2012 Movie Trailer
Centuries ago, the Mayans left us their calendar, with a clear end date and all that it implies. Since then, astrologists have discovered it, numerologists have found patterns that predict it, geologists say the earth is overdue for it, and even government scientists cannot deny the cataclysm of epic proportions that awaits the earth in 2012. A prophecy that began with the Mayans has now been well-chronicled, discussed, taken apart and examined. By 2012, we’ll know – we were warned.
2012 Movie Photo Trailer
Columbia Pictures presents a Centropolis production, a Roland Emmerich film, 2012. The film stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, with Danny Glover and Woody Harrelson. Directed by Roland Emmerich. Produced by Harald Kloser, Mark Gordon, and Larry Franco. Written by Harald Kloser & Roland Emmerich. Executive producers are Roland Emmerich, Ute Emmerich, and Michael Wimer. Director of Photography is Dean Semler ACS ASC. Production Designer is Barry Chusid. Edited by David Brenner, A.C.E. and Peter S. Elliot. Costume Designer is Shay Cunliffe. Co-Producers are Volker Engel and Marc Weigert. Music by Harald Kloser and Thomas Wander.
2012 is not yet rated by the Motion Picture Association of America. For future rating information, please visit www.filmratings.com. The film will be released in theaters nationwide on November 13, 2009.
ABOUT THE FILM
The idea for 2012 first occurred to writer/producer/composer Harald Kloser, Roland Emmerich’s writing partner. “Every civilization on Earth has a flood myth,” says Kloser. “Things are going wrong, society isn’t working anymore, and the planet starts over. Some people get a second chance to start a new culture, a new society, a new civilization.”
The idea crystallized as Kloser and Emmerich discovered a compelling hook on which to hang their contemporary flood story. The Mayan calendar is set to reach the end of its 13th cycle on December 21, 2012 – and nothing follows that date. That, of course, begs the question – if the calendar doesn’t continue, what will follow? “You will find millions of people, from all walks of life, who believe that in 2012 there will be some kind of shift in society, or a shift in spirit,” says Kloser. The scope and variety of theories provided inspiration for Emmerich and Kloser as they penned their screenplay.
The key for the director, who is well known for box office hits such as Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, would be to find a way to set 2012 apart from those disaster epics. “The more I talked with Harald about the story, the more I realized this is really something people today can relate to. There are a lot of philosophical and political elements, which I think add to the disaster element.”
Central to that was creating characters that would experience those philosophical and political upheavals, in effect creating the disaster on a human scale. John Cusack stars as Jackson Curtis, a writer whose devotion to his failed-but-possibly-brilliant novel broke up his marriage and left his family in flux. But Jackson remains a loyal dad and when the chips are down, he will prove he will do anything to save his family. Amanda Peet plays Jackson’s ex-wife, Kate, who maintains friendly contact with Jackson but has long tired of competing with his work for his attention. As the earth’s plates start to shift – destroying L.A. in the process – Jackson and his family will begin a desperate journey by land and air to survive to see the new world.
Meanwhile, at the very highest reaches of the world’s governments, there is a plan. They will not be able to save the entire human race, but they will be able to save some, and those will have the chance to begin society anew. President Thomas Wilson, played by Danny Glover, is very quick to understand the crisis the world is about to face – and equally quick to prevent mass hysteria by keeping the information secret. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays the president’s chief science advisor, Adrian Helmsley, who has managed to decode the earth’s messages and is determined to do what he can to help as many people as possible. Carl Anheuser, the president’s chief of staff played by Oliver Platt, might be pompous and quick-tempered, but he is equally determined to see society – at least, those in society who can afford it – survive. Thandie Newton, playing the president’s daughter, Laura, is shocked to find out what her father’s government has hidden from the world. In fact, it seems that the only man outside the government with any clue as to what is about to happen is the radio host (and maybe prophet) Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson), who broadcasts his predictions to anyone who will listen.
