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《帝國驕雄》金像影帝羅素高爾Russell Crowe
揮軍問鼎04年奧斯卡鉅獻

《真人Show》《暴雨驕陽》導演彼得威爾劇力轟天最新力作

《時代周刊》、《Rolling Stones》、《紐約時報》………
全球權威影評一級大讚

一夫之勇 挑起風雲戰意
驚濤大海 是他揚名的戰場
百年一遇的海戰 見証震撼人心的豪情

2月12日勇戰驚濤

發行：二十世紀霍士影片公司
上映日期：2004年2月12日
級別：TBC
片長：138分鐘
院線：TBC

《軍天勇將：戰海豪情》由三屆奧斯卡金像獎提名最佳導演彼得威爾執導，奧斯卡金像影帝羅素高爾主演，影片改編自柏德里克奧拜仁(Patrick O'Brian)所寫的史詩式小說Master and Commander二十章中的笫十章The Far Side of the World。紐約時報的David Mamet稱柏德里克奧拜仁是過去三十年來最偉大英語小說作者之一。

故事大綱

故事發生在拿破崙戰爭年代，羅素高爾飾演英國船長、綽號「幸運」的歐傑克。他驍勇擅戰，足智多謀，深受船上各人敬佩，其中包括他的好友、隨員軍醫史提芬。歐傑克帶領著戰船特擊號遠赴南美海岸，其時，英法兩大帝國彼此仇視，戰爭連年，由歐陸戰場伸延至美洲新大陸。特擊號在南美的海岸上，遇上了比它強大的法國戰船，受到突如其來的重創，多名船員受傷。歐傑克以他永不言敗的鬥志，決定以智謀與強大敵人周旋，在浩瀚驚濤的海洋上，兵行險著，暗佈殺陣，為隨員生死與國家榮辱，付出一切……

選角

《軍天勇將：戰海豪情》的靈魂人物主要是幸運船長歐傑克及軍醫史提芬，故事的核心主要是描寫他們之間的友情。柏德里克奧拜仁筆下的歐傑克與史提芬的友情在現代文學中是最生動及令人最意想不到的。歐傑克集各船長所長，不僅是個優秀的海員，也是個天才武士。史提芬是個出色的軍醫，也是個博物學家，他的勇氣可與歐傑克匹配。

要演活歐傑克這個角色，要有威嚴的外表，羅素高爾最適合不過。導演彼得威爾稱羅素高爾是天生演出船歐傑克的人選，他充滿活力，具領導才能，外型甚具大將之風。

羅素高爾亦十分樂意與保羅班特尼再度合作，他們曾於《有妳終生美麗》中合作，保羅班特尼在片中飾演羅素高爾幻想中的同窗摯友，因此他們早己建立默契，有助對本片的演出。羅素高爾說：「我們早已在《有妳終生美麗》中合作，彼此間早有默契，令我們能很快地便能演繹歐傑克與史提芬之間的友情。我很高興導演選了保羅，我們早己彼此了解，換了別人演出這個角色，可能要花上10倍多的時間才能溝通及了解。導演彼得威爾對於保羅能演活柏德里克奧拜仁筆下的史提芬也十分高興。他說：羅素與保羅在片中精彩的對手演出，令你相信他們是朋友。」

在片中最能突顯船長歐傑克與軍醫史提芬的友情是在特擊號被地獄號襲擊的時候，特擊號受到重創，多名船員受傷，在強弱懸殊的情況下，船長歐傑克最後都決定與敵軍地獄號周旋到底。史提芬在這時以同僚及朋友身份，為歐傑克提供不少意見。

製作背景

《軍天勇將：戰海豪情》早在10年前開始籌劃，荷里活大製片家森美哥榮與奧拜仁商議將奧比的英雄故事搬上銀幕，哥榮一邊讀奧拜仁的原著，一邊被書中描寫的景物吸引住，認為將故事拍成電影必充滿戲劇趣味與傳奇色彩。10年後，這個電影計劃終落在澳洲著名導演彼得威爾身上，他將奧比故事其中兩本小說Master and Commander 及The Far Side of the World合而為一，將整個故事安放在海上進行，利用先進的電影特技，將這個海上英雄傳奇徹底表現出來，讓觀眾仿如置身200年前的海上戰場，迫真震撼程度令人讚嘆不已。

關於製作

戰艦製作
《軍天勇將：戰海豪情》的主角是積克奧比，但由他所領導的戰船特擊號也可說是主角之一。在製造戰船之前，導演彼得威爾先遠赴歐洲，走到已修復的戰艦HMS Victory號的甲板上參觀，吸取資料，此戰艦曾出征Trafalgar戰役，由Lord Nelson指揮。其後，他也親自參觀世界各大戰船展覽，與行內人取經。在努力搜尋下，他選中了一艘美國船Rose，作為製作特擊號的藍本。Rose原本是美國最大航海學校的一艘模擬艦隻，仿照18世紀英國海軍軍艦而建成。

工作人員先花幾個星期在Rose上拍照及研究，Rose仿照當時的歷史背景而建成，足以容納各演員、幕後工作人員以及所有道具。羅素高爾也學習駕駛Rose，他在一般情況下都有足夠能力掌舵。片中另一位技術兼歷史顧問及本身是造船者的Leon Poindexter說：「我們參考了不少歷史資料來製造戰艦。早在英國的時候，我們已搜集了建築的資料，再加上數學程式來決定戰艦的大小，船上每一件零件，以及每一條電線的擺放都經過精心研究。」工作人員花了超過４個月時間來製造特擊號，船身高25尺，重60噸，存放在霍士工場內6 1/2英畝的大容器內。特擊號經過工作人員費煞心思而建成，船上的吊燈、吊床以至船身的痕跡，都根據歷史研究而成。至於船上其他模型，則由曾負責《魔戒》的Weta workshop 負責，再加上電腦特技效果而成。

電影史上最真實的風暴
兼任導演及監製的彼得威爾對製作一向認真和嚴謹，這次也不惜工本來製造逼真的視覺效果。在彼得威爾的執導下，拍攝了一場在電影史上從未如此壯觀的暴風雨場面。故事發生在船長歐傑克帶領船隊隊員追擊敵軍軍艦地獄號的時候，當時他們正在好望角航行，但天氣突然惡化，激烈的風浪無情地湧上來。攝影指導Russell Boyd說：「為了拍攝這場暴風雨場面，我們要準備防水的攝影器材，即使幾百萬噸水湧來，全身濕透，亦能正常拍攝。」

當各演員在船上就位後，工作人員首先啟動令船身搖動的儀器，接著開動製造風和浪的機器，然後工作人員隨即把水注入兩架強大的噴射器內，再由噴射器噴射出來，以造成霧雨效果，為了營造強風暴雨的情景，4把風扇亦同時開動著，吹向噴射出來的水。最後，工作人員釋放8000加侖的水，湧向甲板上，演員和工作人員也全身濕透。這場暴風雨場景除了用人工製造外，更利用了真實的暴風雨環境來拍攝，這更是第一部利用真實的天氣環境來拍攝的電影。這除了能營造更壯觀及逼真的環境外，更能令你有置身其中的感覺。

歷史及角色資料搜集
彼得威爾與他的歷史顧問為這部電影徹底地作了不少資料搜集，務求能正確地將當時的歷史背景、船員生活和戰爭場面帶給觀眾。羅素高爾也與彼得威爾一樣認真，他在航海專家安德魯船長的協助下，閱讀航海歷史，學習當時英國皇家海軍船長所需的知識和技能。他學會在船上進進出出的情形和爬上帆纜。

船長安德魯說「我們要協助羅素高爾重現20年前歐傑克船長的職務。」他更驚嘆羅素高爾對資料搜集和訓練的熱誠。「羅素高爾能花數小時研究航海圖，閱讀每個字排得密麻麻的航海策略，接受挑戰。同時，他亦學習劍擊和小提琴。他能在同一時間學習兩種截然不同的技能，這實在令人驚嘆不已！他希望能學會當時歐傑克船長的一切，包括他的信心程度，技能以及在船上的一切事務。」

服飾及化妝
服裝設計師Wendy Stites為片中的軍官、士兵及海員設計了超過二千套制服，她將柏德里克奧拜仁原著的描寫，將設計具體地搬上銀幕，她所採用的衣服質料是當時流行的大麻纖維。此外，工作人員亦參考英國國家海洋博物館所展覽的軍官制服作為本片制服設計的藍本，無論在肩章、紐扣或是軍官制服上的金色穗帶都根據歷史資料而製造。

船長歐傑克經歷了不少戰爭與風浪，因此化妝師為羅素高爾身上添加了不少疤痕，以顯示戰功。化妝師根據柏德里克奧拜仁原著的描寫，為本片百多個演員化妝。化妝師採取防水化妝品為演員化妝，又在演員臉上加上皺紋，化成紅鼻子及耳朵，以顯示被曬傷的痕跡。此外，化妝師也為演員戴上牙套，加上牙垢及造成
磨損的痕跡，而演員的手指甲上亦充滿污垢，以增加歷史真實感。

The Galapagos Islands
《軍天勇將：戰海豪情》在厄瓜多爾省的Galapagos上拍攝，是有史以來首部電影在這個島上拍攝。在Galapagos島上有多種不同種類的動植物，包括巨大的海龜。Galapagos島是特擊號船員唯一踏上的陸地，故事講述本身是博物學家的軍醫史提芬最喜歡在島上研究生物。導演彼得威爾說：「我喜歡史提芬這方面的嗜好，他為我們介紹了世界上不少新事物。」

