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本屆金球獎角逐5項提名大熱作品
最佳電影(喜劇/歌舞片)、最佳男主角(喜劇/歌舞片)、最佳男配角
最佳女配角、最佳劇本
本屆奧斯卡金像獎 最佳男配角提名

2008年 星光熠熠 炫目話題作
《阿甘正傳》《綠里奇蹟》《末路驕陽》《捉智雙雄》《劫後重生》《機場客運站》《達文西密碼》奧斯卡金像獎 金球獎 蜚聲國際 金像影帝 湯漢斯
《誘心人》《伊人當自強》《摘星奇緣》《真的想嫁你》金像影后 茱莉亞羅拔絲
《人生交叉剔》《職業特工隊3》《冷血字傳》金球影帝 菲臘西摩荷夫曼
《畢業生》《誘心人》金像導演 米克尼高斯 作品

《韋氏風雲》

3月20日 笑看風雲
《戀愛嫁期》艾美阿當斯 《玩謝嫌疑犯》歷比提
奧佩烈
主演
原創書籍: 佐治寇利
音樂: 《同行殺機》占士紐頓侯活
服裝: 《戀愛心曲》《一代情臬-畢斯》金像得主 艾拔禾斯基
剪接: 《誘心人》《甘地傳》金像得主 尊布榮 《誘心人》安東妮雅雲狄美蘭
《邁亞密風暴》域陀金斯特
視覺效果總監: 《星球大戰》金獎得主 李察艾倫ASC
攝影: 《誘心人》史提芬高巴特ASC BSC
聯合監製: 《誘心人》米高夏里
執行監製: 《誘心人》茜莉亞高絲達斯 《暴劫現場》懷恩金華諾
《絕望真相》謝夫史高
監製: 《?多件衰鬼上帝》湯漢斯 加利高薩曼
編劇: 《白宮奇緣》艾朗蘇堅
導演: 《誘心人》《畢業生》金像得主 米克尼高斯

故事梗概

一杯烈酒、一枝睫毛液、一股蠻橫幹勁，就能逼退強大的蘇聯軍隊？這正是改編自真人真事的《韋氏風雲》引人入勝之處。

由《畢業生》、《誘心人》金像導演米克尼，聯同憑《白宮群英》屢獲艾美獎殊榮的編劇艾朗蘇堅，引領奧斯卡雙料影帝湯漢斯、金像影后茱莉亞羅拔絲，以及金像影帝菲臘西摩荷夫曼，攜手合作將作家佐治寇利講述德州國會議員查理威爾遜(Charlie Wilson)真人真事的暢銷小說"Charlie Wilson's War"搬上大銀幕。

這位傳奇的國會議員查理(湯漢斯飾)終日沉迷女色與金錢權勢遊戲，同時也是不折不扣的愛國份子以及鋤強扶弱的老好人，他的紅粉知己祖安Joanne(茱莉亞羅拔絲飾)是德州社交界名媛，這位迷人女子同時也是充滿正義感的反共積極派，1979年蘇聯入侵阿富汗，她馬上向查理提出一個驚人的想法：幫助阿富汗自由鬥士，為他們籌措資金、購買武器及抗戰物資，將蘇聯大軍趕出阿富汗！

兩人坐言起行，查理更找到一名與他作風同樣離經叛道的中情局探員吉士Gust(菲臘西摩荷夫飾)協助，為了完成任務，這兩個性格南轅北轍的拍檔跟祖安三人，走遍地球每個角落，走訪各種無法想像的地方，為物資與軍備開路，並和各式各樣的江湖人士結為盟友，其中包括巴基斯坦人、埃及人、立法委員以及肚皮舞孃，過程辛辣惹笑。結果，在蘇聯佔領阿富汗的九年間，美國資助對抗蘇聯的臥底行動經費，從每年僅五百萬美元增加至十億美元，迫使蘇聯紅軍不得不從阿富汗撤退。查理的壯舉至今仍為人津津樂道。

故事背景 Charlie Wilson 傳奇的誕生
時為1979年，查理已擔任德州第二選區眾議員長達六年，雖然他積極關注弱勢社群的權益，主動為女性及老人爭取權益及福利，但他放浪輕挑的行為，如好杯中物、總是僱用美麗惹火的助理，令他聲名狼藉，更從沒有人想過他會獻身參與嚴肅的大事業，因此鮮有人知道不按章出牌的查理是日後蘇聯從阿富汗撤軍的最大功臣。但查理也從不張揚，直至1988年，新聞工作者佐治寇利(George Crile)在《六十分鐘時事雜誌》披露他的善行，事件才陸續公諸於世。

佐治於1989年還應查理的邀請前往中東進行一場追尋真相之旅，這趟旅行從科威特開始，前往伊拉克，再造訪沙地阿拉伯，這三個國家後來成為波斯灣戰爭的中心舞台，長達十年。這趟尋真之旅更讓佐治得悉查理的驚人行動牽涉甚廣，包括伊斯蘭教基本教義派份子、猶太軍火商以及中情局探員，他在五體投地之餘，決定更深入追訪事件的真相全貌，前後花了13年，寫出一本讓讀者愛不釋手的奇書，真人真事?高潮迭起，精采如奇情小說，出版旋即登上暢銷書榜，並搬上大銀幕。

著名編劇艾朗蘇堅受命編劇，花了好幾個月的時間研究查理威爾遜的世界，他說：「我足足花了八個月才完成劇本初稿。一般來說，電影劇本都分成三個主要部份，但是故事內容及他的經歷實在太豐富了，所以我的劇本一共有五個主要部份。」艾朗在編寫劇本期間不但和原著作者佐治多次碰面，也獲得故事主人翁查理威爾遜的肯定。

跟查理由不毛中東走到繁盛美國
《韋氏風雲》在比巴基斯坦和阿富汗大一倍的摩洛哥進行拍攝工作。其中重現阿富汗難民營的一幕，是在亞特蘭斯山脈(The Atlas)取景，由於在高地進行拍攝工作，天氣驟變，陰晴不定又時而陷入濃霧之中，令攝製工作出現困難。

監製並分別請來兩位專家當《韋氏風雲》的顧問，以重新建構當中的細節，確保製作的認真無誤。其中一個乃對阿富汗有深入認識、現任專職顧問的權威Jere Van Dyk；另一位Milt Bearden，則為吉士親自招募，他從1986年起駐守巴基斯坦首都的中央情報局，直至蘇聯撤軍，更有份參與當年查理和吉士在阿富汗的秘密運作。

據兩位顧問透露，工作人員要求嚴謹，事事準確，常常詢問他們的意見。由一句當地方言、游擊隊拿步槍的慣用方法，至當地人可能佩戴的飾物如Kurta （阿富汗襯衫）或Karakul（毛織帽）等都一一考究。這種看似吹毛求疵、追求真實的專業操守，對重現阿富汗難民營可是相當關鍵的。

《韋氏風雲》另一主要拍攝場景在洛杉磯進行。其中最令人印象深刻的社交聚會，要數祖安初邂逅查理和提議他協助阿富汗一幕。這場戲在建於1913年、位於漢克斯公園(Hancock Park)內的Chandler Estate進行拍攝，這個擁六間臥室、七間浴室的特色藝術莊園，面積近一萬平方尺，集偌大游泳池、美食家廚房、音樂室、圖書館及許許多多的其他特色設備於一身，正好反映當時長袖善舞的祖安生活如何奢華有品味。

另外，工作人員在派拉蒙電影公司的露天片廠( Paramount Pictures backlot)，設計了一間拉斯維加斯式、縱情聲色的酒店套房，巨形浴缸襯以落地玻璃的景觀，加上請來曾憑《奪寶奇兵》及《星球大戰》奪奧斯卡最佳視覺效果獎的視覺特效大師理察，營造那種紙醉金迷的感覺，黑色、金色、鏡子和水晶，以希臘羅馬式作基調，一切設計和視覺效果都具體將拉斯維加斯塑造為全盛期的罪惡城。

幕後工作人員對場景製作及拍攝工作的專業及認真，讓《韋氏風雲》帶給觀眾無暇的觀影經驗，一如導演米克尼高斯最後寄語：「看電影的如能將一切鏡頭、角度、燈光、場景、化妝和服裝等拋諸腦後，專心一致投入並感受其中的生命，才是看電影最理想的境界。」

重返那肩墊主宰的好年華
《韋氏風雲》幕後班底猛將如雲，如奪得兩次奧斯卡最佳造型設計獎的艾拔禾斯基參與造型設計，他說，在亞特蘭斯山脈(The Atlas) 重現阿富汗難民營的一幕，需要準備多達900位演員的戲服，為求盡善盡美，他們特地從阿富汗和巴基斯坦等地調配服裝到摩洛哥，並在三地另聘專業人員監督協調。可籌備期間遇上這些穆斯林國家的齋月(期間當地人白天禁食)，他們要更早作好一切準備功夫以防有誤。由於那些難民戲服需要維持一定的褐土色調，需要時刻保持警覺，以確保戲服在高山氣候下減少褪色或變形，無怪乎經驗豐富如他也坦言是一項艱鉅的任務。

另外，《韋氏風雲》時空設定為70年代末至整個80年代，如艾拔所言，為這個年代做戲服，難度不比更遠古的年代低，只因在當代人心中，一切記憶仍然鮮活，各人對這個年代亦有不同的認知。為此，服裝設計和美術團隊作了大量研究，如當年德州和華盛頓女士們的衣服皆少不了肩墊，原來是為了令腰部在視覺上纖瘦一點，觀眾們細心留意便了解到流行服裝如何詮釋當時的女性地位及其他社會現象。所以，從服飾、化妝和髮型，工作人員皆一絲不茍地重新審視並真實呈現幕前。

為配合富裕的祖安名媛身份，除大量典雅黑調晚裝和高貴洋服，茱莉亞羅拔絲在本片佩戴了許多名貴鑽飾，如名貴品牌卡地亞近10卡的鑽石耳環和15卡的鑽石戒指，分別價值150萬美元及200萬美元，還有那些閃閃生輝、叫人炫目的鑽石項鍊和手鐲，價值連城，難怪茱莉亞每次出現拍攝場地，均需要2名警衛貼身保護。至於查理本人，他熱愛襯衫、肩章、吊帶及牛仔靴，並借出部份衣服予湯漢斯作戲服樣辦。

關於演員

湯漢斯 飾演 查理威爾遜Charlie Wilson
從《緣份的天空》至《網上情緣》，由《綠里奇蹟》走到《末路驕陽》，這些年來，影迷們喜見湯漢斯未見疲態，在事業達頂峰以後，一直嘗試繼續在大銀幕施展渾身解數。他所主演的《太陽神13號》、《捉智雙雄》、《雷霆救兵》、《劫後重生》、《機場客運站》及《達文西密碼》等都大收特收，叫好且叫座。

貴為荷里活超級演技派兼賣座之王，湯漢斯的專業精神與出色演技由多年來獲獎無數中得到肯定：為演活《費城故事》的愛滋病律師減重30磅，勇奪奧斯卡及金球獎最佳男主角；為他帶來金球獎影帝、並第五次獲奧斯卡提名的《劫後重生》，是增重50磅後的成果。他的演藝才華及實力吸引多位大導演如史提芬史匹堡、朗候活等邀約，多年來演出多部經典作品，令人印象難忘，荷里活一線男星地位無可取代。《阿甘正傳》是繼《費城故事》後為他贏得金像及金球寶座，令他成為近50年來，唯一一位連續兩年奪得雙料影帝寶座的演員，湯漢斯更多次獲選為荷里活權威人物。演員以外，湯漢斯曾嘗試不同的工作崗位，如出任《那一天傳奇》的導演及編劇；為PIXAR的票房勁收動畫《反斗奇兵》系列及《反斗車王》配音，亦曾出任HBO連續劇《雷霆傘兵》的導演及監製。

湯漢斯對於他們只靠三人統籌的秘密行動，就能迫使蘇聯撤軍的事跡讚嘆不已。為演好角色更曾與查理威爾遜本人碰面，那次會面讓他驚喜不已，湯說：「查理是個典型的德州人，身材高大，說話帶著濃厚的南方口音，而且常作牛仔打扮。他這位前任國會議員不但會自嘲，也坦率得讓我不敢相信。我們很愉快地聊天，更談到政治、祖安和吉士，以及他本人誇張的個性和行徑。他一直很大方和坦率地分享他的故事，並不會把自己形容得有多英勇偉大，反是詳實地敘述他的作為，甚至過失。總而言之，他真是一個很有魅力的人。」