The screenplay that Kloser and Emmerich wrote is in many ways the largest scale that Emmerich has yet attempted. To bring it to the screen, he combines special and visual effects, which, the director says, allowed him the freedom to choose how best to bring a scene to life. “The objective is that the viewer can’t tell what we actually built and what’s a visual effect, made in the computer,” explains production designer Barry Chusid. “Hopefully, in the end, you watch the movie and ask, ‘Where did they find the mountain to build these things in?’”
For example, the production built a few outdoor “shaky floor” stages – giant sets built on gimbals that the director could move as his actors ran through. “Roland took an entire city street, with palm trees, concrete, facades of houses, and he put them all on these giant gimbals – these huge movers – and said, ‘You’re supposed to run across it and get into a car and drive off,’” says Cusack. By the end, he says, “I was in water, fire, earth, ash clouds, earthquakes, pretty much everything you can think of. I drove every vehicle you can think of away from every disaster you can think of. It was a little hectic.”
What could not be built by carpenters was built by computer animators, and to bring Emmerich’s vision to life, only CGI could suffice. “I’d walk on to the set and there would be an ocean of blue screen,” says Cusack. “But it’s not as difficult as I imagined it. Roland has everything worked out and can show you just how it will appear when it’s all done. He’s so confident that it becomes fun just to imagine what he’s imagining.”
“Pretty much everything about this movie is appealing to me,” says Marc Weigert, who serves as visual effects supervisor and co-producer of the film. “More than half the movie is visual effects. I think Roland has found a way to stick almost every natural disaster you can imagine into this film. L.A. is destroyed in a 10.5 earthquake by page 30. Yellowstone Park goes up in a thirty-mile-wide explosion of lava. But the real reason why it’s so much fun to work with Roland is that he brings something new, something different to every single scene. You might think, ‘Hm, I’ve seen movies with an earthquake.’ Well, no, you haven’t.”
2012 ended up being an enormous production, even by Emmerich’s scale. According to Cusack, “The scope of it is bigger than anything I’ve seen. Every page of the script was a scene where you wondered just what Roland had in mind, because it seemed so ambitious, so huge. But what’s interesting about watching Roland on the set is that he’s never pulling his hair out. He can be surrounded by massive sets or green screen, but he’s got it all in his head. He knows exactly what he wants it to look like, and he is able to command the armies necessary to bring it home. It’s pretty wild.”
ABOUT THE CAST
JOHN CUSACK (Jackson Curtis) is currently shooting Hot Tub Time Machine for MGM and his own New Crime Productions, the production company he founded in 1997. He will next be seen in The Factory. Also set for release in 2009 is Shanghai in which he stars opposite Gong Li and Chow Yun-Fat.
Previously Cusack wrote, produced, and starred in the political satire War Inc. Also for New Crime Productions, he starred in Grace Is Gone, which was distributed by The Weinstein Company.
Cusack recently starred in the romantic comedy Martian Child, with Amanda Peet and Oliver Platt; and the box office hit 1408, directed by Mikael Hafstrom.
Other credits include Harold Ramis’ dark comedy The Ice Harvest, based on Scott Phillips’ novel; and Runaway Jury, in which he starred opposite Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman. In 2003, Cusack joined Amanda Peet, Alfred Molina and Ray Liotta in the thriller Identity; and 2002 saw the release of Max, directed by Menno Meyjes and which Cusack also produced.
The actor was nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical for his work in High Fidelity, which was based on Nick Hornby’s novel of the same name. In addition to starring in the film, Cusack also co-produced and co-wrote the script with Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis. For his work in Being John Malkovich, the actor earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actor. That same year, he starred in Cradle Will Rock, which was written and directed by Tim Robbins.
Other film work includes Pushing Tin, The Thin Red Line, Grosse Pointe Blank, Con Air, Midnight in Garden of Good and Evil, which was directed by Clint Eastwood; City Hall, Woody Allen’s Shadows and Fog and Bullets Over Broadway; The Road to Wellville, True Colors, Broadcast News, Stand by Me, The Grifters, Adaptation, Eight Men Out and Better Off Dead. Cusack also starred in several romantic comedies, including Serendipity and America’s Sweethearts.
