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活死人凶間
Dawn of the Dead
喪屍凶湧而至 驚奪美國開畫票房No.1
政府忠告市民：出街危害生命！
請盡量留在家中，並鎖緊門窗。
注意身邊親朋，佢可能已經係活死人！
故事大綱
點解會發生？何處是源頭？根本沒有人知。
無論因何發生，噩夢在一夜之間已令全世界陷入一個史無前例的大型災區，全球人口受到一種極度致命的瘟疫侵襲，令死去的人進化成一頭吃活人的喪屍。喪屍藉充飢而襲擊人類，為著餘下的人類生還者，將人間變成煉獄般恐怖。
從威斯康辛州家中逃出生天，驚慌的安娜（莎拉寶莉 飾演）與心地善良的警察堅尼（榮雷美斯 飾演）、電子儀器售貨員米高（積韋伯 飾演）、見慣世面的街頭硬漢安迪（麥凱菲化 飾演）與他的懷孕妻子，組成人類生還隊伍對抗喪屍。這隊落魄的烏合之眾在一幢曾很高尚但已被棄置的購物中心避難。
購物中心外的世界已是喪屍的天下，這班飢不擇食的喪屍為了吃掉這幾個僅存的人類，已大舉入侵購物中心。人類生還隊攻擊前來覓食的喪屍，更要面對隊員之間的恐懼及不信任，他們必須學習如何互相依賴生存，以及有效地使用所餘無幾的資源來維持生命和保持人性。今回地獄爆棚，死人唯有霸生地……
製作花絮
並非將《生人勿近》重拍
作為1979年由佐治A.雷美奧（George A. Romero）執導的經典恐怖片《生人勿近》（Dawn of the Dead）全新構思版本，25年後面世的《活死人凶間》並非一部將舊片重拍一次的新版本。本身是喪屍片迷的監製艾力紐曼（Eric Newman）解釋開拍《活死人凶間》的原因，他坦言：「在我成長期間，《生人勿近》一直是我最喜歡的恐怖片之一。雖然描述喪屍的電影有不少，但《生人勿近》是它們當中最突出的一套，我覺得喪屍類型的片類，仍未得到這一代觀眾應有的注視。」艾力希望利用現今先進的電影科技，將優良的劇本配合一班懂得演戲的卡士，製作一部可觀的喪屍片。
艾力對於喪屍打不死的特性，有以下看法：「喪屍的神話已有數千年歷史，可說與吸血殭屍相若。另外，喪屍是一種絕佳的壞蛋，因為他們毫無懼意又體力充沛，更是無所不在，當他們單人匹馬出動，目的只想將你殺死然後吃掉。你不可以與喪屍講道理，人類為了保持自我而抗拒別人，而喪屍則是一班沒腦的群體，強逼你成為他們一份子。
監製艾力紐曼對喪屍片的狂熱，漸漸感染到資深監製馬克阿里咸（Marc Abraham）。紐曼以馬克公司的名義，向New Amsterdam Entertainment公司的CEO李察魯賓斯坦（Richard P. Rubinstein）洽談拍攝《活死人凶間》的版權，而李察正是1979年原裝《生人勿近》的監製，他擁有該片的重拍版權。《生人勿近》當年以小型製作上映，事前並沒有經過美國電檢局（MPAA）評級，在美國的票房累積超過2,000萬美元，更獲得影評人讚賞，其中包括普立茲得獎作家兼《芝加哥太陽時報》著名影評家羅渣伊勃（Roger Ebert）給予4星級評分。
擁有重拍版權的李察，多年來被不少監製要求出售版權，直至他遇上監製艾力紐曼才肯答應。李察說：「我深信佐治A.雷美奧的原裝版本，無論在口碑及票房上均很成功，因為它的劇本、導演、監製及發行也脫離一貫的荷里活的主要大公司作風，我多年來恐怕新版本會被這些制度影響，但我知道馬克阿里咸的做事方式，他並不會容許這些事情發生，所以我才放心給他們將《生人勿近》以全新姿態示人。」
吸引新一代觀眾捧場
監製艾力紐曼補充：「我想《活死人凶間》可以令《生人勿近》的Fans高興，同時吸引一批更多的新Fans，因為這是我們拍《活死人凶間》的唯一原因。」緊握這個宗旨，製作的風格一早已被訂下來。「《活死人凶間》是經典電影《生人勿近》的全新構思版本，因此它從來也不是純粹把《喪》片重拍，也不是我們的目標。正如《天外魔花》（Invasion of the Body Snatchers）、《怪形》（The Thing）及《變蠅人魔》（The Fly）的新版本，要把經典重現，便要將原有的版本增值，而不是將舊版本重拍。拍《活死人凶間》是一個將喪屍片帶給新一批觀眾的好機會。」
透過嶄新的電影製作技術及特別效果化妝，《活死人凶間》的製作模式比《生人勿近》更大型。原本在《生人勿近》出現的主題，如群體與個人之抗衡關係和狂暴式消費文化，對今天的觀眾仍有很大的聯繫，而這是考驗編劇功力的地方。
編劇占士根恩（James Gunn）與李察魯賓斯坦同樣是喪屍片的愛好者，占士從著名的低成本製作公司Troma Entertainment冒起名來，編劇作品有Cult片大熱《Tromeo & Juliet》。占士表示：「我看過《生人勿近》不知多少次了，對我來說那是第一部加入社會問題元素的恐怖片，除此之外，我寫了喜劇劇本已有數年經驗，今次改變風格令觀眾嚇一跳也是不錯的嘗試。」
著名廣告導演處男作
已敲定由占士根恩編劇及交由環球影業公司負責發行，監製在導演人選方面，決定請來現今美國著名廣告導演／攝影師沙克薜達（Zack Snyder）操刀，作為他的首部大銀幕導
演作品。作為《生人勿近》的Fans，沙克薜達年青時愛看漫畫書及恐怖片，他認為以喪屍作為首部大電影題材是最適合不過，他解釋：「我一直找尋處男執導作的題材，我希望處男作每個鏡頭都值得重視，而《活死人凶間》正是這樣的一部電影。《活死人凶間》驚嚇十足，分分鐘令你心臟病發，又有原作的黑色幽默及場面作為參考，這是一部驚嚇電影片，但戲中趣緻元素 …. 甚至可說是種病態的幽默。」
為了向原作《生人勿近》致敬，監製特別請來《生人勿近》的演員堅科尼（Ken Foree）及史葛雷力加（Scott Reiniger），以及化妝師兼演員之一的湯沙韋尼（Tom Savini）在《活死人凶間》客串。
為了令《活死人凶間》更完美，沙克薜達的細緻籌備一絲不苟，他首先將整部影片以分鏡表在紙上畫好，令拍攝時更有信心及事半功倍。沙克說：「我沒有將《生人勿近》由頭再拍一次的計畫，對我而言『重拍』是依照劇本再拍一翻，雖然那可能是一件好事，但你會受到很多限制。我們這次是全新構思版本，舊版本的劇本並不太過重要，反而重新演繹才是最終的目標──故事被加入其他現代元素。我不想將《活死人凶間》與其他電影作比較，因為我們的版本具備獨特的個性、時代的聲音及體驗。」
喪屍也與時並進
《生人勿近》已是接近三十年歷史的經典，它的全新版本《活死人凶間》的主角喪屍也要進步，他們的面貌也有很大的改變。導演認為新的喪屍要給觀眾帶來新鮮感，他們要給人一種更生人勿近的可怕造型，當喪屍步近人類的時候，生人便會拔足便跑。
2004年的全新喪屍，已演變成一種行動迅速及更強壯的怪物，他們對人類擁有像大白鯊嗜血般敏銳的觸覺，當人類被喪屍咬過之後死去，他便會在瞬間轉化成喪屍，時間之短令地球上的喪屍數量在一夜之間激增。據導演所言，片中的喪屍會像狼野一樣，喜歡以群體方式出動，若果面對的只是一隻喪屍，人類仍有逃難的機會，若然多過一隻的話，要生存就要立即跑開，但並不保證不會被他們傷害。
導演在一開始已表明，不希望《活死人凶間》只靠大量地使用電腦視覺效果營造氣氛，因此，他請來兩屆奧斯卡「最佳特技化妝獎」得主大衛利萊安德遜（David LeRoy Anderson）為影片設計喪屍化妝。大衛在接到通知到正式拍攝，只有四個星期時間籌備，
他決定結合較真實的死人屍變樣貌（參考了鑑證科及犯罪現場的書籍），加上傳說中喪屍的形象（取材自非洲及拉丁美洲的部落神話）來設計喪屍的腐化外型。大衛的最終目標是表達到人類面貌在死後不同階段（日／週／月）的不同變化，因此，喪屍身上的用色是根據實際情況而塗上不同程度的顏色，而皮膚的損毀亦隨日子的長短而變化，這看來更有真實感。
喪屍化妝三級跳
簡單來說，戲中的喪屍有三種不同程度的變化，首先是看來像電視劇《仁心仁術》（ER）中被送進急症室的鮮血滿身外貌；第二階段是傷口部份仍很濕潤，但表皮已開始剝落，而膚色更有脫色和出現藍、綠色的斑點。第三個階段是看來最嚴重的，連骨骼也可清楚地看到，傷口位置已乾涸，而皮膚已剝落得七七八八，膚色更呈現深黑色。
設定好喪屍的三個面貌，特技化妝小組便要決定血液的調色。第一階段用上普通的鮮紅色；第二階段用上較啡的血色；第三階段則用上很黑及帶油性的血。塗上血液的位置也很講究（只塗在口邊抑或塗在其他位置？），上色方法也有好幾種（隨意式／血塊式／乾涸式），因為每天拍攝也需要很多假血，製作小組特別造了一輛專門運送道具血的小車，車上放滿了一桶桶的假血。
要為戲中出現的數百隻喪屍化妝，實在是一次重大的挑戰，電影公司聘請了多達五十位特技化妝師，給扮演喪屍的演員塗上假血及假傷口，整部電影煞科之時，共製造了三千多個喪屍裝扮。女主角莎拉寶莉對喪屍的特技化妝讚不絕口，她不止一次以近距離望著化好裝的喪屍演員，也令她感到不寒而慄。
棄置購物中心變片場
與1979年的《生人勿近》一樣，《活死人凶間》的主角們同樣以一間購物中心作為避難所。當年拍攝《生》片，導演與全體工作人員租用匹茲堡一間真實的購物中心取景，為避免影響店舖的正常營業時間，他們要在半夜至早上六時進行拍攝，時間可說是分秒必爭。《活死人凶間》卻打破當年的困難，因為製作小組在加拿大多倫多市尋找到一間有二十年歷史的Thorn Hill Square購物中心，它已被計畫進行重建，換句話說為《活死人凶間》提供了一個絕佳的拍攝場景。
製作設計師在八個星期的前期製作期，走訪了北美洲、日本及英國等地，以物色合適的購物中心，最後他們將棄置的Thorn Hill Square購物中心改裝成戲中現代化的Crossroads購物中心。原來的Thorn Hill Square購物中心面積達45,000平方呎，給布景建築人員拆走牆壁後只餘下鋼筋支柱，再築上設計好的新面貌，如在接待處加上可使用的昂貴噴水池作為裝飾、十四間設備齊全的商店、開放式咖啡店／書店、停車場及貨艙。
製作小組為求令店舖更有真實感，他們向不少公司建議，在Crossroads購物中心加入他們的店舖，最後體育用品公司Nike、電子產品公司Panasonic及加拿大便服公司Roots 樂意接受這個有趣的建議。另外，商場內的Gaylen Ross服飾店及Wooley's Diner 餐廳，則引用《生人勿近》兩位演員的名字為名，作為向原作的致敬。《活死人凶間》在2003年6月9日開始初期拍攝，在9月6日煞科。大部份的拍攝均在日間進行，部份場面如喪屍襲擊巴士的場面，則在晚間進行。
