~About
the Production~
“It all depends on how you look at it;
we’re either half way to heaven or half way to hell.”
-Nick Nolte / Father Harlan
Northfork
is a film that indeed depends on how one looks at it. Rooted in
magical realism, it is a unique American fairy tale about roots
to the land, fear of change, saying goodbye, the fragility of angels
and faith, the nature of storytelling, about individualism and,
most of all, about the many ways Americans dream about the future.
With both its tongue in its cheek and its heart on its sleeve, Northfork
mixes absurdist comedy and visual inventiveness with stark poignancy
to forge an entertainment that boldly stands apart.
Set
in 1955 on the Montana Plains, the story takes place two days before
the town of Northfork will be wiped off the map forever by a new
dam. How do people leave the only place they’ve ever known?
Whether it’s moving across the country or departing this earth
forever, Northfork ponders the strange and unsettling nature of
making big transitions and man’s ability to cope with them.
Sums
up Mark Polish, who co-wrote the screenplay with his twin brother
Michael: “Northfork is really three types of movies all intertwined:
it’s part Gothic, part surreal fantasy and part tender coming-of-age
story. It throws all of the genres into the mix that influenced
us as kids. But to me, what it is really about is how we each get
ready for the major changes in our lives – whether physical,
emotional or spiritual departures – and what kind of faith
or belief structures are needed to make it all right.”
Directed
by Michael Polish from a script by Mark Polish and Michael Polish,
the film completes the acclaimed and award-winning Polish Brothers’
debut trilogy, which began with Twin Falls Idaho and continued with
Jackpot. These films are connected by themes of identity and loss
-- of the individual as well as the towns of this country. The films
are also connected by the fact that they are all named after Northwest
towns. The entire trilogy was shot in just 56 days (Twin Falls Idaho
17 days, Jackpot 15 days and Northfork’s production was by
far the longest and most complex at 24 days), making it a true American
Indie Epic.
Mark Polish explains, “We’re proud this trilogy represents
true independent filmmaking. The funding for these movies came from
private investors outside the Hollywood system--so the cost of all
these films combined was less than the Titanic’s catering
budget --this consequently means that the cast had to work for practically
nothing.” Nolte illustrates how a cast comes together on a
film like Northfork, “It’s the material. It’s
because the script is appealing. As actors we feel the need to do
work that speaks to us personally.” Michael Polish recounts
discussing the film initially with James Woods, “When we asked
James to be in Northfork, we discussed shooting in Montana in the
winter. His reply was ‘Wow, that it's going to be beautiful,
but cold.’ Then we quietly added "And you're going to
have to do it for scale." James concluded ‘That's really
cold’.”
EVERY SCRIPT MUST HAVE AN “ARK”:
ABOUT THE PLOT
“The
State understands your difficulty in moving on.”
-Mark Polish / Willis O’Brien
The
tale of Northfork unravels in a fictional Great Plains town that
mirrors many real small towns of the ‘40s and ‘50s that
were destroyed when massive hydroelectric projects flooded great
swaths of farmland across the American West. Northfork, like many
of those towns, is inhabited by families who have lived and toiled
there for generations, and whose hard-scrabble hopes and dreams
are entwined with the very landscape, harsh and rugged as it is.
Now that the town must be moved, a few of the town’s most
diehard citizens just don’t feel that they can leave.
Some
are too young to understand -- like the Youngs. Others are stalling
for time -- like Mr. Stalling (MARSHALL BELL), who has built an
Ark and is preparing two-by-two (with Mrs. Stalling and Mrs. Stalling)
for the coming flood. Then, there is the man who has literally nailed
down his boots with his feet in them.
Helping
these folks make the transition is the Evacuation Committee, an
eerily bureaucratic group of trench-coated, fedora-wearing men,
who all drive the same spit-polished black Fords. Nevertheless these
dark disciplined men, seemingly cogs in the government’s wheel,
carry out their own form of angel’s work by trying to save
lives, knowing that all those they don’t remove from Northfork
will drown. Among the Evacuators is the father and son team of Walter
(JAMES WOODS) and Willis (MARK POLISH), who have their own quandary
about how to leave Northfork: whether or not to take their dead
wife and mother with them when they go.
In
an effort to move things along, the Evacuation Committee offers
to each of the remaining citizens of Northfork a set of clipped
baby “angel wings,” in a velvet- lined guitar case,
as a parting gift – perhaps as a ruse, perhaps as a marketing
metaphor, or perhaps as a real invitation to fly to higher ground.
And
then there is Irwin (DUEL FARNES), an orphaned child too ill to
make the journey from Northfork, who is being cared for by the town’s
crusty yet fiercely compassionate priest, Father Harlan (NICK NOLTE).
As Irwin lies in bed, trapped in feverish dreams, he turns the objects
in his room into an extraordinary fantasy about a group of eccentric,
wingless, earthbound Angels who are roaming the Plains looking for
a lost member of their flock. Although these Angels are wounded,
troubled and downright incompetent at times, Irwin believes this
rag-tag herd might be his new family, and he sets out to convince
them that he is their relation.
Among
the Angels is the blind, double-amputee Happy (ANTHONY EDWARDS);
the androgynous, childless Flower Hercules (DARYL HANNAH); the mute,
stoical Cod (BEN FOSTER) and the drunken, cynical Cup of Tea (ROBIN
SACHS). Each appears to have brought into the afterlife the very
same problems that plagued them in life, and they are still trying
to resolve them. They also have a mission: to find the unknown missing
member of their group.
Like
the Evacuation Committee, Irwin brings to the Angels a set of child-sized
white wings he claims were once attached to his back and traumatically
removed when he was a toddler. Are the feathers duck, are they goose,
or are they real? The Angels try to decide Irwin’s fate even
as, back in Northfork, he gets one last earthly hope with Mr. and
Mrs. Hope (KYLE MACHLACHLAN and MICHELE HICKS), a couple hoping
to take a child with them when they leave, unaware that Irwin is
teetering on the brink of death.
As
the flood draws near, it becomes clear that it is time for each
character to make his or her final decision: to stay or go, to fight
or make their peace, to reconcile or change. In the end, there will
be death and destruction across the land that was once Northfork
but also rebirth and the beginning of new dreams. It all depends
on how you look at it.
As
Michael Polish summarizes about this vast and open-ended fable:
“How you see Northfork depends on how you interpret dreams
and death and the afterlife, whether you are interested in the physical
or the metaphysical, the straight reality or the fantastical myths.
There is no right or wrong about it.”
AND NOW FOR THE “BACK”
STORY: THE GENESIS OF NORTHFORK
“There’s
nothing fowl about these wings.”
-Mark Polish / Willis O’Brien
Northfork
was conceived by the Polish Brothers as a fairytale, complete with
comedy and fantasy, as well as room for many different interpretations.
The brothers liken the style of the film to an American version
of Magical Realism, a mode of literature invented by Latin American
writers that blends real moments and surreal moments as if they
are one and the same. Magical realism has been defined as making
dreams seem like reality and reality seem like dreams. Jorge Luis
Borges has poetically defined Magical Realism as: “It is a
labyrinth of labyrinths, one sinuous spreading labyrinth that encompasses
past and future.” Rarely used in Hollywood films (one example
is Terry Gilliam’s Brazil), the Polish Brothers chose to take
this labyrinthine, magical storytelling style and give it their
own touch, weaving in distinctly American myths about rootedness
and roaming, heaven and hell, state and individual, and life and
death.
“Northfork
is meant to seem like a dream,” explains Mark Polish. “It’s
grounded in reality and history but we give it magical twists. That
dreaminess is also the way that, often, in America we look at the
past – we make parts of it up, turn parts of it into myth
and the things that really stand out are the things that tell us
the most about ourselves.”
The
film’s magic comes in large part from the rag-tag band of
Angels that the orphan Irwin dreams up as he lies in bed near death.
