GLASS (2019) About The Crew

M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN (Directed/Written/Produced by), JASON BLUM (Produced by), MARC BIENSTOCK (Produced by), ASHWIN RAJAN (Produced by), STEVEN SCHNEIDER (Executive Producer), GARY BARBER (Executive Producer), ROGER BIRNBAUM (Executive Producer), KEVIN FRAKES (Executive Producer), MICHAEL GIOULAKIS (Director of Photography), CHRIS TRUJILLO (Production Designer), LUKE CIARROCCHI (Edited by), PACO DELGADO (Costume Designer), and WEST DYLAN THORDSON (Music by)

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

Screenwriter, director and producer M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN (Directed/Written/Produced by) has captured the attention of audiences around the world for almost two decades, creating films that have amassed more than $3 billion worldwide. His thrillers include The Sixth Sense , Unbreakable , Signs , The Village and The Visit .

Most recently Shyamalan released the thriller Split with Universal Pictures, which was No. 1 at the box office for three weeks in a row.

In 2015, Shyamalan teamed up with Universal Pictures on the horror hit The Visit . Bringing in close to $100 million at the worldwide box office, The Visit was one of the highest grossing horror films of the year.

Shyamalan’s first foray into television also took place in 2015 when he executive produced and directed the pilot Wayward Pines . The highly anticipated 10-episode event series, based on a best-selling novel, brought to life by Shyamalan premiered May 14, 2015, on FOX. The show quietly turned into a fan favorite, becoming the No. 1 watched drama of the summer.

Shyamalan is producing a television series for Apple Television. The half-hour thriller, written by Tony Basgallop, has received a 10-episode order for Apple’s upcoming streaming platform. Shyamalan will direct the first episode.

Shyamalan began making films at a young age in his hometown near Philadelphia and by 16 he had completed 45 short films. Upon finishing high school he attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts to study filmmaking. During his final year at NYU, Shyamalan wrote Praying with Anger , a semiautobiographical screenplay about a student from the U.S. who goes to India and finds himself a stranger in his homeland. The film was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival alongside Reservoir Dogs and Strictly Ballroom . In the years that followed, Shyamalan wrote Stuart Little for Columbia Pictures, and completed his first mainstream feature, Wide Awake , a film that explored a boy’s search to discover his faith.

In 1999, The Sixth Sense , which starred Bruce Willis, catapulted Shyamalan into stardom and he became one of the most sought-after young filmmakers in Hollywood. One of the highest-grossing films of all time, The Sixth Sense received a total of six Academy Award® nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

Shyamalan collaborated with Willis again in 2000 on the film Unbreakable , which also starred Samuel L. Jackson. A film ahead of its time, Unbreakable has become an underground hit in the years since its release. Shyamalan once again explored the idea of a man questioning his faith in the 2002 box-office success Signs , which starred Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix.

In 2004, Shyamalan released The Village , which starred Bryce Dallas Howard and Phoenix. The film explores an isolated community and the treaty they hold with the mysterious creatures living in the surrounding forest. In his next film, Lady in the Water , Shyamalan explored the supernatural world of a dark bedtime story. In 2008, Shyamalan wrote, directed and produced The Happening , which starred Mark Wahlberg. The film follows a man and his family as they try to escape from an inexplicable natural disaster. His other feature credits include The Last Airbender , Shyamalan’s first foray into family entertainment, and After Earth , an original sci-fi father-and-son story, which starred Will Smith and Jaden Smith.

Shyamalan also devotes his time to the philanthropic projects of his foundation, which he cofounded with his wife, Dr. Bhavna Shyamalan, in 2001. The M. Night Shyamalan Foundation is dedicated to supporting remarkable leaders and their grassroots efforts to remove the barriers created by poverty and inequality in their communities.

With a great love for his hometown, Shyamalan is known for filming his movies in Philadelphia and its surrounding area. He currently resides in Pennsylvania with his family.