為故事注入社會元素
佐治A.雷美奧在1979年執導《生人勿近》的時候，對當時社會及消費文化加入註腳，所謂的「商場文化（Mall Culture）」在那時仍未像現今般普及，購物中心的潮流仍在萌芽階段。今時今日，購物中心已象徵了資本主義社會裏不可缺少的一部份，於《活死人凶間》之中，監製將佐治對社會及文化的觀點再次發揮──消費對人類生活就像永不會吃飽的喪屍。喪屍不自主地覓食，便等於我們麻木地消費。
正如女主角莎拉寶莉（Sarah Polley）所言，喪屍與人類在某程度上等同，這種說法可在她的角色安娜（Ana）身上找到共通點。在影片一開始，安娜的生活就像喪屍般全沒生氣可言，她上班下班看電視的規律生活模式太機械化，隱喻了她在劇情的往後發展會有重大變化。飾演電子儀器售貨員米高的積韋伯，則認為影片故事有以下含意：「《活死人凶間》的故事，是描寫天劫對人性的考驗。如果有朝醒來見到世界變得瘋狂，你會怎麼辦？若然大屠殺再次發生、居住的國家實施軍法統治、要以兇悍手段才能生存──你又會作出甚麼反應？」相對於積韋伯的疑慮，導演沙克薜達只認為《活死人凶間》的故事「是一套有喪屍的過癮電影而已。」
演員介紹
莎拉寶莉（Sarah Polley）
童星出身的莎拉寶莉，以細緻及多元化的演技闖出名堂，她在加拿大導演艾湯伊高揚（Atom Egoyan）的1997年康城得獎名作《莫失莫忘》（The Sweet Hereafter）演出為人賞識。
除了主演《活死人凶間》，莎拉最近編劇及導演劇情片系列《The Shields Stories》的其中一集《The Harp》，故事乃改編自加拿大著名作家嘉露史絲（Carol Shields）的著作。該集在加拿大的W Network播放。莎拉在前作《My Life Without Me》飾演患上末期癌症的少女，影片去年在柏林影展舉行首影禮，並於大西洋電影節（Atlantic Film Festival）獲得「最佳加拿大影片獎」（Best Canadian Feature Award）、另於多倫多電影節（Toronto Film Festival）、溫哥華電影節（Vancouver Film Festival）及倫敦電影節（London Film Festival）放映。
莎拉的下一部作是心理懸疑片《The I Inside》，故事根據劇作《Point of Death》為創作藍本，演員有賴恩菲臘（Ryan Phillippe）、琵琶美雅寶（Piper Perabo）及史提芬里亞（Stephen Rea）。莎拉的其他作品包括：《兩生迷離劫》（The Weight of Water）、《感官遊戲》（eXistenZ）及《性感俱樂部》（Exotica）等20多部電影。
榮雷美斯（Ving Rhames）
從影經驗豐富的榮雷美斯，曾以電視電影《Don King: Only in America》獲提名艾美獎，最後更憑Don King一角奪取了金球獎。此外，榮雷美斯憑演出馬田史高西斯（Martin Scorsese）執導的《午夜速遞》（Bringing Out the Dead）而贏取了金衛星獎（Golden Satellite Award）的最佳男配角獎。他與嘉芙蓮薛達鍾絲（Catherine Zeta-Jones）及辛康納利（Sean Connery）合演《偷天陷阱》（Entrapment），亦獲得百事達娛樂大獎（Blockbuster Entertainment Award）最佳男配角獎的提名。榮雷美斯的下一部新作是《職業特工隊3》（Mission: Impossible 3），他再與湯告魯斯（Tom Cruise）作第三度合作。
榮雷美斯最為影迷熟悉的作品有《危險人物》（Pulp Fiction）、《脫衣舞孃》（Striptease）、《驚天動地》（Con Air）及《至激關係》（Out of Sight）等。
麥凱菲化（Mekhi Phifer）
麥凱菲化演過的電影類型甚多元化，為近期最受影評人注目的黑人演員，近作是與謝茜嘉艾芭（Jessica Alba）合演的音樂劇情片《蜜糖兒》（Honey），另一部重要作品是與歌手Eminem合作的《8里公路》（8 Mile）及改篇自莎士比亞名著《奧賽羅》（Othello）的現代版《奧賽羅情殺篇》（O），影片由佐斯哈利（Josh Hartnett）主演。其他作品包括史碧克李導演的《懸疑案》（Clockers）、《舊年暑假仲有鬼》（I Still Know What You Did Last Summer）等。
除了大銀幕演出，麥凱菲化亦活躍於電視界。麥凱菲化最受歡迎的作品是艾美獎得獎電視劇《仁心仁術》（ER），他演繹的角色Dr. Gregory Pratt為他帶來兩屆有色人種民權促進協會（NAACP Image Awards）的提名。其他令人難忘的作品還有MTV頻道製作的歌舞電視電影《Carmen: A Hip-Hopera》，他與黑人天后Beyonce Knowles的演出備受讚賞。另外，麥凱菲化亦曾客串收視甚高的警匪劇集《Homicide: Life on the Street》及《New York Undercover》。
導演－沙克薜達（Zack Snyder）
雖然《活死人凶間》是沙克薜達的首部執導作品，但他的名字早在廣告界中走紅，如英國的廣告界刊物《Communication Arts》。沙克薜達擅長以戲劇化的闊銀幕比例取景手法，具代表性的廣告有Land Rover汽車廣告，與及由羅拔迪尼路（Robert De Niro）在紐約街頭拍攝的感人短片。
到過納美比亞及極地拍攝廣告的沙克薜達，他最喜愛聘用與他合作無間的幕後製作小組，他為Compuware公司拍廣告，特別在哥斯達尼加的熱帶雨林實地拍攝；為Audi及
Jeep的汽車廣告則在亞拉斯加取景；為拍Budweiser啤酒廣告，更來到中國拍攝。體育廣告的作品之中，沙克薜達便曾與巨星級運動員米高佐敦（Michael Jordan）及「網球界女金剛」娜華蒂露娃（Martina Navratilova）等名人拍攝Nike及Reebok廣告。沙克薜達在去年便為Subaru車廠拍攝了一個由環法單車冠軍好手岩士唐（Lance Armstrong）演出的廣告。
| 演員： | 莎拉寶莉（Sarah Polley） | 《莫失莫忘》（The Sweet Hereafter）、《兩生迷離劫》（The Weight of Water）、《感官遊戲》（eXistenZ）及《性感俱樂部》（Exotica） | ||
| 榮雷美斯（Ving Rhames） | 《午夜速遞》（Bringing Out the Dead）、《偷天陷阱》（Entrapment）、《職業特工隊》（Mission: Impossible）、《危險人物》（Pulp Fiction）、《脫衣舞孃》（Striptease）、《驚天動地》（Con Air）及《至激關係》（Out of Sight） | |||
| 麥凱菲化（Mekhi Phifer） | 《蜜糖兒》（Honey）、《8里公路》（8 Mile）、《奧賽羅情殺篇》（O）、《懸疑案》（Clockers）、《舊年暑假仲有鬼》（I Still Know What You Did Last Summer）、電視劇《仁心仁術》（ER） | |||
| 導演： | 沙克薜達（Zack Snyder） | 廣告作品Land Rover、Subaru、Audi、Jeep、Budweiser、Nike、Reebok及Compuware |
注意： 4月15日死人霸生地
| 發行﹕ | 泛亞影業有限公司 聯合國際影片公司 | |
| 片長： | 101分鐘 | |
| 級別： | III | |
| 院線： | 嘉禾港威、嘉禾旺角、嘉禾荷里活、嘉禾青衣、UA金鐘、UA時代廣場、UA沙田、UA黃埔、UA德福、UA東薈城、旺角百老匯、九龍灣百老匯、奧海城百老匯、荃灣百老匯、元朗百老匯、嘉湖銀座百老匯、AMC、JP銅鑼灣、MCL將軍澳及MCL康怡 |
DAWN OF THE DEAD
Production Information
Why it started…where it started-NOT KNOWN.
Whatever happened, however it started, overnight, the world has become a living nightmare of surreal proportions, with the planet's population hit by an inexplicable, unfathomable and lethal plague-and the dead aren't staying dead. Corpses yearning for their next meal are now stalking the few remaining survivors, driven by their insatiable hunger to feed upon the flesh of the living.
After a terrifying escape from her suburban Wisconsin home on the morning after, Ana Clark (SARAH POLLEY) runs into a small group of the still-living, including: a stoic police officer, Kenneth (VING RHAMES); Michael, an unassuming electronics salesman (JAKE WEBER); a street- rough Andre (MEKHI PHIFER) and his pregnant wife. This ragtag group seeks refuge in a fortress of the late 20th Century-an abandoned, upscale suburban mall.
