ABOUT THE CAST

One of the world’s most admired and respected actors, TOM HANKS (Hero Boy, Boy’s Father, The Conductor, The Hobo, Santa) also holds the distinction of being the first actor in 50 years to be awarded back-to-back Best Actor Academy Awards.   In 1993, he was rewarded for his compelling performance as the AIDS-stricken lawyer in Philadelphia, and the following year won the Oscar for his outstanding performance in Forrest Gump.  He also won Golden Globe Awards for both.  Throughout the success of Forrest Gump (the fourth largest grossing movie in history), Hanks won a Golden Globe, a Peoples Choice Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Chicago Film Critics Award, a National Association of Theater Owners Male Star of the Year Award, and the Hollywood Women’s Press Club Award.  In addition to the many honors he has received, he was named Man of the Year by Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals for his performance as astronaut Jim Lovell in Ron Howard’s Apollo 13.

In 1996, Hanks made his feature film writing and directing debut with That Thing You Do! that follows the meteoric rise to fame of a local rock band named The Wonders from Erie, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1964.  The film’s signature song, “That Thing You Do!,” not only reached the top 10 on many contemporary music charts, but was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.  Hanks also appeared in the film.

Born and raised in Oakland, CA, Hanks first became interested in acting during high school.  While attending California State University in Sacramento, he appeared in The Cherry Orchard and met director Vincent Dowling, the resident director of the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Cleveland.  Dowling invited Hanks to intern with the company, where he made his professional debut portraying Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew.  Hanks appeared in other Great Lakes productions, including Two Gentleman of Verona, for which he received the Cleveland Critics Award for Best Actor.  From Cleveland, Hanks went on to New York, where he appeared in his first feature film, He Knows You’re Alone, and onstage in The Taming of the Shrew.

After moving to Los Angeles where he performed in a production of The Dollmaker, Hanks got his big break when cast as the lead in the ABC comedy series Bosom Buddies.  This led to starring roles in Bachelor Party, followed by Ron Howard’s Splash -- a box office hit that started him on his path to becoming one of  Hollywood’s busiest and most sought-after actors.  Hanks’ many film credits include Volunteers, Nothing in Common and A League of Their Own.  In 1988, with his box office success established, Hanks found himself a critical success with highly acclaimed work in Punchline, and Big, for which he earned his first Academy Award nomination and Golden Globe Award.  The same year, the L.A. Film Critics recognized the two performances by bestowing on him their coveted Best Actor Award.  In 1993, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his work in Sleepless in Seattle.

Constantly challenging himself, Hanks served as Executive Producer for HBO’s From the Earth to the Moon -- an ambitious 12-hour dramatic film anthology that explored America’s Apollo space program.  Not only did he personally help make this show a reality, he directed the first episode and wrote and appeared in the final episode.

Hanks starred in Steven Spielberg’s 1998 feature Saving Private Ryan, in which he played a soldier who went deep behind enemy lines to save a trapped private during the Allied invasion, and for which he received an Oscar nomination.  He also starred in 1999’s The Green Mile, written and directed by Frank Darabont and based on the Stephen King novel.

In 2000, Hanks starred in Robert Zemeckis’ Cast Away, earning another Oscar nomination for his role as sole survivor of a plane crash on a deserted island. Also in 2000, he served as executive producer (as well as directing one of the episodes), for the epic HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, based on the Stephen Ambrose book that chronicles a group of paratroopers from their training in Georgia through their subsequent battles on D-day, the Battle of the Bulge, and their eventual capture of Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest.  It aired in Spring 2001 to wide-scale critical acclaim, leading to a Golden Globe win for the miniseries in 2002. 

In 2002 Hanks starred in the Sam Mendes’ gritty depression-era drama The Road to Perdition, opposite Paul Newman and Jude Law.  He followed with the stylish caper Catch Me If You Can, opposite Leonardo DeCaprio, based on the true exploits of international con man Frank Abagnale Jr.  Hanks portrayed FBI agent Carl Hanratty who ultimately caught Abagnale, a counterfeiter who cashed $2.5 million worth of bad checks between 1964-1970.

Hanks recently starred in the Coen brothers’ dark comedy The Ladykillers, as an eccentric southern professor who assembles a band of incompetent thieves to rob a Mississippi riverboat, and Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal, with Catherine Zeta-Jones, about an Eastern European immigrant stranded indefinitely at JFK Airport when his passport is invalidated by a political upheaval in his home country.

Hanks lives in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Rita Wilson, and their family.

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MICHAEL JETER (Smokey and Steamer) most recently starred in Kevin Costner’s Western drama Open Range.  Prior to that, he starred in the 2003 ensemble comedy caper Welcome To Collinwood, and with William H. Macy and Sam Neill in Jurassic Park 3.  He also had a starring role in Taken, a ten part miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg for the Sci Fi Channel.

