Opens Nationwide August 3rd Source: Sony Pictures, Sony Pictures Japan Official Site: welcometorecall.com
SPOILER WARNING: This article contains plot details and images from an upcoming movie.
Total Recall is an action thriller about reality and memory, inspired anew by the famous short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick. Welcome to Rekall, the company that can turn your dreams into real memories. For a factory worker named Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell), even though he`s got a beautiful wife (Kate Beckinsale) whom he loves, the mind-trip sounds like the perfect vacation from his frustrating life - real memories of life as a super-spy might be just what he needs. But when the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man. Finding himself on the run from the police – controlled by Chancellor Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston) – there is no one Quaid can trust, except possibly a rebel fighter (Jessica Biel) working for the head of the underground resistance (Bill Nighy). The line between fantasy and reality gets blurred and the fate of his world hangs in the balance as Quaid discovers his true identity, his true love, and his true fate. The film is directed by Len Wiseman. The screenplay is by Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bomback and the screen story is by Ronald Shusett & Dan O’Bannon and Jon Povill and Kurt Wimmer. The producers are Neal H. Moritz and Toby Jaffe. Columbia Pictures presents an Original Film production, a film by Len Wiseman, Total Recall. Starring Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston, John Cho, and Bill Nighy. Directed by Len Wiseman. Produced by Neal H. Moritz and Toby Jaffe. Screenplay by Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bomback. Screen Story by Ronald Shusett & Dan O’Bannon and Jon Povill and Kurt Wimmer. Inspired by the Short Story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick. Executive Producers are Ric Kidney and Len Wiseman. Director of Photography is Paul Cameron, ASC. Production Designer is Patrick Tatopoulos. Editor is Christian Wagner. Costume Designer is Sanja Milkovi? Hays. Music by Harry Gregson-Williams. Visual Effects Supervisor is Peter Chiang. Credits are not final. Total Recall has been rated PG-13 for Intense sequences of Sci-Fi Violence and Action, Some Sexual Content, Brief Nudity, and Language. The film will be released in theaters nationwide on August 3, 2012.
ABOUT THE FILM
Total Recall’s re-imagined journey to the silver screen began in 2008 when producer Toby Jaffe was perusing a bookstore, looking through the sci-fi shelf. “I was looking at all the books I read as a young guy, and I picked up a Philip K. Dick anthology and read the short story ‘We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,’” he recalls. “I remembered it was a great sort of wish-fulfillment fantasy.”
Of course, Dick’s story had been adapted for the screen once before, in 1990, under the title Total Recall. Jaffe began thinking that the time might be right to revisit Dick’s story for the screen and brought his idea to Moritz, who read the short story and re-watched the 1990 film. “We just felt like we could make a fresh version of the original story,” Moritz says. “By reimagining the story, we thought that there was so much more to the characters and story that we could investigate. That felt fresh to us.” The reason is that Dick’s story feels as cutting edge as when it was first published in the 1960s. “The genius of the story is this idea that you can implant a memory into somebody’s head and when they wake up, they will feel they’ve lived it,” says Jaffe. The set-up opens up a treasure trove of questions: what is memory? How do we know what really happened in the past? “That concept of Rekall, as Philip K. Dick created it in his story, is what made me want to direct this movie,” says Len Wiseman, who is best known for directing the first two Underworld films and Live Free and Die Hard. Wiseman also has an art department background, having worked on such big budget sci-fi hits as Independence Day and Stargate. Wiseman’s take on the film was to delve deeper into the main character by creating a hybrid of a psychological thriller and an action film that just happens to be set in the future. “We were lucky enough that he wanted to do it, and we were kind of off to the races really quickly with him,” says Moritz. Instead of events occurring on Mars, Wiseman keeps the action on a far-in-the-future earth dominated by two nation-states – United Federation of Britain and The Colony. Like Dick’s story, Wiseman’s says, “There’s a whole other kind of experience on Earth with which to take this character.” “When we reminded ourselves that Philip K. Dick didn’t send his characters to Mars, that really opened up the possibilities,” says Jaffe. “Once we were freed to keep the character here on Earth, like Dick does, we weren’t constrained by the setting, the era, or the hows and whys of getting him off the planet.”
To play the central character of Quaid, Wiseman cast Colin Farrell. “It was very important that Quaid is just an ordinary guy,” Jaffe says. “Colin just brings a real genius to him as an actor. There’s a likeability onscreen that you just feel he’s a real guy who could be a real factory worker.” “It’s a common story, a man who feels that he isn’t living the life he should be living – a man experiencing some discontent with his lot in life,” says Farrell. “But he gets a rude awakening, which is that he really isn’t living the life he should be living. Quaid has no idea who he is, beyond a deeply cellular or emotional level. The whole movie is him trying to figure out who is the real Quaid.” “I really wanted to get more involved in Quaid’s experience,” Wiseman explains. “I mean, imagine: you wake up, you go about your life and you inherently feel like a good guy… All of a sudden, everybody around you starts telling you that you’re a bad guy. What do you do?” With that in mind, Farrell approached the role as a battle between emotional and intellectual and tried to maintain that balance. “It brings up issues of identity, ego, and super-ego – it’s fun to wade into that psychological pond a bit,” he says. As part of his development of the character, Farrell did some unusual things – including sleeping overnight in the Quaid Apartment set. “I just wanted to see what it was like to have an evening and then wake up in the morning in that space,” he says. “It was lovely, actually.” “Colin really dedicated himself to this character,” says Moritz. “He’s in just about every scene. There were many days that he was standing in the rain all day long, wet as can be, and still, every day after filming he’d either go to yoga or lift weights.”
The filmmakers were next faced with the challenge of casting two strong female roles: Lori and Melina. To portray Quaid’s wife, Lori, the seemingly loving wife who turns ruthless killer, the filmmakers brought on Kate Beckinsale, Wiseman’s real-life wife of seven years. The two previously worked together on the Underworld films. Beckinsale said she was particularly attracted to this project because of the role’s duality. "I`ve never played a bad guy before. I`ve always been on the side of truth and justice,” she says. “But the thing is, my character thinks she is on the side of truth and justice. That’s the great thing about this movie – you never know who’s on the right side. Also, there`s a slightly maniacal side of her – she`s slightly out of control, and that`s always fun for an actor to play." The script originally called for a blond character, but Wiseman thought it made more sense to cast someone who resembled Melina, Quaid’s true love. “My idea was to set him up with a fake wife that has some real similarities to his real love,” he explains. “If that surface memory is coming back, it makes sense for her to have a vague, familiar vibe about her.” To portray Melina, the filmmakers needed an actress that could take on the difficult physicality of the role. Melina first appears in Quaid’s nightmares, but later, in the flesh, helps him rediscover his previous life. “She’s his GPS system – she shows him the way home,” says Farrell.
