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平頭日記
Jarhead

改篇自連續9星期高踞紐約時報最暢銷書冠軍的同名戰爭回憶錄

繼《雷霆救兵》後，最扣人心弦最真實的戰場故事

《美麗有罪》奧斯卡導演Sam Mendes
《明日之後》積克格寧賀(Jake Gyllenhaal)、奧斯卡影帝占美霍士(Jamie Foxx)

故事大綱
事先聲明：這不是一齣戰爭電影。這是一個來自戰場前線的真實故事，一個用血和淚寫成的真實故事。

1990年的夏天，二十歲的美國海軍陸戰隊成員安東尼史威福(Anthony Swofford)、被派往中東酷熱的荒漠，在烈日下滴著汗水，與戰友參與當年震動世界的波斯灣戰爭。身為一位狙擊手，這位平頭大兵在浩瀚的沙漠中，經歷不為人道的寂寞和恐懼。眼前是寸草不生的黃沙，身後背負著三代均為軍人的家族歷史，心中則懷著立功揚名的理想；而戰爭，卻在千里之外的美國總統決定下，一觸即發…

2003年，從戰場上歸來的安東尼史威福(Anthony Swofford)推出個人回憶錄《平頭日記》，從前線軍人角度描寫戰爭殘酷實況，以及士兵的矛盾心態，旋即連續九星期高踞紐約時報最暢銷排行榜冠軍。憑《美麗有罪》勇奪奧斯卡最佳導演的Sam Mendes，看完傳記後後深受感動，立即找來有份參演《明日之後》的積克格寧賀(Jake Gyllenhaal)、奧斯卡影帝占美霍士(Jamie Foxx)、以及金像影帝基斯谷巴(Chris Copper)等好戲之人，用電影將原著重新演譯一次。這是繼《雷霆救兵》之後，最扣人心弦的戰場真實故事。

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

"Like most good and great Marines, I hated the Corps. I hated being a Marine because more than all of the things in the world I wanted to be-smart, famous, sexy, oversexed, drunk, f***ed, high, alone, famous, smart, known, understood, loved, forgiven, oversexed, drunk, high, smart, sexy-more than all of these, I was a Marine. A jarhead."

-Anthony Swofford, Jarhead

In the summer of 1990, Anthony Swofford, a 20-year-old third-generation enlistee, got sent to the deserts of Saudi Arabia to fight in the first Gulf War.

In 2003, his memories of that time in that place became the best-selling book Jarhead. Swofford wrote with the urgency, immediacy, honesty and humor that could only come from someone who had lived through the experience itself.

Swofford's book spent nine weeks on The New York Times list of best sellers and was hailed in that same publication as "some kind of classic…a bracing memoir of the 1991 Persian Gulf War that will go down with the best books ever written about military life. A wild passage familiar to millions of young men but rarely so well revealed."

The Times' Michiko Kakutani noted that Jarhead was "an irreverent but meditative voice that captures both the juiced-up machismo of jarhead culture and the existential loneliness of combat. He makes us understand the exacting and deadly art practiced by a sniper…the rhythm of boredom and terror of preparing for an enemy attack and the terrible physical and psychological costs of combat and the emotional bonds shared by the soldiers."

Here was the unvarnished story straight from the mouth of the then 20-year-old kid, who told of a very different war from the one delivered in print or over the air. Here was the war from the ground up with images of burning oil wells shooting flames into the night sky, like comets that had fallen to the earth; rowdy, horny, dusty recruits, exhilarated and also terrified that at any moment, over the next hill, the war might begin; young men, suddenly dropped down in an unforgiving terrain, seeking diversion in a game of gas mask football, awaiting care packages of letters and porn, betting on staged scorpion fights and getting blind drunk to celebrate a Christmas away from their families. But out of this hellish situation ultimately arose unlikely friendships, fierce loyalty and do-or-die camaraderie-a brotherhood of jarheads sworn to be always faithful…semper fi.

Red Wagon producers, Academy AwardR winner DOUGLAS WICK (Gladiator) and LUCY FISHER (upcoming Memoirs of a Geisha), immediately snapped up the rights to the book and commissioned screenwriter and ex-Marine WILLIAM BROYLES, JR. (Academy AwardR nominee for Apollo 13) to adapt Swofford's memoir. Wick and Fisher also sought out the only director they felt could bring Jarhead to the motion picture screen-Academy AwardR-winning director SAM MENDES, who had previously probed beneath the surface calm of suburbia in American Beauty and examined the intersection of family ties and criminal violence in Road to Perdition.

Mendes and the filmmaking team now collaborate on the next generation of war movies with Jarhead, an unforgettable view of war as seen through the eyes of one Marine-as if J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield had been deployed to the Gulf.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL (upcoming Brokeback Mountain, The Day After Tomorrow) heads a brilliant ensemble cast and tackles the central role of Tony "Swoff" Swofford, who transforms from third-generation enlistee with half-formed visions of valor into a veteran, the only one who knows the true cost of war. PETER SARSGAARD (Kinsey, Shattered Glass) portrays Troy, Swoff's partner in their elite unit of Marine scout/snipers, whose unflappable exterior conceals a stormy and mercurial nature. OscarR winner JAMIE FOXX (Ray, Collateral) plays Staff Sergeant Sykes, a lifer who commands the Surveillance and Target Acquisition (STA) Platoon with bulldog tenacity and an unwavering sense of nationalism. And OscarR winner CHRIS COOPER (Seabiscuit, Adaptation) portrays Lieutenant Colonel Kazinski, the commander who itches to unleash his killing machine on an overmatched enemy.

Joining director Mendes behind the camera are a group of esteemed and award-winning film artisans, including director of photography ROGER DEAKINS (five-time OscarR nominee for such films as The Man Who Wasn't There and The Shawshank Redemption), production designer DENNIS GASSNER (Road to Perdition, Academy AwardR winner for Bugsy), editor WALTER MURCH (who won OscarsR for both The English Patient and Apocalypse Now) and costume designer ALBERT WOLSKY (OscarR winner for both Bugsy and All That Jazz). Providing the musical landscape that underscores Swofford's external and internal battles are composer THOMAS NEWMAN (Road to Perdition, American Beauty and a seven-time Academy AwardR nominee) and music supervisor RANDALL POSTER (The Aviator, The School of Rock). SAM MERCER (Signs, The Sixth Sense) and BOBBY COHEN (Memoirs of a Geisha, The Cider House Rules) serve as executive producers, and the casting is by DEBRA ZANE (Traffic, American Beauty).

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Recruiting the Filmmakers

"When I first read the book, what I responded to was the fact that the war was viewed through the prism of a very specific kind of person: one who was trying to deal with and discover who he was. I was enthralled by the mixture of machismo, comedy, surrealism and wry observation," director Sam Mendes recalls about first reading the Gulf War memoir Jarhead. "It was a war book like no other, about a war like no other, that might possibly be a war movie like no other.

"Every Marine has a different experience, every platoon has a different experience, every battalion has a different experience-even of the same war. I was interested in making a movie about this particular fascinating individual and how his experiences in this war shaped him.

"What we remember about the Gulf War," continues Mendes, "were these clean little images of these tiny little bombs perfectly hitting these toy towns, bereft of any sense of human life at all. A soldier on the ground has absolutely no idea of what's going on. To me, the interesting thing now is to enter it through a person on the ground, because that's where we weren't allowed to go in this particular war. Tony's experience in the desert took what we consider normal about war and turned it on its head-as if Salinger were dealing with the Gulf War."

Swofford's best-selling and critically acclaimed book about life as a Marine in the early 1990s had been praised for many things, notably the painful honesty and irreverence with which the narrator viewed his world-a first-person observation from a third-generation soldier (Swofford was conceived in 1969 when his father was on leave from Vietnam) of the war machinery that surrounded him. In place of the classic imagery of scrubbed, uniformed heroes dedicated to a cause were young recruits in sweaty desert gear with a passion for rock music, a predilection for pornography and a growing and unfulfilled bloodlust. Having been trained for the kill and then stationed in a barren, inhospitable, surreal landscape, the testosterone-charged crucible produced alpha-male infighting (since there was no enemy in sight), debauched behavior and general disrespect for everyone from their commanding officers to the people they were sent to liberate…and all of it narrated by a soldier who is, at first, more at home reading Camus than adjusting to the harsh realities of jarhead life.

"If I was going to tell any story about the Gulf War, the one that I needed to tell was my own," says Swofford. "I was 18-years-old when I joined the Marine Corps in December of 1988. The Marine Corps itself is very seductive for certain young men. Once I was in the infantry, I saw a group of guys who carried better rifles and had better gear. I found out they were the snipers, and there was a mystique about them."

Swofford was then given the opportunity to advance from being a "grunt" to becoming a scout/sniper in the elite STA (Surveillance and Target Acquisition) Platoon. "The grunt fights for 15,000 poorly placed rounds; the sniper dies for that one perfect shot-I was hooked."

Producing partners Lucy Fisher and Doug Wick, who purchased the book just as it was hitting the streets, believed in the timelessness of the material and the singularity of the author's painful, funny and observant voice. Their faith was confirmed by screenwriter William Broyles' own experiences as a Marine in Vietnam.

With a son in the military, Broyles identified with Swofford's story, as both a father to a young soldier and someone who'd seen combat first-hand. He says, "Tony's generation had a more clear sense of purpose. For whatever reason, they all wanted to be there. We were drafted. And by the time I got there in 1969, we had no idea what we were there for."

"When I first spoke with Bill about adapting the book, he started explaining to me, from his own experiences of serving in Vietnam, that it's a club you never leave," says producer Doug Wick. "I was kind of surprised to hear this sophisticated writer-whose time in the service was nearly four decades ago-talk about how he was a Marine forever, how those guys who knew each other so briefly, so long ago, felt linked forever. It struck me that this was a story worth telling."

Broyles adds, "When I got back from Vietnam, I missed having my weapon. There's some kind of primal connection you have with your rifle-it's like a cowboy and his horse. You take the cowboy off his horse and he still walks bowlegged because they are one thing, just like you and your rifle."

