“PIXELS”
Production
Information
(Possible Spoilers ahead)
As kids in the 1980s, Sam Brenner (Adam Sandler), Will
Cooper (Kevin James), Ludlow Lamonsoff (Josh Gad), and Eddie “The Fire Blaster”
Plant (Peter Dinklage) saved the world thousands of times – at 25 cents a game
in the video arcades. Now, they’re going
to have to do it for real. In Pixels,
when intergalactic aliens discover video feeds of classic arcade games and
misinterpret them as a declaration of war, they attack the Earth, using the
video games as the models for their assaults -- and now-U.S. President Cooper
must call on his old-school arcade friends to save the world from being
destroyed by PAC-MAN™, Donkey Kong™, Galaga™, Centipede®, and Space
Invaders™. Joining them is Lt. Col. Violet Van Patten
(Michelle Monaghan), a specialist supplying the arcaders with unique weapons to
fight the aliens.
Columbia Pictures presents in association
with LStar Capital and China Film Co., Ltd., a
Happy Madison / 1492 Pictures production
in association with Film Croppers
Entertainment, Pixels. Starring Adam Sandler,
Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter
Dinklage, Josh Gad, and Brian Cox. Directed by Chris Columbus. Produced by Adam Sandler, Chris Columbus,
Mark Radcliffe, and Allen Covert.
Screenplay by Tim Herlihy and Timothy Dowling. Screen Story by Tim Herlihy. Based on the short film by Patrick Jean. Executive producers are Barry Bernardi,
Michael Barnathan, Jack Giarraputo,
Steve Koren, Heather Parry, Patrick Jean,
Benjamin Darras, Johnny Alves, Matias
Boucard, Seth Gordon, and Ben
Waisbren. Director of Photography is
Amir Mokri. Production Designer is Peter
Wenham. Edited by Hughes Winborne,
ACE. Costume Designer is Christine Wada. Music by Henry Jackman.
IT’S ON LIKE DONKEY KONG
Pixels
is the summer tentpole action comedy in which aliens attack the Earth, using
1980s videogames as the model for
their attacks, produced by Happy Madison and 1492 Pictures. Taking the helm of Pixels, Chris Columbus helped define 1980s movies as the writer of Gremlins and The Goonies, then went on to direct beloved, classic comedies like Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire, and help launch epic, special-effects blockbuster
franchises like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and Night at the Museum,
Columbus says that Pixels appealed to
him in myriad ways. “Reading the Pixels script felt so original, so
unique, that I just had to do it,” he says.
“I loved the blend of comedy mixed with action, which gave me an
opportunity to do something I hadn’t been able to do since Harry Potter. It enabled me
to push the comedy as far as we could, but also create this very intense action
adventure film. For me, it’s Gremlins meets Goonies meets Harry Potter
– it gave me the opportunity to create something really fresh using the tools I
had gathered over the years. It would be
an original summer movie that took you back to the 80s in an evocative,
nostalgic way.”
The project stars Adam Sandler,
who also serves as a producer of the film.
Columbus says that being able to serve both roles benefits the
project. “Adam has a great sense of
comedy and is a very savvy producer,” says Columbus. “That’s a great combination, because – for
example – he completely understands when something’s working and we can move
on, or when something’s not working and needs a little more time to get it right.”
The list of the film’s pixelated co-stars
reads like an all-star team of the 1980s: PAC-
MAN™, Donkey Kong™, Centipede®, Galaga™, Frogger, Q*bert™,
and Space Invaders™, among many others.
“These classic characters were part of the DNA of the project, so it was
critical that we work together to bring them on board,” explains Allen Covert,
one of the film’s producers.
“Fortunately, they were all extremely receptive. We approached them with
a deep love for their characters and a respect for the elements that make them
unique and iconic, and we worked with the companies to incorporate those
elements into the film.” Partners included Atari Interactive, Inc. (Asteroids,
Breakout, Centipede, Missile Command); Konami Digital Entertainment (Frogger);
Bandai Namco Entertainment (PAC-MAN,
Galaga, Dig Dug); Nintendo (Donkey Kong,
Duck Hunt); Sony Computer Entertainment
(Q*Bert); TAITO CORPORATION (Arkanoid,
Space Invaders); and Warner Bros.
Interactive (Paperboy, Joust, Defender, Robotron), G-MODE (BurgerTime), and
TETRIS (Tetris).
Columbus adds, “There would be no
way to make the movie without these legendary characters – they are as
important to the film as the roles that the actors are playing. It was a real
thrill to see everything come together exactly as we envisioned it.”
Executive Producer Michael
Barnathan, who also serves as president of Columbus’ company, 1492 Pictures,
adds that the filmmaking team also found 1980s inspiration in other ways. “I think everyone involved with this movie
has a great love for the great summer action-comedies of the 1980s,” he
says. “We definitely wanted a movie for
today’s audiences, but our goal was also to capture something of the feel that
made those movies so special – that mix of action and comedy that the movies of
that era did so well.”
Columbus says that one other reason he felt attracted to
the project was the chance to make a film that would truly appeal to audiences
of all ages. “Of course, the parents out
there are going to remember playing these games at a video arcade, and their
kids will be just as amazed by the characters – there are a hundred jokes in
the movie that work for parents, and a hundred that work for their kids,” he
says. “But it’s more than that. I think there’s a lot of nostalgia for these
games and about the 80s in particular. I
certainly hear it all the time – I talk to college kids and their favorite
movie is The Goonies. There’s a lot of
love for that era right now.”
ABOUT THE CAST
To capture the comedy, the Happy
Madison and 1492 filmmakers brought in an all-star cast of comedic film
talent. Adam Sandler, who also produces
the film, as well as Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage, and Josh
Gad make up the team of unlikely heroes who are called upon to save the
world.
“The five of them together are
just so wonderful,” says Columbus.
“There’s a natural camaraderie and real charisma between the five of
them. They truly create a team.”
Adam Sandler leads the way as Sam
Brenner – once a video game world champion, and now a home theater installer. “Things haven’t quite gone his way over the
past 30 years,” says Barnathan. “He’s
gotten stuck in life. To be honest, it’s
starting to seem like there’s only one thing he’s ever been really good at –
playing videogames. Fortunately for us
all, that one thing is about to come in really handy.”
* * *
Kevin James – who has starred
opposite Sandler in several films – is called on to play Sandler’s best friend
and the President of the United States of America.
“With Kevin, we were not only
playing against type, we were playing against the comedy,” says Columbus. “Kevin had to have a really strong presence –
he had to feel presidential. And he
played that role beautifully – when he completed the first scene as President
Cooper, I completely believed him. He’s
a wonderful actor, and capable of going much deeper than he has in the past.”
In the film, James’ character,
Will Cooper, has reached a political low.
Everybody thinks all politicians are buffoonish oafs, but the American
people really convinced of it with Cooper.
“The general public is not a huge fan of my character,” James
explains. “He’s not doing a lot of what
he said he'd do, and he basically doesn't care.
When he sees that the world is being attacked and it looks like
videogames, he brings in his friends – who happen to be the greatest videogame
players ever.”
You might think it would be
difficult for James to act opposite a CG character, but the comedian got a lot
of practice. “I replaced my family at
home with tennis balls to get used to it,” he says. “They moved out of the house for a month and
I replaced them with tennis balls everywhere – one was a Slazenger, one was a
Wilson, and one was a Penn. As a parent,
you’re always yelling at your kids about something – to eat or wipe or clean up
– so I’d just yell at the tennis balls.
I got pretty good at it and accustomed to it really quick.”
* * *
As President Cooper calls on Sam
Brenner to put together an expert team of Arcaders to help fight the aliens,
Brenner tracks down the now-grown men who were the champions as kids.
Josh Gad joins the cast as Ludlow
Lamonsoff, the youngest member of the Arcaders.
“He’s a little younger than the
other guys – he was kind of the Wonder Kid,” says Gad.
Once the child prodigy amongst
the gamers, he’s now a conspiracy theorist who never quite got over his
childhood crush on Lady Lisa, the cartoonish lead character in Dojo Quest, his
favorite game from back in the day.
