ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

ROD LURIE (Director/Producer) wrote and directed the widely praised Academy Award® and Golden Globe Award nominated political thriller The Contender, starring Joan Allen, Jeff Bridges, Gary Oldman and Christian Slater. The film was also honored by the Broadcast Film Critics with the first-ever Alan J. Pakula Award. Most recently, Lurie directed the military prison thriller The Last Castle, which starred Robert Redford, James Gandolfini and Mark Ruffalo.

Lurie created and served as an executive producer on ABC’s highly acclaimed hit series, Commander in Chief. Imaging a world in which the President of the United States is a woman, the popular series stars Geena Davis and Donald Sutherland. Lurie also executive produced the ABC one-hour FBI drama, Line of Fire, starring Anson Mount, Leslie Hope and David Paymer.

In 1998, Lurie made his film writing and directing debut with the dramatic short Four Second Delay, which won the Best Short Film award at the Atlanta Film Festival and the Crested Butte Reel Fest. The short also won the Prix du Jury at the Festival of American Cinema in Deauville, France. In 2000, he made his first feature film Deterrence, a drama about America coming to the brink of nuclear war, starring Kevin Pollak and Timothy Hutton, and in 2003 his short film, The Nazi, was in the Official Selection of the Sundance Film Festival.

Before becoming a filmmaker, Lurie completed a career in the military and enjoyed success as a film critic and entertainment reporter. Lurie graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1984 and went on to serve for four years as a Combat Arms officer in the U.S. Army. He broke into journalism as an entertainment reporter for the New York Daily News, and was a film critic and interviewer for Channel 12 in Fairfield, Connecticut, as well as a frequent contributor to Premiere, Movieline and Entertainment Weekly.

After moving to Los Angeles, Lurie worked as a film critic, investigative reporter and contributing editor to Los Angeles Magazine from 1990-1995. As an investigative reporter in the entertainment industry, Lurie’s discovery of unethical and illegal practices of tabloid newspapers gained him national exposure on programs such as 60 Minutes, Entertainment Tonight, The Larry King Show, Nightline, Geraldo and The Jane Whitney Show.

From 1995 to 1999, Lurie was the film critic for 790 AM KABC Radio in Los Angeles, where his top-rated movie review show entertained Southern California moviegoers every Saturday. His on-air guests included: Tom Hanks, James Woods, Billy Bob Thornton, Dustin Hoffman, John Travolta, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Landau, James Cameron and Mel Gibson.

In addition, in 1995 Lurie authored the book Once Upon A Time in Hollywood.

MICHAEL BORTMAN (Writer) is a screenwriter who was nominated for an Emmy for Who Will Love My Children, for which he also earned a Writers Guild Award nomination in drama. His Single Bars, Single Women earned another Writers Guild Award nomination in comedy. His credits include the feature films The Good Mother, Chain Reaction, and Crooked Hearts, which he wrote and directed. He also wrote screenplays for the television films Memorial Day, And Your Name is Jonah, and Candles on Bay Street, a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation.

ALLISON BURNETT (Writer) is a screenwriter and novelist. After graduating from Northwestern University, where he studied acting and playwriting, Allison was a fellow of the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Program at the Juilliard School. In 1997, he directed his first feature film, Red Meat – a black comedy about misogyny. In 2000, he wrote the original script for Autumn in New York, starring Richard Gere and Winona Ryder. His first novel, Christopher, was a finalist for the 2004 PEN Center USA Literary Award in Fiction. His second novel, The House Beautiful, was published in October 2006.

In a one-year period, three scripts which Allison wrote for Lakeshore Entertainment will have gone before the camera. The first, Allison’s adaptation of Charles Baxter’s novel The Feast of Love, was shot in the summer of 2006, directed by Robert Benton and starring Morgan Freeman and Greg Kinnear; his rewrite of Untraceable, directed by Greg Hoblit, and starring Diane Lane, started shooting in February 2007; and his adaptation of Andrea Di Robilant’s A Venetian Affair, starts shooting in Venice, Italy, in the spring of 2007, directed by Marco Ponti.

MIKE MEDAVOY (Producer) has the distinction of playing a role in the success of some of the best American films over the past forty years. From agent to studio chief and now producer, he has been involved in over 300 feature films, 17 of which have received Academy Award® nominations for Best Picture with seven of those actually taking home the Oscar®.

The year 2006 marks the tenth anniversary of Phoenix Pictures the company Medavoy formed with his partner Arnold Messer. Today, Phoenix has made more than thirty films, including The Thin Red Line and The People vs. Larry Flynt. The most recent releases include All The Kings Men starring Sean Penn, Jude Law, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Mark Ruffalo and Kate Winslet, written and directed by Steve Zaillian, and Miss Potter, starring Renee Zellweger, Ewan McGregor and Emily Watson, directed by Chris Noonan. In 2007, Phoenix Pictures will release Pathfinder, starring Karl Urban and directed by Marcus Nispel, followed by Zodiac, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Robert Downey Jr., directed by David Fincher, and License to Wed, starring Robin Williams, John Krasinski, Mandy Moore, directed by Ken Kwapis.