音樂效果
《軍天勇將：戰海豪情》的音樂效果分別由3位澳洲音樂家Iva Davies、Richard Tognetti 及Christopher Gordon負責，彼得威爾十分欣他們在澳洲悉尼千禧年演出中，因而邀請他負責此片的音樂效果。他們揉合了新與舊的音樂世界，Iva Davies被譽為古典與流行音樂家，Richard Tognetti是出色的小提琴家，Christopher Gordon則是優受的作曲家。

原著作者

柏德里克奧拜仁Patrick O'Brian
20世紀最偉大作者之一，他的作品被文學評論家評為與珍奧斯汀及古希臘盲詩人荷馬齊名。憑著他淵博的學問，他寫出了不起驚心動人的小說。他根據英國海軍在拿破崙戰爭年代的歷史寫成Master and Commander這本書。在1991年1月6日The New York Times Book Review那期中，Richard Snow評柏德里克奧拜仁所寫的船長歐傑克與軍醫史提芬的冒險小說為最好的歷史小說。「他的每一頁都能巧妙地給我們上了歷史課：時間會變，但人不會，眼前男女間的悲傷、愚昧及勝利都是我們現實生活的寫照。」

演員介紹

羅素高爾 飾演 船長歐傑克
先後憑《奪命煙幕》、《帝國驕雄》及《有妳終生美麗》連續3年獲奧斯卡金像獎最佳男主角提名，他更憑《帝國驕雄》中飾演角鬥者Maximus一角而奪得奧斯卡金像獎最佳男主角殊榮。他也先後憑《奪命煙幕》、《帝國驕雄》及《有妳終生美麗》贏得多個影評協會所頒發的最佳男主角獎項。

保羅班特尼 飾演 史提芬
曾與羅素高爾主演奧斯卡金像影片《有妳終生美麗》，飾演數學家John Nash幻想出來的同室密友查理士夏文，他更憑此片在倫敦的影評協會上獲得最佳男配角提名。他於英國表演舞台劇出生，後參演英國電視劇，再跳到荷里活大銀幕，演出經驗豐富。

比利波特 飾演 Coxwain Barrett Boden
最近主演的電影有彼得積信執導的魔戒三部曲。《魔戒首部曲之魔戒現身》及《二部曲之雙城奇謀》更得到成功的票房紀錄。他其他的作品包括《An Urban Ghost Story》、《Julie》及《Cadillacs》。

導演、監製、編劇 - 彼得威爾
澳洲著名導演，他曾執導的電影包括《加里普里》、《吊石嶺驚魂》、《危城十日》、《滅口大追殺》、《綠咭情緣》、《暴雨驕陽》及由占基利主演的《真人Show》。他憑《真人Show》獲得奧斯卡金像導演提名，更奪得金球獎6項提名，包括最佳導演及最佳男主角等。

HMS Surprise,
28 guns.
197 souls

Coast of Brazil, April 1805

"… Intercept French Privateer, Acheron … you will sink, burn or take her a prize"

Three-time Academy AwardR directing nominee Peter Weir and OscarR winner Russell Crowe join forces to create an epic, emotional adventure: MASTER AND COMMANDER: The Far Side of the World. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, Crowe is Patrick O'Brian's Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey, renowned as a fighting captain in the British Navy, and Paul Bettany is ship's doctor Stephen Maturin. Their ship, the Surprise, is suddenly attacked by a superior enemy. With the HMS Surprise badly damaged and much of his crew injured, Aubrey is torn between duty and friendship as he pursues a high-stakes chase across two oceans, to intercept and capture his foe. It's a mission that can make his reputation - or destroy Lucky Jack and his crew.

In the course of the characters' epic journey, the movie travels the world - from the coast of Brazil to the storm-tossed waters of Cape Horn, south through ice and snow, to the far side of the world, to the remote shores of The Galapagos Islands (becoming the first feature film ever to film there).

MASTER AND COMMANDER is directed by Peter Weir from a screenplay by Weir & John Collee, based upon the novels by Patrick O'Brian. O'Brian's "Aubrey/Maturin" novels, so named after the lead characters, were declared by Richard Snow, in The New York Times to be "the best historical novels ever written." David Mamet, also writing in the Times, called O'Brian one of the greatest novelists writing in the English language over the past 30 years. As to O'Brian's creation, Captain Jack Aubrey, the Times later noted that Russell Crowe "seems born to play him."

The project originated over ten years ago when two legends - Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. and celebrated author Patrick O'Brian - had preliminary conversations about turning some of O'Brian's Aubrey / Maturin stories into a film. It was Goldwyn who first saw the cinematic potential of O'Brian's work, and he persuaded the author, who had not been to the movies in years, that the medium would well serve the adventures of Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin.

The film that resulted a decade later is based on the principal characters first introduced in O'Brian's book Master and Commander, but employs the broad narrative outline of the tenth of 20 Aubrey/Maturin novels, The Far Side of the World. Peter Weir believed the latter had a more direct, cinematic and adaptable story structure. (Our heroes are attacked by a superior foe who must be pursued; but how far and at what cost?)

Using the narrative outline from The Far Side of the World also allowed the movie to be concentrated almost completely at sea, a unique and original approach that Peter Weir understood as the key to capturing the spirit and detail of O'Brian's novels. The film uses every state-of-the-art motion picture technique and an obsessive attention to accuracy and detail to put the audience back in time - not, as so common now, forward to some science fiction world - and lets us experience an adventure aboard a ship in Nelson's Navy 200 years ago. From the splinter of wood in an attack to the heat of the doldrums, to rounding Cape Horn in a violent storm, MASTER AND COMMANDER puts the audience at sea as never before in film.

But for all that spectacle, it is the attention to characters and emotion that separate Patrick O'Brian and Peter Weir from other storytellers who have plied these waters.

Patrick O'Brian's 20-volume Aubrey / Maturin opus, which reflected a lifetime of research, was Weir's touchstone. The director never wavered from his commitment to capturing the detail and spirit of O'Brian's world and characters, and brings an unprecedented level of historical realism to the film.

"Patrick O'Brian's prose is magnificent," says Weir. "He's a writer of the first order. Of course, this was one of the most challenging aspects about adapting his work. When you adapt any book, the words fall out onto the table and you have to replace the prose with images. It has been a great challenge to tell this story visually in a way that does justice to O'Brian's words."

As Weir and Collee began writing the screenplay, they marked up O'Brian's books under the headings: "Divisions," "Crew," "Jack and Stephen Dialogue," and so on. These references were in turn photocopied and turned into books themselves - "handy cribs for cast and crew," notes Weir.

"I surrounded myself with artifacts of the period as I worked on the script - swords, belt-buckles, maps, hoping to draw down the muse," Weir continues. "Music was another aid, as I groped in the dark, trying to find my way back in time."

According to co-screenwriter John Collee, MASTER AND COMMANDER, set largely aboard the ship Surprise, points to Weir's consummate ability to create vivid, enclosed worlds. "That's what Peter does brilliantly well, as in Witness and The Truman Show. He wanted MASTER AND COMMANDER to create a floating universe."

CASTING

At the core of Patrick O'Brian's works are the characters of Lucky Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin, and their "study-in-contrasts" friendship. The friendship between Jack and Stephen is one of the most vivid and unexpected in modern literature. They are unique creations and very much the reason there are twenty Aubrey/Maturin novels. Jack is a fusion of the best traits of several real-life captains - a brilliant seaman and genius warrior, if a reluctant follower of orders. He also is exuberant, loud and a connoisseur of bad jokes. Stephen is a brilliant surgeon, naturalist and "lubber" whose courage matches Jack's.

It took a star with an imposing presence, Russell Crowe, to play the bigger-than-life Jack Aubrey. Much of the magic of O'Brian's work is pairing the captain with his natural opposite: a man of science whose courage matches Jack's: Stephen Maturin, played by Paul Bettany.

Peter Weir's celebrated body of work was a key draw for Russell Crowe. "I'm a longtime fan of Peter's movies," says the actor, "and I had always wanted to work with him. I'd grown up with Peter's movies. For instance, I remember the most terrified I'd been in my young life was being in a cinema watching The Last Wave."

Crowe was also fascinated with the character of Lucky Jack. "He was a kind of man who doesn't exist anymore; there's no template for Jack Aubrey," says Crowe. "If you are talking about the British Royal Navy as his employer, he is a very unruly employee. However, in the broader sense of the mission with which he is charged as captain, he might not do it the way you want him to do it, but his results at the end of the day will be far more than you intended."

Weir says Crowe was born to play Lucky Jack. "Russell has a natural energy and authority, and he took command of that ship from the beginning."

Crowe appreciated some of the perks of "command." "Every day between my trailer and the set, I would hear 'Good morning, Captain' about seventy or eighty times," says the actor. "Actually, it was difficult giving up the uniform; I'd grown quite fond of it."

Crowe was pleased to rejoin Paul Bettany who played, memorably, Crowe's imaginary roommate in A Beautiful Mind. Their collaboration in film proved invaluable in helping the actors create their characters' relationship in MASTER AND COMMANDER. Says Crowe: "We developed a kind of creative shorthand in A Beautiful Mind that I thought would serve us well in establishing quickly and effectively the Jack-Stephen dynamic. I was so glad that Peter made the decision to cast Paul. There are rhythms and things that we just understand of each other. With another person, you might actually have had to break down a scene and explain it. Paul and I were able to get to a point of depth that you might have to work ten times harder with somebody else to even touch on."

