A brilliant and respected criminal psychologist, Dr. Miranda Grey (HALLE BERRY) is an expert at knowing what is rational. What is logical. What is sane.
Under the direction of her husband (CHARLES S. DUTTON), the chief administrator of the psychiatric ward at the Woodward Penitentiary for Women, Miranda treats dangerously disturbed patients like Chloe (PENÉLOPE CRUZ), an intensely charismatic murderess whose confessions of satanic torture are dismissed by the judicious doctor as the psychotic meanderings of a paranoid mind.
But Miranda’s comfortable marriage and stable life are thrust into terrifying jeopardy after a cryptic encounter with a mysterious young girl leads to a nightmare beyond her wildest imagination.
When Miranda awakens from the horrific incident, she is shocked to discover that her husband has been murdered – and the bloody evidence points directly at her. Unable to fathom having committed an unmotivated act of such sheer brutality against a man she loved and admired, Miranda suddenly finds herself confined to Woodward alongside the highly unstable patients she used to treat with methodical detachment.
With no memory of the night in question except for fractured visions of the hauntingly enigmatic girl, the doctor’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic. Her claims of innocence are seen as the beginnings of a deep descent into madness by her former colleagues like Dr. Pete Graham (ROBERT DOWNEY JR.), Miranda’s sympathetic but skeptical coworker who is wrestling with issues of his own.
Forced to rely on her instincts rather than facts, Miranda begins to believe that she has been possessed by a supernatural force determined to exact revenge at the expense of her sanity. As Chloe draws her deeper into her own personal hell, Miranda must determine if she is being driven to madness…or closer to the truth.
Warner Bros. Pictures and Columbia Pictures presents a Dark Castle Entertainment production, Gothika, starring HALLE BERRY. The film also stars ROBERT DOWNEY JR., CHARLES S. DUTTON, JOHN CARROLL LYNCH, BERNARD HILL and PENÉLOPE CRUZ. Gothika is directed by MATHIEU KASSOVITZ and produced by JOEL SILVER, ROBERT ZEMECKIS and SUSAN LEVIN. Written by SEBASTIAN GUTIERREZ, the film is executive produced by STEVE RICHARDS, GARY UNGAR and DON CARMODY. The co-producer is RICHARD MIRISCH. The music is by JOHN OTTMAN; the director of photography is MATTHEW LIBATIQUE, A.S.C.; the production designer is GRAHAM “GRACE” WALKER; and the editor is YANNICK KERGOAT. This film has been rated “R” by the MPAA for “violence, brief language and nudity.” Gothika will be released in North American by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
HYPERLINK "http://www.gothikamovie.com" www.gothikamovie.com / AOL Keyword: Gothika
Gothic: 1. of or relating to an architectural style reflecting the
influence of the medieval Gothic; 2. of or relating to a style of
fiction characterized by the use of desolate or remote settings
and macabre, mysterious or violent incidents.
Developed in northern France and amplified through Western Europe from the middle of the 12th century to the early 16th century, Gothic architecture reflects the savagely dramatic style of the medieval arts and is characterized by the evocative fusion of flying buttresses, pointed arches, vertical piers and vaulted ceilings.
In the late 1700s, the Gothic literary tradition emerged from England’s changing social climate. Class riots within the country and a revolution in America sent a current of uncertainty coursing through a society already divided by conflicting ideas about the supernatural, as traditional religious and superstitious beliefs clashed with the rational principles of the Enlightenment. The burgeoning Gothic narrative – a remarkably popular hybrid of mystery, horror and desolation – dominated English literature in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the most renowned and influential work being Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, published in 1818. This “new and fearful genre for a new and fearful time” served as the forerunner to the modern mystery novel.
The Gothic tradition of violent change enveloped in mystery and steeped in moody atmosphere is re-imagined for the 21st century in Gothika, the chilling tale of Miranda Grey, a brilliant psychiatrist who experiences an unwelcome awakening when she is accused of a committing heinous murder she cannot remember. Unable to fathom having committed an unmotivated act of such sheer brutality against a husband she loved and admired, Miranda is shocked to find herself incarcerated at the Woodward Penitentiary for Women, alongside the criminally insane patients she once treated.
“Gothika is a supernatural thriller that works on multiple levels,” says producer Joel Silver, who launched Dark Castle Entertainment with partner Robert Zemeckis in 1999 with the number one Halloween release House on Haunted Hill. “It’s smart, it’s scary, it’s a mystery, it’s an intense character piece, and of course, because it’s a Dark Castle picture, it’s a terrific ghost story.”
The idea for Gothika came to Dark Castle, purveyors of the hit horror films Thir13en Ghosts and Ghost Ship, from an original pitch by screenwriter Sebastian Gutierrez (Judas Kiss). “I remember sitting there listening to Sebastian tell me this gripping, atmospheric story and I was totally captivated,” recalls Silver Pictures Executive V.P. of Production Susan Levin, who oversees development of Dark Castle projects and produced Gothika with Silver and Zemeckis. “Gothika taps into a fear that we all have – being told that you did something terrible that you have no memory of doing. And it keeps you guessing at every stage. Is it all happening in Miranda’s mind? Is it a conspiracy? Or is she being manipulated by a supernatural force?”
After honing the story with Levin and Silver, Gutierrez delivered a chillingly suspenseful character-driven screenplay about a respected criminal psychologist battling for her sanity and freedom as she is thrust into circumstances beyond her control. “One of the things that distinguishes Gothika from your typical horror movie is the character of Miranda Grey,” Silver says. “She’s a smart, sensible woman with a comfortable marriage and a very stable life. And then in a very traumatic way, her freedom is stripped away, and everything she says is called into question. Her colleagues and her patients have never seen her lose her composure, let alone act as erratically as she does following the murder of her husband. She’s forced to go from being someone who trusts only logic to having to trust her instincts.”