Among his numerous feature film credits are Sam Raimi’s The Gift, opposite Keanu Reeves and Cate Blanchett; the Oscar-nominated The Green Mile, with Tom Hanks; Dwight Yoakam’s South of Heaven, West of Hell; and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.  Jeter has also appeared in Patch Adams, Jakob the Liar, True Crime, The Fisher King, Air Bud, Mouse Hunt, Waterworld, Drop Zone, Zack & Reba, Sister Act 2, Tango & Cash, Dead Bang, Woody Allen’s Zelig and Milos Forman’s Hair, which marked his acting debut.

Jeter gained critical attention for his role opposite Burt Reynolds on the TV series Evening Shade.  He won an Emmy in 1992 and was nominated two more times for his portrayal of coach Herman Stiles.  Guest roles on Picket Fences and Chicago Hope earned two additional Emmy nominations.  Jeter’s wide-ranging television work includes appearances on Suddenly Susan, Chicago Hope, Veronica’s Closet, Murphy Brown, Crime Story, Designing Women, Lou Grant and in the TV movies The Ransom of Red Chief, Love Kills, From Here to Eternity, Sentimental Journey and The Boys Next Door.  His series regular role as the lovable Mr. Noodle on the ever-popular Sesame Street brought him recognition from children everywhere he went.

On Broadway, Jeter starred in Grand Hotel, for which he won a Tony Award, Once in a Lifetime and G.R. Point, for which he won a Theater World Award.  His notable Off-Broadway credits include Cloud 9, Greater Tuna, The Boys Next Door, Alice, Only Kidding and The Master and The Margarita.

Jeter passed away March 30, 2003, after completing work on The Polar Express. 

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PETER SCOLARI (Lonely Boy) is a founding member of the Colonnades Theater Lab (N.Y.C. 1974-1979).  He appeared in 13 productions during this time including Moliere in Spite of Himself, Reflections and A Flea in Her Ear.   His previous Broadway and Regional credits include Grease, Out of This World, Ziegfield’s Follies of 1937 (City Center’s Encores series), and most recently the title role in Larry Shue’s The Foreigner at Berkshires Theater Festival, directed by Scott Schwartz, for which he was awarded the BTF’s Best Actor Award.

In his long television career he will admit to co-starring roles in Bosom Buddies and in Newhart, for which he received 4 Emmy nominations and a Viewers For Quality Television Emmy Award.  It is possible he starred in Disney’s Honey I Shrunk The Kids, though it might be urban legend.  Among his numerous feature film, movies-of-the-week, mini-series and episodic credits Scolari can only remember A&E’s Stop The World…,The Ryan White Story, Perfect Harmony, Missing Children, Twilight Zone,  Family Ties,  E.R.,  The West Wing, HBO’s From The Earth to the Moon, and That Thing You Do, unless he is properly medicated.

Scolari recently ended his run in Larry Gelbart’s Sly Fox on Broadway at The Barrymore Theater and is thrilled to be returning to the cast of Hairspray.  He is in love with actress Cathy Trien and their two children, Keaton and Cali Elizabeth.

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A native of Washington D.C., NONA GAYE (Hero Girl) is best known for her acclaimed performance opposite Will Smith as Belinda, Muhammad Ali's second wife in Michael Mann's Ali.   

She appeared on stage for the first time when she was three weeks old with her father, soul legend Marvin Gaye.  At six years old her father announced on Soul Train that “She sings quite well.”  She was 14 when she cut her first demo and was signed to Atlantic Records at 16.  In 1992 she released her first album, Love for the Future, which received high praise from the music industry.  She recently dueted with her father on his rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” for the NBA All-Star Weekend.

Adding modeling to her career, Gaye shot a campaign for Armani and walked the runway for Gianni Versace.  In 2001 she returned to the recording studio, collaborating with Bono & Artists Against AIDS Worldwide re-recording “What's Going On” as a call to stop the spread of AIDS in Africa.

After taking time to raise her son, Nolan, Nona began to pursue her dream of becoming an actress.  Her first audition was for Ali, resulting in her feature film debut, rave reviews and a call from USA Today for a supporting actress Oscar nomination.

Gaye recently co-starred opposite Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie Anne-Moss as Zee in the second and third installments of The Matrix trilogy, The Matrix: Reloaded, released in May 2003 and The Matrix: Revolutions, released at the end of the year.

Crash, directed by Paul Haggis and set for 2005 release, has Gaye working with an all-star ensemble cast led by Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Brendan Fraser and Ludacris.

She began filming XXX2: State of the Union, opposite Ice Cube, in late July.

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EDDIE DEEZEN (Know-It-All Boy) has run two Hollywood careers concurrently, as both an actor and a voice actor, for more than 20 years. 

Debuting in the 1978 sci fi feature Laserblast, he went on to featured roles in such films as Grease, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Desperate Moves, Zapped, War Games, Critters 2: The Main Course, Assault of the Killer Bimbos and more recently, Spy Hard, as well as the television movies The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Mob Boss, and Champions: A Love Story.

Deezen has also applied his versatile vocal talent to voicing characters on television productions of Mother Goose & Grimm, Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights, Dexter’s Laboratory and The Weird Al Show, as well as the series Pigs Next Door, Lloyd in Space and Kim Possible.