As told by Swofford and echoed by Broyles, soldiers in wartime experience something outside of the realm of understanding of most civilians-that adrenalized high that comes from the relentless intensity of everything the soldier does, from the seeming monotony of training and drills to the actual time in battle. For them, the viewing of such now classic films as Apocalypse Now, Platoon and Full Metal Jacket works as an aphrodisiac, whetting their appetites for the coming conflict and celebrating the beauty of their fighting skills. These themes, combined with Swoff's own unique story of growing up in this hothouse environment, would make a screen adaptation a tricky feat to pull off.

Lucy Fisher comments, "The book is unique in both style and content, and we knew it would require some extraordinary talents to make it cinematic. It's a very literary work, a coming-of-age story in the midst of chaos that's alternately funny and terrifying. Once Bill had a first draft screenplay, we set our sights on the one director we believed had the vision to put it all together: Sam Mendes. We wanted somebody with the intelligence to deal with the actual seriousness of the topic and yet know how to make it funny-Sam does that brilliantly."

Wick adds, "American Beauty was 'Sam Mendes Goes to the Suburbs.' Jarhead, which has some of that same sensibility, is a little bit 'American Beauty Goes to War.'"

Fisher picks up, "Sam is such as stylist and such a humanist that the fact we saw so little of the human side of this war was a unique creative opportunity for him. What was unusual from the public's perspective is that so few images from this war were ever shown on television, in newspapers or in magazines. So, this movie will contain imagery that you will never have seen in any other way."

"I think you need time, you need hindsight, to begin to understand what you have lived through, particularly if you're going through something as seismic as a war," observes Mendes. "As often happens with huge historical events, you need a bit of distance to fully understand them. The Gulf War is certainly a different event now from what it appeared to be then."

As viewed through the lens of mass media at the time, Operation Desert Storm seemed like the perfect war-if one can apply such an oxymoron. And as such, it proved to be a brand new experience, even for the most seasoned soldier.

Mendes offers, "It's fascinating to me that it took ten or twelve years before a lot of the guys wrote memoirs about this first Gulf War. You've got to ask yourself, 'Why were there so few in the immediate aftermath of the war? Why did it take this much time?' And I think the answer is that what seemed to them at the time almost a non-war now, in retrospective, seems much more interesting. I think we realize now what it was part of, historically speaking. The intensity of that experience has a huge amount to tell us about what's going on now."

Mendes and Broyles worked on many drafts of the script, pulling Swofford's story out of the non-linear episodes chronicled in the memoir and concentrating on his time while in training and in the desert. (Swofford was deployed on August 14, 1990, just two days after his twentieth birthday. His battalion, the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Marines, was one of the first units to reach the Gulf and was instantly dispersed into the desert. They immediately dug in and waited for the fighting to begin…)

Mendes explains, "Immediately after a war is finished you get the factual accounts, the details. What we've tried to do is take the feelings, the impressions, the subjective version of events to create a different account of this war."

Broyles adds, "Our story is unromantic and apolitical. It's about young men who join the Marine Corps trying to find a place for themselves in life."

Enlisting the Platoon

"I'd read the book on a plane and came away really moved by it-it was purely emotional and without any of the cliches of other war stories," says Jake Gyllenhaal. "When I got the script, I was told by Sam [Mendes] that Bill [the screenwriter] had served in Vietnam and, to be honest, I had some concerns about that.

"To me, Vietnam was a different generation, a war that everyone of that generation was involved with in one way or another. I was 11 when the Gulf War started. There is a kind of weird distance from it. We don't have the same experience of it that the Vietnam generation had of that war."

Gyllenhaal's concerns were alleviated once he read Broyles' adaptation of Swofford's memoir. He was instantly eager to take on the challenge of portraying the author-but found he would have to wait a bit.

After his first reading for Mendes, Gyllenhaal got the ominous feeling that he didn't nail the audition. After a few months had passed and the actor heard that the director was meeting with other actors, Jake left an impassioned message on Mendes' voicemail ("I'll do whatever you want me to do, but I'm the guy to be in this movie!"). A month later, the director informed him he had the part.

In addition to downplaying his chances of securing the role, Gyllenhaal underestimated the physical-and mental-transformation the role would bring about.

"When the other guys and I first got our jarhead haircuts, I was really into it-and then, as soon as it happened, it was odd to me," Gyllenhaal recalls. "But I think that feeling was appropriate. I think that Swoff likes to stay apart from the group. He's an observer as well as a team player, and Sam created an atmosphere in which I could observe and be a part of a group simultaneously. I always felt an interesting juxtaposition of feeling like I was an integral part of the platoon while simultaneously feeling apart from it. I think that was Sam's intention."

Peter Sarsgaard-who plays Troy, Swoff's friend and spotter/partner in the STA-offers, "The main reason I wanted to do this film was because I felt like it acknowledged the hardships of what it means to be in a war. We just got a little touch of it through being in this movie. I mean, in the end, we're just actors.

"What was the most difficult for us were the elements, mostly. We were either freezing our asses off-being soaked in the rain for 12 hours or out at night in the desert-or we were frying-working in the sun in full combat gear or making our way through a sandstorm. But it's a little obnoxious to complain about things like that when there were guys over there who did just that for months and had to face live ammo."

Another aspect of military life for the first Gulf War soldiers-and all soldiers who served prior to the gender integration of the armed forces-that presented a period of adjustment for new actor/enlistees was the absence of women in their midst.

"I've gone through real bonding experiences working with groups of actors, but there's something about being around a large group that's almost exclusively male that's totally unique," Sarsgaard explains. "I mean, there's the script supervisor and a camera loader, and maybe only one or two other women on the crew. Even the hair and makeup people were nearly all men.

"Frankly, I think we all got sick of it," he laughs. "Male banter gets really raunchy, and you get a little tired of it. There's something about the banter that's tied in with the violence, and it's usually always centered around sex. Sex and violence-there you have it. Factions form, too. I think of all the movie sets I've been on, this one has had more bickering-and more love-than any other."

Staying appropriately out of the grunt grappling was platoon leader Jamie Foxx.

"I think it's very appropriate that Jamie Foxx plays our staff sergeant," says Gyllenhaal. "Everyone respects him as an actor. He keeps himself apart from the guys, quietly playing chess between scenes. We all play him, and he always wins. There's a pecking order in the Marine Corps just like there is on a movie set. And it's just so easy to look to Jamie as our leader. I instinctively and naturally look up to him."

Foxx comments, "One of the first things Sam told us was, 'Read the book, but don't take it to heart, because the movie is going to be something different.' The book was just one man's thinking of how he was affected by the war. The movie lets you see everybody's side of the thing. My side is with the Marines."

Prior to filming, Foxx also spoke with a friend who happens to be a Marine: "He's African American, so he's always had to work harder and be sharper. But he said once you become a Marine, that's your family. There's no color except the color of your uniform. You'd never survive without the camaraderie."

Another Academy AwardR winner, Chris Cooper, was charged with bringing the zealous, smart and charismatic Lieutenant Colonel Kazinski to life. Kazinski wields his leadership skills like a sideshow barker or Vegas M.C.-he is a motivator who knows how to whip up a crowd. But beneath the huckstering is a shrewd soldier with battle scars and medals to back up his rank.

"In a life-threatening situation, a group of young men are looking toward someone for leadership. They can tell when they're being fed a line," shares Cooper. "Kazinski is a motivator who gets how to energize a crowd, and he understands that a good commanding officer must wear many different hats. He knows when it's time to be a best friend, when to be a father figure and when to drive his men into the ground. Because this soldier is responsible for the lives of his troops, he believes he must have the smarts and the skills to back up his zeal. It was this dynamic that made Kazinski an interesting character to me."

Foxx's Staff Sergeant Sykes represents the lifer, the type of soldier whose unshakeable belief in the Corps way of life is all consuming-the compass by which he steers his course; Cooper's Kazinski, the same. For the Marines under their command, however, life has many more shades of gray than the black and white way of life lived by their leaders. For them, the party line is a lot harder to swallow.

Lucas Black plays Chris Kruger, company rebel, who seems to be one of the only ones in the troop with any concern of the politics that got them into the war.

"My character likes to joke around, and he tries to get on some people's nerves by asking a lot of questions," says Black. "He knows a lot about what's going on, and he likes to put questions in people's minds-why are we here and what are we doing here?" Kruger's questioning nature is made evident in a scene where the platoon is issued additional pills to protect them from potential chemical and biological weapon attacks-issued as back-up to their NBC (nuclear/biological/chemical weapons) suits. After ascertaining that the military has yet to test the experimental drugs, Kruger is the only one in his unit who does not swallow the meds.

The other soldiers in Swofford's unit run the gamut from rebel to rank-and-file: Evan Jones, as the loudmouthed, cocky Fowler; the shy social misfit Fergus O'Donnell, played by Brian Geraghty; Jacob Vargas' committed fighter Cortez; and the imposing Cuban American Escobar, played by Laz Alonso.

It was Mendes' intention that all the actors experience as much of Marine life as possible. With the reality of time constraints and filming schedule, however, the director knew that the best he could hope for was a somewhat superficial transmutation. Yet he was determined to at least give the actors a taste of the "real thing."

Prior to the start of principal photography (which itself was preceded by a thorough three-week rehearsal), the platoon of 13 actors/soldiers attended a four-day boot camp at George Air Force Base, led by military advisor Sergeant Major James Dever (who has assisted large-scale filmed military operations in projects such as The Last Samurai and We Were Soldiers).

"We lived in tents-the exact kind of tents that they would be using in their camps out in the desert-and we slept on cots," Dever explains. "And we made sure the training they received was the same as what the Marines receive before going to the desert. It was basic Marine Corps training, albeit sped up. The actors were very motivated.

"We issued equipment to them the first day. We showed them how to put on their combat gear, where to put the canteens, the magazine pouches, things like that so they would understand the equipment. No walking-they had to run everywhere. We went on forced marches carrying full packs. Every morning we went through physical exercises and drills. We gave classes at night on the NBC suits and protective masks. They worked hard, but there was no complaining. And everything was very quick."

"I wanted them to have some idea of what it felt like," says Mendes. "But it was nothing compared to what Marines go through. I'm one of those people who gets bored of hearing actors say, 'We went to boot camp, and we know what it feels like to be Marines.' They have no idea what it feels like to be Marines, and neither do I. What I wanted them to have was a physical knowledge of certain things so they could accurately portray Marines.

