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01:38:35 11/19/10
Wintergrasp - Rated BGs - BestBuy DevChat
[LESS INFO] 17 VIEWS | ADDED 01:38:35 11/19/10
Wintergrasp queuing changed in 4.0.3
In patch 4.0.3, Wintergrasp queuing was changed so that each battle attempts to match the factions at a 1-to-1 ratio. This is the exact system being used for Tol Barad in Cataclysm. While we understand that this inflates queue times for factions which are vastly overpopulated on select realms, we prefer this system over using Tenacity. In addition, the new system at least encourages playing on a faction that's better balanced against the opposing faction. With the old Wintergrasp functionality, players were almost encouraged to be on an overpopulated faction, further contributing to realm balance issues.
That said, we'll review realms with significant faction imbalances on a case-by-case basis in the event we need to take further action.
Rated Battlegrounds FAQ
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is just around the corner -- and that means Rated Battlegrounds will soon be available. While Rated Battlegrounds will only be open to level-85 characters, we know many of you may still have some questions about this new system, so we’ve put together an FAQ to help address some of the more common inquiries we've seen.
Q. What are Rated Battlegrounds?
A. Like the Arena system, Rated Battlegrounds are an alternative way for players to battle against opponents of similar skill levels and accrue rating to purchase powerful PvP gear. Instead of competing in a 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5 bracket, though, you'll be testing your mettle in familiar environments like Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm, as well as all-new Battlegrounds set to release in Cataclysm.
Q. How are Rated Battlegrounds structured?
A. Rated Battlegrounds are broken down into two brackets: 10v10 and 15v15. These brackets rotate weekly and can be viewed in-game via the calendar by activating the Battleground holiday filter.
Q. What Battlegrounds are eligible for Rated Battleground matches?
A. Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm, Strand of the Ancients, Battle for Gilneas, and Twin Peaks.
Q. What happened to the 25v25 bracket?
A. We decided to remove this bracket. We don't feel it's feasible to ask players to coordinate a group of 25 players for Rated Battlegrounds. If any player happens to drop group just before a match begins, the raid group would not be able to enter the battle. We anticipate most players or guilds will stick with fairly dedicated 10-player groups, and making the jump to 15-player groups shouldn't be too difficult.
Q. How can I queue for a Rated Battleground?
A. Before entering the queue, you must first create a raid with the full number of players required for the weekly bracket (10 or 15). Any level-85 player on your realm and of your faction may participate in the battle regardless of guild association.
Once you have a raid of the appropriate size, simply open up the PvP window, click on the Conquest tab, highlight "Rated Battleground," and then click "Join Battle."
Q. Can I queue up solo and just be matched with a Rated Battleground team?
A. No. You will need to first join a raid of the appropriate size and level before you can queue up for a Rated Battleground. Individual queuing will not be available for Rated Battlegrounds.
Q. Do all players in the raid group have to be from the same guild in order to queue for a Rated Battleground?
A. No. So long as the raid group size matches the weekly bracket and is comprised of level-85 players, you can queue up for a Rated Battleground no matter what guild you are in. Guild membership has no effect on the formation of Battleground teams.
Winning a Rated Battleground with a team composed of at least 80% guild members, however, will result in the additional benefit of guild experience gain for that guild.
Q. How can I tell if my Rated Battleground team meets the minimum guild requirement?
A. If you join a Rated Battleground with the minimum number of required guild members, a special guild banner will appear in the upper-left corner of the in-game mini-map. This will let you know if you are eligible for the bonus guild experience.
Q. What are the normal benefits of winning a Rated Battleground?
A. When you win a Rated Battleground, you will be rewarded Conquest points, up to your weekly cap. Weekly caps are individual for each player and are based on your highest single PvP rating from the previous week (the cap resets on Tuesdays). This rating can be derived from your 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5 Arena rating or your Rated Battleground rating.
Q. What Rated Battleground rating do players start out with?
A. Players start at zero Rated Battleground rating and progress upward from there. If you lose a battle, your Rated Battleground rating will only be reduced if that rating is currently higher than your Match Making Value (MMV). For the most part, a rating only goes up.
Q. What’s MMV?
A. Match Making Value (or MMV for short) is our best measure of an individual player's skill. MMV is the skill rating per format (2v2, 3v3, 5v5, Battleground) and per character that is used for matchmaking. It exists to help the matchmaking system create great matches as quickly as possible for all players. It's generally not a rating we show, with the exception of an average MMV for Arena teams.
Q. Will my MMV go down in the event of a Rated Battleground loss?
A. Yes; however, unlike Arenas, all players in a Rated Battleground team will win or lose the same amount of Rated Battleground rating per match depending on its outcome.
Q. Does MMV for Rated Battlegrounds function the same as it does in Arenas (i.e. does it go up more when you beat a higher-rated team, and go down more when you lose to a lower-rated team)?
A. Yes. Your MMV will go up faster if you defeat a Rated Battleground team with a higher average MMV.
Q. What’s the plan to prevent your Rated Battleground rating from skyrocketing at high win ratios? If your rating only goes down when it is above your MMV, it seems that ratings will just be high on average (compared to Arena).
A. If your Rated Battleground rating gets inflated much beyond your MMV, you’ll only receive a minimal amount of points when you win. Similarly, you’ll lose many more points after a defeat, until your Rated Battleground rating gets back in line with your MMV. This will prevent inflation.
Q. Can consumables and engineering items be used in Rated Battlegrounds?
A.Yes, but they will follow the same rules and restrictions as Arenas.
Q. Will Rated Battleground teams only be matched against other teams in their Battlegroup?
A. No. Rated Battlegrounds will be region-wide, meaning that when you queue for a Rated Battleground, you will have the opportunity to be matched against a team from any of our North American World of Warcraft realms.
Q. Are there any plans to reward players with the highest Rated Battleground rating, similar to Arenas?
A. Epic ground mounts will be rewarded at the end of each season to the top 0.5% of players according to Rated Battleground rating. Titles are also available as you gain rating in the system. The titles are rewarded directly from achievements earned from gaining the required rating.
Developer Chat Hosted by Best Buy (transcript)
Will the heirloom items scale to 85?
The current plan is to have heirloom items stop at level 80 at the moment.
I was wondering what new and exciting mounts there will be and what your favorite so far is?
Not surprisingly there are all kinds of new mounts, we have spectral wolf/horse mounts, a dark phoenix, a camel, the new alchemy mount that turns you into a drake can ride, among others. Also a scorpion for the horde and a lion for the alliance. My favorite has to be the camel though... i mean really, who doesn't want to be a camel jockey?!
Has Blizzard considered adding a "Tabards Tab" to the UI, so that tabard collectors can switch out tabards more effectively without having to take up bank and bag space? --Thanks! Deathunholy of Galakrond
We have talked about adding a tabard tab. We've talked about doing a closet tab to handle it. It isn't something we are adding for Cataclysm though.
Will it be as long of a wait to fight Deathwing as it was for Lich King?
Hopefully not, we definitely have a goal to get our content patches out more quickly than we have in the past, without sacrificing quality of course, we plan for deathwing to be the most amazing encounter we've ever made! =]
Are there any plans to potentially add queueing to the rated battlegrounds instead of it having to be a pre-made raid team? I was really excited when I first heard about this feature, but after reading the FAQ i was a bit disappointed with that design.
We're currently looking into the possibility of having players in the honor battleground queue be able to be called to action by groups that aren't quite full, but we're going to see how the current queue'ing works out first so, that isn't something that would be available just yet
Will you allow players to fill their quest log with say, 25 dailies, and then turn them in right after Midnight on December 7th to get a quick boost towards 85? This is how it worked in the beta, but some players are confused on whether it will work on Live. Thanks!
Regarding 25 daily quests to turn in when the expansion goes live, this is something players have been able to do for the last 2 expansions and we aren't talking about changing it now.
I understand the decision from an economic perspective but I was wondering if the deveopers were disappointed in the decision to allow race changes immediately following the release of the expansion.
Regarding allowing race/faction change on day one. Actually this wasn't an economic decision at all. This was a decision that the leadership team made. Our priority as a dev team is to allow players to play the game with their friends, the way they want too. We also talked about the fact that this is a week one problem. So we made the decision not to restrict anything.
Will Darnasus be re built to be a real tree or will it always look like a dead stump with trees at the top?
...but now that Deathwing is doing his thing it makes much more sense than it used to! ;]
Deathwing hates trees.
A lot of players I know are trying to plan out what characters to roll for the new expansion, and the big question is: Will there be ANY new realms tagging along with the release of Cataclysm? Some point to low pop realms as a reason against, but surely with the redux'd 1-60 experience and the droves of returning players desiring clean slates, there has never been a better time for a fresh realm or two?
We haven't decided exactly what the new realm decisions are yet, but we open new realms when there is player demand for them. One thing we can't do is plan all realms for day one. The goal is for realms to have good concurrency so everyone has a great game/matchmaking experience.
Could you comment on the plan for raids in Cataclysm? If i remember it was said that there would be smaller raids in cata but more of them. Would that mean like two small raids per patch or more patches in total?
The idea is that we'll have more raid environments, but fewer bosses in each environment, but a similar total number of raid bosses overall... if that makes sense. =] so, for cataclysm launch we have the skywall environment, the twilight bastion environment, and blackwing descent, versus having almost all the bosses in one environment like we did with naxrammas.
With the changes to the game environment itself, what new computer requirements will be optimal to run the game smoothly?
One of the things that is really important to us is a great gaming experience regardless of your hardware. While the system requirements do go up over time, we do want the experience on slower machines to be great. We do this by trying to add a lot of graphical options to allow players to control the experience from "runs fast" all the way to "looks great".
Will there be more than one Legendary weapon in Cata? Will there be a Caster DPS legendary? Any info or plans would be awesome =) Thanks!
It's likely there will be more than one legendary weapon, although it's too early to say for sure. We do, however, have a plan to do a caster dps staff soon.
Where did Uldum come from?
Egypt ;]
The idea with Uldum is that it has always been there, cloaked from the eyes of the players. The emergence of Deathwing has damaged some of the technology that kept it hidden. There is a story in the zone that explains this and what has been happening in the player absence.
With resource systems now broadened to include focus, rage, energy, and runic power as well as mana, and there being conditionals like enrages, holy power, combo points and runes, will classes that just use mana be getting similar treatment or remaining as they are?
Really that decision is made on a class-by-class, talent tree-by-tree basis. If we feel like the talent spec in question needs a broader resource management then we do it, but we don't like to unnecessarily complicate a spec's resource management if it isn't absolutely necessary.
Why is it that we are not able to use Archaeology before the expansion? I thought it was really cool how you guys released Inscription last time and would love to have the opportunity to level it before the expansion drops.
Using archeology before the expansion was something we talked about, but ended up adding everything about the profession to the "post sundered" world. Thus, you won't be able to use archeology before the sundering happens.
The first tier of Cataclysm raiding has 3 separate instances to tackle. Are you guys planning on keeping with the Burning Crusade model (SSC/TK, BT/Hyjal) and having multiple instances per raid tier? Will Deathwing have to share the spotlight with some other instance?
We'll evaluate that on a tier by tier basis. When we have awesome ideas that we can successfully make happen we'll do multiple environments, but it won't necessarily always be the case. We do have a super cool idea for the deathwing tier though... ...or at least so we hope. =]
What happened with the Worgen district in Stormwind?
We decided it didn't really fit very well, it was looking kind of awkwardly forced into the city. Plus deathwing would have destroyed it anyways.
As the world of Azeroth is changing I was wondering if the Death Knight zone will stay the same or will it also be affected by the cataclysm?
The death knight zone doesn't have any changes for Cataclysm.
I have been confused from the different posts for tier gear. Will there be three levels within each tier still or just heroic and normal and in either case will u just be getting them with points or will u still have to get certain things off drops off certain bosses to get the higher more heroic version of the tier gear?
There is still just normal and heroic difficulty for the raid and dungeon content, and the heroic gear has a higher item level than the corresponding normal gear
Do you feel faction imbalance is a problem at the moment? My queue is around 10-15 min at prime time as a member of the Horde and I know this is the case on at least two of the battlegroups. If so, do you think Worgen will fix the problem? And if they do not, will free faction changes ever be a possibility in the future on battlegroups or servers with a major problem?
We are working on some technology to further combine the PVP queues at server sites. This has been going on behind the scenes for a few weeks now in preparation for Cataclysm. Queue time is one of those things that gets a lot of attention and time, but will change significantly post Cata. Really good question.
What would you say was the hardest and/or easiest parts of developing this expansion? After all, many are saying this is the best expansion to date... So, what was the biggest challenge/easiest feat in creating it?
There have been huge challanges with this expansion, unlike any we've seen in the other two expansions. The scale of Cataclyms is huge for us, and something we didn't really expect when we started development. But we certainly feel like the effort has been worth it, and feel it's our best expansion so far.
Why does it seem the scorpion guild mount doesn't have a guild flag where the lion does? I was hoping to see Hordes of scorpions from our guild walking around with our tabard hanging from the tail like a flag behind them.
When riding a scorpion mount, your character displays holding a large standard with your guild symbol on it.
Why did you decide to make 310% mount speed purchasable in 4.0? It's a huge price for such a tiny speed upgrade, and used to work well as a just-above-vanity perk for people who completed the toughest achievements.
The primary reason was to equalize the awesome vanity mounts players had, and change the mechanic to one where you used the mount you were most excited about using. We wanted players to be able to see the mount players want, without considering the speed differential as a factor.
Will you allow players to change their login screen? I'd love to be able to use the Classic login screen, the unreleased one that was shown at Blizzcon, or perhaps a login screen of a previous expansion.
Players are not able to change their login screen.
How would a person get a Guild Mount? Would it be guild rep? If so how would that be calculated or obtained?
Once your guild gets to a high enough level and unlocks the guild mount, any player in the guild with a high enough guild reputation is able to buy the mount.
Will heirloom items work for goblins and worgens leveling from 1-80 at release?
Heirloom items will work perfectly for Worgen and Goblin characters! Enjoy!
Has there been any discussion of changing the heirloom items to true "Bind on Account" instead of the bind on server limitation that it has currently?
That is something we would like to do. Currently the servers mail carriers refuse to work together, and haven't worked out the economic terms from transferring mail from one server to another. One day we hope to resolve the union issues.
Will the option ever be available to change ones class, contingent upon what's currently available to the race restrictions at the time?
Never say never, but we don't currently have plans to do that.
There's any through about making account wise achievement, like Starcraft ones? It a reason for many players to not reroll/change mains since its look like a lot of work wasted when you switch your main char. Even changing to another char to help with one fight look a bit wrong now, if you are after achievements.
We do have plans to solve this problem, as it is limiting people from re-rolling for sure. This is something we want to solve, but don't have a good solution on how to do it at the moment.
Was there anything you guys regret not being able to include at launch? Possibly something that didn't have enough polish to it that me way see in the future? (You don't need to mention the Dance Studio at this point, really, it's okay)
Well... there is the dance studio. ;] There are of course always things we'd hoped to get into any patch/expansion that get pushed out until later. One example would be the idea to have a built-in atlas that details every encounter in each dungeon/raid. We're not super happy about the fact that the first time anyone encounters a new boss, the only way to learn about it (other than looking up strategies on the web) is to charge in and die a lot.
We'd love to give players some idea of what they're about to fight before they engage the boss. =]
Do honor points and Badges roll over into CATA, or do they reset to zero?
Yes, honor points and justice points carry over into cataclysm. Stock up now!
Is there any talks of maybe some faction cooperative campaigns? Since the cataclysm is threatening to destroy all life of azeroth, to me a logical response from the heroes of azeroth would be to set aside their differences and be able to work together in a raid. An Idea to maybe lessen the frequency of such groups is make the raid difficulty increase by choosing to work with the other faction, a sort of Heroic mode. Possibly even dual faction specific raids. Has there been any talks of such poss...
This is a common request, but not something we are looking to do. While there is a singular main bad guy in this expansion, the Horde and Alliance have their own unique challenges and agendas, and typically don't look to team up. After all it's the World of Warcraft, not the World of Peacecraft.
When designing expansions and content patches, do you have a list of new features to choose from that are planned out in advance or is there more of a brain storm session?
The feature set for each patch is determined by a combination of doing things (or finishing things) that we've been wanting to do for a while, along with completely new ideas that emerge as a result of the immediate needs of the game
The primary things you won't be able to do if you don't have Cataclysm are create a new Goblin/Worgen, level to 85, and fly in the orld world.
