D a r k C a s t l e O n l i n e

     Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, a Dark Castle Entertainment production, House of Wax, starring ELISHA CUTHBERT, CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY, BRIAN VAN HOLT, PARIS HILTON, JARED PADALECKI, JON ABRAHAMS and ROBERT RI’CHARD.
     Directed by JAUME COLLET-SERRA, House of Wax is produced by JOEL SILVER, ROBERT ZEMECKIS and SUSAN LEVIN from a screenplay by CHAD HAYES & CAREY W. HAYES. The executive producers are HERBERT W. GAINS, STEVE RICHARDS and BRUCE BERMAN. RICHARD MIRISCH is the co-producer. The director of photography is STEPHEN WINDON, A.C.S.; the production designer is GRAHAM “GRACE” WALKER; the film is edited by JOEL NEGRON; and the music is by JOHN OTTMAN.
     This film has been rated “R” by the MPAA for “horror violence, some sexual content and language.”
     House of Wax will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures.

www.houseofwaxmovie.com / AOL Keyword: House of Wax

VISIT TRUDY’S FAMOUS HOUSE OF WAX

     From Dark Castle Entertainment, producers of the hit supernatural thriller Gothika and the successful horror remakes House on Haunted Hill and Thir13en Ghosts, comes House of Wax, the harrowing story of six friends on a road trip that takes a terrifying turn when they find themselves hunted by a mysterious killer hell-bent on making them the latest additions in his gruesome collection of all-too-realistic wax figures.
     “House of Wax puts a modern spin on the slasher movies of the 1970s and 80s,” says producer Joel Silver, who launched Dark Castle Entertainment with partner Robert Zemeckis in 1999 with the horror hit House on Haunted Hill. “It’s a rollercoaster ride that taps into our most primal fears of being hunted down and trapped, and then thrusts you into a nightmarish scenario where nothing around you is real and escape is not an option.”
     House of Wax draws its name from the 1953 horror classic starring Vincent Price as a talented sculptor who curates a wax museum featuring eerily lifelike displays. “There’s something really fascinating about wax figures,” Silver suggests. “They’re unsettling, they’re kind of creepy, but you can’t stop looking at them.”
     The story takes a chilling turn when it’s discovered that Price’s character has hidden real corpses within his precious wax creations. Beyond this basic premise, Dark Castle’s production bears little resemblance to the original film. “We loved the idea of a wax museum with real people encased in wax, so we used that as a jumping-off point and created a totally new story that takes the concept to a truly terrifying level,” says Silver.
     “We really pushed the envelope in terms of working with the wax medium,” director Jaume Collet-Serra agrees. “Blood and wax make a great combination of sexy and scary, and we did things with wax that have never been done on film before, from creating an entire town filled with wax figures to engulfing our cast and the House of Wax in flames in our spectacular finale. After this movie, you will never look at wax the same way again.”
     The screenplay by Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes, twin brothers whose numerous television credits include the sci-fi TV series Mysterious Ways, pits a group of friends en route to a college football game against monstrous twin brothers working together to trap and kill their prey in a bloody quest to make them permanent citizens of their ghoulish hometown.
     “Chad and Carey created a truly original story with interesting character dynamics and unique set pieces,” says producer Susan Levin, Silver Pictures’ Executive Vice President of Production, who oversees development for Dark Castle and served as a producer on Gothika. “The horror genre traditionally favors stories about strong women in peril who kick ass. Our film puts a twist on that convention with our protagonists, a sister and brother who are at odds at the beginning of the story and have to come together to fight for their survival.”
     “Horror movies are typically about external forces that change your life, and either you deal with them, or you try to escape,” Jaume observes. “If you try to escape, you usually die, but if you confront the situation, you usually survive. In this film, we have a brother and sister whose biggest problem isn’t the deadly crisis they’re facing – it’s their own relationship. They have to not only find strength in themselves; they have to confront the issues between them, learn to trust each other and work together as a team to defeat the killers.”
     In the role of Carly, the ambitious college student working her way toward a career in New York, the filmmakers cast Elisha Cuthbert, an accomplished young actress known for her breakout performance on the hit Fox series 24 and her title role in the feature comedy The Girl Next Door. “Elisha is incredibly talented,” Silver says. “She’s got great strength and range, from intense drama to broad comedy, and we knew she’d be perfect for Carly, a character who is extremely focused on her goals and her future, and then suddenly finds herself battling for her very survival.”
     “Carly is different from any other character that I’ve played,” Cuthbert says. “She doesn’t really care about clothes or style; she’s focused on her career more than anything else. Then suddenly she’s fighting for her life. Her brother Nick likes to play the tough guy; he’s been in fights before. But Carly has never been in a fight, let alone a nightmare situation like this. She’s not Lara Croft – she’s just going on adrenaline.”
     Chad Michael Murray, star of the WB’s popular series One Tree Hill, plays Nick, Carly’s delinquent brother who resents what he sees as her superiority. “I think Nick is the kind of kid who had a lot of potential when he was growing up, but he was never good enough to compare to his over-achieving sister,” Murray muses. “Eventually he rebelled, started to get into fights and became this hard guy, even though it’s not who he really is. The challenge for me was to bring a vulnerability to him that exists beneath his anger and frustration.”
     “Chad did a great job of bringing elements to his character that let you know that beneath the tough guy front, he really cares about his friends and his sister,” Jaume says, “and you know he’s going to step up to the plate and fight to protect her.”
     Self-described “evil twin” Nick’s combative rapport with his “good twin” Carly is paralleled by their tormentors’ complex and twisted relationship, as both sets of siblings struggle with issues of identity, inferiority and trust. “Chad and Elisha created a really convincing brother-sister bond,” Levin notes. “You can feel the tension and history between the characters, and at the same time, it brings a strength and depth to their connection.”
     In contrast to confrontational Nick, Carly’s boyfriend Wade is “just a normal, pretty laidback guy,” says Jared Padalecki, who starred with Murray on Gilmore Girls and was recently seen in the feature film action-adventure Flight of the Phoenix. “He’s graduating college and isn’t sure what he wants to do with his life. Wade is a big fish in Gainesville, but he’s scared to move to New York with Carly and become a small fish in a big pond. That creates tension between them, and having Nick around just makes it worse.”
     Despite his nice-guy status, Wade is ultimately felled by his boundless curiosity. “Wade goes into the House of Wax when he has no business being in there,” Jaume elaborates. “He goes into the garage to get a fan belt instead of waiting for the owner to give it to him. He lingers inside the Sinclair house, snooping around.
     “After weeks of shooting with Jared playing this nice, overly-curious guy, I had no idea how he was going to perform when we had to film him being attacked and waxed,” the director continues. “But he was incredible. You can see the genuine fear in his eyes when the whole room goes dark and he doesn’t know where the killer is. And then later, when the killer is preparing Wade to be waxed, Jared’s performance is amazingly real. His suffering brings another layer of realism to a truly creepy sequence.”