"Did I push them physically beyond the point that I normally would with an actor?" he continues. "Yes, absolutely, because they're acting physically. They're experiencing the pain, the exhaustion, the heat. I wasn't going to push them to the point where I had collapsed actors on my hands, but I wanted them to go a little further than they would go normally."

Mendes notes that the combination of the subject matter, the setting, the testosterone and commitment made for an intense experience for everyone involved: "I feel like there's something that went on between all the actors in this production that they'll carry with them back into their private lives. I think they were affected deeply by the depersonalizing influence of being in the military. I think there's a certain type of human being that seeks that-to be part of a team, to be part of something bigger than themselves, to lose themselves in something with a grand objective.

"But I think you'll find that they are opposite to the types who want to be an actor," he continues. "I think the friction between those two has led to a lot of what has gone on on-set. It's made each performance a struggle for individuality within the context of a group. I wanted to take the actors by surprise-I wanted it to be a journey of discovery for them. Coming from the theatre, the process, the journey is its own end result. And I think here, this journey has been a fascinating experiment-for all of us."

Mendes concludes, "I think it's very difficult for most human beings to sublimate where they stand in the world, put that on hold and just be a body-because at the end of the day, that's all you are when you're in a war situation. There's a reason why everyone looks the same, because fundamentally, they are the same. You have to be well trained to spot any insignia anywhere on a Marine uniform: no names, nothing. Everyone looks the same. It's deep in the psychology of the Marine Corps. It's beyond my comprehension on some level. But it's also something I hugely admire and respect because it's very, very selfless."

Welcome to the Production

Location shooting in the original setting where Swofford found himself in 1990 was never an option, so filmmakers searched for venues to stand in for a variety of locales where the main action of Jarhead takes place.

Filming began on the soundstages of Universal Studios; principal photography would end almost exactly five months later in the desert of Glamis, California.

"One of the great ironies of the movie," notes Mendes, "was that the filming of it lasted five months…which is exactly the length of time the soldiers in Tony's story were in the desert together."

The first location work took place on George Air Force Base in Victorville, California. Closed during the BRAC (Base Reassignment and Closure) movement of the early 1990s, the sprawling facility still houses military operations and is temporary residence for personnel in transit to more permanent assignments.

One of the scenes shot there depicts troops loading into planes for the flight to the Gulf. On the morning of the filming, real military planes carrying U.S. troops landed near the 747 being boarded by Jarhead's simulated soldiers. There was some mingling between the movie extras and military personnel, each curious about the business that the other would imminently embark upon-along with an acknowledgement that only one 747 would be leaving the tarmac. The chance encounter allowed everyone involved an opportunity to try on a new perspective-if only for a moment-and view his own job from another point of view. Most involved in the production came away with a new appreciation of the world to which they were returning at the end of the day's shoot.

George Air Force Base is currently owned by the city of Victorville, which is working in concert with a group of developers to transform it into a mixed-used facility offering private housing and shopping. Though it is still being used for some training and transport, the U.S. military no longer has a say over who utilizes the property. The Jarhead production was a welcomed visitor.

In any re-creating historical event-rather one person's perspective of the time-film production runs the risk of either constructing a museum piece or modifying the story and/or setting to fit with current attitudes and mores. Neither choice was acceptable to the Jarhead filmmakers and cast, who were committed to filmically depicting Swofford's personal experiences.

One of the unique challenges for the production team was in the re-creation of scenes showing military action. The Gulf War was uniquely apparatus-driven (none of which would be provided to the movie by a cooperating military), and despite the perception that it had been "covered" by the media, it was a war in which few were familiar with the actual details of what occurred on the ground and one that failed to impart any strong imagery.

"With any work that tries to be accurate in its depictions, there's the risk of getting every detail right and yet missing the spirit," says Wick. "We took great care in the details. We had military experts like Sergeant Major James Dever, one of the world's best production designers in Dennis Gassner and one of the top costume designers in Albert Wolsky. But ultimately, the goal was to re-create the spirit."

The director says, "These Marines were put through very extreme experiences in 1990. They were subjected to intense training and then shipped off to this moonscape that is the desert-which had the effect of making them feel absolutely and utterly out of touch with the world but, perhaps, more in touch with themselves. And the movie is filled with moments in which they act out what they think the war might be, or how they should be when it starts, or what they might do and what they might say. But the reality is that it's unlike anything they ever expected. They have a boy's idea of what war is. The one thing I can guarantee you-even though I've never been to war-is no war is exactly what people expect. It is either faster or slower, more violent or less violent. It creeps up on you in the middle of the night or it smacks you in the face at the point when you least expect it. And Tony's story shows us that."

The company moved from Victorville to Holtville Air Strip east of the town of El Centro, California, in Imperial County, the southernmost county in the state of California. Little is known about this airfield, including its real name, purpose or date of construction. Despite its 2,400-foot length of asphalt runway, USGS (United States Geographical Survey) topographical maps from 1969-1992 never indicated the presence of an airfield at this location; the only archival evidence of its existence is a single aerial photo from 2002. Its proximity to the Chocolate Mountains Naval Aerial Gunnery Range suggests it may have been constructed as a target airfield or as an "expeditionary" airfield for training use by AV-8 Harriers from an air base in nearby Yuma, Arizona.

At this location, the production built its Saudi base camp, as well as the road between Kuwait City and Basrah-"The Highway of Death," so-called because of the incinerated Iraqi combatants and civilians whose remains littered the thoroughfare (the only major north-south road in and out of Kuwait, which rendered it a prime target for Allied bombers).

On the other side of El Centro, north of a gypsum manufacturing plant (called Plaster City), lay a section of privately owned land; here the company set down for several weeks on the plains below Superstition Mountain.

One pivotal scene shot in this location showed Swoff's unit enduring friendly fire from a passing F-14 jet (which was rented by the production), with the aircraft buzzing the Marines a few hundred feet above their heads-obviously, the crew experienced the impossible nearness of the jet as well.

The proximity of a fighter jet was not the only challenging aspect of filming within range of Superstition Mountain. The Navy's Blue Angels (training nearby) made some unscheduled passes over the area during filming. The production was also beset by violent windstorms that literally sandblasted everything and everyone within miles; a few shots of miserable soldiers enduring sandstorms actually show the somewhat miserable actors enduring real sandstorms while filming.

From the southernmost points in California, the company moved across the Mexican border to a 100-mile stretch of salt flats in Baja-the Mexican government had fortunately granted permission for filming. Mendes and his crew chose the area for its flat, wide expanses, where scenes could be filmed in which the vista appears to stretch into infinity on all sides. Specially constructed (and strictly supervised) roads had to be constructed into the barren environs, as the flats are a protected wildlife area of Mexico.

"We went to the salt flats in Mexico to take advantage of about 270 degrees of endless, surreal desert that is very much like a character in the film," says executive producer Sam Mercer. "We only had two weeks down there and lots of scenes to shoot at a time-and we'd already been on the road for about 10 weeks. There were a number of challenges, from getting 350 crew members across the border to keeping the morale up, not to mention an hour-and-a-half of travel every day…the set itself was located seven miles in from the nearest asphalt road.

"Our biggest challenge, though, was figuring out how we could turn this environment-where there was literally nothing, in the middle of nowhere-into a working film set," says Mercer. "First, we conducted a technical scout to determine where our guys were going to pitch their tents and build the berms [dirt mounds] that would protect them. Once we pinpointed that, we had to figure out how we could logistically get the company there. We had to create an infrastructure for ourselves, including a road system, water, power, security and lights at night. It became our own military operation."

But into every such Herculean undertaking a little rain must fall…and in the case of Southern California and Northern Baja, Mexico-in the spring of 2005-it turned out to be a series of downpours.

"We couldn't have predicted that this was an El Nino year, and we'd run into rain problems throughout the shoot," says Mercer. "The weather slowed up construction severely at the Mexican site, where the normally hard, dry flats were turned into muddy quicksand. The set kept getting washed away, and the bulldozers kept getting stuck-it was horrendous. But luckily, the sun came out literally the weekend before we started shooting there, dried it up and it all worked out."

Both creatively and logistically, the filming of Jarhead was a unique challenge. Director Mendes envisioned a movie that would tell the story of what had been mainly an air war from the point of view of the infantry below. In realizing that vision, he collaborated with five-time OscarR-nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins to come up with a photographic style that would convey not only the chaos of combat, but also the intimacy of shared missions, motivations and misgivings amongst an ad hoc fraternity of fighting men.

"This experience has been interesting in that it's involved my throwing out a lot of the stylistic things I've used in my other two movies," supplies Mendes. "Working with Roger Deakins, we decided that a handheld camera would allow more fluidity and improvisation. Roger is so skilled that he can follow the movement of a scene without relying on blocking and actors hitting marks-that really helped create a flow to the work. I also found that I was better able to react to the changing relationships between actors as they naturally emerged during the shoot.

"For American Beauty I used a series of Magritte-like images and compositions; on this one, I went in with very few compositions already in my head. What I felt coming out of rehearsals was a kind of human energy and life force, and I thought we should respond to that and have nothing pre-determined. I enjoyed it hugely."

The device Mendes and Deakins most frequently employed is one of the oldest in film lexicon: the point of view.

"There is no unbiased view. I've deliberately avoided the master shot," says the director. "My starting point has been Swoff or what Swoff is doing. I'll start on a close shot of him or enter a scene with him and see what he sees. So my journey has been through the character rather than through an objective, cool, uninflected gaze."

Reinforcing the idea of a story told at ground level, Mendes and Deakins eschewed any shots that take the viewer out of the realm of what is visible from the soldiers' viewpoint. Mendes explains, "There are no 'God shots,' no huge crane shots, no 'copter shots that show us the whole desert and tiny ants crawling across it. Everything's filmed from eye level and very little of it is on tracks. Camera operators move with the actors, at the same speed as the actors, and there's rarely an unmotivated move."