Suddenly Miranda finds herself “on the other side of the glass,” confined with the highly irrational patients she used to treat with methodical detachment. Meanwhile, she is subject to mind-numbing medication and the palpable mistrust of her former colleagues while she desperately tries to discover the truth behind her husband’s brutal murder in order to prove her innocence... or accept the consequences of her inexplicable actions.
“There’s a great line in the movie where Miranda says I don’t believe in ghosts but they believe in me,” Silver reveals. “As she tries to make sense of her disturbing encounters with a vengeful spirit, Miranda begins to believe that maybe the patients who say they hear voices really do hear voices.”
Silver envisioned Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry in the physically and emotionally demanding role of Miranda. “Besides being gifted and beautiful, Halle brings depth and emotional range to every character she plays, and I knew she could really shine as Miranda,” says Silver, who cast Berry in one of her first film roles, opposite Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans in The Last Boy Scout, and reunited with her on the hit action thrillers Executive Decision and Swordfish. “This character takes an incredible journey, and Halle has the talent and stamina to take Miranda to some very dark places along the way.”
“When Joel sent me the script, it jumped off the page for me,” says Berry, the 2002 Best Actress Oscar winner for her tour de force performance in Monsters Ball. “Miranda is so compelling – she’s complicated, intelligent and caught a truly terrifying situation. From the first page, I was immersed in Miranda’s journey of self-discovery, and I loved it.”
Berry describes Miranda as “a tortured soul” who discovers the depth of her strength and intuitive skills when she is stripped of her identity. “At the beginning of the story, she’s living life by the numbers rather than living life to the fullest,” says the actress, whose mother worked as a nurse in a psychiatric ward for 35 years. “The journey that Miranda takes throughout the movie inspires her to wake up and take a look at what’s around her, and she starts living in a more visceral way than she has ever lived before.”
Although Miranda’s painful transition from judicious doctor to seemingly self-destructive mental patient is specific to her extreme circumstances, Berry believes her character’s predicament is one audiences can identify with. “Miranda is not alone,” she cautions. “Any one of us could be in the same position that she finds herself in. Things are going along just beautifully and, in a single night, the course of your life is changed forever.
“This movie is all about the What if?” Berry elaborates. “What if this happened to you? What would you do? How would you find your way out? Could you find your way out? Would you give up, would you survive or would you die trying?”
To guide Berry though Miranda’s torturous journey and balance Gothika’s sophisticated hybrid of suspense, drama and terror, Silver tapped acclaimed French actor-director Mathieu Kassovitz, who won the Palme d’Or for Best Director at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival for La Haine (Hate), his incendiary drama of life in the housing projects surrounding Paris.
After screening Kassovitz’s 2002 action thriller The Crimson Rivers, Silver asked Levin to set up a meeting with the young auteur in Paris. “It’s very rare for Joel to sit down with a young filmmaker, especially if he doesn’t have a specific project in mind,” Levin acknowledges. “It has to be someone he really sees potential in and wants to work with. Like Joel, Mathieu has an incredible love and knowledge of movies. They connected and decided to find something to do together.”
“I wanted to get a very special director for this picture, and Mathieu is very passionate and talented,” Silver says. “He really knows how to create a mood, how to tell a story. When I sent him the Gothika script, he immediately responded to the material and had a vision of what he wanted this movie to be.”
“Sebastian’s script is really well-written, smarter than average, and very scary,” enthuses Kassovitz, the son of auteur Peter Kassovitz (Jakob the Liar). “The characters are not just bait for a crazed killer. They are intelligent, coherent, interesting people. When Joel told me that Halle Berry was going to play Miranda, it blew my mind. An actress of her caliber takes this material to another level, and it was up to the rest of us to rise to the occasion.”
Kassovitz and Silver cast charismatic Oscar-nominated actor Robert Downey Jr. in the role of Dr. Pete Graham, Miranda’s sympathetic but skeptical coworker who is wrestling with issues of his own. “Pete has this unrequited love for Miranda,” Downey explains, “but he knows he can’t go there because not only is she a colleague, but her husband is their boss.”
Miranda struggles to convince Pete of her sanity as her behavior becomes increasingly erratic. Says Silver, who Downey jokingly credits as his “first boss outside the restaurant business” for casting him in the 1985 hit John Hughes comedy Weird Science: “Pete really wants to help Miranda, he really wants to believe her, but every step of the way she does things that he just can’t justify. He can’t trust her, he can’t keep supporting her. And it really strains how he feels about her, both personally and professionally.” “Miranda goes from having this unspoken connection with Pete to wondering if she can trust him,” Berry adds. “It’s difficult for her or the audience to know if he’s a good guy or a bad guy.”
“Robert is smart and he has amazing charisma,” notes Kassovitz. “At the same time, there is an edge to his personality that he put into the character, and you can really feel it in the film.”
As Miranda attempts to decipher her cryptic encounters with the ghost of a mysterious teenage girl, she finds herself becoming increasingly sympathetic to a patient she had previously dismissed as psychotically delusional. The filmmakers offered internationally acclaimed actress Penélope Cruz the role of Miranda’s dangerously disturbed patient Chloe Sava, an opportunity Cruz says she “simply couldn’t resist. This is just the kind of material I look for – something that I haven’t done before and represents a risk for me as an actor.
“Chloe lives in her own hell, one that is very real to her, but nobody believes what she has to say, including Miranda,” continues Cruz, the superstar of Spanish cinema who is best known to American audiences for her impressive performances in Vanilla Sky and Blow. “That’s my worst nightmare, to be in a situation where you’re telling the truth but everyone thinks you’re crazy. It is so horrible when people don’t believe that your pain is real.”