Wiseman brought on Jessica Biel to play the role. Biel was attracted to the part by the themes of the story. “We’re completely tapping into one element of what Philip K. Dick’s story is really about: identity issues, relationships,” Biel says. “He doesn’t remember her…He doesn’t remember that they love each other, that they are passionately connected. That’s what interested me.” Farrell recalls several occasions of late-night discussions between himself, Biel and Wiseman. “There were just oceans of questions to be asked about our characters,” he recalls. “Jessica was great to have chats with in between takes, and often, she, Len and I got together after work. One night, we went off to Len’s hotel, the three of us, and just sat around bantering back and forth about lines and ideas,” says Farrell. Biel particularly enjoyed the onscreen chemistry with Farrell. “Colin has been one of the reasons that this experience has been so enjoyable,” she says. “He’s inspiring to watch. I find his performances just continually layered and complicated and complex.” “The female roles required women who not only were likable and attractive but could actually be physical,” says Moritz. “And Jessica Biel can fight like the devil and Kate Beckinsale can probably beat the devil. So the two of them, you know, in these sequences of having to be physical throughout the whole movie, were incredible.” To portray the ruthless Cohaagen, chancellor of United Federation of Britain, the filmmakers brought in Bryan Cranston, who has won three straight Emmy Awards and been nominated for three Golden Globes for his leading performance on the television series “Breaking Bad.”
“Bryan has an intensity and an eloquence and an edge to his personality that comes across on screen,” says Jaffe. “It’s why he’s in such demand as an actor.” Cranston explains that he never saw his character as a “mustache-twirling villain. The character of Cohaagen to me was interesting to play because I wanted to present a guy who does have this need, this absolute desire and thirst to be in control,” he says. “At the same time, he has a tremendous fondness for Colin Farrell’s character, and I wanted to play him like a father figure, to treat him as if he were a rebellious teenager who just needs some tough love.” Award-winning actor Bill Nighy joins the cast as Matthias, the leader of the UFB resistance. Nighy, who has worked with Wiseman on the four Underworld films, said it was the director that initially attracted him to Recall. “I like him enormously,” Nighy says. “He’s always made great movies, and I loved his Die Hard movie. But then I read the script and it’s rip-roaring. I read a lot of sci-fi, and I liked the ideas involved in this project.”
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Wiseman’s approach to Total Recall was to build practical sets wherever possible. “Of course, there’s a lot of CG in this movie, because there’s certain things you just simply can’t do,” he notes. “But if you can make it real, then I try to do it. I love to build it and draw it, create it and shoot it.”
“He wanted to make it as real as possible, because he feels it looks better,” says producer Toby Jaffe. “He feels the actors perform better when they’re hanging off of a car as opposed to hanging off a block on the stage. So it was part of our agenda from the beginning to build practical versions of our futuristic cars and shoot on real locations.” Wiseman approached friend and colleague Patrick Tatopoulos, who directed Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, to design the production. Tatopoulos knew it was a project he couldn’t pass up. “First of all, Len was directing it,” Tatopoulos notes. “Secondly, the script was very exciting. For example, I liked the concept of this gigantic elevator going through the Earth – for me, that’s even better than going to Mars.” Tatopoulos and Wiseman have worked together so often that the production designer felt he was on familiar and comfortable ground. They’ve developed an almost psychic connection, he jokes: “We’ve worked together on multiple movies and have known each other for many years, so we’ve always seen things in a similar way,” he says. “I’ll turn around to talk with a crew member to say, ‘I think it should be more like this,’ and Len appears two seconds later to do the exact same thing. We are very connected in that way.” Wiseman agrees. “He’ll go and work on an idea, put something together, and I know that it’s going to be something I’m going to like,” he says. “There’s this running joke – and it’s been tested – that set dressing will come to him with 35 different options for something, and he’ll pick two. And they’ll bring the same 35 choices over to my office, and I’ll pick the same ones.”
For Total Recall, the idea was to get across the idea that the film is set far in the future – but not so far into the future that it is unrecognizable. Instead, it’s very much a world that could grow out of our own. “We tried not to push the envelope too far,” says property master Deryck Blake. “So if you look at a lot of our sets, a lot of our props, we try to start with what we have today and not try to go too far out there.”
Jessica Biel says that the ability to do a scene on an actual set made a world of difference in her performance. “If the set is beautifully done and is so realistic that you can’t see the seams, it becomes another character,” she notes. “It becomes your reality, and you step onto the set and it just transports you to wherever you need to be. Emotionally and physically, it’s hugely important.” Tatopoulos says he is most proud of his work on the The Fall – the giant elevator going through the earth, connecting United Federation of Britain with The Colony – due to the fact that it is nothing like he’s ever seen onscreen before. “I’ve never seen a concept like that in a movie before – a gigantic elevator going through the earth,” he explains. “So that allowed me to do something really fresh and new. It’s actually designed around the concept of a 747 airplane, so it feels familiar or real to people watching the movie. When you’re watching the movie, I want it to feel relatable – not like you’re just watching a movie.” Jaffe was blown away when he saw the completed product. “I remember reading the script and thinking, ‘Oh my God! There’s an elevator that goes through the core of the earth! How are we ever going to do this,’” says Jaffe. “Once Len and Patrick got involved, and we had seen the drawings, it became more tangible. But it really wasn’t until we got on the stage and saw the incredible sets that it all hit home. They’re just amazing.”
One of the most challenging sets to bring to life was The Colony, replete with a Waterfront District, which needed to be strategically designed. “It’s as big as a real city,” says Tatopoulos. “So we had to design a set that allowed the director to shoot different angles and never feel like we’re going down the same street over and over.” “We built a U-shaped set, and we cut it up like a pie and shot sections to make it look like different elements, different parts of town,” explains Wiseman. Farrell says he was extremely impressed with the Colony sets. “It’s some of the most incredibly carpentered, finely detailed work that I’ve ever seen on a film set,” he expresses. “It’s just magnificent stuff. You can go as close as you want to any product that’s placed in the background of a shot, and it’ll look real. I think that completeness pays off – it has a feeling to it, an energy that’s pervasive. It just makes the film feel more real.” Much of the work of the crew was in creating the sense of two separate and distinct worlds: the upper-crust and sterile UFB set against the grittier Colony. For director of photography Paul Cameron, that meant creating lighting textures that define the two nations. “UFB has cooler light – the sun shines but it’s never just ripping sun. It’s softer,” he explains. “As opposed to The Colony, which has a prettier sepia or green tone to it. We also layered the world with digital fog later on.”
