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SYNOPSIS

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
--Edmund Burke

Director Antoine Fuqua, who took us on a gritty, realistic journey through the mean streets of Los Angeles in the OscarR-winning Training Day, now brings us a fictional but unflinching account of heroism in the face of overwhelming odds in Revolution Studios' Tears of the Sun, starring Bruce Willis.

Navy SEAL Lieutenant A.K. Waters (Bruce Willis) and his elite squadron of tactical specialists are forced to choose between their duty and their humanity, between following orders by ignoring the conflict that surrounds them, or finding the courage to follow their conscience and protect a group of innocent refugees.

When the democratic government of Nigeria collapses and the country is taken over by a ruthless military dictator, Waters, a fiercely loyal and hardened veteran is dispatched on a routine mission to retrieve a physician, Dr. Lena Kendricks (Monica Bellucci).

Dr. Kendricks, an American citizen by marriage, is tending to the victims of the ongoing civil war at a Catholic mission in a remote village. When Waters arrives, however, Dr. Kendricks refuses to leave unless he promises to help deliver the villagers to political asylum at the nearby border. If they are left behind, they will be at the mercy of the enormous rebel army.

Waters is under strict orders from his commanding officer Captain Bill Rhodes (Tom Skerritt) to remain disengaged from the conflict. But as he and his men witness the brutality of the rebels first-hand, they are won over to Dr. Kendricks' cause and place their lives at risk by agreeing to escort the villagers on a perilous trek through the dense jungle.

As they move through the countryside on foot, Waters' team, experts at evasion and concealment, are inexplicably and ferociously pursued by an army of rebels. They are confounded until they discover that, among the refugees, is the sole survivor of the country's previous ruling family, whom the rebels have been ordered to eliminate at all costs. Waters and his small band of soldiers must weigh the life of one man against their own and the refugees they feel obliged to protect.

Revolution Studios presents A Michael Lobell Production, A Cheyenne Enterprises Production, Tears of the Sun, a Columbia Pictures release, starring Bruce Willis and Monica Bellucci. Tears of the Sun is directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day). The film is written by Alex Lasker (Beyond Rangoon) & Patrick Cirillo (Homer and Eddie). The executive producer is Joe Roth. The film is produced by Michael Lobell (Honeymoon in Vegas), Arnold Rifkin (The Whole Nine Yards) and Ian Bryce (Saving Private Ryan).

An ensemble of seasoned performers and fast-rising newcomers portray the men in Waters' squadron with Cole Hauser (White Oleander) as James "Red" Atkins, Eamonn Walker (HBO's "Oz") as Ellis "Zee" Pettigrew, Johnny Messner (The Sweetest Thing) as Kelly Lake, Nick Chinlund (Training Day) as Michael "Slo" Slowenski, Paul Francis (Pearl Harbor) as Danny "Doc" Kelley, Chad Smith as Jason "Flea" Mabry and Charles Ingram as Demetrius "Silk" Owens. Veteran character actor Tom Skerritt (M*A*S*H, Top Gun) plays their commanding officer Capt. Bill Rhodes. Other cast members include Malick Bowens (Ali) as Colonel Idris Sadick and Fionnula Flanagan (The Others) as Sister Grace.

Fuqua is reunited with a trio of talented technicians from his OscarR-winning film Training Day -- director of photography Mauro Fiore (The Center of the World), production designer Naomi Shohan (American Beauty) and Academy AwardR-winning film editor Conrad Buff, A.C.E. (Titanic). The costume designer is Marlene Stewart (Ali). Academy AwardR-winner Hans Zimmer (Gladiator) composed the film's dramatic score.

Tears of the Sun has been rated R for strong war violence, some brutality and language.

AN EPIC TALE OF HEROISM

"The script of Tears of the Sun compelled me because it seemed to be a standard rescue story, and then midway through it becomes a moving and harrowing humanistic piece," says the film's executive producer Joe Roth.

The beauty of Tears of the Sun, according to producer Ian Bryce, is its epic quality. "Dramatically it touches on the kind of gallant behavior and tough moral choices that characterized films such as Saving Private Ryan. It's first and foremost a tale of heroism."

As the first movie about Navy SEALs to receive the full cooperation and endorsement of the United States Navy and Department of Defense, Tears of the Sun is also a tribute to Navy SEALS and all the "men and women who protect us and go into places and do great things about which too little is said," says director Antoine Fuqua. "I wanted to make a film that actually shows you that there are men and women out there in the military, who make it okay for us to sit and drink our morning coffee, while they are out there fighting and sometimes dying, and we never even know their names."

For Bruce Willis, besides being a bold adventure tale, Tears of the Sun represents a look at the true meaning of heroism. "These men make a choice as human beings, not as soldiers. And the movie is about the results of that choice, of trying to do the right thing as a man as opposed to doing the right thing as a ranking military officer. The action has a lot to do with the heart and how the heart moves men and women to do what they do."

Adds Willis' co-star Monica Bellucci, "it's a movie about good men doing the honorable thing even though they are vastly outnumbered. Sometimes the strong have to protect those who can't protect themselves, no matter what the cost."

When screenwriters Alex Lasker and Patrick Cirillo began writing the original draft of Tears of the Sun in 1995, their inspiration was Robert Wise's 1966 adventure yarn The Sand Pebbles, which starred Steve McQueen. Like that film, Tears is the story of a brave warrior who tries to save a group of civilians. "As the mission progresses, I wanted to show a battle of wills between the expedient, by-the-book military man Lt. Waters (played by Bruce Willis) and the compassionate, humanistic Dr. Kendricks (Monica Bellucci)," says Lasker. "We start with two people who are at odds with each other. Through adversity and circumstance, they both change."

The combination of tough action and heartfelt human emotion enables Tears of the Sun to resonate on many levels, says producer Arnold Rifkin. "You start off with the goal of entertaining people," says Rifkin. "Then you hope that you can also move them, touch them, make them experience emotion and compassion."

While the film is fictional, "Tears sheds light on contemporary history," adds Bryce, "in this case, the unrest that has affected certain regions of Africa over the past thirty years. The civil wars, ethnic cleansing and other atrocities rarely get news coverage here in the West, because journalists are often among the first casualties in these conflicts. This was an opportunity to show how terrible some of these events are."

For Fuqua, who did extensive research on contemporary African trouble spots before starting production on Tears of the Sun, the film is a compelling action adventure and "a wrenching human drama about people who have suffered and endured horrors that we can't even imagine," the director states. "To get a sense of what these people have lived through, take a look at a book called The Silence. It's all pictures, no text. But it's shattering. I kept it with me at all times and reviewed it every day before coming to the set. It was a constant source of inspiration."

Fuqua's commitment is what makes Tears of the Sun stand apart from other military action movies, according to Willis. For instance, the director insisted on using Africans to portray the refugees in the film, many of who have had similar experiences to the characters they are portraying. Some witnessed the massacres of their families. Others were forced into exile by unrest and civil war. "I'm really glad they didn't bring in a whole cast of Hollywood actors to play the African roles," says Sammi Rotibi, who plays Arthur Azuka. "It took us to a different level. When you heard their stories, it was just so sad and amazing to hear what happened to them. It put us all right there."

