|
|
ABOUT THE CREW |
| This page was created on Novenber 7, 2003
This page was last updated on
November 7, 2003
—Review
—Trailers, Photos
—Posters
—About the Cast
—About the Crew
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections
—Forum |
| ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS |
Australian director PETER WEIR (Producer/Director/Screenplay) is renowned for such films as Gallipoli, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Year of Living Dangerously, Witness, Dead Poets Society and The Truman Show.
Weir received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director in 1999 for The Truman Show, which starred Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, the unwitting star of the longest-running, most popular documentary-soap opera in history. Ed Harris (Best Actor in a Supporting Role) and Andrew Niccol (Best Screenplay written directly for the screen) received Academy Award nominations for their work on the critically acclaimed film, which also earned six Golden Globe nominations, including a Best Director
nomination for Weir, and a Golden Globe win for Jim Carrey, as Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama. In addition, Weir was honored by BAFTA with the David Lean Award for Direction for the film.
In 1991, Weir received an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay of his romantic comedy Green Card, which starred French actor Gerard Depardieu (in his first English-speaking role) and Andie MacDowell. Weir's previous film, Dead Poets Society, a character drama starring Robin Williams as a joyously eccentric English teacher who inspires his students, earned the director an Academy Award nomination for Best Director as well as the prestigious BAFTA Award for Best Picture and Italy's
Donatello Award for Best Direction.
Born in Sydney, Australia, Weir began his moviemaking career with three prizewinning short films before directing The Cars That Ate Paris, an offbeat comedy-horror film based on his own short story. His first international motion picture success came in 1975 with Picnic at Hanging Rock, which brought him widespread attention and became the most successful Australian film of the 1970s.
In 1977, Weir directed The Last Wave, starring Richard Chamberlain as a lawyer haunted by recurring dreams. He then wrote and directed The Plumber (1978), an unusual black comedy made for television that won the Australian Sammy Award for best writer-television plays and best television play.
Weir's next film, Gallipoli, the story of two Australian youths caught up in the idealistic fervor of World War I, swept the Australian Film Institute Awards and became a worldwide box office success. In 1983, Weir reunited with his Gallipoli star Mel Gibson for The Year of Living Dangerously, which starred Gibson, Linda Hunt and Sigourney Weaver. Hunt won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her memorable work in the film.
In 1985, Weir directed Harrison Ford in Witness, the haunting thriller in which a young Amish boy becomes a witness to murder, sparking a clash of cultures within his community. The film received eight Academy Award® nominations, including Best Picture, and a Best Direction nomination for Weir.
In 1986, Weir directed The Mosquito Coast, again starring Harrison Ford, and in 1993, Fearless, a drama about people's varying reactions to tragedy and loss, which starred Jeff Bridges, Rosie Perez, Isabella Rossellini and John Turturro.
SAMUEL GOLDWYN, JR. (Producer) A risk taker and a survivor is the best way to describe Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. Having spent most of his life in the entertainment industry, Goldwyn has produced some of the industry's most ground-breaking and acclaimed films. His work has left an indelible impression on several generations of film audiences.
Goldwyn currently presides over The Samuel Goldwyn Company, whose activities encompass feature film development, production and distribution. A long-time member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he also is an officer of the French Order of Arts and Letters. In 1997 at ShowEast, he was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of American Exhibitors. Most recently, he was honored by the University of Connecticut with
a Doctorate of the Arts.
Taking chances on films that no other studio would is an important element in Goldwyn's life. Some of these gems include bringing films based on Shakespearean scripts back into favor with Kenneth Branagh's Henry V and, later, Much Ado About Nothing. Never one to back away from controversy, he presented the AIDS drama Longtime Companion at a time when the American population and the media were avoiding the subject at all costs. Desert Hearts, another Goldwyn film, dealt with the then taboo
topic of a lesbian relationship.
Three Goldwyn films have captured the prestigious Palme d'Or at Cannes David Lynch's Wild at Heart, Bille August's The Best Intentions, and Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies and Videotape. Foreign films are another passion, having released The Best Intentions, 3 Men and a Cradle, Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita, the recent Faithless, and Ang Lee's Oscar-nominated classics Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman.
He has also been a champion of fine documentary works, highlighted by the Oscar-winning Hotel Terminus, the multi-Award-winning 35 Up, Sting's Bring on the Night and the critically-acclaimed Mystery of Picasso. He has consistently found a talent pool in Great Britain, producing and presenting such films as Gregory's Girl from director Bill Forsyth, Anthony Minghella's Truly, Madly, Deeply, and the multi-Oscar nominated The Madness of King George, featuring first time director Nicholas
Hytner and "overnight" sensation Nigel Hawthorne.
