About The Filmmakers

KATHRYN BIGELOW (Director and Producer) has distinguished herself as one of Hollywood's most innovative filmmakers.

In 1985, Bigelow directed and co-wrote the stirring cult classic Near Dark, produced by Steven-Charles Jaffe. The film was critically lauded as a "poetic horror film." As always, Bigelow's visual style garnered positive reactions from the press, who described it as "dreamy, passionate and terrifying, a hallucinatory vision of the American nightworld that becomes both seductive and devastating." Following the release of the film, the Museum of Modern Art honored Bigelow with a career retrospective.

In 1991, Bigelow directed the action thriller Point Break, which starred Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze. Executive produced by James Cameron, Point Break explored the dangerous extremes of a psychological struggle between two young men. The Chicago Tribune commended her astonishing filmmaking sensibilities and described her as "a uniquely talented, uniquely powerful filmmaker...Bigelow has tapped into something primal and strong. She is a sensualist in the most sensual of mediums."

When Strange Days was released in 1995, Roger Ebert called it a "technical tour de force." In the film, Bigelow explored the unsettling prospects of computer-generated virtual reality and the impending new millennium. Strange Days received rave reviews and was highly praised for its energy and unique, intense visuals. Janet Maslin, in The New York Times, stated that "the furiously talented" Bigelow was "operating at full throttle... using material ablaze with eerie promise... she turns Strange Days into a troubling but undeniably breathless joyride." Starring Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett and Juliette Lewis, Strange Days was co-written by James Cameron and released by Twentieth Century Fox.

Bigelow also directed The Weight of Water, starring Sean Penn, Sarah Polley, Catherine McCormack and Elizabeth Hurley. Based on the bestselling Anita Shreve novel, The Weight of Water made its world premiere in a gala screening at the 25th annual Toronto International Film Festival in 2000 and drew praise from critics and filmmakers alike. Variety described the film as being "Bigelow's richest, most ambitious and personal work to date; imbued with suspense, benefiting from Bigelow's penchant for creating a visual sense of menace and an atmosphere of fear."

On the release of K-19: The Widowmaker, The New York Times declared Bigelow "one of the most gifted...directors working in movies today." Starring Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson and Peter Saarsgard, it was one of the more critically well-received films of the summer of 2002. The film tells the true story of a heroic Soviet naval crew who risked their lives to prevent a near nuclear disaster aboard their submarine. Critics praised Bigelow as "an expert technician who never steps wrong" (Roger Ebert).

Bigelow went where no other filmmaker has gone before, making Soviet soldiers from the Cold War era the heroes of a major American production. For Bigelow, there was a larger purpose to telling this important forgotten chapter of history. "...At times I allow myself to hope that K-19 will also have another role to play, that it can help to throw open the narrow ideological window through which we, as Americans, have viewed a particular past and culture. In those moments I'm thinking back over the many disquieting things I saw in Russia, and most of all the people I met there: Our former enemies whose great courage we may now, finally, after all these years, be prepared to acknowledge."

MARK BOAL (Writer and Producer) is a journalist, screenwriter and producer. Born and raised in New York City, he graduated with honors in philosophy from Oberlin College before beginning a career as an investigative reporter and writer of long form non-fiction. An acclaimed series for the Village Voice on the rise of surveillance in America led to a position at the alternative weekly writing a weekly column, "The Monitor," when he was 25. Boal subsequently covered politics, technology, crime, youth culture and drug culture in stories for national publications including Rolling Stone, Brill's Content, Mother Jones, The New York Observer and Playboy. He is currently a writer-at-large for Playboy.

In 2003, Boal's article "Jailbait," about an undercover drug agent, was adapted for FOX television's "The Inside." In 2003, he wrote "Death and Dishonor," the true story of a military veteran who goes searching for his missing son, which later became the basis for Paul Haggis' follow up to Crash, In the Valley of Elah. Boal collaborated with Haggis on the script and shares a co-story credit on the film, deemed "a deeply reflective, highly powerful work" by the Hollywood Reporter.

NICOLAS CHARTIER (Producer) is the owner and president of Voltage Pictures. He began his entertainment career as a screenwriter, selling his first script when he was 18, before changing careers and going into distribution. Prior to forming Voltage, Chartier was VP of sales and acquisitions at Myriad Pictures where he was involved in the sales of a diverse range of films including Van Wilder, People I Know with Al Pacino, The Good Girl with Jennifer Aniston and the Olsen twins' TV movies. As the President of Vortex Pictures, he sold such titles as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The Man from Elysian Fields and Sonny, Nicolas Cage's directorial debut. As head of sales and acquisitions at Arclight Films, Chartier acquired the sales rights for Dean Devlin's The Librarian, 2006 Academy Award winner Crash and The Matador, with Pierce Brosnan. During his time at Arclight, Chartier also sold Lord of War with Nicolas Cage, The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino and Wolf Creek. He then partnered with Dean Devlin (writer and producer of Independence Day, Godzilla and Stargate) to launch Voltage Pictures.

