Paranoia (2013) Production Notes

The high stakes thriller Paranoia goes deep behind the scenes of global success to a deadly world of greed and deception. The two most powerful tech billionaires in the world (Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman) are bitter rivals with a complicated past who will stop at nothing to destroy each other. A young superstar, Adam Cassidy (Liam Hemsworth), seduced by unlimited wealth and power, falls between them and becomes trapped in their twisting, turning, life-and-death game of corporate espionage. By the time Adam realises his life is in danger, he is in far too deep and knows far too much for them to let him walk away.

Please note: Some production notes may contain spoilers.

Paranoia

The high stakes thriller Paranoia goes deep behind the scenes of global success to a deadly world of greed and deception. The two most powerful tech billionaires in the world (Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman) are bitter rivals with a complicated past who will stop at nothing to destroy each other. A young superstar, Adam Cassidy (Liam Hemsworth), seduced by unlimited wealth and power, falls between them and becomes trapped in their twisting, turning, life-and-death game of corporate espionage.  By the time Adam realizes his life is in danger, he is in far too deep and knows far too much for them to let him walk away.

Relativity Media along with Reliance Entertainment and Demarest Films, in association with IM Global and E Stars Distribution, Emjag Productions, Gaumont, Film 360 and Deepak Nayar Production presents Paranoia, directed by Robert Luketic, from a screenplay by Jason Hall and Barry L. Levy, based on the New York Times bestselling book by Joseph Finder. The film stars Liam Hemsworth, Gary Oldman, Amber Heard and Harrison Ford, along with Lucas Till, Embeth Davidtz, Julian McMahon, Josh Holloway and Richard Dreyfuss.  The producers are Alexandra Milchan, Scott Lambert, William D. Johnson and Deepak Nayar; and the executive producers are Stuart Ford, Sam Englebardt, Sidonie Dumas, Christophe Riandee, Allen Liu, William S. Beasley, David Greathouse, Douglas Urbanski, Ryan Kavanaugh and Tucker Tooley.

Inside Paranoia

Adam Cassidy is a bright young rising star at his global tech company who just wants a life different from that of his working-class father still struggling to make ends meet. But when Adam makes one naive mistake, he is forced into becoming a covert corporate spy and obtain trade secrets at a rival company. He gets an instant pass into the opulent and ruthless world of the rich, and sees how this other half lives with a corner office, ready-made luxury apartment and fast car. But before he knows it, he is snared between two tech-world icons with titanic wealth and a mighty system of power to watch – and control – his every move. When Adam decides he wants out, he discovers that they will go to shocking lengths to keep their secrets concealed. A deadly cat and mouse game ensues and Adam must do all he can to protect himself and the ones he loves.

Taking the role of Adam Cassidy is Liam Hemsworth, the Australian up-and-comer who recently garnered global attention playing Gale in the blockbuster The Hunger Games. The filmmakers saw in him all the qualities of both youthful, daring and hard-won integrity they were looking for in Adam.

“He’s gorgeous, charismatic and charming, but Liam is also very accessible,” says Producer Alexandra Milchan. “You feel that he’s someone who is really on the rise and wants it, but at the same time he has the class and dignity that allow him to question that. He also has a maturity and a work ethic that is rare.”

Director Robert Luketic was equally impressed. “I found him to be a wonderful surprise in this role,” he says. “From the start, we shared the same vision of what his character should be. Adam’s values really resonated with Liam and as he responds to seeing his loved ones threatened, I watched him blossom.”

For Hemsworth, his character is someone who gets savvier the harder he is pushed. “Adam has tech smarts, but he also has street smarts,” he observes. “He starts out as someone I think everyone can relate to: a guy with big dreams who has grown up in a low-income family who wants to reach for the stars. But when he gets into the position where he really can do that, and sees what it’s all about, he realizes it’s not exactly the life that he wants.”

Hemsworth was challenged to reveal how Adam transforms in the middle of the jeopardy he is in. “At the start of his spying, I think it feels like a game to him and he kind of buys into that game,” the actor notes. “It’s really fun for him getting a new apartment and cool cars and having money, but as it goes on, he realizes how serious this game is and once he’s in deep, he starts to see that his very life is at stake.”

The two powerful men endangering his life – Wyatt and Goddard – gave Hemsworth a thrilling opportunity to work closely with both Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford. “Gary is scary as hell as Wyatt,” Hemsworth muses. “He doesn’t hold anything back and he can look you in the eye smiling while he tells you that he’s going to kill you. He’s very gentle and kind in the morning and then we would do rehearsal and he was spitting in my face and yelling at me with amazing intensity.”

Hemsworth notes that Ford also transformed in frightening ways. “Harrison is a really nice guy with a soft-spoken demeanor and Goddard is that way on the outside. But inside, Harrison reveals that Goddard has an edge to him that’s quite mean and very powerful,” he says. “Adam really falls under his spell and it’s easy to see why he starts to idolize and trust him, until he realizes Goddard might not be as nice as he seems.”

Even as Adam is fighting to stay one step ahead of Wyatt and Goddard, he is also falling in love – with one of Goddard’s star executives and a woman who has no idea he isn’t who he says he is. Hemsworth particularly enjoyed exploring this unusually thorny relationship with Emma, played by Amber Heard. “Adam is truly falling for Emma, so he doesn’t want to be stealing from her and spying on her, but he’s forced to lie from the start, which makes it very complicated for them,” he says.

It all comes to a head, Hemsworth believes, when Adam realizes that he is no longer just acting as a spy... he is being spied on himself, with the intent of terminating him when he’s no longer useful. “Adam’s whole world is turned upside down when he realizes that these guys are watching him,” Hemsworth explains. “That’s the moment he understands that they’re beyond the law and they’re never going to let him out of this alive. His life and everyone he loves are threatened – and he’s going to have to find a way to outsmart these guys.”

To help build the danger surrounding Adam to a fever pitch, Luketic worked closely with a great team headed by director of photography David Tattersall, production designers David Brisbin and Missy Stewart and costume designer Luca Mosca – who create his sleek new life, including his luxury apartment outfitted in stylish Armani Casa furnishings, which cleverly conceal surveillance devices.

Early on, Luketic decided he wanted to go for a realistic depiction of the grandiose wealth that Adam turns away from when he decides to go up against Wyatt and Goddard’s empires. “We’re in a post-recession era,” he observes. “It’s a new world where the people with money are a bit more restrained. It’s a sign of our times and the film reflects that. So while Adam is certainly enveloped in a world of luxury goods, he isn’t about flashing bling. He also quickly realizes it’s not the beautiful cars and clothes that make him happy; it’s the chance to create his own technology ideas.  But he’s not going to get a chance to do that ever again, if he doesn’t find a way to take these men down.”

