmy. Payne is currently working with BBC/HBO on a sequel, entitled
“Walking with Destiny,” written by Hugh Whitemore.
LISA ELLZEY (Executive Producer) is an Executive Vice President of Production
at Twentieth Century Fox. She joined the studio in the fall of 2005.
Ellzey is the executive producer of the upcoming “The Assassination of Jesse James
by the Coward Robert Ford” (2007), starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, directed by
Andrew Dominick.
Before joining Fox, she was the President of Scott Free Entertainment, the company
owned by Ridley Scott and Tony Scott. She produced “In Her Shoes” (2005), directed by
Curtis Hanson, and starring Cameron Diaz, Shirley MacLaine, and Toni Collette. Ellzey also
produced “Tristan and Isolde” (2006), starring James Franco and Sophia Myles, with Kevin
Reynolds directing. Ellzey was the executive producer of Ridley Scott’s “Kingdom of
Heaven” (2005), starring Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Ed Norton, and Jeremy Irons.
Ellzey was also the executive producer of Tony Scott’s “Domino” (2005), starring Keira
Knightly, Mickey Rourke and Christopher Walken.
Also while at Scott Free, Ellzey was the co-executive producer of “The Gathering
Storm” (2002) for HBO. The film portrayed the life of Winston Churchill and starred Albert
Finney and Vanessa Redgrave. Nominated for nine Emmy awards, the film received three:
along with Albert Finney (Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie), and Hugh Whitemore
(Writing for a Miniseries or Movie), Ellzey took home a statue for the Best Made for
Television Movie. In addition, the film received two Golden Globes Awards, including Best
Miniseries or Motion Picture, as well as three BAFTA Awards.
In 2002, Ellzey co-executive produced the reality television show “AFP: American
Fighter Pilot” for CBS.
Before joining Scott Free, Ellzey was President of Sonnenfeld/Josephson where she
was associate producer of “The Crew” starring Burt Reynolds and Richard Dreyfuss. Prior to
that, she was Vice President of Doug Wick’s Red Wagon Productions.
Ellzey began her career by producing a low budget independent film entitled “The
Poison Tasters” starring French Stewart, which premiered at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.
Between shooting the film and its festival screening, she spent three years at Creative Artists
Agency as an assistant in the Motion Pictures Literary department.
PHILIPPE LE SOURD (Director of Photography) is well-known in European film
circles for his cinematography on feature films, music videos and commercials.
Le Sourd first worked with director Ridley Scott on a recent TV spot for Prada (co-
directed by Scott’s daughter, Jordan). He followed with another spot for Jordan Scott, this
time for Renault. He has also guided the camera work on commercials for such clients as
Nike, Nissan, Christian Dior, Mercedes, Target, Lancôme, Disneyland, Infinity, Lexus and
Smirnoff, among many others.
In the music video arena, Le Sourd has collaborated with such renowned musical
artists as George Michael, Isaac Hayes, Alanis Morissette, Florent Pagny, Scratch Machine
and others. His directorial collaborations here include Les Freres Poiraud and Jake Scott
(Ridley’s son).
For the motion picture screen, Le Sourd directed the photography for the French
features “Cantique de la racaille” (1998, directed by Vincent Ravalec), “Peut-Être” (1999)
and “Atomik Circus: Le retour de James Bataille” (2004, reuniting with Les Freres Poiraud).
He also worked with Ravalec on two short films: “Conséquences de la réalité des morts”
(1996) and “La Merveilleuse odyssée de l'idiot Toboggan” (2002).
The Paris native broke into the business after a chance encounter with Oscar-
nominated cinematographer Darius Khondji, whom he met while a university student. He
began as a camera loader for Khondji on “Delicatessen” (directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet &
Mark Caro) before becoming his focus puller on such features as “Stealing Beauty” (directed
by Bernardo Bertolucci), “Le Cite des enfants perdus” (reuniting with directors Jeunet and
Caro), “Marie-Louise et la Permission,” “L’ombre du Doute,” “Prague” and “Before the
Rain.”
SONJA KLAUS (Production Designer) reunites with director Ridley Scott after
working as a set decorator on his most recent release, “Kingdom of Heaven,” and his 2000
Oscar-winning Best Picture, “Gladiator.” Klaus was one of four set decorators on the film,
and was part of the team nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction/Set
Decoration on the film. She also shared the art direction award from the National Board of
Review for her work on Scott’s Roman epic.
Klaus, now based in London, is a native of Los Angeles who relocated to England as
a young girl. Her first career choice was not in the arts, but science, as a marine biologist.
She abandoned the idea after attending the Dartington College of Art in Devon, studying Art
& Design. Still undecided about her career, she worked for a year with the resident costume
and theatre designers at the school before earning her B.A. Honours Degree in Theatre
Design at Wimbledon College of Art.
She began working professionally in London’s West End theatre world. After four
years (during which time she designed small theatrical productions), she moved into the TV
arena as an art director, working on a children's TV program. She eventually moved into
commercials (over two dozen), music videos (over forty) and television dramas before
seguing into motion pictures with her first production design credit, “Soft Top, Hard
Shoulder” in 1992.
In addition to her collaborations with director Scott, Klaus has also earned set
decorator credits on such features as “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider -
- The Cradle of Life,” “Dog Soldiers,” “The Calling,” “Five Children and It” (which starred
Freddie Highmore), “Prince Valiant,” “My Giant” and “The Commissioner.” For television,
Klaus served as a set decorator (for production designer Roger Hall) on the 1997 miniseries
“The Odyssey,” the 1999 telefilm “Alice in Wonderland” and the 1998 NBC miniseries,
“Merlin,” on which she was part of Hall’s Emmy-nominated design team. Most recently, she
served as the U.K. set decorator on the French production, “San Antonio.”
Her production design (art director) credits in the U.K. also include the 1994 TV
series, “The Pirates,” the 1989 series “Streetwise,” the miniseries “Eye of the Storm,” and the
features “Feast of July” and “Mad Dogs and Englishmen.”
DODY DORN, A.C.E. (Film Editor) reunites with director Ridley Scott after serving
in the same capacity on his last two projects –“Kingdom of Heaven” and “Matchstick Men.”
Dorn collected an Oscar nomination for Christopher Nolan’s debut feature,
“Memento” (also earning nominations for an AFI Film Award and an A.C.E. ‘Eddie’ Award
for her editing). In the same year, Dorn received Emmy and A.C.E. ‘Eddie’ Award
nominations for her work on the acclaimed ABC miniseries, “Life With Judy Garland: Me
and My Shadows,” starring Judy Davis.
Prior to her breakout year in 2000, her work was also on display in two films at the
1999 Sundance Film Festival’s Dramatic Competition -- “Treasure Island” and “Guinevere,”
starring Stephen Rae and Sarah Polley, marking the feature directorial debut of screenwriter
Audrey Wells (“The Truth About Cats and Dogs.”) Dorn’s diverse career also includes
“Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist,” a documentary by Kirby Dick
which was honored with a Special Jury Prize at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival and with
the Best Film prize at that year’s L.A. Independent Film Festival.
Other films include “I Woke Up Early the Day I Died,” the off-beat feature film
starring Billy Zane based on an Ed Wood script written in 1974; Britta Sjogren’s poetic short
“A Small Domain,” winner of the 1996 Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury prize for Best
Short; actress Julie Delpy’s directorial debut short, “Blah Blah Blah”; “Murderous
Decisions,” the interactive movie for European Television; “Tuesday Morning Ride,” the
Chanticleer Discovery Program film that received a 1996 Academy Award nomination as
Best Short; and Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s screen adaptation of the classic Samuel Beckett
play, “Waiting for Godot.” Dorn also collaborated again with filmmaker Nolan on his 2002
thriller, “Insomnia.”
A native of Santa Monica, California, Dorn graduated from Hollywood High School
and began her career as a production assistant on John Carpenter’s TV biopic, “Elvis.” She
moved into sound editing in 1982, working on such Hollywood classics as “Silverado,” “The
Big Chill,” “Mrs. Soffel,” “Racing with the Moon,” “The Big Easy” and “Children of a
Lesser God.”
A long term collaboration with Alan Rudolph includes work as a Supervising Sound
Editor on “The Moderns,” “Choose Me,” “Trouble in Mind,” and “Made in Heaven.” Other
sound supervisor credits include “The Big Picture,” “State of Grace” and “Powwow
Highway.” Dorn also started her own sound company, Sonic Kitchen, and, in 1990, won a
Golden Reel Award for Best Sound on James Cameron’s sci-fi epic, “The Abyss.”
MARC STREITENFELD (Music) has collaborated with director Ridley Scott on
five of the award-winning filmmaker’s previous projects, including “Gladiator “ (technical
score advisor on the Oscar-nominated soundtrack), “Matchstick Men” and “Kingdom of
Heaven” (music supervisor), and “Hannibal” and “Black Hawk Down” (music editor). This
film represents his first as sole composer.
Streitenfeld is also a protege of Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer, working with
the prolific music artist on two dozen projects as both music supervisor and music editor. In
addition to his collaborations with Zimmer on director Scott’s film works, he has worked (in
various capacities) with Zimmer on such titles as “Crimson Tide” and “The Fan” (both
directed by the other filmmaking Scott, Tony), “The Rock,” “The Peacemaker,” “The Last
Samurai,” “The Pledge,” “Mission: Impossible II,” “Beyond Rangoon,” “The Thin Red
Line,” “As Good As It Gets,” “The Preacher’s Wife” and “The Prince of Egypt” (the latter
four Oscar-nominated original scores).
Streitenfeld was born in Munich. The self-taught musician began studying music as a
young boy, playing classical guitar, which led to his versatility on numerous instruments. He
relocated to Los Angeles at the young age of nineteen, first working with Zimmer as his
assistant, then as a freelance music editor and supervisor since 2001.
©2006 Twentieth Century Fox. All rights reserved.
ALL PHOTOS 2006 Van Redin/New Line Productions
New Line Cinema and Walden Media present How to Eat Fried Worms, a feature film adaptation of Thomas Rockwell’s hugely popular young adult book, which
has been a perennial seller since its publication in 1973, amassing nearly 3 million copies sold worldwide. Rockwell has penned numerous books for young readers and has received The Mark Twain Award, the California Young Reader Medal, and the Sequoyah Award for How to Eat Fried Worms.
How to Eat Fried Worms tells the story of Billy (Luke Benward), an eleven-year-old who inadvertently challenges the town bully, Joe Guire (Adam Hicks), on his first day at a new school. To save face and earn the respect of his new classmates, Billy agrees to a bet that will determine his fate at the school - whether or not he can eat ten worms in one day. As the pressure mounts, he must summon heroic strength to keep his five-year-old brother from blabbing, his weak stomach from betraying him, and his big mouth from getting him into more trouble than he’s already in.
tells the story of Billy (Luke Benward), an eleven-year-old who inadvertently challenges the town bully, Joe Guire (Adam Hicks), on his first day at a new school. To save face and earn the respect of his new classmates, Billy agrees to a bet that will determine his fate at the school - whether or not he can eat ten worms in one day. As the pressure mounts, he must summon heroic strength to keep his five-year-old brother from blabbing, his weak stomach from betraying him, and his big mouth from getting him into more trouble than he’s already in.Mitch Forrester (Tom Cavanagh) and his wife Helen (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) have packed their boys into the family station wagon and are heading to a new town with a new job for Mitch and a new elementary school for Billy. It seems to Billy that everybody else, including his little brother Woody (Ty Panitz), easily adapts to the new surroundings.
Billy’s fears are realized in his first moments at the new school when the old adage ‘everybody picks on the new kid’ appears to be true. Everybody except the tall, lanky girl named Erika Tanzy (Hallie Kate Eisenberg) whose kindness simultaneously inspires gratefulness and humiliation in Billy. When the school bully Joe and his band of 5th grade followers put worms in Billy’s lunch, Billy surprises them all when he stands up to and embarrasses Joe. This leads the two to make a bet: on Saturday Billy must eat 10 worms by 7PM.
Meanwhile, at his work, Mitch is struggling with his own issues about fitting in and first impressions that lead him to take on a certain challenge of his own. When his parents leave Woody in his care, Billy presses Erika into service to help keep an eye on Woody…and to lend him some moral support in his gastronomic challenge.
Joe’s gang makes each worm more delightfully revolting than the last, beginning with La Big Porker, which is fried in pig fat. This odyssey through worm cuisine takes the boys all over town as they try to force Billy to throw up by dubbing each specimen increasingly disgusting names like The Burning Fireball, The Greasy Brown Toad Bloater Special, and The Barfmallow. When the adventure finally ends up down by the river for worms such as The Green Slusher and Radioactive Slime Delight, all of the kids learn the true meaning of friendship and bravery, as well as the difficulties and importance of doing the right thing.