We like to stay as flexible as possible, so it's important to us to make sure that we aren't "over planned" into the future even though the real needs players have are changing
With the previous two expansions, the new content was actually on other continents, so if you didn't have the expansion, you just couldn't visit the continent. Since Cata is largely reworking of old-world content, however, how do you differentiate between someone with or without the xpac? What kinds of things will and won't be available to players don't have the upgrade?
See my answer above!
Will the 80 to 85 experience be closer to the 18hr mark or the 5 day mark that was 70-80?
That totally depends on the player to be honest, you'd be amazed by the differences in play patterns. That being said, somebody usually finds a way to level up very quickly.
What new feature(s) in WoW: Cataclysm are you guys most proud of?
I would have to say the 1-60 revamp, it's a ton of fun to play through the zones and an incredible amount of new content.
I'm most happy with the new Worgen and Goblin starting experiences. I think they are the best starting experience we've ever done, and that includes the death knight.
I have is why not have this latest expansion as a new territory like a Southrend similar to Northrend or a Moon body like Outlands instead of destroying Azeroth and Kalimdor? Were there limitations to expanding outwards or was this just to facelift the original game?
We make decisions like this on a case by case basis.. again depending on the needs of the game. In the case of Cataclysm, the world was due in for an overhaul, and we wanted to make everything fly-able, so it was important to flesh out any areas that were originally unfinished.
Can you clarify and confirm what will be available to players when 4.0.3a hits and what will be unavailable until 7th Dec?
4.0.3a will be the patch that actually causes the world to shatter and change forever. At that point you will be able to experience the new 1-60 leveling experience, as well as the new race/class combinations.
Is there an alternative mount for worgens that other races can ride
Worgen can ride the other mounts in the game, if that's what you're asking. They're not limited to their feral run.
With the level 1-80 Heirloom items, when Cataclysm is released will the xp gain work while leveling until you hit level 81? Or will XP gain be disabled for those on release?
They will not. Heirlooms stop granting their XP bonus at level 80. Not level 80.999999.
Will achievement points ever be able to be used to purchase any perks?
We have no plans to allow this. Achievements are a badge of honor only.
Druid
Is the Moonkin form for troll and worgen on the beta and ptr the final form or is it just a placeholder?
Final!
Mage
Right now, up to 50% of Ignite damage disappears due to the technical limitations of spells critting within certain timeframes. This has implications for Mage dps and the value of Mastery as a stat. Is overall damage being balanced to compensate and can we expect a solution in the near future?
We're resolving that by rolling up any "lost" ignite damage into the next ignite that overwrote it
Warlock
Are there any plans for a new Lock mount? I would love to see a possible flying mount for Locks..
One of the things we look at with mounts is broad appeal. While we do specific class mounts from time to time, most of the time we look to have mounts that all classes can use.
Warrior
Is Hit rating intended to tramp all other stats but Str for Fury till the 27% hardcap? Seems excessive
Generally speaking, we do balance hit rating to be the "best" stat until you're at the hit rating cap
10 Views
17:46:49 04/11/10
Date Night starring - Steve Carell and Tina Fey
[LESS INFO] 10 VIEWS | ADDED 17:46:49 04/11/10
Action-comedy maestro Shawn Levy, the director of the blockbuster “Night at the Museum” franchise, teams up with two of the comedy world’s biggest talents, Steve Carell (“The 40 Year Old Virgin,” “The Office”) and Tina Fey (“Baby Mama,” “30 Rock,” “SNL”) for an adventure that turns a run-of-the-mill married couple’s date upside down – way upside down, in DATE NIGHT.
Phil (Carell) and Claire Foster (Fey) are a sensible, loving couple with two kids and a house in suburban New Jersey. The Fosters have their weekly “date night” – an attempt at re-experiencing the spice of the dates of yesteryear, involving the same weekly night out at the local Teaneck Tavern. Their conversations quickly drift from barely-date talk to the same chore-chat they have at the dinner table at home. Exhausted from their jobs and kids, their dates rarely end in fore- or any other kind of play, let alone romance.
After seeing two of their best friends – another married couple with kids in suburban New Jersey – split apart from living the same life they themselves lead, Phil and Claire begin to fear what may lie ahead: a state of bland indifference and eventual separation.
In an attempt to take date night off auto-pilot, and hopefully inject a little spice into their lives, Phil decides a change of plans is in order: take Claire into Manhattan to the city’s hottest new restaurant. The Fosters, however, don’t have reservations. Hoping to be seated sometime before the clock strikes twelve, they steal a no-show couple’s reservations. What could it hurt? Phil and Claire are now the Tripplehorns.
The real Tripplehorns, however, it turns out, are a thieving couple who are being hunted down by a pair of corrupt cops for having stolen property from some very dangerous people. Forced on the run before they’ve even finished their risotto, Phil and Claire soon realize that their play-date-for-parents has gone hilariously awry, as they embark on a wild and dangerous series of crazy adventures to save their lives. . . and their marriage.
The ritual “date night” dinner is something all too familiar to most married couples – even directors of blockbuster movies. “I was in the process of making the second Night at the Museum film,” recalls filmmaker Shawn Levy, “and, as is kind of our ritual, once a week, my wife and I go out to dinner.”
At one such dinner, the Levys found themselves sitting at the restaurant they frequented, ordering the same food, talking about the kids, what’s coming up that weekend, who’s going to buy the gift for which birthday party, etc., etc. “In the middle of all that, I said to my wife, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to do a movie about a date night, where you just did one thing differently? And, from there, you have an unraveling of everything, to the point of it threatening your life and your marriage, with all kinds of crazy stuff going on. But, in the midst of all that crazy stuff, you end up recapturing the vitality that date night was invented in the first place to preserve.’”
The next morning, Levy came in to his production company office and told his staff, “Okay, we’re going to do a movie called DATE NIGHT, and here’s what it’s about, and let’s get a writer. Let’s go.”
Levy’s search for a writer didn’t take very long. “I had written a small, quirky film, called ‘(Saint) Peter,’ which Shawn had read and fell in love with, recalls screenwriter Josh Klausner. “Shawn was determined to find something for us to work on together. He very graciously took a big chance and had me fly out, and we started brainstorming.”
Levy and Klausner met at Levy’s bungalow on the Fox lot, where they quickly broke the story. “We are both in the same stage of life,” Klausner says. “We both have children and go out on date nights, knowing what they’re supposed to be, but realizing they never end up being that anymore because there are so many other things that get in the way. So we started talking about those experiences.”
“We talked about our marriages,” Levy adds. “And we found that there are certain commonalities in trying to sustain a vibrant, romantic relationship,” and not simply becoming roommates. “It’s the question of in the midst of grownup life, how do you keep couple-hood fresh?”
DATE NIGHT was originally conceived as more of a suburban story centered around a parent-teacher conference night, but quickly evolved into, as Klausner calls it, “the perfect ‘North by Northwest’ setup” of mistaken identity.
“Shawn and I really wanted what spurs on the evening to be something that we all might do,” Klausner continues. “Phil and Claire simply can’t get a seat at a restaurant, and, since nobody’s answering the call for a reservation, they just decide, ‘What’s the harm in taking it?’ And it leads them down the rabbit hole. From there, they end up on the worst night of their lives, which ends up being the best night for their relationship.”
Levy describes the film as being “in the spirit of action comedies I remember fondly, like ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ or ‘48 Hrs.’ DATE NIGHT has a real hybrid tone, because it’s first and foremost a comedy. It also has a hefty dose of action, as well as a lot of heart, because it’s about the things that people deal with in relationships.”
For Levy, DATE NIGHT is a change from the family-friendly hits he’s helmed, like “Cheaper by the Dozen,” “Pink Panther” and “Night at the Museum.” DATE NIGHT is more of an adult-skewing comedy,” Levy points out. “In a way, it’s the other side of the movies I’ve done, which have been focused on the child-parent relationships. DATE NIGHT is focused on the marriage side – what happens after the children go to sleep.”
Levy was keen to keep the emotional side of the story intact through the mayhem experienced by the characters. “If you’re making a movie about relationships and being a married couple, it must be more than just funny, because life doesn’t work that way,” the director explains. “This movie has some surprising moments of poignancy.”
“A lot of comedies these days feel like a compendium of gags tied together to follow a narrative story,” notes Klausner. “DATE NIGHT, at its heart, is about marriage and being in love with somebody, but at the same time, life gets in the way. It’s honest, which is something Steve and Tina wanted, too. I’m proud that this movie has preserved that soul.”
When Levy learned that Steve Carell and Tina Fey were hoping to find a project on which they could work together, he knew he had found his DATE NIGHT duo. “We got an early draft of the screenplay to Tina and Steve, who always struck me as the dream pairing for a movie about marriage,” Levy says. “They said, ‘Yeah, we relate to this, we want to do an action comedy that’s also honest about relationships.’ So they said they were in.”
While Levy usually takes a break between completing one feature and beginning the next, he found himself prepping DATE NIGHT while editing “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” in order to take advantage of his stars’ availability. “Steve’s and Tina’s series commitments [on, respectively, “The Office” and “30 Rock”] provides only a limited window for feature film work,” Levy explains. “They told us, ‘Look, we want to do this, but we’re free now, and we’re not going to be free in six months – what do we do?’ I said, ‘Well, we make the movie right now!’ I didn’t get a break between films, but I got a comedy with Steve Carell and Tina Fey, who are two of the most intelligent, interesting people working in comedy today. So a lot of my job was to come up with the idea, get the two perfect actors for the movie, and then get the hell out of the way.”
While slight alterations to the script were made to match the stars’ comedic voices, DATE NIGHT was essentially tailor-made for the pair. “It felt like the film was written for them,” says Klausner. Adds Levy: “Three minutes into this movie, you buy Steve and Tina as a married couple. They have a powerful chemistry together. They clicked completely on screen.”
Phil, says Carell, “feels underappreciated by his friends and family, but he sort of keeps that feeling close to his chest. He’s a very loving guy, but he and Claire have reached a plateau in their relationship. He needs to snap himself out of it, if possible. And the night that he and Claire experience together is a defibrillator for their marriage.”
Carell’s comedic skills, along with his ability to stir audiences’ hearts, made him the perfect choice for the role, Levy says. “Steve is super funny, and his chops as an actor are fantastic. He not only carries entire comedy sequences on his back, but three scenes later, he’s moving you to an emotional place with such sincerity and nuance. There’s no end to what he can do.”
Carell says his own date nights, like Phil Foster’s (and Levy’s and Klausner’s), leave much to be desired. “Sometimes the worst part of date night is actually leaving for the date – when you see your babysitter sitting down, getting all cozy, turning on the TV. That sometimes seems much better than the night that lies ahead.”
Fey, like Carell, has the ability to be riotously funny while still portraying the emotional side of her character realistically – to turn down the volume on jokes and simply allow them to happen. For example, in response to a nudge for sex from her husband, Fey’s Claire offers a very normal, ‘Yeah, hang on a minute” moment as she pulls out her dental mouth guard in preparation for sex with her husband, with enough drool to instantly turn off her mate.
“Besides being obviously really pretty and intelligent, Tina has a complete willingness to make an ass out of herself,” says Levy. She’s completely up for goofing on herself and being the butt of the joke, and that’s very charming.”
Fey describes Claire as “a working mom of two kids, who, like almost everyone I know, is just a little worn out by the day-to-day life of raising your kids, getting them out the door, getting them to school, having a job, keeping a house clean. She’s a good person who is just kind of worn into the ground a little bit. I certainly identify with how just physically tiring it is to be a parent and have a job – sometimes it feels like a real effort to just be present for your spouse.”
So which would be scarier – being in a boring marriage or being chased by the mob (both of which the Fosters experience in the film)? “I would say that being married to a person in the mob would be the scariest,” Fey jokes.
Along their night-from-hell journey, Phil and Claire encounter a cavalcade of characters on both sides of the law. Levy’s casting choices for these roles was sometimes unexpected – and always spot-on. His intent was to provide the story with a “Wizard of Oz”-like experience. “You’re with your heroes, but along the way, they’re being affected and changed by the people they meet, and I just thought wouldn’t it be fun if at every turn of the road, you’re surprised all over again by who has suddenly appeared in this movie. And the cast members fit the roles perfectly.”
The surprise apparently wasn’t limited to the audience. “I read the script,” says Fey,” and I thought, ‘Oh, these are really good parts for somebody.’ I never thought we would get this lucky to have that caliber of people in all these different parts.” Having what otherwise would have appeared to be small roles portrayed by big name actors only helps bring them alive, Carell notes. “When you see them acted out, they’re even better than they were on the page.”
And getting high-powered stars to join the DATE NIGHT team wasn’t just a matter of coincidence. “So many people were so keen to find a way to work with Steve and Tina – they just found a way to make it work,” says Levy.
Mark Wahlberg portrays a former real estate client of Claire’s the pair turns to in the middle of the night. “I play a guy named Holbrooke Grant, who is a security expert who Claire and Phil come to for help,” Wahlberg explains. “They just catch Holbrooke at a bad time – he’s with his beautiful Israeli girlfriend.” The pair ends up turning Holbrooke’s night upside down, as well.
Wahlberg had the simplest costume in the entire cast. “There is no wardrobe – just a pair of silk genie pants,” he recalls, noting that he regularly found himself freezing on the air-conditioned set. That the top half of his costume was missing (except for an ample supply of makeup covering Wahlberg’s countless tattoos), was a fact not lost on the female members of the cast and crew. “Mark was shirtless for three or four days,” Fey says, prompting a noticeable increase in the number of women who suddenly had additional tasks to address on set on the days he was on the job. “I had friends texting me, ‘Can I get on the Fox lot and visit you today?’” Fey laughs.
Also coming to the aid of the beleaguered couple is Taraji P. Henson, an Oscar® nominee for her work in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” who plays NYPD Detective Arroyo, who, though she doesn’t exactly believe the Fosters “chased by bad guys” story, begins to become suspicious of a couple of her colleagues. “She’s sort of a hero,” the actress says.
Playing thugs Collins and Armstrong, who are after the Fosters (whom they believe are the Tripplehorns) are Common and Jimmi Simpson. Common is a familiar face to audiences for his role as a murderous cop in “Street Kings” and for his work as a musical artists (his hits include “Love of My Life” and “Testify”). Simpson has made occasional appearances as Lyle the Intern on “The Late Show with David Letterman.”
Common describes the duo as “one of the many catalysts to get this mundane couple out of their comfort zone – mainly by shooting guns at them.” The two are essentially hunters, he adds, noting, “I’m the muscle.”
Collins and Armstrong’s formidable boss is gangster Joe Miletto, from whom the Tripplehorns have apparently stolen something of importance that he wants back. The casting of acclaimed actor Ray Liotta as Miletto delighted Carell and Fey. “We were shooting a scene with Ray one night,” recalls Carell, “and Tina looked over and said, ‘I feel like I am in a 3D version of ‘Goodfellas. Ray Liotta is actually walking up and talking to me.’ It was like a ride at a theme park.”
Playing a heavy in a comedy, particularly for actors used to appearing in dramatic films, requires a special knack, one which DATE NIGHT’s group of toughs embraced with gusto.
“It’s really in the writing, so it’s dependent on your commitment to it,” explains Liotta. “If the situation’s just a little more heightened, you’re going to laugh.” Common agrees: “Shawn expressed to us from the beginning – you’ve got to keep it real. The more real it becomes – because you’re playing off Steve and Tina – the funnier it becomes.”
Portraying the “real” Tripplehorns – actually a drug dealer named Taste and his wacky stripper girlfriend, Whippit – are James Franco and Mila Kunis. Despite their different life circumstances, the pair has much in common with the Fosters, being in the same spot in their relationship as their clean-cut counterparts. Notes Josh Klausner: “Whether you’re a drug dealer or a suburban husband, you still feel the pangs of ‘You never look at me the way you used to’ and ‘You don’t have time for me.’ What the two couples are going through is exactly the same,” making the exchanges between the two couples both hilarious and poignant at the same time.
Kunis describes the pair as “very passionate – when they’re angry, they’re very angry, and when they’re happy, they’re madly in love.” Whippit, specifically, she describes as a “psycho, who is very up and down. She goes through three different emotions within two and a half script pages.”
The name “Taste,” Franco says, is left over from an earlier concept of the character – a 6 ft. 7 in. bald man with “TASTE” tattooed on his forehead. “So when they asked me to be in the movie, I said, ‘Well, I’m certainly not that.’” The character’s description was then rewritten, but the name stuck. “I was up for facial tattoos, too,” Franco says with a laugh. “We just went for the cheesy ‘Grim Reaper.’”
Kristen Wiig and Mark Ruffalo play the Fosters soon-to-be-splitting couple friends, Haley and Brad Sullivan. “Their parting brings up the question about getting bored with your spouse and moving on, or just sticking it out,” says Wiig. “I think Haley plants the seeds in Claire’s mind.”