In the last three years, Chartier has distributed more than 60 movies internationally, including Dean Devlin and Bryan Singer's The Triangle; Flyboys; Spread, with Ashton Kutcher; Personal Effects, starring Kutcher and Michelle Pfeiffer; and George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead.

GREG SHAPIRO (Producer) is an independent producer whose recent credits include Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, written and directed by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, starring John Cho and Kal Penn.

Past credits include Rise, written and directed by Sebastian Gutierrez, starring Lucy Liu and Michael Chiklis; Neverwas, written and directed by Joshua Michael Stern, starring Ian McKellen, Aaron Eckhart and Brittany Murphy; Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, directed by Danny Leiner; The Rules of Attraction, based on the book by Bret Easton Ellis, adapted and directed by Roger Avary, starring James Van Der Beek, Shannyn Sossamon and Jessica Biel; Investigating Sex, directed by Alan Rudolph and starring Neve Campbell, Dermot Mulroney and Julie Delpy; and Simpatico, based on the play by Sam Shepard, directed by Matthew Warchus and starring Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges and Sharon Stone.

Upcoming projects in development include The Rum Diary, based on the novel by Hunter S. Thompson, adapted and to be directed by Bruce Robinson, to star Johnny Depp; and Detachment, written by Carl Lund, to be directed by Tony Kaye and to star Peter Sarsgaard.

TONY MARK (Executive Producer) was born and raised in Manhattan. After Horace Mann High School and Carnegie-Mellon University, Mark spent years in regional theatre, founding and serving as the artistic director for Valley Theatre Company in Poughkeepsie, New York. He also produced, directed, and acted with Abraxas Repertory at the Hyde Park Playhouse. He won the Best Actor award at the New England Theatre Festival for his performance of the title role in "Lenny" and the Best Actor award in the New York Regional Theatre festival for his work in "Girl on the Via Flaminia." During radio's free-form days, he hosted the show "Grotto of the Orange Pumpkin" at WEOK-FM. Mark also worked extensively as a photojournalist for a variety of regional newspapers including United Press International and The New York Times. In New York City, Mark produced television commercials for IBM, GE, Texaco, Coca Cola, Budweiser and other major accounts.

Mark has produced films that range from art house to the commercial and has worked with a wide variety of filmmakers, from edgy young directors like Spy Kids' Robert Rodriguez to the legendary director of West Side Story, Robert Wise. Films that Mark has been involved with as a producer have been nominated for Academy Awards (The Fisher King) and Emmy Awards (HBO's "Witness Protection," "And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself") while being featured at film festivals such as Sundance (Zelly and Me), Toronto (Billy Galvin), Telluride (Go Tell It on the Mountain) and others. He has shot films all over the United States and in 14 countries including Mexico, France, Italy, China, Greece and Jordan. Mark has written for MGM, ABC, NBC, Showtime and USA Networks and has directed second units on numerous films for Sony, HBO, CBS and Dimension. He also directed a documentary for the Guggenheim Foundation on the art collections of Solomon and Peggy Guggenheim.

Mark co-founded and serves as president of the board of directors for Assistance Dogs of the West, an organization that provides service dogs to the disabled.

BARRY ACKROYD (Director of Photography) was born in Manchester, U.K. and attended the Portsmouth College of Art, where he majored in film. After relocating to London, he started his career as a camera assistant on documentaries and commercials before his talent as a cinematographer was recognized. He then went on to supervise cinematography on a broad range of television movies and documentaries as well as independent films.

In 1996, he was nominated for a Camerimage Golden Frog for his work as director of photography on Carla's Song, a romantic drama set in Nicaragua. That same year, he directed a critically acclaimed short, The Butterfly Man, for which he received several awards and nominations including a BAFTA nomination for Best Short Film. He won several technical awards for his work on the powerful Sweet Sixteen (2002).

Most recently, Ackroyd has shot feature films such as the Oscar-nominated United 93, the drama Battle in Seattle and The Wind that Shakes the Barley, winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. His contribution to United 93 earned him a BAFTA nomination for Best Cinematography. He had previously been nominated for a BAFTA television prize for Best Photography and Lighting on "The Lost Prince" (2003). He most recently reteamed with United 93 director Paul Greengrass on the upcoming Matt Damon thriller Green Zone.

