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兩屆金像影后 茱迪科士打 又一驚慄懸疑鉅獻
《贖金風暴》金像監製 白賴仁基沙 全力炮製
在三萬尺高空
六歲的貝祖麗
即將人間蒸發……
從德國柏林飛往美國紐約的三萬尺高空之中，一架全球最先進的全新型號E-474珍寶客機正翱翔天際，當所有乘客都以為可以享受一趟舒適的旅程之際，機上竟發生了一件全球觀眾最意想不到、最前所未見的神秘驚慄事件，這個嶄新驚險故事即將震撼呈現眼前！
置身三萬尺高空 女童機上離奇失蹤
全機無人目擊 案情撲朔迷離
剛受喪夫之痛貝嘉莉(茱迪科士打 飾)帶同女兒貝祖麗乘搭其親自設計的飛機，預備將丈夫的遺體運回美國安葬。航程中貝嘉莉倦極入睡，但當她一覺醒來，惡夢隨即宣告展開！她的女兒竟在完全密封的機艙裡神秘失蹤，連帶所有隨身物品亦一併消失！最離奇的是，航機上400多名乘客及所有機組人員，竟然異口同聲表示，從未見過小女孩登機，眾人更懷疑貝嘉莉患有妄想症！對整架飛機構造瞭如指掌的貝嘉莉，決定靠自己尋回女兒，誓要拆解所有疑團！到底整件事是一項精心策劃的陰謀，還是另有難以想像的內情？
影后茱迪科士打 夥拍金像監製
攜手炮製希治閣式驚慄鉅獻
擁有無數代表作兩屆金像影后的茱迪科士打(Jodie Foster)，向來是叫好叫座的信心保證，由她主演的《沉默的羔羊》(Silence of the Lambs) 更被視為驚慄片中的經典之作，令影迷留下深刻印象。影片當年成為奧斯卡大贏家，茱迪科士打更憑此再度榮膺影后。2002年，茱迪科士打演出的另一驚慄作品《房不勝防》(Panic Room)，同樣大受歡迎票房大賣！
相隔三年，久違了的茱迪科士打終於再次正式現身大銀幕，夥拍擅於拍攝驚慄懸疑片如《贖金風暴》 (Ransom)、《觸目驚心》 (Psycho)、電視劇《24》的金像監製白賴仁基沙 (Brian Grazer)，炮製全新驚慄鉅獻《高凶三萬尺》，電影今次將會延續成功方程式，由茱迪科士打及白賴仁基沙這個金像班底營造無限劇力，創出希治閣式的緊張懸疑氣氛，一幕幕驚心動魄場面將在三萬尺高空的客機機艙逐步展開……
精彩預告一出 引起熱烈迴響
雖然《高凶三萬尺》尚未正式上映，但其精彩預告片段已率先引來熱烈迴響！日前，不少觀眾已在戲院欣賞了該片的預告，短短兩分鐘的片段經已劇力萬鈞，充滿緊湊氣氛及刺激場面，觀眾的反應非常熱烈，他們不但大讚影片吸引，更有觀眾於電影及戲院網站留言，表示《高凶三萬尺》為本年「必看」電影，可見大家對茱迪科士打這齣復出之作期待度爆燈！
高凶懸案：女童機上人間蒸發
情況難以預計 真相驚心動魄
全機無人可信 證供真偽難辨
失蹤人物： 貝祖麗 Julia Pratt
年齡： 6歲
性格： 受父親離世打擊，變得孤僻內向、沉默寡言，而且容易受驚，缺乏安全感
案件詳情： 與母親貝嘉莉一同登機，但在航機飛行途中突然離奇失蹤，所有隨身物品亦完全消失，只剩下一隻斷了手臂的玩具熊。但根據離境處提供的資料，並無貝祖麗的離境及登機記錄，而飛機上的乘客名單亦沒有她的名字。究竟貝祖麗有否登上航機？她又為何會在飛機上人間蒸發？
閞鍵人物： 女童母親貝嘉莉(茱迪科士打 飾)的丈夫於一星期前突然從住所高處墮下身亡，墮樓原因不明。自丈夫離世後，她開始服食鎮靜劑及安眠藥，精神情況極為不穩。她聲稱自己與女兒為全機最早登機的乘客，但卻找不到目擊證人，亦未能出示女兒的登機證，孤立無援的貝嘉莉決定獨自採取行動救回愛女……
冷靜理智的機長里治(《驚天奪寶》辛般 飾)以保護機上乘客為首要任務，絕不容許任何人違反航機守則，所以不批准貝嘉莉擅自行動。
航機警衛卡遜(《玻璃真相》彼得沙斯格 飾)負責維持航機安全及乘客秩序，為免繼續貝嘉莉失控而影響機上其他乘客，於是處處阻撓她在機上尋找女兒。
新入職的空中小姐費安娜(《毒網》艾莉卡基絲頓臣 飾)充滿愛心，希望盡力安撫情緒失控的貝嘉莉，卻不敢肯定有否見過女童在機上出現，令她非常迷惘。
空中小姐史芬妮(《22世紀殺人網絡3驚變世紀》姬蒂比韓 飾)處理突發事件經驗豐富，但為人多疑，受不了貝嘉莉的歇斯底里，堅稱女童沒有登機！
眾人口供不一，線索真假無從稽考！事件背後是否另有陰謀？
案情峰迴路轉，結局出人意表！
任你如何估計…
亦沒可能推敲出事件的來龍去脈！
到底……
怎樣才可追查終極真相？
荷里活才女茱迪科士打久休復出
嚴挑優秀劇本 演繹心理恐懼
兩屆金像影后茱迪科士打向來有「荷里活才女」之稱，她不但演技精湛，被視為「叫好叫座」的保證，更曾擔任電影導演及監製，可謂多才多藝！茱迪科士打的作品向來貴精不貴多，上一齣主演的電影已是2002年的《房不勝防》(Panic Room)，這3年期間她只曾客串演出《美麗緣未了》(A Very Long Engagement)，今次這齣《高凶三萬尺》可算是她久休復出之作，到底是甚麼吸引她投大銀幕呢？
茱迪科士打謂：「絕對是因為《高凶三萬尺》的劇本非常引人入勝，才令我決定接拍！坦白說，我很享受悠閒的家庭生活，雖然我也很喜歡電影，但年輕時經常要在一年內完成3、4齣作品，實在累得要命，現在該是時候享受人生，所以我一定要細心挑選過劇本才決定演出！」
那麼今次的劇本又有何特別之處？「單看劇本已感受到那份張力及緊湊氣氛，整齣電影充滿刺激的劇情及動作場面，最特別是它描述的心理恐懼非常深入，在機上這密封空間與眾多陌生人相處，突顯出人與人之間的不信任，從中看出人性的陰暗面！加上劇本描寫主角要面對失去女兒的那種心情，令身為人母的我非常感同身受，要逼真的演繹出那種徬徨無助、瀕臨崩潰的心情，絕對是對我演技的一大挑戰！」。
故事概念醞釀多年 金像監製重新打造
創出希治閣式懸疑劇情
《高凶三萬尺》這個故事概念早在5年多前已開始醞釀，本片編劇彼得杜寧(Peter A. Dowling)希望寫出一個在有限空間發展出無限可能的懸疑故事，於是將場景設定在密封的飛機之上，機上乘客眾多，但人人都素未謀面，令觀眾未到最後一刻，都未能分清忠奸黑白！
金像監製白賴仁基沙看過劇本後，覺得劇情的壓逼感彷如希治閣的電影：「單是講述父母要在狹小的空間內，拚命尋找失蹤的子女，那種惶恐及無助已經充滿爆發力！而且一般講述兒童失蹤的電影，可能會從超自然的角度同外星人或妖魔鬼怪來交代，這個劇本內容卻是從現實生活入手，令人感到前所未見的真實恐懼！加上機上有一大班陌生人困在一起，更能營造出張力及懸疑感覺！這種獨有的場景令我可以拍出更轉拆更豐富的劇情，電影就可以更有戲味！」。
於是白賴仁基沙立即決定開拍電影，但他卻將劇本重新改造：「劇本原本是講述一名父親尋找他的兒子，我覺得如果改為一名寡婦尋找女兒，那種無助的感覺就更加明顯，觀眾亦更易投入劇情之中，於是就產生了「貝嘉莉」這個角色！而要演繹這種堅毅強悍的單親母親一角，我認為非茱迪科士打莫屬！」茱迪科士打看過劇本後與白賴仁基沙一拍即合，二人遂聯手炮製出《高凶三萬尺》這齣驚慄鉅獻！
不惜工本創造逼真機艙拍攝環境
未來E-474珍寶客機率先現身大銀幕
電影中的重要場景是一架E-474珍寶客機，這架全球最巨型、最先進的高科技航機在現實生活中尚未出現，因為仍在試驗階段，但電影中的飛機構造卻是依據這架即將面世的空中巴士所設計而成！這架飛機備有雙層客艙、9個儲物間、7個餐飲間，另外休息室及貨艙，載客量超過700人！為了拍出逼真場面，工作人員在位於洛杉磯的逾27,000平方呎的片場之中，花了超過16星期建造了長逾300呎的「虛擬」飛機！
監製白賴仁基沙表示，他們選擇「興建」一架飛機，而非租用真正的飛機拍攝，是因為這樣做更能隨方便他們加入電影所需的元素：「除了可以更易安放特別的攝影器材之外，我們更能隨心所欲地設計不同場景來加強戲劇元素，例如矮天花可以加強壓逼感及恐慌感，而光猛潔白的餐飲室則更能彰顯出那份毛骨悚然的氣氛！」所以他認為，即使要花更多人力物力，興建飛機亦是物有所值！
台前幕後簡介
兩屆金像影后 茱迪科士打 Jodie Foster
茱迪科士打以童星出道，1976年演出馬田史高西斯(Martin Scorsese)執導的《的士司機》(Taxi Driver)一片大放異彩，演技才華令觀眾刮目相看！同年演出迪士尼電影《怪誕星期五》(Freaky Friday)令她大受歡迎，成為影壇矚目新星！於1988年憑《暴劫梨花》(The Accused)首獲金像獎影后殊榮，演技備受肯定，其後更憑《沉默的羔羊》(Silence of the Lambs)再度封后，該片更成為驚慄片的經典！擅於演繹驚慄片的茱迪科士打於2002年演出《房不勝防》(Panic Room)後，一直處於半退休狀態，最近復出拍畢《高凶三萬尺》(Flightplan)後，即將與丹素華盛頓(Denzel Washington)合作《Inside Man》，更會執導新片《Sugar Kings》。
金像監製 白賴仁基沙 Brian Grazer
白賴仁基沙擁有超過20年電影及電視製作經驗，曾三度獲提名奧斯卡金像獎，2002年憑《有你終生美麗》(A Beautiful Mind)勇奪奧斯卡及金球獎最佳影片，進一步奠定其金牌監製地位。最新監製作品《擊動深情》(Cinderella Man)同樣好評如潮，獲影評人及觀眾一致讚賞。白賴仁基沙被公認為炮製驚慄懸疑片的專家，代表作包括《贖金風暴》 (Ransom)、《觸目驚心》 (Psycho)以及榮獲8項艾美獎提名的電視劇《24》等。日前白賴仁基沙正忙於監製由湯漢斯(Tom Hanks)及柯德莉塔圖(Audrey Tautou)主演、改編自全球暢銷小說的同名電影《The Da Vinci Code》，勢必哄動全球。其他重要作品包括《太陽神13號》(Apollo 13)、《8里公路》(8 Mile)及《烈火雄心》(Backdraft)等。
10月13日 真相即將揭露
Flight Plan
Distributed by: Intercontinental Film Dist. (HK) Ltd.
Release Date: 13 October, 2005
PREPARE FOR TAKE OFF:
A Mother's Flight into the Heart of Fear
