Press Kit - Cinema2000 OF GE… · Web viewHow to define the word “invention ... for his role...

Production Information

“I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success. . .

Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.”

—Nikola Tesla, Austrian inventor of the radio

Throughout modern history, brilliant inventors without the resources to protect

their patents have been shoved aside. Antonio Meucci: telephone. Jacob Davis: blue

jeans. Nikola Tesla: radio. Hans Lippershey: telescope. All were men whose inventions

were patented by others with names much more familiar:

Alexander Graham Bell. Levi Strauss. Guglielmo Marconi. Galileo Galilei.

Based on the true story of university professor and part-time inventor Robert

Kearns’ (GREG KINNEAR of Little Miss Sunshine, As Good as It Gets) decades-long

battle with the U.S. automobile industry, Flash of Genius tells the tale of one man whose

fight to receive recognition for his ingenuity would come at a heavy price. But this

determined engineer refused to be silenced, and he took on the corporate titans in a battle

that nobody thought he could win.

The Kearns were a typical 1960s Detroit family, trying to live their version of the

American Dream. Local college professor Bob married schoolteacher Phyllis (LAUREN

GRAHAM of Because I Said So, Bad Santa) and, by their mid-thirties, had six kids who

brought them a hectic but satisfying Midwestern existence.

When inveterate tinkerer Bob invents the intermittent windshield wiper—a device

that would eventually be used by every car in the world. Bob is not only proud and

thrilled, but the Kearns think they have struck gold. Working with family friend Gil

Flash of Genius—Production Information 2

Previck (DERMOT MULRONEY of Zodiac, About Schmidt), they develop the

revolutionary product and take it to market. But their aspirations are dashed after the

automotive giants who embraced Bob’s device unceremoniously take his creation and

shun the man who imagined it.

Ignored, threatened and then buried in years of litigation, Bob is haunted by what

was done to his family and their future. He turns to attorneys, including Gregory Lawson

(ALAN ALDA of The Aviator, Crimes and Misdemeanors), to help him fight the

seemingly impossible battle…but their approach and willingness to settle leaves Bob

with the realization he alone must pursue the justice he needs. He becomes a man

obsessed. His conviction is simple: his life’s work—or for that matter, anyone’s work—

should be acknowledged by those who stand to benefit. And while paying the toll for

refusing to compromise his dignity, this everyday David will try the unthinkable: to bring

Goliath to his knees.

Veteran producer MARC ABRAHAM (Spy Game, Children of Men, Dawn of the

Dead) makes his directorial debut with Flash of Genius, directing from a screenplay by

PHILIP RAILSBACK (The Stars Fell on Henrietta) that is based on JOHN

SEABROOK’s The New Yorker article of the same name.

Abraham’s accomplished behind-the-scenes team includes Academy Award®-

nominated cinematographer DANTE SPINOTTI (The Insider, L.A. Confidential),

production designer HUGO LUCZYC-WYHOWSKI (Snatch, Dirty Pretty Things),

editor JILL SAVITT (Secret Window, The Lookout) and costume designer LUIS

SEQUEIRA (Charlie Bartlett, Breach). The music supervisors for the drama are G.

MARQ ROSWELL (The Great Debaters, An Unfinished Life) and ADAM SWART (The

Grand, The Brothers Solomon), and the composer is AARON ZIGMAN (The Notebook,

Bridge to Terabithia).

Spyglass Entertainment partners GARY BARBER (Wanted, Eight Below) and

ROGER BIRNBAUM (Memoirs of a Geisha, The Pacifier) produce the film with

MICHAEL LIEBER (Joe Gould’s Secret). JONATHAN GLICKMAN (The Lookout, 27

Dresses), J. MILES DALE (Hollywoodland, Talk to Me), THOMAS A. BLISS (Spy

Game, Children of Men) and ERIC NEWMAN (Children of Men, Dawn of the Dead)

executive produce the drama.


BEFORE THE PRODUCTION

Never Surrender:

Bob Kearns’ Lifelong Fight

“His remarkable success has made him one of the most famous inventors in the country, a hero to thousands of inventors with their

own patent-infringement horror stories to tell.”

—John Seabrook, The New Yorker, 1993

The phrase “flash of genius” refers to a 1941 U.S. Supreme Court decision, which

states that in order for his or her creation to qualify as an invention, the inventor “must

reveal the flash of creative genius, not merely the skill of the calling,” that inspired said

product. How to define the word “invention,” however, has been an ongoing conundrum,

and the answer is still vague at best. In the early days of the court’s decision, a person’s

invention was more protected and considered sacrosanct. As the power and influence of

corporations grew, the nature of that protection shifted to favor capitalist advancement.

The ‘60s was the golden era of the American automobile industry, and Detroit

was at the booming heart of it. Dr. Robert Kearns worked as an engineering professor at

Wayne State University in the Motor City in the late ‘60s and, in his off hours, was a

tenacious inventor in his basement workshop. Having damaged his eye in an accident

with an errant champagne cork on the evening of his wedding, Kearns was fascinated and

inspired by the adaptability of the human body. He grew curious to know if a windshield

wiper could be designed to work just like a blinking eye, drawing across the car’s glass

with intermittent timing, depending upon the needs of the driver in inclement weather—

from a smattering of raindrops to a more consistent downpour.

After many failed tries, the engineer invented a windshield wiper that worked

perfectly. He had created a solution to imperfect standard wipers: the intermittent

windshield wiper outfitted with “The Kearns Blinking Eye Motor.” While his creation

used three common electrical components that had long been used—a capacitor, resistor

and transistor—he put them together in a manner that no one had done before and no one


has done better since. His flash of genius had given birth to a superior safety device that

would be installed in millions of automobiles worldwide.

Though he and a family friend who worked as an auto parts supplier secured the

patent for his “Blinking Eye,” Kearns did not know that the Big Three automobile

manufacturers had been working on the same idea. However, they had not cracked the

problem yet. Kearns went to juggernaut automotive manufacturer Ford with his

invention, but after a brief stint as a consultant, he was told Ford was no longer interested

in the project and his assistance was no longer required.

A couple of years passed before the engineer began seeing new cars on the road

that, to his astonishment, were using the very intermittent windshield wiper he had

designed. After he took one apart, he discovered that it was the invention he’d brought to

Ford. The company claimed it had already been working on the idea and didn’t need to

use his patent to manufacture and install the wiper into its line of cars.

Kearns knew they were not telling the truth.

Once he understood the gravity of the task at hand (and the fact that few attorneys

were interested in a seemingly impossible and possibly endless battle), Kearns enlisted

his children and wife to help with his fight. But the deeper his obsession became, the

more he put his family at risk. His wife Phyllis gave it everything she had—on top of

raising their six kids—but her dedication wasn’t enough. She finally left him.

Mrs. Kearns recalls of her decision: “It was like he had a drug problem—that

obsession was so strong. I said to him one day, ‘Bob, I don’t know if I can take anymore

of this. This is killing me.’ And he said, ‘This is no way to live a life, and without the

lawsuit, there’s no life.’ I realized how deep he was in it and the fact that he was losing

his patent to these guys because they plucked it away from him.”

Much of the younger Kearns’ childhoods—and, for that matter, lives—were spent

studying legal papers, researching patent law and scrutinizing jurors. At one point or

another, five of the six kids were employed by their father to assist in the quest. Eldest

son Dennis explains: “It was gradual over many years; stepping a little further out until

suddenly we realized we were in quicksand up to our necks, and we were alone.”