"It was a joy to watch Paul take the character and make it his own, yet at the same time have it deeply rooted in Patrick O'Brian's writing," says Weir. "Russell and Paul are beautifully weighted opposite each other, and you believe they're friends. It's as if Maturin, as Paul plays him, is the shape of the modern man and Russell as Jack is from a bygone time."

Bettany says two elements attracted him to MASTER AND COMMANDER: action and characters. "Any fan of Patrick O'Brian's books knows them to be real page turners," says Bettany, "and I see the film as an action movie within which is a richly detailed friendship that endures some life-altering situations. I found that really intriguing."

A critical point in the friendship between Bettany's Stephen Maturin and Crowe's Lucky Jack comes after a surprise attack by the Acheron that leaves Captain Aubrey's ship severely damaged and a number of his men dead or critically wounded. Despite (or perhaps spurred on by) the odds against him, Jack is more determined than ever to complete his mission to best the Acheron. His single-minded focus on the enemy ship becomes a concern for Stephen.

"Stephen studies people the way he studies animals; he certainly studies Jack," says Bettany. "I think what Stephen finds intriguing about Jack is that he is the exception to the rule that 'power corrupts' - Jack wields his power wisely. But that is really tested in this film. Stephen begins to think that Jack's goal of catching the Acheron is turning into an obsession, which could be a detriment to his crew."

To fill the supporting roles, Weir worked closely with U.K. casting director Mary Selway. They searched for top acting talent who had the necessary endurance for the demanding six-month shoot and a physical appearance that suggested another time and place. The formidable lineup of actors includes Billy Boyd (of Lord of the Rings fame), James D'Arcy, Bryan Dick, Lee Ingleby, George Innes, Mark Lewis Jones, Chris Larkin, Richard McCabe, Ian Mercer, Robert Pugh and David Threlfall.

For Weir, research involved trips to Greenwich Naval Museum, HMS Victory, the USS Constitution and two cruises on the Endeavor replica off the Australian coast. Then there was an ever-expanding library of books to be read - valuable first-hand accounts - and most importantly, the paintings of naval actions at sea. "Studying the paintings made me determined to find faces that looked of the period," says Weir. This led him to cast in Poland, "to get us as far away as possible from people raised on a Western diet, with Kodak-ready smiles or expressions of world-weary cynicism."

The casting of the crew, some 130 men, received as much attention as did that of the principals. Searching for "18th century faces" was left to Judy Bouley, and, incredibly, she saw more than 7,000 hopefuls. "As a guide, we had reproductions of paintings and sketches of the period and most importantly, a rare set of photographs, taken in the mid-1840s of English fishermen, shot by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson," says Weir.

"We went to the ends of the earth to find these people," says producer Duncan Henderson. "We have background from Poland, Senegal, Australia and Sudan - people who came from all over the world to work with us on this film."

Some background artists were seasoned tall ship sailors. Their gravity-defying feats of scrambling up and down the ships' rigging lent yet another touch of authenticity to the film.

THE SHIPS AND SETS

Another key "casting" challenge was finding the ideal vessel to portray the HMS Surprise, Captain Aubrey's 28-gun warship. Early in pre-production, during a trip to Europe, Weir walked the deck of the restored HMS Victory, the vessel commanded by Lord Nelson in the Battle of Trafalgar. In addition, the director attended several tall ship festivals and spoke with scores of people from the worldwide tall ship community.

In 2000 Weir joined Captain Chris Blake (who would become one of the film's many prominent technical advisors) for a cruise on the Endeavor, a museum-quality replica of Captain Cook's famous vessel. A year later, Weir embarked on a second voyage aboard the Endeavor, this time bringing along producer Duncan Henderson, executive producer Alan Curtiss and cinematographer Russell Boyd. "I wanted to be sure they too would have the experience stored in their bones when it came time for our 'voyage'," says the director.

Weir's search ultimately led him to the American tall ship Rose, home port Rhode Island. The three-masted wooden frigate, formerly the country's largest sailing school vessel, is a twentieth century replica of a 1800s-era British Royal Navy ship.

Twentieth Century Fox purchased the Rose. (Upon completion of principal photography, Fox donated the ship back to a non-profit naval history organization.) The Rose traveled through the Panama Canal en route from Rhode Island to the West Coast, enduring a hurricane and a broken mast before arriving at a San Diego dry dock to prepare for her transformation into HMS Surprise.

In its incarnation as HMS Surprise, the Rose was utilized for several weeks of shooting at sea by first and second units. This unique "shooting stage" was retrofitted to be authentic to the period, as well as to be able to accommodate the principal cast, filmmakers, camera crew, hair, makeup, wardrobe, props and other departments necessary to shoot the scenes. The Rose's actual crew manned the vessel as it moved through the Baja waters. (Russell Crowe also learned to sail The Rose, and assumed the "helm" on several occasions.)

"We've gone to great lengths for historical authenticity," says master shipwright Leon Poindexter, another of the film's technical and historical consultants. Poindexter also worked with twenty shipwrights to retrofit the Rose in San Diego, and helped relocate it to its production home in Ensenada, Mexico. "We received fully documented construction details from the Admiralty in the U.K., and used mathematical formulas to determine the proper anchor size," says Poindexter. "Every inch of this ship, down to the placement of the mooring cables has been carefully researched."

"I loved being out on the Rose," says Russell Crowe, who earlier had sailed through tempest-tossed waters in Fiji (coincidentally in a boat named the Surprise) to begin preparing for his role as Jack Aubrey. "Climbing a mast on The Rose at sea, 137 feet above the ocean, was a highlight for me. Those days were really special; there was an immense sense of freedom because we weren't connected to the land."

The filmmakers built a second "HMS Surprise" - the 60-ton tank ship - over a four month period. This ship was placed in a 6 ? - acre water tank at the Fox Studios Baja - home to Titanic. This Surprise was constructed completely from scratch, with painstaking attention to detail, down to the lanterns, hammocks and the aging of the ship and its sails.

At the same time, New Zealand-based special effects house Weta Workshop, part of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy effects team, built detailed ship miniatures. Their Surprise was over 25 feet in length. Additional models were digitally constructed in the computer of visual effects house Asylum.

The massive tank ship in Mexico was mounted on a specially constructed gimbal, the largest ever used in a motion picture production. Powerful hydraulics brought to life the monstrous mechanism, which facilitated a complete range of motion, duplicating a ship's movements at sea.

"We rocked and rolled from Brazil to the Galapagos Islands in that tank," says Weir.

Director of photography Russell Boyd notes that thanks to the gimbal, shooting on the tank sometimes felt like filming at sea. "The gimbal gave a pitching and rolling motion to the set, so that the whole set actually moved like a ship at sea," says Boyd. "We all had to develop sea legs fairly early on, just to work on the tank ship." Boyd and his team used a techno-crane with a libra head, with the camera sitting on three axes-horizontal, forward/backward and leveling - enabling them to counteract the ship's movement.

A set representing the Surprise's gun deck was also outfitted with a gimbal, and built on a bluff overlooking the ocean at Fox Studios Baja. This set, like the tank ship, could be rotated. A third gimbal was used for the Stage 3 Berth Deck, the low-ceilinged and cramped quarters where sailors slept in rows of hammocks and ate their meals. The Orlop Deck, the lowest deck of the Surprise, was situated on Stage 4, which later housed the Acheron gun deck, the site of major hand-to-hand fighting during the final battle.

Fox Baja soundstages housed other sets representing different deck levels of the Surprise, including the ship's Great Cabin, on Stage 2. The Great Cabin housed Captain Aubrey's relatively elaborate private quarters and served as the backdrop for dinner parties for the Captain and his officers, as well as scenes where Aubrey sought solitude to contemplate some difficult decisions. The Great Cabin was also a meeting place for Aubrey and Maturin, who would relax by playing duets on violin and cello.

Over a period of several months, the filmmakers constructed an Acheron tank ship, in a parking lot near the Studio's front entrance. Upon this "Acheron's" completion, it was carefully divided into four portions and moved by a giant crane down the street and into the tank for use in the final battle.

As the sets were readied, the actors portraying the officers and crew of the Surprise underwent training to immerse themselves in the rigors of life aboard ship. They trained in open ocean sailing on the Rose, climbing the rigging, navigation, small arms handling, cannons, sword fighting, military etiquette and learning how to perform the work of the characters they portray in the film.

CREATING THE MOST REALISTIC SEA STORM EVER FILMED

Peter Weir's mandate for the film's state-of-the-art visual effects work, comprising some 750 shots, was that they be "invisible" - no matter the amount of research and development, artistry and man-hours that went into creating the effects. "Peter insisted that MASTER AND COMMANDER not look like an effects film," says visual effects supervisor Stefen Fangmeier of ILM. "If you don't recognize the effects - if audiences just are in the moment and enjoy the spectacle and Peter's personal vision - then we've done our job."

Fangmeier and ILM embraced the notion of creating visual effects for a period film. "It's a breath of fresh air to work on a personal piece grounded in reality," he says. "Audiences are so used to laser blasts, space battles and the like. With MASTER AND COMMANDER we had the opportunity to enhance a world many of us have forgotten about. It's a lot richer in many ways than any outer space galactic battle."

MASTER AND COMMANDER's "invisible" effects contribute to the creation of an epic typhoon sequence, the likes of which have never been experienced on film. In the story, Jack Aubrey pursues the Acheron, the Surprise rounds the Cape, the weather worsens, the seas and winds grow merciless - and the biggest challenge Jack has ever faced lies ahead: the full fury of a massive storm - on a 120-foot square-rigger.