As a producer, he has garnered a reputation as a "discoverer" of talent having provided the forum to launch the careers of numerous stars, producers, directors and writers. Goldwyn's Mystic Pizza introduced Julia Roberts as a leading lady, Once Bitten showcased the talents of then unknown comedian Jim Carrey; Hollywood Shuffle served as the springboard for the talented Robert Townsend, and filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and his first film, Stranger Than Paradise.
Among the other films that Goldwyn has produced and/or distributed include Better Than Sex, Solas, Greenfingers, and King of Masks. Other notable company productions and releases include Lolita starring Jeremy Irons, The Preacher's Wife with Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston, Big Night, I Shot Andy Warhol, Angels and Insects, To Live, A Prayer for the Dying, Sid and Nancy, Turtle Diary, Prick Up Your Ears, Black Robe, Mississippi Masala, The Playboys, and Dance with a Stranger. He
also was responsible for the television phenomenon, American Gladiators, which ran for seven seasons in the U.S. and around the world.
In 1987 Goldwyn took on the monumental task of producing the 59th Annual Academy Awards. The Academy invited him back the following year and Goldwyn was rewarded with an Emmy Award for Best Variety-Music Programming for his efforts on that show.
In the early 1970's he produced two successful comedies which helped set the tone for an emerging genre, the black film cycle, with Cotton Comes to Harlem starring Godfrey Cambridge and Come Back Charleston Blue. Two 1990s releases also helped pave the way for future works by black filmmakers-- To Sleep with Anger and Straight Out of Brooklyn.
The son of legendary producer Samuel Goldwyn and actress Frances Howard, Goldwyn was born and raised in Los Angeles. He later attended the University of Virginia where he majored in English and Drama.
After a stint in the Army during World War II, he went to work in England for J. Arthur Rank Productions as a writer and associate producer and also spent some time in various capacities in the London theatre. Returning to Hollywood, he worked for a short time as a writer and producer at Universal Studios before once again joining the military in 1950. This time, he joined the staff of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, where he produced and directed documentary films. His Alliance for Peace
won first prize at the Edinburgh Film Festival, serving as an auger of things to follow.
Returning to the U.S. in 1952, he picked up where he left off, working for a time under Edward R. Murrow at CBS News. He went on to co-produce the documentary series, Adventure, which won a George Foster Peabody Award. In 1955, Goldwyn formed his own independent production company. Among the company's productions were Man with a Gun with Robert Mitchum, Sharkfighters, The Proud Rebel with Alan Ladd and Olivia de Havilland, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Young Lovers, which
he also directed.
The new Goldwyn Company was founded in 1979 stemming from Mr. Goldwyn's vision for a motion picture company with the scope of a major studio and the heart of an old-fashioned family business. Using more than 50 classic American films owned by the original company as building blocks, classics such as Wuthering Heights, Pride of the Yankees, Best Years of Our Lives, Guys and Dolls, Hans Christian Anderson, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the company continues to build a library of fine
films.
In addition to his role as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at The Samuel Goldwyn Company, Goldwyn serves as President of The Samuel Goldwyn Foundation, a non-profit organization with a primary interest in health, education and child services. The Foundation sponsors a yearly writing competition for the University of California system, which has a proven track record of launching the careers of talented young screenwriters. The Foundation also constructed the Hollywood Public Library
in memory of Frances Howard Goldwyn and created the Samuel Goldwyn Foundation Children's Center, a day care center serving the entertainment industry.
DUNCAN HENDERSON (Producer) most recently served as executive producer on the box office hit Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone directed by Chris Columbus and based on the popular series of children's books by J.K. Rowling. Before that Henderson teamed with Wolfgang Peterson executive producing the epic drama The Perfect Storm starring George Clooney & Mark Wahlberg. On MASTER AND COMMANDER, Henderson re-teams with director-producer Peter Weir. They previously worked
together on Green Card and Dead Poets Society.
Henderson's other film credits include executive producing Deep Blue Sea, Outbreak, Home Alone 2 and The Program. He also co-produced Dying Young and Earth Girls Are Easy.
A fourth generation Angeleno, Henderson earned a Bachelor's degree in economics from the University of California at Los Angeles and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Southern California before embarking on his career in motion pictures. He is a graduate of the Directors Guild of America Training Program and is a member of the Directors Guild of America. He has worked as an assistant director on more than 20 films and served as Executive Vice President of
Feature Production at Twentieth Century Fox.
ALAN B. CURTISS (Executive Producer/First Assistant Director) continues a long association with producer/director Peter Weir on MASTER AND COMMANDER. Curtiss previously served in the dual capacity of associate producer and first assistant director for Weir's critically acclaimed boxoffice hit The Truman Show starring Jim Carrey, as well as Weir's Fearless, starring Jeff Bridges, Rosie Perez, Isabella Rossellini and John Turturro. Earlier, Curtiss was the first assistant
director for Weir's romantic comedy Green Card, starring Gerard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell; and for the Weir-directed character drama Dead Poets Society, starring Robin Williams.