Though the designer had initially hired expensive lawyers to try his case, when

Ford came back with settlement offers in the multiple millions, he turned them down.


The fiery professor with an everyman sensibility was committed to receiving credit for

his invention and receiving an apology from the company that took away his dream of

manufacturing the “Blinking Eye” with his family. Kearns was no longer just an inventor

who had a brilliant idea. His focus changed to crusader against injustice.

His story, despite the fact that he did what no one before him could have, is a tale

of the price of victory. His persistence was the source of both his success and his

undoing. It was never about personal gain for Dr. Robert Kearns; it was about fighting

exploitation by those with more money and power. He fought to the end with enormous

personal cost to his family, career and sanity. In the end, the jury found that Ford did

infringe patents held by Kearns and awarded him more than $10 million. Three years

later, he was awarded $18.7 million from the Chrysler Corporation.

When this case first went to court, the most Ford had ever paid anyone for a

patent was 11 cents per unit. Toward the end of the family’s lawsuit, inventors were

slapping Kearns on the back because they were receiving an unheard of two dollars per

unit. Not to mention the fact that, today, the auto industry still uses Kearns’ “Blinking

Eye Motor” mechanism for the windshield wipers installed in most cars.

To this day, nothing works better.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Producer to Director:

Adapting Flash of Genius

Robert Kearns’ lengthy travails with automotive giants and patent law were

chronicled in John Seabrook’s 1993 article for The New Yorker titled “Flash of Genius.”

Producer Michael Lieber was fascinated by the story, optioned Seabrook’s article and

brought screenwriter Philip Railsback onto the project to craft the script. In 1998, they

approached veteran producer Marc Abraham.

Abraham remembers that he was touched by the family’s plight: “I read the article

John wrote. I just loved everything about it—the American Dream, the experience, the

disappointment, the fact that Bob was a professor. I was a producer at the time, but I said

to Mike, Phil and John, ‘Just so you know, I’m planning on directing this movie. I don’t


know when and I don’t know under what circumstances, but I’m going to direct it.’ And,

in the end, that’s what actually happened.”

The director saw all the elements of a film with which he would make his

directorial debut in Flash of Genius. “Marc’s eyes lit up,” recounts Lieber. “Here was a

family man living the American Dream who risked everything to go up against the big

system for a principle he believed in. The most amazing thing about Kearns is that he

was not particularly interested in money. He wanted justice.”

Throughout the next decade, the project would gel as Abraham continued to

produce critical and commercial successes—from Spy Game, starring Brad Pitt and

Robert Redford, and the surprise hit teen comedy Bring It On to the reimagined Dawn of

the Dead and director Alfonso Cuarón’s dystopic vision of a near future, Children of

Men. When the time was right, Abraham secured Spyglass Entertainment’s Roger

Birnbaum and Gary Barber as fellow producers for the film, and Abraham stepped into

the director’s role.

Unbeknownst to the producers, Dr. Kearns had turned down several other offers

from Hollywood. It took some time for him and his relatives to trust anyone with the

story of their lives. Eventually, the director and his team won the Kearns over with their

passion for the project and promise to honor the family’s story by keeping the film as

close to the truth as possible. The drama they wanted to make would be easier to hew

quite close to actual events, as the Kearns family provided documentation, home movies,

photographs and anecdotal information about the landmark case. Oldest son Dennis

Kearns represented his mother and siblings, and he worked with Marc Abraham and crew

for nine years while the project was finalized.

Of taking a chance on a new director, producer Barber explains, “We had

tremendous confidence in Marc because he had all the makings of a great director going

in. He’s well versed in all aspects of filmmaking; he’s well organized, articulate and has

time for all of the actors and crew. We also knew he would assemble the right team to

tell this authentic underdog story.”

Producer Birnbaum agrees with Barber’s assessment: “I knew Marc as an

experienced filmmaker who knows how to tell a story. He produces, he writes, he loves

making movies. Marc thought this project would be a great choice for his first turn as a


director because of the roller-coaster ride Kearns took for so many years. The oddness of

the invention, and the iconic nature of the automotive industry in the ‘60s and ‘70s all

wove together to make a great story.”

With the principal filmmakers set and the Kearns family’s blessing secured, the

production would begin selecting the cast of friends and foes who would make Flash of

Genius a reality.

Casting the Film

It was paramount when casting the role of Robert Kearns for Flash of Genius that

audiences would believe this is a well-intentioned man who cherishes his family, but

loses himself in an unimaginable lawsuit. We want to like him; we want to believe in and

root for him even during the times he becomes unlikable. Enter actor Greg Kinnear.

“Refreshing and inspiring” are the words Kinnear uses to describe his draw to the

story. “The richness of character and the integrity of what Kearns was fighting for—not

the money, but his dignity and what was right. That kind of purity is rare.”

Director Abraham’s solid track record as a producer inspired the confidence in the

performer it would take to film the part. Kinnear continues: “Marc’s deeply passionate

about this story on both personal and cinematic levels, and he stuck to it and fought for it

and found the truth of it.”

To prepare for the role, Kinnear researched the Kearns’ family story and began to

assemble a portrait of the complex inventor and his family. He immersed himself in

articles about the case and studied the family’s home movies and an appearance by the

inventor on David Letterman’s late night show that captured the essence of the engineer.

The performer was keen to not simply paint Kearns as an infallible hero, but a

father and a husband who made some very difficult decisions on behalf of his family,

some of which devastated them. “This was a story worth telling, a fight ultimately worth

fighting,” he notes. “Even if you were watching him go through this, there are moments

where you want to stand up and say, ‘Bob, snap out of it!’ But he goes through this

battle, and you ultimately respect him for it.”


Of Kinnear’s appeal and why he felt he was the right fit for the project, Abraham

surmises: “Greg allows himself to go to certain extremes that a lot of actors are afraid to.

He’s comfortable taking risks and playing both the greatest guy in the world, as well as a

guy who may have crossed a line. This makes him attractive as an actor and empathetic

to an audience. He gave every last ounce of blood and talent to the role, and we were so

in sync about what we admire and appreciate about Bob.”

Lauren Graham was cast as Phyllis Kearns, the long-suffering teacher and Kearns

family matriarch who watches as her husband’s obsession with legal retribution pulls

their family apart. Of his decision to work with Graham, Abraham reflects: “Phyllis’

character is critical, and we needed an actress who the audience could relate to and

therefore understand the choice she makes at a time in history when it was more difficult.

She also had to have the bearing and willingness to completely invest in a character who

has six children. Lauren’s a really smart, well-trained and committed actress who had the

skill and talent to manage all of these elements beautifully.”

The actor offers why she was intrigued to portray a woman who struggled so

much, and she offers the counterpoint that many in the Kearns family felt as they were in

the midst of hell: “There are pieces of this movie that I feel could be about almost any

addiction. What starts as his belief that he’s fighting for what’s right turns into an

obsession with getting everyone to say, ‘This was yours; we stole it from you, and we

were wrong.’

“It’s a classic David and Goliath story,” continues Graham, “man against the

machine. Rather than see the big picture and understand he may not get everything he

wants, there’s no room for compromise for him. What begins as something that the

family is behind, that they’re a team in, turns into his singular obsession—a vision that

goes from something they’re all championing to something that’s disruptive and

difficult.”