Like Cruz, Kassovitz doesn’t believe that Chloe is actually crazy. “People who say they hear voices – it’s not that there’s something wrong with them; it’s just that they see things that we don’t,” he suggests. “You would be paranoid too if nobody believed what you were saying was the truth.”
As Gothika unfolds, Chloe is powerless against Miranda and the psych ward staff, who dismiss her claims of satanic torture as psychotic meanderings. But when her mistrustful doctor becomes an inmate herself, the hauntingly charismatic Chloe gradually draws Miranda into her own personal hell. “Chloe is a really colorful character, and Penélope goes for it,” Silver says. “This movie gives American audiences the chance to see her in a way we never have before.”
“Penélope only had a few scenes to bring this character alive,” adds Kassovitz, “and she discovered what Chloe was all about in just six days on set. She put everything she had into this role, and she’s really remarkable in it.”
“Chloe is the most intense character I’ve ever had to play,” Cruz admits. “I would end up crying every day, thinking about how someone could be in a situation like hers. There were times when I just didn’t want to go there. It brought too much pain. This kind of material is very attractive for an actor, but it also hurts.”
Emmy-winning actor-director Charles S. Dutton (Against the Ropes, TV’s Roc) plays Dr. Douglas S. Grey, Miranda’s husband and chief administrator of the Woodward psychiatric hospital. “Doug Grey is highly respected in his field, a powerful presence who conveys a deep concern and sympathy for his patients,” Dutton says. “He’s the envy of a lot of men in his profession to have wed this younger, beautiful, promising doctor. He genuinely appreciates the fact that Miranda loves him, but at the same time, he treats her a bit like a prize, like his toy. There’s a sense that Miranda longs for a deeper connection with him.”
Completing the Gothika main cast are John Carroll Lynch (The Good Girl) as Sheriff Bob Ryan, who leads the investigation into the murder of his best friend, Dr. Doug Grey; and Bernard Hill (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) as Miranda’s colleague Dr. Phil Parsons, whose unexpected connection to her alleged supernatural encounters helps to unlock the mystery behind her self-destructive behavior.
“Gothika is a popcorn movie with real substance, and I want people to come into the theater ready to be scared,” enthuses Kassovitz. “We’re going to give them a really suspenseful, scary ride and not let up until it’s over.”
Rife with suspense and rich with disquieting atmosphere, Gothika is fortified by an evocative production design that portends the cruel twist of fate awaiting Dr. Miranda Grey – especially in the sets depicting the Woodward Penitentiary, the bleak, oppressive institution where she is incarcerated alongside her former patients.
The primary location for Woodward was the sprawling turn-of-the-century St. Vincent-de-Paul Prison, a now-abandoned maximum security facility in Laval, Quebec, located about an hour northwest of Montreal. The filmmakers had originally intended to build the penitentiary sets on stages, but augmented the design scheme after director Mathieu Kassovitz fell in love with the dark, decaying facility, commonly known as “the SVP.” Several scenes in the script were expanded so that the production could utilize more areas of the SVP to make Woodward an even greater presence in the story.
“When we were scouting locations during pre-production, we came upon the SVP and immediately knew that it was the place,” says producer Susan Levin. “The ominous mood and tone of this movie are perfectly personified by that prison.”
Production designer Graham “Grace” Walker and his art department transformed numerous settings within the visually rich SVP, including its maze of hallways and stairwells, the rusted, paint-peeling cell blocks, the three-story atrium-like Common Room, and the exercise yard where Chloe warns Miranda of impending danger.
Walker’s team also constructed a number of the Woodward sets at Montreal’s Cite du Cinema stage facility: the administration offices, the communal shower room and the glass-fronted observation cells, which were constructed from tiles and perforated stainless steel. “The biggest challenge in designing this film was maintaining a consistent look while we were integrating so many different locations and stage sets,” Walker says. “It all came together because of my fantastic team in Montreal. They’re exceptionally talented artisans, and they created a really visceral environment for this film.”
“The locations and sets we shot in couldn’t be more fitting for this movie,” Berry attests. “They are very specific and really set the tone for the actors.”
“Grace took inspiration from the actual prison and expanded on the gothic concept brilliantly,” says Silver of Walker’s meticulous eye to detail. “Together with Mathieu and our director of photography, Matthew Libatique, Grace made the Woodward Penitentiary a character in the film.”
Director Kassovitz credits the film’s sinister ambience to his collaboration with Walker, Libatique, and costume designer Kym Barrett. “What was most important to me was that the elements had to work together to make very stylized yet realistic environments that have both substance and meaning,” he explains. “That meant that the sets and the lighting couldn’t just be moody during the scariest parts, they had to be moody and eerie and scary the whole time. I never want the audience to escape that dark feeling; the mood must never be broken.”
To realize director Kassovitz’s vision, Walker developed a distinctive color palette. “I tried to create a foreboding sense with muted colors, grays and browns and fairly non-colored tones I’d never used before,” says Walker, who previously designed the films Ghost Ship, Queen of the Damned and The Island of Dr. Moreau.
Walker and Kassovitz worked closely with cinematographer Matthew Libatique, who won the 2001 Independent Spirit Award for his haunting cinematography in Requiem for a Dream, to establish Gothika’s eerily striking mood and inventive shooting style. “I wanted the camera to be like a ghost, going places where it physically shouldn’t be able to go,” Kassovitz explains. “We also had some complicated sets, particularly the glass cell walls, which are difficult to shoot because of reflections. Matty and I knew we wanted that grainy, edgy feel and it sort of became a cross between stylized glamorous noir and down and dirty guerrilla-style filmmaking.”