Also taking on key roles are “Gossip Girl’s” Leighton Meester as the Fosters’ babysitter Katy, and “The Dark Knight’s” William Fichtner as district attorney Frank Crenshaw.
All the cast members appreciated Levy’s ability to balance action and comedy, which in turn allowed his actors the freedom to come up with their own gags. “That’s the only way you can afford to have time to play around or to improvise and do extra takes,” notes Fey. “That only happens if everyone – especially your director – really knows what they’re doing.”
For Levy, there’s a method to the potential madness of improv. “Sometimes, after we’d get what I want, Steve and Tina would come to me and say, ‘You know what? Could I get one more take? I’ve got an idea that might lead somewhere.’ Sometimes we couldn’t use it, but more often than not, it was gold and it ended up in the movie,” such as the duo’s restaurant shenanigans game of guessing what’s up with the couple sitting across the way.
“Every person in any field wants to go to work and feel respected for what they do,” says the director. “So when you say to an actor, ‘We’re going to do the script that I’ve written for you, but I want to hear what’s in your head. I actually think that the ideas you come up with might be as legitimate or better than what we scripted,’ it makes your actors feel like partners and collaborators, and not mouthpieces. It makes them feel like part of the creative team, rather than a piece of machinery.”
MEET THE TWINS
While attempting to escape their pursuers, the Fosters “borrow” Holbrooke Grant’s car, the much-too-powerful-for-Phil Audi R8. When Phil inadvertently smashes into a taxi cab, the two vehicles’ bumpers become hopelessly locked together. Nonetheless, the chase continues, the conjoined twin automobiles smashing their way down Manhattan streets.
The complicated sequence came about when Levy and Klausner were brainstorming ideas for a chase scene. Concerned about repeating the oft-used, cliché urban car chase, Klausner recalls, “I remember sitting in a room with Shawn, telling him, ‘You know, do we really have to do a car chase, because how many times have we seen a car chase in these movies? How interesting can that be?’”
Levy then related to his writer a story from his teenage years. “He was just learning to drive, and was trying to park, but he ended up smashing into another car in front of him and getting stuck on that car. His father just drove by and shook his head.” Thus was born the idea of conjoined cars.
But just having two cars barreling down the street wasn’t enough. “Shawn wanted to do something that nobody had ever seen before,” says 2nd unit director and stunt coordinator Jack Gill, who planned and executed the sequence. “Once we got the basic idea of conjoining the cars, we began figuring out not only how to build the cars, but how to make it work comically. I then started adding eccentricities, like spinning them around in circles and having characters fire guns at them.”
Besides having six different cars that, each of which handled a specific aspect of the chase stunts, Gill built a 40 foot frame, upon which the Audi and cab bodies were placed. “So there’s just one rigid frame,” he explains. The stunt driver was situated at the leading end of the conjoined vehicles. “So when the cab is facing forwards, with the Audi ahead of it facing the wrong way, the stunt driver is actually driving from inside the Audi’s trunk, looking out the back so he can see where he’s going and drive around corners.” In addition, for most shots, the rig’s rear wheels – those under the rear end of the conjoined vehicles – could also steer, in the same manner as those of a hook-and-ladder fire truck.
Needless to say, don’t try this at home on your own Manhattan street.
New York City ordinances limited the production to the types of stunts that could be filmed on Manhattan streets. So following a week of night work in New York, the stunt team moved to downtown Los Angeles to complete the sequence.
“We had about six blocks to work with on Broadway, which was great,” Gill recalls. “We needed a long stretch locked down, because when you conjoin two cars together, you’ve got a thing that’s forty feet long – getting it up to speed and shutting it all down can be tough. You can’t just do it in two blocks.” The sequence was filmed with up to six cameras, including a special “balloon cam,” with wheeled buoys on each corner, which allowed the camera to be sent into the path of the speeding car pair and getting hit head-on, without damaging expensive camera equipment.
Carell did actually drive the R8 himself for a number of shots. “We wanted the car to have way too much power for a guy like Phil to handle,” says Gill. “So I asked Audi to disconnect the all-wheel drive, which meant putting all 560 horsepower into the rear wheels.” So what was Carell’s impression? “He said it felt like somebody hitting him in the back of the head with a shovel when he stepped on the gas.”
In one shot, Phil must make his way to the cab while Claire is driving the Audi at high speed. “We did all the transfers across the hood with doubles – that was all real,” notes Gill.
Close-ups of Carell and Fey were done against a green screen set at Twentieth Century Fox. Since the chase acrobatics had already been filmed, besides their scripted lines, Carell and Fey filled in the gaps with their gut-busting ad-libs. “I’d show them footage and explain to them, ‘Here’s what we did last week downtown with the real cars – what do you think?’” Gill says. “And we’d bounce off ideas until something really clicked. And then Shawn was always there to say, ‘You’re right on track here – that’s really funny!’ It really helps when you have a collaboration where everybody can talk ideas out.”
Even with all the excitement, Levy kept the scene’s theme on track. “Once we had the concept of having the two cars stuck together, then we could find a way to thematically tie it in to what the movie’s about, which is this couple that has to learn to communicate to survive,” he explains.
Indeed, even with all that happens to them on this fateful night, the Fosters achieve their goal: to reinvigorate their relationship and reconnect with the love and excitement that brought them together in the first place.
“DATE NIGHT is kind of like a fable,” says Levy. “It takes place over a very short period of time, but in some way, it’s timeless, because it’s a story about a journey two people make in their relationship. And we leave the night feeling like they will go back to their lives and no one except for the people involved that night might ever know what happened. We’ve watched them experience this crazy night, but the real adventure of their married life, now that they’ve found each other again, is just about to begin.”
“They’re comfortable enough again with each other to be able to say ‘Knock it off’ and ‘I love you’ within the same five minutes,” says Steve Carell.
Tina Fey has just one last piece of relationship advice: “Go on a date night and see DATE NIGHT.”
ABOUT THE CAST
STEVE CARELL (Phil Foster) has emerged as one of the most sought-after comedic actors in Hollywood. First gaining recognition for his contributions as a correspondent on Comedy Central’s Emmy® Award-winning “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” Carell has successfully segued into primetime television and above-the-title status in the film world with equal aplomb.
Carell currently stars as Michael Scott, the pompous and deluded boss of a Pennsylvania paper company, in the Americanized adaptation of Ricky Gervais’ acclaimed British television series “The Office.” Now in its sixth season, the show continues to flourish in ratings and has earned Carell three Emmy Award nominations and four Golden Globe® nominations for his work on the show, and earned the Golden Globe in 2006. In the last two years, the show has won the Screen Actors Guild Award® for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.
Carell opened his first lead feature, “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” which he co-wrote with director Judd Apatow, at #1, a spot it remained in for two straight weekends. The surprise hit of 2005 went on to gross more than $175 million worldwide and had #1 openings in 12 countries. The film generated over $100 million in DVD sales in North America alone. On an award level, the film was honored with an AFI Award® named one of 10 Most Outstanding Motion Pictures of the Year and took home Best Comedy Movie at the 11th annual Critics’ Choice Awards®. The film also earned Carell and Apatow a co-nomination for Best Original Screenplay by the Writers Guild Association.
In 2008, Carell starred as Maxwell Smart in the much-anticipated action-comedy “Get Smart,” opposite Anne Hathaway and Alan Arkin. The film grossed over $230 million worldwide. A sequel is due in 2011. He also lent his voice as “The Mayor of Whoville” in Twentieth Century Fox’s animated film “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!” based on the children’s book written by Dr. Seuss. Directed by Jimmy Hayward (“Finding Nemo,” “Monsters, Inc.”), Carell played opposite Jim Carrey, and helped launch the film as an international success earning over $295 million worldwide.
In 2006, as part of an ensemble, he starred in “Little Miss Sunshine,” which earned an Academy Award® nomination for Best Picture and won the SAG Award™ for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. The black comedy also starred Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette. Previous film credits for the actor include “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” “Bewitched, and “Dan in Real Life.” Carell’s feature film breakout role in “Bruce Almighty,” opposite Jim Carrey, led to a sequel starring Carell in 2007, “Evan Almighty.”
Carell recently announced the start of his new production company, Carousel Productions. Carell’s endeavors and successes in acting, writing and producing were an organic segue in the creation of Carousel Productions. Born in Massachusetts, Carell now resides in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Nancy Walls (NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”), whom he met while at the Second City Theater Group in Chicago, where both were members. He is the proud father of a daughter and a son.
TINA FEY (Claire Foster), one of the most visible and popular figures in television today, writes, executive produces and stars in NBC's three-time Emmy Award-winning comedy series “30 Rock,” a workplace comedy which takes place behind-the-scenes of a live variety show. Her performance as head writer Liz Lemon on the fictional “TGS with Tracy Jordan” has earned Fey an Emmy, two Golden Globes, three SAG Awards, and a People’s Choice Award®. This year alone, “30 Rock” won five Emmy Awards and was nominated for many others.
Prior to creating “30 Rock,” Fey completed nine seasons as head writer, cast member and co-anchor of the “Weekend Update” segment on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” Fey is an Emmy winner and two-time Writers Guild Award winner for her writing on SNL, also receiving an Emmy for her spoof of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
Since her transition to being in front of the camera, Fey has won much acclaim, including being named one of Entertainment Weekly’s Entertainers of the Year, People Magazine’s Most Beautiful People (three times), and one of Time magazine’s Prestigious Time 100.
Other awards include, in 2008, a Producers Guild Award and a Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Comedy Series for “30 Rock.” She has also won two Gracie Awards and a Made in New York Award and has been nominated for a People’s Choice Award for Choice Comedy Actress and a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
Fey expanded to feature films in spring 2004 as both a screenwriter and an actress opposite Lindsay Lohan in the hit comedy “Mean Girls,” which earned her a nomination for a Writers Guild Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Most recently she starred alongside “Saturday Night Live’s” Amy Poehler in the film “Baby Mama” for Universal Pictures, which exceed the $50 million dollar mark at the U.S. box office. Fey also starred in the Ricky Gervais comedy “The Invention of Lying,” released in 2009.
MARK WAHLBERG (“Holbrooke Grant”) earned Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for his standout performance in Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed drama “The Departed.”
Wahlberg’s remarkable film career began with Penny Marshall’s “Renaissance Man” and “The Basketball Diaries” with Leonardo DiCaprio, followed by a star turn opposite Reese Witherspoon in the thriller “Fear.” He has enjoyed playing diverse characters for visionary filmmakers such as David O. Russell, Tim Burton and Paul Thomas Anderson.
Wahlberg’s breakout role in “Boogie Nights” established him as one of Hollywood’s most sought-after talents. He later headlined “Three Kings” and “The Perfect Storm” with George Clooney, and “The Italian Job” with Charlize Theron. He followed those with “I ♥ Huckabees,” “Four Brothers” and the football biography, “Invincible.” He then appeared in “Shooter,” based on the best-selling novel Point of Impact. Wahlberg reunited with “The Yards” director James Gray and co-star Joaquin Phoenix in “We Own the Night,” which Wahlberg produced.
In 2008, Wahlberg starred in M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Happening,” and in “Max Payne.” He recently appeared in director Peter Jackson’s adaptation of “The Lovely Bones.” Due out this year is “The Fighter” for director David O. Russell and “The Other Guys,” with Will Ferrell.
Wahlberg is an executive producer on “The Fighter” and “We Own the Night,” as well as on the HBO series “Entourage” and “In Treatment,” which have received six Golden Globe and three Emmy nominations.
Future projects include the new HBO series, “Boardwalk Empire,” with Martin Scorsese and “How to Make it in America,” along with other feature film projects. A committed philanthropist, he founded The Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation in 2001 to benefit inner city children and teens.
TARAJI P. HENSON (“Detective Arroyo”) earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress portraying Brad Pitt’s mother in David Fincher’s highly acclaimed “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” Most recently, she starred in Tyler Perry’s “I Can Do Bad All By Myself,” which opened to number one at the box office.
For three years, Henson starred as Raina Washington, the youngest female detective on Lifetime’s “The Division.” She was also a regular on David E. Kelly’s “Boston Legal” and had a recurring role on ABC’s “Eli Stone.” Henson appeared in featured roles on “ER,” “Strong Medicine,” “CSI,” “House,” among others.
Henson received rave reviews for her role in Focus Features’ “Talk to Me” opposite Don Cheadle. Henson was named Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Feature Film at the 2005 Black Movie Awards and received the Best Actress nod at the 2006 BET Awards for her performance as Shug in the gutsy drama “Hustle & Flow,” produced by Oscar-nominated filmmaker John Singleton. She received two nominations at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards™ including Best Breakthrough Performance.
Upcoming films include “Karate Kid” opposite Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan, which filmed on location in Beijing for Columbia. Henson plays Rainn Wilson’s love interest in the upcoming indie comedy “Peep World,» also starring Sarah Silverman. In the indie drama “Once Fallen,” Henson stars with Ed Harris and Brian Presley. She starred in Sony’s “Not Easily Broken” opposite Morris Chestnut, and opposite Forest Whitaker in “Hurricane Season.” She starred in Tyler Perry’s “The Family That Preys” with Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodard.
Born and raised in Washington, D.C., the Howard University grad has a strong passion for helping disabled and less fortunate children and reveals, “I always stress to kids to have faith in themselves—the greatest recipe for success is self confidence.”
COMMON (Collins), a Grammy Award® winning artist, made his big screen debut as a musical performer in “Dave Chappelle’s Block Party,” in 2006. In January 2007, he made his acting debut co-starring opposite Jeremy Piven, Ben Affleck, Alicia Keys and Ryan Reynolds in “Smokin’ Aces.” Since then he’s co-starred opposite Denzel Washington in “American Gangster,” directed by Ridley Scott; David Ayer’s “Street Kings,” starring Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker; and “Terminator Salvation,” directed by McG, starring Christian Bale.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
SHAWN LEVY (Director/Producer) is one of the most commercially successful film directors of the past decade. To date, his films have grossed over 1.5 billion dollars worldwide. Levy has honed his craft, seamlessly weaving comedy and heart into captivating stories that resonate with audiences. His youthfully enthusiastic approach to filmmaking is evident in the storylines and characters he creates – reflecting his joyful intensity for each project at hand.
Levy is currently developing several films to produce through his production company, 21 Laps, which is housed at Twentieth Century Fox. These projects include “The Ten Best Days of My Life” (with Amy Adams), “Neighborhood Watch,” “The Devil You Know” and “How to Talk to Girls” for Fox; “Factracker” for MGM; “The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp” and “The Cutlass Islands” for New Regency, “Men of Magic” for Universal; “The Berenstain Bears” for Walden; and “The Spectacular Now” and “Table 19” for Fox Searchlight.
Currently, Levy is in pre-production on the futuristic father-son boxing drama, “Real Steel,” starring Hugh Jackman, for Steven Spielberg’s Dreamworks.
Levy’s 21 Laps recently produced the 2008 comedy «What Happens in Vegas,» starring Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher, which went on to earn over $200 million worldwide.
Levy both produced and directed the blockbuster “Night at the Museum,” starring Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Ricky Gervais, Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney, which grossed over $580 million worldwide and “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” starring a wide array of today’s most notable comedic talent including Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, Hank Azaria, Owen Wilson, Ricky Gervais and Steve Coogan, which grossed over $400 million worldwide.
He directed the successful 2006 comedy, “The Pink Panther,” starring Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, Beyoncé Knowles, and Jean Reno and served as the executive producer of “Pink Panther 2.” Levy also directed “Cheaper By The Dozen” starring Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt, Ashton Kutcher and Hilary Duff, which went on to gross more than $200 million worldwide.
In 2002, Levy directed both the hit romantic comedy “Just Married,” starring Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy, which grossed over $100 million and the family comedy “Big Fat Liar,” for Universal Pictures, with Frankie Muniz, Paul Giamatti and Amanda Bynes.
Levy graduated at the age of 20 from the Drama Department of Yale University. He later studied film in the Masters Film Production Program at USC, where he produced and directed the short film Broken Record. This film won the Gold Plaque at the Chicago Film Festival, in addition to being selected to screen at the Director’s Guild of America.
JOSH KLAUSNER (Screenwriter) attended Princeton University, where he was involved in the theater community as an actor, playwright and director, and studied theater luminaries Bobby Lewis and Albert Innaurato. Klausner’s thesis play, “Scratch,” received the Francis LeMoyne Page Prize for Excellence in Theater. After graduation, Klausner co-created the short “Season of the Lifterbees,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992, and won the Time Warner Grand Prize at the Aspen Shortsfest and a regional AMPAS Student Academy Award for Best Dramatic Short.