Flash of Genius’ supporting cast includes Dermot Mulroney as Kearns’ friend and

business partner, Gil Previck. Previck initially supports Kearns, but quickly realizes that

if he hopes to do business in Detroit for the next few decades, he cannot and will not take

on Ford. Explains Mulroney of his character’s actions: “When Bob decides to take the


automotive companies to court, that’s when Gil has to say, ‘As a businessman, I’m out of

it.’ He separates from Bob so he can still do business in Detroit with other car products.”

Abraham said of the performer: “Dermot is a deceptively complex actor. He has

a casual demeanor that makes what he does appear easy. I loved the idea of him playing

a tough, pragmatic businessman and so did he.”

Veteran actor Alan Alda was asked to portray Gregory Lawson, a lawyer who

verses Kearns in the fine art of justice in America’s courts. Discusses Kinnear of

Lawson’s role: “As his attorney, Lawson says, ‘We’re gonna beat these guys up. We’re

gonna resolve this,’ the way high-powered lawyers do with major corporations guilty of

these kinds of misdoings. As time goes on, you realize that what his attorney’s version of

resolve is and what Bob’s version of resolve is are two entirely different things.”

For Alda, a major attraction to the role involved one of the scenes in which his

character relates to Kearns what a lawyer once said to Alda: “It was as discouraging to

me as it is to Kearns in the movie,” he remembers. “My lawyer said, ‘It’s the way things

work.’ It’s very surprising if you are looking to right a wrong and you find out the only

way it can be righted is through a settlement. If you accept the settlement, it looks like all

you wanted was the money and that you weren’t out for justice. And if you don’t accept

it, you may spend the rest of your life fighting.”

One of the most challenging aspects of casting was finding two sets of six young

actors to portray the Kearns children as they age over the decades-long court battle. The

younger and older actors had to be believably similar, and they all had to look like

siblings…as well as potential offspring of Greg Kinnear and Lauren Graham.

Twelve young performers hailing from all over North America were found to fit

the bill. Up-and-comer Jake Abel leads the cast of Kearns children as teenage Dennis

and, like most of the other young actors, was able to meet his real-life counterpart on set.

“It was surreal,” says Abel. “Here I am talking to the real Dennis Kearns while I’m made

up to look like him 30 years ago. I just hope I do the role justice.”


Capturing the American Dream:

Design and Locations

Flash of Genius was lensed in and around Toronto during summer 2007.

Because the film is based on actual people—many of whom are still alive—and events

that spanned 13 years (from 1969 to 1982), the departments of production design,

costumes, props and set decoration went to great lengths to make the movie feel

authentic. Down to minutiae, it was important for Abraham’s crew to do justice to the

Kearns’ story and reflect their world accurately—to the art and wallpaper on the walls,

period-appropriate clothing and the actual model of typewriter the engineer used to create

documents that outlined his case.

One of the most important things for the director was to design a realistic-looking,

gritty film that felt as if it was released in the period in which it was shot. Abraham

didn’t want colors to jump out or the time frame to feel unrealistic. To accomplish his

goal, he and the producers brought on board production designer Hugo Luczyc-

Wyhowski and Oscar®-nominated cinematographer (and frequent Michael Mann

collaborator) Dante Spinotti.

Flash of Genius offered designer Luczyc-Wyhowski the opportunity to create a

portrait of a family in a period well known to much of the audience. That presented a set

of challenges far different from designing a movie set in a much older era; it forced a

higher degree of accuracy. The first step in his process involved a good amount of

research. Luczyc-Wyhowski’s team scouted Detroit public libraries and archives, where

they found that many of the Kearns’ 1980s court cases were well documented with

photographs and videotape.

The second step was collaborating with Abraham and the Kearns family. The

production designer commends: “Marc was specific about his vision and picked a great

group of creative people to bring that vision to life. Each of the Kearns have been

invaluable by sharing details of their home, anecdotes and family eccentricities.”

The filmmakers believed they could achieve the best lighting by lensing the new

Kearns’ home on location. Indeed, they found a similar house in Toronto to the one in

which the family had lived in Detroit. As Kearns had surrounded his clan with the


paraphernalia of his dreams, their “new home” was designed to create a natural and

realistic portrait of an obsessive, middle-class engineer within a chaotic setting.

Dante Spinotti was just the man Abraham wanted for the job of director of

photography. The director doesn’t disguise his excitement at landing the well-respected

filmmaker: “From the moment I realized we were actually making this film, I thought

only of having Dante by my side. He’s a true artist and an even truer man. Working with

him was one of the greatest joys of my career.”

The renowned DP offers that story always dictates the angle with which he

decides to shoot. His technique involved lensing a scene with two cameras rolling the

majority of the time. “I like the dynamic of having two cameras, especially when you

have good performances,” Spinotti provides, “because it makes your coverage much

more dynamic, and you capture whatever’s great that’s coming from the actors.”

Spinotti used both Panavision’s high-end digital camera, the Genesis, as well as

traditional film stock to shoot Flash of Genius. The Genesis has proven itself in a variety

of difficult locations and delivered portability, sensitivity, depth-of-field control, range

and color that made shooting multiple rain sequences easier. “We used the Genesis for

interiors and technically complicated sequences [like rain] and used film for exteriors,”

Spinotti explains. As for the difference between digital and film: “I take a different

approach mentally and technically, although the fundamental concept is the same.”

Costume designer Luis Sequeira kept the wardrobe realistic and moving from one

period of fashion to the next between 1969 and 1982. He worked with Kinnear to give

Bob Kearns a very limited wardrobe over the course of those 13 years. Costuming

challenges on this film also included dressing 12 kids at various ages through the years.

One fashion Lauren Graham was glad to see has not withstood the test of time is

the liberal use of synthetics made popular in the era. She laughs of the challenge offered

by Sequeira, “I learned that polyester doesn’t breathe, and the A-line shape of a tent dress

makes it a hard thing to wear.”

The true test of design accuracy came when the Kearns family visited the set; they

agreed that there was an overwhelming feeling of coming home. Dennis Kearns was

particularly floored by how much his father’s laboratory looked like the actual basement

where he and his siblings helped their dad solder circuit boards.


****

Robert Kearns passed away on February 9, 2005, from complications due to

cancer. He was 77 years old. Best summarizing his family’s feelings about having their

journey translated for screen is Mrs. Kearns. She concludes: “I never would have thought

that people would care that much about our story. When it sank in that this was really

going to happen, I thought, ‘Wow, people care about what happened.’”

It was as moving for the cast and crew to grasp that they were telling a very

unexpected American success story that was four decades in the making. Summarizes

Greg Kinnear: “Just meeting the family and seeing their reaction to Bob’s story being

realized in a movie was something I won’t forget. The idea that we all worked in tough

conditions and long hours to try to get a story out there that has real meaning. I loved

being a part of that.”

The final words go to our director: “Bob fought a battle that somehow has lived

on. I’m a believer that everybody’s life is important and as long as they do their job well,

they deserve their dignity. He did something important because he fought for a principle

that he believed in. I don’t know what’s more important than that.”