“Mathieu really knows how to move the camera to bring you into Miranda’s journey,” Silver observes. “There are many scenes in which it’s just two characters talking in a cell, and that’s a real challenge for a director. Mathieu made each one of them interesting and unique. There are also a number of scenes where Miranda is trying to figure out if she’s sane or going mad, and Halle had to react with almost nothing around her. That speaks to her strength as an actress, but also to Mathieu’s talent as a director. He keeps the audience invested and involved in the movie with her.”
Berry, who has worked with such diverse directors as Warren Beatty, Martha Coolidge, Lee Tamahori, Tony Scott and Spike Lee, says her collaboration with Kassovitz yielded the textured, compelling performances and tone they envisioned. “Mathieu has a great eye and a really unique, edgy way of telling a story with the camera. And as an actor himself, he understands and appreciates the craft of acting. He has a very independent style to his filmmaking and I think that helps to make this movie is so unique and special.”
“Mathieu was terrific because from the first day we literally worked together,” says Robert Downey Jr. “He helped me to make playing Pete effortless. It wasn’t easy, but it was effortless. Right before we started shooting I had this more conservative look, and Mathieu walked over, messed up my hair, took off his t-shirt and put it on me and said ‘Pete’s gotta be more cool.’ That comforted me, because often I’m ready to be more conservative or unlike myself in a role, but Mathieu didn’t want that. He said ‘No, Pete should be more like you.’”
“Acting is such a difficult, intimate process,” Kassovitz notes. “As an actor myself, I feel like I’m able to communicate especially well with my cast. But I prefer directing; it’s more interesting for me.”
Because Berry appears in nearly every scene of the film, production went on hiatus for one month after the actress injured her wrist while shooting a scene with Downey. “Gothika is a testament to Halle’s strength and talent,” Silver attests. “She’s a terrific actress with tremendous emotional range and incredible energy.”
“I loved working with Halle,” Cruz reports. “From day one I connected with her. She made me feel so comfortable. She’s a very real woman who is smart and funny and honest.”
“It was wonderful watching Halle work in this film, having seen her evolution as an actress,” says Charles Dutton, who has known Berry for many years but had never worked with her prior to Gothika. “She’s an extremely intelligent actress; she’s fearless and she’s daring. She’s a real pro.”
As exhaustive as was the process of playing Miranda’s tumultuous journey, “I’m really proud to be a part of Gothika,” Berry enthuses. “There are some scenes in the film that scared me while we were shooting, and I already knew what was going to happen! So if audiences leave the theater feeling like, ‘Wow, that scared the heck out of me,’ then I think we’ve done our job.”
ABOUT THE CAST
Academy Award-winning actress HALLE BERRY (Dr. Miranda Grey) continues to break down barriers, working hard to achieve a career most actors dream of having. For her spectacular performance in Lions Gate Films’ Monster’s Ball, she won an Oscar, a SAG Award, the Berlin Silver Bear Award and was named Best Actress by the National Board of Review.
No stranger to accolades, Berry earned the Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG and NAACP Image Awards for her extraordinary and critically acclaimed performance in HBO’s telefilm Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, which she also produced.
Currently in production on Warner Bros. Pictures’ Catwoman, Berry most recently reprised her role as Storm in X2, the sequel to the action hit X-Men, which has grossed more than $200 million to date. In 2002, Berry starred as Jinx in the latest Bond feature Die Another Day with Pierce Brosnan. The 20th installment in a franchise celebrating its 40th anniversary, the movie is the largest-grossing Bond film to date.
Critics and filmgoers took notice of Berry in her feature film debut, Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever. She went on to star opposite Warren Beatty in the critically acclaimed socio-political comedy Bulworth. Other film credits include Losing Isaiah, opposite Jessica Lange, Executive Decision with Kurt Russell (for which she won a Blockbuster Award for Best Actress in an Action Drama), the live-action version of The Flintstones with John Goodman, The Last Boy Scout, Strictly Business, Reginald Hudlin’s Boomerang opposite Eddie Murphy and Swordfish with John Travolta and Hugh Jackman.
On television, Berry starred in the highly-rated ABC mini-series, Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Wedding, directed by Charles Burnett. Additional television credits include the title role in Alex Haley’s mini-series Queen. The highest rated sequel in television history, the performance earned Berry her first NAACP Image Award for Best Actress, as well as Best Newcomer Award from the Hollywood Women’s Press Club. She also starred opposite Jimmy Smits in Showtime’s original telefilm Solomon and Sheba.
In recognition for her achievements as an actress, the Harvard Foundation at Harvard University honored Berry as Cultural Artist of the Year. Currently, she serves as an International Spokesperson for Revlon.
ROBERT DOWNEY JR.’s (Dr. Pete Graham) versatility has come to the fore in a number of memorable and disparate roles. He received an Academy Award® nomination and won the British Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of Chaplin. In 1994 Downey starred as a manipulative tabloid TV journalist in Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers.
In September of 1999 he starred in Black and White, written and directed by James Toback and in January of that same year he played the villain in the Dreamworks SKG film In Dreams. In April 2000 he starred alongside Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy in the hit comedy Bowfinger and in 2001 Downey co-starred with Michael Douglas and Tobey Maguire in the acclaimed Wonder Boys, directed by Curtis Hanson.
Recently, Downey completed production on the The Singing Detective, a musical drama remake of the popular BBC hit which also stars Mel Gibson and Robin Wright-Penn.
His other film credits include U.S. Marshals, Two Girls and a Guy, The Gingerbread Man, Hugo Pool, One Night Stand, Restoration, Richard III, Short Cuts, Hearts and Souls, The Last Party, Soapdish, Air America, Chances Are, True Believer, Johnny Be Good, 1969, Less Than Zero, The Pick-Up Artist, Back to School, Tuff Turf, Weird Science, Firstborn and Pound.