You are flying at 37,000 feet, in a new state-of-the-art airliner…so how on earth could a child suddenly disappear from your plane? This nerve-shattering question lies at the heart of FLIGHTPLAN, a visceral suspense thriller that transports the audience into the turbulent confines of an international flight-and puts them at the very center of a chilling human mystery as they jet from Berlin to New York. Two-time Academy AwardR winner Jodie Foster stars as Kyle Pratt, the frantic but fiercely intelligent mother whose deepest protective instincts will be triggered by a haunting in-flight nightmare: in the middle of the trans-Atlantic trip, her young daughter turns up missing without a trace.
Or does she?
The dilemma facing the passengers and crew onboard is exactly the same predicament that audiences of FLIGHTPLAN will experience: is Kyle Pratt (FOSTER), who arrives on the flight still reeling from the recent loss of her husband, a woman who has gone mad with grief or a formidably determined mother whose child is in grave danger that threatens the entire plane? Adding to the growing mystery is the fact that the name of Kyle's daughter doesn't even appear on the flight manifest. Furthermore, neither of the flight attendants (ERIKA CHRISTENSEN, KATE BEAHAN) can remember seeing the child on the plane. While Captain Rich (SEAN BEAN) and Air Marshal Gene Carson (PETER SARSGAARD) don't want to doubt Kyle's insistent claim that her daughter has vanished, all evidence points to the fact that Kyle's little girl was never on board.
What is the truth behind Kyle Pratt's distress? Who on board can be trusted? And just how far will Kyle have to go to get to the bottom of the harrowing mystery? As paranoia and doubt mount among the passengers, Kyle is confronted with some of the most unsettling fears a mother could ever face-losing her child, having her very reality questioned and being trapped in a situation where no one can seem to help. Pushed to the edge and fighting for her sanity, Kyle finds herself willing to go to unimaginable lengths to save her daughter.
Jodie Foster teams up with Academy AwardR-winning producer Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind, 8 Mile, Ransom) to bring this original tale of high-flying suspense to life. The Touchstone Pictures/Imagine Entertainment presentation of FLIGHTPLAN marks the first Hollywood feature from acclaimed German director Robert Schwentke and is written by Peter A. Dowling and Billy Ray. The executive producers are James Whitaker, Charles J.D. Schlissel, Robert DiNozzi and Erica Huggins.
Playing against Foster as the passengers and crew who alternately doubt and fear her is a supporting cast noted for their critically acclaimed performances in both action epics and grittier independent features, including Peter Sarsgaard, Erika Christensen, Kate Beahan and Sean Bean. Seven-year-old Marlene Lawston makes her feature film debut as Foster's daughter, whose disappearance thrusts the international flight into chaos and paranoia.
THE FLIGHT DEPARTS:
The High Concept Thriller Meets a Deep Human Mystery
At a time when an insidious sense of anxiety pervades the very act of flying, FLIGHTPLAN invites audiences aboard a sophisticated suspense thriller that takes place entirely on an airplane-an enclosed realm where, in today's world, isolation, fright and suspicion are already heightened to the max. When Kyle Pratt's daughter is nowhere to be found on board, this devoted mother is drawn into a complex web of mystery, treachery and perceived conspiracy that will take her to the very depths of maternal tenacity…and bring the audience along for the ride.
Though the story of FLIGHTPLAN was developed long before the events of September 11, 2001, the screenplay took on an increased relevance in its aftermath-reflecting a new era of international travel filled with uncertainty and palpable awareness of one's fellow passengers, as well as intensified feelings of protectiveness among parents. The film's story was never one about terrorism, but in the wake of September 11, its themes of paranoia and shifting perception of strangers came even more to the fore.
It was the script's mix of human emotions, ethical dilemmas and edge-of-your-seat thrills that garnered the attention of Academy AwardR-winning producer Brian Grazer. Known for a diverse taste in material that has brought him from the gritty 8 Mile to the award-winning A Beautiful Mind, Grazer felt that this complex, high-intensity thriller would be an intriguing addition to Imagine's dynamic slate of feature films.
"The feeling of FLIGHTPLAN was that of a Hitchcockian mystery taking place entirely in the sealed world of a modern jet airliner with all its nooks, crannies, shafts and hiding places," says Grazer. "The combination of this irresistible idea with a very real, emotionally resonant human story about loss and grief was quite powerful."
