Opens Nationwide August 24, 2012 Source: Warner Bros. Pictures Official Site: theapparitionmovie.com
SPOILER WARNING: This article contains plot details and images from an upcoming movie.
When frightening events start to occur in their home, young couple Kelly (Ashley Greene) and Ben (Sebastian Stan) discover they are being haunted by a presence that was accidentally conjured during a university parapsychology experiment. The horrifying apparition feeds on their fear and torments them no matter where they try to run. Their last hope is an expert in the supernatural, Patrick (Tom Felton), but even with his help they may already be too late to save themselves from this terrifying force. Todd Lincoln makes his feature film directorial debut on “The Apparition,” from his screenplay. The film stars Ashley Greene (the “Twilight” series), Sebastian Stan (“Captain America: The First Avenger”) and Tom Felton (the “Harry Potter” films, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”). “The Apparition” was produced under the Dark Castle banner by Joel Silver, Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman. The executive producers are Steve Richards, Sue Baden-Powell and Daniel Alter. Lincoln was joined behind the scenes by director of photography Daniel C. Pearl (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “Friday the 13th”), production designer Steve Saklad (“Up in the Air,” “Drag Me to Hell”), editors Jeff Betancourt and Harold Parker, and costume designer Kimberly Adams with music by tomandandy (“The Strangers,” “Resident Evil: Afterlife”).
ABOUT THE FILM
What if you move into a new house to build your new life and find out you aren’t the only beings within its walls? What if the more you believe the unbelievable, the more it becomes real... and frighteningly so? If the terror makes you flee, is there anywhere safe to hide? These are the questions at the center of writer/director Todd Lincoln’s feature film directorial debut, “The Apparition.” Lincoln cites various documented experiments which piqued his interest as the genesis for the project, including one during the 1970s in which several parapsychologists created an apparition by harnessing the collective group’s mental energy. “I felt the idea that it is possible to ‘believe’ a ghost into existence would be a fresh way to tell a ghost story,” he says. “That was the seed and it continued to build and evolve from that.” Producer Joel Silver offers, “I’m always intrigued by haunted house films. As a kid they scared me, and I still love that feeling. I also like working with talented young filmmakers and Todd offered a great new take on this kind of story.” Producers Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman had become acquainted with Lincoln during their tenure at Rogue Pictures, where he had a project in development. “We had wanted to make a movie with Todd,” producer Alex Heineman states. In the story Lincoln conceived, he says, “The horror is set against a backdrop of America in transition, centered around a young couple in transition. We touch on the concept of the power of belief.” Kelly and Ben are besieged by a mysterious and malicious force “thought” to life during a college lab experiment years earlier. But the entity has never really gone away.
Ashley Greene, who stars as Kelly, responded to the script immediately, admitting, “After reading it, I didn’t want to sleep in the dark. The way fear can manifest into something otherworldly unnerved me to the core.” Starring opposite Greene, Sebastian Stan plays Kelly’s live-in boyfriend, Ben. He agrees, “It’s wild to think the secrets and fears each person carries around in their subconscious are powerful enough to literally transfer to their safest physical surrounding -- their home.” Tom Felton, who portrays Ben’s college friend, Patrick, a paranormal expert, was also drawn to the premise. “It’s not a random cabin in the middle of the woods,” Felton says. “It’s based on something which people can relate to: an ordinary life, an ordinary day, an ordinary house.” Lincoln observes, “Sometimes the things that are the most normal can be the most terrifying.” When Kelly, a veterinary student making a living as a vet tech, and her boyfriend, Ben, a tech expert, move into her parent’s suburban investment property in Palmdale, everything seems perfectly normal -- except for the recurring noises, alarms mysteriously disarming themselves, and other strange occurrences. At first, the two find rationale for the odd events that transpire in their suburban abode; but the increasingly bizarre situations defy explanation, and soon make it clear that what they are dealing with is anything but normal. Greene relates, “This type of thing scares me more than most because there’s nothing you can do about it. There’s nothing that you can really see. You can’t tell the cops ‘there’s a ghost in my house.’ It’s very much that feeling of helplessness. I liked that Todd wanted to focus on that -- not just what makes you jump, but also the why. He said, ‘I want this to be very real, I want people to fear for these characters.’” Lincoln says, “Ashley brought a likeable, relatable factor to Kelly that the audience could identify with and through which they could experience the supernatural events. It’s always fun to take a sweet young character like that and really put her through the ringer and completely terrorize her. And Ashley was game for anything.” Greene describes Kelly as “a strong character, good-hearted but with an attitude and sass about her. She’s happily building a life with Ben, but suddenly everything that she knows to be true changes, and the audience goes through that with her -- love and betrayal, happiness and sadness. I think what attracted me to the character most is she’s not the type of girl that tolerates being stepped on. There’s a point in the film where that trait becomes very clear.” Unlike Kelly’s focus and sense of purpose, Ben seems to still be trying to find himself. He is clearly over-qualified for his job at a local electronics store. But as more and more weird things happen at the house, events from his past, and the reason why he is currently stuck, come to light.