Extras casting director Deedee Ricketts combed the U.S. for African immigrants, settling on six-dozen - ranging in age from three months to 84 years - who added authenticity to the story, according to Fuqua. "Many of them actually survived violence similar to that portrayed in the film. When you see them on the screen, it's hard not to be moved by their remarkable faces."

The extras Ricketts found represent a diverse cross-section of Africans from such nations as Senegal, The Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Sudan, among others. She met a young Liberian, Alex Ireland, who introduced her to a resettlement agency that assisted his exiled family when they emigrated. From there, she was able to network with similar organizations around the country that handled resettlement and immigration from Africa.

Among the extras were the 'Lost Boys of Sudan,' the survivors of a group of orphan children who made international headlines with their heartbreaking tale of survival. Sudan's bloody civil war was among the world's longest-running conflicts, and one of the deadliest since World War II. In 1987, after their families were killed and they were driven from the Sudan, approximately 17,000 children (mostly between the ages of 2 and 13) embarked on a five-year trek across Ethiopia to safety in Kenya. Along the way the children were stalked by lions, attacked by pro-government militias and bandits, devoured in crocodile-infested rivers and, at times survived on nothing but tree leaves and rainwater.

A decade later, the U.S. State Department designated that 4,300 'Lost Boys' who made it to a refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya, be awarded permanent resettlement in the United States. Six of those young men were part of a group of 150 refugees sent to suburban Atlanta. With the assistance of a charitable foundation in Atlanta they were selected by Ricketts to appear in Tears of the Sun, after she saw them on a local news broadcast.

"The 'Lost Boys' added another emotional dimension to the movie," says Cole Hauser.

Rifkin first read the script for Tears of the Sun in 1998 when he was president of the William Morris Agency. He showed it to his longtime client (and current production partner) Bruce Willis. "Bruce was immediately passionate about it," says Rifkin. "He saw something about the nature of heroism in the story that demanded to be told. When someone articulates their passion so clearly, it's hard not to get swept up in it."

The dramatic framework of Tears of the Sun is a journey taken by the central character - both literally and psychologically, Rifkin explains. "Waters is a man who has always followed orders and kept himself at an emotional distance from the death and devastation that surround him. He just considered it part of his job. On this particular mission however, he comes to understand, in his heart as well as his mind, the suffering of the people he's trying to rescue. For the first time in his career, he is conflicted. He must ultimately choose between his job and the humanity he has lost over the course of twenty-five years in the military."

Tears of the Sun represents yet another layer for an actor who has, over the years, always jumped at the chance to challenge himself. "Bruce's growth as an actor, through films such as Pulp Fiction, Twelve Monkeys and The Sixth Sense, has been remarkable," observes Rifkin. "He has always been willing to take leaps. This role is a further expansion in his maturation as an actor."

"It's a movie about humanity, finding that human side in all of us in the middle of conflict," states Willis. "Waters embarks not only on a physical journey, but also on a soulful journey. You see him transformed by the compassion he feels for these refugees and their plight. He starts off as a hardened man and through the course of the story ends up not only falling in love with these people, but becoming a person again."

Willis' character is transformed by this ordeal, as are the lives of his men. Inspired by his courage, and the courage of the African people who suffer daily and try to live their lives with some sort of normalcy, they follow him on the most perilous mission of their careers, according to Fuqua. "These men become more human because of Waters and the people they are protecting on this journey," says Fuqua. "They look to Waters to lead by example and do the honorable thing and get those people out of harm's way."

Eamonn Walker (who plays Ellis "Zee" Pettigrew), the veteran British talent best known to American audiences for HBO's gritty prison drama "Oz," concurs. "We become one with those people. We take a stand and, in the end, we are prepared to die for them."

"At its heart, it's a movie about a rescue mission that turns into a mercy mission," says Bellucci.

Soon after producer Rifkin received financing from Revolution Studios for Tears, he received a call from Fuqua, who at the time was editing Training Day, a film that would earn actor Denzel Washington a historic Best Actor OscarR. "Antoine started talking to me about the script with such conviction and enthusiasm that I could tell he was already shooting it in his head," Rifkin recalls.

"What Antoine has done is to use the same boldly original approach to Tears of the Sun as he did in Training Day," says Roth. "The action is rough-edged and visceral. The style perfectly complements the characters. It takes you inside the emotions of all the people involved."

The conflict depicted in Tears of the Sun is fictional but, observes consultant Nkeonye Nwankwo, "there have been many incidents that were similar to what we see in the film," she says. "We experienced many emotional moments during the making of the movie. When the village was being burned, several people, who had witnessed similar events, broke down. They sobbed and cried and grieved the whole day."

Bellucci, whose character, Dr. Kendricks, shares most of her screen time opposite this pan-African group, echoes those comments, adding, "We talked a lot and it was unbelievable listening to all their incredible experiences. They are such remarkably brave people."

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

The task of training the cast to effectively portray the Navy SEAL heroes in Tears of the Sun fell to Navy veteran and military technical advisor Harry Humphries, who spent sixteen years as a Navy SEAL. During his decorated career with the Navy, he served as both a SEAL operator and a Provincial Reconnaissance Unit Advisor with the Phoenix Program's Counter Terrorist Unit. As he had done in several other military-themed movies over the past decade (Black Hawk Down, G.I. Jane), Humphries put together a regimen to whip the film's eight male stars into shape to accurately portray Navy SEALs and weather the grueling conditions in which the film would be shot.

"We had an excellent group led by Bruce Willis," Humphries reports. "We were given two weeks to concentrate on the specific skills required for this particular project. Whatever they were going to use in the film -- weapons, tactics, combat techniques -- by the time they finished their two weeks training, they knew how to do it inside-and-out."

On location in Hawaii, the actors started off the day with two hours of boot camp and rigorous physical training and then embarked on maneuvers to learn the specifics on how to function as a team. Both on and off camera, the actors remained in character, addressing each other by their character names.

"This kind of film was something I'd wanted to do for a long time," Humphries adds. "To show that SEALs are not just machines. They're human beings. I want the audience to see what SEALs really are, how professional they really are. And how human they are."

In addition to daily exercises, Willis and his co-stars visited the Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH) at Kaneohe Bay for weapons demonstrations and handling instructions. (One member of the acting team, screen newcomer Charles Ingram was the real McCoy, a former Force Recon Marine with more than four years of military service. The role of Demetrius "Silk" Owens marks his dramatic acting debut after breaking into the entertainment business as a stuntman on Black Hawk Down and The Matrix Reloaded).

