For 14-year old Walter (Haley Joel Osment), his great uncles’ farm in
rural Texas is the last place on earth he wants to spend the Summer.
Dumped off by his mother, Mae (Kyra Sedgwick), in the middle of nowhere
with two crazy old men and the promise that she’ll come back for him,
Walter doesn’t know what to believe in.
Eccentric and gruff, Hub and Garth McCaan (Robert Duvall and Michael
Caine) are rumored to have been bank robbers, mafia hitmen and/or war
criminals in their younger days. The truth is elusive, although they do
seem to have an endless supply of cash. But Walter begins to see a new
side to his great uncles when he stumbles on an old photograph of a
beautiful woman hidden away in a trunk and asks Garth who she is.
Little by little, through stories spun against the backdrop of the dusty
Texas night, an amazing story comes to life via Walter’s vivid, colorful
imaginings – a tale set in a long-ago exotic, mysterious place where men
rode stallions and fought with swords; where beautiful princesses
tangled with treacherous sheiks; and where the two unlikely heroes lived
an adventure most people only dream of.
Whether true or not, the uncles’ tales become a doorway to a staggering
new world for the boy to live out their adventures. They also give
Walter something true to believe in – a world where honor and valor mean
more than money and power, and a place that, real or not, belongs only
to him. Likewise, in telling their stories to their nephew, Hub and
Garth begin to see their own lives with new eyes.
Over one unpredictable Central Texas summer in the early 1960’s,
everything in the lives of this new family of strangers is about to
change forever.
New Line Cinema presents Secondhand Lions, written and directed by Tim
McCanlies, who wrote the screenplay for the acclaimed animated film, The
Iron Giant. The film stars Academy Award winners Michael Caine and
Robert Duvall and Academy Award nominee Haley Joel Osment. Kyra
Sedgwick, Nicky Katt, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Christian Kane and Kevin
Michael Haberer co-star.
A David Kirschner Production in association with Digital Domain
Productions, the film is produced by David Kirschner, Scott Ross and
Corey Sienega. The executive producers are Toby Emmerich, Mark Kaufman,
Janis Rothbard Chaskin, Karen Loop and Kevin Cooper. The co-producer is
Amy Sayres. The behind-the-scenes talent includes costume designer Gary
Jones, editor David Moritz, production designer David J. Bomba, director
of photography Jack Green, ASC and composer Patrick Doyle.
Secondhand Lions (rated PG by the M.P.A.A. for “thematic material,
language and action violence”) will be released in theaters nationwide
on September 19th, 2003.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Like many writers and their work, Tim McCanlies admits a great deal of
the characters who appear in Secondhand Lions emerged from his own past.
“As a kid I spent a lot of summers with my grandfather, who was a crusty
character much like the uncles in the movie,” he reflects. ”But while my
grandfather was tough, there was a real tender side that was buried
under so many layers. He loomed large to me as a kid. And growing up
with a good, strong male figure in their lives is what could make the
difference in how a child grows up. I tried to figure out what it is
that men teach boys and deal with that a little bit in the film.”
Secondhand Lions follows the comedic adventures of an introverted boy
named Walter (Haley Joel Osment), whose mother, Mae (Kyra Sedgwick),
dumps him off, in the midst of a young life marked by broken promises,
to spend the summer with his cranky, eccentric great uncles.
Two of cinema’s most acclaimed actors, Michael Caine and Robert Duvall,
play Garth and Hub McCann, the great uncles unexpectedly given a boy to
watch over during one long Texas summer in the 1960’s. Tim McCanlies
describes Hub, played by Duvall, as one of those old people whose
earlier exploits in life might surprise us. “Once that part of Hub’s
life was over, he came back to the house where he and his brother had
grown up and was prepared to sit down and die. Garth, played by Michael
Caine, has come back as well to look after his older brother. He doesn’t
really have anything else in his life right now.”
For Hub, growing old is an uncomfortable proposition. “It’s not that
he’s getting old; it bothers him because he’s becoming useless,” says
Robert Duvall, adding that the uncles “feel useless, but they would like
to be not useless. They would like to find other things. They talk about
death and being old, but yet they try to stay active. Garth has these
salesmen come out to supposedly sell them things, and they shoot at them
with shotguns. Not to kill them, but to scare them off. That’s the sport
of the salesmen, to break the boredom of the day.”
At first unnerved by his uncles’ gruff, uncaring manner, Walter
gradually begins to fit in with their lives, helping them tend a garden
and care for their five mangy dogs and one pig, and eventually
encouraging them to start spending some of the millions they’re rumored
to have stashed away before it’s too late. Unfortunately, they’re not
smart shoppers and when they use some of their money to buy a lion to
hunt, it turns out to be “secondhand” – tired, sick and useless.
Walter sees something in the lion nobody else does -- just as he sees
more in his uncles than their money. When he stumbles upon an old
photograph of a beautiful woman, Walter becomes fascinated by who his
uncles were – rumored to be bank robbers, mafia hitmen or Nazi war
criminals, their past becomes a mystery for Walter to unravel.
Walter grills his uncle Garth about the woman in the picture and learns
that her name was Jasmine and she was a princess that Hub met and fell
in love with while the brothers served in the French Foreign Legion in
North Africa. “Laced throughout the film are remembrances of the uncles
as they were much younger, told to Walter and seen through his
imagination,” explains producer Corey Sienega. “These adventure
sequences are seen in the style of old serials, films like The Thief of
Baghdad with the pace of Indiana Jones. They are stories of great
adventurers. Walter’s not an adventurer, but the uncles’ tales help
bring that out in him.”
Michael Caine describes Garth McCann as “someone who’s always talking.
He’s always telling Walter the story of Hub’s life, and Walter doesn’t
know if he’s lying or not. But the boy has his own imagination. He sees
and he learns.”
