- Notes provided by Universal Pictures. -

Production Information
Lock the door. Assume you're safe.
The horrifying events that took place in the Hoyt family's vacation home at 1801 Clark Road on February 11, 2005, are still not entirely known.
Champagne. Rose petals. Candlelight. It was supposed to be a night of celebration for Kristen McKay (LIV TYLER of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Reign Over Me) and James Hoyt (SCOTT SPEEDMAN of Anamorph, Underworld: Evolution) at his family's secluded vacation home. But after leaving a friend's wedding reception and returning to the house, everything had collapsed for the happy couple. Then came a 4 a.m. knock on the door and a haunting voice.
Is Tamara here?
Tyler and Speedman team with writer/first-time director BRYAN BERTINO to explore our most universal fears in The Strangers, a terrifying suspense thriller about a couple whose remote getaway becomes a place of terror when masked strangers invade. The confrontation forces Kristen and James to go far beyond what they thought themselves capable of if they hope to survive.
Joining them in the night of fear are three masked visitors whose only objective is to terrorize the couple: GEMMA WARD (The Black Balloon) as Dollface, KIP WEEKS (Glory Road) as The Man in the Mask and LAURA MARGOLIS (TV's Dirty Sexy Money) as Pin-Up Girl. Also playing an unsuspecting pawn in the invaders' game is Kristen and James' unfortunate friend Mike (GLENN HOWERTON of television's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), a well-intentioned buddy who is in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Strangers' accomplished behind-the-scenes talent include director of photography PETER SOVA (Lucky Number Slevin, Wicker Park), production designer JOHN D. KRETSCHMER (The List, Summer Catch), editor KEVIN GREUTERT (Room 6, Saw franchise) and costume designer SUSAN KAUFMANN (The Promotion, The Ice Harvest). The music is by TOMANDANDY (P2, The Covenant), and the music supervisor is SEASON KENT (Street Kings, Bonneville). The Strangers is produced by DOUG DAVISON (Shutter, The Eye), ROY LEE (Possession, The Eye) and NATHAN KAHANE (30 Days of Night, Juno, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium).
KELLI KONOP (Juno, The Messengers), JOE DRAKE (The Grudge, 30 Days of Night, Juno), SONNY MALLHI (Possession, Shutter), TREVOR MACY (Doomsday, The Return) and MARC D. EVANS (Doomsday, Waist Deep) serve as executive producers of the film.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Unlocking the Door:
The Strangers is Greenlit

First time writer/director Bryan Bertino has long been interested in complex characters and telling their stories; he found his way into the suspense genre as a way of better connecting with his audience. Bertino admits, "Early on when I started writing, I figured out that a way to connect with people was to scare them. Through doing that, you can talk about other emotions, other feelings and connect with them more easily."
For his first screenplay, originally titled The Faces (ultimately The Strangers), he explored the fact that often violence can be senseless. The filmmaker says, "Crimes are committed all the time that nobody has a chance to explain to the victim why it happened.
It just happens. And we're left to deal with the aftermath." Bertino would take that concept and craft a script that focused on a primal fear we all harbor: What would you do if you were under attack by people whose only mission was to harm you and the person you loved most?
On his inspiration, Bertino reflects: "Something gets missed in a lot of scary movies these days. I set out to write a raw, spare script that would have only a few characters in it-one with a couple in a relationship, rather than just two people suddenly brought together. I didn't want to lose sight of the characters and go right to the scares. By concentrating on both, I hoped to access a lot of different emotions-on screen and with audiences."
In crafting his screenplay, he looked to the world imagined by master horror filmmakers from another era. He continues, "The thrillers that inspired me come from the 1970s. So I wanted to create one that explores something that could happen with characters at their most vulnerable, like movies did back then."
The story for The Strangers unfolds over a period of several hours, beginning the night before the terrifying events. We meet a couple at the wedding of the young woman's college friend. Exhausted and inebriated, Kristen and James leave the reception and return to the vacation home they are visiting. Shortly thereafter, they are visited and subsequently attacked by three masked intruders.
As with most great scares, pieces of the writer/director's script were based in reality. Bertino remembers, "That part of the story came to me from a childhood memory. As a kid, I lived in a house on a street in the middle of nowhere. One night, while our parents were out, somebody knocked on the front door and my little sister answered it. At the door were some people asking for somebody that didn't live there. We later found out that these people were knocking on doors in the area and, if no one was home, breaking into the houses. In The Strangers, the fact that someone is at home does not deter the people who've knocked on the front door; it's the reverse."
In fall 2004, the screenplay landed Bertino manager Michael Connolly, who was excited by the script and felt it would be a very feasible sell. Connolly then coordinated a meeting with production company Vertigo Entertainment. When executive producer Sonny Mallhi and his longtime colleagues at Vertigo, producers Roy Lee and Doug Davison, read Bertino's script, they felt as if they had found something distinctive that would stand out in the current movie climate. Mallhi notes, "It was different from other horror movies, and different from the other movies we had done at Vertigo. This one felt more real, in that it could actually happen to you, in your own backyard."
Mallhi was not only fascinated by the haunting quality of Bertino's words, but the heartbreaking end of a romance that was The Strangers' throughline. "There was also a love story involved," Mallhi remembers. "The relationship between Kristen and James, two people you care about, is an element that you don't see in a lot of these kinds of movies."
Vertigo bought the script, and the elated Bertino quit his job. "I was now confident enough that I didn't have to work as a grip anymore," he laughs. While Bertino further tightened the screenplay, Vertigo joined forces with another production company, Mandate Pictures, with which it had previously successfully partnered on The Grudge and The Grudge 2. The Strangers was soon headquartered for development and production at Rogue Pictures, where Vertigo was already working on other projects.
Logically, the producers interviewed several interested directors, most of whom wanted to alter the script to their sensibilities. Ultimately, it was Bertino who broke out of the pack of potential directors. The production team realized that the man whose original vision was The Strangers was the same person who could best direct the screenplay.
Bertino recalls: "We felt I could bring it to life better than anyone else and retain my original inspirations and intentions for the script." That process wouldn't, however, be as simple as a new director might have expected. The filmmaker states, "Although, as the director, I did sometimes argue with myself as the writer; it was always clear where the story was meant to go and what the balances among the characters were."
With a working script in hand and an eager first-time director ready to get started, it was time to cast two actors who could spend hours upon hours being chased in the dead of night...and several others who were eager to stalk them.
Strangers Come Knocking:
Casting the Film

In addition to keeping the writer's vision intact, the team wanted to further anchor the project with an actress who was fresh to the horror genre. Bertino provides, "Liv Tyler is that rare actress who is beautiful, yet also accessible. When I found out she was interested, all it took was one meeting for me to want her in this movie."
Tyler, an audience favorite since her days as the immortal Elvish princess Arwen in Peter Jackson's blockbuster fantasy The Lord of the Rings trilogy, read the script and was quite impressed by what she found. Tyler enthuses that she "couldn't put it down. It was the first time in a couple of years that I knew I was reading something I absolutely wanted to do.
"I saw layers in it of love story, drama and horror-all of them unconventional," continues the actress. "I especially liked Bryan's way of saying a lot, but not saying everything. Often in movies, it's all spelled out for you, and the dialogue is very explanatory. But Bryan doesn't write like that; he writes how normal people communicate-with questions lingering. I knew it would be interesting to act that."
