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How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
Production notes
Provided by MGM
After landing a job at an upscale New York magazine, a British celebrity journalist (Simon
Pegg) proceeds to offend bosses, peers and superstars alike.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
How To Lose Friends & Alienate People is directed by Oscar® nominated Robert Weide and
produced by Oscar® nominated Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen. The Stephen
Woolley/Elizabeth Karlsen/The Number 9 Films production was developed as part of the UK
Film Council's slate funding initiative with Film4, the Irish Film Board, Intandem Films and
Audley Films. It is based on the bestselling memoir by Toby Young and the screenplay is by
Peter Straughan. The cast is led by Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead), Kirsten Dunst
(Spider-Man trilogy, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, Bring It On), Danny Huston (The
Constant Gardener, 30 Days of Night), Gillian Anderson (The X-Files, The Last King of
Scotland), Megan Fox (Transformers), Max Minghella (Hippie Hippie Shake) and Jeff Bridges
(Seabiscuit, The Big Lebowski).
First published in 2001, Toby Young's memoir, How To Lose Friends & Alienate People, charts
Young's move from London to New York to become a contributing editor at the highly
prestigious Vanity Fair. Fired less than two years later, the memoir hilariously captures Young's
failed attempt to take Manhattan by storm.
Toby Young reminisces: "Things really didn't work out for me at Vanity Fair, and one of the
reasons was that I was just completely naïve about what being a journalist in New York was like.
I had seen films like, His Girl Friday and The Philadelphia Story, and I was expecting the
corridors of Vanity Fair to be full of these debonair wits, trading wisecracks in-between sips
from the hip flask. It was actually this incredibly rule-bound society -- much more rule-bound
than the culture I'd come from. We have this idea that America's this great informal place, it's
like one giant speakeasy where everyone is completely themselves. But London's quite like that;
New York is nothing like that. New York's much more like London was a hundred years ago,
and I felt almost like I was Austin Powers who'd come of age in this kind of permissive,
swinging '60s era who'd been teleported back in time to the Victorian era."
The memoir was optioned by Film4 in 2002 and Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen of
Number 9 Films approached both Film4 and Toby Young to produce it. Stephen was drawn to
the memoir because, as he says, "in the book he explains why he [Toby Young] is like he is, a
pain in the arse, and the self deprecation saves Toby from sheer sleaziness. It's also laugh out
loud hilarious!"
Producer Stephen Woolley was aware that there needed to be changes to the memoir to make the
transition to film, he comments: "The book is a series of tremendously funny but disconnected
events that happened to Toby Young whilst he was working at Vanity Fair in the late 1990s.
What we wanted to do was really find a spine to the tale, a romance, so that the Sidney Young
not only falls in love with New York but also a character from New York who, like him, realizes
that the magazine industry at heart can be corrupting."
Screenwriter Peter Straughan was brought onto the project because Producers Stephen Woolley
and Elizabeth Karlsen had liked his script Three Bad Men; he has previously written the
screenplay for Sixty Six, which Elizabeth Karlsen also produced, and is currently working with
George Clooney on Men Who Stare At Goats. Peter created the character Alison (played by
Kirsten Dunst) who works at Sharps Magazine and although she instantly dislikes Sidney Young,
begins to warm to his bumbling charm throughout the course of the film.
Toby Young adds: "One of the differences between the story that's told in the film and the real
story, is that the film is a romantic comedy and the courtship between Simon Pegg and Kirsten
Dunst is kind of cute and funny, and it hits a few roadblocks, then their coming together. In
reality, I dated the woman for a while (who subsequently became my wife) and then she dumped
me. Then I managed to persuade her to go back out with me, and then she dumped me again.
And then I proposed to her and she said, 'no.' And then we went back out with each other and I
proposed to her again, and she said, 'I'll think about it.' It literally took me five years of
continuous stalking to get her to agree to marry me. And a film that actually, faithfully, recreated
that story would be more of a dark psychological thriller than a romantic comedy!"
With a great script, the producers turned their attention to finding the right director. Stephen
Woolley, Toby Young and Peter Straughan are great fans of Curb Your Enthusiasm and thought
that Robert Weide, executive producer on the film, could bring that same comic sensibility to
similar material. Stephen reasons that the director needed a comedy background and Robert was
the natural choice, he says: "The most important thing is that this film delivers what it says on
the tin: comedy. I thought that if Bob [Robert Weide] can bring half of what he had with Curb
Your Enthusiasm we could have a good chance of making people laugh."
Robert Weide had been keen to do the right film for a couple of years and "a few pages into it, I
thought, I really want to do this... I was really impressed with what Peter brought to it in that he
kept a lot of the anecdotes and then fabricated this new story line, the love story and created new
characters out of old cloth that were really interesting. It feels like an original piece in that it is
not beholden to the book."
CASTING THE FILM
According to the producers, the key to the whole film was to cast someone who can portray
Sidney Young in a sympathetic light. Producer Stephen Woolley says: "The character of Sidney
Young is fairly close to the character that Toby [Young] creates in his own book with one slight
difference: I think that Sidney is a hell of a lot more sympathetic than Toby's character, and that
doesn't come through necessarily only in the writing, that comes through Simon Pegg. Simon is
generally somebody that, no matter how hard or tough or bad they seem, you always know that
it's Simon Pegg and in the end he's going to make you smile. You instantly love him: he's an
instantly lovable guy." Toby Young jokingly adds: "He is immensely likeable, you can't dislike
Simon and given how appalling the character he's playing is, I mean me, being so likeable is a
hugely important quality." Director Robert Weide explains: "Simon just has that way about him
that he can get away with anything; he can say really obnoxious things, act like a jerk and be
very inappropriate, yet he is just so likeable at the core that I think the audience's sympathies will
stay with him and they will root for him. Simon is able to walk that line between just being really
uproariously funny and being a very sympathetic character that I think you care about."