When it came to assembling the feature, OscarR-winning editor Walter Murch was committing to fashioning a visual equivalent of the memorable story Swofford-and now Mendes-wanted told. "I was struck by the peculiarity of the war. I feel the authenticity of the voice, which was both sympathetic and supportive of the predicament in which they found themselves. The film has a great variety of tones in it, which really appealed to me from the start. And I wanted to emphasize all of these-the humor, the violence, the seriousness-and create the greatest range possible."

Murch also had a distinct feeling of deja vu during a particular sequence: "There is a fragment of Apocalypse Now both in the book and in the film, which is a film I worked on 27 years ago. The soldiers are watching it, singing along and repeating the lines. It's a rather interesting concept to be at both ends of the tunnel."

Much in the same way that filmmakers had to create a functioning motion picture set in the middle of desert salt flats-literally something out of nothing-post production effects artists at the world famous ILM studios were charged with creating effects beyond the scope of what could be accomplished by physical production during principal photography. Visual Effects Supervisor Pablo Helman and his team of 80 were informed by the director that in order to maintain Swofford's subjective point of view-and keep the viewer from being pulled out of the story by obvious film wizardry-the visual effects were to remain "invisible." Because there was to be no epic point of view in the film, the effects that Swoff's story called for-everything from burning Kuwaiti oil wells to dream sequences, scorpion fights to ritual brandings, and even something as simple as a group of soldiers discharging their rifles into the night sky or a horizon that had to be extended-needed to remain in-scale with the personal observances of the narrating Marine sniper.

Helman offers, "Sam's approach to visual effects is unique in that he's not thinking about them as being big moments, like 'Wow!' This film, in particular, was about effects used to re-create a specific environment. He's meticulous about everything, from the placement of smoke to the removal of a shrub. I think that has to do with his theatre background. In theatre, that creation of the illusion of reality is very important-it's difficult to get people to believe what they're seeing is real, because it never is real."

To begin with, the desert locations had been scouted during the summer preceding the start of principal photography…filming then took place the following rainy, winter months. A lot of these formerly brown desert locations were now verdant, so anything that would not be indigenous to the deserts of the Middle East had to be removed.

The scenes showing civilian planes depositing Marines in Saudi Arabia involved more than simple removal work (although a nearby factory, billowing white smoke, did have to be magically eliminated by ILM). The surrounding countryside was replaced with desert, the tarmacs were extended and the scene was filled with planes (all of which received custom digital paint jobs), troops and ground vehicles that didn't really exist during filming. The final shot was a combination of the original plate shot, some digital map background, stills of the planes and shots of models of the aircraft.

To fashion the Bosch-like hellscape of the flaming oilfields (which shot burning crude 400 feet into the air), a single ignited oil well was filmed from a variety of angles and distances. Those different shots were then turned into a library of fires from varying points of view, which were then used to create three separate types of oil fires. When Swofford's battalion first comes upon the fields, they are burning in full daylight. Later, as they draw closer, the fires are so big that they produce an imposing cloud of smoke-also, the spewing oil is now raining down-so everything is seen in half-light, as if the troops are nearing an encroaching storm. Finally, after sunset, soldiers are lit by the hellfire glow through the smoke, which hangs over everything like a dense fog.

A variety of techniques aided in building the final scenes of the troops in the vicinity of the burning wells. The day scenes were augmented with flames, along with digitally created electrical towers (to provide scale) and the blackened shells of the burned-out vehicles; the dark, oily sand was also extended beyond the horizon and shimmering pools of oil reflecting the light were added. The half-light scenes were digitally enhanced by imposing a dark canopy onto the film-an enveloping shroud that enclosed the actors in smoke and raining oil. For the night scenes, actors were first shot in a soundstage against a massive orange light array; the instruments themselves were later removed, leaving only the flickering light. The scenes were then composited with elements of smoke, fire and footage shot of night clouds underlit by the actual burning off of the production's excess fuel (serendipitously observed by effects crewmen returning to their hotels one night, who set up their cameras and filmed the otherworldly view of the glowing horizon the following night).

Additional effects work provided the visuals that on-set safety and humane animal practices prohibited, including: the explosion of an air traffic control tower blown away by fighter jets; the branding of "USMC" into the flesh of a deserving soldier; the to-the-death battle between two scorpions; and the discharging smoke and muzzle flashes of tracer fire from a platoon of Marines shooting their weapons into the desert sky.

In addition to the creation and augmentation of the visual environments featured in Jarhead, an aural landscape comprised of score and soundtrack music was also shaped. The influence of Vietnam is heard in a small group of songs featured on the film's soundtrack (Swoff even complains at one point, "Can't we get our own music?"): The Doors' "Break On Through" and T. Rex's "Bang a Gong." But as teenagers/young adults away from home in 1989-90, the soldiers also seek a little comfort by listening, dancing and partying to popular music from that time: Talking Heads' "Houses In Motion," C+C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat," Naughty By Nature's "OPP," Social Distortion's "Ball & Chain" and Public Enemy's "Fight the Power." A few, darkly funny music references also appear-Bobby McFerrin's endlessly upbeat "Don't Worry Be Happy" plays over Swofford's arrival at Camp Pendleton, following his less-than-welcoming experiences at boot camp; and when Swoff shows up without an instrument to audition as the unit's bugler (a non-existent position), Staff Sergeant Sykes requests that he play Stevie Wonder's "You Are the Sunshine of My Life"…with his mouth.

Ultimately, the goal was to have a movie told by the Marines rather than a movie about the Marines. Anthony Swofford summarizes when he says, "The grunt's life is much different than what the general public supposes. It's a mixture of boredom, excitement, fear, longing, sadness…And there are details that are really important in the grunt's everyday life-friends helping each other write love letters, rehashing stories, the need to have listeners. My friend next to me will listen to a story I've told 20 times because he knows that it's important for me to tell that story.

"What the public can learn from these details," concludes the author, "is that they're young men off to fight. They're caring, vulnerable, but they're also tough and crude. They're human and they have faults…but they're also doing good work for the rest of us."

Universal Pictures presents in association with MP Kappa Productions A Lucy Fisher/Douglas Wick Production in association with Neal Street Productions: Jarhead, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Lucas Black and Jamie Foxx. The music is by Thomas Newman and the music supervisor is Randall Poster. The casting is by Debra Zane, CSA. The editor is Walter Murch, ACE; the production designer is Dennis Gassner; and the director of photography is Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC. The executive producers are Sam Mercer and Bobby Cohen. It is produced by Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher. Jarhead is based on the book by Anthony Swofford; the screenplay is by William Broyles, Jr. It is directed by Sam Mendes. c2005 Universal Studios. www.jarheadmovie.com

On Having Jarhead Made Into a Film

-Anthony Swofford

"After I'd finished writing Jarhead in the summer of 2002, the possibility of interest from Hollywood was first discussed. Ron Bernstein, my agent in Los Angeles, first read the book in manuscript form, and during November he began distributing the book in Hollywood. While most parties responded positively to the story, the readers were unwilling to take a chance with the book while the country was preparing to go to war.

In April of 2003, interest in optioning the book increased. I met with Doug Wick while I was in L.A. for the Los Angeles Times book fair. He lived around the corner from my hotel, and he arrived for our meeting on his three-speed bicycle. I thought this was super cool, antiestablishment and smart. And I wanted someone super cool, antiestablishment, and smart producing an adaptation of my book. With a script of Jarhead in Doug's bicycle basket, rather than sitting on the passenger seat of another producer's sports car, I thought it might have a chance of being made and avoiding high-speed collisions.

Shortly after my meeting with Doug, he and I had a conference call with Bill Broyles. I admired Bill's work, both his journalism and scripts, and I immediately felt he was the writer to adapt Jarhead. He knew the book extremely well, quoting characters, narrating scenes, naming page numbers as if it had once been his own story. And in a way, this was true. He told me about joining the Corps and going to combat in Vietnam, and I understood that in the men that I'd served with and written about Bill recognized some of his own fellow Marines-the same dark absurdities, the same brilliant moments of despair and love and honor, the life-altering pitch of battle. The three of us agreed that there were certain scenes in Jarhead the book that had to make it into Jarhead the movie.

I was happy to read Bill's drafts and undertook a self-study of the craft of scriptwriting while reading draft to draft. By May of 2004, Sam Mendes was attached as director, and I was thrilled. Sam's prior films showed mastery of the form and a deep understanding of storytelling and characters; these earlier films were artful and risky- elements I knew Jarhead the film required. That month, I met for a day with Sam and Bill in New York, and Sam worked like a sponge-soaking up any and all information I told him about events that didn't make it into the book, or further characterizations of some of the members of my platoon. Sam's excitement for the film was infectious. He, too, quoted me back to myself, and he knew the book scene-to-scene. I sensed that he would direct the best possible adaptation of Jarhead: a film borne from the source, but still its own work of art and entertainment.

Late in the summer Jake Gyllenhaal was cast for the role of Swoff, and I was pleased with this development. I'd loved Donnie Darko and The Good Girl, and I felt that his onscreen presence was such that he would capture the controversial bloodlust and existential angst of the young jarhead going to war.

I visited the set during the last week of rehearsal and met Jake. He was committed to playing the role authentically and intensely. It was bizarre to meet the other actors and guess who would be playing whom: for certain, they all looked like young jarheads. One morning while waiting for Sam to call a meeting, the actors joked back and forth and insulted one another, and I felt like I was among some of the same men I'd served with-nervous, hungry, lonely and committed to a cause. I visited some of the sets, including my high school bedroom. On watching the swirl of activity, sets being built, young actors being thrashed by Jim Deaver, Broyles looked at me and said, "Crazy to think all of this came from a book you wrote alone in a room, sitting in your underwear."

I didn't visit locations or the set during filming, and I think Sam and I agreed this was best without needing to speak about it. I wouldn't want a book editor visiting me in my office while I'm in the middle of writing a chapter, to say nothing of a reader.

Sam showed me the film in August of 2005. He and Walter Murch were in the room. After a few scenes I got used to an actor on screen being called Swofford. I recognized the story of Jarhead being told, the intense narrative tale and the more subtle and nuanced psychological and metaphysical storytelling strands that punctuate and intensify the war experience for Swoff and his cohorts. War in the real world is about winning, but war in art is about the expansion of feeling and the explosion of emotion, meaning and beauty."