Downey made his primetime television debut when he joined the cast of the Fox series Ally McBeal, playing the role of attorney Larry Paul. For the role, he won the Golden Glove Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television, as well as the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male in a Comedy Series. In addition, Downey was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
CHARLES S. DUTTON (Dr. Doug Grey) is perhaps most recognizable as the star of the self-produced 1991 television series Roc; however, he is also familiar to movie audiences for his memorable performances in films including Sydney Pollack’s Random Hearts, Robert Altman’s Cookie’s Fortune, Ernest Dickerson’s Blind Faith and Surviving the Game, Spike Lee’s Get on the Bus, Joel Schumacher’s A Time to Kill, John Badham’s Nick of Time, Keenen Ivory Wayans’ Low Down Dirty Shame, David Anspaugh’s Rudy, Menace II Society, Jonathan Lynn’s The Distinguished Gentlemen, David Fincher’s Alien3, Mira Nair’s Mississippi Masala and Sidney Lumet’s Q & A.
Dutton’s countless television film credits include Conviction, 10,000 Black Men Named George, the miniseries The ’60s, True Women, three installments of the popular Jack Reed telefilm series and The Murder of Mary Phagan. His numerous series appearances include roles on The Sopranos, Ed, The Practice, OZ, Homicide: Life on the Street, The Equalizer and Miami Vice. Additionally, Dutton was the executive producer of Carl Franklin’s 1993 telefilm Laurel Avenue.
Dutton’s directing credits include the upcoming feature film Against the Ropes, starring Meg Ryan and Omar Epps, as well as the six-hour television miniseries The Corner. Dutton has been nominated for an Emmy Award an impressive five times, winning for Outstanding Direction of The Corner and Outstanding Guest Actor on The Practice. He also directed the telefilm First-Time Felon, which starred Omar Epps.
JOHN CARROLL LYNCH’s (Sheriff Ryan) feature film credits include Fargo, in which he appeared as Fran McDormand’s husband Norm, The Good Girl, Bubble Boy, Waking the Dead, A Thousand Acres, The Next Best Thing, Anywhere But Here, Pushing Tin, Face/Off, Volcano and Confidence. He will soon be seen in Bart Freundlich’s Catch That Girl.
Lynch stars this fall on the new David E. Kelley series The Brotherhood of Poland, NH. Lynch played Drew Carey’s brother on the television series The Drew Carey Show. He has appeared in Family Law, Gideon’s Crossing, The West Wing and Frasier, and the television movies Tuesdays with Morrie, Live from Baghdad and the mini-series From the Earth to the Moon.
Born in Boulder, CO and a native of Denver, Lynch began his professional career in the theater and spent eight years as a member of the Guthrie Theater Company in Minneapolis. His recent stage credits include the original production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Dinner with Friends and Under the Blue Sky at the Geffen.
Lynch currently resides in Los Angeles and New York with his wife, actress Brenda Wehle.
BERNARD HILL (Phil Parsons) is known for his astounding, multifaceted acting career that has spanned nearly four decades on both sides of the Atlantic. He is now, perhaps, most recognizable as King Theoden of Rohan in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, a role that garnered him (and his fellow cast members) a nomination for a Screen Actors Guild award for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture. He will reprise that role later this year in the acclaimed trilogy’s third and final installment, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Hill has starred in many top British feature films such as Mountains of the Moon and Shirley Valentine as well as American motion pictures, including Titanic (which earned him his first SAG nomination, along with the rest of the cast, for Outstanding Performance by a Cast), True Crime and The Ghost and the Darkness, among many others.
Born in Manchester, England, he made his English television debut in 1973 in Mike Leigh’s first film, Hard Labour. Balancing stage, film and television work, Hill’s other feature film credits include the films Gandhi, The Bounty, No Surrender, Blessed Art Thou, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Going Off Big Time, The Criminal and, more recently, The Scorpion King.
He was also seen in the award-winning television productions of I, Claudius, director Jane Howell’s Henry VI trilogy, Richard III, Antigone, Boys From the Black Stuff (for which he received the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ Best Actor award), The Mill on the Floss and Great Expectations.
PENÉLOPE CRUZ (Chloe Sava) has proven herself to be one of the most versatile young actresses by playing a variety of compelling characters. First introduced to American audiences in the Spanish films Jamón, Jamón and Belle Époque, she moves seamlessly between Spanish and English speaking roles. In 1998, she starred in her first English language film, Hi-Lo Country for director Stephen Frears, and in 1999, Cruz won the Best Actress award from the Spanish Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for her role in Fernando Trueba’s The Girl of Your Dreams.
Confirming her status as Spain’s hottest international actress, Cruz landed the coveted role opposite Matt Damon in the film adaptation of All the Pretty Horses, directed by Billy Bob Thornton. Next, she portrayed Isabella in Woman on Top for Fox Searchlight. Other film credits include her starring role in the thriller Open Your Eyes, Twice Upon a Yesterday, Pedro Almovodar’s Live Flesh, Talk of Angels and Don Juan. Additionally, Cruz co-starred in Pedro Almovodar’s critically acclaimed All About My Mother which was awarded the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
Cruz then went on to play Johnny Depp’s wife in Blow; in 2001 she starred opposite Nicolas Cage and Christian Bale in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin; and Cruz also recently starred in Vanilla Sky opposite Tom Cruise. She can also be seen in Fanfan la tulipe which opened the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. She recently completed work on director John Duigan’s romantic drama Head in the Clouds, starring opposite Charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend, and an Italian film, Don’t Move.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Actor-writer-director MATHIEU KASSOVITZ (Director) is one of the leading filmmakers to emerge from France in the last ten years. He is perhaps best known as the writer/director of the acclaimed French drama Hate (La Haine), which, in 1995, garnered the French Cesar Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Editing and won Kassovitz the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Kassovitz wrote, directed and starred in his first feature film, Café Au Lait (Metisse), wrote and directed La Haine (Hate) and also wrote and directed the provocative Assassin(s), in which he co-starred with Michel Serrault. His most recent film, The Crimson Rivers, starring Jean Reno and Vincent Cassell, has grossed fifty million dollars worldwide.