“Tim Herlihy and Timothy Dowling
wrote a character that was really eccentric – and I’m no stranger to eccentric
characters,” says the star of Broadway’s “The Book of Mormon” and the voice of
Olaf the snowman in Frozen. “This was a chance to sink my teeth into a
guy who’s strangely off. But there’s
also something wonderfully vulnerable about him. He’s chasing the love of his life, which is a
videogame character – it makes him sound insane, but he believes in a world
where he can co-exist with Lady Lisa and run away with her.”
Gad was excited to join the
project not only because of the chance to work with Columbus and Sandler, but
also because of the chance to play out the iconic games from his childhood on
an epic scale. “I was born in ’81, right
at the height of arcade fever,” he says. “I had two older brothers, so I
remember going to the local arcade in South Florida – it was called Grand Prix
– and we would just play nonstop on a Saturday or Sunday. To get the chance to chase these creatures that
I remember playing against as a kid was like being a child all over
again.”
In real life, Gad’s own favorite
game wasn’t Dojo Quest. “I was always
addicted to Galaga,” Gad continues. “It
was one of those games that I was never quite great at, but for some reason, I
loved it.”
* * *
Peter Dinklage rounds out the
Arcaders as Eddie Plant, a/k/a The Fire Blaster. Though he has risen to fame with his dramatic
role in “Game of Thrones,” Dinklage is equally adept at comedy, as he’s shown
over the years from roles in Living in
Oblivion to Death at a Funeral.
“Eddie was the other guys’
childhood nemesis,” says Dinklage. “He
has quite a large ego, in terms of his championships, and he loves to remind
everyone else how good he is. That’s the
way he’s portrayed as a child – and when we jump to the present day, his
attitude hasn’t changed all that much.”
Eddie Plant has a distinctive
look in the movie, with his mullet and the arms ripped off of his uniform. “He’s definitely mentally and visually stuck
in a certain time,” he says. “I’ve seen
guys like that – they don’t realize that certain looks have gone out of style,
but God bless ’em, they’re happy. Eddie
has a giant mullet, he’s got tattoos – not the beautiful tattoos that are hip
these days – and he has a habit of taking the sleeves off of everything he
wears. I guess he’s insecure about the
back of his neck, but not about his guns.”
Like his co-stars, Dinklage would
habit the arcades of his childhood back in the day. “I feel sorry for the kids nowadays, playing
on the consoles, because going to the arcade was so social,” he says. “You go to the arcade, hang out with your
friends, check out the girls – or the one girl who might have been there that
day. They played music. It was like being at the rollerskating rink,
and it was so much more fun.”
* * *
The Arcaders would be nowhere
without the help of Lt. Colonel Violet Van Patten, played by Michelle
Monaghan. “She’s a very tough character
– very brainy, very sassy,” says Monaghan.
“I’d definitely say she has a
love-hate relationship with Brenner,” says Monaghan. “He’s the complete opposite of Violet – she
finds him pretty repulsive. It’s only in
attempting to save the world that he wins her over and convinces her that he’s
more than meets the eye.”
Monaghan may have been the only
female in a lead role, but she relished it.
“Are you kidding me? I loved
being the only female,” she says. “The
guys are very inclusive, very sweet.
Yeah, there was a lot of ribbing, but I’m really good at dishing it as
well.” * * *
Ashley Benson takes on the role
of Lady Lisa, the film’s 1980s videogame icon, star of the fictional game Dojo
Quest, and the object of Ludlow’s unrequited love. “I get to play a videogame hero – I have two
swords and I get to be a badass,” Benson explains. “I’d never worked with swords before, so that
was cool. Plus, punching and kicking and
beating up Josh is always fun.”
“We wanted Ludlow (played by Josh Gad) to be in love with a
female video game character from his childhood. We thought it was really sweet,
but also showed that he’s a little pathetic,” says Covert “There weren’t a lot
of game characters that fit that description so we came up with Dojo Quest and
Lady Lisa. The best part was that we actually got to make it into a real game
that you can play on your phone.”
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
After developing the project at
Happy Madison, they began to seek a director who could shepherd it to the
screen. “We thought Chris would be the
perfect director for this movie,” says Covert.
“He’s directed giant effects movies and some of our favorite comedies
and Pixels was a combination of those
two elements. He is so great at blending stunning visuals with outrageously
funny actors and making it believable. ”
Executive producer Michael Barnathan agrees, adding another
element: “Ultimately, movies are about story.
One of Chris’s greatest talents as a director is making sure that these
other elements – the comedy, the effects – are all working to move the story
forward in a satisfying and emotional way.
We all thought Pixels
represented an opportunity to be a perfect match between the material and
everything Chris does well as a director.”
ATTACK OF THE VIDEOGAMES: DESIGN AND EFFECTS
Not only does the unique plot and
hilarious comedy of Pixels
distinguish it from the crowd, but the film also looks different from other
summer films. “Most visual effects
movies – including movies I’ve been involved with – set out to create
extraordinarily realistic visual effects.
Even if you’re creating a dragon or a monster, you try to give it the
texture and skin of a real creature,” Columbus explains. “On Pixels,
we were aiming for something you’ve never seen before. When these videogame characters come to life,
they take on this pixelated form with an aura lit from within, and constantly
moving.
It’s literally a three-dimensional version of the 8-bit
games you used to see on your arcade screen.”
Production Designer Peter Wenham, who was responsible for
the overall look of the film, was the initial player in orchestrating the ways
that the look of the iconic videogame characters would transition from their
classic 8-bit forms to fully realized 3D threats. “It was important to the different gaming
companies – and to us as well – to stay as truthful as we possibly could, even
as we made the characters 3D,” he says.
“The fun comes in showing something we haven’t seen before – all of the
everyday objects getting pixelated. We
had to determine how that would work, what it would look like – when a Space
Invaders bomb hits the asphalt, it blows a hole, but it also pixelates so that
the asphalt turns into pixels. We had to
determine how that would look.”
There was always a danger, Wenham says, of the 3D versions
of the 8-bit characters looking too blocky or uninteresting. That’s when they hit on the idea of the
characters containing a light aura – an idea that could be replicated as they
pixelate the everyday objects on Earth.
Not only would the characters themselves be flowing with interactive
light, but so would the pixelated versions of the attack targets. The result was a visually compelling solution
that also expressed the way that the aliens use videogames to attack the
planet.
Once the characters had been designed, Columbus tapped
Matthew Butler, the visual effects supervisor, to bring the classic 1980s
videogames into our world. “Matt Butler
is the mad genius who kept constantly pushing the envelope to make certain that
these creatures not only feel like they exist in our world, but that the
audience is seeing something they've never seen before. He pushed his team and all of us harder than
ever,” says Columbus.
Butler explains that just as the
filmmakers made extraordinary efforts to be honest with the look of the
characters, it was equally necessary to make callbacks to the way those
characters moved and interacted. “It was
very important that we emulated these games as closely as possible,” says
Butler. “If you look at PAC-MAN, he
chomps at a certain rate and moves at a certain speed. Donkey Kong, too, has very specific motions,
like his semi-step – we animated that in a continuous flow, but maintained the
‘sprite-based’ essence.”
Of course, the filmmakers did
take some liberties with the real history.
For example, the fictitious history of the Galaga game in the film – in
which a “‘glitch” in the game is a key plot point – is a purely fictional
element which was created for dramatic purpose.
If you want to get technical about it, Butler says, the
title of the film isn’t quite right. “A
3D pixel is really called a ‘voxel,’” a cube in three-dimensional space, he
says. “We took this notion of simplistic
cubes and made it interesting and up-to-date by adding light energy to it, for
example with PAC-MAN,” explains Butler.
“As a round shape, his 2D image is flat, so we gave him the volume of a
3D sphere made up of voxels. Each voxel has its own light energy, based on
geometric alien filaments, that can be controlled individually, so we used
artistic license to fly energy around within PAC-MAN’s sphere.”
In the first major game set piece in the film, the Arcaders
take on Centipede. “The Centipede
sequence in Hyde Park is psychedelic, frightening and hilarious at the same
time,” says Columbus.