State of the art visual effects merged with massive physical effects and, for the first time ever, real life footage of an actual storm captured on film at Cape Horn to create a typhoon as real as it is big.

"For the storm sequence we had to prep all the camera equipment for the storm sequence for getting absolutely soaked," says director of photography Russell Boyd. "We used Hydroflex water bags and we completely encased the camera, but which still allowed it to be operational. We were able to shoot even with the millions of gallons of water that the special effects guys dumped on us."

After cast and crew were positioned on the ship, the filmmakers brought the storm to life. First, they activated the gimbal, which put the ship in motion. Then wave and wind machines were switched on and water was pumped in front of two enormous jet engines, which broke down the water into a fog/mist effect. Four fans set up behind rainheads produced heavier rain, and, finally, massive dump tanks unleashed 8,000 gallons of water that cascaded across the deck of the ship, completely soaking cast and crew. The jet engines, wave and wind machines, fans and dump tanks combined to produce a deafening cacophony for on-set cast and crew.

While these physical effects played a key role in creating these epic scenes, important contributions were also made by footage of a real storm captured months earlier by Paul Atkins, aboard the Endeavor as it rounded Cape Horn. This is the first time actual storm footage has been integrated into such a sequence - it makes it look bigger, more realistic, and lends a critical "you-are-there" feel to the epic scene.

Integrating the Endeavor footage with the CG and physical effects was the biggest challenge facing Asylum. "We were blessed to have such a great element - the Endeavor storm footage - to begin with," says visual effects supervisor Nathan McGuinness of Asylum. "Peter's directive to us was to make it all very organic; to have all these elements, including physical and CG models of the Surprise, interact in a believable fashion."

ILM created visual effects for another huge sequence - the final battle between the Surprise and the Acheron. Digital and miniature ships facilitated dynamic camera moves not possible while shooting at sea.

The visual effects teams worked closely with the film's special effects and art departments to ensure that the computer generated ships matched the miniature models built by The Weta Workshop. Both CG and miniature models had to match the specifications of the Surprise tank ship, via constant reference to the hundreds of blueprints used for the tank ship's construction

Much of the effects work was subtle, such as eliminating the Mexican coastline from scenes shot on the tank boat. Digital artists removed these and other images frame by frame. One of the "construction" tasks that fell to the visual effects department was the completion of the masts. Due to the weight of the tank ship on the gimbal, the filmmakers had to construct a shortened version of the main and fore masts. The visual effects teams extended those masts, rigging and sails.

HISTORICAL AND CHARACTER RESEARCH

Peter Weir wanted MASTER AND COMMANDER to give the audience as accurate a feeling as possible of life aboard a fighting ship of the period. He and his team of historical consultants were relentless in their pursuit of period authenticity.

Young boys, some only eight years old, were often servants or "powder monkeys," running back and forth to the gun deck delivering powder to the gun crews. In the case of officers, there was a training regimen wherein young gentlemen, many of noble birth, could be taken under the captain's supervision aboard ship as midshipmen, studying and learning the books much as they would in a private school.

There were midshipmen as young as twelve, such as the Lord Blakeney character, played by newcomer Max Pirkis. Weir built up the parts of these younger actors so audiences would see how they were treated on board as equals. "They had to take the injuries, sail the ship, go into battle and fight alongside the men," says Weir.

In 1805, with Britain's King George III in his 45th year on the throne, the celebrated career of the heroic Lord Nelson was soon to come to an end with his death at The Battle of Trafalgar. War between Britain and France had been a constant throughout Nelson's lifetime and continued through to 1815.

Russell Crowe shared Peter Weir's passion for historical and character authenticity. "The reality of the situation for a man like Jack is that it is a very lonely job," says Crowe. "Every ship's captain I spoke with before we began this film discussed that loneliness aspect, and to be prepared for that. One shared with me a saying - 'Not always right, but always certain' - meaning that as captain, you can't transmit any doubts you may have in the middle of a life-threatening situation."

Crowe studied the nautical history, lore and skills required as a British Royal Navy captain of the time. He also learned the ins and outs of the ship, and became quite adept at climbing the rigging to the tops. Sailing master captain Andrew Reay-Ellers was one of the consultants who assisted Crowe in his research.

"We helped Russell recreate Jack Aubrey's 20-year naval career," says Reay-Ellers, "working for hours each week, from the nuts and bolts of every line onboard the ship, to sailing maneuvers, strategy, and that nature of a captain's command. Russell felt that Jack, although as captain would never set a sail personally, was once a midshipman and would have that knowledge. Russell wanted to know everything I was teaching his men, and we went through a condensed version of a lifetime of learning the ship."

Reay-Ellers was impressed with Crowe's dedication to research and training. "He spent hours pouring over diagrams, reading some very dense literature on ship handling strategies, and he rose to the challenge. At the same time, he was learning to play the violin and a type of sword fighting unique to that period and rank. It's just mind-boggling, the amount of things he was simultaneously learning; he wanted that level of confidence, that air of casual knowledge that he knows every line on the ship, just the way Jack Aubrey would."

Crowe's violin training stems from Lucky Jack's penchant for the instrument and his occasional musical pairings with Stephen Maturin, himself a cellist. Over a period of several months Crowe worked with longtime friend and Australian violin virtuoso Richard Tognetti (who later would help compose the film's score), and with violinist Robert E. Greene, who previously worked with Crowe during A Beautiful Mind.

Preparing to portray Stephen Maturin led Paul Bettany along his own eclectic course of study. "I went with Peter Weir to the Royal College of Surgeons in London to meet with a surgeon there, Mick Crumplin, who was also an historian," recalls Bettany. "Mick was helpful in terms of learning some of the medical procedures of the time, so that I had a grasp of how to perform them in the film."

Bettany also dabbled in dissection during time spent at the Scripps Institute of Oceanographic Study in La Jolla, for background in pre-Darwin knowledge about insects, animals and fish.

To aid in their efforts to bring this era to life, the filmmakers utilized, in addition to their team of consultants, a wealth of historic resources at their disposal, including the cooperation of several museums, access to historical artifacts, paintings, diaries, illustrations, ships logs, original blueprints - as well as the richly detailed world described by Patrick O'Brian. An extensive resource library was housed on the studio lot, and cast and crew were encouraged to take advantage of this resource.

COSTUMES, HAIR AND MAKEUP

Costume designer Wendy Stites and her department created over two thousand uniforms for the Surprise officers, enlisted men, sailors and Marines, as well as for the French officers and crew of the Acheron.

Stites incorporated detailed costume notes culled from Patrick O'Brian's novels into the designs. From O'Brian's work and research, she learned that the sailors' outfits of the period had been made of hemp, a fabric that has only made resurgence in the last fifteen years.

Britain's National Maritime Museum was an invaluable resource in research for the uniforms of the period. There, in a climate-controlled room, the filmmakers viewed original captains' clothing, and felt their weight and texture.

Notes and measurements were taken of the details of the epaulets, buttons, fabric and gold braid used in the uniforms, so they could create replicas for the film.

The costume department used fabrics from Pakistan, India, Scotland, Ireland, England and China, and had the officers and midshipmen's costumes made in England. They waited until the last minute to fit the young actors portraying midshipmen, as they were growing every day. By the end of the film many of them had almost grown out of their costumes.

The venerable British textile firm Abimelech Hainsworth, manufacturers of woolen cloth since 1783, provided fabric for the officers' jackets, and the renowned London firm M.B.A. Costumes tailored the officers' uniforms. Kirsti Buckland, a Welsh woman whose family has been knitting seamen's caps since the 1700s, created over 150 "Monmouth" knit hats for the film's sailors from original patterns.

Distressing and maintaining the costumes was a major challenge. "We put the costumes on some of the actors and aged them specifically, according to their line of work on the ship and their personality," says Stites. "We took into account their job aboard ship, how it would affect their clothes, and where it would be worn or torn." Teams of textile experts worked in shifts seven days a week, continually maintaining the aging and weathered look required by the story.

Jack Aubrey's body is a veritable roadmap of scar tissue, and in preparation for a specific scene, Russell Crowe and his makeup artist rigorously researched wounds the captain would have acquired on his adventures leading up to The Far Side of the World.

Key makeup artist Edouard Henriques and his crew researched and designed looks for 26 principal cast members and over 100 background artists. They looked at paintings, and read the O'Brian novels for character descriptions.

Henriques altered the makeup techniques to reflect the characters' exposure to the elements, according to story's various weather extremes. "We designed the makeups with translucent washes, waterproof makeup which we used to add roughness to the faces, and red sunburn lines on their bodies," he says. "We made their noses red as well as the bottoms of their ears. As the journey continued, the characters moved to more brown tones, due to their months at sea."

In addition, the makeup artists added staining and wear to the actors' teeth. For the principals, individual molds of their teeth were made using very thin plastic membrane; they were then painted so the actors could pop them on rather than have their teeth individually painted each day. Makeup artists took care of up to 120 people a day for six months, dirtying their teeth, adding makeup "dirt" to their fingernails and faces, and enhancing some of their scars. For the final battle, those numbers grew to about four hundred people when the background portraying French sailors joined the production.