As the world outside grows more hellish, as the ever-increasing army of decomposing zombies tirelessly strive to infiltrate the mall, the survivors battle the undead, each other and their own fears and suspicions. Sealed off from the rest of what used to be the world, the mall's inhabitants-now one of the last bastions of humanity-must learn to co-exist with each other and use every available resource in their fight to remain alive, and more importantly, human.
When there is no room in hell, the dead will walk the earth…
A re-envisioning of George A. Romero's apocalyptic horror classic 25 years later, Dawn of the Dead marks the directorial debut of award-winning commercial director/cinematographer ZACK SNYDER, from an adapted screenplay by JAMES GUNN (Tromeo & Juliet). RICHARD P. RUBINSTEIN (Pet Sematary), MARC ABRAHAM (The Rundown) and ERIC NEWMAN (The Emperor's Club) produce, with THOMAS A. BLISS (Bring It On), DENNIS E. JONES (Outbreak) and ARMYAN BERNSTEIN (Open Range) serving as executive producers. MICHAEL MESSINA is co-producer.
Joining Polley, Rhames, Weber and Phifer in the cast are an ensemble of acting veterans as well as fresh faces, including TY BURRELL (Black Hawk Down), MICHAEL KELLY (Unbreakable), KEVIN ZEGERS (Air Bud franchise) and LINDY BOOTH (Wrong Turn).
Behind-the-camera talent includes director of photography MATTHEW F. LEONETTI, A.S.C. (2 Fast 2 Furious), production designer ANDREW NESKOROMNY (Seabiscuit) and editor NIVEN HOWIE (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), along with two-time OscarR-winning makeup artist DAVID LeROY ANDERSON (Men in Black) providing the look for this new breed of zombies. The music supervisor is G. MARQ ROSWELL (Spy Game) and the music is by TYLER BATES (You Got Served).
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
For the most part, the filmmakers and many of the talent behind Dawn of the Dead shared the same kind of single-minded drive as the ever-growing horde of living corpses at the center of their film. The zombies on-screen just want to feed; those involved in this Dawn just wanted to make a zombie movie.
A longtime fan of horror films and the "not-quite-dead" sub-genre, producer Eric Newman remembers, "Growing up, I had always loved those movies, but Dawn of the Dead was my favorite. There were always other zombie movies around, but Dawn felt to me like the one movie that stood out from the rest. I feel that the genre has not received the attention it deserves in this generation."
What Newman wanted to do was bring the zombie movie into the 21st Century with a quality script, a talented and respected cast and up-to-date production values provided by a Hollywood studio.
Commenting on the unkillable nature of the genre, Newman observes, "Zombie myths are thousands of years old. It's almost a vampire thing. Plus, zombies were also, for me, the perfect villains because they were fearless, tireless and ubiquitous. They were singular of purpose-to stalk, kill and eat you. You can't reason with a zombie. People have always struggled to maintain their individuality against those who strive to crush it. Zombies are the mindless masses who forcibly convert you to their way of life."
Newman's zombie fever quickly spread to respected, veteran producer, Strike Entertainment's Marc Abraham. It was then that Newman (on behalf of Strike) approached New Amsterdam Entertainment CEO Richard P. Rubinstein, who was the producer of the 1979 original, George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead, and controlled the remake rights.
The original Dawn was nationally distributed in 1979 without an MPAA rating by a small independent distributor, earned over $20 million at the U.S. box office and was highly praised by many critics, including Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Sun-Times' Roger Ebert, who gave the film four stars.
Rubinstein had previously been approached over many years by filmmakers wanting to secure the rights for a remake, but it wasn't until Newman approached him that he began to consider granting the rights…and even then, not at first.
Rubinstein comments, "I believed that George's film was successful critically and financially partially because it was written, directed, produced and distributed outside of the major studio system of moviemaking. I was concerned that somewhere along the way a studio would sanitize Newman's vision for producing a version with 'attitude.' Ultimately, it was Marc Abraham's long track record in keeping the creative integrity of the studio distributed films he has produced intact that gave me reason to say 'yes' and agree to turning the Strike team loose."
Eric Newman adds, "I would like to see this movie make the old fans happy and make a lot of new fans. Because that's the only reason we are doing it."
One idea proved to be the cornerstone for all, an overall dictum the production would follow in every aspect of the project.
"This is a re-envisioning of a classic. There was not, is not, a valid reason to 'remake' Dawn of the Dead. That's not what we set out to do, not what any of us wanted. There are some amazing updates on some great films-I love Kaufman's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Carpenter's The Thing, Cronenberg's The Fly. They're great movies that add to rather than diminish the original films. We really saw this as a chance to continue the zombie genre for a new audience," offers Newman.
Producer Abraham says, "The 1979 Dawn is obviously a cult film, revered by its fans and rightly viewed as a landmark in horror films. We believed we could bring the same intense kind of motion picture experience to a whole new audience of young moviegoers who probably hadn't seen the original, and we would use all of the prevailing technology to do so."
Rubinstein agreed with Newman and Abraham that a new Dawn would benefit from a more expansive production, utilizing the latest film technology and special effects makeup. "We all agreed that several of the underlying themes of the original movie, such as the group-versus-the-individual and rampant consumerism, still had substantial relevance in today's world. The question for the screenwriter was how he could keep certain original elements, while updating them for today's audiences."
With Rubinstein onboard as producer, the team turned to another zombie movie fan to adapt the screenplay, screenwriter James Gunn, who had risen through the ranks of famed low-budget studio Troma Entertainment and had previously penned the cult hit Tromeo & Juliet.
"James had approached me early when I was researching the project, and was chomping at the bit to write the script," recalls Newman. With Rubinstein's approval, Gunn was onboard.
"I was an enormous fan," enthuses Gunn. "I've seen the original many times. For me, it was the first time a horror movie addressed social concerns and still was a kickass horror movie. Aside from that, after having written comedies for the last few years, I wanted to shift from making people laugh to making them scream, cry and get queasy."
Producers Newman and Abraham had put Dawn of the Dead on Universal Pictures' radar and it was with Gunn's draft that cemented the studio's interest. With a completed script and an eager studio, the producing team's next job was to find a director that best suited the project. Currently one of the commercial industry's hottest director/cinematographers, Zack Snyder was looking for the right script to make his feature film debut. When Dawn of the Dead crossed his desk, Snyder knew he had found his film.
A fan of the original movie as well as a comic book and horror film enthusiast in his youth, Snyder could imagine nothing better than having zombies starring in his first feature film. He explains, "I'd been looking for a project to direct as my first feature film, and I wanted something that gave me a reason to care about every shot. Dawn did that.
"The most important aspect for me was that this movie had to be as serious as a heart attack. It needed to be played straight-I mean, we do have some dark humor and some veiled references to the original. Don't get me wrong, this is a frightening film, but it also has some really funny stuff…some sick humor, if you will," comments the director with a smile.
The filmmakers' respect for the original also extended beyond the visual references and led to cameo appearances by original Dawn cast members Ken Foree and Scott Reiniger and makeup effects man and cast member Tom Savini.
"Zack's enthusiasm for the project was infectious-sorry for the pun," says Newman.
In particular, Synder's detail-oriented preparation scored high with producer Abraham, who observes, "Zack had a very specific vision of the film and storyboarded the complete picture himself. We wouldn't have landed our great cast if he hadn't been able to talk about the movie in such a confident and original way."
Synder echoes the producers when he explains, "I had no desire to remake the picture. A remake, to me, is you take the script and you shoot it again. And that can be cool, but you don't mess with it. A re-filming of the original version was so not needed. Reinterpretation is what we wanted to do. Re-envision it. We put some steroids into it. I don't want to have this film compared to any other-our Dawn is it's own thing with it's own personality, voice and experience."
All parties agreed that when it came to casting, it was essential to secure talented actors. "My experience producing Creepshow and Pet Sematary taught me that good writing and acting may even be even more crucial in a 'popcorn' move than in a serious drama-that's why we put so much effort into the script and into finding the right actors," states Rubinstein. "We had a 'star' in the title of the movie, and we hired based on talent and suitability for the roles."
* * *
An admired and versatile actor known primarily for her subtle performances in largely independent films, Sarah Polley's interest in the role of Ana Clark, a nurse who is the moral compass of the group, surprised even her agent.
"This was the last thing she would expect me to be interested in," offers Polley. "But I loved the idea of it. I loved the original movie and when I met Zack and Eric I loved them. They had great ideas for the film and they knew that for the drama to work, this outrageous scenario had to be taken seriously. In horror, we've gotten used to it being very tongue-in-cheek, and the sense that the actors are in on the joke. I think it's very brave, what Zack and everyone want to do. It takes a lot more balls not to be in on the joke."
Snyder was well aware of Polley's customary film choices, and was thrilled when she came onboard. "Sarah sells the movie. As an actor, she is totally committed and her belief in the situation is palpable-and once she's on-screen, the audience cannot help but believe it as well."
Another reason that compelled Polley to take the role was something she usually kept secret. She explains, "I have a zombie fascination. I've always had it, I guess since I was a little kid. Part of it for me is the whole idea of what happens after you die, if death isn't permanent, if it's only a half-death and your body still lives. A lot of the games I played as a child had to do with zombies. Plus I loved Romero's films."
Since this was her first action film, Polley had not considered the amount of physical effort that it would require. "About one week into shooting, it occurred to me that I have never run in any of my other films, not once. And in this film it seems to me all I do is run," she laughs. "It's really rare to have a film where the female character is anything more than somebody screaming and running away, so it's great that Ana is someone who, despite what she goes through, takes charge and holds her own."
But Ana's fight against the zombies isn't, for the most part, a lone one. After her first near-deadly encounter with two plague victims (a neighbor and her newly-converted husband), Ana meets up and joins forces with Kenneth, a police officer whose family has fallen victim as well. Disillusioned but still a man of duty, Kenneth's single aim is to find his brother. And from the beginning, filmmakers wanted only Ving Rhames to fill the role of Kenneth.