Haley Joel Osment concurs, adding “Walter is one of those people who are
observers. All his life he’s never had the confidence to do anything.
The experience of spending the summer with his great-uncles changes his
life and he really becomes a man, someone with conviction”.
The love story of Hub and Jasmine comes to mean a lot more to Walter
than anyone realizes and he becomes enthralled as their exotic tales and
remembrances stir the boy’s spirit. “They’re very tall tales,” says Tim
McCanlies. “Arabian Nights sort of tales, which is how Walter sees them
as he imagines them in his head. They’re like a kid would imagine them,
informed by comic books and films of the ‘40s and ‘50s. But these
sequences also represent some of the lessons that the uncles are trying
to teach Walt – what it is that a man does and how a man comforts
himself.”
Kyra Sedgwick describes her character of Walter’s mother, Mae, as
“ambiguous. I think she means well, but she keeps on making these lousy
mistakes. It’s hard being without a husband in 1962 with your beauty and
youth waning. She’s so sad and pathetic,” Sedgwick laughs, “but, so
funny.”
Walter has been told a lot of lies by his mother and comes to his uncles
not knowing what to believe. Hub tells him that just because something
isn’t true, there’s no reason you shouldn’t believe in it. “In Hub’s
logic,” according to Robert Duvall, “things that people consider true
are not the best things in life. Money and power don’t mean anything,
and courage and honor and virtue mean everything. Not to mimic the
actions of others, but to hold oneself to a higher standard. And that
things that may or may not be true are things you need to believe in the
most.”
Even after Hub beats the daylights out of some young hoodlums who taunt
him, “he takes these young men home, feeds them steak, patches them up
and then gives them this speech about becoming a man,” says Duvall.
“Then, he sends them on their way.”
Michael Caine notes that after 40 years in the same old place, Hub and
Garth have convinced themselves that they’re useless, but just as they
give Walter something to believe in, so too does he give them a form of
hope. “The picture is about these two old men who’ve come back to die in
Texas,” says Caine. “Yet they do these incredible things for the boy.
They change him, and he changes them, convincing them that they actually
still have some use. That’s what’s great about the story.”
From the time writer/director Tim McCanlies saw Haley Joel Osment in The
Sixth Sense, he wanted him to play Walter. Executive Producer Karen
Loop, from producer David Kirschner’s team, took the project first to
Osment’s agent, who in turn passed it on to the actor’s father, Eugene
Osment. Both father and son read the script and decided to sign on. That
connection immediately opened doors for the project.
McCanlies credits young Osment as an actor “who really gets it – all the
different layers,” says the writer/director. “I like to joke that the
only person who knows the script better than me is Haley. In a scene
he’ll know the other actor’s lines and he’ll know every beat. It’s
pretty impressive.”
The director remembers watching the television broadcast of the
pre-Academy Awards arrival show as Michael Caine and Osment met and
talked on the famous red carpet. It was the year that they were
nominated in the best supporting actor category (Caine for The Cider
House Rules and Osment for The Sixth Sense). “I had finished the script
for Secondhand Lions, and there was Michael who was so large and young
Haley who was so small, and I had this weird premonition—oh my God,
that’s my cast,” McCanlies reflects.
Producer David Kirschner remembers watching the Oscar show that same
year, and “when Michael accepted his award, he singled out Haley from
the stage and called him an amazing talent, so we were very fortunate to
be able to pair them on screen together.”
Caine had previously read about the script when a publication listed the
“The Ten Best Scripts Never Made into a Movie.” “Secondhand Lions was
number one,” he says. “It’s a wonderful script. When I first talked with
Tim about the film, his biggest concern was that Haley would grow up
before he got the movie financed.”
Some time later, once Caine and Osment were on board, the filmmakers
sent the script to Robert Duvall. McCanlies notes that Duvall had been
one of his favorite actors growing up in Texas. “He’s sort of the patron
actor in the state of Texas – with Tender Mercies, The Godfather,
Apocalypse Now and To Kill a Mockingbird,” he says. “He was always on
the top of my list. He called in on the following Monday morning and
said ‘I’m in.’ And in short order, we had a start date.”
Scott Ross, founder and CEO of Digital Domain, David Kirschner and Corey
Sienega had discussed working on a project together for years,
“especially as Kirschner favored family films, and this genre often has
fantasy elements to it,” Ross adds. “And wouldn’t you know that after
looking at several projects in various stages of development, the first
project we get off the ground is a film that has very little visual
trickery.”
In an intimate film like Secondhand Lions, which doesn’t call for a
tremendous amount of visual effects, “we needed somebody who could bring
the high quality of the great visual effects companies,” producer Corey
Sienega adds, “which would become part of the heart of this story.” Ross
joined the film as a producer, and Kevin Cooper, in charge of feature
film development for Digital Domain, took on the task of executive
producer. “More than just as a visual effects company,” Sienega
explains, “Scott and Kevin are really invested in the project and fell
in love with it the way we did.”
“As producers”, says Ross, ”we felt that audiences around the world
yearn to see a film that has the capability to touch one’s soul.”
Tim McCanlies notes that Secondhand Lions is a film that defies
categorization, and while moviegoers Walter’s age will identify, the
film also contains touchstones for adults. “It seems that when you have
a young protagonist in a movie set some time ago, the adult audience
seems to recognize their own childhoods in their own period,” he says.
“In that way, it’s like Stand By Me, which is one of the great films
about young people growing up. We understand the lessons the boys learn
as they’re set in an earlier, simpler, perhaps more innocent period of
time.”