Universal Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment present Greg Kinnear in Flash of

Genius, starring Lauren Graham, Dermot Mulroney and Alan Alda. The music

supervisors are G. Marq Roswell and Adam Swart; the music is by Aaron Zigman. The

film’s costume designer is Luis Sequeira; the film is edited by Jill Savitt, ACE. Flash of

Genius’ production designer is Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski; its director of photography is

Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC. The drama’s executive producers are Jonathan Glickman, J.

Miles Dale, Thomas A. Bliss and Eric Newman. Flash of Genius is produced by Gary

Barber, Roger Birnbaum and Michael Lieber. It is based on The New Yorker article “The

Flash of Genius” by John Seabrook. The film is written by Philip Railsback and directed

by Marc Abraham. © 2008 Universal Studios and Spyglass Entertainment Funding, LLC

www.flashofgenius.net

http://www.flashofgenius.net/


ABOUT THE CAST

GREG KINNEAR (Bob Kearns) continues to build upon his already impressive

resume with roles in the most diverse of projects. The busy Academy Award® nominee

recently starred in the comedy hit Baby Mama, alongside Tina Fey, and will soon be seen

in the comedy Ghost Town, with Ricky Gervais, and Universal Pictures’ Green Zone,

with Matt Damon.

Kinnear gave memorable performances in the indie hit Little Miss Sunshine and

the romantic comedy Feast of Love, then segued from beauty pageant and romance to the

gridiron and starred opposite Mark Wahlberg in Disney’s Invincible, and then on to

Richard Linklater’s Fast Food Nation. Kinnear starred in the dark comedy The Matador,

with Pierce Brosnan and in Bad News Bears, opposite Billy Bob Thornton; lent his voice

as Ratchet in the highly successful animated film Robots; and starred in Auto Focus, the

critically acclaimed biopic of actor and comedian Bob Crane. Kinnear starred opposite

Mel Gibson in the feature We Were Soldiers, focusing on the Vietnam War battle of La

Drang Valley, and lit up the small screen as well in the emotion-driven Norman Jewison

HBO movie Dinner With Friends, alongside Toni Collette, Dennis Quaid and Andie

MacDowell.

Kinnear’s other credits include the romantic comedy Someone Like You, with

Ashley Judd and Hugh Jackman; the Farrelly brothers’ comedy Stuck On You, in which

he co-starred with Matt Damon; Sam Raimi’s supernatural thriller The Gift, alongside

Cate Blanchett and Katie Holmes; and director Neil LaBute’s black comedy Nurse Betty,

opposite Renée Zellweger, Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock. Kinnear starred alongside

Jack Nicholson as his unfortunate neighbor Simon in James L. Brooks’ Academy

Award®-nominated film As Good As It Gets. His performance garnered him an Academy

Award® nomination. Kinnear made his feature film debut in the Sydney Pollack-directed

remake Sabrina, co-starred in Nora Ephron’s hit romantic comedy You’ve Got Mail and

Mike Nichol’s What Planet Are You From? and appeared in a cameo role as Captain

Amazing in Mystery Men. Kinnear first gained prominence as the animated,

wisecracking host of E! Entertainment Television’s Talk Soup in 1991, for which he

garnered an Emmy Award and rave reviews and established a cult-like following. In


1994, after three successful seasons with Talk Soup, Kinnear left the show permanently

and became the host and executive producer of his own NBC late-night talk show, Later

With Greg Kinnear.

LAUREN GRAHAM (Phyllis Kearns) is best known for her critically acclaimed

portrayal of Lorelai Gilmore on Gilmore Girls. She received Golden Globe, Screen

Actors Guild and Television Critics Association awards and became a producer on the

series.

Graham was recently seen in Universal’s hit romantic comedy Because I Said So,

opposite Diane Keaton and Mandy Moore, and alongside Steve Carell in the comedy

Evan Almighty. Graham’s additional feature film roles include the dark comedy Bad

Santa, opposite Billy Bob Thornton; The Pacifier, opposite Vin Diesel; The Amateurs,

opposite Jeff Bridges and Tim Blake Nelson; Sweet November, starring Keanu Reeves;

the thriller Nightwatch, starring Patricia Arquette and Ewan McGregor: and as Renée

Zellweger’s best friend and confidante in the Meryl Streep drama One True Thing.

In addition to Gilmore Girls, Graham’s list of television credits includes

parts in Caroline in the City, NewsRadio, Law & Order, Seinfeld, 3rd Rock from the Sun,

Conrad Bloom and Townies.

DERMOT MULRONEY (Gil Previck) will soon be seen in Burn After Reading,

starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, and Jolene, directed by Dan Ireland and based on

the E.L. Doctorow story. Mulroney also just wrapped an indie titled Run for Her Life,

directed by Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur, in which he stars opposite Diane

Kruger. His most recent film credits include roles opposite Elisabeth Shue in the

independent drama Gracie, directed by Davis Guggenheim, and David Fincher’s Zodiac,

which also starred Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr.

Additional credits include roles in The Family Stone, Georgia Rule, Must Love

Dogs, The Wedding Date, Undertow, About Schmidt, The Safety of Objects, My Best

Friend’s Wedding, Lovely & Amazing, Griffin & Phoenix, Trixie, Goodbye Lover, Where

the Money Is, Copycat, Living in Oblivion and How to Make an American Quilt.


Mulroney’s earlier work includes critically acclaimed performances in Longtime

Companion; Where the Day Takes You; Samantha, with Martha Plimpton; Staying

Together, with Stockard Channing; Peter Bogdanovich’s The Thing Called Love; Young

Guns, with Kiefer Sutherland; Point of No Return, with Bridget Fonda; Blake Edwards’

comedy Sunset; and Career Opportunities, opposite Jennifer Connelly.

His television work includes a multi-episode guest-starring role on the hit NBC

comedy Friends; the Lifetime Network movie-of-the-week The Memory Keeper’s

Daughter; the HBO film Long Gone; ABC’s four-hour drama Family Pictures, with

Anjelica Huston; and the TNT feature The Heart of Justice.

ALAN ALDA (Gregory Lawson) has the distinction of being nominated for an

Oscar®, a Tony and an Emmy Award—as well as publishing a best-selling book—all in

the same year (2005). His Emmy Award nomination was for his role on The West Wing.

Alda also received a Tony Award nomination for his role in the Broadway revival of

David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross. On film that year, he appeared in Martin

Scorsese’s The Aviator, for which he received an Academy Award® nomination and a

BAFTA Award nomination.

In 2006, Alda received his 32nd Emmy Award nomination and won his sixth

Emmy for his appearance on The West Wing (Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama

Series). He has earned international recognition as an actor, writer and director. In

addition to The Aviator, Alda’s films include Crimes and Misdemeanors; Everyone Says I

Love You; Flirting With Disaster; Manhattan Murder Mystery; And the Band Played On;

Same Time, Next Year; California Suite; The Seduction of Joe Tynan, which he also

wrote; and The Four Seasons, Sweet Liberty, A New Life and Betsy’s Wedding, all of

which he wrote and directed.

On Broadway, Alda has appeared as the physicist Richard Feynman in the

play QED. He starred in the first American production of the international hit play Art.

In addition to his nomination for Glengarry, he was also nominated for the Tony Award

for his performances in Neil Simon’s Jake’s Women and the musical The Apple Tree.

Other appearances on Broadway include The Owl and the Pussycat, Purlie Victorious

and Fair Game for Lovers, for which he received a Theatre World Award.