How to Eat Fried Worms is a New Line Cinema and Walden Media presentation of A Mark Johnson Production, directed by Bob Dolman (The Banger Sisters). The screenplay is by Dolman, based on the novel How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell. The producers are Mark Johnson and Philip Steuer. The movie stars Luke Benward, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Adam Hicks, with Kimberly Williams-Paisley , and Tom Cavanagh. The talented cast also includes Austin Rogers, Alexander Gould, Ryan Malgarini, Philip Daniel Bolden, Clint Howard, Ty Panitz, and James Rebhorn.
is a New Line Cinema and Walden Media presentation of A Mark Johnson Production, directed by Bob Dolman (). The screenplay is by Dolman, based on the novel by Thomas Rockwell. The producers are Mark Johnson and Philip Steuer. The movie stars Luke Benward, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Adam Hicks, with Kimberly Williams-Paisley , and Tom Cavanagh. The talented cast also includes Austin Rogers, Alexander Gould, Ryan Malgarini, Philip Daniel Bolden, Clint Howard, Ty Panitz, and James Rebhorn.The creative team includes director of photography Richard Rutkowski, production designer Caty Maxey, costume designer Kathleen Kiatta, composers Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh and editor Janice Hampton, A.C.E.
How to Eat Fried Worms marks a continuing collaboration between New Line Cinema and Walden Media, as well as the re-teaming of Walden Media with producers Mark Johnson and Philip Steuer. Both were producers on the worldwide hit The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
marks a continuing collaboration between New Line Cinema and Walden Media, as well as the re-teaming of Walden Media with producers Mark Johnson and Philip Steuer. Both were producers on the worldwide hit .How to Eat Fried Worms filmed in 2005 in multiple locations in and around Austin, Texas, including the Travis Heights neighborhood and Stacy Park, Zilker Elementary School, Onion Creek Country Club, the Blue Hole swimming hole and Austin Studios.
filmed in 2005 in multiple locations in and around Austin, Texas, including the Travis Heights neighborhood and Stacy Park, Zilker Elementary School, Onion Creek Country Club, the Blue Hole swimming hole and Austin Studios.New Line Cinema will release How to Eat Fried Worms (rated “PG” by the M.P.A.A. for “mild bullying and some crude humor”) in theaters nationwide on August 25th, 2006.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Director Bob Dolman first became aware of the classic young adult novel How to Eat Fried Worms when he was approached as a writer to draft a revised screenplay. Since his sons were in their early teen years at the time, he had been drawn to doing a project for children and took on the task. “It seemed like a book that they would want to see as a movie,” explains Dolman. Little did he know at the time that he would be directing the film when his sons were grown.
“When I read the book, I saw all sorts of possibilities in it for a movie,” remembers Dolman. “The book tells a small story about a group of boys who make a bet and the main character, Billy, ends up eating worms over several days. It felt like a movie that would be fun to write, since really the joy of the book is watching them cook and eat the worms in different ways.”
“However, I felt the story needed to be bigger to work as a movie. So I began to think about how to invent situations and characters that could turn the story into a movie,” explains Dolman. “One of the first things that I brought to it was to up the stakes, so to speak, by making the bet take place all in one day. In the book, Billy eats the worms over a 15 day period and that didn't seem to be compelling enough, so I condensed it into eating all 10 worms in one day to give the proceedings some urgency.”
“I wanted the movie to be more sophisticated and be a story for boys and girls of all ages, not just a story for little boys,” adds Dolman. “Another big difference is there just weren't as many characters in the book. I made Joe a bully to increase the conflict in the story and added Erika, the only girl, who is the conscience of the movie. tells the story of Billy (Luke Benward), an eleven-year-old who inadvertently challenges the town bully, Joe Guire (Adam Hicks), on his first day at a new school. To save face and earn the respect of his new classmates, Billy agrees to a bet that will determine his fate at the school - whether or not he can eat ten worms in one day. As the pressure mounts, he must summon heroic strength to keep his five-year-old brother from blabbing, his weak stomach from betraying him, and his big mouth from getting him into more trouble than he’s already in.is a New Line Cinema and Walden Media presentation of A Mark Johnson Production, directed by Bob Dolman (). The screenplay is by Dolman, based on the novel by Thomas Rockwell. The producers are Mark Johnson and Philip Steuer. The movie stars Luke Benward, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Adam Hicks, with Kimberly Williams-Paisley , and Tom Cavanagh. The talented cast also includes Austin Rogers, Alexander Gould, Ryan Malgarini, Philip Daniel Bolden, Clint Howard, Ty Panitz, and James Rebhorn.marks a continuing collaboration between New Line Cinema and Walden Media, as well as the re-teaming of Walden Media with producers Mark Johnson and Philip Steuer. Both were producers on the worldwide hit . filmed in 2005 in multiple locations in and around Austin, Texas, including the Travis Heights neighborhood and Stacy Park, Zilker Elementary School, Onion Creek Country Club, the Blue Hole swimming hole and Austin Studios. “I wanted the movie to be more sophisticated and be a story for boys and girls of all ages, not just a story for little boys,” adds Dolman. “Another big difference is there just weren't as many characters in the book. I made Joe a bully to increase the conflict in the story and added Erika, the only girl, who is the conscience of the movie. The little brother, Woody, is also an invention. In fact all of the friends were quite different than the ones in the book. I felt like the characters needed to be broader and bigger and a little more adventurous and there had to be a bigger pack of them.”The project went through multiple drafts and lay dormant for many years while Dolman went on to write other projects and eventually direct his first movie – The Banger Sisters – on which he worked with producer Mark Johnson. “We had a really positive experience together and when that project was winding up, I asked Bob what he wanted to do next…and he told me about this book, How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell,” remembers Johnson.
“I had never read it and all of my friends said ‘you'll love this book,’ ‘my son is reading it,’ ‘it was really important to me growing up,’ ‘that's so much fun,’ and so on. So, I read it and loved the spirit of it and the message of it,” explains Johnson. “It’s really a wonderful tale of youthful energy and has a whole sense about being who you are. All of the messages were right, but it was in a package that is a lot of fun.”
“It’s a timeless tale of growing up that uses a very gross and interesting device, the worms, to make its point,” adds producer Philip Steuer. “Ultimately, I think it’s about a bully and a new kid coming to town and what that kid has to go through to be accepted. That’s kind of what everybody may have felt at a certain time in their life. The fact that these little creepy, crawly things help sell that point and help these kids get past their insecurities, is really pretty interesting.”
Johnson and Dolman began working together towards making the film and Dolman found new inspiration to expand on the tale. “I was also drawn to the story because it felt like a war story in which there weren’t really any of the dangers of war,” says Dolman. “But there are all the emotions that go with being in a battle: fear, doubt, wondering if you’re going to survive, questions of integrity, fighting fairly and standing up for what you believe in. Also, behind the dare is Billy’s own bravado. He comes to discover that he’s really got to rise to the occasion and back up his own beliefs with actions.”
The story weaves multiple themes, including acceptance, forgiveness, friendship, and not judging by first impressions, into a tale involving the culinary delights of earthworms. But for Dolman, courage and joy are the ideas that stand out above the others.
The director chose to amplify the theme of courage in the movie. “This boy comes to school and he gets involved with these other boys on a bet and in order to follow through on it, he has to be brave,” explains Dolman. “Behind any bet, there is a question of whether or not you can meet the challenge, so that does suggest an act of courage.”
“I know it may seem far fetched that anybody would eat worms. But Billy makes a bet and it takes a lot of courage just to follow through on what you said you were going to do and to stand up to people under scary circumstances. His first impulse is to run away, but his next impulse is to stay and face it.”
“Secondly, what emerged from the performances of the cast is something that I’m even more excited about, and that is the idea that laughter and joy and fun can overpower mean-spiritedness, crabbiness, and even cruelty,” adds Dolman. “I think the natural state of children is one of happiness, friendliness, love, getting along…and when it is oppressed, things go haywire. When it is allowed to be free and flourish, it runs it’s own wonderful course. And that’s what the story is about. It’s a very forgiving story.”
“YOU NEED HOW MANY KIDS?”
“The most important thing was getting the cast right,” says producer Mark Johnson. “This isn’t a movie with elaborate special effects or huge sets…it's really about the spirit of the book being in these kids. The most painstaking work we had to do was finding the right kids. We interviewed thousands before we came up with our core gang. What I'm particularly proud of is each kid is his or her own idiosyncratic self and, as charismatic as they are, they are not Hollywood kids. They are very real.”
“We weren't looking for performers,” agrees director Bob Dolman. “I was more interested in the natural spirit of the kids. Sometimes we selected kids with next to no acting experience because just they had that quality of being natural and real and funny and sincere.”
The search for young actors extended nationwide and the production opened casting offices in Los Angeles and Austin, Texas. “They came from all over the United States. Videotapes were sent in from everywhere. We had a really limited time to cast; ten weeks to find all eleven main kids,” adds producer Philip Steuer. “It was a very truncated process.”
“The personalities of the kids needed to play off one another. We saw some kids who we liked very much and thought ‘this kid is a terrific actor, but he's not right for this role, let's put him over to this part.’ The whole cast didn't click in until we had all of the elements. It was almost like a jigsaw puzzle to say this guy works here and this kid works there. You can't just say this is the best kid for the part. You ask if this the best kid for the part, in connection with this other kid who is going to play against him, and this other kid is going to be his best friend. It was a fun movie to cast because you did no one part in isolation,” explains Johnson.
“There was a frustrating time when we weren’t finding Billy and we were really stuck, because you couldn’t cast anyone else - the dad, the mom, the little brother, the other boys - until you had Billy,” adds Steuer.
“Casting took us a long time because we cast everything around Billy,” agrees Dolman. “We had about 30 young actors who were contenders to play the parts of the other boys. It’s like pulling together a team and making sure that you have your pitcher first. When we found Luke Benward to play Billy, then the rest of the casting happened rather quickly.”
The filmmakers ended up casting kids from California, Nevada, Tennessee, New Jersey, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida to complete the puzzle. “Because of the interlocking nature of the cast, one of the funny things our casting director Stephanie Corsalini said to Bob Dolman was ‘you’ll look back on this and you’ll say to yourself ‘I couldn’t have done this movie with any other cast,’” adds Steuer.
“The part of Billy the protagonist was probably the toughest one because we required so much of that boy, we need to see him at his lows and at his highs. We have got to see a boy who is, through a great deal of the movie, in a panic because he's made a bet that he knows in his heart he can't possibly win,” explains Johnson.
“Choosing Billy was difficult,” agrees Bob Dolman. “I was not only looking for someone who could act the part, but someone who had the energy to carry the part. I don't know of any other movie where the lead child actor is in almost every single scene. That's just exhausting, hard work for any actor. In addition, we shot in Austin, Texas in summer weather that was hot - 90 degrees plus, and humid - without exception every day. So sheer stamina was important. We were all looking for a kid who could carry that and have the energy and enthusiasm to go through it, who also had some acting experience.”
Tennessee-native Luke Benward was chosen to star as Billy, the new kid in the 5th grade overwhelmed by every aspect of his new life.
“My mom and I tape all my auditions in our kitchen and send them in. With this movie, we were running late and were rushing to get the tape to FedEx. We had thirty minutes until their last deadline of the night, and the place was a thirty-minute drive from our house. And the tape had to be in LA the next day in order for me to be considered,” explains Benward.
“We were racing to FedEx and everything was trying hard to stop us,” laughs Benward. “There was traffic, there was a train changing cars, we got lost. We finally got there 20 minutes late and they wouldn't let us in. The lady who worked there felt sorry for my mom, who was just about in tears. So she gave my mom all of the packaging through the door and mom laid it all out on the sidewalk. My mom was like, ‘Thank you so much.’ The FedEx lady said, ‘Don't worry, we will get it there.’ It got there the next morning and they ended up flying us to Los Angeles for a meeting with the director.”
Benward and his mom returned home to Franklin, Tennessee and after additional rounds of taped auditions, they waited and waited for news.
“I was at a friend’s house for a sleepover and my parents came over to surprise me. I came downstairs and saw my mom and dad sitting on the couch, and I was afraid they were going to make me come home and sleep in my own bed. My dad gave me a Texas Longhorns hat. I didn’t know what it was at first. He explained it's the team from Austin, Texas…and that's where I’d be shooting my next movie! Oh, yeah! It was a really awesome moment,” remembers Benward.
The Benwards didn’t forget those who helped Luke get the part. The next day, they arrived at the courier’s office with a bouquet of flowers from their garden for one very surprised FedEx employee.