Robert Weide has become a fan of Simon Pegg's work and thought that he would be perfect for
the role due to his proven comedy track record with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Robert
comments: "Simon needs very little directing as his first instincts are always so good. I literally
cannot imagine having done this film without Simon now, I don't know who else could have
played him, I don't know who could have ridden that line between being so obnoxious and so
sympathetic and so funny."
Simon Pegg was first drawn to the project because of the screenplay, he says: "I read the script
and I really liked it. I think Peter [Straughan] is a really good writer, it is funny and it just had
what I think as an actor you look for in a script which is a challenging character and an
interesting situation. When you read the book you think how could this possibly be turned into a
film? But he's taken the spirit of it and the heart of it and put it on the screen, the page, which is a
really clever thing to do. It's a funny comedy, a lot of which is based on truth."
Director Robert Weide's attachment to the project was also a big draw because of his comedy
background working on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Simon Pegg explains: "When you're doing a
comedy it's really important that the person behind the lens understands the dynamics of comedy.
They have to be, the best comedies are shot by funny people and Bob's a very funny guy."
Kirsten Dunst plays Alison Olsen, Sidney Young's colleague and eventual love interest. Stephen
Woolley and Robert Weidi had previously worked with Kirsten Dunst on Interview with a
Vampire and Mother Night respectively. Stephen has watched her career since and thought of
her for the role because of Bring it On which "is really funny and Kirsten is terrific in it. It is this
film that made me think, she really knows humour," states Stephen.
Drawn to the project for a number of reasons, Kirsten says: "20 pages into the script you can
usually tell whether it's good or not, and I was laughing. And when I had heard that Simon was
attached, I'd seen Shaun of the Dead and was a big fan of his and I really wanted to work with
him. It was nice to have the comfort of knowing Bob and having an environment where everyone
just really wants to have good time together and is open. I felt very collaborative from the very
beginning with Bob, we all respect each other a lot." She adds: "I'm very instinctual about the
things that I do and with the people that are surrounding the project. So meeting and knowing
Bob and reading the script it was a definite yes for me."
Jeff Bridges plays Clayton Harding, the editor-in-chief of Sharps magazine. Robert Weide says:
"As soon as I read the script, I immediately saw Jeff Bridges." Stephen Woolley adds: "we had a
very clear idea of who we would like to play the boss of the magazine because the character
should be someone who recognizes in Sidney the rebel and the anarchist that he was when he
was Sidney's age. The person who does that for me, just as an actor in terms of their career, is
Jeff Bridges. When I was a teenager watching movies, anything with Jeff Bridges was fantastic
because he also played anti-heroes, he always played the rebel. The list of great Jeff Bridges'
movies is just phenomenal. Clayton Harding is a role that was made for Jeff, because it's
someone who was that old anarchist, that old rebel, who's now got stuck in this role that he's in
as one of the most successful editors in the world at a point in his life where he doesn't want to
upset the barrel."
Toby Young agrees with Producer Stephen Woolley: "Casting Jeff Bridges as Clayton Harding is
just perfect. Clayton is based on Graydon Carter, the editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, and Graydon
was in his youth a real rebel. He's a poacher-turned-gamekeeper, he's a sort of reluctant member
of the establishment, and Jeff has often played rebellious roles, he's very closely associated with
independent films, he's won various Independent Spirit awards, and so for him to now be playing
this kind of rather patrician Yankee, glossy magazine editor is just a perfect fit."
Jeff Bridges chose the project for a myriad of reasons, he explains: "Probably the top of the list
was a chance to work with my buddy, Bob Weide. We go back about 12 years and we were
working on a project that fell through but we worked on it for a long time, long and hard. So
when he called me up and told me about this movie he was making, the chance to be involved in
his first movie was very exciting to me. And he told me about the wonderful cast that he was
assembling and I just prayed that the script was going to be good so that I could say yes to it.
And it made me laugh and it was a wonderful script, wonderful tale."
Megan Fox plays Sophie Maes, an aspiring actress who is coveted by Sidney Young. Casting
Sophie Maes took a long time as Stephen Woolley explains: "It was sheer hard work to find
somebody who could play the part. We wanted someone who was reminiscent of Judy Holliday
who played in films like The Solid Gold Cadillac, a kind of blonde bimbo and a little like
Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch; we wanted that quality of having sexuality and power
over men that was innocent and yet not quite innocent." Director Robert Weidi recalls: "I saw a
lot of great people. Megan, who was unknown at the time, ... walked in and just did this audition
that made my jaw drop and she walked out and I looked at the casting directors and said that the
search was over. It was as if the part had been written for her."
Toby Young adds: "Casting Megan Fox as Sophie Maes is a master-stroke. The character,
Sophie Maes, is supposed to be a hot, young Hollywood starlet, the next big thing, the actress
that every producer wants to cast in his blockbuster and, that's exactly who Megan Fox is so it's
just perfect."
Megan comments that whilst her character shares some similarities with famous celebutantes,
Sophie Maes "is not a bad girl, but she's not a good girl either, and she sort of loses her head in
the process of finding her new-found fame."
Danny Huston plays Lawrence Maddox, Sidney Young's immediate boss at Sharp's magazine.