Alda played Hawkeye Pierce on the classic television series M*A*S*H

and wrote and directed many of the episodes. His 32 Emmy nominations include one in

1999 for his performance on ER. In 1994, he was inducted into the Television Hall of

Fame. Alda hosted the award-winning series Scientific American Frontiers on PBS for

11 years, interviewing leading scientists from around the world. Other television

performances include Truman Capote’s The Glass House and The Caryl Chessman Story,

for which he received an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Caryl Chessman, an

inmate who spent 12 years on death row.

His first memoir, “Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: And Other Things I’ve

Learned,” became a New York Times best seller, as did his second, “Things I Overheard

While Talking to Myself.”

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

MARC ABRAHAM (Directed by) makes his directing debut with Flash of

Genius. Abraham, president of film production company Strike Entertainment, has

produced many major motion pictures over the past 20 years, most recently Alfonso

Cuarón’s Children of Men, the three-time Academy Award®-nominated film that offers a

searing glimpse into the future, starring Clive Owen, Michael Caine and Julianne Moore.

Other motion pictures produced by Abraham include Universal’s hit Dawn of the

Dead, a successful remake of the cult favorite; The Rundown, starring Dwayne “The

Rock” Johnson, Seann William Scott and Christopher Walken; Spy Game (produced with

Douglas Wick), starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt; The Emperor’s Club, starring

Kevin Kline; and Tuck Everlasting, starring Oscar® winners Sir Ben Kingsley, William

Hurt and Sissy Spacek.

In 2000, Abraham produced the summer blockbuster Bring It On, starring Kirsten

Dunst, as well as The Family Man, starring Nicolas Cage and Téa Leoni. He also

produced A Thousand Acres, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, starring Michelle

Pfeiffer, Jessica Lange and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Abraham has executive produced many

films, including the action thriller Air Force One, starring Harrison Ford; The Hurricane,


starring Denzel Washington and directed by Norman Jewison; and For Love of the Game,

starring Kevin Costner.

Prior to founding Strike Entertainment, Abraham was a founding partner and

president of Beacon Communications, the successful financing/production company

founded in 1990. Abraham also spearheaded the formation of Beacon Records, which

released five soundtracks that sold more than four million units worldwide.

Abraham has several new projects in development, including Trouble Is My

Business, an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s detective-noir classic, starring Clive

Owen, and a remake of the Universal Pictures’ classic Creature From the Black Lagoon.

Late writer PHILIP RAILSBACK (Written by) previously wrote Warner Bros.’

The Stars Fell on Henrietta. The film starred Robert Duvall and Aidan Quinn, was

directed by James Keach and produced by Clint Eastwood’s Malpaso Productions and

Railsback’s brother Steve. Prior to that, Railsback wrote La Cruz de Iberia, in which his

brother also starred.

One of Railsback’s final screenplays, Barstow, will be brought to the big screen

and directed by his brother for Monterrey Pictures.

JOHN SEABROOK (Based on The New Yorker Article “The Flash of Genius”

by) has been a contributor to The New Yorker since 1989 and became a staff writer in

1993. Seabrook has addressed a range of issues including technology, genealogy, design

and natural history.

Seabrook is the author of “Nobrow: The Culture of Marketing—The Marketing

of Culture,” which was published in 2000, and “Deeper: My Two-Year Odyssey in

Cyberspace,” which was published in 1997.

Before joining the magazine, Seabrook was a contributing editor at Vanity Fair

and a senior writer at Manhattan Inc. magazine. His work has also appeared in Harper’s,

The Nation, Vogue, Travel + Leisure and The Village Voice.

Seabrook lives in New York City.


GARY BARBER (Produced by) founded the production, finance and distribution

company Spyglass Entertainment with partner Roger Birnbaum, where he serves as co-

chairman and CEO.

The company’s savvy production choices from the beginning led to the

phenomenal box-office success of The Sixth Sense, starring Bruce Willis, which went on

to gross more than $661 million worldwide and garnered six Academy Award®

nominations. Further successes include The Count of Monte Cristo, with Jim Caviezel

and Guy Pearce; Keeping the Faith, with Ben Stiller and Edward Norton; Shanghai

Noon, with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson, and its sequel, Shanghai Knights; and the

dynamic teaming of Al Pacino and Colin Farrell in The Recruit.

Barber executive produced and co-financed two milestone movies: Bruce

Almighty, starring Jim Carrey and Jennifer Aniston, which grossed over $485 million in

worldwide box office and is considered one of the blockbuster comedies of all time, and

Seabiscuit, the tale of a legendary racehorse, starring Tobey Maguire, Chris Cooper and

Jeff Bridges, which received seven Oscar® nominations with its moving story of triumph

over adversity.

Barber went on to produce The Pacifier and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the

Galaxy. The Pacifier, a family comedy starring Vin Diesel, earned approximately $200

million in worldwide box-office sales, while The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, an

adaptation of the Douglas Adams best seller, crossed the $100 million mark globally.

Spyglass also co-financed and Gary Barber executive produced The Legend of

Zorro, the sequel to the 1998 smash hit The Mask of Zorro, with Catherine Zeta-Jones

and Antonio Banderas and directed by Martin Campbell, and Memoirs of a Geisha, based

on the best-selling novel, helmed by Rob Marshall (Chicago) and starring Ziyi Zhang and

Ken Watanabe. Memoirs of a Geisha earned Spyglass three Oscar® wins out of six

nominations, bringing a total of 26 nominations to the company.

2006’s successful Walt Disney Pictures’ Eight Below was co-financed by

Spyglass and executive produced by Barber. In 2007, Spyglass produced and financed

the releases of The Invisible and The Lookout (through Miramax Films and Touchstone

Pictures, respectively). Last summer, Spyglass saw the releases of Evan Almighty, the


comedy follow-up to Bruce Almighty, and Underdog, Walt Disney Pictures’ live-action

feature of the beloved classic cartoon series star.

This year is revving up to be a prolific one for Spyglass, with the out-of-the-gate

winning release of 27 Dresses, which Barber produced and Spyglass co-financed,

followed by the release of The Ruins, a horror/thriller produced in association with

DreamWorks. Summer 2008 brought to theaters three major Spyglass releases: M. Night

Shyamalan’s latest, The Happening, a paranoid thriller released by Sony; the hit action-

thriller Wanted, starring James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie; and The

Love Guru, the latest comedy co-written by and starring Mike Myers, with Justin

Timberlake and Jessica Alba co-starring. Spyglass is currently in postproduction on Four

Christmases, starring Oscar® winner Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn.

A seasoned veteran of the business, Barber has been directly responsible for

operating companies in feature film production and distribution, foreign theatrical, video

and TV distribution, exhibition, pre-recorded music and music publishing. He was

responsible for building these companies from the ground up.

Barber is a former vice chairman and chief operating officer of Morgan Creek

Productions. During his eight-and-a-half years at the company, he was in charge of all

day-to-day operations for each of Morgan Creek’s business entities, including feature

film production, foreign distribution, music, exhibition and interactive.

Gary Barber has produced or executive produced more than 60 feature films and

television shows, including the 1994 hit that rocketed Jim Carrey to stardom, Ace

Ventura: Pet Detective, and its highly successful sequel, Ace Ventura: When Nature

Calls, as well as the 1991 blockbuster Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin

Costner.

