Just when he thinks he's done everything he's ever going to do in life, Stan Ross is handed a second chance in MR. 3000. Forced to return to baseball, Ross finds himself finally becoming the inspirational hero he always wanted to be. At first, it's a comically outrageous situation. Pushing 50, the stubborn, pampered, set-in-his-ways Ross has to give up the smokes, hit the gym, even twist himself into Pilates poses, all in the hopes of competing against bratty New School players half his age. But in the role of Ross, Bernie Mac turns the situation around, transforming the baseball player from a brash, outrageous motor-mouth into an underdog for whom it's worth cheering.

The idea for MR. 3000 emerged when screenwriters Keith Mitchell and Eric Champnella were inspired by the notion of an athlete attempting a feat so rare that it would define his entire career. A 3,000 hit record is an event so rare in baseball, only 25 men have ever achieved it. "I kept wondering what would happen if the guy didn't make it? What if he got injured or something delayed his quest? Mostly I wondered how this one number would affect a man's life if it was the thing that meant the most to him in the world," recalls Mitchell. "What happens when our lives become about the numbers and the trappings of success?"

Thus was born the character of Stan Ross, whose sudden loss of his 3,000-hit record causes him to re-examine not only his past but the whole point of his future. In creating Ross, the screenwriters hoped to paint a warm and funny portrait not just of a modern-day sports superstar but of a man who comically resists any kind of change, until he finally gives in.

Champnella explains: "All his life Stan has believed that the ends justify the means. No matter what he's done or who he's pissed off, Stan could always point to that number 3,000 and still feel good about himself. So what we did is set up this entertainingly boastful and arrogant character – only to strip him down, put him into an impossible situation and force him to come to terms with himself under the most challenging circumstances."

When producers Maggie Wilde and Roger Birnbaum read MR. 3000, they in turn brought the script to director Charles Stone III – whose comedy feature "Drumline" has won acclaim as one of the sleeper comedy hits of 2002 and whose "Whassup?" television commercials for Budweiser have become part of the cultural lexicon. Says Wilde: "Charles has a knack for finding both humor and drama in a given situation and we knew he would find the comic heart of this story."

"Charles sees the world from a perspective that is uniquely emotional and visual," further comments Roger Birnbaum. "He draws on his art background and his uncanny reflections on human behavior to delve very deeply into everyday subjects."

Executive producer Timothy M. Bourne adds: "Another wonderful thing about Charles is that he brings something unexpected to everything he does. He has his own way of looking at the world that comes across as very exciting and funny."

Reading the script, Stone certainly found himself attracted to its playful, edgy comedy but he was also surprised to find such a poignant human story at its core. "I see MR. 3000 quite simply as the story of a selfish man who learns to be selfless," Stone says. "It's about how even in middle age you can make a change – although change is never easy!"

Stone was also attracted to the film's setting against the high-stakes, mediadriven, star-filled world of professional sports, a world ripe for satire. "Sports legends like Stan Ross are sort of larger than life, so one of the fun things about MR. 3000 is that Stan suddenly finds himself in a situation that lots of ordinary people find themselves in – being out of shape, under the gun, and realizing he's not quite the guy he once was," comments Stone. "It cuts him down to size in a very funny way. Stan really wants to be a hero, of course, but he thinks it's all about hitting the ball. And somehow the mixture of his talent and his ego have come together to form a monster! What he discovers is that there's a lot more to being considered great than just a statistic. He has to learn to be a great person far more than a great athlete."

Stone also sees MR. 3000 as a romantic comedy about a man learning to love for the first time in the middle of his life, when he re-encounters the one woman who has always stayed heavy on his mind: journalist Mo Simmons. "I love the character of Mo because she truly rocks Stan Ross' world," says Stone. "He's never admitted his feelings for her because he was always the suave ladies' man who wanted to keep his options open. But now the sparks are flying – both good and bad – between them again and it's a lot of fun."

Although he played Little League as a child, and still enjoys watching the game, Stone thinks MR. 3000 is about much more than the joy of sports. "I respect baseball and I wanted to really capture the fun and entertainment of it in the film, but what most inspired me was this story of a man with this huge bat battling himself," he says. "With Bernie Mac in the role of Ross, it becomes a story about a man taking a different direction in his life with both funny and moving results."