Screenwriter Peter A. Dowling had originally been inspired to write the first draft of FLIGHTPLAN by a very simple idea that popped into his head-an idea that seemed to have endless possibilities for generating suspense and mystery. It was a contemporary twist on one of the most compelling mystery themes in cinema: the sudden, inexplicable disappearance of a loved one.
"A parent on a plane at cruising altitude has their child suddenly vanish and nobody admits to ever seeing her onboard. That idea was just the start of things because I realized that from there you could go in so many different directions," he explains. "It could be a supernatural story. It could be an alien abduction. It could involve hallucinations or fantasy. Or, it could be a very realistic thriller. That was the direction (and the challenge) that really interested me because I've always been intrigued by very tightly plotted suspense movies, especially ones that take place in a confined location. At the same time, I thought this could also be a very emotional journey in which a parent faces a harrowing personal crisis."
"FLIGHTPLAN has a premise that just grabs you," says executive producer Robert DiNozzi who brought Dowling's initial script to James Whitaker at Imagine Entertainment. "It's obviously a very exciting idea but there's also something very primal there that I thought would resonate with audiences. The thought of your child disappearing and then being thrust into a situation where no one believes you, no one can help you and you have no idea who to trust, or if you can even trust your own sanity, has a strong emotional pull."
At Imagine, Brian Grazer was also intrigued by Dowling's draft but had an immediate idea for adding a whole new layer to it: rather than have a traditional male lead as the script called for, Grazer suggested something completely different. He came up with the notion of casting the Academy AwardR-winning actress Jodie Foster-with whom Grazer has wanted to work for years-as the strong, yet mysterious, personality at the center of the story's suspense.
"For a thriller like this, there is no one better than Jodie Foster," comments Grazer. "She is someone who engenders empathy, who you really care about, someone you can believe as a mother yet who also can demonstrate a tremendous amount of strength and power when she's put to the test."
When Foster signed on to the role, the entire production was re-energized. Grazer then brought in screenwriter Billy Ray to further develop the story for Foster, re-creating Kyle Pratt (the name remained the same) as a grieving widow whose maternal drive kicks into its highest gear when her daughter goes missing under circumstances that no one can understand or explain.
Ray found the story rife with potential for rich psychological drama. "When strangers are stuck on a plane together, and you add tension and suspicion into the situation, it becomes a very explosive way to explore how humans react under pressure. You see people's humanity emerge in both good and bad ways as they make tough choices."
He continues: "To me, FLIGHTPLAN is very much about dread and it's all seen through the eyes of Kyle Pratt, of Jodie Foster, as this very smart yet possibly unstable widow who you just don't know if you can trust or not. I knew that Jodie would bring lots of intelligence to the movie and, as we wrote the story around her character, she kept pushing us and challenging us to make the film smarter and tighter."
When it came to finding a director for FLIGHTPLAN, Grazer and executive producers Charles J.D. Schlissel and Robert DiNozzi again went in an entirely unexpected direction-turning to Robert Schwentke, a German indie filmmaker acclaimed for his daring and original films Tattoo and The Family Jewels. Grazer and the rest of the team were impressed with the young director's ability to create a very intimate experience of tension and excitement throughout his films.
Says Charles J.D. Schlissel: "Robert is a brilliant young director who is one of the most visually innovative and meticulous people I have worked with. He sees the world in a different way, has a painstaking eye for detail, and is a lovely human being. He was especially integral in giving the story its emotional anchor."
Adds Grazer: "Robert directed this very intense, visceral film called Tattoo and watching that film I knew he understood how to scare people, how to create suspense and how to have every moment accelerate into the next. I felt he would also provide a great counterpoint for a thriller that we wanted to break out of the genre."
Schwentke was drawn to the idea of a thriller set in such an unusual and tightly enclosed space and also welcomed the opportunity of working with such weighty material. "At its heart the story deals with a woman who has to rebuild her psyche after the sudden death of her husband. Exactly how he died is not revealed until late in the movie, but it is clear that she is starting to lose her grip on reality as a result. The question of whether and to what degree this is happening constitutes the dramatic engine of the movie. This is further compounded by the fact that Jodie's character has now become the sole caretaker of her 6-year-old daughter. Despite her own grief, she must go on for the sake of the girl."
"This story was an opportunity for me to make a puzzle movie full of twists and turns that is also extremely emotional," the director continues. "I liked the idea of a movie that largely unfolds in a single contained environment. We decided against cutting to the control tower or to any characters on the ground. Everything stays within the claustrophobic space of the plane, trapping the audience at 37,000 feet along with the characters, leaving them both struggling to solve the mystery."
VANISHED AT 37,000 FEET:
The Cast of FLIGHTPLAN Take On a Heart Wrenching Enigma
At the center of the mounting tension and spiraling human intrigue in FLIGHTPLAN lies Kyle Pratt, a widow wracked with grief, and a mother who finds herself in an unimaginable position: trying to make an entire airplane's crew and passengers believe that her little girl has somehow disappeared from plain sight.
One of her generation's most accomplished leading actresses, as well as a distinguished director in her own right, Jodie Foster brings tremendous energy and complexity to the role of Kyle, embodying every detail of her transformation from numbed grief to horrified shock to galvanized action as she stops at nothing to solve the gut-wrenching mystery that has taken her daughter.
Foster, who first gained notoriety and an OscarR nomination as a teenager giving a stirring performance in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, has been a distinctive creative force in Hollywood for the last few decades. She has twice won the Academy AwardR: for her stunning performance as a rape victim in The Accused and for the unforgettable role of FBI Agent Clarice Starling in the now-classic thriller The Silence of the Lambs. Her versatility in recent films has brought her from the edge-of-your-seat suspense of The Panic Room to the lavish period drama of Anna and the King to a French-speaking role in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's acclaimed war film A Very Long Engagement.
As a mother of two, Foster felt a strong affinity for FLIGHTPLAN from the minute she heard about the story from Brian Grazer. "What really moved me about FLIGHTPLAN was the idea of a woman who has lost her child and yet suddenly is forced to question her sanity because there's so much grief inside her that she has to wonder if she's going insane," says Foster. "Meanwhile, she's in this strange sort of international world of an airplane where people are naturally suspicious of one another, so the situation has tremendous tension and pressure to it."
Foster continues: "I also have always liked the idea of stories that unfold inside confined spaces. I like the intensity and how the story always winds up being about how people cope with one another and change inside that space. This movie is a thriller but it's also a personal journey-a glimpse at how one woman reacts under the greatest sort of stress and panic, how she pulls herself back from the abyss of grief and gets herself together. I think that Kyle isn't really so much heroic as she is absolutely driven. She might sometimes be brash, sometimes irrational, other times manipulative. But she will do anything she can to find her daughter."
Another draw for Foster was the chance to collaborate with Robert Schwentke, who, though not well known in the U.S., had impressed Foster with his film Tattoo. "I thought Tattoo was an extraordinary film and was very interested to work with him," she says. "He's smart, interesting and had a very, very strong vision for FLIGHTPLAN."
Schwentke, in turn, found working with Foster to be a constantly exciting and revealing experience. "She is utterly fearless. She is able to take herself or her character to emotionally uncomfortable places. She is totally committed to the role and every one of her choices reflects that. If something is truthful for the character, she will do it even if that makes her appear less likeable or out of control. She has the amazing ability to repeat the same line fifteen times, making every take sound different and as though she is saying it for the first time. I felt very, very lucky."
In the middle of the flight, as Kyle Pratt's terror and paranoia snowball, a ray of hope appears when a passenger reveals himself to be an air marshal-a policeman in the sky and a new fixture on flights in the post 9/11 world. Air Marshal Gene Carson must now attempt to figure out if Kyle is simply a distraught mother searching for a lost little girl or a dangerous threat to all the other passengers. To play the role, the filmmakers were pleased to bring on board Peter Sarsgaard, an actor known for his complex and critically acclaimed performances in such films as Kinsey, Garden State and Shattered Glass.