ABOUT THE CAST

JAKE GYLLENHAAL (Anthony Swofford) has established himself as one of the most promising young actors of his generation. With an impressive and diverse list of film credits, he continues to gain attention from audiences and critics alike with each new character that he brings to life. This year's performances will serve as no exception, and will continue to add to his series of powerful performances.

In addition to Jarhead, Gyllenhaal will also be seen starring in Focus Features' highly anticipated adaptation of Brokeback Mountain, playing the coveted role of Jack opposite Heath Ledger. The film, which chronicles an intense relationship between two Wyoming stockmen, is directed by Ang Lee and will be released on December 9, 2005.

Most recently, Gyllenhaal was seen starring opposite Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins in Miramax's screen adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Proof, directed by John Madden. The film tells the story of a daughter who must come to the aid of her math professor father as he slowly loses touch with reality and was released in September.

In August 2005, Gyllenhaal began production on Zodiac, the Paramount and Warner Bros.' serial-killer thriller helmed by David Fincher. Gyllenhaal will portray Graysmith, a San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist who began tracking the mystery of the serial killer, The Zodiac, who terrorized the San Francisco area from 1966 through 1978-committing at least 37 murders and documenting his exploits in taunting letters sent to the Chronicle.

Gyllenhaal also starred in the international box office success, 20th Century Fox's The Day After Tomorrow. In the film, directed by Roland Emmerich, Gyllenhaal starred opposite Dennis Quaid in the futuristic depiction of the devastating effects of global warming on Earth.

Gyllenhaal was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for best actor in the critically acclaimed Donnie Darko with his poignant portrayal of the title character. A favorite at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, the Newmarket release combined elements of mystical fantasy and science fiction with teenage romance. The film was directed by first-timer Richard Kelly and co-starred Drew Barrymore, Jena Malone and Noah Wyle. The film has generated an amazing cult following throughout the last two years. The film will be re-released this year in select cities nationwide.

Gyllenhaal starred in another Sundance favorite in 2002, The Good Girl, portraying a young man who falls in love and has a torrid affair with a married woman (Jennifer Aniston). In his role as Holden Worther, Gyllenhaal was coined as the modern-day Holden Caulfield, again exalting a film to cult status. The dark comedy was directed by Miguel Arteta, and also starred John C. Reilly, Zooey Deschanel, and Tim Blake Nelson. The film was distributed by Fox Searchlight.

Gyllenhaal starred in another Sundance favorite in 2002, The Good Girl, portraying a young man who falls in love and has a torrid affair with a married woman (Jennifer Aniston). In his role as Holden Worther, Gyllenhaal was coined as the modern-day Holden Caulfield, again exalting a film to cult status. The dark comedy was directed by Miguel Arteta, and also starred John C. Reilly, Zooey Deschanel and Tim Blake Nelson. The film was distributed by Fox Searchlight.

Gyllenhaal's relationship with the Sundance Film Festival continued last year as co-host of the 2004 film festival alongside Zooey Deschanel, his co-star in The Good Girl.

In the fall of 2002, Gyllenhaal starred in Touchstone's Moonlight Mile, opposite Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon and Holly Hunter. The film was written and directed by Brad Silberling. Set in New England in the early '70s, the film explores issues of loss and grieving after the fiancee of Gyllenhaal's character is murdered.

Marking his theater debut, Gyllenhaal appeared on the London stage in Kenneth Lonergan's revival of This Is Our Youth, alongside Hayden Christensen and Anna Paquin. The play, which was a critical sensation on Broadway, ran for eight weeks in London's West End. Gyllenhaal received exceptional critical acclaim, earning him an Evening Standard Theatre Award as Outstanding Newcomer for his role as a rich kid who indulges in stealing, dealing and consuming drugs.

Gyllenhaal was also seen in Lovely and Amazing, a comedy starring Catherine Keener and Brenda Blethyn. The film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival and was an instant favorite. Gyllenhaal also starred in the Walt Disney romantic comedy Bubble Boy, opposite Swoosie Kurtz and Marley Shelton.

Gyllenhaal first received notice for his heartwarming performance in the Universal film October Sky, directed by Joe Johnston. The film tells the triumphant story of Homer Hickan, Jr. (Gyllenhaal), a gifted high school student in rural West Virginia who seemed destined to repeat his father's harsh life in the coal mines until he turned his attention upward to the skies. The film also starred Chris Cooper, William Lee Scott, Chad Lindberg and Laura Dern.

Additional film credits include Josh and S.A.M. and A Dangerous Woman with Debra Winger. He also played Billy Crystal's son in the hit film City Slickers and Robin Williams' son in the highly acclaimed "Bop Gun" episode of the television series Homicide: Life on the Street.

Gyllenhaal currently resides in Los Angeles.

PETER SARSGAARD (Allen Troy) is an actor noted for his ability to access what is behind the often complicated facades of the characters he plays. Sarsgaard will add to his burgeoning reputation with roles in several projects due for release over the next year.

In addition to Jarhead, Sarsgaard's forthcoming projects include the psychological thriller The Dying Gaul for writer/director Craig Lucas, starring Patricia Clarkson and Campbell Scott. Sarsgaard plays a fledgling screenwriter involved in a complex three-pronged relationship with a studio executive and his beautiful wife. The Dying Gaul premiered in the Dramatic section of the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

Last fall, Sarsgaard completed production on The Skeleton Key. Penned by Ehren Kruger (The Ring) and directed by Iain Softley, the New Orleans-set story follows a young woman, played by Kate Hudson, who begins to experience eerie occurrences in the home of the elderly couple for whom she's caring. Sarsgaard plays the love interest of Hudson's character, whose initial skepticism gradually turns to concern. Universal Pictures released the film August 12, 2005.

Sarsgaard also recently completed the Disney/Imagine Entertainment-produced thriller Flightplan, co-starring Jodie Foster. Directed by Robert Schwentke, the film follows an FBI agent who tries to help a woman find her daughter who has mysteriously disappeared during a flight.

Sarsgaard last co-starred, to much critical acclaim, in the biopic Kinsey. Written and directed by Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters), and starring Liam Neeson as the legendary sex researcher Alfred Kinsey and Laura Linney as his wife Clara, Sarsgaard plays Kinsey's young protege and earned both a Critics' Choice Award nomination and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his supporting role.

In 2004, Sarsgaard co-starred in Zach Braff's independent hit Garden State. Written, directed and co-starring Braff, the Fox Searchlight release follows the travails of a young man who returns home for his mother's funeral after being estranged from his family for a decade. Sarsgaard plays Mark, a friend of Braff's character, who helps the confused young man find himself during the chaotic visit. Also starring Natalie Portman, the film was an audience favorite at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.

Sarsgaard received an official stamp of critical approval for his portrayal of New Republic editor Charles Lane in Billy Ray's Shattered Glass. For his performance, Sarsgaard garnered awards from the Boston, San Francisco, St. Louis, Toronto and National Society of Film Critics, as well as Golden Globe and Spirit Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor.

He is perhaps best known for his role as Teena Brandon's friend, then tormenter and rapist, in Kimberly Peirce's Boys Don't Cry. Starring opposite Hilary Swank and Chloe Sevigny, Sarsgaard received critical praise for his searing portrayal of the violent ex-con ill equipped to deal with a startling discovery.

Other roles include Kathryn Bigelow's submarine thriller, K-19: The Widowmaker opposite Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson, D.J. Caruso's The Salton Sea, opposite Val Kilmer, Empire, opposite John Leguizamo, and Wayne Wang's controversial The Center Of The World opposite Molly Parker. Sarsgaard first gained notice as Leonardo DiCaprio's rival and John Malkovich's son in The Man in the Iron Mask. He also appeared in Larry Clark's Another Day in Paradise and Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking with Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon.

On the small screen, Sarsgaard starred in Showtime's acclaimed feature Freak City, produced by Michael Stipe and Sandy Stern's Single Cell Pictures.

A member of Douglas Carter Beane's New York-based theater company, The Drama Department, Sarsgaard appeared last year in their off-Broadway production Kingdom of the Earth, opposite Cynthia Nixon and directed by John Cameron Mitchell. He was also seen on stage in 2003 in the Signature Theatre Company's acclaimed revival of Lanford Wilson's Burn This.

Sarsgaard attended the Actors' Studio Program at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, after which he was cast in Horton Foote's Laura Dennis at the Signature Theatre Company Off-Broadway.

LUCAS BLACK (Chris Kruger) reunited with Billy Bob Thornton last year for Universal's Friday Night Lights-after his role as the boyish misfit, Jimmy Blevins, in Thornton's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses. He preceded that re-teaming with his unforgettable performance as Frank Wheatley, the boy who compassionately befriends a mentally handicapped murderer, in Thornton's OscarR-winning Sling Blade. For the latter, Black shared a Screen Actors Guild nomination with the film's ensemble cast and won the Young Artists Award, the first of four nominations for this honor.

Without any formal acting training, the Alabama native made an auspicious debut at age 11 opposite Kevin Costner in John Avnet's 1994 feature, The War. The performance helped him land the role of Caleb Temple in the CBS supernatural drama, American Gothic. He continued an active acting career in such projects as Rob Reiner's The Ghosts of Mississippi, Antonio Banderas' directorial debut, Crazy in Alabama, and Rob Bowman's big screen version of The X Files. He has also appeared in guest-starring roles on Chicago Hope and in Disney's movie-of-the-week, Flash.

In 2003, Black, who graduated from Speake High School in 2001 (where he played football, baseball, basketball and golf), appeared alongside OscarR nominee Jude Law in Anthony Minghella's Academy AwardR-nominated Civil War epic, Cold Mountain. He recently completed roles in two independent features: Killer Diller, a favorite at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival, and Deepwater, a noirish thriller also starring Peter Coyote which debuted at the 2005 Seattle Film Festival. He begins production in October 2005 on the Universal Pictures feature The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Black stars as Shaun Boswell, an outsider who gets caught up in the high-octane world of Japanese street racing.