湯漢斯憑扮演查理威爾遜順利提名本屆金球獎最佳男主角 (喜劇/歌舞片)，可謂意料之選。

茱莉亞羅拔絲 飾演 Joanne Herring
"Pretty Woman, Walking down the street ~ "一齣《風月俏佳人》，讓她紅透半邊天，晃眼十七年，今天的茱莉亞羅拔絲已向全球証明，她的本錢不僅是一雙44吋長美腿及姿色。作為荷李活的票房保證，茱莉亞羅拔絲仍是目前荷李活最炙手可熱的女演員之一。憑藉《伊人當自強》一片奪得奧斯卡金像獎和金球獎影后殊榮後，茱莉亞羅拔絲曾參與的電影包括與曉格蘭特合演票房高企的《摘星奇緣》、《走佬俏佳人》、《甜心偽人》、《真的想嫁你》等。近作包括《盜海豪情12瞞徒》、《蒙娜麗莎的微笑》、佐治古尼首次執導的《危險性私隱》及《誘心人》。

已為三子之母的茱莉亞羅拔絲，在《韋氏風雲》繼續展示她獨有魅力、一顰一笑充滿戲味，演活故事裡的女主人翁祖安。在剛公佈的本屆金球獎提名名單中，茱莉亞羅拔絲憑本片輕取最佳女配角的提名。

菲臘西摩荷夫曼 飾演 Gust Avrakotos
1967年出生的菲臘，一向以肥仔外型於荷里活打滾，由於菲臘沒有小生的俊俏，所以通常擔任第二男主角或配角，雖然戲份不多，但其精湛的演技成功為角色帶來生命力，令觀眾印象深刻，精彩角色包括《一舉成名》的同性戀場記，憑此獲Screen Actors Guild 最佳男主角提名;99年憑《心計》獲得National Board of Review最佳男配角;其他精彩演出包括《不日成名》、《人生交叉剔》、《亂世情天》、《沉默的赤龍》、《情場算死草》及《職業特工隊3》的演出等。

當中最為人津津樂道的要算是《冷血字傳》的演出，菲臘西摩荷夫曼為了演活那名操南方口音、慧黠的美國當代作家，除花不少時間作資料搜集、學習南方口音，更極速減肥40磅，最終為他帶來了「金球獎」最佳男主角、「洛杉磯影評人協會」最佳男主角、「美國演員工會」最佳男主角等殊榮。

菲臘在《韋氏風雲》的演出再獲本屆奧斯卡金像獎和金球獎評審團垂青，提名最佳男配角，無怪乎他已被認定為當今荷里活45歲以下的最佳男演員之一。

幕後人員

金像導演 米克尼高斯

生於1931年、原籍德國的米克尼高斯在美國長大。米克當上導演前是舞台劇界的活躍分子，曾將《誘心人》舞台劇拍成電影，成功以影像表現不忠及兩性關係的角力這個沉重的命題。

米克的才華一直深受讚賞。首次執導作品《Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?》便獲提名，翌年的《畢業生》(1967年)即贏得金像導演。他的作品不止限於劇情片，多年來他亦拍過不少愛情喜劇，如《打工女郎》和《這個總統真太濫》等。2003年探討愛滋病及同性戀的電視劇《Angels in America》囊括艾美獎11個獎項，令米克的成就再次獲肯定。

《韋氏風雲》的監製早屬意由米克執道此片，他認為這部電影不但有爾虞我詐的政治操作，片中主要角色更是位位性格鮮明、有趣而充滿睿智。查理和拍檔吉士的個性南轅北轍，但都是絕頂聰明、風趣幽默的人物。至於祖安則是風華絕世、性感誘人，人卻非常偏執。這一切都是精彩劇情片的必備元素，而且喜劇通常都來自最不可思議的狀況，這也是導演米克尼高斯最擅長處理的題材。

編劇 艾朗蘇堅

現年47歲的艾朗蘇堅為著名編劇。多年來參與創作多齣電視劇集《白宮群英》，當中最為港人熟悉的要算連年獲艾美獎最佳劇情類片集的《白宮群英》（The West Wing），這齣由1999年開播的政治連續劇以白宮作主場景設定，充分表現Aaron駕馭政治題材的能力，。除卻電視劇集創作，艾朗早期也曾涉獵電影劇本改編，包括分別為他帶來兩度金球獎最佳劇本提名--由湯告魯斯主演的《義海雄風》及由米高德格拉斯飾演美國總統的《白宮奇緣》，還有妮歌潔曼主演的《海角危情Malice》等。

事隔12年，艾朗蘇堅再涉獵電影劇本改編的《韋氏風雲》，讓他再次提名金球獎最佳劇本，實力毋庸置疑。

電影配樂 占士紐頓侯活
占士擁有超過20年的電影配樂經驗，曾參與多達100齣電影的創作。他曾以《真的想嫁你》等片獲奧斯卡提名6次最佳原創電影配樂獎。占士的近作包括《魔間傳奇》、《敵對同謀》、《同行殺機》、《血鑽》、《金剛》(King Kong)、《叛譯者》等。

服飾設計 艾拔禾斯基
曾憑電影《一代情梟-畢斯》(Bugsy)及《All that Jazz》奪得兩次奧斯卡最佳造型設計獎的艾拔是行內著名的服飾設計師。他的其他作品廣為人認識，包括《網上情緣》、《走佬俏佳人》、《末路驕陽》及《平頭日記》等。其他近作包括獲本屆金球獎提名最佳影片(喜劇/歌舞片組)，在08年2月28日在港上畫的《戀愛心曲》(Across the Universe)。

特效 李察艾倫
港人可能未曾聽聞李察的名字，但不可能沒聽過他有份參與的電影，包括獲奧斯卡提名最佳視覺效果獎的《異形3》及《虎膽龍威》及奪奧斯卡最佳視覺效果獎的《奪寶奇兵》及《星球大戰》。且看寶刀未老，年屆68歲的李察如何在《韋氏風雲》施展渾身解數。

Production Information

"Charlie did it."

-Pakistani President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq,

explaining the defeat of the Russians in Afghanistan

A stiff drink. A little mascara. A lot of nerve.

Who said they couldn't bring down the Soviet empire.

Charlie Wilson's War is the outrageous true story of how one congressman who loved a good time, one Houston socialite who loved a good cause and one CIA agent who loved a good fight conspired to bring about the largest covert operation in history.

OscarR winners TOM HANKS (Forrest Gump, Philadelphia), JULIA ROBERTS (Erin Brockovich, Closer) and PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN (Capote, The Savages) team with Academy AwardR-winning director MIKE NICHOLS (Closer, The Graduate) and Emmy Award-winning screenwriter AARON SORKIN (A Few Good Men, television's The West Wing) to bring GEORGE CRILE's best-selling book to the screen.

Charlie Wilson (Hanks) was a bachelor congressman from Texas whose "Good Time Charlie" personality masked an astute political mind, deep sense of patriotism and compassion for the underdog. In the early 1980s, with the looming advance of a Russian invasion, that underdog was Afghanistan.

Charlie's longtime friend, frequent patron and sometime lover was Joanne Herring (Roberts), one of the wealthiest women in Texas and a virulent anticommunist. Believing the American response to the invasion of Afghanistan was anemic at best, she prodded Charlie into doing for the Mujahideen-the country's legendary freedom fighters-what no one else could: secure funding and weapons to eradicate Soviet aggressors from their land. Charlie's partner in this uphill endeavor was CIA agent Gust Avrakotos (Hoffman), a bulldog, blue-collar operative who worked in the company of Ivy League blue bloods dismissive of his talents.

Together, Charlie, Joanne and Gust traveled the world to form an unlikely alliance among Pakistanis, Israelis, Egyptians, lawmakers and a belly dancer. Their success was remarkable. Over the nine-year course of the occupation of Afghanistan, United States funding for covert operations against the Soviets went from $5 million to $1 billion annually, and the Red Army subsequently retreated from Afghanistan.

Joining the acclaimed cast are a group of seasoned performers and promising up-and-coming actors, including AMY ADAMS (Junebug, Enchanted) as Charlie's right-hand-woman, Bonnie Bach; NED BEATTY (Network, Deliverance) as the chairman of the House's Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Doc Long; EMILY BLUNT (The Devil Wears Prada, Jane Austen Book Club) as a randy constituent of Charlie's district, Jane Liddle; OM PURI as Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq; KEN STOTT as arms dealer Zvi Rafiah; and JUD TYLOR as aspiring starlet/former Playboy cover girl Crystal Lee.

To re-create the early 1980s world of Charlie Wilson's War, the filmmakers have assembled an acclaimed creative team that includes director of photography STEPHEN GOLDBLATT (Closer, The Prince of Tides); production designer VICTOR KEMPSTER (Miami Vice, Any Given Sunday); composer JAMES NEWTON HOWARD (King Kong, Michael Clayton); two-time-Academy AwardR-winning costume designer ALBERT WOLSKY (Across the Universe, Bugsy); two-time-OscarR-winning visual effects supervisor RICHARD EDLUND (Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark); and the editing team of OscarR winner JOHN BLOOM (Notes on a Scandal, Gandhi) and ANTONIA VAN DRIMMELEN (Notes on a Scandal, Closer). Charlie Wilson's War is produced by Tom Hanks and GARY GOETZMAN (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Mamma Mia!).

The executive producers for the film are CELIA COSTAS, RYAN KAVANAUGH and JEFF SKOLL.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Capturing Charlie on Page:

Background of the Film

By 1979, Congressman Charlie Wilson had, in peerless fashion, represented Texas' 2nd District for six years. "The liberal from Lufkin" was a paradox who routinely championed the disempowered. He battled for women's rights and seniors' tax exemptions, but the native Texan also opposed gun control. His black constituents were his biggest supporters; he was pro-choice in the Bible Belt. His district loved him.

On Capitol Hill, Wilson was perhaps better known for the personal foibles that accompanied his growing political capital. He surrounded himself with a bevy of beautiful assistants, dubbed, naturally, "The Angels." With his 6'4" frame, booming voice, quick wit and infinite charm, he had a way with the ladies helped by a love of the whiskey. Scandal seemed to follow him everywhere, but as he was so affable, Wilson always managed to dodge any damage. And of all the events occurring in 1979, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan seemed least likely to appear on his radar. Then again, nothing Wilson did could ever be described as likely.

The public revelation of Wilson's extraordinary exploits began with a 60 Minutes profile produced by award-winning journalist George Crile in 1988. Crile continued to follow the story and wrote a best-selling book about Wilson's covert war that read like a novel, except it wasn't fiction. As Crile noted in his book, "It was January of 1989, just as the Red Army was preparing to withdraw its soldiers from Afghanistan, when Charlie Wilson called to invite me to join him on a fact-finding tour of the Middle East. I had produced a 60 Minutes profile of Wilson several months earlier and had no intention of digging further into his role in the Afghan war. But I quickly accepted the invitation. The trip began in Kuwait, moved to Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and then to Saudi Arabia-a grand tour that took us all to three of the countries that would soon take center stage in the Gulf War. For me, the trip was just the beginning of a decade-long odyssey."

Wilson's outrageous tale of international intrigue and global politicking, cast with colorful characters who dreamed of glory, captivated the veteran reporter. It also proved to be an extraordinary challenge to document the confounding saga of Muslim fundamentalists, Jewish arms dealers and CIA agents working in tandem with two Texans and a Greek-American CIA agent. Crile's wife, publisher Susan Lyne, explains: "No one involved knew the whole story. Charlie knew his part; Gust his, Joanne hers. George interviewed Charlie and Gust many times over many years and as they learned to trust him, they gave up a little more each time. George had to put all the pieces together and then find a narrative arc that would invest the reader in the characters and the outcome."

Obtaining and deciphering the material was a monumental task, especially since Crile never quit his day job. "The time it took seems ridiculous [13 years from that first trip to publication], but he was unraveling secret deals with countries that don't even acknowledge each other, CIA covert ops and the inner workings of congressional committees," Lyne recalls.

Her sister, Barbara, became Crile's cheerleader and sometime gadfly-supporting, editing and otherwise urging him to finish the book. She was so instrumental to his process that he dedicated the book to her.

"I think what intrigued him was that this was such an American story, with fallible characters who-underneath the gruffness and drinking and womanizing-had dreams of glory," Barbara Lyne explains. "They responded to these underdogs, the Afghan Mujahideen, and believed they could make a difference in the world. Lots of people have dreams of glory, but, occasionally, the stars align just right and three or four people come together and something huge blossoms. George loved redemption stories, and loved this one particularly, because the heroes were so unlikely. He liked the fact that, as the Afghans would tell you, 'Allah works in mysterious ways.' The Americans who participated were all outsiders and misfits who didn't belong in this arena, but they took risks and guessed right."

