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Production Information

“Even a man who is pure of heart and says his prayers by nightmay become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright…”

- Gypsy legend

In the 1930s and 40s, Universal Pictures released a series of horror films that created a new genre of entertainment for audiences: the monster movie. By transforming themselves into such iconography as Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, The Mummy and The Invisible Man, legendary performers including Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Claude Rains committed to celluloid nightmares previously only available to the imagination of readers.

One of the most haunting of these creations has been with us since Lon Chaney Jr introduced him in 1941. A lone man forced to give in to the most primal side of his spirit haunted moviegoers who breathlessly watched as he transformed into something inhuman. When the moon was at its fullest, he unleashed a primal rage born from the darkest shadow of his psyche. Part man, part demon…his curse was eternal.

Inspired by the classic Universal film that launched a legacy of horror, The Wolfman brings the myth of a cursed man back to its legendary origins. Academy Award winner BENICIO DEL TORO (Che, Traffic) stars as Lawrence Talbot, a haunted nobleman lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father, Academy Award winner ANTHONY HOPKINS (The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal), Talbot sets out to find his brother…and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself.

Lawrence Talbot’s childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother’s fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (EMILY BLUNT of The Young Victoria, The Devil Wears Prada), tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline (HUGO WEAVING of The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix trilogies) has come to investigate.

As Talbot pieces together the gory puzzle, he hears of an ancient curse that turns the afflicted into werewolves when the moon is full. Now, if he has any chance of ending the slaughter and protecting the woman he has grown to love, Talbot must destroy the vicious creature in the woods surrounding Blackmoor. But after he is bitten by the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side of himself…one he never imagined existed.

The Wolfman is directed by JOE JOHNSTON (Jurassic Park III, Hidalgo) and produced by SCOTT STUBER (Couples Retreat, Role Models), Del Toro, RICK YORN (The Aviator, Gangs of New York) and SEAN DANIEL (The Mummy franchise, Tombstone). The action-horror film is written by ANDREW KEVIN WALKER (Sleepy Hollow, Se7en)

The Wolfman - Production Information - 2

and DAVID SELF (Road to Perdition, Thirteen Days), based on the motion picture screenplay by CURT SIODMAK (1941’s The Wolf Man)

Joining Johnston and the producers behind the camera is a distinguished team of filmmaking artists, including cinematographer SHELLY JOHNSON (Jurassic Park III, Hidalgo); Academy Award-winning production designer RICK HEINRICHS (Sleepy Hollow, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest); editors DENNIS VIRKLER (The Fugitive, The Hunt for Red October) and three-time Oscar winner WALTER MURCH (The English Patient, Cold Mountain); three-time Academy Award-winning costume designer MILENA CANONERO (Marie Antoinette, Chariots of Fire); and composer DANNY ELFMAN (Wanted, upcoming Alice in Wonderland).

The master creator of seminal werewolf effects in film, six-time Academy Award-winning creature designer RICK BAKER (An American Werewolf in London, as well as Men in Black, The Nutty Professor), designs the signature characters for The Wolfman.

BILL CARRARO (The Golden Compass, upcoming The Adjustment Bureau), JONATHAN MONE (upcoming Repo Men, Your Highness) and RYAN KAVANAUGH (The Hangover, Zombieland) serve as the film’s executive producers.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

The Wolf Howls Again: Restoring a ClassicHe has been given countless names by scores of cultures over thousands of years.

There has long been a global fascination with the mythological creature known as the lycanthrope, a human with the unnatural ability to transform into a wolf-like creature when the moon is full. From the myths of the ancient Greeks to documentation by Gervase of Tilbury in 1212’s “Otia Imperialia,” horror stories about werewolves have dominated world cultures for centuries.

But it has only been in the past seven decades that the creature was committed to film. In 1935, Universal released Werewolf of London, from director Stuart Walker, but it was 1941’s classic The Wolf Man that firmly established the modern cinematic myth of the werewolf. The film created a lasting iconic character in the tragic figure of a wayward nobleman by the name of Lawrence Talbot, played by Lon Chaney Jr, son of silent film icon Lon Chaney, star of The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Directed by George Waggner from an original screenplay by Curt Siodmak, The Wolf Man was Universal’s latest creature film in an era that spawned imagination and nightmares. The Talbot character went on to reappear in films for the studio including Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula and Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein.

While the original, with its tagline of “His hideous howl a dirge of death!”became an instant classic, at only 70 minutes in run time, it was quite a short monster

movie. It solidified the fame of star Lon Chaney Jr and included cameos from additional Universal “monsters,” including The Invisible Man’s Claude Rains as Sir John Talbot and Dracula’s Bela Lugosi as the gypsy who discovers the curse that’s been levelled upon Lawrence.

Actor/producer Benicio Del Toro has long been a fan of this genre and began to consider paying homage to the film with his manager and producer, Rick Yorn. Yorn explains his interest in beginning the project: “Growing up, these monster films really had


an effect on my brothers and me. When I first came out to Hollywood, I wanted to remake one of the old movies. A few years ago, when Benicio and I were walking out of his house, I saw the one-sheet for The Wolf Man. It shows a close-up of Lon Chaney Jr as the monster. I looked at the poster, then back at Benicio - who had a full beard at the time - and said, ‘How would you feel about remaking The Wolf Man?’”

Del Toro was very interested in paying homage to the genre he’d loved since he was a boy. While he realized that would require him going deep into the makeup and prosthetics it would take to pull off the signature look of the creature, he was game for the challenge. “Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy…when I was a kid, I watched these movies,” Del Toro explains. “My earliest recollection of acting was watching Lon Chaney Jr play the Wolf Man. We wanted to honour this classic movie and the Henry Hull movie Werewolf of London. We knew it would be exciting to make it in the classic, handcrafted way.”

Del Toro didn’t want to remake the film frame by frame, but rather update it for modern audiences. He felt the story screenwriters Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self created “gave the movie some twists and turns and a modern edge, while still honouring the original story.”

Del Toro and Yorn set about getting the project off the ground and, during a dinner with producer Scott Stuber, the men decided it was time this classic was updated. “We have put in a few twists, but we wanted to honour the original,” says Stuber. “The Wolf Man is so iconic because, on some level, he is within us. Every person feels a sense of rage. Each of us feels a sense of that time when we went too far, got too angry, did something we shouldn’t have done. Something primal exists within all of us, and we must control it or we are doomed.”

It was never a doubt for the producer that Del Toro was perfect for the title character. Of the Oscar winner, Stuber commends: “Benicio’s got such powerful eyes. To feel so much emotion coming from under the transformation is critical to the heart of the movie. We didn’t want to separate the actor from the Wolfman…and end up having the beast here and Benicio there. The performance is always most important in order to feel for the character. The special effects are amazing, and they enhance the performance…they don’t create it.”

The three filmmakers were joined by producer Sean Daniel, who knew something about reinvigorating monster franchises himself; Daniel helped relaunch The Mummy series for Universal Pictures. Of his involvement in the production, Daniel notes: “It was really exciting to be asked to join in on giving new life to another of Universal’s great, classic monster characters that so inspired me when I was a kid.”

Together, the producers began the search for a director who could not only translate the drama of the script, but also execute a horror film that would seamlessly blend visual effects, creature effects and CGI.

When director Joe Johnston was brought on to the project, he took over the reins from Mark Romanek, who departed during pre-production. An Academy Award-winning art director for Raiders of the Lost Ark, Johnston’s resume as a director includes a strong combination of character-driven films such as October Sky and epic visual effects movies including Jurassic Park III and Hidalgo.

As with all of his projects, the director was far more interested in story before spectacle. In screenwriters Walker and Self’s story, he found “underneath the action and the blood and the terror, a love story about Lawrence Talbot and his dead brother’s fiancée, Gwen. I wanted that relationship to be the element that held the story together…the key


piece that invested the audience in understanding this horrible thing Lawrence is inflicted with.”

The former art director was excited by the visual challenges that would come from turning the script into an action-horror film: “I want to show the audience something they haven’t seen before in our process of turning a man into a werewolf,” notes Johnston. “We’ve all seen these transformations in werewolf movies, and they all rely more or less on the same visual elements. It’s stretching bones and hair growing on the face.

“We’ve done transformations in The Wolfman that you could only do with the help of computer-generated animation,” he continues. “We have a great place to start the transformation, which is Benicio Del Toro, and we have a great place to end up, which is Rick Baker’s makeup. But it’s not a straight-line transformation…we go off in multiple directions to get to the end result.”