JASON BLUM (Produced by) founder of Blumhouse Productions, is a two-time Academy Award®-nominated and two-time Primetime Emmy Award and Peabody Award-winning producer. His multi-media company is known for pioneering a new model of studio filmmaking: producing high-quality micro-budget films.

Blumhouse is widely regarded as a driving force in the current horror renaissance. Its 2017 blockbusters Split from M. Night Shyamalan and Get Out from Jordan Peele, with combined budgets of less than $15 million, went on to gross more than $500 million worldwide. In addition, Get Out was nominated for four Academy Awards® in 2018—including Best Picture—and won the Oscar® for Best Original Screenplay. In October, the company’s Halloween posted the second-highest opening ($76 million) for a horror movie after IT .

Blumhouse has also produced the highly profitable The Purge , Insidious , Sinister and Paranormal Activity franchises, which together have grossed more than $1.6 billion at the global box office. Paranormal Activity , which was made for $15,000 and grossed close to $200 million worldwide, launched the Blumhouse model and became the most profitable film of all time. The company’s titles also include The Gift , Unfriended and The Visit . Blum, who was nominated for an Academy Award® for producing Whiplash , has appeared on Vanity Fair ’s “New Establishment List” each year since 2015, received the 2016 Producer of the Year Award at CinemaCon and was named to the TIME 100 list of the world’s most influential people in 2017.

In television, Blum won Primetime Emmy Awards for producing HBO’s The Normal Heart and The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst and two Peabody Awards—for The Jinx and the documentary How to Dance in Ohio. In 2017, Blum launched an independent television studio with investment from ITV Studios. Recent television projects include Sharp Objects , a miniseries for HBO which starred Amy Adams and was based on Gillian Flynn’s best-selling novel of the same name, and a miniseries for Showtime based on journalist Gabriel Sherman’s reporting on former Fox News Chief Roger Ailes with Russell Crowe as Ailes. Blumhouse also brought The Purge franchise to television, co-producing a series with Universal Cable Productions for USA Network.

Blumhouse’s multi-platform offerings include BH Tilt, a distribution company that takes advantage of new marketing strategies; Blumhouse Books, a publishing imprint with Doubleday; the digital genre network CryptTV; and Blumhouse Live, which produces live scary events for companies like AB InBev.

Blum is a member of the Sundance Institute’s Director’s Advisory Group. He also serves on the Board of the Public Theater in New York and the Board of Trustees for Vassar College. Before founding Blumhouse, Blum served as co-head of the Acquisitions and Co-Productions department at Miramax Films in New York. He began his career as the producing director of the Malaparte Theater Company, which was founded by Ethan Hawke.

He is married to journalist and screenwriter Lauren Blum and they have a daughter, Roxy, and a son, Booker.

MARC BIENSTOCK (Produced by) has reteamed with M. Night Shyamalan to produce Glass for Universal Pictures/Walt Disney Studios, the trilogy’s finale to Split and Unbreakable . Bienstock produced Split , which grossed $280 million worldwide. Prior to that, Bienstock produced The Visit for Shyamalan, which grossed $100 million worldwide. More recently, Bienstock executive produced Body Cam for Paramount Players and produced Life in a Year for Sony Pictures and Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment. In addition, Bienstock executive produced the adaptation of the popular young adult novel Before I Fall , which had a world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, and he also produced Sacha Gervasi’s November Criminals for Sony Pictures, which starred Ansel Elgort and Chloë Grace Moretz. He is currently reteaming with Sony and Overbrook to produce Charm City , written by Barry Jenkins.

Previously Bienstock served as a consulting production executive for AwesomenessTV from 2015 to 2017 and WWE Films from 2013 to 2015, where he managed production for film and television projects. In 2011, Bienstock teamed with Lionsgate Films to launch Guerilla Films, Lionsgate’s micro-budget division, which produced and released six films during his tenure from 2011 to 2013.