Cusack first gained attention of audiences in a number of 1980’s film classics such as The Sure Thing, Say Anything and Sixteen Candles.
Chiwetel Ejiofor (Adrian Helmsley) is currently shooting Phillip Noyce’s Salt with Angelina Jolie and Liev Schreiber.
His most recent films include Endgame, Ridley Scott’s American Gangster and Talk to Me, for which he won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male and starred opposite Don Cheadle; David Mamet’s Redbelt, Kinky Boots, Four Brothers, Spike Lee’s heist film Inside Man alongside Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer and Denzel Washington, and the Academy Award®-nominated Children of Men.
In 1998, Steven Spielberg cast Ejiofor in Amistad which starred Morgan Freeman and Anthony Hopkins and soon followed-up with roles in Richard Curtis’ Love, Actually, Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda, and Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty Things, which garnered the actor much critical acclaim and the Best Actor Award from the British Independent Film Awards, and the Evening Standard Film Awards.
Ejiofor television appearances include The Canterbury Tale – the Knight’s Tale, and he garnered a Golden Globe Award nomination as well as a NAACP Image Award for his work alongside Toni Collette and Tim Roth in Tsunami: The Aftermath.
The actor balances film and television work with theatre productions, including the title role in Michael Grandage’s Othello at the Donmar Warehouse, for which he won the 2008 Olivier Award for Best Actor, Roger Michell’s Blue/Orange, and the role of Romeo in Tim Supple’s production of Romeo and Juliet.
AMANDA PEET (Kate Curtis) is an accomplished and versatile film actress who is best known for her diverse choice of roles in romantic comedies, dramas and thrillers. She was most recently seen in X Files: I Want to Believe. In addition, Peet’s voice was featured in the animated film Terra along with the voices of Luke Wilson, Evan Rachel Wood, and Dennis Quaid.
Peet will begin filming 20th Century Fox’s Gulliver’s Travels starring Jack Black and Jason Segel this summer.
Peet also has recently been seen in the independent film What Doesn’t Kill You opposite Mark Ruffalo and Ethan Hawke. Peet just recently finished production on the Nicole Holofcenter dramatic comedy opposite Catherine Keener. This Sony Pictures Classic film is still without a title but is planning on a spring 2010 release.
Peet also joined John Cusack in the New Line Cinema drama The Martian Child. She starred as Jordan McDeere on Aaron Sorkin’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” alongside co-stars Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford.
In 2006, Peet made her Broadway debut in the revival of Neil Simon’s comedy, “Barefoot in the Park.” She and Patrick Wilson starred as newlyweds in Greenwich Village in the 1960s. Last summer, Peet starred to critical acclaim, in the Neil LaBute off-Broadway play “This Is How It Goes” opposite Ben Stiller and Jeffrey Wright.
Her numerous film credits include the Oscar®-nominated Warner Bros./Section Eight thriller, Syriana, also starring Matt Damon, George Clooney and Chris Cooper. In 2005 Peet starred alongside Ashton Kutcher in A Lot Like Love. Other credits include Woody Allen’s “Melinda and Melinda” opposite Will Ferrell; The Whole Nine Yards and its sequel The Whole Ten Yards; the 2003 hit Something’s Gotta Give with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton; and the thriller Identity, in which Peet starred alongside John Cusack and Ray Liotta in 2003. In 2002, Peet was seen in High Crimes, alongside Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd and Changing Lanes opposite Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Affleck and Sydney Pollack. That same year, she appeared as Jeff Goldblum’s mistress, a beautiful and privileged young woman who is hooked on drugs, in Igby Goes Down. Audiences first warmed to Peet when she starred as Jack on the hit television drama, “Jack and Jill.”
A native of New York, Peet graduated from Columbia University with a degree in American History. While there, she also studied acting under Uta Hagen, which ultimately lead her to pursue acting as a career.