     Fatal consequences also await Carly’s best friend Paige, played by Paris Hilton. “Paris was very excited and committed to coming in and working really hard,” Silver says.
     “Paige is kind of a hometown girl,” Hilton says of her character. “She’s supportive of Carly’s goals but she doesn’t see herself leaving Gainesville. She’s content there. My experience with The Simple Life helped me to find my character a little bit. During the show we went to Louisiana, and I talked to a lot of people there who couldn’t imagine living in a big city.”
     “Paris did her homework,” Jaume attests. “She came in eager to learn and worked very hard on creating her character, finding the right voice for Paige and figuring out how she fits into the group.”
     As for her first major acting role, Hilton reports, “It was a challenge to show real fear, to go to a place where I was really scared. And doing my death scene was definitely hard. I had the bruises to prove it! But I think I have the coolest death scene in the movie. It looks awesome.”
     Robert Ri’chard plays Paige’s boyfriend Blake, who finds the fateful shortcut on his GPS that sends their caravan careening into a deadly trap. “Blake is the host of the weekend,” says Ri’chard, who was recently seen starring opposite Samuel L. Jackson in the basketball-driven drama Coach Carter. “He’s the nucleus of this group and he wants to be sure that everyone is having a good time. They wouldn’t all hang out together if it wasn’t for him. Blake is the one who invites Nick and his buddy Dalton on the trip, which sets a different tone for the weekend than the others expected.”
     “Like Wade, Blake refuses to confront his problems, which leaves them both vulnerable,” Jaume says. “Wade doesn’t want to take the risk of going to New York with Carly. Blake doesn’t want to deal with the fact that his girlfriend might be pregnant. Their decisions to ‘escape’ from reality rather than deal with it have deadly consequences.”
     Rounding out the group is Dalton, a sanitation worker who harbors a longtime crush on Carly, which he tries to disguise by hiding behind his ever-present video camera. “Dalton is a shy guy and he’s from more of a working class background than the other kids,” notes Abrahams, an industry veteran whose credits include roles in the hit films Meet the Parents and Scary Movie, “so he uses his video camera as his way into the group. It helps break down that social barrier for him.”
     As Jaume sees it, “Dalton provides a bit of comic relief in the story, and Jon brought great energy to the character and the cast every day. He improvised and came up with lines that weren’t in the script that helped to make the group dynamic feel authentic. Even when I wasn’t around and we weren’t officially ‘working,’ he would hang out with the other actors and shoot his video camera, trying to create real moments for the film.”
     Luring the unsuspecting friends into their deadly trap are brothers Bo and Vincent Sinclair. Brian Van Holt, who delivered memorable performances in such films as Black Hawk Down and S.W.A.T., plays dual roles as Bo, the owner of the town’s lone gas station, and his more artistic but equally sadistic twin Vincent. “It took a lot of effort to tap into the dark side and really commit to these characters,” admits Van Holt, who drew on the close connection between his own twin sisters in building the foundation for the brothers’ relationship. “It definitely took a toll on me. But to have an opportunity as an actor to push it to that level was a lot of fun.”
     “Not only did Brian do a great job of playing these two intense characters,” Jaume points out, “but having to dress as Vincent, wearing a mask where he could only see from one eye, and maneuver around a floor made of soft wax is not easy. He pulled it off to a very frightening effect.”
     In Jaume, Silver and Levin found an acclaimed commercial director whose visual acuity and deft storytelling skills made him the perfect choice to guide this hot young ensemble cast through their horrifying journey and push them to the outer limits of terror.
     “I screen commercial director reels all the time,” Levin relates, “but when I watched Jaume’s reel, it really stood out to me. There is a dark edginess to it, and even though each of his commercials is unique, they share an overall vision and style. I showed his reel to Joel, and he wanted to meet him immediately.”
     “What impressed me about Jaume even more than his incredible visual sense was his insightful take on the script and story, especially with respect to the characters,” says Silver of his initial meeting with the director. “It was very important to him that the character dynamics be authentic and integral to the story, and he had smart ideas and a strong vision of how the story should be told.”
     “I didn’t want this film to have a slick look,” Jaume explains. “I wanted to create an unstructured, almost documentary feel for the beginning of the movie, and then as the story progresses and the characters begin to realize the horrific truth of their situation, the visuals become more controlled and stylized – but never to the point that they overshadow the characters or the story.”
     Together with director of photography Steve Windon (Anacondas, Deep Blue Sea), Jaume established an ominously nuanced look for the film, in part by using natural-looking lighting and hand-held cameras. “Jaume has a totally unique style of shooting,” Silver observes. “What looks rough and raw and off the cuff is actually very strategically planned and captures the loose, energetic tone of the beginning of the film. Then he seamlessly transitions to more complex shots that amplify the audience’s fear and anticipation and deliver great scares.”
     “Jaume creates shots that would give you chills even if you weren’t shooting a scary movie,” adds Jared Padalecki.
     The director also took advantage of the film’s unique production schedule, which dictated that the first act of the story be shot largely in sequence. “When we shot those scenes where the audience meets the characters, the actors were discovering their characters as well,” says Jaume, who encouraged the cast to improvise. “Because of everyone’s schedules, we were not able to rehearse with the full cast until the first night of shooting. They all bonded that night.”
     “When I met the rest of the cast,” Paris Hilton remembers, “we all got along so well, it was like we had been friends forever.”
     Elisha Cuthbert found that shooting in sequence was also helpful in building Carly’s relationship with her tormentor Bo. “It was a very physical, intense sequence to film, and at the same time, I had to react to what was happening without being able to scream or make any noise,” Cuthbert says. “It was painful stuff, but being able to shoot in sequence helped us build the intensity between the characters as their conflict escalates.”
     “I was really impressed with Elisha, especially in those scenes,” says Jaume. “She was basically tied to a chair for two days straight, sweating and being beaten up. Take after take, she delivered an incredible performance full of emotion and strength and intensity, which is exhausting for an actor. But she’s very generous and gave me everything she had in every shot.”
     Van Holt echoes the cast’s unanimous praise for their director’s vision, emphasis on character development and his meticulous preparation. “I loved working with Jaume,” he says. “He’s very open and communicative, and occasionally, when it was difficult to go to the place I needed to take my characters, he pushed me until I got there.”
     “They worked very, very hard,” Jaume says of his cast. “Dying is not easy.”