In 1994, Klausner began working as an assistant to the Farrelly Brothers, on their first film, “Dumb & Dumber,” moving on to work as 2nd unit director on the Farrellys’ hit 1998 film, “There’s Something About Mary” and again in 2001’s “Shallow Hal.”
In 2000, Klausner wrote and directed HBO’s “The 4th Floor,” starring William Hurt, Juliette Lewis, Austin Pendleton and Shelley Duvall. He did additional screenplay work on “Shrek the Third,” and wrote the original screenplay and storyline for DreamWorks
Animation’s upcoming “Shrek Forever After,” to be released later this year.
Klausner is currently working on a number of feature film projects, including a live action adaptation of “Thomas the Tank Engine,” and an adaptation of Adena Hapern’s The Ten Best Days of My Life for Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps, which will star Amy Adams. He is also collaborating with Sir Paul McCartney on “High in the Clouds,” an upcoming animated feature film based on the former Beatle’s children’s book.
JOE CARACCIOLO, JR. (Executive Producer) began his career in film as a production manager on director Sidney Lumet’s “Running on Empty” and “The Verdict.”
Caracciolo executive produced the hit comedies “Marley & Me” starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston, “What Happens in Vegas” starring Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher (for 21 Laps), and “The Devil Wears Prada” starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. His other executive producing credits include “Just My Luck,” starring Lindsay Lohan, “Hide & Seek,” a psychological thriller starring Robert De Niro and Dakota Fanning, and “Uptown Girls,” a comedic New York fairy tale starring Brittany Murphy and Dakota Fanning. Additionally, he produced the teen thriller “Swimfan,” directed by John Polson.
Caracciolo’s other feature film credits include James Foley’s “Glengarry Glen Ross,” Jon Amiel’s “Copycat,” and “The Man Who Knew Too Little,” and writer-director John Waters’ “Serial Mom,” “Pecker,” and “Cecil B. Demented.”
JOSH McLAGLEN (Executive Producer) has worked as an assistant director on dozens of blockbuster films alongside some of Hollywood’s top directors. He has been 1st AD on “Tango and Cash,” “Alien 3,” James Cameron’s “Titanic,” “The X-Files,” “Cast Away,” “The Polar Express, and “Beowulf,” the latter three for director Robert Zemeckis, and again for Cameron on “Avatar.”
In 2002, McLaglen began wearing a producer’s hat, working his way from associate producer (“The Polar Express”) to co-producer (“Beowulf,” “Avatar”) to executive producer. In 2006, he began working with director Shawn Levy, as both 1st AD and co-producer on “Night at the Museum,” becoming executive producer for that film’s sequel, “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” as well as for “Date Night” and the upcoming “Real Steel.”
TOM McNULTY (Executive Producer) is the president of production at 21 Laps, a production company based at Twentieth Century Fox in Los Angeles. McNulty joined 21 Laps at its inception with the company’s principal, director Shawn Levy and has set up over a dozen film projects at Fox, Universal, Warner Brothers and New Line. 21 Laps films include “Cheaper By The Dozen 2,” as well as the hit comedy “What Happens In Vegas” starring Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher, “St. Peter” starring Elizabeth Banks and Sam Rockwell, and “The Rocker,” the latter marking their first producing effort together.
Prior to joining Levy, McNulty was the executive vice president of production at Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions for over six years. There, he oversaw the development of the entire slate of films, notably “Mr. Deeds,” “Anger Management,” “50 First Dates,” “Are We There Yet,” “Click” and “Dickie Roberts Former Child Star.”
Prior to joining Happy Madison, McNulty was an executive at Out Of The Blue Entertainment, where he was an executive on “Big Daddy” and “Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo.”
McNulty arrived in Hollywood as an actor, appearing in “Boys on the Side” opposite Whoopi Goldberg and “Escape from L.A.” with Kurt Russell. McNulty grew up on Long Island and attended The Catholic University of America in Washington DC.
DEAN SEMLER, ACS/ASC (Director of Photography) began his career in his native Australia, lensing “Mad Max 2” (aka “The Road Warrior” in North America) in 1982 for George Miller, for which Semler received an Australian Film Institute (AFI) nomination. Semler reteamed with Miller for “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.” Semler won both the AFI and Australian Cinematographers Society awards for the Aussie thriller “Razorback.”
By the late ‘80s, Semler was serving as director of photography on several U.S. productions, including “Cocktail” with Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown, and the western “Young Guns.” The following year, he returned to Australia for “Dead Calm,” starring Nicole Kidman and Sam Neill, for which Semler won the AFI award.
After filming the “Young Guns” sequel in 1990, Semler shot Kevin Costner’s “Dances With Wolves,” for which Semler received multiple honors, including an Academy Award and American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Award. He reteamed with Costner in 1995 for “Waterworld.”
Throughout the ‘90s and into the following decade, Semler shot the comedies “City Slickers,” “Nutty Professor II: The Klumps,” “Bruce Almighty,” and “Get Smart.” He also filmed Mel Gibson’s epic “Apocalypto.”
Most recently, Semler was director of photography on Roland Emmerich’s “2012,” and on “Secretariat,” starring Diane Lane and Scott Glenn.
DAVID GROPMAN (Production Designer), after working in television and independent films, designed the studio features “Of Mice and Men,” “Waiting to Exhale,” and “The Cider House Rules,” for which he was nominated for an Oscar.
Gropman received an Art Directors Guild award and BAFTA nomination for his design for “Chocolat.” Gropman worked on John Waters’ “Hairspray,” for which Gropman was nominated for a Satellite Award. The Art Directors Guild once again recognized Gropman with a nomination for period film design for “Doubt,” which takes place in the 1960s.
CHRISTOPHE BECK (Composer) reunites with Shawn Levy, after composing the scores for the Levy-helmed projects “Just Married,” “Cheaper by the Dozen,” “The Pink Panther. Recently, Beck reteamed with director Chris Columbus on “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief,” after composing the score for Columbus’ “I Love You, Beth Cooper.”
The Montreal native started piano lessons at age five and was writing music for his first-ever band, Chris and The Cupcakes, before his teen years. During high school, Beck studied flute, saxophone, trombone and drums, and performed in rock bands. While studying music at Yale University, Beck had an epiphany, discovering that his talent for composing exceeded that for performing. He wrote two musicals with his brother Jason (a.k.a. Chilly Gonzales, the Berlin-based hip-hop recording artist), as well as an opera based on The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe
Upon graduation from Yale in 1992, he moved to Los Angeles to attend USC's prestigious film scoring program, where he studied with Oscar winner Jerry Goldsmith, among others. Beck was immediately attracted to the creative challenges unique to the marriage of music and picture, and a personal recommendation from the head of the USC Music Department led to his first professional assignment, the Canadian TV series “White Fang.” Soon thereafter, he was asked to score a new TV series (then in its second season), “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer,” based on the 1992 cult classic film, for which he received the Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition during his three seasons with the show.
The prolific talent has scored 40+ feature films and nearly twenty television shows since 1993. His film compositions include a wide array of projects and genres including the action films “The Sentinel” and “Elektra,” the comedies “The Hangover,” “Drillbit Taylor,” “What Happens in Vegas,” “Charlie Bartlett,” “Pink Panther 2,” and “Bring It On,” and the dramas “Under the Tuscan Sun,” “Year of the Dog,” “Phoebe in Wonderland” and the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury nominee “The Greatest.”
Beck has also composed scores for “The Seeker: The Dark is Rising,” “School for Scoundrels,” “License to Wed,” “Fred Claus,” “We Are Marshall,” “Confidence,” “Yours, Mine and Ours,” “Taxi,” “A Cinderella Story,” “Saved!,” “Garfield” and its sequel, “Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties” “Cheaper by the Dozen,” “American Wedding,” “Post Grad,” and “All About Steve.”
MARLENE STEWART (Costume Designer) earned her first credits working on music videos, including memorable designs for fashion-forward pop superstar Madonna. Stewart created image-shaping costumes for 11 Madonna videos, including “Vogue,” “Material Girl,” “Like a Prayer” and “Express Yourself.”
Stewart’s film work spans a wide variety of genres, periods and looks. She has collaborated with an intriguing array of directors, ranging from Alejandro González Iñárritu on “21 Grams” to Oliver Stone on “The Doors” and “JFK” to Michael Mann on “Ali” and Beeban Kidron on “To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.”
Most recently, Stewart designed the costumes for Ben Stiller’s “Tropic Thunder,” Nancy Meyers’s romantic comedy “The Holiday” and Kimberly Peirce’s drama “Stop-Loss.”
Her credits also include Andy Tennant’s “Hitch,” James Cameron’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and “True Lies,” Mary Lambert’s “Siesta,” Joel Schumacher’s “Falling Down,” James L. Brooks’s “I’ll Do Anything,” Curtis Hanson’s “The River Wild,” Joe Pytka’s “Space Jam,” Rob Bowman’s “The X Files,” Tony Scott’s “Enemy of the State,” Dominic Sena’s “Gone in 60 Seconds,” David McNally’s “Coyote Ugly,” and Antoine Fuqua’s “Tears of the Sun.”
After earning a degree in History at the University of California, Berkeley, Stewart studied at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. She received the Bob Mackie Award for Design for her student work and began her design career by launching her own women’s clothing line, Covers. A Boston native, Stewart designed the costumes for three Madonna tours as well as tours for Cher, Paula Abdul, and Gloria Estefan. She created music video looks for Janet Jackson, Rod Stewart, Bette Midler, Debbie Harry, Smashing Pumpkins, the Bangles, and the Eurythmics, and was the first recipient of the American Music Awards’ Best Costume Design Award for the video “Material Girl.”
20 Views
15:40:50 12/30/09
The Book of Eli- DENZEL WASHINGTON's stunt work
[LESS INFO] 20 VIEWS | ADDED 15:40:50 12/30/09
Synopsis
In the not-too-distant future, some 30 years after the final war, a solitary man walks across the wasteland that was once America. Empty cities, broken highways, seared earth--all around him, the marks of catastrophic destruction. There is no civilization here, no law. The roads belong to gangs that would murder a man for his shoes, an ounce of water...or for nothing at all.
But they're no match for this traveler.
A warrior not by choice but necessity, Eli (Denzel Washington) seeks only peace but, if challenged, will cut his attackers down before they realize their fatal mistake. It's not his life he guards so fiercely but his hope for the future; a hope he has carried and protected for 30 years and is determined to realize. Driven by this commitment and guided by his belief in something greater than himself, Eli does what he must to survive--and continue.
Only one other man in this ruined world understands the power Eli holds, and is determined to make it his own: Carnegie (Gary Oldman), the self-appointed despot of a makeshift town of thieves and gunmen. Meanwhile, Carnegie's adopted daughter Solara (Mila Kunis) is fascinated by Eli for another reason: the glimpse he offers of what may exist beyond her stepfather's domain.
But neither will find it easy to deter him. Nothing--and no one--can stand in his way. Eli must keep moving to fulfill his destiny and bring help to a ravaged humanity.
Alcon Entertainment presents a Silver Pictures production, a Hughes Brothers Film: "The Book of Eli." The film stars two-time Academy Award winner® Denzel Washington ("Training Day," "Glory"), Gary Oldman ("The Dark Knight," the "Harry Potter" films), Mila Kunis ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall"), Ray Stevenson ("Punisher: War Zone"), Jennifer Beals (Showtime's "The L Word"), Frances de la Tour and Michael Gambon (both of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire").
"The Book of Eli" is directed by the Hughes Brothers ("Menace II Society," "Dead Presidents") from a screenplay by Gary Whitta. It is produced by Joel Silver, Denzel Washington, Broderick Johnson, Andrew A. Kosove and David Valdes. Steve Richards, Susan Downey and Erik Olsen serve as executive producers, with co-producers Steven P. Wegner, Yolanda T. Cochran and John David Washington.
The creative team includes director of photography Don Burgess, production designer Gae Buckley, editor Cindy Mollo and costume designer Sharen Davis. Jon Farhat is the visual effects supervisor. Music is composed by Atticus Ross, and the music supervisor is Deva Anderson. The Cast
DENZEL WASHINGTON (Eli/Producer) has been honored with five Academy Award® nominations, winning the Oscar® twice: in 1989 for his performance in "Glory" and again in 2001 for "Training Day." He has earned numerous additional awards and accolades throughout his acting career as well as recognition for his work as a director.
Currently, Washington is in production on director Tony Scott's action thriller "Unstoppable," which is scheduled for a 2010 release. In Spring 2010, he will also star on Broadway in the revival of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "Fences."
He most recently starred with John Travolta in Tony Scott's remake of "The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three"; directed and starred in, with Forest Whitaker, "The Great Debaters'; starred with Russell Crowe in Ridley Scott's "American Gangster," which grossed $43.6M in its first weekend to mark Washington's largest opening weekend to date; starred in Spike Lee's "Inside Man," with Clive Owen and Jodie Foster; and starred in Tony Scott's romantic thriller "Deja Vu." His other recent film work includes roles in Tony Scott's "Man on Fire," Jonathan Demme's "The Manchurian Candidate," Carl Franklin's mystery thriller "Out of Time" and Antoine Fuqua's "Training Day," for which Washington earned an Academy Award® for his critically acclaimed performance as a grizzled LAPD veteran who shows a rookie narcotics cop the ropes on his first day.
December 2002 marked Washington's feature film directorial debut with "Antwone Fisher." Inspired by the best-selling autobiography Finding Fish , the film won critical praise and earned the Stanley Kramer Award from the Producers Guild of America, as well as NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Motion Picture and Outstanding Supporting Actor for Washington. Also in 2002, Washington earned an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture for his role as a down-on-his-luck father in "John Q," which established a Presidents Day weekend opening record.
In 2000 he starred in Jerry Bruckheimer's box office sensation "Remember the Titans," a fact-based film about the integration of a high school football team, and in "The Hurricane," which re-teamed him with "A Soldier's Story" director Norman Jewison. Washington received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and an Academy Award® nomination for his portrayal of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, the 1960s world middleweight champion boxer wrongfully imprisoned of murder.
Washington's feature film credits include "The Bone Collector"; Gregory Hoblit's crime thriller "Fallen"; Spike Lee's "He Got Game"; the terrorist thriller "The Siege" and the critically acclaimed military drama "Courage Under Fire" for director Ed Zwick; Penny Marshall's romantic comedy "The Preacher's Wife," opposite Whitney Houston; Tony Scott's underwater action adventure "Crimson Tide," with Gene Hackman; the futuristic thriller "Virtuosity"; and the 1940s romantic thriller "Devil in a Blue Dress," co-produced by the actor's Mundy Lane Entertainment. Another critically acclaimed, Oscar® -nominated performance was his portrayal of the complex and controversial 1960s black activist Malcolm X in director Spike Lee's biographical epic "Malcolm X," hailed by critics and audiences alike as one of the best films of 1992.
Washington took on a different role in 2000, producing the HBO documentary "Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks," nominated for two Emmy Awards. He also served as executive producer on the Emmy-nominated "Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream," a biography for TBS. Additionally, he narrated "John Henry," which was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children, and he was awarded the 1996 NAACP Image Award for his performance in the animated children's special "Happily Ever After: Rumpelstiltskin."
A native of Mt. Vernon, New York, Washington originally had his career sights set on medicine at Fordham University when a theatrical production during a summer camp counseling job introduced him to the stage. Upon graduation from Fordham, Washington attended the theater program at San Francisco's prestigious American Conservatory Theater and began his professional New York theater career with Joseph Papp's Shakespeare in the Park. This was quickly followed by numerous off-Broadway productions including "Ceremonies in Dark Old Men"; "When the Chickens Came Home to Roost," in which he portrayed Malcolm X"; "One Tiger to a Hill"; "Man and Superman"; "Othello"; and "A Soldier's Play," for which he won an Obie Award. Washington's more recent stage appearances include the Broadway production of "Checkmates" and "Richard III," which was produced as part of the 1990 Free Shakespeare in the Park series hosted by Joseph Papp's Public Theatre in New York City, and in 2005 he returned again to his theatre roots with a Broadway starring role as Marcus Brutus in "Julius Caesar." The show was well-received by critics and fans alike.
He made his Hollywood debut in the 1979 television film "Flesh and Blood," but it was Washington's award-winning stage performance in "A Soldier's Play" that captured the attention of the producers of the NBC series "St. Elsewhere," and he was soon cast in that long-running hit series as Dr. Phillip Chandler. His other television credits include "The George McKenna Story," "License to Kill," and "Wilma."