The producers, says Heineman, “were familiar with Sebastian Stan’s work and we wanted to see how he and Ashley clicked.” Rona recalls, “The minute we put them in a room, they had great chemistry and we knew it was the way to go.” Lincoln adds, “Sebastian brought something I hadn’t expected to the role -- intensity, an edge, an unpredictability. He made intriguing choices. We’d walk through the sets together asking ourselves what we’d do if these events were happening to us. He’s very thorough.” In his approach to his role, Stan observes, “Ben is a smart guy who was on a certain path and something went terribly wrong. Now, with Kelly, Ben feels like he has a second chance and is trying to bury the past. He is working to rebuild his life and tries to ignore his unpleasant past. But it won’t be ignored. Ben has to step up and deal with that.” When the past does resurface to torment Ben, it also draws his girlfriend into the center of the storm. “Ben and Kelly go on this roller coaster ride, driven by this apparition,” Stan says. Ben turns to his former classmate Patrick, whose life has also taken a strange turn since college. Patrick is the one other person who knows the strength of the entity -- and perhaps a way to fight it. Tom Felton says that the role of Patrick was an appealing challenge. “It’s way out of my comfort zone. It was nothing like what I’d done before.” Lincoln notes, “I wanted to cast a younger, savvy guy with an edge as the scientific expert. Tom is an interesting actor and I’m excited for people to see him in this very different role.” Rounding out the cast are Rick Gomez and Anna Clark, who play the only neighbors in the empty housing development where Ben and Kelly reside, and Julianna Guill and Luke Pasqualino as students who participate in the college experiment that first unleashes the dark force.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
While most of the action takes place in one house, “The Apparition” was filmed on two separate continents. It was shot on 35 mm in 2:35 aspect ratio with vintage anamorphic lenses. Nearly all of the interior sets were built at Babelsberg Studio in Berlin, Germany, and most of the exteriors were lensed in Southern California. Lincoln and production designer Steve Saklad scouted key locales, finding a back yard in Santa Clarita to double for Ben and Kelly’s back lawn, and the perfect house for front exteriors in Palmdale, north of Los Angeles. The two-story house sits in an unfinished housing development, and the identical structures surrounding it are laid out in a winding grid as far as the eye can see, leading off to mountains in the distance and a buzzing maze of electrical transformers towering above. Saklad describes the neighborhood as “the most quiet, normal, maybe boring neighborhood, and yet there’s a complete sense of isolation with these eerie, vacant lots.” Lincoln conveys, “I didn’t want the film to live in a constant terror bubble. I wanted to capture the America of today: suburban sprawl, big box stores and new housing developments. The quiet, idyllic setting brings a reversal of the notion of ‘the old, dark house.’ This house has no history. No one died in it. No one was killed in it. There is no burial ground or cemetery anywhere close to it.”
For Silver, part of the appeal was that setting -- the picture-perfect suburban enclave where nothing is supposed to go wrong. Silver says, “We are in a safe area, but what happens inside the house is far from safe. And what’s really disturbing about this story is how uncivilized the haunting is, how it violates their home so thoroughly. It’s creepy to witness, especially given how secluded they are in this neighborhood where most of the other houses are empty.” While still in L.A., Saklad’s team had to design the house, make the model and put together lists of products that would require shipping from the states. That included all the appliances. “The kitchen turned out to be one of the biggest challenges, since European kitchens are about a third smaller than those in America,” Saklad explains. “We also had to custom build all the cabinets.” The entire house was built on a stage at Babelsberg Studio, which, Silver says, “brings a lot to the table and is a great place to make films. We have a wonderful relationship with them, and that’s why we’ve done so many films there.” The overall objective was to reinforce a feeling of shelter and comfort. Saklad states, “We added gracious curved arches to go from room to room, and there are elegant fireplaces, juxtaposed with furniture left over from their college days. You look at it and think, ‘Oh this is so homey. Nothing bad is going to happen here.’” Greene says the set was so realistic she truly felt at home. “The house had a full upstairs and downstairs. In between takes I could retreat upstairs and lie down in ‘my’ bed surrounded by ‘our’ photos. They did a beautiful job.” Lincoln notes, “The house is the primary location, but we go to some other interesting places in the film and open up the scope.” Several smaller sets were also built at Babelsberg, including the lab for the opening scene of the university experiment that sets the scary chain reaction in motion. It all starts with Patrick and his college pals focusing on a large figurine in the lab in order to conjure an apparition. Tom Felton recalls seeing ‘‘ghost consultant” on the crew list and wondering, “What the hell is that?” The consultant was, in fact, real-life ghost hunter Joshua Warren, who was enlisted to lend his expertise. Felton reveals, “The research freaked me out to the point where when we came on set for the opening segment, I wanted to make sure all the machines were turned off during shooting our ‘experiment.’ I was convinced we were actually going to create something out of nothing. Joshua made it all so real.” In designing the set, Saklad consulted hundreds of images of Warren’s laboratory, as well as reams of his scientific findings. He notes, “Although we did not duplicate his lab exactly, we followed the spirit of it, trying to be accurate with what science he would have been using. The Berlin art department was amazing at recreating the world of gadgetry needed to amass our own version of the scientific experiments documented by Warren.” Among the gadgets were several thermal cameras, including a fake one which was lightweight and rigged with lights to illuminate the actors’ faces in the pitch dark.
