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強戰世界
War Of The Worlds
June 16, 2005
史提芬史匹堡ｘ湯告魯斯 2005暑期鉅獻

故事大綱
《強戰世界》"War Of The Worlds" 6月29日 全球同步獻映
科幻鉅獻《強戰世界》，改編自1898年H.G 威爾斯(H.G. Wells)的同名經典科幻小說而成。

由著名大導演史提芬史匹堡(Steven Spielberg)執導，聯同合作無間的湯告魯斯(Tom Cruise)及天才小童星、曾主演《不一樣的爸爸》狄高達芬寧(Dakota Fanning)主演。故事講述湯面對外星人入侵而改寫了平凡的一生。本片編劇大衛高普(David Koepp)曾參與大製作《職業特工隊》及《侏羅紀公園迷失世界》。史匹堡的歷險星際，則由獲獎無數的特技公司ILM炮製，令人目不暇給的特技畫面，定必掀起全球科幻星際熱潮。

船塢工人雷費拉（湯告魯斯飾演）是一個不稱職的父親，他與妻子瑪莉（美蓮達奧圖飾演）早已離婚。一天，瑪莉與新丈夫因事外出，把大兒子羅比（積斯汀卓雲飾演）及小女兒麗素（狄高達芬寧飾演）交給雷看管數天。誰知前妻一走，雷家前的交匯處發生了極奇可怕的事！一架巨型的三腳戰機由地面爆出，並瞬間摧毀了附近的一切。外星人正式侵襲地球！

在這平凡的一日發生了最不平凡的事，一個平凡的父親陷入了最絕望的困境，此刻，他才發現保護家人是他唯一的生存職責；人類面對著不尋常事件中，展現了他最基本的特性……

∼∼製作花絮∼∼
史匹堡破例　外星人做侵略者

炮製過《E.T.外星人》、《第三類接觸》等經典科幻片的大導演史提芬史匹堡，今次重塑星際故事，加上巨星湯告魯斯坐鎮，實在令全球引頸以待。

本片改編自1898年H.G 威爾斯(H.G. Wells)的同名經典科幻小說，雖然是百多年前的作品，但大導被威爾斯的豐富想像力和故事性所吸引，決定把小說搬上銀幕，並按原著所寫，把外星人塑造為侵略者。眾所周知，史匹堡以「人性化」外星人馳名，在他的電影世界內，外星人都是友善的。今次把外星人拍成異形，導演說：「我想嘗試拍一些很可怕的外星人，拍一齣令人驚嚇的電影，而這種電影我是未拍過的。」

最大規模的感人小品
當然，史匹堡在改編小說時，加入了很多自己的創作元素，除了外星人的外形、戰鬥場面等，更重要的是，他最想透過本片提出家人的感情。大導說：「這是一個關於生存的故事，一個父親保護他兒女的故事；在異變時，最基本的人性就會顯現出來，作出抗爭。而雷代表了我們每一個人，他和他的家人代表了我們的恐懼、我們的求生欲、我們的力量。」

既然重點是帶出人類的感情，編劇大衛高普和導演史匹堡都相信一些科幻片的籠統情節避之則吉，高普說：「我們列出一些不可以在片中出現的東西，譬如，不會炸毀著名建築物；不會在一幅大國旗旁邊，排一列軍人出來；不會有電視台追訪報道。」故事的中心點就是以第一身報導外星人侵略地球。

「還有，不會有火星人，因為地球人已經去過火星，知道那兒甚麼也沒有」史匹堡補充說。

選角一流　人物個性突出
史匹堡電影的選角過程永遠是城中佳話，不過，今次大導與巨星湯告魯斯繼《未來報告》再度合作，則是很自然的一個選擇。湯說：「史匹堡拍《捉智雙雄》時，我去探班，他跟我提起三個新計劃，說到第三個《強戰世界》時，我和他突然雙目傳神，我馬上說：噢，天啊！當然好！」就這樣，一開始湯已是本片的坐鎮人馬。史匹堡回想說：「當時我跟湯說：『我想給你拍一部戲，戲中你不是英雄，而要不斷逃亡，你要想：我怎樣照顧我的孩子。』誰知湯聽後很興奮。」湯說：「我和雷是很不同的父親，他不明白他的孩子，他只知道自己的需要。直至有事發生，他才珍惜孩子。」雖然角色不是甚麼大英雄，但湯認為這個人物十分有意思，因為當這位父親面對最壞的打算時，他將會是另一個完全不同的父親。

至於一直跟湯出生入死的小女兒麗素則由狄高達芬寧飾演。現年只有11歲的芬寧憑《不一樣的爸爸》一鳴驚人，之後受到史匹堡賞識，演出大導的電視片《天劫》(Taken)及「夢工場」出品的《反斗靈貓》。史匹堡說：「一開拍此片，我就想到芬寧，她是我認識的同年齡女孩中，?有一個比她更聰敏的了。她聰明、成熟；由她來演女兒，會顯得她比爸爸還聰明，這種父女之間的對比，十分有趣。」同芬寧有不少對手戲的影帝添羅賓斯更笑言：「我以為這小孩有35歲！她又能集中精神，又懂控制情緒，令人難以置信。」

而17歲大兒子羅比一角，監製嘉芙蓮甘迺迪與大導則是看到喜劇《The Chumscrubber》才發掘了積斯汀卓雲出來的。史匹堡說：「積斯汀代表了新一代，他們不聽從父母任何說話。」就是衣著，羅比也刻意與父親作對，他會戴紅白色的Sox 帽，去反抗他爸戴的藍色Yankee帽。

雷的前妻瑪莉由澳洲演技派紅人美蓮達奧圖(Miranda Otto)飾演，但原來史匹堡找她演出時，出現了一段小插曲。「我跟史匹堡說，我不知自己應否接此角色，因為我剛巧懷孕了！」奧圖說收到大導的邀請後，惟有這樣老實地說出真相。誰知，史匹堡靈機一閃，覺得她的懷孕令角色與前夫的關係更見複雜，亦可以代表她的角色踏入了人生的新階段。大導解釋，「雷是藍領工人，瑪莉則是富家女，他們很年輕時墮入愛河，結婚生子，而當時還未發現懸殊的社會背景會導致婚姻危機，所以雷和瑪莉之間的感情裂縫很特別，他們的生活方式很不同，但不竟他們內心很愛對方。」

除了雷一家四口，片中還有一個突出人物奧傑維﹝添羅賓斯飾演﹞。當人類與外星人的戰爭愈鬥愈激烈，雷一家快要走投無路，陷入最恐懼狀態之際，雷兩父女逃到一所農家，並遇上了奧傑維，他帶他們前往大屋的地窖避難。故事此時峰迴路轉，威嚇著雷一家的似乎不只是外星人……這個深藏不露的陌生人由康城影帝添羅賓斯飾演，史匹堡說：「奧傑維的家人在戰事中全死掉，他一直躲在地窖裡，盤算著一個計劃。」羅賓斯說：「這個在影片中段出現的角色，為我們帶來另一個緊張的高潮。」奧傑維扭曲了的精神狀態令雷一家的困局更見險峻。而這樣高難度的角色，監製嘉芙蓮說：「我們一早已想好由羅賓斯來演。」

更有趣的是，史匹堡特別請來《War Of The Worlds》1953年電影版的兩位主角──真巴利(Gene Barry)及安羅冰遜(Ann Robinson)客串登場。兩位老牌影星獲邀後，興奮莫名，齊聲肯首參與。

史匹堡電影原班人馬　穩操勝券
當史匹堡與湯決定全面投入拍攝《強戰世界》之時，大導竟即時向監製嘉芙蓮甘迺迪(Kathleen Kennedy)下令：「我們要開拍這部電影，大家快去準備前期工作，我要三個月後Roll機。」雖然嘉芙蓮自《E.T.外星人》後廿多年來跟大導合作無間，但她也被這番話所嚇倒，因為她一翻劇本時，以為只有三個主角，誰知看下去，才發現幾乎場場戲都有一千個人在背景跑著，名副其實是世界大戰。

2004年秋天，攝製組兵分兩路，同時在美國東、西兩岸選景、搭景。拍攝日程是由東岸開始，因為雷費拉一家的逃亡路線是由新澤西至波士頓，地球被襲的場面亦集中在此，在這裡先完成的拍攝，就可讓負責視覺特效的ILM有更多時間在後期炮製畫面特技。

結果，攝製組果然以驚人的效果，如期完成前期拍攝工作，《舒特拉的名單》、《雷霆救兵》大導的御用攝影師真諾士甘明斯基(Janusz Kaminiski)指出當中原因：「我們跟的是一個極具自信的導演，他對此類型電影瞭如指掌，也知道怎樣把它好。」其次，是因為本片的製作班底全是史匹堡的老拍檔，十多年來參與了大導不少作品，他們是：

監製嘉芙蓮甘迺迪（15齣）、監製哥連韋遜（10齣）、攝影師真諾士甘明斯基（9齣）、美術力克卡達（6齣）、剪接米高簡恩（19齣）、音樂約翰威廉斯（21齣）、視覺效果主管丹尼斯慕雲（10齣）、服裝祖安娜莊絲頓（4齣）、動作指導維岩士唐（5齣）、混音朗祖堅斯（11齣）等等。

多得一班熟知大導心意的老拍擋，史匹堡在發出號令後的三個月，真的可以在新澤西開機，湯告魯斯亦可目睹他曾兩度定居的新澤西瞬間變成「戰區」！

視覺預覽　《星戰》特效Full Team支援

面對數以千計的臨時演員、工作人員、火車、道具，攝製隊迎戰影片中最大的一場戲──雷首度目擊外星來的「三腳戰機」。

但史匹堡臨陣時渾灑自如，似乎勝券在握。大導透過全新的3D數碼視覺預覽技術(pre-visualization，簡稱 pre-viz)，不但準確地掌握每一場戲的感覺，更從縱觀場景的不同角度，預覽了景觀、機位、演員的位置等。簡言之，這是將傳統的手繪storyboard「3D數碼化」。監製嘉芙蓮解釋：「我們在８月時把所有實景拍攝下來，把影像及資料存入電腦，繼而在電腦上設計每一場戲。在開拍前，史匹堡基本上每天就在特效師的辦公室內一起創作及琢磨畫面，結果，這些預覽的場面也跟他拍的十分相似。」

事實上，ILM亦早已在《星戰前傳》系列使用這種電腦預覽技術，所以史匹堡一決定拍此片，便叫老友佐治魯卡斯讓他看看《星戰》用電腦預覽的效果。史匹堡說：「這是我第一部電影全片都採用電腦繪製storyboard。我得到ILM中所有為《星戰前傳》做特效的專家幫助，他們一做完《星戰》，我就把他們全拉過來開工。」

無論是一架三腳戰機從地面爆出，還是不明物體的面積、實感，導演只需在現場播放一次電腦預覽的片段，就能讓所有演員及工作人員都清楚自己的位置。就連小童星芬寧亦說一看就明白外星怪物的位置在哪裡，她可以更準確地做出反應。

史匹堡還笑言：「如果我拍《第三類接觸》時，有這個預覽方法就好了！那時演員都在靠估，就連我自己也想像不到出來的效果會怎樣，只能說：『幻想一下，上面有一個鐵批，很大的！』現在有了預覽，演員就可以知道三腳戰機有多大。」

科幻新世界　三腳戰機的誕生
當決定開拍本片時，史匹堡馬上致電給丹尼斯慕雲，找他擔任視覺特效主管。慕雲過去廿多年都是大導的親密戰友，他曾８度榮獲奧斯卡最佳視覺效果，其中三部得獎作便是出自大導之手，包括《E.T.外星人》、《魔域奇兵》及《侏羅紀公園》。經歷了數十年的科技發展，慕雲反而不執著於電腦特技，他會因應情況而決定某些場面用模型做出來，有些則用電腦效果：「我們的工具箱內有很多法寶，不一定只用電腦。」

在設計外星侵略者「三腳戰機」這重要一環，難得史匹堡與慕雲同樣抱著開放的態度。大導先講出自己的想像及要求，再與一眾特效組成員經過長時間的討論，設下今次外星的形態、出身之後，才開始「互?」設計。史匹堡說：「這是我執導三十年來首次用3D創作，所以對我來說非常有意義。我們的特效組同事都創意澎湃，我們有大概二、三十個可以考慮的設計…最後把我最喜歡的元素選出來，變成了片中的形象。」

這次預覽經驗，亦讓史匹堡從以往2D想像變成3D景像，而且還添上色彩；不但把三腳戰機細緻地表現，還將外星人的樣子及牠居住的地方也描劃出來。

有別於以往史匹堡電影中的外星人，本片的外星一族是侵略地球的恐怖力量，所以「三腳戰機」出場時，務必令觀眾大驚一場。

金像攝影　影象震撼人心　燈光千變萬化
除了最為人所注目的特效之外，影片在燈光方面亦非常考究，讓攝影中的細節帶出戰地的真實感。

曾在《舒特拉的名單》、《雷霆救兵》以震撼影象懾服人心的攝影師真諾士甘明斯基，今次展現人類未知的恐怖戰爭，再次施展他最著名的手提拍攝方法──穿梭人物之間，帶出人類最迫真的臨場效果。過去９部電影都與甘明斯基合作無間的史匹堡稱：「他用的不是鳥瞰角度，而是從一個人的角度，一個小孩的角度去看這場戰爭。」