"MR. 3000" COMES TO BAT:
Casting Bernie Mac in His First Feature Role as a Comic Leading Man

Perhaps best known for his role as the embattled stay-at-home dad sharing his comic tales of woe in the acclaimed "Bernie Mac Show," Bernie Mac's brash, tell-it-like-itis, relatable mannerisms have established him as one of the leading comic voices of his generation. Although Mac has been seen in numerous memorable film performances, MR. 3000 marks his first outing at the center of a movie that revolves around his uniquely dramatic comedy style.

From the very beginning, the filmmakers of MR. 3000 knew the role of Stan Ross was tailor-made for Mac, who not only has a penchant for exposing the funny side of real, relatable human foibles, but is a rabid sports fan on top of that. "MR. 3000 could not have been made without the existence of Bernie Mac," says director Charles Stone III. "This role is about a larger than life figure who displays raw candor and humor – and nobody exudes those like Bernie. He brings fire and power to his performance because, unlike Stan, Bernie is already a very real, very grounded person who understands a lot about both comedy and life."

Stone continues: "In playing Stan, Bernie had to move through a lot of contradictions because Stan is a guy with a million dollar smile yet he can be very obnoxious, he's a guy who's dapper and charming yet is a little blinded by his own selfishness, he's an amazing athlete but he's also a man who hasn't quite come to terms with himself and the world around him – and all at the same time he has to be at once very human and very funny."

Bernie Mac saw the role as the perfect challenge at this point in his continually peaking career. "I knew that playing Stan Ross would bring my game up another notch and put me in a place where I could really work my acting chops and dig deep into a character," he says. "This movie gives me an opportunity to show my love for what I do. I was also moved by the themes of the story. It's about teamwork, it's about change and it's about becoming the person you never thought you could be. It's about asking: what's it all about in the end? And to me, it's all about the joy in life and that's what the film captures."

The comedian was especially pleased to find a comical character in Stan Ross who appealed directly to his distinctive sense of humor. "You know, I don't do typical jokes and punch lines – that's not me," he says. "It can be hard to find the right kind of roles, but this role fit me, in the same way the television character on 'The Bernie Mac Show' fit me. I'm not at all like Stan Ross, but I understand him and the changes he is going through. This guy's so self-centered and egotistical, he's completely over the top. Muhammad Ali's got nothing on Stan Ross. But once he realizes he can't be the man he used to be, the story is about the man he becomes."

The changes Stan goes through include finding a new and sizzling spark in his relationship with sports reporter Mo Simmons, a part of MR. 3000 that let Mac show another side of himself: the underlying romantic. "I wanted to create a very real relationship between Mo and Stan through the comedy, and make their courtship both clever and passionate. There's got to be a real chemistry and fire between them to have lasted all these years," he says. "The way I see it Mo has always had a soft spot for old Stan Ross, but she also wants to mold him into a better person, and she finally has a chance to do it."

Once Mac took the role, he went into his own version of "spring training." Though he once played baseball seriously in the past, just like Stan Ross, Bernie Mac found himself facing daunting physical challenges and bodily revolt while trying to make his own bat-cracking comeback.

"The guys who trained us for this film really worked us," says Mac. "They constantly pushed me and they were always in my face – but ultimately, I appreciated that because we were trying to capture the authenticity of being a ball player. If there's one thing about Stan Ross that has got him where he is it's that he knows he's a great hitter and there couldn't be anything fake about that in the performance."

With production underway, the filmmakers were quickly impressed with how completely Bernie Mac embodied both the physical and dramatic sides of the role and molded them to his own expressive comedy form. "I think people are going to be bowled over by what Bernie brings to MR. 3000, says producer Maggie Wilde. "He has such a terrific range and a wonderful sense of life's experiences – and he makes for a classic comical leading man."

SCORE ONE FOR THE PRESS:
Angela Bassett Takes on the Role of Sports Reporter Mo Simmons

With Bernie Mac cast in the lead role of MR. 3000, the next big challenge for the filmmakers was to find an actress who could stand her ground next to him. To embody the tough but irresistible Mo Simmons – savvy career woman, hard-hitting interviewer and the one woman who doesn't intend to be Stan Ross' fool – one name kept coming to the top of the list: Oscar® nominee Angela Bassett. If any woman had the inner strength to whip a recalcitrant Bernie Mac into shape it would have to be her. When Maggie Wilde saw Bassett at a party, she quickly approached her. "I told her that she was our first choice for this movie – and also choices 2 through 10," Wilde recalls. "Thank goodness she responded positively."