Also true to science is the Faraday cage -- a metallic enclosure that prevents entry or escape of an electromagnetic field -- which was constructed on the set of Patrick’s home, a ‘60s-style ranch house found in Calabasas, California. Saklad’s inspiration came from a 1950s battery, which has coils of copper wire wrapped around a square format. “We took copper wire and ran it in all three dimensions, laterally, vertically, and horizontally, creating removable central panels on each side of the cage so we could actually put the camera through that opening, whichever way we wanted, and still see the rest of the cage intact. The floor is glass, with coils of copper running underneath. The idea of these Faraday cages is that as long as you’re inside the cage, 100,000 volts of energy won’t hurt you.” Although college is in the past, what was unleashed in the lab is still very much in the present and, years later, Ben and Kelly must deal with the terrifying spectre that continuously changes its appearance. “If there is a ghost in this movie,” Lincoln says, “it’s not a ghost in the traditional sense. It’s not the ghost of anything that was ever living. This is a dark, malevolent, unknown, inhuman entity that gains its power from belief and fear. In the paranormal field, it’s the rarest and most terrifying of all: a full body apparition.” Adding to the eerie atmosphere was the music created by Tom Hajdu and Andy Milburn, better known as tomandandy. Tom Hajdu remarks, “We found both a challenge and opportunity for the music—to create a score that reflected the voice of the apparition, while at the same time functioning as score to internally and externally support the narrative of the film.” Andy Milburn adds, “We landed on a modern sound that was able to operate in these multiple ways, inspired by the early noise ensembles and more recent industrial groups.” To achieve this, they processed and distorted Hajdu’s voice. To help bring the apparition to life, the filmmakers turned to Mike Elizalde, owner of Spectral Motion. Elizalde recalls, “Todd described a force that was supernatural in origin yet organic in nature, a physical presence that doesn’t necessarily abide by the laws of physics so it behaves like nothing we know.” Giving the entity its most distinct form, Elizalde’s team constructed the creature suit worn by actor Marti Martulis. Spectral Motion’s practical effects were then enhanced using computer graphics to develop metaphysical aspects for the menace, such as disturbances in the environment. Saklad also implemented what he calls “footprints of the apparition” in the set design. “The notion that it can transform a space in the blink of an eye starts with something as subtle as a stain on the countertop that somebody didn’t sponge off,” he continues. “That becomes mold, and as the apparition’s physical signature changes, it grows more and more violent from there. We found a lot of ways to up the ante on the bad things that can happen inside a typical house.” As the ante is raised, during the course of its terror the dark power remains elusive... and the mere thought of it is all the more terrifying.
Lincoln offers, “It was always a question of how many times we would show the apparition and how much of it we would show. I prefer to leave more to the audiences’ imagination.” “I couldn’t agree more with the premise that what you conjure in your mind is far worse than anything you ever actually see,” Heineman says. “It allows the audience to let their thoughts run wild.” Stan adds, “I hope everyone gets caught up in the great psychological game that’s being played on these characters. It really leaves you guessing.” “There are a lot of mind tricks in this film; it digs deep into the roots of what scares us and affects us and hurts us,” Greene confirms. Lincoln concludes, “There have been haunted house stories as long as there have been houses. In ‘The Apparition,’ why they are haunted, how they are haunted and what’s haunting them is different. We think the audience will have fun with that.”