An actress and acting coach by profession, Kenda Benward served as her son’s acting coach during production. “Billy is an awesome role for any actor, adult or child, to play because he has a range of emotions that he plays at any given time,” explains Kenda Benward. “He is not just playing one objective. It’s a story about a struggle of trying to find your place and confronting your fears. As Billy, Luke has to play someone who was popular, and now that he is in a new place, is intimidated easily.”
Six-year old Ty Panitz is featured as Woody, Billy’s annoyingly perfect and naturally popular little brother who adapts to their move with great ease, becoming the center of attention at his kindergarten in just one day.
“Like all younger brothers, Woody doesn't know what to make of his older brother,” says producer Mark Johnson. “He's bemused and also really irritated by him. At one point, he sings a song that couldn't be sweeter, except he puts his own lyrics into it. The punch line is basically, ‘I wish my brother were dead!’”
Panitz got the role by singing “God Bless America” at his audition. He and co-star Hallie Kate Eisenberg’s off-screen friendship was echoed on-screen in their roles of little kid and baby-sitter.
Eisenberg plays Erika Tanzy, an early bloomer who towers over her classmates in an awkward fashion and offers Billy friendship, a calming influence and advice that he’s not sure he wants. As the lone girl in the story, she is the outside person looking in who seems to have a better sense of what’s going on than everybody else.
“Erika’s very sensible. She's certainly more composed and world-wise and watches these boys with puzzlement,” comments Johnson. “At one point, Erika makes the unoriginal comment that boys are pretty weird. I think that's what this movie is so much about.”
“Erika's very practical and she's mature beyond her years,” agrees Eisenberg. “She's very smart. I loved that the character was so different from the boys.”
She makes sure that Billy knows he is the first person to ever do anything in the face of the bully Joe’s cruelty. “Erika is pretty important. She tells my character Billy to not run away and says the line ‘Win it true,’” explains Luke Benward. “She encourages him to not try to get out of it, but to just go and win the bet, do the deal, be true to yourself. She helps my character realize that I made the bet, I shouldn't have been bragging, so I have got to go through with it. If I lose, I lose.”
A veteran actress at age 13, Eisenberg was excited to learn a new skill for the role. “My character is into archery and it's something that I never would have wanted to learn on my own. Now that I have, I really would like to do more with it. I went to a couple of lessons and it was really hard at first, because you have to be strong. Then I got the hang of it, I got a few bull's eyes and it's fun.”
Filmmakers cast a freckle-faced redhead named Adam Hicks to play Joe Guire, the school bully whose confident demeanor and mean spirit intimidates his entire circle of friends and enemies.
“It starts out where I have all of the power. People listen to me. And I like it. At first, I try to overpower Billy, but he makes the bet and stands up to me…it's the first time that’s happened,” comments Hicks. “It scares me a little, but I can’t mess up my rep and let the others see that. I think everyone has had that time in their life where their friends were all around them and they don’t want to lose face. Everyone has a little bit of Joe in them.”
“I do think there are times in our lives when most of us have, out of insecurity, bullied somebody,” agrees producer Mark Johnson. “But with the wisdom of adulthood, we look back on it and understand why we did it at the time. Adam does a great job, because he’s not a bully at all in real life.”
“When I tried out for the part, my friends and family said, ‘You can’t play Joe. You're not a bully.’ I said, ‘It's acting!’ I’ve been determined to prove them wrong,” laughs Hicks. “Being an actor, I watch other people. The bullies in my school, I don't like them, but I still watch them. They sort of clench their fists, they look at you sideways or if they walk up to you, they don't back down. They keep staring at you non-stop.”
Director Bob Dolman gave Hicks further guidance. “Bob would always tell me that bullies play it cool. They don't care if this kid or that kid doesn't like ‘em. Bob has helped me so much and I couldn't have done the part nearly as well without him.”
Throughout the story, Joe uses the myth of his ‘death ring’ to keep fear in the hearts of the whole 5th grade. “It ends up that it's a ring that you could buy at Wal-Mart,” laughs Hicks.
Joe’s posse includes a half dozen fifth graders all trying to figure out how to fit in. Alexander Gould plays the high-strung boy nicknamed Twitch. “He is a little nutty, a little cuckoo,” says Gould. “Twitch’s parents expose him to a lot of art and music. He doesn't want to really show that he likes it, but he secretly really likes it.”
The bigger Joe Guire bullies Twitch and the others throughout the story. “I think that bullies are really afraid of something that they think is not so good about themselves, so they beat up on other kids who are smaller and weaker than them to make them feel better about themselves. It's really not a good thing,” observes Gould.
Houston-native Andrew Gillingham makes his feature film debut as Twitch’s best friend Techno Mouth, aptly nicknamed due to the elaborate braces on his teeth.
“Techno Mouth is a really fun kid, but kind of a crazy kid,” explains Gillingham. “He does stuff like climb up walls and hang from ceilings. Twitch and I have always been friends and we stick together in the story.”
“Andrew got his braces in May and I thought there goes any opportunity for him to get acting parts,” remembers his mother Carol Gillingham, a first-grade teacher. “Then the very next month, he auditioned for this piece and he got the part of Techno Mouth partly because of his braces. So, what I thought was a bad thing, turned out to be in his favor.”
Despite being told not to, both Twitch and Techno Mouth instinctively want to make friends with Billy, and eventually learn the importance of standing up to Joe and letting their natural joy shine through.
“At first, Twitch is weak. His backpack gets stolen and he gets pushed down. Then he meets Billy and he's having fun and gets the courage to stand up to Joe. That's really a big change for Twitch. After that, he gets stronger and he really starts feeling a lot better about himself,” explains Gould. “Twitch is really afraid of Joe in the beginning, because Joe is just plain, straight out mean. That death ring is like somebody holding a gun to your head every minute. So he does whatever Joe says. But it turns out he does have bravery inside him.”
“We have all been bullied and we have all been bullies at some point or another. The message of the movie is that bullying begets bullying and you have to stop it at some point,” says producer Mark Johnson. “It doesn't make Joe happy. Bullying is a no-win situation and a terrible burden to Joe.”
“There are multiple life lessons in this movie, including standing up for truth,” comments Luke Benward’s real-life father Aaron Benward. “Billy faces a crisis, he has to face a choice head on and realizes that he has to follow through with this choice. Billy says, ‘I am going to take this bet and I am going to do it,’ and by being an example by standing up for the others, interestingly enough, everybody comes and rallies around him. I think that is something we can look for when we stand for something that we feel passionately and deeply about. Even at the beginning, where he wasn't sure he was going to make it, the support of just a few key people helped him realize, ‘I can do this.’ You can see him finally get to the point with each worm that it is going to happen. By worm ten, it is his triumph.”
“The movie is also about a boy who overcomes his fears,” adds Luke Benward. “Billy has a weak stomach and he has to find the courage to eat worms. Some of the others have to face their fears as well. It’s also about friendship and how a boy who has no friends earns them.”
“When you see the boys start switching sides, you realize the movie is about true friendship,” adds Valerie Gould (real-life mom to Twitch). “It’s about living by your values and holding on to what is right. It's also about coming of age. Billy learns that he had the ability to do whatever he sets his mind to and that he doesn't need to be a follower. I think it's also about learning how to treat others with respect and treat others the way you want to be treated.”
“Billy is really an every boy in the sense that he's all of us at some point in our lives when we’ve experienced a lot of peer pressure,” relates Mark Johnson. “When you get defensive and scared, you end up doing something that may or may not be true to yourself. In this particular case, Billy makes a boast that he doesn't really believe in and then he has to live with that boast. It's really about being true to yourself and about standing up for what you believe. The fact is if you are who you truly are, then friends and wonderful things and the pluses and minuses of life will happen to you.”
Joe’s gang also includes The Puke Watchers, Bradley and Plug. Philip Daniel Bolden is the multiple-watch wearing Bradley, who performs his duties as the Official Time Keeper of the bet with soldier-like diligence. “Time is very important because Billy has to eat all of these 10 worms by 7:00 p.m.,” comments Bolden. “Bradley is also an official puke watcher and official worm keeper in the movie. He's a really cool character.”
Oklahoma City-native Blake Garrett was cast as the untidy and thick-headed Plug. “He’s a dirty guy, kind of the pig pen of the group,” says Garrett. “Plug's really a funny character, full of laughter. But he's also the tough guy and not the brightest in the group. He acts like a guard for Joe, even though Joe doesn’t always treat him very well.”
Filmmakers chose Alexander Agate as apprehensive Donny Pickett, the “Brain” of Joe’s outfit, charged with researching all the details of worm life. “Donny's a cowardly kind of kid in the beginning,” explains Agate. “But, he's the smart guy, he knows everything about the worms because studies them. Maybe he is kind of a nerd.”
Ryan Malgarini, who garnered big laughs playing Lindsay Lohan’s younger brother in the hit comedy Freaky Friday, was cast as the mocking Benjy. Joe’s right-hand-man eager for his approval, Benjy also serves as the Official Worm Cooker and gives newly created recipes unique names like “Radioactive Slime Delight,” “The Barfmallow” and “The Peanut Butter & Worm Jam Sandwich.”
“I liked the script because it’s about kid relationships and it has great morals. I also had to learn to cook and speak a little French for the role. Some of the lines were ‘merci beaucoup,’ ‘barf malloo’ and ‘saute ala mode’… very foreign,” laughs Malgarini. “My grandma helped me out on how to speak French. It was really quite fun.”
“Benjy says he’s French when he’s really not and he’s saying all of this French stuff that nobody really understands,” adds Malgarini. “His bike is loaded with cooking utensils and he’s got a big huge backpack with supplies. He can have food coming out of nowhere. Basically, I’m a traveling worm chef.”
“I think How to Eat Fried Worms is about not biting off more than you can chew. Basically, don't do something that you can't handle. And it's also about bullies and how they pick on you and how, in the end, they are just human beings like all of us,” sums up Malgarini.
The story also includes the nervous loner Adam Simms, played by actor Austin Rogers. Adam’s odd habits include smelling his fingers and stating the obviously disgusting in his misguided attempts to be helpful to Billy’s quest, after Joe assigns him to ‘Billy’s team.’
“He’s sort of the weirdo type in the group. Without knowing that he's grossing Billy out, he constantly does,” explains Rogers. “He's unusual, dresses weird, he has a weird bike, he just does a bunch of weird stuff and people kind of get annoyed with him. But he feels very helpful along the way when he gets to cook the omelet worm.”
“It's very interesting to see how all of the characters learn to accept their uniqueness. And accept one other's uniqueness. And embrace the fact that it's okay to be different, that it's okay to have a quirk,” comments Carol Gillingham. “To be a little strange is not such a bad thing.”
Rogers adds, “I loved working with all the kids and Bob Dolman. He is an excellent director. No offense to anyone, but it is very hard to work with us kids. You have got to have their complete attention.”
“I think Bob loves working with kids. The first thing he did when all of our kid actors arrived is to have everyone call them by their character names. Because, in a sense, that's how we see them,” explains Mark Johnson. “I think that's given a real looseness to the production and it's a wonderful enterprise. The number one goal for all of us is to make a good movie, but the implied goal is that everybody have a good time in the process.”
“Bob was really great about picking up on the traits the kids brought,” adds producer Philip Steuer. “For example, he made Benjy the cook when he saw him juggling salt and pepper shakers. He really tailored the script to the strengths of each actor.”
“I have a background in improvisational comedy writing, so I was always looking for possibilities that hadn't been on the page,” explains Dolman. “Ryan Malgarini, who plays Benjy, is very physical and so he is now the cook. Other things like that seeped in on the way. Once Ryan said the French word I gave him, he had so much fun that I said ‘you are going to be French.’ He doesn't know anything about being French, doesn't speak a word of French, but decided to play it like he was French. Things like that evolve.”
“You couldn't see everything in the auditions. Austin Rogers, who plays Adam Simms was cast as a kind of morose boy that I thought should just stand in one place. But, it turns out he's a great physical comedian,” reveals Dolman. “When you put him on a bicycle, he can make you laugh. When he dances, he can make you laugh. So I added things when I saw the strengths in any of them. They are all quite malleable. In children, you don't see all of their strengths until they loosen up a little bit.”
The boys really responded positively to Dolman’s changes. “I think I'm a lot like my character Donny because he's a quiet, cowardly kind of kid,” explains Alexander Agate. “He's kind of a nerd. Mr. Dolman actually said to me, ‘I invite you to create your own character, I just want it to be very natural for you.’ So, Donny's basically just like me.”