As an actor, Kassovitz has been equally prolific and successful. He won the Best Young Actor Cesar for his performance in director Jacques Audiard’s Regarde les hommes tomber (See How They Fall). He also appeared in Audiard’s Un heros tres discret (A Self-Made Hero).
More recently, he received a Cesar nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of a conflicted priest in Costa-Gravas’ Holocaust drama Amen. His other film credits include Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element; his father Peter Kassovitz’s Jakob the Liar and Room for Tomorrow, in which he made his on-screen debut; Jez Butterworth’s Birthday Girl opposite Nicole Kidman; and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s international hit Amelie.
Through his production company, MNP, Kassovitz is currently developing several new projects in both the United States and France, including the English-language science fiction thriller Babylon Babies, in which he will direct his frequent collaborator, actor Vincent Cassell.
One of the most prolific and successful producers in the history of motion pictures, JOEL SILVER (Producer) has produced a catalog of over 40 films, which have earned a combined gross of close to $5 billion worldwide, averaging over $100 million per picture.
Silver produced the supernatural thriller Gothika, starring Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry, Robert Downey Jr. and Penelope Cruz, through his Dark Castle Entertainment division. Formed by Silver and Robert Zemeckis in the spirit of the late horror impresario William Castle, Dark Castle has produced a string of hit films beginning with the record-breaking release of House on Haunted Hill, which opened at number one on Halloween of 1999, followed by Thirteen Ghosts in 2001 and Ghost Ship in 2002.
Silver’s groundbreaking 1999 production The Matrix grossed over $456 million globally, earning more than any other Warner Bros. Pictures film in the Studio’s history at the time of its release. Universally acclaimed for its powerfully innovative storytelling and visuals, The Matrix won four Academy Awards, including the award for Best Visual Effects. The first DVD release to sell one million units, The Matrix DVD was instrumental in powering the initial sale of consumer DVD machines.
To date, the second installment of the epic Matrix trilogy, The Matrix Reloaded, has earned over $735 million in worldwide box office, making it the highest-grossing film of 2003 and the highest-grossing R-rated film in history, both domestically and internationally. Reloaded also scored the record for the largest single week ever with $158.2 million and reached $150 million in a record-breaking six days domestically; internationally, it is the 10th highest grossing film of all-time, and is the first film in history to gross more than $100 million in a single weekend.
In addition to producing The Matrix Reloaded and the final explosive chapter in the Wachowski Brothers’ saga, The Matrix Revolutions, Silver produced the trilogy’s integral video game, Enter the Matrix, which features one hour of additional film footage written and directed by the Wachowskis and starring Jada Pinkett Smith and Anthony Wong, who reprise their roles from the films. He also executive produced The Animatrix, a groundbreaking collection of nine short films inspired by the visionary action and innovative storytelling that power The Matrix.
Concurrently, Silver produced the hit films Cradle 2 the Grave, starring DMX and Jet Li; Swordfish, starring John Travolta, Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry; Exit Wounds, starring Steven Seagal and DMX; and Romeo Must Die, featuring Jet Li and Aaliyah.
While at Lawrence Gordon Productions, where he began his career and ultimately ascended to president of motion pictures, Silver associate produced The Warriors and, with Gordon, produced 48 HRS., Streets of Fire and Brewster’s Millions.
In 1985, Silver launched his Silver Pictures production banner with the breakout hit Commando, followed by Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Predator. Silver went on to produce the four-part Lethal Weapon series, as well as Die Hard, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, The Last Boy Scout, Demolition Man, Richie Rich and Conspiracy Theory. He executive produced, with Richard Donner, David Giler, Walter Hill and Robert Zemeckis, eight seasons of the award-winning HBO series Tales From the Crypt, as well as two Tales From the Crypt films.
As a student at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey in 1967, Silver and a group of his friends invented a game called Ultimate Frisbee. The fast-moving team sport has since become a global phenomenon supported by tournaments in 42 countries. One of the fastest growing sports in the world, Ultimate Frisbee was played as a medal sport in the 2001 World Games held in Akita, Japan. In 2003, players representing 46 countries competed in the World Flying Disc Federation’s World Disc Games in Santa Cruz, California.
ROBERT ZEMECKIS (Producer) won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Director’s Guild of America Award for Best Director for the hugely successful Forrest Gump. The film’s numerous honors also included Oscars for Best Actor (Tom Hanks) and Best Picture. Zemeckis reunited with Tom Hanks for the contemporary drama Cast Away, the filming of which was split into two sections, book-ending production on What Lies Beneath, which Zemeckis also produced and directed. Zemeckis and Hanks also served as producers on Cast Away, along with Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke. Zemeckis again directs Tom Hanks in The Polar Express, an inspiring adventure based on the beloved children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg, which will be released in theatres in November of 2004.
Earlier in his career, Zemeckis co-wrote (with Bob Gale) and directed Back to the Future, which was the top-grossing release of 1985, and for which Zemeckis shared Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Best Original Screenplay. He went on to helm Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III, completing one of the most successful film franchises ever.
In addition, Zemeckis directed and produced Contact, starring Jodie Foster, based on the best-selling novel by Carl Sagan, and the macabre comedy hit Death Becomes Her, starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis. He also wrote and directed the box office smash Who Framed Roger Rabbit, cleverly blending live action and animation; directed the romantic adventure hit Romancing the Stone, pairing Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner; and co-wrote (with Bob Gale) and directed the comedies Used Cars and I Wanna Hold Your Hand.