ABOUT THE CAST
ASHLEY GREENE (Kelly) is best known for her role as intuitive vampire Alice Cullen in the blockbuster film franchise based on the #1 New York Times bestselling Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. Released in 2008, “Twilight” fueled box office success as well as becoming a global phenomenon. The 2009 sequel, “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” was the third-highest grossing box office movie of the year and was followed in 2010 by “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.” The 2011 release of the first in the series’ two-part finale, “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 1,” continued a box-office-breaking streak. Greene reprises her role in the highly anticipated conclusion, “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 2,” which bows in theatres on November 16, 2012. Also this fall, Greene stars in “Butter,” alongside Jennifer Garner, Hugh Jackman, Ty Burrell and Olivia Wilde. The dark ensemble comedy about a butter carving competition in the Midwest opens on October 5, 2012. She is currently shooting the female lead role in Randall Miller`s “CBGB,” with Alan Rickman, Malin Akerman, Rupert Grint and Johnny Galecki, portraying Lisa Kristal, whose father owned the influential New York music venue that heavily impacted the punk rock scene. Aside from acting, Greene’s lucrative endorsement deals include Avon’s Mark cosmetics line, DKNY and DKNY Jeans. In 2010, the advertising campaign featuring Greene as the celebrity spokesperson for SOBE Lifewater’s two new zero-calorie flavors premiered in the coveted Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. That same year, she became the global ambassador for Avon’s Mark cosmetics line and, in Spring 2012, garnered her first Times Square billboard as the new face of DKNY. Greene is the recipient of the 2009 Teen Choice Fresh Face Female award, as well as the 2010 and 2011 Teen Choice Scene Stealer award. A Jacksonville, Florida native, Greene is also the spokesperson for Avon’s Mark Cosmetics m.powerment initiative, which raises awareness and funds to stop dating abuse and partner violence affecting young women.
SEBASTIAN STAN (Ben) is quickly amassing an impressive body of work that encompasses film, television and theater. Up next, Stan will star in the second installation of the Captain America film series. He previously starred in Joe Johnston’s box office smash “Captain America: The First Avenger.” Stan most recently starred opposite Amanda Seyfried in the thriller “Gone.” His other film credits include Darren Aranofsky’s “Black Swan,” alongside Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis; Jonathan Demme’s “Rachel Getting Married,” with Anne Hathaway; “Spread,” opposite Ashton Kutcher; “Hot Tub Time Machine,” alongside John Cusack and Chevy Chase; Fred Durst’s “The Education of Charlie Banks”; “The Architect,” with Anthony LaPaglia, Isabella Rossellini and Hayden Panettiere; and Renny Harlin’s “The Covenant.” Well-known for his recurring role as Carter Baizen on CW’s hit television series “Gossip Girl,” Stan is currently starring in the USA Network drama “Political Animals,” alongside Sigourney Weaver and Vanessa Redgrave. Among his other television roles are Prince Jack Benjamin in the NBC drama “Kings,” opposite Ian McShane, and Jefferson/The Mad Hatter on ABC’s hit fantasy adventure “Once Upon a Time.” In 2007, Stan made his Broadway debut opposite Liev Schreiber in Eric Bogosian’s “Talk Radio.”
TOM FELTON (Patrick) is currently filming the thriller “Therese Raquin,” with Elizabeth Olsen and Jessica Lange. His upcoming projects include the actioner “Fangs of War” and the WWII movie “Grace and Danger.” He most recently starred in the indie sports drama “From the Rough,” based on the story of coach Santana Sparks, starring Taraji P. Henson; and the sci-fi actioner “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” a prequel to the “Planet of the Apes” story, with James Franco and Freida Pinto. He also had a cameo role in the comedy “Get Him to the Greek,” with Russell Brand. Felton has been acting professionally since the age of nine, when he starred as Peagreen Clock in Peter Hewitt’s fantastical tale “The Borrowers.” The role brought him to the attention of director Andy Tennant, who cast Felton as Jodie Foster’s screen son, Louis Leonowens, in the epic 1999 feature “Anna and the King.” Two years later, he landed the coveted part of Draco Malfoy in the first Harry Potter film, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” He went on to star as the character fans love to hate in “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.” He won MTV Movie Awards in the category of Best Villain for “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince,” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1” and shared a nomination this year for Best Cast for his role in the final chapter of the blockbuster franchise. In addition to his acting, Felton devotes time to his other passion, music. He taught himself to play guitar, and writes and performs his own songs.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