WAXING POETIC: ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

     Set primarily in the fictional town of Ambrose, an eerily quaint enclave tucked away in a tangle of Louisiana backroads, House of Wax was filmed at the Warner Roadshow Studios in Queensland, Australia, and on location in Guanaba, a 45 minute drive from the Studios, where director Jaume, cinematographer Steve Windon and production designer Graham “Grace” Walker (Gothika, Ghost Ship) created the film’s sprawling central set piece from scratch.
     “We built a cruise liner for Ghost Ship. We built the interior of an asylum for Gothika,” Silver says. “For House of Wax, we built an entire town.”
     “I read the script and I made a layout of Ambrose, and independently Grace read the script and made a layout, and they were identical,” Jaume recalls. “When it came to the style of the town, Joel wanted to do something a bit more unique than a ‘normal’ small town or the gothic look you see in typical horror films.”
     “How many times do you build a town for a movie?” asks Silver, who has produced over 40 films and counts Ambrose as the first town he’s ever commissioned. “In all of our Dark Castle pictures, we like to create unique environments that you haven’t seen in the horror genre before. With Ambrose, we had the opportunity to push the envelope even further.”
     Silver suggested the design team look to the small East African city of Asmara for inspiration. An exciting architectural discovery of recent years, Asmara served as a prime building ground for architectural innovation for Italian designers during the Modernist movement of the 1930s and has even earned the nickname “the Miami of Africa.”
     Executive producer Herb Gains found the perfect location for Ambrose in a rambling cow paddock in Guanaba. “It was a vast open field surrounded by hills that gave it a palpable sense of isolation,” Gains says.
     “We had to chase the cows away,” says Walker, whose carpenters and construction team transformed the three-acre stretch of farmland into the town of Ambrose in just ten weeks. Before building the structures, the crew dug trenches and installed water and electricity, laying two and a half miles of cable underground so that Windon and his lighting team could individually control dimmers for the 750 lamps strategically positioned along the town streets.
     Along a dusty main street lined with cracked sidewalks sprouting real weeds, Walker’s crew built a gas station, a movie theater, a barber shop, a corner store, a pet shop and a few old homes. At the end of the road, a church and graveyard were constructed, and further up a hill, the old Sinclair house.
     Looming over the desolate town is Ambrose’s main attraction, Trudy’s House of Wax. The film’s unlucky visitors quickly discover that the house is literally made of wax, from the streamlined-moderne exterior to the curios and furniture that lend a peculiar charm to the museum’s interior, where numerous wax figures mingle and dance in an elaborate party scene that appears to be frozen in time.
     “Grace’s design for the House of Wax is drenched with foreboding detail,” Silver enthuses. “It draws you in with its stylish façade, but the closer you look, the more unsettling it becomes.”
     20 tons of wax were used to create the House of Wax sets, which were constructed with traditional materials and then coated with a spray-on wax façade. “The best-colored natural wax is beeswax,” Walker informs, “which is a rich brown flecked with gold and orange. We used this beeswax hue as our under-color for the House of Wax and also for the wax that Vincent works with in the film.”
     The four main sets that comprise the House of Wax – the living room, the music room, the kitchen and Vincent’s sinister basement workshop – were duplicated and modified for filming the film’s blistering climax in which the house is engulfed in flames, slowly liquefying its wax denizens.
     “We basically had to hold that state between solid and liquid for ten minutes of screen time,” Jaume says. “That was the toughest part of the shoot. There’s no book on how to make wax look like it’s melting without putting heat on it, which would have melted the actors too.”
     Walker’s team experimented with different types of wax to find just the right texture to build “soft sets,” which reacted physically to the actors’ touch. After each take, surfaces and furniture were painstakingly hand-painted and reset to restore them to shooting conditions.
     “My favorite thing about being a designer is getting to work with such talented people,” Walker praises. “It’s a great feeling when you see your designs come to life and they exceed even your highest expectations.”
     Another of Walker’s evocative sets is the disquietingly large roadkill pit that Carly and her friends stumble upon before finding their way to Ambrose – a grisly foreshadowing of the atrocities that lay ahead.
     The art department created the pit using animal skulls and fur treated and checked by health officials to ensure safety, along with critter remnants made from bits and pieces of plaster. (No actual animal carcasses were used in staging this sequence.) The concoction was doused with fake blood and allowed to congeal, resulting in a putrid marinade that smelled as revolting in real life as it appears to onscreen.
     “It was really gross,” Walker says with a laugh. “We had fake blood spraying everywhere and the whole thing stunk. I don’t think anyone understood how bad it was going to be!”
     “When I read the script, I thought, How are they going to pull this off?” Chad Michael Murray remarks. “And they did it. They made an entire town that’s desolate and creepy and real, not to mention all the other great sets, and that made our jobs so much easier.”
