WELCOME TO MARWEN (2018) About The Director and Cast

ROBERT ZEMECKIS (Director /Screenplay/Producer ), and cast STEVE CARELL (Mark Hogancamp/Captain Hogie), and DIANE KRUGER (Deja Thoris)

ROBERT ZEMECKIS , p.g.a. (Directed by/Screenplay by/Produced by) won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Directors Guild of America Award for Best Director for the hugely successful and popular Forrest Gump.

The film's numerous honors also included Oscars for Best Actor (Tom Hanks) and Best Picture. Zemeckis reteamed with Hanks on the contemporary drama Cast Away, the filming of which was split into two sections, book-ending production on his film What Lies Beneath. Zemeckis and Hanks served as producers on Cast Away, along with Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke.

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

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

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

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

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

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

In 2004, Zemeckis produced and directed the motion-capture film The Polar Express, which starred Hanks. Most recently, he brought to the big screen the true-life story of The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, which starred Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson. In addition, he served as executive producer on both Monster House and the Queen Latifah comedy Last Holiday. Zemeckis produced and directed his second motion-capture film Beowulf, which was also produced by Rapke and Starkey. The feature starred Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie, and was based on one of the oldest surviving pieces of Anglo-Saxon literature, written sometime before 10th century A.D.

In November 2009, Zemeckis released another advanced motion-capture film: A Christmas Carol, based on the celebrated and beloved classic story by Charles Dickens. Rapke and Starkey also produced the film, which was released by Walt Disney Studios in November 2009.

Zemeckis returned to live-action direction with the critically acclaimed dramatic feature film Flight for Paramount Pictures, with Denzel Washington. Under the direction of Zemeckis, Washington received an Academy Award nomination for the role.

Zemeckis directed Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ben Kingsley in The Walk, the story of French high-wire artist Philippe Petit's crossing of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. He then directed the romantic thriller Allied, which starred Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard. The film tells the compelling story of the relationship between a Canadian intelligence officer and a French Resistance fighter against the backdrop of WWII in 1942 North Africa.

Currently, for television, Zemeckis will serve as executive producer on Medal of Honor, a new series for Netflix and will also executive produce Blue Book for the History Channel.

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Academy Award-nominated actor STEVE CARELL (Mark Hogancamp/Captain Hogie) has established himself as a multi-talented force in Hollywood. First gaining recognition for his contributions as a correspondent on Comedy Central's Primetime Emmy Award-winning The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Carell has successfully segued from the small screen to above-the-title status on the big screen, both in big-budget films and art-house indies.

Carell is starring in three films slated this fall including Welcome to Marwen. He can currently be seen opposite Timothee Chalamet in Amazon Studios' Beautiful Boy for director Felix van Groeningen. Based on the best-selling pair of memoirs from father and son David and Nic Sheff, the film chronicles the heartbreaking and inspiring experience of survival, relapse and recovery in a family coping with addiction over many years. The film was released on October 12.

In December, Carell will co-star in Vice, a biographical drama directed by Adam McKay about former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney. Carell will portray former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, starring opposite Christian Bale and Amy Adams. Annapurna will release the film on December 25, 2018.

In September 2017, Carell starred opposite Emma Stone in Battle of the Sexes, helmed by the Little Miss Sunshine directing duo Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris with a script by Academy Award winner Simon Beaufoy. The story centers on the 1973 epic tennis match between Billie Jean King (Stone) and Bobby Riggs (Carell). Carell also wrapped Amazon Studios' Last Flag Flying for director Richard Linklater, opposite Bryan Cranston and Laurence Fishburne, adapted from Darryl Ponicsan's novel of the same name. The three play old friends and naval officers who meet up to help Larry "Doc" Shepherd (Carell) bring home the body of his deceased son, killed in the Iraq war.

Carell lent his vocal talents in the animated feature Despicable Me in 2010, as the lead role of Gru. The international smash hit led to a sequel, Despicable Me 2, in 2013. After reprising his role, Carell returned for the third film in June 2017 as the voices for both Gru and his long-lost twin brother, Dru, in Despicable Me 3.

In 2016, Carell starred in Woody Allen's Café Society opposite Blake Lively, Parker Posey, Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg and Corey Stoll. Allen also served as the writer of the feature, produced by Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum and Edward Walson. The film had its world premiere at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Carell previously worked with Woody Allen on his 2004 film Melinda and Melinda.

In 2015, Carell starred in Paramount's Academy Award-nominated film The Big Short, for which he received an individual Golden Globe Award nomination for his performance as real-life money manager Mark Baum. The film was recognized with nominations for a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for Best Ensemble and a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture-Comedy. Prior to that, Carell starred opposite Julianne Moore and Ellen Page in Peter Sollett's Freeheld.

In 2014, Carell starred as John du Pont alongside Mark Ruffalo, Channing Tatum and Vanessa Redgrave in Bennett Miller's Oscar-nominated film Foxcatcher. For his revelatory performance, Carell received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, a SAG Award nomination in the category of Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama.