Kingpins Of Paranoia

To take on the roles of Nicolas Wyatt and his former partner-turned-fierce-rival Jock Goddard, the filmmakers knew they would need two actors capable of embodying brilliant, eccentric, hugely ambitious men whose unbridled thirst for power has made them capable of menace and even murder. They found that in the explosive pairing of Academy Award®-nominated actors Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford, who first worked together on the hit thriller Air Force One, with Ford playing the U.S. President and Oldman the relentless Russian terrorist who hijacks his plane. Here, however, they would both be challenged by characters unlike any they have taken on in their diverse careers – men who once wanted to change the world with life-altering technology but have fallen into an obsessive, cat-and-mouse game to one-up each other.

“It was like a dream to put these two back together again,” muses Alexandra Milchan. “Their characters couldn’t be more different and yet Harrison and Gary are alike in many ways. They are both equally funny, charming, extremely smart and generous. They both really loved the characters they were playing, even though they are villains, and they both understood the source of their greed and their desire to play God with the universe around them to a certain degree.”

“Harrison walks, talks and feels like integrity personified – the very ideal of an upstanding American leader – which makes his turn to the dark side in Paranoia so compelling,” notes producer William Johnson. “It was equal parts pleasure and terror to watch him seduce and destroy.”

Oldman was drawn right away to the screenplay. “It plays like a thriller, but it’s got a twist that I didn’t see coming,” Oldman notes. And he was equally drawn to working with Luketic. “I like his energy and his enthusiasm,” he says.

More than that, Oldman quickly developed his own personal take on Nicolas Wyatt as one of the self-made industrialists of the digital era. “I play Nick as a guy who is working-class, self-taught, and a former whiz kid who has a real flair for technology,” he explains. “The character was originally an American but I presented to Robert a trans-Atlantic ex-pat who has found success here. It adds an interesting dynamic to things.”

Wyatt has indeed found success in America, the kind of head-spinning success only the very elite will ever taste, which was a lot of fun for Oldman to jump into. “I said to Robert at one point, ‘You’ve fulfilled all my dreams of driving a Bentley, wearing wonderful suits and stepping out of my own private helicopter,’” Oldman muses.

While Wyatt may have reached the very pinnacle of corporate ambition, he recognizes what he thinks is a kindred spirit from the minute he meets Adam, and he suspects he can use Adam’s smarts and ambition for his own nefarious ends. “Adam is a smart, low-level kid but like Wyatt once did, he has that flair for tech,” says Oldman. “He can relate to Adam, but then, of course, Wyatt puts him in a real predicament.”

As Wyatt presses Adam to spy into Goddard’s secrets, their relationship too grows more complicated, rife with increasing mistrust and subterfuge. This, says Oldman, is the fun of the story.

“The audience gets carried along on Adam’s anxiety as he becomes more and more morally compromised,” Oldman says. “You ask: what would I do in that sort of situation?  Would I keep going for the money? But the deeper and deeper he gets in, the more Adam realizes everything he is doing, and everything around him, is based on lies, until he’s had enough.”

Oldman was especially thrilled to create the explosive collision between Wyatt and Goddard with Harrison Ford – and he says that Ford took him by surprise in the role of Wyatt’s all too savvy foe. “I was really impressed,” he says. “It’s kind of a different character for him and he did some really fine work.”

Says Ford in turn of Oldman: “I’ve always enjoyed watching Gary no matter what he is doing. Wyatt is a fascinating, bitter, angry character, who believes my character, Goddard, would never be the success he is without him. Working with him made the whole thing great fun.”

Ford was drawn not only to reuniting with Oldman but to the rich themes of Paranoia. “I see it as a cautionary tale of a young man led by blind ambition into a trap. Adam’s a kid with a normal, moral life until ambition nearly overwhelms his judgment and he gets himself into a contest with people who are formidable and ruthless,” he says.

The filmmakers gave Goddard and Wyatt contrasting, individual styles, right down to their cars. “For Goddard’s main car in the movie, we used a Fisker, a car that hasn’t really been seen yet on the big screen,” notes Milchan, referring to the rare, luxury hybrid. “Likewise, Wyatt drives a classic Bentley. The cars really belong to their personalities, and that’s also true of their clothing and their interior design choices.”

But the real sparks emerged from whenever Oldman and Ford were on set together. “What was interesting to me is that both these great actors are quite unassuming and gentle when you meet them,” observes Luketic. “But as soon as the word action is called they turned into these incredible forces.”

Creating Paranoia

Paranoia began with Joseph Finder’s New York Times best-selling techno-thriller novel of the same name. The book hit upon what would soon become some of the biggest questions of our times: Has corporate power grown out of control? Where is the line between mining digital data and dangerous, invasive surveillance? What happens when CEOs operate outside the law? – all in a fast, intense read. Finder encountered a world where multi-nationals now have more riches and wield more political influence than entire nations.

“As I was researching the novel, I started thinking what would happen if a corporation needed a piece of transformational technology that they knew their competitor had? How far would they go to get it? That’s how I came up with Adam Cassidy,” Finder explains. “In some ways, he’s the classic guy who is forced into being a spy. But his story also takes on the whole idea of identity, about people forming relationships that are based on falsehoods and impersonation, about conscience and about doing the right thing – all of which is happening underneath the fun and suspense.”

Producer Alexandra Milchan read the book and was inspired to bring the story hurtling into the even starker realities of the 2013 corporate world – at the bottom rungs of which a savvy, wired youth culture is confronting a changing digital reality and tough economic times.

“I read the book, and I loved it,” Milchan recalls, “but since it’s about technology and corporate espionage, which are constantly changing, I felt it needed to be updated. I started talking to Joe Finder, and he completely embraced the idea. He was so excited and supportive.”

Milchan, joined by fellow producers Scott Lambert, William D. Johnson and Deepak Nayar, next began a search for a director who could bring a fresh, fast, youthful take to the material. This led to Robert Luketic, the Australian director who made his first splash with the influential blockbuster Legally Blonde, and went on to direct a string of hit comedies. But what got Milchan so excited about him was his breakout crime drama, 21, about 6 MIT students who found a way to take Vegas casinos for billions.

“I believed Robert was the perfect director for Paranoia, because every time I described what I wanted to do in this movie, I used 21 as an example,” the producer explains. “Paranoia had a complex tone to achieve – part wish fulfillment, part thriller, part youth culture story. Robert has not only done so many amazing movies, he also really gets that strong youth energy, and he also really gets romance, which is another strong angle in Paranoia. Then, when I met him we developed an amazing bond of trust.”

