Synopsis – During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.

Director – Ridley Scott

Writers – Drew Goddard (screenplay), Andy Weir (book)

Starring – Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig

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During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring “the Martian” home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible rescue mission. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney’s safe return. Based on a best-selling novel, and helmed by master director Ridley Scott, THE MARTIAN features a star studded cast that includes Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sean Bean, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, Donald Glover, Mackenzie Davis, and Chiwetel Ejiofor

We’ve all had the feeling of being alone in the world. Only Mark Watney knows the feeling of being alone on Mars.

Presumed killed by a devastating windstorm that forced an emergency evacuation, Watney awakens, injured, and to stay alive he must react immediately. If he can maintain his resolve to not become Mars’ first human casualty, help is only a few years and a few million miles away.

“This is the ultimate survival story,” says director Ridley Scott. “Mark Watney is placed under unimaginable duress and isolation, and the movie is about how he responds. Mark’s fate will be determined by whether he succumbs to panic and despair and accepts death as inevitable – or chooses to rely on his training, resourcefulness and sense of humor to stay calm and solve problems. “

Watney’s humor becomes a coping device, enabling him to stave off hopelessness and keep his mind from fixating on the dire circumstances. His penchant to remain upbeat and optimistic is vital to the story, and one of the character traits that attracted Matt Damon to the role.

“I loved the humor, not only from Watney, but from other characters as well,” says Damon. “The comedic tone is never glib and it complements the intense drama of the situation, which is not often something associated with the sci-fi genre.”

Damon received the screenplay from producer Simon Kinberg, with whom he worked on Elysium. He sent it to Damon on a Friday and received an enthusiastic response by Sunday.

“Matt responded to the story in the same manner that the studio and I did,” recalls Kinberg. “He thought it was original, funny, exciting, and with a uniquely different take on a survival story. We couldn’t imagine anyone else as Mark Watney.”

The screenplay is based on an original novel by computer programmer-turned-writer Andy Weir. Aditya Sood was the first producer to read Weir’s eBook, prior to its 2014 hardcover publication by Random House, when it existed only online in series form and then as a eBook on Amazon.

Says Sood, “I thought it was one of the best sci-fi stories I’ve read. Everything that can go wrong for Watney does, and yet he keeps going. It has a very hopeful quality that makes it more than an exciting adventure movie.”

Kinberg was hooked after thirty pages, and Fox optioned the book on behalf of Kinberg’s Genre Films, which has a first-look deal at the studio. The book was then sent to red-hot screenwriter Drew Goddard, with an eye toward having him write and direct. Kinberg says Goddard turned in an exceptional draft within several months, despite, the producer says, the challenges of adapting a book with rigorous scientific and mathematical problem solving, numerous characters and layered storylines.

Goddard says, “I couldn’t put Andy’s book down. I grew up around scientists in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and I had never seen anyone capture the delightful oddity that is the modern scientist until I read Andy’s work. My approach to the adaption was to protect the vibrant soul of the book at all costs. “

With Goddard’s script and Damon’s interest, the project went into fast-track development, coming to a pause when Goddard accepted a directing assignment. This left the director’s chair ready to be filled by, according to Kinberg, “not just a great director, but a master director.” Several A-list helmers familiar with the project were circling when the producers received some unexpected news: Ridley Scott was available.

“Ridley is my favorite film director, and perfect for this story, but he was busy developing another film,” Kinberg recalls. “When we learned it was delayed, we immediately got the script to him. “

Says Scott: “I was fascinated by the near impossibility of Watney’s task and the team effort required, not only from NASA, but also international partners. Geopolitical rivals must overcome their differences and work together for the common goal of saving an astronaut’s life, and the entire world becomes transfixed by the size and complexity of that challenge.”

Goddard himself was elated to see his script in Scott’s hands, commenting, “I can still remember where I was sitting when I first saw the character of Roy Batty [portrayed by Rutger Hauer] reflect on c-beams glittering off the Tannhauser Gate in Blade Runner.  (I was sitting third row back, left side of the White Roxy Theater.  I was seven years old.)  Everything I have ever written has been influenced by Ridley Scott; his films are embedded in my creative DNA. To have this opportunity to work with him has been a genuine dream come true.”

For novelist Andy Weir, the whirlwind progression from a serialized internet piece to a major film production was a dream hard to believe. So he didn’t.

“I live in Northern California, and had never met my agent in New York, nor the movie producer and the Fox executives in L.A. So when they told me Ridley Scott was going to direct it I became convinced it had all been an elaborate hoax.”