Key hair department's Yolanda Toussieng studied portraits, paintings and photos of wigs, combs and razors which had been recovered from sunken ships of the time. Again, Patrick O'Brian's novels provided a key source of information. "From the novels, we learned how they groomed themselves aboard the ship," says Toussieng. "Men sometimes braided each other's hair, using tar to keep their braids tight; they shaved once or twice a week, and washed their hair once a week, or so. Fresh water wasn't plentiful aboard, so this, in part, dictated their grooming habits."

Toussieng estimates she used around four hundred bundles of hair during the course of the shoot, using five bundles per person, by applying glue, heating it and adhering it to the actors' own hair.

THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS

MASTER AND COMMADER has the distinction of being the only feature film ever to shoot on The Galapagos. A province of Ecuador, The Galapagos is home to a variety of unique plant and animal species, including the almost-extinct giant tortoise. When English naturalist Charles Darwin visited the Galapagos in 1835 on his historic voyage aboard HMS Beagle, he discovered a natural laboratory rich in flora and fauna. His research of the animal life there contributed to his theory of evolution and natural selection.

Before receiving permission to shoot on the Galapagos, the filmmakers spent months addressing the concerns of the Ecuadorian government and the Galapagos National Park representatives, regarding the scope of the film company's activity in the Park, as well as the presentation of the Galapagos within the story.

The Galapagos scenes are the only time where the men of the Surprise leave their wooden world to touch land. The story's reverence for the Islands is reflected in Stephen Maturin's studies as a naturalist and in his intense desire to see the Islands during their journey.

"I love that aspect of Maturin; he gives us a glimpse of the world at that time, bursting with new developments in science and natural history," says Weir. "It was an incredible era: there was a feeling that knowledge was opening up in ways that were completely new. Stephen's activities hint, as Patrick O'Brian certainly intended, that Darwin was to come, less than forty years later, and make discoveries which he would later incorporate into his theory of evolution."

Weir and a reduced shooting unit shot at the Galapagos for seven days. Cast members Paul Bettany, Max Pirkis and John DeSantis, along with 36 film crew members and all of the company's equipment, were housed on the small tour ship the M/V Santa Cruz, a vessel built especially for moving around the Galapagos. Filmmakers, cast, crew and equipment were transported from the Santa Cruz to the islands each day via small boats, and all equipment was hand carried and removed from the islands each night.

While the filmmakers captured one-of-a-kind material during their visit to The Galapagos, logistical requirements dictated that they also recreate the area in Baja. Digital matte painter Robert Stromberg of Digital Backlot worked with ILM to transform the gray cliffs of Baja into the startling landscape of The Galapagos. (Stromberg and company even accentuated the color of the sky in the Galapagos footage, enhancing the Islands' already impressive beauty.) In addition, Asylum digitally cloned birds, iguanas and other fauna native to The Galapagos, for these scenes shot in Baja.

According to Robert Stromberg, it's hard to overestimate the importance of the Galapagos scenes. "It's the only point in the movie you actually see land," he points out, "making it a centerpiece of the movie. Peter wanted to make The Galapagos look almost like another planet to the men aboard the Surprise."

MUSIC

A trio of noted Australian musicians - Iva Davies, Richard Tognetti and Christopher Gordon - composed the film's score. They previously collaborated on "The Ghost of Time," a piece commissioned for the Millennium celebrations in Sydney, which came to the attention of Peter Weir. The director was so impressed, he played the piece on the MASTER AND COMMANDER set throughout production, and he asked its creators to write the music for his movie.

The score interweaves "Old World" and "New World" music, reflecting the talents and backgrounds of its composers. Iva Davies hails from both pop and classical traditions; Richard Tognetti, one of the world's great violin virtuosos, taught Russell Crowe the ins and outs of the instrument; and film/television composer Christopher Gordon brought orchestral texture to the project.

Given the period, it comes as no surprise that the score is infused with source music from Bach ("Cello Suite") and Mozart, among other great classical composers.

Percussion dominates portions of the score. "Drums signal the forward movement of the ship," says Davies, "that it's on a mission. It brings you back into the action." The score's biggest surprise comes with its use of synthesizers. "Peter doesn't make films in the expected way," says Davies, "and for that reason we wanted the score to be not what everyone expected. Peter wanted some scenes to have what I call a kind of 'futuristic' sense" - conveying the idea that these 19th century sailors were cutting-edge explorers.

LIFE ON THE SET / FINAL THOUGHTS

Despite the rigors and challenges of an epic production, the cast and crew found time to mix it up during a series of rugby games, organized by Russell Crowe, to toughen everyone up for the film's final battle scenes.

Between scenes, cast members could retire to The Monkey Bar, a lounge built on the studio lot, conceived by Peter Weir as a place for the actors to gather together. Here, the cast developed a camaraderie that translated to their on-screen interactions.

"I thought the cast, who were spending months in Baja, far from home, needed a club, like a gentleman's club in England," says Weir. "The only thing I did insist on was that there would be no televisions, radios or CD players. It was a place for conversation, to play pool or chess, or to read and have a cappuccino."

On one of the final days of second unit shooting, Weir was directing the action on the tank ship when the Rose, which had completed its role in the film, passed the studio on its way to San Diego dry dock from its temporary berth in Ensenada. As it sailed by its "twin" in the tank, Weir and historical advisor Gordon Laco fired swivel guns in salute and farewell to the Rose. After a short interval, the Rose answered with a salute of her own, as filmmakers and crew watched from the shore.

"It was quite moving, and there were tears in many eyes," says Laco. "I was proud of what we had done to transform Rose into an authentic frigate, but it marked the end of the unforgettable experience of working on this film. And for the young sailing crew, to whom the Rose had been home for years, it was especially bittersweet."

For Peter Weir, the final days of shooting and post-production were the culmination of a three-year journey that he looks forward to sharing with audiences. "I hope moviegoers enjoy the chase, the action and the voyage from the coast of Brazil, round the Horn and up to the Galapagos Islands, but will also feel that they are living aboard this ship," says Weir.

ABOUT PATRICK O'BRIAN

Patrick O'Brian is one of the great, if relatively undiscovered, authors of the twentieth century. His novels were often compared by critics to the work of Jane Austen and even Homer. A writer of breathtaking erudition, O'Brian evoked in complete and dazzling detail an entire world - that of the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. In addition to formidable scholarship, O'Brian brought to his work keen psychological insights, a sharp wit, and fast-paced, heart-stopping action.

In a cover story in The New York Times Book Review published on January 6, 1991, Richard Snow wrote that Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin naval adventure novels are "the best historical novels ever written. On every page Mr. O'Brian reminds us with subtle artistry of the most important of all historical lessons: that times change but people don't, that the griefs and follies and victories of the men and women who were here before us are in fact the maps of our own lives." And in a Washington Post article published August 2, 1992, Ken Ringle wrote, "The Aubrey/Maturin series far beyond any episodic chronicle, ebbs and flows with the timeless tide of character and the human heart."

In addition to his acclaimed Aubrey-Maturin novels, author Patrick O'Brian is the biographer of Joseph Banks and Picasso, and his first novel, Testimonies and his Collected Short Stories were republished by HarperCollins. O'Brian translated many works from French into English, among them the novels and memoirs of Simone de Beauvoir and the first volume of Jean Lacouture's biography of Charles De Gaulle. In 1995, he was the first recipient of the Heywood Hill Prize for a lifetime's contribution to literature and in the same year, he was also awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). In 1997, O'Brian was given an honorary doctorate of letters by Dublin's Trinity College. O'Brian died in January 2000.

ABOUT THE CAST

RUSSELL CROWE (Captain Jack Aubrey) received three consecutive Academy Award Best Actor nominations for his performances in: The Insider (2000), Gladiator (2001) and A Beautiful Mind (2002). He won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Maximus, the Roman general-turned-gladiator, in Ridley Scott's Gladiator. This role also earned him Best Actor honors from several critics' organizations, including the Broadcast Film Critics. In addition, he received nominations from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA.

In Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind, Crowe's masterful portrayal of Nobel Prize-winning John Forbes Nash, Jr. earned him his third Academy Award nomination and garnered him Best Actor awards from the Hollywood Foreign Press, Broadcast Film Critics Association, Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA, among other critics groups.

Crowe received his first Academy Award nomination for his work in Michael Mann's non-fiction drama The Insider, as tobacco company whistle-blower, Dr. Jeffrey Wigand. He also earned Best Actor Awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics, Broadcast Film Critics, National Society of Film Critics and the National Board of Review; and nominations for a Golden GlobeR Award, a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award?.

Crowe made his mark in Curtis Hanson's crime drama, L.A. Confidential, as vice cop Bud White. He later starred in Jay Roach's Mystery, Alaska, and in Taylor Hackford's Proof of Life, opposite Meg Ryan.

In 1993 he made his American film debut in the western The Quick and the Dead, with Gene Hackman and Sharon Stone, and then starred as the cyber-villain Sid 6.7 in Virtuosity, opposite Denzel Washington. Additional film credits include Heaven's Burning, Breaking Up, Rough Magic, The Sum of Us, For the Moment, Love in Limbo, The Silver Brumby, based on the classic Australian children's novel, The Efficiency Expert and Prisoners of the Sun.

Born in New Zealand, Crowe was raised in Australia where he has also been honored for his work on the screen. He was recognized for three consecutive years by the Australian Film Institute (AFI), beginning in 1991, when he was nominated for Best Actor for The Crossing. The following year, he won the Best Supporting Actor Award for Proof, and, in 1992, he received Best Actor Awards from the AFI and the Australian Film Critics for his performance in the controversial Romper Stomper. In 1993, the Seattle Film Festival named Crowe Best Actor for his work in both Romper Stomper and Hammers Over the Anvil.

