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 J.J. Abrams (Director, co-writer)
J.J. ABRAMS (director/co-writer) is the co-creator and executive producer of the enormously successful television series “Lost,” “Alias,” and “Felicity.” In 2005, he won two Emmy Awards, for outstanding drama series and outstanding directing for a drama series (both for “Lost”) and was nominated for a third, for outstanding writing for a drama series. Abrams received his first Emmy nomination in 2002 for outstanding writing for a drama series for his work on “Alias.” Abrams is also the screenwriter of such films as “Armageddon,” “Forever Young” and “Regarding Henry.”
Born in New York and raised in Los Angeles, Abrams developed a passion for movies at age eight when his grandfather took him on the Universal Studios Tour. He asked his father if he could use his Super 8mm camera to make his own films. Over the next ten years, Abrams made countless amateur films that he entered in various student festivals, winning a number of awards.
Abrams sold his first feature film treatment, “Taking Care of Business,” while attending Sarah Lawrence College. He followed that with “Regarding Henry,” starring Harrison Ford and “Forever Young,” starring Mel Gibson.
His feature producing credits include “The Pallbearer,” directed by “Felicity” co-creator Matt Reeves, and “The Suburbans,” with Jennifer Love Hewitt. He has also appeared on screen as an actor in “Diabolique” and “Six Degrees of Separation.”
Paula Wagner (Producer)
Producer Paula Wagner and her partner Tom Cruise have been based at Paramount since forming Cruise| Wagner Productions in 1993. Since that time, she and Tom Cruise have enjoyed unparalleled success, producing a range of pictures that have earned multiple awards, widespread critical praise, and global box office success. In addition to the success of “Mission: Impossible” and “Mission: Impossible: II” and their involvement with last summer's box office phenomenon “War of the Worlds,” they have produced the chilling supernatural thriller “The Others,” “Vanilla Sky,” “Elizabethtown,” the critically acclaimed “Shattered Glass,” and “The Last Samurai,” and the recently released “Ask the Dust.”
Prior to producing, Wagner spent nearly 15 years at CAA as one of the industry's top talent agents. Before becoming an agent, Wagner was an accomplished stage actress, appearing at the Yale Repertory Theater as well as on and off-Broadway. Also a published playwright, she co-authored “Out of Our Father's House.”
In 2001, Wagner was honored by Premiere magazine with the Women in Hollywood Icon Award, and was featured the following year in Bravo's “Women on Top,” a documentary profiling top women in entertainment. Wagner and Cruise were recipients of two awards from the Producers Guild: the Nova Award in 1997 and the Vision Award in 2004. Also in 2004, Daily Variety honored the producing team as “Billion-Dollar Producers.” In 2005, she returned as co-chair to the Hollywood Film Festival for the third year in a row. She is a member of the American Cinematheque's Board of Directors on the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Mellon University. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and is a member of the board of the National Film Preservation Foundation through the Library of Congress.
Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci (Co-writers)
ALEX KURTZMAN & ROBERTO ORCI (co-writers) have been partners-in-imagination since high school. Writers and executive producers on the acclaimed, award-winning television spy thriller “Alias,” Kurtzman and Orci have a string of forthcoming films on the horizon that demonstrate their love of storytelling. Their feature film writing credits include “The Legend of Zorro,” starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Antonio Banderas, and Michael Bay's sci-fi thriller “The Island,” starring Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor.
On July 4th, 2007, the writers reunite with Bay for DreamWorks's and Paramount's “Transformers,” based on the 1980s classic cartoon and toy series. In addition to their writing projects, Kurtzman and Orci are producing a continually growing slate of movies for DreamWorks and other Hollywood studios.
This powerful Hollywood pairing began during childhood. Kurtzman and Orci met in high school and became prolific co-writers of numerous adolescent screenplays. Penning adventure stories and making ambitious home movies prior to meeting each other, they soon realized the magic of their combined creativity - and began to dream of one day making Hollywood movies together. After high school as each traveled to different corners of the U.S. for college - Kurtzman to NYU, then Wesleyan and Orci to the University of Texas - they continued to write scripts in tandem over the phone lines. After graduation, Kurtzman began working as a production assistant on the popular adventure television shows “Hercules” and “Xena: Warrior Princess” - which inspired the duo to try their hand at a sample script.
This in turn led quickly to their first writing job, and within months, they ascended to become the 23-year-old head writers on the hit series, “Hercules.” For their next project, they collaborated with J.J. Abrams on the television series “Alias,” which became an instant addiction for millions of Americans - as well as a critically acclaimed and Emmy Award-winning hit.
“Alias” was followed by “The Legend of Zorro”; their work on the feature film won the team new respect in the feature world. Within the industry, the writers became known for their collaborative style, great writing chops, and lighting turnaround, which earned them a coveted writing/producing/directing deal at DreamWorks SKG.