To further delineate the two regions, Wiseman called for a continuous rain to fall upon The Colony, an element which Tatopoulos feels brings credibility to the sets. After all, a set is just a set – a fiction, with materials painted to look like concrete or metal. To make the fiction play, sometimes you need to add something real – and in The Colony, rain was just the thing. “It brings reality into the world,” says Tatopoulos. “The water drops onto the floor and creates puddles, the actors walk through, and suddenly, you feel like you’re not on a set anymore.” Even when visual effects would be employed – as with the hover cars – Wiseman used a mix of the practical and the virtual when he could. “We actually built the hover cars and fixed them on top of street racing cars. The actors sit up top and the drivers are down below,” Jaffe explains. “I like that better than the actors sitting in a shell on green screen. You see the vibration and you have the actors’ performances reflecting the reality of it at every turn.” Farrell recalls the experience: “We had two cars slamming into each other, and I must say, I wasn’t at my butchest those days,” he jokes. “But I’m glad they did it this way. It was great fun, and there are some real reactions they got in there. There is definitely a texture of reality and sound and sky that they couldn’t have put in later.” Whenever possible, most of the actors performed their own stunts. “I mean, literally, every other day, we’re hanging upside down on a wire, getting pinched in all areas, floating upside down, getting yanked and firing a gun – that was all really cool,” Biel says. Bryan Cranston also did a lot of his own stunt work, which proved to be an enlightening experience. “Stage fighting is like learning a dance routine,” he notes. “You have to know specifically what’s going to happen next to make it work. I think I only stepped on Colin’s toes twice."
Farrell, in particular, worked closely with stunt coordinator Andy Gill (Fast Five, Minority Report) and fight coordinator Jeff Imada (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1, Hanna). “You get schooled when you come to work with them,” he says. “You get practical lessons that you’d never need to learn, if you weren’t doing this job.” One of the most challenging scenes to coordinate was the first fight sequence between Quaid and the police at the Rekall den, where Quaid first discovers that he may not be who he thinks he is and has abilities he never knew he had. “From a character standpoint, I wanted the sequence to feel like he didn’t have a chance to catch his breath,” Wiseman expresses. “I wanted the audience to experience the same thing.” But filming such fast-paced, non-stop action was going to be a challenge for all involved. The stunt team had to choreograph and train Farrell for the fight sequence that would involve multiple moving cameras. Wiseman would rely on the state-of-the-art Doggicam system (a hybrid super-slider track and high-speed camera, typically utilized in action-packed car chases) but would require three sequential Doggicam set-ups, all attached to computer winches, which was unprecedented. “The computer winches allowed us to have conversion points of the three lenses at the exact point every time, so it looks like a continuous shot as we go around,” Gill explains. The cameras traveled at 15 to 20 feet per second and were all synchronized, so the action moves very quickly. “We have nine stunt people, with Colin in the middle, and everyone has to do their certain move at exactly the right moment or else the whole thing wouldn’t sync,” explains executive producer Ric Kidney. “Everyone rehearsed it for about a month.”
ABOUT THE VISUAL EFFECTS
The film’s visual effects were overseen by Visual Effects Supervisor Peter Chiang, along with Visual Effects Supervisors Adrian de Wet and Graham Jack. Visual Effects house Double Negative (a/k/a DNeg) handled the vast majority of the 1600-1700 VFX shots in the movie.
Wiseman’s approach was to build as many sets as was practical and shoot whatever he could in principal photography, but even with this approach, it was obvious from the beginning that the film was a futuristic thriller that would require heavy visual effects work – from set extensions that built the Total Recall world into many tiered layers to the extensive hover car chase at the center of the film to the “synths” that make up Chancellor Cohaagen’s security team. De Wet says that he was not at all surprised that Wiseman shot most of the film practically, and was, in fact, encouraged by the decision. “It’s great to have something physical to start with,” he says. “No matter how good you are as a CG artist, actually having a basis in reality is important. The film has to be convincing.” “Len’s vision was absolutely right,” says Chiang. “He wanted to have the actors interact with the world as much as possible, shoot as much as possible, so that he could get a feeling of what the end shot would be. It was a great benefit to us, too. We nerdily analyze all of the fine detail from the principal photography and base all of our decisions on that – decisions on how we’re going to light, how we’re going to set extend, all of the objects we’re going to put in. It really gave us a quiet, subconscious understanding of what Len liked, so we could use that to our benefit to make that blend more seamless.”
Jack also notes that when shooting practically, the result often winds up with “happy accidents.” “We try to design visual effects to give them an organic feel – for example, maybe the camera won’t catch the action straight away, and that keeps the effect from feeling too clinical. One example is during the car chase: there’s a shot of a car being crushed. We originally shot it as a practical effect, but we had to almost completely replace it digitally because we had to make the car look more futuristic. We were able to base the VFX on the practical effect that was shot, and we got things like the parcel shelf being flung across the back of the car. That’s something we wouldn’t necessarily have thought of if it had all been done in post.” As with the other departments, the VFX supervisors’ primary goal was to create a sense of two different worlds. “It was key for us to give the audience coherence to the story – you have to believe that you’re in the UFB when you’re in the UFB and you’re in The Colony when you’re in The Colony,” says de Wet. “We actually assigned separate teams to UFB and The Colony,” says Jack. “They brought their own methodologies to the process, which also helped give the environments a unique feel.” “We began with Patrick Tatopoulos’s concept artwork for UFB and The Colony,” says Chiang. “When we started on UFB, we had very illustrative designs and certain selections on the structures of things, but we went through a whole design process into order to realize those into a three-dimensional world. We started looking at the buildings that Len and Patrick liked, and they selected through photographs of London certain neoclassical architecture and design. But there was a twist to that neoclassical design in that it needed to reflect the future, so Len added a lot of holograms and glass. So the UFB is a very grand world, with very big concrete plazas, a lot of glass, a lot of fountains, open walkways that then had these freeways threaded in-between that contained the magnetic cars.”