Crowe currently resides in Australia.

PAUL BETTANY (Dr. Stephen Maturin) portrayed Charles Herman, mathematician John Nash, Jr.'s imaginary roommate in Ron Howard's Academy Award-winning Best Picture A Beautiful Mind, starring opposite Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris. He was nominated for the London Film Critics' Award for Best Supporting Actor.

The British-born Bettany is a recognized star overseas with well-received performances in film, on the London stage and on British television. American audiences first discovered him in A Knight's Tale, in which he played the comical role of Chaucer opposite Heath Ledger. Bettany earned the Best Supporting Actor award from the London Film Critics for his performance in the film, and led to his being named one of Daily Variety's "Ten to Watch" for 2001.

Classically trained at the Drama Centre in London, he made his stage debut in a West End production of An Inspector Calls under the direction of Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot). He then spent a season with the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing in productions of Richard III, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar before landing his first feature film role in Bent.

Bettany returned to the stage to appear in Love and Understanding at London's Bush Theatre. He later reprised that role at the Longwharf Theatre in Connecticut. The play led to more British television work, including Lynda La Plante's Killer Net and Coming Home, in which he starred with Peter O'Toole.

His appearance in the Royal Court Theatre productions of One More Wasted Year and Stranger's House preceded his second feature film role in David Leland's Land Girls with Catherine McCormack and Rachel Weisz. He next appeared in the film After the Rain.

Bettany portrayed Steerforth in the TNT production of David Copperfield, directed by Peter Medak, opposite Sally Field and Michael Richards. More feature film roles followed, including The Suicide Club with Jonathan Pryce and David Morrissey. He was nominated for a British Independent Film award and a London Film Critics' award for Best Newcomer in the just-released Gangster No.1, directed by Paul McGuigan, and starring Malcolm McDowell, David Thewlis, and Saffron Burrows.

He stars in the period mystery-thriller The Reckoning opposite Willem Dafoe, which re-teamed Bettany with director Paul McGuigan. Next, Bettany starred in the independent U.K. feature Heart of Me, starring opposite Helena Bonham-Carter and Oliver Williams for director Thaddeus O'Sullivan. He recently starred in director Lars von Trier's (Dancing in the Dark, Breaking the Waves) dramatic thriller Dogville, also starring Nicole Kidman and Stellan Skaarsgard. Bettany's most recent project is Wimbledon, also starring Kirsten Dunst, directed by Richard Loncraine, and centering on the tennis world.

BILLY BOYD plays Coxswain Barrett Bonden. Boyd most recently portrayed Peregrin (Pippin) Took in director Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien book series. The first and second films in the series, The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, were released to worldwide boxoffice success. His other films include An Urban Ghost Story, Julie and the Cadillacs and a film short, Soldiers Leap.

Boyd, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, began his acting career in the Scottish television series Taggart. His UK television credits include Coming Soon and Chapter and Verse. On stage, Boyd has performed in various UK productions including The Speculator, Trainspotting, An Experienced Woman Gives Advice, Therese Racquin, Britannia Rules, Kill The Old, Torture Their Young, The Chic Nerds, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice, Merlin the Magnificent and The Slab Boys, and most recently, the Traverse production of The Ballad of Crazy Paola. Boyd also plays guitar, bass and sings light baritone/tenor.

JAMES D'ARCY portrays 1st Lt. Thomas Pullings. D'Arcy portrayed the title role in Nicholas Nickleby for Britain's Channel 4. He also appeared in several BBC TV productions, including The Ice House, Silent Witness, Beck, Dalziel and Pascoe, Tom Jones and Sunburn. D'Arcy's film work includes Dot the I opposite Gael Garcia Bernal, which was recently featured at the Sundance Film Festival. He portrayed Sherlock Holmes in A Case of Evil, and he also appeared in the films Revelation, The Trench, Wilde and Guest House Paradiso. He performed in several theatre productions at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, including the title roles in Heracles and Sherlock Holmes; As You Like It, Wild Honey, The Freedom of the City and Larkrise to Candleford.

LEE INGLEBY portrays indecisive midshipman Hollom. Ingleby's film credits include Borstal Boy for director Peter Sheridan, Ever After for director Andy Tennant, and Beer Goggles. For television, his work includes roles in ITV's Nicholas Nickleby, the BBC productions of Nature Boy, Dalziel and Pascoe, The Dark Room and In the Red; and Impact, Spaced, Junk, A Wing & A Prayer, A Small Addition and Soldier Soldier. Ingleby's theatre credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream, as Puck; the West End production of Cressida and About The Boy, for the Royal Court.

GEORGE INNES is able Seaman Joe Plaice. Innes' film credits include Last Orders for director Fred Schepisi, Richard Attenborough's A Bridge Too Far, Stephen Frears' Gumshoe, The Italian Job, and Billy Liar for director John Schlesinger. Innes' television work includes roles in Nicholas Nickleby, Who Killed Cock Robin, Menace, the popular long-running British series Upstairs, Downstairs, as well as appearances on American classic series such as Cagney & Lacey, Magnum P.I., M.A.S.H., Hill Street Blues and the miniseries Shogun. Innes' theatre work includes the Broadway and the Steppenwolf Theatre productions of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice and the National Theatre productions of Olivier's Othello and Dutch Courtesan.

MARK LEWIS JONES portrays the whaler Mr. Hogg. Jones recently completed his second season of the BBC TV series The Bench. His credits also include Lenny Blue for Granada, the BBC productions of Dangerfield, This Life, Casualty, Between the Lines, Gaslight and Candles and Heartland. Jones appeared in the TNT telefilm The Mists of Avalon and Hallmark's Jason and the Argonauts, Granada Films' Paper Mask and TVS' The Shell Seekers, as well as Carlton production Soldier, Soldier and The Angry Earth for Britain's Channel 4. Jones' theatre credits include several Royal Shakespeare Company productions, among them The Tempest, Love's Labours Lost, The Merchant of Venice and Richard III. His credits at the Globe Theatre include roles in Antony & Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, The Winters Tale and The Maids Tragedy.

CHRIS LARKIN portrays Royal Marines Captain Howard. Larkin's film work includes roles in Angels and Insects for director Philip Haas and Tea With Mussolini, directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Also for Zeffirelli, Larkin portrayed Frederick Lynn in Jane Eyre. Larkin portrayed Marston in First Sight Films' EmmyR-nominated Shackleton and he played the title role in Darwin. For BBC TV, Larkin's credits include roles in Roger Roger and Casualty. His theatre work includes the West End production of When We Are Married; and Taming of the Shrew, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Towards Zero, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing.

RICHARD McCABE plays Mr. Higgins, assistant surgeon to Dr. Maturin. McCabe portrayed Tony in the boxoffice hit Notting Hill opposite Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. His television work includes the BBC presentations of A Prince Among Men, Persuasion, Between The Lines and For the Greater Good; Carlton Productions' The Vice and Under the Sun; and ITV's Bramwell. McCabe is an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and his extensive theatre background includes performances in the RSC Stratford/Barbicon productions of Othello, Three Hours After Marriage, Troilus and Cressida, and the Royal National Theatre productions of Way of the World, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Absolute Hell. For Birmingham Repertory, McCabe performed the title role in Hamlet, and he has also performed in presentations of As You Like It, Romeo & Juliet, Amadeus as Mozart, The Changeling and The Alchemist.

ROBERT PUGH portrays sailing master Mr. Allen. Pugh's film credits include the forthcoming Plotz With A View starring Christopher Walken, Alfred Molina and Brenda Blethyn; Innocence, Happy Now, Enigma, The Tichborne Claimant, Hello, Hello, Hello, Superman III and The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain. For television, Pugh appeared in the BBC Productions Silent Witness, Score, The Lakes, Dangerfield and Drover's Gold; and for Britain's Channel 4, Sword of Honor, The Secret Life of Michael Fry and Dance to the Music of Time. Pugh's theatre work includes productions of The Iceman Cometh, A Streetcar Named Desire, Elephants Foot, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Hamlet and Playing the Game.

DAVID THRELFALL plays Killick, Jack's rather uncivil servant. Threlfall earned both TonyR and Emmy nominations for his work as Smike in the acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company production of Nicholas Nickleby in London, New York and for Britain's Channel 4. Threlfall's feature film work includes roles in The Russia House, Patriot Games, and Murderers Among Us. For television, he played Prince Charles in the NBC miniseries Diana: Her True Story, and he also appeared in BBC presentations of Clothes In The Wardrobe, Men of the World, The Brylcream Boys and Sex, Chips & Rock 'n' Roll, as well as the telefilm A Casualty of War. Threlfall was a Royal Shakespeare Company leading player from 1977-79, appearing in RSC productions of Savage Amusement, A & R, Shout Across the River, Sons of Light, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Suicide and Julius Caesar.

Thirteen year old MAX PIRKIS plays the midshipman Lord Blakeney. Pirkis was cast in the role after meeting with director Peter Weir, and participating in an audition with other prospective midshipmen, including fellow cast member Max Benitz.

Pirkis has played the violin since the age of 6, and he is presently studying the saxophone. His school work includes French and Latin, he has performed in school drama productions and is a avid soccer and cricket fan. Pirkis has accompanied his family on treks through the Himalayas and the Andes Mountains. He marks his second trip to the Galapagos Islands for his role in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, having visited previously with his family. Pirkis lives in London with his parents, his sister and two dogs.