Stratton Leopold (Executive Producer)
STRATTON LEOPOLD (executive producer) has filmed in much of the USA and the world, including England, Spain, Italy, Central America, the Philippines, Australia, Canada, and China. As executive producer, co-producer, or production manager, he has overseen the production of more than 15 films, including “Paycheck,” “The Sum of All Fears,” “Bless the Child,” “The General's Daughter,” “Born Yesterday,” “Bound by Honor,” “The Big One,” “The Rose and the Jackal,” “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen,” “Tango and Cash,” and “The Mosquito Coast,” among others.
Leopold has also served as a location manager (“The Big Chill,” ABC's “East of Eden,” and other telefilms) and a casting director for television (“Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys,” “Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry,” “The Dukes of Hazzard,” “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”) and film (“Greased Lightning,” “Our Winning Season,” “Stroker Ace”).
Leopold studied biology at Vanderbilt University. He has officiated football on prep and college levels and is a member of the Explorers Club.
Dan Mindel (Director of Photography)
DAN MINDEL (director of photography) was born in South Africa and educated in Australia and Britain. He began his career as a cinematographer shooting commercials, working with some of the most successful directors, including Ridley Scott, Barry Kinsman, Hugh Johnson and Mike Seresin. His ads for Tony Scott include memorable commercials for such clients as Coke, Pepsi, Miller Brewing, and Marlborough.
He acted as director of photography on “Domino” for Tony Scott, “Skeleton Key” for Iain Softly, “Tooth Fairy,” “Stuck on You,” and “Shanghai Noon,” among many others.
Mindel was responsible for the photography on the West Coast unit of “G.I. Jane,” as well as for additional photography on “The Bourne Identity'” and Tony Scott's “The Fan.” “Enemy of the State” marked his debut as the sole director of cinematography on a major motion picture.
Scott Chambliss (Production Designer)
SCOTT CHAMBLISS (production designer) reunites with director J.J. Abrams after collaborating on the hit television series “Felicity” and “Alias.”
Chambliss has designed for motion pictures, television and theater productions in both New York and Los Angeles. His feature credits include “Krippendorf's Tribe,” “13 Bourbon Street,” “I Like It Like That,” “The Celluloid Closet,” “Bank Robber” and “Chain of Desire.” He also provided art direction for “Malcolm X,” “Leap of Faith,” “Billy Bathgate,” and “The Mambo Kings.”
Chambliss started his career as an associate designer with Tony Walton on a number of Broadway productions, including “Anything Goes,” “Macbeth” and “Grand Hotel.”
Maryann Brandon (Editor)
MARYANN BRANDON, A.C.E. (editor) previously collaborated with director J.J. Abrams on “Alias”, for which she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Single Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series.
Her other television credits include “Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story,” “The Miracle Worker,” and “Grapevine.”
Her previous feature credits include “Grumpier Old Men,” “Born To Be Wild,” and “Race For Glory.” As an assistant editor she worked on “Bright Lights, Big City,” and “Black Widow.”
Mary Jo Markey (Editor)
MARY JO MARKEY, A.C.E. (editor) previously collaborated with director J.J. Abrams on “Felicity,” “Lost” and “Alias,” for which she was nominated for an Emmy. Her feature credits include “Rhapsody in Bloom,” “Bad Boy,” and “Medicine Man.”
Colleen Atwood (Costume Designer)
COLLEEN ATWOOD (costume designer) won her first Academy Award for her work on “Chicago” and recently received her second Oscar for her work on “Memoirs of a Geisha.” Her other Oscar nominations were for her work on “Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events,” “Sleepy Hollow,” “Beloved,” and “Little Women.”
A frequent collaborator of director Tim Burton, Atwood began their association on “Edward Scissorhands” and has since worked with him on “Big Fish,” “ “Ed Wood,” “Sleepy Hollow,” “Mars Attacks,” and “Planet of the Apes.”
She has also worked regularly with director Jonathan Demme, beginning with “Married to the Mob” and continuing their association on “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Philadelphia,” and “Beloved.”
Atwood began her career as a wardrobe assistant in 1982 on the romantic comedy “A Little Sex” and became a designer only two years later on the Michael Apted drama “First Born.” She gained notice on Michael Mann's highly praised “Manhunter” and followed that with features such as Ridley Scott's “Someone to Watch Over Me” and Apted's “Critical Condition.”
Among Atwood's other credits are “The Mexican,” “Gattaca,” Buddy,” “That Thing You Do,” “The Juror,” “Wyatt Earp,” “Philadelphia,” “Lorenzo's Oil,” “Born Yesterday,” “Joe Versus the Volcano,” The Handmaid's Tale,” and “The Torch Song Trilogy.”
Michael Giacchino (Composer)
MICHAEL GIACCHINO (composer) previously collaborated with director J.J. Abrams on “Lost” and “Alias.”
Giacchino got his start in 1997 when he was approached by DreamWorks to score their flagship PlayStation video game based on Steven Spielberg's summer box office hit “The Lost World.”