TODD LINCOLN (Writer/Director) makes his feature film directorial debut with the supernatural thriller “The Apparition.” Lincoln is an award-winning short film / commercial / music video director. In addition to developing various feature projects for studios, he also co-founded and curated the Tulsa Overground Film Festival, an annual event showcasing the world’s most innovative short films. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Lincoln got hooked on movies at a young age. As a teenager, he began making his own Hi-8 videos, mostly in lieu of writing papers in high school, and served as a production assistant on local independent films and documentaries. During his junior year, he attended USC’s Short Film Summer Workshop in Los Angeles where he wrote, directed and edited his first Super 8 and 16mm films. Upon graduating, Lincoln secured a PA job on “From Dusk Till Dawn" prior to entering USC that fall. Lincoln shot several short films after leaving USC, which earned awards and positive reviews at festivals worldwide. He soon moved on to commercials and music videos. His affection for horror and all things macabre led him to co-write the graphic novel Road to Hell for IDW Publishing, about friends on a rescue mission in a savage dystopian world. He currently has several feature projects in development to direct/produce, including an adaptation of Whitley Strieber’s graphic novel “The Nye Incidents,” for RKO Pictures and “Twittering from the Circus of the Dead,” an adaptation of the short story by best-selling author Joe Hill, for Mandalay. JOEL SILVER (Producer) is one of the most prolific and successful producers in motion picture history. He has produced more than 65 films, including the groundbreaking “The Matrix” trilogy, the blockbuster four-part “Lethal Weapon” franchise, and the seminal action films “Die Hard” and “Predator.” To date, Silver’s catalog of films have earned over $12 billion in worldwide revenue from all sources. In 2009, Silver produced the worldwide hit “Sherlock Holmes,” which earned more than $518 million at the global box office. Directed by Guy Ritchie, the film starred Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law as Holmes and Dr. Watson, respectively. Silver more recently produced the worldwide hit “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” which reunited Downey and Law, again under the direction of Ritchie. The film has grossed more than $500 million to date, and counting. He most recently served as an executive producer on the outrageous hit comedy “Project X.” Silver’s upcoming projects include the actioner “Bullet to the Head,” starring Sylvester Stallone under the direction of Walter Hill. Silver structured a deal for his Dark Castle Entertainment production company that gives him green-lighting power and creative control of all films produced under the label. Dark Castle began with a string of hit films starting with the record-breaking 1999 opening of “House on Haunted Hill,” followed by “Thir13en Ghosts” in 2001, “Ghost Ship” in 2002, “Gothika” in 2003 and “House of Wax” in 2005. Dark Castle more recently released Guy Ritchie’s critically acclaimed actioner “RocknRolla,” with an ensemble cast led by Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Thandie Newton and Mark Strong; the horror thriller “Orphan,” starring Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard; the actioner “Ninja Assassin,” directed by James McTeigue; “The Losers,” starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoë Saldana and Chris Evans; and Jaume Collet-Serra’s “Unknown,” starring Liam Neeson, January Jones and Diane Kruger. Previously, Silver’s 1999 production “The Matrix” grossed over $456 million globally, earning more than any other Warner Bros. Pictures film in the studio’s history at the time of its release. Universally acclaimed for its innovative storytelling and visuals, “The Matrix” won four Academy Awards®, including Best Visual Effects. The first DVD release to sell one million units, “The Matrix” was instrumental in powering the initial sale of consumer DVD machines. The second installment of the epic “Matrix” trilogy, “The Matrix Reloaded,” earned over $740 million at the worldwide box office, making it the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. The opening weekend box office receipts for “The Matrix Revolutions,” the final chapter in the explosive trilogy, totaled a staggering $203 million worldwide. To date, “The Matrix” franchise has grossed $3 billion from all sources worldwide. While overseeing production on “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Matrix Revolutions,” Silver produced the integral video game “Enter the Matrix,” which features one hour of additional film footage written and directed by the Wachowskis and starred Jada Pinkett Smith and Anthony Wong, who reprised their roles from the films. He also executive produced “The Animatrix,” a groundbreaking collection of nine short anime films inspired by the visionary action and storytelling that power “The Matrix.” Silver later produced the action thriller “V for Vendetta,” based on the acclaimed graphic novel and starring Natalie Portman; the action comedy thriller “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang,” written and directed by Shane Black and starring Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer and Michelle Monaghan. He also produced the hit films “Romeo Must Die,” starring Jet Li and Aaliyah; “Exit Wounds,” starring Steven Seagal and DMX; and “Swordfish,” starring John Travolta, Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry. Silver is also a successful television producer. He served as executive producer on the CBS series “Moonlight,” which won the People’s Choice Award for Favorite New TV Drama in its debut year. He was previously an executive producer on the critically acclaimed television series “Veronica Mars,” starring Kristen Bell. Silver also executive produced, with Richard Donner, David Giler, Walter Hill