According to McCanlies, the comedic adventure demanded three different
categories of visual feels. “It had to be shot in Texas because it’s set
in Texas,” he says. “The body of the film conveys the warm kind of
nostalgic look of the ranches and plains of Central Texas. The bookends
of the film, front and back, projects almost present day with a modern,
blue look. And when Garth tells Walter the stories of the uncles’ youth,
the scenes sparkle with an ultra-technicolor Arabian Nights look with
swooshing, swashbuckler camera movement.”
Director of photography Jack N. Green, the acclaimed cinematographer
whose past work includes Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, credits the
extensive time he spent with McCanlies before production for the
successful merging of their sensibilities. “We talked about the
emotional levels of the shoot, as opposed to the visual levels,” Green
remembers. “I had already locked into my mind what the emotional levels
had to be for each scene, which made it very easy to come up with the
visual style and imagery. We built a trust, and I was honored to
participate in helping Tim tell his wonderful, heartfelt story.”
The 53-day shoot took place primarily in Pflugerville County, a rural
community just north of Austin, Texas. The interior setting for the
fight scene between Hub McCann and the gang of “tough-guys” was shot at
the Cele General Store, a short drive away from the old farmhouse which
serves as the home of Garth and Hub; and the feed store was set up in
the Coupland Mill in nearby Coupland. The remembrance sequences that
give the illusion of exotic North Africa were found in and around Austin
by location manager Robbie Friedmann, with the assistance of the Texas
Film Commission. The swashbuckling marketplace scene was actually shot
in downtown Austin’s Symphony Square. And the Foreign Legion scene was
built in a partially abandoned quarry outside of Austin. The few
interior sequences were shot in airplane hangers converted into
soundstages by the Austin Film Society at the former Downtown Austin
Airport.
One of the more colorful elements of the production was the variety of
different animals that were involved. This menagerie was kept happy,
well fed and expertly trained under the auspices of Gary Gero’s Birds
and Animals Unlimited in Southern California and the film’s animal
coordinator/trainer Stacy Gunderson. Birds and Animals Unlimited (B.A.U.)
has for over 30 years provided quality animal talent to film production,
television and commercial programming, and has been at the forefront of
establishing safety and standards of care for animals used for show
business purposes. Gunderson was the head trainer on Snow Dogs and Zeus
& Roxanne, and some of her numerous trainer credits include Inspector
Gadget, Dr. Dolittle, Jungle Book II and Homeward Bound II. A graduate
from Moorpark College with an A.S. Degree in Exotic Animal Training and
Management, Gunderson trained and worked on stage at the Universal
Studios’ Animal Actors Stage Show.
The filmmakers wanted to assemble an “Our Gang” dog pack composed of
different types and sizes who live with Hub and Garth. According to Tim
McCanlies, “at first the dogs, like the uncles, sense Walter as an
outsider, but they are the first to accept him into their group.” In
addition to five strays, the pack is complemented by five other trained
dogs whose film work between them includes Sweet Home Alabama, O Brother
Where Art Thou?, Zeus and Roxanne and Dr. Dolittle 2.
The four Yorkshire pigs weigh in at around 250 lbs and each possess
unique “acting” abilities, such as lying down on command or running.
“We were shooting with one of the pigs,” Kyra Sedgwick remembers, “and
he kept ruining the scene. Although I have to say, the animals have been
great, just this one pig kept getting up in the middle of the scene
where he wasn’t supposed to. After six or seven takes, the trainer calls
out ‘Bring in the new pig.’ There’s another pig? And we haven’t been
using the other pig? And of course, the new pig did it perfectly, and
I’m thinking, I’m only going to work with this new pig from now on.”
The lions are owned by Brian McMillan, and trained by McMillan, Rick
Glassey and Marie Reeves. McMillan came to America from Britain as part
of the Ringling Bros. Circus and found a home and career in Hollywood.
One scene in the film required the lion to behave aggressively towards
one of the characters. McMillan stood in for the actor during the stunt.
“She (the lion) knocked me down and started to wrestle,” McMillan
describes. “Lions love to wrestle. They can hold you with their mouth
and not put any pressure on you, because they know you and they think
it’s playtime. Their claws, even when they’re playing, can rip the
clothes off your back. While we were shooting the scene, I’m thinking
‘how many costumes do they have?’ I lost most of my wardrobe!”
Three 200-250 lb African Lions played the role of Jasmine the lion. The
lead lioness was Pasha, who is two and half years-old, along with a
back-up lioness, Torig, also two and a half years-old; along with a
three year-old male, Kenya, also known as Kenny. The lions, who call
Southern California home now, make their debuts in Secondhand Lions.
“The choice to go for younger lions to work alongside the actors was
made on the basis that they were still trainable, still playful. And as
the lion in the movie was rejected by a zoo, it comes to the uncles’
farmhouse considered to be secondhand,” Tim McCanlies explains. “Not
unlike the uncles, who are sort of used guys.”
McMillan notes that the lions were accustomed to the atmosphere of a
film set. “When we’re on the compound with them in California, we train
them to get used to the equipment and sounds a film crew might make,” he
says. “We also give them some familiarity with dogs and the other
animals and actors that are on a movie set. We don’t recommend that
strangers walk up to them without being introduced. If they’re going to
be working with a particular actor, we spend some time together to make
him part of the team.”
The only animal in the film that doesn’t call Southern California home
is the three-and-a-half-year-old African Reticulated Giraffe named
Kelsey, who hails from Texas. It was the Giraffe’s first feature film
and he celebrated the completion of his scene by graciously accepting
thank-you carrots from the crew members.
Tim McCanlies collaborated with production designer David Bomba (Divine
Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood) to extend his vision into locations and
sets. Bomba started by collecting reference points for the 1962 Texas
farmhouse location and the fantastic Arabian Nights look for the
flashback sequences. Inspiration from Maxwell Parrish’s drawings for
children’s books and the John Singer Sargent painting, “Fume de
Ambergris,” which shows a woman beneath a Moorish archway, informed
portions of the North African scenes.