"Harry Humphries brought a great deal of authenticity to the film," remarks producer Ian Bryce. "He taught them all the military movements and the language. He also coordinated our activities with the Department of Defense. Tears of the Sun is the first movie about Navy SEALs to receive the full cooperation and endorsement of the United States Navy and Department of Defense. It was crucial to our story to have the military on board. From the very start they helped us with the proper terminology and behavior. We were given access to such hardware as Navy Sea Hawks, Army Black Hawks and F-18s. We also received permission to film aboard an active nuclear aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Harry S. Truman."

Before settling on Hawaii, veteran location manager Liz Matthews scoured the globe looking for the perfect spot to represent equatorial Africa. She scouted sites as diverse as Mozambique, South Carolina, Florida, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Australia and New Zealand. When the decision was made to keep the production inside the U.S., Hawaii was chosen, according to production designer Naomi Shohan, "because of the similarities in climate and elevation. The rain forest and the general foliage in Hawaii are an excellent match for the African rain forest."

The island of Oahu also offered the most flexibility in terms of location, beauty and practicality, explains Bryce. "You would never know it wasn't Africa unless you were told," he says. The many local areas chosen for the production included the Waikane Valley, the verdant jungles surrounding Manoa Falls (a popular tourist hiking spot), the Dole plantation on the parched leeward side of the island (where the refugee camp was erected), the Maunawili Valley and the Kualoa Ranch (which has been used in such films as Jurassic Park and Windtalkers).

Shohan's crew constructed and outfitted three large 'African' settings for the production, two of them using the majestic Ko'Olau Mountains as a backdrop. Production began on the 'mission' set, which covered several acres at the Kualoa Ranch Fish Pond, a relic from the reign of King Kamehameha. It included all the typical buildings of a well-founded mission enclave: a church, a hospital, and the private quarters of church personnel, mingled with huts and tents of indigenous people who had come to live or take shelter on the mission grounds.

Shohan and her crew next made camp in the Maunawili Valley, in the foothills of the Ko'Olau Mountains to construct a sprawling native village. "For story purposes we wanted to represent a village so deep in the rain forest as to have retained much of its original character, though it's desperately poor and run down."

Whereas the Kualoa Ranch locale had been accessible, the Maunawili Valley's rough terrain proved to be an enormous, even strenuous, undertaking for the crew: Ankle-deep mud, torrential rainfall, poisonous six-inch centipedes, jumping cane spiders and hordes of mosquitoes. The only access to the set was a single-lane, gravel-strewn road carved out of the mountainside three years earlier by a television crew.

"While the elements worked against us and made filming more difficult," Rifkin recalls, "it also created a vivid reality."

Costume designer Marlene Stewart had worked on location in Mozambique during the filming of Ali and reached out to her South African resources to supply her with the fabric needed to dress the villagers. While Stewart concentrated on a specific look for the Africans, costume supervisor Mark A. Peterson focused on the military wardrobe for the Navy SEAL characters, as well as the ensemble of extras portraying the commandos and rebels.

Finally, the art department relocated to the dry side of Oahu utilizing a high, arid, acres-wide expanse of red earth as the setting for the refugee camp. Shohan explains, "We hoped the contrast in landscape from rain forest to savannah would help illustrate the characters' journey out of the dark, claustrophobic jungle to relief and safety in a neighboring country."

The final two weeks of production proved to be the most grueling. Because rainfall on the leeward side of Oahu is negligible, the conditions at the plantation were just the opposite of those at Maunawili - and equally challenging. Five military helicopters and the F-18 fighter jets were employed in the film's gripping climax, stirring up blinding dust storms. After just one day, the crew was craving the clinging, deep mud they'd endured for three weeks in the Maunawili Valley.

ABOUT THE CAST

BRUCE WILLIS (Lieutenant A.K. Waters) has demonstrated incredible versatility in a career that has included such diverse characterizations as the prizefighter in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, the philandering contractor in Robert Benton's Nobody's Fool, the heroic time traveler in Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys, the traumatized Vietnam veteran in Norman Jewison's In Country, the compassionate child psychologist in M. Night Shyamalan's OscarR-nominated The Sixth Sense (for which he won the People's Choice Award) and his signature role, detective John McClane, in the Die Hard trilogy.

Following studies at Montclair State College's prestigious theater program, the New Jersey native honed his craft in several stage plays and countless television commercials, before landing the leading role in Sam Shepard's 1984 stage drama "Fool for Love," a run which lasted for 100 performances off-Broadway.

Willis achieved international stardom and garnered several acting awards (including an Emmy and a Golden Globe) for his starring role as private eye David Addison in the hit TV series "Moonlighting," a role that he won over 3,000 other contenders. He made his motion picture debut opposite Kim Basinger in Blake Edwards' romantic comedy Blind Date. In 1988, he created the role of John McClane in the blockbuster Die Hard. He reprised the character in two sequels Die Hard 2 and Die Hard: With A Vengeance, 1995's global box office champ.

His wide array of film roles includes collaborations with such respected filmmakers as Michael Bay (Armageddon), M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable),

Alan Rudolph (Mortal Thoughts, Breakfast of Champions), Walter Hill (Last Man Standing), Robert Benton (Billy Bathgate, Nobody's Fool), Rob Reiner (The Story of Us), Ed Zwick (The Siege), Luc Besson (The Fifth Element), Barry Levinson (Bandits) and Robert Zemeckis (Death Becomes Her).

Other motion picture credits include The Jackal, Mercury Rising, The Whole Nine Yards (and its upcoming sequel The Whole Ten Yards) and Disney's The Kid. He also voiced the character of the wise cracking infant, Mikey, in Look Who's Talking and Look Who's Talking Too. He recently voiced the character of Spike in the animated The Rugrats Meet The Wild Thornberrys.

In addition to his work before the cameras, Willis produced The Whole Nine Yards and executive produced Breakfast of Champions, an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's best selling novel. With longtime agent, and now partner, Arnold Rifkin, he co-founded Cheyenne Enterprises, LLC, a film and television production company based in Los Angeles and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In January 2000, the partners signed a film production deal with Joe Roth's Revolution Studios.

Willis also maintains a hand in the theater. In 1997, he co-founded A Company of Fools, a non-profit theater troupe committed to developing and sustaining stage work in the Wood River Valley of Idaho, and throughout the U.S. He recently starred in and directed a staging of Sam Shepard's dark comedy "True West" at the Liberty Theatre in Hailey, Idaho. The play, which depicts the troubled relationship between two brothers, was aired on Showtime and dedicated to Willis' late brother Robert.

An accomplished musician, Willis recorded the 1986 Motown album "The Return of Bruno," which went platinum and contained the #5 Billboard hit "Respect Yourself." Three years later, he recorded a second album "If It Don't Kill You, It Just Makes You Stronger." Last year, he launched a U.S. club tour with his new musical group The Accelerators.

MONICA BELLUCCI (Dr. Lena Kendricks) is the alluring European star now commanding attention on the international scene for her work in such films as Giuseppe Tornatore's OscarR-nominated Malena and Christophe Gans' French boxoffice sensation The Brotherhood of the Wolf (Le Pacte des Loups), the latter opposite her husband, French actor Vincent Cassel.

