THE FILMMAKERS

NANCY MEYERS (Director, Writer, Producer) spent two decades writing and producing hit films before making her directing debut in 1998 with a witty update of a classic comedy The Parent Trap, starring Dennis Quaid, Natasha Richardson and Lindsay Lohan in her first feature film. For her second outing as a director, the romantic comedy What Women Want, Meyers told the story of a man who could hear the inner thoughts of women. Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt starred as professional rivals who become lovers in the worldwide critical and box office hit. Meyers next wrote and directed 2003’s Something’s Gotta Give, a sophisticated comedy about unexpected love starring Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton and Keanu Reeves. Keaton earned an Oscar® and SAG nomination, and won the Golden Globe Award and the National Board of Review award for her work, while Nicholson was honored with a Golden Globe nomination.

Meyers’ first credit as co-writer and producer was Private Benjamin, the groundbreaking comedy starring Goldie Hawn as a privileged young widow who impulsively joins the Army. Meyers received an Academy Award® nomination as well as the Writers Guild Award for best original screenplay. The movie was a huge box office hit and Hawn received an Oscar® nomination for Best Actress, while Eileen Brennan was nominated as Best Supporting Actress.

Meyers then co-wrote and produced the critically acclaimed Irreconcilable Differences, a cautionary tale about a family damaged by success. The 1984 film starred Ryan O’Neal, Shelley Long and eight-year-old Drew Barrymore. Next came the 1987 romantic comedy Baby Boom, which Meyers also co-wrote and produced. Baby Boom was her first collaboration with Diane Keaton, who starred as a management consultant with a latent maternal side.

In 1991, Meyers and Keaton were reunited for Father of the Bride, with Meyers again a co-writer and producer. Keaton starred opposite Steve Martin in this remake of the 1950 comedy. A box office hit, Father of the Bride spawned a 1995 sequel, which also starred Martin and Keaton.

A Pennsylvania native, Meyers settled in Los Angeles after graduating from American University in Washington, D.C. She is also the mother of two daughters.

BRUCE A. BLOCK (Producer) has a wide-ranging background as a producer, director, film consultant, teacher and author.

Born in Cincinnati, Block attended Carnegie-Mellon and USC. He directed, acted in and designed the scenery and lighting for regional and off-Broadway theater before moving into the arena of commercials, visual effects and animation.

Block met Nancy Meyers and her former partner, Charles Shyer, in 1981 and worked on all of their subsequent films, first as a consultant on Irreconcilable Differences, then as associate producer on Baby Boom and Father of the Bride, and co-producer on Father of the Bride II and I Love Trouble (all written by Meyers and Shyer, and directed by Shyer). Block was co-producer of The Parent Trap, and producer on What Women Want and Something’s Gotta Give, which were all directed by Meyers. He was also visual consultant on Shyer’s remake of Alfie. Block also served as filmic consultant on James L. Brooks’ As Good As It Gets and Spanglish, and on Rob Minkoff’s Stuart Little.

As a teacher, Block has inspired a generation of new filmmakers with his courses in directing at USC over the past 25 years. His book, The Visual Story, is now in its seventh printing.

SUZANNE FARWELL (Executive Producer) was raised in Miami and earned her BA from Florida State University, and MA in English Literature from Pepperdine University. She began her career in entertainment at the William Morris Agency working for a motion picture literary and packaging agent.

In 1997, Farwell began working with Nancy Meyers on The Parent Trap (Meyers’ directorial debut). She continued her work with Meyers, running her production company Waverly Films from 2001 to 2004. During that time Farwell served as coproducer on Something’s Gotta Give, also written, produced and directed by Meyers.

Farwell, her husband and six-year-old daughter Kate live in Los Angeles.

DEAN CUNDEY ASC (Director of Photography) is an Oscar® nominee for his innovative work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the 1988 film that combined fully realized animated figures with live actors.

Cundey’s pioneering use of motion control photography has allowed such directors as Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, and Robert Zemeckis to realize their visions in films including Jurassic Park, Hook, Apollo 13, and the Back to the Future trilogy.

His mastery of motion control also proved invaluable in creating the illusion that Lindsey Lohan had a twin in the 1998 comedy The Parent Trap, Cundey’s first collaboration with director Nancy Meyers. Cundey and Meyers teamed up again in 2000 for the romantic comedy What Women Want.

Born and raised near Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley city of Alhambra, Cundey studied film at UCLA, and was planning a career in production design. He changed his mind after enrolling in a photography class taught by legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe.

Cundey’s first big film was John Carpenter’s Halloween. He later also shot Carpenter’s The Fog, Escape from New York, The Thing, and Big Trouble in Little China. In addition to the Back to the Future films and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Cundey’s collaborations with Zemeckis include Death Becomes Her and Romancing the Stone. Other credits include such eclectic titles as Project X, Big Business, The Flinstones, and Rock ‘n’ Roll High School.

Cundey’s latest films are Whisper and Sakura: Blue-Eyed Samurai. He shot the 2004 film Garfield and was second unit director of photography on its sequel, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties.

JON HUTMAN (Production Designer) grew up in the Brentwood neighborhood where much of The Holiday is set.

Hutman previously collaborated with Nancy Meyers on What Women Want and Something’s Gotta Give. Most recently, he designed the 2005 dramatic thriller The Interpreter for director Sydney Pollack. He designed and co-produced Lawrence Kasdan’s Dreamcatcher in 2003 and Mumford in 1999. He also designed French Kiss and art directed I Love You to Death for Kasdan. Hutman was Robert Redford’s production designer on The Horse Whisperer, Quiz Show, and A River Runs Through It.