Once the architecture had been designed, the artists used a propriety computer model to help them build an entire city. “We could create any layout of buildings and draw from our fundamental building blocks – what we call assets – and mix them up to design UFB. instead of having to map out every single building in a view, we would get the gross structure by pulling various 3D points around, and then assign a randomizer to it that would take the assets from the buildings that Len likes and populate the buildings that would almost wallpaper the layout to create the numerous buildings. Obviously it would be too labor-intensive to go in and sculpt each individual building separately. We drew upon 20 different assets that are close-up, 40 that are mid-distance, and then we got into matte paintings for far-off into infinity. We could then put in all the fine details, like stanchions, elevators, streetlamps, road signs, little barriers that would appear on the side of the road, the detail on the road, the types of tarmac. We were really building a city that Len and Patrick had outlayed, from the ground up.” “On the other side of the world is The Colony,” says De Wet. “It’s very polluted, constantly overcast with noxious gases, always raining with a slightly acidic rain. It has a very underground, funky vibe, with a lot of neon lights.” “Generally, the set would account for one level of The Colony,” says Jack. “We would extend up or down to see other levels. The bottom level of The Colony was generally water, and we’d create a large body of water with other waterfront environments around it. The amount of set extension varied considerably – some shots were pretty much contained within the set, while other were shot on green screen and completed by set extension. Most fell somewhere in-between.”
To complete the set extensions for The Colony, “Again, we drew upon the lovely sets that Patrick Tatopoulos had made,” says Chiang. “From that, we springboarded into imagining what four layers of this would be, or a whole landscape. We took the boats and assets that were built on set, extrapolated all of the details from that, and then started to create another whole world. We created 20 more boats, multiple buildings based on the same design idea, and again, created the whole world. The scene that most challenged the VFX team was the hover car chase sequence. “When I saw the pre-viz footage, I was blown away. It was so ambitious. It’s done in the daytime, so nothing is hidden in the dark, which I like – I want to see everything, the gritty, grainy realism of an industrialized city. All of the environments were laid out; you could see beautiful aerial shots flying through the layout of the city. It was both amazing to look at and terrifying for me, because that’s what we would have to create,” says De Wet. According to De Wet, Wiseman provided him with a great starting point by designing and building so many practical sets and props – including the hover cars. “We needed physical reality, particularly for things like people in cars, reacting to G-forces as they turn corners,” he says. “It’s actually a hard thing to fake, so it’s important to get the right reactions.” Chiang says that Wiseman’s practical approach benefited the film. “When many directors create an all-CG shot, they tend to hang on the shot – the VFX is put in and it looks great. But when you’re shooting an action scene, like a car chase, a director usually tries to keep the flow of action going. Len made the whole sequence look real. He’d ask for a blur of background and blend in the action – you’d only see the whole world when the cars were coming toward the camera, and then he’d quickly pan off of it. The backgrounds became secondary to the action – we pulled back so the real-life cars could pop out.”
The VFX team was also responsible for The Fall – the giant elevator that connects UFB and The Colony. At the climax of the film, The Fall lives up to its name and is destroyed. Chiang says that knowing The Fall’s demise was coming was part of the key in putting it together – if it was going to break apart in the way that Wiseman hoped to see, with shafts and clamps breaking apart in a certain way, it would have to be constructed in a methodical and sophisticated manner in order to allow that to happen. “Breaking things apart and generally destroying them is something that we’ve done a fair bit of at DNeg,” says Jack. “We used some in-house tools that were written to procedurally break up the component pieces.” The synths – the security force – was all shot live-action using suits created by Legacy Effects, but Chiang says that Wiseman always envisioned a VFX component for them. “He wanted to make negative space within the body – to create pistons and views of internal structures of the synths,” says Chiang. In the end, pulling it off often required creating all-digital synths. “A lot of them were digital, where it was too difficult to adjust the live-action that had been shot. In other cases, we could keep the live-action and replace an elbow joint, or a knee joint, or a waist joint.”
ABOUT THE CAST
A native of Ireland, COLIN FARRELL (Quaid) continues to turn heads in Hollywood. In 2009 Farrell won a Golden Globe for his role in In Bruges and has currently reteamed with director Martin McDonough for the CBS films’ Seven Psychopaths. The film centers around a screenwriter (Farrell) who struggles to find the handle on his script, called Seven Psychopaths. He gets drawn into the dog napping escapades of his friends (played by Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken). Once the beloved Shih Tzu owned by a psychopathic gangster goes missing, the screenwriter finds himself fueled with all the drama he needs for his screenplay, if he can stay alive long enough to write it all down.
He is currently shooting the independent film Dead Man Down starring opposite Noomi Rapace for director Neils Arden. The action film will be produced by Neal H. Moritz and is set to shoot in New York. He recently wrapped the Peter Weir film The Way Back starring opposite Ed Harris and Jim Sturgess. The film tells the story of a group of soldiers who engineer a grueling escape from a Siberian gulag in 1942. He also completed William Monahan’s feature London Boulevard based on the bestselling book by Ken Bruen about a South London criminal, newly released from prison, who resists the temptation to go back to a gangster life by taking a job looking after a reclusive young actress played by Kiera Knightley. He was recently seen in Fright Night; the Warner Bros. comedy Horrible Bosses; and Ondine, by Irish director Neil Jordan, which revolves around an Irish fisherman who discovers a woman he thinks is a mermaid. His other films include Gavin O’Conner’s Pride and Glory; Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream; “Miami Vice”; Oliver Stone’s Alexander; Terrence Malick’s The New World; Ask the Dust, based on the novel by John Fante; opposite Al Pacino in The Recruit; A Home at the End of the World, based on the Michael Cunningham novel, and two roles in Joel Schumacher`s films Phone Booth and Tigerland. Other film credits include Minority Report, Daredevil, American Outlaws, SWAT, and Intermission. Born and raised in Castleknock in the Republic of Ireland, Colin is the son of former football player, Eamon Farrell and nephew of Tommy Farrell. Both Tommy and Eamon Farrell played for the Irish Football Club, Shamrock Rovers in the 1960`s. It was Farrell’s early teenage ambition to follow in his father and uncle`s footsteps; however, his interest soon turned towards acting and he joined the Gaity School of Drama in Dublin. Before completing his course, Colin landed a starring role in Dierde Purcell`s miniseries "Falling for a Dancer," a starring role in the BBC series "Ballykissangel," and a featured role in Tim Roth`s directorial debut, "The War Zone," followed soon after. He currently lives in Los Angeles. English actress KATE BECKINSALE (Lori) is revealing herself to be one of films’ most versatile and charismatic actresses. She first gained notice in Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing and then subsequently appeared as the heroine of John Schlesinger’s Cold Comfort Farm, Whit Stillman’s The Last Days of Disco opposite Chloe Sevigny, Jonathan Kaplan’s Brokedown Palace opposite Claire Danes and in the British comedy Shooting Fish. Additional film credits include Haunted opposite Aidan Quinn, and Manuel Fleche’s Mary Louise ou la permission.