Weir had intended his novel, which he meticulously researched and loaded with science and math, to be a “technical book for technical people. I had no idea mainstream readers would be interested at all, let alone like it.”

He began by simply imagining a manned mission to Mars, and then became consumed by the endless possibility of failure scenarios. “As a computer programmer for 25 years, I’ve learned the importance of a good backup,” he says. Weir posted new chapters every six to eight weeks for a growing word-of-mouth audience, completing the story in three years, at which point he put the book up for sale – for 99 cents – on Amazon, and was contacted by an agent. This led to communication with Genre Films and the beginning of what Weir calls “every writer’s fantasy come true.”

Weir’s story is set in the near future, roughly 12-15 years ahead, and virtually every scientific aspect of the book is plausible and supported by current theory. With one exception: given Mars’ low atmospheric pressure (less than one percent of Earth’s), a windstorm of the severity depicted by Weir is unfeasible.

“I needed a way to force the astronauts off the planet, so I allowed myself some leeway,” Weir confides. “Plus, I thought the storm would be pretty cool.”

That storm, occurring on the 18^th sol of a planned 31 sol mission, sends a piece of antenna through Watney’s suit, rendering him and his sensors inoperable. (A sol is the duration of a solar day on Mars, roughly 24 hours and 40 minutes.). From the moment of this freak accident, his ingenuity, resolve and courage will be tested to the upmost.

Says Damon: “Watney is a botanist and mechanical engineer, and is sent on the Mars mission to study and take samples of the soil, hopefully to learn more about its composition and the feasibility of growing crops. He has the knowledge and training to find ways to survive, but time is working against him. He believes it will likely be three to four years before the possibility of rescue. In man versus nature scenarios, the smart money is usually on nature.”

The most important battle Watney must fight is with his own will. Despair would be as detrimental as the hostile Martian environment. He keeps a video log of his activities, suspecting it may likely serve as his final testament, injecting it with scientific methodology and a fair dose of wit.

Andy Weir adds, “I based Mark on my own personality, though he’s smarter and braver than I am, and doesn’t have my flaws. I guess he’s what I wish I were like. He’s Matt Damon.”

Once of the most pleasant surprises Weir experienced while writing the story is the “how the minor characters grew in prominence throughout the story to become critical.”

In Goddard’s script, the astronauts and NASA personnel are equal parts of an ensemble. Scott fleshed out some of the action sequences and made Commander Melissa Lewis’ arc even more active, creating another of the strong female roles that have marked many of his previous films.

As leader of the third Mars mission, known as Ares III, Commander Lewis heads a crew of six, including Watney, and is in charge of the surface mission and the spacecraft that carried them there, the Hermes. The journey from Earth’s orbit to Mars required nine months, giving Lewis ample time to establish authority with her team, and for the astronauts to bond.

Jessica Chastain, who portrays Lewis says, “She is such a well-written character, another in the legacy of Ridley’s remarkable women characters. Lewis came from the Navy, and has to lead a team of specialists who are very smart and have very specific tasks to perform. She is friendly and personable with her crew, but wants to leave no doubt as to who is in charge.”

Having made the decision to leave Watney behind, believing him to be dead, Lewis feels an enormous measure of regret and guilt that will later affect her actions and the integrity of her command.

At Lewis’ side, as the Hermes’ pilot, is Rick Martinez (Michael Peña), who, in typical fly-boy fashion, is a wisecracking, highly confident military veteran. He exchanges humorous verbal jabs with Mark Watney during their initial days on Mars – before the storm and the ensuing disaster.

“I had done [the 2014 World War II action film] Fury prior to this and picked up on the ways that military guys joke around,” says Peña. “It’s kind of crass, but it helps keep everyone on their toes and pretending they’re not afraid of the danger they may be facing.”

Lewis, while occasionally allowing a smile to seep through, finds Watney and Martinez’s banter a bit tedious, as does fellow crewmember Beth Johanssen (Kate Mara), the mission’s techno wiz and cyber expert. The reserved Johanssen is essentially responsible for anything “computer nerdy.”

Says Mara: “I had a chance to meet with Ridley and discuss the role before I was even given the script. I had named one of my dogs after a character from Gladiator (“Lucious”) and have been a Ridley fan forever, so I of course I wanted to work with him.”

Mara was equally keen to work alongside Jessica Chastain, and “loved that she’s playing the commander. Johanssen looks up to Lewis, which is fitting for me, as I admire Jessica and respect the projects and choices she’s made in her career.”