Previously, Bienstock served as the senior vice president of production for the independent production and foreign sales company Lightning Entertainment. Bienstock managed all creative and production activities for the company’s film and television divisions. During his 10-year tenure at Lightning, Bienstock produced films and television series in Mexico, Canada, Asia, Europe and throughout the United States.

Additional producer credits include All Saints ; The Trials of Cate McCall , which starred Kate Beckinsale and Nick Nolte; Nurse 3D ; The Remaining ; School Dance with Nick Cannon and Kevin Hart; Quarantine 2: Terminal ; Preacher’s Kid ; Pathology ; and the Wild Things franchise.

Bienstock began his career directing music videos and commercials after graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1987. He also directed two television films, The Beneficiary and Indiscreet prior to shifting his attention to producing in 1998.

ASHWIN RAJAN (Produced by) is a film and television producer as well as the president of production for Blinding Edge Pictures, the production company for two-time Oscar®-nominated writer/director M. Night Shyamalan. Most recently, Rajan was an executive producer on the thriller Split , which was released with Universal Pictures in January 2017 and was No. 1 at the box office for three weeks in a row.

Previously, Rajan executive produced The Visit , the box-office horror success for Universal Pictures. The Visit was the highest-grossing original horror film of 2015.

Rajan’s credits also extend to television. He is currently executive producing a series for Apple TV with Shyamalan. The half-hour thriller, written by Tony Basgallop, has received a 10-episode order for Apple’s upcoming streaming platform.

Previously, Rajan executive produced the hit event series Wayward Pines , which premiered on FOX on May 14, 2015. Wayward Pines was brought to life by Shyamalan and was based on the best-selling novel “Pines,” written by Blake Crouch. The 10-episode event series debuted simultaneously in more than 125 countries. The global Wayward Pines debut was FOX’s largest day-and-date launch for a scripted series ever.

Rajan grew up in Mahopac, New York, and attended Johns Hopkins University, where he majored in economics and business management. Prior to joining Blinding Edge Pictures, Rajan was an agent at United Talent Agency (UTA) where he represented filmmakers, actors and musicians. He currently resides in the Philadelphia area.

A former film critic with graduate degrees in philosophy and cinema studies from Harvard University, New York University and the University of London, STEVEN SCHNEIDER (Executive Producer) quickly rose through the ranks in Hollywood to become one of the industry’s most sought-after producers of dark-genre fare.

After publishing numerous books on horror and world cinema, including the international best seller “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die” (currently in its 10th edition and translated into over 20 languages), Schneider moved to Los Angeles in 2003 to pursue a career in producing. On the heels of 2007’s record-breaking Paranormal Activity , a film he found and helped usher to the big screen, Schneider amassed a slate of impressive feature and television projects with top filmmakers at the helm.

Producing credits include Insidious , The Devil Inside and the various installments of Paranormal Activity —all micro-budgeted horror movies that have established new box-office records both domestically and around the world. He was also a producer on Barry Levinson’s The Bay , Rob Zombie’s The Lords of Salem , James Wan’s Insidious: Chapter 2 , Pascal Laugier’s The Tall Man , Adam Wingard’s Blair Witch and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit .

Schneider most recently was an executive producer on Shyamalan’s 2017 hit thriller Split , which debuted at No. 1 at the box office and grossed over $278 million worldwide. Upcoming releases include Pet Sematary from Paramount on April 5, 2019.

Schneider’s film publications include “Horror Film and Psychoanalysis: Freud’s Worst Nightmare” (Cambridge University Press), “Horror International” (Wayne State University Press), “100 European Horror Films” (British Film Institute), “New Hollywood Violence” (Manchester University Press), “Dark Thoughts: Philosophic Reflections on Cinematic Horror” (Scarecrow Press) and “Underground U.S.A.: Filmmaking Beyond the Hollywood Canon” (Wallflower Press).