The Polish Brothers had been rethinking the common view of Angels
as cherubic, flawless religious icons at the time they began writing
Northfork. Instead of helium-light, otherworldly creatures who float
around on wings, they wanted to write about earthbound Angels, who
are perhaps too heavy of body, or heart, to fly.
“The
traditional images of Angels were never really comforting to me
as a child,” comments Mark Polish. “They just seemed
entirely made up. The omnipresence of certain religious images has
always seemed stifling to me and I have always wondered why no one
ever plays with them. I was more interested in a folk tale I heard
that when God finished creating the earth he took a bunch of Angels
back with him to heaven and the ones he left on earth became human.
That’s why the Angels in Northfork are written as having utterly
human hopes and despairs.”
The
brothers wanted to write about Angels but they also wanted to write
a story about the Great Plains: and thus came the notion of Angels
who had once roamed the plains like buffalo before they lost their
wings. “We became intrigued by this idea that we are all angels
but we’ve all lost our wings in one way or another,”
recalls Michael Polish. “Maybe we cut them off at some point
or they were wrenched from our backs or they’re no longer
deemed necessary, kind of like your appendix. Or maybe we’re
still looking for them. But the point is, without your wings, you
can’t leave. And the idea of being unable to leave, or to
change, is another big part of Northfork.”
In
addition to Angels, the inspiration for Northfork lay in the Polish
Brothers’ own family history, which has its roots in the hardscrabble
Montana frontier which their ancestors helped to pioneer. Their
homesteading grandfather built dams (such as the Hungry Horse and
Libby dams) in Montana and, growing up, they had been told frightening
and fascinating stories of towns that disappeared overnight under
millions of pounds of water, stories that fired their imaginations.
“I
remember visiting several dams as a kid and seeing these black-and-white
photographs of towns that were now underwater and it really stuck
with me,” says Mark. “It was a very powerful thing to
think about – a whole American town just disappearing. I became
fascinated by dams. Dams disrupt the flow of nature and in this
era they disrupted the flow of the American Dream. It was a time
when certain things came to a stop and other things were born anew,
and that really drew us to this time and place.”
Adds
Michael: “We wanted to write a story about death and rebirth
in America, so this very real history of disappearing towns, of
people who had to say goodbye, of attachment to the land, seemed
to fit. In America, when you build your home, you build roots to
the land just like the roots you have to your brothers, sisters
and children. To lose those roots is pretty unbearable to a lot
of people, but it is also the nature of things. We were interested
in how different people face transition.”
Northfork
also became about the nature of dreams, as the brothers decided
that their Angels would visit Irwin while he was in a twilight state
of illness. As with most dreams, the Angels are each inspired in
appearance and personality by real objects in Irwin’s room
– for example, the spectacled, hand-less Happy is inspired
by a compass and a hand-shaped flower vase; and Flower Hercules
comes from a comic book on Irwin’s nightstand. Irwin even
dreams of a magical dog on stilts, a fantasy version of Father Harlan’s
carved, wooden dog-head cane. In Irwin’s dreams, the real
world is blurred into something entirely new and only partly recognizable.
“To
me, Irwin is dying in part because he is unloved, and he dreams
about all that is being lost from lack of love,” says Mark.
“What you see in the film is Irwin’s creative imagination
processing what’s happening to him. The images might be strange
and weird at times but that’s because dreams and inner feelings
are always a little strange and weird.”
The
Angels themselves shatter typical Western images of the afterlife.
Explains Michael Polish: “Each angel has his or her own problem
or need. They have heartbreak and pain and desires that have never
been met. In fact, whatever plagued them on earth continues to plague
them, and has followed them into the beyond. This was an interesting
idea to us: that you better work on your problems now because there’s
no guarantee they won’t be with you forever. The Angels are
also inspiring in that although they are a band apart, they are
a gang together. We saw this as: united they stand, divided they
fall. They are truly dependent on one another, and while individually
they are kind of fun and interesting, it is only together that they
get anywhere.”
Another
unique creation in the magical reality world of Northfork is the
Evacuation Committee: six men, dressed alike, who walk around in
dark flocks, partly tied to an uncaring system, yet partly driven
by their own inner compassion. “When I thought of the Evacuation
Committee, I always thought of the way flocks of birds all travel
together in synch as one unit,” notes Michael Polish. “But,
although you can see the Evacuation Committee as part of a bureaucratic
system, they are also on the side of the Angels, as it were, because
they are trying to get people to higher ground. They are perhaps
the right side of angelic-ness while Happy and that gang are the
left side.”
Four
of the five members of the Evacuation Committee are named after
Mark and Michael’s Montana Uncles. “We wanted authentic
Western names,” explains Mark. “For me, the inspiration
for the men was also the legendary Dallas Cowboys football couch
Tom Landry, with his trademark Fendora and coat and his very American
attitude about what it takes to win.”
Throughout
writing the script, the Polish Brothers also wanted to address the
very nature of screenwriting – its confining, formulaic rules
as well as their own mischievous intentions to break them. That’s
why the script is peppered with such puns as having an “ark,”
a “back” story, a cane that becomes a filmic “crutch”
and an admission that the dream-like style doesn’t try to
be everyone’s “cup of tea.” “We come up
against these phrases all the time and our point is this: we’re
trying to do it differently,” says Michael.
Adds
Mark: “Obviously, we don’t write the typical three-act
structure with a hero and conflict and resolution. We feel you can
go see that anytime you want to at the movies and we’re very
lucky to have found an arena in which we can do something completely
different. Still, we decided that if people want an ‘arc,’
we’ll give them one, so we wrote in Mr. Stalling’s ark,
and if people want a ‘back story,’ we’ll have
a whole story attached to Irwin’s back about his lost wings.”
The
script’s unique mix of biting humor and tender moments is
another key element of the film’s style. “A fairy tale
will make you laugh and make you wonder at the same time and that’s
the feeling we wanted,” says Michael Polish. “We like
the idea that it’s not always clear-cut in Northfork how you
should feel, that the film keeps you guessing on an emotional level.
That’s what also happens in fairy tales – one minute
things are very serious, and the next a joker comes in and makes
you laugh. It’s a case of hitting you with one hand and rubbing
you with the other and the effect can be to make be to make you
stop and reflect.”
Although
Northfork is the final episode of the Polish Brothers’ trilogy,
it was written first, some eight years ago. At the time, the twins
knew it was way too ambitious and unconventional to get financing,
so they made Twin Falls, Idaho, a film ostensibly about conjoined
twins that was also about the universal human condition, instead.
Shot for just $500,000, the film went on to win international accolades
and was hailed by Roger Ebert as “one of the best films of
the year.” They followed that up with Jackpot, also set in
Northwestern American, which garnered the Independent Spirit Award’s
John Cassavetes Best Independent Film Award and the Seattle Film
Festival’s New American Cinema Award. Jackpot also had the
distinction of being one of the first feature films entirely shot
in high-definition video.
At
last, with their reputations as American film renegades sealed,
the Polish Brothers were ready to revisit Northfork, bringing to
the production everything they’d learned about independent
filmmaking in the ensuing years. Although the three films do not
share characters nor even direct story parallels, the Brothers consider
them connected both geographically and emotionally. “The theme
is the Heartland,” notes Michael Polish. “There is a
journey in each film for the authentic and sometimes disappearing
American heart.”
ALL IN THE SAME BOAT: THE MONTANA
PRODUCTION
“This
country is being divided into two types of people:
Ford People and Chevy People.”
- Graham Beckel / Marvin
Northfork
was shot in just 24 days on location in the frostbitten wilds of
Northern Montana, filming mostly around Great Falls and Augusta.
In fact, it was the very first film the Polish Brothers have made
on location. Though still made in the down-and-dirty Indie style
for which the Brothers are known, the film was intended to have
an epic feel, which was afforded by Michael Polish’s imagination-driven
visual design and the dramatic, open-sky landscape of Montana.