甘明斯基則表示，跟以往他與史匹堡合作的電影不一樣，他今次用了更豐富的色彩，而在燈光上也放了很多心思。例如雷一家駕著迷你貨Van逃亡時，他們發現路上愈來愈多不知所措的人，甘明斯基安排他們拿著旅行大電筒、小電筒、油提燈，總之各式各樣，有強有弱。就在突如其來的光線與黑暗之交替間，帶出令人焦慮、不安、恐懼、顫抖的感覺。

服裝隱見戰火
至於服裝方面，別以為打仗，主角由頭到尾著同一套衫就可以過關。其實，服裝指導祖安娜莊絲頓單是為湯告魯斯的一角已設計了60件皮褸，雖然這60件是同一款式，但不同的「版本」用於不同場口，以表現不同程度的殘舊、磨損感覺。莊絲頓說：「開始時，湯穿著一件皮褸、內有一件有帽的衛衣、兩件T�`，下身穿牛仔褲，但最後他只剩下一件T�`和一條牛仔褲，有一種回歸典型英雄形象的味道。」

至於小芬寧的女兒角色，則由可愛小公主變成滿面灰塵、歷盡滄桑的女孩。莊絲頓為她安排了一個斜揹的公仔小手袋，這手袋後來成為小女孩的心靈安慰，她睡時可抱著它，又可放在臉上掩蓋面孔。而表面上很憎恨父親的兒子羅比，莊絲頓則覺得他其實很掛念父親，且不自覺地模仿他：「他們父子都穿有帽的衛衣、牛仔褲，戴著棒球隊的帽，雖然他們支持的是不同的球隊。」

７４７解體　船塢水災戲
本片拍攝地點從東岸Lexington一個小鎮拍攝一�{人類頑抗外星人侵略，史匹堡邀得紐約第10隊野外隊伍、加州Camp Pendleton海軍、Fort Irwin 軍隊等。然後再移往洛杉磯Universal Studio拍攝廠景，包括一個747墜機後的�{面。

為了拍攝外星入侵時，一架客機在民居墜毀，攝製組竟去買來一架真的747客機，放在西岸「環球片場」的後片廠，再把它拆得支離破碎，造出撞毀後的感覺，然後再在它周圍加建房屋。另外，在同一片場內，工作人員利用了一個直徑25呎的水庫來拍攝渡輪下沉後的水底戲。

更震撼的是，美術指導力克卡達(Rick Carter)與一班工作人員在霍士片場內創造了一個儼如另一個奇景。雷兩父女藏身在農家以防避外星侵襲，一瞬之間，全屋以至周圍的農地竟被鋪天蓋地的紅草掩沒。卡達解釋：「史匹堡想由屋內的黑白長鏡頭開始，然後攝影機一推出屋外，便讓觀眾突然進入《綠野仙��》般的景致──畫面全變成駭人的色彩，只是今次我們只有鮮紅色，一種來勢洶洶，侵略我們世界的紅色。」這種意味著人類被侵佔的色彩運用，肯定令觀眾透不過氣來。

可見，為求達至最美麗的影像，導演和攝製隊不遺餘力，以多樣化的方法，向觀眾呈現全新的宇宙體驗及摯真的家族感情。

∼∼幕前強陣∼∼
強中之強　湯告魯斯

在片中飾演雷的湯告魯斯從影二十多年，不但是成功的演員，也是成功的監製。

他曾三度獲奧斯卡影帝提名，由他主演的電影，全球票房總收已超過六十億美元。除了在影藝事業上追求新挑戰，湯告魯斯亦運用本身的影響力，致力推行健康及教育的活動，乃一名樂善好施的藝人。

《強戰世界》是湯告魯斯與導演史提芬史匹堡繼2002年科幻懸疑片《未來報告》後第二次合作。

1993年，湯告魯斯與拍檔寶娜韋納(Paula Wagner)開設了Cruise/Wagner Productions公司，他亦自此了榮升金牌監製，為銀幕上帶來多元化的作品及新面孔。1997年公司便獲Nova Award頒發「最有前途電影監製」獎。繼C/W推出《職業特工隊》後，其他佳作包括《挑戰極限》(Without Limits)、《玻璃真相》(Shattered Glass)、《忠奸道》(Narc)及近年驚嚇片經典《不速之嚇》(The Others)。

湯告魯斯亦以《不速之嚇》導演艾美尼巴(Alejandro Amenabar)的前作《變臉驚情》(Open Your Eyes)為藍本，找來金馬倫高爾執導《魂離情外天》(Vanilla Sky)一片。 C/W的業績有目共睹，最近C/W獲得「UCLA／美國監製工會」視覺大獎。

《強戰世界》公映之後，湯告魯斯將馬上投入C/W皇牌鉅片《職業特工隊３》的攝製工作；此系列的首兩集全球總票房收逾十億美元。同時，他亦與拍檔寶娜韋納監製新片《Elizabethtown》，這部由金馬倫高爾(Cameron Crowe)執導、奧蘭度布林(Orlando Bloom)及姬絲汀登絲(Kirsten Dunst)主演的作品定於今年秋季上畫。

1981年，19歲的湯告魯斯在《無盡的愛》(Endless Love)初登銀幕，之後與辛潘及鐵摩菲赫頓合演《Taps》，並參演了哥普拉執導的《局外人》。1983年，湯告魯斯憑《乖仔也瘋狂》(Risky Business)嶄露頭角，獲金球獎提名；1986年再憑《雷霆壯志》晉升為國際紅星，影片成為當年的最高票房收入作品。

之後，湯告魯斯與保羅紐曼合演了由馬田史高西斯執導的《金錢本色》，並與德斯汀荷夫曼合演了由巴里利維遜執導的奧斯卡作品《手足未了情》。1989年，湯告魯斯憑奧利華史東導演的《生於七月四日》贏得他首個奧斯卡提名，同時榮獲金球獎最佳男主角殊榮，片中他飾演越戰軍人兼反戰份子一角；此片亦獲奧斯卡最佳影片提名。其後，湯告魯斯與積尼高遜、狄美摩亞合演了洛連納執導的《義海雄風》，並憑此片第三度獲金球獎提名。1997年，湯告魯斯憑金馬倫高爾執導的《甜心先生》第二度獲奧斯卡影帝提名，並第二度贏得金球獎最佳男主角獎。

1999年，湯告魯斯在保羅湯瑪士安德遜執導的《人生交叉剔》作出了震撼性的演出，影片為他帶來第三度奧斯卡提名以及金球獎最佳男配角獎。同年，他主演了史丹尼寇比力克的懸疑片《大開眼戒》。

湯告魯斯其他演出作品包括：朗侯活導演的史詩式電影《大地雄心》、薜尼波勒導演的司法驚慄片《糖衣陷阱》及尼爾佐敦改編自安萊絲小說的《吸血迷情》。

作為本世紀最具影響力的荷里活男星，湯告魯斯在藝術上及商業上的成就皆獲得業內的認同和肯定，亦一直在世界各地得到廣大觀眾的支持。

今年11月，英國電影電視學院將頒授一項名為「Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award」予湯告魯斯，以表揚他對電影藝術的貢獻。最近，湯被MTV Generation Award，封為代表「這時代的演員」稱號；他亦在四月時榮獲意大利David di Donatello Award表揚其終身成就。此外，他曾兩度獲People's Choice Awards；憑《甜心先生》和《人生交叉剔》兩度獲「美國演員工會」提名；1993年被芝加哥電影節選為「Actor of the Decade」；同年榮獲NATO/SHOWEST「優異成就獎」(Meritorious Achievement Award。湯告魯斯亦憑《魂離情外天》榮獲土星獎(Saturn Award)及以《人生交叉剔》贏得芝加哥影評人獎及Blockbuster Award；憑《職業特工隊２》獲得一項MTV獎。

湯告魯斯亦接受過多個致敬獎項，包括由哈佛大學頒發的「Hasty Pudding年度人物大獎」、藝人權益基金頒發的「尊侯斯頓獎」、美國電影獎頒發的「傑出成就大獎」以及「American Cinematheque Award」。

新世紀童星　狄高達芬寧
荷里活的一股童星熱，繼《鬼眼》(The Sixth Sense)的希里祖奧士文(Haley Joel Osment)後，有英國代表《哈利波特》(Harry Potter)的丹尼爾韋基夫(Daniel Radcliffe)頂上。不過，小男星當道的歷史，將會由11歲大的狄高達芬寧(Dakota Fanning)改寫。

在片中飾演小女兒，與巨星湯告魯斯出生入死的芬寧，5歲時便憑著一臉可愛擊敗幾千個對手，贏得一張全國廣告合約，從此被電視台多位監製睇中，邀她客串各大連續劇，包括《甜心俏佳人》(Ally McBeal)、《仁心仁術》(ER)、《政界小人物》(Spin City)及《法網豪情》(The Practice)等等。

2001年，芬寧初登銀幕，在《單身一代男》(Tomcats) 中客串演出，但隨後上映的《不一樣的爸爸》(I Am Sam)才是芬寧首部擔大旗的作品。芬寧在片中的表現直迫影帝辛潘和米雪菲花，贏得英國電影學院獎(BAFTA)，並成為史上獲「美國演員工會」提名的最年幼演員。不少片商馬上看準芬寧為本世紀最有潛質的女童星，她亦自此片約不絕，短短數年間接拍了多部大片，包括與羅拔迪尼路合演的票房冠軍驚慄片《捉迷藏》(Hide and Seek)；跟丹素華盛頓合演的《鑣火》(Man On Fire)，則為她帶來第二度BAFTA獎提名。2003年，芬寧主演由史匹堡監製的電視劇《天劫》(Taken)，該劇突破了科幻頻道史上的最高收視，而芬寧則成為了大導的愛將。除得以在超級鉅製《強戰世界》擔綱演出之外，史匹堡旗下的「夢工場」即將推出的兩部大片均由芬寧主演，包括經典再現的《愛麗絲夢遊仙境》(Alice in Wonderland)，以及與卻羅素(Kurt Russell)合演的練馬師真人真事《Dreamer》。

此外，芬寧的新作還有剛於辛丹斯影展首映的《Nine Lives》，片中她與格蘭高絲、荷莉亨特、羅冰韋特潘等九大女人大鬥演技。來年，芬寧主演的合家歡片《Charlotte's Web》亦會強勢出擊，片中還有茱莉亞羅拔絲聲演蜘蛛！

芬寧其他作品包括：與影后查理絲花朗(Charlize Theron)合演的《贖命風暴》(Trapped)；與米克邁亞斯(Mike Myers)合演的《反斗靈貓》(The Cat in the Hat)；與碧蒂妮梅菲(Brittany Murphy)合演的《千金褓姆》(Uptown Girls)等。她亦曾在《我要嫁得好》(Sweet Home Alabama) 客串演繹莉絲韋花斯潘(Reese Witherspoon)的童年。

芬寧是一個愛讀書人，她懂得彈鋼琴、跳芭蕾舞、騎馬，正學習法文與西班牙文，嗜好是收集洋娃娃；現與父母及同為演員的妹妹艾莉(Elle Fanning)定居於洛杉磯。

23美少年　積斯汀卓雲
現年23歲，來自加拿大的積斯汀卓雲(Justin Chatwin)憑著一張俊臉成功上位。

他在1982年於加拿大的英屬哥倫比亞省(British Columbia)出生及長大，並於英屬哥倫比亞省大學攻讀商學；18歲時，朋友想去試鏡，找他一同前去「壯膽」，誰知他一試上癮，決定入行做演員，他亦竟然馬上獲得經理人垂稱，從此開始演藝生涯。

2001年，卓雲首度參演電視劇，隨即獲史匹堡賞識，翌年在大導親自監製的電視劇《天劫》(Taken)演出，同劇拍檔還有狄高達芬寧。04年，他主演了人氣電視劇《Traffic》，靚仔形象從此深入民心，權威雜誌【Newsweek】還推舉他為「最值得注目的男演員」（Actor to Watch）。同年，他與性感女神安芝蓮娜祖莉合作了《屍人交易》(Taking Lives)，演出令人眼前一亮。

今年，除本片外，他和里夫費尼斯(Ralph Fiennes)及格蘭高絲(Glenn Close)的諷刺喜劇《The Chumscrubber》亦排期於美國暑假檔期公映。同時，他的全新電視劇《Weeds》亦會在黃金時段啟播。行內已預測《強戰世界》公映後，卓雲的美少年魔力將會蔓延全球，他的身價和人氣勢必齊齊急升。

澳洲實力派　美蓮達奧圖
美蓮達奧圖(Miranda Otto)是澳洲著名電影及舞台劇演員，直至在《魔戒二部曲：雙城奇謀》及《魔戒三部曲：王者再臨》演繹女戰士Eowyn之後，她的名字才廣為世界觀眾認識。

1967年出生於澳洲布利斯班的奧圖，與米路吉遜、姬蒂白蘭芝(Cate Blanchett)等同鄉巨星一樣，於當地最出色的戲劇學院NIDA畢業。她19歲踏足影壇，主演了多部影片，包括《迷魂井》(The Well)、姬莉安岩士唐(Gillian Armstrong)的《The Last Days of Chez Nous》等澳洲女性電影代表作。她其後往美國發展，參演了《咫尺閃靈》(What Lies Beneath)、、《猿來玩謝我》(Human Nature)及《鳳凰號》(Flight Of The Phoenix)等片。在演出兩集《魔戒》後，奧圖知名度倍增，並贏得史匹堡垂稱，於本片飾演湯告魯斯的妻子。