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CHARLES FLEISCHER (Elf General) began his career in the Goodman Theater in Chicago.  His unique vocal abilities and comedic talent in the role of Roger Rabbit in Robert Zemeckis’ 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? brought him national awareness and led to an hilarious pairing with Robin Williams at the 1989 Academy Awards Show. 

Fleisher’s debut starring engagement in Las Vegas and his one-man show for HBO’s “One Night Stand” have been critically acclaimed.  His non-stop concert dates at major comedy venues across the nation attest to his emergence as a superstar on the American comedy scene.  His wild flights of improvisational invention have kept audiences coming back for more, as no two performances are ever the same.

His recent television appearances include episodes of Drew Carrey and For the People.  Among his film credits are Permanent Midnight, with Ben Stiller, Back to the Future, Nightshift, The Hand, Nightmare on Elm Street, Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy and Straight Talk with Dolly Parton.

Fleischer is also the author of The Moleeds, a book of his own mathematical theories which has received resounding praise from academicians.  The complex theories are hilariously woven into many of his comedy performances.  His love for and desire to teach science to children has brought him much recognition, in particular for an educational CD-ROM for 7th Grade called “Virgil Reality,” and as a host for The Fleischer Files on Discovery’s Next Step.  Fleischer blends his love of technology and comedy in his popular website, monkeydog.com, where users can view art, read about the Moleeds and use the insult engine to send personalized insults anonymously to anyone on the internet. 

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ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

ROBERT ZEMECKIS (Director/Writer/Producer) won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Director’s Guild of America Award for Best Director for the hugely successful Forrest Gump.  The film’s numerous honors also included Oscars for Best Actor (Tom Hanks) and Best Picture.  Zemeckis since re-teamed with Hanks on the contemporary drama Cast Away, the filming of which was split into two sections, book-ending production on What Lies Beneath.   Zemeckis and Hanks served as producers on Cast Away, along with Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke.

Earlier in his career, Zemeckis co-wrote (with Bob Gale) and directed Back to the Future, which was the top-grossing release of 1985, and for which Zemeckis shared Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Best Original Screenplay.  He went on to helm Back to the Future, Part II and Part III, completing one of the most successful film franchises ever.

In addition, he directed and produced Contact, starring Jodie Foster, based on the best-selling novel by Carl Sagan; and the macabre comedy hit Death Becomes Her, starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis.  He also wrote and directed the box office smash Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, cleverly blending live action and animation; directed the romantic adventure hit Romancing the Stone, pairing Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner; and co-wrote (with Bob Gale) and directed the comedies Used Cars and I Wanna Hold Your Hand.

Zemeckis also produced House on Haunted Hill, and executive produced such films as The Frighteners, The Public Eye, and Trespass, which he also co-wrote with Bob Gale.  He and Gale previously wrote 1941, which began Zemeckis’ association with Steven Spielberg.

For the small screen, Zemeckis has directed several projects, including the Showtime feature-length documentary The Pursuit of Happiness, which explored the effect of drugs and alcohol on 20^th century society.  His additional television credits include episodes of  Spielberg’s Amazing Stories and HBO’s Tales From the Crypt.

In 1998, Zemeckis, Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke partnered to form the film and television production company ImageMovers.  What Lies Beneath was the first film to be released under the ImageMovers banner, followed by Cast Away, which opened to critical and audience acclaim in the Fall of 2000, and Matchstick Men. 

In March 2001, the USC School of Cinema-Television celebrated the opening of the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts.  This state-of-the-art center is the country’s first and only fully digital training center and houses the latest in non-linear production and post-production equipment as well as stages, a 50-seat screening room and USC student-run television station, Trojan Vision.

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STEVE STARKEY (Producer) earned an Academy Award as one of the producers of Best Picture-winner Forrest Gump.  The film, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, became one of the highest grossing movies of all time and collected six Oscars, including Best Director and Best Actor, as well as a Golden Globe Award, the National Board of Review’s highest honor in 1994, two People’s Choice Awards, the Producers Guild Golden Laurel Award and a BAFTA nomination for Best Picture.

In 1998 Starkey, along with Zemeckis and Jack Rapke, formed ImageMovers, a company primarily focused on motion picture production.  He then re-teamed with Zemeckis and Tom Hanks on the epic drama Cast Away, and produced the psychological thriller What Lies Beneath, starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer, also directed by Zemeckis. 

Starkey’s professional association with Zemeckis began in 1986 when he was associate producer on the innovative feature Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and went on to serve as associate producer on the second and third installments of the Back to the Future trilogy.  Their collaboration continued as Starkey and Zemeckis produced the black comedy Death Becomes Her, starring Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep and Bruce Willis, followed by Forrest Gump and Contact, starring Jodie Foster and based on the best-selling novel by Carl Sagan.

Starkey also co-produced the feature comedy farce Noises Off, and produced the Showtime feature-length documentary The Pursuit of Happiness, exploring drug and alcohol addiction, which was directed and executive produced by Robert Zemeckis.