That bond of trust would take them all the way to production. The filmmakers started talking about the story not only in terms of an edge-of-your-seat corporate thriller pitting two ferociously competitive billionaires against each other but also as a young man’s search for identity in an age when identity is completely changeable from instant to instant, when technology leaves us feeling watched even in our most personal moments, and when the future couldn’t be more uncertain. They saw Adam Cassidy on the brink not only of the most extreme personal danger but also of a cultural shift.

Luketic, too, was excited by this idea – and by the suspense of the story. “It’s a very timely tale that speaks to this new generation of Millennials who feel they’ve had their dreams stolen away – but I also love that it’s just so entertaining. It has a lot of thrills, and it has characters who are great fun to watch.”

The director was especially intrigued by the challenge of mirroring the title and capturing the paranoia of modern life, in which cameras are in every pocket and our daily data is being analyzed by companies and government agencies – all countered by the fact that what was once private info is now displayed on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

“Adam is in the world where we all live now – a world that is all about data mining, and where everyone leaves all kinds of trails they don’t even realize they are leaving,” Luketic notes. “Never before in history have we had so much of ourselves so accessible to the world. That was a lot of the inspiration for what we present on the screen. Ultimately, nowhere is safe for Adam because there is nowhere he can hide out of view. He is being surveyed from cameras hidden in walls and people are tracking him through his phone. It goes to the question of whether there’s a danger to having all this information about ourselves out there for the taking.”

Using the initial script by Barry L. Levy, Luketic and Milchan spent months developing a draft with Jason Hall, to expand on these themes. Hall notes, “We looked at the cross-section of corporate technology and youth culture – and at the same time, we also explore the themes of greed, loyalty and friendship that Adam grapples with. It’s one thing to hear your parents say ‘Money isn’t the answer to all your problems,’ but Adam gets a chance to prove that to himself.”

Contrasting with Adam are the characters of Nicolas Wyatt and Jock Goddard, who embody the no-limits corporate values of the early 21st century to a T. They are the tech gods of their generation, the rarified 1% to whom success has brought more money than anyone can fathom, yet it hasn’t slowed down their drive – just shifted it from creative idealism to a poisonous focus on winning and profit above all.

Everyone was excited about giving audiences a glimpse into the modern-day industrialists who often lead secretive lives. “Our culture is obsessed with billionaires – the eccentricities that they have, the lives that we imagine they lead, the influence they have on the world. We thought it would be very fun to peek into that world... and into its costs,” says Hall.

Novelist Finder was thrilled when he read the final adaptation. “The screenplay makes the story a kind of generational statement,” he says. “It’s about what it's like right now to be in your twenties entering the working world and watching the whole structure crumble. I think it gets to the alienation that a lot of kids feel when they realize the corruption, and the amount of gamesmanship, that are all part of today’s corporate life.”

The fast-paced intensity and of-the-moment themes of the script quickly drew attention throughout Hollywood. “The script was a bit of a lightning rod,” recalls Luketic. “The response was immediate and we very quickly had Liam Hemsworth, Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford joining the cast. I sometimes had to pinch myself to realize this was actually all happening in this way.”

Paranoia's Supporting Players

Joining Liam Hemsworth, Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford in Paranoia is a diverse supporting cast of both rising stars and veteran award winners including Amber Heard, Lucas Till, Embeth Davidtz, Julian McMahon, Josh Holloway and Richard Dreyfuss.

Amber Heard, who first broke out in the hit comedy Pineapple Express, takes on the role of Emma Jennings, the rising young executive who gets involved with Adam never knowing that he is secretly spying on her company. Heard says she couldn’t resist the character. “She is such a smart, independent woman. She’s had to work her way up in this cutthroat, competitive, technical company full of men, so she knows what that takes. And I think she’s fascinated by the new guy, Adam, because he’s the opposite of everything she’s used to. He comes from a kind of real world and there’s something different about him. They fall in love but under very dangerous circumstances. In a way, they are coming of age in the most high-risk environment.”

Heard particularly enjoyed working with Liam Hemsworth in a role that veers between romance and breathless intrigue. “Adam is someone who comes into the company as the new, big-eyed kid full of ideas and energy and wanting to earn a place for himself. Liam is wonderful at that because he has that same sweet, earnest, infectious quality of enthusiasm,” she says.

Luketic notes that Heard brought something equally special to the role of Emma. “She did a really great job of understanding this character’s unique background and how she has learned to maneuver in this tech world. She’s remarkably beautiful but she’s also very smart – I would constantly find her reading these complex, philosophical books – and she brought that combination to Emma.”

Lucas Till, best known for playing Havok in X-Men: First Class, takes the role of Kevin, Adam’s best friend and a brilliant programmer, who watches as Adam starts leading the life they’ve imagined since they were little kids in Brooklyn – without him. “When Adam suddenly gets this massive amount of success, their paths split,” notes Till. “Kevin is struggling just to find a job and to him, it looks like Adam has sold out. But really, I think Adam wants to protect his friends. Just as it looks like Kevin is going one way and Adam is going another, they come back together.”

Embeth Davidtz – the actress whose wide-ranging roles span from Schindler’s List to The Amazing Spider-Man to Mad Men – portrays Judith, the cold but savvy corporate psychologist who is Nicolas Wyatt’s right-hand woman and Adam’s trainer as a corporate spy.

“Judith had to be both a charmer and an intellect, as well as someone who will do anything to succeed, and Embeth was able to embody all of that,” says Milchan. “She gave us moments of being very nice, very seductive, very inviting and then being a total snake, capable of betrayal on the deepest level. In a way, Judith creates Adam as a corporate spy like Frankenstein’s monster and then she abandons him to be eaten alive.”

Working alongside Judith is the even more frightening Miles Meachum, Wyatt’s head of security. Taking the dark role is Julian McMahon, the Australian actor renowned for his Golden Globe® nominated role in the hit series Nip/Tuck. McMahon describes Miles as “Wyatt’s consigliore. We’re talking about a company valued in the multi-billions and he’s the guy whose job it is to make sure everything stays in place for Wyatt.”

It is Meachum who launches a breakneck campaign of ever-intensifying surveillance and intimidation that pushes Adam to the extreme edges of fear. “Meachum is the face of the state of paranoia that Adam finds himself in,” McMahon states. “He’s constantly there putting pressure on Adam and, when he gets the word from his boss, he won’t hesitate to get rid of him.  He starts off kind of charming and helpful to Adam, but he becomes more and more scary, dangerous and threatening. He takes the technology we all have in our lives to the extreme, using it to assure Adam has no way out when they decide to literally terminate him.”