深不可測　影帝添羅賓斯
６呎５身高＋Baby Face是添羅賓斯(Tim Robbins)的招牌形象，但真正吸引人的是他那具深度的演技和編導才能。他於2003年憑《懸河殺機》贏得奧斯卡最佳男配角，更早於1992年憑《幕後玩家》(The Player)榮登康城影帝寶座，其他代表作有《猿來玩謝我》、《月黑高飛》、《影子大亨》(The Hudsucker Proxy)、《人間交叉點》(Short Cuts)、《I.Q.情緣》等。今回，大導史匹堡就是睇中添那深藏不露的外表，找他來演繹引領湯告魯斯父女逃亡的地窖神秘人。

添本身也是出色的導演和編劇，他的作品曾創下不少驕人成績，其中由他監製、導演及編劇的《死囚161小時》(Dead Man Walking)在柏林影展上贏得四項大獎，包括為男主角辛潘帶來柏林影帝殊榮。另一部由他執導的作品《Cradle Will Rock》則在巴塞隆納影展上贏得最佳影片。

添即將面世的新作則包括：與金髮美少女莎拉寶莉(Sarah Polley)合演的《The Secret Life of the Words》、與尼安里遜合演的戰爭片《The White Rose》及科幻片《Zathura》。

現時，添與他的紅星女友兼拍檔蘇珊莎拉頓(Susan Sarandon)及三名子女定居於紐約。

∼∼幕後強陣∼∼
科幻小說之父　H.G 威爾斯
本片故事乃改編自英國著名作家H.G 威爾斯(Herbert George Wells，簡稱H.G Wells, 1866-1946)的同名經典小說【The War of the Worlds】(1898)。

有「現代科幻小說之父」之稱的威爾斯1866年9月21日於英國出生，他是小說家、新聞工作者，也是社會學家、歷史學家。他憑多部驚為天人的科幻小說，留芳百世，經典之作包括【The Time Machine】(1895)、【The Island of Dr. Moreau】(1895) 、【The Invisible Man】(1897)，當中又以【The War of the Worlds】(1898)最具影響力。這些小說均曾被改編成電影、戲劇及其他藝術媒體，一直是創作人的靈感之源，至今魅力不減。

有人說威爾斯之所以成為小說家，是上天的旨意。他小時候因意外弄傷腳，被迫長時間休養，他惟有讀遍天下的書來打發時間。結果，他取得獎學金在倫敦的科學學院攻讀生物，並當了多年教師。1893年，27歲的威爾斯辭掉教職，全身投入寫作生涯。

威爾斯的科幻小說既意念創新，又暗諷時弊，一直廣受讀者愛戴。他的首部小說【The Time Machine】(1895)諷刺英國的階級觀念，警告人類必會進步，推反陋規；之後連續推出了口碑載道的【The Island of Dr. Moreau】(1895) 、【The Invisible Man】(1897)及【The War of the Worlds】(1898)。雖然是憑空想像，但威爾斯卻像預言家一樣，在作品中說破了日後的科技及危機──【The First Men On The Moon】(1901)構想了太空船登陸月球的方法；【The War In The Air】(1908)講述災難性的太空戰爭。不少書評家相信，關懷社會的威爾斯亦想透過作品指責當時英國的帝國主義式侵略。

威爾斯1946年8月於倫敦逝世，享年80歲，但他的科幻世界永遠引人入勝。

驚世大導演　史提芬史匹堡
史提芬史匹堡(Steven Spielberg)，一個深入民心的名字，一個用影像創造了萬千神話的導演，更是今時今日荷里活最舉足輕重、最有權力的電影人之一。

過去30年，由史匹堡一手炮製的經典可謂數之不盡──《E.T.外星人》、《大白鯊》(Jaws)、《第三類接觸》(Close Encounters of the Third Kind)、《紫色》(The Color Purple)、《太陽帝國》(Empire of the Sun)、《鐵�u船長》(Hook) 、《奪寶奇兵》(Raiders of the Lost Ark)系列、《侏羅紀公園》(Jurassic Park)系列、《雷霆救兵》(Saving Private Ryan)、《舒特拉的名單》(Schindler's List)、《A.I.人工智能》(Artificial Intelligence: A.I.)、《未來報告》(Minority Report)、《捉智雙雄》(Catch Me If You Can)、《機場客運站》(The Terminal)等等，都是瘋魔全球、家傳戶曉之作。

1946年出生於美國俄亥俄州（於亞利桑那州鳳凰城長大）的史匹堡，父親是電子工程師，母親是鋼琴演奏家。小時候，姊姊在戲院兼職賣爆谷時，史匹堡便開始與電影結緣，12歲那年就完成了首個自編自導的短片；翌年，他憑一齣戰爭短片《Escape to Nowhere》在獨立製作比賽勝出；16歲時，他那長達140分鐘的科幻作《Firelight》，更得以在區內戲院上映。這位神童導演於加州州立大學修讀電影時拍攝的短片《Amblin'》，在亞特蘭大電影節公映後，獲得好評如潮，聯合影片除買下其版權外，還給了一張7年合約予當時只得22歲的史匹堡。

執導了《Duel》、《Night Gallery》等多齣收視高企的電視電影後，史匹堡於1974年完成其首部電影《The Sugarland Express》。因表現出色，翌年，聯合影片放手給史匹堡攝製他的第二部作品《大白鯊》。結果，大導花上100天攝製，耗資近850萬美元才完成他這部大片。雖然超時又超資，一度激怒了公司，但影片一開畫便破紀錄收達2億6千萬美元。《大白鯊》不但奠定了史匹堡的A級導演地位，更自此開展了「暑期猛片」(summer movie blockbusters)的潮流。之後，史匹堡更憑科幻及冒險題材，不斷開拓視覺特技效果的領域，屢創電影神話。

憑《舒特拉的名單》及《雷霆救兵》兩度榮獲奧斯卡最佳導演獎的史匹堡，除了是天才導演之外，亦是眼光獨到的監製，《黑超特警組》(Men in Black)、《回到未來》(Back to the Future)系列、《夢城兔福星》(Who Framed Roger Rabbit)等等都是由他一手策劃的大作。1995年，史匹堡聯同動畫界一哥謝菲基辛堡(Jeffrey Katzenberg)以及音樂界巨子大衛基芬(David Geffen)組成多媒體製作王國「夢工場」(DreamWorks)。公司成立以來，出品了多部口碑載道的影片，包括《有你終生美麗》(A Beautiful Mind)、《帝國驕雄》(Gladiator)、《不日成名》(Almost Famous)、《非常外父揀女婿》(Meet the Parents)、《咫尺閃靈》(What Lies Beneath)、《史力加》(Shrek)、《咪走雞》(Chicken Run)等等。

現時，史匹堡已開始籌備執導一部有關1972年慕尼黑奧運會中巴勒斯坦恐怖份子刺殺以色列選手的影片，而萬眾期待的《Indiana Jones 4》則暫定於2006年公映；由他監製的《藝技回憶錄》(Memoirs of Geisha)及《黑俠梭羅》續集《The Legend of Zorro》亦暫定於今年推出，延續強勢。

至強監製　寶娜韋納
湯告魯斯在幕前夥拍過的美女多不勝數，但在幕後的最佳拍檔就只有一位寶娜韋納(Paula Wagner)。1993年，寶娜和湯一起成立製作公司Cruise/Wagner Productions，過去12年出品過多齣經典賣座電影，贏得無數獎項殊榮，當中包括兩集《職業特工隊》、《魂離情外天》、《不速之嚇》、《挑戰極限》(Without Limits)等。

現時，兩人正忙於籌備《職業特工隊３》，影片暫定於明年暑假公映。至今，《職業特工隊》系列已為公司帶來逾十億美元的利潤，第三集的推出肯定再創新紀錄。

在投身監製工作之前，寶娜是出色的舞台演員，曾在百老匯演出，也出版過舞台劇劇作。之後，她進身經理人行列，於CAA（荷里活最大規模的經理人公司之一）工作了15年，湯告魯斯亦曾是她旗下藝人。

2001年，寶娜獲權威電影雜誌【Premiere】頒發「Women in Hollywood Icon Award」；2004年成為「美國影院」董事局成員及荷里活電影節主席；現時為洛杉磯加州大學（UCLA）戲劇/電影/電視學院的行政委員。

"WAR OF THE WORLDS"

Production Information

On June 29th, 2005, Earth goes to war. From Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures comes "War of the Worlds," directed by Steven Spielberg and starring international superstar Tom Cruise. A contemporary retelling of H.G. Wells's seminal classic, the sci-fi adventure thriller reveals the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind through the eyes of one American family fighting to survive it. The film also stars Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, Justin Chatwin, and Tim Robbins.

Cruise stars as Ray Ferrier, a divorced dockworker and less-than-perfect father. Soon after his ex-wife (Miranda Otto) and her new husband drop off his teenage son Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and young daughter Rachel (Dakota Fanning) for a rare weekend visit, a strange and powerful lightning storm touches down.

Moments later, at an intersection near his house, Ray witnesses an extraordinary event that will change all their lives forever. A towering three-legged war machine emerges from deep beneath the earth and, before anyone can react, incinerates everything in sight. An ordinary day has suddenly become the most extraordinary event of their lifetimes - the first strike in a catastrophic alien attack on Earth.

Ray scrambles to get his children away from this merciless new enemy, embarking on a journey that will take them across the ravaged countryside, where they become caught in the desperate tide of refugees fleeing from an extraterrestrial army of Tripods.

But no matter where they run, there is no safety, no refuge … only Ray's unconquerable will to protect the ones he loves.

Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures present an Amblin Entertainment/Cruise|Wagner Production, a Steven Spielberg film, "War of the Worlds." Directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Josh Friedman and David Koepp, based on the novel by H. G. Wells, the film is produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Colin Wilson. The executive producer is Paula Wagner. The film also stars Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, Justin Chatwin and Tim Robbins.

Spielberg's core filmmaking team, which has collaborated with the director on numerous projects, is led by director of photography Janusz Kaminski, ASC, production designer Rick Carter, editor Michael Kahn, A.C.E., and costume Joanna Johnston. Music is composed by John Williams. Visual effects and animation is by Industrial Light & Magic, led by senior visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren and visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman.

"War of the Worlds" opens worldwide on June 29, 2005. The film's official website is: www.waroftheworlds.com

ABOUT THE FILM

First published in 1898, The War of the Worlds, H. G. Wells's seminal story of alien invasion, is a literary classic. The frightening specter of our planet being ripped from us - with ordinary human lives held in the balance like ants on a twig - has retained its power for over a century. For Spielberg, the story is especially resonant today. "I thought now would be a good time to send 'War of the Worlds' crashing down around everybody's ears," says the Academy AwardR-winning director. Known for films about more hospitable intergalactic guests, Spielberg was eager to revisit the idea of alien visitation, but he warns anyone looking for long-fingered friendly space travelers: "This is not one of my sweet, cuddly, benign alien stories."

"This is E.T. gone bad," says Tom Cruise. "You do not want to run into these aliens." Cruise plays Ray Ferrier, who is faced with the ultimate test of fatherhood when the aliens attack. "The question is: are they going to make it?" says Cruise. "Will they survive? And to what extent would you go to protect your children?"

"War of the Worlds" marks Spielberg and Cruise's second collaboration, after "Minority Report." "Having known each other for many, many years, this has brought a whole new evolution to our relationship as director-actor," comments Spielberg. "He's such an intelligent, creative partner, and brings such great ideas to the set that we just spark each other. I love working with Tom Cruise."

Producer and longtime collaborator Kathleen Kennedy notes that with "War of the Worlds" Spielberg had the opportunity to explore the antithesis of the characters brought to life in "E.T." and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." "When we first started developing 'E.T.,' it was a much edgier, darker story and it actually evolved into something that was more benign. I think that the edgier, darker story has always been somewhere inside him. Now, he's telling that story."

"This is the flip side of what we saw twenty years ago," adds production designer Rick Carter. "Back then, we were introduced to some alien forms that were very benign and our great fears about them turned out to be ill-founded. The child in us understood that. For the man that Steven is now and the times that he's living in, those aliens take on a different form."

"I just thought it would be fun to make a really scary movie with really scary aliens, which I had never done before," Spielberg says.

Far away from the halls of the Pentagon or the Oval Office, "War of the Worlds" takes place in an ordinary world. "This is a very simple story," says Spielberg, "it's a story about survival, about a father trying to keep his children safe. It's about the basic elements of human nature set against an extraordinarily unnatural event."

Cruise notes that from the beginning, Spielberg described the film to him in subjective, rather than objective, terms. "You understand that the whole world is under attack but it's all from the point of view of Ray Ferrier," Cruise says. "He has a great perception of human behavior. He finds those unique moments, those little things. Steven does that with his movies and it brings you right into those characters and their stories. You're connected with them, so things that are frightening are really frightening. It's happening to us, the audience."

"I wanted Ray to become like a lot of people," says Spielberg, "because he has to represent all of us. He and his family are representing our own fears, our own facilities to survive, our own resourcefulness."

Like H. G. Wells, Spielberg was intent on telling a contemporary story, on bringing the aliens into the world we know. "The story may be something born out of a fantasy notion but in fact is dealt with in a hyper-realistic way," says Kennedy. "Steven is always exploring the extraordinary set against the ordinary and he continues to pursue that theme in 'War of the Worlds.'"