The filmmakers knew that in order to deliver the spectacular sequences, they needed to find the perfect balance between practical effects and special effects. That challenge would be one of many throughout the course of shooting and editing the film. But before any of that could begin, it was time to cast the supporting players to help Del Toro bring the infamous creature to life once again.

Noblemen, Detectives and Young Victorians: Casting The WolfmanAs with other facets of The Wolfman, it was important for the filmmakers to include

classic characters from the original horror movie. While Lawrence’s father - played by Claude Rains in the 1941 version - only had a very minor role in that film, the team felt that key relationship should be a large part of the 2010 update. In addition to Lawrence Talbot and his father John, they wanted to make sure they included characters such as Gwen Conliffe, the conflicted object of Lawrence’s affections, and Maleva, the chieftainess of the gypsies.

Producer Stuber summarizes the group’s thoughts on the stellar cast: “Benicio, Anthony, Emily and Hugo together bring tremendous depth to the story and give life to the spectacle and the horror elements.”

The younger Talbot not only comes back to Blackmoor to find out what happened to his beloved brother, he tries to reconnect with a father that abandoned him decades earlier. It is then that he is bitten by a werewolf and must deal with the realization that he will become a monster himself. The original story was expanded to create new layers of interaction between the characters, and that began with fleshing out Sir John Talbot.

Cast opposite Del Toro as Lawrence’s eccentric father was legendary actor Sir Anthony Hopkins. As the two Talbots have not seen one another or spoken for years, from the moment they reconnect, the relationship between the two men is naturally tense. For Del Toro, it was not difficult to slip into that part of the role, as he was initially nervous to work with the performer. He laughs: “At first, I was more in awe working with him than enjoying it. By just watching him, he helped me and gave me notes here and there. It was nice to have another actor give you suggestions. He’s a straight shooter; he’s done in two takes and was great to work with.”

Hopkins believed he had to tap into a place of dark abandon to be able to play Sir John. He explains the relationship between the two men: “It is one of coldness and abandonment. Lawrence has never been able to know his father, as he was sent away because of some unspeakable horror he witnessed as a child: the horror of his mother’s


death. Sir John pushed him away and sent him to live in America, but he comes back to England as a world famous actor and discovers his brother is in trouble.”

Discussing his attraction to the role, Hopkins offers: “Psychologically, people enjoy looking at the dark side of life. Transformation, resurrection, salvation…this story has it all.” The performer was interested in how the relationship between these two men developed. He reflects: “Sir John is ice-cold and doesn’t express any gentleness with tragedy or grief; that’s just the way he deals with his son. He also manipulates and needles him by offhand remarks, which are never overtly cruel, just something suggested.”

Sir John, with his dirty nails, filthy clothes and unkempt hair, walks about a huge house that has become derelict. As well, he makes sure that Lawrence never knows where he stands in their relationship. Johnston enjoyed developing Sir John’s madness and nudging the friction between the two as soon as they reunite. The director reflects: “Sir John is completely and utterly mad, but he embraces his own madness as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. Anthony has played parts like this in the past, but in The Wolfman, we don’t know he’s insane until halfway through the film. Up to that point, Anthony gives us these little glimpses into the madness of Sir John, and then the window closes and you wait for it to open again. He makes you watch to see what he’s going to do next.”

Hopkins commends of his director: “Joe is successful, he’s amenable, he’s pleasant and absolutely everybody can talk to him. He made it very easy for everyone, and that’s tough considering how much he’s had on his plate. He came in with little preparation and had to take on an elephant of a film, and there has not been a hair out of place.”

Selected to portray the tragically-in-love Gwen Conliffe - a role originated by the timeless Evelyn Ankers - was performer Emily Blunt. Since her breakthrough role as the sharp-tongued first assistant to Meryl Streep’s lead in The Devil Wears Prada, Blunt has developed a body of work loved by critics and audiences alike.

As Gwen, she plays the fiancée of Lawrence’s dead brother, Ben, and has come to London to beg her soon-to-be brother-in-law to help find her betrothed. As they discover Ben’s death, she begins to fall for Lawrence during the course of his stay in Blackmoor. Offers her director of her talents: “Just by using her face, Emily can tell entire stories without saying a word. Whenever we found a line that we could lose, we did. Emily so powerfully tells Gwen’s story with emotion…not just words.”

Remarking on her reasons for joining the film, Blunt says: “I was drawn to the role because of who was attached to it, and I found the script very moving. It wasn’t just about violence; there was a love story and a human struggle that I was attracted to. What’s beautiful about The Wolfman is that it’s a haunting story, but it’s also a love story. Joe started off with a vision of making a classic, sweeping, huge monster movie, and he has maintained that vision throughout the shoot.”

While she did not have to endure the laborious hours in the makeup chair that was required of others in the cast, Blunt could relate deeply to the creature…and Gwen’s feelings for it. She agrees with Hopkins, noting, “I think we desire that loss of control and the ability to change or to understand the dark side in us. There’s something very basic about the way animals attack, but there’s thought and malice behind what humans are capable of doing to each other that is even more frightening.”

Gwen soon realizes that Lawrence has a dark side and a wildness that she has never encountered in her past; there’s a danger present in him that she recognizes is buried within herself. Blunt sees Gwen as a “beacon of hope” because of her strength. She adds, “I like


that in the face of adversity, as someone who has met a whirlwind of turmoil, fear and loss, Gwen has the ability to see the possibility for change. She’s very hopeful.”

The murder of Lawrence’s brother catches the attention of Scotland Yard’s Inspector Aberline, played by celebrated actor Hugo Weaving. Weaving’s character was based on the actual Inspector Frederick George Aberline, who was brought in to head the investigation of the Jack the Ripper murders after they were considered too much for London’s Whitechapel Criminal Investigation Department to handle.

Stuber discusses the production’s choice of Weaving as Aberline: “Hugo has a special intensity that is very believable. That is important in a monster movie, because the audience has to believe this myth is real. The more real it feels, the better and more horrific the story is.”

After he’d read the screenplay, the actor, who has made fascinating choices in his career, from The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert to The Matrix trilogy, was keen to take the role. He says: “It was a snap decision to play Aberline. I read the script and liked it, but I had to make my mind up there and then. It was a completely instinctive decision, but I really liked the material and thought Aberline was fascinating.

“Aberline’s a real character, but he has been given a slightly different interpretation by the writers and Joe,” continues Weaving. “He’s an intelligent man who obviously went through a lot during the investigation of the Ripper murders. He’s wise and canny and can be charming, but he’s also incredibly sceptical and doesn’t believe for a minute that anything but a man could be responsible for the murders in Blackmoor.”

With Lawrence under suspicion for the killings, Aberline travels to the hamlet to investigate further. He soon finds himself a true outsider amongst the locals. Weaving explains: “He’s in a situation where he comes to this tiny country village and they’re all talking about werewolves and demons; they lock their doors on a full moon. He’s a man from London who’s very no nonsense and doesn’t believe one iota in this rubbish.”

Until he eventually witnesses Lawrence’s transformation himself…Additional key players who bring the Talbots’ world to life include Nashville’s

GERALDINE CHAPLIN as Maleva, the gypsy who foreshadows the news of Lawrence’s curse; The Path to 9/11’s ART MALIK as Sir John’s trusted manservant, Singh; Shakespeare in Love’s ANTHONY SHER as the insane asylum’s evil Dr. Hoenneger; and Valkyrie’s DAVID SCHOFIELD as Blackmoor’s bedevilled Constable Nye.

Unleashing the Hellhound: Creature Design and EffectsNotorious for his design and transformation of David Naughton in John Landis’

classic An American Werewolf in London, six-time Academy Award-winning creature effects designer Rick Baker was asked to come aboard the production. He wanted to keep the look as close to the original Wolf Man as possible, while paying tribute to Jack Pierce’s creation from the ’40s. “Jack Pierce was my idol,” says Baker. “He was the guy I really admired, and I wanted to be true to what Jack did…but still modernize it. It’s still very much the Jack Pierce Wolf Man, but with a little Rick Baker thrown in. I wanted my Wolfman to be a little more savage and look like he could do a lot more damage than Lon Chaney Jr.”

For producer Rick Yorn, the idea that Del Toro would be transformed by one of the greatest-living movie-makeup artists was simply a must. He notes: “Rick was our first choice; he’s a legend. You go to his shop and you see all the movies that he has worked on. It’s absolutely a museum. For us, he did such an amazing job.”