“When
Mother Nature is one of your art directors, you can’t go wrong,”
says Michael Polish. Yet others put the credit for the film’s
look – which meshes lyrical, dreamlike moods with pure Americana
– squarely back on Michael, who sketched most of the film’s
inventive visuals and forged its painterly images (perhaps part
Edward Hopper, part Salvador Dali) with anamorphic lenses and wide-screen
techniques.
Says
the film’s props and costume designer Gary Tunnicliffe: “The
Polish Brothers have the most surreal imaginations of anyone I’ve
ever met. It’s not just a cliché to say they bring
dreams to life. They really take the mind’s wildest possible
ideas and fleeting visions and turn them into a reality you can
experience.”
Adding
to the film’s illusory nature is its palette. The question
arises quickly into the film: is Northfork filmed in color or black
& white? At first glance, it’s hard to tell, causing the
eye to question everything it sees, an intentional design on the
part of Michael Polish. “First of all, we didn’t want
to shoot in black & white because the stock these days just
isn’t rich enough and it doesn’t have the latitude we
needed,” he says. “But we also were certain that the
film had to have a gray pallor. I mean death and change are a gray
zone and that’s where the film takes place.”
To
achieve a de-saturated effect throughout the entire film, Michael
decided to shoot using color film but to have everything that appears
on screen fit within ten shades of gray-scale. Buildings, clothing,
accessories, anything and everything that was brought onto the set,
had to fit somewhere in the gray spectrum. The film’s designers
and builders were each given a card with the gray scale on it and
expected to never stray.
“This
turned out to be much more challenging than I thought at first,”
admits Michael. “I suddenly became aware of just how much
color there is in the world. We even had to design gray Ketchup
bottles!” In fact, in the entire film there is but one splash
of true color – among Irwin’s dream Angels, Cup of Tea
is wearing an eye-popping maroon scarf. Similarly, the color white
is only seen on the clipped angel wings. “The entire film
became an advanced study in gray,” sums up Michael. “I
learned so much about it, about it how can become warm or cool under
different circumstances. You learn that a ‘gray area’
can mean many different things.”
One
of the most unusual and inventive sights in Northfork is the teetering
dream-dog, named Flaco by the Polish Brothers, that guides Irwin
to the band of Angels. The dog was designed to be at once expressive
and rickety, haunting and irresistible. Flaco’s inspiration
came from a streetwalker that Michael Polish saw in Brazil while
publicizing Twin Falls, Idaho. “He was this extraordinary
creature made out of leather and balanced on stilts and I just loved
the way he moved,” says Michael. Using his memory as a guide,
Michael had designer Gary Tunnicliffe create a costume that is meant
to look “like a scraggly Buddhist Temple Dog made out of wood.”
The costume was created from Styrofoam dyed to resemble antiqued
wood and the entire thing was hung over a man wearing stilts. The
effect is of a fragile, tender creature spun out of a wild imagination.
“Most
of all, Flaco is something that would catch the eye of a little
boy, a kind of lost puppy who Irwin and the audiences can relate
to,” says Mark.
Flaco
was created entirely by hand without the use of any special effects.
In fact, the film is utterly devoid of effects, making it stand
out in today’s cinema. “One of the things that the crew
on our films gets used to is that we’re constantly asking
them to do things they’ve never done before,” says Michael.
“People today are so used to doing everything digitally, but
for us, it has to be real. We want everything done by hand, and
it’s a way of keeping that tradition of filmmaking alive.”
The
Polish Brother’s father, Del Polish, who once built houses
for a living, headed up the construction team that created the town
of Northfork, complete with its eccentric touches. The crew literally
dug its own graves, shoveling out 40-odd holes to form the cemetery.
They also erected from scratch the 93 foot ark that contains the
Stallings’ house, as well as the church and the outhouse that
serves as an unexpected Confessional. Later, the roof of the Stallings’
house was removed and, in one of the film’s most complex surreal
sequences, set afloat in the Willow Creek Reservoir for scene in
which James Woods makes his point about God giving the Stallings
a sign.
The orphanage where Father Harlan watches over the fading Irwin
was forged from an abandoned elementary school the production team
discovered in rural Montana. “The school already had that
eerie feeling of a place that was vacated, empty and run-down, so
it felt natural to shoot there,” notes Mark.
For
the dam scenes, cast and crew journeyed to Eastern Montana and the
dam at Fort Peck, which was featured on the cover of the very first
issue of Life Magazine. “We loved the irony that in our film
about death, we used the dam that was first in Life,” comments
Michael Polish. “It’s also a really amazing dam that
very few people ever visit because it is so remote.” In fact,
Fort Peck Dam is still the largest hydraulic earth filled dam in
the world. Constructed in the ‘30s and ‘40s under FDR’s
New Deal, the huge project created shantytowns, some of which were
later drowned, like Northfork, when the dam was completed.
Production
initially began with the Evacuation Committee’s scenes then
moved on to those involving the Angels. “It felt like we were
making two very different movies,” admits Michael Polish.
“For the first two weeks, we had all this macho energy and
then we took a complete turnabout into Angels and a more fantastical
kind of view. It was as if the left side and the right side of the
story just collided.”
The
extremes of the film were echoed in Montana’s extremes of
landscape: it’s remoteness yet hugeness, its overwhelming
beauty yet intimidating quiet. For the Polish Brothers, it was exactly
the right atmosphere. Having spent part of their youth in Montana,
the Brothers also already knew how to fit in with close-knit rural
communities. “We felt comfortable,” explains Michael
Polish. “It’s Manners Country up there and there’s
a certain way you have to speak to lumberjack and ranchers which
we get.”
But
one thing no one can ever be prepared for is the Montana weather.
Although the film was shot in spring, the weather ranged from searing
heat to blizzards, sometimes all in the same day. “The conditions
in Montana can be exhausting for the cast and crew,” notes
Michael. “But adversity can also have a good effect. It got
to the point were we were kind of like the Donner Party all trying
to survive together, although fortunately we didn’t end up
eating each other. On the contrary, the cast, being who they were,
brought everyone’s spirits up and there was a real sense of
being united.”
He
continues: “In fact, during the scene where we floated the
Stallings house in the lake, it was absolutely freezing and snowing
heavily and these big Montana locals in huge coats came over to
us and said “Obviously, you’re not going to shoot in
this.” But we did and that was a real turning point in the
production. We proved to these guys just how serious and committed
we were and that brought the whole crew even more together.”
On other days, the notorious, howling Eastern Montana winds blew
so hard that the cameras literally could not be kept on the ground.
“There were times we had to crawl to our trailers, it was
so windy,” recalls Mark Polish. “I do believe we were
hit with every element in American weather, so we felt that Mother
Nature gave us her all.” Adds Nick Nolte: “The wind
blew so hard during production that it would have blown a larger
production across the State.”
No
matter what the weather or the world of filmmaking threw at them,
throughout production the Polish Brothers had one underlying motto:
“Getting bang for the buck.” They whole-heartedly believe
that bloated budgets are unnecessary to get extraordinary visuals
on screen. “In the same way that Happy says ‘don’t
let your mothering nature get in the way of your manhood,’
we say ‘don’t let your budget get in the way of your
vision,’” says Michael Polish. “We’ve shown
that films that are epic in size and scope can be made on smaller
budgets. You can still be thrifty if you use your imagination.”
While
Michael Polish concentrated on using his imagination, Mark Polish
continued to chase down financing while making Northfork, often
maxing out his own credit cards just to keep the cameras rolling.
“We were literally finding enough money each day in order
to be able to shoot the next day,” he explains. “It’s
a tough way to make movies, and often I was being advised to just
pull the plug, but I wouldn’t. I felt my job was always to
protect Michael from all of this and just let him make the movie
we had written in the best possible way.”
A TOWN THAT’S BEEN “DAMMED”:
THE CAST AND CHARACTERS
“The
Unknown doesn’t just come knocking on your door.”