Recently seen as an unwilling lycan in the action-adventure films Underworld and Underworld: Evolution, Scott Speedman signed on to star opposite Tyler as the other half of the besieged couple. Of his interest in the role, he offers, "Kristen and James are not 'chosen' because of sins from their past, or because they did something wrong. There's no supernatural element; like the Manson family, The Strangers just want to harm." Speedman also found what others who had read Bertino's script were shaken by. "Bryan doesn't just go right to the scares. The audience actually gets time to breathe with the characters before things get scary as hell. That got me interested from the first pages."
Not only was Speedman excited about the project after he read the screenplay, he couldn't agree more with the casting of the film's Kristen. "While this was one of the better scripts I've read, I also knew that if Liv Tyler was doing the movie, it was going to be good. She always is very organic and alive on screen, and she could generate chemistry with a bedpost."
Tyler returns the compliment to the actor with whom she would spend many days huddled in shared fear. "I've never worked so closely with another actor before; we're in almost all our scenes together. Scott was generous and giving, which helped us convey the intimacy the script called for-showing that Kristen and James care for each other."
Both Speedman and Tyler were astonished to find that the author of such a powerful screenplay was, in fact, their junior. "With Bryan, I thought, 'I can't believe I'm working with a director who's younger than I am,'" Tyler continues. "But as the writer and the director, he saw the big picture-not only of Scott's and my characters, but also of The Strangers and the movie as a whole."
Bertino was just as proud of the efforts his Kristen and James gave the project. He shares, "I was very fortunate that Liv and Scott brought so much to what I had written. We were able to take things from them and add in extra elements for Kristen and James. This was so helpful in establishing their characters before things get rough, and also for the scenes that have little or no dialogue and are in long takes."
With the terrorized couple in place, the filmmakers were ready to cast the group of relentless intruders. Casting The Strangers called for a unique auditioning process to find three performers who could elicit pure terror in the audience while their masked faces (which are never revealed) show zero affect. Bertino and the producers knew that filmgoers, by not being able to read the expressions of the unwelcome visitors, would project pure terror onto their upcoming actions...and find even greater sympathy for the couple's plight.
Executive producer Sonny Mallhi reveals, "We asked actors to tell us who The Strangers were to them. This helped us find performers who are not typical horror movie villains, which was part of Bryan's motif." For example, the willowy actress Gemma Ward looked exactly like what Bertino pictured for his Dollface (hidden by a kewpie-doll mask that is framed by waxen yellow hair). While she appears sweet and innocent, the first Stranger to whom the audience is introduced is extraordinarily intimidating.
Of The Stranger who comes knocking first, Bertino elaborates, "All during the scripting, I had a look in mind for Dollface. This woman would have to be beautiful and seemingly very warm, but with an underlying darkness-perhaps even darker than the other Strangers. When I met with Gemma, I knew she was ideal for the part, especially because she has a lot going on behind her eyes. For a young woman, she has an old soul. Because of her, the character went to a different level than I had anticipated; she has great instincts and would bring little touches to Dollface every day."
The supermodel, who has her first major film role in The Strangers, reveals, "I'm a huge fan of scary movies, and reading Bryan's script I thought, 'Wow, this is different.' This story is so raw and intense. No amount of pleading from Kristen and James will talk The Strangers out of what they have come to do. To get inspiration for Dollface, I read 'Helter Skelter,' so I could get a feel for twisted girls and how their minds work when they reach a certain point."
Recently seen in the sports drama Glory Road, Kip Weeks, who plays The Man in the Mask (a monster hidden behind a cloth, scarecrow-like mask), feels that "these three cross all rational lines, which is their choice. Knowing that any one of us, at any time, could encounter a situation like Kristen and James do made the story so intriguing to me."
Of the solitary male Stranger, EP Mallhi notes, "We wanted The Man in the Mask to be scary, but not in the manner of the iconic masked characters in horror movies. Kip is tall but not hulking, and he is able to convey how his character wants to do all these horrible things."
The role of the third Stranger, Pin-Up Girl-with a face covered by a "Betty Boop-type" mask-went to Laura Margolis of the ABC series Dirty Sexy Money. "Laura just had this sense of the character," says Mallhi. "She's also shorter than Kip and Gemma, which matched up well with Pin-Up Girl being, arguably, the meekest of the trio."
Margolis remembers, "The script was a page-turner; I couldn't read it fast enough. There was so much depth to the characters of Kristen and James, and to what The Strangers do to them and their relationship."
Cast to play Kristen and James' unsuspecting friend Mike-who arrives pre-dawn at James' family's vacation home to pick up his buddy-was Glenn Howerton. Known for his comedic role on television's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Howerton jumped at the chance to make a scary movie. A fan of horror films such as A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th, Howerton enjoyed that Bertino's non-supernatural script was smart. "It was less about turning the corner, the cat jumping up and meowing and everybody screaming, 'Oh!'" Howerton offers. "The scares are less obvious. They're the best kind: psychological."
Crafting Fear:
Production Design of the Film

With a screenplay and cast in place, preproduction on The Strangers began. Given that 90 percent of the film's incidents take place in and around a house in the dead of night, design and construction needed to be finalized well in advance of shooting. The first-time director, logically, carefully storyboarded the scenes to be shot with production designer John D. Kretschmer.
Kretschmer, whose design work includes the suspense films The In Crowd and Deceiver, believed Bertino's screenplay detailed "not a horror film, but a terror film. We all have these fears, and Bryan prods at them in a unique way." He admits, "When reading, I was gripping the pages."
To contribute to a "this could happen to you" feeling for the audience, no geographical location was specified in the script. That didn't mean, however, that Bertino wouldn't design a blueprint of the Hoyt family vacation home in his exacting script. Of this, Kretschmer commends, "Bryan cleverly and thoughtfully built the architecture of the movie into the screenplay. So, I could tell which way the hallway turned and where the kitchen and the bedrooms were. He conveyed a very visual sense, as well as succinct blocking. When I spoke with him, it was clear that we were on the same page regarding the style of the house."
In fact, when Bertino met with Kretschmer and they compared floor plans, the production designer marveled at their complementary ideas. He laughs, "Mine was almost exactly the same one that he had drawn three years earlier and 3,000 miles away."
Kretschmer and Bertino's design strategy pivoted on a central twist. "In your classic horror movie, there's a house on a hill-this scary place that you're standing back from and looking at," says Kretschmer. "The Strangers reverses that; we're on the inside looking out, instead of the other way around."
The home set was built on a warehouse-turned-soundstage in Florence, South Carolina. The process of creating the set took eight weeks: two to design, two to draw up blueprints and four to build.
The production designer and his team systematically built the interior of a roughly 2,000-square-foot home to allow for several weeks of filming. During the construction process, Kretschmer conferred extensively with Bertino and director of photography Peter Sova. Kretschmer notes, "We had to be able to allow Peter's camera to go anywhere it needed to go, so that Bryan could get all his shots. He wanted the audience to be right there with the characters. The entire interior was flexible and functional; all of the walls were able to be moved as needed."