Academy Award nominee DAVE ELSEY, who co-created the look of the Wolfman with Baker, remembers the early days of preproduction as he and Baker were paying homage to the look of the fearsome creature. “The design brief we were given for the werewolf was very open, so we could almost come up with anything,” recalls Elsey. “We were sitting in Rick’s workshop, and the more we talked, the more it seemed like the best thing would be to create a fresh version of what people would recognize as the Wolfman. Rick brings so many ideas to the table and so much enthusiasm for this type of film; it’s a dream come true for us to be working on this classic creature.”

The producers and director Johnston were well aware that the sequences audiences most would anticipate in the film would be the transformation of the human protagonist into the title character. The Wolfman takes a leap forward in that department…with extensive help from the visual effects division, an area with which Johnston is intimately familiar.

Explains the director of the synergy: “The makeup is in several different pieces. It’s applied individually. It’s not a mask, so that allows Benicio to move and to express himself. We didn’t want to rely completely on computer animation, because you can break this barrier of believability or break the laws of physics. What we’re trying to do with these transformations is to keep it as absolutely real as possible and use VFX as a tool to extend what is possible with makeup.”

Baker tested the intricate makeup on himself before having Del Toro sit in his chair for the first time; it would be a process the men whittled down to three hours. Just to see what it would look and feel like from an actor’s perspective, Baker applied the hair with glue, airbrushed his face, poured “blood” in his mouth and took pictures of himself as the wolf. “It’s very different when you’re a makeup artist and you’re trying to get this guy ready and you know the clock is ticking so fast…it’s a blur,” offers the makeup artist. “But when you’re the guy in the chair, it’s a really different time frame.”

He adds that he’s much more familiar with his creations than the talent behind them. “I spend a lot of my time with actors in the face that I’ve designed for them,” says Baker. “They come in the morning as themselves and almost immediately I stick this piece of rubber on them, and I don’t see the actor anymore…but a creation. I recognize Benicio as the wolf; I hardly ever see him as himself.”

For Del Toro, Baker’s team created an “appliance” made of foam and latex that covered the actor’s brow and nose. The edges of Baker’s appliance were made quite thin, so that they would seamlessly blend into the actor’s skin when laid on top of his face. When Del Toro was fitted with a prosthetic chin, cragged dentures (complete with sharp canines), a real hair wig and a beard that was applied with bits of follicles glued to his face, he embodied the fearsome Wolfman.

Though the makeup application took hours, Del Toro was excited to be involved in the process. “As a kid, I always wanted to have those big teeth,” laughs the actor. “It doesn’t matter how long you’re sitting on that chair, with Rick the magic is bit-by-bit. You close your eyes for five minutes, you open them up again and something is happening. It was easy to go for it when you have such a great team of guys working with you and doing a terrific job.”

After Baker’s design had the production’s seal of approval, his creature effects team set about making the werewolf suit to match Del Toro’s new lupine visage. Originally, the werewolf was to be clothed, and Baker’s brief indicated that he wouldn’t need to overly dress the body. However, his four decades in movie makeup had taught him that, as the film


developed, it might be otherwise. He comments: “We set about making a full-body hairy suit, a suit in which each hair is individually tied…a bit like a giant wig. But you can’t just make one suit, you need at least three for your principal actor and another three for any stunt doubles that need to climb rooftops or fight in real fires. That’s a lot of hair!”

The wolf suits were fashioned out of a preferred material of makeup artists, yak hair. Craftspeople traditionally use the coarse animal hair to mimic beards, moustaches or goatees. In keeping with the spirit of the production, Baker used this hair - the same material Jack Pierce used on Lon Chaney Jr in the original film - on Del Toro. Baker elaborates: “I also used a lot of crepe wool, which was cheaper for me to learn with when I started doing makeup at age 10. It’s much softer than yak hair, so we used crepe wool on some of the edges of Benicio’s facial hair; it blended into his face better.”

LOU ELSEY was chosen to be the creature effects department’s fabrication expert; in that capacity, she was responsible for every wolf suit the production needed. “There are so many different elements to creature effects and so many different departments that make up The Wolfman,” Elsey offers. “We had a fabrication department that worked on all of the body shapes so our Wolfman would have fully articulated muscles. On top of his muscles, we had a hair suit, which is a spandex suit worked to look just like flesh. We had sculpted elements on his chest and arms that had to be manufactured and painted.” She laughs: “There must be so many bald yaks in the world right now, we literally had to source it from everywhere we could.”

The creature effects team knew that the Wolfman would be doing some serious damage during production, so to add to his terrifying demeanour, his suit needed bone-crushing claws. Elsey adds: “We worked with Benicio to give him every bit of help we could so he could create his character. Even the way Benicio holds his hands with his claws is dynamic and brings the character to life.”

As Del Toro morphed from a quiet nobleman into a hound from hell, his facial features and body hair wouldn’t be the only things about him that would need to change. To give added height to the already tall actor, Baker’s team secured leg extensions that were based on artificial limb technology. A very simple, lightweight design, the new legs made Del Toro look even more towering and terrifying. The result of the attachments was werewolf leg extensions easy enough to wear for beauty shots. These appendages may also be seen in slow movement sequences, while other specially created feet were used for action sequences in which the wolf needed to jump, leap or run.

Chaney was so recognizable as the Wolf Man in the original film that Baker wanted his new design to allow the audience to recognize a good deal of Del Toro as the wolf. Elsey comments: “When you look at Benicio in his makeup, you can still see him in it, even with all the hair. Other werewolves are much more animal-like, but our character has a very human element to him. Benicio can do in makeup what a lot of people wouldn’t be able to do; he’s got a great face with very distinctive eyes.”

Del Toro committed wholeheartedly to the transformation, so much so the makeup team had a hard time maintaining Del Toro’s makeup after a few takes of him biting his victim and shaking his head around. They often found half of his prosthetic chin hanging off when he went for a retouch.

When it came time for the Wolfman to run, director Johnston and DP Johnson had to be imaginative with how they would capture the shots. Johnston explains: “We wanted that dogleg foot on the Wolfman. The feet that the stuntmen’s feet fit into were almost like high


heels. The guys had to be suspended from overhead cables to enable them to run, jump or attack.” When necessary, Del Toro’s legs were replaced with CG legs. Johnston concludes, “We use computer animation to allow the audience to see the Wolfman’s toes gripping the ground, pushing off the earth and flexing his legs…it really makes a difference in helping to believe the transformation is complete. The best visual effects are the ones that are invisible, that you don’t recognize as visual effects, or the ones that don’t draw attention to themselves.”

VFX supervisor STEVE BEGG’s team was charged with taking the effects of Rick Baker and expanding upon them as needed. When Johnston needed a jowl to unhinge or a brow to mutate, Begg brought Baker’s stunning practical effects to a whole new level. He explains: “One of the most overt effects in the film is the transformation into the werewolf. With our hybrid approach - with CG and prosthetics and makeup - we hope the audience won’t be able to figure out how each effect is achieved.”

The team appreciated the painstaking blending of the two schools. “The obvious route today is to go entirely CG, and there is a lot of CG,” says Begg. “But it’s not all the way through, and it’s nice to have a traditional-effects approach coupled with a high-tech approach. For example, in a scene in which Joe wanted the muzzle of the werewolf to expand a lot wider than it would normally, we put little tracking markers around the area we want to work on. We hope this blend looks effortless.”

London to Castle Coombe: Design and LocationsDue to the fact that the werewolf only rears his head late on a moonlit eve, a number

of night shoots were required for the production. From the beginning, the filmmakers knew it would a long slog for the crew, who practically spent the first six weeks shrouded by waterproof tents as they donned their wet-weather gear.

One of the fundamental differences between the 1941 and the 2010 versions of the monster movie is the era in which it is set. The original stuck to its present day in Wales, while this film takes us back to Victorian England in the year 1890. The period of the film was chosen for many reasons. Foremost was the fact that a dirty, suspenseful, smoggy London lit by gas lamps and a foggy, sleepy hamlet would create a spooky atmosphere synonymous with a classic horror film.

As his crew designed the world that he and cinematographer Johnson shot, director Johnston had but one dictum for his team: “Make sure we’re all making the same film.” He explains: “My crew was all very conscious of what the period was and what it needed to look like. For the visuals, I wanted to give them a lot of flexibility and leeway to help me tell the story. I’m really happy with the way it looks: cold, gritty and bleak.”

Sleepy Hollow’s Academy Award-winning production designer Rick Heinrichs discusses his involvement in creating a period horror film: “Shooting in England was a wonderful experience and a challenge to get back the look and feel of Victorian London; the face of the city has changed so much over time. Unfortunately, World War II decimated London and quite a bit of the 19th century has been lost because of the bombing.” Heinrichs had to target certain areas of the city that still exist to give him a foundation to build upon - either through practical sets his team created or with the constant help of the visual effects divisions.