He is currently developing several projects for ImageMovers. 

Early in his career, Starkey worked with George Lucas at Lucasfilm, Ltd., where he became an assistant film editor on The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.  He later edited documentary films for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, was associate producer of Spielberg’s Amazing Stories television anthology series and was executive producer on the 1993 CBS series Johnny Bago.

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GARY GOETZMAN’S (Producer) producing credits include My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Beloved, That Thing You Do!, The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, Devil In a Blue Dress, Miami Blues, Modern Girls, Amos and Andrew, Storefront Hitchcock, and the 2001 Emmy and Golden Globe winner for Best Mini-Series, HBO’s Band of Brothers.

At 21, Goetzman was production manager for Jonathan Demme’s directorial debut, Caged Heat.  He also produced the Talking Heads’ concert film Stop Making Sense, Neil Young’s long-form video The Complex Sessions and music videos for Bruce Springsteen, Suzanne Vega, David Byrne and Jane Child’s number one music video, Don’t Wanna Fall in Love, which he also directed.

In 1998 Goetzman teamed with Tom Hanks to form PLAYTONE, a film, television and record company.

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Producer WILLIAM TEITLER’s upcoming projects include two films set for release in 2005: Empire Falls, starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Ed Harris, Helen Hunt, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Wright Penn, directed by Fred Schepisi and based on the Pulitzer Prize winning book by Richard Russo; and Zathura, starring Tim Robbins and directed by Jon Favreau, based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg. 

Among his producing credits are How To Deal, starring Mandy Moore, Alison Janney, Peter Gallagher and Trent Ford, directed by Clare Kilner, based on the book by Sarah Dessen; Tuck Everlasting, starring Ben Kingsley, Sissy Spacek, William Hurt, and Alexis Bledel, directed by Jay Russell, based on the award-winning book by Natalie Babbitt; The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington, directed by Norman Jewison, based on the life of Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, which garnered a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for Washington; Jumanji, starring Robin Williams and Bonnie Hunt, directed by Joe Johnston, based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg; Looking for Richard, starring Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin, Winona Ryder and Kevin Spacey, directed by Al Pacino, which received the DGA Award for Best Documentary Feature;  Mr. Holland’s Opus, starring Richard Dreyfuss (Oscar nomination) and Glenn Headley, directed by Steven Herek;  Picture Perfect, starring Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Bacon, Olympia Dukakis and Jay Mohr, directed by Glenn Gordon Caron; and Unforgettable, starring Ray Liotta and Linda Fiorentino, directed by John Dahl.

Teitler's television credits include HBO’s CableAce Award-winning series Tales From the Crypt and Fox’s Two-Fisted Tales, as well as Tales from the Darkside and Moment of Fear for Laurel/LBS. 

Teitler and author Chris Van Allsburg are producing partners in Golden Mean Productions, where they are currently developing a diverse slate of projects including adaptations of Van Allsburg's classic books The Widow’s Broom for Paramount/Nickelodeon  Films and The Sweetest Fig for Columbia.  Other projects include What Maisie Knew, a contemporary adaptation of the Henry James novel, by Nancy Doyne and Carroll Cartwright, and My Year of Meats, based on the novel by Ruth Ozeki.

Teitler graduated from Williams College.  He lives in New York City with his wife and two daughters.

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A graduate of NYU film school, JACK RAPKE (Executive Producer) moved to Los Angeles in 1975 and started in the mail room of the William Morris Agency.  Four years later, he joined Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and began his 17-year association with the company.  In addition to representing director/writer/producer Robert Zemeckis, Rapke’s CAA clients included Jerry Bruckheimer, Ridley Scott, Imagine Entertainment partners Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, Michael Mann, Harold Ramis, Michael Bay, Terry Gilliam, Bob Gale, Bo Goldman, Steve Kloves, Howard Franklin, Scott Frank, Robert Kamen, John Hughes, Joel Schumacher, Marty Brest, Chris Columbus and Ezra Sacks.

Rapke departed from CAA as one of Hollywood’s most accomplished and admired agents.  He had overseen the company’s motion picture department as co-chairman for seven years and was instrumental in building production companies around his high-profile client list.

Rapke left the agency business to go into business with Robert Zemeckis and producer Steve Starkey.  In 1998 they formed ImageMovers, whose primary focus is the production of theatrical motion pictures.  The company’s first feature was Cast Away, directed by Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks.  ImageMovers went on to produce the Zemeckis-helmed What Lies Beneath, starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer, and Matchstick Men, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Nicolas Cage.  Upcoming producing projects for the company include Monster House; The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, starring Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson, directed by Jane Anderson; and Last Holiday starring Queen Latifah, to be directed by Wayne Wang.