OLIVER PLATT (Carl Anheuser) has enjoyed success in film, television and on stage. Most recently, Platt appeared in Ron Howard’s Frost / Nixon opposite Frank Langella, Kevin Bacon and Sam Rockwell and in the Harold Ramis comedy Year One opposite Jack Black and Michael Cera. He will next be seen in Nicole Holofcener’s Please Give opposite Catherine Keener.
Platt’s recent features include Casanova, directed by Lasse Hallström and The Ice Harvest with John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton. Other film credits include Funny Bones, Bulworth, Married to the Mob, Working Girl, Flatliners, Postcards From the Edge, Indecent Proposal, The Three Musketeers, A Time to Kill, Doctor Dolittle, Simon Birch, Lake Placid, Don’t Say a Word and Pieces of April.
Platt made his producing debut on the indie film Big Night, which was codirected by actors Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott. He would later reteam with Tucci in The Impostors. On television, Platt was seen playing the role of George Steinbrenner on the hit ESPN miniseries “The Bronx is Burning,” opposite John Turturro and Daniel Sunjata. His performance earned him a SAG nomination.
Platt graduated from Tufts University with a degree in drama and immediately began working in regional theater, as well as off-Broadway in such productions as “The Tempest” and John Guare’s “Moon Over Miami.” He also starred in the Lincoln Center production of “Ubu” and Jules Feiffer’s “Elliot Loves,” directed by Mike Nichols, and received rave reviews for his performance as Sir Toby Belch in Brian Kulick’s “Twelfth Night.”
Platt received a Tony nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actor for his work on Broadway in Conor McPherson’s “Shining City,” which was also nominated for Best Play. Other accolades include a Golden Globe and back-to-back Emmy nominations for his portrayal of Russell Tupper in Showtime’s “Huff” as well as an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal as White House Counsel Oliver Babish on the popular political drama “The West Wing.” He was also nominated again for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his recurring role on “Nip/Tuck” playing the flamboyant TV producer Freddy Prune.
The son of a career diplomat, Platt was born in Washington, D.C., and spent part of his childhood in Asia and the Middle East. Platt now resides in New York with his wife and three children.
Thandie Newton (Laura Wilson) was most recently seen in Oliver Stone’s W opposite Josh Brolin, in which she played Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, and Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla with Gerard Butler and Tom Wilkinson.
Previously she was in David Schwimmer’s comedy Run Fat Boy Run with Hank Azaria and Simon Pegg. Newton was praised for her work in the Academy Award-winning Best Picture of 2006, Crash, for which she received both SAG (Best Ensemble) and BAFTA (Outstanding Supporting Actress) Awards.
At age 16, while studying modern dance at the London Art Educational School, she won the lead role in the critically acclaimed 1990 coming-of-age film, Flirting. Newton returned to England to earn a B.A. with honors in anthropology at Cambridge, while also acting in feature films for Neil Jordan, Interview with a Vampire, and James Ivory’s Jefferson in Paris.
Other credits include Norbit, Gridlock’d, Bernardo Bertolucci’s Besieged, The Pursuit of Happyness, The Truth About Charlie, Mission Impossible 2 and Jonathan Demme’s Beloved.
Her television credits include guest appearances as Kem on NBC’s hit drama ER.
In June 2009, Newton volunteered at the Oprah Winfrey LeadershipAcademy for Girls (OWLAG) in South Africa during Arts & Culture Week which aims to enrich the lives of the students through an international exchange of creative cultural expression and experiences. They help the girls to achieve excellence across more than a dozen art genres, from cooking and sculpture to traditional storytelling and dance.
Danny Glover (President Thomas Wilson) is currently filming Neil LaBute’s Death at a Funeral. More recently, Glover was seen the Bill Condon’s critically acclaimed Dreamgirls, Po’Boy’s Game for director Clement Virgo, Antoine Fuqua’s Shooter as well as Michel Condry’s Be Kind, Rewind. Glover also recently appeared in ABC’s award-winning drama series Brothers and Sisters.