It's a theme that finds its way back to H. G. Wells's novel. Co-screenwriter David Koepp, along with Josh Friedman, was charged with telling the epic story on a personal scale. "That's really the brilliance of the screenplay," says Kennedy. "It adheres to something that H.G. Wells presented - the idea of a personal point of view. Ray and his family are being affected personally by what's happening."

Koepp, who helped Spielberg bring dinosaurs crashing into our contemporary world in "Jurassic Park" and "The Lost World," says keeping the story simple was a necessity. "My feeling was that an invasion of the Earth is such an impossibly large subject that we could never record what that might be like," he says.

As a result, the screenwriters focused on the attack's effect on one family. "We needed to go exactly the other way. The more you focus on these three main characters and their dilemmas - their confinement, their lack of information - the more terrible and personal it becomes," says Koepp.

"Steven and I talked about how this was the biggest 'little film' we've made," Cruise adds. "It's an epic - it's the biggest single film I've ever been a part of. But it's also a very intimate story about a family. Steven, David and I talked about it as a film that we dedicate to our children and how much we love them. I think it's a film that represents what parents feel about how far you're going to go for your child."

Wells's story has had such a lasting impact on our culture that it's difficult to imagine that at the time it was published the concept of visitors from outer space was radical and new. The War of the Worlds laid the foundation for a genre - books, films, television and at least one musical about alien invasion.

"The novel seems to come back each time there is a fear of an invasion, us in a sense," comments H.G. Wells's grandson, zoologist and author Dr. Martin Wells, who visited the set with his family. "The British were nervous of the Kaiser about the time the novel was published. There is a significance to the world that it's being introduced to, whether it has been in broadcast or in film, or in literature."

"When I read the Wells novel, I was struck by his tremendous imagination in creating this believable scenario that puts the reader in that time and place," says Cruise.

Director Spielberg wanted to adhere to the power of Wells's story while avoiding some of the clich�ms it has spawned. "We made a list of things we felt we shouldn't have in the movie," says Koepp. "No destruction of famous landmarks, no shots of Manhattan getting the crap kicked out of it, no shots of generals standing around a large map pushing ships with sticks into place, no TV news crews photographing destruction."

"And no Martians," adds Spielberg. "We've been to Mars and we know that nobody's there."

"What that left us with," says Koepp, "is the heart of the book: a first-person account of an alien attack."

Spielberg and Cruise were looking for a film they could make together after their successful collaboration on "Minority Report." "It's a dream come true for me to be able to work with Steven Spielberg," says the actor. "I grew up watching his movies, studying them. I often tease him that I know his movies better than he does! It's a real lesson in storytelling - every time I look at his films, I learn something."

The opportunity revealed itself just prior to the release of "Minority Report" while Cruise was visiting the director on the set of his film "Catch Me If You Can." "He mentioned three movies; 'War of the Worlds' was the third," Cruise recalls. "We looked at each other and the lights went on. As soon as I heard it, I said 'Oh my God! "War of the Worlds" - absolutely.' That was it."

An international superstar and three-time Academy Award nominee, Tom Cruise brings extraordinary energy and complexity to the role of Ray Ferrier. "Tom just lights the film on fire," comments Spielberg, "he has a tremendous life force and an extraordinary presence. He has a kind of light that lights up scenes, and lights up the character."

Cruise's enthusiasm and energy on set were infectious, as actor Tim Robbins notes, "there is no slouching," says Robbins. "He's a professional and a generous actor. If he's off-camera for you, he's completely in character, completely giving one hundred percent."

Ray Ferrier was a far cry from the noble or diabolical characters Cruise had brought to life in recent films. As Spielberg recalls, "I said to Tom when we first started working on this project, 'I really want to make a movie where your character isn't heroic - he's running away.' Ray's larger agenda is, 'How do I keep my family together? How do I keep my kids safe?' Tom was really game for that. He was excited that the only war he was going to fight was the war to keep his family safe."

The personal story at the heart of this epic odyssey is one with an unlikely hero. "At the beginning of the movie, Ray is truly inept as a father," Koepp explains. "He's not really interested in being a father, primarily because he thinks he's not good at it. And he isn't. He has been a failure. The kids don't like him and they don't like coming to his house."

"I'm a very different father than Ray is," Cruise says. "He doesn't understand his kids; he only understands himself. When things go wrong, he looks to them. He's more of a kid than they are."

"Ray's really been unable to commit to being a father," says Kathleen Kennedy. "He's been reluctant to grow up. That's the journey he's about to take - he's got to understand that participating in the lives of these children is the most important thing he could do."

At the story's center, surrounded by death and destruction, is the emotional journey taken by Ray and his children. "It's the very thing that separates this movie from a lot of other movies in this genre," says Kennedy, "because it is very character-driven. It's very specific to the dynamic of this family and the dynamic of survival."

A painful distance exists between father and children when the story begins. Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and Robbie (Justin Chatwin) shuffle their feet up to their father's house with something less than enthusiasm for their rare weekend visit. But the challenges Ray faces with a surly teenager and a reticent young daughter quickly pale in the face of what's to come.

It's only a short time after his ex-wife and her new husband drive off that Ray comes face-to-face with a father's ultimate test, which, as Spielberg explains, is "to protect your loved ones and, if necessary, to flee for their lives."

When the Tripod attack begins, there is little to do but try to stay alive. "We can be as intellectual as we want about stopping an enemy," comments senior visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren. "We can be as persuasive as we can. And we can put all our armament against it, but you can't stop this. It's your worst nightmare you're facing. You can feel that happening to anyone in America."

With the world literally crashing down around them, the familial tensions are heightened exponentially. Within minutes the world changes and Ray Ferrier must become the father he has, up to now, failed to be or he and his children will die. "This is a film that represents a parent's worst-case scenario," says Cruise. "Ray's got to become a different kind of parent than he's ever been if they are going to survive."

Ray's daughter Rachel is played by 11-year-old acting phenomenon Dakota Fanning. The young actress starred in the award-winning television miniseries "Steven Spielberg's Taken" and starred in the DreamWorks film "The Cat in the Hat."

"Dakota Fanning was on my mind the second I decided to make 'War of the Worlds,'" says Spielberg. "I know no one her age that's better than she is and more intuitive about human nature. She has a very wise old soul - it's like she's been around about seven or eight times." This inherent wisdom worked well for the actress playing the daughter of an up-to-now unsuccessful father. As the director explains, "In certain instances, her character is a little wiser than her own father and that made for some interesting interplay."

Fanning, who has now starred opposite the likes of Robert De Niro and Denzel Washington, is a formidable actress. "The first scene that I saw her shoot," recalls Tim Robbins, "I thought, 'Man, this girl's 35 years old.' She was so focused, and so there emotionally, immediately. She has incredible maturity for a kid."

For Fanning, it was a dream job working with Spielberg and Cruise. "To work with Steven and Tom in the same film, I've learned so much from them," adds Dakota Fanning. "I'm so grateful for the opportunity to work with Steven, and Tom made everything fun. He's so nice and he's made everything really special."

For the role of Rachel's brother, Robbie, Spielberg cast newcomer Justin Chatwin. "I looked a long time for somebody to play Tom's son," says the director.

"We'd seen Justin in 'Chumscrubber,'" recalls producer Kathleen Kennedy. "He made a phenomenal debut in that movie and he's completely holding his own in the contentious relationship Robbie has with his father, with very believable 17-year-old behavior."

Robbie is at that impossible age when young people yearn for both acceptance and independence, and it's made all the worse by the gulf that exists between him and his father. "Justin was cast both against type and on type, because I felt that he played a good rebel," says Spielberg. "He speaks for a whole generation of kids who don't agree with anything their parents say or wear." Robbie wears his defiance of his father boldly, his red and white Red Sox cap in stark contrast to his father's Yankee blue.

While there is plenty of friction between on-screen father and son, off-screen, Cruise provided a solid anchor for the young actor. "Tom was always there for me," says Justin Chatwin. "It's great working with such a big star who is just there for you as an actor."

The bond between brother and sister compensates for whatever lacks in their relationship with their father, their broken home and their mother's new life. "It's a contemporary story about a family that's broken apart," explains Justin Chatwin. "The father and son cannot connect. The father and daughter cannot connect. And the brother and sister are living in a world where they only have each other."

During production, the bond between siblings translated into a close friendship between the two young actors. "Justin is a like a brother to me now," says Dakota Fanning, "because we were together so long - in New York, Virginia, and California. So he's like my real brother. We have fun."

For Chatwin, the young actress was an inspiration. "Dakota Fanning is a beautiful kid," he says. "She's got a great head on her shoulders. She is phenomenal. I don't know where she learned to act, but I am learning from her every day."

Australian Miranda Otto was on a brief visit to Los Angeles when her agent phoned to tell her Steven Spielberg wanted to meet her. But Otto feared that the chance to work with Spielberg may have come at the wrong moment. "I had to say to him, 'I don't know if I can do this because I'm pregnant,'" recalls Otto. But the pregnancy worked for Spielberg, who saw it as a part of the complexity in the relationship between ex-wife and ex-husband.

As Kennedy explains, "It's not as though these two people don't like one another; they do. They still care very much for each other and they both care very much for their children, but the relationship hadn't really worked." The actress' pregnancy, which was accentuated for the film, helped to finalize her character's transition into a new life.

"There's this sweet gap between Ray and Mary Ann," says Spielberg, who envisioned the couple as two people who married young and were never able to transcend their different social backgrounds. "He's this blue-collar worker who unloads those big cargo containers and is a big kid at heart. He married a Connecticut aristocrat, someone who had horses growing up, and they fell in love and had a couple of kids. But he's a sexy guy - he's Tom Cruise after all - and she'd found something in Ray she loved despite still having this other lifestyle. There was such a great chasm between their upbringings that they never really could see eye-to-eye on many things. And I thought that contrast was great."

While her appearance in the story is relatively brief, Otto's character serves as a compass point for a good part of the story. As David Koepp explains, "Ray's first impulse is to get the kids to their mother because he knows she can take care of them and he believes he can't."

Both Spielberg and Cruise are fans of the 1953 George Pal / Byron Haskin adaptation of The War of the Worlds. The director asked that film's stars, Gene Barry and Ann Robinson, to make an appearance in his own adaptation of the novel. When he was just beginning his directing career, Spielberg directed Barry in a sci-fi episode of the television series "The Name of the Game." "I am honored, for one thing, to be asked to come back," says Barry. "As I look back at my original performance in 'War of the Worlds' - and it was a long time ago - at that time it was a very special event. And now, 53 years later, here I am commemorating the fact that Steven Spielberg is doing 'War of the Worlds.' It's a big moment in my life that he asked me to make this appearance."

"Being back, with the greatest director in the world, and the most popular actor in the world, Tom Cruise, it's quite a coup for me to have been invited back," says Ann Robinson.

"It was so special being able to bring the two actors back from the 1953 film," comments Spielberg. "I was a big fan of Gene Barry when I worked with him. The second or third thing I ever directed in my life was 'The Name of the Game,' which he starred in. And it was a science fiction episode, a real departure from the normal series. So, I think Gene was rather surprised to get a call from me saying, 'Hey, can you come back with Ann Robinson and do a cameo?' There are many homages to that original film in my version of the H.G. Wells book. And he was happy to do it and Ann was thrilled as well."

One major character is not a part of Ray's family - in fact, he becomes a distinct threat. At a horrifying peak in the story, Ray and his daughter seek refuge in a farmhouse while a battle between man and alien ensues. With a devastating war exploding behind them, father and daughter follow a stranger into the cellar of an old house. The story takes a dramatic shift in tone and scope and the drama intensifies as it becomes clearer that the aliens are not the only things they have to fear.

The stranger who waves the father and his daughter away from the alien attacks is a broken man named Ogilvy, played by Academy AwardR-winning actor Tim Robbins. "Ogilvy is a guy who has lost his entire family, as so many people have," says Spielberg. "He has been hiding out in the basement of this farmhouse. He has a plan, but that plan is deranged. You forgive him some of his derangement because he has suffered such a great loss and he's not thinking clearly, but he becomes as much a danger to Ray's and Rachel's survival as the invaders."

"In the midst of this action-adventure movie," says Robbins, "we have an intense psychological drama, a dangerous situation with this man and his psychosis. It's not just some kind of gratuitous psychosis, but a psychosis and a danger that you can understand in light of these events."

"I think it's a very brave thing for Steven to go into this cellar for this very intense confrontation with Ogilvy," says Kennedy. "It's a very brave thing to do in the context of a movie like this, but it's the very thing that separates this movie from a lot of other movies that are similar in this genre and that is it is very character-driven, it's very specific to the dynamic of this family and the dynamic of survival."

The actor was exactly the kind of imposing figure the filmmakers were looking for. "Tim Robbins was a very, very early choice for us," says Kennedy. "With the depth of his acting ability, he's someone we thought could really hold the screen for this relatively short period of time, in this small space and not be overwhelmed by the size and scope of the rest of the film."

Ogilvy is one of the many touchstones to the Wells novel that fans of the book will find in the film. "Ogilvy is a little bit like 'the Curate' in H.G. Wells's book, whom the protagonist winds up having to share a very small space with," Spielberg notes. "It's a very uncomfortable part of the novel. And I wanted it to be a very uncomfortable part of the film as well."

The story moves from an urban intersection along highways and rivers with expanses of refugees spilling out onto wide landscapes before landing into a small dark cellar. "The journey is across a barren landscape where the characters are reduced to the most basic elements - following the road, following the river, the simplest ways just to get somewhere," says production designer Rick Carter. "And then you finally get to a point where you're almost back in time because there's nothing but a farmhouse on a big hill. Over that hill is this whole war going on between the best that we have, our whole army going after the aliens, and then we have this very small, claustrophobic space. And instead of being a refuge, it's even worse."