During his heralded career he has served as an agent to Steven Spielberg, Jane Fonda and Francis Ford Coppola, and as Chairman of Tri-Star Pictures and as a Co-Founder of Orion Pictures he has brought to the screen classics like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Rocky, Platoon, Dances With Wolves, The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, and Mississippi Burning, to name a few.

Medavoy has received numerous awards such as the 1992 Motion Picture Pioneer of the Year Award, the 1998 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cannes Film Festival, the 1999 UCLA Neil H. Jacoby Award, which honors individuals who have made exceptional contributions to humanity, the 2004 Louis B. Mayer Motion Picture Award from Florida Atlantic University and the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television Award and the Producers’ Guild of America Vision Award. Finally, in 2005, Medavoy was honored by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

BOB YARI (Producer) is one of the most prolific film producers of recent years, and is president and founder of the Yari Film Group (YFG). Dedicated to film financing, production,

and distribution, YFG has emerged as one of the most successful independent film companies in the movie industry, fielding a diverse creative output of commercial fare. Separately, Yari is also the head of Bob Yari Productions.

Yari produced one of 2005’s most acclaimed films, Paul Haggis’ sleeper hit Crash. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards®, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won the top prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards for its ensemble cast, among other honors. Additionally, Yari produced Richard Shepard’s The Matador, for which Pierce Brosnan earned a Golden Globe Award nomination, Shainee Gabel’s A Love Song for Bobby Long, for which Scarlett Johansson earned a Golden Globe Award nomination, Florent Siri’s Hostage, Mike Mills’ Thumbsucker, David Duchovny’s House of D and Ben Younger’s Prime, starring Meryl Streep and Uma Thurman.

Recently in theaters were Neil Burger’s The Illusionist, starring Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti and Jessica Biel; Adam Rapp’s Winter Passing, starring Ed Harris, Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell and Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Sidney Lumet's Find Me Guilty, starring Vin Diesel. Mark Fergus’ First Snow, starring Guy Pearce, also produced by Yari was released in March of ’07. His other recent productions include John Curran’s The Painted Veil, starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, and Lasse Hallström’s The Hoax, starring Richard Gere.

Yari recently wrapped production Accidental Husband, starring Uma Thurman, as well as Addicted, with Sara Michelle Gellar attached.

After receiving a degree in cinematography, Yari began his industry career with producer Edgar J. Scherick and soon segued into producing and directing, helming the thriller Mind Games. He is also a successful real estate executive, with projects encompassing syndication, construction, development, and redevelopment of commercial and residential assets throughout the United States.

MARC FRYDMAN (Producer) recently produced the WWI epic Flyboys with Dean Devlin. The film stars Jean Reno and James Franco. In 2005, he produced The Jacket, with

George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh. The film stars Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley.

Frydman and his producing partner, writer-director Rod Lurie, most recently executive produced the dramatic television series Commander In Chief for Touchstone Television and ABC as part of an overall multi-year deal between the studio and their company, Battle Plan Productions.

In 2002, Frydman executive produced Lurie’s one-hour television drama pilot, Line of Fire, in conjunction with ABC, Touchstone and DreamWorks. The series was given a thirteen episode commitment and aired on ABC in the fall of 2003, making Frydman the first French executive producer of a major network television series. The drama series was called the “best new show of the year” by the Associated Press and The Miami Herald.

Frydman began his career as part of the founding team that created the French pay TV channel Canal +, where he eventually became the Vice President of Feature Film Co-productions. In 1992, when Canal + created Hexagon Films, Frydman became Hexagon’s President of Film Production. During his time at Hexagon, Frydman produced Boiling Point with Wesley Snipes, Stargate with Kurt Russell and Murder in the First with Christian Slater, Kevin Bacon and Gary Oldman.

After forming Battle Plan Productions, Frydman produced Deterrence and The Contender, both written and directed by Lurie and released by DreamWorks. He also executive produced Sex Monster directed by Mike Binder, Nil By Mouth directed by Gary Oldman (Official Selection Cannes 1997), Scenes of the Crime with French director Dominique Forma, and Lurie’s short film The Nazi (Official Selection of the 2003 Sundance Film Festival).

ADAM KANE (Director of Photography) has worked as a cinematographer on over 25 feature films including Shanghai Red, on location in China, New Line’s The Man, The Boondock Saints, Love & Sex, Romeo Must Die, Bitter Harvest and The Clearing, which won Best Film at the Austin Film Festival (1997).

His television credits include NBC’s War Stories and The West Wing, CBS’s Hack, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and the critically acclaimed Line of Fire, as well as pilots for NBC’s Heroes, FOX’s Reunion, Paramount TV’s Level 9 and Columbia Tri-Star’s Sam’s Circus.

Kane received the Mobius Award for Best Commercial Work (2002) and the Golden Camera at the US International Film & Video Festival (1998). He also received special recognition at The New York Film Festival for Conversations in Limbo and won two Best Cinematography Awards at The NYU Film Festival (1990 and 1991).