Producer Stephen Woolley remembers: "Danny Huston was a first choice for us because he is
used to playing a slightly sleazy, slightly sexy kind of role. That kind of guy who is so
handsome, gets all the girls and all the other guys hate. The kind of guy who is slightly
mannered, slightly effete in a way that's attractive to women - complimentary about the hair,
complimentary about the way they look, would pay attention to their little dogs - in a way that
we, most guys would find very hard to do. Danny just fits so well into that mould." Director
Robert Weide agreed and says that "I can't see anyone other than Danny playing this part."
Danny Huston comments: "I took this role because I thought it was a wonderful satire, in the old
fashioned Preston Sturges kind of way - with a modern flair of the wry tabloid world - and with a
combination of marvelous actors such as the witty Simon Pegg, the delightful and beautiful
Kirsten Dunst, the legendary Jeff Bridges, and director Bob Weide grounding this deliciously
vicious witty and romantic tale, based on the book by Toby Young. How could I possibly
resist?"
Gillian Anderson plays Eleanor Johnson, the PR doyenne of New York who represents both
Sophie Maes and Vincent Lepak. Stephen Woolley says: "We had no idea that we could get
somebody as great as Gillian to play Eleanor. She's a terrific actress, as she's proven on the stage
in London, in Bleak House on TV, and of course in movies, in Terrence Davies' film, she was
absolutely fantastic. The interesting thing about Gillian Anderson is that, despite the amazing
career she's had - of course all the episodes of The X Files that became such a phenomenal cult
series around the world - she has rarely played humor. So she brings a great sense of
sophistication to the role of Eleanor.
"Eleanor is in the sassy Bette Davis mould. I always think about, whenever I see Eleanor in her
costume strutting around the office, Davis in All About Eve - that sort of cutting, clever wit, and
that sort of obsession, so self-obsessed and yet so seemingly caring about other people. She
doesn't simply see Sophie Maes as just another instant meal ticket. She grooms her! Eleanor's
very cagey, very sensitive, very sly, very attractive, and I think Gillian brings all those things to
the part.
"There was a little bit of a concern about Gillian being kind of too attractive, because she's a
gorgeous person and a knock-out, but I think she's played it so perfectly that you really can't like
her very much. She comes across, from the first moment you meet her, as being just not the kind
of person you want to hang out with."
Gillian was primarily drawn to the script, she comments: "It was witnessing a purely funny script
which doesn't happen very often. I'd recently become a fan of Bob's after having been exposed,
ten years on, to Curb Your Enthusiasm for the first time. The attachment of Simon, who I've
been a big fan of for a while, also helped."
ABOUT THE CAST
Simon Pegg (Sidney Young)
Winner of the Peter Sellers Award for Comedy (presented by the London Evening Standard
newspaper), Simon Pegg has successfully built a body of outstanding TV and film credits, not
least in the creation of the break-through Channel 4 sitcom Spaced, which went on to be
nominated at the British Comedy Awards, both the UK and International BAFTAs and received
a nomination for an International Emmy Award.
Simon went on to gain massive critical and commercial success with his debut feature film cowritten with Edgar Wright, Shaun of the Dead in which he also starred as the title lead. Produced
by Working Title, the film went to number one in the UK box office and top 5 in the USA box
office. A brilliant debut feature, it was nominated for 'Best Film' at the 2005 BAFTAs, London
Critics Circle Awards (also nominated for 'Best Screenplay'), South Bank Show Awards, the
NME Awards and The British Comedy Awards. It won 'Best Screenplay' at the 2004/05 British
Independent Film Awards and 'Best British Film' at the 2005 Empire Film awards.
Simon reprised his success alongside Edgar Wright with the 2007 feature Hot Fuzz which was
released to much acclaim, opening straight at number one in the UK box office and reaching
number 5 in the USA. Later that same year, Simon continued his run of box office successes
starring as the lead in the feature Run, Fat Boy, Run which yet again opened in the top spot in the
UK box office.
Simon's previous TV credits include BBC1 drama Final Demand; Doctor Who; BBC2 sitcom
Hippies and the cult BBC sketch series Big Train, for which he received an RTS nomination for
'Best Entertainment Performance'. He also co-starred in the Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks TV
series Band of Brothers.
Simon's further feature film credits include Mission Impossible 3, The Big Nothing and The
Good Night.
Kirsten Dunst (Alison Olsen)
Kirsten Dunst most recently starred in Spider-Man 3, in which she reprised her role as 'Mary
Jane' for the third time for director Sam Raimi, and in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette,
opposite Jason Schwartzman. Dunst is also set to star in the as-yet-untitled film about Marla
Ruzicka, a relief worker who advocated for Iraqi and Afghani victims of the American-led
invasions of their respective countries.
Dunst's additional credits include the following: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, written
by Charlie Kaufman, directed by Michel Gondry and starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet and
Mark Ruffalo; Elizabethtown, written and directed by Cameron Crowe, opposite Orlando
Bloom; Wimbledon with Paul Bettany; the Mike Newell film, Mona Lisa Smile, opposite Julia
Roberts, Julia Stiles and Maggie Gyllenhaal; Sam Raimi's Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2,
opposite Tobey Maguire; the independent film, Levity, co-starring Billy Bob Thornton and
Morgan Freeman; The Cat's Meow, a semi-biographical murder-mystery in which, directed by
Peter Bogdanavich, Dunst portrayed Marion Davies; Bring it On, which opened number-one at
the box office; the critically acclaimed Sofia Coppola film, The Virgin Suicides, with James
Woods and Kathleen Turner; Crazy/Beautiful, directed by John Stockwell; Drop Dead Gorgeous
with Ellen Barkin and Kirstie Alley; Dick with Michelle Williams; Little Women with Susan
Sarandon and Winona Ryder; Jumanji with Robin Williams; Mother Night with Nick Nolte; the
Barry Levinson film Wag The Dog starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro; Neil Jordan's
Interview with the Vampire, with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt; and Small Soldiers with the late
Phil Hartman.