- Robin Sachs / Cup Of Tea
Northfork’s
unconventional storytelling style and surreal mood attracted a cast
of some of the finest actors working in Hollywood today, despite
the fact that they worked for scale in physically and emotionally
demanding circumstances in the middle of some of America’s
most remote country. The Polish Brothers believe the draw came down
to this: “People will go far and wide and work really hard
for good material.”
As
production neared, the Polish Brothers found themselves with a long
list of actors who had expressed interest in appearing in Northfork
and began juggling them, a task that fell to Mark Polish. “It
felt a bit like the NFL draft,” he jokes. “I had a big
roster of names and a bunch of schedules and I just had to make
it all fit together.”
Among
those most committed to the project were two of Hollywood’s
most talented actors: James Woods and Nick Nolte. Woods had never
worked with the Polish Brothers before but was drawn to the script
for Northfork, and wound up taking the role of Walter, a key member
of the Evacuation Committee. “He really liked Walter,”
recalls Mark Polish. “I think he was drawn to this stalwart
man who’s very much in limbo. It’s his kind of character.”
Woods
himself says: “I liked that the emotions of this role are
very suppressed and yet a constant undercurrent. And I also liked
that it’s a movie in which my biggest, most emotional scene
takes place in an outhouse. Walter’s very stoic on the surface
but turbulence flows underneath. His inner world is, indeed, dammed
up. Still, like all the characters in Northfork, he has to come
to terms with the transition from life to death and he and Willis
do it through moving the grave of Walter’s wife. To me, it’s
a story about the power of loss, whether personal, historical or
loss of the natural world.” As for his first exposure to working
with the Polish Brothers, he observes: “They have imaginations
as huge as Montana and working with them was a great experience.”
Nick
Nolte had met the Polish Brothers in Nice, France, where all three
were part of the cast of Neil Jordan’s The Good Thief. Although
originally considered for the role of Walter, once Nolte read the
script of Northfork, he decided he most wanted to be Father Harlan.
“Father
Harlan is the kind of emotional and moral weight of Northfork,”
he observes. “He knows he’s going to be the last one
out of town and it’s up to him to make sure everything is
taken care of. I see him as a man of faith, both in the Biblical
sense and not in the Biblical sense. He maintains a positive view
of life which is based on constant acts of forgiveness. But now
he is stuck in a situation which is not his covenant. He’s
used to helping children through the transition to a new life, not
towards death and he isn’t quite comfortable with that.”
Nolte
came to the set of Northfork from the set of Ang Lee’s The
Hulk, where he was playing a different sort of father – the
forbearer of that film’s mythic creature – yet he sees
the two characters as somewhat related. “To me, Father Harlan
is the other side of the father of the Hulk. One is devious, and
the other is selfless in their quests. They are shadows of one another.”
For
Nolte, moving from a big-budget production to Northfork’s
bare-bones labor-of-love atmosphere was also a yin and yang experience.
He notes: “In low-budget movies, you do that which you love.
You’re really following your passion and I have found over
the last ten years that they are usually wonderful experiences like
Northfork. Bigger budget productions tend to be more conflicted
and full of strife, and you have to be very careful they don’t
damage the passion you have for your work.”
Just
getting Nolte to the set turned out to be one of the film’s
biggest cruxes. “I’d have to say that getting Nick was
the greatest challenge of the entire, incredibly challenging production,”
says Mark Polish. “He was still filming The Hulk when we began
and he was obligated to them, but still wanted to be in this film.
We went back and forth for a long time trying to find a way for
him to get to Montana. Finally, I just put a private jet on my American
Express card and flew him out. It was the ultimate irony: we were
the lowest-budget production you can imagine yet we were flying
him out on a private jet! And thank God they took American Express.”
Working with Woods and Nolte was an exciting experience for the
Polish Brothers, who have a vast knowledge of American film. At
one point, the two actors went bowling together (one of the few
things they found to do in remote Montana) and even that was entertaining,
recalls Mark Polish. “Even while bowling, you could really
see their individual natures as actors,” notes Mark. “James
bowled straight down the pipe while Nick was completely unconventional,
yet they both had an equal amount of style.”
Although
the Polish Brothers always knew that Mark Polish would play one
of the film’s characters, no particular role was written for
him. Instead, it naturally evolved that he would play Willis because
of a plausible physical relation between James Woods and him. Still,
Mark was drawn to the role’s comedy, poignancy and ambiguities.
“Willis and Walter have issues that are never going to be
entirely resolved,” explains Mark. “For one thing, Willis
has a lot of anger at his mom for leaving them that he really hasn’t
dealt with. But the thing about the ‘50s is that they often
covered up sadness and anger with religion. There was this idea
that you didn’t have to grieve a loved one because the dead
were all flying around somewhere like Angels, but I’m not
sure Willis really believes that. He’s coming to terms with
what makes sense to him.”
Working
with Woods is one of the admitted high-points of Mark Polish’s
acting career. “It was a dream come true for me because I
had admired him for so long and Once Upon a Time in America is one
of my favorite movies of all time,” Mark notes. “He
taught me a lot, especially about working with the camera because
he has so much technical knowledge and intelligence.” Mark
also realized that the more they worked together as a father-and-son
team, the more paternal Woods became. “He was always straightening
my tie and fixing my hat, the same way a Dad will do, almost unconsciously,
and I never could quite tell if he was doing it purposefully or
not,” he remembers. “It just seemed that he always wanted
me to be my best.”
Still,
it was a slightly schizophrenic atmosphere for Mark, who moved back
and forth between his roles as writer, producer and actor. Recalls
Michael: “While playing Willis, Mark always had a cell phone
in his suit pocket and the minute I would call ‘cut’
he’d be right back on the phone producing.”
One
of the most challenging aspects of casting was finding a child to
play Irwin. From the start, the Brothers knew they wanted a child
who hailed from Montana. “We didn’t feel we needed an
actor so much as someone who comes from this place,” says
Michael Polish. “And we definitely needed someone who could
deal with the cold and the tough conditions.” The filmmakers
auditioned hundreds of local children and the second-to-last young
boy they saw was 8 year-old Duel Farnes from Ennis. “I was
immediately struck by his childish speech impediment. He drops his
“R’s” which caught our attention because my brother
and I both did that as children,” Michael notes. “It
makes him sound a bit odd and otherworldly which we thought was
perfect.”
Michael
continues: “For Irwin, what we most wanted was a combination
of someone sympathetic and strong. You have to believe that Irwin
would stand up to the band of Angels and Duel makes that work. From
the minute he got on the set, he evaporated all of our doubts. One
of the most amazing things about him is that he had perfect eye
contact with all of the adult actors. He was so intimate with Nick
Nolte that we almost felt like we were eavesdropping on their scenes
together. He has a kind of fearlessness and directness that is almost
never seen in children that age.”
On
the set, Michael asked his brother Mark, who was also a child actor,
to serve as Duel’s coach and help him through some of the
more complex scenes involving the Angels. “The hardest part
for Duel was that for him it really was like visiting this alternate
world and he was so excited that it could be distracting. He was
really just like Irwin because he saw these characters, one of whom
didn’t have hands, one of whom was playing a music box and
it just transported him,” says Mark. “But he was always
so natural in his mannerisms that he needed very little help.”
Initially,
the Polish Brothers only intended to explain the basics of the part
to Duel, merely telling him that he was a boy who had no mother
and father and was very sick. But the more Duel found out about
the story, the more he wanted to know. “He ended up talking
to us about death and the afterlife, and we realized that he really
got was Northfork was about,” says Michael. “He’s
definitely a rare child. He gave us the kind of performance you
can only hope for from an 8 year-old.” As for Duel Farnes,
he says that hardest thing he had to do on the set was be kissed
by Daryl Hannah. “Boys aren’t supposed to like girls,”
he explains.
To
play the Angels, the Polish Brothers cast a group of actors as individual
and quirky as the rag-tag herd of celestial seekers in the film:
Anthony Edwards as Happy; Daryl Hannah as Flower Hercules; Ben Foster
as Cod; and Robin Sachs as Cup of Tea. “What was interesting
to me is that none of these actors had ever met before so they really
did have to come together in spite of their uniqueness just as this
quartet would have had to in the afterlife,” says Michael.