Adds director Charles Stone III: "We always felt Angela was an essential part of the vision for this film. She has all those qualities we need in Mo: beautiful but tough as nails, elegant yet a force to reckon with. She possesses a deep well of emotions to draw on and most of all, she has a fierce chemistry with Bernie Mac."

Bassett was drawn to MR. 3000 at first because of its strong dramatic storyline. "What I love about this movie is that the comedy arises out of real-life situations," she says. "There's straight-out comedy but there's also poignancy to it. Because it touches on the idea that if you give a little more to other people, you get a lot more than you expected out of it."

And yet, Bassett also reveled in the chance to unveil her lighter side. "I wanted to show that I can be funny," she says. "I usually play very serious, very strong characters and Mo is strong, too – but there's a lot of levity to her. There's something so fun and charming about the way she and Stan Ross reconnect. Their relationship has never truly been over, yet just as it's trying to ignite again, Mo tries to squash it. She just wants to do her job as a reporter and not get drawn into something with Stan that's just going to end badly – but of course, things don't go as planned."

Just as Mo finds that she can't quite resist the way Stan constantly makes her laugh, Bassett found working with Bernie Mac kept her in stitches. "He's just a great human being as well as being genuinely funny," she says. "You know it's always a gamble to bring two people together and put them down in front of the camera and hope they'll have a real spark together. So it's been an extraordinary blessing that Bernie Mac and I just seem to have that chemistry. Bernie's so rich and alive and so funny, it was just a great time working with him, and easy to play a woman being won over, even if it's in spite of herself!"

Says Bernie Mac of Angela Bassett: "Angela brings a perfect combination of polish and brass to the role. She's so unique in her style I thought she made the perfect Mo, especially because she's such a sophisticated, strong woman character who has a kind of smoldering sexiness. I've always thought if you want to be your best you have to play with the best, so I was very pleased that Angela took the role."

Once on the set, the chemistry between Mac and Bassett was immediately apparent. "They both have a unique power to their presence that only got brighter when they were together," sums up Stone. "She has this kind of soulfulness and he has this milliondollar smile and somehow they made a very complicated relationship seem very true and real."

THE TEAM LINEUP:
The Supporting Cast of "Mr. 3000"

Adding to the fun of MR. 3000 is a supporting cast of comics, rising actors and sports veterans – as well as media personalities in cameo roles. With Bernie Mac and Angela Basset cast in the lead roles, the filmmakers next turned their focus to casting an ensemble who could ratchet up the tension and the comedy as Bernie's new teammates on the Milwaukee Brewers. It would be no easy task, requiring a group of actors with equal parts sports savvy and comedy talent.

One of the key supporting roles of the film is that of Boca, Stan Ross' sweat-suitsporting best friend from the old days who has stuck loyally by his side, despite Stan's self-obsessed shenanigans. Playing Boca – whose refrain "That's why I love you, man" becomes a running gag throughout the movie –is veteran actor Michael Rispoli, who found the role a great send-up of male relationships.

"I liked the way the script really captured the cryptic communication that goes on in male friendships," says Rispoli. "It's amazing how much can be expressed between two guys with no words at all! I also like that Boca is just the perfect stalwart friend. He stands by Stan, but he's always gently pointing out the folly of Stan's ways – hoping that one day, finally, Stan is going to get it! Which, at long last, he does."

On the other side of Stan Ross is his new-found rival, T-Rex Pennebaker, the Milwaukee Brewers' latest star hitter and overthe-top egomaniac, played by actor Brian White – himself a former pro football player. T-Rex is the consummate New School ball player, as interested in his video game sales and his TV sound-bites as his batting average, and a kid who goes for towering home runs instead of measly single hits. Director Stone sees T-Rex as the second coming of Stan Ross, who reveals to Stan in his outrageousness the error of his own ways.

"T-Rex and Stan mirror each other in almost every way, except that T-Rex is taking it one step further, getting thrills from playing with his own character on his video game," says Stone. "But when Stan sees this, it's like encountering himself, and he's able to see much more clearly into his own past."