With a growing list of accolades befitting an actress 10 years her senior, Dunst's performance in
Vampire earned her a Golden Globe nomination, the Blockbuster Video Award for "Best
Supporting Newcomer" and an MTV award for "Best Breakthrough Artist." The Hollywood
Reporter also named Dunst as "Best Young Star" for her portrayal of a teenage prostitute in
NBC's hit series, ER.
Dunst got her showbiz start at the tender age of three, when she began filming television
commercials. With more than 50 commercials under her belt, she made the jump to the big
screen in 1989 in Woody Allen's New York Stories.
Dunst's career has not been limited to the big screen. In addition to a critically acclaimed
recurring role on the hit television drama ER, she starred in Showtime's The Outer Limits and
Devil's Arithmetic, produced by Dustin Hoffman and Mimi Rogers; the telefilm Ruby Ridge: An
American Tragedy; the Wonderful World of Disney's Tower of Terror; and Lifetime Television's
15 and Pregnant.
Jeff Bridges (Clayton Harding)
Jeff Bridges, who was last seen starring opposite Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow in the
smash hit Iron Man, is one of Hollywood's most successful actors and is a four-time Academy
Award® nominee.
Jeff earned his first Oscar® nod in 1971 for Best Supporting Actor in Peter Bogdanovich's The
Last Picture Show co-starring Cybill Shepard. Three years later he received his second Best
Supporting Actor nomination for his role in Michael Cimino's Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. By
1984 he landed top kudos with a Best Actor nomination for Starman. That performance also
earned him a Golden Globe nomination. In 2001, he was honored with another Golden Globe
nomination and his fourth Oscar® nomination for his role in The Contender, Rod Lurie's
political thriller co-starring Gary Oldman and Joan Allen, in which Bridges played the President
of the United States.
Jeff recently appeared in The Amateurs, a comedy written and directed by Michael Traeger, in
which citizens of a small town, under the influence of a man in the midst of a mid-life crisis
(Bridges), come together to make an adult film. Last year he was in his second film with director
Terry Gilliam titled Tideland where he played Noah, a drug addicted, has-been, rock guitarist as
well as Stick It for Touchstone Pictures where he played the coach of a team of rule-abiding
gymnasts.
The actor's multi-faceted career has cut a wide swathe across all genres. He has starred in
numerous box office hits including Gary Ross' Seabiscuit, Terry Gilliam's offbeat comedic
drama The Fisher King (co-starring Robin Williams), the multi-award nominated The Fabulous
Baker Boys (co-starring his brother Beau Bridges and Michelle Pfeiffer), The Jagged Edge
(opposite Glenn Close), Francis Ford Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Blown Away
(co-starring his late father Lloyd Bridges and Tommy Lee Jones), Peter Weir's Fearless (with
Isabella Rosselini and Rosie Perez), and Martin Bell's American Heart (with Edward Furlong,
produced by Bridges' company AsIs Productions). That film earned Bridges an IFP/Spirit Award
in 1993 for Best Actor.
In the summer of 2004, he appeared opposite Kim Bassinger in The Door in the Floor for
director Todd Williams and Focus Features that earned him an IFP/Spirit Award nomination for
Best Actor. He has also appeared in the suspense thriller Arlington Road (co-starring Tim
Robbins and Joan Cusack, directed by Mark Pellington.)
He played a major featured role in The Muse (an Albert Brooks comedy starring Brooks, Sharon
Stone and Andie McDowell), and he starred in Simpatico, the screen version of Sam Shepard's
play (with Nick Nolte, Sharon Stone and Albert Finney). In 1998, he starred in the Coen
brothers' cult comedy The Big Lebowski. Before that, he starred in Ridley Scott's White Squall,
Walter Hill's Wild Bill, John Huston's Fat City, and Barbara Streisand's romantic comedy The
Mirror Has Two Faces.
Bridges' other acting credits include K-PAX, Masked and Anonymous, Stay Hungry, Bad
Company, Against All Odds, Cutter's Way, The Vanishing, Texasville, The Morning After,
Nadine, Rancho Deluxe, See You In the Morning, Eight Million Ways to Die, The Last
American Hero and Heart of the West.
In 1983 Jeff founded the End Hunger Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to feeding
children around the world. Jeff produced the End Hunger televent, a three-hour live television
broadcast focusing on world hunger. The televent featured Gregory Peck, Jack Lemmon, Burt
Lancaster, Bob Newhart, Kenny Loggins and other leading film, television and music stars in an
innovative production to educate and inspire action.
Through his company, AsIs Productions, he produced Hidden in America, which starred his
brother Beau. That television movie, produced for Showtime, received a Golden Globe
nomination in 1996 for Best TV/Cable Film and garnered a Screen Actors Guild nod for Best
Actor for Beau Bridges. The film was also nominated for two Emmy Awards®.