"It's an odyssey," says Spielberg. "It's a journey based on gut instinct. It starts in New Jersey and ends in Boston; it's a very, very short span of distance when you compare it to how far these alien invaders must have come. And at the same time, that journey is forever."

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Reuniting the team: Pre-Production Begins

The production came together with breakneck speed after Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg decided to focus on "War of the Worlds." Producer Kathleen Kennedy recalls a conversation she had with Spielberg early on. "Steven said to me, 'Okay, we're going to make this movie and we need to prep it quickly and we're going to start shooting in three months," Kennedy recalls. "But don't freak out when you look at the script. Just recognize that there are three people in the movie - that's the heart of the film, and every now and then 1,000 people are running around in the background."

In fall of 2004, production teams were quickly set up on both coasts to prepare for the start date, scouting locations up and down the Eastern Seaboard and preparing stages and sets which would be used when the company returned to Los Angeles after the winter holiday. "We had an East Coast production company in full swing with a lot of East Coast crew," says Kennedy, "then, simultaneously, we had a West Coast crew prepping what we would be coming back to."

Pre-production took place in essentially half the amount of time normally allotted to a film of similar size and scope. Spielberg notes, however, "This wasn't a cram course for 'War of the Worlds.' This was my longest schedule in about 12 years. We took our time."

"There are certain reasons that we were able to make this movie so fast," comments director of photography and longtime Spielberg collaborator Janusz Kaminski. "First of all, you're working with a director who's extremely confident, who is very familiar with the genre, who knows how to make movies."

Everyone agrees there are few directors with the experience and vision to put a project of this size and scope together with such deftness. "It's terrifying because it's so fast, but it's also incredibly energizing," comments costume designer Joanna Johnston. "I don't know anybody who works as fast as Steven does. He knows exactly what he wants." Spielberg's clarity, decisiveness, and easy communication with the team he assembled, many of whom are veterans of several Spielberg projects, ensured that the project would proceed on schedule.

The crew's efficiency during the preproduction period was a result of the production team's familiarity with each other and the director. "The majority of people heading all the major departments, including myself, have been with Steven for 15 to 20 years," says Kennedy.

Of the team assembled, most had worked with Spielberg before, many on multiple projects over several decades: producer Kathleen Kennedy (15 films), producer Colin Wilson (10 films), cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (9 films), production designer Rick Carter (6 films), editor Michael Kahn (19 films), composer John Williams (21 films), senior visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren (10 films), costume designer Joanna Johnston (4 films), stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong (5 films), set decorator Anne Kuljian (3 films), property master Doug Harlocker (2 films), and sound mixer Ron Judkins (11 films).

"I attribute a great deal of the ability to be able to achieve this schedule to the group of people that we put together," says producer Colin Wilson, who began with Spielberg as an editor and has produced several features with him over the years. "A lot of the key individuals have a shorthand because they have so much history together."

Spielberg's unique capacity to occupy both the worlds of visual effects and the world the camera sees was evidenced in the earliest stages of prep. The shooting schedule reflected the need to give Dennis Muren, Pablo Helman and their team at Industrial Light & Magic as much time as possible with the visual effects sequences. "We knew we had a fair number of effects and we knew we had a limited post-production schedule," says Kennedy. "We recognized that it was important to get on film those large sequences that were going to require the most number of effects so that ILM could get started on that work early. When we got to the East Coast, we began with the intersection sequence, which had a tremendous amount of crowd interaction and effects."

Production designer Rick Carter recalls getting a phone call from Steven Spielberg in the months before production began. "I jumped on a plane and went back east to New Jersey where the movie was set," continues Carter. "I went over to a neighborhood in Newark on the first day of scouting. It had five streets intersecting, which formed a great place to have this initial encounter with the aliens."

Three months later, the company poured into the five-cornered intersection of the Ironbound, a small, tight-knit community in Newark, New Jersey, named for the railroad tracks that border the neighborhood on all four sides and gathered for the start of principal photography. Laced with Portuguese and Brazilian restaurants and bakeries, the location was also something of a homecoming for Cruise. "I lived in New Jersey twice," says the actor. "These are the places that I grew up in."

Cameras and Pre-Viz: The Look of 'War of the Worlds'

With hundreds of extras, crew members, trucks, and equipment, the company prepared to shoot one of the film's biggest sequences - the first time Ray comes face to face with one of the Tripods.

Spielberg was completely familiar with the intersection in Newark and several other key locations before he started shooting. He'd been working with them in a computer since the beginning of pre-production through a process called pre-visualization (or 'pre-viz'), in which traditional storyboards are animated into 3D digital sequences that depict not only what a scene will look like, but reveal every aspect of a given location, including sets, actors, cameras and crew.

While he'd used the computer to help visualize sequences in pre-production before, Spielberg said, "This is the first film I really tackled using the computer to animate all the storyboards." He was visiting his good friend George Lucas who showed him how the process was working for him. "I got all the experts who had been working with ILM on '[Star Wars]: Episodes I, II and III' for George. When they wrapped, I took most of them with me," he says.

"It's really been a fantastic communication tool," adds producer Kathleen Kennedy. "We went out in August and scouted all the locations. Then we scanned everything into the computer and built the sequences around the actual locations. Steven literally lived in the same office with the guys who were creating this on the computer. It's an extremely accurate representation of what he then shot."

Previsualization supervisor Dan Gregoire was one of the leaders of the animatics team on the last two "Star Wars" installments. "It starts as a just a paragraph of text," Gregoire explains, "'A Tripod rises of out of the ground in Newark, New Jersey.' Steven has it all in his mind but it's tough to explain that to everybody involved - the D.P., the gaffer, the grips. We came in and built that intersection in 3D. We built the Tripod; we cracked up the ground; we blew everything up. We developed the sequence from scratch so that we could actually play that movie on set in Newark and everybody who saw it could understand what Steven was talking about."

The pre-viz also allowed the actors to see what wasn't there. "I invited the actors over to the computer while we were shooting and showed them the entire sequence," Spielberg describes. "They knew exactly the size of these leviathan Tripods that they were up against and where they were in juxtaposition to the where the Tripods were."

"Steven always shows us that kind of stuff when we're doing something with an alien and it's actually not there," says Dakota Fanning. "He would show us what it was going to look like and exactly where it was going to be. It was really neat to have the pre-viz to look at."

"I wish I had it on 'Close Encounters,'" says the director, "because the actors had to completely rely on imagination. I hadn't imagined some of the UFOs when I was directing principal photography. I had to say 'Well, it's this big pie tin up there and it's large.' Here, all the actors had a visual reference. They could see roughly what it was going to look like when the film was done. And that was exciting to everybody."

After weeks and weeks of occupying a 3D model of the intersection where they would start their work, the director finally flew out to New Jersey to stand in the middle of the real thing. "He came out to the real intersection," recalls Rick Carter, "and now, was looking at it in terms of how he was going to film it, the real place. I said, 'So, what do you like better? Your digital intersection, or the physical intersection?' And, first, he said, 'digital,' and then, he turned and went, 'no, physical.' 'No, I like them both.' He was right there, between the two."

In spite of pouring rain, hundreds of onlookers, and a gaggle of paparazzi, the week's work went very smoothly. "We shot the intersection sequence in six days, but it didn't ever feel rushed or unprepared," says Cruise. "We were focused - we knew exactly what we had to accomplish each day. With pre-visualization, we were able to see what was coming."

From locations and sets to costumes and props, the constant mandate on the film was reality. The real world begins in the film in a gritty reflection of the world we see around us, but begins to change as the film moves into a full-scale alien invasion.

Costume designer Joanna Johnston created 60 different versions of Ray's leather jacket, to illustrate the degrees to which he is weathered from the beginning of the journey to the end. "He begins with the jacket, a hoodie, and two t-shirts," explains Johnston. "Then slowly peels them away until he's left with just a t-shirt and jeans. To me, it's like an old-fashioned hero emerging."

Rachel, played by Dakota Fanning, also undergoes a change as her pink "prototypical girly girl" clothes become increasingly dirty and weathered. One piece of Fanning's costume that takes on a special importance is her lavender horse purse. "I wanted her to have something that made her feel safe, some little thing that she could sleep with and put over her face," Johnston notes. "That was the lavender horse purse. We tied it up on a ribbon and Dakota hung it on her body, so it was with her at all times."

Johnston dressed Robbie for an unconscious emulation of his father, "They're more alike than they realize, with great tension on the surface," she says. "They both wear hoodies, jeans, and baseball caps - but the caps are for different teams."

Johnston got a chance to compare notes with Ann Robinson, who played the heroine of the 1953 adaptation of "The War of the Worlds," and returns for a cameo role in Steven Spielberg's film. "She saw us making up thousands of costumes and told me that in 1953, she and an assistant shopped for two suits at May Co., and those two suits served as her costume for the entire film," she says.

Production designer Carter says Spielberg brought the same sensibility to the alien attack that he'd brought to his World War II epic. "When Steven was at the intersection, it was like he was at Normandy Beach," he says.

Spielberg called upon the talents of his "Saving Private Ryan" cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski, to achieve that look. In fact, the Academy AwardR-winning cinematographer has collaborated with Spielberg on the director's last nine pictures. The handheld camera work was one part of a careful equation to create a spectacle that was both terrifying and real.

Spielberg wanted to put the audience inside the events of the film. "Janusz knew I was looking for reality - not a bird's eye view of what was happening, but a man's view, a child's view," says Spielberg. "He kept it very natural and the lighting very naturalistic."

"This is my third movie with Janusz and his crew [after "Jerry Maguire" and "Minority Report"]; Steven has made nine with him," says Tom Cruise. "Janusz is a true character and a true artist. Steven wanted to keep the film visceral and real, but obviously, it had to work with the effects as well. Janusz was able to do both."

"The work I've done on this movie is so different from the work that I've done on other movies with Steven," Kaminski notes. "Visually, I think that it's very poetic and very sophisticated. It's got a really beautiful color palette where it starts a little bit with the blue and gradually becomes more colorful. It's stylized, but stylized within the confinements of trying to make something real. Lighting is really, really interesting in this movie."

From lights in the sky to creeping shadows in the basement to the hand-held lanterns and flashlights of the refugees, the director and cinematographer skillfully blended the actors, extras and special effects (like smoke and fire) with real environments to make the fantastic as real as possible.

In one such scene, Ray and his family are driving in their minivan when they come upon an increasing number of wandering people, which eventually swells to a crowd. "Janusz and Steven wanted a lot of interactive light in that scene, so we gave the extras different kinds of lights, from Coleman lamps to oil lanterns to flashlights to Maglights to flashlights running out of juice," recalls property master Doug Harlocker. "It really adds to the texture of the scene, creating a frenetic, chaotic, scary environment inside the car."

Kaminski was also charged with creating a visual consistency between locations on the East Coast and soundstages and, in at least one case, three different environments - East Coast, West Coast and soundstage. "There is a very interesting scene that we began in Virginia, where we see our heroes walking on the road, walking towards the hill and troops are arriving," Kaminski describes. "We're seeing thousands and thousands of extras going towards the direction of big hill. We started in Virginia in the evening, and then we continued this scene on the stage. After that, we went on location in southern California and we continue with the same scene. So, right there we're dealing with three different weather patterns, three different environments, three different lighting conditions." Serendipity brought southern California a particularly rainy winter, which gave its hillsides a green hue, aiding Kaminski's cause tremendously.

Carter underscores Spielberg's ability to meld reality and fantasy seamlessly. "He never gives you a chance to figure out exactly how everything was done when you're watching it the first time," says Carter. "He's mixing it up from the very beginning, not because he has a technical idea of what he's trying to show you from a 'wow' factor, but because this is what his brain sees."

The Practical and the Imagined: Visual Effects

With hundreds of extras screaming amid smoke and fire, an essential component of every major sequence would be created on computers. "When I decided to make 'War of the Worlds," says the director, "Dennis Muren is one of the first phone calls I made."

The recipient of eight Academy Awards for Best Achievement in Visual Effects (three of those for his work on Spielberg's "E.T. - the Extraterrestrial," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," and "Jurassic Park"), Dennis Muren continues to be a driving force in the evolving art of visual effects.

"What Dennis Muren and everybody at ILM brings," says production designer Carter, who has worked closely with Muren on a number projects, "is the ability to see in our world something you could never see, and that it could be filmed as though it was there the whole time."

"I'm always looking for something new to do," Muren notes. "As soon as I finish a film, I think, 'That film is obsolete. The visuals in that are obsolete, what's new?' And the idea of doing 'War of the Worlds' was pretty exciting, especially going back to the book to look for the war machines. I think I've got a grasp of what people have seen, and what is fresh, because I get tired of it as fast or faster than the public does. And we spent a lot of time in the preproduction of this, coming up with an interesting look for the Tripods and even for the alien creatures. We didn't just jump in at the first or second or third or tenth or fiftieth design."

Despite Muren's place on the cutting edge of visual effects, he worked with Spielberg to assign the most effective technique to each visual effect shot rather than relying heavily on CG. "Having come from the age of miniatures, I've got no problem with saying, 'Let's do this as a miniature, and let's do this as computer graphics' - whatever's best for the shot," he says. "We've got a lot of great talent here, people who know how to build the models. We know how to put them together in scenes. It's really important to be able to use the whole toolbox, not just the computer graphic part of it."