For the uncles’ home, Bomba looked for a large isolated building that
seemed like “an old dinosaur in a barren landscape” to back the script’s
description of the two uncles coming home to die.
A house was located on an isolated hill looking out on distant prairies,
trees, cows and a nearby lake. The family living in this Pflugerville
farmhouse agreed to let the film company take over with the proviso that
it would be restored as it was found.
“Our art director John Jensen and I went there and talked about porches,
doors and how we should make this place present itself,” Bomba recalls.
“We took six weeks to transform the house, add the porches and tower to
it, and move the entrance to another location. We came in with all new
material and new things, and then took it down so it looks somewhat
older.”
“And then with the help of set decorator Jim Ferrrell, we dressed it
and,” Bomba smiles, “deteriorated it.”
Secondhand Lions marks the second film on which Bomba has worked with
costume designer Gary Jones, following Ya Ya Sisterhood. “I think we
have similar sensitivity and sensibility as far as design,” says Bomba.
“I’ll toss my research at him, and he’ll toss his research at me. We’ll
talk about departmental concerns and color palettes and I think,
design-wise, we kind of complete each other’s paintings.”
Costume designer Jones was encouraged by Tim McCanlies to explore
classic paintings along with classic storybook looks, laced with his
memories of old movies, without being locked into being completely
historically accurate. The decisions for how to dress the three
principals “came straight from the literature as Tim has provided us
with a wonderful script,” he says. “Michael Caine’s character Garth was
more the poetic storyteller. His wardrobe would be built around what he
might have saved from all those early years of adventuring. And Robert
Duvall’s character’s wardrobe would be bits and pieces that he too had
accumulated over the years. Duvall wears a nightshirt in one scene,
which has a feeling of an Arab robe about it, and which may well be
something he has carried with him. Their respective pasts made it very
interesting for us to dress them,” Jones remembers.
The wardrobe for young Walter “shows that however inept his mother was,
she wanted to show him in the best light possible,” Jones describes,
“but maybe she just didn’t know how. So his clothes were pretty much a
mixed bag. Sometimes his clothes fit, and sometimes he’d wear a pair of
pants for as long as he could get into them. We literally see him grow
up and out of things during the summer with the uncles.”
“Overall it’s always a collaboration between the director, production
designer and the actor. It’s not just a matter of choices, but you want
to establish the feeling,” Jones explains. “In this case, it’s the
innocence of Haley’s character.”
Kyra Sedgwick thinks of Secondhand Lions as a “classic film. While it’s
a real rite-of-passage for Walter, it has a universal message for what
it means to be a human being,” she says. “What it means to let someone
into your life and to open your heart.”
Nicky Katt, who plays Mae’s boorish new boyfriend, was already a fan of
Tim McCanlies previous work on Dancer, Texas Pop. 81 (which he wrote and
directed) and The Iron Giant (which he wrote) and recognized the
filmmaker’s “cool, unique voice” in the screenplay for Secondhand Lions.
“There isn’t anything that he’s trying to hit you over the head with,”
says Katt. “Tim finds something so haunting and endearing in the way he
looks at this Texas story and about what it means to become a man.”
Producer David Kirschner feels that Secondhand Lions is a film that will
resonate with audiences of all ages. “What so affected me when I first
read the screenplay was Tim McCanlies’ theme of the need for a strong
role model in a young person’s life, which is something everyone can
relate to. Here it’s a boy who has no role models, but these two men
come in to his life and there’s such an honor and virtue to them,
they’re almost a throwback to another time.”
This central theme is echoed by producer Corey Sienega, who believes at
the core of the movie are the life lessons the uncles give to young
Walter, and what they in turn receive from him. “These are things that
can be given to you by anyone who truly cares about you: be it a friend,
a teacher, your parents, uncles or a grandparent. Somebody who believes
in you and who’ll remind you that you’re special, that you’re worth it.
Ultimately, I think the movie is about believing in yourself and a
reminder to believe in the good qualities in other people—even during
the difficult times.”
ABOUT THE CAST
Michael Caine (Garth McCann)
2000 was a momentous year for Michael Caine. Not only did he receive
his second Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the
film The Cider House Rules, but also Queen Elizabeth II honored the
legendary actor as a Knight Bachelor, bestowing upon him the title of
Sir Michael Caine.
His versatility as a major international star can be seen in over 80
motion pictures. His work has earned him numerous accolades including
two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for Hannah and her Sisters
and The Cider House Rules; the New York Critics’ Best Actor Award for
Alfie; a Golden Globe Award and a British Academy Award for Educating
Rita; two Golden Globe Awards for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Little
Voice; as well as four Academy Award nominations for Alfie, Sleuth,
Educating Rita and The Quiet American.
Some of his most recent films are Austin Powers in Goldmember, The Quiet
American, Last Orders, Miss Congeniality, Quills and Get Carter. Other
movies that illustrate his unique talent and range are The Muppets
Christmas Carol, Noises Off, Mr. Destiny, The Fourth Protocol, Mona
Lisa, Half Moon Street, Deathtrap, Dressed to Kill, California Suite, A
Bridge Too Far, The Eagle Has Landed, The Man Who Would Be King, Pulp,
Funeral in Berlin and Gambit, to name but a few.
Caine was born in South London. During childhood he developed a
fascination for the cinema and an insatiable hunger for novels. He
performed in school plays and even directed dramas in a youth club.
After leaving school at 16 and a stint in Korea, he landed his first job
in the theatre as an assistant stage manager. All the while he studied
acting. After several years in repertory theatre and in small parts on
television, Caine landed an understudy role to Peter O’Toole as Private
Bamforth in the London stage hit, “The Long, The Short and The Tall.”