     “Coming from my commercial background, I’m used to being in charge of the art direction and the photography as well as the direction,” Jaume explains. “Taking on the responsibility of directing a feature film meant I had to let go and trust Grace, and that’s one of the best things I did.”

DYING YOUNG: THE 411 ON THE WAX FIGURES

     Key to creating the ambience of the chillingly picturesque town of Ambrose was populating the expansive set with a host of wax “citizens.” Wax body supervisor Jason Baird, a prosthetics and special effects makeup artist whose credits include The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions and Star Wars: Episode II, led a team of 35 artists dedicated solely to the design and creation of the film’s wax figures.
     Working twelve hour days for seven months, Baird’s team of sculptors, mold makers, painters and hair technicians created over 100 intricately detailed wax figures for the film, including the party guests at Trudy’s House of Wax; the parishioners, organist and priest gathered for a funeral at the church; and an audience and ushers in permanent attendance at the local movie theater, where the 1962 thriller What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? plays on a continuous loop. (A clever nod to the themes of intense sibling rivalry that underscore House of Wax.)
     The figures that represent Bo and Vincent’s human victims who have been slayed, waxed and displayed throughout the town came to be known by the crew as “dead wax people.” These figures were made from fiberglass and translucent silicon molds. A handful of effects figures were also created for scenes requiring their breaking or burning. Following extensive anatomical research, Baird’s crew fashioned molds of bones from fake skeletons and placed them beneath the silicon skin to achieve a realistic representation of decaying bodies sheathed inside wax forms.
     Four “purely wax” figures were created for the film to represent the artistry of Ambrose’s resident wax virtuoso, Trudy Sinclair, who would have crafted these lifelike sculptures in the traditional (i.e. non-deadly) manner for display in the House of Wax. Trudy’s eternal houseguests are two women dressed in flapper-era garments and headdresses, one sitting in a black beaded gown and the other in a shimmering taupe dress; a seated gentleman smoking a cigar; and a maid cleaning the kitchen. These figures required vigilant care, as they were extremely sensitive to changes in temperature, and were prone to sagging and cracking.
     All of the figures used in the film are reproductions of actual living people. Baird conducted casting sessions with director Jaume Collet-Serra to pose and select extras with the right look for each figure. Casts were then taken of their heads, hands and bodies, from which fiberglass molds and silicon casts were made. The models representing the “dead wax people” sitting in the church and the packed house of the movie theater were posed and cast while seated in the actual pews and theater seats from those sets, to ensure an exact fit when the final figures were positioned for filming.
     After the rough figures were sculpted to smooth perfection, painters and hair technicians meticulously applied the finishing touches, including makeup, wigs and facial hair. From body casting to clothing the finished “person,” the process took approximately three or four weeks to complete each individual figure.
     “It was a huge job,” Baird says. “I’m so proud of the quality of the work we did in such a short amount of time. It’s tough to pick a favorite wax character, but one of mine is the little old lady in the church wearing a hat and carrying a rosary. She just looks so real!” (She also loses an arm to Carly in a pivotal scene.)
     “I was very impressed with the terrific work that Jason and his team did,” Joel Silver says. “Every time they would show me new figures, I asked them to make me even more.”
     To create additional “dead wax people” for crowd scenes in the church and movie theater, Baird outfitted background actors with silicon masks complete with fake eyes, wigs and color-matched hand coverings, and then seated them among the wax figures.
     Baird’s staff also sculpted figures of the main characters whose grisly deaths are followed by an even more disturbing fate: being encased in wax. Carly’s boyfriend Wade has the misfortune of falling prey to Vincent’s gory ritual.
     “Through Wade’s death we show the audience Vincent’s process of capturing his victim and covering him in wax while he’s still alive,” says Jaume, who wanted to depict the deranged killer’s detailed waxing methods, as well as his body waxing contraption – which is reminiscent of a medieval torture device – in realistic detail. “I wanted to find out how you would actually wax somebody. It turned out the most efficient way would be to spray wax all over them. Designing the spraying contraption with Grace Walker was one of the toughest things in the film to achieve. I wanted a machine that would seem scary yet realistic and homemade.”
     Jared Padalecki underwent a 3-D body scan prior to filming as part of being fit for his dead wax figure. The information was scanned into a computer and given to the KNB FX team in Los Angeles, who carved Padalecki’s exact body shape out of foam and used it to make a series of molds. As for the actor’s “dead wax costume,” worn in scenes showing that Wade is still alive inside his wax body casing, Padalecki was fitted with a silicon mask and hands like those worn by the actors who played dead wax people.