Spielberg, Muren and Janusz Kaminski worked closely together to keep all the composite elements of the film in sync. "You're shooting inserts; then, you're shooting against a green screen; then, you're shooting against a ferry that's tied to the wharf and doesn't move," Spielberg describes. "Then, you're shooting the ferry actually in the water. And then there's a digital unit. I'm pretty accustomed to shooting this way from all my experience from 'Close Encounters' through 'Jurassic Park' to now. To me, it's like a big salad. You treat all the ingredients separately, but with equal tender loving care. Then, finally, when all these disparate pieces are combined, you put the final dressing on. And if that combination is correct, then you're going to have a feast."

The tight schedule did not afford the filmmakers a leisurely post-production period. Instead, processes allotted to post were assimilated into the production period. "All the time that we were on location shooting, we were getting video back and forth," Muren recalls. "That kept the process going rapidly, and essentially, it saved us weeks and weeks of time. We managed to parallel the action on both coasts, and get things directly approved by Steven on set all the time, too. So, it was really, really great."

Because while Spielberg was shooting the film, he was also editing it, delivering shots to ILM and approving shots once they came back to him for review. Visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman notes, "Steven was the first director I ever worked with who turned the work early. As we were wrapping principal photography, he turned over all the visual effects work. This is a first for me."

The Unnatural in a Naturalistic World: Creating the Tripods for "War of the Worlds"

In addition to allowing the director to completely design his shots before he started shooting, previsualization played a role in the development of every aspect of the alien presence. "We explored through a hunt and peck method what the Tripods should look like, what the aliens should look like, what the world they inhabit should look like," Spielberg explains. "That was really, really important to explore - not just the way I've been doing it for 30 years - two dimensionally - but three dimensionally and in color."

Spielberg worked with a group of diverse artists to create every aspect of the aliens, from their Tripods to the environment they create. This group was led by Rick Carter, Dennis Muren, the conceptual design teams of Iceblink's Doug Chiang and ILM's Ryan Church, and Dan Gregoire and his previsualization team. "I had the most amazing group of artists working on the design of the Tripods," says Spielberg, "all working together in a kind of collaboration, throwing out all these ideas against the wall. We must have had 20 or 30 designs on aliens, from the sublime to the ridiculous. It was a very interesting process, sometimes almost a blending of an element I liked here and an element I liked there."

Comments Muren, "To begin on the design of the Tripod was exhilarating. You get as many artists as you can to contribute ideas to it. And then you guide it as little and as much as possible. You want it to be free enough so that Steven can see a broad spectrum of things, but you want them to be consistent with what you think the story needs, and what this time in motion picture history needs."

Muren points out that Spielberg knows exactly what he wants; it's just a question of bringing him the right elements. "You make a collage of different things, and present them all to him," he says. "He'll pick part of A and part of B and part of C, and you put them together, and it's like, 'Wow, they look like they were always meant to be together.' It's very easy working with Steven because he's so clear on what he wants. The decision-making process couldn't be better."

For the Tripods themselves, described vividly in H.G. Wells's book, Spielberg wanted first, as the author had over a century ago, to inspire fear,. "I wanted the Tripods to be really scary because they represent what's driving them," he says. "I wanted the audience to actually be terrified by what these things looked like from the outside."

Conceptual designer Doug Chiang found inspiration in the concept of Tripods as the "image of fear." "Whatever that is to each individual person is always different," Chiang explains. "In some ways, we tried to create these Tripods as manifestations of what terrifies me or what terrifies Rick [Carter]. It may not terrify everybody else, but I think we're trying to capture that essence."

"I think these Tripods are going to scare people," Chiang continues, "and not just the shape, but how it's being filmed, how it's being shot - it's what you don't see that is the scariest."

Once conceived, the Tripods were given life by animation supervisor Randy M. Dutra and his team at ILM. Dutra, who worked with Spielberg on the first two "Jurassic Park" films, sought to create movement that would be believable in our natural world yet alien at the same time. "One of the things that Steven got from the beginning was that it's very important to have connections to things that are organic," Dutra says. "I have a very healthy respect for nature. And I know that Steven does. When I'm working with the animators, they know that I'm very much into nature, and looking at references, so that even if at the end we departed so far that the origin wasn't recognizable, it would still have that seed of truth, no matter what we gave to it. I think it's those telling little bits of personality or information that really send a character into the range of believability and uniqueness."

But Dutra also found that experimentation took his team to new and exciting places with the Tripods. "The old saying, 'sometimes you gotta kill your darlings,' means, don't use the things that you already know work. Go somewhere else, and bring something else to it," he says.

Muren notes that the Tripods in movement are meant to inspire "amazement and danger and humbleness. Like, there's nothing you can do. They're there; they're in control. That's pretty neat when it comes across in the film. But the rest of it really comes down to how Tom, and how the actors are all reacting to our characters. Because this is the story about a man's life, and his relationship to his kids. That's what the movie's about."

Coast to Coast: Locations of "War of the Worlds"

From Newark and Bayonne to Brooklyn, up the Hudson to Naugatuck, Connecticut, and onto Athens, New York, the company was on a whirlwind tour of the Eastern Seaboard that ended in eastern Virginia.

Lexington is a small town, home to Washington and Lee University and Virginia Military Institute and to the production for the final days of shooting on the East Coast before the winter break. In a small valley between rolling farmlands the first part of the "Valley War" sequence was shot. "We looked all over to try to find a place that had this hillside that you could run up, and over the top know something was going on that you couldn't see," says Carter. "Below that would be this farmhouse. It turns out we actually found a farmhouse in that proximity with the hill in Virginia."

Hundreds of tattered and dirtied extras wheeling carts and wagons stuffed with a hodge podge of personal affects worked along side the Virginia National Guard as Spielberg orchestrated a devastating encounter with the alien attackers for the camera.

The Guard came on the heels of several military units that worked with the production company: New York's 10th Mountain Division; Marines from Camp Pendleton, California; and Army from Fort Irwin and Twentynine Palms, California..

Moving to the West Coast, production resumed at Los Angeles-area locations including Piru, California (dressed as Athens, New York) for a continuation of a scene involving hundreds of extras; and the resonantly named Mystery Mesa, roughly 60 miles north of Los Angeles.

Another striking West Coast location was a massive, painstakingly-disassembled and dressed 747 jetliner sprawled out over a small hill on the Universal Studios backlot. "You walk outside, and it's almost your worst nightmare of what really could happen," says Rick Carter. "A plane lands in your neighborhood, and just decimates everything."

The plane crash site was "a monumental set to put together. We had to buy a 747, and then we had to cut it up into pieces and have it strewn on the back lot, and then build houses around it. It was quite an undertaking."

Also at Universal, the company utilized the studio's huge, 25-foot diameter tank on Stage 27 to shoot the underwater portions of the ferry sequence.

On stage 16 on the Fox lot, production designer Rick Carter and his team created an otherworldly set which they called "The Meadow." The farmhouse, which the company shot in the rolling hills of eastern Virginia and completed at Mystery Mesa, north of Los Angeles, was recreated on a low sloping hill with the barn, wooden fence, a carpet of sod and some trees. But this time everything was covered with red weed. "Steven's idea was that he wanted to go from basically black and white in the hallway, a long shot moving up to the door, and when it opens up it's like in 'The Wizard of Oz,'" explains Carter, "the whole movie turns to color. Only now, in this case, it's our world turning red. It's just expansive, and it's taking over our entire world."

"They essentially turn our planet into theirs," says producer Kennedy, "and we see this happening with this look of red weed that begins to take over the landscape. And it's a little gruesome when you find out why it's red."

In addition to the meadow and their work on dozens of practical locations the company worked on six stages spread over three studio lots. [Production also utilized stage facilities for the interior of Ray's house in Bayonne, New Jersey]. Every stage was its own world. In addition to the meadow set, Fox was home to the claustrophobic cellar where Ray and Rachel encounter Ogilvy.

Actor Tim Robbins says, "Steven Spielberg is still making Hollywood movies, in the great sense of 'here we are on a soundstage where they've done countless epic dramas.' You build sets and you make things happen."

While Spielberg has played a significant role in bringing state-of-art technology to film, he also still edits on a flatbed. He is less a Luddite than a filmmaker with respect and admiration for the wide range of film arts. "I need something to inspire me," says Spielberg, "to help me invent the look of the picture. If I had to invent everything in post-production it would be an exercise in personal futility. I think I'll keep the Hollywood craft of actually building and constructing things alive for as long as I live. Because I really respect those women and men who can create worlds through their own craft, their own art. You walk onto a set and suddenly there's a world you can only dream about at night."

72 days, several thousand extras, two dozen locations, sets on two coasts and five states later - "War of the Worlds" completed principal photography.

# # #

TOM CRUISE (Ray Ferrier) has achieved unprecedented success as an actor and producer in a career spanning two decades. He is a three-time Academy AwardR nominee whose films have earned in excess of six billion dollars worldwide. In addition, while continuing to explore new artistic challenges, Cruise has utilized his professional success as a vehicle for positive change, becoming an international advocate, activist and philanthropist in the fields of health and education.

War of the Worlds marks Cruise's second collaboration with director Steven Spielberg. In 2002, Cruise starred in Spielberg's futuristic thriller Minority Report.

Through Cruise/Wagner Productions, which he founded in 1993 with his partner, Paula Wagner, Cruise has moved seamlessly into the broader role of producer, bringing a range of diverse projects from new and established talents to the screen. The first film released under the C/W banner was the international hit Mission: Impossible, and in 1997 resulted in the company being honored with the Nova Award for Most Promising Producers in Theatrical Motion Pictures. The company went on to release the critically acclaimed films Without Limits, Shattered Glass, Narc and the period thriller The Others. The last marked Cruise's first collaboration with director Alejandro Amenabar, whose film "Abre Los Ojos" became the basis for the C/W production "Vanilla Sky," under the direction of Cameron Crowe. The producing team was honored recently with the UCLA /Producers Guild of America Vision Award.

Immediately following the release of War of the Worlds, Cruise will begin filming the third installment of the Cruise/Wagner blockbuster Mission: Impossible franchise, which has grossed over one billion dollars worldwide to date. In addition, in his role as producer through Cruise/Wagner Productions - which he founded in 1993 with his partner, Paula Wagner - he is producing Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown, starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst, set for release this fall.

Cruise made his feature film debut in 1981 at the age of nineteen in the romantic drama Endless Love, followed by the critically acclaimed Taps, co-starring Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton, and Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders. His breakout performance in Risky Business earned him his first Golden Globe nomination in 1983. The role of Maverick in Tony Scott's Top Gun catapulted Cruise to international stardom as the film went on to become the highest grossing picture of 1986.

He next starred opposite Paul Newman in Martin Scorsese's The Color of Money and opposite Dustin Hoffman in Barry Levinson's OscarR-winning Rain Man. In 1989, Cruise received his first Academy AwardR nomination and earned the Golden Globe for Best Actor for his portrayal of Vietnam veteran and anti-war activist Ron Kovic in Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July, which received a Best Picture nomination. His performance in Rob Reiner's A Few Good Men, opposite Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore, led to a third Golden Globe nomination, and, in 1997 he received his second Academy AwardR nomination and the Golden Globe for Best Actor for his work in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire.

In 1999, Cruise received critical acclaim for his powerful performance in Paul Thomas Anderson's ensemble drama Magnolia, earning a third Academy AwardR nomination and his third Golden Globe, for Best Supporting Actor. That same year, he starred in Stanley Kubrick's final film, the psychological thriller Eyes Wide Shut.

His additional screen credits include Ron Howard's epic Far and Away, Sydney Pollack's legal thriller The Firm and Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire, based on the bestselling novel by Anne Rice.

Cruise has been the recipient of numerous awards and tributes, reflecting both critical and commercial recognition within the industry and the broad popular support of audiences worldwide.

This November Cruise will receive the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for excellence in film from the British Academy of Film & Television Arts. He was recently honored with the MTV Generation Award, which celebrated Cruise as the actor of his generation. And in April 2005, Cruise received a David di Donatello award for lifetime achievement. He has been honored twice by the People's Choice Awards, and received two Screen Actors Guild nominations for his work in Jerry Maguire and Magnolia. He was recognized by the Chicago Film Festival as the 'Actor of the Decade' in 1993 and earned the NATO/SHOWEST Meritorious Achievement Award that same year. Cruise has also been honored with a Saturn Award for Vanilla Sky, both the Chicago Film Critics Award and the Blockbuster Award for Magnolia and an MTV Award for Mission: Impossible 2.

Cruise has also been honored with tributes ranging from Harvard's Hasty Pudding Man of the Year Award to the John Huston Award from the Artists Rights Foundation, The American Cinema Award for Distinguished Achievement in Film, and the American Cinematheque Award.