Throughout, McMahon enjoyed watching Liam Hemsworth react to his character. “Liam keeps ramping up the intensity throughout the movie. He’s got that real fire,” he says.

On the other side of the law is FBI Agent Gamble, portrayed by Josh Holloway, known for his roles on Lost and in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Gamble further complicates Adam’s dilemma by asking him to turn against Wyatt as a double agent and help the Feds bring him down. “Gamble is basically betting that Adam has a good soul,” explains Holloway. “He knows that Wyatt and Goddard think that they are the untouchables, but he’s determined to touch them. He’s been hunting them for years.”

As Adam falls into the dizzying abyss of corporate wars and surveillance, the closer he grows to the only person who can still give it to him straight: his father Frank as played by Academy Award® winner Richard Dreyfuss. A blue collar worker who made his own compromises to take care of his family, and now faces medical bills he can’t pay, Frank still has something to teach Adam when it comes to integrity.

Dreyfuss took the role because he liked the themes of the script and what proves to be an ironclad father-son bond, even in the face of powerful evil. “The story is almost frighteningly current,” he says, “ and the character I play becomes kind of the moral template for Adam and for the story. Frank’s not a man of a lot of words, but I think you can see that a lot of what is good and decent about Adam comes from Frank.”

Frank is loath to watch his son get betrayed, but he also knows Adam has to learn to navigate this new world for himself. “I think Frank really tried to raise Adam on what was important.  He tried to tell him that the world’s values could be very shallow yet very easy to be trapped in... but Frank has also lived long enough to know that his son has to go through this on his own.  He loves his son and he trusts that ultimately he is going to do the right thing,” says Dreyfuss.

Once on the set, Dreyfuss especially enjoyed working with Luketic. “Robert is very open and he has a very good ear, not only for what he wants, but when a new idea is suggested, he then builds on that,” he explains.

Luketic was equally captivated by Dreyfuss and how he brought the role to life. “Richard and Liam created a very natural and believable father-son relationship, and Frank has become one of the best-loved characters in the film. Richard plays Frank as someone who has seen the world changing, who realizes the promises made to workers aren’t going to come true, but who still has his values intact. In many ways, he represents the emotional heart of the film because Richard is so very authentic.”

Yet even Frank is powerless to keep Adam safe as he tries to take control of the game from the men who have set out to use and destroy him. For Robert Luketic, crafting that escalating atmosphere of suspicion and fear at every turn was the film’s bottom line. “Every element of the film, from the performances to the photography, is meant to pull the audience into Adam’s increasing peril,” concludes Luketic. “You’re constantly asking yourself – What would I do in his position? How could I possibly turn the tables and escape?”

It is these timely questions and fears that establishes Paranoia as an intense and thrilling ride as Adam navigates this new world and tries to beat these corporate powerhouses at their own game.

About The Cast

LIAM HEMSWORTH (Adam Cassidy) has a quiet intensity that transcends the big screen. Demonstrating versatility and skill in a range of performances, Hemsworth has proven to be one of the most sought-after actors of his generation.

Hemsworth, who starred in two of last year’s biggest box office hits, The Hunger Games directed by Gary Ross and Expendables 2 directed by Simon West, will reprise the role of Gale Hawthorne in the highly anticipated The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, directed by Francis Lawrence. In addition, he’s completed production on the feature film drama Empire State, for director Dito Montiel, co-starring Dwayne Johnson and Emma Roberts and he just wrapped lensing the crime thriller Cut Bank, co-starring John Malkovich, Ben Kinglsey, Billy Bob Thornton and Michael Sheen.

Born in Melborne, Australia, Hemsworth grew up surfing on Phillip Island. The youngest of three boys, Hemsworth always loved movies. Though he never dreamt of becoming an actor, as a young kid he would sit down and watch movies all day long. At the age of 17, having observed his two older brothers Luke and Chris do television shows in Australia, Hemsworth decided he too wanted to pursue acting seriously. He enrolled in acting classes, got an agent and started auditioning. Hemsworth quickly landed his first big acting job on Australia’s popular TV series Home and Away and from there went on to book a role on Australia’s most successful TV show Neighbors.

Landing his first film role in the feature film Triangle, Hemsworth discovered that his true passion was in making movies, “It’s something new and fresh and it’s just a different energy to what I’d worked on before.” Knowing Los Angeles was the center of movie making, Hemsworth began sending audition tapes to the states. He sent a tape to Sylvester Stallone who within a week of receiving the tape asked Hemsworth to come to Hollywood immediately to play the part of his son in the feature film The Expendables.  Shortly before he was to depart for Los Angeles, Hemsworth learned that the part of Sly’s son had been written out of the script, however, within hours of learning he was no longer working on The Expendables he received a call that Marvel wanted to screen test him for Thor. Though he ended up losing the role of Thor to his older brother Chris, it was this audition for Marvel that got Hemsworth to Los Angeles.

Hemsworth soon began to gain attention throughout Hollywood and while living with his brother Chris in their manager Will Ward’s guest cottage, Liam beat out hundreds of actors for the part of Will Blakelee in the film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks The Last Song, directed by Julie Anne Robinson and co-starring Greg Kinnear and Miley Cyrus. This performance garnered Hemsworth with the 2010 Young Hollywood Award as well the 2010 Teen Choice Male Breakout Award.

Hemsworth, who currently resides in Los Angeles, eagerly looks forward to more film work with quality actors and directors. “I love acting and I love movies. At the moment, I’m just trying to find people who are doing something different and meet people who are as passionate as I am. I have learned the majority of what I know on set, working. You learn from watching people with experience.”

GARY OLDMAN (Nicolas Wyatt) has been a legendary presence on the screen for more than 25 years and is known to millions worldwide for his embodiment of some of cinema’s most iconic characters. In addition to Commissioner Jim Gordon, he has portrayed such wide-ranging and unforgettable roles as Harry Potter’s beloved godfather, Sirius Black; Dracula; Beethoven; Lee Harvey Oswald; Sid Vicious; and John le Carré’s ultimate spy, George Smiley, in an Oscar®-nominated performance.

Oldman is one of the highest-grossing actors at the global box office, having appeared in a number of the most successful films of all time, including the top-grossing Harry Potter franchise. He originated the part of Sirius Black in 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and reprised his role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and the record breaking finale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.

He first played Jim Gordon in Christopher Nolan’s 2005 hit Batman Begins.  Oldman returned to the role of Batman’s crime-fighting ally in 2008’s billion dollar blockbuster The Dark Knight.