EDWARD WOODALL plays the poetic 2nd Lt. William Mowett. Woodall's work includes the films Enigma, directed by Michael Apted; The Jolly Boys Last Stand, Emma and Triphony. Woodall's television credits include Cold Lazarus, Harbour Lights, The Tenth Kingdom and Oliver Twist. Woodall also performed in the Royal Shakespeare Company productions of Everyman and The Mysteries, and his other theatre credits include roles in productions of School for Scandal, Bitching, Boozing and Bumming Fags, The Changeling, Conquest of the South Pole and Wanted Man.

IAN MERCER plays ship's boatswain Mr. Hollar. Mercer's film credits include Shooting Stars, The First Day and Blue Money. For television, Mercer portrayed Ernest Holness in the telefilm Shackleton and he was Gary Mallett in the popular series Coronation Street. His television credits also include the BBC productions of One By One, Pity in History, Common as Muck, Night Voice, Brick is Beautiful, The Monocled Mutineer and Flowers in the Rain. Mercer's theatre work includes roles in productions of Bent, Spend, Spend, Spend, Billy Liar, Far From the Madding Crowd, Beauty and the Beast and Romeo and Juliet.

Eighteen-year-old MAX BENITZ portrays midshipman Peter Calamy. A finalist for a role in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Benitz was chosen for the role of Calamy after completing an improvisational interview with Weir, a second reading with other cast members, and was chosen for the role of Calamy later that day.

Benitz attended school in London, where he was born and raised. He has performed in school productions of As You Like It, Hamlet, The Pirates of Penzance and Me and My Girl.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

Australian director PETER WEIR (Producer/Director/Screenplay) is renowned for such films as Gallipoli, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Year of Living Dangerously, Witness, Dead Poets Society and The Truman Show.

Weir received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director in 1999 for The Truman Show, which starred Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, the unwitting star of the longest-running, most popular documentary-soap opera in history. Ed Harris (Best Actor in a Supporting Role) and Andrew Niccol (Best Screenplay written directly for the screen) received Academy Award nominations for their work on the critically acclaimed film, which also earned six Golden Globe nominations, including a Best Director nomination for Weir, and a Golden Globe win for Jim Carrey, as Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama. In addition, Weir was honored by BAFTA with the David Lean Award for Direction for the film.

In 1991, Weir received an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay of his romantic comedy Green Card, which starred French actor Gerard Depardieu (in his first English-speaking role) and Andie MacDowell. Weir's previous film, Dead Poets Society, a character drama starring Robin Williams as a joyously eccentric English teacher who inspires his students, earned the director an Academy Award nomination for Best Director as well as the prestigious BAFTA Award for Best Picture and Italy's Donatello Award for Best Direction.

Born in Sydney, Australia, Weir began his moviemaking career with three prize-winning short films before directing The Cars That Ate Paris, an offbeat comedy-horror film based on his own short story. His first international motion picture success came in 1975 with Picnic at Hanging Rock, which brought him widespread attention and became the most successful Australian film of the 1970s.

In 1977, Weir directed The Last Wave, starring Richard Chamberlain as a lawyer haunted by recurring dreams. He then wrote and directed The Plumber (1978), an unusual black comedy made for television that won the Australian Sammy Award for best writer-television plays and best television play.

Weir's next film, Gallipoli, the story of two Australian youths caught up in the idealistic fervor of World War I, swept the Australian Film Institute Awards and became a worldwide box office success. In 1983, Weir reunited with his Gallipoli star Mel Gibson for The Year of Living Dangerously, which starred Gibson, Linda Hunt and Sigourney Weaver. Hunt won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her memorable work in the film.

In 1985, Weir directed Harrison Ford in Witness, the haunting thriller in which a young Amish boy becomes a witness to murder, sparking a clash of cultures within his community. The film received eight Academy AwardR nominations, including Best Picture, and a Best Direction nomination for Weir.

In 1986, Weir directed The Mosquito Coast, again starring Harrison Ford, and in 1993, Fearless, a drama about people's varying reactions to tragedy and loss, which starred Jeff Bridges, Rosie Perez, Isabella Rossellini and John Turturro.

SAMUEL GOLDWYN, JR. (Producer) A risk taker and a survivor is the best way to describe Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. Having spent most of his life in the entertainment industry, Goldwyn has produced some of the industry's most ground-breaking and acclaimed films. His work has left an indelible impression on several generations of film audiences.

Goldwyn currently presides over The Samuel Goldwyn Company, whose activities encompass feature film development, production and distribution. A long-time member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he also is an officer of the French Order of Arts and Letters. In 1997 at ShowEast, he was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of American Exhibitors. Most recently, he was honored by the University of Connecticut with a Doctorate of the Arts.

Taking chances on films that no other studio would is an important element in Goldwyn's life. Some of these gems include bringing films based on Shakespearean scripts back into favor with Kenneth Branagh's Henry V and, later, Much Ado About Nothing. Never one to back away from controversy, he presented the AIDS drama Longtime Companion at a time when the American population and the media were avoiding the subject at all costs. Desert Hearts, another Goldwyn film, dealt with the then taboo topic of a lesbian relationship.

Three Goldwyn films have captured the prestigious Palme d'Or at Cannes David Lynch's Wild at Heart, Bille August's The Best Intentions, and Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies and Videotape. Foreign films are another passion, having released The Best Intentions, 3 Men and a Cradle, Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita, the recent Faithless, and Ang Lee's Oscar-nominated classics Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman.

He has also been a champion of fine documentary works, highlighted by the Oscar-winning Hotel Terminus, the multi-Award-winning 35 Up, Sting's Bring on the Night and the critically-acclaimed Mystery of Picasso. He has consistently found a talent pool in Great Britain, producing and presenting such films as Gregory's Girl from director Bill Forsyth, Anthony Minghella's Truly, Madly, Deeply, and the multi-Oscar nominated The Madness of King George, featuring first time director Nicholas Hytner and "overnight" sensation Nigel Hawthorne.

As a producer, he has garnered a reputation as a "discoverer" of talent having provided the forum to launch the careers of numerous stars, producers, directors and writers. Goldwyn's Mystic Pizza introduced Julia Roberts as a leading lady, Once Bitten showcased the talents of then unknown comedian Jim Carrey; Hollywood Shuffle served as the springboard for the talented Robert Townsend, and filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and his first film, Stranger Than Paradise.

Among the other films that Goldwyn has produced and/or distributed include Better Than Sex, Solas, Greenfingers, and King of Masks. Other notable company productions and releases include Lolita starring Jeremy Irons, The Preacher's Wife with Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston, Big Night, I Shot Andy Warhol, Angels and Insects, To Live, A Prayer for the Dying, Sid and Nancy, Turtle Diary, Prick Up Your Ears, Black Robe, Mississippi Masala, The Playboys, and Dance with a Stranger. He also was responsible for the television phenomenon, American Gladiators, which ran for seven seasons in the U.S. and around the world.

In 1987 Goldwyn took on the monumental task of producing the 59th Annual Academy Awards. The Academy invited him back the following year and Goldwyn was rewarded with an Emmy Award for Best Variety-Music Programming for his efforts on that show.

In the early 1970's he produced two successful comedies which helped set the tone for an emerging genre, the black film cycle, with Cotton Comes to Harlem starring Godfrey Cambridge and Come Back Charleston Blue. Two 1990s releases also helped pave the way for future works by black filmmakers-- To Sleep with Anger and Straight Out of Brooklyn.

The son of legendary producer Samuel Goldwyn and actress Frances Howard, Goldwyn was born and raised in Los Angeles. He later attended the University of Virginia where he majored in English and Drama.

After a stint in the Army during World War II, he went to work in England for J. Arthur Rank Productions as a writer and associate producer and also spent some time in various capacities in the London theatre. Returning to Hollywood, he worked for a short time as a writer and producer at Universal Studios before once again joining the military in 1950. This time, he joined the staff of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, where he produced and directed documentary films. His Alliance for Peace won first prize at the Edinburgh Film Festival, serving as an auger of things to follow.

Returning to the U.S. in 1952, he picked up where he left off, working for a time under Edward R. Murrow at CBS News. He went on to co-produce the documentary series, Adventure, which won a George Foster Peabody Award. In 1955, Goldwyn formed his own independent production company. Among the company's productions were Man with a Gun with Robert Mitchum, Sharkfighters, The Proud Rebel with Alan Ladd and Olivia de Havilland, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Young Lovers, which he also directed.

The new Goldwyn Company was founded in 1979 stemming from Mr. Goldwyn's vision for a motion picture company with the scope of a major studio and the heart of an old-fashioned family business. Using more than 50 classic American films owned by the original company as building blocks, classics such as Wuthering Heights, Pride of the Yankees, Best Years of Our Lives, Guys and Dolls, Hans Christian Anderson, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the company continues to build a library of fine films.

In addition to his role as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at The Samuel Goldwyn Company, Goldwyn serves as President of The Samuel Goldwyn Foundation, a non-profit organization with a primary interest in health, education and child services. The Foundation sponsors a yearly writing competition for the University of California system, which has a proven track record of launching the careers of talented young screenwriters. The Foundation also constructed the Hollywood Public Library in memory of Frances Howard Goldwyn and created the Samuel Goldwyn Foundation Children's Center, a day care center serving the entertainment industry.