CHRIS COOPER (Lt. Col. Kazinski) is one of the most respected character actors of our time. Cooper was recognized in 2003 with an Academy AwardR and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of John Laroche in Columbia Pictures' Adaptation, written by Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich) and directed by Spike Jonze. The film, loosely based on Susan Orlean's novel The Orchid Thief, followed a sexually frustrated screenwriter's attempts to adapt Orlean's anecdotal novel for the screen. Cooper was also recognized for his performance in this film by numerous critics associations including the Broadcast Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the Toronto Film Critics Association.

In mid-November, Cooper will begin production on the Universal Pictures film Breach, in which he will play the lead role of Robert Hanssen, a renowned operative for the FBI who was found guilty of spying for the Russians. The film will be directed by Billy Ray (Shattered Glass) and co-stars Ryan Phillippe.

Currently, Cooper can be seen in the Sony Classics film Capote with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener as Alvin Dewey, the lead investigator in charge of the high- profile murders in Kansas that were the basis of Truman Capote's classic novel, In Cold Blood. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival to rave reviews and shortly thereafter at the New York Film Festival.

Cooper also has a strong supporting role in Syriana, for writer and director Stephen Gaghan, which will be released in December by Warner Bros.

Cooper was most recently seen in Newmarket Film's Silver City, a political drama and murder mystery which chronicled the story of a small town in Colorado and the events leading up to a local election. Written and directed by John Sayles, the impressive cast included Maria Bello, Thora Birch, Richard Dreyfuss, Tim Roth, Daryl Hannah and Billy Zane. The film was screened at the Toronto Film Festival.

In 2003, Cooper starred in the Universal Pictures film Seabiscuit, based on the best-selling novel. Cooper was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award for his portrayal of Seabiscuit's trainer, Tom Smith. Seabiscuit was directed by Gary Ross and also starred Tobey Maguire and Jeff Bridges. In the same year, Cooper was nominated for an Emmy Award for his supporting performance in the HBO film My House In Umbria, starring Maggie Smith.

In 2002, Cooper was seen in The Bourne Identity for Universal Pictures in the strong supporting role as the mastermind of the CIA's controversial, clandestine operation, Treadstone. In 2004, he appeared in the flashback scenes in the second installment, The Bourne Supremacy.

In 2000 Cooper, opposite Mel Gibson, portrayed Colonel Burwell in Sony Pictures' The Patriot, a Revolutionary War epic directed by Roland Emmerich. In the same year, Cooper appeared with Jim Carrey in the comedy Me, Myself & Irene, for directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly.

In 1999 Cooper received a Screen Actor's Guild Award for his supporting performance alongside Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening in Dreamworks' Academy AwardR-winning film, American Beauty. In a stunning and dramatic display, Cooper portrayed a stern ex-Marine colonel who persistently monitored his son's every move.

In 1999 Cooper starred as the father of an amateur rocket enthusiast in the acclaimed coming-of-age drama October Sky, which was screened at the 1999 Venice and Deauville Film Festivals with great notice. He had previously earned a Best Actor nomination in 1997 from the Independent Spirit Awards for his work in John Sayles' Lone Star. Nearly a decade earlier, Cooper made his feature film debut in Sayles' Matewan.

Among his film credits are Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer, Great Expectations, A Time to Kill, Money Train, This Boy's Life, Guilty by Suspicion and City of Hope.

On the small screen, he has had roles in a number of long-form projects, including the miniseries Lonesome Dove and Return to Lonesome Dove. He most recently starred in HBO's Breast Men. Included among his other credits are Alone, One More Mountain, Ned Blessing, Bed of Lies, Darrow, In Broad Daylight, A Little Piece of Sunshine, Law & Order and Journey Into Genius.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Cooper attended the University of Missouri School of Drama and started his professional career on the New York stage. His theater credits include Of the Fields Lately on Broadway, The Ballad of Soapy Smith and A Different Moon.

Cooper resides in Massachusetts.

JAMIE FOXX (Staff Sgt. Sykes) became an Academy AwardR winner in 2004. In addition to being awarded the Best Actor OscarR for his portrayal of legendary musician Ray Charles in the Taylor Hackford-directed film Ray, that performance garnered Foxx a Golden Globe award, a SAG award, a BAFTA Award and the NAACP Image Award, among others.

To complement his work in Ray, Foxx was seen that year in two additional critically acclaimed roles: The first was in Redemption, the real-life story of Stan "Tookie" Williams that aired on the FX Network. Williams, who founded the Los Angeles street gang the Crips, was sentenced to life in prison, reformed his life while in jail and re-concentrated his efforts to help inner-city youth and anti-violence resolutions which earned him multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations. Foxx was nominated for Golden Globe, SAG and NAACP Image awards for his performance. The second was in Collateral, co-starring Tom Cruise, where he plays a cab driver who finds himself the hostage of an engaging contract killer as he makes his rounds from hit to hit during one night in Los Angeles. The film reunited Foxx with director Michael Mann who directed him in Ali. The role earned him Golden Globe, SAG and NAACP Image awards and an OscarR nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Foxx was the first person to be nominated for three acting awards at the Golden Globes and four SAG awards in the same year. He is the first African American to be nominated for two OscarsR in the same year, and the second male in history to receive two OscarR acting nominations in the same year for two different movies.

Currently Foxx is filming Miami Vice, based on the popular television program from the 1980s. Directed once again by Michael Mann, Foxx and Colin Farrell will portray the infamous detective pair, Crockett and Tubbs. The film is slated to be released summer 2006.

Foxx started his career in Hollywood as a comedian. After spending time on the comedy circuit, he joined the landmark Fox sketch comedy series In Living Color. For three years he was seen alongside Jim Carrey, Damon Wayans and Tommy Davidson in some of the funniest and most memorable television moments. Foxx then went on to star in The Jamie Foxx Show for the WB Network for five years. Foxx not only starred in the series, but was also the co-creator, executive producer and director of several episodes.

Foxx's big film break came in 1999 when Oliver Stone cast him as Willie Beamen in the Warner Bros. film Any Given Sunday, alongside Al Pacino. In 2001, he played Drew "Bundini" Brown in the Columbia Pictures film Ali, opposite Will Smith and directed by Michael Mann. Foxx followed "Ali" with his first HBO Comedy Special, Jamie Foxx: I Might Need Security in February 2002.

Foxx's other movie credits include Stealth for Columbia Pictures; Bait, directed by Antoine Fuqua; Booty Call, which starred Tommy Davidson and Vivica A. Fox. He co-starred with Janeane Garafolo and Uma Thurman in the 20th Century Fox hit The Truth About Cats & Dogs, and with Samuel L. Jackson, Damon Wayans and Jeff Goldblum in The Great White Hype.

In addition to his work in front of the camera, Foxx has a thriving music career. He was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 2005 for his work with Kanye West. He wrote, produced and performed two songs featured on the Any Given Sunday soundtrack, which debuted at number one on the Billboard soundtrack chart. In Fall 2005, Foxx will release a full-length album and will be doing a music special for NBC.

Foxx was born and raised in Texas and went on to study classical music at the United States International University in San Diego. He currently resides in California.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

SAM MENDES (Director) founded and ran the Donmar Warehouse in London from 1992 to 2002; Donmar productions included Assassins, Translations, Cabaret, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Glass Menagerie, Company, Habeas Corpus, The Front Page, The Blue Room, To the Green Fields Beyond, Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night, both of which transferred to The Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2004. He has also produced-in tandem with his associate Caro Newling-over 60 plays, many of which have transferred to New York, including Electra, True West, Juno and the Paycock and the Tony Award winning productions of The Real Thing and Take Me Out.

His work for the Royal Shakespeare Company includes Troilus and Cressida, The Alchemist, The Tempest and Richard III. For the National Theatre, he directed The Sea, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, The Birthday Party and Othello. In the West End, he directed The Cherry Orchard, The Plough and the Stars, Kean, London Assurance and Oliver. He also directed the Broadway productions of Cabaret, which received four Tony Awards including Best Musical, Gypsy and The Blue Room.

In 1999, Mendes made his film directorial debut on American Beauty, for which he received a Golden Globe Award and the DGA Award for Outstanding Director. The film garnered five Academy AwardsR, including Best Picture, and Mendes received the award for Best Director. In 2002, Mendes brought to life Max Allan Collins' graphic novel Road to Perdition, starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman. The film earned seven Academy AwardR nominations.

WILLIAM BROYLES (Screenwriter) most recently penned the adaptation for Warner Bros.' hit animated feature The Polar Express directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks. Nominated for an Academy AwardR and WGA Award for his 1996 adaptation of Apollo 13, he was also named Screenwriter of the Year at the 2001 ShoWest convention.

Broyles' other adapted screenplays include Adrian Lyne's Unfaithful, Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes and the television miniseries J.F.K.: Reckless Youth. His original screenplays include Cast Away, his first collaboration with Zemeckis and Hanks, Entrapment starring Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and the feature-length pilot for the television series he created, China Beach.

A graduate of Rice University, Broyles is a founding editor of the respected Texas Monthly magazine and a former editor of Newsweek. He served in the Marines as a fighter pilot in Vietnam and wrote the book Brother in Arms based on his return visit to that country 15 years later as a journalist.

ANTHONY SWOFFORD (Based on the Book by) is a New York Times best-selling author who served in a U.S. Marine Corps Surveillance and Target Acquisition/Scout-Sniper platoon during the first Gulf War. After the war, he was educated at the University of California, Davis and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. He has taught at Lewis & Clark College and Saint Mary's College. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, The Guardian and other publications. A Michener-Copernicus Fellowship recipient, he lives in New York City, where he is at work on a novel.

DOUGLAS WICK's (Producer) movies have earned more than $1.5 billion at the box office, 20 Academy AwardR nominations and seven OscarsR.

In 2000, Wick produced Gladiator, which received 12 Academy AwardR nominations and won five OscarsR, including Best Picture for Wick. Directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe, this epic became a cinematic phenomenon that grossed over $450 million worldwide. Gladiator also won two Golden Globes including Best Motion Picture, four BAFTA awards-including Best Picture-AFI's Movie of the Year, the MTV Movie Award for Best Movie, and brought Wick the Producers Guild's Golden Laurel Motion Picture of the Year Award.