In 2011, Oldman portrayed master spy George Smiley in the film version of John le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.  In addition to an Oscar® nomination, Oldman’s performance was recognized with a nomination for BAFTA Award nomination, a British Independent Film Award nomination, and an Empire Award, all for Best Actor.

He has repeatedly been honored for his work on the screen, including the 2011 Empire Icon Award, bestowed for a lifetime of outstanding achievements; the Gotham Awards’ Career Tribute Award; and the International Star of the Year Award at the Palm Springs Film Festival.

Oldman began his acting career on the stage in 1979, and for the next few years he worked exclusively in the theatre. From 1985 through 1989, he performed at London’s Royal Court. His earliest onscreen work includes the BBC films Meantime, for director Mike Leigh, and The Firm, directed by the late Alan Clarke.

He followed with such features as Sid & Nancy; Prick Up Your Ears, directed by Stephen Frears; Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead; State of Grace; JFK, for director Oliver Stone; and the title role in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Among Oldman’s many other credits are True Romance, directed by Tony Scott; Romeo is Bleeding; the Luc Besson-directed films The Professional and The Fifth Element; Immortal Beloved; Murder in the First; The Scarlett Letter, directed by Roland Joffé; Lost in Space; Wolfgang Petersen’s Air Force One, as the terrorist who hijacked the plane of the President, played by Harrison Ford; and The Book of Eli.

In 1995, with manager/producing partner Douglas Urbanski, he formed a production company, which subsequently released the highly acclaimed Nil by Mouth, marking Oldman’s directing and writing debut. The film was selected to open the main competition for the 1997 50th Anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, where Kathy Burke won Best Actress and Oldman was nominated for a Palme d’Or. Among the film’s other honors, Oldman won the prestigious Channel 4 Director’s Prize at the Edinburgh Film Festival; an Empire Award; a BAFTA Award, shared with Urbanski, for Best Film; and a BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay.

In 2000, Oldman starred in the political drama The Contender, which he and Urbanski also produced.  The film, which also starred Joan Allen, Jeff Bridges, Christian Slater and Sam Elliott, received a number of award recognitions, including two Oscar® nominations.

AMBER HEARD (Emma Jennings), as stunning as she is talented, is making waves with her captivating performances on the big screen.  Heard was most recently seen in the independent film Syrup opposite Shiloh Fernandez. The film is a dark satire about the backstabbing and corporate ladder climbing of twenty-something’s trying to make it to the top in the soda industry. She also starred in John Carpenter’s The Ward which premiered at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival and the independent film, And Soon The Darkness, in which she additionally served as a co-producer.

In 2009, Heard starred in the box office hit Zombieland opposite Woody Harrelson, Bill Murray and Jesse Eisenberg. She also starred in the suspense thriller, The Stepfather, with Sela Ward, Dylan Walsh and Penn Badgley. In 2008, she garnered attention for her role in the comedic hit, Pineapple Express with Seth Rogen and James Franco. Heard received a 2008 Young Hollywood Award for her breakthrough performance in Pineapple Express.

She was also seen in the Academy Award®-nominated film North Country, in which she played Charlize Theron’s character in flashbacks. Her other film credits include: Drive Angry 3D, The Joneses, Never Back Down, Alpha Dog and Friday Night Lights.

On television, Heard starred on The CW drama Hidden Palms and had guest starring roles on Showtime’s Californication and CBS’s Criminal Minds.  Heard is originally from Texas and currently resides in Los Angeles where she is actively involved with Amnesty International. She also serves as the face for the Guess advertising campaign.

HARRISON FORD (Jock Goddard) earned an Academy Award® nomination in 1986 for his compelling role as detective John Book in Peter Weir’s Witness (one of eight Oscar®-nominated Best Picture titles in which he has starred during his stellar career). In 2000, the American Film Institute honored him with their Lifetime Achievement Award.  And, in addition to receiving four nominations from the Hollywood Foreign Press, for his roles in Sabrina (1996), The Fugitive (1994), The Mosquito Coast (1987) and Witness, Ford was revered by the organization with the 2002 Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes ceremony.  He was also honored by the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) in 1994 as their Box Office Star of the Century.

The Chicago native’s Hollywood career was launched following his portrayal of hot rod demon Bob Falfa in George Lucas’ 1973 Oscar®-nominated hit, American Graffiti. Four years later, he reunited with Lucas when he landed the now-legendary role of Han Solo in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.  In 1981, Ford brought Indiana Jones to screens for Steven Spielberg in the Best Picture nominee Raiders of the Lost Ark, reprising the heroic character in three sequels -- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).

His many other credits include Francis Coppola’s Oscar®-nominated epic Apocalypse Now and his 1974 thriller The Conversation (a Best Picture nominee in 1974); Lucas’ The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi; Ridley Scott’s iconic sci-fi classic Blade Runner; Mike Nichols’ Oscar®-nominated romantic comedy Working Girl and his 1991 drama Regarding Henry; Patriot Games; Clear and Present Danger; Presumed Innocent; Andy Davis’ Oscar®-nominated thriller The Fugitive; Sabrina; Air Force One; What Lies Beneath; K-19: The Widowmaker; Extraordinary Measures; Morning Glory and Cowboys & Aliens. Several of these movies represent some of the highest-grossing films in their respective release years.

Ford was most recently seen in 42 as Branch Rickey, the Major League Baseball executive who helped shatter baseball's color barrier by making Jackie Robinson the first African-American player in the MLB.  In the fall of 2013, Ford will star opposite Ben Kingsley in Summit Entertainment’s Ender’s Game, a sci-fi film adaptation of the novel by Orson Scott Card.

LUCAS TILL’s (Kevin) career began on the set of Walk The Line for director James Mangold. From there he was cast of tape to play the male lead in Hannah Montana: The Movie - grossing over 100 million domestically. That led to Neil Moritz choosing him to play a young private in Battle Los Angeles. However, it was Till's work in X Men: First Class that earned him international recognition as a young leading man.

Currently, Till has the following awaiting release: Wolves for writer/director David Hayter, Random for the Weinstein Co. opposite Haley Bennet, and Brett Easton Ellis' Downers Grove, opposite Bella Heathcoate. He is currently in production on the indie drama Strings co-starring Laura Dern, Josh Duhamel, and Maria Bello. From there he begins work on Sins of Our Father from Bryan Singer protégé Gary Entin. He is also set to reprise his role in X-MEN: Days of Future Past later this summer.

Till is twenty-two years old and resides in Los Angeles.

EMBETH DAVIDTZ (Judith Bolton), constantly delivering poignant and critically applauded performances, caught the attention of the world for her genuine and confident portrayal as the Jewish maid who survives both the abuse and attraction of Ralph Fienne’s sadistic commander Goeth in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List.