Bellucci grew up in the Umbrian town of Citta di Castello, idolizing such global cinema icons as Sophia Loren, Anna Magnani, Gina Lollabrigida and Claudia Cardinale. Her own ascent to stardom began in Milan, where she was studying law when a friend urged her to try modeling. The vocation proved lucrative for Bellucci and took her from her university studies to work as an actress in the telefilm "Vita Coi Figli," a role she won after director Dino Risi saw her photo in a magazine.

She also captured the attention of director Francis Ford Coppola who cast Bellucci in her first American role, as one of Dracula's brides, in his 1992 adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. She returned to Italy and appeared in numerous films (IL Cielo ˆo Sempre Piˆ{ Blu, Palla di Neve and I Mitici, among others).

In her first French-language project, the 1996 thriller L'Appartement, Bellucci immediately garnered acclaim. She won a Cesar (the French equivalent of the OscarR), as well as the heart of her future husband Cassel. She has since worked with Cassel on seven projects, most recently in Irreversible, an official competition selection at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. Other motion picture credits include Under Suspicion, Franck Spadone, Le Plaisir and Mediterranees.

She will next be seen starring opposite Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne in the Wachowski Brothers' dual sequels The Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions, as well as Mel Gibson's next directorial effort The Passion, as Mary Magdalene.

COLE HAUSER (James "Red" Atkins) reunites with Bruce Willis with whom he co-starred in the WWII drama Hart's War. He most recently co-starred opposite Michelle Pfeiffer and film newcomer Alison Lohman in the film adaptation of the best-selling novel White Oleander as 'Ray Pruitt,' and will next be seen in John Singleton's The Fast and the Furious 2. Hauser is set to begin shooting Mel Gibson and Icon's Paparazzi.

Hauser, a native of Santa Barbara and a great-grandson of legendary studio founder Harry Warner, made his motion picture debut at age 17 in Robert Mandel's School Ties, in a cast that included Chris O'Donnell, Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. More recently, he collected an Independent Spirit Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of a bigoted soldier in Joel Schumacher's acclaimed Vietnam War drama Tigerland. He also graced the screen opposite Academy AwardR winner Robert Duvall in A Shot at Glory. Both films were screened at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival.

Hauser's additional film credits include David Twohy's Pitch Black with Vin Diesel, Stephen Frears Hi-Lo Country opposite Billy Crudup, Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting which reunited him with Damon and Affleck, John Singleton's Higher Learning, Adam Goldberg's indie directorial debut Scotch and Milk and Richard Linklater's cult hit Dazed and Confused.

On the small screen, Hauser appeared as a series regular on the Steven Spielberg/ABC drama "High Incident."

TOM SKERRITT (Captain Bill Rhodes) has portrayed a diverse gallery of characters in such memorable films as Robert Altman's M*A*S*H, Herbert Ross' Steel Magnolias, The Turning Point (National Board of Review Award as Best Supporting Actor), Ridley Scott's Alien, Tony Scott's Top Gun, Robert Redford's A River Runs Through It and Robert Zemeckis' Contact. Skerritt is also well known for his Emmy Award-winning role of Sheriff Jimmy Bock on the CBS series "Picket Fences," for which he received nominations from the Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe awards.

Born in Detroit, Skerritt studied at Wayne State University and UCLA. Though he was originally interested in directing, a performance in a UCLA theater production led to his first film role in the 1961 drama War Hunt, where he first met another aspiring actor, Robert Redford. Some of his other feature credits include Blake Edwards' The Wild Rovers, Altman's Thieves Like Us, Silence of the North (collecting a Genie nomination as Best Actor), David Cronenberg's The Dead Zone and Garry Marshall's The Other Sister.

On the small screen, Skerritt most recently portrayed General William Westmoreland in the late John Frankenheimer's historical epic Path to War. He also recently recreated the role of Sheriff Will Kane (made popular by OscarR winner Gary Cooper), in a new version of the classic western High Noon. He played Joseph Kennedy in the CBS miniseries "Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Life," and also recently starred in Lifetime's "An American Daughter," and another CBS miniseries "Aftershock."

Other television credits include "The China Lake Murders," "The Heist," "Red King," "White Knight," the NBC miniseries "Hunt for the Unicorn Killer," "Two for Texas" with Kris Kristofferson, "Miles to Go" opposite Jill Clayburgh, "Poker Alice" with Elizabeth Taylor, "Child of the Night" alongside JoBeth Williams, and "Getting Up and Going Home" with Blythe Danner, Julianne Phillips and Roma Downey.

Skerritt has also logged more than sixty television guest-starring roles over the years, including a six-episode stint as Kirstie Alley's boss during the 1988 season of "Cheers."

He has also appeared on several other memorable TV series including "Gunsmoke," "Bonanza," The Fugitive," "Combat!," "Mannix," "The Virginian" and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour."

He realized his aspiration to direct with the ABC-TV Afternoon Special "A Question of Sex," and followed it with the 1997 USA Network telefilm "Divided by Hate," in which he also starred as the leader of a religious cult. He also helmed several episodes of "Picket Fences" and "Chicago Hope" during their runs. He is currently preparing a feature film, which he has written and will direct.

EAMONN WALKER (Ellis "Zee" Pettigrew) is well known for his electrifying portrayal of the vulnerable Muslim inmate Kareem Said, prisoner 97S444, on HBO's gritty prison drama "Oz," a role that earned him a Cable Ace Award nomination.

Born in London, Walker began his career on the English stage, auditioning for the Explosive Dance Theatre Company. Although a leg injury curtailed his dance aspirations, he turned to acting, making his debut in the 1983 musical "Labeled With Love." He continued working on the British stage in such productions as "Ridley Walker," "Pecong" and "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," before founding his own acting troupe the Flipside Theatre Company, where he starred in the heralded production of "Danny and the Deep Blue Sea."

Television work followed, including regular roles on the BBC sitcom "In Sickness and in Health" and, as constable Malcolm Haines, on ITV's police drama "The Bill." He also appeared in "The Governor," an ITV prison series co-starring OscarR nominee Janet McTeer.

Walker returned to prison for his American acting debut on HBO's "Oz." The show's creator, Tom Fontana, next cast Walker as an embittered news cameraman in the NBC telefilm "Homicide: The Movie." His most recent television triumph was in "Othello" for PBS and the Exxon Mobil Masterpiece Theatre.

Walker made his feature film debut in the British production Young Soul Rebels, a period piece about London's latter-day soul movement, and was next featured in Shopping, a 1994 drama about a pair of outlaws (played by Jude Law and Sadie Frost) who crash stolen cars into shop windows for thrills. He co-starred in actor Laurence Fishburne's directorial debut Once in the Life and had a role in M. Night Shyamalan's supernatural drama Unbreakable.

NICK CHINLUND (Michael "Slo" Slowenski) maintains a busy acting career in motion pictures and television after starting his career on stage. His role here reunites the New York native with director Antoine Fuqua, for whom he appeared in Training Day.