One of Jeff's true passions is photography. While on the set of his movies, Jeff takes behind the
scenes pictures of the actors, crew, and locations. After completion of each motion picture, he
edits the images into a book and gives copies to everyone involved. Jeff's photos have been
featured in several magazines including Premiere and Aperture as well as in other publications
worldwide. He has also had gallery exhibits of his work in New York at the George Eastman
House, in Los Angeles, London and San Diego.
The books, which have become valued by collectors, were never intended for public sale but in
the fall of 2003, powerHouse Books released Pictures: Photographs By Jeff Bridges, a hardcover
book containing a compilation of photos taken on numerous film locations over the years, to
much critical acclaim.
Proceeds from the book are donated to the Motion Picture & Television Fund, a non-profit
organization that offers charitable care and support to film-industry workers.
A few years ago, Jeff fulfilled a life-long dream by releasing his first album, Be Here Soo" on
Ramp Records, the Santa Barbara, CA label he co-founded with Michael McDonald and
producer/singer/ songwriter Chris Pelonis. The CD features guest appearances by vocalist/
keyboardist Michael McDonald, Grammy-nominated Amy Holland, and country-rock legend
David Crosby. Ramp Records also released Michael McDonald's album Blue Obsession.
Jeff, his wife Susan and their three children divide their time between their home in Santa
Barbara, California and their ranch in Montana.
Danny Huston (Lawrence Maddox)
Danny Huston has followed in the family tradition of pursuing a varied creative career. A writer,
director and producer, Huston broke through as an actor with his highly acclaimed performance
in the independent film Ivansxtc. The Bernard Rose directed feature was nominated for several
2003 Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Male Performance for Danny's portrayal of
Hollywood talent agent "Ivan Beckman." Danny has worked nonstop as an actor ever since.
Recent work includes Alfonso Cuaron's Oscar® nominated Children Of Men opposite Clive
Owen, Peter Berg's The Kingdom starring Jamie Foxx and David Slade's sophomore film 30
Days Of Night starring Josh Hartnett. He has also starred in the critically acclaimed Australian
western The Proposition alongside Guy Pearce and Emily Watson, which premiered at the 2006
Sundance Film Festival. Also from 2006 was the Fernando Meirelles project The Constant
Gardner in which Danny appeared opposite Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz, and for which he
received the Golden Satellite Award for best supporting actor for his portrayal of Sandy
Woodrow. He can also be seen in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette.
In 2003 Danny worked on the Martin Scorsese project The Aviator alongside Leonardo DiCaprio
and Alec Baldwin, for which the ensemble cast was nominated for a 2004 SAG award. Danny
also starred in the film Birth opposite Nicole Kidman, directed by Jonathan Glazer. He also
appears in 21 Grams, Alejandro Inarritu's third feature-length film. He has collaborated several
times with directors Mike Figgis and Bernard Rose and was the lead in John Sayles' Silver City
opposite Chris Cooper and Daryl Hannah.
His upcoming releases include Oliver Parker's Fade To Black with Christopher Walken and Paz
Vega in which Danny starred as Orson Welles, Boogie Woogie with Heather Graham and Gillian
Anderson, Laundry Warrior with Kate Bosworth and Geoffrey Rush.
Born in Rome, Danny was raised in Ireland and London with stops in Mexico and the United
States. He currently lives in Los Angeles.
Gillian Anderson (Eleanor Johnson)
Gillian was born in Chicago, Illinois. When she was two, her parents moved their family to
London where she spent the next nine years of her childhood. Eventually they moved back to the
United States and settled in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Gillian began acting in community theatre
productions while in high school and then proceeded to study acting in college where she
obtained her BFA degree from the prestigious Goodman Theater School at Chicago's DePaul
University. Upon acquiring her degree, Gillian headed off to New York, at the age of 22, to
pursue her career in acting.
She performed in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of Alan Ayckbourn's Absent Friends,
for which she won a Theatre World Award in 1991. In addition she also appeared in Christopher
Hampton's The Philanthropist, at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, CT. It wasn't long
before she finally decided to relocate to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and television.
In September of 1993 she auditioned for a pilot for Fox called The X-Files. It was for the role of
Dana Scully. This role would jump start her career and win her much approval and worldwide
recognition. Through the next nine years, her portrayal of Dana Scully offered her countless
nominations, as well as two Screen Actors Guild Awards, one Emmy, and one Golden Globe for
Best Actress in a Drama Series. In 1998, she carried her role of Dana Scully over into the motion
picture adaptation of the show. In 1999 she made The X-Files history by becoming the first
woman to write and direct an episode of the series entitled All Thing".
Gillian's other feature film credits include the Miramax features, The Mighty, starring Kieran
Culkin, as well as 1998's Playing By Heart, alongside fellow cast members Ellen Burstyn, Sean
Connery, Angelina Jolie, and Madeleine Stowe among others.
House of Mirth, directed by Terrence Davies, was released in December 2000. The film was
listed among the Top 10 films of the year 2000 by critics from Rolling Stone, Entertainment
Weekly, Newsday, New York Daily News, The Village Voice, and the New York Press. For her
portrayal of Lily Bart, Gillian won the British Independent Film Award for Best Actress and the
Best Performance Award from the Village Voice Film Critic's Poll.
Gillian was able to pick up an Audience Award at the IFTA Awards for her role starring
alongside Robert Carlyle in the popular film The Mighty Celt, directed and written by Pearse
Elliot. Also, Gillian had a cameo role in the hailed comedy, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull
Story, which gained rave reviews here and overseas.
Charles Dickens' classic was brought back to life in the BBC miniseries Bleak House, where
Gillian Anderson starred as the cold Lady Dedlock. A critically acclaimed performance by
Gillian earned her a nomination for Best Actress at the British Academy of Film and Television
Awards (BAFTAs) for 2006.