Says Brian White of the role: "Even though T-Rex and Stan can't stand each other in the beginning, TRex is clearly a lot like Stan when he was a young player: outspoken, brash and a guy who just hates to lose. T-Rex wants all the attention for himself, so in the beginning he resents Stan, but then, when Stan turns around, he can't help but see him as a mentor. The fun part about playing T- Rex is that he just doesn't care about what comes out of his mouth. His talent is undeniable – but his comments are unbearable!"

White continues: "It was also interesting to play a symbol of how sports has changed, because when Bernie Mac comes into the Brewers locker room, he discovers a whole new world. Suddenly, you've got all kinds of electronics and video games and Fantasy Baseball League – and all Bernie's character ever thought about was hitting the ball. It's a culture shock situation and it makes for a lot of laughs in the film. And eventually, through Stan Ross, T-Rex comes to see that it wouldn't be such a bad idea to get a little of that Old School spirit back into the game."

The Brewers lineup is further rounded out by the shortstop Skillet (Dondré T. Whitfield), the second baseman Minadeo (Amaury Nolasco), the catcher Fryman (Evan Jones) and the under-pressure pitcher, fresh from Japan, Fukuda (Ian Anthony Dale). Behind the scenes are besieged manager Gus Panas who is still bitter over Stan's rapid departure from the team a decade ago, played by award-winning actor Paul Sorvino; wise-cracking Coach Koran played by Earl Billings; and Chris Noth in the role of General Manager Schembri, who only sees dollar signs when he looks at Stan Ross. Also joined the cast is director Charles Stone in the part of the Sausage Mascot.

Sums up Stone of the entire ensemble: "I felt really lucky to be working with actors who brought such a great deal of experience and talent to this movie. For me, the characters are the heart of the film, and each one of these guys helped to make Stan Ross' world become vibrant, real and alive."

Completing the cast are a number of popular personalities in cameo roles. In one of MR. 3000's most irreverent moments, a newly-returned-to-baseball Stan Ross is turned upside down by the three real-life sports show hosts, Tom Arnold, John Salley and Ron Darling.

For Charles Stone, securing Arnold, Salley and Darling to join the production of MR. 3000 was key to pulling off the whole thing. "Media is such a big part of pro sports right now – and these guys who comment on sports definitely have a big effect," he says. "It's clear that the media would be all over a guy like Stan Ross who is so controversial and such a loudmouth. So to have the real-life personalities that everybody knows and sees talking about real sports stars all the time participate was a fantastic opportunity. It made me giddy to see these guys talking about Stan as if he really existed!"

John Salley was attracted to the film as an entertaining look at the behind-the-scenes life of an athlete who has to battle the media even as he's trying to better himself. "As an athlete, this movie was right down my line," he says. "And it was great to play it so real. I have to admit, the media can be blood suckers and when you have a guy like Stan Ross who's 47 and probably shouldn't even play baseball on a video game let alone in the pros, you know the media will be there to have our say."

Tom Arnold was drawn not only to the sports angle of the film, but responded with enthusiasm to the film's sense of comedy. "I loved the idea of a 47-year-old making a comeback only to find it's not so simple and when I heard Bernie Mac was going to do it, I was even more excited," he says. "This is really a movie about a man becoming a better man and Bernie does that while keeping you in hysterics."

LIGHTS, CAMERA, PLAY BALL!
Training the Cast to Become a Major League Team

When Stan Ross gets a second chance to become a sports hero in MR. 3000, he rediscovers not only his own search for love and meaning – he also rediscovers his romance with baseball, the simple pleasures of which he had just about forgotten. To capture both the modern essence of the sport and its classic appeal, it was imperative that the actors in MR. 3000 be able to bat, pitch and run the bases as convincingly as the pros. "The bottom line for me was to make the film, and especially the baseball sequences, 100 % believable," says Charles Stone. "I have so much love and respect for the game that I wanted to capture the beauty, the athleticism and the physicality of it as much as possible by surrounding ourselves with real players, the best coaches and actors willing to train hard to learn the game."

Rather than start from scratch, the filmmakers purposely cast several actors with serious sports backgrounds, including Bernie Mac who was once himself a talented baseball player. Brian White, who plays T-Rex Pennebaker, played pro football with the New England Patriots before being side-lined with a knee injury and is the son of Celtics basketball player Jo Jo White; Dondré T. Whitfield, who portrays shortstop Skillet, was a semi-professional baseball player before becoming an actor and Ian Anthony Dale, who plays the fresh-from-Tokyo pitcher Fukuda, was a promising collegiate baseball player before a shoulder injury ended his career.