In 2001, Beckinsale starred opposite Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett in Disney’s epic Pearl Harbor. She starred opposite John Cusack in Serendipity, opposite Matthew McConaughey and Gary Oldham in Tiptoes and opposite Christian Bale and Frances McDormand in the ensemble drama Laurel Canyon. Film appearances include starring opposite Hugh Jackman in Van Helsing and starring in the hit vampire tales Underworld and sequel Underworld: Evolution for Sony Screen Gem. Beckinsale also starred as screen legend ‘Ava Gardner’ in Martin Scorcese’s The Aviator, in the Screen Gems thriller Vacancy opposite Luke Wilson and the comedy blockbuster Click opposite Adam Sandler. Recent films include the independent drama Snow Angels opposite Sam Rockwell, directed by David Gordon Green and the independent drama Fragments (aka Winged Creatures) opposite Forest Whitaker and Dakota Fanning, Her television appearances include playing the title role in A&E’s “Emma” and in “One Against the Wind” for Hallmark Films. On the stage, she has appeared in “Clocks & Whistles,” “Sweetheart,” and the British National Touring production of “The Seagull.” In 2009, Beckinsale starred in the dark comedy Everybody’s Fine opposite Robert De Niro and Drew Barrymore. That same year, she also starred in the independent political drama Nothing but the Truth opposite Alan Alda and Matt Dillon, which garnered her great recognition for her accolade worthy performance. Beckinsale recently starred in the fourth installment of the Underworld franchise reprising her role of Selene in Underworld: Awakening and the hit thriller Contraband opposite Mark Wahlberg. She recently wrapped production on the independent drama Trials of Cate McCall opposite Nick Nolte and James Cromwell about a former hotshot lawyer, estranged from her family must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder. JESSICA BIEL (Melina) most recently starred in Garry Marshall’s romantic comedies New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day and in the action adventure The A-Team. She will soon be seen in the thriller The Tall Man and the sports comedy Playing the Field. She will next be starring in the film Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho opposite Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, and Scarlett Johansson.
Biel previously received critical acclaim for her performance in the thriller The Illusionist. For her work in the film, she won several festival awards, including the Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award at the Newport Beach Film Festival, the Shining Star Award at the Maui Film Festival and the Rising Star Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. She was also recently seen in the independent feature Easy Virtue, which premiered to rave reviews at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival before screening at the Rome, London and Tribeca Film Festivals. She also starred in the worldwide hit comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry. Biel`s additional film credits include Lee Tamahori`s Next, Elizabethtown, written and directed by Cameron Crowe, Rob Cohen`s Stealth, Blade: Trinity, the hit remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Summer Catch. BRYAN CRANSTON (Cohaagen) won three consecutive Emmy® Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Walter White on AMC`s “Breaking Bad.” Cranston holds the honor of being the first actor in a cable series, and the second lead actor in the history of the Emmy® Awards to receive three consecutive wins. His performance has also earned him a Television Critics Association award, two Golden Globe nominations and three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. Season 5 of Breaking Bad will premiere on Sunday, July 15th at 10:00pm on AMC. On the big screen, Cranston recently starred in Adam Shankman’s Rock of Ages opposite Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin and Catherine Zeta-Jones and was heard as the voice of Vitality in Madagascar 3 Europe’s Most Wanted.
This fall, he will star in Ben Affleck’s Argo opposite John Goodman and Alan Arkin. The film is an adaptation of an April 2007 Wired magazine article which tells how the CIA and the Canadian government teamed to rescue six U.S. diplomats who`d been taken hostage in 1979. The agency`s ruse posited that the captives were actually a Hollywood film crew scouting a movie titled "Argo," and using those fake identities, they were able to flee the country. Cranston will play Jack O`Donnell, Irish CIA agent from Boston who used to be President Eisenhower`s bodyguard. Warner Bros. will release the film on October 12, 2012. He recently completed production on Get a Job for CBS Films and last starred in Nicolas Winding Refn`s critically acclaimed film, Drive, opposite Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. Cranston`s additional feature film credits include: Contagion, John Carter of Mars, Larry Crowne, The Lincoln Lawyer, Little Miss Sunshine, Seeing Other People, Saving Private Ryan and That Thing You Do! Born to a show business family and raised in Southern California, Cranston made his acting debut at the age of eight in a United Way commercial. It wasn`t until he finished college that acting became a serious consideration. While on a cross-country motorcycle trip with his brother, he discovered community theater and began exploring every aspect of the stage. Soon, he was cast in a summer stock company. Cranston returned to Los Angeles and quickly landed a role on the television movie “Love Without End,” which led to his being signed as an original cast member of ABC`s “Loving.” He went on to appear in numerous television roles including a seven-year run as Hal on FOX`s “Malcolm in the Middle,” for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe and three Emmy® awards; the recurring role of dentist Tim Whatley on “Seinfeld”; HBO`s acclaimed miniseries, “From the Earth to the Moon,” as Buzz Aldrin; and the made-for-television movie “I Know My First Name is Steven,” among others. He has guest starred on numerous TV programs.
Cranston continues to pursue his love for theater whenever possible. Credits include: “The God of Hell,” “Chapter Two,” “The Taming of the Shrew,” “A Doll`s House,” “Eastern Standard,” “Wrestlers,” “Barefoot in the Park,” and “The Steven Weed Show,” for which he won a Drama-Logue Award. Cranston is also a dedicated screenwriter and director. He wrote the original romantic drama, Last Chance as a birthday gift for his wife, Robin Dearden, and directed and starred in the film. Cranston has also directed several episodes of “Malcolm in the Middle,” the Comedy Central pilot “Special Unit,” “Breaking Bad,” and recently an episode of “Modern Family.” In early 2011, Cranston served as executive producer and star of an exclusive online series called “The Handlers” for Atom.com. The comedic short series followed Cranston as the character Jack Powers and his race to win a seat on the State Senate. Cranston also produced an instructional DVD called KidSmartz, which is designed to educate families on how to stay safe from child abduction and Internet predators. KidSmartz raises money for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Actor JOHN CHO (McClane) first started catching people’s attention in the 1999 breakthrough hit comedy American Pie, in which he popularized the slang term, “MILF.” Next, he achieved near-household name status starring as Harold Lee in the cult comedies Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and, recently, A Very Harold and Kumar 3-D Christmas. As one of today’s most exciting actors, Cho continues to deliver compelling performances in comedy and drama.