Anthony
Edwards had previously appeared briefly in Jackpot and had a strong
desire to work with the Polish Brothers again. “This film
was filled with ironies, but one was that the day Anthony Edwards
started on the set was the same day his character on ‘ER’
died,” recalls Michael Polish. “And then there was the
fact that in his best known role, he is known as a surgeon who relies
on his hands and eyes and here he is almost blind and has no hands.”
Edwards
says: “I approached Happy as one element of a whole person;
he brings reason, science and knowledge into the equation.”
The actor was immediately drawn to Northfork not in spite of, but
because of, its unconventional nature. “I saw it as a miraculous
and mystical picture that avoids being heavy-handed and at the same
time is incredibly funny,” he notes. “It’s a film
that deals in metaphors and you could take it as reality or as fantasy
because it works in both realms. The film takes on very big subjects
– death, history and change – but in a skewed and offbeat
way, with a constant subterranean humor, and feels almost like great
literature as much as a movie.”
But
Edwards also put his faith in the Polish Brothers. “This is
a world that only the Polish Brothers know how to bring to life,”
he notes. “It’s bizarre but it’s also extremely
personal. It emerges from their own original inner vision and the
landscape and history that they come from. It’s a film that,
ultimately, you can’t describe to another person. You just
have to experience it for yourself. I think the importance will
resonate differently for each person who sees it.”
Daryl
Hannah also appeared in Jackpot and had read an early version of
Northfork, finding Flower Hercules a character she could not get
out of her mind. “Every now and then, Daryl would call me
up and say ‘are you still making that movie with Flower?’”
says Michael Polish. “She was always with us.”
As
the mute Angel Cod (a name which can also be interpreted as C.O.D.,
or Certificate of Death), the Polish Brothers cast rising actor
Ben Foster. Foster found himself going back in time as he learned
how to act on film silently. “It’s a very new experience
for me: not talking,” he jokes. “But it was fascinating.
Cod is really the observer of the group, and the trick as an actor
was to never get caught up in the conversation at all but just sit
back and listen.”
Foster
had a powerful reaction to the screenplay. “To me, Northfork
is a poem,” he comments. “It’s a wonderfully impossible
story about being in limbo and searching for family.” And,
once he got on the set, Foster found himself equally compelled by
the Polish Brothers’ filmmaking style. “They feel completely
free creatively because they don’t have to answer to studio
heads,” he notes. “They keep the environment for everyone
to be very creative and very relaxed, as well as always open to
new ideas. I’ve never experienced such openness to play and
create before.”
Completing
the wingless Angel quartet is British actor Robin Sachs as the somewhat
acrid and bitter Cup of Tea. Sachs loved the idea of playing an
Angel so cynical, he barely believes in his own existence. “Cup
of Tea is not inclined towards faith, so he’s quite sarcastic
about ending up as an Angel,” he explains. “I found
this quite interesting.” Sachs also found the film’s
many intertwined themes fascinating. His own phrase for what it’s
all about is: “Middle America on the run.”
For
the entire cast, part of the fun of participating in Northfork was
figuring out just what film was about for them personally. Kyle
Maclachlan, who appears as Mr. Hope, explains: “To me, Northfork
is a state of mind. As an actor, it was also a chance to do something
a little bit different and do it for the love of work.” Sums
up Marshall Bell, who plays Mr. Stalling: “Sometimes in order
to tell the truth, you have to bend reality. It’s up to each
person to see their own truth in Northfork.”
~About
The Cast~
(in alphabetical order)
JOSH
BARKER (Matt) has previously appeared in Last Stand, Guaranteed
Overnight Delivery, Sometimes a Hero and Lethal Target. His notable
television appearances include “That 70s Show.”
GRAHAM
BECKEL (Marvin) most recently starred in the television
movie about the heroic miners who survived a deadly flood in The
Pennsylvania Miner’s Story. His diverse film credits include
Pearl Harbor, Hardball, Blue Streak, No Vacancy, True Crime, Black
Dog, Bulworth, LA Confidential, Leaving Las Vegas, Welcome Home
Roxy Carmichael, Liebestraum, True Believer, C.H.U.D., and The Paper
Chase. He has appeared extensively on television, starring in more
than a dozen made-for-televison movies, including the recent hit
mini-series “The 70s” and the acclaimed Lifetime movie
Just Ask My Children.
MARSHALL
BELL (Mr. Stallings) has appeared in more than 30 feature
films including Birdy, Stand by Me, Twins, Dick Tracy, Total Recall,
Air America, Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead, The
Brave, The End of Violence and A Slipping Down Life. He was most
recently seen in the Matthew Perry comedy Serving Sara.
R.J
BURNS (Neil) is a Montana native who calls himself an actor-slash-truckdriver.
He has previously appeared in three films: the family drama A Place
to Grow, the volcano thriller Dante’s Peak and the epic The
Patriot. He also served as the Location Manager for Northfork.
PETER
COYOTE (Eddie) was most recently seen in Brian de Palma’s
Femme Fatale and A Walk to Remember, with Mandy Moore. After more
than 15 years of political activism coupled with theatre involvement,
including acting as Chairman of the California State Arts Council,
Coyote began his film career at age 39. Since then, he has performed
as an actor for some of the world's most distinguished filmmakers,
including Barry Levinson (Sphere), Roman Polanski (Bitter Moon),
Pedro Almodovar (Kika), Steven Spielberg (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial),
Walter Hill (Southern Comfort), Martin Ritt (Cross Creek), Steven
Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich), Diane Kurys (A Man in Love) and Sydney
Pollack (Random Hearts). His forthcoming work includes Jean-Paul
Rappeneau's Bon Voyage, starring alongside Gerard Depardieu and
Isabelle Adjani, and the indie film Hebrew Hammer, starring Adam
Goldberg.
Coyote’s
memoir, Sleeping Where I Fall, received universally outstanding
reviews and a chapter from the book, "Carla's Story,"
won the 1993/94 Pushcart Prize for Excellence in Non-Fiction. Well-known
for his voiceover work, Coyote has done numerous documentaries and
television specials, including the nine-hour PBS special “The
West.” In 1992 he won an Emmy Award as host of the nine-hour
series
“The Pacific Century,” and in 2000 he was he announcer
for the Academy Award® ceremony, broadcast live to an estimated
one billion viewers worldwide.
ANTHONY
EDWARDS (Happy) is best known to television audiences for
his long-running role as Dr. Mark Green on “E.R,” for
which he received three Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Golden Globe
Award and four Emmy nominations. On the big screen, his many credits
include the Polish Brothers’ Jackpot, Fast Times at Ridgemont
High, Revenge of the Nerds, Gotcha!, The Sure Thing, Top Gun, Mr.
North, The Client and Playing by Heart. He made his directorial
debut with Charlie’s Ghost Story, a modern-day Mark Twain
adaptation starring Cheech Marin and Linda Fiorentino.
His
other television projects include a memorable role on “Northern
Exposure” and “It Takes Two,” as well as the television
movies El Diablo, Hometown Boy Makes Good, Going for the Gold: the
Bill Johnson Story, High School USA, The Killing of Randy Webster,
In Cold Blood and Sexual Healing, for which he earned a Cable Ace
Best Actor nomination. He also was seen in Don’t Go Breaking
My Heart, which he produced through his company, Aviator Films.
DUEL
FARNES (Irwin) makes his feature film debut in Northfork.
The eight year-old is a native of Ennis, Montana.