When Crile's book finally debuted in 2003, it became a best seller and attracted attention from Hollywood. Producer Gary Goetzman first heard of the book through a Washington connection. "A congressman whom I am very fond of told me about Charlie Wilson and what a fascinating character he was," Goetzman recalls. "He told me there was a book written about him by George Crile and recommended that I read it."

Goetzman and his producing partner, Tom Hanks, did just that. Upon reading "Charlie Wilson's War," they became fascinated with the rollicking tale, especially the inner workings of D.C. and the Afghan resistance to the Russian Army documented by Crile. "It was a great political story that was also wildly entertaining and absolutely unique," Goetzman says. "Charlie was so impressed by what these Mujahideen went through to get the Soviet Union out of their country. The way he went about helping was outrageous, mesmerizing and funny."

"We took one look at that book and pounced on it," Hanks adds. "It read like a house on fire." The actor/producer was most dumbfounded by the fact that, "like every other American, I thought it was a great thing that this ragtag group of Afghans defeated the Russian Army. I thought it was a miracle and it took a long time; what a brave bunch of patriots they were. I had no idea about the covert aspects, or that the money was coming in from the United States and other countries to arm them-money out of our own Congress, signed off by the White House."

After Goetzman and Hanks won over Crile, the task of translating his tome into a screenplay went to Emmy Award-winning writer Aaron Sorkin, known for political stories full of intelligent characters, witty wordplay and engaging plots. From A Few Good Men (the play and the film) to The American President and the highly regarded series The West Wing, Sorkin has deftly navigated the echelons of American power, from the military to the Beltway-the stomping grounds of Wilson.

"I read a review of the book, and I went out and bought it," remembers Sorkin. I'd read the first 50 pages when I saw in the trades that Playtone had bought the film rights. I asked my agent if he could get me a meeting with Gary Goetzman so that I could try to convince him that I might be the right screenwriter to adapt it." He adds, "Gary, in a rare display of poor judgment, hired me."

Sorkin's next challenge was to distill Crile's intricately detailed book into a script.

To find just the tone, the writer would spend months researching the world Crile had meticulously documented. "It took me about eight months to complete a first draft," he states. "The book is essentially a series of very detailed, in-depth interviews, and it doesn't immediately present itself as a movie. Screenplays are usually written in three acts, but, after a lot of climbing the walls, a five-act structure came to me."

The screenwriter met with Crile several times during this process, and the journalist made his research available to Sorkin. In preparation, Sorkin also spent time with Wilson, who would become a regular contributor throughout the production. Wilson proved to be every bit the gentleman and frequently offered his sharp intellect, wicked sense of humor and keen knowledge of history.

The congressman was open to Sorkin's interpretation: "Anybody who reads a script about himself for the first time will have some reservations; you think that some of your most heroic deeds have been left out," Wilson says. "But you grow to realize that only so much can be put in, that no movie can have all of the scenes that a book or even a life does. I accepted that early on."

Commends Goetzman: "From the first day I talked to Charlie on the phone, I thought this was the funniest, warmest, savviest straight shooter that I'd ever talked to regarding a movie. He never let us down, solid as a rock-always there understanding the process more than he should."

The producers worked with Sorkin to translate Crile's story into screenplay form, while honoring the basic truths of what Charlie, Joanne and Gust accomplished. "That's the trick," offers Hanks. "You're not going to be able to get the kitchen sink. Charlie Wilson's War could be a fascinating documentary. But, as a piece of entertainment with historical aspects that are going to be interpreted, you get an artistic aesthetic that requires perspective. All that is drawn from the book and includes conclusions from the entire creative team, but it started with Aaron's screenplay and matches up to the sensibility of George's book."

When Playtone and Sorkin were satisfied with the draft, the producers approached filmmaker Mike Nichols about directing the project. Nichols, whose career spans more than four decades of stage, screen and television, has explored the lives and loves of a variety of memorable characters, revealing them through humor, intelligence and sensitivity. "We felt that this was the kind of material that might attract Mike," notes Goetzman. "Political intrigue, coupled with a character like Charlie, whose exploits were not just astonishing, but always entertaining. Charlie and his partner-in-crime, Gust, were great foils, completely different personalities; together they are smart and funny, unbelievably captivating…Joanne Herring, who was glamorous, sexy and stubbornly single-minded-all that makes for great human drama. And comedy often comes out of the most singular and mind-boggling circumstances-the kind of material made for Mike."

Longtime friends Nichols and Hanks had come close to doing a picture together, but nothing came to fruition until Charlie Wilson's War. The double OscarR winner commends he's been influenced by his director's work since his early acting days. "I know where I was and what I was going through when I saw Mike's films, from Catch-22 to The Graduate to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" reflects Hanks.

For Nichols, the project began with a simple discussion. "Tom and Gary wanted me to read the book," he says. "Of course, I loved the book and was very interested. The idea of Aaron Sorkin seemed to be brilliant and correct. Tom and I were good friends, and I always wanted to work with him. And then, of course, he was better than I could have imagined."

The director next met with Wilson, and he was mesmerized by the statesman. "He owns the room, and he is the only politician I've met who isn't at least partly prerecorded," Nichols states. "He listens to you, and he answers with whatever comes into his head. He's courtly and kind and thoughtful; he truly loves people."

Not only Wilson's self-effacing, bold honesty, but also his story of "three people who brought down a giant empire" impressed the director. Nichols clarifies, "They had a lot of open help from the people whom they inflamed. But, basically, among the three of them, they got the things started that caused the fall of the Soviet Empire.

"A lot of people don't know how serious the Cold War was, how terrified everyone was of Russia, how it was a fact," Nichols continues. "It wasn't a guess about weapons of mass destruction; they had them. The Cuban Missile Crisis was sheer terror, because the Russians could have unleashed them on us. As Charlie says, these things really happened, and it's very hard to grasp that there was one bad guy and it was Russia. All over the world, everybody was terrified of them."

To prepare for the role, Hanks huddled with Wilson (who would prove an invaluable consultant on the project) to discuss everything from politics, Herring and Avrakotos to his often outrageous personality. The former congressman proved quite candid and gracious, giving very specific character notes-which seldom bathed him in a perfect light, but reflected his feats as well as his foibles.

Provides Hanks: "I said, 'Okay, you've got a guy running against you for your seat in Congress. You've been investigated for doing drugs. You're known as a ladies' man. You're notorious for your drinking, your carousing and your partying. What do you say in the campaign against the guy who wants to get Good Time Charlie?' He said, 'The opposition could say whatever he wanted to say about me, but we passed more Medicare bills, we took care of our veterans better than anyone else, we brought home this bill and that bill.' He was the consummate politician, but he was never hypocritical about his behavior. Plus, he is an impressive physical specimen. He's very tall; he's got a massive voice, all that Texas stuff-from the cowboy boots to the belt buckles and suspenders-and he's also incredibly charming."

Continues Hanks, "He had already invested a lot of time and heart into the book with George. On some level, he was accustomed to another person asking him about the finer points of his life. What was amazing, to Charlie's credit, was that he said, 'I don't care what you say about me. Show me doing anything you want to because, chances are, I did it. It's the historical record that I want to be dealt with accurately.' He took us to task about that over and over, but he didn't care if we showed him in a hot tub in Las Vegas with a bunch of exotic dancers…because he did it."

Sadly, author George Crile did not live to see the film begin production. He died of pancreatic cancer on May 15, 2006, at age 61. "We lost George Crile before we started shooting," reflects Goetzman. "His writing the book, his love of Charlie was such a big part of his life, and one of the greatest things for him was this movie getting made. To lose him before shooting was really tough."

Big-Haired Texans and Angry Spies:

Casting the Production

Charlie Wilson's War marks the second occasion Nichols has worked with Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and he was thrilled to reunite with them. Of his interest in bringing on Roberts for the project, the director comments, ""Julia is so shockingly creative. She is a wonderful screen actor, a joy to work with, as good as it gets. Her ingenuity about costumes and makeup and what the person would and wouldn't do…she is really remarkable. We knew the character was somewhat older than Julia, born-again, a Texas millionaire who's had numerous husbands. Every second Julia's on the screen, she is so electric, surprising and somehow compelling-even though the character is apparently way held back, very controlled. You see someone you've never seen before, and that's very exciting."

Roberts admits that Herring is unlike any character she's portrayed. "I don't know that I would have envisioned myself in a part like this, but I love that Mike wanted me for it. It is such a fabulous script; it is so much juicier and has much more depth than the usual screenplay. And Joanne is such a fantastic character, so energetic and yet so enigmatic. She is really a contrast study in every way-a beautiful socialite who also is zealously interested in the plight of these Afghan fighters."

Whereas Hanks spent time with Wilson in advance of playing him, Roberts elected not to meet with Herring until she'd determined her character. This was no slight against Herring, but rather an artistic decision. "It's funny to play a real person; there's a fine line between imitating and interpreting who that person is," she offers. "I was torn and felt that way when I did Erin Brockovich. It's tricky to know when the right time to meet is. So I read all the research materials I could get my hands on and watched footage, the 60 Minutes piece on Charlie, and a couple things that were about Joanne. When I finally did meet her, she was just lovely-with fine social graces, dressed impeccably."

Nichols understood Roberts' decision to create a character uninfluenced by the person upon whom her role is based. He notes that, while the protagonists in Charlie Wilson's War are based on real people and real events, ultimately, they must behave as characters in a movie and adhere to the demands of the story. For audiences-and for Nichols-the hope is that the characters become real people.

For the director, it boils down to "obligation to the scene and the story you are making. A character is a character; most are based on someone at sometime. It goes from as specific as Karen Silkwood to as metaphoric as Mrs. Robinson, but both are real people. And the actor and I approach it in the same way: Who is this? How do they live? What do they wear? Whom do they love? You can't show everything that happened, but you can be faithful to the events-to the acts that were performed, the things that they said."

Though Roberts was reuniting with Nichols and his team, this was the first time she and Hanks had worked together. She observes, "Mike always has a core group of people that are with him. There is a familiarity and security there that is just a joy. And then there's Tom Hanks, who is as sweet, energetic, funny, kind and amazing as I ever dreamed him to be."

Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays the shrewd, hotheaded CIA agent Gust Avrakotos, never met the man he was portraying; Avrakotos died before the film began production. But by all accounts, the actor eerily channeled him. Indeed, Nichols marveled at Hoffman's transformation into the spy. "Phil Hoffman and I worked together on The Seagull, and he was astonishing. Every 50 years, there is a great actor of that kind," Nichols says. "He comes out playing whomever he is playing-whether heartbreaking or terrifying or overwhelming-that makes you have very strong emotions. My guess is that Gust was intimidating; anybody who kills people that we don't even know about is intimidating. I kept looking at Phil, thinking, 'Are you sure this is the same guy who played Capote? That small, slender reed?' Because here is a bull, and I couldn't put the two together. The truth is he can be anyone he wants to be."

The actor relished the challenge of portraying the spy. Hoffman became intense-and often explosive-when he spoke in character and felt comfortable tapping into Avrakotos' persona with his director's guidance. "I've known Mike for about seven years now," Hoffman provides. "We did a play together back in 2001, but I met him in 2000. He's become a friend, someone I love. Working on the play with him, and now working on the film-it's been this great road to getting a sense of each other."

The confessed news junkie notes that while the themes of the film appealed to him, it was the characters and their escapades that hooked him. "I've become addicted to news, so it was great to look at what is happening in our country and in the world now through the things that Charlie and Gust did, because they are so linked up," Hoffman says. "But, ultimately, it was the characters and their story. There's nothing we had to do to make them seem more interesting, and it was fascinating to explore them."

Hoffman grew to know Avrakotos through the people who understood the man best. He spent time with both the agent's son and retired operative Milt Bearden, the film's CIA technical advisor who took command over Avrakotos' "Afghan station" after Avrakotos and Wilson had the covert Mujahideen Army and training camp running like a factory. Both Wilson and Bearden marveled at seeing their dear friend come to life through Hoffman's portrayal. Recalls Hoffman, "Charlie said, 'You and Gust would have loved each other,' and I have a feeling that's true."

The experience of watching his old mates/conspirators cast as OscarR winners was a bit surreal for the retired statesman. Of Hoffman playing Avrakotos, he states, "Gust was a street fighter, a tough guy who made his living that way-big and muscular and menacing-and Hoffman was all of those things. He has Gust's lethal, ominous air and intensity; with the dark glasses and the mustache, he looks a lot like him. It's almost evil that Gust and George couldn't have been around to see it."