GARY BARBER (Executive Producer) is a South African-born American film producer. Barber was the chairman and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He is also co-founder of Spyglass Entertainment. In December 2010, Barber became chief executive officer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Under his leadership, MGM together with Eon Productions and Sony Pictures financed the successful James Bond film Skyfall , which grossed $1.1 billion. MGM then also financed The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), 21 Jump Street (2012) and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013). MGM then finally moved forward with remakes of RoboCop. Barber executive produced M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable .

Barber has three daughters and lives in Los Angeles.

ROGER BIRNBAUM (Executive Producer) is a highly successful film producer who currently makes films under his banner, Cave 76 Productions. Most recently, together with Rebel Wilson, Birnbaum produced The Hustle , which stars Wilson along with Anne Hathaway. The film, directed by Chris Addison, will be released this spring.

Birnbaum produced the 2017 version of Death Wish , which was directed by Eli Roth and starred Bruce Willis. In 2016, Birnbaum produced The Magnificent Seven , which starred Chris Pratt and Denzel Washington. It opened at No. 1 the weekend it was released. It was also the opening night film of the Toronto Film Festival and the closing night film of the Venice Film Festival. Birnbaum has been working with the Israeli directors of Big Bad Wolves , Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado, on their original project, Till Death . Principal photography is set to start early this year, and the film stars Jason Sudeikis and Evangeline Lily. Birnbaum has several projects in development including a remake of 12 Angry Men .

Before launching Cave 76 Productions, Birnbaum served as co-chairman and co-CEO of MGM. During his term he oversaw Skyfall and The Hobbit movies, along with the television series Vikings and the development of Fargo . Birnbaum co-founded the production, finance and distribution company Spyglass Entertainment in 1998, where he held the title of co-chairman and CEO. Spyglass box-office successes range from The Sixth Sense to Bruce Almighty . Prior to founding Spyglass Entertainment, Birnbaum co-founded Caravan Pictures, where he produced films such as Six Days Seven Nights and Grosse Point Blank . Additionally, Birnbaum produced the entire Rush Hour franchise with New Line Cinema. Before joining Caravan, Birnbaum served as president of worldwide production and executive vice president at 20th Century Fox where he oversaw the development and production of such films as Home Alone , Edward Scissorhands , The Last of the Mohicans and Die Hard 2 . Birnbaum is an American Film Institute trustee and served as the co-artistic director of the institute for two years.

KEVIN FRAKES (Executive Producer) is the CEO of PalmStar Media, a motion picture finance and production company. Frakes founded PalmStar in 2001 while an undergraduate at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where he received a BFA in film and television production. Frakes also has an MBA from Yale University. Film credits include Celeste & Jesse Forever , John Wick , Sing Street , Split and John Wick: Chapter 2 .

Frakes lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter.

Before his career as a cinematographer, MICHAEL GIOULAKIS (Director of Photography) studied the trumpet and earned a degree in fine arts at Florida State University. He’s been shooting feature films since 2010 and his latest, a social horror-thriller titled Us directed by Jordan Peele, will be released by Universal Pictures this March.

Gioulakis shot Under the Silver Lake , directed by David Robert Mitchell, with whom he also made It Follows . He was nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award for It Follows and the $2 million-budget film took in over $20 million at the box office.

Other credits include M. Night Shyamalan’s 2016 psychological thriller Split . He also shoots commercials for high-end clients such as Samsung and IBM.

Gioulakis is currently working on Shyamalan’s untitled series for Apple.

CHRIS TRUJILLO (Production Designer) is a New York-based production designer with a background in fine arts. He cut his art-department teeth in the world of television commercials and music videos. He transitioned into feature film as an art director and set decorator on a number of critically acclaimed projects including Ti West’s The House of the Devil and Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture . As a production designer, Trujillo has spent several years making films in New York City and on location all over the country, including Xan Cassavetes’ Kiss of the Damned , Sara Colangelo’s Little Accidents and Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman’s Nerve . His most recent design work has been on the award-winning Netflix series Stranger Things with Matt and Ross Duffer, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 2017.