Glover has been a commanding presence on the screen, stage and television for more than 25 years. His film credits range from the blockbuster Lethal Weapon franchise to smaller independent films including To Sleep with Anger, which he executive produced and which garnered the actor the Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor, Bopha!, Manderlay, Missing in American and the film version of Athol Fugard’s play Boesman and Lena.
It was his Broadway debut in Fugard’s Master Harold…and the Boys, which brought him to national recognition and led director Robert Benton to cast Glover in his first leading role in the Academy Award®-nominated Places in the Heart. The following year, Glover starred in two more Best Pictures nominees; Peter Weir’s Witness and Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple.
Glover earned a Cable ACE Award, an Image Award, and an Emmy nomination for his performance in the HBO movie Mandela. The actor also received Emmy nominations for his work in Lonesome Dove and the telefilm Freedom Song.
In 2004, Glover co-founded Louverture Films, LLC, dedicated to the development and production of films of historical relevance, social purpose, commercial value, and artistic integrity. He has also gained respect for his wide-reaching community activism and philanthropic efforts. Glover currently serves as a UNICEF Ambassador and, in recognition of his dedication to public service, has been honored with the 2002 Marian Anderson Award, the 2003 NAACP Chairman’s Award, and the 2004 BET Lifetime Achievement Award.
Woody Harrelson (Charlie Frost) received Academy Award®, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Nominations as Best Actor for his critically acclaimed portrayal of controversial magazine publisher Larry Flynt in Milos Forman’s drama, The People vs. Larry Flynt. Other films include Play it to the Bone, The Thin Red Line, The Hi-Lo Country, Ed TV, Wag the Dog, Welcome to Sarajevo, Kingpin, Natural Born Killers, Indecent Proposal, White Men Can’t Jump, After the Sunset, North Country, Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion, Richard Linkletter’s A Scanner Darkly, Paul Schrader’s The Walker, and the Academy Award®-winning No Country for Old Men, directed by the Coen brothers.
In addition to 2012, Harrelson will star later this year in Zombieland for director Ruben Fleischer and in the independent films Defendor and Bunraku. Harrelson most recently co-starred with Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn in Management. He appeared opposite Will Smith in Seven Pounds, and with Mike Epps and Ray Romano in The Grand, an improvisational comedy centered around a poker tournament, directed by Zak Penn. He also starred opposite Will Ferrell in Semi-Pro, a comedy about the waning days of the American Basketball Association. In TransSiberian, Harrelson and Emily Mortimer portrayed an American couple who board the TranSiberian express and are plunged into a web of duplicity and murder. He reteamed with his North Country co-star Charlize Theron in Sleepwalkers and in The Battle in Seattle, with Theron and Andre Benjamin.
The actor combined his environmental activism with his film efforts in Ron Mann’s Go Further, a road documentary following Woody and friends on a bicycle journey down the Pacific Coast Highway from Seattle to Santa Barbara.
Harrelson first endeared himself to millions of viewers as a member of the ensemble cast of NBC’s long-running hit comedy, Cheers. For his work as the affable bartender Woody Boyd, the actor won an Emmy in 1988 and was nominated four additional times during his eight-year run on the show. He appeared as a recurring guest-star on the hit series Will and Grace, and reprised his role of Woody Boyd on a very special episode of Frasier.
In 1999, the actor revived a career-long commitment to the theatre by directing his own play, Furthest from the Sun at the Theatre de la Juene Lune in Minneapolis. He followed next with the Roundabout’s Broadway revival of the N. Richard Nash play The Rainmaker in 2000, Sam Sheperd’s The Late Henry Moss in 2001 and John Kolvenbach’s On An Average Day opposite Kyle MacLachlan in London’s West End in the fall of 2002. In the summer of 2003 Harrelson directed the Toronto premiere of Kenneth Lonergan’s This is Our Youth at the Berkeley Street Theatre. In the winter of 2005/2006 Harrelson returned to London’s West End, starring in Tennessee Williams’ Night of the Iguana.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Roland Emmerich (Director, Screenwriter, Executive Producer) most recently directed, wrote and produced the prehistoric epic 10,000 B.C., which was released by Warner Bros. during the spring of 2008.