Of his Joanne, he continues, "Of course, I knew that Miss Roberts was an amazing actress, but there was one scene in particular, a party at Joanne's mansion, when Julia made her entrance-it was just electric. It was the first time I'd seen her with Tom, and their chemistry was remarkable."

With all the real-life characters in Sorkin's screenplay, only one major player was a composite of several real people. That was Bonnie Bach, Wilson's administrative assistant and gal Friday. When casting the role, Nichols recalled a small film that launched the career of OscarR-nominated actress Amy Adams. He states, "I fell in love with Amy when I saw Junebug; she just amazed me, and I made everyone go see it. I followed everything she did, and working with her was pure joy."

Adams says, "I met with Mike and came out for one of the table reads in New York. After that, they approached me about playing Bonnie. I loved the script; I thought it was a great story that needed to be told, and I wanted to be a part of telling it."

Her wonky, slightly exasperated banter with Hanks as Wilson was a source of amusement to the performer. She had appeared on several episodes of Sorkin's The West Wing and was attuned to his clever mouthfuls of dialogue. "The dialogue was mesmerizing," Adams recalls. "It had this super-smart, rapid-fire quality that Aaron is brilliant at, but I tried to play it realistically-which really works for Bonnie because she is very bright, intense and bold."

Other supporting players in Charlie Wilson's War include legendary performer Ned Beatty as Chairman Doc Long, the head of the House of Representatives' Defense Appropriations Subcommittee whom Wilson convinces to help fund the Mujahideen, and British actor Emily Blunt as Jane Liddle, the not-so-conservative daughter of one of his district's most conservative men.

Blunt had recently completed the film The Great Buck Howard, opposite Tom Hanks' son Colin, and was eager to work on Charlie Wilson's War. "Mike had seen a film that I'd done and wanted to meet with me," remarks Blunt. "I didn't know what the part was, just the prospect of working with him was very exciting. And the script was such a funny read-dense and thoughtful, but with a wonderful, underhanded tone to it."

In life and in the film, Charlie made a beeline toward the smoldering and receptive Jane Liddle, a character that Blunt describes as someone who "appears to be demure and tries to hold any sexuality in check in front of her father, but not when she is around Charlie. She is smart and sexy and shamelessly knows what she wants. Like Charlie, she wants no commitment; she just wants to have fun."

The famous Indian performer Om Puri plays Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq, the ruler who helps Wilson, Herring and Avrakotos orchestrate their secret war. He has appeared in another Nichols film-opposite Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer in 1994's Wolf. Of his role, the actor comments, "I come from north of Punjab, which is actually very close to Pakistan. Zia ul-Haq also happened to be Punjabi, except that he was a Muslim and I am a Hindu." Of his director, he commends, "He quietly, in a very relaxed manner, gets the best out of you as an actor."

Other key cast members include Ken Stott as Zvi Rafiah, an Israeli arms dealer who owes Wilson a couple of big favors, and Jud Tylor as Crystal Lee, an aspiring starlet from Texas' 2nd District who dreams of life as an actress/slash/model.

Morocco to Los Angeles:

Locations and Filming

Charlie Wilson's War began principal photography in Morocco, which doubled as the countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Jere Van Dyk, a consulting authority on Afghanistan, and Milt Bearden, the CIA chief in Pakistan from 1986 until the Soviet withdrawal from the country, were on hand to make sure the production authentically re-created the details. In 1981, Van Dyk snuck into the impoverished country, lived with the Mujahideen and wrote about his experiences with the Soviet attacks for The New York Times, eventually penning a book about them.

Operative Bearden, as Crile pointed out in "Charlie Wilson's War," was personally recruited by Avrakotos to take over the Islamabad station, and he proved "devilishly effective during his three years" in his part in the covert Afghan operation. "Milt Bearden was not the kind of man that Avrakotos was going to be able to push around," recounted the author, "and Gust wanted it that way. Bearden was a Texan, a great storyteller, a natural salesman and a very tough customer."

The scenes that unfolded in the Atlas Mountains, where the production re-created the Afghan refugee camps, impressed both Van Dyk and Bearden. On a steep rise above the base camp that housed trailers, support vehicles, wardrobe and catering structures sprawled a motley collection of tattered tents-makeshift cooking areas that fed Moroccan extras in traditional Afghan garb crossed with 1980s attire.

"When we filmed the refugee camp, when I saw all those people-the children coming down the pass-it was 100 percent what it was like in Afghanistan," Van Dyk says. "It was truly wonderful, the way the families looked. The whole setup was exactly what it was like in the early 1980s."

The filmmakers' desire for minute accuracy especially impacted Bearden. Even when not on set, he received calls from Nichols and team about anything and everything-a questionable piece of vernacular, the way a rifle was held, the type of kurta (Afghan blouse) or karakul (stiff, woolen hat) that might be worn by a native.

This quest for authenticity was quite critical to the refugee camp scene filmed high in the Atlas Mountains. Bearden explains: "Afghanistan, more than anything else, defined Charlie Wilson. When he got hold of it, he never let go until the Soviets marched across the Friendship Bridge and crossed the Oxus River."

The mountain was so high that when clouds rolled in, the company found itself engulfed in a viscous cumulous mist. A bit of a microclimate, the area had weather that was mercurial at best; within a half an hour, a sunny, windy day was likely to give way to dark skies and rain.

The cast and crew camped at a formerly closed ski lodge, a location they grew to know well when fierce weather roared into the mountains. Shutting down production, gale force winds, giant hail, and relentless snow and sleet washed out the winding mountain pass that led to the closest big city, Marrakech, an hour and a half away. The company was stranded on the mountain, and the catering and wardrobe tents were flattened.

When the sun finally returned and the Moroccan Army had repaired the roads and deemed the area safe, the cast and crew returned to what was once the production. The art and construction departments labored to resurrect the refugee camp set, and while the new incarnation was a bit more bedraggled, that construction's ramshackle quality was, in certain ways, even more reminiscent of the camp than the original set.

In addition to the Atlas Mountains, the film lensed in the Moroccan capital of Rabat in an ornate palace with an airy courtyard and immense arched anterooms; in the local fashion, its crumbling marble walls were intricately tiled. Once at the location, the cast and crewmembers could not venture far. During filming, the king met with parliament, headquartered near the set. The government shut down adjacent streets for the day, but as filming wrapped, so did the king's business-allowing everyday life to return to the city.

When the company moved to Los Angeles, one of the impressive scenes shot in the city was the soiree at which Herring first charms Wilson and enlists him in her cause to help the Afghan refugees. It was lensed at the onetime Chandler Estate in Hancock Park, built in 1913. The six-bedroom, seven-bath Beaux Arts residence is nearly 10,000 square feet and features a pool, gourmet kitchen, music room and library, among its many amenities. The garage is so large it was possible to house the craft service that serviced night shoots.

To create the festive setting of Herring's charity auction, production designer Victor Kempster covered the pool, propped up an Afghan-style facade-the type that might affectionately be interpreted by a Houston socialite with a cause-and festooned the area with lanterns.

On the Paramount Pictures backlot, Kempster designed a debauched Las Vegas hotel suite, with a giant hot tub and panoramic "view" of the Strip that visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund would create. Black, gold, mirror and crystal-with Greco-Roman motifs-the design embodied Vegas as the heyday Sin City.

Kempster's team also re-created a more dignified locale: the halls of Congress. His crew was allowed to photograph and analyze blueprints and measure the actual congressional corridors, but the fabled Speaker's Lobby outside the House floor was off limits. They would end up building it to scale and fitting the area with wild walls so that the camera could move about freely. To put in perspective, the corridor was large enough to accommodate a Technocrane without disturbing the ornate carpets or the chandeliers.

Wilson particularly enjoyed the reincarnation of his old Washington haunts, with his office and bachelor pad apartment reborn on a soundstage. "That reconstruction of the Speaker's Lobby was the most amazing damn thing in the movie. It's among the Seven Wonders of the World," he says. "I just don't know how they did it, got the tile floors, the portraits of all the former speakers on the wall-spectacular!"

To shoot these exotic locations, Nichols would turn to another old friend. Charlie Wilson's War marks cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt's third collaboration with the director. Too, Wilson's incredible life provided a welcome new canvas for the DP. Goldblatt was among several returning Mike Nichols alumni, who combined with Playtone regulars such as production designer Kempster and his art department.

Their work was as true to the narrative and the period as possible, but in the end, as Nichols notes, "Ideally, you'll forget that there was a camera and film and lights and art director and makeup people. You're supposed to fall into it and experience it as life. If you're lucky, the events and the story burn away the technique."

Shoulder Pads and Cowboy Boots:

Costumes of the Film

The sequences of Charlie Wilson's War Nichols filmed in the Atlas Mountains required up to 900 extras at a time and proved especially challenging for double OscarR-winning costume designer Albert Wolsky and team. The production prepped and shot in the Muslim country during the holy season of Ramadan, and Wolsky needed to have everything in place in advance of the fasting days. "We hired a costume supervisor just for that portion, and we sent him two months before; at the same time, we had people working in Afghanistan and Pakistan."

Wolsky adds that the refugee wardrobe needed to have a certain drab color palette, which required vigilance to maintain until the cameras rolled. "Of course, we couldn't use all real things that people had worn, but our Afghan liaison arranged to work with second-hand clothing vendors in Kabul, and all that was sent to Morocco." Dyers and agers assisted in coloring, and any new clothes were given a patina appropriate for the era and region.

The costume design and art departments did vast research, but found that creating for Texas and Washington, D.C. in the early '80s was more challenging than might be expected. "Doing a true period piece-and by that I mean 50 years ago or more-you can set it fairly accurately," Wolsky notes. "But doing something that people have memories of and is so current is very tricky, especially since the '80s fashions have made a bit of a comeback."

From the shoulder pads for Amy Adams' Bonnie Bach to the high coifs of Charlie's Angels, the design, makeup and hair teams had ample opportunity to revisit the 1980s. For Amy Adams, it was a bona fide introduction to the era. According to designer Wolsky: "Amy Adams came in a modern young woman with hazy ideas about the 1980s. We started experimenting, and she came to love it. By the end of the session, she realized that it was a flattering period; the shoulder pads were for a very good reason-they made the waist look small. The Dynasty version wasn't real life, it was already a costume-an exaggerated interpretation of reality."

Though plainspoken in life, Wilson's singular style of dressing was anything but simple. Notes Wolsky: "I was pleasantly surprised that I could get very close to the real Charlie Wilson with Tom," he recalls. "Somehow it worked on him; I even borrowed one of Charlie's shirts as a template. He wore a certain kind of collar, he loved the epaulets, the suspenders-that's all Charlie." Additionally, it helped Hanks' swagger to walk in the types of cowboy boots Wilson was partial to wearing.

The designer had previously worked with Julia Roberts on Runaway Bride and The Pelican Brief and concocted a wardrobe for her Joanne Herring that was elegant, sophisticated and mostly ebony-hued. Wolsky didn't want her to look as if she were a caricature of a wealthy Houston society woman, and ended up dressing Roberts in elegant tones of black that the designer felt provided glamorous contrast to Herring's trademark blonde hair.

Befitting a woman of Herring's station, Roberts wore some serious, eye-popping diamonds from Cartier North America. During filming, she donned glittery necklaces and bracelets, as well as almost 10-carat diamond earrings retailing for approximately $1.5 million and a 15-carat diamond ring worth approximately $2 million. Naturally, two armed guards appeared on set every time the baubles did.

The effect impressed Roberts. The actor notes, "The first day that we did tests, I was floored with what they could really achieve in making me look significantly different than I had when I came strolling on set with my ponytail and sweatpants."

Production designer Victor Kempster's team played with the chic, iconic look developed for Roberts by creating a huge full-length portrait of her as Herring, which hung in the ornate mansion set in Los Angeles. Roberts as Herring posed in a low-cut black evening gown, similar in style and attitude to the muse of John Singer Sargent's painting "Madame X." In this setting, the actress wore a show-stopping dress-an architectural, satin, off-the-shoulder number that was "simple and tasteful and contrasted to the more gaudy and colorful gowns her guests wore in the party scene," Wolsky says.

To complement Roberts' party wardrobe, Hanks donned a white tuxedo jacket and black bow tie for the event. The outfit echoed a similar one Wilson wore in honor of his 60th birthday. As Crile documented, "Casablanca was the theme he had chosen for the event. It was his favorite movie, and he had appeared for the occasion in a white dinner jacket, specially tailored to look like the one Humphrey Bogart wore when he played the role of Rick."