In 1982, Washington recreated his role from "A Soldier's Play" for Norman Jewison's well-received film version, re-titled "A Soldier's Story," and went on to star in Sidney Lumet's "Power"; Richard Attenborough's "Cry Freedom," for which he received his first Oscar® nomination; "For Queen and Country"; "The Mighty Quinn"; "Heart Condition"; "Glory," for which he won the Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actor; and Spike Lee's "Mo' Better Blues." He also starred in the action adventure "Ricochet," Mira Nair's bittersweet comedy "Mississippi Masala," Kenneth Branagh's "Much Ado About Nothing," Jonathan Demme's controversial "Philadelphia," and "The Pelican Brief."
GARY OLDMAN (Carnegie) is known to millions as Harry Potter's godfather Sirius Black and Batman's crime-fighting partner Commissioner Gordon, as well as Dracula, Beethoven, Lee Harvey Oswald and Sid Vicious, to name just a few of the memorable roles he has created in nearly 20 years as a worldwide presence in motion pictures.
Oldman reprised the role of Commissioner Gordon in 2008's top-grossing film "The Dark Knight," having first portrayed Gordon in "Batman Begins." In 2007 he appeared for the third time as Sirius Black in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," following "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." He most recently starred with Jim Carrey in Robert Zemeckis' adaptation of Charles Dickens' holiday classic "A Christmas Carol."
Oldman began his career in 1979 on the London stage. Between 1985 and 1989 he acted exclusively at London's Royal Court Theatre and, in 1985, was named Best Newcomer by London's Time Out for his work in "The Pope's Wedding." That same year he shared the London Critics' Circle Best Actor Award with Anthony Hopkins.
In 1986, Oldman made his major feature film debut in "Sid & Nancy," winning the Evening Standard British Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer for his portrayal of punk rock legend Sid Vicious. The following year, he starred in Stephen Frears' "Prick Up Your Ears," winning the Best Actor Award from the London Film Critics Circle for his portrayal of doomed British playwright Joe Orton. He has since become one of the industry's most respected actors, appearing in both mainstream hits and acclaimed independent films. Oldman's early film credits also include Nicolas Roeg's "Track 29"; "Criminal Law"; "Chattahoochee"; Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead," for which he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actor; "State of Grace"; "Henry & June"; Oliver Stone's "JFK," playing Lee Harvey Oswald; and the title role in Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula."
Oldman's subsequent film work includes memorable roles in Tony Scott's "True Romance"; "Romeo is Bleeding"; the Luc Besson films "The Professional" and "The Fifth Element"; "Immortal Beloved"; "Murder in the First"; Roland Joffe's "The Scarlet Letter"; Julian Schnabel's "Basquiat"; Wolfgang Petersen's "Air Force One"; the big screen version of "Lost in Space"; and Ridley Scott's "Hannibal."
In 1995, Oldman and manager/producing partner Douglas Urbanski formed the production company The SE8 Group, which produced Oldman's directorial debut feature "Nil by Mouth," which Oldman also wrote. The film was invited to open the 1997 50th Cannes Film Festival in the main competition, where Kathy Burke won the Best Actress Award for her role. In addition, Oldman won two BAFTA Awards for Best British Film and Best Screenplay; the Channel 4 Director's Award at the 1997 Edinburgh International Film Festival; and the Empire Award for Best Debut Film. He also executive produced and starred in the SE8 Group film "The Contender," which received two Oscar® nominations and brought Oldman a Screen Actors Guild Award® nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
On the small screen, Oldman earned an Emmy nomination for his guest appearance as an alcoholic actor on the hit comedy series "Friends." His earlier television work includes the telefilms "Meantime," directed by Mike Leigh, and "The Firm," directed by Alan Clarke.
MILA KUNIS (Solara) most recently starred in the Mike Judge comedy "Extract," opposite Jason Bateman and Ben Affleck. In 2008 she starred in Judd Apatow's hit comedy "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" as Rachel, opposite Jason Segel, Kirsten Bell, and Jonah Hill, and in the action thriller "Max Payne," with Mark Wahlberg.
Kunis will next be seen in the upcoming feature comedy "Date Night," with Ray Liotta, Mark Ruffalo, Tina Fey, and Steve Carell as one of the characters Fey and Carell encounter as a couple on a date gone awry. She will also star in Darren Aronofsky's supernatural drama "Black Swan," opposite Natalie Portman, as the rival character Lilly. Both films are set for a 2010 release.
The Russian-born actress started her entertainment career by landing several television commercials. She is best known for her roles on two of the Fox Network's most successful shows: as Jackie Burkhart in "That 70's Show," for which she earned two YoungStar Awards for Best Actress in a Television Series, and as the voice of Meg on the hit show "Family Guy."
RAY STEVENSON (Redridge) is perhaps best known for his starring role in the HBO/BBC television series "Rome," portraying the legionary Titus Pullo to both critical and public acclaim. Since the series wrapped, he has been working non-stop in a wide variety of feature films.
Stevenson most recently starred in the fantasy thriller "Cirque de Freak: The Vampire's Assistant," directed by Paul Weitz and based on the best-selling children's series by Darren Shan. In 2008, he was seen as the lead in "Punisher: War Zone," about the Marvel comics anti-hero Frank Castle and his quest to rid the world of evil after the death of his wife and daughter.
He will next be seen in director Jonathan Hensleigh's "The Irishman," as the title character in a true crime story of notorious mobster Danny Greene, with Christopher Walken, Vincent D'Onofrio and Val Kilmer, set for 2010. Hensleigh & Jeremy Walters wrote the screenplay based on the book To Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia, by Rick Porello. Also set for 2010 is Adam McKay's action comedy "The Other Guys," set in the world of the New York City cops, in which Stevenson stars with Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. Among his upcoming projects, Stevenson will play Volstagg, one of the leads in Marvel Comics' "Thor," inspired by the Shakespeare's Falstaff and described as being over 1,000 pounds of muscle and the life of the party. This will reunite him with director Kenneth Branagh, who acted opposite him in "Theory of Flight" for director Paul Greengrass.
Stevenson's film work includes Antoine Fuqua's "King Arthur," for producer Jerry Bruckheimer; the cult favorite "Outpost," for director Steven Barker; "The Return of the Native," opposite Catherine Zeta Jones; and "Some Kind of Life."
His stage work includes playing Christ in the York Mystery Plays in 2000 at York Minster. In 2001, he played Roger in "Mouth to Mouth," by Kevin Ely, at the Albery Theatre in London, and, in 2003, appeared as Cardinal in "The Duchess of Malfi," by John Webster with Janet McTeer, at the Royal National Theatre.
Born in Northern Ireland, Stevenson grew up in England. He studied acting at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
JENNIFER BEALS (Claudia) most recently appeared in the French film "Joueuse," which made its American premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Beals was twice nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series by the NAACP Image Awards for her role in the acclaimed Showtime series "The L Word," which wrapped its sixth and final season in 2009. Her work on "The L Word" has earned numerous accolades and appreciation from groups including the Power Up Award, the GLAAD Golden Gate Award and the Golden Satellite Award for Outstanding Actress. The L Word Book , Beals' highly anticipated photographic journal, takes an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look at the groundbreaking Showtime series and is set for release in January 2010. More information is available at www.lwordbook.com.
Beals recently joined the cast of the Fox Network series "Lie to Me," in a recurring role as the ex-wife of series lead Tim Roth.
Among her most memorable roles, Beals starred opposite Campbell Scott in the critically acclaimed film "Roger Dodger," winner of the 2002 Best Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival and Best First Film at the Venice Film Festival. She earned rave reviews for her role in VH-1's "They Shoot Divas, Don't They?" and was seen in the acclaimed "The Anniversary Party," written and directed by Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cummings. In 2001, Beals starred in two Showtime features: the adaptation of Anne Rice's praised "A Feast of All Saints" and the WGA-nominated "A House Divided," in which she starred opposite Sam Waterston and Lisa Gay Hamilton and earned a Golden Satellite nomination as Best Actress in a Movie/Miniseries. For her extensive research for the film in Sparta, Georgia, where the story is based, she received an honorary Key to the City.
Originally from Chicago, Beals began her career after high school with a role in "Flashdance" that earned her a Golden Globe nomination and an NAACP Image Award for Best Actress. She then entered Yale University to study American Literature and graduated with honors. Beals went on to make an indelible impression in Carl Franklin's drama "Devil in a Blue Dress," opposite Denzel Washington, and in Alan Rudolph's "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle."
In recent years, she has starred in a myriad of film roles, including the lead in "Twilight of the Golds," for which she earned a Golden Satellite Award. Her film credits include "The Grudge 2"; "My Name is Sarah"; "Runaway Jim"; "Catch That Kid"; Whit Stillman's "The Last Days of Disco"; Alexandre Rockwell's "In the Soup," which won the 1992 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Audience Award at Deauville; "Four Rooms"; "Vampire's Kiss," with Nicolas Cage; Claude Chabrol's "Doctor M"; Nanni Moretti's "Caro Diario," which won the Director's Prize at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival; and Samuel Fuller's "The Madonna and the Dragon." On the small screen, she has appeared in the critically acclaimed ABC series "Nothing Sacred."
Beals is a winner of the 1999 Maverick Award from the San Jose Film Festival and, in 2004, was named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People.
FRANCES DE LA TOUR (Martha) won a Tony Award for her performance as Mrs. Lintott in Alan Bennett's multi award-winning play "The History Boys," directed by Nicholas Hytner, and was also nominated for a BAFTA in the 2006 screen version of the stage play. She has earned three Olivier Awards: in 1980 for Best Actress in Tom Kempinski's "Duet for One," for which she also won the Evening Standard Best Actress Award; in 1984 for Best Actress in a Revival for "A Moon for the Misbegotten"; and in 1992 for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for "When She Danced."
De la Tour trained at the Drama Centre in London in the 1960s before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company. Through 1971, her work there included the roles of Hoyden in "The Relapse" and Helena in Peter Brook's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." For the National Theatre, her credits include "Brighton Beach Memoirs," "Les Parents Terribles," the title role in "St Joan" and "The Good Hope." Her additional theater work includes Matthew Warchus's "Boeing-Boeing," Tennessee Williams' "Small Craft Warnings," "Hamlet," Edward Albee's "Three Tall Women," "Anthony and Cleopatra" for the RSC and Noel Coward's "Fallen Angels," for which she received a Variety Club Best Actress Award. De la Tour can currently be seen on stage at the National in the limited engagement world premiere of "The Habit of Art," which reunites her with playwright Alan Bennett and director Nicholas Hytner and also stars Michael Gambon.
De la Tour's filmography includes the comedy "Rising Damp," based on the popular television series, for which she won the Evening Standard's Best Actress Award. She more recently appeared as Madame Olympe Maxime in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and as Frau Eva in Andrei Konchalovsky's fantasy "Nutcracker: The Untold Story." She will next be seen alongside an all-star cast including Johnny Depp and Anne Hathaway in Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland," set for a 2010 release.
Her television appearances include the 1970s sitcom "Rising Damp," "Duet for One," for which she received a BAFTA Best Actress nomination, the BBC's "Waking the Dead," "Poirot: Death on the Nile," "Miss Marple: The Moving Finger," BBC's "Sensitive Skin" and, most recently, the CBS-TV series "3 lbs."
MICHAEL GAMBON (George) started his career with the Edwards/ Macliammoir Gate Theatre in Dublin. He joined the National Theatre for its inaugural season under Laurence Olivier at the Old Vic in 1963 and appeared there in "Hamlet," "Saint Joan," "The Recruiting Officer," "Andorra," "Philoctetes," "Othello," "The Royal Hunt of the Sun," "The Crucible," "Mother Courage," "Love for Love," "Juno and the Paycock" and "The Storm."
In repertory, principally at Birmingham Rep, Gambon played title roles in "Othello," "Macbeth" and "Coriolanus."
In the West End, he has appeared in Simon Gray's "Otherwise Engaged"; Alan Ayckbourn's "The Norman Conquest"; "Just Between Ourselves"; "Alice's Boys," with Ralph Richardson; Harold Pinter's "Old Times; the title role in "Uncle Vanya"; "Tom and Clem" and "No Man's Land."
With the Royal Shakespeare Company, he spent a season at the Aldwych and later played the title part in "King Lear" and Antony in "Antony and Cleopatra," opposite Helen Mirren, both at Stratford and the Barbican.
For the National Theatre, Gambon has appeared in the premieres of Harold Pinter's "Betrayal," Simon Gray's "Close of Play," Christopher Hampton's "Tales From Hollywood," Alan Ayckbourn's "Sisterly Feelings," and "A Chorus of Disapproval," for which he won an Olivier Award, as well as "A Small Family Business," "Richard III," "Othello," "Tons of Money," the title role in "The Life of Galileo," "Volpone" and "Skylight." He recreated his starring role in the latter on Broadway in 1996 for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Also for the National Theatre, Gambon played Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller's "A View From the Bridge," which transferred to the Aldwych Theatre and for which he won all the major drama awards of 1987.
He was in Harold Pinter's "Mountain Language," "Cressida," at the Almeida, and Pinter's "The Caretaker," for which he earned an Olivier Award nomination. Gambon also directed the Platford Performance of Richard Harris' "Visiting Hour."
His television appearances include the BBC's first adventure series in color, "The Borderers," "Eyeless in Gaza," the series "The Other One," with Richard Briers, "The Seagull," "The Holy Experiment," Oscar," "Ghosts" and the Dennis Potter series "The Singing Detective," for which he won a BAFTA Award, a Broadcasting Press Guild Award and a Royal Television Society Award. He also starred in "The Heat of the Day," scripted by Harold Pinter from Elizabeth Bowen's novel, and was Archie Rice in John Osborne's "The Entertainer." More recently, he portrayed Lyndon Johnson in the HBO film "Path to War" and starred in HBO's "Angels in America," directed by Mike Nichols.
Gambon's film credits include "Turtle Diary," David Hare's "Paris By Night," "A Dry White Season," with Marlon Brando, "The Rachel Papers," Peter Greenaway's "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover," "The Gambler," "Mobsters," "Clean Slate," "Toys," "Indian Warrior," "Wings of the Dove," "The Innocent Sleep," "Dancing at Lughnasa," "Sleepy Hollow," "The Insider," "Gosford Park," Open Range" and four of the Harry Potter films: "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and 2009's "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."
In 1998, Gambon was awarded a KBE in the Queen's Honour List.
Genres: Epic Adventure Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sigourney Weaver Directed By: James Cameron Produced By: James Cameron, Jon Landau
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19 Views
15:40:50 12/30/09
The Book of Eli- DENZEL WASHINGTON's stunt work
[LESS INFO] 19 VIEWS | ADDED 15:40:50 12/30/09
Synopsis
In the not-too-distant future, some 30 years after the final war, a solitary man walks across the wasteland that was once America. Empty cities, broken highways, seared earth--all around him, the marks of catastrophic destruction. There is no civilization here, no law. The roads belong to gangs that would murder a man for his shoes, an ounce of water...or for nothing at all.
But they're no match for this traveler.
A warrior not by choice but necessity, Eli (Denzel Washington) seeks only peace but, if challenged, will cut his attackers down before they realize their fatal mistake. It's not his life he guards so fiercely but his hope for the future; a hope he has carried and protected for 30 years and is determined to realize. Driven by this commitment and guided by his belief in something greater than himself, Eli does what he must to survive--and continue.
Only one other man in this ruined world understands the power Eli holds, and is determined to make it his own: Carnegie (Gary Oldman), the self-appointed despot of a makeshift town of thieves and gunmen. Meanwhile, Carnegie's adopted daughter Solara (Mila Kunis) is fascinated by Eli for another reason: the glimpse he offers of what may exist beyond her stepfather's domain.
But neither will find it easy to deter him. Nothing--and no one--can stand in his way. Eli must keep moving to fulfill his destiny and bring help to a ravaged humanity.
Alcon Entertainment presents a Silver Pictures production, a Hughes Brothers Film: "The Book of Eli." The film stars two-time Academy Award winner® Denzel Washington ("Training Day," "Glory"), Gary Oldman ("The Dark Knight," the "Harry Potter" films), Mila Kunis ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall"), Ray Stevenson ("Punisher: War Zone"), Jennifer Beals (Showtime's "The L Word"), Frances de la Tour and Michael Gambon (both of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire").
"The Book of Eli" is directed by the Hughes Brothers ("Menace II Society," "Dead Presidents") from a screenplay by Gary Whitta. It is produced by Joel Silver, Denzel Washington, Broderick Johnson, Andrew A. Kosove and David Valdes. Steve Richards, Susan Downey and Erik Olsen serve as executive producers, with co-producers Steven P. Wegner, Yolanda T. Cochran and John David Washington.