Tom Cruise Filmography

Actor

• Mission Impossible: 3
• War of the Worlds
• Collateral
• The Last Samurai
• Minority Report
• Vanilla Sky
• Mission Impossible: 2
• Magnolia
• Eyes Wide Shut
• Jerry Maguire
• Mission Impossible
• Interview with the Vampire
• The Firm
• A Few Good Men
• Far and Away
• Days of Thunder
• Born on the Fourth of July
• Rain Main
• The Color of Money
• Top Gun
• Legend
• All the Right Moves
• Risky Business
• Losin' It
• The Outsiders
• Taps
• 1981 Endless Love

Producer

• Deathrace 3000
• 2006 Mission Impossible: 3
• 2005 Elizabethtown
• 2003 The Last Samurai
• 2003 Shattered Glass
• 2002 Narc
• 2001 Vanilla Sky
• 2001 The Others
• 2001 Mission Impossilbe: 2
• 1998 Without Limits
• 1996 Mission Impossible

Hailing from Conyers, Georgia, DAKOTA FANNING (Rachel) began her career only five years ago at the age of six. Guest appearances on such Emmy Award winning television series as "ER," "The Practice," "Malcolm in the Middle," and "Spin City" led to her breakout role opposite Academy AwardR winner Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer in New Line's "I Am Sam." For her stunning performance as Lucy, Dakota won a BAFTA award and became the youngest actor ever nominated for a Screen Actor's Guild Award. Shortly thereafter, she starred in the miniseries "Taken" for executive producer Steven Spielberg, which not only became the Sci-Fi Channel's highest rated show, but also won the 2003 Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries.

In 2004, Dakota was honored to star opposite Academy Award Winner Denzel Washington in "Man on Fire," directed by Tony Scott. This 20th Century Fox release earned Dakota her second BAFTA nomination and her performance.

Dakota teamed again with 20th Century Fox, starring opposite Academy AwardR winner Robert DeNiro in "Hide and Seek," released this past January. The film opened #1 at the box office.

Dakota has also just wrapped the DreamWorks feature "Dreamer," starring opposite Kurt Russell. Dakota is also proud to be part of a remarkable ensemble of women including Glenn Close, Holly Hunter, Sissy Spacek, and Robin Wright Penn in the film "Nine Lives," which premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

She is currently in production in the starring role of Fern in Paramount's/Walden Media's live-action version of the beloved E.B. White novel, "Charlotte's Web." Also starring in voiceover roles will be such luminaries as Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, and Robert Redford.

Dakota will soon tackle another classic as DreamWorks has committed to develop with her the definitive adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, which will be written by Emmy Award winner Les Bohem.

Other credits include "Trapped," opposite Academy AwardR winner Charlize Theron, "Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat," opposite Mike Myers, "Uptown Girls" S with Brittany Murphy, and a cameo role as young Reese Witherspoon in "Sweet Home Alabama."

Dakota is an avid reader who plays the piano, knits, collects dolls, rides horses, and dances ballet. She is also learning to speak both Spanish and French. She resides in Los Angeles with her parents, Joy and Steve Fanning, and her sister, actress Elle Fanning.

JUSTIN CHATWIN most recently starred opposite Ralph Fiennes, Glenn Close, Rita Wilson and Allison Janney in the Newmarket film "The Chumscrubber," which will be released this summer. Chatwin will also appear in the upcoming Showtime pilot "Weeds," co-starring Mary Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins.

Chatwin first garnered recognition for his starring role in the in the USA miniseries "Traffic," directed by Stephen Hopkins. Based on his performance in the program, Newsweek magazine singled him out as an Actor to Watch. He also co-starred with Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke in the Warner Bros. thriller, "Taking Lives."

The son of an engineer father and an artist mother, Chatwin was born and raised on Vancouver Island (Nanaimo), British Columbia. He fell into acting by accident at age 18 when a friend dared Chatwin to join him on an audition. It was then that he fell in love with acting - he got an agent immediately after.

After earning top accolades for her Australian film and stage work, MIRANDA OTTO rose to fame as the warrior Eowyn in "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" and "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." She also recently starred opposite Dennis Quaid in "Flight of the Phoenix," in the New Zealand film "In My Father's Den," and in "Through My Eyes," a miniseries for Australian television. Other recent roles include the title character in "Julie Walking Home" for acclaimed Polish director Agnieszka Holland, which premiered at the 2002 Venice and Toronto Film Festivals, as well as "The Three-Legged Fox" and "Doctor Sleep."

Otto also starred in "Danny Deckchair," which re-teamed her with Rhys Ifans after co-starring with Ifans in the Charlie Kaufman-written film, "Human Nature."

Otto garnered rave reviews in the spring of 2002 for her portrayal of Nora Helmer in the Sydney Theatre Company's production of the Henrik Ibsen classic "A Doll's House."

A graduate of the prestigious Australian theatrical school NIDA, which also boasts such alumni as Mel Gibson, Judy Davis, and Cate Blanchett, Otto has been honored with Australian Film Institute award nominations for her work in "In The Winter Dark," "The Well," "Daydream Believer," and "The Last Days of Chez Nous." She also earned an Australian Film Critics Circle Award nomination for her performance in "Last Days of Chez Nous," as well as for "Love Serenade," which won the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Otto's other credits include Robert Zemekis's "What Lies Beneath," Terence Malick's "The Thin Red Line," "Kin," "Dead Letter Office," "Doing Time for Patsy Cline," "True Love and Chaos," and "The Jack Bull," opposite John Cusack, for HBO.

TIM ROBBINS has a long list of notable film credits as an actor, his career highlighted by writing, producing, and directorial accomplishments. In 2003, Robbins starred in Mystic River, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Other memorable roles include his performances in the remarkable The Shawshank Redemption, the Player, Bull Durham, Jacob1s Ladder, Bob Roberts, The Hudsucker Proxy, Short Cuts, High Fidelity and Five Corners.

Robbins also appeared in the films Nothing To Lose, Arlington road, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Cadillac Man, The Sure Thing, Jungle Fever, Mission to Mars, and Code 46.

In addition to his Academy Award Robbins has won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes International Film Festival and The Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor for The Player. In 2003 Robbins won a Golden Globe Award, a SAG Award, and A Critic1s Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor for Mystic River. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor for Bob Roberts and by the Screen Actors Guild for Performance by an Actor for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor for the Shawshank Redemption. As director Robbins has distinguished himself with Cradle Will Rock, which he also wrote and produced, winning The Best Film Director honors at The Barcelona/Sitges Film Festival and The National Board of Review Award for Special Achievement in filmmaking. Dead Man Walking, which he also wrote and produced, won multiple awards, including The Humanitas Award and four awards at The Berlin Film Festival, as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Director, and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Script. His first film, Bob Roberts, won the Bronze award for Best Film at the Tokyo International Film Festival and Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor Awards at the Boston Film Festival. In addition, Robbins served as executive producer for the films, Specter of Hope and The Typewriter, The Rifle, and The Movie Camera, a documentary about filmmaker Sam Fuller which won the Cable Ace award for Best Documentary.

Robbins also serves as Artistic director for the Actor1s Gang, a group formed in 1982 that has over 85 productions and more than 100 awards to its credit. As a playwright, he has written seven plays produced in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and at the Edinburgh Festival. He most recently wrote and directed Embedded at the Actor1s Gang Theatre in Los Angeles, The Public Theatre in New York, and at The Riverside Studios in London. The play began a national tour this year. In addition, his stage adaptation of Dead Man Walking is currently being introduced into the curriculums of forty Jesuit high schools and universities. Earlier this year, Robbins was named Man of the year by Harvard University1s Hasty Pudding Theatricals. Robbins lives in New York City with his partner in crime, Susan Sarandon, and is the proud father of 3 mischievous children

STEVEN SPIELBERG (director) is a three-time Academy AwardR winner, earning two OscarsR for Best Director and Best Picture for "Schindler's List" and a third OscarR for Best Director for "Saving Private Ryan." He has also received Best Director Oscar nominations for "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

In 1994, Spielberg's internationally lauded "Schindler's List" emerged as the year's most honored film, receiving a total of seven Oscars , including the aforementioned nods for Best Picture and Best Director. The film also collected Best Picture awards from many of the major critics organizations, in addition to seven BAFTA Awards, including two for Spielberg. He also won the Golden Globe Award and received a Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award.

Spielberg's critically acclaimed World War II drama "Saving Private Ryan," starring Tom Hanks, was the highest-grossing release (domestically) of 1998. The film also won five OscarsR, including the one for Spielberg as Best Director, two Golden Globe Awards for Best Picture (Drama) and Best Director, and numerous critics groups awards for Best Picture and Best Director. In addition, Spielberg won a DGA Award and a Producers Guild of America (PGA) Award. That year, the PGA also presented Spielberg with the prestigious Milestone Award for his historic contribution to the motion picture industry.

Spielberg won his first DGA Award for "The Color Purple" and also earned DGA Award nominations for "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Empire of the Sun," "Jaws" and "Amistad." With nine in all, Spielberg has received more DGA Award nominations than any director in history and, in 2000, he received the DGA's Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute and the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. More recently, Spielberg was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from Italy's David Di Donatello Committee.

For television, on the heels of "Saving Private Ryan," Spielberg and Tom Hanks executive produced the miniseries "Band of Brothers" for HBO and DreamWorks Television. Based on the book of the same name by the late Stephen Ambrose, the fact-based World War II project won both Emmy and Golden Globe Awards for Best Miniseries. Spielberg and Hanks are currently in development on an as-yet-untitled World War II miniseries, focusing on the battles in the Pacific theatre.

Last year, Spielberg won another Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries for "Steven Spielberg Presents Taken," a Sci Fi Channel drama about alien abduction, which he executive produced. He is currently developing another miniseries to air on the Sci Fi Channel called "Nine Lives." Also for television, Spielberg is currently executive producing "Into the West," an original limited series Western to air next year on the TNT cable network.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Spielberg was raised in the suburbs of Haddonfield, New Jersey and Scottsdale, Arizona. He started making amateur films while still in his teens, later studying film at California State University, Long Beach. In 1969, his 22-minute short "Amblin" was shown at the Atlanta Film Festival, which led to a deal with Universal, making him the youngest director ever to be signed to a long-term deal with a major Hollywood studio.

Four years later, he directed the suspenseful telefilm "Duel," which garnered both critical and audience attention. He made his feature film directorial debut on "The Sugarland Express" from a screenplay he co-wrote. In addition to the aforementioned films, his earlier film credits as a director include "Always," "Hook," and the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" sequels "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

Spielberg's more recent films include "Catch Me If You Can," starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, the futuristic thriller "Minority Report," starring Tom Cruise, and "The Terminal," starring Tom Hanks. He also wrote, directed and produced "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," which was realized from the vision of the late Stanley Kubrick. In 2000, Spielberg won the Stanley Kubrick Brittania Award for Excellence in Film, presented by BAFTA - Los Angeles.

In 1984, Spielberg formed his own production company, Amblin Entertainment. Under the Amblin banner, he has served as a producer or executive producer on more than a dozen films, including such successes as "Gremlins," "The Goonies," "Back to the Future I, II, and III," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "An American Tail," "The Land Before Time," "The Flintstones," "Casper," "Twister," "The Mask of Zorro," "Men in Black" and "Men in Black II." Amblin Entertainment also produces the hit series "ER" with Warner Bros. Television.

In October 1994, Spielberg partnered with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen to form the new studio DreamWorks SKG. Since then, the studio's successes have included three consecutive Best Picture OscarsR for "American Beauty," "Gladiator" and "A Beautiful Mind," the latter two in partnership with Universal.

Spielberg has also devoted his time and resources to many philanthropic causes. The impact of his experience making "Schindler's List" led him to establish the Righteous Persons Foundation using all his profits from the film. He also founded Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, which has recorded more than 50,000 Holocaust survivor testimonies. In addition, Spielberg executive produced "The Last Days," the Shoah Foundation's third documentary, which won the Academy AwardR for Best Documentary Feature. He is also the Chairman Emeritus of the Starbright Foundation, which combines the efforts of pediatric health care, technology and entertainment to empower seriously ill children.

PAULA WAGNER and Tom Cruise partnered to form C/W Productions in 1993, and have been based at Paramount Pictures for the past 12 years. The company has released eight diverse, groundbreaking films -- earning multiple awards, widespread critical praise and international box office success. Together Cruise and Wagner have produced films that range in scope from the action blockbusters Mission: Impossible and M:I 2 to Cameron Crowe's films Vanilla Sky and upcoming Elizabethtown, Alejandro Amenabar's chilling supernatural thriller The Others, as well as Robert Towne's critically acclaimed portrait of the late runner Steve Prefontaine, Without Limits and forthcoming adaptation of John Fante's novel Ask the Dust, starring Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek.

Wagner and Cruise were also producers on Ed Zwick's The Last Samurai starring Tom Cruise, and Billy Ray's directorial debut Shattered Glass, starring Hayden Christensen and Peter Sarsgaard. Wagner and Cruise are currently in pre-production on the third installment of the Mission: Impossible series, a franchise that has earned over a billion dollars to date.

Prior to producing, Wagner spent nearly 15 years at CAA as one of the industry's top talent agents. Before becoming an agent, Wagner was an accomplished stage actress, appearing at the Yale Repertory Theater as well as on and off-Broadway. Also a published playwright, she co-authored "Out of Our Father's House."