One of the designer’s most ambitious tasks was finding a location for the Talbot family manor. “It’s so important to the story, and it had to be very carefully selected,” says


Heinrichs. “All of its characteristics needed to help the visual narrative of the story. In many horror films, the default choice of design would be a Gothic structure, but we wanted to avoid the clichéd scary-mansion look of many horror films and present the energy of the house itself through its design.”

After scouting throughout England, the crew found Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, which is currently owned and occupied by the duke and duchess of Devonshire. The house, or the “Palace of the Peak” as it is known, was first built in the 1500s, and Andrew Robert Buxton Cavendish is the 11th duke to reside on the magnificent grounds.

Chatsworth House provided multiple facades for the four different looks Heinrichs and Johnston wanted for the house. Fortunately, the duke and duchess allowed the art department to modify the exterior of the manor temporarily. This allowed the crew to “overgrow” the gardens and prepare the front of the house to give it the appearance of a desolate, unloved and unkempt residence to which no man would eagerly return.

Heinrichs elaborates on Johnston’s mandate to show duality throughout the picture: “The story we tell is about a man who is struggling with two sides of nature: the civilized side conditioned by society and the animal that lives within. We felt it would be a good idea to have these two natures represented visually in the family house. We started with a very clean, classic structure and we added grass and greens to make it look neglected and disused, as well as woolly - to represent the animal inside him.”

It was Heinrichs’ mission to design an environment that reflected how the Talbots live or, as he puts it, to “show the saint and the sinner.” Every exterior is battling against the interior of the home, and Heinrichs’ aim was to take the audience on a journey from order and civility to the wilder depths of the animal that is at the film’s heart. For example, the contrasts one can find in the combination of light stone and dark wood inside the house plays on the finishes and the reflectivity of light buried inside Talbot manor.

The locations department was responsible for finding the 13 major exteriors for the film that brought the world of The Wolfman to life. In addition to the physical locations they dressed, Heinrichs and his team had to design and assemble some 90 to 95 sets within a very tight schedule.

Heinrichs and Johnson’s approach to the film was to try to get as much on camera as possible and lend the visual effects departments all they needed to create parts they simply could not shoot, such as disguising the modern trappings found on every street the team came across. The crew found a bit of luck when it happened upon one of the easiest villages to disguise as a Victorian hamlet: Castle Coombe, which doubled as the town of Blackmoor.

A medieval town that has been around for almost 900 years, Castle Coombe has a number of structures that descend from earliest British architectural design. Many of the houses there are listed as ancient monuments, and the passage of time has made the buildings lean into each other beautifully. The production agreed it had a very wonderfully shop-worn, antiquated feel to it. For the purposes of The Wolfman, Castle Coombe became a creepy village full of superstitious people who live in dark houses and reinforce one another’s eccentricity and irrational beliefs.

Once production agreed on the location, it was up to the location manager, EMMA PILL, to persuade the local residents to agree to the shoot. Working closely with Heinrichs and the art department, Pill had to determine which trappings of the modern day could be removed or covered up for the duration of the production. From power cables and television aerials to alarm boxes and modern locks on front doors, anything that smacked of the 21st


century had to go. The Royal Mail post boxes belong to the queen and could not be moved, so the art department created a clever disguise that could be removed when locals needed to post letters, and put back when the crew was set to shoot.

After Lawrence Talbot is sent to the asylum for the second time in his life, the Wolfman goes on a rampage throughout London. Finding a location big enough to stage a huge production proved a little tricky. The filmmakers decided on the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, a site planned by Sir Christopher Wren and completed by such architects as Nicholas Hawksmoor, Sir John Vanbrugh and James “Athenian” Stuart. Situated on the banks of the River Thames in London, the college was originally built as a hospital for the relief and support of seamen and their dependents. Eventually, it became a naval training centre for officers from around the world.

Of the shoot, Heinrichs remembers: “It was a big challenge for the locations department to find areas of London that were pure enough for us to work with on a large scale. One of those places was Greenwich. Although it’s been used many times on various productions, we were able to adapt it to our purposes. Through some use of visual effects, we made it our own. We needed to have a wide open canvas in order to create a very large set piece for the action to occur.”

Greenwich not only provided the filmmakers access for the long preparation and shooting, but also allowed them two units that shot for eight nights - providing a controlled environment that was perfect for the nature of the stunt work.

Expanding the environmental visuals were, once again, the VFX team, led by VFX supervisor Begg. He reflects: “As the film has developed and grown, we’ve done a lot of environment work…like big vista views of London. We haven’t just handled the werewolf, we’ve added to the atmospherics and the various locations in which much of the action takes place.”

Adds VFX producer KAREN MURPHY: “There’s a huge amount of atmospherics and matte painting in this film. Hopefully, because it’s a period film, you’ll see a period character walking down the street at night and not realize how much we’ve removed.”

His Lonesome Howl: Cry of the WolfVFX, SFX, makeup, locations and schedules were nothing when compared to the

biggest challenge of the production for director Johnston. The Wolfman’s toughest obstacle was one the reader might think would be minor: perfecting the haunting howl of the title creature. Johnston explains his conundrum: “When it came time to lay in the sound of the wolf howl, we tried everything from animal impersonators to a crying baby and artificial sounds. We took those sounds and digitally processed them…looking for just the right combination of things to give us the perfect howl. But we just could not find it. We wanted it to be iconic, but something audiences had never heard before.”

A breakthrough would come when one of the production’s sound designers came up with a unique idea. According to Johnston, “HOWELL GIBBENS said, ‘What is the purest and most controllable vocal sound that you can find? It’s arguably an opera singer.’ So we auditioned a number of opera singers in Los Angeles and picked the perfect guy: a bass baritone opera singer.”

After Johnston and his sound team recorded about a dozen howls, they knew they’d found their perfect wolf howls. The director notes: “His howls go through a range of emotions…from angry and victorious to mourning. We pitched them down about 40 percent


so they became truly terrifying. When we pitched them down, we had these haunting, visceral animal sounds. They sent chills up our spines and gave us exactly what we were looking for.”

Victorian Costumes: Milena Canonero’s DesignTriple Oscar-winning costume designer Milena Canonero, whose previous work

includes her stunning costume work for Marie Antoinette, has an extensive background working on period films. Johnston asked Canonero to make the costumes for The Wolfman very gothic, which, in 1890, included strikingly angular shapes. She used dark, rich colours, which were unlike the light, frothy look that could be seen at the end of the 19th century in England.

A perfectionist in detail, Canonero wanted to make the division between the upper- and working-class characters in The Wolfman very apparent. The upper echelon’s costumes were comprised of sharp silhouettes and long elegant lines, with materials including silks, velvets and furs that were indicative of the characters’ social status. The working-class characters she designed for wore outfits that were bundled up; she dressed them in fabrics including wool, linen and cotton. The upper-class men were put in top hats and bowler hats, while the working-class men’s hats were given a more rough-and-ready, beaten-up look.

Most of the costumes for the principal cast were handmade and, due to the transformation and action scenes, some of the costumes were recrafted up to 20 times. Having multiple copies of many of the pieces proved very helpful, especially for scenes that included blood and fire (in which case the fabric was fire-guarded to protect the stunt double). For the larger crowd scenes, Canonero’s team dressed the background actors in clothing found in costume houses from France and Italy to throughout England.

Gwen Conliffe is in mourning throughout most of the film and, therefore, was dressed primarily in black. As a member of the upper crust, she was dressed in corsets mixed in different textures and shades of black. To add a bit of colour, Canonero had her team find teal velvet fabric to mix in with the mourning fiancée’s dark sleeves and skirt. As Gwen eases out of her grief and finds unexpected romance with Lawrence, the team dressed Emily Blunt in lilacs and dark purples. Of the corsets, Blunt laughs: “It was all about the waist in that period, which means that my internal organs now hate me.”

Though Sir John Talbot is very much aristocracy, he has rarely left his decaying home in the past several decades and no longer takes care of his image. Inspired by an Edward Gorey illustration, Canonero’s team created Talbot Sr.’s clothing by using pieces that were once beautiful but now heavily worn; the result was the creation of decayed elegance. A former hunter who made dangerous excursions to India, Sir John had numerous trophies and other eclectic souvenirs as part of his wardrobe, including furs that he wears with his dressing gown and overcoat.