Along with set decorator MISSY BERENT, Kretschmer's team designed from the inside out to offer the feeling that the interior of the home is propelling the audience outward. As Kristen and James struggle to get out of the house of terror, the viewer wants to run out with them, even if uncertain of what lies beyond the front porch.
Bertino's admiration of 1970s films influenced not only his screenplay, but also the set decoration. For the Hoyt family vacation home, the mandate was to make the interior full of warm dark hues, comfort and familiarity. Kretschmer provides, "It's the kind of house that Bryan and I, and a lot of people, grew up in-a cozy, safe place that's full of strong memories. This makes the picture even more frightening, because you realize that terror can occur even in your most comfortable environments."
For the house's exterior, the director and the production designer again recalled their upbringings. "A ranch house built in the 1970s was something that Bryan and I were familiar with," says Kretschmer. "I grew up in North Carolina and Bryan grew up in Texas, and we both knew these types of houses."
Perfectly fitting the "casting call" and selected to portray the exterior of the Hoyt home was a family-built, '70s-era brick ranch house located in Timmonsville, South Carolina, about 10 miles southwest of Florence. Bertino recalls, "It looked the part- situated in a close-knit neighborhood, yet eerily isolated during the winter when James and Kristen are visiting."
The house and property had the details called for in the script: a garage, driveway of a certain length, imposing trees in a large backyard and a metal barn that was the perfect distance from the road (and possible passersby who could aid Kristen and James). When Bertino, Kretschmer and location scout STEVE RHEA arrived at the house, they instantly knew it was their Hoyt home. Fortunately, they were able to integrate the agreed-upon interior design with the look of this Timmonsville property.
The only element that had to be built and added to the house's exterior was the back porch specified in the script. Kretschmer and his team added sliding glass doors, classic examples of '70s-era architecture, that led to the porch.
Because of the damage that The Man in the Mask would inflict upon it in several scenes, multiple copies of the existing carved wooden front door on the Timmonsville house were created. The "stunt doors" were individually mounted onto parts of the entranceway, creating a small set within the existing location.
To add to the creepiness, Bertino designed some additional surprises for the cast. He says, "When we were shooting at that house, you really couldn't hear nearby cars. But you could hear things in and around the house, so we had crew members generate unexplained noises during, or just before, takes. The actors felt like they were there, and they would get surprised and scared. We would too."
For the film's flashback scenes in which we see Kristen and James at the wedding, additional lensing took place in and around Florence at the Pee Dee Shrine Club, at the Hilton Garden Inn and on residential streets. South Carolina's seventh-largest city, located in the northeast part of the state, Florence has seen increased filming activity due to the South Carolina legislature's June 2006 passage of large tax incentives for film productions in the state, as well as through the efforts of the Florence County Economic Development Partnership (FCEDP). The three-month shoot of The Strangers provided jobs for residents and funneled millions of dollars of business into the area's economy.
For the most part, the production opted to shoot the film in chronological order. Mostly, it received unexpected atmospheric benefits from the weather. However, rain, wind, fog and unseasonably cold weather all impacted the shoot at various times. Bertino admits: "We had to make some changes because of the rain. But while it forced our hand [sometimes resulting in reshoots because of the swampy mess], we'd often find out that the revisions looked the way we should have gone all along."
Adds Kip Weeks, "The elements became part of the story and part of our performances. It made the shoot more natural; we really were running through mud, so we didn't have to pretend."
Fight or Flight:
Physical Demands of the Shoot

As called for in Bertino's story, the lead actors were put through the wringer far more than the trio of Strangers. "This role was emotionally, and especially physically, draining," says Tyler, who was additionally stricken with tonsillitis during the shoot. "Usually, on a movie, there are a couple of scenes that you know will be tough to do, and you think, 'I'll just have to get through that particular day.' This was two months of that. We worked long hours. It was by far the hardest film shoot I've ever been a part of."
In addition to sustaining actual cuts, bruises and sores, in addition to the throat trouble, the actress was obliged to be made up with fake blood and have black paint brushed under her fingernails and over her hands. "In The Lord of the Rings, I only had to do one sequence on a horse," Tyler says. "On this shoot, I would come in each morning, clean and showered, then get disgusting. It was an amazing challenge every day, and I didn't know I had it in me. But by the end of the shoot, my body was gone."
To help realize Bertino's desired sustained pitch of heart-pounding, breath-holding fear, both Tyler and Speedman often ran sprints on and around the set, returning to their marks just seconds before the writer/director called, "Action!" Tyler estimates, "I probably ran a mile a day. Scott and I would be all out of breath and sweaty."
Bertino notes, "Liv definitely connected to what Kristen was going through. We talked a lot about the physical demands beforehand, and she worked incredibly hard. Also, she's barefoot for basically the entire movie. There were times during the shoot when I would look down at her bruised feet and feel horrible that I hadn't written, 'Kristen is wearing tennis shoes.'"
Despite the actors' endless days of running, crawling and hiding, stunt coordinator CAL JOHNSON provides, "The Strangers isn't a stunt-heavy movie. But even with the little stuff, we still needed to take the time to figure it out and protect our actors and stunt people." Johnson himself stepped in to double for an actor in one of the film's most shocking moments.
Given that The Strangers is her maiden effort in the genre, Tyler also developed a "screen scream." The performer provides, "I was really worried at first, because I had no idea what it would sound or look like. All of a sudden, this huge scream came out; I think I terrified everybody."
Bertino agrees: "Liv is an amazing screamer. She and I talked about not doing 'practice screams,' because I wanted to capture the horror moments as they happen for Kristen. On the first take of the first time she had to scream, I had my fingers crossed, and she really let loose. It shook us up. Beyond that, there are violent scenes that get played out in this movie, and some of them were upsetting to people on set to watch. Everyone became attached to Kristen and James, and to Liv and Scott."
Speedman adds, "For the heaviest emotional scenes Liv and I had to play, Bryan kept two cameras going so we wouldn't have to shoot all day. With those heightened moments between characters, you don't want to repeat things over and over. Bryan was also comfortable with our doing things that had not been in his script. He wasn't overprotective of it."
Similarly, the actors playing The Strangers were free to explore their characters' shared dynamics, since, as Bertino says, "We give no outside information. Kristen and James don't have any, which is a perspective-or lack of it-that adds to the horror."
Weeks says, "Being in a world where we are so desensitized by the Internet, TV, war, video games, YouTube, I felt we had lost what should be a basic human response to violence and, more specifically, to death itself. In some demented way, we were trying to reestablish those feelings of guilt and sorrow by experiencing the violence firsthand."
Ward adds that what helped her with motivation was to believe that "these people don't have a lot to say. They want to dominate something for the first time in their lives, controlling the situation."
Margolis concurs: "I think my character has the nerve to do what she does largely because she's wearing a mask. In her regular life, she doesn't have any power or control. But when she puts on this mask, she controls everything."
Behind the Masks
The design of the masks for The Strangers was as important to the film as the design of the Hoyt house. Bertino states, "I wanted the masks to feel basic and accessible, and to represent imagery we can all recognize and respond to. When we walk into a room, we look at people's features, at their eyes. We wonder, 'Is this person friendly?' With that taken away, Kristen and James are even more vulnerable."