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CHRIS VAN ALLSBURG (Author, Executive Producer) was raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  He attended the University of Michigan with the vague idea of studying law, but the art courses he took as a lark proved more interesting than anything else.  In 1972 he graduated with a degree in sculpture and moved to Providence, Rhode Island, where he continued his study of sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design.  Shortly after receiving his graduate degree, Van Allsburg began to show his sculpture in New York City galleries, where their surreal imagery quickly won him a reputation as an artist to watch.  He didn’t begin drawing until 1979, when his teaching commitments at RISD and a cold studio too far across town kept him from his sculpture. 

The black-and-white artwork he created in carbon pencil and charcoal was appealing to his wife, Lisa, who used picture books in her elementary school art classes.  She felt her husband’s pictures had the quality of illustration and, with the encouragement of a friend, illustrator David Macaulay, she showed the work to children’s book editors. 

Walter Lorraine at Houghton Mifflin, Macaulay’s editor, looked at a drawing of a lump in a carpet and a man raising a chair to hit it (an image much like the one printed in Van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harris Burdick) and said, “If he can get this much storytelling content into one piece of art, I know he can create a children’s book.” Lisa Van Allsburg walked out with the promise of a contract and the rest, as they say, is history.  Houghton Mifflin has published 15 of Van Allsburg’s books, from his Caldecott Honor Award-winning first book, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, to his most recent space adventure, Zathura. 

The success of Van Allsburg’s Jumanji and The Polar Express is no less than phenomenal: both received Caldecott Medals, Jumanji was made into a movie in 1995, and The Polar Express has become a classic with millions of copies sold.  The Widow’s Broom, The Sweetest Fig and Zathura are also in various stages of development for the movies.

Van Allsburg lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with his wife Lisa and their two daughters, Sophie and Anna.

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WILLIAM BROYLES, JR. (Screenplay) grew up in Baytown, Texas, and attended Rice University where he was president of the student body and won the Hugh Scott Cameron Award for service to the University.  He then went to Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar, worked in the civil rights movement, and finished out the Sixties as a Marine infantry lieutenant in Vietnam.  Broyles was the founding editor of Texas Monthly, which won three National Magazine Awards during his tenure.  He was the editor of California Magazine, and subsequently editor-in-chief of Newsweek, after which he vowed never to hold a job again.  Since 1984 he considers himself an unemployed and occasionally homeless Vietnam veteran.

Broyles has lectured and taught at UCLA, USC, Rice, NYU, Columbia University, the U.S. Naval Academy, the Smithsonian, and the University of Texas at Austin.  He has written for many newspapers and magazines, wrote the book Brothers in Arms, and was the co-creator of the television series China Beach, which won four Emmys.

Broyles teamed with one of his pals from early Texas Monthly days, Al Reinert, to write the film Apollo 13, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and a Writer's Guild Award, and was awarded the PEN Center Literary Award for best screenplay.  He was also the co-writer on 1999’s Entrapment and wrote the original screenplay for Cast Away, which was released in 2000.  He has since co-authored three more films, Planet of the Apes in 2001, Unfaithful in 2002 and The Polar Express.

Broyles is working on more books and screenplays.  He serves on the advisory board for PEN Center USA and was named a distinguished alumnus of Rice University, and was inducted in 2002 into the Texas Film Hall of Fame.  He’s married to Andrea and has five great kids.

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DON BURGESS, A.S.C. (Director of Photography) is an Academy Award-nominated cinematographer for his work on the acclaimed hit Forrest Gump, for which he also received an Outstanding Achievement nomination from the American Society of Cinematographers and a BAFTA nomination.  He also received a CableACE Award for Best Cinematography on the Robert Zemeckis-directed television movie Tales from the Crypt, “Yellow.”

Feature film credits for Burgess include the blockbuster hits Spider-man and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines; Radio; Robert Zemeckis’s Cast Away; the thriller What Lies Beneath; Contact, starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey; The Evening Star; the Billy Crystal comedy Forget Paris; Richie Rich; Josh and Sam; Mo’ Money; Blind Fury; and Death Before Dishonor.   

His television work includes TNT’s The Courtmartial of Jackie Robinson, which earned him another ASC nomination and Breaking Point, for which he won another CableACE Award for Best Cinematography. 

Burgess most recently completed the romantic comedy 13 Going on 30 and the upcoming Joe Roth feature Christmas with the Kranks. 

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ROBERT PRESLEY (Director of Photography) previously collaborated with Robert Zemeckis as a camera operator on the 2000 releases What Lies Beneath and Cast Away.

His film career includes work on many acclaimed and high-profile films of the past decade, including Die Hard: With a Vengeance and The 13th Warrior for director John McTiernan; Joel Schumacher’s A Time to Kill; Breakdown; Hard Rain; EdTv, for director Ron Howard; The General’s Daughter; Disney’s The Kid; the epic Pearl Harbor, for director Michael Bay; and The Rookie.  Television credits include the hit CBS series The Agency and L.A. Doctors. 

Prior to The Polar Express, Presley completed work on Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Radio.

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RICK CARTER (Production Designer) has been designing sets for the worlds of film and television for over 25 years.  Among his recent credits are Steven Spielberg’s A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, for which Carter was nominated for both the AFI Production Designer of the Year and the Art Directors Guild Award; and the acclaimed Robert Zemeckis film Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks. 