In 2001, Wick expanded his company, Red Wagon Entertainment, to bring in the dynamic former vice chairman of Sony's Columbia Tri-Star Motion Picture Group, Lucy Fisher. Their first picture in this new partnership was the sequel to the Wick-produced 1999 blockbuster Stuart Little starring Academy AwardR winner Geena Davis and featuring the voices of Michael J. Fox and Nathan Lane. This film earned over $300 million worldwide and spawned the successful sequel Stuart Little 2, reuniting all the original cast under director Rob Minkoff.

Wick's international espionage thriller Spy Game opened in 2001, pairing movie icons Robert Redford and Brad Pitt under director Tony Scott. Prior to this, Wick produced the Paul Verhoeven sci-fi thriller Hollow Man which introduced dazzling, cutting-edge visual effects depicting an invisible villain. Wick's critically acclaimed feature Girl, Interrupted won Angelina Jolie both an Academy AwardR and a Golden Globe for Breakthrough Performance.

In 2004, Fisher and Wick went into production on three high-profile movies. In addition to Jarhead, they produced Bewitched starring OscarR winner Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell for director Nora Ephron, as well as the highly anticipated Memoirs of a Geisha directed by Academy AwardR nominee (Chicago) Rob Marshall. Upcoming projects include The Legend of the Lone Ranger and a remake of the musical Bye Bye Birdie.

Wick's first-ever solo producing effort came with Working Girl, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Harrison Ford, Melanie Griffith and Sigourney Weaver. It garnered six Academy AwardR nominations, one OscarR win and five Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture Comedy. Nichols and Wick re-teamed a few years later to produce The Craft, the original teenage witch sensation, directed by Andy Fleming and starring Neve Campbell.

After graduating cum laude from Yale University, Wick began his career as a production assistant for filmmaker Alan Pakula. He earned his first credit as associate producer on Starting Over.

Wick was a co-chair of Prop 71, the successful stem cell initiative in California. He is on the board of the Alliance of Stem Cell Research and is co-founder of CuresNow, an organization that promotes regenerative medicine and stem cell research. In addition, he formerly served on the board of trustees for the Center for Early Education in Los Angeles, as well as the board of directors for the Producers Guild of America. He has been awarded the Saturn Award, the Los Angeles Father of the Year Award, Santa Barbara International Film Festival's Producer of the Year, the Motion Picture Club's Producer of the Year and the 2002 NATO ShoWest Producer of the Year.

Wick is married to his Red Wagon partner, Lucy Fisher. They live in Los Angeles with their three daughters.

LUCY FISHER (Producer), the former vice chairman of the Columbia Tri-Star Motion Picture Group, is partnered with OscarR-winning producer Douglas Wick as co-head of Red Wagon Entertainment. Together they have worked with some of the most accomplished filmmakers in the world. In addition to Jarhead, Fisher and Wick have another high-profile movie in release this year: Academy AwardR nominee Rob Marshall's (Chicago) Memoirs of a Geisha. Their upcoming comedy, RV, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, features Robin Williams' return to family comedy.

Fisher served as vice chairman at Sony Pictures from 1996 to 2000. During her tenure, the studio broke all-time industry records for biggest domestic gross in history with films she supervised. These included Men in Black, My Best Friend's Wedding, Air Force One, Jerry McGuire, Zorro, As Good As It Gets and Stuart Little.

After leaving the executive suite in 2001, Fisher's first producing effort with Wick was Stuart Little 2, which reunited the original creative team and cast from the blockbuster and also became a worldwide hit. Fisher and Wick and their Red Wagon Entertainment company then produced Peter Pan and Nora Ephron's Bewitched, starring Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell and Steve Carell, as well as other films.

Before moving to Sony, Fisher served 14 years as executive vice president of worldwide production at Warner Bros. There she developed and supervised a diverse range of commercially successful, critically acclaimed films, including The Fugitive, The Color Purple, Gremlins, The Goonies, Malcolm X, The Bridges of Madison County, Space Jam, Empire of the Sun, The Outsiders, The Witches of Eastwick and The Secret Garden. She also shepherded the pickup of Michael Moore's directorial debut Roger and Me.

Fisher began her career as a reader at United Artists. She then served as vice president of production at Twentieth Century Fox before being named head of worldwide production for Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Studios.

In addition to her creative achievements, Fisher is considered a pioneer for women and working mothers in the entertainment industry. She was the driving force behind the on-site Warner Bros. Studio Children's Center, which opened its doors in 1992. It has since provided care for over 1000 children and served as a prototype for daycare centers at other studios.

Fisher's many awards include this year's Hollywood Film Festival Producer of the Year award as well as the Hollywood Award for Outstanding Achievement in Producing, the prestigious Crystal Award from Women in Film and Premiere Magazine's Icon Award. She was also listed as one of Fortune Magazine's 50 Most Powerful Women in American Business and named one of Mirabella Magazine's 25 Smartest Women in America.

A cum laude graduate from Harvard University, Fisher founded and serves as board member of the Peter Ivers Artist-in-Residency Program at Harvard. She is an advisor to the Los Angeles Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International and is co-founder of CuresNow, an organization that promotes regenerative medicine and stem cell research, and was co-chairman of The California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative (Prop 71, which was resoundingly passed in the November 2004 election).

SAM MERCER (Executive Producer) recently produced The Village for director M. Night Shyamalan and is currently working with the director on Lady in the Water. The two have previously partnered on The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs. The Sixth Sense earned six Oscar nominations, two Golden Globe nods and three People's Choice Awards in addition to becoming the tenth highest grossing film in history. Mercer most recently served as executive producer on the Universal fantasy-adventure Van Helsing starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale.

Mercer began his independent producing career in 1993, after seven years as a production executive at the Walt Disney Company. His first film as an independent producer was the box office hit Congo, directed by Frank Marshall and produced by Mercer and Kathleen Kennedy.

His next project was Peter Hyams' The Relic, which he produced with Gale Anne Hurd, and he was the executive producer of Mission to Mars, a thrilling adventure directed by Brian De Palma. Mercer joined the Walt Disney Company in 1986 as a production executive supervising such films as Good Morning, Vietnam, Three Fugitives and Dead Poets Society. He was promoted to vice president of motion picture production in 1989 for Hollywood Pictures where he was responsible for such releases as Quiz Show, The Joy Luck Club, Born Yesterday, Swing Kids, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and Arachnophobia.

Prior to joining Disney, Mercer had a successful career as a freelance location manager and unit production manager working on such films as The Witches of Eastwick, Peggy Sue Got Married, Stripes, Swing Shift and The Escape Artist. He also served as the associate producer/ unit manager for KCET-TV in Los Angeles where he received a Daytime Emmy for the live presentation of the San Francisco Opera's production of La Gioconda.

A graduate of The Groton School and Occidental College, Mercer currently lives in Venice, California.

BOBBY COHEN (Executive Producer) serves as the president of Red Wagon Entertainment, combining a filmmaker's sensibility with an executive's eye for detail as he oversees Red Wagon's wide-ranging slate of projects from pre-production through

their release.

Cohen served as executive producer on Nora Ephron's Bewitched, starring

Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell, which is currently enjoying a successful run in theaters. Following are two highly anticipated films helmed by former Academy AwardR winners for which Cohen has also executive produced: Sam Mendes' Jarhead and Rob Marshall's big screen treatment of Arthur Golden's popular novel, Memoirs of a Geisha starring Ziyi Zhang in

the title role, with Michelle Yeoh, Gong Li and Ken Watanabe. The film will arrive in theaters December 9, 2005.

Cohen is currently overseeing Barry Sonnenfeld's comedy RV, starring Robin Williams as a man who takes his dysfunctional family for a road trip to the Colorado Rockies, where they encounter a bizarre community of campers. The Sony Pictures release also stars Cheryl Hines, Jeff Daniels and Kristen Chenoweth.

Prior to joining Red Wagon, Cohen co-produced Don Roos' Happy Endings.

Currently in theaters, the Lions Gate release stars an ensemble cast including Lisa Kudrow, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Steve Coogan, Tom Arnold, Bobby Cannavale, Jason Ritter and Jesse Bradford. The film was the Opening Night selection at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

In 1999, Cohen founded Cohen Pictures, which had a multipicture deal at Miramax. During that time, Cohen produced the comedy View From the Top, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Christina Applegate, Candice Bergen, Kelly Preston, Mark Ruffalo, and Mike Myers. He also was a co-producer on the romantic drama Bounce, starring Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow. He executive produced the romantic comedy Down to You, starring Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Julia Stiles and Lasse Hallstrom's The Cider House Rules, starring Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron, Paul Rudd and Michael Caine. The film took home Academy AwardsR for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (for Caine).

Previously, Cohen was the senior vice-president of production at Miramax Films. During his tenure at Miramax, Cohen served as executive producer on Rounders, starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton, and 54, starring Mike Myers, Neve Campbell and Salma Hayek. In addition, he was the executive on many other films including Clerks, Wide Awake, Smoke, The Pallbearer, Scream and Beautiful Girls.

Cohen began his career at The Writers and Artists Agency in New York. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Katie, and children, Jack and Molly.

ROGER DEAKINS (Director of Photography) most recently worked on Joel and Ethan Coen's remake of Ladykillers starring Tom Hanks. It was his eighth consecutive teaming with the Coen brothers, following Intolerable Cruelty; The Man Who Wasn't There; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; The Big Lebowski; Fargo; The Hudsucker Proxy and Barton Fink.

His work on O Brother, Where Art Thou? earned him BAFTA, American Society of Film Critics and Academy AwardR nominations. For Fargo, Deakins received American Society of Cinematographers and Academy AwardR nominations, as well as several Best Cinematographer citations from various film critics' organizations. Barton Fink earned him the Best Cinematography Award from the National Society of Film Critics.

Deakins' work on The Shawshank Redemption brought him the American Society of Cinematographers Award as well as his first Academy AwardR nomination. For his work on Kundun, he received Best Cinematography citations from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Boston Society of Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics, as well as Academy AwardR and American Society of Cinematographers Award nominations.

Deakins began working as a still photographer before enrolling in Britain's National Film School in 1972. His association with fellow student Michael Radford led to director of photography work on three features directed by Radford: Another Time, Another Place; 1984; and White Mischief.