After several drafts of designs, the masks for Pin-Up Girl and Dollface were created in vacuform plastic; The Man in the Mask's was made out of cotton. Weeks offers, "The fact that these are the kind of masks anyone could buy anywhere, or put together, just makes the whole scenario that much realistic."
For all their simplicity and on-set familiarity, the masks still cast a chill. Liv Tyler reveals, "I have always found masks of all kinds creepy, because you don't know what's behind them. At first, I couldn't bear to be near them at all."
Scott Speedman agrees: "It was hard to look at these. There was a deadness in the eyes, like a shark's. Pin-Up Girl's mask was really quite scary. Laura turned into a whole different person when she put it on."
Margolis surmises how unsettling it was to play a woman who delighted in capturing and torturing her prey: "What I found so terrifying was that there was no humanity in her. It doesn't seem like there's a person who feels and hurts, and that's part of why my character does what she does. To play her, I did have to tap into things in myself that I don't want to believe are there."
Surprisingly, the trio of actors warmed to the process of wearing their masks while performing. "There weren't many difficulties and I was not uncomfortable," says Weeks. "You can convey a character through so many things other than your face-your movement, your posture, the way you breathe. The mask became another part of me, and I could convey every emotion with it."
Ward muses, "It was freeing, in a way. Because of my regular job as a model, I had a very strong reaction to wearing the mask. I was not as self-conscious. I could get in there and be as scary and menacing as I wanted to be...and feed off of the reaction from having a mask on. There was a power to it."
Margolis also found the experience to be "kind of liberating." She adds, "If anything, it was more challenging for Liv and Scott, who didn't get to see any emotion on our faces."
Speedman confirms, "I didn't ask the three of them what their thought process for their characters was. But it worked!" ****
As shooting ended, the cast and crew looked back on their experience and on their thoughts on the thriller they made. "It's a love story, a drama and a horror movie," says Tyler. "The film has different elements and levels to it. Oftentimes, scary movies are about the scares. This film is so different. To be truly afraid-and showing it-is shocking not only to other people, but also to yourself."
"What happens in this movie could happen and does happen," reflects Speedman. "What's scary is how real it is. Hopefully, we let the audience in a bit with this, and that's different than most horror movies. You get to sit with these people for awhile and get to know them."
Of his hopes for the project he started on those late nights several years ago, writer/director Bertino concludes, "So often now, people go to the movies and are distanced from what's happening on screen because it could never happen to them. We strip that away with The Strangers."
Rogue Pictures and Intrepid Pictures Present A Vertigo Entertainment/Mandate Pictures Production: The Strangers, starring Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks, Laura Margolis, Glenn Howerton. The casting is by Lindsey Hayes Kroeger, CSA and David H. Rapaport, CSA; the co-producer is Thomas J. Busch. The Strangers' music is by Tomandandy; the music supervisor is Season Kent. The film's costume designer is Susan Kaufmann; the editor is Kevin Greutert. The thriller's production designer is John D. Kretschmer. The film's director of photography is Peter Sova, ASC. The executive producers are Kelli Konop, Joe Drake, Sonny Mallhi, Trevor Macy and Marc D. Evans. It is produced by Doug Davison, Roy Lee and Nathan Kahane. The Strangers is written and directed by Bryan Bertino. (C) 2008. A Rogue Pictures Release. www.thestrangersmovie.com
Rogue Pictures (www.roguepictures.com) is devoted to producing and distributing high-quality suspense, action, thriller, comedy and urban entertainment with mainstream appeal and franchise potential. Rogue movies are marketed and distributed domestically by Universal Pictures, a part of NBC Universal.

ABOUT THE CAST
LIV TYLER (Kristen McKay) starred as Arwen in the blockbuster hit trilogy The Lord of the Rings. She was most recently seen in the films Lonesome Jim, starring Casey Affleck and Steve Buscemi, who also directed the film, and Reign Over Me, starring Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler. She will next be seen in the upcoming action-adventure The Incredible Hulk, as well as in the film Smother, with Diane Keaton.
Tyler's other film credits include Kevin Smith's Jersey Girl, co-starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez; a starring role in the Bernardo Bertolucci film Stealing Beauty, opposite Jeremy Irons; Pat O'Connor's Inventing the Abbotts, with Joaquin Phoenix and Billy Crudup; and Michael Bay's Armageddon, opposite Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck. More recently, she has been seen in Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune, alongside Glenn Close, Julianne Moore and Charles S. Dutton; the Jake Scott-directed Plunkett & Macleane; Onegin, co-starring Ralph Fiennes; and One Night at McCool's, opposite Matt Dillon, Paul Reiser and John Goodman.
Tyler made her film debut with the leading role in Silent Fall, directed by Bruce Beresford, opposite Richard Dreyfuss. After another lead in Empire Records, she portrayed a waitress in a local diner in James Mangold's Heavy, a favorite at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival.
Tyler is the face for Parfums Givenchy, the first celebrity to be connected to the designer since Audrey Hepburn more than 40 years ago. She also serves as National Ambassador for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.
Born in New York, Tyler was raised in Portland, Maine until the sixth grade when her family returned to Manhattan. She began modeling at age 14, and was seen in numerous print ads and television commercials before moving into acting. Tyler recently gave birth to her first child, a son, Milo. Tyler and her family currently reside in New York City.
Rising star SCOTT SPEEDMAN (James Hoyt) has just completed work on two new motion pictures: Adoration, for director Atom Egoyan, and the IFC Films release Anamorph, starring opposite Willem Dafoe for director Henry Miller.
His other film credits include Len Wiseman's Underworld and Underworld: Evolution, starring opposite Kate Beckinsale; Ron Shelton's Dark Blue, opposite Kurt Russell; Weirdsville, opposite Wes Bentley and Taryn Manning for director Allan Moyle; Isabel Coixet's My Life Without Me, opposite Sarah Polley, for which he won Best Actor at the Bordeaux International Festival; Tony Piccirillo's The 24th Day, opposite James Marsden; Bruce Paltrow's Duets, co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Maria Bello; Lee Tamahori's xXx: State of the Union; and Gary Burns' Kitchen Party.
Speedman's first film was the short feature Can I Get a Witness?, directed by Kris Lefcoe. The film was developed at the Norman Jewison Film Center in Toronto, and was screened at the 1996 Toronto International Film Festival. Speedman then began studying at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York before landing the role of Ben Covington in the popular WB Network drama Felicity, which had a successful four-season run. He made his stage debut during his summer 2000 hiatus from Felicity, performing the lead in the Edward Albee play The Zoo Story at the Equity Showcase Theatre in Toronto.
Born in London, England, and raised in Toronto, Speedman spent most of his youth immersed in athletics, following in the footsteps of his mother, who held a world record in running. At ages 12 and 14, he was a part of the relay swim team that held the national record for the 400-meter medley. In 1992, as a member of the Canadian Junior National Swim Team, he performed well at the Olympic trials, but suffered a neck injury soon after and was forced to leave the sport.
Speedman currently divides his time between Los Angeles and New York.
GEMMA WARD (Dollface) was recently seen on screen in Elissa Down's The Black Balloon, in which she starred with Toni Collette, Luke Ford and Rhys Wakefield. She previously appeared in Down's feature Pink Pyjamas; and in singer John Mayer's 2004 music video "Daughters."