In 2001, Wagner was honored by Premiere magazine with the Women in Hollywood Icon Award, and was featured the following year in Bravo's "Women on Top," a documentary profiling top women in entertainment. In 2004, she returned as co-chair to the Hollywood Film Festival for the second year in a row and is a member of the American Cinematheque's Board of Directors. She has been the recipient of the Producers Guild Nova Award, as well as their Vision Award in 2004. Additionally, Wagner is on the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Mellon University and serves on the Executive Committee of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

Kathleen Kennedy's (Producer) record of achievement has made her one of the most successful executives in the film industry today. Among her credits are three of the highest grossing films in motion picture history: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park and The Sixth Sense, which she produced with Steven Spielberg, Gerald R. Molen and Frank Marshall, respectively. She currently heads The Kennedy/Marshall Company, which she founded alongside director/producer Frank Marshall in 1992. In 1999 and 2000, three films produced by The Kennedy/Marshall Company were released. The first, Universal's Snow Falling on Cedars, was directed by Scott Hicks, award-winning director of Shine. It was followed by The Sixth Sense, which starred Bruce Willis and received six Academy Award(r) nominations, including Best Picture. Next release was A Map of the World, starring Sigourney Weaver and Julianne Moore. The Kennedy/Marshall Company also recently produced the IMAX film Olympic Glory, which was released in May, 2000. In the summer of 1995, The Kennedy/Marshall Company released the Marshall-directed Congo, which Kennedy produced with Sam Mercer, and The Indian in the Cupboard, directed by Frank Oz and produced by Kennedy, Marshall and Jane Startz. That same year, Kennedy produced the Amblin Entertainment/Malpaso Production The Bridges of Madison County, directed by Clint Eastwood. It was followed by Amblin Entertainment's Jan DeBont-directed action thriller Twister, which Kennedy produced with Ian Bryce in 1996. Kennedy also served as executive producer on the Spielberg-directed Jurassic Park sequel The Lost World. Kennedy began a successful association with Steven Spielberg when she served as his production assistant on 1941. She went on to become his associate on Raiders of the Lost Ark, associate producer of Poltergeist and producer of E.T. While E.T. was becoming an international phenomenon, Spielberg, Kennedy and Marshall were already in production on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which she and Marshall produced with George Lucas. In 1982, Kennedy co-founded Amblin Entertainment with Spielberg and Marshall, for which she produced or executive-produced such films as The Flintstones, Hook, Always, Gremlins, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, Young Sherlock Holmes, The Goonies, Innerspace, The Money Pit, *batteries not included, Dad, Joe Versus the Volcano, Noises Off, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, Cape Fear and We're Back. Kennedy also teamed with Spielberg, Marshall and Quincy Jones to produce The Color Purple, which earned eleven Academy Award(r) nominations in 1985, including Best Picture. Later that same year, Kennedy, Spielberg and Marshall produced 1985's highest grossing film, Back to the Future, and later produced its two highly successful sequels-Back to the Future, Part II and Back to the Future, Part III. In 1998, Kennedy again earned the distinction of top grossing film of the year for Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, which she produced with Marshall and Robert Watts. She then went on to produce Empire of the Sun with Spielberg and Marshall, which the National Board of Review named Best Picture of the Year. Kennedy also served as executive producer on the critically acclaimed Spielberg-directed Holocaust drama Schindler's List, which garnered seven Academy Awards(r) in 1993, including Best Director and Best Picture. Kennedy also produced Marshall's 1990 directorial debut Arachnophobia with Richard Vane and re-teamed with Robert Watts to produce Marshall's second film, Alive, in 1993. In 2001, Kennedy produced the Spielberg-directed A.I. Artificial Intelligence with Bonnie Curtis. That same year, she produced Jurassic Park III with Spielberg and Gerald Molen. The end of 2001, she served as executive producer on M. Night Shyamalan's Signs, staring Mel Gibson, released August, 2002. In 2003, Kennedy produced (along with Marshall, Gary Ross and Jane Sindell) the critical and popular hit Seabiscuit, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards(r) and proved to be the biggest-selling drama on DVD for the year. Kennedy's latest project, War of the Worlds-directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise-opens nationwide June 29. The contemporary re-telling of H.G. Wells' seminal science fiction classic centers on the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind as seen through the eyes of one American family fighting to survive it. Kennedy produced the film, along with Colin Wilson. Also upcoming for Kennedy is the as-yet untitled Steven Spielberg Project, a historical drama set in the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics; the film will be a Universal Pictures/DreamWorks co-production, directed by Spielberg. Kennedy also currently serves as the President of the Producers Guild of America, as well as the Chair of the Producers Council Board of Governors. Raised in the small Northern California towns of Weaverville and Redding, Kennedy graduated from San Diego State University with a degree in telecommunications and film. While still a student, she began working at a local San Diego television station. Following jobs as a camera operator, video editor, floor director and news production coordinator, Kennedy produced the station's talk show, You're On. She then relocated to Los Angeles and worked with director John Milius prior to beginning her association with Spielberg.

COLIN WILSON (Producer) frequently collaborates with Steven Spielberg, with whom he began as an editor. He associate produced "Jurassic Park," co-produced "The Flintstones," and produced "Casper", "Amistad", "Small Soldiers", "The Lost World", "The Haunting", "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider", "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" and most recently, "Troy".

DAVID KOEPP most recently served as writer-director of the films "Secret Window," "Stir of Echoes," "The Trigger Effect," and "Suspicious." He wrote or co-wrote the films "Spider-Man," "Panic Room," "Snake Eyes," "The Lost World: Jurassic Park," "Mission: Impossible," "The Paper," "Jurassic Park," "Carlito's Way," "Death Becomes Her," "Bad Influence," and "Apartment Zero."

Koepp was born in Wisconsin and went to film school at UCLA. He lives in New York City.

MICHAEL KAHN (Editor) has won three Academy AwardsR for Best Editing for his work on films directed by Steven Spielberg. He won his first OscarR in 1982 for the blockbuster "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and was also honored by his peers with an Eddie Award from the American Cinema Editors. In 1994, he received his second OscarR for the editing of "Schindler's List," for which he also won a BAFTA Award. His most recent OscarR came for his work on Spielberg's World War II drama "Saving Private Ryan," which brought him another Eddie Award. In addition, Kahn has garnered OscarR nominations for his work on Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," as well as Adrian Lyne's "Fatal Attraction," winning another BAFTA Award for the last.

Kahn has edited nearly all of Steven Spielberg's films, most recently working with the director on "Catch Me if You Can," "Minority Report," and "The Terminal." His other Spielberg collaborations include "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," "Amistad," "Jurassic Park" and the sequel "The Lost World: Jurassic Park," "Hook," "Always," "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "1941," and "The Color Purple."

Kahn has also edited a wide range of films for other directors, including "The Haunting," "Twister," "Casper," "Alive," "Arachnophobia," "The Goonies," "Poltergeist" and "Eyes of Laura Mars." His most recent credit is "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," for director Brad Silberling.

DENNIS MUREN, A.S.C. is the Senior Visual Effects Supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic. Recipient of eight Academy AwardsRfor Best Achievement in Visual Effects, Muren is actively involved in the evolution of the company, as well as the design and development of new techniques and equipment. In June 1999, Muren became the first visual effects artist to be honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Muren's many credits include, the first five released episodes of the "Star Wars" saga, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Dragonslayer," "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "Young Sherlock Holmes," "Innerspace," "Willow," "The Abyss," "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," "Jurassic Park," "Mission: Impossible," "Twister," "The Lost World: Jurassic Park," "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," and, most recently, "The Hulk." He also received an Academy AwardR for Technical Achievement for his role in creating the Go-Motion Figure Mover.

RICK CARTER (Production Designer) has been designing sets for the worlds of film and television for over 25 years. Among his recent credits are Steven Spielberg's "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence," for which Carter was nominated for both the AFI Production Designer of the Year and the Art Directors Guild Award; and the acclaimed Robert Zemeckis film "Cast Away."

Carter previously teamed with Spielberg on "Jurassic Park," "The Lost World: Jurassic Park," "Amistad" (which earned another Art Directors Guild Award nomination), and the Spielberg-produced anthology series "Amazing Stories." Carter has also collaborated with Zemeckis several times, including the films "What Lies Beneath," "Death Becomes Her," "Back to the Future Part II" and "Part III," and "Forrest Gump," for which he earned an Academy AwardR nomination.

Born and raised in Miami Beach, Florida, DEBRA ZANE is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. After college, Zane studied acting at the William Esper Studio in New York City before moving to Los Angeles.

She began her casting career as an assistant to David Rubin. After seven years with Mr. Rubin, ending with their happy collaboration as partners on such films as "Get Shorty" and "Men in Black," Zane created Debra Zane Casting in 1996.

Directors such as Sam Mendes, Gary Ross, Ridley Scott, Steven Soderbergh and Steven Speilberg have regularly called upon Ms. Zane to collaborate on the casting of their films. Her list of credits includes "Pleasantville," "American Beauty," "The Limey," "Stuart Little," "Galaxy Quest," "Traffic," "Ocean's Eleven," "Road to Perdition," "Solaris," "Seabiscuit," "Matchstick Men," "Ocean's Twelve," and Ridley Scott's soon-to-be-released "Kingdom of Heaven."

Zane's recent collaborations with Steven Speilberg include "The Terminal" and "Catch Me if You Can."

A member of the Casting Society of America, Zane has won their Artios Award twice for the casts of "American Beauty" and "Traffic." The Screen Actors Guild also honored Zane as the casting director for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Motion Picture for "American Beauty" and "Traffic."

Zane is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

She is the wife of Jeff Jarkow, whom she has known since elementary school. They are the proud parents of Ben and Amy.

JANUSZ KAMINSKI (Director of Photography), a two-time Academy AwardR winner, took home his first OscarR for his black-and-white cinematography on Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List." For his work on that film, Kaminski was also honored with a BAFTA Award and numerous critics awards, including the Los Angeles and New York Film Critics Awards for Best Cinematography. He won his second Academy AwardR for his cinematography on Spielberg's World War II drama "Saving Private Ryan." In addition, Kaminski received a third Best Cinematography OscarR nomination for Spielberg's "Amistad."

Kaminski more recently collaborated with Spielberg on the '60s-era dramatic comedy "Catch Me If You Can," the futuristic thriller "Minority Report," and "The Terminal." He also served as the director of photography on the Spielberg-directed films "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" and "The Lost World: Jurassic Park." Kaminski's other film credits include Cameron Crowe's hit "Jerry Maguire," "How to Make an American Quilt," "Trouble Bound," "Tall Tale" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

A native of Poland, Kaminski came to the United States in 1981. He studied cinematography at Columbia College in Chicago, receiving his B.A. in 1987. After graduating, he relocated to Los Angeles to become a cinematography fellow at the prestigious American Film Institute, and began his professional career on the feature "Fallen Angel." He also lensed two television projects: the Amblin production "Class of '61," and the acclaimed cable movie "Wildflower," directed by Diane Keaton.

In 2000, Kaminski made his feature film directorial debut with the thriller "Lost Souls," starring Winona Ryder, Ben Chaplin and John Hurt. He has also directed a number of commercials.

JOHN WILLIAMS (Composer) is one of the most esteemed and prolific film composers of all time, and the recipient of numerous honors, including five Academy AwardsR, three Golden Globe Awards, a British Academy Award, four Emmy Awards and eighteen Grammy Awards. Williams won three of his five Oscars for his work on the Steven Spielberg films "Jaws," "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial," and "Schindler's List." His other Academy Awards came for the unforgettable "Star Wars" score and the scoring of the screen version of "Fiddler on the Roof."

Williams has also earned a remarkable 43 Oscar nominations - more than any other living person - most recently for "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." In 2003, he was nominated for his work for Spielberg's "Catch Me if You Can," and in 2002, he received dual nominations for his scores for Spielberg's "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" and the blockbuster "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." A master of every genre, he has created many of the most familiar themes in movie history, including the Oscar-nominated scores for "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Superman," and all three of Spielberg's "Indiana Jones" movies: "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." Williams' other Academy Award nominations have included Best Original Score nods for "The Patriot," "Saving Private Ryan," "Amistad," "Nixon," "Sabrina," "JFK," "Home Alone," "Born on the Fourth of July," "Empire of the Sun," "The River," "The Towering Inferno" and "The Poseidon Adventure," to name only a few.

Williams' long association with Spielberg began with the director's first feature, "The Sugarland Express," and has encompassed almost all of Spielberg's films, more recently including "Minority Report," "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," and "The Terminal." Williams' latest film franchise credits include "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"; and "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace," "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones" and the upcoming "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith."

In addition to his feature film work, Williams created official themes for several Olympic games, and also wrote an orchestral work to accompany Spielberg's film tribute to the new millennium, "American Journey." He has also composed numerous concert pieces, including two symphonies, and a cello concerto premiered by Yo- Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1994, as well as concertos for flute, tuba, violin, clarinet, bassoon and trumpet. Williams was also Music Director of the Boston Pops Orchestra for 14 highly successful seasons from 1980 to 1993. He still holds the title of Laureate Conductor of that famed ensemble, as well as that of Artist in Residence at Tanglewood. As a guest conductor, he appears regularly with many of the world's most renowned orchestras.

JOANNA JOHNSTON's (Costume Designer) feature film credits as a costume designer began with the 1987 horror fantasy "Hellraiser"; directly following that, she created Jessica Rabbit's trademark form-fitting evening gown for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" for director Robert Zemeckis and producer Steven Spielberg. She has gone on to collaborate many times with Spielberg ("Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" and "Saving Private Ryan") and Zemeckis ("The Polar Express," "Cast Away," "Contact," "Forrest Gump," "Death Becomes Her," and "Back to the Future Parts II and III.")

Other credits include Ron Howard's romantic epic "Far and Away"; Lawrence Kasdan's "French Kiss"; M. Night Shyamalan's "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable"; "About a Boy"; and "Love Actually." She earned a Costume Designers Guild Award nomination for her work on "About a Boy." Earlier in her career, she worked on a number of high-profile films including "The Color Purple," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "The Pirates of Penzance," "Tess," and "Death on the Nile."

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