Butler says that the Centipede
sequence shows the ways they tackled the greatest challenge in the visual
effects: to get the tone right. There
was a major effort to infuse some of the comedy of the film into the threat of
the videogame characters. “These arcade
characters are villains, so they had to be scary, but this is also a comedy so
it had to be light,” says Butler. “For
example, with Centipede, our first instinct was to make it a fear-inspiring
creature, but under Chris' direction, we made him more comical – like the scene
where he is dancing behind an old lady as she watches TV. Then, through his actions, we understand how
threatening he really is. Centipede interacts with the sheer mass of his
body, causing chaos everywhere he goes. You don't actually pixelate until he
eats you.”
In the PAC-MAN set piece, the heroes are in multicolored
Mini Cooper cars – “ghosts” – chasing a 30-foot-tall PAC-MAN as he chomps his
way through the grid maze of Manhattan.
“In the real game, PAC-MAN is the good guy and the ghosts are the enemy,
but in the movie, you've got PAC-MAN flying around Manhattan and the only way
for the Arcaders to beat him is with ghosts,” says Columbus. “We wrote in Mini Coopers as our ghosts, and
they suited us so well in terms of size, speed and color. Mini Cooper was very
generous with us because of all the modifications we had to make to equip them
with weapons and a sense of light energy, but they really fit the part well.”
“Through the visual effects, we
included cool things from the original arcade game, like PAC-MAN eating a power
pellet, but then chose to deviate from the game and add exciting things like
PAC-MAN chomping a firetruck, which pixelates,” says Butler. “At one point, a Mini Cooper is driving on
its front two wheels, which is partly visual effects and partly a real Mini,
with a cut-out rear, designed to break in real life.”
To defeat the threat, the Arcaders enlist
the help of the creator of PAC-MAN, Professor
Iwatani. Though the role of Professor Iwatani is
played in the scene by actor Denis Akiyama, the real Professor Iwatani makes a
cameo appearance as a video game repairman at 1982 arcade. “The interesting thing is,” says Columbus,
“before the real Professor Iwatani invented PAC-MAN, he really used to repair
video games.”
At the film’s climactic battle against the aliens, the
arcaders take on Donkey Kong. “We built
gigantic girders – basically replicating the entire look of the Donkey Kong
video game,” says Columbus. “We had our
heroes on life-sized platforms, literally having to play Donkey Kong.”
“It was a colossal set that we
built on the Mega Stage at Pinewood Toronto Studios, which is the largest
purpose-built sound stage in North America,” Wenham explains. In the end, Wenham’s set was a 70-foot-tall
construction of girders and beams – in effect, recreating the Donkey Kong game
in real life.
“I knew Donkey Kong well as a kid – it was one of my
favorites to play – so that set was really awesome for me,” says Butler. “The combination of practical special effects
and the CG visual effects ended up making a really, really fun battle
sequence. That sequence has roughly 130
VFX shots. We were heavily dependent on
sound effects, too, to capture the authentic tone of the games being played.”
“It was very challenging to film that scene,” says Michelle
Monaghan. “They built a huge green
screen set, where Donkey Kong was just a big X in the corner of the stage. We had to wear harnesses attached to pulleys
and run and jump off platforms and get pushed and pulled in every
direction. Chris would then shout
direction to us – ‘jump!’ – and there was no barrel, but we were jumping
anyway. You feel a bit silly, but it
works in the end.”
Bringing Q*bert to life represented another kind of
challenge. “Like the other characters,
he’s made up of sharp-edged cubes, but he had to be cute,” says Butler. “Sony Picture Imageworks came up with a great
translucent solution that gives him almost a furry look, like you could cuddle
him while still keeping him pixelated.
He doesn't have hands or a mouth, so it was a challenge to use just his
eyes and body posture to bring Q*bert’s character to life.”
In addition to designing the look of the characters, Peter
Wenham was responsible for sets and locations – all aspects of the look of the
film. “The movie is very much about a
heightened reality – that comes out of the arcade games – so we tried to imbue
this film with some real reality,” he says.
One highlight for Wenham was creating the light cannons
that the Arcaders use to fight the alien videogame threats. “It’s always great to see a connection
between the props and the actors. When Sandler picked it up, he started making
firing noises. Those cannons made the
kid come out in everyone,” says Wenham.
“It was important to have something that was both fun and amusing but
not conventional. If you look closely at
the light cannons, they've got details on them – little joysticks or a finger
ball – like you'd see on the old arcade games.
On the longer cannon they have red buttons and LED screens. We wanted a
clear link between the classic arcade games and the modern high-tech weapons.”
Wenham was also responsible for creating
the film’s other sets, including the 1980s
Electric Dreams Factory arcade – the site of the World
Championships where Sam Brenner, Ludlow Lamonsoff, and Eddie Plant excel – and
the DARPA set where Violet Van Patten creates the Arcaders’ special weapons.
As
part of creating the arcade for the championship sequence, the production
design team procured hundreds of original arcade game cabinets from all over
the country. Each cabinet was completely
refurbished, as many of them had three or four layers of screen printing that
had to be removed. Property Master
Timothy Wiles explains: “It was a coordinated effort to find these cabinets,
then find the right graphics, redo the screen print, and equip them with new
LCDs and game play. Every game and
graphic had to meet the approval of each respective partner company, so it was
a massive effort that turned out to be fun and fantastic.”
Costume designer Christine Wada
took great care in dressing the scene’s 785 actors for the period. “In general, the ‘80s were extremely
colorful,” she says. “Some of the fashion back then was over-the-top, but to
keep with Chris’ vision, we kept the wardrobe from becoming too cartoony.”
For the Arcaders’ uniforms, Wada
began a long process of finding just the right look. “We wanted something that would make them
feel tough, but also give them each their own character. It had to be believable and memorable. So, we started researching all different jump
suits, flight suits, one-piece and two-piece outfits.”
“We wanted them to feel original
and unique,” says Columbus. “Christine
designed hundreds and hundreds of possibilities: everything from spandex, which
would have been ridiculous on the bodies of my three lead actors, to typical
superhero suits with built-in muscles.
We settled on a look based on motor racing suits, and that seemed to
work for everyone. Particularly Peter
Dinklage’s character – he still wears a mullet, seems trapped in the eighties,
and has been in jail for several years.
We cut the sleeves off of his Arcader costume, so his tattoos were
visible, and suddenly, he became Eddie.”
Even once the suit had been
settled, Wada’s work on the uniform was not done. “The Arcaders logo took me a couple of
weeks,” she recalls. “I wanted it to be
something iconic, but not distracting for the audience.”
The racing suits had one other advantage
for a film that shot in the humid summertime.
“This is one of the most
high-tech fabrics out there. It’s
developed to be in a Formula One car with no air conditioning, and they’re made
so that the car racers don’t get overheated,” she says. “Those suits are actually as cool as it
gets.”
Wada’s other great challenge was
to create the look for Lady Lisa, the 1980s object of desire for the film’s
fictional game, Dojo Quest. “In the end,
there were 222 designs of her costume and hair,” Wada recalls. The reason it was such a great challenge was
that Lady Lisa had to do so much: “She’s a character from the 80s, so the
design has to feel backdated, but also work in a modern context. She had to be iconic, but the character would
also have to handle stunts. And the
design had to be able to handle visual effects, so there were certain
boundaries that we had to work within.”
Wada’s design melds numerous
influences: the layered designs of 1980s swimsuits, crossed with Asian
inspirations. “It’s a costume Ashley can
actually move and fight in, but it’s also one that makes her look like a
character that a teenage boy would fall in love with,” she says.
“I love the costume so much,” says Benson. “It would be cool to see girls being Lady
Lisa for
Halloween.”
ABOUT THE CAST
ADAM SANDLER
(Brenner / producer) has enjoyed phenomenal success as an actor, writer,
producer and musician.
Sandler’s films have grossed over $3 billion worldwide and include the
box office smashes Grown Ups 2, Just Go With It, Grown Ups, Bedtime Stories
for Walt Disney Studios, Sony Pictures’ You
Don’t Mess With the Zohan, and
Universal’s comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry.
Most recently, Sandler was seen in the Jason Reitman film Men Women and Children and the
Independent film The Cobbler starring
with Steve Buscemi and Dustin Hoffman. He also reteamed with Drew Barrymore for
their third collaboration on the film Blended.