When O’Toole dropped out of the play, Caine took over the part and
toured the country for six months, after which, his roles in television
and film grew substantially.
The turning point in his career came in 1963 when he won the role of Lt.
Gonville Bromhead in Joseph E. Levine’s production, Zulu. His supporting
role stole the show for critics and audiences alike. Next he played
Harry Palmer in the sleeper hit, The Ipcress File. By 1966 Alfie
catapulted him to super-stardom, with the British film critics voting
the movie Best Picture of the Year, Caine’s Oscar nomination and his
award from the New York Film Critics.
In 1986 he returned to television for the first time in over 20 years to
star in the four-hour miniseries “Jack the Ripper” which, in Britain,
received the highest ratings ever for a drama.
With his partner, producer Martin Bregman, he formed M&M Productions in
order to make films in Britain in which Caine could star or direct if he
chose. Their first production, released in 1992, was Blue Ice,
costarring Sean Young and directed by Russell Mulcahy.
Michael Caine’s autobiography, What’s It All About?, was published by
Turtle Bay Books in November 1992.
He recently completed filming in Ireland Neil Jordan’s The Actors,
directed by Conor McPherson. He also recently completed filming The
Statement which was directed by Norma Jewison and made in France.
Robert Duvall (Hub McCann)
Robert Duvall has starred in some of America’s most acclaimed films:
The Godfather, which earned him an Oscar nomination, and The Godfather,
Part II; he was nominated a second time for an Oscar for his performance
in Apocalypse Now; he was nominated a third time for The Great Santini,
and won an Academy Award as Best Actor for Tender Mercies.
Duvall wrote, directed and starred in The Apostle, receiving an Academy
Award nomination for the title character. He co-starred in Deep Impact
and A Civil Action, which won him his sixth Academy Award nomination and
a Golden Globe nomination. He followed this with Gone in 60 Seconds.
Duvall honed his craft in such 60’s and 70’s classics as Bullitt, True
Grit, M*A*S*H, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, The Eagle Has Landed, The
Greatest and The Betsy. The 80’s saw him in The Stone Boy, The Natural,
The Lightship, Let’s Get Harry and Colors as well as the popular
mini-series Lonesome Dove. During the 90’s, Duvall starred in Days of
Thunder, A Handmaid’s Tale, A Show of Force, Convicts, Rambling Rose,
Falling Down, Geronimo and Wrestling Ernest Hemingway.
Duvall formed Butcher’s Run Films in 1992, starring in A Family Thing,
which earned a Humanitas Award, followed by The Man Who Captured
Eichmann. In the last few years, Duvall has been seen in The Paper, The
Stars Fell on Henrietta, The Scarlet Letter, The Sixth Day and A Shot at
Glory.
Duvall’s most recent credits include Gods & Generals, the prequel to
Gettysburg, in which he stars as General Robert E. Lee, and John Q.. He
also directed, wrote, produced and starred in the acclaimed
Assassination Tango. He was most recently seen in director Kevin
Costner’s Open Range.
Haley Joel Osment (Walter)
Haley Joel Osment’s young, yet expansive career, continues to find
new height’s following his starring role in director Steven Spielberg’s
A.I., traveling to Poland to shoot Edges of the Lord, playing a Jewish
boy sent into the countryside to hide with a Catholic family during Nazi
occupation; and co-starring with Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt in the
adaptation of Catherine Ryan Hyde’s novel “Pay It Forward.” All of this
completed within the same year.
Osment made an unforgettable impression on movie-goers with his
devastating portrayal of the haunted Cole Sear in the record breaking
and internationally acclaimed film The Sixth Sense, in which he
co-starred with Bruce Willis and Toni Colette for director M. Night
Shymalan. For his performance, Osment was nominated for an Academy Award
at age 11. He also received numerous film critics’ awards as well as
nominations for a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
An award-winning actor who began his television and film career at age
5, Osment won his first honor, the Youth in Film Award, for his role as
Forrest, Jr. in the Oscar-winning feature film, Forrest Gump.
The young actor’s feature film credits also include Nora Ephron’s Mixed
Nuts, Jason Alexander’s directorial debut For Better or Worse, and
Norman Jewison’s Bogus, in which he starred opposite Oscar winner Whoopi
Goldberg and Gerard Depardieu.
In the voice-over arena, Osment is heard as Chip in Walt Disney’s
animated release Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, as
Zephyr in The Hunchback of Notre Dame Deux, and as Beary in The Country
Bears. His latest animation honor was voicing Mowgli in Disney’s The
Jungle Book 2.
He made his acting debut starring opposite multi-Emmy winner Edward
Asner in the television series “Thunder Alley.” He went on to co-star as
Matt Foxworthy on “The Jeff Foxworthy Show,” and then appeared as Avery
Brown on the long-running series “Murphy Brown.”
Osment’s guest starring television credits include: the two part special
of “The Pretender,” playing a kidnapped prodigy whose genius is
exploited through mind control; “Chicago Hope,” where he found himself
stuck in an elevator with a corpse; a true life story of Lou Gehrig’s
Disease on “Touched By An Angel;” and a two-part special of “Walker
Texas Ranger,” playing Lucas, a parentless boy dying of AIDS. Osment
also captured audiences on a heartfelt episode of “Ally McBeal” where he
played a dying boy who wanted to sue God.
In television films, Osment’s credits include the Hallmark Hall of Fame
presentation of “The Ransom of Red Chief,” in which he starred opposite
Christopher Lloyd, NBC’s science fiction thriller “The Lake,” and the
World War II feature “I’ll Remember April.”