ROGER BIRNBAUM (Produced by) founded the production, finance and

distribution company Spyglass Entertainment with partner Gary Barber, where they share

the title of co-chairman and CEO. The company develops and finances all of its projects

independently.

Spyglass Entertainment’s box-office successes range from The Sixth Sense, with

Bruce Willis, which earned $661 million in worldwide box-office sales, to the smash hit


Bruce Almighty, starring Jim Carrey, which earned $485 million. Also included in the

Spyglass library are Oscar®-nominated favorites such as Seabiscuit, with Tobey Maguire,

and The Insider, with Russell Crowe and Al Pacino. In total, Spyglass has accumulated

more than 26 Oscar® nominations, including three wins. Other company successes

include The Count of Monte Cristo with Jim Caviezel and Guy Pearce; Keeping the

Faith, with Ben Stiller and Edward Norton; the dual hits Shanghai Noon and its sequel,

Shanghai Knights, with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson; The Recruit, with Al Pacino and

Colin Farrell; The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, with Sam Rockwell and Mos Def;

and the smash family film The Pacifier, with Vin Diesel.

Spyglass also co-financed and executive produced The Legend of Zorro, the

sequel to The Mask of Zorro, with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Antonio Banderas and

directed by Martin Campbell; and Memoirs of a Geisha, the adaptation of the best-selling

novel, directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago). Both films were released internationally by

Spyglass and have each grossed more than $150 million in worldwide box-office sales to

date. Memoirs of a Geisha drew numerous kudos and awards, culminating in three

Academy Awards®.

In 2006, Birnbaum co-financed and produced the action adventure Eight Below,

based on the true survival story about a group of sled dogs in Antarctica. The film had

strong legs at the box office, earning more than $120 million worldwide. Spyglass also

produced and financed the crime thriller The Lookout, helmed by acclaimed writer-turned

first-time-director Scott Frank. In the summer of 2007, Spyglass saw the releases of

Evan Almighty, the comedy follow-up to Bruce Almighty, and Underdog, the live-action

feature with Walt Disney Pictures, based on the beloved cartoon series.

In 2008, Spyglass has co-financed a bountiful roster of films, including the hugely

successful 27 Dresses, with Katherine Heigl, which Birnbaum produced; The Ruins, a

horror/thriller produced in association with DreamWorks; M. Night Shyamalan’s latest,

The Happening, a paranoid thriller; the hit action-thriller Wanted, starring James

McAvoy, Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie; and The Love Guru, a comedy co-written

by and starring Mike Myers with Justin Timberlake and Jessica Alba. Spyglass is

currently in postproduction on the holiday comedy Four Christmases, starring Oscar®


winner Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn, which New Line has slated for release at

the end of this year.

Prior to founding Spyglass Entertainment, Birnbaum co-founded Caravan

Pictures, where he was responsible for such box-office hits as Rush Hour, Six Days Seven

Nights, Inspector Gadget, Grosse Pointe Blank, The Three Musketeers, Angels in the

Outfield and While You Were Sleeping.

Before joining Caravan, Birnbaum held the titles of president of worldwide

production and executive vice president at 20th Century Fox, where he developed such

films as Home Alone, Sleeping With the Enemy, Edward Scissorhands, Hot Shots!, My

Cousin Vinny, The Last of the Mohicans, Die Hard 2 and Mrs. Doubtfire, among others.

Prior to that, Birnbaum served as president of production for United Artists, where he

developed the Oscar®-winning film and all-time cinema favorite Rain Man.

Earlier in his career, he produced The Sure Thing, directed by Rob Reiner, and

Young Sherlock Holmes, which were presented in association with Steven Spielberg’s

Amblin Entertainment. For television, he executive produced the telefilms Scandal

Sheet, Happily Ever After and When Your Lover Leaves, as well as the award-winning All

the Kids Do It.

Born in Teaneck, New Jersey, and educated at the University of Denver,

Birnbaum built a successful career as vice president of A&M Records and Arista

Records, before entering the film business to produce motion pictures. He is currently

co-artistic director of the AFI Conservatory and serves on the advisory board for UCSB’s

Carsey-Wolf Center for Film, Television, and New Media. He is also a mentor to USC’s

Peter Stark Producing Program, as well as the UCLA Graduate Film Program.

MICHAEL LIEBER (Produced by) wrote several spec scripts and was given a

writing deal at Disney. He then joined New Century Productions, first as its story editor,

then as V.P. of creative affairs and development, and later turned back to writing and into

production, initiating Awakenings, directed by Penny Marshall. Lieber has had projects

in development at many of the studios, most based on his original ideas and stories. He

has also taught film at the Otis-Parsons School of Art and Design and exhibited his

photographs. Lieber has developed several projects based on The New Yorker magazine


pieces. He produced Joe Gould’s Secret for USA Films (now Focus), based on The New

Yorker pieces by Joseph Mitchell. It was directed by Stanley Tucci and starred Tucci, Ian

Holm and Susan Sarandon.

Lieber received his PhD from Yale and worked as a cultural anthropologist for

nine years, teaching at a number of universities. His fieldwork in urban Trinidad focused

on how various sorts of street hustlers made a living and construed their lives, and his

work resulted in a book, “Street Life.” This was followed by a research grant, which

brought him to the department of dance at UCLA. There he focused on the photographic

and film record of Balinese ritual performance and dance. An interest in documentary

and ethnographic film and photography finally led him to abandon anthropology, and he

turned to feature films.

JONATHAN GLICKMAN (Executive Producer) is responsible for the

development and production of all Spyglass Entertainment films. In 1993, Glickman

joined Caravan Pictures as an intern, and by 1997, he had worked his way up to president

of the company. During this time, he brought in such projects as While You Were

Sleeping, serving as associate producer. Later, Glickman executive produced Grosse

Pointe Blank and Walt Disney Pictures’ Inspector Gadget. In addition, he also produced

the international smash hits Rush Hour and its sequel, Rush Hour 2.

In 1998, Glickman was named president of production for Spyglass Entertainment

and, in 2003, was promoted to president. While at Spyglass, Glickman has produced

such international hits as Shanghai Noon, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Pacifier and

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

In 2008, Glickman produced the sleeper romantic-comedy hit 27 Dresses, which

so far has grossed more than $160 million worldwide. Most recently, he produced Four

Christmases, starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon.

Glickman, who is married to television writer Christy Callahan, graduated with

honors in English from the University of Michigan and attended USC’s Peter Stark

Producing Program.


J. MILES DALE (Executive Producer) served as executive producer of the

recent film Talk to Me, starring Academy Award® nominee and Golden Globe Award

winner Don Cheadle (Crash, Hotel Rwanda) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Inside Man, Kinky

Boots), as well as Hollywoodland, a film noir starring Adrien Brody, Ben Affleck and

Diane Lane.

Dale’s credits as executive producer also include Danny Leiner’s hit comedy

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and the family Christmas film Blizzard, directed by

LeVar Burton, starring Kevin Pollak, Christopher Plummer and Brenda Blethyn and

featuring the voice of Whoopi Goldberg. Dale also produced the hit feature Wolf Girl,

starring Tim Curry, Grace Jones and Lesley Ann Warren, as well as James Toback’s

feature Harvard Man, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and Eric Stoltz.