Of course, the blue-collar spy Gust Avrakotos never wore anything fancy, or obvious, by design. To aid his look, the designer comments, "The [oversized] glasses helped; the hair and the costumes evolved with him. Once we got through establishing the costumes, we both agreed he would be dressed almost invisibly; he may never have changed his clothes, and nothing really matches."

Charlie, Joanne and Gust at War:

A Detailed History

In December 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, an event much expected by the CIA. As Steve Coll wrote in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Ghost War": "The CIA had been watching Soviet troop deployments in and around Afghanistan since the summer, and while its analysts were divided in assessing Soviet political intentions, the CIA reported steadily and accurately about Soviet military moves. By mid-December, ominous, large-scale Soviet deployments toward the Soviet-Afghan border had been detected by U.S. intelligence. CIA director [Stansfield] Turner sent President Carter and his senior advisers a classified 'Alert' memo on December 19, warning that the Soviets had 'crossed a significant threshold in their growing military involvement in Afghanistan and were sending more forces south.' Three days later, deputy CIA director Bobby Inman called [National Security Advisor Zbigniew] Brzezinski and Defense Secretary Harold Brown to report that the CIA had no doubt that the Soviet Union intended to undertake a major military invasion of Afghanistan within 72 hours."

As Crile illustrated in "Charlie Wilson's War," this invasion changed President Jimmy Carter's philosophy toward the USSR. "It radicalized him," the journalist observed. "It made him suddenly believe that the Soviets might truly be evil, and the only way to deal with them was with force."

Crile continued in his book: "'I don't know if fear is the right word to describe our reaction,' recalls Carter's vice-president, Walter Mondale. 'But what unnerved everyone was the suspicion that [Soviet president] Brezhnev's inner circle might not be rational. They must have known the invasion would poison everything dealing with the West-from SALT [Strategic Arms Limitation Talks] to the deployment of weapons in Western Europe.'"

Overt force was not a first option for the administration. This was the Cold War after all, and the two superpowers each sat upon an enormous arsenal of nuclear weapons, ominous enough to easily conjure up World War III. Too, after the wrenching turmoil of Vietnam, America was weary of entering into another conflict in which there was no certain end date.

Carter would, however, set certain wheels in motion. He authorized a boycott of the Summer 1980 Olympic Games scheduled for Moscow, instigated an embargo on grain sales to the Soviets, fast-tracked a 1977 directive known as the Rapid Deployment Force and introduced The Carter Doctrine. Crile elaborated, "The Carter Doctrine [committed] America to war in the event of any threat to the strategic oil fields of the Middle East. His most radical departure, however, came when he signed a series of secret legal documents, known as the Presidential Findings, authorizing the Central Intelligence Agency to go into action against the Red Army."

Thus began the agency's covert operation to arm Afghan rebels for self-defense. The nascent scheme was modest and, as Crile suggested, tied to "the CIA's time-honored practice never to introduce into a conflict weapons that could be traced back to the United States. And so the spy agency's first shipment to scattered Afghan rebels-enough small arms and ammunition to equip a thousand men-consisted of weapons made by the Soviets themselves that had been stockpiled by the CIA for just such a moment." Unfortunately for the Mujahideen, this was not an impressive cache-mostly rifles from WWI with a limited supply of ammunition with which to load the purloined weaponry.

The Afghan freedom fighters proved to be some of their own best assets. Led by chieftains and mullahs, these warriors called for jihad against the tens of thousands of Soviets who began pouring in the country. However, even with the CIA's limited help, they were no match for the Soviet military machine. Crile pointed out in his book, "The Afghan people would suffer the kind of brutality that would later horrify the world when the Serbs began their ethnic cleansing. Soviet jets and tanks would lay waste to villages thought to be supporting guerillas. Before long, millions of Afghans-men, women and children-would begin pouring out of the country, seeking refuge in Pakistan and Iran."

It was their plight and determination that touched Texas' 2nd District delegate to the House of Representatives. Charlie Wilson possessed a focused interest in history and foreign affairs, as well as an abiding antipathy towards the Soviet Union. The Afghans' spirit against the overwhelming and brutal Soviet force won his favor. Fortunately for them, he happened to sit on one of the subcommittees in the House that was at the intersection of the State Department, the Pentagon and the CIA: the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. And after a visit from a well-heeled socialite and strident anticommunist, it would only be a matter of time before he cashed in a number of favors for the people of Afghanistan.

Wilson saw the devastating effects of the Soviet invasion firsthand when taken to Afghanistan by Houston millionaire Joanne Herring on a trip that began in a typically unorthodox fashion. "Joanne approached me about 1981," recalls Wilson. "I had already taken notice of the Afghan war, and I had doubled the appropriation for the CIA to supply the Mujahideen with weapons, but that was only a very small step. It was something I did impulsively, just because I became angry at the atrocities that were being committed there. Nobody thought the Afghans could successfully resist the Soviet Union, but Joanne was on a personal mission. She was the honorary consul for Pakistan, but she was far more than that.

"She really had the ear of Zia, and he was interested in what she said," Wilson continues. "She was a strong anticommunist and had been to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, so she'd actually seen what was going on. Joanne persuaded me to go to Afghanistan and take a look myself, because she was desperately trying to get someone interested in it. She was outraged about the Soviet atrocities taking place in Afghanistan, and she was concerned about the expansion of the Soviet Union."

Herring (now King), recounts: "What happened in that hemisphere came to the United States and to Houston. I was invited to France because I was a niece of George Washington, and the great-great-great nephew of [Marquis de] Lafayette wanted me to meet what he thought were the five greatest strategists in the world. One of them was a Pakistani, and he became the ambassador to the United States. My husband was a prominent businessman who put Enron together-not the one who destroyed it.

"This man suggested that my husband become the honorary consul of Pakistan, because he wanted to do business with him," King continues. "My husband declined, but he suggested, 'Why don't you take Joanne? ,' which was quite a strange idea for a Muslim country. He recoiled in horror at first, but he also didn't want to offend him, so he agreed. I thought, 'What can I do for this country? They desperately need money.' So I began to work with the very poor. Our efforts were very successful. I was appointed under [Pakistan's] President Bhutto, and later, President Zia continued to use my services because he felt that I had done a good job; then, he began to use me as an advisor."

With Pakistani President Zia's permission, Herring began producing a documentary that outlined the plight of refugees from Afghanistan into Pakistan-even traveling to the secret enclaves of the Mujahideen with the film's director, Charles Fawcett. Her mission was to show the film and raise funds and awareness in America for the refugees' plight.

Pulling her own favors, Herring called Zia in advance of Wilson's trip and recommended him, with the proviso, as Crile noted, "that he not be put off by Wilson's flamboyant appearance and not pay attention to any stories of [his] decadence that diplomats might relate."

Wilson was no stranger to the culture as he had, as a seaman in the Navy, operated in the Indian Ocean with the Pakistani Navy. "President Zia was very passionate about what was happening to his fellow Muslims," the former congressman explains. "I could tell that he was a very fearless man. He arranged for me to have Pakistani Army helicopters and go up to the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, very near the Khyber Pass. That was the experience that will always be seared in my memory: going through those hospitals and seeing the people, especially the children, with their hands blown off from the mines that the Soviets were dropping from helicopters.

"That was perhaps the deciding thing that made a huge difference for the next 10 or 12 years of my life," Wilson tells. "I left those hospitals determined that, as long as I had a breath in my body and was a member of Congress, that I was going to do what I could to make the Soviets pay for what they were doing, and to try to help the Afghans."

Back in D.C., Wilson would find a kindred spirit in CIA agent Gust Avrakotos. A tough, streetwise Greek American, an anomaly in the agency then run by America's patrician class, Avrakotos was just the man Wilson needed. As Crile wrote, "He had been recruited to be a street fighter for America, and he was proud to offer his brilliant mind and ruthless skills to the country that his father had taught him to honor above all else."

Like Wilson, the Afghans' spirit impressed him and, as Crile indicated, "he had taken to the Afghan program like a duck to water. There was nothing like killing communists to give him a sense of well-being." Crile suggested, "Just like Wilson, Avrakotos had felt something stir inside him the moment he met the Afghans. They were killers, and he understood these people. They wanted revenge. He wanted revenge."

Together, Avrakotos, Wilson and a small crew of like-minded operatives engineered an intricate plan to fund, arm and train the Mujahideen, with the help of Pakistan, Israel, Saudi Arabia and China. It didn't hurt their mission that another CIA campaign had captured the attention of the government and the media: the Iran-Contra Affair, which was diverting much of the attention and heat that could have come Avrakotos and Wilson's way. The partners carried on with little scrutiny.

The biggest result of their efforts was ensuring the Red Army's march across the Freedom Bridge and out of Afghanistan in 1989.

Wilson recalls that, despite the nearly impossible odds against them, the Afghan people resolutely stood up to the Soviets. He, Herring and Avrakotos saw an opportunity to fight the Soviet Union alongside them, and their plan succeeded beyond anything they could have imagined. "I was just impassioned by the resistance, and I was horrified by the obvious harsh terror tactics that the Soviets were using on these somewhat defenseless people. I dedicated myself to this cause-to increasing the amounts of money allocated to this campaign-making sure they got the right weapons and training.

"The Soviet Army was the most fearsome in the world," Wilson continues. "It was thought to be invincible. It had terrorized the world for 50 years-the great, indomitable Red Army. And these were barefoot, illiterate tribesmen, with 303 Enfield rifles, who were successfully resisting them. It was always my thought that if we could get them something sophisticated to allow them to destroy the Soviet tanks and defend against the Soviet helicopter gunships, they conceivably could drive the Soviets from their land. Nobody believed that much except me and Gust. We made it work."

Naturally, a covert operation is, by definition, one in which the people generating it must remain hidden in shadows. This, according to Crile, became a perilous proposition for America: "Throughout the Muslim world, the victory of the Afghans over the army of a modern superpower was seen as a transformational event. But, back home, no one seemed to be aware that something important had just taken place and that the United States had been the moving force behind it."

****

Of all the adventures Wilson has had, having his story portrayed in film was most humbling for the septuagenarian. "Being involved with this movie is one of the real highlights of my life," he concludes. "And I haven't had a boring life. The whole process was mind-boggling for a country boy from Lufkin. Mike Nichols' attention to detail was incredibly impressive, and to be on set and hear someone with the stature and talent of Tom Hanks saying my words and being called Charlie…well that's something."

As for the end of this chapter of Wilson's story, Nichols muses, "Anyone who brought down the Soviet Union would remember it fondly, and he can take a bow. I think that's allowed."

Universal Pictures Presents-In Association with Relativity Media and Participant Productions-A Playtone Production of a Mike Nichols Film: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilson's War, starring Amy Adams and Ned Beatty. Music for the film is by James Newton Howard. The costume designer is Albert Wolsky; co-producer is Mike Haley. Charlie Wilson's War's visual effects supervisor is Richard Edlund, ASC. The film is edited by John Bloom and Antonia Van Drimmelen; the production designer is Victor Kempster. The director of photography is Stephen Goldblatt, ASC, BSC. Executive producers are Celia Costas, Ryan Kavanaugh and Jeff Skoll. The film is produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman. Charlie Wilson's War is based on the book by George Crile, and it is from a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. The film is directed by Mike Nichols. www.charliewilsonswar.net c2007 Universal Studios.

ABOUT THE CAST

TOM HANKS (Charlie Wilson/Produced by) holds the distinction of being the first actor in 50 years to be awarded back-to-back Best Actor Academy AwardsR: in 1994 as the AIDS-stricken lawyer in Philadelphia and the following year as Forrest Gump. He also won Golden Globes for both of these performances, along with his work in Big and Cast Away.

Born and raised in Oakland, California, Hanks became interested in acting during high school. He attended Chabot College in Hayward, California, and the California State University in Sacramento. At the invitation of artistic director Vincent Dowling, he made his professional debut portraying Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. He performed in that company for three seasons.

Moving to New York City in 1978, Hanks performed with the Riverside Shakespeare Company until getting a big break when he was teamed with Peter Scolari in the ABC television comedy series Bosom Buddies. This led to starring roles in Ron Howard's Splash, Bachelor Party, Volunteers, The Money Pit and Nothing in Common. In 1988, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association recognized his performances in both Big and Punchline, bestowing on Hanks their Best Actor Award.

Roles followed in films such as A League of Their Own and Sleepless in Seattle.