His honors include three Young Star Awards for his appearances in TNT’s
“Last Stand at Saber River” with Tom Selleck, the Hallmark presentation
of the CBS drama “Cab to Canada,” with Maureen O’Hara, and The Sixth
Sense. He is a two-time recipient of the Saturn Award and recipient of
the ShoWest Award.
Kyra Sedgwick (Mae)
A versatile star of stage and screen, Kyra Sedgwick has received two
Golden Globe nominations, a Theatre Award, a Los Angeles Drama Desk
Circle Award and a Dramalogue Award. She most recently won accolades for
her riveting performance of "Delia" in Rebecca Miller's Personal
Velocity, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival,
and the Showtime original movie Behind The Red Door opposite Kiefer
Sutherland.
Sedgwick's screen roles include a starring role opposite John Travolta
in the box office hit Phenomenon, directed by Jon Turtletaub. She was
nominated for a Golden Globe for her scene-stealing performance in the
1995 romantic comedy, Something To Talk About. Her other credits include
Born on the Fourth of July as Tom Cruise's high school sweetheart; Mr.
and Mrs. Bridge with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward and Cameron Crowe's
Singles.
In television, Sedgwick recently starred in the TNT movie “Door to
Door,” with William H. Macy. She also executive produced and starred
opposite Helen Mirren in Showtime's Losing Chase, which originally
premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and received a Golden Globe and
Cable Ace nomination.
Sedgwick's theater work includes a triumphant run in Nicholas Hytner's
“Twelfth Night” at Lincoln Center, ”Ah Wilderness,” for which she won
the Theater Award, and David Mamet's “Oleanna”, which garnered her a Los
Angeles Drama Critics Award and a Dramalogue Award.
She will next be seen in the independent feature The Woodsmen, opposite
Kevin Bacon, and is currently shooting the Showtime feature Cavedweller,
which she is also producing alongside David Yudain, directed by Lisa
Cholodenko.
Nicky Katt (Stan)
Nicky Katt has most recently been seen as the incompetent local
detective replaced by Al Pacino in Insomnia, and as the actor portraying
Hitler in Steven Soderbergh’s Full Frontal.
Katt recently appeared opposite Taye Diggs, Juliette Lewis, Benicio del
Toro and Ryan Phillippe in Academy Award-winning writer Christopher
McQuarrie's directorial debut Way of the Gun. He scored raves starring
with Giovanni Ribisi in the zeitgeist Wall Street drama The Boiler Room
and joined Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson in the William Friedkin
thriller Rules of Engagement.
Katt's breakthrough role in Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused led
to such diverse roles as the one-armed villainous clerk in Gregg Araki's
The Doom Generation; an obsessed psychopath in The Babysitter; the
redneck antagonist in Joel Schumacher's A Time To Kill; the hot-headed
xenophobe in Linklater’s SubUrbia; Renee Zellweger's ambitious attorney
boyfriend in One True Thing and the sociopathic hitman in Steven
Soderbergh's acclaimed thriller The Limey. Katt made his series
television debut on David E Kelley's “Boston Public”.
Katt also starred in and executive produced Adam Goldberg's independent
feature Scotch and Milk, which garnered rave reviews at the 1998 Los
Angeles Independent Film Festival. A short film he produced and starred
in, director Henry Griffin's “Mutiny,” premiered at the 1999 Sundance
Film Festival and went on to win Best Short Honors at the Chicago
International Film Festival, the Seattle Film Festival and the South by
Southwest Film Festival.
Emmanuelle Vaugier (Jasmine)
Canadian beauty Emmanuelle Vaugier is perhaps best known for portraying
Dr. Helen Bryce, Lex Luthor’s girlfriend, on the WB’s hit drama “Smallville.”
Vaugier starred in the WB comedy “My Guide to Becoming a Rock Star,” and
in the film 40 Days and 40 Nights, opposite Josh Hartnett. She has also
completed starring roles in three independent films, including Suddenly
Naked, in which she plays a Latin pop sensation; Mindstorm, a sci-fi
thriller; and Ripper, a psychological thriller about students that
mysteriously disappear after enrolling in a class about serial killers.
On the small screen she has held several guest-starring roles including
“The Outer Limits”; “Higher Ground” opposite Hayden Christensen; and in
the WB’s “Charmed.” Vaugier also appeared in the Emmy Award-nominated
miniseries “The Beach Boys: An American Family,” in which she portrayed
Mike Love’s wife Suzanne.
Vaugier was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and grew up in a
French-speaking household. She currently resides in Los Angeles.
Christian Kane (Young Hub)
Christian Kane recently starred in the Fox feature film Just Married,
opposite Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy for director Shawn Levy. He
also starred in Life Or Something Like It, opposite Angelina Jolie for
director Stephen Herek. His other credits include Warner Bros. Summer
Catch directed by Mike Tollin, the MTV film Love Song, and opposite Tom
Selleck in the award winning TNT film “Crossfire Trail.”
Kane starred as “Lindsey McDonald” in a recurring role on the WB series
“Angel”, and he also starred on the WB series “Rescue 77”. His previous
feature film credits include Ron Howard’s Ed Tv and the independent film
The Broken Hearts Club, which premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film
Festival.
An accomplished musician, he also is the lead singer of his band, Kane,
which has gained popularity in Los Angeles over the last year.
Kevin Michael Haberer (Young Garth)
Kevin Haberer was born and raised in Ft. Worth, Texas. His parents,
Nick and Sharon Haberer, are an attorney and stock trader respectively.
Haberer, is a senior film major at the University of North Texas. A
graduate of the Stella Adler Conservatory who is now represented by the
Kim Dawson Talent Agency, Kevin’s professional stage credits include
roles at the Dallas Theatre Center, TCC Northwest, the Dallas
Shakespeare Festival, Theatre at the Ranch, and Boswell Theatre.