CLAIRE FORLANI (Mrs. Hadfield) moved to the United
States from her native London, and has made a name for herself in
Hollywood. Well-known for her performance opposite Brad Pitt and
Anthony Hopkins in Universal Pictures’ Meet Joe Black, Forlani
will next be seen in several feature films this year, including
Highbinders, opposite Jackie Chan; Triggerman with Pete Postelwaite
and Donnie Wahlberg and The Limit, opposite Lauren Bacall. She recently
starred in The Pentagon Papers, opposite James Spader, for F/X,
as well as MGM’s computer thriller Antitrust directed by Peter
Howitt (Sliding Doors), starring opposite Tim Robbins, Ryan Phillipe
and Rachel Leigh Cook, and the Miramax feature Boys and Girls, opposite
Freddie Prinze, Jr.
Raised by her British mother and Italian father, Forlani attend
the Arts Educational School from 11 to 17 years of age, studying
dance and drama. When she graduated, she pursued her acting career
in England, until 1993, when she moved with her parents to San Francisco.
Three months later, she landed her first role as ‘Ann Cannon,’
a mistress of John F. Kennedy, in the television movie “JFK…
Reckless Youth.”
Forlani starred opposite Ben Stiller and Greg Kinnear in Universal’s
Mystery Men; as Sean Connery’s daughter in the blockbuster
film The Rock; and portrayed artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s
girlfriend in the Miramax release Basquiat, the story of Basquiat’s
life as seen through the eyes of his friend and fellow artist Julian
Schnabel.
Other film credits include the independent feature Magicians, opposite
Til Schweiger; Basil, opposite Christian Slater and Jared Leto;
the independent film Into My Heart, opposite Rob Morrow, Jake Webber
and Jayne Brooke; Kevin Smith’s Mallrats; and the independent
feature The Last Time I Committed Suicide opposite Keanu Reeves
and Thomas Jane.
Forlani currently resides in Los Angeles.
BEN
FOSTER (Cod) can currently be seen co-starring on HBO’s
award winning series “Six Feet Under”, as Lauren Ambrose’s
love interest “Russell.” He recently received a 2003
Daytime Emmy Award for his dramatic portrayal of “Trevor Adams,”
in Showtime’s Original film Bang Bang You're Dead. Foster’s
character is a dysfunctional student who, after being torment relentlessly
for years by his classmates, finds himself on the verge of perpetrating
a crime similar to those committed at Columbine High School in 1999.
Foster
will also be seen this year in the film 11:14 for director Greg
Marcks, which he stars in opposite Hillary Swank, Colin Hanks and
Rachel Leigh Cook. The film is centered around five separate, intertwining
incidences, which all occurred at 11:14 PM.
Foster's
big break came when director Barry Levinson chose him to star as
“Ben Kurtzman” in his Baltimore-based coming of age
feature Liberty Heights. In 2000, Foster starred opposite Kirsten
Dunst in Get Over It and later opposite Tim Alan and Renee Russo
in Disney Picture’s Big Trouble. Foster was also part of the
ensemble cast in the Emmy nominated HBO original film The Laramie
Project. Foster was also featured this year in Joel Schumacher’s
Phone Booth.
CLARK
GREGG (Mr. Hadfield) is currently shooting David Mamet's
Spartan with Val Kilmer. He recently completed 11:14 with Hilary
Swank, Colin Hanks and Barbara Hershey. He will soon be seen in
The Human Stain with Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman, U-Boat with
W. H. Macy and Northfork. Other films include Nicole Holofcener's
Lovely and Amazing, One Hour Photo, We Were Soldiers with Mel Gibson,
David Mamet's State and Main and The
Adventures of Sebastian Cole, as Hank/Henrietta, for which he received
an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Other film work includes appearances in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia
and Six Ways to Sunday.
Television
work includes the recurring role of Agent Michael Casper on "The
West Wing," "Live from Baghdad" and "Tyson,"
both for HBO Films, the two part finale episodes of "Sport's
Night" and "Will and Grace." Gregg
co-starred in the Hallmark Hall of Fame/CBS MOW "My Sister's
Keeper" with Elizabeth Perkins and Kathy Bates, and guest starred
on "Sex and the City," "The Practice," "Law
and Order" and "Shannon's Deal," among others.
Gregg
is a founding member and former Artistic Director of Mamet's Atlantic
Theater Company in New York. Stage work includes last season's revival
of "Sexual Perversity in Chicago," the U.S. Premiere of
Jez Butterworth's "Mojo," "Boy's Life" at Lincoln
Center, directed by fellow Atlantic member Macy, "A Few Good
Men" on Broadway, "The Old Boy" at Playwright's Horizons,
"Unidentified Human Remains" at the Orpheum and new works
at Atlantic by Mamet, John Guare, Craig Lucas, Howard Korder and
others.
He
directed the acclaimed New York revival of Mamet's "Edmond"
and the New York and L.A. Premieres of Kevin Heelan's "Distant
Fires," which was nominated for Drama Desk, Obie, Outer Critics
Circle Awards and won three L.A. Weekly Awards, including Best Ensemble
and Best Director.
Gregg's
feature screenwriting debut, Dreamworks' What Lies Beneath, was
directed by Robert Zemeckis and starred Harrison Ford and Michelle
Pfeiffer.
He is currently writing Norfolk Quiz Club for Universal, adapting
the novel Choke by Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club) to direct in 2003
and adapting the Spanish film Intacto for Disney/Buena Vista. He
has written projects for Warner Bros., Paramount and Fox 2000.
JON
GRIES (Arnold) began his career working for his father,
noted director, writer and producer Tom Gries, starring in the now-classic
made-for-TV movie Helter Skelter. He previously worked with the
Polish Brothers on Twin Falls, Idaho (for which he also served as
associate producer and co-wrote one of the songs) and teamed with
them again, taking the lead as Sunny Holiday, a singing star searching
for an audience in Jackpot. Gries is also well known to television
audiences for his long-running role as the computer genius Broots
on the popular television series “The Pretender” and
has also been seen on “Martin,” “Beverly Hills
90210,” “Chicago Hope,” “Seinfeld, “ER”
and “The X Files.” Gries’ other film credits include
Men in Black, Casualties, Get Shorty, The Grifters, Running Scared,
Real Genius and More American Graffiti. His forthcoming films include
Helldorado with The Rock, The Snow Walker and The Big Empty.
DARYL
HANNAH (Flower Hercules) made her feature film debut as
an android in Ridley Scott’s science fiction classic Blade
Runner, and soon followed with number of film roles including a
memorable turn as a mermaid in the romantic comedy Splash. Since
then, Hannah has appeared in more than 30 feature films including
The Pope of Greenwich Village, Wall Street, Roxanne, Steel Magnolias,
At Play in the Fields of the Lord, Grumpy Old Men, The Gingerbread
Man, Jackpot, Dancing at the Blue Iguana. She will next be seen
in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill and John Sayles’ Casa
De Los Babys.
Hannah
received the Berlin International Film Festival’s Jury Award
for Best Short for The Last Supper, a film that she wrote, produced
and directed. She also directed, produced and shot the documentary
Strip Notes. Hannah made her stage debut in London in “The
Seven Year Itch” directed by Michael Radford.
MICHELE
HICKS (Mrs. Hope) Michele Hicks made her acting debut in
the Sony Classics feature Twin Falls, Idaho starring opposite Mark
and Michael Polish. The unusual love story premiered to wide acclaim
at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize
at the Deauville Film Festival. Hicks makes her return to Sundance
in 2003 for the premiere of the Polish brothers’ greatly anticipated
follow up to Twin Falls, Idaho, Northfork, in which she stars opposite
Kyle MacLachlan and Nick Nolte.
Hicks
had a busy winter. She most recently finished production on Messengers,
Philip Farha’s story of alien communiques, in which Hicks
stars opposite Erik Jensen, Frankie Faison and Amy Wright. Earlier
Hicks wrapped on Distress, a psychological thriller about obsession
and desperation directed by Blue Kraning. Hicks stars in this film
as a young business-woman who finds herself trapped with a fixated
colleague.