ABOUT THE CAST

     Canadian ELISHA CUTHBERT (Carly) burst onto the American scene as Kiefer Sutherland’s daughter Kimberly Bauer in the critically acclaimed FOX series 24, recently receiving a 2005 SAG Award Nomination for “Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.”
     Cuthbert recently completed production on the Jamie Babbit-directed drama Dot, which co-stars Edie Falco.
     In 2004, Cuthbert toplined the romantic-comedy The Girl Next Door, opposite Emile Hirsch. Her additional film credits include the hit comedy Old School, Richard Curtis’ Love Actually, Showtime’s Time at the Top, Mail to the Chief, Airspeed and Believe.
     Cuthbert began her career in entertainment as a model at the age of seven. Soon after, she was cast as a regular in the Nickelodeon series Are You Afraid of the Dark? She also traveled the globe as a correspondent for the award-winning series Popular Mechanics for Kids.
     In 2001, Cuthbert starred in the telefilm Lucky Girl. She portrayed a sixteen-year-old straight-A student who becomes addicted to gambling and struggles to overcome her addiction as the world around her collapses. Her powerful performance earned her the Gemini for “Best Actress in a Dramatic Program.” The prestigious Gemini is the Canadian equivalent of the Emmy.
     Born and raised in Canada, Cuthbert now resides in Los Angeles.

     A young actor whose performances have earned him praise from critics and audiences alike, CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY (Nick) is a talent on the rise.
     Murray is currently starring as the lead on The WB’s hit drama One Tree Hill.   Murray stars as Lucas Scott, a brooding intellectual who is struggling to find his place in Tree Hill.
     Murray’s previous television roles included playing Katie Holmes’ and Michelle Williams’ love interest on Dawson’s Creek and Alexis Bledel’s overconfident classmate on Gilmore Girls.
     Murray starred as Prince Charming in Warner Bros. Pictures’ A Cinderella Story, opposite Hilary Duff. Additionally, Murray co-starred in the critically acclaimed remake of Freaky Friday, opposite Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan.
     Murray was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. He currently resides in Los Angeles. Murray is an anti-drug role model for kids and is active in charities for children and teens.

     With a strong understated presence, BRIAN VAN HOLT (Bo/Vincent) has a quiet intensity that absolutely transcends the big screen.
     Making his major film debut in the romantic comedy feature Whipped, and having guest starred on HBO’s Sex in the City, Van Holt has played a variety of rolls, challenging himself to expand and refine his talents.
     Van Holt starred opposite Josh Hartnett in Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down, portraying Task Force Ranger Sgt. Jeff Struecker, who leads a convoy of Humvees to rescue a downed Black Hawk pilot in Mogadishu, Somalia. Van Holt was also seen in John Woo’s action drama Windtalkers, starring opposite Nicholas Cage and Christian Slater. Van Holt played a young U.S. Marine officer assigned to protect a Navajo code-talker during WW2.
     Van Holt also starred in the John McTiernan-directed military thriller Basic, in which he plays opposite John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson. Other recent work includes S.W.A.T., co-starring Colin Farrell, Samuel L. Jackson and Michelle Rodriguez, as well as Confidence, in which Van Holt joins up with Edward Burns to swindle money from Dustin Hoffman.
     Van Holt was last seen opposite Tommy Lee Jones in the Stephen Herek-directed Man of the House.