Gillian recently starred in the Oscar®-winning The Last King of Scotland, directed by Kevin
MacDonald and starring Forest Whitaker. Gillian has several projects scheduled to begin
production later this year including a film version of The X-Files, which will see 'Mulder' and
'Scully' reunited, Boogie Woogie and Smell of Apples.
Megan Fox (Sophie Maes)
Megan Fox has quickly become one of Hollywood's most sought-after young actresses.
Fox has most recently starred as Mikaela in Transformers, directed by Michael Bay and
produced by Steven Spielberg. The film broke July 4th US box office records with takings of
$29.1 million and has gone on to smash records around the world.
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Fox began taking dance lessons at the age of five and continued
her training when the family moved to Florida when she was ten. There she began classes in
drama and modeling, and at the age of 13 had already won some local renown.
Fox made her film debut as a spoiled teenage heiress in Holiday in the Sun starring Mary Kate
and Ashley Olsen. In 2004 Buena Vista released the comedy Confessions of a Teenage Drama
Queen in which Fox costarred with Lindsay Lohan for director Sara Sugarman.
On television Fox starred on ABC's popular comedy series, Hope and Faith, alongside Kelly
Ripa and Faith Ford. Her additional television credits include series regular roles on The Help,
Ocean Avenue, the ABC telefilm Crimes of Fashion, and episodes of What I Like about You and
Two and a Half Men.
Fox resides in Los Angeles.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Robert Weide (Director)
Robert Weide started his career in 1982 as producer of The Marx Brothers in a Nutshell, a
documentary tribute that became one of the highest-rated programs in PBS history. He went on
to produce and direct The Great Standups: Sixty Years of Laughter for HBO, write and direct
Mort Sahl: The Loyal Opposition, which aired on PBS' American Masters series, and in 1986 he
received the national prime-time Emmy Award for W. C. Fields Straight Up, honored as the
year's Outstanding Informational Special.
From 1990-1994 he served as Vice President of Development for Rollins & Joffe Productions
(producers of Woody Allen's films) where he executive-produced Larry Gelbart's critically
acclaimed political satire, Mastergate for the Showtime Network and Rick Reynolds' one-man
confessional, Only The Truth Is Funny. He has also produced the HBO specials But Seriously,
Folks and The Lost Minutes of Billy Crystal.
1996 saw the release of Weide's first feature film as writer/producer, Mother Night, based on the
novel by Kurt Vonnegut, and starring Nick Nolte, John Goodman, Alan Arkin, Sheryl Lee, and
Kirsten Dunst. Weide also adapted Lois Lowry's Newbery Award-winning novel, The Giver,
which is currently in development at Red Wagon Productions for Warner Brothers.
In 1998, Weide completed a twelve-year labor-of-love, his acclaimed documentary, Lenny
Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth. He received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Feature
Documentary, followed in 1999 with an Emmy award for the film's editing and an Emmy
nomination for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special. Still involved in documentaries, he is part-way
through film bios on comedian/ activist Dick Gregory and author Kurt Vonnegut.
In 1999, HBO premiered Weide's comedy special, Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm, a fauxdocumentary chronicling the return to stand-up by Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld. Weide
became the Director and Executive Producer of the spin-off series, Curb Your Enthusiasm,
which premiered on HBO in the fall of 2000 to great acclaim. Curb has run for six seasons on
HBO and continues to enjoy broadcasts to a worldwide audience. The AFI named it the 2001
Comedy Series of the Year and it has gone on to win countless awards, including a Golden
Globe for Best Television Comedy Series. Weide was nominated for a highly prestigious DGA
Award (Directors Guild of America) for Comedy Direction and has received several Emmy
nominations for the series, winning his third Emmy Award (this time for Comedy Direction) for
his Curb episode Krazee-Eyez Killa.
Stephen Woolley (Producer)
Stephen Woolley has spent a lifetime steeped in movies and filmmaking. His career began in
1976 at the Screen on the Green cinema in London where he tore tickets, sold ice cream,
projected films and helped manage the cinema. After working with The Other Cinema he
programmed and subsequently owned his own cinema, The Scala, which won acclaim for its
diverse, original and alternative programming. In 1982, Woolley launched Palace Video in
partnership with Nik Powell, releasing titles such as Eraserhead and Mephisto. Establishing a
theatrical arm a year later, Palace acquired, marketed and distributed some 250 independent and
European movies from The Evil Dead, Diva, and Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence to When Harry
Met Sally.
During this period Woolley's producing career flourished, with a diverse range of critically
acclaimed and successful films including the controversial Absolute Beginners starring David
Bowie, Ray Davies, Patsy Kensit and James Fox, and Golden Globe nominated dance comedy
Shag starring Bridget Fonda. Scandal starring Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, John Hurt and Bridget
Fonda attracted phenomenal critical acclaim and box office success on both sides of the Atlantic.
Other Palace productions included The Big Man starring Liam Neeson and Joanne WhalleyKilmer; A Rage in Harlem with Forest Whitaker and Danny Glover and The Pope Must Die
starring Robbie Coltrane.
Breakfast on Pluto, starring Cillian Murphy and Liam Neeson, has continued Woolley's longterm partnership with director Neil Jordan which began with The Company of Wolves in 1983.