Davidtz recently was seen on Showtime’s hit series Californication, portraying a memorable object of David Duchovny’s character’s affection. She previously co-starred in the critically acclaimed television drama In Treatment opposite Gabriel Byrne and Dianne Wiest, directed by Rodrigo Garcia.

Davidtz was also seen in the thriller Fracture by director Gregory Hoblit. The film co-starred Anthony Hopkins, David Strathairn and Ryan Gosling. Prior to that, Davidtz starred in the critically acclaimed feature film Junebug opposite Amy Adams and Alessandro Nivola. Released by Sony Pictures Classics, Junebug premiered to rave reviews at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. The drama tells the tale of a dealer in ‘outsider’ art who travels from Chicago to North Carolina to meet her new in-laws and upon arrival challenges the equilibrium of the middle-class Southern home.

Previous film credits include the highly successful Bridget Jones’s Diary opposite Hugh Grant and Renee Zellwegger; The Palace Thief with Kevin Kline and Patrick Dempsey; Nick Hamm’s independent film The Hole; the thriller 13 Ghosts; Miramax’s Mansfield Park; Disney’s Bicentennial Man; Robert Altman’s critically acclaimed thriller The Gingerbread Man; Murder in the First opposite Kevin Bacon; Feast of July; Matilda; and the supernatural thriller Fallen opposite Denzel Washington.

In addition to her film work, Davidtz made her debut as a season regular on CBS’s Citizen Baines, created by John Wells. The drama focused on a prominent three-term US senator (James Cromwell) returning to his Seattle home to join his family following a shocking loss in his bid for re-election. Davidtz portrayed his daughter who aspired to follow in her father’s footsteps as a future congresswoman.

JULIAN MCMAHON (Miles Meachum) has garnered international attention for his work in both film and television. He is instantly recognizable for his starring role as Dr. Christian Troy, the charming plastic surgeon, on the international hit FX original series Nip/Tuck. McMahon was nominated for a Golden Globe® Award for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama” in 2005 and received the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in 2007 for his work on the show.

McMahon can also be seen as the villain Victor Von Doom in 20th Century Fox and Marvel Studio’s blockbuster Fantastic Four and its sequel Fantastic Four 2: Rise Of The Silver Surfer. Directed by Tim Story, McMahon starred opposite an all-star cast including Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Ioan Gruffudd and Chris Evans. In 2007, McMahon starred opposite Sandra Bullock in the Tri-Star/MGM film Premonition. In 2011, McMahon completed shooting mega-thriller Red based on the Warren Ellis comic mini-series alongside John Malkovich and Bruce Willis. Additionally, last year, McMahon completed shooting Faces In The Crowd opposite Milla Jovovich, as well as the 3D film, Bait, which recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival and made $20 million its opening weekend in China.

McMahon starred alongside Angela Bassett in the Fox pilot Lone Wolf created by Karyn Usher and directed by Brett Ratner and also starred in the independent film Fire With Fire, alongside Bruce Willis, Josh Duhamel and Rosario Dawson.

Most recently, McMahon wrapped shooting You’re Not You for director George C. Wolfe alongside Hilary Swank and Emmy Rossum.

JOSH HOLLOWAY (Agent Gamble), consistently delivering memorable performances, has used his unassuming style and Southern charm to become one of Hollywood’s most sought-after talents.

Holloway is best known for his role as James “Sawyer” Ford in the hit ABC drama Lost. Created by Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams and Damien Lindelof, Lost ran for six successful seasons and was critically acclaimed as one of the top series of all times. The show was the recipient of numerous awards and nominations including the 2006 Golden Globe® Award for Outstanding Drama Series, 2005 Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, and the 2005 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series.

Holloway will soon be seen in Battle of the Year: The Dream Team in which he portrays the inspirational yet troubled coach of an American b-boy dance crew preparing for the Battle of the Year International Championships. Set for release in fall of 2013, the film also stars Chris Brown and Josh Peck. He will also be seen next in David Ayer’s Ten starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sam Worthington set to be released in 2013. Holloway was most recently seen in the fourth film in the Mission Impossible series, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol alongside Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner. Additional feature film credits include roles in Stay Cool, Whisper, Mi Amigo, Moving August and Cold Heart.

His television credits include Community, NCIS, CSI, Walker, Texas Ranger and The Lyon’s Den.

Holloway was born in California but spent his childhood in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia. He studied at the University of Georgia but after one year moved to New York City. There, he found success in modeling and traveled all over North America and Europe before pursuing a career in acting.

RICHARD DREYFUSS (Frank Cassidy) is an Activist American Citizen. He is a spokesperson on the issue of media informing policy, legislation, and public opinion, both speaking and writing to express his sentiments in favor of privacy, freedom of speech, democracy, and individual accountability. With an entertainment career spanning more than four decades, Academy Award© winning actor Richard Dreyfuss has been one of America’s most versatile and individualistic actors.

As a Community Leader, his current focus and passion is to encourage, revive, elevate and enhance the teaching of civics in American Schools. He is the Founder of the non-profit organization, www.TheDreyfussInitiative.org, and is leading a nation wide effort to bring back civics to our American youth: "All people have a right to know who they are and why they are who they are. Clarity of thought and honesty in self-reflection are more than needed utilities - they are the building blocks of our national moral character," (From: Why I Love My Country).

About The Filmmakers

ROBERT LUKETIC (Director) made his feature film directorial debut in 2001 with the smash hit Legally Blonde. Starring Reese Witherspoon as blonde sorority queen turned lawyer, Elle Woods, Legally Blonde was nominated for two Golden Globe® Awards (Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, and Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy).

Most recently, Luketic directed the 2010 romantic thriller, Killers, starring Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher.  In 2009, Luketic helmed the successful romantic comedy, The Ugly Truth, starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler.  Previously, Luketic directed the action/adventure drama 21, which was inspired by the true story of the very brightest young minds in the country – and how they took Vegas for millions. The film starred Oscar® winner Kevin Spacey, Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth and Oscar®-nominated Laurence Fishburne.

Prior to that, Luketic directed the box office hit, Monster-in-Law, starring Jennifer Lopez and Oscar® winner Jane Fonda.  Monster-in-Law marked Fonda’s first acting role in fifteen years.  Luketic also directed the romantic comedy Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, which starred Kate Bosworth, Nathan Lane, Josh Duhamel and Topher Grace.

Born in Sydney, Australia, Luketic studied at the prestigious Victorian College of Arts – School of Film and Television (VCA), where he wrote and directed the award-winning short film, Titsiana Booberini.