Lawrence has returned to England from America; when he is reintroduced to the audience, he is the star of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Because his character has travelled back and forth across the Atlantic, Canonero’s team gave his costumes a look that is more expansive than a regular upper-class English gentleman’s.

For the transformation scenes in which the beast emerged, the team prepped Del Toro’s costumes so that his seams would expand and rip as his muscles grew. They used stretchy fabric and thread that could literally appear to burst and tear apart. As Del Toro often was dressed in costumes made of tweed, the team found stretchy nylon that matched


that fabric on camera. The final piece of Lawrence Talbot’s wardrobe created for the film was the production’s favourite: an actual replica of the wolf-head cane grasped by Lon Chaney Jr in the 1941 film.

****

Universal Pictures presents - in association with Relativity Media - A Stuber Pictures production of a Joe Johnston film: Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins in The Wolfman, starring Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving. The music is by Danny Elfman; the special makeup design is by Rick Baker. The action-horror’s costume designer is Milena Canonero, and its co-producer is Stratton Leopold. The film is edited by Dennis Virkler ACE, and Walter Murch ACE; the production designer is Rick Heinrichs. The Wolfman’s director of photography is Shelly Johnson ASC; its executive producers are Bill Carraro, Jonathan Mone and Ryan Kavanaugh. The film is based on the motion picture screenplay by Curt Siodmak, and it is produced by Scott Stuber, Benicio Del Toro, Rick Yorn and Sean Daniel. The Wolfman’s screenplay is by Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self. The film is directed by Joe Johnston. © 2010 Universal Studios. www.thewolfmanmovie.com

ABOUT THE CASTBENICIO DEL TORO (The Wolfman aka Lawrence Talbot/Produced by) has

earned critical accolades throughout his career, winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic as well as an Oscar nomination for his work in Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu’s 21 Grams. Del Toro recently reteamed with Soderbergh to take the title role in Che: Part One and Part Two, a biography of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, for which he won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 and at Spain’s Goya Awards in 2009.

Del Toro was recently seen in Susanne Bier’s Things We Lost in the Fire, opposite Halle Berry. His previous works include the film adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel Sin City, directed by Robert Rodriquez; Peter Weir’s Fearless; George Huang’s Swimming With Sharks; Abel Ferrara’s The Funeral; Guy Ritchie’s Snatch; Sean Penn’s The Indian Runner and The Pledge; Christopher McQuarrie’s The Way of the Gun; William Friedkin’s The Hunted; and playing Dr. Gonzo in Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Del Toro made his motion picture debut in John Glen’s License to Kill, opposite Timothy Dalton’s James Bond, and has earned critical acclaim for his performances ever since. In addition to winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, his performance also garnered him a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a BAFTA and the Silver Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, as well as citations from the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Society of Film Critics and the Chicago Film Critics Association. His work in 21 Grams also earned Del Toro the Audience Award for Best Actor at the 2003 Venice Film Festival. He earned Independent Spirit Awards for his performances as Fred Fenster in Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects and as Benny Dalmau in Julian Schnabel’s Basquiat.

Born in Puerto Rico, Del Toro grew up in Pennsylvania. He attended the University of California, San Diego, where he appeared in numerous student productions, one of which led to his performing at a drama festival at the Lafayette Theatre in New York. Del Toro studied at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting under the tutelage of Arthur Mendoza.

http://www.thewolfmanmovie.com/


ANTHONY HOPKINS (Sir John Talbot) received an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Silence of the Lambs in 1991, and he was subsequently nominated in the same category for his performances in The Remains of the Day (1993) and Nixon (1995). He also won the Best Actor Award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) for The Remains of the Day. In 1993, he starred in Richard Attenborough’s Shadowlands, with Debra Winger, and won numerous critics’ awards in the US and Britain, including the BAFTA for Best Actor. In 1998, he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance in Steven Spielberg’s Amistad.

Hopkins can next be seen in Woody Allen’s You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, opposite Josh Brolin and Naomi Watts. He recently began production on Marvel Studios’ Thor, in January 2010, which Kenneth Branagh is directing and in which he plays Thor’s father, Odin, the god of thunder.

Other recent acting credits include Fracture, in which he starred opposite Ryan Gosling; All the King’s Men, directed by Steven Zailian and co-starring Sean Penn, Jude Law and Kate Winslet; The World’s Fastest Indian, written and directed by Roger Donaldson; Proof, directed by John Madden and co-starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Gwyneth Paltrow; and Oliver Stone’s Alexander, in which he starred opposite Colin Farrell and Angelina Jolie.

In 2001, Hopkins starred opposite Julianne Moore in Ridley Scott’s Hannibal, the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs. In the late 1990s, he starred opposite Brad Pitt in Meet Joe Black, directed by Martin Brest; in The Mask of Zorro, directed by Martin Campbell and co-starring Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones; in Instinct, directed by Jon Turteltaub; and opposite Jessica Lange in Titus, Julie Taymor’s film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. He also narrated the 2000 holiday-season hit Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Hopkins also appeared in the feature adaptation of Stephen King’s Hearts in Atlantis for director Scott Hicks; the action-comedy Bad Company, co-starring Chris Rock; the box-office hit prequel to The Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon, co-starring Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes and Emily Watson; and Miramax Films’ adaptation of the Philip Roth novel “The Human Stain,” opposite Nicole Kidman.

His previous film credits include Surviving Picasso, in which he played the title role opposite Julianne Moore; the David Mamet-penned The Edge; Howards End; Bram Stoker’s Dracula; and Legends of the Fall. His early credits include The Elephant Man, Magic, A Bridge Too Far and The Bounty. He received Emmy Awards for The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case, in which he portrayed Bruno Hauptmann, and The Bunker, in which he portrayed Adolf Hitler.

Hopkins currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Stella, and is also a composer and a painter.

EMILY BLUNT (Gwen) shot to international prominence with her lead role in the multi-award-winning British movie My Summer of Love, filmed in the summer of 2003. Blunt played the mysterious and privileged Tamsin, who becomes the obsession of a local girl, in this intoxicating romance from Pawel Pawlikowski. The Independent praised her “genuine grace and predatory charisma,” The Scotsman said that “Blunt manages to convey the petulant certainty of late adolescence, while wielding her sexuality to dangerous effect” and Harper’s Bazaar called Blunt “the most impressive film debut I’ve seen since Kate Winslet in Heavenly Creatures.” Blunt won the Most Promising Newcomer award at the


2005 Evening Standard British Film Awards and was nominated in the Best Newcomer category at the 2004 British Independent Film Awards. The film won the Best British Film award at the 2005 BAFTAs.

Blunt started her career at the 2002 Chichester Festival, where she played Juliet in a production of Romeo and Juliet. Her London stage debut was portraying Gwen Cavendish in a production of The Royal Family, opposite Dame Judi Dench. In 2003, she appeared on television screens as Princess Isolda in the British television drama Boudicca and, in the same year, she starred in the television adaptation of Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile.” Blunt went on to appear in Henry VIII, a two-part television drama documenting the stormy 38-year reign of the king. Blunt played Henry’s fifth wife, the teenage Queen Catherine Howard, alongside Ray Winstone, Helena Bonham Carter and Michael Gambon. The series won the Best Television Movie/Miniseries at the 2003 International Emmy Awards.

The critically acclaimed Gideon’s Daughter, in which Blunt starred alongside Bill Nighy and Miranda Richardson, was shot in October 2004. Blunt played Natasha, the troubled daughter of a businessman who seems to be more dedicated to his career and girlfriend than to her. Set in the intense summer of 1997, against a backdrop of the Labour Party’s election victory and Princess Diana’s death, the drama was directed by Stephen Poliakoff. The film was first broadcast on BBC One in February 2006 and appeared on BBC America in April of the same year. Blunt won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television for her performance.

In 2005, Blunt flew to New York to start work on The Devil Wears Prada. An adaptation of the hugely popular Lauren Weisberger novel, the film features Blunt as the intensely neurotic Emily Chalton, senior assistant at Runway Magazine, who is permanently on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Directed by David Frankel and co-starring Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci, the film opened to great acclaim in the US in June 2006 and made more than $125 million at the US box office.