While studying at Stella Adler, Haberer delivered noteworthy
performances as Edgar in “King Lear” and Hermocrate in “Triumph of
Love”. He received additional theatre training in competitive workshops
taught by professionals such as Slava Dolgachev, Bill Hopkins, Phillip
Seymour Hoffman, Yoshi Oida, Ron Howard, Olympia Dukakis and Henry
Winkler. Despite his appreciation for live theatre, Haberer’s passion
has always been film acting and production.
Other television and film credits include Pimp in Pimpin’ for Dummies,
Guy in Run Soda Pop Run, and the Wolf in Teen FrightFest TV 2002. In
summer 2003 he adapted and directed Vera, a short story by Anton
Chekhov, for the screen. Currently, Haberer is co-directing the
documentary Back to Nature and is co-writing and attached to star in
Whatever You Want.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Tim McCanlies (Writer/Director)
Fifth-generation Texan Tim McCanlies began his career writing,
performing and directing live theatre. While working on his MFA in the
Graduate Cinema program at SMU, he completed several shorts including
"Nicole et Claude," which tied for first place at USC's Student Film
Awards and was sold to cable. After relocating to Los Angeles, McCanlies
signed a deal at the Walt Disney studios and, in 1987, his screenplay,
North Shore, was filmed for Universal (on which he also received
Associate Producer credit).
In 1998, he made his feature film directorial debut on his script,
Dancer, Texas Pop. 81. The film met with acclaim, played continuously
for seven months in his home state and premiered internationally at the
prestigious London Film Festival.
His screenplay for the critically lauded 1999 animated film The Iron
Giant earned McCanlies and director Brad Bird an Annie, BAFTA Children’s
Award and a Nebula Award. McCanlies' additional projects include
screenplays for the live-action The Night We Liberated Paris and Walden
Media’s Around the World in 80 Days starring Jackie Chan. His additional
feature film screenwriting credits include Dennis the Menace Strikes
Again.
David Kirschner (Producer)
David Kirschner executive-produced with Steven Spielberg the animated
smash hit An American Tail, which led to the sequel American Tail 2:
Fievel Goes West, a Saturday morning animated series and the
direct-to-video features American Tails 3, 4 and 5. Kirschner produced
the Child’s Play horror film series and created the film’s star, an
animatronic doll called Chucky. Kirschner and his company’s additional
feature film credits include Hocus Pocus, The Flintstones, Once Upon a
Forest, The Pagemaster, Cats Don’t Dance and Titan A.E. Kirschner most
recently produced the critically acclaimed Frailty for Lions Gate Films.
Directed by Bill Paxton, the film starred Paxton, Matthew McConaughey
and Powers Boothe. Kirschner’s company is also in production on
Universal Pictures’ CGI film adaptation of the children’s classic
Curious George, for which he teamed up with Imagine’s Ron Howard and
Brian Grazer.
As Chairman of Hanna-Barbera, Kirschner launched a full slate of
animated television programs in the early ‘90s, including the Emmy
Award-winning “The Addams Family” and “Pirates of Dark Water.” He also
created and produced a number of innovative television specials
including the Emmy Award-winning “The Last Halloween”; the Emmy
nominated “The Dreamer of Oz”; and “The Halloween Tree,” written and
narrated by Ray Bradbury, which won an Emmy Award for Best Animated
Program.
Scott Ross (Producer)
Scott Ross is the Founder, CEO and Chairman of Digital Domain, Inc., one
of the largest full-service digital production studios in the feature
film and commercial advertising industries. Ross served in various
positions at One Pass Film and Video, San Francisco’s legendary
post-production studio. When he left, he was the company’s CEO.
Recruited by Lucasfilm, Ross became Industrial Light and Magic’s General
Manager. And in the reorganization of 1991, Ross was named VP of the
LucasArts Entertainment Group, which was comprised of Skywalker Sound,
LucasArts Commercial Productions, LucasArts Attractions, Editdroid/Soundroid
and ILM.
Founded in 1993, Digital Domain (Special Visual Effects and Digital
Animation) has established a world-class reputation for innovation and
artistry. Digital Domain’s stunning work on James Cameron’s Titanic
received the 1997 Academy Award for best visual effects. In 1999, the
company received its second Academy Award for best visual effects for
What Dreams May Come. Digital Domain was also nominated for an Oscar for
their work on Armageddon, True Lies and Apollo 13, which earned the
company a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award. Their most
recent feature involvement was with Rob Cohen’s summer blockbuster XXX,
starring Vin Diesel and Samuel L. Jackson. Some of their other feature
film VFX credits include Interview with the Vampire, Red Corner, Kundun,
the BAFTA winner The Fifth Element, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, X-Men
and Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Corey Sienega (Producer)
Corey Sienega heads up development and production for David Kirschner
Productions. Sienega produced Lions Gate Films’ Frailty with Kirschner.
The two also teamed up on the box office hit Bride of Chucky for
Universal Pictures. Sienega is overseeing a full slate of projects which
she will produce with Kirschner, including Miss Potter, a biography of
famed children’s author Beatrix Potter written by Tony Award winner
Richard Maltby (“Ain’t Misbehavin”, “Miss Saigon”) and to be directed by
Bruce Beresford (Tender Mercies, Driving Miss Daisy); and “6 DaysTil
Sunday,” a six-hour television event for the SciFi Channel. Sienega is
also re-teaming with Kirschner and New Line on the feature adaptation of
the Hugo and Nebula award-winning short story The Martian Child.
Jack N. Green, ASC (Director of Photography)
Jack N. Green, ASC was nominated by the American Cinematographers
Society for Outstanding Achievement for his work on The Bridges of
Madison County, and was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA
Award, and won the Boston Film Critics award for Unforgiven, Green also
received The Society of Operating Cameramen Lifetime Achievement Award.