More recently, Curtiss was associate producer and first assistant director for Wolfgang Petersen's epic drama The Perfect Storm, starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg; and for Dragonfly, starring Kevin Costner and directed by Tom Shadyac. Other films for which he served in this dual capacity include Patch Adams, also for director Tom Shadyac; Michael starring John Travolta and directed by Nora Ephron; and Intersection, starring Richard Gere and Sharon Stone, for director Mark Rydell.
As a first assistant director, Curtiss' numerous film credits include Cast Away and The Green Mile, both starring Tom Hanks; Get Shorty, Waterworld, Clear and Present Danger, Consenting Adults, For the Boys, Taking Care of Business, Harlem Nights, My Stepmother is an Alien, The Presidio, Vibes, A Tiger's Tale and Wanted Dead or Alive. As a second assistant director, Curtiss' credits include Nothing in Common for director Garry Marshall; Clue, Jagged Edge, The Man With One Red Shoe, 2010,
Cloak and Dagger, Arthur Hiller's The Lonely Guy and Romantic Comedy, and Max Dugan Returns for director Herbert Ross.
Curtiss received a Bachelors Degree in History and Communications from Stanford University, and he earned a Masters Degree in Cinema from the University of Southern California. He spent one year as a staff producer at Rick Levine Productions in New York specializing in television commercials, before turning to feature films. Curtiss was a location manager/second assistant director for I Ought To Be in Pictures, directed by Herbert Ross; Mommie Dearest, starring Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford;
Heaven's Gate and the boxoffice smash hit musical Grease, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John.
JOHN COLLEE (Co-screenwriter) trained as a doctor in his native Scotland and has practiced medicine with various aid agencies and oil companies around the world, including Madagascar, Gabon, the former Soviet Union (where he met his wife Debs, an Australian news journalist) and The Solomon Islands (where their first child was born).
He is the author of three novels: Kingsleys Touch, A Paper Mask and The Rig, all published by Viking and Penguin in the UK and USA While writing a medical/historical column for The Observer newspaper, (1990 - 1996), Collee branched into writing drama, scripting the The Heart Surgeon starring Nigel Havers for the BBC and Paper Mask for Granada Films starring Paul McGann, Tom Wilkinson and Amanda Donohue.
Other commissions followed. Since moving to Sydney, Australia in 1996 he has been a full time screenwriter, collaborating in the past three years with George Miller, Scott Hicks, Phil Noyce and Peter Weir. An ambitious computer-animation project co-written with George Miller has recently been green-lit by Warners. Other projects in various stages of development include a TV pilot for Scott Free and CBS, plus feature films with Beacon, Castle Rock, Fox Searchlight, Handprint, Disney and
Working Title.
RUSSELL BOYD, ACS (Director of Photography) first worked with Peter Weir on Picnic at Hanging Rock, for which Boyd received a BAFTA Award and a Saturn Award for his work. Boyd's next film with Weir, The Last Wave, earned him a Best Achievement in Cinematography Award from the Australian Film Institute. Boyd also won AFI's top award for his work on Break of Day and Weir's critically-acclaimed Gallipoli, starring Mel Gibson, and he earned AFI nominations for his work on
the films Prisoners of the Sun, Burke & Wills, The Chain Reaction and The Year of Living Dangerously, starring Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hunt. Boyd is a twotime winner of the Cinematographer of the Year Award from the Australian Cinematographers Society, for his lensing of the films Between Wars and Weir's Gallipoli.
Boyd's credits include over 40 feature films, among them American Outlaws, Doctor Doolittle, Liar, Liar, Tin Cup, Forever Young, White Men Can't Jump, In Country, High Tide, The Rescue, Crocodile Dundee, Crocodile Dundee II, Burke & Wills, Mrs. Soffel, A Soldier's Story, Phar Lap and Tender Mercies.
WILLIAM SANDELL (Production Designer) recently designed director Wolfgang Petersen's The Perfect Storm, starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg. He also teamed with Petersen on the box-office smash Air Force One and, prior to that, on Outbreak.
Sandell served as production designer on the thriller Deep Blue Sea and the fantasy Small Soldiers. His other film credits include Dr. Doolittle 2, The Flintstones, Total Recall, RoboCop and The Glimmer Man.
An artist who created kinetic sculptures, Sandell began his filmmaking career as assistant art director on Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets. He became art director on Jonathan Demme's Fighting Mad in 1975.
Sandell's early credits as an art director include I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, The Promise, Serial, Airplane II: The Sequel and St. Elmo's Fire. He later designed Big Business, Nothing But Trouble, Newsies and Hocus Pocus.