His other collaborations with Jordan include The Miracle, The Butcher Boy, The Good Thief, the
Oscar®-nominated The End of The Affair, Michael Collins, Interview With The Vampire, and
Oscar®-winning The Crying Game, for which in 1992 Woolley was awarded Producer of The
Year by the Producer's Guild of America. Woolley also produced Jordan's Oscar® nominated
Mona Lisa which won numerous international awards. Stephen also has over twenty executive
producer credits, which include The Neon Bible, The Hollow Reed, Fever Pitch, Purely Belter
and Little Voice starring Sir Michael Caine and Jane Horrocks.
Woolley was Chairman on the BAFTA film committee on which he served for ten years and was
instrumental in ushering in a new era of modernization and success at the British Academy. He is
also a member of the American Academy.
In 2005 Woolley made his directorial debut with Stoned. His recent projects as producer with
Elizabeth Karlsen have included And When Did You Last See Your Father? directed by Anand
Tucker and the forthcoming projects include Perrier's Bounty, Starstruck, The Lonely Doll and
We Want Sex.
Elizabeth Karlsen (Producer)
Elizabeth Karlsen began her career in independent film production in New York, working with
directors such as Bill Sherwood, Zbigniew Rybczynski, Jim Jarmusch and Jean-Baptiste
Mondino.
She returned to London in the mid-80's to work as Head of Production for the UK's leading
independent distribution and production company Palace Pictures, headed by Stephen Woolley
and Nik Powell. There she oversaw productions such as Bill Duke's A Rage in Harlem, starring
Danny Glover, Robin Givens and Forest Whittaker, which featured in the main competition at
the Cannes Film Festival; Neil Jordan's The Miracle starring Beverly D'Angelo; David Leland's
The Big Man starring Liam Neeson; Stephen Gyllenhaal's Waterland and Richard Stanley's
horror hit Hardware.
She then co-produced Neil Jordan's The Crying Game, which was nominated for six Academy
Awards® including Best Picture and secured Jordan the Oscar® for Best Screenplay. She
continued to produce for Woolley and Powell's Scala Productions where her credits include
Terence Davies' The Neon Bible, which premiered in main competition at the Cannes Film
Festival; Mark Herman's Little Voice, which was nominated for six Golden Globe Awards
including Best Actor, which Michael Caine went on to win, and an Academy Award®
nomination for Brenda Blethyn as Best Actress. The film was also nominated for six British
Academy Awards® including Best Picture. Other credits include Angela Pope's Hollow Reed,
Mark Herman's Purely Belter and, the international box office hit, Charles Dance's Ladies in
Lavender.
After a long collaboration with Stephen Woolley under the banner of Palace and Scala they
formed the London based Number 9 Films, which was awarded one of the much sought after UK
Film Council Slate Development Funding schemes. Recent Number 9 releases include Woolley's
directorial debut Stoned starring David Morrissey, Paddy Considine and Leo Gregory; Neil
Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto starring Liam Neeson and Cillian Murphy; Phyllis Nagy's Mrs.
Harris for HBO; and Anand Tucker's And When Did You Last See Your Father?.
Forthcoming productions include Edith and the Lonely Doll written by Caroline Thompson; We
Want Sex, a social comedy based on the 1968 Ford strike, written by Billy Ivory; and feature
documentary Starstruck, that focuses on the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007.
Peter Straughan (Screenwriter)
Peter Straughan's stage plays include Bones (Live Theatre 1999, Hampstead Theatre 2000) and
Noir (Live Theatre, Northern Stage 2001). Radio plays include The Ghost of Federico Garcia
Lorca (1998, Winner of the Alfred Bradley award), M (adapted from the Fritz Lang film, winner
of the Prix Italia 2005) and an adaptation of Fritz Lang's Metropolis.
Films include Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution (co-written, Assassin Films) The Men Who Stare At
Goats (adapted, BBC Films), Sixty-Six (co-written, Working Title 2006) Christmas Carol (cowritten, Working Title), Our Brand is Crisis (Smokehouse and Warner Bros) and Second Lives
(David Fincher).
Toby Young (Co-Producer)
British journalist Toby Young was born in 1963. In 1991, he co-founded a magazine called The
Modern Review with fellow journalists Julie Burchill and Cosmo Landesman. In 1995, he
moved to America where he worked in the New York offices of Vanity Fair, returning to London
in 2000 and publishing a memoir about the experience in 2001. That book, How to Lose Friends
& Alienate People, was translated into 10 languages and became an international bestseller.
In 2004, Young appeared as himself in the West End stage adaptation of How to Lose Friends
and, the following year, he co-wrote a sex farce with Lloyd Evans called Who's The Daddy?
about the David Blunkett/Kimberly Quinn scandal. It was named Best New Comedy at the 2006
Theatregoers' Choice Awards.
Last year, he published a sequel to How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, The Sound of No
Hands Clapping, and he currently works as an Associate Editor at The Spectator.
Oliver Stapleton BSC (Director of Photography)
Stapleton has photographed a broad range of critically acclaimed films including Cider House
Rules, which marked his first collaboration with director, Lasse Hallstrom; they have since
worked together on The Hoax, Casanova, An Unfinished Life and The Shipping News.
He has teamed with filmmaker Stephen Frears eight times beginning with My Beautiful
Laundrette. He followed this with Prick up Your Ears, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, The Grifters,
Hero, Snapper, The Van and Hi-Lo Country.
He has worked up with director Michael Hoffman on four features including A Midsummer's
Night's Dream.
Stapleton first worked with Gregor Jordan on Buffalo Soldiers, the film they completed before
rejoining forces on Ned Kelly.
Other features include the Oscar®-winning epic Restoration, Birthday Girl starring Nicole
Kidman and The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.