Born and raised in Perth, Australia, one day as a teenager she accompanied a friend to a modeling contest. The judges asked Ward to enter, and she was soon signed by an agency in her hometown. So began a career that has since attained supermodel status.
A scout in New York saw her picture on the cover of an Australian magazine, and contacted her agency immediately. She was booked to appear in Prada's Spring 2002 runway show in Milan. This was swiftly followed by her first two major advertising campaigns for Versus (photographed by Steven Meisel) and Jill Stuart (photographed by Mario Sorrenti).
Since then, Ward has appeared in advertising campaigns for Jil Sander, Y-3, Yohji Yamamoto, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino, Calvin Klein, Burberry, Lagerfeld, Dolce & Gabbana, Hermès and Prada (in two consecutive seasons). She is also the face of Calvin Klein's fragrance Obsession Night, and of Kosé Cosmetics; and was featured in the most recent Swarovski jewelry campaign.
For the fall 2004 showings alone, Ward walked down 52 international designer catwalks. Those included Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, Valentino, Chloé, Alexander McQueen, Chanel, Helmut Lang, Ungaro, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Missoni, Mui Mui, Fendi, Gucci, Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Anna Sui, Michael Kors, Luella Bartley, Marc Jacobs, Zac Posen, Narciso Rodriguez, Oscar de la Renta and Versace.
Ward has appeared on the covers, and inside the pages, of Vanity Fair (with George Clooney, in the November 2006 issue); W, Time, i-D, Numero, Harper's Bazaar, PoP and Vogue (the Italian, British, French and Japanese editions). At age 16, Vogue's American edition profiled her in the feature "Return of the Supermodel," making her the youngest model to ever appear on their cover. Ward was also on the cover of the debut issue of Vogue China, and was the first model ever to appear on the cover of Teen Vogue. In addition to being featured on Australian Vogue's November 2005 cover, she served as guest editor of the issue; this special edition included a personal diary and her interview with Marc Jacobs.
KIP WEEKS (The Man in the Mask) was most recently seen on screen in the Jerry Bruckheimer production of Glory Road, directed by James Gartner.
Weeks studied communications in Vermont. He later relocated to Wilmington, North Carolina. There, he tapped into the vibrant local acting community and began performing in regional theater, improv and independent films. Weeks also wrote, directed and starred in a short film, Waiting for the Finncannons, about a struggling actor trying to get a meeting with a well-known family of casting directors based in Wilmington. It was the short that brought Weeks to the attention of the Glory Road filmmakers.
LAURA MARGOLIS (Pin-Up Girl) graduated from Columbia University with honors and relocated to Los Angeles from New York City.
She can currently be seen in a recurring role (as the secretary of the character played by Peter Krause) on the television series Dirty Sexy Money.
Laura's past television credits include a recurring role on the series Line of Fire and a starring role in Brad Anderson's "Sounds Like" episode of the anthology show Masters of Horror. She appeared in 15 episodes of The Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn, doing sketch comedy and has guest-starred on several programs, including The Drew Carey Show and Friends.
Juilliard-trained actor GLENN HOWERTON (Mike) came to Hollywood backed by an impressive theater résumé already to his credit.
Howerton currently plays Dennis Reynolds, the son of Frank Reynolds (Danny DeVito), on the critically acclaimed FX television show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He also serves as writer and executive producer for the series.
Howerton's film credits include Warner Bros.' Must Love Dogs, starring Diane Lane and John Cusack; Lionsgate's Crank, starring Jason Statham; MGM's Two Weeks, starring Sally Field; and Universal Picture's Serenity.
Some of Howerton's other television credits include the lead in FOX's That '80s Show, a recurring role on NBC's ER, as Dr. Nick Cooper, and guest appearances on ABC's The Job and TNT's Monday Night Mayhem.
The son of a decorated fighter pilot, Howerton was born in Japan and lived all over the world before settling in Montgomery, Alabama. After earning a BFA from Juilliard's Actor Training Program, Howerton went on to star in more than a dozen theater productions.
He lives in Los Angeles.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
The Strangers marks the feature film debut of writer/director BRYAN BERTINO (Written and Directed by).
A native of Crowley, Texas, Bertino studied cinematography at the University of Texas at Austin. Following graduation, he moved to Los Angeles, worked as a gaffer on low-budget independents and commercials and began to write.
In 2004, he submitted The Strangers for a Nicholl Fellowship, a grant awarded to unproduced writers by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Bertino sold the script, a quarterfinalist, to Universal Pictures several days later. In 2006, the studio asked him to direct it.
Bertino is currently writing several screenplays, including Green Eyes, an original drama for Scott Rudin.
DOUG DAVISON (Produced by) astonished Hollywood with the wildly successful haunted house thriller The Grudge, which starred Sarah Michelle Gellar and was based on the 2000 Japanese thriller Ju-On, directed by Takashi Shimizu. The box-office hit currently holds the record for the biggest opening weekend for a horror film, of all time following its October 2004 release. The Grudge 2 was released in October 2006, starring Amber Tamblyn and Sarah Michelle Gellar, and directed by Takashi Shimizu, which topped the box office at $22 million in its opening weekend. October 2006 also saw the release of The Departed, a crime thriller at Warner Bros., directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio, which grossed $27 million in its opening weekend, making it Scorsese's biggest opening ever. The film went on to win four Academy Awards®, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay.
Davison produced The Grudge with Roy Lee, his partner in Vertigo Entertainment, a motion picture development and production company the pair founded in 2001 (based at Universal). Their first production, DreamWorks' The Ring (adapted from Hideo Nakata's popular 1998 Japanese fright film), opened a year later to resounding success worldwide, tallying a quarter billion dollars at the global box office. Hideo Nakata directed the sequel, The Ring Two (adapted from his Japanese sequel Ringu 2), which won the U.S. box-office sweepstakes its opening weekend in March 2005. That year, Davison produced another Japanese horror adaptation, Dark Water (based on Kôji Suzuki's novel), directed by Walter Salles and starring Oscar® winner Jennifer Connelly in a thriller depicting a haunted apartment building. Early 2006 saw the release of The Lake House, a romance at Warner Bros., starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, which has grossed $100 million worldwide.
Vertigo has several films coming out later this year, including Quarantine (a horror thriller starring Jennifer Carpenter and Jay Hernandez, and directed by John Dowdle), Assassination of a High School President (a teen comedy starring Bruce Willis and Mischa Barton, and directed by Brett Simon) and The Uninvited (a horror thriller starring Elizabeth Banks and David Strathairn, and directed by Thomas and Charles Guard). Vertigo is also in various stages of development and production on a number of projects, including Night of the Living Dorks (a horror comedy written by Chris Bishop and to be directed by Michael Showalter), The Brigands of Rattleborge (a revenge western written by Craig Zahler), Old Boy and a remake of the hit Japanese franchise Death Note (written by Vlas and Charles Parlapanides).