     PARIS HILTON (Paige) has received numerous accolades since taking Hollywood by storm with her hit television show The Simple Life. Nurturing a body of work that encompasses film, television and music, Paris Hilton is a bonafide superstar.
     Audiences fell in love with Paris and tuned in every week to watch her Fox reality series The Simple Life. The show followed Paris, and her best friend Nicole Richie, as they left behind their lifestyle in Los Angeles to live and work on a farm in Altus, Arkansas. This ‘fish out of water’ reality show was one of the most successful shows in the history of the FOX network. The Simple Life 2 found Paris and Nicole on a cross country road from Miami to Beverly Hills. Paris can currently be seen in the third installment of The Simple Life. This season the girls work in corporate America as interns. Paris’ other television credits include The O.C., Las Vegas, Veronica Mars and The George Lopez Show.
     Segueing effortlessly between the big and small screen, Paris recently finished production on the comedy National Lampoon’s Pledge This!, which will be released in Fall 2005. She is set to begin filming the indie film Bottoms Up this spring. Her other film credits include: Raising Helen with Kate Hudson; Zoolander alongside Ben Stiller; The Cat in the Hat with Mike Meyers; and Wonderland with Val Kilmer.
     Paris’ career continues to evolve with exciting and challenging projects. She published her first book, Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose, with the Fireside imprint of Simon and Shuster, which was released in September 2004. Her book debuted at #6 on the New York Times Bestseller list and still holds a place on that list today. Paris is the new face of Guess? and is featured in the ad campaign for the new Marciano line shot by photographer Ellen Von Unwerth.
     Additionally, Paris is working on an album which will be released by her own label, Heiress Records, and distributed through Warner Bros. Records. The songs are a combination of Rock/Pop and are reminiscent of early Blondie and Madonna. She also has a jewelry line available on Amazon.com, her own fragrance called ‘Paris Hilton’ and will be opening up clubs across the world called ‘Club Paris.’ The first club opened in Orlando on New Year’s eve.
     Paris enjoys yoga, tennis and is actively involved in numerous charities. She has also lent her support to various animal advocacy organizations.
     Paris currently resides in Los Angeles.

     JARED PADALECKI (Wade) is best known for his starring role as Dean on the hit television series Gilmore Girls. Currently, he is filming the lead role in the pilot Supernatural for Warner Brothers Television.
     Jared was last seen on the big screen starring in Flight of the Phoenix, opposite Dennis Quaid and Giovanni Ribisi. Up next, he stars in Cry Wolf, which is scheduled to be released this fall.
     Last summer, audiences couldn’t forget Jared’s role opposite Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in New York Minute. Additionally, Jared completed a supporting role in the comedy Cheaper By the Dozen – a role that director Shawn Levey specifically requested him for. He can also currently be seen starring opposite Kathy Baker and Hallie Kate Eisenberg in the independent baseball movie A Little Inside.
     Jared so captivated audiences with his recurring role on Gilmore Girls that he returned the next two seasons as a series regular. During his first hiatus, he spent two months in Australia filming the lead in the television movie Ring of Endless Light, based on the novel by Madeline L’Engle.
     Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Jared developed an interest in acting in middle school when he began taking drama classes and performing in school plays. During high school, he competed in drama competitions, garnering regional, state, and even national awards. He won the 2000 Presidential Scholar Award for the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts in the theater competition that had over 7000 entrants.
     It was another national talent search that sent Jared on a fateful trip to Hollywood. He auditioned in a local Planet Hollywood and won the chance to be a trophy presenter for the first Teen Choice Awards. The summer before his senior year of high school, he appeared on the awards show and caught the attention of a talent manager.
     After graduating high school, Jared came out to Los Angeles and that summer landed the role on Gilmore Girls. On television, he also recently landed the coveted role of Macgyver for The WB network.

     JON ABRAHAMS (Dalton) has quickly become one of the most sought after actors in Hollywood. He just wrapped the feature film Prime, starring opposite Uma Thurman and Meryl Streep, which is slated to be released this fall.
     At the age of 27, Abrahams has already appeared in over 20 movies. He made his feature film debut as Steven in the controversial feature Kids. He later played Sean Penn’s brother in the acclaimed film Dead Man Walking. His other films include the commercial mega hits Scary Movie and Meet the Parents, playing Robert De Niro’s son. Abrahams continued to garner attention playing the memorable role of Drugs Delany in the film Outside Providence; the indie hit Boiler Room; and the horror film They.
His other films include The Faculty, Bringing the Dead, Texas Rangers and Scenes of the Crime, opposite Jeff Bridges. His television credits include David E. Kelley’s acclaimed series Boston Public, as well as Law and Order and Law and Order: SVU.
     In addition to his film and television career, Abrahams has also worked in theatre, starring in Off Broadway productions of Change Beds & Dance and Sugar Down Billie Hoak.
     Abrahams was born and raised in New York City, where he continues to reside when not working in Los Angeles.