John Beard (Production Designer)
John Beard has just finished designing the children's fantasy Inkheart for New Line to be
released this year. Prior to that has collaborated with the same director, Iain Softley, on The
Skeleton Key with Kate Hudson, K-PAX with Kevin Spacey, The Wings of the Dove and
Hackers. He was also responsible for the fantastic production design on the 2004 Working Title
feature film Thunderbirds.
Other credits as production designer include: Nicholas Hytner's The History Boys; Michael
Apted's Enigma; Chris Menges' The Lost Son; Mike Figgis' The Browning Version; Robert
Young's Splitting Heirs; Vincent Ward's Map of the Human Heart; Erik the Viking, directed by
Terry Jones; Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ; Mary Lambert's Siesta; Julian
Temple's Absolute Beginners and the Oscar® winning short Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life.
In the 1980s, Beard began a long association with director Terry Gilliam, serving as art director
on their first collaboration, The Life of Brian, followed by Brazil; he then designed Gilliam's
short The Crimson Pearl Assurance and served as the production designer on the director's never
completed Don Quixote. Other credits as art director include Nicolas Roeg's Eureka and Bad
Timing.
David Freeman (Editor)
David Freeman trained at the National School of Film and Television, where he edited many
productions including On the Wire, which won the 1990 Sutherland Award for best debut
feature, and This Boy's Story, which won the 1992 Academy Award® for Best Student Film. He
also co-wrote The Candy Show which won the Bafta short film award, and wrote and directed
Swords at Teatime, starring David Thewlis. He went on to edit the feature films War of the
Buttons, A Man of No Importance and My Mother's Courage, as well as write a number of
commissioned screenplays for Working Title and Disney. In 1996 he received a BAFTA
nomination for his editing work on the smash hit comedy The Full Monty.
Other credits include Peter Hewitt's film version of The Borrowers, starring John Goodman and
Jim Broadbent, the romantic comedy Mickey Blue Eyes with Hugh Grant, James Caan and
Jeanne Tripplehorn, and The Parole Officer starring Steve Coogan.
Recent work includes John McKay's Piccadilly Jim and Bill Clark's The Christmas Miracle of
Jonathan Toomey.
Annie Hardinge (Costumer Designer)
Feature film credits include: David Schwimmer's Run Fat Boy Run starring Thandie Newton and
Simon Pegg; Edgar Wright's Hot Fuzz starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Jim Broadbent;
Andrew O'Connor's Magicians starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb; Edgar Wright's Shaun
of the Dead starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Bill Nighy; Mark Mylod's Ali G In Da House
starring Sacha Baron Cohen; Paul Weiland's Roseanna's Grave starring Mercedes Ruehl and Jean
Reno.
Annie has worked on many well-known comedy series including: The IT Crowd; Extras; The
Mighty Boosh; Spaced; Black Books; Little Britain; Dead Ringers; The Royle Family; The Fast
Show; The Vicar of Dibley and Blackadder. Her credits in television drama include Jonathan
Creek, Sweet Nothing, Between the Cracks, Murder in Suburbia and she has also worked in
commercials.
She has been nominated for two BAFTAs, won four RTS awards (Three for Little Britain and
one for Oliver 2, written by Richard Curtis and starring Alan Cumming, Jeremy Irons and Diana
Rigg) and has RTS nominations for The Mighty Boosh, The Fast Show, Black Adder 2.
David Arnold (Music by)
David Arnold began his motion picture career making short films with fellow enthusiast Danny
Cannon, teaching himself to write, orchestrate and compose the scores for their projects. In 1993
he scored Cannon's feature film debut, The Young Americans, combining lush orchestration with
Bjork's vocals for the title song Play Dead, which earned critical and commercial success. This
led to the offer to score Stargate, Roland Emmerich's sci-fi film, which enjoyed box-office
success and earned Arnold his first BMI Award.
Since then Arnold has been recognized by the film industry as a talented and diverse composer,
arranger and producer. Winner of 9 BMI Awards for his music for Tomorrow Never Dies, The
World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla, The Stepford
Wives, Zoolander, 2 Fast 2 Furious and Casino Royale .
A multiple Grammy nominee, he won a Grammy for Independence Day, the Ivor Novello Award
for The World Is Not Enough, a Fellowship of the British Academy of Songwriters and
Composers and the Royal Television Society Award for the title music for the UK comedy series
"Little Britain".
As composer for Casino Royale, Arnold collaborated with Chris Cornell to write the title song
You Know My Name. The piece was nominated for a Grammy for Best Title Song For A Film,
and won the Best Song prize at both the LA Critics Awards and the World Soundtrack Awards.
David recently won the DOVE award for Best Instrumental Album for his score to the film
Amazing Grace.
Arnold's other notable scores include: Shaft, Changing Lanes, Hot Fuzz and the upcoming Bond
film Quantum Of Solace. Once scoring duties are completed on Quantum of Solace he will begin
work on the next Narnia adventure, The Chronicles Of Narnia: Voyage Of The Dawn Treader
and is also developing a stage musical with Lyricist Don Black and Producer Michael Kuhn.
Away from the film world, Arnold maintains a career as a successful record producer and
songwriter, working with a wide range of contemporary artists including K.D. Lang, Pulp,
Chrissie Hynde, Iggy Pop, Garbage, David McAlmont, Martina Topley-Bird, Natasha
Bedingfield, Aimee Mann, George Michael, Damien Rice, Paul Mcartney and The Kaiser
Chiefs.
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