“In order to direct these kids, I had to let myself have fun,” adds Dolman. “I did want to come from their place, understand their energy, so we played a lot. This was like summer camp for all of us and for all of the crew and all the parents as well. I think everybody was inspired by these kids. I found it was the only way that I could really communicate to the kids. We just all banded together in a playful way.”
“Bob’s not afraid to express himself. If he feels happy, he will just jump around and start going crazy, being all goofy. If he’s sad, then he’ll tell you. Then we’ll make it up to him and then start being all goofy again,” explains Ryan Malgarini.
“He's a really fun director and just really outgoing. At one point, he was directing us swimming on his back in the water,” laughs Luke Benward. “If you need to talk to him about the scene, he'll just stop and answer all of your questions. He was really encouraging and helped me make it more energetic. He will also show us how to do it, he won't just tell us. He will just get up and go for it. It really helps us.”
“It's a true testament to Bob's leadership,” comments Kendra Benward. “He is not only a prince of a man, but as a director, he is a team player. There is no ego involved. He is so open to these kids and none of them feel intimidated to come to him. That's why he is getting the good stuff out of these kids because he is willing to take the time with them. Kids on film sets learn acting as they're doing it. They're professional actors, but they don't have 20 years of experience behind them, and Bob has really taken on that role to help teach them on this movie.”
“I very much believe in mentoring young people. I think it's great to be able to pass on your knowledge,” comments Dolman. “One of the great joys of working on this movie is that many of the kids in our young cast are interested in filmmaking. They wanted to see playback of takes and learn from the more experienced adult actors. I think some of them will go on to work in many capacities, including directing or producing or camera work. It was fun to show them how things worked and explain why we did it this way. They asked the camera people questions, they asked everyone in each department questions. I encouraged the kids, we all did.”
With the main kids signed on, the filmmakers turned their attention to casting the adults in the movie. The first order of business was finding the right pair of actors to play Billy’s parents. Tom Cavanagh was cast as his father Mitch, who has moved his family to a new town for his new job, and Kimberly Williams-Paisley plays Mitch’s wife, Helen.
“Tom brings a real believability, yet a certain eccentricity, to the part of the father and we wanted the father to be believable, at the same time like so many parents, certainly from the kids' point of view, slightly clueless,” laughs Mark Johnson.
Cavanagh’s storyline runs parallel to his son’s in the movie. “Billy is having trouble at school…he’s intimidated by people and worried about fitting in,” explains Dolman. “When you go to Mitch's place of work, you see that Mitch is facing the same sort of situation, just on an adult level. But it has a lot of the same ingredients. He's a bit nervous, he's clumsy, he drops things because he's nervous, and he's worried about what people are thinking of him. He ends up accepting an invitation to play tennis in the same way that Billy accepts the worm bet.”
“I hope that the kids watching will see that it's not just kids who feel afraid of new situations and feel intimidated by people who are bigger than they are. Adults go through the same thing,” adds Dolman. “Kids often think their parents are fearless, but in fact, adults feel all of the things that children feel.”
Kimberly Williams-Paisley agrees, saying “it’s a great little subplot that Bob included to show that adults have the same sorts of fears that kids do. Tom's character is afraid of his new job and his coworkers because he doesn't know them. He is the new kid on the block, and his boss invites us to play tennis and not thinking, he says ‘sure, we love to play tennis.’ Of course, we don't play tennis at all. We're terrible.”
“So we get stuck on the tennis court and he is terrified, which I just think is hysterical. What winds up happening is they show up and they’re not intimidating, they're just people,” adds Williams-Paisley.
The pair had a ball shooting the tennis scene where they face off against Mitch’s boss Rob Simon and his wife Whacker on the tennis court.
“That is not a funny scene,” deadpans Tom Cavanagh. “The correct description for that scene is shameless. Over the top would fit or you could probably call it broad. Anytime someone is standing around with mats, pads, and trampolines and saying, ‘Dude, do anything you want,’ it’s very hard to resist. I would say free forming is the nicest way you can put what we're doing out there.”
“We really were able to get goofy on the tennis court and I had a great day,” laughs Williams-Paisley. “Tom and I were flailing on the big thick mat. We love to do that kind of thing.”
“Kimberly and Tom are not afraid to do physical comedy – they are athletes, actually,” observes Dolman. “They take pratfalls, they fall down, stand up, drop things…it's wonderful. Sometimes, they are out and out clown-like. In a way, they are big kids. It helps again with that theme of the story…grownups, they are like kids, they are just bigger. Plus, they both have a great sense of comedic timing.”
In addition to the physicality of the role, Williams-Paisley was also attracted to the project for other reasons. “I thought the script was adorable and relatable. To me, the mom read like a perfect mom. Laid back, easy going, with a sense of humor, adoring and happy to be a mom. I like that part of Helen. She’s a good sport and kind of sarcastic, but also madly in love with her children and husband. She’s also turned into a little bit of a goof, a little bit of a klutz.”
“This set is a great place to be having fun and because it is a kid's movie, there is that kid's energy,” observes Williams-Paisley. “There is a lot of silliness and Bob is very laid back, which is terrific. He is also one of the only directors I've seen who stands next to the camera, sort of like the way they used to do it. Bob is working the kids and he is shouting encouragements at them in the middle of the scene, so it lends a certain spontaneity. He is great with the kids.”
Williams-Paisley was also keen to work with her co-star. “Tom Cavanagh is hysterical. I've admired his work for a long time. He is very funny and he throws something new in every single take. I’m never quite sure what he is going to do, so that's why it’s fun to act with him, because he is always surprising. Plus, he recently worked with my sister – they played each other’s love interest. Now this summer, I get him. So it’s kind of all in the family!”
“I am knocking them off one by one,” laughs Cavanagh. “That's the reason I did this movie, any Williams who takes up acting, I plan to act with them.”
Other adult actors featured include James Rebhorn as Principal “Boiler Head” Burdock and Clint Howard makes a cameo appearance as the cantankerous short order cook, Uncle Ed.
“A WORLD BOYS OUGHT TO LIVE IN”’
How to Eat Fried Worms began principal photography on July 25th, 2005 on location in Austin, Texas and continued throughout the summer heat until September brought the return to school for most of the cast.
began principal photography on July 25, 2005 on location in Austin, Texas and continued throughout the summer heat until September brought the return to school for most of the cast.Filmmakers chose to shoot the story in Austin due to the producers’ previous positive experiences in Central Texas and the community’s “anytown” quality. “Mark Johnson and Phil Steuer have made several movies in Austin so they have a familiarity with the Austin film community,” explains director Bob Dolman. “Environmentally, Austin fit the story and there are excellent movie crews here.”
How To Eat Fried Worms filmed in multiple locations in and around Austin including Zilker Elementary School, the Travis Heights neighborhood and Stacy Park, the Northwest Hills neighborhood, Austin Studios, the Blue Hole swimming hole in Wimberley and the Austin Diner. Other shooting locations included: the 1st Unitarian Church, which played Woody’s pre-school; the Onion Creek Country Club, where the parents ‘played’ tennis; and Highway 21 in Bastrop County, where we first learn about Billy’s queasy stomach.
filmed in multiple locations in and around Austin including Zilker Elementary School, the Travis Heights neighborhood and Stacy Park, the Northwest Hills neighborhood, Austin Studios, the Blue Hole swimming hole in Wimberley and the Austin Diner. Other shooting locations included: the 1 Unitarian Church, which played Woody’s pre-school; the Onion Creek Country Club, where the parents ‘played’ tennis; and Highway 21 in Bastrop County, where we first learn about Billy’s queasy stomach.In early July 2005, filmmakers held an open casting call at a local hotel for school-aged background extras and were overwhelmed with the response when over 2000 kids from Austin and as far away as Houston and San Antonio showed up. Organizers had been expecting around 200 and attributed the remarkable turnout to the popularity of the book.
Those young actors were used to populate the schoolyard, classrooms, hallways, library and cafeteria of Zilker Elementary. Filming in the school took place during the first two weeks of shooting, so that filmmakers would be finished at that location when teachers returned the second week in August to prep for their school year.
The school schedules of the principal cast made the shooting schedule particularly tight. “Logistically, we were against a ticking clock with the start of school. We wanted to finish in time for the principal actors to start in their own schools,” adds producr Philip Steuer. “We were able to schedule around most of the kids school starts, which was the blessing of hiring kids from other states, they all went back to school at different times. That actually was a bonus for us.”
“The film is set in contemporary times but I think we all felt it had the ability to be a period movie,” comments Steuer. “We certainly wanted it to have a period feel without being a period movie…not really knowing when or where you were, more of timeless period than a specific period. The kids are all on bikes and there’s not a lot of technology, but the idea was to have timeless sense to it.”
“The book was written in the 1970s and has a pre-computer innocence about it. It depicts a world that feels almost forgotten,” comments director Bob Dolman. “We’ve intended to present a world of boys as perhaps it ought to be. We wanted to quiet their world, so that their only real concern is ‘gee it's hard moving into a new place, trying to fit in, getting picked on.’ In a way, the theme of the movie could be that children of that age should have problems no bigger than ‘I have to eat a worm.’”
Production designer Caty Maxey and costume designer Kathleen Kiatta were charged with creating this any-town, timeless feel. “Bob’s marching orders were to keep it simple,” states Steuer. “All the clothes are contemporary and we didn’t build any elaborate sets.”
“Bob’s priority was the boys’ comfort,” says Kiatta. “For the most part I was given free rein, but he really wanted me to hone in on the boys as individuals and try to make them all different. Once I got to spend a little time with them, they each brought something very special to the table. I got to be most creative with Twitch's costumes – the artwork on his pajamas and some of his t-shirts was all drawn on by hand.”
Maxey took advantage of the classic Craftsman architecture prevalent in the Travis Heights neighborhood of South Austin and the adjacent idyllic Stacy Park to highlight the film’s timeless feel. By using a pre-defined color scheme, the art department was able to seamlessly blend the bedroom/hallway/bathroom set, built on stage at Austin Studios, with the interiors and exteriors of the practical Forrester House that were shot on location at a real residence in the Northwest Hills neighborhood.
Twitch’s house was found in that same neighborhood when location scouts discovered a recently sold home that was about to go through major renovations. The production came in and constructed the kitchen set (specific to the scene that allowed Techno Mouth to hang from the rafters) inside the shell of the home.
Maxey’s team also constructed an elaborate dilapidated bait shack in Austin and trucked it to the Blue Hole location, about an hour away in the Texas Hill Country. The formerly private natural swimming hole was recently donated to the City of Wimberley with the intention of making it into an official park.
“The whole final sequence was shot in the most beautiful place with a swimming hole right beside us all the time,” comments Dolman. “The weather was between 95 and 105 degrees and all the boys could think about was that river.”
“You could practically see the sirens calling them,” laughs producer Mark Johnson. “But they have a professional job acting in a movie. It was difficult for them, in this idyllic setting with a river going by. They just wanted to get done with their scene so they could run over there and throw rocks in the water and poke something with a stick. Yet you can't do it, you're working. It so goes against what being a kid is.”
The filmmakers managed to keep the cast out of the water during the shooting day, but they were allowed to swim after wrap in the evenings. “The water was so clear!” exclaims Hallie Kate Eisenberg. “At the end of the week, Ryan and I pushed our director in the water and then all of the kids jumped in. There was even a huge tree that we all climbed and jumped off of into the freezing water.”
Luke Benward was the lucky cast member, as he got to be in the water during the shooting day as part of the scene. “Blue Hole was awesome! It was so pretty,” exclaims Benward. “The cameras were in the water on platforms and sometimes I would go under the platform and hold on to bars. They had scuba divers who were there just in case you got a cramp or something. They taught me a little bit about scuba diving between scenes.”
“It was difficult just because they had so much energy that just wanted to run in every different direction,” says Bob Dolman. “The kids are really quite amazing and disciplined for 10 to 13 year-old actors. Nevertheless they are kids. When we had all nine of the worm boys in so many scenes, they just had another ideas a lot of time. It was very easy for them to be distracted, just in the ways that boys will be distracted. That I found to be the most exhausting part of directing them.”
Despite the challenges of working with his young cast, Dolman could not have been more pleased with them. “They have a genuineness about them. They don't seem like they are show business kids. They don't seem to have big egos and are very giving to each other. So they come across on camera quite naturally,” reveals Dolman. “As the director, I just tried to keep their natural selves in front of the camera. It wasn't about performing as much as it was just keeping them as genuine as possible, trying to pull forth from them what I already saw in them as people. They all seemed to just be able to act out of their own place, which to me is great acting.”
Austin Diner was the local eatery transformed into The Brown Toad Diner. The art department decorated the interior with thousands of toads and frogs gathered from local bric-a-brac and thrift stores, which the owner of Austin Diner decided to keep when they re-opened for business. On the roof, they placed a giant toad that the special effects department rigged to stick its tongue out, like it was eating flies. Inside the diner, the kids meet Adam Simms’ Uncle Ed, played by Clint Howard.