For television, Dale produced USA Network’s highest-rated movie of 2000, the

critically acclaimed All-American Girl: The Mary Kay Letourneau Story, starring

Penelope Ann Miller and Mercedes Ruehl. He produced and made his feature directorial

debut with The Skulls III, the sequel to the 1999 box-office hit The Skulls. Having spent

a number of years producing and directing television pilots and series for most of the

major networks and syndication companies, Dale co-executive produced the two-hour

pilot and two seasons of the popular action show F/X: The Series and directed multiple

episodes.

Dale helped adapt the RoboCop franchise for television and produced the two-

hour pilot and 22 episodes of RoboCop for worldwide syndication. He produced three

seasons of the popular reality series Top Cops for CBS and three seasons of the now-cult

classic television series Friday the 13th . These four series scored numerous Gemini,

Emmy and Peabody awards, among other awards for episodes Dale produced and

directed. He also produced several dramatic pilots for ABC, CBS and NBC, and he was

the production supervisor on Daniel Petrie’s The Execution of Raymond Graham, a live-

to-air two-hour Sunday night movie for ABC that examined both sides of the capital

punishment issue and starred Morgan Freeman. He is currently writing his first feature,

Stolen Fire, which he also plans to direct.


THOMAS A. BLISS (Executive Producer) co-founded Strike Entertainment,

which produces motion pictures chiefly for distribution by Universal Studios, in 2002.

Previously, Bliss served as chief operating officer at Beacon Communications, which he

joined in 1990.

Recent projects include Children of Men, Slither and Dawn of the Dead. Earlier,

Bliss served as executive producer for The Emperor’s Club, Tuck Everlasting, Spy Game,

Thirteen Days, The Family Man, End of Days, The Hurricane, Air Force One, Trippin’, A

Thousand Acres, Playing God and The Baby-Sitters Club. He produced Bring It On

Again, Bring It On, A Life in the Theater and Box of Moonlight. In his career, Bliss has

been involved with more than 25 film and hundreds of television projects.

Born in Hollywood, Bliss made his first (8 mm) film in junior high school. After

graduating from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, he served as dean of

students at USC’s Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts (one of only three residential

arts academies in the United States), returning to UCLA for a degree in law. He next

earned a spot in the Directors Guild of America - Alliance of Motion Picture and

Television Producers Training Program. Bliss has been honored with a Peabody Award,

two CableACE Awards and the Florence Virginia K. Wilson Scholarship, (awarded to

UCLA law students for outstanding academic achievement), as well as the American Red

Cross Humanities Service Medal and Distinguished Community Service Citation.

Bliss is a member of the board of governors of the Idyllwild School of Music and

the Arts, the board of trustees of the Directors Guild of America - Alliance of Motion

Picture and Television Producers Training Program and the Board of Trustees of

California Indian Legal Services. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and

the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

ERIC NEWMAN (Executive Producer) is a film producer and founding partner

in NBC/Universal-based Strike Entertainment, a production and co-financing company

established in 2003 with partners Marc Abraham and Thomas A. Bliss. Movies recently

produced by Newman include Zack Snyder’s 2004 reimagining of the horror classic

Dawn of the Dead and Alfonso Cuarón’s three-time Academy Award®-nominated


Children of Men. Newman and the company are currently in preproduction on Creature

From the Black Lagoon and The Dallas Buyer’s Club, starring Ryan Gosling.

Prior to the formation of Strike, Newman served as the ranking development and

production executive at Beacon Communications, joining the company in 1999. Movies

released during Newman’s tenure include Spy Game, The Family Man, Bring It On, End

of Days, The Hurricane and Thirteen Days.

Newman began his career working as an intern in the talent office at Saturday

Night Live. He later joined producer Lorne Michaels’ Paramount Pictures-based

Broadway Video as a production executive, where he helped oversee the Chris

Farley/David Spade films Tommy Boy and Black Sheep.

Newman is a graduate of the USC School of Cinema-Television.

DANTE SPINOTTI, ASC, AIC (Director of Photography) is a master craftsman

whose work on such films as The Insider, L.A. Confidential, Crimes of the Heart and The

Last of the Mohicans has earned him a formidable reputation.

In his native Italy, Spinotti worked with such internationally respected directors as

Lina Wertmüller, Liliana Cavani and Giacomo Battiato before making his American

debut with Michael Mann’s Manhunter. He returned with Mann for The Last of the

Mohicans, freeing his camera to accompany the trajectory of a bullet or the flight of a

tomahawk, and again for the epic cops-and robbers-saga Heat.

Spinotti recently teamed with Mann again for Universal Pictures’ Public Enemies,

starring Johnny Depp. Another frequent partner is director Garry Marshall, the two

teaming on Beaches, Frankie and Johnny and The Other Sister. Spinotti was director of

photography on Michael Apted’s films Blink and Nell. He also filmed Brett Ratner’s

After the Sunset, Red Dragon and X-Men: The Last Stand.

Spinotti’s collaboration with Curtis Hanson yielded the internationally acclaimed

L.A. Confidential and earned his first Oscar® nomination. After teaming with Roland

Joffé for Goodbye Lover, Spinotti again made the best of his cast and locations in The

Insider and received his second Oscar® nod. He then joined Hanson for Wonder Boys,

proving that dark, dreary weather is not incompatible with comedy.


He has twice won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best

Cinematography, first for L.A. Confidential and then for The Insider.

HUGO LUCZYC-WYHOWSKI (Production Designer) has worked on such

acclaimed features as Guy Ritchie’s Snatch, Guy Ferland’s Dirty Dancing: Havana

Nights and Jonathan Demme’s The Truth About Charlie. He was also production

designer on Gary Oldman’s directorial debut Nil by Mouth. More recent projects include

Martian Child and Ira Sachs’ Married Life.

An accomplished painter, Luczyc-Wyhowski began his career art-directing rock

music videos and TV commercials. It was after working with Stephen Frears on a

commercial that Luczyc-Wyhowski was offered the chance to design his first feature

film, Frears’ multi-award-winning My Beautiful Laundrette. He went on to collaborate

with Frears on such films as Prick Up Your Ears, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, Dirty

Pretty Things and Mrs. Henderson Presents.

Additional feature credits include the Miramax feature Birthday Girl, starring

Nicole Kidman; Cousin Bette, starring Jessica Lange; Columbia TriStar’s Madeline; and

Stephen Gyllenhaal’s Waterland.

JILL SAVITT, ACE (Edited by), a native New Yorker, started her career

working in commercials. She then moved into features, working with such directors

as Warren Beatty (Reds), Sydney Pollack (Tootsie), Alan J. Pakula (Sophie’s Choice),

Jonathan Demme (Melvin and Howard) and Robert Benton (Places in the Heart). The

move to features gave Savitt the opportunity to work and learn from such esteemed

editors as Dede Allen, Carol Littleton, Craig McKay and Evan A. Lottman.

Savitt edited the pilot for the hit television series Gilmore Girls. She worked on

and off Gilmore Girls throughout the first six years of its seven-year run, becoming the

sole editor for the show during the third season. She juggled television work with editing

features for such writers/directors as David Koepp (Secret Window, Stir of Echoes, The

Trigger Effect) and Scott Frank (The Lookout).

Savitt currently resides in Los Angeles.