Born-and-raised in East Harlem (where he still maintains a residence), Chinlund played basketball at Brown University before an injury curtailed his sports career during freshman year. Soon thereafter, he traded the court for the stage when he took up acting classes, graduating from Brown with a degree in history.

Before relocating to Los Angeles, Chinlund worked the boards on the east coast, where his theatre credits include the off-Broadway productions of "Owl's Breath," "Mothers, Brothers and Others" and "Corner Boys." He appeared at the renowned Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts in such productions as "Mother Courage," "The Legend of Oedipus" and "American Clock," the latter for acclaimed director Austin Pendleton. His stage work in L.A. includes "Configuration," "Maps for Drowners," "Partners" and "A View from the Bridge."

Chinlund segued into motion pictures with a role in Lethal Weapon 3. Other feature film credits include Con Air, Bad Girls, A Brother's Kiss (which he also co-produced), Eraser, Disney's The Kid, Once in the Life, 100 Mile Rule, Amy's Orgasm, Last Call and Below.

On the small screen, Chinlund has appeared in "The X-Files" and had recurring roles on two NBC dramas "Providence" and "Third Watch." Guest appearances include such series as "C.S.I.," "NYPD Blue," "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," "Law & Order," "Law & Order: S.V.U." and "Gilmore Girls." He has also co-starred in the TNT miniseries, "Rough Riders" for director John Milius, Showtime's "Rebel Highway: Reform School Girls," and the telefilms "Resurrection" and "Letter to My Killer."

FIONNULA FLANAGAN (Nurse Grace) A co-starring performance in the surprise box-office smash The Others brought award nominations and accolades designating the characterization as one of the most terrifying servants in film history. It threw focus on Fionnula Flanagan, one of the most varied actresses in film history. She recently teamed with Sandra Bullock, Maggie Smith and Ellen Burstyn in the comedy The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

Born and raised in Dublin, Flanagan, she was educated at Scoil Mhuire Marlborough Street, at Sandymount High School and at Scoil Caitriona, Dominican College. She studied languages in Switzerland at the Universite de Fribourg, worked as an interpreter and translator in Italy and trained in drama at the Abbey Theatre. She came to prominence in Tomas MacAnna's Irish language production "An Trial" ("The Trial") at the 1966 Dublin Theatre Festival and later appeared in Brian Friel's "Lovers" at Dublin's Gate. She made her Broadway debut with the 1968 production of "Lovers." Other Broadway appearances include "Lovers" by Brian Friel, "The Incomparable Max," "Ghosts" and Molly Bloom, with Zero Mostel, in the 1974 production of "Ulysses in Nighttown" directed by Burgess Meredith, for which she won a Tony nomination.

On the Los Angeles stage she appeared in "When You Coming Back Red Ryder" and "Unfinished Stories" (world premiere) at the Mark Taper Forum.

Flanagan developed and produced a 1985 feature film version of the stage production "James Joyce's Women," playing six women from the life and works of Joyce. For her stage portrayal she received the Los Angeles Critics' Award, the San Francisco Critics' Award and a DramaLogue Award. Other feature films include Youngblood, Sinful Davey, Ulysses, A State of Emergency, Reflections, Final Verdict, the Academy AwardR-winning In The Region of Ice, Death Dreams, Mad At the Moo and Money for Nothing.

Television plays and movies include "An Trial" (for which she won the Jacob's TV Award for Best Performance of the Year), "Deirdre," "King of the Castle," "Why Aren't You Famous" for the BBC, "Cold Comfort Farm," "A Crucial Week in the Life of a Grocer's Assistant," and "Five Women." American television credits include: "Scorned and Swindled," "The Ewok Adventure," "Mary White," "Lizzie Borden," "Through Naked Eyes," "Murder She Wrote," "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "How the West Was Won" (Emmy nomination, Best Actress) and "Rich Man, Poor Man" (Emmy award). She also starred in the CBS television series "To Have and To Hold."

Flanagan and her husband Garrett currently divide their time between Los Angeles and Ireland.

MALICK BOWENS (Colonel Idris Sadick) has appeared in such films as Ali, Double Team, When We Were Kings, Outbreak, Bopha!, The March, The Believers and Out of Africa. His television series credits include "Tarzan."

JOHNNY MESSNER (Kelly Lake) recently reunited with Bruce Willis on The Whole 10 Yards. Last year he appeared opposite Cameron Diaz, Christina Applegate and Selma Blair in the romantic comedy The Sweetest Thing. He has also starred in the independent features Finding Home and Dancing In September.

On the small screen Messner has guest-starred on such popular series as "Friends," "CSI" and the WB's "Angel". In addition to his film and television work, Messner has appeared in several regional theater productions.

Messner lived in Europe for several years while his father served in the U.S. Air Force. He went to high school in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and attended college at San Diego State University, earning a degree in communications.

PAUL FRANCIS (Danny "Doc" Kelley) has appeared in the blockbuster Pearl Harbor and starred in such films as The Clean and Narrow, Warlock 3: The End of Innocence, Sparkle and Charm and Matters of Consequence. His television work includes the UPN telefilm "Last Man on Planet Earth" and guest-starring roles on CBS shows "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," "Touched By An Angel" and "Nash Bridges". He stars in the upcoming "X-Team" for ABC.

Francis, a native of Kansas City, Kansas, began acting after college. After appearing in more than thirty national commercials, he wrote and directed the short film One Whore, which won acclaim at the New Orleans Film Festival. He is currently working on a novella and other works of fiction.

CHAD SMITH (Jason "Flea" Mabry) has his first major co-starring role in Tears of the Sun. After appearing in a small, independent feature straight out of high school (shot in the Sun Valley area), Smith enrolled in college for a brief period in Oregon, before honing his acting skills in various community and non-profit theater companies around the country, including stops in Martha's Vineyard and Minneapolis.

He returned to his hometown in the Ketchum/Hailey, Idaho area six years later and won a role in "The Philadelphia Story," produced by A Company of Fools, the local acting troupe founded by Bruce Willis. Over the last two years, Smith has appeared in their productions of "Side Man," "The Seagull," "The Pied Piper" and "A Christmas Carol," as well as "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" for the New Theatre Company, also based in Idaho.

Most recently, he starred opposite Willis in the staging of Sam Shepard's dark comedy "True West," at the Liberty Theatre in Hailey. The play, depicting the troubled relationship between two brothers, has aired on Showtime.

CHARLES INGRAM (Demetrius "Silk" Owens) is the real McCoy -- a former Force Recon Marine who served for more than four years in the military and is versed in a wide array of special combat and tactical training. Tears of the Sun marks his dramatic acting debut.

Ingram grew up in Oakland, California. Following his military service, he relocated to Los Angeles and enrolled in UCLA. While at school, a friend entered his name in a modeling contest, which led to appearances on the syndicated "Star Search." Ingram walked away with the show's top prize in the male modeling category, which brought him a professional contract with the prestigious Ford Agency.