Zemeckis has also produced Ghost Ship, House on Haunted Hill, and executive produced such films as The Frighteners, The Public Eye and Trespass, which he also co-wrote with Bob Gale. He and Gale had previously written 1941, which began Zemeckis’ association with Steven Spielberg.
For the small screen, Zemeckis has directed several projects, including the Showtime feature-length documentary The Pursuit of Happiness, which explores the effect of drugs and alcohol on society in the 20th century. His other television credits include episodes of Spielberg’s Amazing Stories, and HBO’s Tales from the Crypt.
In 1998, Zemeckis, Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke partnered to form the film and television production company ImageMovers. What Lies Beneath and Cast Away were the first films to be released under the ImageMovers banner. Matchstick Men, starring Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell and Alison Lohman, directed by three-time Oscar nominated director Ridley Scott, was the most recent release from ImageMovers.
In March, 2001, the USC School of Cinema-Television celebrated the opening of the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts. The state-of-the-art center is the country’s first and only fully digital training center and houses the latest in non-linear production and post-production equipment as well as stages, a 50-seat screening room and USC student-run television station, Trojan Vision.
SUSAN LEVIN (Producer) began working at Silver Pictures in 1999, when she joined the company as Vice President of Production, overseeing the development and production of such projects as Thirteen Ghosts and Swordfish. She went on to become the co-producer of Ghost Ship and Cradle 2 The Grave. In her current role as Executive Vice President of Production at Silver Pictures, she is developing a diverse slate of films including Wonder Woman, Superfly, and Speedracer. In addition, she oversees development for Dark Castle Entertainment, the production entity formed by Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis to produce a diverse slate of horror films.
Prior to her tenure at Silver Pictures, Levin worked on the hit films Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, spearheaded the development of its spin-off live action and animated TV series, and associate produced the feature film Beowulf for Dimension Films.
Levin is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema/Television.
SEBASTIAN GUTIERREZ (Screenplay) is a writer-director whose feature film credits include: The Big Bounce, directed by George Armitage (and starring Owen Wilson, Morgan Freeman, Gary Sinise, Harry Dean Stanton and Charlie Sheen), as well as the cult favorite Mermaid Chronicles Part 1: She Creature and his critically acclaimed debut Judas Kiss, starring Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman.
STEVE RICHARDS (Executive Producer) began his career as a production executive for Ridley Scott and Tony Scott’s production company, Scott Free, where he supervised, among other projects, White Squall. In 1995, upon joining Joel Silver’s Silver Pictures, Richards aided in the launch of Decade Pictures and served in producing capacities on Double Tap and Made Men.
When Silver and Robert Zemeckis launched Dark Castle Entertainment in 1999, Richards organized the foreign financing and distribution of Dark Castle’s first film, the remake of William Castle’s House on Haunted Hill.
Since then, he has produced Jane Doe for USA Networks and has served in various producing capacities on Dungeons & Dragons, Thir13en Ghosts, Proximity, Ghost Ship as well as The Animatrix and The Matrix Reloaded.
As both a producer and personal manager, GARY UNGAR (Executive Producer) has brought together emerging writing and directing talent from around the world with U.S. commercial studio films and independent financing. He has been involved in the development and production of films involving such talent as Jodie Foster, Robin Williams, Wesley Snipes, Halle Berry, Morgan Freeman and Mira Sorvino. His writing and directing clients are currently working with a diverse array of studios, producers and financing companies.
Ungar’s management clients include Mathieu Kassovitz (Hate, Crimson Rivers), Guillermo del Toro (Cronos, Devil’s Backbone, Blade II), Peter Kassovitz (Jakob the Liar), Reidar Jonsson (My Life As A Dog), Jan Kounen (Dobermann), Gregor Nicholas (Broken English) and Peter Flinth (Eye of the Eagle). His clients and their films have won Golden Globes, Oscar nominations and many awards at festivals in Cannes, Sundance, Venice and Berlin. They have also won Academy Award equivalents in Mexico, France, Denmark, Brazil and New Zealand. Several have distinguished themselves as commercial directors and have won awards for their work.
Through his company, Exile Entertainment, Ungar is involved as a producer in a wide range of films, from big budget studio features to independent and European films. In addition to Gothika, Ungar is the executive producer of the independent feature Modigliani, starring Andy Garcia and directed by Mick Davis. Ungar’s development slate includes Mississippi Mud, which he will produce with Martin Scorsese and Barbara DeFina; X-Trade with Mathieu Kassovitz; Ubik with Jan Kounen; Mephisto’s Bridge with Guillermo del Toro; and Cowboy Cupid with Michele Ohayon.
After earning degrees from Dartmouth College and the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema, Ungar spent several years working in development at such companies as Orion Pictures, The Ladd Company and Warner Bros. He began his management company in 1994 and his production company, Exile Entertainment, was formed in 1997.
DON CARMODY (Executive Producer) has been producing films for close to 30 years. He was vice-president of production for Canada’s Cinepix (now Lions Gate Films), where he co-produced David Cronenberg’s early shockers, They Came From Within and Rabid, as well as the popular comedy Meatballs.
Starting his own production company in 1980, Carmody went on to produce the smash hits Porky’s and Porky’s II, and the perennially popular A Christmas Story as well as Spacehunter: Adventures In The Forbidden Zone, Whispers, The Big Town, Physical Evidence, Switching Channels and several Chuck Norris films, including The Hitman and Sidekicks.
He successfully returned to comedy with the Weekend At Bernie’s series and The Late Shift for HBO, which was nominated for seven Emmy Awards, three CableACE awards and the Producers Guild of America Golden Laurel. The Late Shift also won a Golden Globe for actress Kathy Bates and a Directors Guild Award for Betty Thomas.