“I LOVE WORMS”
The production utilized real worms, gummy worms, rubber worms, stunt worms and fake edible worms to play the title characters.
Casting real worms presented unique challenges to the production. “Really early in pre-production, we were very concerned about not killing any of them,” explains producer Philip Steuer. “We met with a worm specialist named Steven Kutcher in Los Angeles, who is an entomologist and does bugs for movies. He told us that heat will affect the way worms move and you have to keep them cool.”
Of course, the production was slated to film during the height of the summer heat. “When we began working in Texas, our property master Dwayne Grady spearheaded their care and took it on full force with regards to who would do what with the worms. In our basement of the production office, we had a worm farm, home to thousands of live worms. As product placement, one company actually gave us living habitats (elaborate tins of dirt) to keep them in.”
The prop department also instructed the crew to save certain leftover food including: old toast, pancakes, fruit/vegetable scraps, crushed egg shells, coffee grounds and dead flowers and leaves to feed the worms.
Property master Dwayne Grady and his crew of five took their care extremely seriously. “On set the worms were always kept in special temperature-controlled containers,” explains assistant property master Amy Bell. “They were treated like movie stars.” Gummy worms and rubber worms were used as stand-ins to keep the stars out of the heat for as long as possible to preserve the energy of their performances. When production wrapped, several crewmembers adopted many of the stars and took them home to live in their gardens.
Among other things, special effects coordinator Everette Byrom, III and his brother, special effects foreman Craig Byrom, were responsible for the practical stunt worms. For example, “The Burning Fireball” is cooked in a boiling pot and the special effects wizards made the concoction gurgle and look boiling hot, even though the liquid was room temperature and safe for the actors to throw stuff in the pot and splash the contents without getting burned.
The props department filled the counter tops of Twitch’s kitchen with a range of things the actors could throw into the pot. “We threw everything from a household kitchen,” explains Ryan Malgarini, who plays the worm chef Benjy. “Lettuce, hot sauce, pepper, just about anything that you could find in the house, we put into this pot and cooked it and boiled it and fried it. It was crazy and disgusting!”
Luke Benward’s reaction to eating “The Burning Fireball” worm was natural and real. “The pot had a big stew full of bananas and banana peels and glass bottles and hot sauce and cayenne papers and then they put the edible prop worm inside,” remembers Benward. “It was red and it was actually in the stew they made. It just tasted really bad. It's was hot the first time it touched my tongue and then it just got gross.”
The special effects technicians also rigged the "Radioactive Slime Delight" worm to splat worm parts without actually harming a real worm. “It's a worm that goes in the microwave and is turning, turning, turning, and all of a sudden it blows up all over the microwave,” explains Benward. “There are pieces of worm everywhere and I have to eat it with a spatula. It was actually corn syrup and edible worm flying everywhere, so it was all sticky and that one had no taste, but the texture in your mouth was like…let’s just say, that's the one that I want to get in one take.”
Benward was grateful for the assistance of special effects and props departments in his worm-eating escapades. “For one scene, I did have to put a real worm in my mouth – a Canadian night crawler. It wasn't too gross, it was actually kind of good,” Benward comments surprisingly. “I didn't bite into it, but the outside was salty and slimy. One of our props guys said ‘I wouldn't let you put anything in your mouth that I wouldn't put in my mouth.’ He tasted everything before I did. That was really awesome.”
Prop department member Doug Field actually made the edible worms in his kitchen at home. The worms were molded out of gelatin and hand painted with edible paint. They came in flavors like pistachio, vanilla, tapioca and fruit punch. “The first one I had to eat – “La Big Porker” – was supposedly fried in pig fat. So on the outside they made it look like it had fat hanging off of it and made it look like some of the worm slime melted into the fat. The special effects people also made it squirt goo. It was gross,” explains Benward.
Several of the edible worms were more elaborate. “’Brown Toad Bloater Special’ is supposed to be deep fried. Actually, it’s portabella mushroom with molasses, chocolate syrup and maple syrup. That mixture of syrups all mixed on the worm and he poured it into my mouth and it stuck out because it was really hard to eat,” remembers Benward.
In the movie, the “Barfmallow” worm is made of marshmallows, tuna fish, ketchup and mayonnaise. “Since that would have actually made me sick, they used that strawberry stuff that is in cereal. It was actually pretty good,” reveals Benward.
Even though their characters are non worm-eaters, over the course of production, most of the cast did taste the edible worms out of curiosity.
“I didn’t really want to eat any of them. Even though they are fake edible worms, they still are pretty nasty,” comments Malgarini. “They each got more sick and disgusting as we went on. But ‘The Green Slusher’ tasted like cereal…it was mix of Trix and Lucky Charms. It actually tasted pretty good. That’s the one I liked the most.”
“Out of solidarity for Billy, I ate the worms,” admits Tom Cavanagh, who plays Billy’s dad. “They're gross. It wasn't a pretty sight. Do you know who ate none of the worms? Kimberly Williams. I had to eat all of her worms, too.”
Williams wasn’t the only female cast member who didn’t sample the props. “I didn't eat any of the worms because they have gelatin in them and I'm a vegetarian,” explains Hallie Kate Eisenberg. “But to see all of these boys standing there lined up, tasting the worms all together, putting these worms in their mouths. It's hysterical to watch. Ty, who plays Woody, and I did get to do this scene with ice cream over and over and over. By the last few takes we were miming eating them. We had to eat about 25 ice cream bars, which is a lot better than worms.”
“CAMP WORMS, TEXAS”
summer camp (n) - a place, usually residential, offering outdoor recreational activities & skill development for children during the summer
The young cast and their families – parents, grandparents and siblings - had a unique experience during the 8 weeks of production. “Even though they were surrounded by all of this film making equipment, they just behaved like kids at summer camp. I hope that comes across in the movie,” comments director Bob Dolman.
Producer Philip Steuer agrees. “There was archery, water sports, cooking, campfires.” Producers threw the cast and crew a bowling party to kick off filming that set the tone for the entire production. As filming progressed, the cast often went on outings together during their off time to places such as the local water park, the Austin Duck Tour and miniature golf.
“It really felt like we were all away at summer camp and our camp project was making this movie,” says Hallie Kate Eisenberg. “Bob had us call each other by our character names, like when you get a nickname at camp. We were all from different places and we all came together while the weather’s warm and learned new things. Instead of cabins, we stayed at an apartment complex and after work, we all swam in the pool and hung out with each other.”
The project was also a unique acting environment, one that echoed the themes in the film. “In most of my movies, I act with adults or maybe, at most, two or three other kids,” explains Adam “Joe” Hicks. “So, with this movie – wow - 10 other kids - that's really cool. When I arrived I was thinking ‘I hope I get along with everyone, I hope everyone likes me.’”
“When you have this many kids, you do worry about them all getting along,” admits Philip Steuer. “That certainly wasn’t an issue at all, some of them will probably be life-long friends.”
“They became their characters and the friendship that this movie needs to show, is a friendship that now they completely have,” agrees producer Mark Johnson. “These kids are together every second of the day. They have become a gang of friends and that friendship works for the movie. In fact, sometimes we have to fight it a little bit, because there is a rivalry in the movie.”
Instead of a club house, the young actors had a green room, which was an air conditioned trailer, parked near the set, which included a foosball table, video games, movies and musical instruments, couches, bean bags and lots of movie posters on the walls.
“The green room is a trailer where we take a break while the crew moves the cameras around. We escape from the sun and play games. We even used the instruments in there to get a band going called ‘Production 5.’ It lasted for about maybe one, two weeks,” laughs Blake “Plug” Garrett.
“Blake got some tips from Ethan our sound mixer, who plays guitar,” shares Hallie Kate Eisenberg. “We had it all worked out…Austin is the band manager and lead harmonica player, Adam plays drums, and Ryan also played guitar. Luke and I were the singers. All of us wrote songs together.”
The adult actors also experienced some of the life-imitating-art-imitating-life phenomenon of the project. “I came into this movie towards the end of it, and I felt like the new kid on the block,” reveals Kimberly Williams-Paisley. “I always have some trepidation going into a new situation…who are these people and how I am going to fit in here? How long will it take for them to get to know me? I think a lot of people can relate to this story.”
“On my first day on set Ty, who plays my youngest son, bet me 20 bucks that he could beat me at foosball. So, I took him on and he did beat me,” admits Williams-Paisley. “But he did have a partner, so there were two against one. Then I teamed up with Ty's mom and went against the two kids, and they beat us hands down. These kids really know what they're doing in foosball. Ty is a little firecracker.”
“On this movie, there's about 500 bets made a day and no one ever follows through with them. Everyone says things like ‘I will pay you five bucks if you can get the basketball in the hoop.’ Everything is a bet,” laughs Hallie Kate Eisenberg.
Director Bob Dolman thinks that audiences will enjoy seeing any eventual behind-the-scenes features about the making of the movie. “I would love for people to be able to see what it has been like for these kids to go through this, because it has been unique. The kids are really featured all the way through this movie, there are hardly any adults in it. The kids dominate and carry the movie. To see how they pulled that off, how they worked with me and with the crew. To see how all of the parents helped these kids to learn their lines and be ready on set every day. The families helped us enormously, there was a huge collaboration that went on with the parents, grandparents and the friends of the kids that were here.”
The ‘worm kids’ (as they began calling themselves) and their families were so touched by their journey that they made their own video to thank their director for the experience. “I really felt like they were thanking the whole crew, all of the people that were involved. They were just warm and genuinely grateful,” says Dolman. “It just touched everybody."
One final challenge for filmmakers was scheduling the ADR (additional dialogue replacement, or sound “looping”) before the voices of the boys changed. “We wanted to do it as soon as possible after wrapping principal photography. Both Adam Hicks and Ryan Malgarini are 13 and their voices will pop soon, big growth spurts are coming,” relates producer Philip Steuer.
After a quick 39 days of production, principal photography wrapped on Sunday, September 18th, 2005, along tree-lined Highway 21 in Bastrop County, forty-five minutes outside Austin. For filmmakers, cast and crew, summer camp was over and it was time to go back to school.
“I CAN’T WAIT TO READ THE WORM BOOK”
“I don't think anything encourages students to read more than having a movie made of a book,” states Carol Gillingham, a first grade teacher in Houston and mother of Andrew “Techno Mouth” Gillingham. “I think being able to make comparisons between the book and the movie will be a lot of fun. It's a fabulous way to get kids to read books.”
“During scouting, every time we went into a school, we met the teachers and librarians who were excited because the students already knew this book,” comments director Bob Dolman.
“I have made a number of movies based on books: The Natural, My Dog Skip, A Little Princess, Donnie Brasco, The Notebook and most recently The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. I think that you have a responsibility when you are translating a book into a film, because you have to respect the fact that there is a core readership who have certain expectations from your movie,” explains producer Mark Johnson. “As filmmakers, you can make alterations, but it’s important to try to keep the themes and characters somewhat consistent. I think in a book like How to Eat Fried Worms, that is and has been read by a lot of kids, you want to make sure that they have the experience of seeing something new and original, that yet still reminds them of the experience of reading the book. So it's a little bit of a balancing act.”
Adds Johnson, “the ideal thing is to take the book as your foundation and then have a screenwriter who adds what he or she is particularly talented at, to come up with something that's it's own new animal. Bob Dolman really dreamed up this whole kinetic energy and conflict between all of these kids. The ultimate compliment came from Thomas Rockwell, the author of the book, who had read our screenplay and liked it a great deal. It’s loosely based on his book and he appreciated it for what it is.”
A feature film adaptation of Thomas Rockwell’s hugely popular young adult book How to Eat Fried Worms completely fit the corporate mission of Walden Media. Founded in 2001 by Cary Granat, former president of Miramax Films’ Dimension label, and education reformer Micheal Flaherty, Walden Media specializes in entertainment designed to recapture the audience’s imagination, rekindle curiosity and spark an enthusiasm for lifelong learning.
“Our company is focused on creating multiple learning avenues, both before and after the film, around the subject matter of the story,” says Cary Granat. “We explore the themes online, in school and in after-school programs with groups like the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Young Life, 4 H, Boys & Girls Clubs and YMCA. We want kids to go out and actually do things in the community tied to what the story is about. Oftentimes books become a great resource to allow us to talk to kids through a shared kind of common experience. So, they've read the book, now they can go see the film.”
“The theme of bullying is really important to bring to kids in school today,” adds Granat. “Teachers are using the book as a staple in their curriculum. It’s part of an accredited reading list of all 50 states, plus many places internationally. For us this is really hitting the jackpot: great themes, accredited nationwide, and it's something that kids really adore.”