His previous films include the box-office hits Independence Day starring Will Smith; The Day After Tomorrow with Jake Gyllenhaal and Dennis Quaid; The Patriot with Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger; Godzilla, Stargate and Universal Soldier, which was his first American film.
Emmerich began his career in his native Germany where studied film at the Munich Film School. His student thesis, the feature length film The Noah’s Ark Principle, went on to compete in the 1984 Berlin Film Festival and was subsequently released in more than 20 countries. Buoyed by his early success, Emmerich formed Centropolis Film Productions, and under its’ aegis produced, wrote and directed Making Contact (aka Joey), Ghost Chase, and Moon 44.
In 2007 Emmerich produced the film Trade, a gripping drama about human trafficking in Mexico and the U.S.
HARALD KLOSER (Producer, Screenwriter, Composer) previously wrote, executive produced and composed for the prehistoric epic 10,000 B.C.
Primarily known in the film industry for his work as a composer, Kloser has written the music scores for a wide range of film and television projects, including Dresden, Alien vs. Predator and Roland Emmerich’s The Day After Tomorrow.
His previous credits include the features The Thirteenth Floor and The Harmonists, and the telefilm Sins of the Father.
Born in the small village of Hard, Austria, Kloser started out as a music teacher before becoming a professional musician. His composing career began in the world of pop and rock music, writing for such artists as Elton John, Falco, Al Jarreau, Tom Waits, and Jose Feliciano, among many others. In 1991, Kloser and his family relocated to Los Angeles, where he began his career as a film composer.
MARK GORDON (Producer) is an award-winning producer with more than 70 motion picture and television projects to his credit.
Gordon’s upcoming motion picture releases include The Messenger starring Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson which won the peace prize at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Gordon is currently shooting The Details with Tobey Maguire and Laura Linney.
Gordon’s motion picture credits include the epic adventure 10,000 BC, directed by Roland Emmerich; Kasi Lemmons’ Talk to Me, starring Don Cheadle; The Hoax, directed by Lasse Hallstrom and starring Richard Gere; and John Curran’s The Painted Veil, starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts; Casanova, starring Heath Ledger and directed by Lasse Hallstrom; Hostage, starring Bruce Willis; the Roland Emmerich-directed films The Day After Tomorrow, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Dennis Quaid, and The Patriot, starring Mel Gibson; Paulie, which won a BAFTA Award for Best Children’s Film; Broken Arrow, starring John Travolta; and Jan de Bont’s action hit Speed, which catapulted Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock to international stardom.
For television, Gordon is currently executive producer on the smash hit ABC series “Grey’s Anatomy,” spin-off series “Private Practice,” as well as the hit CBS drama “Criminal Minds,” Lifetime’s “Army Wives,” and the CW’s “Reaper.”
As an executive producer, Gordon’s film credits include Prime, starring Meryl Streep and Uma Thurman; The Matador, starring Pierce Brosnan; Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan; and The Jackal, starring Richard Gere, Bruce Willis and Sidney Poitier.
As a financier and international distributor Gordon’s films include Tomb Raider starring Angelina Jolie; Wonder Boys, directed by Curtis Hanson and starring Michael Douglas; Man on the Moon, starring Jim Carrey under the direction of Milos Forman; and Mike Nichols’ Primary Colors, starring John Travolta.
Gordon has produced more than a dozen longform television projects. He served as an executive producer on the HBO film “Warm Springs,” starring Kenneth Branagh, which received 16 Emmy nominations, winning five, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie. He also executive produced HBO’s “And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself,” directed by Bruce Beresford and starring Antonio Banderas, which garnered nine Emmy Award nominations; and produced “The War Between the Classes,” for which Gordon won an Emmy for Best Children’s Program. He also directed and produced the Emmy nominated “Children Remember the Holocaust.