In 1996, Hanks made his feature film writing and directing debut with That Thing You Do!. The film's title song not only reached the top 10 in many contemporary music charts but was nominated for an Academy AwardR for Best Original Song.

After reteaming with Ron Howard in Apollo 13, Hanks served as an executive producer, writer, director and actor for HBO's From the Earth to the Moon-an Emmy-winning 12-hour dramatic film anthology that explored the entire Apollo space program.

In 1998, Hanks starred in Steven Spielberg's war drama Saving Private Ryan, for which he received his fourth OscarR nomination. The following year he starred in The Green Mile, which was written and directed by Frank Darabont and is based on the six-part serialized novel by Stephen King.

In 2000, Hanks reunited with director Robert Zemeckis and screenwriter William Broyles, Jr. in Cast Away, for which he received yet another OscarR nomination.

In 2000, he served again with Steven Spielberg, as executive producer, writer and director for another epic HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers, based on Stephen Ambrose's book. The miniseries aired in the fall of 2001 to wide-scale critical acclaim, leading to an Emmy Award and Golden Globe for the Best Miniseries in 2002.

In 2002, Hanks starred in Road to Perdition, opposite Paul Newman and Jude Law under Sam Mendes' direction. It was followed by Spielberg's stylish caper, Catch Me If You Can, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, which was based on the true-life exploits of international confidence man Frank Abagnale, Jr.

Hanks teamed for a third time with Spielberg in The Terminal, opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones and followed it with the Coen brothers' dark comedy, The Ladykillers. In November 2004, Hanks starred in the film adaptation of the Caldecott Medal-winning children's book "The Polar Express" by Chris Van Allsburg, which reunited him once again with director Robert Zemeckis.

In 2006, Tom was seen playing Robert Langdon in the film adaptation of Dan Brown's novel "The Da Vinci Code," helmed by Ron Howard and also starring Audrey Tautou, Paul Bettany, Ian McKellen and Jean Reno.

JULIA ROBERTS (Joanne Herring) recently made her Broadway debut in Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain. She was the voice of Charlotte in Charlotte's Web. She first worked with Mike Nichols in his film Closer and starred in Ocean's Eleven and Twelve, directed by Steven Soderbergh, with the notorious ensemble cast of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Andy Garcia, et al. Previously, she appeared in Revolution Studios' Mona Lisa Smile, George Clooney's directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Full Frontal, her third role in a Steven Soderbergh film. She received an Academy AwardR and a Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of Erin Brockovich, directed by Soderbergh.

Erin Brockovich followed the success of two box-office smashes: Notting Hill, directed by Roger Michell, in which she co-starred with Hugh Grant; and Runaway Bride, in which she was reunited with Richard Gere, her Pretty Woman co-star and their director, Garry Marshall.

Roberts starred in The Mexican, with her Ocean's Eleven co-star Brad Pitt and James Gandolfini, and America's Sweethearts, in which she starred alongside Billy Crystal, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cusack and Hank Azaria.

Roberts has starred in many of Hollywood's most successful films. She first came to the attention of audiences with her critically acclaimed role in Mystic Pizza, then in Steel Magnolias, which led to her first Academy AwardR nomination. Her next film, Pretty Woman, was the top-grossing film of 1990 and brought Roberts her second Academy AwardR nomination. Her memorable performance in that film was followed by a series of notable films including Flatliners, Sleeping with the Enemy, Dying Young, The Pelican Brief and Something to Talk About.

Roberts also starred with Liam Neeson in Neil Jordan's Michael Collins, and in Woody Allen's romantic musical comedy Everyone Says I Love You. In 1997, she starred in the box-office smash My Best Friend's Wedding, directed by P.J. Hogan and the Richard Donner-directed thriller Conspiracy Theory, co-starring Mel Gibson. Following, Roberts starred opposite Susan Sarandon and Ed Harris in the Chris Columbus film Stepmom. Collectively, her films have grossed more than $2.5 billion worldwide.

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN (Gust Avrakotos) recently completed filming on Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York, and can next be seen in Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead as well as the independent feature The Savages, with Laura Linney. He will also appear opposite Meryl Streep in the movie version of John Patrick Shanley's play Doubt. He last appeared opposite Tom Cruise in the summer's first big action thriller Mission: Impossible III. Prior to that, Hoffman starred in the feature film Capote, which he executive-produced through his company, Cooper's Town Productions. In addition to winning an Academy AwardR for Best Actor, Hoffman earned a Golden Globe and SAG Award for his performance and was also honored by 18 critics' groups. Additionally, he earned an Emmy nomination for his work in the HBO film Empire Falls, starring alongside Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward and Robin Wright Penn, among others.

Previous film credits include Cold Mountain, Along Came Polly, The Party's Over, Owning Mahowny (which had its world premiere at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival), Red Dragon, Punch-Drunk Love, 25th Hour, Love Liza (which was written by his brother, Gordy Hoffman, who won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance, where the film premiered), Almost Famous, State and Main, Flawless (London Film Critics and SAG nomination for Best Actor), Magnolia (National Board of Review's Best Supporting Actor Award and Ensemble SAG Award nomination), The Talented Mr. Ripley (National Board of Review's Best Supporting Actor Award), Boogie Nights, Happiness (Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Male), Patch Adams, The Big Lebowski, Twister, Scent of a Woman and Nobody's Fool.

Hoffman is a member and co-artistic director of LAByrinth Theater Company. His stage credits include: the recent off-Broadway run of Jack Goes Boating, Long Day's Journey Into Night (Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations), The Seagull (The New York Shakespeare Festival, Delacorte Theater), True West (Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations, Outer Critics Circle Award), Defying Gravity (The American Place Theatre), The Merchant of Venice (directed by Peter Sellars), Shopping and Fucking (New York Theatre Workshop) and The Author's Voice (Drama Department, Drama Desk nominations).

His theatrical directorial credits include The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings and Jesus Hopped The A Train, all written by Stephen Adly Guirgis for LAB. His production of A Train was produced to great acclaim off-Broadway, at the Edinburgh International Festival (Fringe First Award), at London's Donmar Warehouse and then at the Arts Theatre in London's West End. In addition, he directed LAB's off-Broadway commercial production of Guirgis' Our Lady of 121st Street at the Union Square Theatre (Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk nominations) and Rebecca Gilman's The Glory of Living at MCC Theater.

Academy AwardR-nominated actress AMY ADAMS (Bonnie Bach), has built an impressive list of credits in a remarkably short period of time, challenging herself with each new role.

Adams most recently starred in Phil Morrison's Junebug. This role earned her nominations for an Academy AwardR and a SAG Award. She also won an Independent Spirit Award, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, National Society of Film Critics Award, a San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award, as well as the Breakthrough Gotham Award. Adams also won the Special Jury Prize for Acting at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival for her role as the pregnant, childlike Ashley, who is awestruck by the arrival of her glamorous sister-in-law.

Adams lent her voice to the live-action/CGI film Underdog, opposite Jason Lee and Peter Dinklage and directed by Frederik Du Chau, and starred with Will Ferrell in Columbia Pictures' Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. This comedy about the NASCAR world, directed by Adam McKay and co-written by Ferrell and McKay, was a box-office hit and critical favorite.

Adams will next be seen in Kevin Lima's upcoming Enchanted, starring opposite James Marsden, Idina Menzel, Patrick Dempsey and Susan Sarandon. Enchanted is a romantic fable that will mix live action with CG animation for Disney. She will also star with her Charlie Wilson's War fellow actor, Emily Blunt, in the comedy Sunshine Cleaning.

Adam's other film credits include Clare Kilner's The Wedding Date, with Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney; Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can; Reginald Hudlin's Serving Sara; Anthony Abrams' Pumpkin; Drop Dead Gorgeous; and Psycho Beach Party.

Adams recently guest-starred on several television series, including The Office and The West Wing.

Once hailed by Daily Variety as the "busiest actor in Hollywood," NED BEATTY (Doc Long) grew up in Kentucky, fishing and working on farms. St. Matthews, Kentucky is hardly the environment to encourage a career in the entertainment industry.

Accomplished in film, stage and television, Beatty has garnered praise from both critics and peers as a dedicated actor's actor. He started as a professional performer at age 10 when he earned pocket money singing in gospel quartets and a barbershop. The big city and bright lights did not come easy, though. The first 10 years of Beatty's career were spent at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. He then moved on to the Erie Playhouse in Pennsylvania, the Playhouse Theater in Houston, Texas and the prestigious Arena Stage Company in Washington, D.C. He was also a member of Shakespeare in Central Park, Louisville, Kentucky. Later the actor appeared in the Broadway production of The Great White Hope. At the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, he won rave reviews when he starred in The Accidental Death of an Anarchist.

In 1971, Beatty was chosen by director John Boorman to play one of the intrepid river explorers in the hit film Deliverance. This marked the beginning of his prolific movie career, with films including Silver Streak; W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings, Network, for which he received an Academy AwardR nomination as Best Supporting Actor; Nashville; Superman I and II; The Toy; All The President's Men; Wise Blood; Restless Native; The Big Easy; The Passage; Switching Channels; Midnight Crossing; Purple People Eater; Time Trackers; Physical Evidence; Hear My Song, for which he earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor; Prelude to a Kiss; Just Cause; He Got Game; and Cookie's Fortune. Most recently, Beatty completed The Walker, a Paul Schrader film also starring Woody Harrelson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Willem Dafoe and Lily Tomlin, and appeared in Shooter, an Antoine Fuqua film starring Mark Wahlberg.

Beatty's numerous television credits include three years on the NBC series Homicide: Life on the Street; the miniseries Gulliver's Travels; Streets of Laredo; The Boys; Trial: The Price of Passion; and The Last Days of Pompeii, with Laurence Olivier. He received a Best Actor Emmy Award nomination for his performance in Friendly Fire, opposite Carol Burnett, and a Best Supporting Actor nomination for The Family Channel's Last Train Home. Other notable credits include The Execution of Private Slovik, A Woman Called Golda, Pray TV, Robert Kennedy & His Times, Lockerbie and T Bone N Weasel. He also had a recurring role on Roseanne and performed musically on television specials for Dolly Parton and the Smothers Brothers.

In 2001, Beatty returned to his theatrical roots starring in London's West End revival production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with Brendan Fraser and Francis O'Connor. He also appeared in the production on Broadway from 2003 to 2004 with Jason Patric and Ashley Judd.

In 2006 Beatty garnered two Career Achievement in Acting Awards for his work in the indie film Sweet Land. He also received a Master of American Cinema at the RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Blessed with eight children, Beatty enjoys golf and playing the bass guitar. He gives himself until the age of 70 to become proficient at both.

OM PURI (President Zia) is one of India's most respected and prolific screen personalities, having appeared in over 140 films throughout his career, and garnering many awards. In 1981, Puri won the National Film Award for Best Actor for the film Arohan, and in 1983, won Best Supporting Actor at the Filmfare Awards for his role in Aakrosh. Those awards were followed by Best Actor awards at National Film Awards and the Czechoslovakia International Film Festival for Ardh Satya.

Puri's international film credits include Gandhi; City of Joy, opposite Patrick Swayze; Wolf, directed by Mike Nichols; The Ghost and the Darkness, starring Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer; My Son the Fanatic, opposite Rachel Griffiths; and East is East, for which he received nominations for Best Actor by the London Film Critics and the BAFTA Awards.

Puri recently finished work on the film Shoot on Sight, opposite Brian Cox and Sadie Frost, and is currently filming Wanted Dead and Alive for S.K. Films Enterprises and Sridevi Productions.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

MIKE NICHOLS (Directed by), born Michael Igor Peschkowsky, was born in Berlin, Germany, of a Russian father and German mother. His family immigrated to the United States when he was seven. His father changed the family's name to Nichols, his patronymic, because he was a doctor and he said that by the time he spelled his name, the patient was in the hospital. Mike was brought up in New York City. He attended the University of Chicago where, together with Elaine May and Paul Sills, he was one of the founding members of the comedy group The Compass, later renamed Second City.

In 1957, the now legendary team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May was formed. Starting at the Blue Angel in New York, they performed in nightclubs all over the country. Nichols and May did numerous TV specials and appeared as guests on such shows as Omnibus, The Dinah Shore Show and The Jack Paar Program. In 1960, they brought An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May to Broadway, where it ran for a year. They were still selling out when they decided to end the run and pursue separate careers. At this point, Nichols turned to directing.