Carell's first lead in a feature, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which he co-wrote with director Judd Apatow, became a worldwide box-office sensation in 2005. The film was honored with an AFI Award as one of the 10 Best Movies of the Year by the American Film Institute and took home Best Comedy Movie honor at the 11th annual Critics' Choice Awards. The film also earned Carell and Apatow a co-nomination for Best Original Screenplay by the Writers Guild of America.

Carell played the lead role of Maxwell Smart in Get Smart, which also starred Anne Hathaway and Alan Arkin for director Peter Segal. As part of an ensemble, Carell starred in Little Miss Sunshine, which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture in 2006, and garnered the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Carell also starred in Crazy, Stupid, Love. opposite Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, which was produced by his production company Carousel Productions.

Additional film credits include Seeking a Friend for the End of the World; the comedy drama Hope Springs, alongside Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones; the comedy The Way Way Back, opposite Toni Collette and Allison Janney; Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, opposite Jennifer Garner; and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, opposite Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate and Paul Rudd. Additional vocal work includes The Mayor of Whoville in Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who!, opposite Jim Carrey, and Hammy in Over the Hedge for DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures.

Carell concluded a seven-season run in the Americanized adaptation of Ricky Gervais' acclaimed British TV series The Office, earning six Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Comedy Series and three, as a producer, for Best Comedy Series. In 2006, Carell earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series-Musical or Comedy, followed by five more nominations for his work on the series. In 2007 and 2008, the cast shared the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.

In 2016, Carell and his wife, Nancy, premiered two seasons of Angie Tribeca, a TBS police comedy series they created, starring Rashida Jones. Carell serves as executive producer, writer and director on the show, which is produced under Carousel Productions. Angie Tribeca debuted its third season on April 10, 2017.

Born in Massachusetts, Carell resides in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Nancy Carell (Saturday Night Live). He is a proud father of a daughter and a son.

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DIANE KRUGER (Deja Thoris) was most recently seen in the German film In the Fade, directed by Fatih Akin. The film premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival where Kruger was awarded Best Actress for her performance. Among other accolades, In the Fade was awarded Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globe Awards and Critics' Choice Movie Awards in 2018.

Up next for Kruger is Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy starring Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern, and Yuval Adler's spy thriller The Operative opposite Eric Bana.

Last year, Kruger was seen in the French thriller film Tout Nous Separe opposite Catherine Deneuve where a mother and daughter's lives are upended by a pair of street thugs. In 2016, she starred in The Infiltrator, opposite Bryan Cranston as an undercover agent working to infiltrate the money-laundering underworld of drug lord Pablo Escobar in a true story about the life of Robert Mazur in the 1980s.

In 2015, she starred in Disorder opposite Matthias Schoenaerts and the Fabienne Berthaud directed Sky opposite Norman Reedus. Additionally, she was seen in Fathers and Daughters opposite Russell Crowe, Aaron Paul and Amanda Seyfried, which portrays a story about a Pulitzer-winning writer (Crowe) grappling with being a widower and father after a mental breakdown, while, 27 years later, his grown daughter (Seyfried) struggles to forge connections of her own. Kruger also starred opposite Jason Clarke in the 2014 Terrence Malick-produced film The Better Angels, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival.

Kruger made her television debut in the critically acclaimed FX drama The Bridge in 2013 as Detective Sonya Cross, working to hunt down a serial killer operating on both sides of the American-Mexican Border. The show aired for two seasons on FX and won a Peabody Award.

In one of her most memorable roles, Kruger played Bridget von Hammersmark in Quentin Tarantino's critically acclaimed hit Inglourious Basterds, opposite Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz and Mike Myers. The film premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 2009, then reached number one at the box office, grossing over $300 million worldwide. For her performance, Kruger earned a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role and won the SAG Award as part of the ensemble cast. Kruger also starred as Marie Antoinette in Benoit Jacquot's film Farewell, My Queen, which opened the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival to rave reviews.

Born in Germany, Kruger was first launched to international fame as the infamous Helen in Wolfgang Petersen's Troy, opposite Pitt and Orlando Bloom. That same year, she starred with Josh Hartnett in Paul McGuigan's Wicker Park. She has since starred in both the U.S. and in Europe in such films as the Oscar-nominated French film Joyeux Noel; Copying Beethoven, with Ed Harris; Goodbye Bafana, Bille August's ode to Nelson Mandela, also starring Joseph Fiennes; and Anything for Her (Pour elle), from director Fred Cavaye.

Kruger is also known for her roles in the sci-fi thriller The Host, alongside Saoirse Ronan; her dual role in Mr. Nobody, with Jared Leto, Sarah Polley and Rhys Ifans; and Baltasar Kormakur's harrowing indie feature about organ trafficking, Inhale, which also starred Sam Shepherd, Dermot Mulroney and Patricia Arquette. Kruger also starred opposite Djimon Hounsou in the French-filmed action adventure Special Forces, from director Stephane Rybojad, and the high-grossing Jerry Bruckheimer-produced National Treasure films opposite Nicolas Cage.

Kruger is an ambassador for The Global Fund and a strong supporter of amfAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research), UNICEF and Stand Up To Cancer. She currently resides in New York.