This year, in addition to Pixels, Sandler will once again lend his
voice to Dracula in Hotel Transylvania 2.
Sandler has completed production on The
Ridiculous 6 for Netflix. The film,
directed by Frank Coraci and written by Sandler and Tim Herlihy also stars Will
Forte, Taylor Lautner, Steve Buscemi, Danny Trejo, Terry Crews and Jorge
Garcia.
Sandler was also recently seen reprising his role as Lenny Feder in the
comedy Grown Ups 2 and That’s My Boy opposite Andy Samberg and
Leighton Meester. He also lent his voice
to the lead role of Dracula in Hotel
Transylvania, which his production company, Happy Madison, also
produced.
Previously, Sandler has been seen as the title roles of Jack and Jill alongside Katie Holmes and
Al Pacino; Just Go With It, opposite
Jennifer Aniston, and lent his voice to Sony’s comedy Zookeeper alongside Kevin James, Jon Favreau, Sylvester Stallone,
and Rosario Dawson. He also starred in
Sony Pictures’ Grown Ups for director
Dennis Dugan, Universal’s Funny People,
written and directed by Judd Apatow starring with Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann,
Erica Bana, Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman; the starring role opposite Don
Cheadle in Sony’s Reign O’er Me for
director Mike Binder, the boxoffice hits Click,
starring with Kate Beckinsale, and The
Longest Yard, starring with Chris Rock and Burt Reynolds. His other credits include James L. Brooks’ Spanglish, opposite Tea Leoni; the
romantic comedy 50 First Dates, with
Drew Barrymore; Anger Management,
with Jack Nicholson; and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love, for which he received a Golden Globe
nomination.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire,
Sandler’s first brush with comedy came at age 17, with a performance at a
Boston comedy club. From then on he was
hooked, performing regularly in comedy clubs throughout the state, while
earning a degree in Fine Arts from New York University. While performing stand up, he was spotted by
Dennis Miller and recruited to join the “Saturday Night Live” team where he was
a regular for five seasons.
Sandler’s production company Happy Madison Productions was
co-founded by Jack Giarraputo and Sandler and has gone on to become an almost
self-contained mini studio, being involved in all aspects of film
production. Amongst its many films,
Happy Madison has produced Blended, That’s My Boy, Jack and Jill, Just Go With
It, Click, The Benchwarmers, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, The House Bunny, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Grown
Ups and Grown Ups 2,
Zookeeper, and, most recently, Pixels.
Sandler has also collaborated with writer Tim Herlihy on the
screenplays for Happy Gilmore, Little Nicky, Billy Madison,
Big Daddy, The Waterboy, and Grown Ups 2,
and executive produced Hotel Transylvania,
The Longest Yard, Grandma’s Boy, The Animal, Joe Dirt, The Master of Disguise, The Hot Chick, and Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, among others.
Happy Madison Productions also has a deal with Columbia Tri-Star Domestic
Television to develop shows for the studio including “Rules of Engagement”
starring David Spade and Oliver Hudson, which recently ended a successful six
year run and the hit ABC series “The Goldbergs.”
Sandler’s comedy albums on Warner Bros Records have gone multi-platinum.
Collectively, they have sold more than six million copies to date. Several
years ago, Sandler launched AdamSandler.com. This site is updated weekly with
mini-movies featuring Sandler and the staff of Happy Madison in their daily
routines.
KEVIN JAMES (Cooper), star of the hit comedies Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Zookeeper,
was most recently seen in the hit comedy Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2.
James began his career as a stand-up on the Long Island comedy scene.
After being discovered at the 1996 Montreal Comedy Festival, he signed a
network development deal to create his own sitcom.
“The King of Queens,” which
premiered in 1998, ran for nine seasons on CBS with James starring and
executive producing, and it garnered him an Emmy nomination in 2006 for
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.
The show concluded its run in 2007 but continues to air daily in
syndication across the country and around the world.
In 2001, James brought his stand-up act to TV with “Sweat the Small
Stuff,” a one-hour special for Comedy Central.
In 2005, James and Ray Romano executive produced and starred in the HBO
Sports Special “Making the Cut: The Road to Pebble Beach”, a documentary about
the Pebble Beach Pro Am Golf Tournament that was nominated for a Sports Emmy.
James made his feature film debut in 2005, starring opposite Will Smith
in Columbia Pictures’ Hitch. Since,
James headlined Here Comes the Boom,
and starred alongside Adam Sandler in Grown
Ups, Grown Ups 2, and I Now Pronounce
You Chuck and
Larry.
In addition to his on-camera work, James’s voice has been featured in the
animated films Barnyard for Nick
Movies, as well as Monster House and Hotel Transylvania, and its upcoming
sequel for Sony Pictures Animation.
With a slate of roles that
reflect her strength, charm and beauty, MICHELLE
MONAGHAN (Violet) lights up every film with performances rooted in depth
and humanity.
This year, Monaghan will film
Baran bo Odar’s Sleepless Night
opposite Jamie Foxx. Based on the 2011 French film Nuit Blanche, the film follows an undercover police officer who
scours the criminal underworld in search of his kidnapped son. Open Road will
release the film in 2016.
Monaghan can currently be seen in
Justin Reardon’s Playing It Cool
opposite Chris Evans, and was most recently seen in the Michael Hoffman drama The Best of Me based on the bestselling
novel by acclaimed author Nicholas Sparks. Prior to that, Monaghan was seen in
Claudia Myers’ Fort Bliss which tells
the story of a veteran of the war in Afghanistan who once stateside, struggles
to rebuild her relationship with her young son.
Also last year, Monaghan starred
in the HBO drama “True Detective” opposite Matthew McConaughey and Woody
Harrelson. The debut series follows detectives working to solve the case of a
serial killer in Louisiana that has been open for 17 years. Monaghan starred as
Harrelson’s wife who makes a hard decision that has long-reaching and devastating
consequences. The eight-episode anthology was penned by novelist and former
“The Killing” scribe Nic Pizzolatto, and directed by Cary Fukunaga. Monaghan
was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role as Maggie Hart.
Monaghan previously won critical acclaim
for her performance in the 2008 independent feature Trucker, which she also executive produced. She starred as Diane
Ford – a vivacious young truck driver who leads a carefree life of long-haul
trucking, one night stands, and all-night drinking until her estranged
11-year-old son shows up at her door. She has also been seen starring in films
such as Marc Foster’s Machine Gun
Preacher opposite Gerard Butler and the well-received sci-fi thriller Source Code directed by Duncan Jones
co-starring Jake Gyllenhaal.
For her breakout role in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Monaghan starred
opposite Robert Downey Jr. and won rave reviews for her performance in the
action adventure. Her other screen credits include the box-office hit, Eagle Eye co-starring Shia LaBeouf; Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere; Niki Caro’s North Country opposite Charlize Theron
and Frances McDormand; Gone Baby Gone opposite
Casey Affleck and Morgan Freeman; and J.J. Abrams’ Mission Impossible III opposite Tom Cruise. She has also starred in
the hit comedies Made of Honor
opposite Patrick Dempsey, The Heartbreak
Kid opposite Ben Stiller, and Due
Date, which had her reteaming with Robert Downey Jr.
Originally from Iowa, Monaghan currently resides in Los
Angeles with her husband, daughter and son.
PETER DINKLAGE (Eddie) got his shot at redefining the concept of a
leading man with his starring role in the Sundance Audience Award winner The Station Agent, which drew standing ovations at the Sundance Film
Festival and was immediately bought and released by Miramax.
After the Dramatic Audience
Award, Dinklage went on to receive the SAG Award Nominee for Best Actor, the
Independent Spirit Award Nominee for Best Actor and was also named one of the
top 5 Breakout Stars of the Year by Entertainment
Weekly. He has been extremely busy
ever since.
On the film side, Dinklage’s credits include Fox’s recent
blockbuster X-Men: Days of Future Past,
and Sony’s Death at a Funeral with
Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence.
Dinklage will next be seen in Universal’s Michelle Darnell opposite Melissa
McCarthy.
Getting back to his theatre
roots, Dinklage starred in the title role of The Public Theatre’s critically
acclaimed Richard III; Charlie
Kaufman’s Theatre of the New Ear costarring
Meryl Streep and Hope Davis; and Knickerbocker
at Williamstown.