     ROBERT RI’CHARD Ri’chard (Blake) has been acting professionally since the age of 13. Currently, Ri’chard is shooting the fourth season of the UPN comedy One on One.
     Ri’chard was last seen in a dramatic leading role opposite Samuel L. Jackson in Coach Carter. He plays Damien Carter, the son of a true-life controversial high school basketball coach in Northern California who benched his undefeated team due to their collective poor academic record in 1999.
     In 1998, Ri’chard won a Daytime Emmy Award for his performance in the made-for-television movie In His Father’s Shoes, also starring Lou Gossett Jr. Additional film and television credits include Light It Up, with Vanessa Williams and Usher Raymond; Nickelodeon’s Cousin Skeeter; the critically acclaimed series Once and Again; Boston Public; Touched by an Angel; My Wife and Kids; Nash Bridges; The Jamie Foxx Show and the made-for-television movie Feast of All Saints, written by Anne Rice.
     Born and raised in Los Angeles, Ri’chard is currently completing coursework at Loyola Marymount University. In his spare time, he enjoys snowboarding, playing football and baseball.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

     Acclaimed commercial director JAUME COLLET-SERRA (Director) moved from Barcelona to Los Angeles 12 years ago. After graduating from film school, he began his industry career as an editor. From there, he moved into directing music videos and then commercials.
     His commercial credits include “Socom: Navy Seals” for Playstation; “Skipping CD” for Budweiser; “The Cat in the Hat” for Mastercard; “Seat” for Delta; “Lowrider” for Miller Lite; “NASCAR” for Pontiac; “Cell Phone” for Smirnoff Ice; “Missile” for Renault; “Office” (starring Brad Pitt) for JT Roots; and “Mermaids” for 7UP.
     House of Wax marks Jaume’s debut as a feature film director.

     One of the most prolific and successful producers in the history of motion pictures, JOEL SILVER (Producer) has produced over 40 films, including the groundbreaking Matrix trilogy, the blockbuster four-part Lethal Weapon series and the seminal action films Die Hard and Predator.
     To date, Silver’s catalog of films have earned a combined gross of over $5 billion worldwide, averaging over $100 million per picture.
     Silver produced the horror thriller House of Wax, a remake of the 1953 classic, starring Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray and Paris Hilton, 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 Thir13en Ghosts in 2001, Ghost Ship in 2002, and the supernatural thriller Gothika, starring Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry, in 2003. Silver is currently producing The Reaping, starring Academy Award winner Hilary Swank, for Dark Castle’s 2006 slate.
     Through his Silver Pictures banner, Silver is currently producing the action thriller V For Vendetta, starring Natalie Portman and James Purefoy, with his Matrix collaborators the Wachowski Brothers. Based on the acclaimed graphic novel V For Vendetta by Alan Moore and illustrator David Lloyd, the film is set for release on November 4, 2005.
     Also for his 2005 slate, Silver is producing the romantic thriller Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, written and directed by Lethal Weapon screenwriter Shane Black and starring Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer and Michelle Monaghan. The film will make its debut this May at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.
     Silver’s 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 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.
     The second installment of the epic Matrix trilogy, The Matrix Reloaded, earned over $739 million in worldwide box office, making it the highest-grossing R-rated film of 2003 and the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time worldwide. The opening weekend box office receipts for The Matrix Revolutions, the final explosive chapter in the trilogy, totaled a staggering $203 million worldwide, scoring the biggest consecutive five-day opening in motion picture history.
     While overseeing production on The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, Silver produced the integral video game Enter the Matrix, which features one hour of additional film footage written and directed by the Wachowski Brothers 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.
     Silver also produced the hit films Romeo Must Die, starring Jet Li and Aaliyah; Exit Wounds, starring Steven Seagal and DMX; Swordfish, starring John Travolta, Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry; and Cradle 2 the Grave, starring DMX and Jet Li.
     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. In addition to the Lethal Weapon series, Die Hard and Die Hard 2: Die Harder, Silver went on to produce 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 developed 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 July 2005, players representing over 40 countries will compete 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 since re-teamed with Hanks on the contemporary drama Cast Away, the filming of which was split into two sections, book-ending production on What Lies Beneath. Zemeckis and Hanks served as producers on Cast Away, along with Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke. Zemeckis again directed Tom Hanks in The Polar Express, an inspiring adventure based on the beloved children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg, which was 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 Part III, completing one of the most successful film franchises ever.
     In addition, he 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 also produced Gothika, 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 previously wrote 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 explored the effect of drugs and alcohol on 20th century society. His additional 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 was the first film to be released under the ImageMovers banner, followed by Cast Away, which opened to critical and audience acclaim in the Fall of 2000, and Matchstick Men.
     In March 2001, the USC School of Cinema-Television celebrated the opening of the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts. This 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 and a producer on Gothika. 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. She also served as executive producer on the action comedy thriller Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer, which will make its feature film debut at the Cannes Film Festival this May.
     In addition, Levin oversees development for Dark Castle Entertainment, the production entity formed by Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis to produce a diverse slate of horror films. Along with Silver and Zemeckis, she is currently producing The Reaping, starring Academy Award winner Hilary Swank, for Dark Castle’s 2006 slate.
     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.

Having recently turned their attention to features, CHAD HAYES & CAREY W. HAYES (Screenplay) came off a very successful run in writing and producing television. Following House of Wax, their next feature is the Dark Castle Entertainment thriller The Reaping, starring double Academy Award winner Hilary Swank. Other upcoming writing projects include Powell -- an action/genre film, and then a remake of The Blob.

     HERBERT W. GAINS (Executive Producer) most recently executive produced Little Black Book, with Brittany Murphy, and served as producer on Michael Tollin’s Radio, with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Ed Harris. Gains also served as executive producer on Cradle 2 The Grave; worked with director Jake Kasdan on the comedy Orange County; served as executive producer for the Tollin/Robbins production Hardball, starring Keanu Reeves and Diane Lane; and executive produced Summer Catch, starring Freddie Prinze, Jr. His past work includes serving as co-producer for the highly successful Varsity Blues, Ready to Rumble, Daylight and Dragonheart.
     Previously, Gains was production manager for films such as The Negotiator and Mouse Hunt. As assistant director, he worked on a variety of films that included Natural Born Killers, Heaven & Earth, Point Break, Pacific Heights, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Dirty Dancing and The Fan.
     He is currently working on The Reaping, starring Academy Award winner Hilary Swank, for Dark Castle’s 2006 slate.