Cho just finished shooting the next installment in J.J. Abrams “Star Trek” franchise opposite Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine. He is currently shooting a series regular role on NBC’s new show, “Go On.” Cho was last seen in American Reunion as well as ABC`s hit drama series “Flash Forward” as Agent Demitri Noh. His additional film credits include the Weitz Bros’ American Dreamz, starring alongside Willem Dafoe and Hugh Grant, Better Luck Tomorrow, the American Pie series, Pavilion of Women, Steven Soderbergh’s Solaris and the Best Picture Oscar® winner American Beauty. In addition to numerous guest roles on television, he was a series regular on the Weitz Bros’ “Off Centre” and had a recurring role on the last season of “Kitchen Confidential.” Born in Seoul, Korea, and raised in Los Angeles, California, Cho began acting while studying English literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He toured with his first show, “The Woman Warrior,” an adaptation of the renowned memoir by Maxine Kingston, across the country. Other stage roles include Laertes in the Singapore Repertory Theater’s production of “Hamlet” and a variety of shows for East West Players. Cho resides in Los Angeles. BILL NIGHY (Matthias) is an award-winning actor of the stage and screen. Nighy received a BAFTA Award, a London Film Critics Circle Award, and an Evening Standard British Film Award for his performance as an aging rock star in Richard Curtis’s 2003 ensemble comedy hit Love Actually. He also won a Los Angeles Film Critics Award for his collective work in that film, as well as AKA, I Capture the Castle and Lawless Heart. His long list of film credits also includes Wild Target, with Rupert Grint and Emily Blunt; Pirate Radio, which reunited him with Richard Curtis; Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie, with Tom Cruise; Richard Eyre’s Notes on a Scandal, for which he earned a London Film Critics Circle Award nomination; Underworld and Underworld: Evolution; Fernando Meirelles’ The Constant Gardener, garnering a British Independent Film Award (BIFA) nomination; Lawless Heart, which brought him a BIFA nomination; and Still Crazy, for which he won an Evening Standard British Film Award. He is also unrecognizable as the tentacled pirate captain Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, and lent his voice to several animated features, including “Flushed Away.”
Born in England, Nighy began his career on the British stage and has since earned acclaim for his work in numerous plays, including David Hare’s “The Vertical Hour,” “Pravda” and “A Map of the World.” He has also performed in plays by other leading dramatists, including Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter, Brian Friel, Anton Chekhov and Peter Gill. He received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance in Joe Penhall’s “Blue/Orange.” On Broadway, he starred in the 2006 premiere of David Hare’s “The Vertical Hour,” directed by Sam Mendes. Also well known for his work on the small screen, Nighy recently earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance in the BBC television movie “Page Eight,” directed by David Hare and produced by “Harry Potter” producer David Heyman. Nighy has worked several times with director David Yates, including the acclaimed BBC project “State of Play,” for which he won a BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor. Yates also directed him in the BBC telefilm “The Young Visiters,” and HBO’s “The Girl in the Café,” which brought him a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries. He later won a Golden Globe in the same category for his performance in the 2005 telefilm “Gideon’s Daughter.” His television work also includes dozens of series guest roles and long form projects, including the one for which he first gained attention, 1991’s “The Men’s Room.” In March 2012, Nighy starred to much critical acclaim in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel which smashed the UK box office beating Women in Black to the top spot. Nighy was also recently seen in Wrath of the Titans, and in 2013, will star in I, Frankenstein and Jack the Giant Killer.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
LEN WISEMAN (Director / Executive Producer) started his career in the art department on blockbuster special effects features such as Godzilla, Men in Black and Independence Day. He co-wrote and directed both Underworld and Underworld Evolution and directed Bruce Willis in the action hit Live Free or Die Hard.
Most recently Wiseman directed the “Hawaii Five-O” pilot and produced the latest installment to the successful franchise, Underworld: Awakening. KURT WIMMER (Screenplay by / Screen Story by) is an American screenwriter and film director. Wimmer attended the University of South Florida and graduated with a BFA degree in Art History. He moved to Los Angeles where he worked for twelve years as a screenwriter, adapting works such as Sphere, starring Dustin Hoffman, and The Thomas Crown Affair, starring Pierce Brosnan. In 2002, Wimmer made his directorial debut, Equilibrium, starring Christian Bale and Emily Watson. Wimmer also wrote and directed Ultraviolet, starring Milla Jovovich, and shared screenplay credit for Street Kings, starring Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker. His most recent film credits include Law Abiding Citizen, starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx, for director F. Gary Gray, and Salt, starring Angelina Jolie. In addition to Total Recall, MARK BOMBACK (Screenplay) produced work includes Unstoppable, Race to Witch Mountain, Live Free or Die Hard, Deception and Godsend. He recently completed work on the screenplays for The Art of Racing in the Rain (Universal) and Shadow Divers (20th Century Fox), as well as revisions on The Wolverine for director James Mangold. Mark also teaches a course in screenwriting at his alma mater, Wesleyan University. He lives in New York with his wife and four children. RONALD SHUSETT’s (Screen Story by) science fiction, action and horror films have reached worldwide grosses of over one and a half billion dollars. He was executive producer of Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise’s Minority Report, which alone grossed $358 million worldwide. He also received above the title co-presenter billing. The film was based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, whose work was also the basis for Shusett’s trendsetting and mega-box office hit Total Recall (1990), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone, which he produced, co-wrote the screenplay for and received above the title co-presenter billing. Shusett also co-wrote the original story, executive produced, and received above the title co-presenter billing for Ridley Scott’s Alien.