KARL JÚLÍUSSON (Production Designer) honed his skills in production design by working on a number of Icelandic television shows and films. His contribution as production designer for the Oscar-nominated Dancer in the Dark, directed by Lars von Trier and starring world-renowned Icelandic singer-actress Bjork, earned him much critical acclaim and offers to work on high-profile feature films. His next project was the thriller The Weight of Water, starring Catherine McCormack and directed by Kathryn Bigelow.

Júlíusson continued to build a reputation for inventive production design through his work on Bigelow's action-drama K-19: The Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford, and Dear Wendy, starring Bill Pullman. He served as creative consultant for production design on Lars von Trier's Dogville and continued to work on Icelandic and Scandinavian titles such as A Little Trip to Heaven, The Beautiful Country and The Kautokeino Rebellion.

His latest endeavor is the historical thriller Max Manus, a Norwegian film about one of the most brilliant saboteurs of WWII and his battle to overcome his inner demons.

BOB MURAWSKI (Editor) was born in Detroit and grew up in the northeast area of Michigan. He graduated from Michigan State University where he majored in telecommunications. After moving to Los Angeles, he worked his way up in the editorial departments of smaller independent films. In 1992, he edited Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness, which became a cult smash, and later, Hong Kong director John Woo's first American feature, Hard Target.

Following Hard Target, Murawski edited a number of feature films including Last Lives, Uncle Sam, American Hero and the Night of the Scarecrow. He is best known for editing all three of Raimi's blockbuster Spiderman films.

In 1995, while working on the TV series "American Gothic," Murawski was introduced to his future editing partner, Chris Innis, by executive producer Sam Raimi. They have since worked together on Raimi's The Gift and Spider-Man III. The pair has also collaborated on various Grindhouse Releasing and Box Office Spectaculars films.

Bob Murawski is a partner at Grindhouse Releasing with actor and director Sage Stallone, and also runs his own distribution arm, Box Office Spectaculars. He has restored and digitally remastered classic cult horror films Make Them Die Slowly (aka Cannibal Ferox) and Lucio Fulci's horror masterpiece, E tu vivrai nel terrore (aka The Beyond) as well as Cannibal Holocaust, I Drink Your Blood and director Juan Piquer Simón's cult horror film, Pieces.

CHRIS INNIS (Editor) graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in film and received her M.F.A. from the Cal Arts Film School. Raised in Southern California, she worked her way up through Hollywood's rank-and-file as a teenage movie theater cashier and popcorn salesgirl at United Artists, Mann and Landmark theaters.

Innis was mentored by Academy Award-winning editor Pietro Scalia, with whom she served as an assistant editor. She worked with Scalia on such films as JFK, The Quick and the Dead and G.I. Jane. Some of her other editorial credits include Indecent Proposal, Dead Beat, I Shot a Man in Vegas and White Man's Burden.

Since 1997, Innis' editing partner has been Bob Murawski. They were introduced by executive producer Sam Raimi on the TV series "American Gothic," where the two worked as editors. They worked together on Raimi's The Gift and Spider-Man III. The pair also collaborated on various Grindhouse Releasing and Box Office Spectaculars films, both companies that distribute cult films for the VHS and DVD markets.

MARCO BELTRAMI (Composer) is an Academy Award-nominated protégé of acclaimed composer Jerry Goldsmith who got his big break scoring Wes Craven's Scream. In his approach to scoring the film, Beltrami threw away conventional horror music clichés. Instead, he likened the film to a Western and, calling upon the influences of his idol Ennio Morricone, went on to write one of the most unexpected and imaginative scores in recent memory. Wes Craven would remark in the liner notes of the soundtrack, "Without Marco's genius, Scream would have been little more than a whisper."

Beltrami scored blockbusters including Live Free or Die Hard, I Robot and Terminator 3 before finding his way back to Western compositions when Tommy Lee Jones hired him to score The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. The film won the Best Director and Screenplay awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Walk the Line director Jim Mangold was a fan of Beltrami's suspenseful and beautiful Western score and hired him to write the music for 3:10 to Yuma. Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "The impressive work extends behind the scenes to... Marco Beltrami's percolating score, which subtly yet effectively signals Yuma's status as a thinking person's Western."

Next, Beltrami re-teamed with Tommy Lee Jones on In the Electric Mist, directed by renowned filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier. He also scored the psychological thriller Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage.

Movie search