DUNCAN HENDERSON (Producer) most recently served as executive producer on the box office hit Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone directed by Chris Columbus and based on the popular series of children's books by J.K. Rowling. Before that Henderson teamed with Wolfgang Peterson executive producing the epic drama The Perfect Storm starring George Clooney & Mark Wahlberg. On MASTER AND COMMANDER, Henderson re-teams with director-producer Peter Weir. They previously worked together on Green Card and Dead Poets Society.

Henderson's other film credits include executive producing Deep Blue Sea, Outbreak, Home Alone 2 and The Program. He also co-produced Dying Young and Earth Girls Are Easy.

A fourth generation Angeleno, Henderson earned a Bachelor's degree in economics from the University of California at Los Angeles and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Southern California before embarking on his career in motion pictures. He is a graduate of the Directors Guild of America Training Program and is a member of the Directors Guild of America. He has worked as an assistant director on more than 20 films and served as Executive Vice President of Feature Production at Twentieth Century Fox.

ALAN B. CURTISS (Executive Producer/First Assistant Director) continues a long association with producer/director Peter Weir on MASTER AND COMMANDER. Curtiss previously served in the dual capacity of associate producer and first assistant director for Weir's critically acclaimed boxoffice hit The Truman Show starring Jim Carrey, as well as Weir's Fearless, starring Jeff Bridges, Rosie Perez, Isabella Rossellini and John Turturro. Earlier, Curtiss was the first assistant director for Weir's romantic comedy Green Card, starring Gerard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell; and for the Weir-directed character drama Dead Poets Society, starring Robin Williams.

More recently, Curtiss was associate producer and first assistant director for Wolfgang Petersen's epic drama The Perfect Storm, starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg; and for Dragonfly, starring Kevin Costner and directed by Tom Shadyac. Other films for which he served in this dual capacity include Patch Adams, also for director Tom Shadyac; Michael starring John Travolta and directed by Nora Ephron; and Intersection, starring Richard Gere and Sharon Stone, for director Mark Rydell.

As a first assistant director, Curtiss' numerous film credits include Cast Away and The Green Mile, both starring Tom Hanks; Get Shorty, Waterworld, Clear and Present Danger, Consenting Adults, For the Boys, Taking Care of Business, Harlem Nights, My Stepmother is an Alien, The Presidio, Vibes, A Tiger's Tale and Wanted Dead or Alive.

As a second assistant director, Curtiss' credits include Nothing in Common for director Garry Marshall; Clue, Jagged Edge, The Man With One Red Shoe, 2010, Cloak and Dagger, Arthur Hiller's The Lonely Guy and Romantic Comedy, and Max Dugan Returns for director Herbert Ross.

Curtiss received a Bachelors Degree in History and Communications from Stanford University, and he earned a Masters Degree in Cinema from the University of Southern California. He spent one year as a staff producer at Rick Levine Productions in New York specializing in television commercials, before turning to feature films. Curtiss was a location manager/second assistant director for I Ought To Be in Pictures, directed by Herbert Ross; Mommie Dearest, starring Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford; Heaven's Gate and the boxoffice smash hit musical Grease, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John.

JOHN COLLEE (Co-screenwriter) trained as a doctor in his native Scotland and has practiced medicine with various aid agencies and oil companies around the world, including Madagascar, Gabon, the former Soviet Union (where he met his wife Debs, an Australian news journalist) and The Solomon Islands (where their first child was born).

He is the author of three novels: Kingsleys Touch, A Paper Mask and The Rig, all published by Viking and Penguin in the UK and USA

While writing a medical/historical column for The Observer newspaper, (1990 -1996), Collee branched into writing drama, scripting the The Heart Surgeon starring Nigel Havers for the BBC and Paper Mask for Granada Films starring Paul McGann, Tom Wilkinson and Amanda Donohue.

Other commissions followed. Since moving to Sydney, Australia in 1996 he has been a full time screenwriter, collaborating in the past three years with George Miller, Scott Hicks, Phil Noyce and Peter Weir.

An ambitious computer-animation project co-written with George Miller has recently been green-lit by Warners. Other projects in various stages of development include a TV pilot for Scott Free and CBS, plus feature films with Beacon, Castle Rock, Fox Searchlight, Handprint, Disney and Working Title.

RUSSELL BOYD, ACS (Director of Photography) first worked with Peter Weir on Picnic at Hanging Rock, for which Boyd received a BAFTA Award and a Saturn Award for his work. Boyd's next film with Weir, The Last Wave, earned him a Best Achievement in Cinematography Award from the Australian Film Institute. Boyd also won AFI's top award for his work on Break of Day and Weir's critically-acclaimed Gallipoli, starring Mel Gibson, and he earned AFI nominations for his work on the films Prisoners of the Sun, Burke & Wills, The Chain Reaction and The Year of Living Dangerously, starring Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hunt. Boyd is a two-time winner of the Cinematographer of the Year Award from the Australian Cinematographers Society, for his lensing of the films Between Wars and Weir's Gallipoli.

Boyd's credits include over 40 feature films, among them American Outlaws, Doctor Doolittle, Liar, Liar, Tin Cup, Forever Young, White Men Can't Jump, In Country, High Tide, The Rescue, Crocodile Dundee, Crocodile Dundee II, Burke & Wills, Mrs. Soffel, A Soldier's Story, Phar Lap and Tender Mercies.

WILLIAM SANDELL (Production Designer) recently designed director Wolfgang Petersen's The Perfect Storm, starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg. He also teamed with Petersen on the box-office smash Air Force One and, prior to that, on Outbreak.

Sandell served as production designer on the thriller Deep Blue Sea and the fantasy Small Soldiers. His other film credits include Dr. Doolittle 2, The Flintstones, Total Recall, RoboCop and The Glimmer Man.

An artist who created kinetic sculptures, Sandell began his filmmaking career as assistant art director on Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets. He became art director on Jonathan Demme's Fighting Mad in 1975.

Sandell's early credits as an art director include I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, The Promise, Serial, Airplane II: The Sequel and St. Elmo's Fire. He later designed Big Business, Nothing But Trouble, Newsies and Hocus Pocus.

LEE SMITH (Editor) is an award winning film editor and sound designer. MASTER AND COMMANDER marks Smith's seventh collaboration with Peter Weir. His other work with Weir includes The Truman Show, for which he served as co-editor (with William Anderson, A.C.E.) and Sound Designer, for which he received a nomination for Best Sound from the MPSE. Smith served in the same dual capacity for Weir's Fearless, Green Card and Dead Poets Society, for which he received a Best Editing nomination from BAFTA. For his work as associate editor and sound editor on The Year of Living Dangerously, Smith earned a Golden Reel Award nomination for Best Sound from the M.P.S.E. He also worked on the remix of Gallipoli, starring Mel Gibson.

Smith's over 26 years of editorial experience includes his work with many of Australia's other leading directors. Smith collaborated with Phillip Noyce on Dead Calm; with George Miller on Lorenzo's Oil; with Gillian Armstrong on Little Women and with Jane Campion on Portrait of A Lady, Holy Smoke and The Piano. For The Piano, Lee was honored with the AFI Award; the MPSE's Best Sound/Feature Film Award as well as a nomination from BAFTA for Best Sound. Smith's other film credits as editor and/or sound designer include director Kevin Reynolds' Rapa Nui, for which Smith received an MPSE nomination for Best Sound, The Rage In Placid Lake, Black and White, Buffalo Soldiers, Lorenzo's Oil and Burke and Wills.

WENDY STITES (Costume Designer) has collaborated on nearly all of her husband Peter Weir's films, serving in a number of creative capacities, beginning with Picnic At Hanging Rock.

Most recently, Stites was special design consultant for the critically acclaimed The Truman Show starring Jim Carrey. She served in the same capacity on Fearless starring Jeff Bridges, Isabella Rossellini and Rosie Perez.

Stites served as production designer for Dead Poets Society and Green Card, and she was the associate producer for the multi-Oscar-nominated Witness, starring Harrison Ford. Previously, she served as design coordinator for Gallipoli. Her work on the film earned her two nominations from the Australian Film Institute for Best Achievement in Costume Design (with Terry Ryan) and Best Achievement in Production Design (with Herbert Pinter). For The Year of Living Dangerously, Stites received a nomination for Best Achievement in Production Design (with Herbert Pinter) from the Australian Film Institute for her work as design coordinator.

TODD ARNOW (Co-Producer/Unit Production Manager) most recently served as associate producer and unit production manager for the boxoffice hit Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone, directed by Chris Columbus and based on the popular series of children's books by J.K. Rowling. Previously, Arnow was the unit production manager for Wolfgang Petersen's The Perfect Storm, starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, and he served in the same capacity for director Renny Harlan's Deep Blue Sea.

As a production executive at Twentieth Century Fox, Arnow supervised production of such features as Home Alone 2, Rapid Fire and Love Potion #9. Prior to that, he served as production supervisor for Peter Weir's Green Card, as well as Dying Young, Working Girl, Big and Wall Street. Arnow also worked on the films Goodfellas, Predator, Lucas and Mrs. Soffel.

As vice president of production for Post-Newsweek New Media, Arnow developed and produced internet and CD-ROM consumer products for Newsweek and The Washington Post Company. Previously, he was vice-president of operations for New York-based RGA Digital Studios, where he supervised the day-to-day operations of live action and visual effects production.

Arnow graduated from the Pingry School in New Jersey, and later received a B.A. from the University of Denver. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Arnow and his family reside in Massachusetts.

c 2003 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Universal Studios and Miramax Corp. All rights reserved. Property of Fox.

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