Davison, a Washington, D.C., native, attended Hamilton College in upstate New York. After graduating with a degree in English literature, he relocated to New York City where he pursued work in the film industry, first as a set production assistant on Die Hard: With a Vengeance, then as a script reader at New Line Cinema. Upon relocating to Los Angeles, Davison landed at Mad Chance Productions where, under the tutelage of Andrew Lazar, he worked as the company's director of development before becoming president of production, co-producing Death to Smoochy, written by Adam Resnick, directed by Danny DeVito and starring Robin Williams and Edward Norton. While at Mad Chance, Davison also developed such projects as Space Cowboys, Cats & Dogs and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
ROY LEE (Produced by) earned his first motion picture producing credit as executive producer on Gore Verbinski's 2002 blockbuster The Ring. He went on to produce the 2004 haunted house horror The Grudge, based on the 2000 Japanese film Ju-On directed by Takashi Shimizu. The Grudge currently holds the record for the biggest opening weekend of all time for a horror film upon its October 2004 release. The Grudge 2 was released in 2006, starring Amber Tamblyn and Sarah Michelle Gellar, and directed by Takashi Shimizu, which topped the box office at $22 million in its opening weekend. October 2006 also saw the release of The Departed, a crime thriller at Warner Bros., directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio, which grossed $27 million in its opening weekend, making it Scorsese's biggest opening ever. The film went on to win four Academy Awards®, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay.
A Korean American born in Brooklyn and raised in Bethesda, Maryland, Lee earned a bachelor's degree from George Washington University and a law degree from American University. After a brief stint as a corporate attorney, Lee relocated from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles in 1996 to pursue a career in the film industry. He landed his first job with the production company Alphaville, where he worked on films such as The Mummy, The Jackal and Michael. With his experience tracking scripts at Alphaville, he later co-founded a website called ScriptShark.com, which allowed aspiring writers the opportunity to have their screenplays evaluated by industry professionals. This success led to an assignment with a talent management company where he tracked short films for distribution on personal computers.
As an independent producer, Lee began importing films from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand to be remade in the United States. Together with partner Doug Davison, Lee founded Vertigo Entertainment in 2001, where the producing pair recently produced Quarantine (a horror thriller starring Jennifer Carpenter and Jay Hernandez, and directed by John Dowdle), a remake of the supernatural thriller The Uninvited (starring Elizabeth Banks, David Strathairn and Arielle Kebbel, and directed by Thomas and Charles Guard), and Assassination of a High School President (a noir teen comedy starring Bruce Willis and Mischa Barton, and directed by Brett Simon). Vertigo is also in various stages of production and development on a multitude of projects, including The Host (a remake of the monster movie that was the highest-grossing film of all time in Korea), Confessions of Pain (a crime thriller to be written by Bill Monahan and to star Leonardo DiCaprio) and a remake of the Korean film Old Boy.
As president of Mandate Pictures, NATHAN KAHANE (Produced by) is the creative force who oversees the development and production of the company's growing feature slate while nurturing relationships with high-level talent. He also oversees the daily creative operations of Ghost House Pictures, the joint venture with Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane. At Ghost House, he has been responsible for attracting new voices such as David Slade (30 Days of Night), Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge and The Grudge 2) and the Pang brothers (The Messengers) to the shingle's expanding roster of talent.
At Mandate, Kahane has produced or overseen the production of films such as the Academy Award®-winning (for Best Original Screenplay, Diablo Cody), $130 million box-office sleeper sensation Juno; Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium; Stranger Than Fiction; Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, and its sequel, Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay; the Pang brothers' The Messengers; and the $188 million box-office worldwide hit The Grudge, as well as its sequel, The Grudge 2.
Kahane is currently shepherding a production and development slate that includes such films as director Peter Sollett's Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, written by Lorene Scafaria and starring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, and Rodrigo García's Passengers. Mandate's feature-film roster also includes Ghost House Pictures' Drag Me to Hell, written and directed by the legendary Sam Raimi (Spider-Man franchise, The Evil Dead); Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Whip It, starring Ellen Page; director/writer Michael Landers' thriller Peacock; and an untitled romantic comedy from The Devil Wears Prada screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna.
Kahane recently helped expand Mandate's filmmaker relationships by inking exclusive production deals with Academy Award® winner Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List, Gangs of New York) and writer/director Zach Helm.
KELLI KONOP (Executive Producer) is the executive vice president of Mandate Pictures where she oversees the entire slate of films for Mandate as well as Ghost House Pictures. She is responsible for all aspects of physical production from preproduction through post. At Mandate, Konop has recently served as co-producer for the Academy Award®-nominated Juno, as well as Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay and Rodrigo García's Passengers.
Before joining Mandate, Konop was a successful film producer. Her producer credits include: Bring It on Again and Beethoven's 3rd and 4th for Universal Studios; The Breed for Sony Screen Gems; and Steve James' Joe and Max for Starz! She also executive-produced Frank E. Flower's Haven, starring Orlando Bloom, Bill Paxton and Zoe Saldana.
Konop graduated from Washington University with a bachelor's degree in psychology and business.
When Mandate Pictures was acquired by Lionsgate in August 2007, JOE DRAKE (Executive Producer) returned to the company whose international theatrical business he headed six years ago in the then-new capacity of co-chief operating officer and president of Lionsgate's Motion Picture Group. He has oversight of all areas of the company's theatrical production, distribution, marketing, acquisition and international theatrical operations. He joins Lionsgate chief executive officer Jon Feltheimer, vice chairman Michael Burns and co-chief operating officer Steve Beeks as a member of the senior decision-making team of the fast-growing $1.3 billion diversified company, the leading independent-film entertainment studio.
Drake is founder and CEO of Mandate Pictures, an independent entertainment company dedicated to the self-financing, development and production of filmed entertainment. Drake and his partner Nathan Kahane have been the driving forces since launching the company (previously Senator International) in 2005, which aims to deliver broad-appeal films to studios and major independents worldwide.
Mandate has carved a distinctive signature in the world marketplace with the blockbuster The Grudge, Harold & Kumar and Boogeyman franchises and a diverse portfolio of other hits including the Academy Award®-winning (for Best Original Screenplay, Diablo Cody) Juno, starring Ellen Page (Hard Candy), Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman, which has already grossed more than $130 million at the domestic box office, and Marc Forster's Stranger Than Fiction. Mandate's partnership with Ghost House Pictures, the successful horror label run as a joint venture with legendary filmmaker Sam Raimi (Spider-Man franchise, The Evil Dead) and his partner Rob Tapert, has produced such hits as the Pang brothers' The Messengers, the $188 million box-office worldwide hit The Grudge, as well as its sequel, The Grudge 2, and David Slade's 30 Days of Night.
Formerly president of Lionsgate International, Drake structured that division to be a premier supplier of theatrical feature films to the independent world. He oversaw worldwide sales and distribution of Lionsgate's international programming and championed such projects as Nicolas Cage's Shadow of the Vampire, the highly controversial American Psycho and the Oscar® and Golden Globe Award nominee Amores Perros. Before joining Lionsgate, Drake served as senior vice president of international theatrical at Rysher Entertainment.
A native of Chicago, SONNY MALLHI (Executive Producer) earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago. Mallhi joined friends Roy Lee and Doug Davison in their upstart venture, Vertigo Entertainment, founded in 2001, and currently serves as executive vice president of development. Early 2006 saw the release of his film The Lake House, with Warner Bros., starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, which grossed $100 million worldwide. Mallhi's film Shutter, starring Joshua Jackson and Rachael Taylor, was recently released and he has a number of projects in various stages of development and production, including Possession (a psychological thriller starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and Lee Pace and directed by Joel Bergvall and Simon Sandquist) and Since Walker Left (a family drama to star Julianne Moore, Bryce Dallas Howard and Vanessa Redgrave and to be directed by Keith Gordon).