The critics shared the audience’s love for The Devil Wears Prada and for Blunt: The New York Times described her as a “tour de force of smiling hostility,” the Los Angeles Times called her “scene-stealing,” The Washington Post wrote that she “delivers a comic gem” and New York magazine reported that “the brilliant British actress Emily Blunt is a marvel at conveying the terror beneath the hauteur.” British critics were no less enthusiastic, The Observer called her “splendid” and the Telegraph praised her performance as “terrific” and “a catty delight.” The Daily Mail wrote, “It would be unjust if Emily Blunt’s supporting performance…didn’t win awards. This is a terrific young actress who would grace any production.” Blunt was nominated in the Breakout Female category at the 2006 Teen Choice Awards for her performance and was honoured with the Breakthrough Award at the 2006 Movieline Young Hollywood Awards. She was also nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs for the role. The movie was released worldwide in October 2006 and made more than $320 million at the box office. Blunt went on to be nominated for the Rising Star Award at the 2007 BAFTAs.

In August 2006, Blunt started work on The Great Buck Howard, written and directed by Sean McGinley and co-starring Tom Hanks, John Malkovich and Colin Hanks. Blunt plays Valerie, a self-assured publicist hired by a luckless magician trying to reinvigorate his career. The film premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and was released in the US in March 2009. Following this, Blunt filmed Dan in Real Life, with Steve Carell, Juliette


Binoche and Dane Cook. It was released in the US on October 26, 2007, and in the UK on January 11, 2008.

Blunt went on to make The Jane Austen Book Club. She starred alongside Maria Bello, Frances McDormand, Kevin Zegers and Hugh Dancy, as a secretive, unhappy teacher who yearns for more than life has given her. The film was released in the US on September 21, 2007, followed by a UK release on November 16, 2007. The Daily Mail said that “star-in-the-making Blunt’s funny and touching performance…made me wish more of the film was about her.” US critics were no less impressed: “Blunt [is] the standout in this terrific ensemble,” said the Washington City Paper, while Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post announced, “Blunt is becoming one of the best comedic actresses on screen, and certainly its most delicious bitter pill.”

Blunt next spent two months in Albuquerque, New Mexico, filming Sunshine Cleaning. Produced by the team behind Little Miss Sunshine, the film was directed by Christine Jeffs and tells the story of two sisters who start up a successful business cleaning up crime scenes. Blunt’s co-stars included Amy Adams and Alan Arkin, and the film was Blunt’s second at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. It had a very successful release in the US in March 2009, when it opened with the highest per-screen average of any release so far that year.

In late 2007, Blunt was seen in Mike Nichols’ Charlie Wilson’s War, with Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The film was released in the US in December 2007.

Blunt next filmed the Martin Scorsese-produced biopic The Young Victoria. She plays Britain’s Queen Victoria in the early stages of her life, and the film is written by Julian Fellowes and directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. The cast also includes Miranda Richardson, Jim Broadbent and Rupert Friend. The film was released in the UK in March 2009, earning Blunt high praise from UK film critics. Wendy Ide at The Times wrote, “Rising star Emily Blunt plays the cloistered young monarch with a playfulness and a lively spirit,” while Baz Bamigboye declared he “loved” Blunt’s performance and the Sunday Express raved, “Blunt deftly judges the mixture of stubbornness and naivety in Victoria.” The film was then picked to be the closing night film of the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, ahead of a November 2009 release.

In September 2009, Blunt moved to New York to start work on The Adjustment Bureau, directed by George Nolfi. Starring opposite Matt Damon, Blunt plays an enigmatic ballerina who arrives in the life of an ambitious congressman and throws his life into turmoil.

Australian actor HUGO WEAVING (Aberline) has starred in two of the biggest trilogies in film history - playing elf leader Elrond in The Lord of the Rings films and Agent Smith in The Matrix films.

Weaving is the recipient of three AFI (Australian Film Institute) Best Actor Awards, having received the first in 1991 for his portrayal of a blind photographer in Jocelyn Moorhouse’s breakthrough feature, Proof. He received a nomination in the same category in 1994 for his role as drag queen Mitzi Del Bra in Stephan Elliott’s The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Weaving won the award for the second time in 1998 for his role in The Interview, written and directed by Craig Monahan, for which he also received the 1998 Best Actor Award at the Montréal World Film Festival. In 2005, he starred in the


critically acclaimed Little Fish, opposite Cate Blanchett and Sam Neill, for which he won his third AFI Award for Best Actor and the Inside Film (IF) Award for Best Actor.

Weaving’s other film credits include The Tender Hook, Transformers, Last Ride, V for Vendetta, Happy Feet, Peaches, Russian Doll, The Magic Pudding, Strange Planet, Babe, Babe: Pig in the City, True Love and Chaos and Exile. His foreign credits include Rolf de Heer’s The Old Man Who Read Love Stories and the British romp Bedrooms and Hallways.

Weaving also has a wealth of experience on stage. In 2006, he appeared on stage with Cate Blanchett in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Hedda Gabler at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In 2007, he appeared in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Riflemind, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, and, in 2009, Weaving appeared in the Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of God of Carnage.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERSJOE JOHNSTON (Directed by) directed the box-office hits Jurassic Park III,

Jumanji and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. His additional credits as a director include Hidalgo, October Sky and The Rocketeer. Johnston is currently in preproduction on Paramount Pictures’ The First Avenger: Captain America, set for release in 2011.

Prior to directing, Johnston worked in visual effects on the films Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the Lost Ark, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

BAFTA-nominated screenwriter ANDREW KEVIN WALKER (Screenplay by) wrote David Fincher’s Academy Award-nominated film Se7en. His other film credits include Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow; Hideaway; and Brainscan.

Walker also wrote the shorts The Hire: Ambush and The Hire: The Follow, starring Clive Owen, for the BMW Film Series.

DAVID SELF (Screenplay by) previously wrote DreamWorks’ The Haunting, directed by Jan de Bont, New Line Cinema’s Thirteen Days and DreamWorks’ Road to Perdition, directed by Sam Mendes.

Self is currently working on Universal Pictures’ The Parsifal Mosaic for Ron Howard.

In March 2008, producer SCOTT STUBER (Produced by) transitioned the company he founded with Mary Parent into Stuber Pictures. This producing agreement with Universal Pictures began in 2006, after he left his post as the studio’s vice chairman of worldwide production. Prior to that, Stuber had served as president of production since February 2001, having joined Universal Pictures as senior vice president of production in August 1997. Now, Stuber solely runs Stuber Pictures.

As a producer, Stuber has put together a prolific and varied slate of films that includes tent-pole comedies; star-driven dramas and thrillers; and high-profile books and original scripts by established and visionary writers. Stuber Pictures has development and production deals with the industry’s foremost directors, writers and actors.

Universal recently released the Stuber-produced comedy Couples Retreat, starring Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau and Jason Bateman, and the romantic drama Love Happens, starring Aaron Eckhart and Jennifer Aniston.

Slated for a 2010 release is the sci-fi thriller Repo Men, starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and directed by Miguel Sapochnik; Your Highness, from the comedic team of


Danny McBride and Ben Best, directed by David Gordon Green and starring McBride, James Franco, Zooey Deschanel and Natalie Portman; and Love and Other Drugs, based on Jamie Reidy’s book “Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman,” about the behind-the-scenes look at Pfizer and the launching of its most popular drug. The film is directed by Edward Zwick (Blood Diamond) and stars Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Upcoming projects in various stages of production include the motion picture adaptation of Battleship, based on Hasbro’s classic naval combat and directed by Pete Berg (Hancock, The Kingdom); the epic period film 47 Ronin, written by Chris Morgan (Wanted) and starring Keanu Reeves; the film adaptation of the hugely popular EA videogame Army of Two, to be written by Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum, The Informant!); and Moby Dick, a reimagining of the Herman Melville whale tale that Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) will direct.

Stuber’s first production under the Stuber/Parent banner was summer 2006’s breakout comedy hit You, Me and Dupree, starring Owen Wilson, Kate Hudson and Matt Dillon. Summer ’06 also brought audiences the blockbuster hit The Break-Up, starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston. These two comedies were followed by Pete Berg’s critically acclaimed film The Kingdom; the Martin Lawrence comedy Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins; and the David Wain sleeper hit Role Models, starring Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott, which grossed more than $100 million worldwide.

During Stuber’s eight years at Universal - five of which he spent co-running production - he was responsible for many of the studio’s critically acclaimed and commercially successful films, including King Kong, Jarhead, A Beautiful Mind, Seabiscuit, Cinderella Man, Munich, Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, About a Boy, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, 8 Mile, Spy Game, The Family Man, The Nutty Professor, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, The Mummy franchise, the American Pie franchise, The Fast and the Furious franchise, Friday Night Lights, Bring It On and many others. Of the dozens of films Stuber supervised, more than 20 of them have grossed more than $100 million domestically.

RICK YORN’s (Produced by) additional film credits include Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator and Gangs of New York.