Giacchino went on to compose many orchestral scores for DreamWorks Interactive, included the highly successful “Medal of Honor” series, a World War II simulation game created by Steven Spielberg. It was his work on such games that led to his involvement with “Alias,” where he met Abrams, which in turn became a gateway of sorts for his work with Pixar on “The Incredibles.”
Giacchino's boyhood fascination with films led him to study at the School of Visual Arts in New York City where he majored in film production. After graduating from SVA, he began composition studies at the Juilliard School at Lincoln Centre while working day jobs in both Universal and Disney's New York publicity offices. Two years later, he was transferred to Disney Studios in Los Angeles where he also enrolled in the UCLA film-scoring program.
In 2000, the Haddonfield Symphony premiered Giacchino's first Symphony, “Camden 2000.” In 2001, his score for the DreamWorks Interactive game “Medal of Honor Underground” won the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences award for Best Original Score. Soon afterwards, he wrote two new scores for both “Medal of Honor Frontline” (which was also a winner of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences award for the Best Original Score) and “Medal of Honor Allied Assault”, also recorded by the Seattle Symphony.
Vic Armstrong (Second Unit Director)
VIC ARMSTRONG (second unit director) was one of the cinema world's top stuntmen and was much in demand by moviemakers on both sides of the Atlantic throughout the `60s, `70s and `80s.
He traveled the world as a stunt designer, working on such major successes as “A Bridge Too Far” (Holland), “Mayerling” (Austria), “Ryan's Daughter” (Eire), “Billy Two Hats” (Israel), “The Zoo Gang” (France), “Trick or Treat” (Italy), “Curse of King Tut's Tomb” (Egypt), “The Desert King” (Morocco), “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (Tunisia and Hawaii), and “Superman: The Movie” and “Superman II” (USA and UK), among others.
It wasn't long before he was asked to combine his expertise as a stunt coordinator with the added responsibility of directing second unit in the United States and Europe. These major productions include “Bear Island,” “Escape to Athena,” “Watcher in the Woods,” “Green Ice,” “The Final Conflict,” “Dune,” “Conan The Barbarian,” “Red Sonja,” “The Mission,” “Rambo III,” “Air America,” “Robin Hood,” “Total Recall,” “Terminator 2: Judgement Day,” “Universal Soldier,” “Last Action Hero,” “Rob Roy,” “Cutthroat Island,” “The Phantom,” “Shadow Conspiracy,” and “Starship Troopers.”
In his capacity as second unit director on “Tomorrow Never Dies,” he was responsible for the many spectacular action sequences that played such an important role in the film's international success. His work on the exciting River Thames boat chase for the pre-title sequence of “The World Is Not Enough,” was equally spectacular. He was the second unit director for “Entrapment” and also directed the car chase sequence for “The Avengers.”
His most recent films as second unit director include “Quills,” “Charlie's Angels,” “Captain Corelli's Mandolin,” “The Four Feathers,” and “Gangs of New York.”
He has also directed a number of movies in his own right, including “FX2,” “Double Impact,” “The Joshua Tree,” and “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles,” all of which were memorable for their exciting action sequences.
His awards include the Scientific and Technical Academy Award® presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (2001), and BAFTA's Michael Balcon Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema (2002).
Roger Guyett (Visual Effects Supervisor)
ROGER GUYETT (Visual Effects Supervisor) has been with Industrial Light & Magic since 1994, when he joined the team that created the groundbreaking title character for “Casper.” Guyett was a principal member of the crew that produced over forty minutes of 3D character animation, marking the first time in cinematic history that a leading role was played by an entirely synthetic actor.
Guyett is now one of ILM's leading visual effects supervisors. Most recently, he was the visual effects supervisor on “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.” His credits include “Saving Private Ryan,” for which he was honored with a BAFTA Award for best special visual effects; “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone”; and, most recently, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.”
For this most recent film in the “Harry Potter” series, Guyett earned both Academy Award and BAFTA nominations, and won the award from the Visual Effects Society. Guyett was born and raised in Great Britain.
Dan Sudick (Special Effects Coordinator)
DAN SUDICK (Special Effects Coordinator) was nominated alongside Stefan Fangmeier, Nathan McGuinness, and Robert Stromberg for an Academy Award® for Best Visual Effects and for a BAFTA Award for Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects for his work on “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.”
Most recently, he was the Special Effects Coordinator on the box office smash “War of the Worlds.”
His feature credits include “Serenity,” “Cellular,” “The Haunted Mansion,” “National Security,” “Dragonfly,” “Nutty Professor II: The Klumps,” “The Negotiator,” and “Executive Decision.”
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Ving Rhames, Philip S. Hoffman, Billy Crudup, Laurence Fishburne, Sasha Alexander, Keri Russell, Simon Pegg, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Michelle Monaghan, Maggie Q
J.J. Abrams, Paula Wagner, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Stratton Leopold, Dan Mindel, Scott Chambliss, Maryann Brandon, Mary Jo Markey, Colleen Atwood, Michael Giacchino, Vic Armstrong, Roger Guyett, Dan Sudick.
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