Carter previously teamed with Zemeckis on What Lies Beneath, Death Becomes Her, Back to the Future Part II and Part III, and Forrest Gump, for which he earned an Academy Award nomination.  His additional production design credits include Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Amistad (which earned another Art Directors Guild Award nomination) and Three Fugitives as well as the Spielberg-produced series Amazing Stories. 

Carter is currently in pre-production on The War of the Worlds, with Steven Spielberg set to direct.

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DOUG CHIANG (Production Designer) studied film at UCLA, and industrial design at the Center of Creative Studies, College of Art and Design.  He got his start as a Stop Motion animator on the Pee Wee's Playhouse television series and soon rose to become a Clio Award winning commercial director and designer for Rhythm and Hues, Digital Productions, and Robert Abel and Associates.  

In 1989, Chiang joined Industrial Light and Magic and became Creative Director in 1993.  During this time, he worked as Visual Effects Art Director for films including Ghost, Back to the Future II, The Doors, Terminator 2, Death Becomes Her, Forrest Gump, Jumanji, and The Mask.  He earned both an Academy Award and a British Academy Award for Death Becomes Her and another British Academy Award for Forrest Gump.

In 1995 Chiang left ILM to head up the Art Department as Design Director for Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace and Episode II, Attack of the Clones.

He has just published his first book, Robota.

As an independent filmmaker, Chiang has received numerous awards, including a First Place FOCUS Award for his film, Mental Block.  His short teaser film for Robota, the book and forthcoming video game, was awarded both the Prix Du Rendu award at Imagina 2003 Film Festival and Best Advertising/Promotional Film in the 2003 Annecy Animation Festival.

Chiang's paintings have appeared nationwide in various publications as well as limited edition prints and posters and have been featured in major national and worldwide exhibitions including the Brooklyn Museum, the Houston Museum of Fine Art, the San Diego Museum of Fine Art, the Fields Museum in Chicago, and the Kyoto and Tokyo National Museums, among others.

In 2003, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the prestigious Academy of Art College in San Francisco.  Chiang lives in Northern California with his wife and two children.

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JEREMIAH O’DRISCOLL (Editor) previously collaborated with Robert Zemeckis as an assistant to Arthur Schmidt on five of the director’s feature films, starting with Death Becomes Her and followed by Forrest Gump, Contact, What Lies Beneath and Cast Away.

Among his additional feature credits as an assistant editor are Driving Miss Daisy, The Last of the Mohicans, Addams Family Values, The Birdcage and Primary Colors.             

The Polar Express is O’Driscoll’s first feature credit as Film Editor.

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A Puyallup and Blackfeet Indian, R. ORLANDO DUENAS (Editor) grew up on the Puyallup Indian Reservation in Tacoma, Washington.  Working in Seattle’s film and video market until the mid nineties, Duenas moved to Los Angeles to concentrate on feature film editorial.  He first worked with director Robert Zemeckis on Contact, and later edited his documentary, The 20^th Century: The Pursuit of Happiness.

Duenas’ additional editing credits include Like Mike, The Scorpion King, Big Fat Liar, Cast Away, What Lies Beneath and Tommy Boy.

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KEN RALSTON’s (Senior Visual Effects Supervisor) insight into dramatic development, along with his mastery of visual effects technology have earned him five Academy Awards as Special Effects Supervisor (Forrest Gump, Death Becomes Her, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Cocoon, Star Wars: Episode VI – The Return of the Jedi) and an equal number of British Academy Awards for many of the same films.

Since his arrival at Sony Pictures Imageworks, Ralston has served as special visual effects supervisor on Phenomenon, senior visual effects supervisor on Michael and Contact, visual effects guru on Patch Adams and senior visual effects supervisor on Men in Black II, Cast Away and America’s Sweethearts.

While still an elementary school student in Los Angeles, he began “messing around” with film.  Devising makeshift stop motion techniques and building models and miniatures, he shot an 8mm adventure about being shipwrecked on an island.  The work of legendary filmmaker Ray Harryhausen inspired him to explore larger-than-life effects.  In search of solutions, he wrote to Forest Ackerman, editor of “Famous Monsters of Film Land” magazine, who surprised Ralston with an invitation to his home.  There, he met Jon Berg, who worked at one of the earliest visual effects commercial houses, Hollywood-based Cascade Pictures.

Ralston spent much of his high school years—and allowance—filming The Bounds of Imagination, a day in the life of a young boy that was, in his words, “just an excuse to play with as many effects as I could create.”  Upon graduation in 1971, with the 45-minute film and his friendship with Berg as his calling card, Ralston landed a job at Cascade, where he worked in almost every capacity on the prototypical visual effects advertising campaigns of the early ‘70s.  He built sets, sculpted models, animated puppets, created optical effects, performed stop motion animation and more on close to 200 spots for such clients as Volkswagen, Green Giant and Pillsbury (where, in many commercials, it was Ralston’s hand pressing the Doughboy’s stomach).