"For Kenneth, you want an enormous type of strength, an internal strength, slightly taciturn, somebody who can convey a lot without having to talk a lot. And even though he's big and tough and fierce, you feel you could count on him in a bad spot," states Abraham.
Known for his stellar work in dramas, such as Rosewood, as well as in more action-packed fare, such as Mission: Impossible and Con Air, Rhames was lured to the project by Gunn's script…but what hooked him was Zack Snyder's reel.
"I think Zack is turning out to be a dynamite feature director. He is a director that says a lot with the camera. When I'm looking at a filmmaker's work, I like to turn down the volume and see if they can tell a story without hearing the dialogue. Zack's reel was made up of commercials, but he still told a story," Rhames explains.
Glad to be in the company of such a varied group of performers, Rhames comments, "Our cast has accomplished actors, because it's not just a 'horror movie'-it's a story where you care about the people in it. There are all kinds of different actors in the group-it's almost like painting a portrait, and every color brings out a different character. In a way, it's like the group that ends up in the mall, where we realize that if we're going to survive, we have to all work together, no matter what our differences."
When casting the role of Michael, the salesman with concealed but valuable strategizing and combat skills, the filmmakers sat through numerous auditions where many actors chose to give the character more of a hard edge. "When Jake Weber read for the part, he brought to the character an empathetic quality we hadn't seen," recalls Abraham.
Weber just loved the fact that Michael's "just a regular guy who sells TVs for a living…and then he wakes up one morning to find the world has gone mad and he has a strange aptitude for coping in the most dire circumstances."
The actor recalls his first meeting with the filmmakers as "serendipitous…we were finishing each other's sentences by the end of it. What interested me about Michael was how he realizes what he's capable of, the level he can rise to when suddenly confronted with this-there's no other word for it-this war. He fights to preserve the last vestiges of humanity in an insane world, and it totally surprises him, this newfound talent, as he realizes that the only alternative to cowardice in this unreasonable situation is courage."
"If Ana is the heart and moral center of the group then Michael is the conscience, caring about the group practically," adds Snyder.
One of the roles the filmmakers considered most challenging was Andre, a street-wise husband who is trying to do right by his pregnant wife. "He is guy who in this situation finds himself asking the big questions…like is there a hell? And he realizes that if there is, he may very well be going there. So he sets a course for redemption and in doing so, lies to the group and pays a steep price for it," says Newman.
"We needed a great actor who could embody that turmoil and Mekhi Phifer is the real deal," adds Snyder.
Known for his roles in a variety of films and as Dr. Greg Pratt on the hit series ER, Mekhi Phifer drew warranted critical attention with his moving portrayal of Future in 8 Mile. No stranger to horror films (having starred as Tyrell in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer), Phifer was not primarily interested in the horror elements of the film.
Phifer explains, "While, yeah, there are zombies in this movie-and freaky ones at that-most of the time they really are a backdrop to the very human story of what goes on within the group of survivors. No offense to James Gunn or Zack or the producers, but you could replace the zombies with anything that people would be hiding from. But whatever it is, and in this case it is zombies, it forces the characters into a confined space and it forces them to deal with themselves and each other. That is what really drew me to the project."
Phifer was also glad to work in the company of his co-stars, who were amply suited to bring this character-driven horror film to the screen. He continues, "I really enjoy working with this cast, particularly Ving. We have a poignant scene together, where I'm really thinking about all of these issues that have come up because of this insane life-and-death situation…like what happens when you die? Is there a heaven or hell? And I turn to him."
Rounding out the exceptional and varied cast are such actors as Ty Burrell, who plays Steve, a successful businessman with a cynical streak; Michael Kelly as CJ, a mall security guard who finds his power usurped; Kevin Zegers as the younger security guard Terry; and Lindy Booth as Nicole, a later addition to the mall survivors. With a tipping of the hat to the original Dawn of the Dead, filmmakers were also able to cast actors from the original production for cameo roles: seminal makeup artist Tom Savini is the Sheriff; Scott Reiniger, who starred as Roger DeMarco in the original, is the General; and Ken Foree, who starred as Peter Washington, plays the Televangelist.
* * *
Filmmakers keen on re-envisioning a classic are also aware that the semi-dead of three decades ago would hardly be considered as menacingly adversarial today. With new times come new zombies. And just as Snyder approached this Dawn in a "fresh, new way," he and Gunn imagined their post-plague world with zombies that "needed to be a real threat-you just can't walk right by them. When our dead walk, you run."
In 2004, zombies are quick and supernaturally strong, with the single-minded killing drive of a shark that smells blood in the water. And once a human is bitten and dies, the transformation into one is nearly instantaneous with death. So the numbers grow exponentially as more humans succumb.
"Zombies are cool, and our zombies are really cool," continues Snyder. "They act like a pack-very wolf-like, which is important in order for the audience to buy this ride. They have to believe the zombie threat is real-that if you confront a zombie one-on-one, you may be able to escape, but against more than one, you'd better run. There's never really a chance of winning…if you're lucky you'll get away in one piece."
To create the look of this new zombie breed, filmmakers turned to two-time Academy AwardR-winning special effects makeup designer David LeRoy Anderson.
The director reasons, "I didn't want this film to be a CGI freakout. From the beginning, I saw this as a makeup effects movie."
After filmmaker meetings, Anderson had the relatively brief span of four weeks to put together his designs and his team. "There are fanatics about this particular genre in my industry and I knew I would have no problem pulling together a team," says Anderson.
In his designs, Anderson lifted both from nature (he and his team scoured forensic books and crime scene photos) and traditional zombie mythology (primarily from African and Latin American lore) to create an appearance of death and decay. The goal for all was the replication of what actually happens to the human body the days/weeks/months following death-whether animated or not. "We wanted to create zombies based on absolute reality-the color schemes are real, the look of decomposition is real-it was all about keeping it real."
It was decided that a zombie's deterioration would progress over the weeks of the mall siege, with the legions becoming more and more decomposed over time. For makeup and continuity purposes, Anderson broke decomposition's degrees of decay down into three stages.
Anderson explains, "The first stage looks like someone who was just in the ER-pale, with lots of fresh blood. The second stage has moist wounds but the skin is beginning to break down. There is a lot of discoloration and mottling, mostly blues and greens. The third stage is the most intense, with the skeletal form coming through. The wounds are dried-up, the skin is sloughing off and colors are oily blacks."
When it came to creating this frightening look, Anderson and his crew used all the tricks of the trade. "Since the original film, the industry has obviously developed a lot of new techniques and materials…and we are using a lot of them. However, it is still the same fear factor as before, it is just that now, we are able to make things that look more real-like something out of a morgue or a huge, possibly wartime disaster."
The artists were just as particular about the blood as they were about the makeup used during the three stages. There was a standard red or normal-flowing blood for the first stage; a browner, drier version for stage two; and a blacker, oilier blood for the third stage. Where the blood would be applied was also a factor (in an around the mouth as opposed to the type intended "for external use" only), in addition to the state of it (free-flowing versus clotted versus dried). So much of it was required on any one shooting day that production actually constructed a blood cart for transporting the buckets of the stuff to the set.
In addition to setting the bar high for him and his crew, Anderson was also confronted with the challenge of creating hundreds of zombies (from the hundreds of willing extras) by the time the first cameras rolled nearly every day of shooting. On certain days when the decaying masses required for filming swelled to top numbers, as many as fifty makeup artists were working to apply the gore and blood to the actors. By the end of production, a staggering 3,000 zombie makeups had been completed.
The filmmakers and cast could not have been more impressed with Anderson's zombies. Rhames recalls, "What I really liked was that Dave kept a human element to our zombies, which made it all the more disturbing when it came time to try and kill them."
"It was incredible," comments Polley. "To be brutally honest, there were times when I'd look at them, particularly up-close, and I'd be hit by a wave of nausea-that is how repulsive they looked."
"Yeah, you could almost smell the rot," adds Snyder. "It was terrific."
* * *
Keeping true to the original production of Dawn of the Dead, our characters find refuge in a suburban mall. While working on the 1979 version, Romero and his crew had to shoot during a window from midnight until 6:00 a.m. every morning in a functioning Pittsburgh mall. To replicate this shooting schedule would have been impossible for the filmmakers, crew and cast. So location scouted the 20-year-old Thorn Hill Square shopping mall slated for demolition in Toronto, Canada.
Production designer Andrew Neskoromny (who had been researching different malls not only in North America but also in Japan and the U.K.) had only eight weeks to take this location ("…that had the ambience of a bus station," recalls Abraham) and turn it into an upscale suburban Mecca called Crossroads Mall.
"In many instances, we merged a variety of aspects of different designs we saw to create one superb mall, a modern-day shoppers' paradise," states the designer.
In order to accomplish this, the approximately 45,000-square-foot location had to be stripped down to its steel support beams and completely remodeled. The resulting "mall" included a welcoming common area (with high-dollar water feature); 14 fully functioning, individually designed stores; an open-concept coffee shop/bookstore; and parking structures and warehouse areas.
Snyder was particularly impressed with Neskoromny's attention to detail and his ambition to create a high-caliber set. "Andrew was always looking to take things one step further. If we talked about one design, he'd always come back and ask, 'What if we take it a step further and do this?' My reaction was always, 'Great!' I loved how much thought and effort went into his work."
Neskoromny explains, "Zack and I worked closely together. He had very specific ideas and requirements about what he needed for shooting in the mall. So we talked about all the stores and went through all the sketches. We discussed materials that would work well for lighting and for the camera. It was a completely collaborative process."
While some of the retail businesses approached were reticent to participate in the production, three stores were glad to have their outlets in the fictional Crossroads Mall. Producer Abraham says, "Nike, Panasonic and the clothing store Roots stood up and said 'Hey this is cool. This is something we want to be apart of.'"
To fill the other spaces, Neskoromny and his crew created their own companies with names like Reflex Sports, Case Hardware, RPM Records, Concepts, Hallowed Grounds Coffee Shop-along with Wooley's Diner and a clothing store called Gaylen Ross as tiny tributes to the 1979 film (Gaylen Ross was the actress who played Francine and Wooley was the character name of actor Jim Baffico).
"Andrew has done a brilliant job, these are not just the storefronts. We had to shoot inside all of these places so they all had to be completely finished, down to the last detail and fully stocked," comments Abraham. "And he pulled it all off in eight weeks."