and Robert Zemeckis, eight seasons of the award-winning HBO series “Tales from the Crypt,” as well as two “Tales from the Crypt” films. Silver began his career as an associate producer on “The Warriors,” and then produced “48 HRS.,” “Streets of Fire” and “Brewster’s Millions.” In 1985, Silver launched his Silver Pictures production banner with the breakout hit “Commando,” followed by “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Predator.” Silver Pictures solidified its status as one of the industry’s leading production companies with the release of the “Lethal Weapon” series and the action blockbusters “Die Hard” and “Die Hard 2: Die Harder.” Silver went on to produce “The Last Boy Scout,” “Demolition Man,” “Richie Rich,” “Executive Decision” and “Conspiracy Theory.” Long before starting his producing career, as a student at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, Silver and a group of his friends developed a game called Ultimate Frisbee. The fast-moving team sport has since become a global phenomenon supported by tournaments in 50 countries. ANDREW RONA (Producer) is President of Silver Pictures and Co-President of Silver’s genre banner Dark Castle Entertainment. Since his hiring by Joel Silver in January 2009, the company has released the worldwide hit “Sherlock Holmes,” and its sequel, “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” and the Hughes Brothers’ “The Book of Eli,” starring Denzel Washington. Rona has produced several films for the company including the comedy hit “Project X,” and the international thriller “Unknown,” starring Liam Neeson. Rona is currently producing Juame Collet-Serra’s “Non-Stop,” starring Liam Neeson, Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Logan’s Run,” and developing “Line Of Sight.” He is also responsible for developing the upcoming Silver Pictures projects “Ben 10,” based on the Cartoon Network series; the remake of the classic musical “Gypsy”; and Zack Snyder’s “The Last Photograph.” Prior to joining Silver Pictures and Dark Castle Entertainment, Rona was Co-President of Rogue Pictures (a division of Universal Pictures), a position he held since 2005 where he was responsible for overseeing a slate of pictures including “The Strangers” and “Coraline.” Previous to Rogue Pictures, Rona served as Co-President of Dimension Films. He began his career at Dimension’s parent company, Miramax Films, in 1993 as an assistant to Harvey Weinstein. He quickly moved up the ladder, eventually becoming a production executive and helping to form the Dimension Films banner. He became Co-President with Brad Weston in 2000. During his tenure, the company produced a number of hits, including the hugely successful “Scream,” “Scary Movie,” and “Spy Kids” franchises; Robert Rodriguez’s “Sin City”; the comedy “Bad Santa”; and John Frankenheimer’s “Reindeer Games.” In 2004, Rona was featured on Bravo’s “Project Greenlight.” Rona was born and raised in New York. ALEX HEINEMAN (Producer) has been Senior Vice President of Production at Dark Castle Entertainment and Silver Pictures since January 2009. He most recently produced the comedy “Project X” under the Silver Pictures banner and is currently producing the Jaume Collet-Sera thriller “Non-Stop.” Upcoming Silver Pictures projects in development on which he will serve as executive producer include “Line of Sight”; an adaptation of “The Galton Case,” an elevated period detective story from the highly acclaimed Lew Archer Series by Ross Macdonald, in partnership with Random House Films; “World War X”; “Houdini”; “Fully Automatic”; “Conviction”; and a live-action feature adaptation of “Ben 10,” Cartoon Network`s popular sci-fi franchise. Previously Vice President of Production at Rogue Pictures, he oversaw several films, including “The Strangers” and “Last House on the Left,” and brought in the animated hit “Coraline.” Raised in the New York area, Heineman began his career with an internship at Miramax Films that subsequently opened the door to a creative executive position in 2001 at Dimension Films, garnering experience on films like “Sin City” and the “Spy Kids” franchise. STEVE RICHARDS (Executive Producer) is Co-President of Dark Castle Entertainment. A veteran of the film industry, he is in his seventeenth year working with producer Joel Silver, and was instrumental in launching the Dark Castle brand and in forging the financial partnership with CIT Group Inc. & JP Morgan, producing a slate of films that includes Guy Ritchie’s “RocknRolla” and Jaume Collet-Serra’s “Orphan.” He also executive produced Collet-Serra’s “Unknown” and next serves as a producer on the director’s “Non-Stop.” His previous executive producer credits include “The Book of Eli,” “Ninja Assassin,” “Whiteout,” “Orphan,” “The Reaping,” “Thir13en Ghosts,” “Ghost Ship,” “Gothika” and “House of Wax.” During the formation of Dark Castle in 1999, Richards organized the foreign financing and distribution of the shingle’s first film, the remake of William Castle’s “House on Haunted Hill.” In 1995, Richards joined Silver Pictures and is currently Chief Operating Officer of the company. His film credits with Silver Pictures include “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang,” “The Matrix Reloaded,” “The Animatrix,” and three installments of the “Dungeons & Dragons” fantasy game film adaptations. Richards earned an MBA from the Andersen School at UCLA and an undergraduate degree from Temple University. Before joining Silver Pictures, Richards was part of International Movie Group and Scott Free Productions. SUE BADEN-POWELL (Executive