Despite these formidable athletic backgrounds, the "team" would require plenty of workouts to rev-up their playing styles. To help achieve the realism he was seeking in the baseball sequences, director Charles Stone brought in the sports consultants known as Reel Sports, who have previously choreographed sequences for such films as "Jerry Maguire," "Any Given Sunday" and "The Rookie." In addition to training the cast, Reel Sports created a day-byday "play-book" for the production, detailing each play that would be shot, the necessary choreography and even what the scoreboard should read.

But when it came to working with the film's stars, they simply relied on old-fashioned hard work and coaching. A training camp was created in hot, humid New Orleans.

"I think I must have sweat away half my person," jokes Dondré T. Whitfield, "but the work really paid off."

"The coaches videotaped our swings, our throws, our fielding, and broke it all down for each of us individually," explains Brian White. "Then they would make adjustments, adding this, eliminating that. It was amazing to see how much we progressed. In the beginning we were a little rusty, but by the end, we were pretty convincing as ball players."

During one evening's shooting, Charles Stone even rolled the camera while the team played an impromptu few innings of wideopen baseball. "It was a blast," says Stone. "These guys worked so hard, it was great fun just letting them play full-out."

Adds Bernie Mac: "Training for sports isn't all that different from training for comedy. You've got to go out there and give your best – and that was what we did for this film."

INSIDE STAN'S WORLD:
About the Look and Design of "Mr. 3000"

To bring Stan Ross's second chance at love, baseball and becoming a better man to life in MR. 3000, director Charles Stone III wanted to forge a distinctive look that would be at once viscerally real and comically colorful. Noted for his visual energy, Stone collaborated closely with director of photography Shane Hurlbut (with whom he previously worked on "Drumline") to search, in particular, for a new way to film baseball that would take audiences deeper inside the beloved American game.

"I wanted to infuse the baseball scenes with some of the mythology of baseball I fell in love with growing up," explains Stone. "There's something really just primal and yet larger-than-life about a man battling adversity by dealing with a 90-plus-mile-an-hour ball coming at him with just a wooden bat in his hand. That was the vision I started with."

To bring this vision to reality, Stone had long conversations with Hurlbut about how to get at what he calls "the kernel of visual truth" in baseball. "When Charles and I first sat down to talk about the look of the film, he told me he wanted to have the audience feel the dirt, feel the ball whizzing by their heads, feel the impact of the bat," explains Hurlbut. "We wanted it to all really pop, to seem incredibly real, and to not look like anything you've seen before on screen."

Hurlbut continues: "Charles and I started by looking at all the baseball movies that have ever been done and asking ourselves: what can we do that's different? We ended up going back to old-fashioned still photography that had been taken with long lenses because we were stunned by what they were able to capture. We decided that we would do the same thing – step back and shoot the action with cranes and really long lenses. This gave us very graphic wide angles and a sense of being 'on the field,' which mixed with extreme close-up gave us a look that we hope is both original and full of emotional impact."

As Stan moves from the glory of his early baseball days to the suburban banality of his 'Mr. 3000' mall, Hurlbut also played with color. "The early baseball games are filled with explosive color," he comments, "while we decided the games after his retirement would be more subdued and muted with very blue tones. Everything we did for the film was a very creative, collaborative process the whole way."

Lighting was another challenge, with Hurlbut utilizing what he dubbed "the ring of fire" – a circle of 39 spotlights mounted atop the baseball stadium and capable of illuminating any part of the field at will. "This created a really stark, hot backlight to which was added a very beautiful soft key light on the actors in the scene," he explains.

In a very rare concession, the Milwaukee Brewers allowed the MR. 3000 production to shoot two quick scenes between innings of an actual Brewers game. In both cases, the production had less than one minute to get the shot. "What an adrenaline rush that was," comments first assistant director Doug Torres, who ran out onto the field with the director, the actor (in one case Brian White, in the other Bernie Mac) and a Steadi-cam crew for the "one-take only" shots. "Waiting in the dugout for our signal, my heart was pounding. After the final out, we rushed to home plate, did a quick set-up and rolled in just 45 seconds!"