Principal photography on Dawn of the Dead began June 9, 2003, and wrapped September 6, with a majority of shooting taking place during the day (with some additional nighttime second-unit lensing of the zombie crowd exploding the bus). Some locations in and around Toronto were utilized (zombie devastation on Cherry Street, the interior of the gun store, Ana and Luis' suburban neighborhood), with most filming taking place inside/outside of the newly created Crossroads Mall.
* * *
In 1979, George A. Romero peppered his horror film with sly commentary on society and consumerism. The issue of a "mall culture" had not yet been raised, as the shopping mall boom was in its infant stages. Today, malls are an accepted, integral part of a capitalistic landscape. "We have tried to tap into the themes that Romero explored…that our daily lives are often consumed with things like consuming. Zombies unconsciously feed and our society, at times, unconsciously consumes," explains Newman.
For Sarah Polley, a more intimate metaphor can be drawn with her character, Ana. "In the beginning of the film, Ana is living a life that has almost a slowness to it-that you could almost call, as a figure of speech, zombie-like. She goes to work and then comes home to a loving relationship. They watch TV. They don't need to say a lot. She has a good life. She is a good person. But there is something a little bit flat, a little bit automatic. I think it's a very human portrait. And I think it's a subtle hint to the bigger metaphor."
Jake Weber sees the story of Dawn as a litmus test for humanity facing apocalypse. "What would you do if you woke up one morning and the world had gone mad? How would you react if there was another Holocaust, if there was a police state in this country, or if there was an environment that you had to survive that was brutal and blind and savage?"
For director Zack Snyder, it's simple. "A kickass movie with zombies."
Polley closes, "Zombies have always been fascinating to me. I always feel like every movie should have at least one zombie in it."
Universal Pictures Presents A Strike Entertainment / New Amsterdam Entertainment Production: Dawn of the Dead, starring Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber and Mekhi Phifer. The music is by Tyler Bates; the music supervisor is G. Marq Roswell. The editor is Niven Howie; production designer, Andrew Neskoromny; director of photography, Matthew F. Leonetti, A.S.C. The executive producers are Thomas A. Bliss, Dennis E. Jones and Armyan Bernstein. Dawn of the Dead is produced by Richard P. Rubinstein, Marc Abraham and Eric Newman. It is based on a screenplay by George A. Romero, with a screenplay by James Gunn. The film is directed by Zack Snyder. c2004 Universal Studios www.dawnofthedeadmovie.net
ABOUT THE CAST
An actress of extraordinary subtlety and range, SARAH POLLEY (Ana) made a spectacular transition from child to adult star with her critically acclaimed performance in Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter, winner of the 1997 Grand Prix at Cannes. Since then she has amassed a growing portfolio of challenging roles, all of which have drawn enthusiastic notice.
In addition to her work in Dawn of the Dead, Polley has recently written and directed an episode for the Shaftesbury Films and Original Pictures' drama series The Shields Stories, based on the works of renowned Canadian writer, Carol Shields. The episode, entitled "The Harp," follows the story of a young woman who was passing by on the street below as a harp hurtles inexplicably through space and lands on her leg, the other of which is already broken. Polley's episode will air on the W Network in Canada on April 6th.
Polley was last seen in My Life Without Me for El Deseo Productions, starring alongside Mark Ruffalo. Directed by Isabel Coixet, Polley plays Ann, a young woman who conceals the fact of her terminal cancer to live her life with a passion she never had before. The film premiered at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival in February last year and is distributed domestically by Sony Pictures Classics. The film has been awarded the "Best Canadian Feature Award" from the Atlantic Film Festival. My Life Without Me has also met critical acclaim at the Toronto Film Festival and Vancouver Film Festival and was also featured at the London Film Festival in November 2003.
Her additional upcoming films include the psychological thriller The I Inside for director Roland Suso. Based on Michael Cooney's play Point of Death, the film also stars Ryan Phillippe, Piper Perabo and Stephen Rea, and follows the life of Simon Cable (Phillippe) who awakens in the hospital with amnesia following a near-death experience. The film will be distributed by MDP Worldwide.
Polley has completed production on Luck, a Film Farm Production, which centers around Shane Bradley-a smart, good-looking, 28-year-old obsessed with his own luck and destiny. The film was directed by Peter Wellington, who wrote the part specifically for Polley, and is distributed by Odeon Films. Luck was featured at the Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto Film Festivals in 2003 and will open in theaters March 26, 2004.
Polley can also be seen starring in The Event (an independent film directed by Thom Fitzgerald and starring Parker Posey, Jane Leeves and Olympia Dukakis), which focuses on a series of unexplained deaths that occur among the gay community in New York's Chelsea district. The film premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and had additional screenings at the 2003 Berlin, Tribeca, Toronto and Vancouver Film Festivals. Polley has also completed production on The Law of Enclosures, with Diane Ladd for Alliance Atlantis Communications.
Polley was seen starring in The Weight of Water, an adaptation of Aruta Shreve's novel, directed by Kathryn Bigelow. The film centers on two couples on a boat trip to a Scandinavian island and also stars Elizabeth Hurley and Sean Penn.
In 1999, Polley starred with Stephen Rea in the romantic drama Guinevere. Her performance drew rave reviews at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival and has since received accolades from critics nationwide.
In the dark comedy Go, Polley received critical acclaim and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as an iconoclastic checkout clerk who becomes entangled in a small-time drug deal. After premiering at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, Go opened theatrically in April, 1999.
In the Spring of 1998, Polley won both the Chicago and Boston Critics Awards for her work as the pivotal character in Atom Egoyan's OscarR-nominated The Sweet Hereafter.
Her other work includes David Cronenberg's science fiction piece, eXistenZ; Don McKellar's Last Night; Thom Fitzgerald's The Hanging Garden; Clement Virgo's The Planet of Junior Brown and Love Came Down; Jerry Ciccoritti's Life Before This; Hal Hartley's beauty and the beast story, No Such Thing, with Julie Christie; and The Claim for director Michael Winterbottom, opposite Wes Bentley, Nastassja Kinski and Milla Jovovich.
Polley's film career actually began when she was four-years-old. As a child, she starred in two television series: Ramona and the Emmy Award-winning series Avonlea. She garnered a GEMINI Award when she was nine-years-old for her portrayal of a feisty cockney orphan in the Disney/CBC movie, Lantern Hill. In Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Sarah played John Neville's stubborn little sidekick, Sally Salt.
When she was 14, she played a supporting role in Atom Egoyan's Exotica, which received the 1994 Cannes International Critic's Prize, and played the lead in the Stratford Festival's stage production of Alice Through the Looking Glass.
At 16, she was presented with the challenge of portraying a woman much older than herself in the feature film Joe's So Mean to Josephine, co-starring Eric Thal. The film was one of the surprise hits of the 1996 Sundance Film Festival and was well received by audiences and critics alike.
In 1999, Polley made her directorial debut by completing a short dramatic film, Don't Think Twice, which premiered to critical praise at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival and was accepted at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. The short is a dark comedy about an indecisive man facing a difficult decision between his lover and his duty to his family. She also competed in the "On The Fly" short film contest with her film The Best Day of My Life. Both pieces are distributed by ATOM films.
In June 2001, Polley completed shooting a longer film entitled I Shout Love, which premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.
No profile of Sarah Polley would be complete without a mention of her tireless political activism. She is unequivocal about the need for widespread social change and is active in political organizing and lobby efforts in favor of arts funding and health care spending, and on behalf of the homeless. Polley is pursuing acting and directing for now, accepting roles that present her with an intellectual and artistic challenge, but remains committed to political activism.
Sarah Polley currently resides in Toronto.
The prolific, multi-talented actor VING RHAMES (Kenneth) not only received an Emmy nomination but also won the Golden Globe Award for his role as Don King in the telefilm Don King: Only in America. He was also awarded the Golden Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead, starring opposite Nicolas Cage; and received a Blockbuster Entertainment Award nomination for best supporting actor for his role in Entrapment, with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sean Connery. He will next return as Luther Stickell, opposite Tom Cruise, in Mission: Impossible 3. Additional upcoming projects include starring with Ja Rule in director James Hunter's Back in the Day, and headlining as the titular legendary boxer in The Sonny Liston Story.
Having gone down in pop culture history for his role as Marsellus "we're gonna get medieval on your ass" Wallace in Quentin Tarantino's seminal Pulp Fiction, Rhames has continued to win fans with such performances as Shad in Striptease, Mann in Rosewood (for which he won an Image Award for Best Actor), Mel in Baby Boy (again for Rosewood director John Singleton), Nathan 'Diamond Dog' Jones in Con Air, Buddy Bragg in Out of Sight, Luther Stickell in the original Mission: Impossible and its sequel, and Deputy Chief Arthur Holland in Dark Blue, to name a few.
On the small screen, Rhames was nominated for a Best Actor Image Award for his role as Garrick Jones in the television movie Sins of the Father. He also starred as John Morgan in Little John and Judge Jones in RFK. In the television series UC: Undercover, he starred as Quito Real and received his second Image Award. The actor also lent his voice (as narrator) to the television documentary Robert F. Kennedy: A Memoir.
Starring as the voice of Cobra Bubbles in the animated film Lilo & Stitch has won Rhames a new set of fans among the younger generation. He also was the voice of Sergeant Ryan Whitaker in the computer animated feature Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.
A talented and versatile actor, JAKE WEBER (Michael) recently starred in the dark comedy 100 Mile Rule, opposite Maria Bellow and Michael McKean; in the touching drama Leo, alongside Elisabeth Shue and Joseph Fiennes; and in Larry Fessenden's suspense driven thriller Wendigo, opposite Patricia Clarkson. Previously he appeared as FBI special agent Gordon Ramsey in the fantasy thriller The Cell, with Jennifer Lopez and Vince Vaughn; as Lieutenant Hirsh, USNR, in the action drama U-571, starring Matthew McConaughey and Harvey Keitel; and as Barry Plotkin in Mike Newell's dark comedy Pushing Tin, with John Cusack and Billy Bob Thorton. Weber can also be seen in the drama Meet Joe Black, where he played Drew, Anthony Hopkins snaky business partner; in Dangerous Beauty, where he starred as King Henry, opposite Catherine McCormack; in The Pelican Brief, with Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington; and in Sidney Lumet's A Stranger Among Us.