TREVOR MACY (Executive Producer) is co-CEO of Intrepid Pictures, which he founded with Marc Evans in 2004. Intrepid was one of the first multipicture independent companies to raise and deploy Wall Street capital in 2004. Intrepid has also established itself within the creative community as one of the premier producers and financiers of under-$30 million commercial movies. The company enjoys a strong relationship with Universal Pictures and Rogue Pictures, with whom it has a nonexclusive first-look cofinancing and worldwide distribution deal. Backed by a credit line from JPMorgan Chase, Intrepid has financed six pictures to date, including Vondie Curtis Hall's Waist Deep, the remake of the classic horror film The Hitcher and Balls of Fury, starring Christopher Walken. Intrepid's upcoming slate includes Prodigy, an action-thriller to be directed by Chuck Russell (The Mask, The Scorpion King, Eraser), which will be produced independently.
Prior to Intrepid, Macy was an independent producer from September 2001 through February 2004. In that capacity, he developed, packaged and hands-on produced Auto Focus, starring Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe, directed by Paul Schrader and distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. He subsequently secured a first-look producing deal with Catch 23 Entertainment, in addition to consulting for several independent motion picture production and co-financing companies. In addition, Macy sourced, developed and packaged 20 motion picture projects, of which several were used to kick-start Intrepid's development slate.
From 1999 through August 2001, Macy was chief operating officer at Propaganda Films, responsible for overseeing all creative development, packaging, deal making and production of feature films, as well as recruitment and retention of Propaganda's roster of directing talent. Some of the films for which Macy was responsible include Bark!, starring Lisa Kudrow, Hank Azaria and Vincent D'Onofrio, selected for competition at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, and The Badge, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Patricia Arquette. Reporting directly to Propaganda's board of directors, Macy was also responsible for the acquisition of Propaganda Films from Universal Pictures, and talent recruitment and retention of more than 70 directors, including Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich), Simon West (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) and Rawson Thurber (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story). In addition, Macy was responsible for the creative and financial oversight of Propaganda's commercial and music video production endeavors-in excess of $400 million in physical production for over 300 clients, including Coca-Cola, XM Radio, Macy Gray and *NSYNC.
Prior to Propaganda Films, Macy served as vice president of the Sundance Group, the parent entity for all Robert Redford-controlled commercial enterprises. In addition to being steeped in the Sundance Film Festival and the world of independent film, Macy was responsible for strategic planning of, raising capital for, launching and overseeing businesses including the Sundance Channel, Sundance Cinemas and Sundance Catalog.
Previously, as director of deal analysis and development finance at Turner Pictures, Macy was responsible for the negotiation of talent contracts, co-financing arrangements for films, output deals, off-balance-sheet film financing and acquisitions, as well as planning and analysis for development, production and distribution of both theatrical and television films. Prior to joining Turner Pictures Group, Macy was senior business planner for The Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, where he was responsible for evaluating and managing production, distribution, development, acquisition and cofinancing deals for film projects, strategic planning for filmed entertainment, growing The Walt Disney Studios distribution platform and management of on-lot talent deals.
Macy received a BA with honors in political science and quantitative economics at Stanford University, with course work at Cambridge University, England. He resides in Santa Monica, California with his wife, Paige.
MARC EVANS (Executive Producer) is co-CEO of Intrepid Pictures, which he founded with Trevor Macy in 2004. Intrepid was one of the first multipicture independent companies to raise and deploy Wall Street capital in 2004. Intrepid has also established itself within the creative community as one of the premier producers and financiers of under-$30-million commercial movies. The company enjoys a strong relationship with Universal Pictures and Rogue Pictures, with whom it has a nonexclusive first-look co-financing and worldwide distribution deal. Backed by a credit line from JPMorgan Chase, Intrepid has financed six pictures to date, including Vondie Curtis Hall's Waist Deep, the remake of the classic horror film The Hitcher and Balls of Fury, starring Christopher Walken. Intrepid's upcoming slate includes Prodigy, an action-thriller to be directed by Chuck Russell (The Mask, The Scorpion King, Eraser), which will be produced independently.
Prior to Intrepid, Evans served as chief financial officer for Revolution Studios from 2000 to 2004. As one of the first employees of Revolution Studios, Evans was instrumental in the start-up and growth of the company. As CFO, Evans was responsible for general corporate finance and strategic planning, production, distribution, treasury, business development, video game/interactive rights, merchandising and operations.
During his tenure at Revolution Studios, Evans created the financial and production infrastructure to effectively handle the company's growth from five pictures and $100 million in revenues in 2000, to 10 pictures and more than $650 million in revenues in 2003. He also successfully secured $250 million of equity financing and completed four separate financing transactions over a three-year period, including a $200 million receivables-backed facility and a $450 million revolver with JPMorgan Chase Bank. Evans also coordinated Revolution's worldwide distribution relationships, including Sony Pictures Entertainment, Starz/Encore, Fox Television, BVI, UIP, Svensk, Lusomundo and others. He also directed the green-lighting process for each film, talent profit-participation negotiations, film acquisitions and co-financing arrangements.
In his production-related responsibilities at Revolution, Evans supervised the budgeting, financing, production and delivery of more than 30 movies. He was also responsible for setting up several foreign productions (Morocco, Czech Republic, U.K., Australia) to take advantage of tax and sale/leaseback structures, national and provincial production tax credits and F/X hedging benefits.
Prior to joining Revolution Studios, Evans spent four years at Turner Pictures and the Turner Network Television Originals Group where he served as vice president of finance and strategic planning. In that role, he was responsible for managing the company's finances and operations. Additionally, he supervised the deal making, budgeting, financing, production and distribution of 8 to12 made-for-television films per year. He was also instrumental in developing and managing the one-hour drama-series strategy for the network.
Prior to Turner, Evans served two years with The Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group as senior business planner, where he specialized in evaluating and managing production, distribution, development, acquisition and co-financing deals for film projects, in addition to strategic planning for both The Walt Disney Studios and Miramax.
Before entering Hollywood, Evans spent two years as an environmental consultant in Washington, D.C., before working as a video game developer for Bethesda Softworks.
Evans holds a BA in political science from Stanford University. He currently resides in Santa Monica, California with his wife, Jessica, and their two children, Allison and Fletcher.
PETER SOVA, ASC (Director of Photography) has recently completed Push with director Paul McGuigan in Hong Kong, for whom he has also shot Gangster No. 1, starring Paul Bettany (for which he was awarded the Kodak Vision Award in Cinematography from the American Film Institute Film Festival); Lucky Number Slevin, starring Sir Ben Kingsley; The Reckoning, a period film starring Willem Dafoe, shot in Spain and England; Wicker Park, starring Josh Hartnett; and the Andre Braugher pilot Thief.
Sova was born in the former Czechoslovakia. His first job in the film industry was as a technician working in New York for General Camera before it became Panavision. The first film Sova shot as a director of photography was the acclaimed Short Eyes, directed by Robert M. Young and starring Bruce Davison. It was the top film at the New York Film Festival and also won the cinematography prize at the Virgin Islands Film Festival.