Sarsgaard was impressed with FLIGHTPLAN's sophisticated take on suspenseful storytelling. "I thought it was a terrific combination of genres," he says. "To me, at first, it was a movie about grief, but then it transforms itself into a thriller and a drama and a mystery with lots of twists and turns. It becomes a kind of labyrinth. There's definitely something very Hitchcock about it."
Although he was intrigued by the role of Gene Carson, Sarsgaard worried at first that he wasn't physically intimidating enough to play an air marshal, only to learn that one of the main qualities of an air marshal is the ability to blend into their surroundings and not stand out. He also realized that air marshals are being so heavily recruited that they come from all walks of life. After being cast, he met with several real-life air marshals to get a better sense of the rapidly burgeoning job.
"What I learned is that an air marshal wants to be very discreet and yet have a sense of overwhelming authority at the same time," Sarsgaard explains. "It's quite fascinating work and they tend to take the most interesting flights-high-risk flights on the biggest planes with lots of different kinds of passengers. It's also a job that requires a lot of patience, because 99.9% of the time, you have nothing to do but sit on the plane and be aware of who people are and what they are doing around you. It's kind of like an endurance test! But when something does happen, you have to be prepared to react."
Carson is quickly thrust into an unexpected situation on this flight when a child appears to have gone missing…or alternatively, a passenger seems to have lost her mind, depending on who you are willing to believe. "This movie is very much about first impressions and different perspectives and how you can see a mystery different ways depending on how you look at it," says Sarsgaard. "I found that really interesting."
Sarsgaard was also excited to work so closely with Jodie Foster. "She has amazing enthusiasm and passion," he comments. "It's wonderful to act with someone who is so engaged and cares so much about every little detail of every scene even though she has already had so much success in her career."
For Robert Schwentke, Sarsgaard brought a unique approach to the role. "In real life Peter is an avid chess player, and he approached the role with a player's brain. Ultimately I think we both see Gene as a man who has spent too many hours sitting on a plane with nothing to do but ruminate. Combined with his sense of ego, that proves to be quite combustible."
Air Marshal Gene Carson does have to answer to one person on board the airliner-Captain Rich, the pilot of the aircraft and the one man ultimately in control of the fate of Kyle and her daughter, whether or not she is truly on the plane. Searching for someone with a commanding and steely presence to add to the film's tension-charged environment, the filmmakers quickly agreed that Sean Bean, known for playing strong characters in such action epics as The Lord of the Rings, National Treasure and GoldenEye, was perfect for the role.
Says Schwentke: "Sean inherently possesses all the pertinent qualities of Captain Rich. He also brought a tremendous amount of humanity to the character. This captain wants to make the right choice, but is caught in a situation that wasn't covered in his rulebook."
Bean was taken in by FLIGHTPLAN's mysteries. "By the time the pilot gets involved, no one is sure if Kyle got on the plane with a child in the first place or whether she might be having delusions of what is going on," he explains. "My character, being a father himself, tries to empathize with her. He's not quite sure if he's a believer or not. He wants to believe her, but he's also suspicious that she might be some kind of danger to his flight, and safety is his first priority."
Bean especially took pleasure in the intriguing interplay between his character, Jodie Foster and Peter Sarsgaard, as they try to size one another up and figure out one another's agendas. He recalls, "It was such a thrill to watch Jodie Foster work because she is so incredibly focused. Meanwhile, Peter Sarsgaard's performance is very subtle, yet realistic and believable. It was inspiring to be in the middle of that."
Especially revealing to Bean, as for the rest of the cast, was working inside the replica of a fictional but incredibly detailed state-of-the-art airliner. "It really is a cramped and claustrophobic atmosphere that seems to magnify tension and suspense," he observes. "Everything is so close and you can't even walk past someone without bumping into them. It was quite challenging from a filmmaking perspective, but I think it works incredibly well for this story because the audience will really feel like they're in the sky with us, trapped in this small space, going on this scary ride."
TURBULENCE:
The Flight Attendants of FLIGHTPLAN
Kyle Pratt's terrifying flight grows more complicated as she enlists the help of the plane's flight attendants to find a child they aren't even sure really exists. With the formidable talents of Foster, Sarsgaard and Bean already cast, the filmmakers were looking for actors who could hold their own against them, but also wanted the kind of youthful performances more often seen in independent films. So they cast two rising young actresses: Erika Christensen, who stunned audiences with her portrayal of Michael Douglas' drug-addicted daughter in Traffic, plays the sympathetic Fiona; and Australian newcomer Kate Beahan, who starred in the Down Under indie hit Chopper, is the suspicious Stephanie.
Christensen's interest was immediately piqued by the role. "I thought FLIGHTPLAN was intriguing from an actress's standpoint because it's a story that takes place entirely on a plane. Every character is there in every scene and you have to map out exactly where you are and what you're doing at every moment," she explains. "I also thought the screenplay was very timely given today's concerns and managed to be at once scary and moving."
Helping Christensen to prepare for the role was her own family history in the aviation world. "My grandmother was a stewardess-back when they were called 'stewardesses'-and both my grandfathers and my mother were all pilots. My family's aviation stories were always adventurous and glamorous, so that was another reason I wanted to be a part of this film. I think aviators and flight attendants have always had that 'ready for anything' attitude, but today they really have to be on alert and ready for new and dangerous security situations. I think they are real heroes."
Today's flight attendants, of course, face far tougher challenges than simply serving tea and coffee to passengers-they also serve as the first line of security in defense of the plane. Christensen was fascinated to learn just what flight attendants go through in preparation for their jobs in this day and age. "Robert Schwentke sent me a six-inch thick manual that today's flight attendants must know inside and out! I studied the manual and also had training sessions with a professional flight attendant instructor," recalls Christensen.
Christensen's character Fiona is still a rookie on only her second international flight. "My character is an individual, although she really wants to be part of the group," says the actress. "And when she sees Kyle going through such intense emotions, it's really hard to ignore. She has to do her best to figure out whose side to be on, while also not alienating anyone."
Masking her native accent, Australian actress Kate Beahan took on the role of the flight's other attendant, the more senior and more jaded Stephanie. "The script was so much more textured than most thrillers that you see, and I felt that setting a mystery like this on an airplane, especially at this point in time, was a daring thing in itself," she says. "It really captures that kind of universal fear of being trapped in a devastating situation and nobody will hear your story."
Like Christensen, Beahan was thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Jodie Foster, who took the actress by surprise. "She was generous, fun and very smart, with absolutely no pretense to her," says Beahan. "I felt so fortunate to work beside her."
Also working beside Foster-right up until the minute she vanishes from sight-is seven-year-old Marlene Lawston, who makes her feature film debut in FLIGHTPLAN in the key role of Foster's daughter Julie. The filmmakers searched for a young girl who could make an indelible impression on the audience so that her sudden absence would be palpable and disconcerting.
"Marlene was amazing," notes executive producer Charles J.D. Schlissel. "She definitely had a lot to face-this was not only her first movie, but she also had to act opposite Jodie Foster in every scene! It could have been a very intimidating thing, but Marlene was a delight to work with and stepped up to the challenges."
Foster also found Marlene to be a source of inspiration for her character. "Marlene is only seven, but she has the most piercing, intense presence," says Foster. "I love working with child actors and watching them change through the course of the film."
Adds Schwentke: "Jodie, having been a child actress herself, was a tremendous help to Marlene and at some point Marlene started emulating Jodie, which was perfect for the role."
FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS:
A Tour of Aalto Air's E-474 Jumbo Jet
Central to FLIGHTPLAN's design from the beginning was bringing the audience directly into the action, letting them feel as if they, too, are trapped on a colossal airplane hurtling at several hundred miles an hour as the mystery of Kyle Pratt and her frenzied search for her daughter unfolds. For the audience, as for the characters, almost the entire movie is spent within the fictional plane known as Aalto Air's E-474 jumbo jet, the latest in high-tech, multi-level passenger comfort-and a plane just large enough that a child could perhaps be lost inside its crevices.