“In the book, the chapter headings are literally military headings. This was a very smart way to teach kids that there's very little difference in terms of bullying on the war field and bullying in school,” comments Granat. “In the movie, Billy makes this incredible stand. He lays the gauntlet. And then he starts to question ‘what have I done?’ The rest of the story is Billy building up again that same level of courage, tenacity, temerity, and boldness.”
Billy’s actions inspire the other boys to change. “What it takes is the first person to start doing something differently. Once they do and they have that conviction, other people will follow that example,” says Granat. “It's a great story of the exemplary role model. It's amazing how everybody who starts out in this gang, slowly but surely joins Billy’s team. He has taken the step to do the right thing.”
“Hopefully young audiences can take away a feeling of empowerment,” adds Granat. “It's their responsibility and only their responsibility to take that first step themselves. They can't wait for someone else to show them how to do it. That's really another great theme in this book: sometimes the hardest thing to do is take that first step. But once you do it, you learn to overcome your other fears and anxieties.”
“The whole film is infused with great comedy all throughout,” continues Granat. “We want to use high entertainment value as an educational tool, because nothing is more inherently educational than something you relate to and find entertaining and think about it after you have seen. We recognize that power of media.”
“Books can be a valuable teaching aid, but nothing beats parenting. Nothing beats a parent sitting down with their child and with a logic and a reason and a love, explaining and teaching,” comments actor Clint Howard. “But this movie is an effective tool and a wonderful opportunity for a little life lesson that parents can share with their kids.”
“I think the beauty of so many family films today now is that they really are family films,” concludes producer Mark Johnson. “They may be specifically for kids or about kids, but adults will really like them. I think our humor will be pretty hilarious to kids, but I don't think it will escape grown ups. So, if we have done our job right, this movie should work for kids and parents.”
ABOUT THE CAST
Luke Benward (Billy Forrester)
(Billy Forrester)Eleven year-old Luke Benward was cast in his first film at age 5, appearing alongside Mel Gibson and Madeleine Stowe in We Were Soldiers. In the two years following, he shot television pilots for “Life on the Water” and “Family Affair” starring Tim Curry and Gary Cole.
He was cast in the family film Because of Winn Dixie at age 8 after choosing to audition with a toothpick in his mouth. The choice set him apart from the hundreds of boys vying for the role of Stevie Dewberry, one of the two brothers tormenting Annasophia Robb’s character. Director Wayne Wang loved the idea and used it in the film.
Benward stars as Angel/Michael in Martina McBride’s award-winning music video for “Concrete Angel.” The clip was nominated for a Grammy, among other awards, and McBride took home the prize for Female Video of the Year at the 2003 CMT Flameworthy Awards.
His commercial credits include campaigns for McDonalds, Nintendo, American Express, and Hamburger Helper.
Part of an entertainment family, Benward also loves to sing and dance and got his acting start tagging along to auditions with his mother – actress, acting coach and former CMT veejay Kenda Benward. His father, Aaron Benward, is half of the country music duo Blue County. He has two younger sisters, Ella and Gracie.
Born and raised in Tennessee, he enjoys riding his bike and playing football and video games. Benward read the book How To Eat Fried Worms when he was in the 3rd grade, but never ate a worm until he began work on the film. He did, however, once eat a roly poly bug on a dare.
Hallie Kate Eisenberg (Erika Tansy)
(Erika Tansy)At thirteen, Hallie Kate Eisenberg is already a seasoned actress with numerous film, television, stage, and commercial credits on her resume.
Eisenberg made her feature film debut at age 5, playing Marie in DreamWorks’ family film Paulie. She then portrayed Barbara in Michael Mann’s Academy Award nominated film The Insider starring Russell Crowe and Little Miss in Christopher Columbus’ Bicentennial Man starring Robin Williams. Eisenberg went on to co-star with Minnie Driver in Beautiful, directed by Sally Field.
She played Helen Keller in the award-winning ABC-Wonderful World of Disney TV movie “The Miracle Worker.” Eisenberg also appeared in three movies of the week: as Eleanor in “Nicholas’ Gift,” Josie in “Blue Moon,” and Jenny in “Swing Vote.” She has guest starred on the FOX TV series “Get Real” and the CBS-TV drama, “Presidio Med.”
On cable television, Eisenberg recently co-starred with Patricia Heaton and Jeff Daniels in the 2004 remake of Neil Simon's “The Goodbye Girl.” On HBO, she played Abby Mills on “A Little Inside;” and in the upcoming feature, “Jesus, Mary and Joey” she plays Melissa, a cancer patient.
Eisenberg made her Broadway debut in the Roundabout’s star-studded play, "The Women," which also aired on PBS as part of its Stage and Screen series.
Commercial credits include promos for the Independent Film Channel (as Christie, the “hot young Indie director“) and a four-year campaign as the spokesperson for Pepsi. These spots include the voices of several celebrities (Joe Pesci, Aretha Franklin, Isaac Hayes, and Marlon Brando) and appearances by KISS, Faith Hill, baseball great Ken Griffey, Jr., Nascar’s Jeff Gordon and Halle Berry.
Eisenberg received the Young Artists Special Achievement Award for most outstanding young performer in television advertising. The Young Artists Awards also nominated her for outstanding young actress in a feature film (Beautiful); and outstanding young actress for her portrayal of Helen Keller in “The Miracle Worker.” She was nominated for best young actress in a feature film (Bicentennial Man) for Hollywood Reporter’s Youngstar Awards. Eisenberg also won a Camie award for her performance in “The Miracle Worker.”
In addition, Eisenberg has served as a special correspondent for “Entertainment Tonight” and has covered events such as the Gotham Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards and the Emmy Awards®.
When not acting, Hallie competes in equestrian competitions with her horse, Nate. Eisenberg has a sister, Kerry, and a brother, Jesse. Rounding out the household are three dogs and two cats. She lives in New Jersey with her parents, Amy and Barry. Eisenberg read the book How To Eat Fried Worms while working on the movie.
Adam Hicks (Joe Guire)
(Joe Guire)Thirteen year-old Adam Hicks starred in the leading role of Brady Davis in the feature film Down and Derby. He was recently seen on the big screen in Disney’s remake of The Shaggy Dog starring Tim Allen and in The 12 Dogs of Christmas, released on DVD in November of 2005.
Beginning at age 5, Hicks was a series regular playing Young Dave on the show “Titus,” which ran for three seasons on the FOX network. He was also a series regular on the Frank Oz directed TV pilot “The Funkhousers,” co-starred on ABC’s “That Was Then,” and was the Discovery Channel’s “The Discovery Kid 2000.” In addition to numerous commercial credits, he has participated in several stage productions in Las Vegas, including playing the title role in “Tom Sawyer.”
Born and raised in Las Vegas, Hicks first knew he wanted to act after seeing the movie Home Alone and began bugging his mother, a nurse, continuously until she let him begin auditioning. His first job was a national commercial for “The Best of Andy Griffith,” in which he played Opie.
Hicks has a 10 year old brother and their pets include 2 dogs and 5 cats, all rescued animals. He has a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and has twice been a National Champion. His other interests include skateboarding, rugby, rap, Hip-Hop dance and playing the drums. He is also a fan of the Rolling Stones and David Bowie.
Austin Rogers (Adam Simms)
(Adam Simms)Eleven year-old Austin Rogers will be seen in the soon-to-be released comedy Blind Guy starring Jane Seymour and Eddie Kaye Thomas. He is also featured in the direct-to-video kids project Undercover Kids. His short film credits include Two Divorced guys in A Bar and Three Body Problem.
Rogers’ television credits include HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “According to Jim,” “Life on a Stick,” and “The Orlando Jones Show.”
Also a singer and dancer, Rogers starred in the leading role of Nick Burns in the play “A Thousand Clowns” at the Norris Theatre in Redondo Beach, CA and has been a recurring soloist with the Calabasas Chamber Orchestra. He has also appeared in numerous local productions at the Performing Arts Center in Tampa.
His commercial credits include national spots for Office Depot, Toyota, Sprint, Six Flags, Holiday Inn, Reynold’s Wrap, and a currently airing hilarious spot for Staples, in which Rogers presses an “easy button” under his school desk.
Rogers read the book How To Eat Fried Worms this year. He has never tried a worm but has eaten beetles and flies, “basically any bug that falls into my pool. They crunch like popcorn.” Rogers lives both in Tampa, Florida with his father and Los Angeles with his grandmother.
Alexander Gould (Twitch)
(Twitch)Twelve year-old Alexander Gould began his acting career at age two with his first speaking role. Since then he has had a successful career on the big and small screens, including providing the voice of Nemo in the hit Disney/Pixar animated feature Finding Nemo. And more recently provided the voice of the title character in the Disney release Bambi II, The Great Prince of the Forest. His other feature work includes the independent film Wheelmen and the Wes Craven-produced suspense thriller They.
Gould has appeared in recurring roles on “American Dreams” and "Ally McBeal" and co-starred in the series "Boomtown." He has guest-starred on numerous critically acclaimed television shows, including "Malcolm In The Middle," "7th Heaven," "Family Law,” “Freaks and Geeks,” and "Even Stevens.” He was also seen in the television movies "The Day The World Ended" and "The Point of Origin."
He can currently be seen as Shane Botwin, the imaginative youngest son of Mary-Louise Parker, in the Showtime series “Weeds.”
Gould, an avid reader, has noted that How to Eat Fried Worms is one of his favorite books. Gould lives with his family – including sisters Emma and Kelly, five dogs, two goats, four horses, one cat and one bunny in California.
Ryan Malgarini (Benjy)
(Benjy)Fourteen year-old Ryan Malgarini charmed movie-goers as Harry Coleman, the quintessential bratty-yet-lovable younger brother in the hit Disney comedy Freaky Friday starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. In 2002, Malgarini filmed his first movie The United States of Leland, portraying the title character as a six-year-old in flashbacks opposite Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey.
Malgarini can currently be seen in the Disney Channel Original Movie Go Figure playing Bradley Kingsford, a gadget-building computer whiz. He has also been seen on the Disney Channel as one of the guest hosts of “Click-it to Pick-it.” Malgarini's segment reunites him with his Go Figure co-star Tania Gunadi. His other television appearances include “Spin City,” “The Gilmore Girls,” and “Malcolm in the Middle.”
A natural comic performer, Malgarini first caught the acting bug observing his grandmother’s involvement in show business. When he was 8 years old, he tagged along to be an extra in another of her commercials and wound up featured in the ad, along with his grandparents, his uncle, and R & B legend Lou Rawls. Other commercials followed, including spots for McDonald's and Washington Mutual Savings Bank.
Malgarini’s interests include basketball, baseball (his grandfather played professionally), skateboarding, magic, and he plays piano and is learning guitar. A born mimic, Malgarini enjoys doing imitations of Jerry Seinfeld, Louie Anderson, and Steve Burns, the peppy host of Nick, Jr.'s Blues Clues. He also enjoys participating in fund-raising events, such as the Variety Club Children's Charity of Southern Nevada Silent Auction and the Ronald McDonald House Walk-a-Thon, which he co-hosted with Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries) and Jeremy Sumpter (Peter Pan).
He lives in Las Vegas with his grandparents John and Gloria Malgarini and their rescue-dog Mia. He frequently enjoys spending time with his extended family that live across the country—from Seattle to New York City. He once made a bet that he wouldn’t talk for two days. While extremely difficult for him, Malgarini did follow through…for a day and a half. He has not yet read How To Eat Fried Worms, but he plans to soon.
Philip Daniel Bolden (Bradley)
(Bradley)Ten year-old Philip Daniel Bolden was most recently featured as Kevin Kingston in the hit family comedy Are We There Yet? starring Ice Cube and Nia Long. Philip will be reprising his role in the sequel entitled Are We Done Yet? when filming starts at the end of the summer. (Billy Forrester) (Erika Tansy) (Joe Guire) (Adam Simms)(Twitch) (Benjy)(Bradley)Ten year-old Philip Daniel Bolden was most recently featured as Kevin Kingston in the hit family comedy starring Ice Cube and Nia Long. Philip will be reprising his role in the sequel entitled ? when filming starts at the end of the summer. He also appeared as Mack Jr. in Johnson Family Vacation opposite Steve Harvey and Vanessa L. Williams. His other film credits include The Animal and Little Nicky. Bolden first wanted to act at age 3 and booked his first job – a movie called Mystery Men - that same year.On television, Bolden has guest-starred on “According to Jim,” “CSI: Miami,” “Malcolm in the Middle,” and has had recurring roles on both “My Wife and Kids” and “The King of Queens.” He also appeared in the telefilm “Play’d: A Hip Hop Story.”