In addition to the Oscars® won for the innovative special effects by both Alien and Total Recall (1990), Shusett’s movies also were honored by The Academy of Science Fiction, Horror And Fantasy, for which Shusett personally received a Saturn Award for Best Horror Film (Alien) and also a second Saturn Award several years later for Best Science Fiction film (Total Recall (1990)). Also, Shusett has worked with, in addition to Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg some of the other major box office and artistic director talents of this era, including Paul Verhoeven, David Cronenberg, and Andrew Davis. Among his other films which he has either executive produced or produced, and co-written, are Freejack, starring Anthony Hopkins and Mick Jagger, King Kong Lives (a sequel to the original), and Dead and Buried, which went on to become a cult classic in the contemporary horror film genre worldwide. On Alien Vs. Predator (2004), which was the fifth Alien sequel, Shusett received a story by credit (shared) in addition to his “Alien Characters Created By” credit (shared). Alien Vs. Predator (2004) box office gross was $170 million worldwide and was released on DVD in January 2005. DAN O’BANNON’s (Screen Story by) credits include Dark Star (1974) (screen story / screenplay), Alien (1979) (screenplay/story), Dead & Buried (1981) (screenplay), Blue Thunder (1983) (screenplay), The Return of the Living Dead (1985) (director / screenplay), Lifeforce (1985)(screenplay), Invaders from Mars (1986) (screenplay),Total Recall (1990) (screen story / screenplay), The Resurrected (1992) (director),Screamers (1995) (screenplay), and Alien Vs. Predator (2004) (screen story). His book, Dan O’Bannon’s Guide to Screenplay Structure, will be published in the spring of 2013. O’Bannon died in 2009. Known primarily for his work on Star Trek – The Motion Picture and “Total Recall (1990), JON POVILL (Screen Story by) has written feature scripts for Universal and Allied Artists Pictures as well as projects for, or in partnership with, several industry luminaries -- including four-time Oscar® winner Robert Wise, Emanuel L. Wolf, Robert Watts, and Gene Roddenberry. He has written numerous television episodes and developed pilots with Fox, Kushner-Locke, and legendary TV producers Fred Silverman and Lee Rich. Povill broke into the business shortly after receiving his MFA from UCLA, landing the coveted job of Story Editor on the fabled “Star Trek Phase II” series that ultimately led into Star Trek – The Motion Picture, on which he was the associate producer. He is also credited with the screen story for Total Recall (1990) and was an integral part of the popular series “Sliders,” working as the Executive script consultant for the first season and writer-producer for the second season. In 1952, PHILIP K. DICK (Author of the Short Story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale) began writing professionally, eventually publishing 45 novels and more than 120 short stories.
He won numerous awards for his work, including the Hugo Award for Best Novel of 1962 for The Man in the High Castle and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel of 1974 for Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. His work has been adapted into such highly acclaimed films as Blade Runner, Total Recall (1990), Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Adjustment Bureau. Electric Shepherd Productions, the entertainment branch of the Philip K. Dick Estate, continues to develop film and television projects based on his work. Since his death at the age of 53, he has gone on to be recognized as one of America`s most celebrated and influential science fiction writers. In 2007, Philip K. Dick became the first sci-fi author to be inducted into the Library of America. NEAL H. MORITZ (Producer), founder of Original Film, has been producing feature film and television for over three decades. His latest release, Columbia’s action-comedy 21 Jump Street, opened in March to $36.3 million in its opening weekend. Prior to that, his film Fast 5, the fifth installation of The Fast and the Furious franchise, brought the return of Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster and Tyrese and introduced Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to the team. The film opened to over $86 million and grossed over $626 million worldwide. Moritz is currently in post production on Warner Bros.’ Jack the Giant Killer directed by Bryan Singer and Universal Pictures’ R.I.P.D. starring Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Bacon. 2012 will be a busy year for the Original Film banner. Production on the sixth and seventh installments of the Fast and Furious franchise begin this summer as well as the IM Global-financed Dead Man Down starring Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace, directed by Neils Arden Opvel (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Swedish trilogy). Summit Entertainment’s remake of Highlander is also slated to begin production this year with Juan Carlos Fresnadillo helming.
With over 40 films to Moritz’s credit, past titles include The Change-Up, Battle: Los Angeles, The Green Hornet, The Fast and Furious series, I Am Legend, XXX, S.W.A.T., Made of Honor, Gridiron Gang, Bounty Hunter, Evan Almighty, Sweet Home Alabama, Click, Vantage Point, Out of Time, Blue Streak, Cruel Intentions, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Skulls, Volcano, Urban Legend, and Juice. Original Film’s box office is north of 2 billion worldwide. Moritz’s television credits include the HBO movie The Rat Pack, which earned 11 Emmy nominations, the drama series Prison Break for Twentieth Century Fox, and Showtime’s highly acclaimed series The Big C, starring Laura Linney, who won a Golden Globe in 2011 for her role of Cathy. A graduate of UCLA with a degree in Economics, Moritz went on to get a graduate degree from the Peter Stark Motion Picture Producing Program at the University of Southern California. TOBY JAFFE (Producer) is currently a producer at Original Film, one of the most prolific producers of films in the industry today. The company has produced such blockbuster hits as The Fast and The Furious series, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Sweet Home Alabama, Vantage Point, Prom Night, The Green Hornet, Battle Los Angeles, and, most recently, 21 Jump Street. In 2012, the company will release Total Recall and RIPD. Prior to joining Original, Jaffe spent three years at MGM Studios as an Executive Vice President, Production. During his tenure at MGM, he supervised the production of numerous films, including the hits The Pink Panther starring Steve Martin, Walking Tall starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and The Amityville Horror. Before joining MGM, Jaffe ran his own independent production company and collaborated with some of Hollywood’s most celebrated talent, including Angelina Jolie, Mark Wahlberg, and Martin Lawrence, producing such recognized films as Rock Star, Life or Something Like It, and the hit comedy Blue Streak. Previously, he served as President of Production for The IndieProd Company, a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Japan Satellite Broadcasting. During his tenure, he worked with such talent as Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Kenneth Branagh, and Sam Raimi while supervising such films as The Quick and the Dead, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Universal Soldier.
Jaffe began his entertainment career as a talent agent at The Leading Artists Agency. After the company merged to become United Talent Agency, he advanced to head up the motion picture literary department and represented writers, producers and directors, among them Barry Sonnenfeld, Curtis Hanson, Rob Cohen, Boaz Yakin, Frank Darabont and Joss Whedon. In that capacity, he additionally was responsible for bringing together many of the creative and financial elements which led to the success of such films as Twins, Point Break, Class Action, The Rookie and Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Jaffe is a graduate of Harvard University and lives in Santa Monica with his wife and two children. RIC KIDNEY (Executive Producer) includes among his credits Salt, Imagine That, Shooter, Four Brothers and Flight of the Phoenix. PAUL CAMERON, ASC (Director of Photography) has worked on some of the most visually groundbreaking feature films in the past decade. His work was most recently seen in Man on a Ledge starring Sam Worthington. Asger Leth directs the film co-starring Elizabeth Banks, Ed Harris and Kyra Sedgwick. He is currently re-teaming with Total Recall star Colin Farrell, serving as the director of photography on the upcoming film Dead Man Down. Cameron has lensed for directors Tony Scott (Man on Fire, Déjà Vu), Dominic Sena (Swordfish, Gone in Sixty Seconds) and Michael Mann (Collateral). Cameron’s cinematography for Collateral confirmed the capabilities of the still-young digital medium; it was one of the first major studio films to embrace digital cinematography. The film earned Cameron a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award and the Los Angeles Critics Award for Best Cinematography. In 2003, his masterful lensing caught the eye of the Clio and AICP awards. His photography on the BMW featurette Beat the Devil with director Scott took top cinematography honors at both events; it is now part of the NYC Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. He won another Clio in 2008 for the VW Golf Night Drive spot with director Noam Murro – his third Clio to date.