As conceived by Brian Grazer and Robert Schwentke, the E-474 is a next-generation people carrier with a stunning passenger capacity of 700+ and a stylish, design-forward architectural structure. The plane's snazzy upper deck includes the cockpit, spacious first class seating, a mod orange- and white-hued first class lounge with a stairway, galleys, and two enormous coach cabins replete with working video monitors installed in the seats. Down below is the sprawling business class section with its signature red seats, two more galleys and more main cabin seating all accentuated by a stunning spiral staircase leading to the upper deck.
Key to creating the film's suspense was making this singular set palpably realistic. To accomplish the Herculean task of bringing to life the intricate details of a plane that doesn't actually exist, the filmmakers brought in a team of talented visual artists including production designer Alexander Hammond and director of photography Florian Ballhaus. Schwentke collaborated closely with both men, sharing with them his vision of the film's visual frisson.
"Being on a long flight is a bit like being underwater. Everything seems muted and out of time," he observes. "I wanted to capture a dream-like quality."
Alexander Hammond, who previously created the live action world of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat, which Brian Grazer also produced, immersed himself in the principles of modern airliner design. He scoured tens of thousands of images to create dozens of blueprints, often sketching the plans himself. Recalls Hammond, "We looked at a bunch of different aircrafts from many diverse manufacturers and then selected features that seemed both familiar yet had elements that nobody had seen before."
Eventually Hammond and his team came up with an elevated, 300-foot-long set piece with side panels sculpted out of large blocks of styrofoam to create the walls of the plane. The crew spent 16 weeks building the plane from scratch on a 27,000-square-foot soundstage in Los Angeles. Rather than create a multi-level set, the plane was designed so that it could serve as the upper deck for the early days of shooting then be completely reconfigured to become the jumbo jet's lower deck for later scenes. The plane's interior was designed with a distinctly hip, retro look to highlight the contemporary emphasis on style in airliners.
Says Hammond: "We looked at a lot of older planes and '60s architecture for ideas. So, there's a bit of retro design to it with a lounge and a bar-it hearkens back to some of the comforts and fun that have been lost from air travel today."
A second soundstage housed the sets for the areas of the aircraft that usually remain unseen by airline passengers-yet become absolutely vital in Kyle Pratt's desperate search for her daughter-including the cargo hold, the flight deck, the crew's sleeping quarters, an attic containing the majority of the aircraft's piping, ducting, air ventilation, and wiring systems, the front landing gear, and the electronics room, which is essentially the brain of the plane's avionics equipment.
"One of the advantages to building a plane from scratch is that the design of every space can be used to enhance specific elements of scenes," says Robert Schwentke. "A bright white galley might mirror the dislocated and eerie feel of Jodie's character, or we would lower ceilings for scenes where we wanted to create a feeling of being trapped. Alec was great at approaching the sets from two different angles: the psychological and the functional. By and large the design of the plane was derived from who the characters are, what situations they find themselves in, and where we wanted to locate them and the audience emotionally.
To learn more about how to move through the set in a realistic way, cast and crew also attended a rapid-fire "flight school," a down-and-dirty introduction to aviation overseen by technical advisor Mark Burton, who introduced them to the basic operation of high-tech aircraft equipment, as well as the basic principles of air safety.
The sets were stunningly real to all who visited them, but when director of photography Florian Ballhaus saw them, he realized a big challenge lay ahead. He would have to develop some ingenious techniques to light and operate the cameras within the plane's tight spaces. To save space, Ballhaus had Hammond's crew actually design lighting right into the set and rigged five-foot-wide, hinged side panels on the walls of the plane, which could lift open and allow the camera crew to position themselves in a variety of ways. Hammond also designed for Ballhaus a clever set of topside rails running atop the overhead bins which allowed the cinematographer to grab wheeled dolly shots from above.
With no Aalto plane actually in existence, the filmmakers also had to find a way to show the E-474, with its unique silhouette, flying from the outside. They turned to the visual effects team of Rob Hodgson and Henric Nieminen, who forged a 30-foot-long working model of Hammond's design that could be used for the handful of external shots.
Back on the set, the filmmakers further added to the realism by bringing in a group of carefully cast extras to play the flight's passengers. Explains Brian Grazer: "We wanted to create a population similar to what you really experience on an international flight, so you have the wise guy, the loud family, a whole potpourri of diverse individuals from every ethnic background. Some are intrusive, some are suspicious and some are supportive to Kyle which makes it all very interesting and realistic."
The uncannily flight-like atmosphere on the set gave the cast and crew a real sense of working in such a cramped and claustrophobic space. So it was some relief that the production enjoyed a respite from the airplane set by spending several days filming on location in the city of Long Beach and at a small airport in the Mojave Desert which, ironically, doubled as the frozen airport of Goose Bay, Newfoundland.
The film's only other earthbound location is the cosmopolitan city of Berlin, where the production journeyed for two weeks. Although the decision to shoot in Berlin was made before Robert Schwentke and Florian Ballhaus joined the production, the two German natives were thrilled to have a chance to capture the city's unique atmosphere and stunning mixture of contemporary and classical architecture. They also filmed for three days outside Berlin in the city of Leipzig, where cast and crew were given unprecedented access to the newly built glass and steel airport there.
Says Schwentke: "In many ways the shooting locations were reflections of inner states; this holds especially true for Berlin. We wanted a nocturnal, deserted city that felt slightly surreal and disconnected. Having spent winters in Berlin I knew we could create that feeling for the beginning of the movie there."
Atmosphere and ambience were always the central elements in Schwentke's vision for turning FLIGHTPLAN into a riveting suspense thriller. He says: "The thing I love to do as a filmmaker is to completely create a world with its own rules, sounds, colors, and textures, while still engaging the audience on an emotional level. I hope they will be scared, intrigued, and touched."
ABOUT THE CAST
JODIE FOSTER's (Kyle Pratt) stunning performances as a rape survivor in The Accused (1988) and as Special Agent Clarice Starling in the hit thriller The Silence of the Lambs (1991) earned her two Academy AwardsR for Best Actress and a reputation as one of the most critically acclaimed actresses of her generation.
For her role in The Silence of the Lambs, Foster was also awarded a Golden GlobeR Award, a British Academy Award, a New York Film Critics Award and a Chicago Film Critics Award. Foster received her first OscarR nomination and awards from the National Society of Film Critics and the Los Angeles Film Critics for her role in Taxi Driver. She also became the only American actress to win two separate awards in the same year from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts: Best Supporting Actress and Best Newcomer honoring her performances in both Taxi Driver and Bugsy Malone.
Foster most recently had a cameo appearance in Jean Pierre Jeunet's French language film, A Very Long Engagement. Prior to that she starred in David Fincher's box-office hit, Panic Room, and starred in the title role in Anna and the King for 20th Century Fox, for director Andy Tenant.
In total, Foster has appeared in nearly 40 films, including Contact for director Robert Zemeckis; Nell opposite Liam Neeson; the comedy Maverick opposite Mel Gibson and James Garner and starred opposite Richard Gere in the romantic drama Sommersby. Other select motion picture credits include Woody Allen's stylized black and white comedy Shadows and Fog; Mary Lambert's Siesta opposite Ellen Barkin; Stealing Home; Five Corners; as well as earlier films such as Tom Sawyer; Disney's Freaky Friday; Adrian Lyne's Foxes; Tony Richardson's The Hotel New Hampshire; Claude Chabrol's The Blood of Others, for which the multi-lingual Foster looped all of her own dialogue in French.
Foster began her career at age three, appearing as "The Coppertone Girl" in the television commercial. She then went on to become a regular on a number of television series, including "Mayberry RFD," "The Courtship of Eddie's Father," "My Three Sons" and "Paper Moon." She made her feature debut in Napoleon and Samantha when she was eight years old.
But it was her role in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1975), which brought her to the audience's eyes and her powerful portrayal of a streetwise teenager in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) that won her widespread critical praise and international attention. Foster appeared in a total of four films in 1976, Bugsy Malone, Echoes of Summer, Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane and Taxi Driver, which were all presented at the Cannes Film Festival. Alan Parker's Bugsy Malone, earned her an Italian Comedy Award.