The Brewers' cooperation also extended to pre-game warm-ups. In one case, the film's cast was invited to practice with the club just prior to a game against the Cincinnati Reds. Brewers' fans also lent their support, sticking around for hours after games to give the filmmakers ample opportunities to shoot wide-shots of a packed stadium. "One nice thing about using the home team of the stadium you're shooting in is that there's no need to give extras any memorabilia or reason to be enthusiastic – they already have it!" says Stone.

To take the audience behind the scenes of the stadium and into the players' high-tech club-house, production designer Maher Ahmad created a set which replicates the actual Brewers' clubhouse – and in the film becomes the glossy face of the "New School" baseball style that, at first, flummoxes Stan Ross.

Ahmad enjoyed forging the sleek surfaces of a modern sports technopolis, but he had particular fun designing Stan's life off the field. "The aim was to bring out both the reality and the comedy of Stan Ross' world," says Ahmad. "Charles Stone and I discussed the fact that he didn't want this to be a typical comedy design done in broad strokes. He wanted something more realistic, with sets that would seem like places a larger-than-life guy like Stan might really be."

One of Ahmad's most intricate designs became Ross' 'Mr. 3000' Bar, his trusty hangout and temple to his reputation until he realizes he can no longer go by that name. Starting with a dilapidated tavern, Ahmad transformed the place into a virtual "Shrine O' Stan," filled to the brim with kitschy, selfserving memorabilia, trophies, posters and tributes to Stan's life and achievements.

"My idea in creating this place was that it wouldn't be enough for a guy like Stan to have gained all those hits – he has to have the reminder of it on every single wall for everyone to see." says Ahmad.

While Ahmad went to town, and then some, in creating the 'Mr. 3000' strip mall, he held back when it came to putting together Stan Ross's private home. "We wanted his house to be completely lacking in warmth," he explains. "It shows that there's an emptiness there because he's not sharing his life with anybody."

Meanwhile, costume designer Salvador Perez was kept busy creating uniforms . . . and more uniforms . . . and more uniforms. "We had to have uniforms from both 1995 and 2003," Perez notes, "and uniforms not only for the Brewers but all the teams the Brewers play. So in the end we had more than 600 uniforms to manage."

Perez worked with the athletic apparel company Russell, which made the Brewers uniforms in 1995 (another company makes them today), to recreate their former look authentically for the film. He also found himself hunting down uniforms across the country. "There was always some drama to it," he recalls. "For instance, the San Francisco Giants uniforms arrived by courier on the very day they were needed for shooting. And then there was the whole issue of socks – how high they were supposed to be for each different team both then and now and this was the source of a lot of debate!"

On top of the uniforms, Perez also put a lot of creative thought into Bernie Mac's and Angela Bassett's street clothes ensembles. For Mac, he knew it would have to be flashy and custom-made all the way. "Needless to say, Stan Ross is a guy who has to have a distinctive style," says Perez. "This meant that Bernie Mac had more than 30 personal costume changes – all of them accessorized with gold jewelry and chains. Every time he comes in somewhere he makes quite an entrance."

By contrast, Angela Bassett's outfits are sleek, polished and are meant to exude high class. Perez had the Los Angeles-based Ron & Ron design fitted suits that reflect Mo Simmons' hard-nosed approach to her career. "She is a woman in a man's world and she knows it," says Perez. "Her outfits are coolly professional with a dash of feminine charms."

"We had a lot of people really put their feet forward to make this movie," sums up Stone. "We had great actors, a phenomenal crew and, on the set, they all came together like a true team."

WHAT'S IN A NUMBER?
The 3000 Hit Legacy

In baseball, greatness is determined by numbers – which is why Stan Ross is so utterly determined to remain 'Mr. 3000,' even if it means starting all over a second time. It's a magic number that in his mind means he's attained the rare heights of perfection, although he quickly learns he has a long way to go in that department.

From the beginning, Charles Stone liked the way the title of the film sets up the notion of "going for the numbers." "Calling yourself 'Mr. 3000' to me is like calling yourself a 'Perfect Ten' – because you know that behind that incredible number there is going to be a whole other story," says the director. "Obviously, getting 3000 hits is an extraordinary athletic achievement, but it begs the question: who is behind this 'Mr. 3000' facade? Who is the man behind the amazing number? And that's what this story is all about."