Yorn’s management company also represents Benicio Del Toro, Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese and Justin Timberlake.

SEAN DANIEL (Produced by) has produced The Mummy, The Mummy Returns and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. In 1992, he formed Alphaville Productions with partner Jim Jacks. In addition to The Mummy series, they produced such films as Richard Linklater’s acclaimed Dazed and Confused; the renowned western Tombstone, starring Kurt Russell; The Scorpion King; Nora Ephron’s comedy Michael, starring John Travolta; A Simple Plan, directed by Sam Raimi; the Coen brothers’ Intolerable Cruelty; the Chris Rock/Weitz brothers comedy Down to Earth; Jerry Zucker’s Rat Race; John Woo’s first American film, Hard Target; William Friedkin’s The Hunted, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro; The Jackal, starring Richard Gere and Bruce Willis; and The Gift, starring Cate Blanchett and Hilary Swank, also directed by Raimi.

For cable television, Daniel produced the TNT original film Freedom Song, directed by Phil Robinson and starring Danny Glover, HBO’s Everyday People and the USA Network’s four-hour miniseries Attila.


Before becoming a producer, Daniel was an executive at Universal Studios serving as president of production from 1984 to 1989. During his time there, he supervised such films as National Lampoon’s Animal House, Coal Miner’s Daughter, The Blues Brothers, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Field of Dreams, Do the Right Thing, Missing, Fletch, Brazil and Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey.

He received a bachelor of fine arts degree in film from the California Institute of the Arts in 1973. In addition, Daniel has been a participant in the debate about media and culture, appearing on The McLaughlin Group, NPR’ s Which Way L.A.? and in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and the huffingtonpost.com.

Novelist and screenwriter CURT SIODMAK (Based on the Motion Picture Screenplay by) wrote Universal Pictures’ The Wolf Man (1941), starring Lon Chaney Jr. Siodmak also wrote the novel “Donovan’s Brain,” which was adapted into several films.

Siodmak passed away on September 2, 2000.Independent producer BILL CARRARO (Executive Producer) is currently working

in New York producing The Adjustment Bureau, written and directed by George Nolfi, starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt and co-starring Anthony Mackie, John Slattery and Terence Stamp.

Previously, Carraro produced The Golden Compass, which won the Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects in 2008. He invested the better part of three years working with New Line Cinema, its creative team and writer/director Chris Weitz in a determined effort to bring this production to the big screen. The film starred Nicole Kidman, Sam Elliott, Eva Green and Daniel Craig, and introduced Dakota Blue Richards.

Carraro’s other feature credits as producer or executive producer include The Sentinel, starring Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria Parker and Kim Basinger; My Super Ex-Girlfriend, starring Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson; Stay, starring Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts and Ryan Gosling; The Best Man, starring Taye Diggs, Nia Long and Morris Chestnut; Frequency, starring Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel; Undercover Brother, starring Eddie Griffin, Chris Kattan and Denise Richards; and American History X, starring Edward Norton and Edward Furlong. Norton received an Academy Award nomination for his powerful performance.

In addition to working with The Golden Compass director Chris Weitz, Carraro has worked on films helmed by directors such as Ivan Reitman, Woody Allen, Brian De Palma, Malcolm Lee, Gregory Hoblit, Joan Micklin Silver, Marc Forster and James Foley.

Carraro was the producer of the Emmy-winning and Golden Globe-nominated HBO film The Tuskegee Airmen, based on the true story of the first African-American fighter pilots, which starred Laurence Fishburne and Cuba Gooding Jr. This highly acclaimed project garnered Carraro the Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement. Carraro was also the recipient of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Motion Picture for producing The Best Man. In addition, Carraro received a Saturn Award for producing Frequency.

Carraro also served as president of production at Aaron Russo Films, supervising independently and co-financed projects that included a first-look deal at Orion Pictures.

A native New Yorker born in Brooklyn and a graduate of Ithaca College, with a degree in film and photography, Carraro began his career in the commercial film industry before moving on to feature film production.


Carraro is a member of both the Producers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America and, in addition to his various producer credits, has worked as a second unit director.

After living in Los Angeles for several years, Carraro returned to New York, where he and his family currently reside.

RYAN KAVANAUGH (Executive Producer) is a principal of Relativity Media, LLC, a self-sustaining media company engaged in the business of developing, creating and acquiring content and content-related assets.

Kavanaugh created business and financial structures for a number of studios, production companies and producers, and has introduced more than $10 billion of capital to these structures since moving from venture and private equity to entertainment industry transactions, including Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., Marvel and many others.

In 2008, Relativity Media finalized its acquisition of Rogue Pictures from Universal. The purchase of Rogue, a company that specializes in the production and distribution of lower-budget films, includes the label’s entire library of films, as well as producing deals and more than 30 projects currently in development. Rogue has had particular success within the horror genre; the first Rogue release under Relativity’s ownership was The Unborn, starring Gary Oldman, Cam Gigandet, Odette Yustman and Idris Elba. The Unborn grossed more than $19 million at the box office opening weekend and has earned nearly $60 million to date. The Last House on the Left, based on a Wes Craven film, opened to $15 million at the box office and Fighting, starring Channing Tatum and Terrence Howard, grossed a strong $11.5 million opening weekend. Additionally, Relativity Media recently launched Rogue as an overall lifestyle brand to include a clothing line, a social networking platform and a music label.

In a significant milestone for the entertainment finance industry, Kavanaugh created a wholly owned subsidiary, Relativity Media Holdings, which has concluded an agreement with Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking on a co-financing package for approximately 45 studio films for the next five years. With this deal, Relativity will co-invest in approximately seventy-five percent of Columbia Pictures’ films, under a five-year revolving credit facility.

Jill Goldsmith of Variety wrote of Kavanaugh: “His co-financing deals are the most successful ever in Hollywood. He’s been amazingly proactive and is the envy of many on Wall Street involved in the business.”

Kavanaugh has created a number of unique financing packages, including Gun Hill Road I and Gun Hill Road II, which provide discrete and separate funds for both Sony Pictures Entertainment and Universal Pictures, marking the first time two studios received funding from the same source. In January 2008, Relativity Media announced the formation of the wholly owned subsidiary Relativity Capital, which is to be a principal investor in major media transactions, including studio slates, the Relativity Media Single Picture Business, library acquisitions and other media-related cash flow investments. Elliott Associates, L.P., a New York-based hedge fund, will be working with and providing financing to Relativity Capital in these media transactions.

As part of its “single picture business,” Relativity Media develops, produces, finances and distributes approximately one film per month, packaged with top-tier talent and filmmakers and imbued with strong commercial appeal both domestically and


internationally. Credits under this single picture business include 3:10 to Yuma, starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale for director James Mangold; The Forbidden Kingdom, teaming Jet Li and Jackie Chan for director Rob Minkoff; and The Bank Job, starring Jason Statham for director Roger Donaldson. Relativity’s recent single-picture line-up includes Jim Sheridan’s Brothers, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman; Lasse Hallström’s Dear John, starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried; the heist thriller Brilliant, starring Scarlett Johansson; the family action film The Spy Next Door, starring Jackie Chan; and Rob Marshall’s Nine, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Penélope Cruz, Marion Cotillard and Sophia Loren.

Prior to his work with Relativity, Kavanaugh started a venture capital company at age 22 and, during that time, raised and invested more than $400 million of equity due to a number of venture and private equity transactions.

SHELLY JOHNSON’s (Director of Photography) most recent credits include Sony Pictures’ The House Bunny; Joe Johnston’s western Hidalgo, starring Viggo Mortensen; The Last Castle, which starred Robert Redford; and the third instalment of the immensely popular Jurassic Park franchise, also directed by Johnston.

His television credits include the NBC series The Others, which garnered Johnson an American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Episodic Television Series, as well as the Stephen King miniseries The Shining.

Johnson was twice more nominated by the ASC for Outstanding Achievement in the Movies of the Week/Pilots category for his work on The Inheritance and Everybody’s Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure.

Johnson’s extensive television credits also include episodic work on Alien Nation and Tales From the Crypt.

RICK HEINRICHS (Production Designer) is an innovative visual artist who creates alternate worlds entirely appropriate to a film’s stories and settings. Currently, Heinrichs is designing The First Avenger: Captain America, following his recent work on The Wolfman, both for director Joe Johnston. In the past, he has designed the monumental sets and ships for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, both directed by Gore Verbinski. His work on Dead Man’s Chest was nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA and an Art Directors Guild Award (ADG). At World’s End was also nominated for an ADG award. He won an Academy Award for his work on Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, for which he also won BAFTA and ADG awards. He received another Oscar nomination and won an ADG Award for his imaginative designs for Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.