Hutman designed Nell for Yale classmate Jodie Foster, as well as her directorial debut Little Man Tate. Additional film credits include Coyote Ugly, Lolita, Flesh & Bone, Taking Care of Business, Trespass, Meet the Applegates, and Heathers. He also served as art director on Shag and Wanted: Dead or Alive.

Hutman has also worked in television and won an Emmy Award for designing the pilot of “The West Wing.” He was a design consultant and producer for another critically acclaimed series, “Gideon’s Crossing,” and has directed episodes of both “Gideon’s Crossing” and “The West Wing.”

Hutman earned a degree in architecture from Yale University and studied scenic design, painting and lighting at the Yale School of Drama. He began his film career as an art department assistant on To Live and Die in L.A.

JOE HUTSHING, A.C.E. (Editor) is a two-time Academy Award® winner, honored for his work on Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July and JFK. He also won a BAFTA Award for JFK.

Hutshing received additional Oscar® nominations for his work on Cameron Crowe’s Jerry Maguire in 1996 and Almost Famous in 2000. Hutshing has also been honored by the American Cinema Editors. He won the Eddie Award twice, for JFK and Almost Famous, and received Eddie nominations for Born on the Fourth of July and the critically acclaimed HBO film “Live from Baghdad.” Hutshing also won an Emmy Award for “Live from Baghdad.”

Hutshing previously collaborated with Nancy Meyers on the 2003 hit romantic comedy Something’s Gotta Give. He began his career 20 years ago as assistant editor on the Martha Coolidge comedy Valley Girl. His long association with Oliver Stone began with his work as associate editor on Wall Street and continued with Talk Radio, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors and JFK. Hutshing also edited Adrian Lyne’s Indecent Proposal, Lawrence Kasdan’s French Kiss, John Woo’s Broken Arrow, Martin Brest’s Meet Joe Black, Crowe’s Vanilla Sky, Curtis Hanson’s The River Wild and Iain Softley’s The Skeleton Key. He was also an additional editor on Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich.

Hutshing graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in fine arts.

MARLENE STEWART (Costume Designer) earned her first credits working on music videos, including memorable designs for fashion-forward pop superstar Madonna. Stewart created image-shaping costumes for 11 Madonna videos including "Vogue," "Material Girl," "Like a Prayer," and "Express Yourself.”

Stewart’s film work spans a wide variety of genres, periods and looks. She has collaborated with an intriguing array of directors, ranging from Alejandro González Iñárritu on 21 Grams to Oliver Stone on The Doors and JFK to Michael Mann on Ali and Beeban Kidron on To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.

Her credits also include Andy Tennant’s Hitch, James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day and True Lies, Mary Lambert's Siesta, Joel Schumacher's Falling Down, James L. Brooks' I'll Do Anything, Curtis Hanson's The River Wild, Joe Pytka's Space Jam, Rob Bowman's The X-Files, Tony Scott's Enemy of the State, Dominic Sena's Gone in Sixty Seconds, David McNally's Coyote Ugly, and Antoine Fuqua's Tears of the Sun.

After earning a degree in History at University of California, Berkeley, Stewart studied at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. She received the Bob Mackie Award for Design for her student work and began her design career by launching her own women’s clothing line, Covers.

A Boston native, Stewart designed the costumes for three Madonna tours as well as tours for Cher, Paula Abdul, and Gloria Estefan. She created music video looks for Janet Jackson, Rod Stewart, Bette Midler, Debbie Harry, Smashing Pumpkins, the Bangles, and the Eurythmics, and was the first recipient of the American Music Awards’ Best Costume Design Award.

HANS ZIMMER (Composer) is one of the film industry’s most respected composers and has more than 100 film scores to his credit, including three for best picture winners.

In 1994, he won both the Academy Award® and a Golden Globe Award for his revolutionary score for the animated blockbuster The Lion King, which also spawned one of the most successful soundtrack albums ever. The composer’s music for The Lion King continued to draw applause in the award-winning stage production of the musical. The show earned the 1998 Tony Award for Best Musical, as well as a Grammy Award for Best Original Cast Album.

Zimmer has garnered six additional Academy Award® nominations, the latest for his Gladiator score, for which he also won a Golden Globe and earned a Grammy Award nomination. His other Oscar® nominations were for The Prince of Egypt, The Thin Red Line, As Good As It Gets, The Preacher’s Wife, and Rain Man. Zimmer has also received seven Golden Globe nominations for his scores for Spanglish, Gladiator, The Lion King, The Last Samurai, Pearl Harbor, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and The Prince of Egypt, winning on two occasions.

His most recent films are the summer blockbusters The Da Vinci Code, which reteamed Zimmer with director Ron Howard, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, his seventh film with Jerry Bruckheimer. His other film credits include The Weather Man (also directed by Gore Verbinski), Batman Begins, and Madagascar. His long list of film credits includes The Ring Two, Pearl Harbor, Matchstick Men, Shark Tale, Black Hawk Down, The Ring, Hannibal, Crimson Tide (for which he won a Grammy), Thelma & Louise, Driving Miss Daisy, Mission: Impossible 2, Riding in Cars With Boys, A League of Their Own, Black Rain, Backdraft, True Romance, Days of Thunder, and My Beautiful Laundrette. Upcoming projects include Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and The Simpsons Movie.

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