In addition to her acting, Foster has always had a keen interest in the art of filmmaking. Foster made her motion picture directorial debut in 1991 with the highly acclaimed Little Man Tate, in which she also starred. In 1995, Foster directed her second film, Home for the Holidays, which she also produced. The film starred Holly Hunter, Anne Bancroft and Robert Downey Jr.
Foster had founded Egg Pictures in 1992 and the company produced Nell (1994), for which Foster earned an Academy AwardR nomination for Best Actress; Home for the Holidays (1995); the Showtime telefilm The Baby Dance (1998) which received a Peabody Award, four EmmyR Award nominations and three Golden GlobeR Award nominations; as well as USA Films' Waking the Dead, directed by Keith Gordon starring Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly. In 1996, Egg presented the award-winning French film Hate in the United States. Egg Pictures most recently produced The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2001).
Foster graduated with honors from Yale University in 1985, earning a B.A. in literature.
PETER SARSGAARD's (Carson) recent credits include Bill Condon's biopic, Kinsey, starring Liam Neeson and Laura Linney-for which Sarsgaard garnered an Independent Spirit Award nomination-and Zach Braff's indie hit Garden State. He will next be seen in Sam Mendes' adaptation of Anthony Swofford's best-selling Gulf War memoir, Jarhead, co-starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Foxx. Later this fall, Sarsgaard stars opposite Campbell Scott and Patricia Clarkson in the psychological drama The Dying Gaul for writer/director Craig Lucas. He also appears in Iain Softley's current hit thriller The Skeleton Key with Kate Hudson, Gena Rowlands and John Hurt.
For his portrayal of New Republic editor Charles Lane in Billy Ray's Shattered Glass, Sarsgaard garnered awards from the Boston, San Francisco, St. Louis, Toronto and National Society of Film Critics, as well as Golden GlobeR and Independent Spirit Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor. He is perhaps best known for his searing portrayal of John Lotter in Kimberly Pierce's Boys Don't Cry, opposite Hilary Swank and Chloe Sevigny.
Other feature roles include K-19: The Widowmaker, The Salton Sea, Empire, and Wayne Wang's controversial The Center of the World. Sarsgaard first gained notice as Leonardo DiCaprio's rival and John Malkovich's son in The Man in the Iron Mask. He also appeared in Larry Clark's Another Day in Paradise and made his film debut opposite Sean Penn in Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking.
On the small screen, Sarsgaard starred in Showtime's acclaimed feature, "Freak City," produced by Michael Stipe and Sandy Stern's Single Cell Pictures.
A member of Douglas Carter Beane's New York-based theater company, The Drama Department, Sarsgaard appeared in their off-Broadway production, "Kingdom of the Earth," opposite Cynthia Nixon directed by John Cameron Mitchell. He was also seen on stage in 2003 in the Signature Theatre Company's acclaimed revival of Lanford Wilson's "Burn This."
Sarsgaard attended the Actors' Studio Program at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, after which he was cast in Horton Foote's "Laura Dennis," at the Signature Theatre Company Off-Broadway.
SEAN BEAN (Captain Rich) has enjoyed success on the stage and screen in both the U.S. and in his native England. He gained international recognition as the fallen hero Boromir in Peter Jackson's multiple Academy AwardR-winning The Lord of the Rings trilogy, first appearing in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and reprising his role in The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Bean was among the main cast honored with Screen Actors Guild, Critics' Choice and National Board of Review awards for Best Ensemble for the final installment, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Bean starred this summer in Michael Bay's thriller The Island alongside Scarlett Johansson. In 2004, he starred in Jon Turtletaub's hit action-adventure National Treasure and played the legendary Odysseus in Wolfgang Petersen's epic Troy. His forthcoming films include the thriller Silent Hill and North Country also starring Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand.
A classically trained actor, Bean graduated with honors from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. He later became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and also appeared in a number of plays in London's West End and at the Glasgow Citizen Theatre. Segueing to film and television, he won critical acclaim for his breakout role in Jim Sheridan's The Field opposite Richard Harris. He then starred as a terrorist seeking revenge for the death of his brother, squaring off against Harrison Ford in Patriot Games.
The following year, Bean took on what would become one of his signature roles when he was cast as author Bernard Cornwall's beloved hero of the Napoleonic Wars, Richard Sharpe, in the television movie "Sharpe's Rifles." The telefilm proved so popular that it spawned 14 sequels between 1994 and 1997 and gave Bean an international fan following.
He continued to work in feature film, and includes among his credits the James Bond actioner GoldenEye, Anna Karenina, Ronin, Essex Boys, Tom and Thomas, Equilibrium and The Big Empty.
In 2002, Bean made a triumphant return to the stage, receiving rave reviews for his performance in the title role of Shakespeare's "Macbeth," in London's West End.
ERIKA CHRISTENSEN (Fiona) is a young actress who has already established herself as one of Hollywood's most talented and sought after stars. Christensen most recently starred in Mike Binder's The Upside of Anger opposite Kevin Costner, Joan Allen, Evan Rachel Wood, Keri Russell, and Alicia Witt for New Line Cinema. She also stars in Arthur Allen Seidelman's The Sisters, a contemporary adaptation of Anton Chekhov's drama, "Three Sisters," opposite Maria Bello and Mary Stuart Masterson.
Christensen stunned audiences in Steven Soderbergh's OscarR- and Golden GlobeR-winning film Traffic as Michael Douglas' drug-addicted daughter. She, along with the cast, received a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture. Additionally, Erika won MTV's Breakthrough Female Performance award at the 2001 MTV Movie Awards.
Christensen starred in John Polson's high school thriller Swimfan opposite Jesse Bradford. Erika's memorable performance helped the film debut as the number one film at the box office in September 2002. Erika also starred in Brian Robbins' The Perfect Score opposite Scarlett Johansson and The Banger Sisters opposite Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn.
On television, Christensen starred in MTV's musical adaptation of Emily Bronte's classic "Wuthering Heights" for director Suri Krishnamma.
Christensen recently received the Spirit Award at the 2003 Annual Diversity Awards, an honor bestowed upon an actor who has demonstrated diversity in role choices during their career.
KATE BEAHAN (Stephanie) captured audiences' attention with her role in the indie Australian hit film, Chopper, opposite Eric Bana. She also appeared in the motion picture Strange Planet, which starred Naomi Watts. She will next co-star opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar in the thriller Revolver. Beahan is currently in production on Wicker Man starring opposite Nicolas Cage for director Neil LaBute, due out next year.
In her native Australia, Beahan has starred in numerous television series including the miniseries "After the Deluge," "Black Jack," "Love is a Four Letter Word," and "Water Rats," among others. She also has starred in the U.S. television series "Farscape."
Originally from Perth, Beahan began her career in the city's burgeoning theater scene appearing in such theatrical productions as "Romeo & Juliet," "Hamlet," "The Tempest," "Good Grief," "One Day of the Year," "Too Far to Walk," and "The Golden Age" among others.
MARLENE LAWSTON (Julia) makes her feature film debut in FLIGHTPLAN. Seven-year-old Lawston is originally from Westchester, New York, where she lives with her mother, an attorney, and father, a New York City police officer.
Lawston, who just entered the second grade, began acting at the age of four and has appeared in several television commercials for Nickelodeon and a skit for "Saturday Night Live." She enjoys dancing, swimming and playing the piano.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
ROBERT SCHWENTKE (Director) most recently wrote and directed The Family Jewels, a semi-autobiographical black comedy, which won the Audience Award at the Biberach Film Festival and the Best Drama and Best Overall Awards at the Deep Ellum Festival in 2003.
Schwentke is next set to direct the feature Runaway Train, for 20th Century Fox. He made his feature debut in 2002 with the dark, moody thriller, Tattoo, which went on to win the International Fantasy Film Award at Fantosporto, and the Grand Prize European Fantasy Film Award at the Sweden Fantastic Film Festival.
Born and raised in Germany, Schwentke studied comparative literature and philosophy before attending the directing program at AFI. Upon graduating, Schwentke began writing for TV. His thriller "Bildersturm" was nominated for the Adolf Grimme Award (the German equivalent of an EmmyR) in 1998.