The creative team includes director of photography Don Burgess, production designer Gae Buckley, editor Cindy Mollo and costume designer Sharen Davis. Jon Farhat is the visual effects supervisor. Music is composed by Atticus Ross, and the music supervisor is Deva Anderson. The Cast
DENZEL WASHINGTON (Eli/Producer) has been honored with five Academy Award® nominations, winning the Oscar® twice: in 1989 for his performance in "Glory" and again in 2001 for "Training Day." He has earned numerous additional awards and accolades throughout his acting career as well as recognition for his work as a director.
Currently, Washington is in production on director Tony Scott's action thriller "Unstoppable," which is scheduled for a 2010 release. In Spring 2010, he will also star on Broadway in the revival of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "Fences."
He most recently starred with John Travolta in Tony Scott's remake of "The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three"; directed and starred in, with Forest Whitaker, "The Great Debaters'; starred with Russell Crowe in Ridley Scott's "American Gangster," which grossed $43.6M in its first weekend to mark Washington's largest opening weekend to date; starred in Spike Lee's "Inside Man," with Clive Owen and Jodie Foster; and starred in Tony Scott's romantic thriller "Deja Vu." His other recent film work includes roles in Tony Scott's "Man on Fire," Jonathan Demme's "The Manchurian Candidate," Carl Franklin's mystery thriller "Out of Time" and Antoine Fuqua's "Training Day," for which Washington earned an Academy Award® for his critically acclaimed performance as a grizzled LAPD veteran who shows a rookie narcotics cop the ropes on his first day.
December 2002 marked Washington's feature film directorial debut with "Antwone Fisher." Inspired by the best-selling autobiography Finding Fish , the film won critical praise and earned the Stanley Kramer Award from the Producers Guild of America, as well as NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Motion Picture and Outstanding Supporting Actor for Washington. Also in 2002, Washington earned an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture for his role as a down-on-his-luck father in "John Q," which established a Presidents Day weekend opening record.
In 2000 he starred in Jerry Bruckheimer's box office sensation "Remember the Titans," a fact-based film about the integration of a high school football team, and in "The Hurricane," which re-teamed him with "A Soldier's Story" director Norman Jewison. Washington received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and an Academy Award® nomination for his portrayal of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, the 1960s world middleweight champion boxer wrongfully imprisoned of murder.
Washington's feature film credits include "The Bone Collector"; Gregory Hoblit's crime thriller "Fallen"; Spike Lee's "He Got Game"; the terrorist thriller "The Siege" and the critically acclaimed military drama "Courage Under Fire" for director Ed Zwick; Penny Marshall's romantic comedy "The Preacher's Wife," opposite Whitney Houston; Tony Scott's underwater action adventure "Crimson Tide," with Gene Hackman; the futuristic thriller "Virtuosity"; and the 1940s romantic thriller "Devil in a Blue Dress," co-produced by the actor's Mundy Lane Entertainment. Another critically acclaimed, Oscar® -nominated performance was his portrayal of the complex and controversial 1960s black activist Malcolm X in director Spike Lee's biographical epic "Malcolm X," hailed by critics and audiences alike as one of the best films of 1992.
Washington took on a different role in 2000, producing the HBO documentary "Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks," nominated for two Emmy Awards. He also served as executive producer on the Emmy-nominated "Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream," a biography for TBS. Additionally, he narrated "John Henry," which was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children, and he was awarded the 1996 NAACP Image Award for his performance in the animated children's special "Happily Ever After: Rumpelstiltskin."
A native of Mt. Vernon, New York, Washington originally had his career sights set on medicine at Fordham University when a theatrical production during a summer camp counseling job introduced him to the stage. Upon graduation from Fordham, Washington attended the theater program at San Francisco's prestigious American Conservatory Theater and began his professional New York theater career with Joseph Papp's Shakespeare in the Park. This was quickly followed by numerous off-Broadway productions including "Ceremonies in Dark Old Men"; "When the Chickens Came Home to Roost," in which he portrayed Malcolm X"; "One Tiger to a Hill"; "Man and Superman"; "Othello"; and "A Soldier's Play," for which he won an Obie Award. Washington's more recent stage appearances include the Broadway production of "Checkmates" and "Richard III," which was produced as part of the 1990 Free Shakespeare in the Park series hosted by Joseph Papp's Public Theatre in New York City, and in 2005 he returned again to his theatre roots with a Broadway starring role as Marcus Brutus in "Julius Caesar." The show was well-received by critics and fans alike.
He made his Hollywood debut in the 1979 television film "Flesh and Blood," but it was Washington's award-winning stage performance in "A Soldier's Play" that captured the attention of the producers of the NBC series "St. Elsewhere," and he was soon cast in that long-running hit series as Dr. Phillip Chandler. His other television credits include "The George McKenna Story," "License to Kill," and "Wilma."
In 1982, Washington recreated his role from "A Soldier's Play" for Norman Jewison's well-received film version, re-titled "A Soldier's Story," and went on to star in Sidney Lumet's "Power"; Richard Attenborough's "Cry Freedom," for which he received his first Oscar® nomination; "For Queen and Country"; "The Mighty Quinn"; "Heart Condition"; "Glory," for which he won the Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actor; and Spike Lee's "Mo' Better Blues." He also starred in the action adventure "Ricochet," Mira Nair's bittersweet comedy "Mississippi Masala," Kenneth Branagh's "Much Ado About Nothing," Jonathan Demme's controversial "Philadelphia," and "The Pelican Brief."
GARY OLDMAN (Carnegie) is known to millions as Harry Potter's godfather Sirius Black and Batman's crime-fighting partner Commissioner Gordon, as well as Dracula, Beethoven, Lee Harvey Oswald and Sid Vicious, to name just a few of the memorable roles he has created in nearly 20 years as a worldwide presence in motion pictures.
Oldman reprised the role of Commissioner Gordon in 2008's top-grossing film "The Dark Knight," having first portrayed Gordon in "Batman Begins." In 2007 he appeared for the third time as Sirius Black in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," following "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." He most recently starred with Jim Carrey in Robert Zemeckis' adaptation of Charles Dickens' holiday classic "A Christmas Carol."
Oldman began his career in 1979 on the London stage. Between 1985 and 1989 he acted exclusively at London's Royal Court Theatre and, in 1985, was named Best Newcomer by London's Time Out for his work in "The Pope's Wedding." That same year he shared the London Critics' Circle Best Actor Award with Anthony Hopkins.
In 1986, Oldman made his major feature film debut in "Sid & Nancy," winning the Evening Standard British Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer for his portrayal of punk rock legend Sid Vicious. The following year, he starred in Stephen Frears' "Prick Up Your Ears," winning the Best Actor Award from the London Film Critics Circle for his portrayal of doomed British playwright Joe Orton. He has since become one of the industry's most respected actors, appearing in both mainstream hits and acclaimed independent films. Oldman's early film credits also include Nicolas Roeg's "Track 29"; "Criminal Law"; "Chattahoochee"; Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead," for which he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actor; "State of Grace"; "Henry & June"; Oliver Stone's "JFK," playing Lee Harvey Oswald; and the title role in Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula."
Oldman's subsequent film work includes memorable roles in Tony Scott's "True Romance"; "Romeo is Bleeding"; the Luc Besson films "The Professional" and "The Fifth Element"; "Immortal Beloved"; "Murder in the First"; Roland Joffe's "The Scarlet Letter"; Julian Schnabel's "Basquiat"; Wolfgang Petersen's "Air Force One"; the big screen version of "Lost in Space"; and Ridley Scott's "Hannibal."
In 1995, Oldman and manager/producing partner Douglas Urbanski formed the production company The SE8 Group, which produced Oldman's directorial debut feature "Nil by Mouth," which Oldman also wrote. The film was invited to open the 1997 50th Cannes Film Festival in the main competition, where Kathy Burke won the Best Actress Award for her role. In addition, Oldman won two BAFTA Awards for Best British Film and Best Screenplay; the Channel 4 Director's Award at the 1997 Edinburgh International Film Festival; and the Empire Award for Best Debut Film. He also executive produced and starred in the SE8 Group film "The Contender," which received two Oscar® nominations and brought Oldman a Screen Actors Guild Award® nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
On the small screen, Oldman earned an Emmy nomination for his guest appearance as an alcoholic actor on the hit comedy series "Friends." His earlier television work includes the telefilms "Meantime," directed by Mike Leigh, and "The Firm," directed by Alan Clarke.
MILA KUNIS (Solara) most recently starred in the Mike Judge comedy "Extract," opposite Jason Bateman and Ben Affleck. In 2008 she starred in Judd Apatow's hit comedy "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" as Rachel, opposite Jason Segel, Kirsten Bell, and Jonah Hill, and in the action thriller "Max Payne," with Mark Wahlberg.
Kunis will next be seen in the upcoming feature comedy "Date Night," with Ray Liotta, Mark Ruffalo, Tina Fey, and Steve Carell as one of the characters Fey and Carell encounter as a couple on a date gone awry. She will also star in Darren Aronofsky's supernatural drama "Black Swan," opposite Natalie Portman, as the rival character Lilly. Both films are set for a 2010 release.
The Russian-born actress started her entertainment career by landing several television commercials. She is best known for her roles on two of the Fox Network's most successful shows: as Jackie Burkhart in "That 70's Show," for which she earned two YoungStar Awards for Best Actress in a Television Series, and as the voice of Meg on the hit show "Family Guy."
RAY STEVENSON (Redridge) is perhaps best known for his starring role in the HBO/BBC television series "Rome," portraying the legionary Titus Pullo to both critical and public acclaim. Since the series wrapped, he has been working non-stop in a wide variety of feature films.
Stevenson most recently starred in the fantasy thriller "Cirque de Freak: The Vampire's Assistant," directed by Paul Weitz and based on the best-selling children's series by Darren Shan. In 2008, he was seen as the lead in "Punisher: War Zone," about the Marvel comics anti-hero Frank Castle and his quest to rid the world of evil after the death of his wife and daughter.
He will next be seen in director Jonathan Hensleigh's "The Irishman," as the title character in a true crime story of notorious mobster Danny Greene, with Christopher Walken, Vincent D'Onofrio and Val Kilmer, set for 2010. Hensleigh & Jeremy Walters wrote the screenplay based on the book To Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia, by Rick Porello. Also set for 2010 is Adam McKay's action comedy "The Other Guys," set in the world of the New York City cops, in which Stevenson stars with Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. Among his upcoming projects, Stevenson will play Volstagg, one of the leads in Marvel Comics' "Thor," inspired by the Shakespeare's Falstaff and described as being over 1,000 pounds of muscle and the life of the party. This will reunite him with director Kenneth Branagh, who acted opposite him in "Theory of Flight" for director Paul Greengrass.
Stevenson's film work includes Antoine Fuqua's "King Arthur," for producer Jerry Bruckheimer; the cult favorite "Outpost," for director Steven Barker; "The Return of the Native," opposite Catherine Zeta Jones; and "Some Kind of Life."
His stage work includes playing Christ in the York Mystery Plays in 2000 at York Minster. In 2001, he played Roger in "Mouth to Mouth," by Kevin Ely, at the Albery Theatre in London, and, in 2003, appeared as Cardinal in "The Duchess of Malfi," by John Webster with Janet McTeer, at the Royal National Theatre.
Born in Northern Ireland, Stevenson grew up in England. He studied acting at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
JENNIFER BEALS (Claudia) most recently appeared in the French film "Joueuse," which made its American premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Beals was twice nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series by the NAACP Image Awards for her role in the acclaimed Showtime series "The L Word," which wrapped its sixth and final season in 2009. Her work on "The L Word" has earned numerous accolades and appreciation from groups including the Power Up Award, the GLAAD Golden Gate Award and the Golden Satellite Award for Outstanding Actress. The L Word Book , Beals' highly anticipated photographic journal, takes an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look at the groundbreaking Showtime series and is set for release in January 2010. More information is available at www.lwordbook.com.
Beals recently joined the cast of the Fox Network series "Lie to Me," in a recurring role as the ex-wife of series lead Tim Roth.
Among her most memorable roles, Beals starred opposite Campbell Scott in the critically acclaimed film "Roger Dodger," winner of the 2002 Best Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival and Best First Film at the Venice Film Festival. She earned rave reviews for her role in VH-1's "They Shoot Divas, Don't They?" and was seen in the acclaimed "The Anniversary Party," written and directed by Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cummings. In 2001, Beals starred in two Showtime features: the adaptation of Anne Rice's praised "A Feast of All Saints" and the WGA-nominated "A House Divided," in which she starred opposite Sam Waterston and Lisa Gay Hamilton and earned a Golden Satellite nomination as Best Actress in a Movie/Miniseries. For her extensive research for the film in Sparta, Georgia, where the story is based, she received an honorary Key to the City.
Originally from Chicago, Beals began her career after high school with a role in "Flashdance" that earned her a Golden Globe nomination and an NAACP Image Award for Best Actress. She then entered Yale University to study American Literature and graduated with honors. Beals went on to make an indelible impression in Carl Franklin's drama "Devil in a Blue Dress," opposite Denzel Washington, and in Alan Rudolph's "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle."
In recent years, she has starred in a myriad of film roles, including the lead in "Twilight of the Golds," for which she earned a Golden Satellite Award. Her film credits include "The Grudge 2"; "My Name is Sarah"; "Runaway Jim"; "Catch That Kid"; Whit Stillman's "The Last Days of Disco"; Alexandre Rockwell's "In the Soup," which won the 1992 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Audience Award at Deauville; "Four Rooms"; "Vampire's Kiss," with Nicolas Cage; Claude Chabrol's "Doctor M"; Nanni Moretti's "Caro Diario," which won the Director's Prize at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival; and Samuel Fuller's "The Madonna and the Dragon." On the small screen, she has appeared in the critically acclaimed ABC series "Nothing Sacred."
Beals is a winner of the 1999 Maverick Award from the San Jose Film Festival and, in 2004, was named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People.
FRANCES DE LA TOUR (Martha) won a Tony Award for her performance as Mrs. Lintott in Alan Bennett's multi award-winning play "The History Boys," directed by Nicholas Hytner, and was also nominated for a BAFTA in the 2006 screen version of the stage play. She has earned three Olivier Awards: in 1980 for Best Actress in Tom Kempinski's "Duet for One," for which she also won the Evening Standard Best Actress Award; in 1984 for Best Actress in a Revival for "A Moon for the Misbegotten"; and in 1992 for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for "When She Danced."
De la Tour trained at the Drama Centre in London in the 1960s before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company. Through 1971, her work there included the roles of Hoyden in "The Relapse" and Helena in Peter Brook's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." For the National Theatre, her credits include "Brighton Beach Memoirs," "Les Parents Terribles," the title role in "St Joan" and "The Good Hope." Her additional theater work includes Matthew Warchus's "Boeing-Boeing," Tennessee Williams' "Small Craft Warnings," "Hamlet," Edward Albee's "Three Tall Women," "Anthony and Cleopatra" for the RSC and Noel Coward's "Fallen Angels," for which she received a Variety Club Best Actress Award. De la Tour can currently be seen on stage at the National in the limited engagement world premiere of "The Habit of Art," which reunites her with playwright Alan Bennett and director Nicholas Hytner and also stars Michael Gambon.
De la Tour's filmography includes the comedy "Rising Damp," based on the popular television series, for which she won the Evening Standard's Best Actress Award. She more recently appeared as Madame Olympe Maxime in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and as Frau Eva in Andrei Konchalovsky's fantasy "Nutcracker: The Untold Story." She will next be seen alongside an all-star cast including Johnny Depp and Anne Hathaway in Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland," set for a 2010 release.
Her television appearances include the 1970s sitcom "Rising Damp," "Duet for One," for which she received a BAFTA Best Actress nomination, the BBC's "Waking the Dead," "Poirot: Death on the Nile," "Miss Marple: The Moving Finger," BBC's "Sensitive Skin" and, most recently, the CBS-TV series "3 lbs."
MICHAEL GAMBON (George) started his career with the Edwards/ Macliammoir Gate Theatre in Dublin. He joined the National Theatre for its inaugural season under Laurence Olivier at the Old Vic in 1963 and appeared there in "Hamlet," "Saint Joan," "The Recruiting Officer," "Andorra," "Philoctetes," "Othello," "The Royal Hunt of the Sun," "The Crucible," "Mother Courage," "Love for Love," "Juno and the Paycock" and "The Storm."
In repertory, principally at Birmingham Rep, Gambon played title roles in "Othello," "Macbeth" and "Coriolanus."