Rounding out the triple threat, Dinklage’s television
credits include working with networks like HBO, CBS, and ABC. Dinklage is currently starring in HBO’s smash
hit event series “Game of Thrones,” for which he won the Best Supporting Actor
Emmy and Golden Globe.
JOSH GAD (Ludlow) brings incredible wit, humor and depth to all of
his roles from a summer- loving snowman to a wacky Mormon missionary.
Gad can currently be seen in the
new FX show “The Comedians” about a veteran comedian who is reluctantly paired
with a younger, edgier comedian for a late-night comedy sketch show. Gad stars
alongside Billy Crystal, who is also a writer on the show.
He most recently starred opposite
Kevin Hart in the comedy The Wedding Ringer
and in the Zach Braff indie project Wish
I Was Here, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. He also starred as the loveable sidekick
Olaf in Disney’s awardnominated animated film Frozen.
Gad will soon begin production on
the live-action Disney film Beauty and
the Beast in the role of Le Fou, Gaston’s side-kick. The film is set to
release on March 17, 2017. He will also lend his voice to Sony’s Angry Birds, an animated film adaptation
of the popular game, and has signed on to star in the Warner Bros. movie Gilligan’s Island. Gad will also write
the script with Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez.
Additional film credits include the Steve Job’s biopic Jobs; Thanks for Sharing with Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Ruffalo and Tim
Robbins; Shawn Levy’s The Internship,
opposite Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson; Ed Zwick’s Love & Other Drugs, with Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway and
Hank Azaria; Shawn Levy’s The Rocker,
alongside
Rainn Wilson; 21, opposite Kate Bosworth, Lawrence
Fishburne and Kevin Spacey; and Crossing
Over, with Harrison Ford, Sean Penn, Ray Liotta and Ashley Judd. Other
voice credits include Ice Age:
Continental Drift, alongside Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Lopez and
John Leguizamo.
Gad served as an executive producer,
co-creator and star on NBC’s family comedy
“1600 Penn.” He played Skip Gilchrist, the clumsy eldest
son of the President (Bill Pullman), whose sincere attempts to do the right
thing often go awry. Gad has also lent his voice to Woodie on MTV’s animated
series “Good Vibes” and played the title role on
BBC Worldwide’s “Gigi: Almost American.”
He has guest-starred on hit series such as
“New Girl” and “Modern Family.”
Gad took Broadway by storm
starring as Elder Cunningham in the Tony Award-winning comedy musical “The Book
of Mormon.” Gad was nominated for Tony, Drama League and Astaire awards,
winning the Outer Critics Circle Award. He made his Broadway debut in a
Tony-winning production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”
After graduating from the
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, Gad began his career in the theater. He then
turned his sights to comedy, co-founding his own company, The Lost Nomads
Comedy Troupe.
BRIAN COX (Admiral
Porter) is an award-winning actor of the stage, screen and television. He has
appeared in dozens of plays on the stages of London, New York and Scotland. Cox
earned AFI and Independent Spirit Award nominations for his work in the
critically hailed independent film L.I.E.
and also shared a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination as part of the ensemble
cast of Spike Jonze’s Adaptation. His
most recent film credits include roles in The
Autopsy of Jane Doe, Red 2, Coriolanus, Rise of the Planet of the
Apes, The Campaign, and Blood. Additionally, he has appeared
in The
Good Heart, Tell-Tale, The Escapist, Troy, X2, Zodiac,
25th Hour, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The
Ring, Red, The Rookie, The Affair of
the Necklace, For the Love of the Game, Rushmore,
Desperate Measures, The Boxer,
Kiss the Girls, Braveheart, Rob Roy, Manhunter, Hidden Agenda, and Nicholas
and Alexandra.
In Fall 2015, he will star in a new production of “Waiting for Godot,”
for the 50th Anniversary of Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre. Cox
was one of the original performers in the Lyceum’s first ever production in
1965, “The Servant o’ ‘Twa Maisters.” He was only
19.
Cox has collaborated with award-winning playwright Conor McPherson on several
productions, most recently “The Weir,” which Cox starred in at the Donmar
Warehouse. They also collaborated on “Dublin Carol,” in which Cox starred as
grim alcoholic undertaker John Plunkett.
Repeatedly honored for his work in the theatre, Cox won two Olivier
Awards for his performances in “Rat in the Skull” and “Titus Andronicus”;
British Theatre Association Drama Awards for Best Actor for his work in “The
Taming of the Shrew” and “Strange Interlude”; and the Lucille Lortel Award, as
well as Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations, for “St. Nicholas.” He
spent eight months in London’s West End, starring as Max in Tom Stoppard’s
“Rock ‘n Roll,” a role he reprised on Broadway. Cox was also seen on Broadway
in “The Championship Season.” Cox has also helmed stage productions of “I Love
My Life,” “Mrs. Warren’s Profession,” “The Philanderer,” “The Master Builder”
and “Richard III.”
Cox recently finished shooting a BBC production of “War and Peace.” His
recent television credits include NBC’s “The Slap” and BBC America’s “The
Game,” as well as “Bob Servant,” the British miniseries “The Sinking of the
Laconia,” “The Day of the Triffids” and “The Take,” and a guest-starring role
on Showtime’s “The Big C.” He received a 2001 Emmy Award for his performance as
Hermann Goering in the miniseries “Nuremberg,” and was also nominated for
Golden Globe and SAG Awards. He also earned an Emmy Award nomination for his
guest appearance on the comedy series “Frasier,” and co-starred in the third
season of HBO’s acclaimed original series “Deadwood.”
Cox made his television directorial debut
for the hit HBO prison drama “Oz.”
He is the author of two books, Salem to Moscow: An Actors Odyssey and The Lear
Diaries.
In 2003, Cox’s contributions to the arts were honored by Queen Elizabeth
II, who named him a Commander of the British Empire. In 2006, Empire Magazine honored his film
achievements with the Empire Icon Award and, in 2007, the UK Film Council named
him one of the Top 10 powerful British film stars in Hollywood today.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
For over twenty-five years,
Academy Award® nominated filmmaker CHRIS
COLUMBUS (Director / Producer) has written, directed and produced some of
the most successful box-office hits, establishing him as a major force in
contemporary Hollywood. Along with being a prominent figure in the film
industry, Columbus is also a New York Times bestselling author. His novel, House of Secrets, the first iteration of an
epic new fantasy series, was published in April 2013 to rave reviews and
quickly rose to the top of the charts.
Columbus is the masterful filmmaker behind several of the
most revered and successful literary adaptations of the Harry Potter series, as
the director and producer of the first three blockbuster films. As the director
of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,
the first film based on J.K. Rowling’s monumentally successful book series,
Columbus delivered a film that was equally satiating to both readers and fans,
while capturing the essence of the beloved characters. He cast newcomers Daniel
Radcliffe, Emma Watson and
Rupert Grint in the leading
roles, demonstrating his facility for nurturing and cultivating young talent.
The film triumphed at the box office and Columbus followed the film as director
and producer of Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets in 2002, and as producer of the third film of the
series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban in 2005. All three films went on to collectively gross over $2.6
billion worldwide.
Columbus produced the highly
successful family/adventure comedy Night
at the Museum, and its two sequels, Night
at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. Other film credits include: the 2005 screen
adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical, RENT; Stepmom, starring Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon; Nine Months with Hugh Grant and Julianne
Moore; Mrs. Doubtfire, starring Robin
Williams and Sally Field; Only the Lonely
based on his original screenplay; as well as the hits Home Alone, and Home Alone 2:
Lost In New York.
In Hollywood, Columbus first
gained prominence by writing several original scripts produced by Steven
Spielberg including the back-to-back hits Gremlins
and The Goonies which became
decade-defining films that intertwined high notes of offbeat, edgy, often
outrageous humor against more classic adventure-thriller backdrops. These
screenwriting achievements led Columbus to directing his first feature, Adventures in Babysitting, starring
Elisabeth Shue.
Growing up outside Youngstown,
Ohio, Columbus originally aspired to be a commercial artist—spending years
studying art and interested in drawing for comics. He eventually made the
connection between comic books and movie storyboards and graduated from NYU’s
prestigious Tisch School of the Arts where he sold his first script, Jocks.