PETER A. DOWLING (Written by) was born in Manchester, in the north of England, and after moving to Germany where he wrote animation scripts, he came to the USA in 1996 on a Fullbright Scholarship for screenwriting. He now resides in West Hollywood, California.
After briefly attending USC, Dowling sold 34th Floor to Arnold Kopelson and 20th Century Fox. He spent the next few years working extensively on original scripts and rewrites for various studios. During which time, Dowling sold the pitch for FLIGHTPLAN with the help of executive producer Robert DiNozzi and Imagine Entertainment.
Broadening his horizons, Dowling opened Advent Films, Inc., in 2002, and is currently co-producing an epic bio-pic at Warner Bros. called Sealand and is executive producing his own spec script Night Fall with Ascendent Pictures.
Dowling is currently casting his directorial debut, the horror-thriller Stag Night, once again with Ascendent Pictures.
BILLY RAY (Written by) previously worked with Peter Sarsgaard on Shattered Glass, which he both wrote and directed. Ray co-wrote Hart's War starring Bruce Willis and Collin Farrell. He is currently working on the upcoming Breach, starring Chris Cooper and Ryan Phillippe for Universal, which he also wrote and is set to direct once production starts later this year.
BRIAN GRAZER (Producer) is an Academy AwardR-winning producer who has been making movies and television programs for more than 20 years. As both a writer and producer, he has been personally nominated for three Academy AwardsR, and in 2002 he won the Best Picture OscarR for A Beautiful Mind. In addition to winning three other Academy AwardsR, A Beautiful Mind also won four Golden GlobeR Awards (including Best Motion Picture Drama) and earned Grazer the first annual Awareness Award from the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign.
Over the years, Grazer's films and TV shows have been nominated for a total of 39 OscarsR and 42 Emmys.R At the same time, his movies have generated more than $11.2 billion in worldwide theatrical, music and video grosses. Reflecting this combination of commercial and artistic achievement, the Producers Guild of America honored Grazer with the David O. Selznick Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. His accomplishments have also been recognized by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which in 1998 added Grazer to the short list of producers with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 2005, Grazer produced the critically acclaimed Cinderella Man, starring Russell Crowe and Renée Zellweger in the moving true story of James J. Braddock, the down on his luck boxer who became an inspirational hero in the middle of America's Great Depression.
In addition, Grazer's films include Apollo 13, for which Grazer won the Producers Guild's Daryl F. Zanuck Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award as well as an OscarR nomination for Best Picture of 1995; and Splash, which he co-wrote as well as produced and for which he received an OscarR nomination for Best Original Screenplay of 1986.
Grazer's list of upcoming projects includes the big screen adaptation of the international bestseller The Da Vinci Code, directed by OscarR winner Ron Howard; the tense drama The Inside Man for director Spike Lee; and the comedy Fun With Dick and Jane starring Jim Carrey.
Other feature film credits include the recent acclaimed documentary Inside Deep Throat, Friday Night Lights, 8 Mile, Blue Crush, The Missing, Intolerable Cruelty, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Nutty Professor, Liar, Liar, Ransom, My Girl, Backdraft, Kindergarten Cop, Parenthood, Clean and Sober and Spies Like Us.
Grazer's television productions include Fox's current hit "The Inside," as well as Fox's "24" (receiving 8 EmmyR nominations this year), Fox's "Arrested Development" (garnering 7 EmmyR nominations), NBC's "Miss Match" and ABC's "The Big House." His additional television credits include the WB's "Felicity," ABC's "SportsNight," as well as HBO's "From the Earth to the Moon," for which he won the EmmyR for Outstanding Mini-Series.
Grazer began his career as a producer developing television projects. It was while he was executive-producing TV pilots for Paramount Pictures in the early 1980s that Grazer first met his longtime friend and business partner Ron Howard. Their collaboration began in 1985 with the hit comedies Night Shift and Splash, and in 1986 the two founded Imagine Entertainment, which they continue to run together as co-chairmen.
JAMES WHITAKER (Executive Producer) was most recently the co-executive producer on Ron Howard's film, Cinderella Man, starring Academy AwardR winner Russell Crowe, and executive producer on Friday Night Lights starring Billy Bob Thornton, based on the book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Buzz Bissinger. He is currently working on the animated feature Curious George starring Will Ferrell. Whitaker also executive produced 8 Mile and co-produced Intolerable Cruelty, Nutty Professor II, and Life. Whitaker began his career doing craft services on John Waters' Hairspray, worked in production as an assistant cameraman, and produced and directed documentary films before attending the Peter Stark Program at USC where he earned a Master's Degree in Fine Arts. He began his career 12 years ago as an intern at Imagine, and in 2004, he was named President of Motion Picture Production. Whitaker earned his BA in Economics from Georgetown University.
CHARLES J.D. SCHLISSEL (Executive Producer) served as an executive producer on the Christopher Nolan thriller, Insomnia, starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank, and Red Planet, as well as a co-producer on the Warner Bros. film, Matchstick Men starring Nicolas Cage and Sam Rockwell.
Schlissel studied film and media at the University of Washington and San Francisco State University before moving to Los Angeles to complete his education at UCLA. To pay his way through school, he worked on independent films, music videos and commercials, and did legal research from an entertainment law firm whose clients included Marlon Brando and Orson Welles.
The son of an aerospace engineer and performance artist, Schlissel grew up in various sites around the country. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from UCLA with a degree in Economics/International Finance and Arbitrage; he was accepted into the AFI's producing program and, two months later became Mel Brooks' assistant on the comedy Spaceballs. He went on to work as a production assistant on various projects before commencing a long-term association with producer Stuart Cornfeld as a development executive.
Through an introduction from Cornfeld, he next moved to Barry Levinson's and Mark Johnson's newly formed Baltimore Pictures as Director of Development. Two years later he was promoted to Head of Production, where he undertook the post-production work on Levinson's Academy AwardR-nominated Avalon. During his tenure Schlissel oversaw production on numerous high-profile features including Bugsy, Toys, Wilder Napalm, Steve Soderbergh's Kafka and Levinson's acclaimed television drama, "Homicide: A Year on the Street." He produced his first feature, Sniper, just as the company was concluding its deal with TriStar Pictures.
Upon leaving Baltimore Pictures, Schlissel became an independent producer, with credits that include Heavyweights, While You Were Sleeping and Celtic Pride.
ROBERT DINOZZI (Executive Producer) most recently co-produced the Showtime telepic "Behind the Red Door," starring Kiefer Sutherland, Kyra Sedgewick and Stockard Channing. He also has several upcoming feature projects in various stages of development including the quirky drama Sealand for Warner Bros., The Art of Losing (with Richard Gere), as well as the thrillers Killing Time for New Line, and The Offer for Disney/Touchstone which he is collaborating on with FLIGHTPLAN screenwriter Peter A. Dowling.
DiNozzi began his producing career at the University of Southern California's Peter Stark Motion Picture Producing Program, class of 1998. After a brief internship at MGM, he then developed and set up projects at many of the major film studios including 20th Century Fox, Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, MGM and New Line.
ERICA HUGGINS (Executive Producer) is Senior Vice President of Motion Pictures at Imagine Entertainment and is in active development with Universal Pictures on The Look of Real for Ron Howard to direct, as well as the remake of La Scorta with Robert Schwentke directing. She will also continue her work on Split House, a comedy set in the White House, the remake of Spies Like Us at Warner Bros., and The Untitled James Brown Project at Paramount Pictures.
Before joining Imagine in 2004, Huggins was Senior Executive Vice President of Production at Radar Pictures (formerly Interscope) and produced Son of the Mask, How to Deal, and Gridlock'd. She also executive produced What Dreams May Come and Le Divorce, and was responsible for developing projects such as Zathura at Sony Pictures and Waistdeep for Focus.