In the West End, he has appeared in Simon Gray's "Otherwise Engaged"; Alan Ayckbourn's "The Norman Conquest"; "Just Between Ourselves"; "Alice's Boys," with Ralph Richardson; Harold Pinter's "Old Times; the title role in "Uncle Vanya"; "Tom and Clem" and "No Man's Land."
With the Royal Shakespeare Company, he spent a season at the Aldwych and later played the title part in "King Lear" and Antony in "Antony and Cleopatra," opposite Helen Mirren, both at Stratford and the Barbican.
For the National Theatre, Gambon has appeared in the premieres of Harold Pinter's "Betrayal," Simon Gray's "Close of Play," Christopher Hampton's "Tales From Hollywood," Alan Ayckbourn's "Sisterly Feelings," and "A Chorus of Disapproval," for which he won an Olivier Award, as well as "A Small Family Business," "Richard III," "Othello," "Tons of Money," the title role in "The Life of Galileo," "Volpone" and "Skylight." He recreated his starring role in the latter on Broadway in 1996 for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Also for the National Theatre, Gambon played Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller's "A View From the Bridge," which transferred to the Aldwych Theatre and for which he won all the major drama awards of 1987.
He was in Harold Pinter's "Mountain Language," "Cressida," at the Almeida, and Pinter's "The Caretaker," for which he earned an Olivier Award nomination. Gambon also directed the Platford Performance of Richard Harris' "Visiting Hour."
His television appearances include the BBC's first adventure series in color, "The Borderers," "Eyeless in Gaza," the series "The Other One," with Richard Briers, "The Seagull," "The Holy Experiment," Oscar," "Ghosts" and the Dennis Potter series "The Singing Detective," for which he won a BAFTA Award, a Broadcasting Press Guild Award and a Royal Television Society Award. He also starred in "The Heat of the Day," scripted by Harold Pinter from Elizabeth Bowen's novel, and was Archie Rice in John Osborne's "The Entertainer." More recently, he portrayed Lyndon Johnson in the HBO film "Path to War" and starred in HBO's "Angels in America," directed by Mike Nichols.
Gambon's film credits include "Turtle Diary," David Hare's "Paris By Night," "A Dry White Season," with Marlon Brando, "The Rachel Papers," Peter Greenaway's "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover," "The Gambler," "Mobsters," "Clean Slate," "Toys," "Indian Warrior," "Wings of the Dove," "The Innocent Sleep," "Dancing at Lughnasa," "Sleepy Hollow," "The Insider," "Gosford Park," Open Range" and four of the Harry Potter films: "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and 2009's "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."
In 1998, Gambon was awarded a KBE in the Queen's Honour List.
Genres: Epic Adventure Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sigourney Weaver Directed By: James Cameron Produced By: James Cameron, Jon Landau
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03:43:16 04/28/07
Northern Michigan Residents Turn In Tens Of Thousands Of Pharmaceuticals Weighing Over One Ton
[LESS INFO] 113 VIEWS | ADDED 03:43:16 04/28/07
Narcotics Have Estimated Street Value of $500,000Third Annual Earth Keeper Clean Sweep Targeted All MedicinesEarth Day: 2007 Pharmaceutical Clean Sweep(Marquette, Michigan) - Northern Michigan residents honored Earth Day by turning in tens of thousands of pills plus narcotics with an estimated street value of half a million dollars during the third annual Earth Keeper Clean Sweep.The 2007 Pharmaceutical Clean Sweep targeted out-of-date and unwanted medications of all kinds, according to Carl Lindquist, executive director of the Superior Watershed Partnership.Earth Keeper TV will soon have an updated videos and stories about the pharmaceutical collection.Lindquist estimated that over one ton of pharmaceuticals and personal care products were turned in by the public.The "controlled substances" turned in have an estimated street value of $500,000 including narcotics in pill and liquid form, clean sweep organizers said.Several police officers estimated that each one of the narcotics and other controlled drugs had a street value ranging from $5 to $25 per pill.“We had a great public turnout, a lot of people showed up with old medications,” said Lindquist said. “We are again breaking records for the Great Lakes and maybe the nation.”Lindquist said the exact number of controlled substances turned in was still being tallied.About 2,000 people turned in items but the many had also collected pharmaceuticals from other family and friends, organizers said.The 2007 clean sweep went off without a hitch thanks to the U.P. chapter of the Michigan Pharmacists Association, and numerous law enforcement agencies including the DEA and Michigan Sheriff's Association, organizers said. Pharmacists and law enforcement officers were present at all collection sites to ensure security and proper collection of the pharmaceuticals, Lindquist said.The third annual Earth Keeper Clean Sweep was coordinated by the Superior Watershed Partnership and the Cedar Tree Institute, both Marquette-based non-profit environmental groups.The clean sweep was again sponsored by nine U.P. faith communities with 130,000 members (60 percent of U.P. residents), the Superior Watershed Partnership, the Cedar Tree Institute, and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.The project involves the congregations of over 140 churches and temples representing nine faith communities (Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist, Baha'i, Jewish, and Zen Buddhist).The clean sweep had over 400 volunteers including 150 members of Thrivent Financial and 40 Northern Michigan University (NMU) students.Financial sponsors again this year include the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and $15,000 from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, a not-for-profit financial services membership organization and fraternal benefit society.Rev. Jon Magnuson, Earth Keeper Initiative founder, said "one of the gifts that the faith community brings to the environmental movement is that the external damage done in the environment is a reflection of what is going on in the human condition, in the human heart - so as we heal and cleanse the Earth, we are also healing the human heart.”“We are in trouble with the way we live with the Earth, we have lost our balance" but projects like the clean sweeps are one example of humans correcting man-made problems, said Rev. Magnuson, co-organizer of the clean sweeps and the head of Lutheran Campus Ministry at NMU.Lindquist said the pharmaceuticals will be taken to an EPA-licensed incinerator at Veolia Environmental Services near St. Louis, Missouri.The EPA is funding the collection of pharmaceuticals and personal care products because trace amounts of chemicals from those substances are turning up in America’s drinking water.EPA official John Perrecone from Chicago visited several of the collection sites and praised the Superior Watershed Partnership and the Earth Keeper team for its organization and success pulling off the largest geographical pharmaceutical collection in U.S. history.“From the EPA’s prospective this is an ideal approach for grassroots community members and the faith-based community to work with the federal government, American Indians and others to achieve environmental gain,” said Perrecone, Ecosystem Projects Manager at the Midwestern Region office of EPA located in Chicago.The 19 Earth Keeper sites collect “the whole gamut” of over-the-counter and prescription medications including a wide range of narcotic pain killers, sleeping pills, syringes/needles, and antibiotics.The public also turned in a wide range of personal care products like shampoo, lotions and soaps.Although an environmental project, the pharmaceutical collection had several great side-effects like removing drugs that could be accidentally consumed by children thinking the pills were candy, and preventing diversion of controlled substances such as narcotics by people addicted to prescription medications.Some of the medication was over 100 years old, including 18 large dust-covered antique bottles filled with liquids and powders that Lutheran Mary Sloan Armstrong of Harvey brought to the Messiah Lutheran Church collection site in Marquette.Armstrong said the medicines - some with Latin labels - belonged to her late father J.K. Sloan, who ran Sloan’s Pharmacy in Galva, Illinois for decades prior to his death.“These are drug bottles that were in the basement of my dad’s pharmacy,” said Armstrong. “We’ve had them for about 30 years (since her father’s death) and haven’t done anything with them. We thought this would be a good chance to get rid of the contents.”Pharmacists gathered around Armstrong’s car to get a look at the century old drugs that had a variety of deteriorating cork-like lids.“This stuff goes back about one hundred years, “ said Marquette pharmacist Dave Campana, while lifting several of the bottles out of an old wooden crate.“These are really old powders that they used to make up medications - you don’t find these in pharmacies anymore because they don’t have a need for it. But they used it years ago,” Campana said. “These powders and liquids are considered hazardous waste but they are drugs.”A member of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Harvey, Armstrong said some of the bottles have pre-civil war patents and her family plans to search her late father’s basement for more bottles after learning the importance of proper disposal of medicines through the clean sweep.Meanwhile at the St. Peter Catholic Cathedral collection site in Marquette, one person dropped off a “turn-of-the century” black folding case containing eight small bottles filled with powders.“This is what would have been a doctor’s traveling pharmacy,” said Marquette pharmacist Kent Jenema, while showing the leather zippered case to an EPA observer. “This has a lot of old patent type medications from mostly natural sources that predates some of the pharmacy that we know today.”The third annual Earth Keeper Clean Sweep was praised by America’s Drug Czar, law enforcement officers and prosecutors."Prescription drug abuse is a serious problem across the Nation, increasingly affecting families who have been untouched by illegal drug use," said U.S. Drug Czar John Walters, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and a member of the President's CabinetWalters cited the 2007 Pharmaceutical Clean sweep across northern Michigan as an example of “community engagement in properly disposing of pharmaceuticals (that) will help us stop and prevent prescription drug abuse, and the harm it can cause.”Remote areas like Michigan’s Upper Peninsula are not immune to prescription drug abuse.About 14 percent of students in Alger and Marquette counties admit using prescription medication to get high, according to a 2006 survey by the Great Lakes Center for Youth Development."And in our own community here in the U.P., it's an under-reported problem and a lot of times prescription drugs that are suitable for abuse can be stolen from people for whom they are prescribed,” said Paul Olson, a licensed social worker who works for the Great Lakes Center for Youth Development in Marquette.Katherine Geier removed all the narcotics from her home, delivering OxyContin and other medication to the collection site at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Ishpeming.“My mother had become addicted to prescription pain killers and sleeping pills, so I ended up hiding them from her,” Geier said. “So I had all these narcotics and I did not know what to do with them.”“I did not want to flush them down the toilet,” Geier said. “So I finally found a proper was to dispose of them.”Drug addicts and burglars “will break into people’s homes and steal these narcotic drugs for their own personal gain - they will either use it themselves or sell it on the streets,” said Ishpeming Police Officer Robert Sibley, one of dozens of law enforcement officers stationed at the 19 collection sites. “This is a big problem and we are working on it all the time.”Police were pleased the clean sweep prevented lots of “controlled” drugs from possible diversion to the street.“This is great,” said Marquette Police officer Brandon Boesl, while transferring counted narcotics to a special holding container during the collection at the Messiah Lutheran Church in Marquette.“Some of the most abuse things in the area are prescription drugs and a lot of people after they get their prescription refilled don’t use them - and other family members or children can get a hold of them - and this is a great way to get rid of them,” officer Boesl said.Marquette General Hospital Pharmacist Bob Hodges said “these are controlled drugs and we are inventorying them so that we will have a better record of the drugs that are being collected - it’s required by law.” After counting pills from a dusty bottle filled with narcotics, Ishpeming pharmacist Steve Lyford said “to dispose of these medicines in a safe way is a real good idea.”Over 100 people dropped off pharmaceuticals at the First Presbyterian Church in Escanaba, MI. Including over 3,700 (controlled substance) pills.Some participants held medications "for many years after the death of a relative because they did not know what to do with it," said Jill Wiese Martin, site manager and a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Escanaba, MI."Most people were relieved to be able to bring this material in without any hassles and many were very aware that this material should not be just flushed," said Wiese Martin, adding many participants were frustrated that left over medicine goes to waste when it is replaced by new treatment."We need a systematic way to routinely and safely dispose of unused and unwanted medications," said Wiese Martin, an environmental scientist. "An organized means for collection and disposal just does not exist."Removing pharmaceuticals and personal care products is important to protect the many rivers in the Escanaba area, and on Lake Michigan bays that are world renown walleye fisheries."Little Bay de Noc is a very rich ecosystem, one of the richest due to it's complex geology, geography and the many surface water streams that discharge in to it," Wiese Martin said.In addition to being an environment professional, Wiese Martin says protecting the water is important part of her Presbyterian faith."We need to protect and preserve God's creation for all, even to the extent that future adverse outcomes can be avoided and minimized," Wiese Martin said. "It provides an another mission opportunity in God's world and hope to our children that we care about the world we are leaving them."The city of Escanaba, Bay de Noc Community College and public school educators are "actively promoting a number of issues" including "the importance of wetlands to the entire bay ecosystem," creating "a walkable community" and reducing the "human/consumer waste stream," Wiese Martin said.At the First Lutheran Church in Gladstone, about 75 people dropped off medicines and security was provided by Michigan State Police and Gladstone Public Safety Officers, including some in plain clothes."This was a wonderful event - a perfect marriage of two concerns - care of the environment and the need to remove drugs that might otherwise be abused from the community," said Pastor Jonathan Schmidt.Delta County Prosecutor Steve Parks visited the Gladstone clean sweep location and told the site manager he was pleased to see narcotics and other prescriptions drugs removed from his community.Northern Michigan University student Miranda Revere said while volunteering at the First Lutheran Church in Gladstone she learned how severe the prescription drug abuse problem is from the Delta County prosecutor and the pastor.“Delta County has a problem with teens abusing prescription drugs, so finding people to help at the pharmaceutical collection was not difficult at all,” said Revere, a 21-year-old business management major from Clio, MI.“The county prosecuting attorney discussed the committee that has been put together to help this problem,” said Revere, who has attended NMU for three years.For the year in a row, 10-year-old Eve McCowen volunteered at the Messiah Lutheran Church in Marquette and was assigned the task of taking bags full of personal care products and non-prescription medications and dumping them into large holding containers. “We came here to collect the vitamins, pills and any other medicines - so they won’t pollute the earth anymore,” said McCowen, a fourth grader, who volunteered with her parents and other members of the Marquette Baha'i Spiritual Assembly.“There has been a lot of stuff and I have been dumping them into this barrel,” said McCowen with a huge grin.The Northern Michigan University EarthKeeper (NMU EK) Student Team sent volunteers literally hundreds of miles to all 19 collections sites.NMU EK project director Jennifer Simula said the students really enjoy doing their part to protect the environment.“They are wearing green T-shirts and they all have smiles on their faces,” said Simula as three students each emptied several large shopping bags full of medicines and person care products.“The students are greeting everybody as they come in, providing hospitality and letting everyone know what’s going on and that they are involved in a great project,” said Simula, who is a student leader in Lutheran Campus Ministry at NMU.The students have many projects and are working on setting up chapters at three other U.P. universities while still keeping up with classroom assignments.“The pharmacists brought knowledge of all the things we collect, the law officers praised us for getting these drugs in a secure place and out of the potential of being abused,” said Michael Rotter, a senior majoring in botany.“The amazing thing about the clean sweep, is me being a 21-year-old Buddhist college kid can sit down and talk to a 30 year old pharmacist father and we can both relate to the 50-year-old Methodist pastor,” Rotter said.The Earth Keepers “had people from the community drop off pharmaceuticals for friends and family members” adding it was such a “beautiful day” many walked to their collection site, said NMU EK Student Team member Ashley Ormson of Negaunee, a sophomore with a double major in International Relations and French.“I was very happy that everything went smoothly for the three hours, and we didn't encounter any complications,” said Ormson, a member of Messiah Lutheran Church and student leader with Lutheran Campus Ministry at NMU.NMU EK Student Team member Matt Nordine, who volunteered at the UMC church in St. Ignace, did not mind the four-hour round trip drive because “it was good to actively participate in Earth Day.”NMU EK team member Lauren Murphy said it is easy to mix her studies and getting good grades with several environmental projects because “we keep a good balance - on the weekends we go to our projects and help out and during the week we go to the Earth Keeper meetings after class.”“We collected a lot of medicines, old suntan lotions, eye drops, cosmetics and other stuff like that,” said NMU EK team member Kristy Knutson, while going thru bags of items dropped off by Marquette residents.“Lots of controlled substances came through that won't get sold or end up in the water,” said Rev. Tari Stage-Harvey, pastor of the Zion Lutheran Church in St. Ignace and Trinity Lutheran Church in Brevort (combined 100 parishioners).Rev. Jim Balfour, pastor of United Methodist of St. Ignace, said he was “happy to see people from so many churches help” with the clean sweep."It is wonderful to work in a community where the churches come together easily to address the threats to God's world," Pastor Balfour said.Pastor Balfour thanked Earth Keepers for the clean sweeps and literature that was passed out to the public because it helps "people understand how many of the common items of our daily lives can be a threat to the environment when they have out lived their usefulness."Presbyterian Earth Keeper team member Sue Piasini of Sagola said she "saw a flock of geese when I was going to the clean sweep and I thought ‘we are going to take care of the water for you' and it was such a nice sunny day."Three pharmacists from two retail stores "never stopped counting pills during the entire three hours," said Piasini, who volunteered at the Salvation Army Bread of Life Center in Iron Mountain."One plastic bag had over 2,000 pills and they had to sort them all out," said Piasini, a member of Grace Presbyterian Church in Sagola, MI.Members of several faith communities were among the volunteers and everyone was in a great mood "joking and having a fun time," said Piasini.Earth Keeper surveys were filled out by all 94 people, mostly senior citizens, who dropped off pharmaceuticals and many brought in drugs collected from family and friends, Piasini said."One person brought a full duffel bag" of pharmaceuticals, said Piasini, who has two grandchildren and is the mother of four grown children.Bishop Alexander K. Sample, Roman Catholic Diocese of Marquette, said he is “thrilled” with the results and was especially happy about the large youth involvement in protecting the environment and taking prescription drugs off the streets.