In 2011, Columbus released his latest blockbuster hit, The Help, starring Emma Stone, Bryce
Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Sissy Spacek, Jessica Chastain and Viola Davis
under his 1492 Pictures banner. The drama takes a look at what happens when a
southern town’s unspoken code of rules and behavior is shattered by three
courageous women who strike up an unlikely friendship. At the 84th Academy Awards®,
The Help garnered four nominations,
including two for Best Supporting Actress and one for Best Picture. Octavia Spencer won the award for Best
Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal of the character Minny Jackson,
one of the three main heroines in the film.
To date, the film has grossed over $212 million worldwide.
TIM
HERLIHY (Screenplay by / Story by) has written or co-written the films Billy
Madison,
Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy, Big Daddy, Little Nicky,
Mr.
Deeds, Bedtime Stories. He served as
executive producer on the films Grown
Ups,
Click,
Anger Management, The Longest Yard, Just Go With It, Jack and Jill, That’s My Boy, and Grown Ups 2.
From 1994 to 1999, Herlihy served
as writer, head writer and ultimately producer of the television variety series
“Saturday Night Live,” for which he received an Emmy Award® nomination.
In 2006, Herlihy, a former attorney, was nominated for a
Tony Award® for the Broadway musical version of “The Wedding Singer,” which he
co-wrote.
TIMOTHY
DOWLING (Screenplay by) was born and raised in Wellesley Hills,
Massachusetts and is a graduate of the School of Theatre at
the University of Southern California. As an actor, he was in the films The Beautician and the Beast, Dr. Benny, and
Terminator 3. As a screenwriter, he
is currently one of the top comedy writers in the business. In 2009, he was
named one of Variety's Ten Writers to Watch and last year listed in Fade In's
Top 100 People in Hollywood. He has written two scripts that were sited on the
prestigious Blacklist. He co-wrote the short film George Lucas in Love, which received numerous awards at film
festivals around the globe and is still the best selling short film of all
time. He has written the hit films Role
Models starring Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott; Just Go With It, starring Adam Sandler, Jennifer Anniston and
Nicole Kidman; and This Means War,
starring Chris Pine, Tom Hardy and Reese
Witherspoon. Some of Dowling’s upcoming
projects include a sequel to the 80s classic
Midnight Run
entitled Another Midnight Run, and an
untitled project for Pixels director
Chris Columbus and DreamWorks.
PATRICK JEAN
(Based on the Short Film by / Executive Producer) first made his debut as a
graphic designer for French TV, creating credit sequences for television shows,
and allowing him to develop his skills in graphic design and discover his
penchant for direction. In 2010, he directed his first short film Pixels, inspired by video games he used
to play in his childhood. Pixels was
seen 1 million times in just 24 hours after its release, creating a massive
buzz on the internet, and won around 30 awards, including the prestigious
Annecy Crystal in 2011. Following the phenomenal success of Pixels, Jean also directed music videos,
short films and commercials for brands like Audi, Hermès or Eurostar. He is
also preparing his first feature film: Omni
Visibilis, adapted from a French comic book of the same name, which is
currently being developed at Chapter 2.
MARK RADCLIFFE (Producer) continues his long association with
director Chris Columbus and 1492 Pictures, which dates back to 1988.
Since the birth of their partnership,
Radcliffe has served as executive producer on the
Oscar®-nominated 2011 hit The Help, and the first two of the Harry
Potter franchise
Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
and Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets.
He also produced the third installment in
the Potter franchise, Harry Potter and the
Prisoner of Azkaban,
directed by Alfonso Cuarón (sharing a BAFTA Award as Best Children’s Film and a
second nomination as Best British Film).
Radcliffe also shared awards for the People's Choice Award and the
Golden Globe for Producing Mrs.
Doubtfire.
He produced Christ the Lord, Mrs.
Doubtfire, Stepmom, Rent, Bicentennial Man, Nine
Months,
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The
Lightning Thief, I Love You Beth
Cooper, Christmas with the Kranks, Jingle All the Way, and Night
at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.
Working together in their 1492 Pictures
production entity, Radcliffe also served as
Executive Producer on Night at the Museum and Night
at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian, Percy Jackson: Sea of
Monsters, Fantastic Four and the
sequel, Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver
Surfer.
His producing duties began on
three early Columbus triumphs – Home
Alone (on which he doubled as assistant director and associate producer), Only the Lonely (as coproducer and
assistant director), and Home Alone 2:
Lost in New York (executive producer).
A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Radcliffe
began his film career as assistant director on the
Francis Ford Coppola production The Escape Artist, reteaming with
Coppola on Rumble
Fish and Peggy Sue Got Married. Other assistant director credits include John Hughes’ She’s Having a Baby and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Jerry Zucker’s Oscar®nominated 1990 hit, Ghost, Donald Petrie’s Mystic Pizza” and Paul Schrader’s Light
of Day. He also served as production manager on the 1979 film “Rock ‘n’
Roll High School.
For nearly two decades, ALLEN COVERT (Producer) has built a multi-hyphenate career as an
actor, producer, writer, and songwriter. It was all put into motion years
earlier with a seemingly fated seating assignment in a “History of Comedy”
class at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. His friendship with fellow student
Adam Sandler quickly gelled, in part due to Covert’s proclivity for supplying
Sandler with free food from the Italian restaurant where he worked as night
manager.
Covert has co-written, co-produced, and/or starred in a
number of the Happy Madison films over the years, including Happy Gilmore, Bulletproof, The Wedding
Singer, The Waterboy, Big Daddy (as actor, associate producer and writer of
“The Kangaroo Song”), Little Nicky
(actor, associate producer), Mr. Deeds,
Eight Crazy Nights (actor, producer, soundtrack writer/producer), Anger Management (actor, executive
producer), 50 First Dates (actor,
songwriter), The Longest Yard (actor,
executive producer), I Now
Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (actor,
co-producer), Grown Ups (executive
producer),
Just Go With It
(executive producer), Jack and Jill
(executive producer), That’s My Boy
(producer), Grown
Ups 2 (actor, producer), Blended
(actor, executive producer), and The
Ridiculous 6 (producer).
He also
co-scripted Sony’s hit comedy The
Benchwarmers (starring David Spade, Rob
Schneider, and
Jon Heder). He co-wrote, produced, and
starred in the cult comedy hit
Grandma’s Boy with
Nick Swardson, produced and starred in the comedy Strange
Wilderness, and produced the comedies The House Bunny and Bucky
Larson: Born to
Be a Star. He has also written, produced, and performed
on five comedy albums with
Adam Sandler,
which have collectively sold nearly 10 million copies, including Adam
Sandler’s “What’s Your Name,” “They’re All Gonna Laugh at
You,” and “What the Hell Happened to Me!”
Covert
currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife Kathryn, their young daughters;
Hannah, Abigail, Rebecca, and their son Hank.
BARRY BERNARDI
(Executive Producer) is now executive producing The Do Over, an original movie for Netflix starring Adam Sandler and David Spade. Previously he has executive produced The Ridiculous Six, for Netflix starring
Adam Sandler, Taylor Lautner, Nick Nolte, Harvey Keitel, Luke Wilson, Terry
Crews, Will Forte, Blended, starring
Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, Grown
Ups 2, starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, That’s My Boy, starring Adam Sandler and
Andy Samberg, Jack and Jill, starring Sandler and
Katie Holmes, Zookeeper, starring Kevin
James and Rosario Dawson, and Just Go
With It, starring Sandler and Jennifer Aniston.
He served as executive producer on the films Grown Ups, starring Sandler, Kevin
James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider and David Spade; You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, starring Adam Sandler, John Turturro
and Emmanuelle Chriqui; I Now Pronounce
You Chuck & Larry, starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James and Jessica Biel;
Click, starring
Adam Sandler, Kate Beckinsale and Christopher Walken; The Benchwarmers, starring Rob Schneider,
David Spade and Jon Heder; and the box-office hit The Longest Yard, starring Sandler, Chris Rock and Burt
Reynolds.