Sova later teamed up with Barry Levinson to shoot Diner, Tin Men and Good Morning, Vietnam, before going on to shoot Feast of July in England for director Christopher Menaul and producers Merchant Ivory Productions. He returned to Prague to shoot Fatherland for HBO and also shot Donnie Brasco, directed by Mike Newell and starring Johnny Depp, which made most critics' top-10 lists.
JOHN D. KRETSCHMER (Production Designer) began his industry career over two decades ago, working in the art departments of such films as Michael Mann's Manhunter, James Cameron's The Abyss, Martha Coolidge's Rambling Rose and Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys.
His recent feature film credits as production designer include Jess Manafort's Remember the Daze (First Look Studios and Freestyle Releasing) and Gary Wheeler's The List (20th Century Fox). Currently, Mr. Kretschmer is designing the Lifetime Television hit series, Army Wives. Additional television credits as production designer include the hit series One Tree Hill (The CW) and Dawson's Creek (The WB).
Kretschmer earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a founding member of Student Television (STV), a one-of-a-kind, student-owned cable broadcast station. He has directed both live and taped television programs.
KEVIN GREUTERT (Editor) has been film editor on the five Saw movies, working with directors James Wan (on the original picture), Darren Lynn Bousman (on the first three sequels), and now with David Hackl on Saw V. Greutert is slated to direct Saw VI.
Among his other feature credits as editor are Jeremy Kasten's The Thirst, Michael Hurst's Room 6 and Eric Eason's Journey to the End of the Night.
Greutert has also been assistant editor or associate editor on such films as James Cameron's classic Titanic, David Kellogg's hit Inspector Gadget and Richard Kelly's director's cut of Donnie Darko.
He also directed the short films Old Friends and Pilgrim's Regress.
TOMANDANDY (Music by) was born on August 28, 1985, at Princeton University. Consisting initially of Tom Hajdu and Andy Milburn, the group's earliest efforts were short electronic compositions created in the Princeton Computer Music Lab that same year.
Somehow, from the very beginning, the group managed to find projects that perfectly matched its earliest cravings. Its first job was creating the music for a 1987 television series called Buzz. Created in partnership with MTV Europe and BBC Channel 4 (U.K.), Buzz was hailed by critics as "ground-breaking, adventurous television." The show was the first of several formative early collaborations with the director Mark Pellington.
Buzz required a tremendous amount of music in a very short time, and offered unlimited room for experimentation. This was a perfect match for the duo's aggressive use of music technology and their fascination with popular culture. The subject matter of Buzz was media itself, setting Tomandandy on a course of taboo breaking and cultural self-examination which continues to define them.
The striking and irreverent music and sound design work on Buzz attracted a generation of young advertising creatives who were themselves in the process of transforming the way television worked. Tomandandy were early and frequent collaborators with Kirshenbaum Bond (Moët), Wieden and Kennedy (Nike) and Deutsch, as well as Ogilvy & Mather, TBWA\Chiat\Day and every other major global ad agency.
In the subsequent 18 years, Tomandandy has become an iconic force in advertising music, innovating by bringing underground music to the job of scoring television commercials.
Another early and formative collaborator was the film editor, Hank Corwin. Tomandandy's first home away from Princeton was a room at Corwin's Lost Planet Editorial, on Spring Street in NYC. It was there they began learning about music for films, working with Corwin first on Oliver Stone's JFK, and later, more extensively, on Natural Born Killers. The film, like Buzz before it, was a pioneering work, dissecting pop culture and vivisecting American media.
Tomandandy's first complete film score was for Roger Avary's directorial debut, Killing Zoe in 1993. Here again, the group found a perfect match in Avary and in the project. The young iconoclastic Avary gave Tomandandy free reign, and the result was an aggressive, high-energy techno score, which developed an early cult following for Tomandandy.
At the same time, Tomandandy began working with artists in other media and contexts all over the world. For the World Expo '92 in Seville, Spain, they worked on The Memory Palace, a five-screen live-action/film evocation of cyberspace made with the writer William Gibson, Spanish performance group La Fura dels Baus, the British video/film director Mark Neale and musicians Brian Eno and Peter Gabriel.
In 1993, they also worked for the first time with the artist Jenny Holzer on a project for the Guggenheim Museum called WWII Virtual Reality: An Emerging Medium. Over the years, they continued to work with and learn from a parade of savage artists including Dara Birnbaum, Marco Brambilla and the Starn Brothers.
The United States of Poetry in 1993, working again with Pellington, featured a survey of spoken word artists from around the country, set to music by Tomandandy. The five-part series won critical acclaim, and placed the group, once again, at the beginning of a cultural trend.
Their first CD projects were for The Red Hot Organization, a series of AIDS fundraising projects including "Red Hot and Dance," "Red Hot and Beat" and others. They were also featured on one of the first NYC techno music compilations, 1992's "Killer Techno" on Instinct Records. Over the years, they produced and collaborated with David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and a variety of other NYC recording artists.
Tomandandy also began a limited release of lifestyle-enhancing products with the designer James Spindler. Tomandandy sleeping bags, phone cards and vials of vitamin C made their way into Soho boutiques and DJ booths in New York City, Los Angeles and London.
In recent years, Tomandandy have focused on film scoring, continuing to innovate and experiment on scores for The Mothman Prophecies, The Rules of Attraction, Mean Creek and The Hills Have Eyes. Their work can next be heard in the thrillers Sleep Dealer and The Echo.
SEASON KENT (Music Supervisor) has worked in the music department on a wide range of films. His earlier work includes working as music coordinator on the comedy Austin Powers in Goldmember and the films Biker Boyz and Two for the Money. He coordinated on the action-thrillers Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Waist Deep and Harsh Times, as well as the romantic comedies 13 Going on 30 and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous (as assistant music supervisor).
Kent's recent work includes supervising the comedy The Thing About My Folks and the romance film The Lake House (as co-supervisor). Kent's work can next be seen in the dramedy Bonneville, the comedy Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay and the police drama Street Kings.
Born and raised in Chicago, SUSAN KAUFMANN (Costume Designer) received her bachelor's degree in costume design from Columbia College and her associate degree in fashion design from Harper College.
She enjoyed a long and rewarding collaboration with director Robert Altman and was costume designer on his penultimate feature, The Company. That followed her work with him as costume supervisor on Dr. T and the Women, Cookie's Fortune and The Gingerbread Man.
Kaufmann has designed the costumes for such features as Bob Odenkirk's Let's Go To Prison, Harold Ramis' The Ice Harvest, Doug Ellin's Kissing a Fool, Christian Otjen's Reeseville, Jon Purdy's Joshua and Randall Fried's Heaven is a Playground; for such television series as Cupid, What About Joan and Prison Break (spanning the entire first season); and for such telefilms as David Burton Morris' The Three Lives of Karen.
Earlier in her career, she was costume supervisor on P.J. Hogan's My Best Friend's Wedding, Stephen Gyllenhaal's Losing Isaiah and Michael Apted's Blink.
Kaufmann's recently completed features as costume designer include Steve Conrad's Quebec and Bob Meyer's Drunkboat. She is currently working on the film Humboldt Park.
-the strangers-