Prior to producing, Huggins was a film editor and made the jump to producing while editing The Gun In Betty Lou's Handbag for Interscope. Some of her other editing credits include John Waters' Hairspray, Cry-Baby, and Serial Mom; Fox's The Ghost in the Machine; New Line's Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare; and Michael Cimino's The Sicilian and The Desperate Hours. Huggins graduated from Hampshire College with a dual degree in Anthropology and Documentary Film. She spent a year in Japan researching her thesis and teaching at Kobe College.
FLORIAN BALLHAUS (Director of Photography) reunites with director Robert Schwentke, after working together on the hit German film, The Family Jewels (Eierdiebe).
Ballhaus most recently served as director of photography on Alan Rudolph's The Secret Lives of Dentists and Investigating Sex. He has also served as second unit cinematographer on Gangs of New York, Men in Black II, Legend of Bagger Vance, and What Planet Are You From?
The son of Academy AwardR-nominated cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, Ballhaus began his career as an assistant cameraman working his way up to camera operator. His select film credits include Godzilla, Men in Black, Outbreak, The Age of Innocence, Dracula, Goodfellas, Working Girl, Broadcast News and After Hours, among others.
Ballhaus also served as director of photography on the last season of the hit HBO series "Sex in the City," and numerous German movies.
ALEXANDER HAMMOND (Production Designer) most recently created the production design on First Daughter for director Forrest Whitaker, the live action/animated feature Garfield and the acclaimed indie film Donnie Darko starring Jake Gyllenhaal.
Hammond's other feature work includes Rod Lurie's The Contender starring Joan Allen, Gary Oldman and Jeff Bridges, Viva Las Nowhere directed by Jason Bloom, Four Dogs Playing Poker directed by Paul Rachman, Let The Devil Wear Black, October 22, Back to Even, Self Storage and Dry Spell. His television credits include the series "Capital City" with noted director Rod Lurie.
His motion picture credits as an art director include Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat, Men in Black II, K-Pax, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Lost & Found.
SUSAN LYALL's (Costume Designer) distinct approach to costume design and her attention to detail has resulted in repeat collaborations with Jodie Foster on both her directorial efforts Little Man Tate and Home for the Holidays, as well as Michael Apted (Nell, which also starred Foster, Extreme Measures and Blink) and David Mamet (State and Main and The Spanish Prisoner).
Lyall most recently designed the costumes for The Mothman Prophecies for director Mark Pellington. Since her first film experience in 1985, where she was the dresser for screen legend Bette Davis, Lyall has designed the costumes for close to thirty motion pictures including Mira Nair's Mississippi Masala, Music of the Heart starring Meryl Streep, Barry Sonnenfeld's For Love or Money, 200 Cigarettes, Edward Burns' She's The One, and Steven Soderbergh's King of the Hill, among others.
Raised and educated in Ottawa, Canada, Lyall came to New York in the early '80s to study costume design at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). She began her career at New York's highly regarded Circle Repertory Company and continued designing for several years for various on and off-Broadway productions.
THOM NOBLE (Editor) is an Academy AwardR-winning editor who has built a reputation as one of the film industry's most artistic and sought after collaborators. Noble received his OscarR for Peter Weir's Witness and received a second Academy AwardR nomination for his work on Ridley Scott's Thelma and Louise. He most recently served as editor on the action-fantasy Reign of Fire and Martin Campbell's Vertical Limit.
Born and raised in London, Noble began his professional life in book publishing. He moved to a job in the story department at Pinewood Studios, which exposed him to the film industry. He discovered his affinity for film editing and was hired as an assistant on several films. The acclaimed director Francois Truffaut gave him his first opportunity to edit a film with the cinema classic Fahrenheit 451.
Since then, Noble has amassed such credits as The Mask of Zorro, The Scarlet Letter, The Hudsucker Proxy, Mountains of the Moon, The Mosquito Coast and Red Dawn among others.
JAMES HORNER (Music Composed by) has an illustrious filmography that includes more than 130 film and television projects. He recently collaborated for the seventh time with director Ron Howard on his Western drama The Missing and began a new creative partnership with first-time director Vadim Perelman on the dramatic thriller House of Sand and Fog (for which Horner received his ninth Academy AwardR nomination). He recently reunited with collaborator Martin Campbell for the sequel The Legend of Zorro. He also will compose the score for director Terrence Malick's highly-anticipated upcoming film The New World.
In film music circles, rarely has there been a more meteoric success story than that of James Horner. Having composed the music for dozens of the most memorable and successful films of the past two decades, Horner is among the world's most prolific and celebrated film composers. He has earned two Academy AwardsR and two Golden GlobeR Awards for his music from James Cameron's Titanic (one for Best Original Score and one for the Best Original Song "My Heart Will Go On"), seven additional Academy AwardR nominations, five additional Golden GlobeR nominations, and has won six Grammy awards, including Song of the Year in both 1987 (for "Somewhere Out There") and 1998 (for "My Heart Will Go On"). In April of 1998, Horner's Titanic soundtrack album on Sony Classical completed an unprecedented run of 16 weeks at number 1 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart, setting a new record for the most consecutive weeks at number 1 for a score album. It remains the largest selling instrumental score album in history, having sold nearly 10 million copies in the US and more than 27 million copies worldwide. Sony Classical's multi-platinum sequel soundtrack album "Back to Titanic" featured additional music from the film as well as several new compositions by Horner based upon themes from his original score.
Known for his stylistic diversity, his other film credits include Radio, The Forgotten, Troy, Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, House of Sand and Fog, The Missing, Beyond Borders, The Four Feathers, Windtalkers, A Beautiful Mind, Iris, Enemy at the Gates, Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas, The Perfect Storm, Freedom Song, Bicentennial Man, Mighty Joe Young, The Mask Of Zorro, Deep Impact, The Devil's Own, Ransom, Courage Under Fire, To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday, The Spitfire Grill, Braveheart, Apollo 13, Casper, Legends of the Fall, Clear and Present Danger, The Pagemaster, Bopha!, The Pelican Brief, The Man Without a Face, Patriot Games, Thunderheart, Sneakers, The Rocketeer, Glory, In Country, Field of Dreams, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, The Land Before Time, Willow, An American Tail, The Name Of The Rose, Gorky Park, Cocoon and Cocoon: The Return, 48 Hours and Another 48 Hours, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
Born in Los Angeles in 1953, Horner spent his formative years living in London where he attended the prestigious Royal Academy of Music. His initial interest was to become a composer of serious, avant-garde classical music. Returning to his native California, Horner continued his music education at the University of Southern California where he received a Bachelor of Music in Composition. He then transferred to the Masters program at UCLA where he earned his Doctorate in Music Composition and Theory. In 1980, Horner was approached by the American Film Institute and asked to score a short film entitled The Drought. It was then that he discovered his passion for composing music for film.
After scoring a number of films for the AFI, Horner left the academic world and began working for Roger Corman at New World Pictures. It was in this milieu of low-budget horror films (Brainstorm, Battle Beyond the Stars) that Horner developed his craft. It was also where he became acquainted with a number of young directors including Ron Howard, for whom he would later score such films as Willow, Cocoon, and the hit Apollo 13. Also during his time at New World, Horner met a young cameraman named James Cameron, with whom he would later collaborate on the hit sequel Aliens and, of course, Titanic. In the ensuing years, Horner has gone on to collaborate with many of Hollywood's most noted and successful filmmakers, including Ed Zwick, Joe Johnston, Phil Alden Robinson, Steven Spielberg, William Friedkin, Mel Gibson, Oliver Stone, Philip Noyce, Michael Apted, Lasse Hallstrom, Norman Jewison, and Francis Ford Coppola.
Equally comfortable with lush orchestral scoring and contemporary electronic techniques, Horner has likened his approach to composing to that of a painter, where the film serves as the canvas and where musical color is used to describe and support the film's emotional dynamics. He is also noted for his integration of unusual ethnic instruments into the traditional orchestral palette in order to achieve exotic colors and textures. An accomplished conductor, Horner prefers to conduct his orchestral film scores directly to picture and without the use of click tracks or other mechanical timing devices. He has also composed several concert works, including a work entitled "Spectral Shimmers" which was performed by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Horner's most recent concert work is "A Forest Passage" commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreational Area in Ohio.
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