When George Lucas began Star Wars in 1976, Ralston was brought aboard as a camera assistant under the leadership of Special Effects Supervisor Dennis Muren.  The film’s success opened a door to a new realm of visual experimentation and Ralston’s relationship with Industrial Light & Magic flourished.  Next came the role of Special Effects Camera Operator on Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980).  Dragonslayer followed in 1981 with Ralston designing one of the key dragon characters and working as Special Effects Cameraman. With Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), he earned his first shared credit as Special Effects Supervisor.  Star Wars: Episode VI – The Return of the Jedi was produced the following year (he co-supervised the effects on the multi-award winning film) and Cocoon (his first solo credit) in 1984.

For close to two decades, Ralston was a Visual Effects Supervisor at ILM, placing his aesthetic and technical stamp on many of the company’s landmark innovations. Constantly pushing the technological envelope, he worked with directors and production designers to hone and realize their ideas on screen.  He designed and executed visual effects on such top-grossing films as Contact, Phenomenon, Out of Africa, Back to the Future I, II, and III, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Sabrina, Forrest Gump and Jumanji, as well as the Academy Award winners noted above.

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JEROME CHEN (Senior Visual Effects Supervisor) joined Sony Pictures Imageworks shortly after its inception in 1992 and worked his way up through the production ranks as a digital artist, senior animator, computer graphics supervisor and digital effects supervisor before becoming visual effects supervisor.  He is an acknowledged expert in the technique of integrating digital imagery with live action, especially in the area of photorealistic effects.  Chen’s film credits include Stuart Little and Stuart Little 2, Godzilla, Contact, James and the Giant Peach, The Ghost and the Darkness and In the Line of Fire. 

With Stuart Little, Chen earned his first Academy Award nomination for

groundbreaking visual effects in the creation of the title character, Stuart the mouse.  He was instrumental in the development and advancement of digital imagery techniques including innovations in lighting, compositing, fur and cloth – accomplishments subsequently surpassed by achievements in feather systems and photorealism in Stuart Little 2.

Chen’s peers have repeatedly recognized his contributions to visual effects.  He is a two-time Monitor Award winner for Best Electronic Effects in a Theatrical Release for Stuart Little and Contact, and also earned Monitor nominations for Godzilla and James and the Giant Peach.  Additionally, he was honored with a 1998 ANNIE Award nomination for Best Special Effects Animation in a Feature Film for his work on Godzilla.  He has spoken internationally on the subject of digital character creation and imagery techniques.

Chen was visual effects supervisor on Stuart Little 2, “a great opportunity for new innovations in the area of digital characters in a live action environment,” he says.  The introduction of two birds to Stuart’s world required Chen and his team to tackle the challenges of believable integration and performance of feathered creatures.  The film won the VES Award (Visual Effects Society) for Best Character Animation in an Animated Film, as well as the Prix du long Metrage (Best Feature Film) at the Imagina Awards.

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STEVEN BOYD (Co-producer) continues his long-standing relationship with director Robert Zemeckis with The Polar Express.  Among his additional producing credits are Cast Away, What Lies Beneath, The 20^th Century: The Pursuit of Happiness and Contact.

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Oscar-nominated and Grammy-winning composer ALAN SILVESTRI (Music Score, Original Songs) has written the music for an extraordinary number of hugely successful films, including the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Father of the Bride, The Bodyguard, Predator and perhaps his most familiar score, the Best Picture Oscar-winning Forrest Gump.

Within the last few years, Silvestri has added several more mega-hits to his resume: the Tom Hanks drama Cast Away; What Women Want, with Mel Gibson; the summer blockbuster The Mummy Returns; and Something’s Gotta Give, with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson. These, plus the John Cusack thriller Identity, the action-adventure Van Helsing, Jennifer Lopez’s comedy Maid in Manhattan, Disney’s animated Lilo and Stitch, and Stuart Little 2 comprise some of the latest of his more than 70 scores.

Born in Manhattan, Silvestri was raised in Teaneck, N.J., and attended Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music before joining a Las Vegas band as a guitarist. His performing and arranging skills earned him work in Los Angeles, including an accidental gig scoring a film. Later, he wrote the music for more than 100 episodes of CHiPs, which led to the composer’s first major film, 1984’s Romancing the Stone, directed by Robert Zemeckis.

Zemeckis and Silvestri have made ten more films since then, including the time-travel trilogy Back to the Future, the live-action/animation riot Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, the black comedy Death Becomes Her, the Oscar-winning Forrest Gump, the science-fiction epic Contact, the Hitchcockian thriller What Lies Beneath and the Tom Hanks tour-de-force Cast Away. Their collaboration spans 20 years and, next to that of Steven Spielberg and John Williams, is Hollywood’s longest-running, most successful director-composer relationship.