Producer) most recently executive produced Neill Blomkamp’s “Elysium,” starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster. She previously produced two movies for Ricky Gervais: “The Invention of Lying,” starring Gervais and Jennifer Garner, and the smaller English comedy “Cemetery Junction,” featuring Ralph Fiennes, Emily Watson and Gervais, which Gervais also co-directed with his creative partner Stephen Merchant. Throughout her career, Baden-Powell has played numerous roles behind the scenes in feature production. She produced the thriller “Below,” from writer/director David Twohy, and “The Public Eye,” from writer/director Howard Franklin. She executive produced the hit Eddie Murphy comedy “Doctor Doolittle,” directed by Betty Thomas; Franklin’s “Larger Than Life,” starring Bill Murray; Matthew Warchus’ “Simpatico,” starring Nick Nolte and Jeff Bridges, based on the Sam Shepard play, and writer/director Richard Kelly’s thriller “The Box,” starring Cameron Diaz and James Marsden, based on a short story by Richard Matheson. Baden-Powell also co-produced the features “Equilibrium,” “Boys and Girls,” “Andre” and “Chattahoochee,” was supervising producer on Michael Fields’ “Bright Angel,” and served as production manager or unit production manager on such films as “Nomads,” “1969,” “Earth Girls Are Easy,” and “Radio Flyer.” She began her career in film as an executive in charge of production on Andrei Konchalovsky’s “Runaway Train,” starring Jon Voight, and also worked in that capacity on Gregory Nava’s “A Time of Destiny,” starring William Hurt and Timothy Hutton. DANIEL ALTER (Executive Producer) previously served as a co-producer on the feature film “Hitman,” based on the popular EIDOS video game. He has several projects in development, including “Hitman 2”; Devil`s Due Publishing`s comic book cult hit "Hack/Slash"; a live action update of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series, “Jonny Quest”; and the feature film adaptation of EIDOS` “Kane and Lynch.” Alterto began his career in the entertainment industry as a literary manager with Energy Entertainment, which had a first-look deal with producer Neal Mortiz. Alter then launched his own Alter Ego Entertainment banner. DANIEL C. PEARL, ASC (Director of Photography) photographed the original “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” a legendary independent feature which is part of the permanent film collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art. He spent the next several years shooting low-budget fright flicks with high production values, most notably “She Came to the Valley,” “The Stuntmen,” and “Invaders from Mars.” Pearl began shooting music videos during the early 1980s, initially to fill the spaces in-between narrative film projects. But his use of light and lens -- exemplified in Michael Jackson’s "Billie Jean" -- breathed life into the music video art form. Pearl`s work quickly became the benchmark for all music videos. He won the inaugural MTV Award for Best Cinematography in 1984 for "Every Breath You Take" by The Police, and again in 1992 for "November Rain" by Guns & Roses. Pearl has earned a total of ten MTV Video Music Award nominations -- most recently for "Take a Picture" by Filter in 2000. In 1996 he was the first cinematographer to receive the MVPA Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1997 he was the first inductee into the Kodak Vision Hall of Fame for Music Video Cinematography. In 2006, he received the Golden Frog Award at the 14th CamerImage Cinematographic Festival in Lodz, Poland for his outstanding achievements in music video and commercial cinematography. His contemporary work includes collaborations with Hype Williams, Andrew Morahan, Paul Hunter, Marcus Nispel, F. Gary Gray and Rebecca Blake. Pearl`s easily recognizable and highly influential reel is dotted with Grammy winners and the biggest names in the music industry, including: Mariah Carey, Garth Brooks, Toni Braxton, Kanye West, Meatloaf, Lauryn Hill, Aerosmith, Shania Twain, Cher, Whitney Houston, The Rolling Stones, Puff Daddy and Janet Jackson. Having photographed over three hundred commercials, Pearl also manages to create some of the advertising industry`s best images -- earning industry-wide acclaim for his work on Motorola`s "Wings" spot in 1999, which is also in the permanent collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art. In the summer of 2002, Pearl photographed the remake of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” for director Marcus Nispel, and they teamed up again in the summer of 2004 to shoot “Frankenstein” for the USA Network. His additional credits include: “Captivity,” for director Roland Joffe in Moscow; “Pathfinder“; “Alien vs Predator: Requiem”; “The Kings of Appletown” and “Friday the 13th,” produced by Michael Bay. JEFF BETANCOURT (Editor) served as editor most recently on the comedy “American Reunion.” He also edited the comedies “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,” “The United States of Leland,” “The Good Girl,” “Get Over It,” “The Girls Room,” “Chuck and Buck,” “Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss” and “Star Maps.” He has also edited the thrillers “The Unborn” “The Grudge” and “The Grudge 2,” “When a Stranger Calls,” “The Exorcism of Emily Rose,” “Boogeyman 2,” which he also directed, and “The Ruins,” on which he also served as second unit director. For television, he was editor on the ABC series “Flash Forward,” and Fox’s “Terra Nova” and “Opposite Sex.” HAROLD PARKER (Editor) previously edited Eduardo