Gordon is a five time Emmy nominee with two wins. He has been nominated for multiple Golden Globe Awards with two wins. He earned Academy Award® and BAFTA nominations and won a Golden Globe for Best Picture as producer of Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. The film also won Best Picture honors from the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London and Broadcast Film Critics, among others, and brought Gordon a Producer of the Year Award from the Producers Guild of America.
Gordon’s first producing effort was the off-Broadway production of “The Buddy System” at Circle in the Square downtown.
Gordon is the former chairman of Teach for America Los Angeles and a former board member of The Holocaust Documentation and Information Center. He is the current Vice President of the Producers Guild of America and is a board member of the Virginia Film Festival, UCLA Lab School, The Archer School for Girls, The Jewish Television Network, Chrysalis and The Motion Picture and Television Fund.
He is a graduate of New York University Film School.
LARRY FRANCO (producer) has amassed both an impressive and an eclectic list of feature film credits as a producer. Most recently, he produced the hit film The Spiderwick Chronicles, from director Mark Waters. Prior to that, he produced Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Katie Holmes, Ang Lee’s Hulk, starring Eric Bana and Jennifer Connelly, and the blockbuster Jurassic Park III, starring Sam Neill, William H. Macy and Téa Leoni. Jurassic Park III was directed by Joe Johnston and grossed over $350 million worldwide.
Franco and Johnston have maintained a long-term collaboration, which also includes the critically acclaimed and Humanitas Award-winning October Sky as well as Jumanji, starring Robin Williams, and The Rocketeer, starring Billy Campbell and Jennifer Connelly.
Tim Burton is another filmmaker with whom Franco has collaborated, producing Mars Attacks!, starring Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening and Pierce Brosnan. He also served as executive producer for Sleepy Hollow, starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci.
For many years, Franco teamed with director John Carpenter, producing Escape From New York starring Kurt Russell; Starman starring Jeff Bridges; Big Trouble in Little China; Prince of Darkness; and They Live.
He also co-produced Carpenter’s Christine and served as associate producer on The Thing. Additionally, he co-produced Tango & Cash starring Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell and Tim Burton’s Batman Returns, starring Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, and Michelle Pfeiffer. He served as line producer on Two Bits starring Al Pacino, and was associate producer on Cutter’s Way.
Franco started in the film industry as an assistant director working on numerous feature films, including lengthy duty on Francis Ford Coppola’s classic Apocalypse Now.
VOLKER ENGEL (Co-Producer, Visual Effects Supervisor) began his collaboration with Roland Emmerich on Moon 44, one of the director’s first American films. The two went on to work together on Universal Soldier and Independence Day, for which Engel won the Academy Award® for best visual effects. In 1999, after collaborating with Emmerich on Godzilla, Engel formed Uncharted Territory, LLC with Marc Weigert. The company produced the feature film Coronado the following year and co-produced the Sci-Fi Channel miniseries “Dark Kingdom” as well as the miniseries “The Triangle,” for which Engel received an Emmy Award in 2006.
MARC WEIGERT (Co-Producer, Visual Effects Supervisor) re-teams with Roland Emmerich having served as visual effects project manager on Independence Day. In 1999, Weigert and Academy Award® winner Volker Engel formed Uncharted Territory, LLC. Uncharted produced the feature film Coronado the following year and co-produced the Sci-Fi Channel miniseries “Dark Kingdom” as well as the miniseries “The Triangle,” for which Weigert received an Emmy Award in 2006.
In between producing feature and TV films, Uncharted Territory also provided visual effects services for The Day After Tomorrow and the intermedia title for Terminator 3.
Other credits for Weigert include Muppets From Space, Flubber, “The Drew Carey Show,” and many European movies and series. Weigert also served as visual effects producer and supervisor on a multitude of commercials and the ride film for Universal Studios Florida’s Harry Potter Islands of Adventure.
As VFX Project Manager for Independence Day, Weigert created Digital Assistant for Visual Effects, a project management software program which was subsequently sold to several major studios and has been used on films such as Stuart Little, Alien: Resurrection, Volcano, Godzilla, Wing Commander, Monkeybone and X-Men.
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