Bolden, who was born in New Orleans, had a breakout role in a McDonald’s commercial with Kobe Bryant and had a leading role in Macy Gray’s music video “Sweet Baby.” He lives in Southern California with his family.
He is a fan of mystery books and has yet to read How To Eat Fried Worms. He bets his dad when they play video games, but he always wins. Some of Bolden’s favorite activities include football, reading, acting, and listening to soul/R & B music.
Ty Panitz (Woody Forrester)
(Woody Forrester)Ty Panitz decided he wanted to be an actor when he was four years old. Now six, Panitz was recently seen in his feature film debut, as the youngest sibling Ethan Beardsley in the remake of the classic family film Yours, Mine And Ours.
As a baby, Panitz began his career by doing commercials including a stint as the Gerber baby at 9 months of age. His interests include swimming, bike riding, tennis, and football. Panitz is a devout Philadelphia Eagles fan and cried when they lost in the Super Bowl. His favorite songs are The Star Spangled Banner and God Bless America, which he sang for his Woody audition, complete with hand signs.
Panitz lives in Manhattan Beach, CA with his two younger brothers, Parris and Sawyer, and his mother, who read the book How To Eat Fried Worms to him aloud. His favorite book is Where’s Waldo, which was a gift from co-star Hallie Kate Eisenberg.
James Rebhorn (Principal “Boiler Head” Burdock)
(Principal “Boiler Head” Burdock)Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Rebhorn earned his BA from Wittenberg University and his MFA from Columbia. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two daughters.
Mr. Rebhorn's impressive list of credits encompasses both comedy and drama. His many film appearances include roles in Meet The Parents, The Last Shot, Far From Heaven, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, Snow Falling on Cedars, The Game, Independence Day, Last Ball, If Lucy Fell, White Squall, Up Close and Personal, I Love Trouble, My Fellow Americans, Guarding Tess, Carlito's Way, Scent of a Woman, Lorenzo's Oil, Blank Check, 8 Seconds, My Cousin Vinny, White Sands, Regarding Henry, Basic Instinct, Silkwood, and Cat's Eye.
On Broadway he has appeared in “Dinner at Eight,” “The Man Who Had All the Luck,” “I’m Not Rappaport,” the Tony Award-winning revival of “Our Town,” and most recently in the long-running hit revival of “Twelve Angry Men.” Earlier, he received a Dramalogue Award for his performance in the LaJolla Playhouse production of “Nebraska.” He played Harvey in “Ancestral Voices” and Captain Anderson in “Far East,” both at Lincoln Center, and has appeared in numerous off-Broadway productions at The Manhattan Theatre Club, The New York Shakespeare Festival, and The Ensemble Studio Theatre, among many others.
He has performed lead roles in a variety of series and TV movies including “The Book of Daniel” with Aiden Quinn, “Third Watch,” “Seinfeld,” “Law and Order,” “Bright Shining Lie,” “Mistrial,” “The Wright Verdicts,” “The Guiding Light,” “I'll Fly Away,” “Sarah, Plain and Tall,” “Kate and Allie,” and Tom Hanks' HBO mini-series “From the Earth to the Moon.”
Kimberly Williams-Paisley (Helen Forrester)
(Helen Forrester)Currently co-starring in the hit ABC Television sitcom “According to Jim,” Kimberly Williams-Paisley first lit up the screen as the radiant young bride in the comedy feature film series Father of the Bride and Father of the Bride Part II.
Currently, Williams-Paisley completed filming Warner Brothers’ We are Marshall, co-starring opposite Matthew McConaughey for director McG. The film is based on the true story of the tragic loss of the Marshall University football team in a 1970 plane crash – and how the school found the strength and confidence to recover and return to glory.
As “According to Jim” enters it’s sixth season, Williams-Paisley continues to evolve in her role opposite Jim Belushi and Courtney-Thorne Smith, and recently added to her versatile and growing credits by directing an episode of the show which aired in February, 2006.
She recently wrote and directed and starred with Patrick Dempsey in the short film Shade, for which she won the Director’s Choice: Outstanding Directing and Acting at the Sedona International Film Festival. She is editing a second short, Numero Dos, which was shot last summer in New Orleans.
Williams-Paisley has also been establishing her creativity outside the performing arena beginning with accomplishments as a published writer for such publications as In Style and Redbook magazines.
Her other credits include the ABC Family Network’s Lucky Seven, and the Lifetime Original feature Identity Theft, on both of which she also served as Co-Producer. She co-starred in The Christmas Shoes for The CBS Network, appeared in ABC’s Relativity, in the NBC mini series The Tenth Kingdom and in the CBS movie Follow the Stars Home.
Williams-Paisley made her Broadway debut in the Tony Award-Winning “The Last Night at Ballyhoo” and has appeared on stage in “The Vagina Monologues,” and in “All in the Timing.” She has also performed on the London Stage in David Mamet’s “Speed the Plow.”
Williams-Paisley is actively involved with the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research, St. Jude Hospital and the XP Foundation.
Tom Cavanagh (Mitch Forrester)
(Mitch Forrester)Tom Cavanagh, popular star of NBC’s critically acclaimed series “Ed,” and the more recent CBS/VH1 series, “Love Monkey,” has been working non-stop in both film and television .
He just completed two features, the lead role in a medical thriller called Hospital, directed by Tony Kranz and Cake Eaters, directed by Mary Stuart Masterson. Prior to that he did the Sue Kramer helmed romantic comedy, Gray Matters co-starring Heather Graham and Bridget Moynahan. He also stars with Sally Fields and Ben Chaplin in the upcoming emotional indie film Two Weeks, directed by Steve Stockman.
Prior to that, Cavanagh starred in two independent features. Alchemy is a romantic comedy written and directed by Evan Oppenheimer and was featured in New York’s Tribeca Film Festival. Heart Of The Storm is a taut thriller where Cavanagh, in a distinct departure from his usual persona as an easy-going charmer, plays Simpson, an escaped convict who takes refuge in the home of a mother and her two young daughters while a hurricane rages outside. That film was shown at the Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival in 2004
On the small screen, Cavanagh starred in the ABC’s Christmas movie “Snow;” reprised his popular role as Dan - Zach Braff’s older brother - on “Scrubs;” and played Christine Lahti’s gay, drug addicted brother on the critically acclaimed “Jack & Bobby.”
During his down time from “Ed,” Cavanagh starred as Bobby Strong in the Broadway hit musical “Urinetown,” as well as in Showtime’s multiple Emmy
Award® and Peabody Award-winning movie “Bang, Bang You’re Dead,” for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award®.
Cavanagh was born in Ottawa, Canada, the second of five children. When he was six, his family moved to a small village in the African nation of Ghana. His father set up and education program to train local teachers in modern methods of learning, while his mother taught the village locals. When the family returned to Canada, Cavanagh entered high school in Sherbrooke, Quebec and later attended Queens University in Ontario. There he pursued his growing interest in theatre and music, as well as becoming a class-A athlete, playing both varsity hockey and basketball. He was soon cast in the Broadway revival of the musical, “Shenandoah.” Other stage credits include “Grease,” “A Chorus Line,” “Cabaret,” and “Brighton Beach Memoirs.”
Andrew Gillingham (Techno Mouth)
(Techno Mouth)Eleven-year-old Andrew Gillingham is making his feature film debut in How To Eat Fried Worms.
Gillingham’s first love is baseball, but through constant exposure, his interest in acting is growing. From the age of 1, Gillingham tagged along with his older sister Allison (who began acting at age 4 and is now 14) to her workshops and productions at the Humphreys School of Musical Theatre, the training wing of Houston’s Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS).
He began appearing in small productions such as church Christmas programs and YoungStars productions at the Humphreys School. In the third grade, at age 9, he was cast in TUTS’ major stage production of “Brigadoon” at Houston’s Hobby Center. Following that, the Houston Grand Opera called and asked him to audition for the opera “Salsipuedes”, in which he was also cast.
Gillingham’s commercial credits include a spot for the TUTS production of “Scrooge,” a local spot for Reliant Energy, and national spots for Sprint PCS and RoadRunner. He also guest starred on a local television program called “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up.”
Besides being a baseball fanatic and an Astros fan, Gillingham also loves the WNBA Houston Comets. A Boy Scout since first grade, his other interests include shooting hoops, swimming, and playing video games. His favorite type of music is oldies. An Honor Student, he lives in Houston with his family and their dog and two millipedes.
Blake Garrett (Plug)
(Plug)Thirteen year-old Blake Garrett appears in a featured role in the independent feature film Little Flower, now making the festival circuit. His TV series credits include the pilot episode of the television series “Inconceivalbe.”
At age 10, Garrett traveled with the arena show “Barney’s Colorful World International Tour.” The tour ran from the fall of 2003 until the spring of 2004 and Garrett starred in the role of Mike, which he also plays in the subsequent video.
Born in Austin, Texas and raised in Edmond where he attends middle school, Blake discovered his love of performing at age 8, appearing in numerous local productions including the leading roles of the Magician in “Aladdin and His Magical Lamp” and as Charlie Brown in “Peanuts: A Charlie Brown Tribute.” Other theater credits include “The Wizard of Oz,” “Annie” and “Grease.” In Los Angeles, he’s trained with coaches from TVI Actors Studio and The Young Performer’s Studio. In Oklahoma City, he’s trained and performed with ACTS Acting Academy, Lyric Musical Theatre Academy and StageStruck Studios.
Garrett’s interests include football, wrestling, wakeboarding, listening to his iPod, and playing video games. He lives in Edmond, Oklahoma with his mother, his younger brother Ryan, their dog, 2 cats, and a snake. Spicy foods are a way of life for Garrett, which he proved by eating wasabi on a dare, shocking his friends who were unaware he actually likes the sweet and sour condiment.
Alexander Agate (Donny Pickett)
(Donny Pickett)Eleven year-old Alexander Agate stars in the upcoming film Half-Life, a story about a boy who uses his imaginative powers to cope with difficulties at home. (His 8 year-old sister Katrina Agate is featured as his friend.) He is also featured in the Sci-Fi mystery Spectres.Agate got his acting start doing commercials, for companies like Mattel, and civic theater near his home in Southern California.
At age 5, Agate’s mother started him in both Tae Kwon Do and acting so he could interact with other kids, since he is home-schooled. He now has a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. Additionally, he is an aspiring paleontologist/zoologist and enjoys writing stories, reading, and acting.
He read the book How To Eat Fried Worms at age 10 and counts Fire Bringer, The Name of the Game Was Murder, and The Redwall Series among his favorite books.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Bob Dolman (Written for the Screen & Directed By)
In 2002, Bob Dolman made his directorial debut with the comedy The BangerSisters, starring Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon. Before that, he worked
, starring Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon. Before that, he workedmostly as a writer. He began his career when he joined the staff of the ’70s
sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati.” He went on to write for SCTV and won two Emmy
Awards®. He then created the Showtime comedy series “Poison” and wrote all
of its episodes. His screenplay credits include Willow and Far And Away
(which he also co-produced) as well as The Banger Sisters and How To EatFried Worms.
.Dolman grew up on Vancouver Island and now lives down the coast on Venice
Beach. He's presently dreaming up something new.Thomas Rockwell (Based Upon The Book By)
(Based Upon The Book By)Thomas Rockwell is the author of the beloved children’s book How to Eat Fried Worms, winner of the Mark Twain Award, the California Young Reader Medal, and the Sequoyah Award.
Hailing from an artistic family, it’s no surprise Rockwell became an author of children’s books. His father was artist Norman Rockwell and his mother was an unpublished writer, who bought her children lots of books and often read aloud to them, even after they had learned to read. Rockwell’s older brother became an artist and his younger brother became a sculptor.
Rockwell also penned Rackety-Bang And Other Verses, Humpf, Squawwwk!, Hiding Out, and The Thief, all illustrated by his wife Gail Sudler. The Portmanteau Book was also illustrated by his wife, with help from their two children, Barnaby and Abigail.
Other Rockwell titles include The Neon Motorcycle, How to Eat Fried Worms and Other Plays, Hey, Lover Boy, Oatmeal Is Not For Moustaches, How to Fight a Girl, and How To Get Fabulously Rich.
As a child, Rockwell read omnivorously: books, cereal boxes, and comic books - the comic books read for free during afternoons on the steps of Howard's General Store on Route 7 in Arlington, Vermont. After graduating from Arlington Memorial High School, Rockwell attended Princeton University for two months and then transferred to Bard College, where he majored in literature.