AARON ZIGMAN (Music by) recently completed composing for the film

Powder Blue. Zigman’s recent film credits include the hit comedy Sex and the City, Meet

the Browns, Step Up and its sequel Step Up 2: The Streets, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder

Emporium, Martian Child, Why Did I Get Married? and The Jane Austen Book Club.

Additional feature credits include John Q and The Notebook, for which Zigman

won BMI Film Music Awards; Alpha Dog; Akeelah and the Bee, for which he won a

Black Reel Award for Best Original Score; Take the Lead; and ATL. Zigman also shared

an Outstanding Original Song Daytime Emmy Award for composing “Sim Shalom” for

the telefilm Crown Heights.

A sixth-generation Californian and graduate of UCLA’s prestigious film school,

G. MARQ ROSWELL (Music Supervisor) knows all too well how music can contribute

to almost any film’s ultimate success. To date he’s lent his talents to more than 50 films,

including The Great Debaters (directed by Denzel Washington and starring Forest

Whitaker and Washington), Spy Game (starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, directed

by Tony Scott), Dawn of the Dead (directed by Zack Snyder), The Hurricane (starring

Denzel Washington and directed by Norman Jewison), An Unfinished Life (directed by

Lasse Hallström), For Love of the Game (directed by Sam Raimi), Iraq for Sale: The War

Profiteers (directed by Robert Greenwald) and the classic Tommy Boy (directed by Peter

Segal).

All of the films Roswell has supervised have played right into his vast knowledge

and love of music. Throughout the years Roswell has employed a number of unique and

different musical styles and combinations, earning him high praise from directors,

producers and composers. His encyclopedic knowledge of music—both past and present

—ensures that each project he takes on is infused with fresh score ideas and deep cuts not

heard elsewhere.

Roswell has the unique ability to seek out and immerse himself in the music for

each project, no matter what genre it occupies. In the Denzel Washington-directed The

Great Debaters, he and partner Adam Swart mined the rich tapestry of African-American

music from the 1930s and produced new tracks with Alvin Youngblood Hart, Sharon

Jones and Carolina Chocolate Drops. He worked with Queens of the Stone Age and


Rahzel on Let’s Go to Prison and pop/country artists Lyle Lovett, Trisha Yearwood,

Rodney Crowell and Vince Gill on For Love of the Game; assembled hard rockers Guns

N’ Roses, Korn and Limp Bizkit for End of Days; sought out contemporary rhythm-and-

blues artists Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, The Roots, Mos Def and Me’Shell Ndegeocello

and legend Bob Dylan for The Hurricane; and worked with a host of Middle Eastern

musicians and artist/composer Harry Gregson Williams for Spy Game. Unlike many

supervisors working today, Roswell has the ability to actually produce the music for his

projects, from assembling talent, picking the right songs and overseeing the actual

sessions to collaborating with the composer on the score. “I see myself as a musical

consigliere to the director,” he says. “I constantly work to provide the elements of music

that contribute to the scope of his or her vision.”

Due to the nature of how music complements a film’s content, Roswell prefers

that his role begin very early in the process. And depending on the complexity of the

music used, that involvement could last many months. For The Great Debaters, which

takes place in 1935, the process took almost a year. Roswell met with director Denzel

Washington in preproduction, produced the music for on-camera playback, provided

existing masters for source and was cutting music video extras for the DVD release long

after the film was mixed.

On The Commitments, the story of an Irish soul band, Roswell spent months in

preproduction listening to and categorizing literally hundreds of R&B songs. He then

traveled to Ireland to help director Alan Parker recruit the cast and finalize which songs

would be used in the film. Once those decisions were made, Roswell organized and co-

produced the recording sessions. “By and large,” he says, “I’ve found that I get to be as

creative as my collaboration with the director allows. Luckily, I’ve been fortunate

enough to work with directors who have an incredible understanding of music.”

Another such labor-intensive project was director Norman Jewison’s The

Hurricane, for which Roswell researched nearly 40 years of rhythm and blues. “There’s

so much fantastic soul and R&B music that came out of the period between the late 1940s

up to the early 1980s,” Roswell says. “Some of the songs we used were moving and very

powerful,” he says, citing Gil Scott-Heron’s stirring “The Revolution Will Not Be


Televised” as a prime example of a song that quite literally made one of the film’s

scenes.

With many big-budget projects, finishing the film is only half the battle. Even

though CD revenues are shrinking, movie soundtracks if infused with vision can continue

to be a lucrative and important aspect of the business. The Great Debaters soundtrack

album on Atlantic Records has newly recorded tracks, produced by Roswell, featuring

Sharon Jones, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Carolina Chocolate Drops, and is referred to

as the Soul Brother Where Art Thou.

Roswell has put together some of the early winners. One of the biggest-selling

soundtracks ever is The Commitments, which has sold more than 7 million copies to date.

The Varsity Blues soundtrack went platinum, while Fine Young Cannibals wrote both

songs (including the No. 1 hit “Good Thing”) and the score for Barry Levinson’s Tin

Men. The inclusion of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” in David Lynch’s Wild At Heart

almost single-handedly gave Isaak a career. The song eventually went to No. 1. As the

music supervisor, Roswell was responsible for the producing or placement of these

successful tracks that ended up on one of the best independent soundtracks ever.

On Flash of Genius, Roswell encouraged director Marc Abraham and producers

Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber to hire up and coming composer Aaron Zigman. “On

every film, I usually have an instinct as to who would be perfect to score the film based

on my creative conversations with the director,” comments Roswell. “Marc and I agreed

Zig was the man. I had collaborated with Marc as a producer on many films, but this was

the first time working with him as a director. We found a couple of nuggets like ‘Green

Onions,’ which inspired certain score cues for Aaron. Zigman’s themes provided the

perfect complement to Marc’s highly emotional and inspiring film.”

ADAM SWART (Music Supervisor) began his career with gigs at Epitaph/Anti-

Records and Varèse Sarabande. While at Varèse Sarabande, he became well versed in

movie scores and soundtracks. With a desire to pair his passion for music and film, Swart

turned to music supervision, partnering with G. Marq Roswell at 35Sound. More than 25

film and television projects later (including The Bronx Is Burning, Dawn of the Dead,


The Great Debaters, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers and The Grand), Swart’s love of

music and film has only grown stronger.

Swart is at once adept at finding breaking songs and artists in order to artfully

sculpt scenes, and possesses the skills to exhaustively research genres, time periods and

artists, as recently evidenced in The Great Debaters. An ace at music clearances as well,

he possesses all the skill necessary to properly supervise a film from preproduction

through the final mix.

For Swart, the beauty of music supervision lies in the collaboration in order to

fully realize the vision and art of the filmmaker.

LUIS SEQUEIRA (Costume Designer) is responsible for the costume designs for

Charlie Bartlett, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Anton Yelchin; Breach, starring Chris

Cooper and Ryan Phillippe; Thomas and the Magic Railroad, starring Alec Baldwin and

Peter Fonda; and the features Highwaymen and Breaking Point. His television credits

include the costumes for F/X: The Series as well as the television movies Buried Secrets,

Moonshine Highway, Treacherous Beauties and Derby.

As assistant designer, Sequeira worked on the major feature films Hollywoodland,

Cinderella Man, Mean Girls, Bulletproof Monk, The Tuxedo and K-19: The

Widowmaker.

—flash of genius—

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