In 1992, Heinrichs moved up to art director on Burton’s Batman Returns, having previously assistant art directed Soapdish. He also served as visual consultant on Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. Later, Heinrichs was production designer on Burton’s Planet of the Apes.

Heinrichs’ other credits as production designer include the Coen brothers’ classics Fargo and The Big Lebowski, and Ang Lee’s Hulk.

He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.DENNIS VIRKLER ACE (Editor) has edited more than 30 motion pictures and has

been nominated for two Academy Awards for The Hunt for Red October and The Fugitive, and also received a BAFTA nomination for The Fugitive.


Virkler’s additional film credits include The Fog, Into the Blue, The Chronicles of Riddick, Daredevil, Collateral Damage, The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, A Perfect Murder, Batman & Robin, The Devil’s Own, Batman Forever and Under Siege.

Virkler has also worked as a sound editor, music editor, second unit director, associate producer and music video director.

WALTER MURCH ACE (Editor) has been honoured by both British and American Motion Picture Academies for his picture editing and sound mixing. In 1997, Murch received an unprecedented two Oscars for film editing and sound mixing The English Patient (directed by Anthony Minghella), as well as that year’s BAFTA for Best Editing. Seventeen years earlier, he had received an Oscar for Best Sound for Apocalypse Now (directed by Francis Ford Coppola), as well as Oscar and BAFTA nominations for Best Film Editing. He also won two BAFTAs in 1975 for editing and sound mixing The Conversation (directed by Coppola), was nominated for Oscars and BAFTAs in 1978 for Best Film Editing for Julia (directed by Fred Zinnemann) and, in 1991, received two Oscar nominations for Best Film Editing for the films Ghost (directed by Jerry Zucker) and The Godfather: Part III (directed by Coppola). In 2004, for the film Cold Mountain (directed by Minghella), he received a ninth Oscar nomination for Best Film Editing, as well as BAFTA nominations for Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing.

His most recent work is Tetro, for director Francis Ford Coppola. The film is the first original screenplay by Coppola since The Conversation.

Among Murch’s other credits are editing The Unbearable Lightness of Being (directed by Philip Kaufman), Romeo is Bleeding (directed by Peter Medak), The Talented Mr. Ripley (directed by Minghella), K-19: The Widowmaker (directed by Kathryn Bigelow) and Jarhead (directed by Sam Mendes). Murch also directed and co-wrote, with Gill Dennis, the film Return to Oz, released in 1985.

He has also been involved in film restoration, notably Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil (1998), Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now Redux (2001) and the Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894).

Murch was also sound effects supervisor for The Godfather (directed by Coppola), and responsible for sound montage and re-recording on THX 1138 (directed by George Lucas), American Graffiti (directed by Lucas) and The Godfather: Part II (directed by Coppola), as well as being re-recording mixer on all of the films for which he has also been picture editor.

Between films, he pursues interests in the science of human perception, cosmology and the history of science. Since 1995, he has worked on a reinterpretation of the Titius-Bode Law of planetary spacing, based on data from the Voyager probe, the Hubble telescope, and recent discoveries of exoplanets orbiting distant stars. He has also published a number of previously untranslated works by the Italian poet and novelist Curzio Malaparte (1898–1957).

Murch has written one book on film editing, “In the Blink of an Eye” (2001) and his work has been the subject of two other books: “The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film,” by Michael Ondaatje (2002) and “Behind the Seen,” by Charles Koppelman (2004).

Murch is the son of the painter Walter Tandy Murch (1907–1967). He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hopkins University with a BA in liberal arts in 1965, and was


awarded an Oakley Fellowship to study cinema at the graduate program of the University of Southern California.

In 2006, Murch was made an Honorary Doctor of Letters by the Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

He married Muriel “Aggie” Slater in 1965. They have four children: Walter, Beatrice, Carrie and Connie. Walter and Aggie live in California just north of San Francisco.

MILENA CANONERO (Costume Designer) won Academy Awards for her costumes for Marie Antoinette, Chariots of Fire and Barry Lyndon, the latter shared with Ulla-Britt Söderlund. She received five additional Academy Award nominations for The Affair of the Necklace, Titus, Dick Tracy, Tucker: The Man and His Dream and Out of Africa. Canonero also won two BAFTAs for The Cotton Club and Chariots of Fire. She was also nominated for Marie Antoinette, Dick Tracy, Out of Africa and Barry Lyndon. The Costume Designers Guild (CDG) has honoured Canonero with its Career Achievement Award and she won the Excellence in Costume Design for Film - Contemporary Award for Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. Canonero also received CDG Award nominations for Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Twelve and Marie Antoinette.

Her numerous film credits include I vicerè, The Darjeeling Limited, Belle toujours, Solaris, Bulworth, Death and the Maiden, Only You, Love Affair, Damage, Single White Female (for which she was also production designer), The Godfather: Part III, Reversal of Fortune (as a consultant), Barfly, The Hunger, The Shining, Midnight Express and A Clockwork Orange.

A native of Turin, Italy, Canonero studied costume design and art history in Paris and London. She has also designed costumes for operas at the Vienna Opera House, the Spoleto Festival and the Metropolitan Opera House, and has worked in theatre for the Teatro di Roma. Canonero returned to Italy to design costumes for Roman Polanski’s theatrical production of Amadeus.

RICK BAKER (Special Makeup Design by) is one of the most honoured makeup artists in motion picture history. He has won six Academy Awards in the category of Best Makeup for his work on the films Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Men in Black, The Nutty Professor, Ed Wood, Harry and the Hendersons and An American Werewolf in London. In addition, he has been Oscar-nominated for his work on the films Norbit, Life, Mighty Joe Young, Coming to America and Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes.

Baker’s makeup transformations have also been seen in such films as Hellboy, The Haunted Mansion, The Ring, Men in Black II, Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, Wolf, The Rocketeer, Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey and The Fury. His talents are also on display in the memorable cantina sequence from the very first Star Wars movie.

Baker won an Emmy Award for his work on the acclaimed miniseries The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and earned an Emmy nomination for the series Beauty and the Beast. His other television credits include the series Harry and the Hendersons and Werewolf. In addition, he did Michael Jackson’s makeup for the award-winning “Thriller” video, as well as Jackson’s Captain EO.

DANNY ELFMAN (Music by) has earned numerous honours, including a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award and four Academy Award nominations. In 1998, he was honoured with dual Oscar nominations for Best Original Score for his work on Barry Sonnenfeld’s


Men in Black and Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting. He received his third Oscar nomination for the score for Tim Burton’s acclaimed fantasy Big Fish. Elfman earned his most recent Oscar nomination for his score for the acclaimed biopic Milk, directed by Gus Van Sant.

In all, Elfman has composed more than 60 motion-picture scores for a variety of directors including Tim Burton, Gus Van Sant, Sam Raimi, Ang Lee, Taylor Hackford, Errol Morris, Rob Marshall, Brett Ratner, Guillermo del Toro, Wayne Wang, Timur Bekmambetov, Barry Sonnenfeld, Brian De Palma, Peter Jackson, the Hughes Brothers, Richard Donner, Jon Amiel, Martin Brest and Warren Beatty.

Elfman has worked on films of every genre, including Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Batman, Batman Returns, Men in Black, Men in Black II, Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, To Die For, A Simple Plan, Mission: Impossible, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Family Man, Wanted, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Charlotte’s Web, Dick Tracy, Darkman and Chicago.

For television, Elfman won an Emmy Award for his theme for the hit series Desperate Housewives, and was also Emmy-nominated for his theme for The Simpsons, which is the longest-running primetime comedy series ever.

A Los Angeles native, Elfman got his first experience in performing and composing at the age of 18 for the French theatrical troupe Le Grand Magic Circus. The following year, he collaborated with his brother Richard, performing musical theatre on the streets of California. Elfman then worked with a surrealistic musical cabaret for six years, using the outlet to explore multifarious musical genres.

For 17 years, he wrote and performed with the rock band Oingo Boingo, producing such hits as “Weird Science” and “Dead Man’s Party.”

His first composition for the ballet, Rabbit and Rogue, had its American Ballet Theatre (ABT) World Premiere at The Metropolitan Opera House at New York’s Lincoln Centre in June 2008. The ballet was choreographed by Twyla Tharp and commissioned by the ABT.

Elfman’s most recent film credits include the comedy Taking Woodstock, directed by Ang Lee, McG’s Terminator: Salvation and the forthcoming Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.

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