After hosting a scuba diving program on the Discovery Channel, he met another former Force Recon Marine, Phil Neilson (one of Hollywood's premiere stunt coordinators), who recruited Ingram to work as a stuntman in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down. He followed it with stunt work in the upcoming sequels The Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

ANTOINE FUQUA (Director) Filmmaker Antoine Fuqua has established himself as one of the foremost talents of his generation. Through his diverse body of work, he has achieved his goal of making highly stylized films that resonate thematically and personally with audiences.

Fuqua confirmed his place as a young director of unique vision and craft with the release of Warner Bros.' Training Day. Shot entirely on location in Los Angeles, Training Day chronicles one brutal day in the life of a corrupt cop (Denzel Washington, who won an Academy AwardR for his performance) and his earnest young trainee (Ethan Hawke, who was also nominated for an Academy AwardR). Intense, powerful and visually dynamic, Training Day shines an uncompromising light on the urban drug underworld.

Never content to remain idle, Fuqua is currently in pre-production on the Jerry Bruckheimer production King Arthur for Disney. The feature, which will bring the legendary historical figure to the big screen, begins production this summer in Ireland. Fuqua is also set to produce Family Reunion with his wife Lela Rochon (Waiting to Exhale, Any Given Sunday) and Darryl Quarles for Warner Bros. Rochon will star in the film, which explores relationships within black families. Additionally, he is working on Bloods for Castle Rock, adapted from Wally Terry's novel that explores the Vietnam experience of black soldiers who died in record numbers during America's first fully integrated war. Fuqua recently announced an exclusive deal to produce and direct new projects for Universal Television, and he is also executive producing a television pilot for ABC.

Fuqua revealed an impressive stylistic flair with his debut film, Columbia Pictures' The Replacement Killers, featuring international action star Chow Yun Fat and Academy AwardR winner Mira Sorvino. The Replacement Killers was followed by Warner Bros.' comedic thriller Bait starring Jamie Foxx and David Morse.

A native of Pittsburgh, Fuqua studied engineering at West Virginia University before moving to New York in 1987 to direct music videos. After forming his own production company, Reel Power, he directed his debut short Exit.

Before long, Fuqua's visual and narrative sensibility made him one of the industry's most sought after music video and commercial directors. His credits include television commercials for Miller Genuine Draft, Reebok, Toyota and Sprite, and music videos for a wide array of artists including Arrested Development, Prince, Stevie Wonder and Toni Braxton. Fuqua won an MTV Award for Best Rap Video and two prestigious Music Video Production honors (The Young Generators Award and The Sinclair Tenenbaum Olesiuk and Emanual Award) for his video for Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise."

Fuqua currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Lela Rochon Fuqua and baby daughter, Asia Rochon. And Fuqua enjoys frequent quality time with son Zachary Fuqua.

ALEX LASKER (Screenwriter) began his professional career as a script reader at United Artists in the late 1970s, where he met Wendell Wellman, with whom he eventually co-wrote the action-adventure Firefox starring Clint Eastwood. He also wrote and co-produced John Boorman's Beyond Rangoon starring Patricia Arquette.

Lasker also penned the HBO original feature "Doublecrossed" which starred Dennis Hopper and won the 1991 Cable Ace Award for Best Cable Movie. He wrote "The White River" a Fox Television feature directed by Martin Donovan, and adapted "Sugarland" for producer-director Norman Jewison.

Lasker is the son of the late actress Jane Greer (Out of the Past, The Man of A Thousand Faces) and brother of OscarR nominated producer-screenwriter Lawrence Lasker (Awakenings, War Games). He graduated from UCLA Film School and was also an American Film Institute directing fellow from 1974-75. His work as a student filmmaker includes two international award-winning shorts, which he wrote and directed.

PATRICK CIRILLO (Screenwriter) has written Homer and Eddie (winner of the Best Picture Award at the 1990 San Sebastian Film Festival), the thriller The Surgeon starring Malcolm McDowell and Peter Boyle, and the feature Dangerous Heart with Tim Daly and Lauren Holly.

Cirillo's current projects include the big screen adaptation of Jeffery Deaver's suspense novel The Devil's Teardrop, an adaptation of The Alchemist and the original script Fear Itself.

Cirillo, a Connecticut native, majored in communications at Fordham University before heading west to obtain his Master of Fine Arts degree from UCLA Film School.

JOE ROTH (Executive Producer) Joe Roth formed Revolution Studios in May 2000. Revolution Studios is partnered with three of the premier media companies in the world - Sony Pictures Entertainment, Starz Encore Group and Fox Entertainment Group - as both investors and distributors.

In its two years of operation, Revolution Studios has released eleven films, including America's Sweethearts, which Roth directed, Black Hawk Down, which won two Academy AwardsR, XXX, which became the company's most successful film to date, and Maid in Manhattan, which has become Jennifer Lopez's highest grossing film. Among Revolution Studios' upcoming releases are Anger Management, Hollywood Homicide, Mona Lisa Smile and Peter Pan.

From August 1994 through January 2000, Roth ran Walt Disney Studios, first as Chairman of the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, then from April 1996, as Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. He led the studio to worldwide market dominance over the five years with an industry-leading 18 films grossing over $100 million domestically, three of which--The Sixth Sense, Toy Story 2 and Armageddon--grossing over $200 million in the United States alone. Roth helped build Buena Vista International into the market leader, finishing first in market share five times in six years, the only company to gross over one billion dollars in each of those years. The studio's 1999 Best Picture nominees The Insider and The Sixth Sense led Disney to an industry-leading 17 Academy AwardR nominations.

From 1992 to 1994, Roth, with Roger Birnbaum, headed Caravan Pictures, which produced such hits as While You Were Sleeping, Angels in the Outfield and The Three Musketeers for Disney.

Before establishing Caravan Pictures, Roth served as Chairman of Twentieth Century Fox from July 1989 until November 1992. During his tenure at the studio, the company made such successful films as Home Alone, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Die Hard 2, Sleeping With The Enemy, Mrs. Doubtfire, My Cousin Vinny, White Men Can't Jump, Edward Scissorhands, The Commitments and The Last of the Mohicans.

Prior to Twentieth Century Fox, Roth was a highly successful independent producer/director, co-founding Morgan Creek Pictures, for which he produced such films as Young Guns, Dead Ringers, Major League and Bachelor Party. Roth directed both Streets of Gold and Revenge of the Nerds II for Twentieth Century Fox, and Coupe De Ville for Universal Pictures.

Equally noted for his diverse civic and charitable activities, Roth has received various awards such as the 1991 Variety Clubs Man of the Year award, the 1996 humanitarian award from the NCCJ, the 1997 American Museum of Moving Image award and was honored in 1998 by the APLA and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Roth is also an active supporter of the SIDS alliance.