Rockwell then worked for a gardening magazine in New York City before he and Gail moved to their present home beside a dairy farm outside Poughkeepsie, New York. There he helped his father write his autobiography, My Adventures as an Illustrator, and a book about his work, The Norman Rockwell Album. He then wrote some short stories, worked for the War on Poverty, sold second-hand books, and after reading The Oxford Book of Nursery Rhymes to his son, Rockwell rediscovered his interest in children's books. In 1969, he published his first children's book, Rackety-Bang And Other Verses.Mark Johnson (Producer)
(Producer)Mark Johnson won the Best Picture Academy Award for Barry Levinson’s poignant 1988 drama Rain Man, starring Dustin Hoffman (Best Actor Oscar) and Tom Cruise. One of several films Johnson made with Levinson during a twelve-year span; the movie (winner of four Oscars) also captured a Golden Globe as Best Picture.
Johnson most recently produced the highly anticipated The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, a co-production between Walden Media and The Walt Disney Company that opened nationwide in December.
Born in Maryland, Johnson spent ten years of his youth in Spain. He earned his undergraduate degree in drama from the University of Virginia and his M.A. in Film Scholarship from the University of Iowa. From there, he moved to New York and entered the Director’s Guild Training Program, where one of his first projects was Paul Mazursky’s touching autobiographical drama, Next Stop, Greenwich Village. He subsequently relocated to Los Angeles and moved up from production assistant to assistant director on such projects as Movie, Movie, The Brinks Job, Escape from Alcatraz and Mel Brooks’ High Anxiety, which was co-written by future business partner Barry Levinson.
In his successful partnership with Levinson, Johnson produced all of the writer-director’s films from 1982-1994. In addition to Rain Man, their diverse slate of acclaimed features includes Good Morning, Vietnam, The Natural, Tin Men, Toys, Young Sherlock Holmes, Avalon, Diner (their 1982 debut project, for which Levinson earned an Oscar nomination for his screenplay), and Bugsy, nominated for ten Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. Bugsy also captured a Best Picture Golden Globe Award.
In 1994, Johnson established his own independent production company and won the Los Angeles Film Critics New Generation Award for his very first effort -- A Little Princess, directed by Alfonso Cuaron. Johnson, under his new banner, also produced the comedy Home Fries with Drew Barrymore, and the dramatic thriller Donnie Brasco, starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp. He served as executive producer for CBS-TV’s “L.A. Doctors” and “Falcone,” and also executive produced the hit CBS drama, “The Guardian.” Johnson’s latest television project is an hour-long dramedy, “Love Monkey,” which premiered midseason on CBS and had a complete run on VH1 this spring.
Johnson’s recent slate of motion pictures includes The Alamo and The Rookie, both directed by John Lee Hancock; director Bob Dolman’s The Banger Sisters, with Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn; Brad Silberling’s drama, Moonlight Mile, with Sarandon and Dustin Hoffman; Tom Shadyac’s supernatural thriller, Dragonfly with Kevin Costner and Kathy Bates; Levinson’s Irish satire, An Everlasting Piece; Robert Zemeckis’ spooky thriller What Lies Beneath, starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer; the hit comedy Galaxy Quest with Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver; and My Dog Skip, the acclaimed family drama (co-produced with John Lee Hancock) starring Frankie Muniz, Diane Lane and Kevin Bacon.
Johnson recently produced Nick Cassavetes’ drama, The Notebook, based on Nicholas Sparks’ bestseller and The Wendell Baker Story, which marked the directorial debuts of filmmaking brothers Luke and Andrew Wilson. He is currently in preproduction on Prince Caspian, the sequel to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Additionally, Johnson has either presented or executive produced Luis Llosa’s directorial debut, Sniper, Tim Robbins’ directorial debut, Bob Roberts, Steven Soderbergh’s Kafka, Robert Redford’s Oscar-nominated Quiz Show and Journey of Hope, winner of the 1999 Foreign Language Film Oscar. Johnson serves as the Chair of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Foreign Language Film Award Committee and as a Governor for the producer's branch.Philip Steuer (Producer)
(Producer)Along with producer Mark Johnson, Philip Steuer most recently produced the first of the live-action feature film adaptations of the C.S. Lewis books The Chronicles of Narnia. The highly anticipated The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, is a co-production between Walden Media and The Walt Disney Company and opened nationwide on December 9, 2005 to critical acclaim and box office success.
Steuer also worked with Johnson, serving as executive producer on two John Lee Hancock-directed movies -- The Rookie, one of 2002’s critical and commercial hits, and his epic re-telling of the battle for Texas independence, The Alamo.
He has also established an ongoing collaboration with respected filmmaker Neil LaBute. The pair joined forces for Propaganda Films and produced Your Friends and Neighbors, a biting romantic satire starring Ben Stiller, Aaron Eckhardt and Jason Patric. They collaborated again on the critically acclaimed, offbeat comedy, Nurse Betty, with Renee Zellweger, Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock, which was nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. Steuer again reunited with LaBute on The Shape of Things, a quirky romantic story starring Paul Rudd and Rachel Weisz.
Steuer has also turned his talents to the advertising world, executive producing the second series of memorable BMW Internet shorts features. The new trilogy, entitled Hire: The Hostage, once again starred Clive Owen in spots directed by John Woo, Joe Carnahan and Tony Scott. Additionally, he has produced over forty national commercial campaigns with such notable production companies as RSA, Propaganda and Anonymous Content, among others.Richard Rutkowski (Director of Photography)
(Director of Photography)Over the last few years, Director of Photography Richard Rutkowski has assembled an eclectic list of credits that include highly stylized mainstream work as well as documentary and bare-bones independent features. His resume includes almost every form of modern camerawork, from tiny DV cameras to HD to 35mm widescreen.
Using only mini-DV cameras and a minimum of crew, his work on the indy feature Homework was praised for its visual sophistication and helped the film to earn the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Slamdance Film Festival. At that year’s Sundance Festival, Rutkowski's work was represented by Alison Maclean’s documentary Persons of Interest. In 2003, Rutkowski received a Best Cinematography Nomination at the 2003 Independent Spirit Awards for Neil Burger’s Interview with the Assassin, which was also nominated as Best First Feature.
Most recently, Rutkowski photographed the CBS television pilot “Love Monkey” starring Tom Cavanagh for producer Mark Johnson. Other recent credits include Gil Kofman’s The Last Jew and See This Movie, a comedy produced by Chris and Paul Weitz.
Rutkowski entered the industry in 1989 and worked as a camera assistant for a broad range of cinematographers on films such as Kids, Flirting With Disaster, Copland, Buena Vista Social Club and Three Seasons, winner of the Best Cinematography Award and Grand Jury Prize at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.
As a camera operator and 2nd unit cameraman, Rutkowski’s credits include Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream, Harmony Korine’s Julien Donkey Boy, Phone Booth and the soon to be released Winter Passing. In 2001, Rutkowski worked with director Adrian Lynne and cinematographer Peter Biziou on Unfaithful, serving as 2nd unit DP and B Camera operator.
Rutkowski grew up in Long Island, New York, the son of landscape painter Casimir Rutkowski. He began making short films while a student at Harvard, studying with documentary filmmakers Ross McElwee and Robert Gardiner. Rutkowski is also an avid still photographer, whose work has been exhibited in New York and Los Angeles and seen in publications internationally.Caty Maxey (Production Designer)
(Production Designer)Caty Maxey has moved seamlessly between the mediums of television and film throughout her career as a production designer and art director.
Her film credits as a production designer include Someone Else’s America, Manhattan Sunrise, and the short film Time Loves A Hero.
Maxey previously worked with director Bob Dolman as the art director on The Banger Sisters. Her other feature film credits as art director include The Princess Diaries, Rockstar, Payback, and She’s The One. As an assistant art director her credits include Bed of Roses, Sabrina, Roommates, Glengarry Glen Ross, and Boomerang.
She recently served as production designer on the popular CBS television series “The Guardian,” as well as the UPN show “Sex, Lies and Secrets.” Additional television credits as art director includes “Wasteland,” in additional to “Freaks and Geeks,” “David Letterman” and “The Cosby Show” as assistant art director.
Maxey graduated with honors from the NYU Masters Program in Theater/Film and worked in New York for over a decade, before making Los Angeles her home in 1997.Kathleen Kiatta (Costume Designer)
(Costume Designer)Kathleen Kiatta designed costumes for director Tommy Lee Jones’ drama The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, which was honored at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.
As wardrobe supervisor, her feature film credits include the upcoming Every Word Is True, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Life of David Gale, Miss Congeniality, Arlington Road, Evening Star, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, and The Hand That Rocks The Cradle.
She has also served in various costume department positions on dozens of other movies and television shows such as the recent hit Friday Night Lights, The Alamo, Second Hand Lions, All The Pretty Horses, and the series “Law and Order.”Janice Hampton, A.C.E. (Editor)
(Editor)Among Janice Hampton’s numerous credits as a film editor are the recent teen comedies Ice Princess and How to Deal.
Other feature film credits include Drop Dead Gorgeous and Pump Up The Volume, as well as the John Waters’ films Serial Mom, Pecker, Cry-Baby and Hairspray.
She began her career as an assistant editor on Rocky and went on to serve as editor on the sequel Rocky II. She has also edited the television series “Law and Order.”
Mark Mothersbaugh (Composer)
(Composer)Emmy award-winning composer Mark Mothersbaugh has written the music for more than 70 film and television projects. He first came to prominence in the music world in the 1970s as lead singer and keyboard player of the progressive new wave/rock band Devo, who released a series of highly eclectic and satirical albums including “Are We Not Men?” and “Freedom of Choice.”
In the mid-1980’s, Mothersbaugh began to write music for commercials where he received a Clio award for his work. He then went on to composing music for numerous television projects including the memorable theme song and underscore for “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.” He then scored the popular children’s series “Rugrats.” He also wrote the music for the hugely successful The Rugrats Movie.
In 1996, Mothersbaugh met Wes Anderson and scored the filmmaker’s critically acclaimed Bottle Rocket. He wrote the music for Anderson’s Rushmore starring Bill Murray and The Royal Tenenbaums starring Gene Hackman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston and Owen Wilson. The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou marks Mothersbaugh’s fourth collaboration with Anderson.
Mothersbaugh’s other feature film credits include Catherine Hardwicke’s Thirteen starring Evan Rachel Wood and Holly Hunter, Joe and Anthony Russo’s Welcome to Collinwood starring George Clooney, Happy Gilmore starring Adam Sandler, 200 Cigarettes and The New Age from director Michael Tolkin and producer Oliver Stone, among others.
He recently wrote the music for Hardwicke’s film Lords of Dogtown and the comedy The Ringer directed by Barry Blaustein and produced by the Farrelly Brothers. He composes the music for NBC’s dramatic series “LAX.”
Mothersbaugh has been nominated for numerous Emmy awards and is the recipient of BMI’s distinguished Richard Kirk Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 1990, he founded Mutato Muzika, a recording studio and music production company based in Los Angeles.
Mothersbaugh is a world-renowned artist who cites Andy Warhol as inspiration. His paintings and drawings have been shown in galleries around the world. He’s a visual artist as well, and has designed numerous video games.
He continues to perform with Devo, which has had resurgence in recent years. The group has played concerts across the country including Central Park in New York last summer. Mothersbaugh was born in Ohio and studied at Kent State University.
(Written for the Screen & Directed By)In 2002, Bob Dolman made his directorial debut with the comedy , starring Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon. Before that, he worked(which he also co-produced) as well as and . (Based Upon The Book By) (Producer) (Producer) (Director of Photography) (Production Designer) (Costume Designer) (Editor) (Composer)Bob Mothersbaugh (Composer)
Bob Mothersbaugh first came to prominence in the music world in the 1970s as the guitar player and original member of the progressive new wave/rock band Devo, who released a series of highly eclectic and satirical albums including “Are We Not Men?” and “Freedom of Choice.”
In the mid-1980’s, Mothersbaugh began to write music for commercials with his brother Mark Mothersbaugh (co-founding member of Devo). Together they went on to compose music for numerous television projects including the underscore for the popular children’s series “Rugrats.” Mothersbaugh’s feature film credits include Resculpting Venus, Hansel and Gretel, 200 Cigarettes, Men, The Big Squeeze, Sex, Love, Etc. among others.
In 1990, Mark founded Mutato Muzika, a recording studio and music production company based in Los Angeles where Bob has scored numerous video games including Rugrats - Scavenger Hunt and Rugrats Gameboy. Currently Bob writes the underscore for the Rugrats series “All Grown Up” and MTV’s animated comedy “Where My Dog’s At.”
Bob continues to perform with Devo, which has had resurgence in recent years. The group has played concerts across the country and will be on tour late summer of 2006.
(Composer)