Rodriguez’s action drama “EL Gringo,” with Christian Slater and “The Hills Run Red,” for Silver Pictures/After Dark Films. He started his career as post production coordinator on the thriller “Thir13en Ghosts,” under Silver’s Dark Castle banner, subsequently working as assistant editor on the thrillers “Cradle 2 the Grave,” “Gothika,” “Whiteout” and “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” for producer Joel Silver. His additional assistant editor work includes the fantasy “Beastly”; the comedies “Be Cool,” “The Perfect Man,” Donald Petrie’s “Just My Luck,” and “Drillbit Taylor”; Andrew Davis’ action drama “The Guardian”; and the sci-fi thriller “9.” For television, Parker worked as assistant editor on the WB’s “Just Legal,” starring Don Johnson, for Jerry Bruckheimer. STEVE SAKLAD (Production Designer) received an Art Directors Guild Award nomination for “Up in the Air,” starring George Clooney. He is currently serving as production designer on Jason Reitman’s drama “Labor Day,” starring Josh Brolin and Kate Winslet, having previously collaborated with Reitman on “Juno,” with Ellen Page and Jason Bateman and “Thank You for Smoking,” starring Aaron Eckhart. His other production design credits include James Bobin’s “The Muppets,” starring Jason Segel and Amy Adams; Sam Raimi’s return to the horror genre, “Drag Me to Hell”; the comedy “Swing Vote,” starring Kevin Costner and Kelsey Grammer; the sport film “Pride,” starring Terrence Howard; and Lee Daniels’ thriller “Shadowboxer,” starring Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr. Among Saklad’s extensive credits as an art director are David Fincher’s “The Game”; Brett Ratner’s “Red Dragon” and “The Family Man”; Sam Raimi’s “The Quick and the Dead” and “Spider-Man 2”; and Luis Mandoki’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” and “Message in a Bottle.” In addition to feature films, Saklad has designed over 250 commercials for Harvest Films, Tate USA and Tool of North America. KIMBERLY ADAMS (Costume Designer) is currently designing costumes for Steven Quale’s new thriller, which is currently in production. Her work will next be seen in the action film “Snitch,” starring Dwayne Johnson and Susan Sarandon. Adams previously designed the costumes for the crime drama “The Minus Man,” starring Owen Wilson. She also served as costume designer on Nickelodeon’s tv series “Supah Ninjas” and Disney’s “Lizzy McGuire,” as well as several television movies. In addition to creating the creature cultures and being the associate costume designer on all three of ”The Chronicles of Narnia” films, she has worked on some of Hollywood’s most iconic films over the last 20 years, including “The Grifters,” “Barton Fink,” “Boogie Nights” and “There Will Be Blood.” TOMANDANDY (Composer) was conceived August 28, 1985, at Princeton University, initially consisting of Tom Hajdu and Andy Milburn. Their first home away from Princeton was a room at film editor Hank Corwin`s Lost Planet Editorial in New York City, working with Corwin first on Oliver Stone`s "JFK" and later, more extensively, on "Natural Born Killers." Tomandandy`s first complete film score for Roger Avary`s 1993 directorial debut, "Killing Zoe" was an aggressive, high-energy techno score which developed an early cult following for them. Their other film scores include " Resident Evil: Afterlife,” “Resident Evil: Retribution,” “The Mothman Prophecies," "The Rules of Attraction," "Mean Creek" "and “The Hills Have Eyes." Tomandandy’s first job was creating the music for MTV Europe’s and BBC channel 4’s 1987 television series "Buzz," hailed by critics as ground-breaking, adventurous television, and the first of several formative early collaborations with director Mark Pellington. Over the next 18 years they became an iconic force in advertising music, collaborating with Kirschenbaum and Bond for Moet, Weiden and Kennedy for Nike and Deutsch, as well as Ogilvy and Mather, Chiat Day, and every other major global ad agency. Over the years they have also produced and collaborated with a variety of recording artists, including David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, and Lou Reed. Their first CD projects, for The Red Hot Organization, were a series of AIDS fund raising projects, including "Red Hot and Dance," "Red Hot and Beat" and others. They were also featured on one of the first New York City techno music compilations, 1992`s “Killer Techno” on Instinct Records. Tomandandy have also worked with artists in other media and contexts all over the world, including Dara Birnbaum, Marco Brambilia, and The Starn Brothers. Some highlights include designer James Spinder’s limited release tomandandy boutique merchandise; the 1993 collaboration with artist Jenny Holzer on the Guggenheim Museum’s "WWII Virtual Reality: An Emerging Medium" ; "The Memory Palace", a five-screen live-action/film evocation of cyberspace for the 1992 World Expo in Spain with writer William Gibson, Spanish performance group La Fura Dels Baus, the British video/ film director Mark Neale, and musicians Brian Eno and Peter Gabriel; and “The United States of Poetry,” a critically acclaimed five-part series featuring a survey of spoken word artists from around the country, set to music by tomandandy and reuniting them with Pellington, who directed.
Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Dark Castle Entertainment, “The Apparition,” to be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company. This film has been rated PG-13 for terror/frightening images and some sensuality. © 2012 Warner Bros. Pictures