When producer Saint Subber offered him Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park, Nichols asked to employ a young actor he had seen on television the week before, whose name he had not caught. The name was Redford. Robert Redford starred in Barefoot in the Park, along with Elizabeth Ashley and Mildred Natwick. Nichols won his first of eight Tony Awards for Barefoot. He then directed an unprecedented string of hits that included The Knack, Luv (Best Director Tony), The Odd Couple (Best Director Tony), The Apple Tree, Plaza Suite (Best Director Tony), The Prisoner of Second Avenue (Best Director Tony), The Gin Game (1978 Pulitzer Prize) and Streamers (New York Drama Critics Award). He directed highly successful revivals of The Little Foxes and Uncle Vanya and the U.S. productions of Comedians, as well as The Real Thing (Best Director Tony), Hurlyburly and Waiting for Godot. Most recently, he directed the Tony Award-winning, smash musical Spamalot. As a theatrical producer, he presented Whoopi Goldberg: Direct From Broadway and won the Tony for his blockbuster show Annie.

Nichols directed his first film in 1966, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, for which he was nominated for an Academy AwardR for Best Director, and for which Elizabeth Taylor won an Academy AwardR for Best Actress. In 1967, he directed The Graduate, for which he won the Academy AwardR for Best Director, the Directors Guild Award and the New York Film Critics Award. His subsequent films include Catch-22, Carnal Knowledge, Silkwood (Best Director Academy AwardR nomination), Working Girl (Best Director Academy AwardR nomination), Postcards From the Edge, Regarding Henry and Wolf. He was reunited with Elaine May on The Birdcage and Primary Colors, both of which May wrote and Nichols produced and directed. In 2004, Nichols directed Closer, for which Natalie Portman and Clive Owen both won Golden Globe Awards and were nominated for Academy AwardsR. His television movies Wit (2001) and Angels in America (2004) each won Emmy Awards for Outstanding Direction, Outstanding Made for Television Movie and Outstanding Miniseries.

In 1987, Nichols received the George Abbott Award and, in 1990, was honored by the American Museum of the Moving Image for his contribution to the film industry. In May of 1999, he was honored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. He has received the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors Award, and he is one of a small group of people to have won all four major awards in American show business: the Grammy, Emmy, Tony and OscarR. He is married to journalist Diane Sawyer and has three children from former marriages. Mr. Nichols lives in New York City.

AARON SORKIN (Screenplay by) graduated from Syracuse University with a BFA in theater and made his Broadway playwriting debut at the age of 28 with the military courtroom drama, A Few Good Men, for which he received the John Gassner Award for Outstanding New American Playwright.

His subsequent film adaptation was nominated for four Academy AwardsR and five Golden Globes, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay. He followed with the screenplays for Malice, starring Alec Baldwin and Nicole Kidman, and The American President, starring Michael Douglas and Annette Bening. Sorkin produced and wrote the television series Sports Night for ABC for two years, winning the Humanitas Prize and the Television Critics Association Award. He spent the next four years writing and producing the NBC series The West Wing, winning the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series all four years. For his work on The West Wing, Sorkin also twice received the Peabody Award, the Humanitas Prize, the Television Critics Association Award and the Golden Globe, Writers Guild and Producers Guild Awards.

Most recently, he wrote and produced the NBC television series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Sorkin lives in Los Angeles with his daughter, Roxanne.

GEORGE CRILE (Based on the Book by) was born March 5, 1945. He joined CBS News in 1976 to produce The CIA's Secret Army, his trail-breaking documentary that chronicled the previously untold story of the CIA's secret wars on Castro after the Bay of Pigs. In commenting on this broadcast, historian Henry Steele Commanger wrote that it would go down as one of the most important journalistic reports in American history.

It was the first of a collection of seminal broadcasts that Crile produced based on his original reporting, and invariably centering on taking his viewers into previously closed and inaccessible worlds. Among his notable documentary reports were The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception and The Battle for South Africa, which won a Peabody Award. In 1985, he joined 60 Minutes, where he worked with Mike Wallace, Ed Bradley and Harry Reasoner, producing scores of reports and establishing his credentials as a specialist in the coverage of international affairs. He was on the forefront of covering the disintegration of the Soviet Union and, in collaboration with a Russian counterpart, Artyom Borovik, became the only American reporter ever to gain access to the Soviet's nuclear empire.

His initial 60 Minutes reporting, revealing the Soviet nuclear command's willingness to consider halting the targeting of America, played a significant role in helping set up a summit between the U.S. and Soviet nuclear commanders. His numerous reports from inside the deadly secret worlds of Russia and the United States appeared on 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes II, as well as an hour-long documentary for CNN. The Overseas Press Club twice awarded Crile its Edward R. Murrow Award for these broadcasts.

Crile's reports included such subjects as the accident at Three Mile Island and the changing boundaries of death and judicial corruption in Texas. But throughout the years, he focused primarily on covering crises in U.S. foreign affairs. Broadcast subjects included reports on the revolution in Haiti; the battle over the Panama Canal; U.S.-Cuban Policy; the Afghan War; the Contra War; the Sandinistas; General Singlaub and the World Anti-Communist League; Prince Bandar and the special U.S.-Saudi connection; the African National Congress; America's losing War on Drugs; the search for Archbishop Romero's murderers; Jonas Savimbi and the U.S. backing of UNITA; the Gulf War; the USS Harlan County incident; the CIA's Man in Havana; the killers of Rwanda; the unsung heroes of the U.S. Military campaign in El Salvador; the KGB and the world of Soviet Intelligence; and Russian and American nuclear arsenals.

Since 9/11, Crile repeatedly drew on his extensive experience and contacts in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Near East to provide a behind-the-scenes look into the worlds of Osama bin Laden and militant Islam.

In the late 1980s he began the research and reporting on the Afghan War, which led to his 2003 best-selling book, "Charlie Wilson's War." It is the chronicle of a missing chapter in the political consciousness of America-the story of how the United States funded the only successful jihad in modern history-the CIA's secret war in Afghanistan that gave the Soviets their Vietnam. "Charlie Wilson's War" has been widely and favorably reviewed and is currently in its 10th printing.

Before joining CBS in 1976, Crile was Washington editor of Harper's Magazine. In addition to Harper's, his articles were published in The Washington Monthly, New Times, The Washington Post's "Outlook" section and The New York Times. After the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown and Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, Crile worked as a reporter for Washington columnists Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson, and as Pentagon correspondent for the Ridder newspapers.

Crile springs from a line of pioneering surgeons. His grandfather, Dr. George Crile, was a founder of the Cleveland Clinic. Crile's father, Dr. George Crile, Jr., was the leading figure in this country in challenging unnecessary surgery, best known for his part in eliminating radical breast surgery.

Crile died on May 15, 2006, of pancreatic cancer at his home in New York City. He is survived by his wife Susan Lyne-former president of ABC Entertainment, now CEO of Martha Stewart Omni-and four daughters.

Producing credits for GARY GOETZMAN (Produced by) include The Polar Express, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The Ant Bully, Beloved, That Thing You Do!, The Silence of the Lambs (winner of five Academy AwardsR, including Best Picture), Philadelphia, Starter for 10, Devil in a Blue Dress, Miami Blues, Modern Girls, Amos & Andrew, the 3-D IMAX film Magnificent Desolation, the acclaimed HBO series Big Love and the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning miniseries Band of Brothers.

Goetzman is currently producing Mamma Mia!, starring Meryl Streep; Where the Wild Things Are, Spike Jonze's feature adaptation of Maurice Sendak's beloved book; The Great Buck Howard, starring John Malkovich and Colin Hanks; My Life In Ruins, starring Nia Vardalos; City of Ember, directed by Gil Kenan; and the HBO miniseries events John Adams and The Pacific.

At age 20, Goetzman production managed Jonathan Demme's directorial debut, Caged Heat. He also produced the Talking Heads' concert film Stop Making Sense; Neil Young: Heart of Gold; Neil Young's long-form video The Complex Sessions; Storefront Hitchcock; and music videos for Bruce Springsteen, Suzanne Vega, David Byrne, as well as Jane Child's No. 1 music video, Don't Wanna Fall in Love, which he also directed.

A native of Los Angeles, Goetzman has a rich musical background and has written and produced songs for many recording artists, including Smokey Robinson, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, The Staple Singers, Thelma Houston, The Manhattans, David Ruffin and Robert John.

He has contributed his talents to many motion picture soundtracks, including Something Wild, Married to the Mob, Colors, That Thing You Do!, Devil in a Blue Dress, Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World and Philadelphia, which included Bruce Springsteen's Grammy and Academy AwardR winner for Best Original Song, "Streets of Philadelphia." He produced the socially provocative and star-studded music DVD What's Going On? for the Artists Against AIDS Fund.

In 1998, Goetzman teamed up with Tom Hanks to form Playtone, a film and television production company.

CELIA COSTAS (Executive Producer) has worked with Mike Nichols on Closer, which she executive-produced, and on the Emmy Award-winning HBO Films production Angels in America. She began her career in foreign film distribution and as a research assistant for Universal Studios. After working with director Alan J. Pakula on Roll Over, the director hired her as his locations manager on Sophie's Choice, Orphans, See You in the Morning and Presumed Innocent, and as production manager on The Pelican Brief and Consenting Adults. Subsequent credits as a unit production manager include Glengarry Glen Ross, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar and Night Falls on Manhattan. She was an associate producer on Meet Joe Black and co-produced A Lesson Before Dying, Private Parts, 28 Days and Zoolander. She produced HBO's For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story.

RYAN KAVANAUGH (Executive Producer) is a principal of Relativity Media, LLC, a financing, consulting and production company that structures slate financing for both major studios and independent production entities.

Kavanaugh, along with his Relativity partner, Lynwood Spinks, creates business and financial structures for a number of studios, production companies and producers and has introduced more than $3.2 billion of capital to such structures. Clients and deals include Marvel, Atmosphere Entertainment MM and French distributor/sales agent Exception Wild Bunch, among others.

Kavanaugh recently created a unique financing package, Gun Hill Road, LLC, which provides discrete and separate funds for both Sony Pictures Entertainment and Universal Pictures, marking the first time two studios have received funds from the same funding source and providing production funding for a total of 22 films in various stages of production and release. He facilitated a $528-million multipicture, co-financing arrangement for Warner Bros. Pictures, as well as a $525-million financing deal for Marvel Enterprises, and structured and raised a 120-million Euro acquisition, production and distribution fund for Exception Wild Bunch S.A., the French distribution and sales company founded by former StudioCanal management.

Through its partnership with Virtual Studios, Relativity finances two to three pictures per month. Kavanaugh recently arranged the financing for and will be executive producer of Conquistador, to be directed by Cannes and Sundance award winner Andrucha Waddington and star Emmy- and three-time Golden Globe-nominated actor Antonio Banderas; Morgan's Summit, written and to be directed by Academy AwardR winner Tom Schulman; and The Great Pretender, starring Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated Ewan McGregor. In addition, Kavanaugh arranged the financing to bring Top Cow Productions' Witchblade to the big screen, with production beginning last year on two feature films to be shot back-to-back. The films are based on the best-selling action-fantasy comic book, which also earned a loyal following as a TNT television series.

Kavanaugh also arranged the financing for and was executive producer of two films for Mark Canton's Atmosphere Entertainment MM-George A. Romero's Land of the Dead and Full of It. Recently, he has executive-produced films including Gridiron Gang, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry and The Kingdom.

Prior to his work with Relativity, Kavanaugh started a venture capital company, at the age of 22, and during that time raised and invested more than $400 million in equity for a number of venture and private equity transactions.

JEFF SKOLL (Executive Producer) founded Participant Productions in January 2004 and serves as chairman and CEO. He most recently served as executive producer on the films The Visitor, Syriana, American Gun, North Country and Good Night, and Good Luck. He also recently executive-produced the documentaries Darfur Now, Jimmy Carter Man From Plains, Chicago 10, The World According to Sesame Street, Fast Food Nation and the Academy AwardR-winning An Inconvenient Truth.

Skoll has been a leader in technology and philanthropy for many years. In 1996, Skoll joined eBay as its first president and first full-time employee and developed the business plan that the company still follows.

In the months before eBay went public in 1998, Skoll led the company's effort to give back to the community, creating the eBay Foundation through an allocation of pre-IPO shares, an innovation that inspired a wave of similar commitments nationwide.