Other films he produced include the
blockbuster hit Paul Blart Mall Cop
starring Kevin
James, Anger
Management, starring Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson; Deuce
Bigalow:
Male Gigolo; The Master of Disguise; and The Animal. As executive
producer,
Bernardi has
worked on the features The Haunted
Mansion, Double Take, Inspector Gadget, My Favorite Martian, Deep Rising, Tom
and Huck, Cabin Boy, The Adventures of Huck Finn and Devil’s Advocate. His other
producer credits include Poltergeist III and Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves.
After attending the California Institute of the Arts,
Bernardi began his career as a story editor and producer’s assistant. In 1979, he teamed with director John
Carpenter to be an associate producer on The
Fog and Escape From New York. He remained with Carpenter to co-produce Halloween II, Halloween III, Christine and Starman.
From 1987-89, Bernardi served as senior
vice president of production at New World
Pictures, where he oversaw the
development, production and release of such films as
Heathers,
Meet the Applegates and Warlock. Bernardi went on to co-found Steve White
Productions. With White, he produced more than 25
telefilms. Among their credits are Amityville, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?,
She Said No, The Carolyn Warmus Story, She Stood Alone and A Mom for Christmas.
MICHAEL BARNATHAN (Executive Producer) is an Academy Award®-nominated
producer and President of 1492 Pictures,
in which he is a producing partner with Chris Columbus and Mark Radcliffe. The company was formed in May 1994.
Recently Barnathan produced Christ the Lord, based on the
best-selling novel from Anne Rice. This
faith-affirming fictional story follows young Jesus as he comes to discover his
real identity and the truth surrounding his birth. Focus Features will release Easter 2016.
Barnathan has served as producer on such
Columbus-directed projects as Nine
Months, Rent, Stepmom, I Love You, Beth Cooper, and Percy
Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning
Thief . For 1492, he also produced The Help (for which he was nominated for
an Academy Award®), Jingle All the Way,
Cheaper by the Dozen, Christmas with the Kranks, Night at the Museum
and the sequel, Night at the Museum:
Battle
of the Smithsonian.
He served as
executive producer on the first three installments of the Harry Potter franchise – Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry
Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
(both directed by Columbus) and Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
(which earned a BAFTA Award as Best
Children’s Film and a second nomination as
Best British Film), as well as Fantastic Four, the sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,
and Night At The Museum: Secret of the Tomb.
Next up, Barnathan will produce
an adaptation of the graphic novel I Kill
Giants, to be directed by Academy Award® winner Anders Walter.
Prior to joining 1492 Pictures, Barnathan was Senior Vice
President of Production at Largo Entertainment for four years. His responsibilities included supervision of
both development and production of Largo’s feature slate. The N.Y.U. grad (where he first met aspiring
filmmaker Columbus his freshman year) served as executive producer on
Used
People and supervised such
productions as Point Break, Dr. Giggles, Judgment Night and The Getaway.
Before joining Largo, Barnathan spent
seven years working for Edgar J. Scherick
Associates. During
his last two years with Scherick, he served as Executive Vice President of
Production, producing and executive producing numerous cable movies, telefilms
and miniseries, including “The Kennedys of Massachusetts,” which received eight
Emmy nominations and three Golden Globe nods, including Best Miniseries for
each.
JACK GIARRAPUTO
(Executive Producer) is one of Hollywood’s most successful producers. His films have grossed more than $2 billion
domestically and over $3 billion worldwide, with 13 films topping the
$100-million mark domestically. These
films include Grown Ups 2, Just Go With It, Grown Ups, Paul Blart: Mall
Cop, Bedtime Stories, You
Don’t
Mess With the Zohan, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Click, The Longest
Yard, 50 First Dates, Anger Management, Mr. Deeds, Big Daddy and The Waterboy.
STEVE
KOREN (Executive Producer) began his career writing monologue
jokes for comedians such as David Letterman, Dennis Miller, and Kevin Nealon.
This led to “Saturday Night Live,” where he earned several Emmy nominations
creating sketches for Will Ferrell, Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and
Molly Shannon.
Koren left late night TV to become a
writer/producer on “Seinfeld.” Among his well-known episodes are “The Serenity
Now,” “The English Patient,” and “The Abstinence.”
Following “Seinfeld,” Koren spent
several years as a writer/producer creating television sitcoms for actors such
as Steve Carrell, Valerie Harper and Ron Liebman.
In the feature world, Koren’s best
known for co-writing the screenplays for hit movies such as
Bruce Almighty and Click, as well as “SNL” cult films like Night at the Roxbury and Superstar.
In recent years, he has worked as a
producer/writer for Adam Sandler on films such as Grown Ups, Just Go With It,
and Blended amongst many others. Currently, he’s working as a writer/ producer
on the hit HBO series “Veep.”
HEATHER PARRY (Executive
Producer) is Head of Film at Happy Madison, overseeing development and
production for the company.
Parry first teamed with Happy Madison while working for MTV
Films as co-producer of The Longest Yard,
in which Sandler starred. Since joining
Happy Madison, Parry has produced The
House Bunny, the company’s first female-driven comedy. The film, a box
office hit, starred Anna Faris, Emma Stone, Kat Dennings, Katharine McPhee,
Rumer Willis, and Colin Hanks. Parry also produced Just Go With It, starring
Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Kidman, and Brooklyn Decker, and That's My Boy, starring Sandler and
Andy Samberg.
Prior to joining Happy Madison, Parry served MTV for 12
years. Parry quickly rose to the position of West Coast Bureau Chief and then
segued into development, where she oversaw series development as well as
special movie programming and marketing specials. Parry worked on such projects
as the iconic MTV show “The Week in Rock,” the highly-rated movie news program
“MTV Movie House,” and the political show “Choose or Lose.” Parry then joined
MTV Films, where, in addition to The
Longest Yard, she co-produced Get
Rich or Die Tryin’, directed by Oscar® nominee Jim Sheridan.
Currently, Parry is serving as an executive producer on Ridiculous Six for Netflix, and will be
moving into production on the upcoming projects Golddiggers, First Man,
and BFF, with many more projects in
development. Parry is also an animal advocate and works
with several dog rescue groups.
MATIAS BOUCARD (Executive Producer) was born on March 13, 1977 in
France.
He created One More Production in
2007, with Benjamin Darras and Johnny Alves, and produced the short film Pixels (2010). In 2014, the trio created
Film Croppers Entertainment, one of the production companies producing Pixels (2015), to develop new feature
film projects.
Matias Boucard has also an international career, working as
a director of photography on Features film and TV series for over 10 years.
JOHNNY ALVES (Executive Producer) was born on November 9, 1975 in
France.
He supervised many blockbusters for post
house BUF, including 2 Fast 2 Furious
(2003), 2046 (2004), and Spider-Man 3
(2007) and worked as digital artist on Panic
Room (2002), Neverland (2004),
and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). In 2007, he joined Benjamin Darras and Matias
Boucard in One More Production, where he produced the short film Pixels (2010). In 2014, the trio created Film Croppers
Entertainment, one of the production companies producing Pixels (2015), to develop new feature film projects.
Johnny Alves is currently the Artistic Director of the post
house ONE MORE.
BENJAMIN DARRAS (Executive Producer) was born on May 26, 1980 in
France. He has been involved in the post production of several blockbusters
such as Alexander the Great (2004), Batman Begins (2005) and Pixels
(2015). He was the founder of One More Production in 2007, with Matias Boucard
and Johnny Alves, and produced the short film Pixels (2010). In 2014, the trio created Film Croppers
Entertainment, one of the production companies producing Pixels (2015), to develop new feature film projects.
Benjamin Darras is currently CEO of the post house ONE
MORE.
BEN
WAISBREN (Executive Producer) is Chairman and President of LSC Film
Corporation, which co-finances
major motion pictures with Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. He is also an attorney with the international
law firm of Winston & Strawn, where he advises clients in the U.S. and
Europe in the media & entertainment and finance sectors. His clients include independent production
and distribution companies, private equity firms, hedge funds, investment banks
and commercial banks.
Earlier in his career, Waisbren
was a managing director and head of investment banking restructuring at Salomon
Brothers in New York, following a legal career at a large Chicago law firm,
Lord, Bissell & Brook, where he led a national bankruptcy litigation
practice.