Hicks’
other independent film credits include Fiona MacKenzie’s Deadly
Little Secrets, in which Hicks starred opposite Dylan Walsh and
Craig Sheffer and Everything Put Together, Marc Foster’s film
about a community of women coping with the loss of a member’s
child. In Ropewalk, Hicks stars opposite Peter Facinelli and Leslie
Ann Warren as a young photographer who becomes romantically involved
with her boyfriend’s younger brother after a tragic accident.
Hicks
is well known in the fashion world where she enjoys a career as
an immensely successful model. In her six years in the business
she has worked with numerous acclaimed designers and photographers.
KYLE
MACLACHLAN (Mr. Hope) made his film debut in David Lynch’s
Dune, and went on to gain critical acclaim for two additional performances
for Lynch: in the surreal classic Blue Velvet on the big screen
and as the deliberate, pie-craving Agent Dale Cooper in Lynch’s
popular television series “Twin Peaks,” for which Machlachlan
received two Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe Award.
Maclachlan’s film credits include The Flintstones, Mad Dog
Time, The Trigger Effect, Showgirls, Rich in Love, Where the Day
Takes You two fims for director Mike Figgis: One Night Stand and
the digital video experiment Timecode. He starred as legendary keyboardist
Ray Manzarek in Oliver Stone’s The Doors, as Claudius in a
modern-day version of Hamlet with Ethan Hawke and alongside Michele
Williams and Anna Friel in the award-winning British film Me Without
You. He will next be seen in Miranda with Christina Ricci.
MacLachlan
is known to television viewers for his role as Charlotte’s
one-time-husband Trey McDougal on the popular series “Sex
and the City.” He has also appeared on television in HBO’s
award-winning “Against the Wall” directed by John Frankenheimer
and in Showtime’s “Roswell,” among others. He
made his directorial debut with an episode of “Tales From
the Crypt.” Also known for his theatre work, Maclachlan most
recently performed in “On an Average Day” with Woody
Harrelson under the direction of John Crowley.
NICK
NOLTE (Father Harlan) has assembled an impressively diverse
list of credits including such films as Paul Schrader’s Affliction,
for which he received an Academy Award® nomination and won the
New York Critics Award for Best Actor, Martin Scorsese’s Cape
Fear and Barbara Streisand’s The Prince of Tides, for which
he received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor and won the Golden
Globe Award as Best Actor from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
After
his performance in the landmark television series “Rich Man,
Poor Man” won him intertnational fame, Nolte became known
early in his career for his diversity of character in such films
as Who’ll Stop the Rain, North Dallas Forty, Heart Beat, Cannery
Row, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, 48 Hours, Under Fire, The Golden
Bowl and Jefferson in Paris. His many credits include I Love Trouble,
Blue Chips, I’ll Do Anything, Lorenzo’s Oil, Extreme
Prejudice, Three Fugitives, Farewell to the King, Martin Scorsese’s
segment of New York Stories, Everybody Wins and Sidney Lumet’s
Q&A. Among more recent credits are Mother Night, Nightwatch,
Afterglow, U Turn, The Thin Red Line, Breakfast of Champions, Simpatico,
The Best of Enemies, Trixie, White Jazz and Investigating Sex. He
was most recently seen in Neil Jordan’s The Good Thief and
Ang Lee’s The Hulk.
ROBIN
SACHS (Cup of Tea) Robin was born and raised in London,
England. Being the son of two well-known actors (Leonard Sachs and
Eleanor Summerfield), it was highly unlikely he was going to be
a brain surgeon or a merchant banker, so, after graduating at grammar
school, he went on to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic
Art (RADA).
After
RADA, Robin spent time in various outer-London and provincial repertory
theatres performing everything from Shakespeare to Tom Stoppard,
Miller to Anouilh and touring various parts of the known world for
the British Arts Council and Charles Marovitz. Among his appearances
in London's West End were “Pirandello's Henry IV” with
Rex Harrison, “Pinero's Gay Lord Quex” with Judi Dench,
directed by Sir John Gielgud, “Pericles” with Derek
Jacobi and “The Astronomer's Garden” by Kevin Hood.
His
British TV appearances, among others too numerous to be bothered
with here, include “Brideshead Revisited,” “Upstairs
Downstairs,” “Rumpole of the Bailey,” “Quiller,”
“Gentlemen and Players” and “Diamonds”.
He starred in the series' “Chessgame” (“The Alamut
Ambush,” “Deadly Recruits,” and “Cold War
Killers”) with Terence Stamp, “Rob Roy” and “Life
Without George.” He was featured in The Disappearance with
Donald Sutherland, and played lead roles in the movies Henry VIII,
Vampire Circus and A Flame to the Phoenix.
Having
long been enamored of the idea of coming to the States, the opportunity
arose in the form of a guest-star appearance on “Jake and
the Fatman” and an offer from Aaron Spelling to take over
the role of ‘Adam Carrington’ in “Dynasty”
for the mini-series. He liked it here, so he stayed! Since then
he has guest-starred in many TV series, including, “Diagnosis
Murder,” “Nash Bridges,” “Murder She Wrote,”
“Walker Texas Ranger,” “Babylon 5,” “Star
Trek Voyager,” “Herman's Head” and “Nowhere
Man,” amongst others, but is probably best known on American
TV for the role of Ethan Rayne in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
His
movies since being in the U.S. include featured roles in Spielberg's
The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Soderbergh's remake of Ocean's
Eleven and leads in Dreamworks' Galaxy Quest, Paramount/360 Entertainment's
Ravager and Right Coast Productions' Megalodon.
Robin
currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Casey.
JAMES
WOODS (Walter) is a two-time Oscar nominee for Oliver Stone’s
Salvador and Rob Reiner’s Ghost of Mississippi and a double
winner of the Best Actor in a Motion Picture Emmy. His rich array
of recent work for the big screen following his award-winning debut
as a feature film star in Harold Becker’s The Onion Field
includes The General’s Daughter, Another Day in Paradise,
Clint Eastwood’s True Crime, John Carpenter’s Vampires,
Nick Cassavetes’ John Q, Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday
and Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides. He has further demonstrated
his versatility in Oliver Stones’ Nixon and Killer, Martin
Scorsese’s Casino, Robert Zemeckis’ Contact, Sergio
Leone’s epic Once Upon a Time in America and Hercules. Additional
credits include The Hard Way, Immediate Family, The Boost, Best
Seller, Eyewitness, Split Image, Distance, Fastwalking, Cat’s
Eye, The Choir Boys, Cop and The Black Marble. Woods made his film
debut in Elia Kazan’s The Visitors followed by a brief but
memorable role in The Way We Were. He then starred in Alex and the
Gypsies followed by Arthur Penn’s Night Moves. His recent
portrayal of New York mayor Rudolph Giulianni in the TV film Rudy
added to his long list of critically acclaimed interpretations of
real life personalities.
On
television, Woods’ acclaimed performances include “Indictment:
The McMartin Trial,” HBO’s “Citizen Cohn”
and Emmy Award-winning work in “Promise” and “My
Name is Bill W.”
~About The Filmmakers~
MICHAEL
POLISH (Director/Writer/Producer) and MARK POLISH (Writer/Producer/”Willis”)
were born in El Centro, California in the early 1970's. Known to
the film community as the Polish Brothers, the duo has made three
critically lauded and award winning independent feature films. In
1999, their first film Twin Falls, Idaho premiered at the Sundance
Film Festival to great acclaim. Their second film Jackpot, won the
2001 Independent Spirit Award and the 2001 Seattle International
Film Festival.
In
addition to starring in Twin Falls, Idaho and Jackpot, Mark and
Michael Polish will also be seen in Neil Jordan’s The Good
Thief as actors.
TODD
KING (Producer) Following film studies at UCLA and California
State University Northridge, he began his career as a development
assistant at ITC Productions where he worked on such MOWs as Guts
And Glory: The Bill Johnson Story and Secret Weapons starring Geena
Davis and Linda Hamilton.
Looking
to learn "hands-on" production, King began working as
a Production Assistant and rapidly ascended the ranks to a Unit
Production Manager position on Skouras Pictures' Vampire At Midnight.