Some of Green’s additional feature film credits include Girl
Interrupted, Twister, The Net and Space Cowboys.
David Moritz (Editor)
David Moritz was the film editor for Wes Anderson’s critically
acclaimed films Bottle Rocket and Rushmore. His most recent credits
include the comedy A Guy Thing, The Affair of the Necklace and the New
Line Cinema’s Knockaround Guys.
Other credits include Town & Country, The Evening Star and the award
winning independent feature Broken Vessels. He was a co-editor on Jerry
Maguire and an associate editor on James L. Brooks' I'll Do Anything.
In his next feature, he will be teaming up with Wes Anderson again for
The Life Aquatic.
David J. Bomba (Production Designer)
David J. Bomba continues to build a reputation in production design.
Most recently, David designed the Lousiana atmosphere for Callie
Khouri’s Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. He recently created the
19th century Cuban environs for MGM's Original Sin, directed by Michael
Cristofer, which was filmed entirely in Mexico. The two previously
paired on New Line's Body Shots and on the acclaimed HBO production, Gia,
for which Bomba was nominated for an Art Director's Guild Award.
He designed the adaptation of Willie Morris' Mississippi childhood
memoirs, My Dog Skip. He also served as production designer on the
independent films Scenes from Everyday Life, Mind Twister and Todd
Haynes' Safe.
As art director, Bomba earned attention through his work on Ron Howard's
acclaimed Apollo 13, Steven Zaillian's A Civil Action and Robert
Benton's Twilight. Other art direction credits include Bruce Beresford's
Silent Fall, John Waters' Serial Mom, He Said, She Said, as well as
Chain Reaction, Cool World, Mother's Boys, The Adventures of Huck Finn,
The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag, Miracle in the Wilderness and John
Schlesinger’s Eye for an Eye.
Gary Jones (Costume Designer)
Gary Jones is currently working on Spider-Man 2 and recently
completed the Garry Marshall comedy Raising Helen.
His costume design credits cover a wide range of feature films for some
of the industry’s most acclaimed filmmakers, including the Sandra
Bullock comedies Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Two Weeks
Notice, The Princess Diaries, Heartbreakers, Vanya on 42nd Street, The
Mosquito Coast and Trip to Bountiful.
Jones enjoyed a long creative collaboration with Ann Roth, and together
they worked on films including Primary Colors, The English Patient,
Sabrina, Postcards From the Edge, The Mambo Kings, Working Girl, and
Dressed to Kill. In 1999, Jones and Roth shared an Academy Award
nomination for The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Patrick Doyle (Composer)
Born in Scotland, raised in a musical family and educated at the
Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Patrick Doyle first began his
professional career as a music teacher. His first foray into
professional composition was in 1976, after his graduation, when he
composed music for four shows at the renowned Edinburgh Festival,
including the 50s musical comedy “Glasvegas.” He subsequently joined the
Citizen’s Theatre Company in Glasgow, where he served as a musical
director and actor. John Byrne’s “The Slab Boys,” the 1978 landmark
theatre piece in which Doyle portrayed the pivotal character Hector,
opened the floodgates to an entire wave of Scottish writers, won the
coveted Evening Standard Award and is now fixture in the university
syllabus.
Doyle’s association with actor/director Kenneth Branagh helped shape
William Shakespeare’s prose with a modern musical context, first as an
actor/composer and musical director of Branagh’s Renaissance Theatre
Company, which Doyle joined in 1987. After writing and music directing
successful theatre compositions for Hamlet, As You Like It and Much Ado
About Nothing, among many others, Doyle later worked with RTC director
Dame Judith Dench on both the theatre and television productions of
“Look Back in Anger.”
Doyle and Branagh continued their collaboration in feature films,
beginning in 1989 with Henry V, Doyle’s first film score. Its memorable
chorale theme, “Non nobis Domine,” introduced on the battlefield as the
exhausted victors collected and buried their dead, is now one of the
most notable themes in modern classical music. It was given the Ivor
Novello Award for Best Film Theme, is performed by master chorales on a
worldwide basis and continues to be a popular choice for university
graduations.
Dead Again, another film for director Branagh, presented new challenges
for the composer. The modern mystery-thriller moved quickly from one
subplot to another, required Doyle to write music for an on-screen
composer, in addition to addressing the dramatic elements of the film,
which frequently changed time periods. At one moment, the scene required
a modern, jazzy edge and for the next, a 40s pastiche. The film
established Doyle as a versatile composer.
In 1990, Doyle was commissioned to write a song cycle for soprano and
chorus by the Prince of Wales in honor of the Queen Mother’s 90th
birthday. “The Thistle and the Rose” afforded him several trips to his
native Scotland to visit some of the Queen Mother’s favorite places. It
was recorded as A Birthday Present for my Grandmother.
“The Face in the Lake” is Doyle's second recorded original concert work.
The piece was one of three written for the dramatic children’s story
narrated by Kate Winslet. Doyle was unable to attend its 1998 world
premiere at Carnegie Hall because he was undergoing a harrowing
chemotherapy treatment for leukemia. The CD, “Listen to the
Storyteller,” won the 2000 Grammy for Best Children's Spoken Word Album.
Doyle's career has been one of continuing success in relatively short
period of time. In addition to Branagh, (Hamlet was Doyle’s second
Academy Award® nominated score), he has worked with a variety of
distinguished directors: Robert Altman (Gosford Park), Brian DePalma (Carlito’s
Way), Alfonso Cuarón (A Little Princess), Ang Lee (Sense and
Sensibility, his first Academy Award® nomination) and Régis Wargnier (Indochine
and Est-Ouest). His upcoming projects include Calendar Girls for Nigel
Cole. |