“It is wonderful to see that the younger generation is at the heart of this Earth Keepers effort,” said Bishop Sample, who oversees 97 U.P. parishes and missions with 65,400 members. “They understand better than many, the connection between faith and care for creation, God's gift to us.”“We have to be concerned about our young people and the world we will hand on to them,” Bishop Sample said.“It is a way for us, as people of faith, to show our concern for the world that our Creator has entrusted to our care and stewardship,” Bishop Sample said.Catholic Earth Keeper team member Kyra Fillmore, a 29-year-old mother of two small children, said “people were unloading medicines from deceased relatives or from past illness.”"This collection was a quieter, more personal event," said Fillmore, a member of St. Louis the King Catholic Church in Harvey. “I'm grateful that Earth Keepers could provide a comfortable place for people to - in a sense - release past pains and help keep our water clean as well.”Catholic Earth Keeper Linda of Marquette, who drove five hours round trip to volunteer at the Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church in Ironwood, MI, called the clean sweep "a most spiritual event for cleansing the soul of medicinal toxins."O'Brien believes participants "shed the reminder of pain from loved ones or oneself physical medicinal needs.""Residents were able to make their home environment safer by disposing of unused or unwanted medicines and old health care products in an ethical way," O'Brien said. "They responded knowing that they are also contributing to the health and safety beyond their own doorstep."Retired steelworker Don Flint of Ironwood said his wife, Betty, cleaned out their medicine cabinets "to get rid of medications that we don't want any more" because "we've become more aware that it's not the right thing to do to flush pharmaceuticals down the toilet."A Lutheran, Flint, 64, dropped off old antibiotics, arthritis pain medicine, aspirin, Tylenol and lotions at the Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church collection site in Ironwood.The Flints are members of the (ELCA) Salem Lutheran Church in Ironwood, which recently formed the Christ Lutheran Parish with 3 other ELCA churches in Ironwood.Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan (EDNM) Bishop James Kelsey, who brought several old medications to a Catholic collection site, said he hopes that others will follow the example of the Earth Keeper team and that the clean sweeps are “a catalyst for a movement much bigger than our demographics” in remote northern Michigan with a population of about 260,000 people spread across hundreds of square miles.“Care for the environment is an expression of love for God and one another," said Kelsey, who serves as Bishop for 27 Episcopal congregations with 2,500 members in the U.P.Evangelical Lutheran Church of America Lutheran Bishop Thomas A. Skrenes of the Northern Great Lakes Synod (NGLS), who volunteered at the Fortune Lake Lutheran Bible Camp in Crystal Falls, said the public was happy to participate and had an “eagerness about being a part of the solution.”“It was a morning of solutions to difficult problems and I am proud of my church," said Bishop Skrenes, the head of 91 U.P. Lutheran congregations with 40,000 members.The NGLS also includes Finlandia University in Hancock and the Northland Lutheran Retirement Community in Marinette, WI.Jewish Earth Keeper Jacob Silver of Negaunee Township said future health of the planet will depend on how youth are motivated by adults - and protecting nature is clear in the annual teachings and observations of Tikkun Olam and Passover. “It is important that adults and parents are seen by youth to be carrying out the moral obligation for Tikkun Olam,” said Silver, one of 70 members of Temple Beth Sholom in Ishpeming, MI. “This creates a reality for the youth - thus, it spreads the message to care for the environment across generations.”Silver said “for Jews, the Earth is all we have.”“There is no mention, thus no concept, of existence after death in the five books of Moses, our Torah,” Silver said. “So, the welfare of the planet is always a prime commitment for Jews.”“There is nowhere else, and if we foul the Earth, we can be left ultimately homeless,” Silver said.Silver added that “the welfare of the Earth, and its parts, is a primary commitment for Jews.”“The Earth Keepers provide, not only an opportunity to help heal the Earth, but also collaboration with members of faith communities in the area - it is a wonderful organization,” Silver said.For the third year in a row, northern Michigan Zen Buddhists volunteered at the Grace United Methodist Church in Marquette, and the head priest said it is "the beginning of a tradition and it felt good to be back there on Earth Day" with UMC Rev. Charlie West and "his hospitable crew doing something for the earth and raising consciousness about yet another hazard that is degrading and poisoning our environment.""Each year during the Clean Sweeps, I see wider involvement and more publicity, and each year I see more evidence of young people participating, which is absolutely a necessity over the long haul," said Reverend Tesshin Paul Lehmberg, leader of the Lake Superior Zendo - a Marquette Zen Buddhist temple.Rev. Lehmberg said his 15-year-old daughter, Freya, and Rev. West’s 13-year-old son, Christopher, were excited to volunteer."We're passing along our enthusiasms, and our worry" over the environmental condition of the earth and that youth concern for nature and involvement is essential to the future of the planet, Rev. Lehmberg said.Dr. Rodney Clarken, chair of the Marquette Baha'i spiritual assembly who volunteered at a Lutheran church, said "the interfaith aspect of this project has given it a unique energy and power - when you see the results over the past three years" adding that he hopes people will see the connection between protecting the Earth and their spiritual beliefs."The environmental crisis is foundationally a spiritual crisis, and until you address those spiritual issues you will not have significant impact on the environment. ," said Clarken, NMU interim associate dean of Teacher Education and director of School of Education, adding there are about 40 members of Baha'i in Marquette (about 100 in Upper Peninsula) , and 144,000 in the United States (about 6 million world wide)."In our world of rapid and accelerating change, protecting our environment, both physically and spiritually, is increasingly critical and challenging," Clarken said. "Baha'is believe that only in seeking spiritual solutions to our material problems will we be able to sustain and advance civilization."Clarken said that Baha'ullah - the Prophet-Founder of Baha'i - wrote: "The earth is but one county, and mankind its citizens."United Methodist Church (UMC) Marquette District Superintendent (DS) Grant R. Lobb said the words "cleaner water" kept popping into his mind as he stood in "the warm parking lot watching a number of individuals and couples bringing in their outdated pills, tablets and syringes" into the basement of the Grace United Methodist Church in Marquette.The clean sweep means "cleaner water for all of us," said Lobb, DS of the Marquette District of the Detroit Annual Conference UMC, which has 8,372 parishioners and 60 northern Michigan congregations.Supt. Lobb said he is "impressed by the participation of our senior citizens, who not only took the time to look through their cupboards and cabinets for outdated medicines, but also made the effort to drive to the collection sites in order to turn in their items."Catholic Earth Keeper team member Kelly Mathews of Big Bay, and her husband, Chris Mathews, 45, brought numerous medicines bottles to the collection including 18-year-old prescription sinus medication they found while recently cleaning out their medicine cabinet.Mathews said she “could not believe the amount of unused medication” adding America’s medical system needs to find a way to prevent the waste of these drugs.“Some people brought in bottles with 50 to 80 more pills,” said Mathews, a 36-year-old mother of two who says her family switched to natural remedies years ago because they believe those medications are usually safer than prescription medicines.“I found the financial waste was totally unnecessary; those drugs were paid by someone - who would have thought that there would be so much going to waste,” Mathews said. “Many people commented on how much the drugs had cost and that they never actually used them. I wonder, why the excess?”Marquette Unitarian Universalist Congregation (MUUC) Earth Keeper team member Gail Griffith of Marquette agreed with Mathews that the waste of medicine in America is sad.“The pharmacist at Grace United Methodist told me that a drug I turned in, with an expiration date in 1992, was worth over $600,” Griffith said. “It had been prescribed but not completely used.”“It's too bad that so much money is used to buy pharmaceuticals that end up as trash, but we need to insure that trash doesn't end up harming our waters,” Griffith said.Presbyterian Earth Keeper team member Lynnea Kuzak, who volunteered at the First United Methodist Church in Manistique, said she was thanked by a resident who lost her husband to cancer last September and wished that all his medication had been properly disposed."Another person told me ‘I didn't like putting them down the toilet,’ " said Kuzak, 28, the director of Christian Education at First Presbyterian Church in Marquette.Presbyterian Pastor Dave Anderson of Iron Mountain is thankful for the interfaith clean sweeps because “I worry about the legacy our generation will leave for future ones, but it is good to know that we are doing something about it through opportunities like this.”Rev. Anderson, who serves as the chaplain for the Dickinson County Health Care System, added that “we all need to realize that the pick up and disposal of polluting waste like electronic equipment and outdated pharmaceuticals is making a big difference now and for future generations.”"As God's children, we feel like we are provided a concrete, tangible way to make a difference in our environment,” said Rev. Anderson, who is pastor of the Grace Presbyterian Church in Sagola.”Lutheran Joy Ibsen said on the Sunday morning following the clean sweep her Lutheran congregation sang “We Gather at the River-- the beautiful, the beautiful river.”I couldn't help but think how perfectly that song was for us on Earth Day,” Ibsen said. "To me, there is a special symbolism in this year's Clean Sweep--preventing pharmaceuticals from entering our water systems.”Ibsen said she was struck by how many prescriptions were thrown away because of serious side effects despite advances in medical care.“So many of our environmental problems come from the side effects of our advanced society - and every prescription has side effects,” said Ibsen, the organist at Trinity Lutheran Church in Trout Creek, MI.“One woman told me she had paid $140 for a certain prescriptions which gave her nothing but welts - she could not take it because of her allergic reaction, said Ibsen, lay minister, vice president of the church council at Trinity Lutheran.Ibsen said, like people, “the earth and water is allergic to many powerful prescriptions and chemicals.”Mary Klups of Ontonagon County brought in several types of pain and blood pressure medication, including two bottles of morphine, leftover from her late husband’s cancer treatment.“I had several drugs I have kept, waiting to dispose of in the right way,” said Klups, while dropping off pharmaceuticals at the White Pine Community United Methodist Church.“I also have several of my own medications including some very expensive medicine that did not work out because I had an allergic reaction to it,” Klups said. “I really appreciate having a way to get rid of all this.”White Pine pharmacist Chuck Blezek said “for years we told people to flush old prescriptions down the toilet - it is only lately that we have found out that it is the wrong thing to do.”“This is a very worthwhile thing Earth Keepers is doing,” Blezek said.Wayne Sparks of White Pine said he dropped off drugs “because I don’t have any other good way of disposing of these medications.”UMC Earth Keeper team member Rev. Charlie West said that church members “felt really good about providing this service for the community.”“These chemicals should not be loose in the creation - we're glad they will be disposed of carefully," said Rev. West, pastor of the Grace UMC in Marquette and project director of the first clean sweep. "We had some over the counter medicine from 20 years ago - and we saw a lot of the same people we have seen over the past two years” at the previous clean sweeps.Two weeks after a lengthy blizzard that dumped over five feet of snow, those participating enjoyed sun with temperatures in the 70's, that Rev. West described as “a good day to be disposing of chemicals carefully - so the creation will continue to be healthy and wholesome.”Messiah Lutheran Church Pastor Nancy Amacher praised the police for standing watch, pharmacists “who utilized their knowledge and expertise,” NMU students that “helped wherever needed” and others for “helping out on a sunny Saturday morning when they could have been sleeping in or doing their own thing.”“As people of faith we believe the earth is God's created gift and part of our stewardship is to care for ourselves as well as the forests, waterways, and their inhabitants,” said Rev. Amacher.Munising United Methodist Church site coordinator Phil Hansen said many participants collected from family and friends and “almost all people brought in large quantities of items” filling plastic grocery bags.“We had more controlled substances turned in than we expected,” said Hansen., adding security was provided by Munising Police Chief Steven Swanberg and Lt. Mike Nettleton. “People were happy that a pharmacist was on duty and their privacy was protected.”Hansen said many people were previously “unaware that throwing away medicine or flushing it was harmful and they will not do that in the future.”Gee Petruske collected items from his community in remote Grand Marais and made an hour-long special trip to Munising to deliver the items. Background:The EPA and Lindquist said the clean sweep targeted medicines because trace amounts of pharmaceuticals are turning up in America's rivers, lakes, and drinking water.The EPA says most treatment plants are not designed to filter out these medications.When pills or liquid medicines are poured down the sink or flushed down the toilet they remain diluted in the water supply after treatment and these trace amounts are suspected of causing a range of health problems, according to the EPA.As leftover and waste pharmaceuticals get flushed down drains, research is showing that they are increasingly being detected in our lakes and rivers at levels that could be causing harm to the environment and ecosystem," said Elizabeth LaPlante, senior manager for the EPA Great Lakes National Programs Office in Chicago, Ill"Specifically, reproductive and development problems in aquatic species, hormonal disruption and antibiotic resistance are some concerns associated with pharmaceuticals in our wastewater," LaPlante said."The Earth Keeper Pharmaceutical Collection event, therefore, is an excellent opportunity to prevent the introduction of these chemicals into Lake Superior and other water bodies," LaPlante said.Lindquist said that recent national studies have documented that over 80 percent of the rivers sampled "tested positive for a range of pharmaceuticals including antibiotics, birth control hormones, antidepressants, veterinary drugs and other medications."Lindquist said some urban centers have even detected "traces of pharmaceuticals in their tap water."Pharmaceuticals in some rivers have also been linked to behavioral and sexual mutations in species of fish, amphibians and birds, according to EPA studies.Pharmaceutical compounds known as endocrine disruptors have even been linked to neurological problems in children and increased incidence of some cancers, Lindquist said.There were 19 drop off sites across a 400 mile area (and in all 15 counties) of Michigan's Upper Peninsula that open Saturday, April 21, 2007 from 9 a.m. to noon local time on Earth Day eve.In 2006, over 320 tons of electronic waste (old/broken computers, cell phones etc.) were dropped off in just three hours by an estimated 10,000 U.P. residents. It took 9 semi trucks to haul the e-waste to an EPA approved recycling centers in the Lower Peninsula.In 2005, the first clean sweep collected 45 tons of household poisons and vehicle batteries. The hazardous waste, including over two pounds of mercury, were properly disposed of in various ways according to EPA and state guidelines.Both previous clean sweeps broke EPA collection records for the Great Lakes, organizers said.Thrivent Financial for Lutherans donated $5,000 for the 2006 clean sweep.Thrivent Financial also awarded a $75,000 Youth Leadership Initiative grant to Northern Michigan University’s Lutheran Campus Ministry in 2006 for development of an on-going program for college students to become involved in the ecological stewardship of the environment. Three other universities are also involved in the program, including Michigan Tech, Finlandia University and Lake Superior State University.Partners who helped make the clean sweep a success include U.S. Senator Carl Levin's Office, U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, the NMU Environmental Science Program and many others.Last fall, the Earth Keeper Initiative and its partners were honored with three international awards.The Earth Keeper Initiative received several prestigious awards in 2006 including an international Environmental Stewardship award from the Lake Superior Binational Program and the State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference (SOLEC) Award.The Earth Keeper Clean Sweep was named one of the 15 hardest working non-profit projects in America in 2006 by World Magazine, an international religious publication.The NMU EK team was created last April as the student wing of the Earth Keeper Intiative. The In addition to assisting in the annual clean sweeps, the NMU EK Student Team has numerous projects including (Adopt-A-Watershed) cleaning, testing, and developing a plan for six tributaries to three of the Great Lakes, recruiting students for chapters at three other U.P. universities, plus youth and adult outreach on practical everyday ways people can reduce human impact on the environment.The Superior Watershed Partnership has on-going programs that including Adopt-Your-Watershed, public environmental education, summer youth programs, land conservation, habitat restoration, energy conservation and numerous opportunities for volunteers to get "hands-on experience" in their communities, national parks, national forests and their local watershed, Lindquist said.For more information on the clean sweep (or the other projects) contact the Superior Watershed Partnership at 906-228-6095 and Greg at 906-475-5068, or email: earthkeeper@charter.netEarth Keeper TV:http://earthkeepers.blip.tv/Earth Keeper related website addresses are:The Superior Watershed Partnershiphttp://www.superiorwatersheds.orgThe Cedar Tree Institute:http://www.cedartreeinstitute.com/The Lake Superior Interfaith Communication Network:http://www.lakesuperiorinterfaith.com/