Born in Montreal, Quebec, Cameron was exposed early on to theater and film by his older brother. His early experiences inspired him to enroll at the State University of New York’s Purchase College film school. Joining the film union Nabet 15 while still in college, Cameron religiously attended the NY Film Festival and became enamored with international cinema. Making a name for himself early on in music videos and commercials, Cameron credits his early work experience with helping to develop the distinctive style he continues to bring to all his features. Cameron currently resides in Oregon and Los Angeles Cameron includes among his credits Man On A Ledge, Henry’s Crime, Déjà vu, In the Land of Women, Collateral, Man on Fire, Beat the Devil, Swordfish and Gone in Sixty Seconds. PATRICK TATOPOULOS (Production Designer) is a production designer / creator of creature effects who made his directorial debut with the 2009 feature film, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. For over a decade his creative achievements in production design and creature effects have left a lasting impression in the motion picture industry and have influenced the quality and direction of contemporary cinematography. His designs have appeared in numerous motion pictures, including Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla, Dark City, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Stuart Little, Chronicles of Riddick, The Underworld, Underworld Evolution, Pitch Black, I Am Legend, I, Robot and Live Free or Die Hard among many more. Tatopoulos’ growing body of work has a distinct signature that attests to his boundless imagination. Tatopoulos has recently designed the creatures for the latest Underworld Awakening as well as the new Pitch Black movie for director and friend David Twohy. In tandem with design work, he is presently developing three film projects to direct. The films include an action/thriller Shi for Constantine Film Productions and eco-thriller The Colony, as well as Non-Stop, a sci-fi film with Dreamworks. Further to Tatopoulos’ notable career in film, he presides as one of three judges on the SyFy Network new reality-competition series Face Off, a show about special make-up effects. Due to the popularity of the show and high ratings, the second season began September 2011 with Patrick back as a judge.
In addition, Tatopoulos has designed several acclaimed music videos, including three for the popular rock band Linkin Park. In the commercial arena, he has collaborated on a series of Mike’s Hard Lemonade commercials and designed several Intel Pentium 4 commercials for David Kellogg that feature the Blue Man Group. Another commercial of note that Tatopoulos designed was a Reebok “clones” spot for Sam Bayer. Tatopoulos was born and raised in Paris, France, to an immigrant father from Sparta, Greece, and a French mother. He began his studies at the École d`Art Décoratif de Paris, the École des Arts Appliqués de Paris, and the famous École des Beaux-Arts. His passion and interest in motion pictures eventually drew him to the United States, where he began his film career in 1989. Within a short time he became a designer for commercials, music video and motion pictures. Tatopoulos is a frequent collaborator of directors Roland Emmerich, Alex Proyas, and Len Wiseman. CHRISTIAN WAGNER (Editor) includes among his prestigious film credits True Romance, Chasers, Bad Boys, Fair Game, The Fan, Face/Off, The Negotiator, Mission Impossible II, Spy Game, Die Another Day, Man on Fire, The Amityville Horror, The Island, Domino, Next, The Uninvited, Fast & Furious, Battle: Los Angeles and Fast Five. SANJA MILKOVIC HAYS (Costume Designer) is known for establishing a distinctive look for the wide range of films on which she has worked, including the sexy, iconic looks in the five installments of The Fast and The Furious franchise. Her designs also include the feature films Battle: Los Angeles, Piranha 3D,The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Empire, Next, Gridiron Gang, XXX, XXX: State of the Union, Taxi, Cheaper by the Dozen, Big Fat Liar, Along Came A Spider, Mission to Mars, Star Trek: Insurrection, Blade, 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag, Spaced Invaders, Buried Alive and Masque of the Red Death. She was also the assistant costume designer of the fantasy science-fiction film Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and director Roland Emmerich’s Stargate and “Independence Day. Hays was born in Zagreb, Croatia, where she graduated from the local university.
HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS is one of Hollywood’s most sought after composers, whose scores span the spectrum of high-profile projects from action to drama to animation – each infused with the emotional punch and atmospheric intensity that mark his distinctive musical style. He worked on all four installments of the blockbuster Shrek franchise; garnered a BAFTA nomination for the score for the first Shrek; and received Golden Globe and Grammy Award nominations for his score for Andrew Adamson’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. His work was most recently heard in the animated film Arthur Christmas, the action thriller Cowboys & Aliens directed by Jon Favreau and the documentary Life in a Day. He also wrote the theme for Prometheus directed by Ridley Scott. His upcoming projects include the drama Mister Pip starring Hugh Laurie and directed by Andrew Adamson. Gregson-Williams also scored the critically acclaimed The Town, marking his second collaboration with director Ben Affleck. Gregson-Williams first worked with Affleck as the composer on the Oscar®-nominated Gone Baby Gone. He has also worked multiple times with other directors including Joel Schumacher on the films Twelve, The Number 23, Veronica Guerin and Phone Booth; and Tony Scott on Unstoppable, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Déjà Vu, Domino, Man on Fire, Spy Game and Enemy of the State. His long list of film credits also includes Mike Newell’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time; X-Men Origins: Wolverine; Adamson’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian; Seraphim Falls; Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven; Beeban Kidron’s Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason; Aardman’s animated smash Chicken Run; Return to Sender and Smilla’s Sense of Snow, both for director Bille August; Antoine Fuqua’s The Replacement Killers; and Antz. Born in England to a musical family, Gregson-Williams earned a music scholarship to St. John’s College, Cambridge at the age of seven. By age 13, his singing had been featured on more than a dozen recordings, and from there he moved to Stowe School as their top music scholar and subsequently gained a coveted spot at London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Harry then turned his attention to teaching, initially in Schools in England but later in Alexandria, Egypt. He started his film career as assistant to composer Richard Harvey and later as orchestrator and arranger for Stanley Myers, and then went on to compose his first scores for director Nicolas Roeg. His subsequent collaboration and friendship with composer Hans Zimmer resulted in Gregson-Williams providing music for such films as The Rock, Armageddon and The Prince of Egypt and helped launch his career in Hollywood.