For other filmmakers, Silvestri has written equally diverse, powerful and touching music, including a dark and suspenseful score for John McTiernan’s Predator; one embodying the wonder of The Abyss for James Cameron; soaring, celebratory music for Charles Shyer’s Father of the Bride; a memorably melancholy theme for Whitney Houston in Mick Jackson’s The Bodyguard; a delightful cat-and-mouse score for Rob Minkoff’s Stuart Little; and faux spaghetti-western music for Gore Verbinski’s The Mexican.

A resident of Carmel for the past 13 years, Silvestri is an instrument-rated pilot and has recently begun a second career as a vintner. Within the next three years, he expects to be in full wine production on his 300-acre vineyard in Carmel Valley. Active in the fight against Juvenile Diabetes – a disease that afflicts one of his three children – he has testified before a Congressional committee on the issue and has written a song, “Promise to Remember Me,” which became a rallying song for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.

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With five Grammy Awards, sales of nearly 150 million records and #1 hits across the Pop, Modern Rock, Jazz, Adult Contemporary, Country and R&B charts, GLEN BALLARD (Original Songs) ranks as one of the most acclaimed and successful songwriter-producers today.  In recent years, he has produced and co-written songs for Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews, Aerosmith, No Doubt, Anastacia, Shakira and Van Halen, among others.

Although Ballard had a long track record of hits written for Michael Jackson, Wilson Philips and George Straight, it was his 1995 collaboration with then-unknown Alanis Morissette on Jagged Little Pill that officially catapulted him to international prominence.  The chart-topper was certified 16 times platinum with worldwide sales over 30 million copies and remains the #3 best-selling album in history as well as the best-selling solo and best-selling debut album of all time, earning Ballard four Grammys and a nomination for Producer Of The Year. He subsequently co-wrote and produced Morissette’s Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and the Dave Matthews Band’s Everyday, both triple platinum; produced tracks on No Doubt’s platinum Return Of Saturn and Best Of Van Halen, Vol. 1; and wrote and produced for Shelby Lynne’s lauded Love, Shelby.

Born in Mississippi in 1953, Ballard started playing piano as a child, wrote his first song before his 10^th birthday and was a familiar face in local rock bands by the fifth grade.  Upon graduation from the University of Mississippi, Ballard turned down fellowships to graduate and law schools and moved to the West Coast.  By sheer luck, he joined Elton John’s company in L.A., starting as an assistant and playing piano for Kiki Dee.  His first chart single was Dee’s recording of “One Step” in 1978, which secured a songwriting position with MCA Music Publishing, beginning a relationship that continues to this day.

Through the early ‘80s, Ballard composed songs for artists including George Benson, French superstar Johnny Hallyday and The Pointer Sisters.  Quincy Jones took note of the young composer and under his aegis Ballard wrote “Try Your Love Again” for James Ingram and went on to write and produce for R&B singer Patti Austin.  Soon he was writing and producing full-time for Qwest Records.  Spurred by his success, he went independent, writing George Strait’s 1986 Country Song Of The Year, “You Look So Good In Love,” Michael Jackson’s “Man In The Mirror” and arranging “Keep The Faith” for Jackson's Dangerous.

In 1990, he received his first Grammy for arranging “The Places You Find Love,” for Chaka Khan and Siedah Garrett, and three nominations for his work on Wilson Phillips’ eponymous album.  In 1991 he wrote and produced Wilson Phillips’ platinum follow-up, Shadows And Light.  Others who have recorded his songs include Celine Dion, Al Jarreau, Earth, Wind & Fire, Sheena Easton, The Corrs, Lisa Loeb, Amy Grant, Philip Bailey and K.T. Oslin. 

Ballard wrote and produced end title song “Adrenaline,” with Gavin Rossdale for the 2002 blockbuster XXX, and collaborated with Alan Silvestri on “Forever May Not be Long Enough” for The Mummy Returns.

In 1997, he was named Songwriter of the Year by both ASCAP and the National Academy Of Songwriters, and received the prestigious Governor’s Award from NARAS.  In 2001, Ballard was honored by Billboard Magazine with a tribute issue marking his extraordinary achievement of penning and/or producing records selling over 150,000,000 copies worldwide.

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The Polar Express marks JOANNA JOHNSTON’s (Costume Designer) eighth creative collaboration with Robert Zemeckis, beginning with the 1988 classic Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, for which she created Jessica Rabbit’s trademark form-fitting evening gown. 

She re-teamed with Zemeckis on Back to the Future Part II and Part III, Death Becomes Her, Forrest Gump, Contact and Cast Away. 

Johnston’s feature film credits as a costume designer began with the 1987 horror fantasy Hellraiser and includes Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Saving Private Ryan; Ron Howard’s romantic epic Far and Away; Lawrence Kasdan’s French Kiss; M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable; About a Boy; and most recently, the romantic comedy Love Actually.  She earned a Costume Designers Guild Award nomination for her work on About a Boy.   Earlier in her career, she worked on a number of high-profile films including The Color Purple, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Pirates of Penzance, Tess and Death on the Nile. 

Johnston is currently in pre-production on Steven Spielberg’s next film, based on H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds.

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