An avid aviator, Luketic is certified to fly technologically advanced jet aircraft, continuing Hollywood’s love affair with aviation.

ALEXANDRA MILCHAN (Producer) has projects set up throughout Hollywood as an independent producer and maintains strong relationships with all the major studios and agencies, as well as independent financiers, directors, writers, and talent.  She currently has a large slate of film, television and digital projects in development.  In 2007, Variety recognized Alexandra’s achievements by naming her one of the “10 Producers to Watch.”

After graduating from Emerson University in Boston with a degree in Marketing and Communications, she took on a position as an executive at New Regency for the following 13 years, 10 of which were in the film division.  During her tenure, Alexandra was involved with projects such as: Copycat (1995. Dir by Jon Amiel), Heat (1995. Dir by Michael Mann), A Time To Kill (1996. Dir by Joel Schumacher), L.A. Confidential (1997. Dir by Curtis Hanson), Don’t Say A Word (2001. Dir by Gary Fleder) and Runaway Jury (2003. Dir by Gary Fleder).  She also contributed to the TV division by overseeing Michael Hayes (CBS. 1997-1998.  Dir by Thomas Carter, produced by Paul Haggis and John Romano, starring David Caruso) and L.A. Confidential (Fox. 2000-2001. Dir by Eric Laneuville, starring Kiefer Sutherland).

Milchan went on to serve as New Regency’s executive to Puma, supervising marketing, promotions, publicity and product placement.  She was also responsible for maintaining relationships with athletes like Serena Williams and helping Christy Turlington develop her line of Nuala yoga clothing.

Milchan went on to produce a number of films including Street Kings (2008. Dir. By David Ayer, starring Keanu Reeves and Chris Evans), Mirrors (2008. Dir by Alex Aja, starring Kiefer Sutherland) and Righteous Kill (2008. Dir by Jon Avnet, starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino). She is also producing the upcoming Bullet To The Head (Dir. Walter Hill, starring Sylvester Stallone), Hold On To Me (Dir. James Marsh, starring Carey Mulligan and Robert Pattinson) and executive producing The Wolf Of Wall Street (Dir. Martin Scorsese, starring Leonardo DiCaprio).

Milchan returned to New Regency in 2011 as the Executive Vice President of Production, where she is overseeing the development and production of a number of projects, including Assassin’s Creed, an adaptation of the massive Ubisoft video game franchise starring Michael Fassbender; Splinter Cell, another blockbuster Ubisoft title with Tom Hardy to star and Eric Warren Singer adapting; and Fraggle Rock, a film based on the classic Henson property.

SCOTT LAMBERT (Producer) is a veteran producer with Film 360 and Television 360. Recent and upcoming Film 360 projects include Hubris, inspired by the true crime story by Hillel Levin, to be directed by Olivier Assayas; Aurora Rising for Relativity Media, starring Liam Hemsworth; and The Ballad of Pablo Escobar, to be directed by Brad Furman.

Lambert’s upcoming projects for Television 360 include Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous for the Style Network, a traditional remake of the original program; and The Terror for AMC, based on the 2007 best-selling novel by Dan Simmons, both of which Lambert will be executive producing.

Originally from The Bronx, New York, Lambert served as President of the Business Group and Executive Vice President of Production at Relativity Media where he was involved with a multitude of films including critical and box office hits such as the Oscar®-winning The Fighter. Prior to this, Lambert served as Executive Vice President at the William Morris Agency for 14 years where he represented major television and film talent including Scarlett Johansson, Kevin Spacey, Kiefer Sutherland and Sylvester Stallone. Lambert is a graduate of American University in Washington, DC and Pepperdine University School of Law. He joined the company in July 2011.

Film 360, the film production arm of Management 360, develops, finances and produces motion pictures for major movie studios and mini-majors. The company's most recent production was Hope Springs, starring Meryl Streep. Film 360 projects in development or pre-production include the Untitled Steve Jobs biography to be adapted by Aaron Sorkin, Sesame Street based on the long-running and iconic children¹stelevision show, and Good People, directed by Henrik Ruben Genz, produced with Tobey Maguire, starring James Franco and Kate Hudson.

WILLIAM D. JOHNSON (Producer) followed family tradition and went to work on Wall Street after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley.  His father, Charles Johnson, is the founder of Franklin Templeton Mutual Funds. After 25 years as a successful retail broker and money manager, Johnson turned his attention to the entertainment business. He partnered in 2011 with Sam Englebardt and Michael Lambert of Lambert Media Group to form Demarest Films, a film and television production company that applies a disciplined asset management approach to entertainment investing.

At Demarest, Johnson has produced or executive produced six films to date, including Neil Jordan’s Byzantium, starring Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Arterton, Jonny Lee Miller and Sam Riley; Max Nichols’ Two Night Stand, starring Miles Teller and Analeigh Tipton; Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe and Robin Wright; David Rosenthal’s A Single Shot, starring Sam Rockwell, William H. Macy, Melissa Leo and Jeffrey Wright; and Joseph Ruben’s Penthouse North, starring Michelle Monaghan and Michael Keaton.

DEEPAK NAYAR (Producer) is considered one of the most respected independent producers in Hollywood whose films have been big box office success. His films have also played in competition, and won him awards, at various film festivals across the world, including Cannes Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival and Sundance. He has worked with some of the industry’s most exciting and esteemed directors, including David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Paul Schrader, Robert Luketic and Gurinder Chadha.

Nayar began his career in his native India, collaborating with the Merchant Ivory group on films including Heat & Dust, The Deceivers and The Perfect Murder. After a move to Los Angeles, he set up his own production company, Kintop Pictures. In 1997 he produced David Lynch’s highly acclaimed Lost Highway, followed by The Million Dollar Hotel, which he produced alongside Bono (U2) starring Mel Gibson.  His collaboration with Wim Wenders earned an Oscar® nomination for The Buena Vista Social Club and a Grammy nomination for the music video Teatro.

In 2001, he produced the hugely successful Bend It Like Beckham, earning both Golden Globe® and BAFTA nominations. He followed this with another collaboration with Gurinder Chadha, the cross-cultural box office hit Bride and Prejudice and Mistress of Spices.

Some of his other notable films have been Paul Schrader’s Thriller The Walker, Wim Wender’s End of Violence and Mika Kaurismaki’s LA Without a Map.