His other director of photography credits include Alex Cox's Sid and Nancy, Michael Apted's Thunderheart, John Sayles' Passion Fish, Agnieszka Holland's The Secret Garden, Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking, and Edward Zwick's Courage Under Fire and The Siege. More recently, he did the cinematography on Ron Howard's OscarR-winning A Beautiful Mind, Vadim Perelman's House of Sand and Fog and M. Night Shyamalan's The Village.

Deakins has also shot such feature documentaries as When the World Changed and Eritrea: Behind the Lines, as well as the music documentaries Blue Suede Shoes and Van Morrison in Ireland. He has shot music videos for Eric Clapton, Marvin Gaye, Herbie Hancock and Madness, among others.

DENNIS GASSNER (Production Designer) won an Academy AwardR for his work on Barry Levinson's Bugsy, starring Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. He was also nominated for an OscarR that same year for his work on the Coen brothers' Barton Fink. He was recently nominated for a BAFTA Award for Tim Burton's Big Fish and won BAFTA Awards for Peter Weir's The Truman Show and Sam Mendes' Road to Perdition. He earned a BAFTA nomination for his work on the Coen's O Brother Where Art Thou?.

Gassner's other production design credits include Waterworld, Hero, The Grifters, Field of Dreams, Earth Girls are Easy, Like Father, Like Son, Wisdom and The Hitcher.

WALTER MURCH, ACE (Editor) has been nominated for seven Academy AwardsR and has won three, including both Best Sound Editing and Best Film Editing in 1997 for The English Patient. His other OscarR came for sound editing on Apocalypse Now, for which he also earned a Best Film Editing nomination. He was most recently nominated for a Best Film Editing OscarR for his work on Cold Mountain.

Murch has been editing sound and film in Hollywood since 1969 when he worked on Francis Ford Coppola's The Rain People. He later edited sound for Coppola's American Graffiti, The Godfather: Part II and The Conversation, which brought him his first Academy AwardR nomination and a BAFTA Award for Best Editing, shared with the film editor Richard Chew. He subsequently won his first OscarR on Coppola's Apocalypse Now.

A graduate of the University of Southern California film school, one of his first projects was creating a sound montage for classmate George Lucas's first feature, THX-1138; he also co-wrote the screenplay. He began his career as a sound editor, then crossed over into film editing with Fred Zinneman's Julia, which received 11 Academy AwardR nominations, including his for Best Film Editing; it also brought him another BAFTA nomination.

In 1991, Murch received dual OscarR nominations in the editing category for The Godfather: Part III and the surprise box office smash Ghost. He received an Eddie nomination for Best Edited Feature Film for The Talented Mr. Ripley, one of five such nominations over his career from the American Cinema Editors association.

Among Murch's other editing credits are The Unbearable Lightness of Being, House of Cards and I Love Trouble (film); K-19: The Widowmaker, First Knight and Romeo Is Bleeding (film and sound); Dragonslayer and Gimme Shelter (sound).

Murch wrote and directed the 1985 live-action fantasy Return to Oz.

ALBERT WOLSKY (Costume Designer) most recently completed work on Robert Towne's Ask the Dust starring Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek. He also worked on the recent remake of The Manchurian Candidate for director Jonathan Demme.

A two-time Academy AwardR winner for his designs on Bob Fosse's All that Jazz and Barry Levinson's Bugsy, Wolsky has also been nominated for OscarsR on Levinson's Toys, the family adventure The Journey of Natty Gann and Alan Pakula's drama Sophie's Choice.

Wolsky was born in Paris, France, in 1930. He graduated from City College of New York and began to work in the travel industry before leaving to pursue his life's work in costume design at age 30. He worked as an assistant to costume design legend Helene Pons on the original Broadway production of Camelot.

Wolsky earned his first film credit as costume designer on The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. In 1999, he was honored with the Costume Designers Guild Lifetime Achievement Award.

Among the more recent films for which he has designed costumes are Sam Mendes' Road to Perdition for which the Costume Designers Guild honored him with an Excellence for Costume Design nomination, the Jennifer Lopez comedy Maid in Manhattan and the sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest, which earned him a Saturn Award nomination.

Other movies on which Wolsky has been costume designer include Runaway Bride, You've Got Mail, The Jackal, Red Corner, Striptease, Up Close & Personal, The Pelican Brief, Fatal Instinct, Enemies: A Love Story, Cookie, Crimes of the Heart, Legal Eagles, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, The Falcon and the Snowman, Moscow on the Hudson, To Be or Not to Be, Star 80, Tempest, The Jazz Singer, Manhattan, Grease, An Unmarried Woman, The Turning Point, Lenny, The Gambler, Harry and Tonto, Up the Sandbox, The Trial of the Cantonsville Nine, Little Murders, Lovers and Other Strangers, Where's Poppa? and Popi.

For television, Wolsky created costumes for the 1976 NBC special Beauty and the Beast, starring George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere, which earned him an Emmy Award.

RANDALL POSTER's (Music Supervisor) talent for creating distinctive film soundtracks was on display in two of the past year's most memorable music-driven feature films: Martin Scorsese's The Aviator and Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. It was while finishing The Life Aquatic that Poster began working with director Sam Mendes on Jarhead.

In creating musical scenarios for films, Poster has collaborated with many of the world's most creative and successful filmmakers, including: Scorsese, Anderson, Danny Boyle, Richard Linklater, Jay Roach, Mike Newell, Frank Oz, Kevin Smith, Todd Phillips, Harmony Korine, Todd Haynes, Allison Maclean and Sean Penn, among others.

Poster's other recent credits include music for The Squid and the Whale, Meet the Parents, Starsky & Hutch, Along Came Polly, Nancy Meyers' Something's Gotta Give and the beloved School of Rock, for which Poster received a Grammy nomination for the year's best soundtrack album.

Poster started putting music in movies soon after his graduation from Brown University, when he co-wrote and produced the independent feature A Matter Of Degrees, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1990. The film spawned a much-acclaimed soundtrack album, released by Atlantic Records, that was awarded Soundtrack of the Year by CMJ, the College Music Journal.

Poster then decided to concentrate exclusively on music supervision and began an association with Christine Vachon's Killer Films, which continues to this day. For Killer, Poster supervised the music in Kids, Postcards from America, Stonewall, I Shot Andy Warhol, Todd Haynes' Velvet Goldmine, and the Academy AwardR-winning Boys Don't Cry.

In 1996, Poster began working with Anderson on the soundtrack to Anderson's debut, Bottle Rocket, and has supervised the music on all three of Anderson's subsequent features: Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and the recently released The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Working with Anderson to create rare and remarkable film soundtracks, these collections have gone on to receive awards and accolades around the world.

Poster has been lucky to work with a variety of great film composers. He has collaborated with Academy AwardR winners Howard Shore, Randy Newman and the late Jack Nitzsche. He has done five features with Devo frontman, Mark Mothersbaugh and has championed new composers whenever possible. These include: Theodore Shapiro, Nathan Larson, Craig Wedron, Christophe Beck and Joe Henry. Poster has also worked with the legendary Alan Silvestri, John Cale of the Velvet Underground, and the multitalented John Ottman on Shane Black's soon-to-be-released directing debut Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.

And yet it is his singular ear for great songs that have earned him his stellar reputation. Be it Folk Implosion's "Natural One" from Kids, which was a Top 40 hit from the soundtrack album; The Faces' "Ooh La La" at the end of Rushmore; The Chico O'Farrell Big Band's dynamic "Cumenco" that launched the scandalous dance sequence in John McTiernan's The Thomas Crown Affair; Wilco's blissful "Airline to Heaven" in Jesus' Son; or the rousing School of Rock anthem that brought out the heart and soul of that picture-Poster has harnessed the power of music to create moments of cinematic transcendence.

Poster has shown an incredible versatility, showcasing the music of diverse periods. In The Aviator, Poster and director Scorsese wove panoply of period songs, often on-camera, to render the journey Howard Hughes undertook over the course of the 1920s, '30s and '40s in Hollywood. Poster also used songs to evoke the repressive tension of the 1950s in Mike Newell's Mona Lisa Smile, to distinguish 1960s bohemian New York in Mary Harron's I Shot Andy Warhol and to celebrate the glittery glamour of the 1970s pop world in Todd Haynes' Velvet Goldmine.

Poster is currently working on a number of new projects. He has been enlisted by David Fincher to supervise the music in the upcoming Zodiac, which details the investigation of the notorious Zodiac Killer; he will continue his ongoing collaboration with director Todd Phillips in the upcoming School for Scoundrels; and he will soon start working with Todd Haynes on his highly anticipated Bob Dylan film, I'm Not There.

THOMAS NEWMAN (Music by) has been nominated for seven Academy AwardsR, most recently for his work on Brad Silberling's fantasy-adventure Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, starring Jim Carrey, in 2004. The previous year, he earned a nomination for the animated feature Finding Nemo.

Newman received OscarR nominations on two Sam Mendes films: the Academy AwardR-winning American Beauty and the critically acclaimed Road to Perdition. His other OscarR nominations were for Unstrung Heroes in 1996 and Little Women and The Shawshank Redemption, both in 1995. Newman received both a BAFTA Award and a Grammy Award for his work on American Beauty, and he received an Emmy Award and two Grammy Awards for his main title music for the HBO original series Six Feet Under. Newman is the recipient of the BMI Richard Kirk Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as Composer of the Year from the Hollywood Film Festival Award in 2004.

Among his recent film credits are Cinderella Man, White Oleander, The Salton Sea, In the Bedroom, Pay It Forward and Erin Brockovich. His other film scores include The Green Mile, Meet Joe Black, The Horse Whisperer, The People vs. Larry Flynt, American Buffalo, Phenomenon, Red Corner, Up Close & Personal, Scent of a Woman, The Player, Fried Green Tomatoes, The Lost Boys and Desperately Seeking Susan. Newman also composed the score for director Mike Nichols' highly acclaimed HBO miniseries Angels in America.

A graduate of Yale University with a master's degree in music composition, Newman is the son of famed composer Alfred Newman and the nephew of notable composer Lionel Newman. His brother is composer David Newman, and his cousin is singer-songwriter-composer Randy Newman.