But Skoll didn't stop there. In 1999, he launched his own philanthropic organization, the Skoll Foundation, for which he serves as chief visionary and chairman. He created the foundation in alignment with his core belief that it is in everyone's interest to shift the overwhelming imbalance between the "haves" and "have-nots." The foundation takes up this challenge by focusing on social entrepreneurs-people who couple innovative ideas with extraordinary determination, tackling the world's toughest problems to make things better for us all. In five short years, Skoll and the foundation have emerged as social sector leaders; from 2002 through 2005, Skoll was recognized as one of today's most innovative philanthropists by BusinessWeek, and he is frequently cited for his leadership in advancing the work and field of social entrepreneurship.

Skoll also serves on the board of directors for the eBay Foundation and the Community Foundation Silicon Valley and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, among others. He holds a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Toronto and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

His recent honors and awards include a 2001 Visionary Award from the Software Development Forum; the 2002 Outstanding Philanthropist Award from the Silicon Valley chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals; the 2003 Outstanding Philanthropist Award from the International Association of Fundraising Professionals; and, in 2003, an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of Toronto. In 2004 the Commonwealth Club Silicon Valley awarded him its National Leadership Award.

In April 2005, Skoll launched the Gandhi Project in partnership with Silicon Valley entrepreneur Kamran Elahian. Working with Palestinian voice actors and artists, an award-winning director dubbed the epic film Gandhi into Arabic. It is being screened throughout Palestine in order to advance civil society goals of peaceful resistance, self-reliance, economic development and local empowerment, and plans are underway to expand screenings throughout the Arab world.

STEPHEN GOLDBLATT, ASC, BSC (Director of Photography) began his career as a still photographer and documentarian, working on a variety of documentaries in England before turning to feature films. Charlie Wilson's War marks his third collaboration with Mike Nichols; Goldblatt photographed Nichols' Closer and Angels in America, which earned him his third American Society of Cinematographers' award nomination, as well as an Emmy nomination. Goldblatt earned ASC Award and Academy AwardR nominations for his work on Batman Forever and The Prince of Tides. He earned two additional Emmy nominations for his work on the HBO telefilms Path to War and Conspiracy. Additionally, he served as director of photography on Chris Columbus' feature incarnation of the long-running Broadway musical Rent. Other film credits include The Deep End of the Ocean, Batman & Robin, The Pelican Brief, Consenting Adults, For the Boys, Joe Versus the Volcano, Lethal Weapon and Lethal Weapon 2, Everybody's All American, Young Sherlock Holmes and The Cotton Club.

VICTOR KEMPSTER (Production Designer) has worked as an art director, set director and, currently, production designer. His recent credits as production designer include Michael Mann's Miami Vice, starring Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell; Envy; Bamboozled; Any Given Sunday, U-Turn, Nixon, Natural Born Killers and Heaven & Earth, all for filmmaker Oliver Stone; Tom Hanks' directorial debut, That Thing You Do!; and And God Created Woman.

His credits as an art director include Kindergarten Cop, Born on the Fourth of July, Driving Miss Daisy and Last Rites.

Kempster received an Emmy nomination for his work as set decorator on Kane & Abel. Other credits in this capacity include Streets of Gold, Compromising Positions and Svengali, starring Peter O'Toole and Jodie Foster.

JOHN BLOOM (Edited by) has worked with Mike Nichols on the HBO film Wit, for which he won the Emmy for Outstanding Single Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special; Angels in America, also for HBO, earning an Emmy nomination and an Eddie Award from the American Cinema Editors; and the feature film Closer. He has edited such films as Shaft, Everybody Wins, Magic, Who'll Stop the Rain, The First Wives Club, Last Dance, Nobody's Fool, Damage, Air America, Jacknife, Bright Lights, Big City, Black Widow, Under Fire, Dracula, Betrayal, The Ritz, Orca, The Lion in Winter and Georgy Girl.

Bloom received Academy AwardR nominations for his work on The French Lieutenant's Woman and A Chorus Line and won the OscarR for Gandhi. He earned an Emmy nomination for his work on the telefilm Masada.

ANTONIA VAN DRIMMELEN (Edited by) was nominated for an Emmy for her work on Angels in America and also edited Richard Eyre's Notes on a Scandal, Mike Nichols' Closer and John Singleton's Shaft. She was previously part of the editing team on Thelma & Louise (as assistant film editor), Camilla, Nobody's Fool, The First Wives Club (all as associate editor), The Deep End of the Ocean (first assistant editor) and Wit (associate editor).

RICHARD EDLUND, ASC (Visual Effects Supervisor) has made a profound and lasting impression in the worlds of filmmaking and visual effects. A founding member of Industrial Light & Magic, he established his reputation by winning four OscarsR for the dazzling visual effects in Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Return of the Jedi, and a nomination for Poltergeist. He has received six additional OscarR nominations, is the recipient of two Academy Scientific and Engineering awards, two Special Achievement Awards, an Emmy and two BAFTA Awards.

In 1983, Edlund founded Boss Film Studios, its maiden project being Ghostbusters. Until its close in 1997, Boss Film Studios produced visual effects for about 30 movies, notable among which are 2010, Die Hard, Ghost, Poltergeist II, Cliffhanger, Batman Returns, Alien3, Species, Multiplicity and Air Force One. The company achieved 10 Academy AwardR nominations over a 14-year period. After Boss, Edlund reunited with director Harold Ramis for the comedy Bedazzled as visual effects supervisor and 2nd unit director. He then supervised the Emmy-winning HBO miniseries Angels in America, directed by Mike Nichols, supervised sequences in The Stepford Wives for director Frank Oz, and did visual effects for the indie film Anamorph.

Richard Edlund has served as governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for 11 years, chairman of the Visual Effects Branch since its inception, and for seven years as chairman of the Academy's Scientific and Technical Awards Committee. In 2007 the Board of Governors honored him with the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation for his outstanding service and dedication to the Academy.

ALBERT WOLSKY (Costume Designer) has twice won the Academy AwardR, for All That Jazz and Bugsy. In a career that encompasses more than 65 films, Wolsky also received Academy AwardR nominations for Sophie's Choice, Toys and The Journey of Natty Gann. His recent work includes Ask the Dust, Jarhead, The Manchurian Candidate, Road to Perdition, Maid in Manhattan, Runaway Bride, Galaxy Quest, You've Got Mail, Red Corner, Lucky Numbers, The Jackal and The Grass Harp. His work can currently be seen in Julie Taymor's musical drama Across the Universe, starring Evan Rachel Wood.

Wolsky's first project with filmmaker Paul Mazursky, Harry and Tonto, led to a prolific, 11-film relationship, including Next Stop; Greenwich Village; An Unmarried Woman; Moscow on the Hudson; Down and Out in Beverly Hills; and Enemies, A Love Story. Wolsky first worked with Bob Fosse on Lenny, starring Dustin Hoffman, later designing the costumes for Fosse's All That Jazz and Star 80, Fosse's last film. Wolsky's other credits include Grease, Manhattan, The Pelican Brief, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Little Murders, The Jazz Singer, The Falcon and the Snowman and Crimes of the Heart.

Born in Paris, Wolsky immigrated to the United States at age 10. He lived in New York City and graduated from The City College of New York and began his career in New York theater, receiving his first solo Broadway design credit for the play Generation, starring Henry Fonda. Other stage credits include Sly Fox, starring George C. Scott; The Sunshine Boys; Joseph Papp's production of Hamlet in Central Park; and Tennessee Williams' 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, starring Meryl Streep.

The Costume Designers Guild honored Wolsky with a Career Achievement Award, the first bestowed by the Guild. Wolsky served for three terms on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

JAMES NEWTON HOWARD (Music by) is one of Hollywood's most versatile and prolific composers, with more than 90 films to his credit. He has received six Academy AwardR nominations, three Golden Globe nominations and one Grammy nomination. In addition, he has won 31 ASCAP Awards for film and television shows scored from 1994 to 2006. His credits include films as diverse as The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Fugitive, Pretty Woman, The Prince of Tides, Grand Canyon, Dave, Primal Fear, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Devil's Advocate and Dinosaur.

Howard's work can currently be heard in Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney. His other recent projects include Scott Frank's The Lookout; Edward Zwick's Blood Diamond; M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water; and Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins. He also worked on Joe Roth's Freedomland; Barry Sonnenfeld's RV; Sydney Pollack's The Interpreter; the horror sequel The Ring Two; the comedy Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous; Michael Mann's Collateral; M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, for which Howard received his sixth OscarR nomination for Best Original Score; Hidalgo, starring Viggo Mortensen; and the live-action Peter Pan. Upcoming projects for Howard include I Am Legend, starring Will Smith; The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep; Mad Money, starring Diane Keaton; and The Dark Knight, the follow-up to Batman Begins, which Howard is co-composing with Hans Zimmer.

Howard attended Santa Barbara's Music Academy of the West and the University of Southern California School of Music and completed his formal education with orchestration study under legendary arranger Marty Paich. Though his training was classical, he nurtured an interest in rock and pop. It was in his early work in the pop arena that he really honed his talents as songwriter, musician, arranger, producer and composer.

He spent two years doing session work for a variety of performers, from Carly Simon to Ringo Starr, and also recorded two solo albums. In 1975, he joined pop superstar Elton John's band on the road and in the studio doing orchestrations and string arrangements. Having become one of the most sought-after musicians in the industry as a songwriter, record producer, conductor, keyboardist and film composer, he racked up a string of collaborations in the studio with some of pop's biggest names, including Barbra Streisand, Randy Newman, Rickie Lee Jones, Chaka Khan, Olivia Newton-John, Earth, Wind & Fire, Bob Seger, Rod Stewart and Glenn Frey, among others.

MILTON BEARDEN (CIA Technical Advisor) retired from the Central Intelligence Agency in 1994, after 30 years in the CIA's clandestine services. During a career that tracked the Cold War from the overthrow of Nikita Khrushchev and the detonation of the first Chinese atomic bomb in the mid-1960s, through the hauling down of the hammer and sickle over the Kremlin and the reunification of Germany in the 1990s, Bearden rose through the ranks to become one of the CIA's most senior officers. He left the Agency as one of the most highly decorated operations officers in its Senior Service.

Bearden's early career was split between German-speaking Europe and Hong Kong, where he conducted classic Cold War intelligence operations. During the early 1980s he moved to Africa to serve as CIA Chief in Nigeria, and later in Khartoum, where he covered Sudan's civil war and the ultimate overthrow of the regime of Jaafar Nimeiri. It was in Sudan in 1985 that Bearden organized a secret airlift, from the Sudanese desert to Israel, of the stranded remnants of the Ethiopian Falasha Jews. For his work in Sudan, Bearden was awarded the Intelligence Medal of Merit, the Agency's second-highest decoration.

In spring 1986, Bearden was selected by Bill Casey to take charge of the CIA Covert Action supporting a flagging Afghan Resistance. Bearden's assignment to the Afghan Resistance heralded a shift in American policy from minimalist support of the Afghan rebels-just enough to tie down the Soviet Army-to a policy of trying to win. The end of the war was symbolically marked by the final march of Soviet troops across Friendship Bridge over the Oxus River on February 15, 1989, thus ending almost 10 years of struggle. For his service in Afghanistan, Bearden was awarded the Agency's highest decoration, the Distinguished Intelligence Medal.

In 1989, Bearden left Pakistan and Afghanistan to take command of the Soviet-East European Division of the CIA's Operations Directorate. During the next three years, he directed the CIA's clandestine operations against a decaying Soviet Empire. Nine months after the Soviets walked out of Afghanistan, the Berlin Wall fell, and the reunification of Germany became irreversible. During this period, Bearden was awarded the CIA's unique Donovan Award, named after its founder.

Bearden wound up his CIA career as the CIA Chief in Bonn, where he worked with a newly reunified Germany in dealing with its Cold War legacy. Among his last official acts in Germany was his participation in the final departure ceremony of the Russian Western Group of Forces from Berlin on August 31, 1994-three years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. For his service in Germany, Bearden was honored by the German President with the Federal Cross of Merit, the only such decoration ever given to a CIA Chief in the Federal Republic.

Bearden is the author of "The Black Tulip: A Novel of War in Afghanistan" (Random House 1998, 2002). He is a frequent contributor to the op-ed pages of The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal. He has also contributed to Foreign Affairs and to a book about September 11, 2001, titled "How Did This Happen? Terrorism and the New War," published by Public Affairs. He is a consultant for CBS News and is co-author, with James Risen, of the award-winning "The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB"-a non-fiction account of the end of the Cold War that was published by Random House in May 2003. In addition to his work with Robert De Niro and screenwriter Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Insider) on The Good Shepherd, Bearden worked with De Niro on Universal Pictures' smash hit Meet the Parents.

Bearden lives in Virginia with his French-born wife, Marie-Catherine.

-charlie wilson's war-