On television, Weber starred as Jake Berman in HBO's sitcom The Mind of the Married Man and as Dr. Matt Crower in the cult hit horror drama series American Gothic. He guest-starred in the pilot episode of the series Law & Order: Criminal Intent and in NYPD Blue. He also appeared as Tolliver Tynan in the Emmy-nominated television movie What the Deaf Man Heard, with Matthew Modine.
Upcoming he can be seen starring in the feature film Summerhill for director William Tyler Smith.
With numerous stage credits to his name, Weber has starred in countless theatrical productions, including Lynn Meadow's Broadway production of A Small Family Business. He also starred in The Classic Stage Company's production of Monster, directed by Michael Greif; Primary Stages' production of Missing/Kissing, directed by John Patrick Shanley; and the Manhattan Theatre Club's The Radical Mystique and Mad Forest, with Calista Flockhart. He has also appeared in four production at the prestigious Public Theatre: As You Like It, with Elizabeth McGovern, directed by Adrien Hall, which garnered Weber a Calloway Award; The Big Funk, with Jeanne Tripplehorn, directed by John Patrick Shanley; Othello, with Raul Julia and Christopher Walken, directed by Joe Dowling; and Richard III, with Denzel Washington, directed by Robin Phillips. He also performed in the Lincoln Center's production of Road, directed by Simon Curtis, with Kevin Bacon and Joan Cusack.
His most recent theater credits include Kimberly Akimbo, directed by David Petrarca at Manhattan Theatre Club; and Butley, with Nathan Lane, directed by Nicholas Martin for the Huntington Theatre in Boston.
MEKHI PHIFER (Andre) has captured the attention of critics and audiences alike with performances that cross all cinematic genres, from gritty urban dramas to heartwarming romantic comedies. He most recently starred alongside Jessica Alba in the high-energy drama with music Honey; and opposite Eminem, Brittany Murphy and Kim Basinger in Curtis Hanson's highly acclaimed 8 Mile. He also starred in the feature Paid in Full and in the feature film O, based on Shakespeare's Othello, where he starred opposite Julia Styles and Josh Hartnett.
In addition to his escalating film career, Phifer added to his growing list of television credits a starring role on the Emmy Award-winning series ER, as Dr. Gregory Pratt, for which he has received two NAACP Image Award nominations. Mekhi Phifer's other television credits include leading roles in MTV's highly rated film Carmen: A Hip-Hopera, in which he did all his own rap work and starred opposite Beyonce Knowles. He appeared in the Emmy Award-winning HBO Original Movie A Lesson Before Dying, with Don Cheadle and Cicely Tyson, where his subtle performance as a man on death row won rave reviews and also earned him an NAACP Image Award nomination. He tackled the challenging role of portraying NFL Hall-Of-Famer Gale Sayers in the ABC television special Brian's Song, and appeared in the celebrated HBO Original Film The Tuskegee Airmen. Phifer has also made guest appearances on the popular police dramas Homicide: Life on the Street and New York Undercover.
Born and raised in New York, Mekhi Phifer's acting career began when he auditioned at an open casting call for Spike Lee's Clockers and was selected for the leading role. Working alongside Harvey Keitel, John Turturro and Delroy Lindo, he garnered critical acclaim for his compelling performance as Strike, a young New Jersey drug dealer involved in a murder cover-up. Following his impressive film debut, he appeared in the comedy spoof High School High.
In the hit thriller I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, he co-starred with Jennifer Love Hewitt, Brandy and Freddie Prinze, Jr. He also starred in the successful family drama Soul Food, opposite Vanessa Williams, Vivica A. Fox and Nia Long. Additional films include Hell's Kitchen, NYC, Tears of a Clown, An Invited Guest (winner of the Audience Award at the 1999 Urbanworld Festival and the Grand Prize at the Acapulco Film Festival) and The Imposter.
In June of 2002, Phifer was honored by the American Black Film Festival, receiving the organization's Rising Star Award.
TY BURRELL (Steve) previously starred as Tim 'Wilkie' Wilkinson in Ridley Scott's critically acclaimed Black Hawk Down. He also starred as Colonel Flemming in Ivan Reitman's comedy Evolution, starring David Duchovny and Julianne Moore. On television, Burrell has guest-starred in two episodes of the long-running drama Law & Order, as well as on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and on the Emmy-winning The West Wing.
Known for his work in the theater, Burrell recently starred in the off-Broadway production of Lanford Wilson's 1987 hit Burn This, with Edward Norton, Catherine Keener and Dallas Roberts. His other stage credits include Macbeth with Kelsey Grammer at Broadway's Music Box Theatre and two world premieres at the Williamstown Theatre Festival-David Rabe's Corners and Darko Trejnak's The Blue Demon-in addition to numerous productions of Shakespeare's works. Joining forces with his brother Duncan, the Burrell brothers wrote and starred in Babble in New York City.
MICHAEL KELLY (CJ) has starred in such critically acclaimed films as M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable, starring Bruce Willis; Milos Forman's Man on the Moon, starring Jim Carrey; as well as in director Lodge H. Kerrigan's upcoming film In God's Hands, with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard. Along with Amanda Peet and Johnathan LaPaglia, Kelly also starred in Origin of the Species, an independent film that won the Gold Award at the Houston Film Festival. He can also be seen in River Red, a film that was officially selected for competition at the Sundance Film Festival.
On the small screen, Kelly was a series regular on UPN's Level 9 and guest-starred on such popular television shows as Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Judging Amy, The Shield and Third Watch.
A lifetime member of The Actors Studio, Kelly has performed in such plays as Arthur Penn's production of Major Crimes, Theatre Studio's Miss Julie, as well as in a production of In Search of Strindberg staged in Stockholm, Sweden.
At nineteen years of age, KEVIN ZEGERS (Terry) is fast turning into an entertainment industry veteran. He was only seven-years-old when he landed his first acting job, playing the younger version of Michael J. Fox's character in Life With Mikey. Since then, Kevin has worked continuously, appearing in over 20 films and numerous television movies and series.
In addition to Dawn of the Dead, Zegers has also completed production on an indie film entitled Hollow, based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow tale, with Zegers assuming the role of a descendant of Ichabod Crane. He most recently appeared in the Showtime feature The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie, starring opposite Hollywood legends Gena Rowlands and James Caan.
Many of Zegers' previous film performances can now be enjoyed on home video/DVD, including the Air Bud franchise, which first introduced him to adoring audiences worldwide. Additional projects included MVP: Most Valuable Primate (produced by Keystone); Komodo, with Jill Hennessy (Crossing Jordan); Four Days, with Colm Meaney and William Forsythe; It Came from the Sky, with John Ritter, Yasmine Bleeth and Christopher Lloyd; Treasure Island with Jack Palance; and Nico the Unicorn, with Anne Archer.
Though perhaps best known for his film roles, Kevin is no stranger to television audiences. He had a lead guest-starring role on the WB's hit series Smallville this past fall. Kevin also starred in Aaron Spelling's drama Titans that aired on NBC for one season; in the show he portrayed Ethan, the son of Victoria Principal's character, Gwen Williams. Kevin also had starring roles in Universal's A Call to Remember, along with Joe Montegna and Blythe Danner; the Lifetime movie Sex, Lies & Obsession, with Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna; and the Fox Family telefilm Timeshare, with Nastassja Kinski and Timothy Dalton. Canadian television viewers are familiar with Kevin from his recurring role in the series Traders and his lead roles in the Canadian series Road to Avonlea and Street Legal. He has also had guest-starring roles in the The X Files, So Weird, Twice in a Lifetime and Goosebumps.
Kevin splits his time between Los Angeles and his hometown, a small burgh outside of Toronto. An avid sports enthusiast, Kevin enjoys golfing, seadooing and hockey. He spends his spare time working out at the gym and golfing with either his dad or friends.
LINDY BOOTH (Nicole) is one of Canada's busiest and brightest young actresses. She has starred in numerous independent films and has premiered in the last three Toronto Film Festivals in Rub & Tug, Hollywood North and with her acclaimed performances as both Sylvia and Supergirl in Century Hotel (with Colm Feore and Mia Kirshner).
She was named Best Supporting Actress in last year's DVD Premiere Awards for her role as Kelly in The Skulls II, and was most recently seen in Wrong Turn with Eliza Dushku. Lindy will soon be seen in Living the Lie, the winner of last year's Chrysler-Universal Filmmakers contest, directed by Jeff Wadlow.
Her series regular roles on television include The Famous Jett Jackson for Disney, MTV's Platinum, and The Relic Hunter. She also appeared as Lana Turner in the award-winning television movie Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadow. Her other movie-of-the-week credits include Her Best Friend's Husband and Strange Justice. Among her numerous television credits are recurring and guest appearances on such series as Twilight Zone, Veritas: The Quest, Mutant X, Nero Wolfe, Big Wolf on Campus, Twice in a Lifetime and Odyssey 5.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Making his feature film directorial debut, ZACK SNYDER (Director) was featured in British Communication Arts magazine as one of the most talented commercial directors in the country. Best known for his cinematic widescreen shooting style, Snyder attributes his distinctive style in part to his early artistic training in London, where he studied painting at the Heatherlies School. Later, he refined his artistic sensibilities at the world famous Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, where he developed the bold cinematic style of filmmaking that he is known for today. Whether shooting an epic car spot for Land Rover in Tunisia, or an emotionally moving character piece with Robert De Niro in the streets of New York City, Snyder's stylistic approach combines powerful storytelling with a compelling sense of place.
From the Skeleton Coast of Namibia to the desolation of the Arctic tundra, Snyder frequently accomplishes his big screen look with a small, dedicated crew. Working as both director and cinematographer, Snyder has traveled to the rain forests of Costa Rica for client Compuware and to Alaska to shoot spots for Audi and Jeep. He has traveled to China for client Budweiser, as well as Chile and Iceland in search of the perfect location for his cinematic spots.
Well known for his sports work, Snyder has created dynamic portraits of sports icons such as Michael Jordan, tennis star Martina Navratilova and quarterback Troy Aikman for clients Nike and Reebok and recently completed a spot for Titleist featuring golfers David Duval, Dan Marino and David Robinson, among others.