He is a graduate school instructor on the faculty at UCLA's independent film and television program and has been coaching AYSO soccer for the past 10 years. A New York City native, Roth is a 1970 graduate of Boston University.

MICHAEL LOBELL (Producer) was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and is one of the top movie producers in the film industry. He is an on-the-scene producer who is deeply involved in every aspect of his films, from the development of the original concept, through the various phases of casting, filming, postproduction and the marketing strategy.

Lobell produced the comedy hit Honeymoon in Vegas starring Nicolas Cage, James Caan and Sarah Jessica Parker, which received a Golden Globe Nomination for Best Motion Picture by the Hollywood Foreign Press. In addition he produced two acclaimed family films for Walt Disney Pictures. The first was The Journey of Natty Gann starring John Cusack and Meredith Salenger, which won first prize in the Moscow Film Festival in 1987 as well as the 1985 Jeannie Golden Eagle Award for Family Films, given by the Southern California Motion Picture Counsel Inc. The second film, White Fang starring Ethan Hawke, based on the Jack London novel, was a worldwide hit and won the Genesis Award in 1991 for the best Family Feature Film given by the Arc Trust Inc.

Lobell's work runs the gamut and includes edgier pictures like the worldwide hit Striptease starring Demi Moore, Burt Reynolds, Ving Rhames, Armand Assante and Robert Patrick. Lobell has also produced a string of comedies including It Could Happen to You, a romantic comedy starring Nicolas Cage, Bridget Fonda and Rosie Perez, Little Big League, a family oriented comedy, and the critically acclaimed comedy The Freshman starring Marlon Brando and Matthew Broderick. Lobell's other credits include Chances Are starring Cybill Shepherd and Robert Downey Jr., So Fine starring Ryan O'Neal, the sophisticated action comedy Undercover Blues starring Kathleen Turner and Dennis Quaid and Isn't She Great starring Bette Midler, Nathan Lane, Stockard Channing, John Cleese and David Hyde Pierce.

Lobell began his producing career in 1974 while living in Denmark. He attended the Cannes Film Festival that year where he bought the Danish distribution rights to the acclaimed drama The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.

Lobell graduated from Michigan State University in 1962. While at MSU he played baseball and was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. After college, Lobell began a career in the fashion industry. This experience helped provide the inspiration for the comedy So Fine.

ARNOLD RIFKIN (Producer) is co-founder, along with Bruce Willis, of Cheyenne Enterprises, LLC, a company based in Los Angeles, California, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, focusing on the entertainment business, film, and television production. Cheyenne Enterprises has their first-look feature film deal at Revolution Studios and a second-look deal at MGM Studios.

Prior to Cheyenne Enterprises, Arnold had been a talent agent for over 20 years. He started his career at Rifkin-David and was a founding partner of the hugely successful Triad Artists. In 1992, Triad Artists was acquired by the William Morris Agency. Rifkin was named worldwide head of the Motion Picture Department, and in 1996, ascended to the role of president of the agency where he remained until September 1999. A few short months later in January 2000, Rifkin created Cheyenne Enterprises along with his former client of 17 years, Bruce Willis. Since the company's inception, they have become a prolific producing entity having produced such feature films as Bandits, Hart's War, The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course and Tears of the Sun.

Some of the highlights from their slate of more than thirty projects include the recently produced sequel The Whole Ten Yards directed by Howard Deutch for Warner Bros. and Franchise Pictures. In April 2003, Rifkin and Willis start production on Me Again, with Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest) attached to direct for Intermedia. In fall 2003, Cheyenne and Revolution will begin production on the adaptation of Robert Crais' best-selling novel Hostage directed by Paul McGuigan (Gangster No. 1) and starring Willis. Going beyond Willis' services in film, the company acquired Stephen King's Bag of Bones with Peter Care (The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys) attached to direct, the novel True Believers, adapted by Doug Richardson, with Hideo Nakata (The Ring) to direct, the Elmore Leonard novella Tenkiller, also adapted by Richardson, Fragile to be directed by Blake Masters and financed by Gold Circle Films, and Deal, to be directed by John Polson (Swimfan) and financed by Lakeshore. Cheyenne Enterprises is also currently in negotiations with Florent Siri (The Nest) to direct Tourist, an original story by Mark Bomback.

In television, Cheyenne Enterprises has become equally prolific starting with Sam Shepard's "True West" for Showtime (August 2002). Currently, the company is in pre-production on an adaptation of the British television series, Touching Evil at USA to be directed by the Hughes Brothers (From Hell), a CBS/USA Studios pilot starring Danny Glover, and in development on an HBO mini-series adapted from famed crime writer James Ellroy's (LA Confidential) novels American Tabloid and Cold 6000 along with producer Tony To ("Band of Brothers"). Willis will star.

In addition to his work in the creative community, Rifkin sits on the Board of Directors at the American Cinematheque, the Board of Councilors at the USC School of Cinema-Television, and is a Director of the Motion Picture and Television Fund Foundation. He is co-chair of and teaches a course for the producers program at the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television, and holds a summer graduate course. During his tenure at the William Morris Agency, he created an internship program for Harvard MBA students, and for the past two years, has lectured at Harvard's School of Business and Yale Law School.

IAN BRYCE (Producer) won a Golden Globe Award and an Academy AwardR nomination for his work as a producer on Steven Spielberg's monumental World War II drama Saving Private Ryan. The movie won Best Picture honors from numerous critics' organizations including the New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, Dallas, Boston and Broadcast Film Critics associations. Bryce also shared a Producers Guild of America Award for his work on the film.

Following that triumph, Bryce moved on to produce another highly acclaimed feature, Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous, which went on to garner a British Academy Award (BAFTA) nomination as Best Picture, an Australian Film Institute Award as Best Foreign Film, another Golden Globe (Best Comedy or Musical) for Bryce, as well as four OscarR nominations and the Best Original Screenplay award for Crowe. He followed with Sam Raimi's epic fantasy-adventure film Spider-Man, the highest grossing film of 2002.

Prior to Almost Famous, Bryce produced such films as the romantic comedy Forces Of Nature starring Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock, Penelope Spheeris' big-screen version of the classic television series The Beverly Hillbillies, and the action-thriller Hard Rain with Morgan Freeman and Christian Slater. He produced Jan de Bont's blockbuster Twister and executive produced his 1994 directorial debut Speed.

Other motion picture credits include Phil Kaufman's Rising Sun (as line producer/unit production manager) and Tim Burton's Batman Returns (as associate producer/ production manager).

Born in England, Bryce launched his career as a production assistant on the third installment of the first Star Wars trilogy, Return Of The Jedi, and later began his association with Steven Spielberg as a second assistant director on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. He continued that alliance as production manager on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and maintained his affiliation with George Lucas as an associate producer on "Ewoks: The Battle for Endor" and Howard the Duck.

Bryce has also served as production manager on such films as Francis Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Ron Howard's Willow and Joe Johnston's The Rocketeer.

MAURO FIORE (Director of Photography) reunites with director Antoine Fuqua after serving as in the same capacity on Training Day.