     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 and Ghost Ship, as well as The Animatrix and The Matrix Reloaded.

     Educated at Bennington College and the California Institute of the Arts Film School, BRUCE BERMAN (Executive Producer) graduated Magna Cum Laude from UCLA in 1975 with a major in history. He went on to graduate from Georgetown Law School 1978, and was admitted to the California Bar that same year.
     Berman got his start in the motion picture business with Jack Valenti at the MPAA in Washington, D.C., working as his assistant while in law school. After graduating, he returned to Los Angeles and started working as Peter Gruber’s assistant at Casablanca Filmworks in September of 1978. He went on to work as assistant to Sean Daniel and Joel Silver at Universal Pictures in July 1979, becoming a production Vice President at Universal in 1982.
     In 1984, Berman came to Warner Bros. Pictures as a Production VP and was promoted to Senior VP of Production in 1988. He was appointed President of Theatrical Production in September 1989, and then President of Worldwide Theatrical Production in 1991, where he served through May, 1996. Under the aegis, Warner Bros. Pictures, produced and distributed the following: Presumes Innocent, Goodfellas, Robin Hood, Driving Miss Daisy, Batman Forever, Under Siege, Malcolm X, The Bodyguard, JFK, The Fugitive, Dave, Disclosure, The Pelican Brief, Outbreak, The Client, A Time to Kill and Twister.
     In May of 1996, Berman started Plan B Entertainment, an independent motion picture production company at Warner Bros. Pictures.
     Berman was appointed Chairman and CEO of Village Roadshow Pictures in February, 1998. Village Roadshow Pictures will make 60 theatrical features as a joint venture partner with Warner Bros. Pictures through 2007. The initial slate of films included Practical Magic, starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman; Analyze This, starring Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal; The Matrix, starring Keanu Reaves and Laurence Fishburne; Deep Blue Sea, starring Samuel L. Jackson; Three Kings, starring George Clooney; Space Cowboys, starring Clint Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones; Miss Congeniality, starring Sandra Bullock and Benjamin Bratt; and Cats & Dogs.
     Subsequent releases included Training Day, starring Academy Award-winning Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke; Ocean’s Eleven, starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts; Analyze That; Two Weeks Notice, starring Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant; The Matrix Reloaded; The Matrix Revolutions; Mystic River, starring Sean Penn and Tim Robbins; Ocean’s Twelve; Constantine, starring Keanu Reeves; and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. Up next is the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Johnny Depp and directed by Tim Burton.

RICHARD MIRISCH (Co-Producer) served as co-producer on Dark Castle’s Gothika, 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.

     This year marks the twenty-eighth year of working in the camera department for STEPHEN WINDON, A.C.S. (Director of Photography). Stephen’s career began working in television for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation where he worked is way up through the ranks, starting as an assistant cameraman and eventually working as a director of photography for this prestigious television network.
     After shooting more than 30 TV documentaries (A Big Country) and several mini-series (Police Rescue, Leaving of Liverpool, Children of the Dragon), he left the ABC to work freelance on feature films and TV commercials.
     Stephen’s international career began in 1993 when he was offered his first US feature production Rapa-Nui, directed by Kevin Reynolds (Robin Hood – Prince of Thieves, Waterworld), and produced by Kevin Costner & Jim Wilson for Warner Bros. Pictures. He then photographed several Australian feature films and US telefilms before shooting Firestorm and The Patriot, both directed by Australian Oscar-winning cinematographer, Dean Semler. In 1997, he was then approached to shoot the Warner Bros. Pictures production The Postman, directed by Kevin Costner. This was then followed by another Warner Bros. Pictures big budget feature film Deep Blue Sea, directed by Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard 2). More recently, Stephen collaborated with director Kevin Donovan on The Tuxedo, starring Jackie Chan and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
     As well as Stephen’s work on feature films, he has worked on hundreds of TV commercials for both Australian and International clients.
     During the course of his long career, Stephen has been the recipient of seven Australian Cinematographers Society Awards, two Australian Film Institute Feature nominations and an Australian Film Critics nomination. He has been accredited by the ACS and is also a member of the International Cinematographers Guild, Local 600 West Coast, USA.

GRAHAM “GRACE’’ WALKER (Production Designer) is one of Australia’s most talented production designers. His feature film credits include Dark Castle Entertainment’s Gothika and 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 and 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.

JOEL NEGRON (Editor) most recently worked on Man of the House. His other credits as editor include Big Fish, XXX, Sleepy Hollow and Planet of the Apes.
Negron has worked on a number of projects as additional and assistant editor including: True Lies, Mars Attacks!, Con Air, Armageddon, Enemy of the State, Gone in Sixty Seconds and Pearl Harbor.

     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, Trapped, Gothika, Cellular and Hide and Seek.
     His upcoming projects include Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Fantastic Four and Superman Returns.

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