Among King's many credits as Unit Production Manager are Night Eyes,
Future Zone, Double Threat, Last Call, and Legal Tender. He also
served as Line Producer on the popular Ministry of Film/New Line
production of Embrace of the Vampire.
He
began an association with Imperial Entertainment in 1993, serving
as Associate Producer on the theatrical feature Showdown and Co-Producer
on the MOW Silk Degrees, the fantasy adventure To The Ends of Time
and the critically acclaimed drama Boogie Boy.
For
Screenland Pictures, King Executive Produced the dark comedy Late
Last Night starring Emilio Estevez, Steven Weber, and Catherine
O’Hara which premiered at the 1998 American Film Institute/LA
Film Festival.
In
1999, King completed It’s The Rage a feature he Exec-Produced
for Mutual Film Company starring Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels, Anna
Pacquin, Gary Sinise, and David Schwimmer. It’s The Rage had
its world premiere as a “Special Presentation” at the
Toronto International Film Festival.
Appointed
Executive Vice President for Scanbox Pictures USA in January 2000,
King oversaw a number of projects through the development process.
Following the sale of Scanbox to VCL in 2001, King left in order
to produce the thriller Taboo for Creative Entertainment. Filmed
on location in Eastern Europe, Taboo premiered at the 2002 Sundance
Film Festival.
King
also Executive Produced Nightstalker, a horror thriller starring
Roselyn Sanchez. Both Northfork and Nightstalker were official selections
of the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.
PAUL
TOROK (Co-Producer) Paul studied theater and technical
design at the Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts and film
at the Brooks Institute of Photography. In 1985 he earned a degree
in Production from the U.S.C. School of Cinema Television. He collaborated
with The Polish Brothers on several projects and award winning short
films before co-producing their first feature, the critically acclaimed
Twin Falls Idaho, released in 1999. An American of Hungarian descent,
Paul was born in Santiago, Chile and raised in Managua, Nicaragua.
He and his family have thrice fled their homes' in search of higher
ground' before arriving in the City of Angels in 1980. Paul would
like to dedicate Northfork to the memory of his late grandpa, Dr.
Melvin L. Sommer, born in Omaha July 10, 1916, forever a Los Angel-ino
since 1939.
M.
DAVID MULLEN (Director of Photography) studied filmmaking
and
cinematography at the California Institute of the Arts, where he
received his Master’s Degree. He has since photographed over
twenty independent feature films. In 2000, he was nominated by the
IFP-West for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography,
for his work on Twin Falls, Idaho. Jackpot, his second feature for
director Michael Polish, was the first 24P High-Definition feature
to be released theatrically in North America; it won the John Cassevettes
Award at the 2002 Independent Spirit Awards as well as many other
awards. Northfork marks his third feature film collaboration with
the Polish Brothers.
LEO
TROMBETTA (Editor) Leo Trombetta's film background includes
credits as Film Editor on eight features, six of which were selected
for screening at the Sundance Film Festival - Northfork (2003),
Green Dragon (2001), Twin Falls, Idaho (1999), Going All the Way
(1997), Female Perversions (1996) and Amongst Friends (1993). His
television work includes “That Championship Season”
(2000), directed by and starring Paul Sorvino, for MGM/Showtime
as well as a season as editor on the “Roswell” series.
Leo
has an extensive background as Sound Editor, having worked under
Brian DePalma (Casualties of War, Bonfire Of The Vanities), Sidney
Lumet (Q&A, Family Business), David Mamet (Homicide) and Spike
Lee (School Daze). He was Supervising Sound Editor on the documentary
Paul Simon: Born At The Right Time, which was in competition at
the 1993 Sundance Film Festival.
Leo
also wrote and directed his own short film, Billy, which won six
awards including the Silver Plaque at the Chicago International
Film Festival, the Bronze Award at the Houston International Film
Festival, the CINE Eagle and the Jury Prize at the Ann Arbor Film
Festival.
Leo
began his career as an actor in regional theatre and has written
and recorded songs for the film Zelly And Me starring Isabella Rosellini
and David Lynch. A native of Philadelphia, Leo studied filmmaking
at Temple University. He currently resides in Los Angeles.
STUART
MATTHEWMAN (Composer) also composed the score for the Polish
Brothers’ Twin Falls, Idaho and Jackpot, as well as their
short film Bajo Del Perro. He has performed, written and co-produced
with the Sade band since they released their first album in 1984,
picking up two Grammys along the way. A multi-instrumentalist, he
can be heard on sax, guitar, keyboard and MIDI programming. His
music has also been heard in the films Sea of Love and Indecent
Proposal. Matthewman has also written and produced songs for the
artist Maxwell and his own band Sweeback.
DANNY GLICKER (Costume Designer) was born and raised
in New York, and got his start in the world of costume design by
working as an assistant on Broadway shows including The Secret Garden,
Nick & Nora, and Grand Hotel. His first break into film design
came while still an undergraduate student at the Rhode Island School
of Design, taking a leave of absence from his Industrial Design
studies to accept the position of right hand assistant to the costume
designer Kathy O’Rear for Robert Redford’s 1950’s
film, Quiz Show.
In addition to Northfork, Danny Glicker has designed costumes for
projects that include Michael Cuestaís celebrated drama L.I.E.
starring Brian Cox; Greg Harrison’s upcoming psychological
thriller November, starring Courteney Cox Arquette, James Le Gros,
and Anne Archer; and Steven Bochcoís futuristic police drama,
NYPD: 2069, directed by Gregory Hoblit.
ICHELLE
SPITZIG (Production Designer) Born in Michigan, raised
in Ontario, Canada, Ichelle Spitzig has pursued an art/design background
from an early age.
Her
college education started as a Fine Arts major, then Product Design
at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan. She graduated
with honors and was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental
Design at the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena,
California.
Northfork
is her first feature independent film by the Polish Brothers. Previous
work includes a number of commercials, one which has been awarded
a 'Clio' award, a music video with Paul Oberman and Marcos Siego,
theater set design, theme park lighting design, as well as recognized
projects for Boeing Airplanes and Bombardier.
DEL
POLISH (Production Designer) is the father of Mark &
Michael Polish. Born and raised in Montana he served 30 years as
a pilot for the US Government. He was approached to build the sets
that his sons designed for Northfork. Due to the harsh terrain and
unpredictable weather they needed a native of Montana to build them
strong enough to hold up during a Montana winter.
Del's
knowledge of design and building lead him to become the production
designer on Northfork. He's main achievement was designing and building
a 90-foot Ark on the plains of Montana, where the winds gust at
70 miles an hour in below freezing conditions. He book ended this
mammoth creation with a two-story homestead house and classic prairie
church. All within the 24 day shooting period. Del also floated
a roof of an Ark for the characters Walter and Willis to row a boat
to.
Del
currently lives in Montana where he works as a contractor building
homes.
ANDREW
COFFING (First Assistant Director) graduated from the University
of Pennsylvania in 1994, and moved to Los Angeles shortly after.
He began working in features as a production assistant, and shortly
thereafter as a second art director. After 14 more low-budget (roughly
$2 million) features, he began working as a first art director.
In
the summer of 1998, he met the Polish twins and worked on their
first feature, Twin Falls Idaho. Several features later and after
a couple of years working almost exclusively in commercials and
music video production, he reunited with the Polish brothers to
work on their third feature, Northfork. He has continued to work
mostly in commercial and music video production while cautiously
weighing film offers against their content and potential.
DAVID
STORM (Art Director) Born in Montana, David majored in
film and art history at Montana State and Columbia College in Chicago.
His art direction has extended from commercials with David Lynch
and Wim Wenders to print with photographer Herb Ritts for magazines
Rolling Stone and French Vogue. He has worked on feature films with
production designer greats' Patricia Norris and Linda DeScenna.
His free time is spent painting and running LA marathons. Northfork
makes his second feature as art director. |