A native of Italy, Fiore emigrated to the U.S. as a child, settling with his family in suburban Chicago. He studied his craft at Columbia College, where he first met another budding cinematographer, OscarR winner Janusz Kaminski. The pair later reunited and relocated to California to attend the American Film Institute. After Kaminski began working as a gaffer for B-movie maven Roger Corman, he beckoned Fiore back from Europe to join him as a key grip.

When Kaminski commenced his collaboration with Steven Spielberg, Fiore assisted him as a gaffer and second-unit cameraman on Schindler's List (for which Kaminski scored his first Academy AwardR), Amistad and The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Fiore was director of photography on Kaminski's directorial debut Lost Souls.

Most recently, Fiore was director of photography on Renny Harlin's racing drama Driven and Wayne Wang's The Center of the World. Other credits include Get Carter, Highway, Love from Ground Zero, An Occasional Hell, Breaking Up, Soldier Boyz and Dominion. He has also directed the second-unit photography on such projects as The Rock and Armageddon, and worked in various capacities on The Adventures of Huck Finn, Mi Vida Loca and One False Move.

NAOMI SHOHAN (Production Designer) reunites with director Antoine Fuqua after providing the visual design for his directorial debut The Replacement Killers, and Training Day. Shohan also designed Sam Mendes' OscarR-winning American Beauty, receiving nominations for her work from the British Academy (BAFTA) and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Art Directors.

Other motion picture credits include Sweet November, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, Playing God, Feeling Minnesota, White Man's Burden and Zebrahead.

Prior to becoming a production designer, the New Jersey native attended California Institute of the Arts and worked her way up the ranks as a set decorator and art director, most notably on Ken Russell's drama Whore.

CONRAD BUFF, A.C.E. (Film Editor) won the 1997 Academy AwardR and the American Cinema Editors (Eddie) Award for his work on James Cameron's epic Titanic, sharing the honor with co-editors Cameron and Richard A. Harris. He was previously nominated, along with Mark Goldblatt and Harris, for Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Buff's work has also been recognized with 'Eddie' nominations for True Lies and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and a British Academy (BAFTA) nomination for Titanic. Additionally, he won Golden Satellite Awards for Titanic and Thirteen Days.

In addition to his ongoing collaboration with filmmaker Cameron (which also includes his 1988 sci-fi film The Abyss), Buff is a favorite of filmmaker Roger Donaldson, for whom he's edited Thirteen Days, Species, The Getaway and Dante's Peak. Other credits include Mystery Men, Arlington Road, Short Circuit 2, Spaceballs, Solarbabies, Switchback and Jagged Edge.

More recently, Buff edited Training Day and Denzel Washington's directorial debut The Antwone Fisher Story.

After dabbling in stop-motion photography as a youngster, Buff attended Pasadena City College for a couple of years before his draft notice brought him to the attention of the Navy's Motion Picture Office in Hollywood. Early assignments won him a transfer to Washington, D.C. to work on their eight-man documentary film unit. Following his discharge, Buff worked as an apprentice at Universal, and worked on opticals for the TV series "Battlestar Galactica" at ILM. At the suggestion of OscarR-winning visual effects wizard Richard Edlund, Buff relocated to ILM's headquarters in northern California.

Over the next five years, Buff worked as a visual effects editorial supervisor on such films as 2010, Ghostbusters, Poltergeist, E.T: The Extraterrestrial and Raiders of the Lost Ark. He also worked on two of the first three Stars Wars films, The Empire Strikes Back (as visual effects editorial supervisor) and Return of the Jedi (as assistant film editor).

MARLENE STEWART (Costume Designer) has designed the wardrobes for such films as Ali, Coyote Ugly, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, The X-Files, Enemy of the State, The Saint, The Phantom, Space Jam, To Wong Foo: Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar and True Lies, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The River Wild, Falling Down, A Dangerous Game, I'll Do Anything, Point of No Return, JFK, The Doors, Pet Sematary II, Truth or Dare, Wild Orchid, Siesta and Back to the Beach. Her television credits include HBO's "Tales from the Crypt" and "2000 Malibu Road," among others.

Before turning to movies and television, Stewart designed contemporary women's clothing for her own label, Covers, which sold to boutiques in all of the fashion capitals of the world, including New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Rome and Milan. During this period she met, and began an association with, recording superstar Madonna, collaborating with her to create an image that ultimately inspired an entire generation.

Stewart worked on eleven of Madonna's music videos including "Vogue," "Express Yourself," "Like A Prayer" and "Material Girl," as well as several of her concert tours. Stewart later designed costumes for live shows by Cher, The Pointer Sisters, Paula Abdul, Boz Scaggs and Miami Sound Machine. Her designs can also be seen in music videos featuring many of the music world's most popular performers including Smashing Pumpkins, Mick Jagger, Bette Midler, Janet Jackson, The Bangles, Rod Stewart, Debbie Harry and The Eurythmics.

Born in Boston, Stewart graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in European history. After living in Europe for several years, she returned to New York and attended the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she studied pattern making. She later transferred to the Los Angeles Fashion Institute, before starting her own company.

HANS ZIMMER (Composer) won a Golden Globe Award, in addition to receiving his seventh OscarR nomination, for the award winning hit Gladiator. His outstanding score sold three million units globally and spawned a second album "Gladiator: More Music from the Motion Picture." In 1994, he won both the Academy AwardR and a Golden Globe Award for his score for the blockbuster The Lion King, which also spawned one of the most successful soundtrack albums of all time. Zimmer has also garnered OscarR nominations for The Prince of Egypt, The Thin Red Line, As Good As It Gets, Rain Man and The Preacher's Wife. Last year, he received a Golden Globe nomination for the Pearl Harbor score.

Zimmer's music for The Lion King has been continuing to draw applause in the award winning stage production of the musical. The show earned the 1998 Tony Award for Best Musical, as well as a Grammy Award for Best Original Cast Album. The composer also reunited with The Lion King songwriters Elton John and Tim Rice for the animated musical The Road to El Dorado.

Zimmer has composed the music for more than 70 feature films, most recently scoring the animated adventure Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and collaborating again with Gladiator director Ridley Scott on Black Hawk Down and Hannibal. His diverse list of credits also includes Crimson Tide, for which he won a Grammy, Thelma & Louise, Driving Miss Daisy, Mission: Impossible 2, The Peacemaker, The Rock, Broken Arrow, Nine Months, Beyond Rangoon, Cool Runnings, A League of Their Own, Black Rain, Backdraft, Green Card, True Romance, Days of Thunder and My Beautiful Launderette.

Zimmer's next project, Matchstick Men starring Nicolas Cage, continues his collaboration with director Ridley Scott. The film is scheduled for an August release.

In addition to his composing work, Zimmer heads DreamWorks' film music division. His appointment marks the first time that a composer has headed the music department of a major studio since the days of Dimitri Tiomkin at MGM and Alfred Newman at Twentieth Century Fox.

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