LEE SMITH (Editor) is an award winning film editor and sound designer.
MASTER AND COMMANDER marks Smith's seventh collaboration with Peter Weir.
His other work with Weir includes The Truman Show, for which he served as co-editor (with William Anderson, A.C.E.) and Sound Designer, for which he received a nomination for Best Sound from the MPSE. Smith served in the same dual capacity for Weir's Fearless, Green Card and Dead Poets Society, for which he received a Best Editing nomination from BAFTA. For his work as associate editor and sound editor on The Year of Living Dangerously, Smith earned a Golden Reel Award nomination for Best
Sound from the M.P.S.E. He also worked on the remix of Gallipoli, starring Mel Gibson.
Smith's over 26 years of editorial experience includes his work with many of Australia's other leading directors. Smith collaborated with Phillip Noyce on Dead Calm; with George Miller on Lorenzo's Oil; with Gillian Armstrong on Little Women and with Jane Campion on Portrait of A Lady, Holy Smoke and The Piano. For The Piano, Lee was honored with the AFI Award; the MPSE's Best Sound/Feature Film Award as well as a nomination from BAFTA for Best Sound. Smith's other film credits as editor
and/or sound designer include director Kevin Reynolds' Rapa Nui, for which Smith received an MPSE nomination for Best Sound, The Rage In Placid Lake, Black and White, Buffalo Soldiers, Lorenzo's Oil and Burke and Wills.
WENDY STITES (Costume Designer) has collaborated on nearly all of her husband Peter Weir's films, serving in a number of creative capacities, beginning with Picnic At Hanging Rock.
Most recently, Stites was special design consultant for the critically acclaimed The Truman Show starring Jim Carrey. She served in the same capacity on Fearless starring Jeff Bridges, Isabella Rossellini and Rosie Perez.
Stites served as production designer for Dead Poets Society and Green Card, and she was the associate producer for the multi-Oscar-nominated Witness, starring Harrison Ford. Previously, she served as design coordinator for Gallipoli. Her work on the film earned her two nominations from the Australian Film Institute for Best Achievement in Costume Design (with Terry Ryan) and Best Achievement in Production Design (with Herbert Pinter). For The Year of Living Dangerously, Stites received
a nomination for Best Achievement in Production Design (with Herbert Pinter) from the Australian Film Institute for her work as design coordinator.
TODD ARNOW (Co-Producer/Unit Production Manager) most recently served as associate producer and unit production manager for the boxoffice hit Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone, directed by Chris Columbus and based on the popular series of children's books by J.K. Rowling. Previously, Arnow was the unit production manager for Wolfgang Petersen's The Perfect Storm, starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, and he served in the same capacity for director Renny Harlan's Deep Blue
Sea.
As a production executive at Twentieth Century Fox, Arnow supervised production of such features as Home Alone 2, Rapid Fire and Love Potion #9. Prior to that, he served as production supervisor for Peter Weir's Green Card, as well as Dying Young, Working Girl, Big and Wall Street. Arnow also worked on the films Goodfellas, Predator, Lucas and Mrs. Soffel.
As vice president of production for Post-Newsweek New Media, Arnow developed and produced internet and CD-ROM consumer products for Newsweek and The Washington Post Company. Previously, he was vice-president of operations for New York-based RGA Digital Studios, where he supervised the day-to-day operations of live action and visual effects production.
Arnow graduated from the Pingry School in New Jersey, and later received a B.A. from the University of Denver. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Arnow and his family reside in Massachusetts.
© 2003 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Universal Studios and Miramax Corp. All rights reserved. Property of Fox. Permission is hereby granted to newspapers and periodicals to reproduce this text in articles publicizing the distribution of the Motion Picture. All other use is strictly prohibited, including sale, duplication, or other transfers of this material. This press kit, in whole or in part, must not be leased, sold, or given away. |
| Continue: |
—Review
—Trailers, Photos
—Posters
—About the Cast
—About the Crew
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections
—Forum |
|
| COMMENT ON THIS FILM |
| BULLETIN BOARD (Rules)
Post your thoughts in the forum
View or post comments -click here.
Your Private Comments.
I will not post these comments. What are your personal thoughts? I also welcome your spiritual concerns and prayer needs. I will correspond with you, usually within two weeks. Click here |
OFFICIAL SITE
Publicity information and images © 2003 Universal Studios, Miramax, 20th Century Fox. All Rights Reserved.
No other uses are permitted without the prior written consent of owner. Use of the material in violation of the foregoing may result in civil and/or criminal penalties. Credits and dates are subject to change. For more information, please visit their official site.
Hollywood Jesus News Letter
Receive the Hollywood Jesus Newsletter FREE.
Sign up here
|
| | |
|
|