Snyder's work has garnered numerous awards including two Clios. He received a Gold Lion Award at Cannes for his Jeep "Frisbee" spot. His wickedly funny and irreverent spot "Russian Generals," filmed on location in England, attracted the attention of the London advertising community, which presented him with an award for his impressive body of work. Most recently, Snyder completed the 2003 Subaru campaign featuring four-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong.
At the age of twelve JAMES GUNN (Screenplay By) began his filmmaking career with an eight-millimeter camera. His first film featured his brother Sean, now an actor on WB's The Gilmore Girls, being disemboweled by zombies.
Gunn grew up and attended St. Louis University, where he earned a BA in Psychology. He then attended Columbia University in New York and received his MFA in creative writing.
While at Columbia, he applied for a part-time job filing papers at famed B-movie studios Troma Entertainment, and ended up writing the screenplay for a movie called Tromeo & Juliet instead-he was paid $150 to do so. In 1997, Tromeo became a cult hit, playing in theaters around the world, including over a year of midnight screenings in Los Angeles. Gunn stayed at Troma for two years as Troma's president of production, wrote and directed television segments for the BBC and HBO/Cinemax, and for a time even ran his own television station, Troma's Edge TV, in the Netherlands and Amsterdam. Gunn has also acted in the Troma films Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger 4 and the appropriately entitled Tales from the Crapper.
Gunn left Troma to write and star (along with Rob Lowe, Jamie Kennedy and his own brother, Sean) in the feature film, The Specials, about a group of superheroes on their day off.
Gunn wrote the novel The Toy Collector, released by Bloomsbury Press in 2000, which tells the story of a hospital orderly who sells drugs to finance his escalating toy collecting addiction. He also wrote, with Lloyd Kaufman, the non-fiction book All I Need to Know About Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger.
In 2002 the live-action film Scooby-Doo was released into theaters. Gunn wrote the screenplay for the film, the first movie he was involved with that he allowed his mother to see. The film has so far grossed $275 million worldwide.
In addition, Gunn has written and created television pilots for the WB and Fox. He has written Spy vs. Spy for director Jay Roach and The Newlyweds, a romantic comedy, both for the same studio. Upcoming for Gunn is Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, scheduled for a spring 2004 release, on which he served as screenwriter and co-producer.
RICHARD P. RUBINSTEIN (Producer) was formerly Chairman/CEO of Viacom/Blockbuster/Spelling subsidiary, Laurel Entertainment. He is now CEO of New York-based New Amsterdam Entertainment, Inc., which he founded in 1995.
Under the New Amsterdam banner, in addition to the re-envisioning of Dawn of the Dead, Rubinstein's most recent television production as executive producer was Frank Herbert's Children of Dune, a six-hour mini-series with an ensemble cast led by Susan Sarandon. The mini-series followed the critically acclaimed and highly rated Frank Herbert's Dune, the first six-hour mini-series based on Herbert's original series of novels.
Rubinstein's feature film credits include his 1989 production of Stephen King's Pet Sematary, which ranked as the third highest grossing thriller of the 1980's, with more than $130 million gross worldwide. Other Stephen King-based feature films produced by Rubinstein include The Night Flier, Thinner and Creepshow. He was also the producer of three George A. Romero-directed features: Martin; the 1979 original Dawn of the Dead; and Knightriders, which starred Ed Harris in his first feature leading role.
In addition to the Dune mini-series, Rubinstein's executive producer credits for television include: A Season in Purgatory, a four-hour CBS mini-series based on the Dominick Dunne bestseller about the Skakel murder case; and two ABC mini-series based on Stephen King's stories-The Langoliers and The Stand-both of which were the highest-rated mini-series on any network in their respective broadcast years, with The Stand garnering an Emmy nomination for Best Mini-Series. Television movie executive producer credits include: Kiss & Tell, starring Cheryl Ladd; and the highly rated Precious Victims.
Rubinstein also executive-produced (with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) The Vernon Johns Story, a syndicated television movie starring James Earl Jones, which received four Monte Carlo TV Festival Awards and a Christopher Award for "A Television Program Affirming the Highest Values of the Human Spirit." He has also served as executive producer on two very successful syndicated television series-Tales from the Darkside (90 episodes) and Monsters (72 episodes).
With an MBA from Columbia University, Rubinstein received his first production credit as associate producer of A Night with Nicol Williamson. He then independently produced and licensed to ABC a one-hour special profiling O.J. Simpson at the height of his football career. Following, he produced The Winners, a syndicated series of 12 one-hour biographical profiles of other seminal sports figures.
Rubinstein is a Regent of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and a member of the Third Decade Council of the American Film Institute. He is also a former board member of the IFP/NY and was a member of the national advisory board of The Sundance Festival for over twenty years. In addition, he has recently joined the board of a new off-Broadway producing company, Chashama. As an Adjunct Associate Professor, he has co-taught a course in "Entrepreneurial Producing" at the NYU/Stern Graduate School of Business for two semesters.
MARC ABRAHAM (Producer) founded Strike Entertainment, a development and production entity, in early 2002. Strike is based at Universal, where the company enjoys a comprehensive first-look, four-year production agreement. Their first production was the recent action-adventure The Rundown, starring The Rock and Seann William Scott.
Previously Abraham served as the President of Beacon Communications, a company which he co-founded. While there, Abraham also spearheaded the formation of Beacon Records, which released five soundtracks that sold over four million units worldwide.
Abraham recently produced Universal's The Rundown with Kevin Misher and Karen Glasser, starring The Rock and Seann William Scott. Prior to that, he produced Universal's The Emperor's Club, starring Kevin Kline, and Tuck Everlasting, starring Oscarc winners Ben Kingsley, William Hurt and Sissy Spacek. He also produced (with Doug Wick) Spy Game, directed by Tony Scott, and starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt.
In 2000, Abraham produced The Family Man, starring Nicolas Cage and Téa Leoni, and the summer blockbuster hit Bring It On, starring Kirsten Dunst. He also produced A Thousand Acres, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Lange and Jennifer Jason Leigh; and Playing God.
Abraham served as executive producer on the action-thriller Air Force One, starring Harrison Ford, a worldwide hit which earned $330 million; The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington and directed by Norman Jewison; For Love of the Game, starring Kevin Costner; and End of Days, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
During its first few years, Beacon produced such award-winning films as The Commitments, which was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Picture in 1991 and went on to win four BAFTA awards; and Keith Gordon's well-received A Midnight Clear. In a co-venture with Turner Pictures, Abraham executive-produced David Mamet's A Life in the Theatre, which won a Cable ACE Award for Best Dramatic or Theatrical Special. Beacon also produced Sugar Hill; Princess Caraboo, starring Phoebe Cates and Kevin Kline, for which Abraham was a Golden Halo winner; Alan Parker's The Road to Wellville, starring Anthony Hopkins; and The Baby-Sitters Club.
Abraham's entry into film began with the documentary Playing to Win, an inside look at the Cuban athletic system. He authored several screenplays for such companies as 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros. and CBS and wrote for the popular series 21 Jump Street and Moonlighting. In 1990 Abraham won a Writer's Guild Award for The Earth Day Special.
Abraham began his career as a copywriter for Young & Rubicam in New York City after graduating from the University of Virginia. He left advertising to concentrate full-time on a writing career and freelanced as a sportswriter for many newspapers and magazines and wrote two books on the International Olympic Games for Universal Press. Abraham is a member of the Writers Guild, the Producers Guild, and on the board of the Virginia Film Festival and the Violence Policy Center.
ERIC NEWMAN (Producer) began his career as an associate in the talent office at Saturday Night Live. He later joined producer Lorne Michaels' Broadway Video as a production executive, where he oversaw the development and production of a variety of projects for the company, including the popular Tommy Boy, starring Chris Farley and David Spade. He also co-produced another Chris Farley film, Black Sheep.
Newman then left Broadway to join Beacon Communications as senior vice president of production. At Beacon, he helped supervise the production of such film as director Tony Scott's Spy Game, starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, and The Emperor's Club, starring Kevin Kline, on which he served as executive producer. Recently Newman left Beacon to join producers Marc Abraham and Thomas A. Bliss as a partner in Strike Entertainment.
Newman is a graduate of the U.S.C. School of Cinema-Television.
THOMAS A. BLISS (Executive Producer) co-founded Strike Entertainment with Marc Abraham in 2002. Previously, he served as Chief Operating Officer of Beacon Communications, which he joined in 1990. Bliss executive-produced The Emperor's Club, starring Kevin Kline; Tuck Everlasting, starring Ben Kingsley, William Hurt and Sissy Spacek; Spy Game, with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt; Thirteen Days, with Kevin Costner; The Family Man, starring Nicholas Cage; End of Days, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington; Air Force One, starring Harrison Ford; Trippin'; A Thousand Acres, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Lange and Jason Robards; Playing God; and The Baby-Sitters Club. He produced David Mamet's A Life in the Theatre, starring Jack Lemmon and Matthew Broderick; Box of Moonlight, starring John Turturro and Sam Rockwell; and the box office smash Bring It On, starring Kirsten Dunst.
Bliss has been honored with two Cable ACE Awards and a Peabody Award. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the Directors of America / Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers Assistant Directors Training Program, the Board of Governors of the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts, the Board of External Overseers to the Sanford University of Social Science History Institute and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Over the past two decades, DENNIS E. JONES (Executive Producer) has been a producer, line producer and production manager on various studio and independently-financed films. Most recently, he line-produced additional photography in Oahu for Blue Crush, starring Michelle Rodriguez, Kate Boswell and directed by John Stockwell. This was preceded by associate-producing High Crimes, starring Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman for director Carl Franklin; and executive-producing Brian Levant's The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas.
One of his first jobs in Los Angeles was as the first assistant director on Roger Corman's Death Race 2000, starring David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone. His first studio feature film was Rich and Famous, with Candice Bergen and Jacqueline Bissett. He also worked on Poltergeist, Twilight Zone: The Movie (second, third and fourth segments) and Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future. He served as the production manager on Outbreak, which starred Dustin Hoffman and Kevin Spacey, and Eraser, with Arnold Schwarzenegger. He also worked as an associate producer on The Adventures of Buckeroo Banzai and Gillian Armstrong's Mrs. Soffel. He co-produced Short Circuit, starring Ally Sheedy; John Schlesinger's Pacific Heights, starring Michael Keaton and Melanie Griffith; Honey, I Blew Up The Kid, starring Rick Moranis; and Virus, with Donald Sutherland and Jamie Lee Curtis. Jones has produced the television movie Prime Target and the pilot Glory, Glory.