Prior to joining Winston & Strawn in
early 2013, Mr. Waisbren was the President of
Continental Entertainment Capital
LP, a direct subsidiary of Citigroup, with operations in New York, Los Angeles
and Paris. Before that, he was a managing director of a global hedge fund
company, Stark Investments, where he was a co-portfolio manager in the fixed
income and private equity areas, and responsible for investments in the feature
film industry, and the formation of the firm’s structured finance fund and a
related, branded middle market leveraged lender, Freeport Financial.
Waisbren served as a member of
the Board of Directors of France’s Wild Bunch, S.A., a pan-European motion
picture production, distribution and sales company, from 2005 until 2009, in
connection with private equity investments that he managed.
He was Executive Producer of Warner Bros.
Pictures’ 300; Blood Diamond; V for
Vendetta;
Nancy Drew; The Good German; Poseidon;
and The Assassination of Jesse James by
the Coward Robert Ford. In
addition, he was Executive Producer of the following independent studio
releases: Cassandra’s Dream; First Born; Next; Bangkok Dangerous;
and Gardener of Eden. For Sony Pictures Entertainment, he served as
an executive producer of Columbia Pictures’ 22
Jump Street, Sex Tape, The Equalizer, Fury, Chappie, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, and Aloha, and Screen Gems’ The Wedding Ringer.
AMIR MOKRI (Director of Photography) attended Emerson College in
Boston, where he majored in Mass Communication and Film. Upon graduation, he was accepted as a fellow
into the highly-competitive Cinematography program at the American Film
Institute. Shortly thereafter, he met
director Wayne Wang and the duo has since collaborated on many films including The Joy Luck Club, Life is Cheap, Eat a Bowl of
Tea and Slamdance, which was
Mokri’s feature film debut.
Mokri’s filmography exhibits his incredible versatility and
experience as a cinematographer and an artist – from shooting smaller
independent films like Good Kill
(directed by Andrew Niccol), which premiered at the 2014 Toronto International
Film
Festival, to big budget tent poles such as
Transformers: Age of Extinction, Man of Steel, Transformers: Dark of
the Moon and Fast & Furious. Other credits include Season of the Witch, Vantage Point, National Treasure: Book of Secrets,
Lord of War, Taking Lives, Bad Boys 2, Don’t
Say a Word, Salton Sea, Coyote Ugly, An Eye for an Eye, Freejack,
Pacific Heights, Whore, Blue Steel and Queens Logic. Mokri also has extensive credits in both
commercials and short films.
PETER WENHAM
(Production Designer) began his career in the entertainment business in 1987
working at the BBC, after studying interior design and architecture at De
Monfort University. He moved onto
building his foundation of experience by working at Independent Television
(ITV) and London Weekend Television (LWT) in the United Kingdom as an Art
Director for a range of successful television programs including “Poirot”
(1989-1996), among many others. He then ventured into film and television
movies and received Emmy Award Nominations for Outstanding Art Direction for a
Miniseries, Movie, or Special for both “Hornblower: Mutiny” (2001) and
“Hornblower: Duty” (2003).
Wenham’s
success in television and television movies led to his career working as a
Supervising
Art Director in feature films in the United Kingdom. His Supervising Art
Director credits include The Bourne Supremacy (2004), Kinky
Boots (2005), The Queen (2006),
which was nominated for an ADG Award for Excellence in Production Design, and Blood Diamond (2006). His work on The Bourne Supremacy led to becoming the
Production Designer for The Bourne Ultimatum
(2007), which he was nominated for an ADG Award for Excellence in Production
Design. After Bourne, Wenham’s career
took him to the United States as he Production Designed films such as Columbia
Pictures’ Battle: Los Angeles (2011),
Universal Pictures’ Fast Five (2011),
Sony Pictures’ 21 Jump Street (2012),
and Summit Entertainment’s Now You See Me
(2013). Wenham also worked on Marvel Studios’ Captain America: The Winter Soldier which was released in April
2014 and he was again nominated again for a ADG Award for his work. He is currently filming Inferno in Europe with Ron Howard directing .
HUGHES WINBORNE, ACE
(Editor) grew up in Raleigh, N.C.,
and attended the University of North Carolina, where he earned a bachelor’s
degree in history. Winborne began his editing career with Billy Bob Thornton’s Sling Blade. In 2006, he edited Gabriele
Muccino’s The Pursuit of Happyness,
starring Will Smith and again worked with Muccino in 2008 on Seven Pounds.
Other notable credits include Toni Kalem’s A Slipping-Down Life and the
Oscar®winning film, Tate Taylor’s The
Help. In 2004, Winborne cut for
the critically acclaimed film Crash,
for which he won an Academy Award® for Best Achievement in Film Editing.
He most recently
edited Guardians of the Galaxy.
CHRISTINE WADA (Costume Designer) is an established Costume Designer, working all over the world.
Prior to Pixels, she worked in South
Africa on the Sandler-andBarrymore combo Blended.
Wada began training to become a
designer on Steven Spielberg's Catch Me
If You Can and the Coen brothers' O
Brother, Where Art Thou. It was the
2011 hit Bridesmaids, which she
co-designed with Leesa Evans, that pushed her career to the next level – and
earned her a CDG nomination.
She has completed several more comedies, including Get a Job and 21 and Over.
Classically trained from an early
age, HENRY JACKMAN (Music by) is a
revolutionary film composer, ingeniously marrying his expertise in classical
music with his experience in dance/club music and his innovative production of
Electronica. For each film he scores,
Henry combines a unique range of skills, which include classical composition,
orchestral arrangement, beat programming, sound design, production and mixing.
Jackman’s recent film scores show this immense versatility,
paralleled by few other composers. He is
able to easily span across a wide range of genres, from action films to period
dramas to family films, including:
Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Captain
Phillips, X-Men: First Class,
Henri 4,
Wreck-It
Ralph, Puss In Boots, Kick Ass, Turbo, This is the End, G.I. Joe: Retaliation,
Abraham
Lincoln Vampire Hunter, Man On A Ledge, Winnie The Pooh, Gulliver’s
Travels, Monsters and Aliens, and
the Oscar® winning Big Hero 6.
Henry Jackman, born in Hillingdon, Middlesex, UK, began composing his
first symphony at age six, and was an accomplished composer by age nine. He went on to study classical music at St.
Paul’s Cathedral Choir School, Eton College and Oxford University. As a teenager, he became heavily influenced
by the underground rave scene, and he began producing chart-topping dance
remixes, electronica and club music soon afterwards.
Over the next few years, Jackman built a successful career
in the recording industry, not only releasing 3 acclaimed solo albums, but also
co-writing, mixing, producing, and programming with a host of outstanding
artists. Jackman wrote, mixed and
produced albums and songs for Seal and Art of Noise. He co-wrote songs for the films The Family
Man and Anastasia. He produced songs
with Gary Barlow from Take That
(which reached no. 3 in the UK Charts) and
Justin. He programmed for artists Mike
Oldfield, Marc Almond, Coolio and
Kirsty McColl. He even collaborated with
Andy Gardner (of Plump DJ’s fame) to produce a series of Dance Remixes that
topped the dance charts and were selected for Pete Tong’s Essential selection.
In 2006, Jackman’s accomplishments
garnered the attention of Hans Zimmer and John
Powell, who soon hired Jackman to compose
additional music on such films as The
Dark Knight, The Da Vinci
Code, Kung Fu Panda and the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Jackman’s first major solo scoring gig was Monsters and Aliens in 2009, a family
movie with a heavy action score, and began his fruitful career as one of the
most sought after composers today.
Henry Jackman is currently
scoring Marvel’s Captain America: Civil
War, in theaters in May 2016.
The Bearded Trio - The Site For Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and John Williams
THE BEARDED TRIO ON FACEBOOK
THE BEARDED TRIO ON TWITTER
THE BEARDED TRIO ON GOOGLE+
THE BEARDED TRIO ON PINTEREST
CLICK HERE FOR FACTS ON STEVEN SPIELBERG
CLICK HERE FOR FACTS ON GEORGE LUCAS
CLICK HERE FOR FACTS ON JOHN WILLIAMS
Comments
Post a Comment
I would love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a comment, don't be shy.