His credits include some 70 films thus far, including Johnny Mnemonic with Keanu Reeves; The Mighty with Sharon Stone; Studio 54 with Mike Myers; the Academy Award-nominated Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Robin Williams; In Too Deep with LL Cool J; the cult hit The Boondock Saints with Willem Dafoe; The Third Miracle with Ed Harris and Anne Heche; Get Carter with Sylvester Stallone; The Whole Nine Yards with Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry; The Pledge directed by Sean Penn and starring Jack Nicholson; 3000 Miles to Graceland with Kevin Costner and Courtney Cox; Caveman’s Valentine with Samuel Jackson; Angel Eyes with Jennifer Lopez; David Mamet's Heist with Gene Hackman and Danny DeVito; City By The Sea with Robert DeNiro and Frances McDormand; and the Academy Award-winning film musical Chicago, starring Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere.
Carmody was born in New England and immigrated to Canada with his parents as a boy. He graduated from film school in Montreal and has gone on to produce films all over the world. He currently lives in Los Angeles.
RICHARD MIRISCH (Co-Producer) most recently associate produced Cradle 2 the Grave, starring Jet Li and DMX for Silver Pictures and co-produced Dark Castle’s Ghost Ship and Thir13en Ghosts. Prior to that, he served as associate producer on Warner Bros. Pictures’ acclaimed film The Matrix, and associate produced the highly successful HBO series Tales From the Crypt. Other Silver Pictures productions on which Mirisch has worked include Ricochet, The Last Boy Scout and Tales from the Crypt: Bordello of Blood.
Mirisch got his start in the business working for The Avnet/Kerner Company, where he served as director Paul Brickman’s assistant on Men Don’t Leave, starring Jessica Lange.
JOHN OTTMAN (Music) graduated from USC’s School of Cinema-Television in 1988, and in 1997 was named one of Daily Variety’s 50 People to Watch. Ottman is well-known in Hollywood as a unique hyphenate who scores movies as his main career and is also a renowned film editor and director, often on the same film.
He won the British Academy Award for his editing of the acclaimed The Usual Suspects, as well as a Saturn Award for composing its stirring score. He recently was both editor and composer for X-Men 2: X-Men United; was nominated for an Emmy for his music to the Fantasy Island television pilot; and holds the distinction of directing, editing and scoring Urban Legends: Final Cut. His numerous composing credits include Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, The Cable Guy, Apt Pupil, Bubble Boy, Eight Legged Freaks and Trapped.
MATTHEW LIBATIQUE, ASC (Director of Photography) is a graduate of the prestigious American Film Institute. It was his collaboration with Darren Aronofsky on the independent hit Pi, for which Libatique received an Independent Spirit Award nomination in 1997, that solidified his place as one of the industry’s brightest and most talented new cinematographers. Their second collaboration was the film Requiem for a Dream, for which Libatique won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography in 2001.
In addition to his work with Aronofsky, Libatique has collaborated on two films with director Joel Schumacher, Tigerland and Phone Booth. His other film credits include Abandon, Josie and the Pussycats, and Saturn, as well as the upcoming Never Die Alone, directed by Ernest Dickerson.
He began his career as a cinematographer in the music video industry. His work has appeared on MTV for artists such as Death In Vegas, Erykah Badu, Incubus, Tupac Shakur, Moby, Tracy Chapman, Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z. In 2002, Libatique was awarded the Music Video Production Association cinematography award for his work with Matchbox Twenty. His commercial credits include work for clients as diverse as The United States Air Force, Sprite, Sunkist, The Gap and Major League Baseball.
Libatique is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
GRAHAM “GRACE’’ WALKER (Production Designer) is one of Australia’s most talented production designers. His feature film credits include Dark Castle Entertainments Ghost Ship; Warner Bros. Pictures’ Queen of the Damned; Pitch Black, starring Vin Diesel; The Island of Dr. Moreau, directed by John Frankenheimer, starring Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer; George Miller’s Mad Max 2:The Road Warrior; Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome; Peter Faiman’s Crocodile Dundee; Phillip Noyce’s Dead Calm, starring Nicole Kidman and Sam Neale; Geoff Burton’s and Kevin Dowling’s The Sum Of Us; Yahoo Serious’ Reckless Kelly; Dusan Makavejev’s The Coca Cola Kid.
Walker is a four-time AFI nominee, winning Best in Production Design for Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. Walker also served as design consultant on the animated feature Fern Gully.
Gothika reunites YANNICK KERGOAT (Editor) and director Mathieu Kassovitz, who first worked together on Assassin(s) in 1997.
Kergoat’s other credits include Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien, for which he received France’s 2001 Cesar Award for Best Editing; Costa-Gravas’ Amen, which co-starred Mathieu Kassovitz; Ni pour, ni contre; Tu ne marcheras jamais seul; Le Nombril de l’univers; Le Secret; Le Premier du nom; and La Vie revee des anges, among others.
KYM BARRETT’s (Costume Designer) film credits include The Wachowski Brothers’ The Matrix (for which she received her second Saturn Award nomination), The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions; Baz Lurhman’s Romeo + Juliet, for which she received her first Saturn Award nomination; The Hughes Brothers’ From Hell, starring Johnny Depp and Heather Graham; Red Planet, starring Val Kilmer and Carrie-Anne Moss; Titan A.E.; David O. Russell’s Three Kings; and Jake Kasdan’s Zero Effect, starring Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller.
Barrett’s Australian theatre credits include The Alchemist, starring Geoffrey Rush and directed by Neil Armfield; Henry V; Falsettos for the Sydney Theatre Company; Lady Bracknell’s Confinement for the Melbourne Festival; and Aftershock and A Little Like Drowning for the Belvoir Street Theatre.