Jones graduated with a BA (economics major) from the University of Toronto. He then attended Ryerson Polytechnical Institute's Radio and Television Arts Program for studies in television and film.
ARMYAN BERNSTEIN (Executive Producer), chairman of Beacon Communications, was honored with the ShoWest Producer of the Year Award in 2000. His most recent productions include Hurricane, starring OscarR nominee Denzel Washington, and Thirteen Days, starring Kevin Costner. He has also recently produced the action-thriller Air Force One, starring Harrison Ford; For Love of the Game, starring Kevin Costner; and End of Days, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. He is also the executive producer of The Family Man, starring Nicolas Cage and Téa Leoni, and Bring It On, starring Kirsten Dunst.
Beacon Communications is known for award-winning films such as The Commitments, which was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Picture in 1991 and went on to win four BAFTA Awards; A Thousand Acres, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, starring Michelle Pfeifer and Jessica Lange; Playing God, starring David Duchovny and Timothy Hutton; Keith Gordon's critical triumph, A Midnight Clear, starring Ethan Hawke; and David Mamet's A Life in the Theatre, which won a Cable ACE Award for Best Dramatic or Theatrical Special. Beacon also produced Sugar Hill, starring Wesley Snipes; Princess Caraboo, starring Phoebe Cates and Kevin Kline; and The Road to Wellville, directed by Alan Parker and starring Anthony Hopkins.
Born and raised in Chicago, Bernstein attended the University of Wisconsin and was a journalist with PBS and later ABC. He wrote the 1978 cult classic Thank God It's Friday, starring Debra Winger and Jeff Goldblum. He then wrote and co-produced Francis Ford Coppola's legendary Vegas romance One from the Heart. Bernstein made his directing debut with Windy City, from his screenplay, which starred John Shea and Kate Capshaw. He also wrote and directed Cross My Heart, starring Martin Short and Annette O'Toole. Bernstein wrote and produced ABC's Emmy Award-winning The Earth Day Special.
MATTHEW F. LEONETTI's, A.S.C. (Director of Photography) most recent credits as a director of photography include the science fiction drama The Butterfly Effect, starring Ashton Kutcher, and the summer hit 2 Fast 2 Furious, starring Paul Walker. His additional film credits as cinematographer include the hit Rush Hour 2 (starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker), the thriller Along Came a Spider (starring Morgan Freeman), Star Trek: Insurrection, Species II, Mortal Combat 2: Annihilation, Strange Days, Star Trek: Generations, Dead Again, Dragnet, Commando, Weird Science, Jagged Edge, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Poltergeist and Breaking Away, among others, having filmed more than 40 motion pictures in the past three decades.
A native of California, Leonetti studied finance at Loyola Marymount
University, but was always interested in motion pictures (having learned about the industry from his father, who worked as a gaffer). After college he worked as an assistant cameraman at a commercial house and, following a stint in the army, Leonetti began working in the camera department on motion pictures. He became a camera operator in 1969 and only three years later was working as a cinematographer.
ANDREW NESKOROMNY's (Production Designer) previous feature film production design credits include Replicant, directed by Ringo Lam, and additional photography on Reindeer Games, directed by John Frankenheimer. Recently, he served as supervising art director for the OscarR-nominated, critically acclaimed period drama Seabiscuit, starring Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges and Chris Cooper. Additional art direction credits include The Sum of All Fears, starring Morgan Freeman; Double Jeopardy, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Ashley Judd; The Core, with Hilary Swank; Mission to Mars, with Tim Robbins; Deep Impact, with Robert Duvall; Alien: Resurrection, with Sigourney Weaver and Winona Rider; and Mystery, Alaska, with Russell Crowe. He also served as set designer on a number of films, including Anaconda, Gone Fishin', Courage Under Fire, Matilda, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, The Naked Gun, Coming to America and Black Rain.
NIVEN HOWIE (Editor) recently completed editing director Nick Hamm's Godsend, starring Greg Kinnear, Robert De Niro and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. It was his second time working with director Hamm, having previously edited his feature After the Hole, starring Thora Birch and Keira Knightley. Howie has worked with other British film directors, including Nick Willing, on his crime thriller Hypnotic; Julien Temple's Pandaemonium (with Linus Roache and Samantha Morton); The Filth & the Fury, a documentary on the Sex Pistols (which won the Chicago Film Critics Award for Best Documentary); and Bullet, starring Mickey Rourke and Tupac Shakur. He also edited Guy Richie's critically acclaimed Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, which received a BAFTA nomination for Best Editing, the BAFTA Audience Award and the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Sierra Award for Best Editing.
Howie has also worked with Jude Law and Ewan McGregor on their directorial debuts in the TV movie Tube Tales, nine stories based on true-life experiences of London's underground. Howie garnered an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Multi-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or Special for his work as editor on the concert film Paul McCartney Back in the U.S. He also edited Lenny Kravitz: Alive from Planet Earth; Deep Purple: Come Hell or High Water; and the Grammy Award-winning Sting: Ten Summoners Tales.
A sixth generation Californian and graduate of U.C.L.A.'s prestigious film school, G. MARQ ROSWELL (Music Supervisor) knows all too well how music can contribute to almost any film's ultimate success. To date he's lent his talents to nearly 30 films, including Spy Game, starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt; Sweet November (Keanu Reeves, Charlize Theron); Pay It Forward (Helen Hunt, Kevin Spacey); End of Days (Arnold Schwarzenegger); The Hurricane (Denzel Washington, directed by Norman Jewison); and For Love of the Game (Kevin Costner, directed by Sam Raimi).
Roswell has the unique ability to seek out and immerse himself in the music for each project, no matter what genre it occupies, oftentimes producing the music himself. He worked with pop/country artists Lyle Lovett, Trisha Yearwood and Vince Gill on For Love of the Game; assembled hard rockers Guns & Roses, Korn and Limp Bizkit for End of Days; sought out contemporary rhythm and blues artists Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, The Roots, and Me'Shell Ndegeocello for The Hurricane; and worked with a host of Middle Eastern musicians for Spy Game.
Some of the soundtracks from the films Roswell has supervised have become hits, spawned singles, or even launched careers. One of the biggest selling soundtracks ever is The Commitments, which has sold over three million copies to date. The Varsity Blues soundtrack went gold; After 7's smash "Gonna Love You Right" from the Sugar Hill soundtrack became a Number One rhythm and blues single; and The Thing Called Love soundtrack spawned a Number One country single with Clay Walker's "Dreamin' With My Eyes Open." America's first real exposure to The Fine Young Cannibals came when the band wrote both songs (including the Number One hit "Good Thing") and the score for Barry Levinson's Tin Men. The inclusion of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" in David Lynch's Wild At Heart propelled the song to Number One and Isaak into national stardom.
His successful work across all film genre lines has made Roswell one of the most sought after music supervisors in the industry.
TYLER BATES' (Music By) most recent work as film composer could be heard in the box office hit You Got Served, starring B2K, Marques Houston and Steve Harvey for director Christopher B. Stokes. His scoring work was also recently heard in director/star Mario Van Peebles' film Baadasssss! The composer has worked in a variety of film genres for an eclectic list of film directors on such projects as: City of Ghosts, directed by and starring Matt Dillon; Half Past Dead, starring Ja Rule, Morris Chestnut and Steven Seagal for Don Michael Paul; Kingdom Come, starring LL Cool J, Jada Pinkett Smith, Vivica A. Fox and an ensemble cast for Doug McHenry; and Stephen Kay's Get Carter, starring Sylvester Stallone and Rachael Leigh Cook. Additional film composing credits include What's the Worst That Could Happen?, Lonestar State of Mind, Night at the Golden Eagle, Love and a Bullet, Wasted, Rated X, The Last Time I Committed Suicide and The Crow: City of Angels.
Bates has also scored the television series Black Sash and Military Diaries, and PBS' Emmy-winning American High.
Dawn of the Dead is the latest project for two-time Academy AwardR-winning makeup artist DAVID LeROY ANDERSON (Special Makeup Effects). For 20 years as a special effects makeup artist and designer, Anderson has created the special makeup effects for a wide range of films-from Tom Shadyac's Bruce Almighty and Dragonfly to Krippendorf's Tribe with Richard Dreyfuss, Out of Sight with George Clooney and Tuesdays with Morrie, starring Jack Lemmon.
Anderson received both Academy AwardsR for his work applying the makeup designs of Rick Baker. In 1996, Baker and Anderson were honored for their work in Men in Black and the next year, the pair were honored again for their work on the Klump family played by Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor. Later, Anderson continued his work on Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, where he again applied all of character makeups on Murphy.
Anderson's other credits include motion pictures in all genres: comedies such as Death Becomes Her, with Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep, and Hot Shots! Part Deux and Jane Austen's Mafia!, directed by Jim Abrahams; such action pictures as Young Guns II, The Three Musketeers, Waterworld and Batman Forever; and such science fiction thrillers as The Arrival, Terminal Velocity and Spawn.
Dawn of the Dead returns Anderson to the horror genre, where he began his career working on films such as Mary Lambert's Pet Sematary and Wes Craven's Vampire in Brooklyn, The Serpent and the Rainbow and Shocker.
DENISE CRONENBERG (Costume Designer) most recently worked on Rhinocerous Eyes, the first film directed by her son, Aaron Woodley; the independent production was recently awarded the 2003 Discovery Award at The Toronto International Film Festival. Cronenberg has designed costumes for six films by director David Cronenberg, including Spider, eXistenZ, Crash, M. Butterfly, Naked Lunch, Dead Ringers and The Fly. Her additional feature film costuming credits include Dracula 2000; Avenging Angelo, with Sylvestor Stallone; The Caveman's Valentine, with Samuel L. Jackson; Bless the Child, with Kim Basinger; A Cool Dry Place, with Morgan Freeman; Mad City, with John Travolta; and Murder at 1600, with Denzel Washington.
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