Besides working with auteur film makers, Nayar has given many first time filmmakers their first break, 7-teen Sips with Stephen Berra, Harlem Aria with Bill Jennings, Matt Dillion’s directorial debut City of Ghosts, Jonathan Newman’s Swinging With The Finkels and Foster, Mahesh Mathai’s Bhopal Express and Broken Thread and recently Eli Craig’s directorial debut Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, which won the Audience Award at SXSW and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

He is currently working alongside Reliance Entertainment as an executive producer with Jesus Henry Christ as the first film under that collaboration.  This was followed by Safe starring Jason Statham and Dredd 3-D.  Subsequent films under the partnership are the greatly anticipated Bullet To The Head starring Sylvester Stallone; Enchanted Kingdom; Hummingbird starring Jason Statham; Dead Man Down starring Colin Farrell; and A Haunted House. He is also producing Walking with Dinosaurs 3-D under the same partnership.

He has also had a notable career in TV production producing episodic series like On The Air for ABC, Hotel Malibu & Second Chances for CBS, White Dwarf with Fox and Hotel Room for HBO.

In addition to producing films, Nayar is the co-founder of Filmaka, an award-winning global digital entertainment studio. Filmaka produces multi-platform branded and non-branded entertainment content through an online community of filmmakers in over 150 countries.

Nayar also co-founded India Take One Productions, a production services company based in Los Angeles and India. India Take One has worked on notable films such as Holy Smoke; Alexander; Slumdog Millionaire; Eat Pray Love; Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol; The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel; Life of Pi; and Zero Dark Thirty.

JASON HALL (Screenwriter) is a screenwriter who attended USC film school and was voted one of Variety’s “10 Screenwriters to Watch” in 2007. He wrote Spread, directed by David McKenzie and is currently adapting #1 New York Times Bestseller American Sniper for Warner Bros. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three children.

BARRY L. LEVY (Screenwriter) is adapting the screenplay to the book Preemptive Strike for Mandalay Vision.  He set up his original screenplay, 2, at Universal Studios, with Langley Park Pictures & Jason Alisharan producing.

Levy’s writing credits include Vantage Point for Original Film and Columbia Pictures, starring Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, William Hurt, Forest Whitaker and Sigourney Weaver.

Additionally, Levy has projects in development at Paramount, Warner Bros, Disney and DreamWorks.

Levy is represented by UTA and Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment.

JOSEPH FINDER (Novelist) is the bestselling author of ten books, including Buried Secrets, co-winner of the Strand Critics Award for Best Novel; Killer Instinct, winner of the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Novel; Company Man, winner of the Barry and Gumshoe Awards for Best Thriller; and High Crimes and Paranoia, which have both been adapted for film.

Born in Chicago, Joe spent his early childhood living around the world, including Afghanistan and the Philippines. His first language was Farsi, which he spoke as a child in Kabul. His family finally settled outside of Albany, NY, where Joe attended high school.

Joe majored in Russian studies at Yale, where he also sang with the school's legendary a cappella group, the Whiffenpoofs. After graduating summa cum laude from Yale College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, he completed a master’s degree at the Harvard Russian Research Center, and later taught on the Harvard faculty.

His first book, published in 1983 when Joe was only 24, was Red Carpet: the connection between the Kremlin and America’s most powerful businessmen, the first book to reveal that the controversial multi-millionaire Dr. Armand Hammer, the CEO of Occidental Petroleum, had worked for Soviet intelligence in the 1920s and 1930s.

The Moscow Club, published in 1991, was named by Publishers Weekly as one of the ten best spy thrillers of all time and was published in thirty foreign countries. High Crimes became a 2002 Fox film starring Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman.

Published in 2004, Paranoia appeared on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists, among others. Entertainment Weekly called Paranoia “fun...movie-ready...[with] twists aplenty...”

Joe is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers and Council on Foreign Relations, and has written on espionage and international affairs for a number of publications, including TheDailyBeast.com, Forbes, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Republic. He lives in Boston.

DAVID TATTERSALL (Director of Photography) was the cinematographer for director George Lucas’ visually dazzling blockbusters Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.

He is also a frequent collaborator with filmmaker Frank Darabont, having served as cinematographer on the 1999 Oscar®-nominated drama The Green Mile and the 2001 romantic drama The Majestic, as well as the ABC series The Young Indiana Jones 2 Chronicles, for which Tattersall’s work earned Emmy Award and American Society of Cinematographers Award nominations.  The two most recently teamed on the pilot episode for the acclaimed AMC series The Walking Dead.

Tattersall is known for his versatility and expertise in both film and digital photography, which he has brought to such films as Lee Tamahori’s Die Another Day and XXX: State of the Union; Con Air; Martin Campbell’s Vertical Limit; The Day the Earth Stood Still; Jan De Bont’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life; Gulliver’s Travels; Tooth Fairy; The Matador; The Hunting Party; the Wachowskis’ Speed Racer; and Moll Flanders.

Tattersall graduated Goldsmith’s University of London with a first class Fine Arts Degree.  He then studied at Britain’s National Film and Television School, where he specialized in camera and lighting.  His student films were highly regarded and included King’s Christmas, nominated for the BAFTA Best Short in 1987; Caprice, which was selected for the Edinburgh and Milan film festivals; and Metropolis Apocalypse, which was shown at Cannes in 1988.  His additional television credits include the British crime series Yellowthread Street.  Tattersall is a member of the British Society of Cinematographers.

LUCA MOSCA (Costume Designer) was born in Italy and raised and educated in the dynamic fashion capital of Milan. At the insistence of his family Mosca became a pharmacist but, after his medical education, he pursued his dream: fashion design. Mosca worked for years as a designer in a large couture company in Milan, for the big international names of luxury fashion.  He then moved to New York where, after designing for well-known American fashion companies, he founded his own fashion collection that successfully retailed worldwide.

In the mid 90’s Mosca decided to bring his career to the next level and to design for film and TV; his new profession got off to a significant start with his first independent films, such as Hamlet directed by Michael Almereyda, starring Sam Shepard, Liev Schreiber, Bill Murray and Ethan Hawke and 2000 Sundance winner Girlfight directed by Karyn Kusama, starring Michelle Rodriguez and Paul Calderon.

After designing a number of small independent projects, Mosca designed Sony/Columbia’s Vantage Point directed by Pete Travis, starring William Hurt, Dennis Quaid, Forest Whitaker, Zoë Saldana and Sigourney Weaver. That film was Luca’s introduction to the world of studio projects.

Other credits include 21 (Sony/Columbia) directed by Robert Luketic, starring Kevin Spacey and Jim Sturgess; Premium Rush (Sony/Columbia) directed by David Koepp, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Shannon; Step Up 2: The Streets (Walt Disney) directed by Jon Chu; A Muppets Christmas, Letters To Santa (Walt Disney) directed by Kirk Thatcher, starring Whoopi Goldberg, Uma Thurman, Nathan Lane; After Life, directed by Agnieszka