Glass marks LUKE CIARROCCHI ’s (Edited by) third feature film as lead editor for director M. Night Shyamalan. 2015’s The Visit was Ciarrocchi’s first feature film as lead editor. The low-budget horror-thriller went on to gross nearly $100 million worldwide and became one of 2015’s most profitable films. His second feature, 2017’s Split , would open at No. 1 at the box office and stayed there for three weekends in a row. In the end grossing nearly $300 million on a $9 million budget, Split would be recognized by many critics awards and launch the Unbreakable universe, Shyamalan’s ahead-of-its-time comic book drama released in 2000, back into the pop-culture consciousness teeing up both films’ culmination and conclusion in Glass . It’s a dream come true for Ciarrocchi to be a part of this wholly original trilogy, since the original film Unbreakable was given to him by his eldest brother Bruno when he was just 18 years old and preparing to start film school. It would become a cornerstone of his film education and now a cornerstone of his career.

PACO DELGADO (Costume Designer) has earned Academy Award®, BAFTA, Critics’ Choice, Costume Designers Guild and Satellite Award nominations – among other accolades – for his films, The Danish Girl and Les Misérables with director Tom Hooper.

He costumed M. Night Shyamalan’s chilling schizophrenic thriller Split , which starred James McAvoy. His fantastical designs can be seen in the Ava DuVernay-directed Walt Disney Pictures’ adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s classic novel “A Wrinkle in Time.” He recently costumed for director Jaume Collet-Serra on Jungle Cruise , another Disney collaboration, and is in production with frequent collaborator Tom Hooper on Cats .

Delgado designed writer/director Pedro Almodóvar’s Bad Education and The Skin I Live In for which he received a Goya Award nomination. He won Goya, Gaudí and European Film Awards for his costume designs on the black-and-white film Blancanieves ( Snow White ) for writer/director Pablo Berger. His work on Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Biutiful , which starred Javier Bardem, earned him an Ariel Award nomination. He collaborated with writer-director Álex de la Iglesia on 800 Bullets. His other credits include The 33 for director Patricia Riggen, which starredAntonio Banderas and Juliette Binoche, and The Brothers Grimsby , directed by Louis Leterrier, and which starred Sacha Baron Cohen and Mark Strong.

In addition to his many feature-film accomplishments, Delgado is also a prolific costume designer for opera and theater productions. Drawing inspiration from the fashions of Greece, Rome, the Spanish Court of Philip II and the 1930s, Delgado counts among his many influences: Velázquez, Goya, Ingres, Manet, Picasso, Rothko, Bill Viola, Murnau, Max Ophüls, Renoir, Billy Wilder, Preminger and Woody Allen, as well as Bach, Philip Glass, Shakespeare and Calderón de la Barca.

Based in Madrid, Spain, Delgado is fluent in English, Spanish, Catalan, French and German. He earned a degree in physics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid before going on to study set and costume design at Institut del Teatre in Barcelona.

Delgado is a member of the Spanish cinema syndicate TACE and is represented by DDA.

WEST DYLAN THORDSON (Music by) is a composer and bandleader who got his start in the Twin Cities music scene before moving to New York with a developing career as a composer of film scores. After leading the band A Whisper in the Noise for many years, he caught his first big break when M. Night Shyamalan featured his version of Bob Dylan’s classic “The Times They Are A-Changin’” at the end of his film Lady in the Water .

Though Thordson’s move to New York was meant to be temporary, lasting only until the end of working on the film Foxcatcher , his rise in the ranks of film composers continued in 2015 when he scored every episode of the HBO hit series The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst . A consummate collaborator who has now worked with some of the biggest names in music, he has also developed a signature style and distinct way of recording instruments.

Other film credits include Caitlyn Greene’s upcoming August , Rachel Lambert’s In the Radiant City , David O. Russell’s Joy and Hank Bedford’s Dixieland . Documentary credits include Every Day , The Atomic States of America and The Art of the Steal .