Rounding out the crew of the Hermes is German chemist Alex Vogel (Aksel Hennie) and American flight surgeon Chris Beck (Sebastian Stan). Hennie, a popular actor in his native Norway for such films as Headhunters and Pioneer, says THE MARTIAN is “about both solitude and teamwork. It expresses some of the highest ideals of our humanity. It’s a wonderfully uplifting narrative which, on a personal level, I eagerly want and choose to believe in.”

In addition to his medical background, Beck, like the other astronauts, has been educated in other fields of science and is highly trained for numerous fail-safe scenarios. But they are well aware that every space journey has two possible destinations – the objective, and the unknown.

“I view these incredibly brave Martian explorers as our generation’s Lewis and Clark,” Beck says. “Exploration is part of the human DNA.”

At NASA, rattled administrators and engineers are still trying to comprehend that they sent six astronauts to Mars, and only five are returning. The best minds at NASA and its California-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory are now scrambling to find a way to get Watney home. It is the media event of the century. NASA and JPL executives and scientists find themselves in the eye of the storm – and the whole world is watching. Think your job is a pressure cooker? Step into the shoes of Annie Montrose (Kristen Wiig), NASA’s media relations director. Along with the challenge of extracting meaningful information from preoccupied NASA personnel, she is charged with facing down a gallery of frenzied press, starved for any bit of information to sink their teeth into.

“Annie must manage how a lot of important people want to address the situation, and has to make the decisions on exactly how and what to tell the public,” Wiig states. “She has to walk a fine line between keeping the world informed and protecting the reputation of NASA.”

Montrose works in a male dominated environment, but she has earned the respect of her boss, Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels), Director of NASA, who bears an almost unfathomable responsibility. Life and death decisions stop at his desk. Some of the top minds in the world await his judgments, and Teddy must effectively guide a few planet-sized egos. He is, after all, literally working with rocket scientists.

“Teddy manages highly intelligent, MIT-educated people, but his approach is that he’s herding cats,” Jeff Daniels quips. “Smart cats, but cats. They love to come up with theories and ideas and have their brilliance on display in meetings, but shirk from making decisions. Suddenly it’s, ‘Oh, that’s someone else’s call. I’m just, you know, a rocket scientist.’ So Teddy rather enjoys the power he has over these remarkable minds and even toys with them at times. Keep the geniuses humble.”

One such genius, Rich Purnell (Donald Glover), an “orbital dynamicist” at JPL, waltzes into a meeting with the grown-ups and confidently proceeds to demonstrate the solution to getting Watney back. Unaware of Sanders’ lofty title, he recruits him to help out during an impromptu demonstration of Purnell’s theory.

Says Daniels: “Teddy feels Purnell’s irreverence is akin to saying to the Queen of England, ‘Hey, nice dress.’ So the wunderkind is quickly swept from the room.”

Purnell’s lack of deference to superiors reflects a larger cultural distinction between the more buttoned-down environment of NASA, which is responsible for humans in space, and the more relaxed, California vibe of the JPL.

The offices of Purnell and JPL director Bruce Ng (Benedict Wong) are messy, litter-strewn cubbyholes, indicative of their exhausting round-the-clock habitation. Watney isn’t the only one who’s stranded. The JPL team, tasked with designing a probe in improbably abbreviated time, is essentially marooned on “JPL island,” sacrificing personal time and home life in dedication to the rescue effort.

Their herculean efforts seem to be paying off. Sanders senses the validity of Purnell’s theory, which is affirmed by NASA’s Director of Mars missions, Dr. Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Kapoor bears the most direct responsibility in handling the Watney crisis, and has placed his entire team into full-scale response mode.

Ejiofor comments: “I was fascinated by the story’s look at the space community. These are some of the most mentally gifted people on the planet, and yet we see that their interactions and office politics are similar to most any work environment. I was moved by the effort of this community to rally around one man and commit every last bit of available equipment, energy and resources to save him.

“I spoke to some of the people at JPL and NASA to get an appreciation of the sort of pressure they operate under,” Ejiofor continues. “Astronauts place their ultimate trust in these agencies, and everyone who works there knows a single mistake will be uncovered at the worst possible time. Vincent epitomizes that dedication and professionalism, but what’s most interesting about him is that, as he begins to more deeply connect with the man who’s marooned on Mars, he no longer sees his mission as rescuing an astronaut ¾ he’s rescuing Mark Watney.”

The resources of NASA and JPL, however, are not going to be enough. Fortunately, the agency’s counterparts (Eddy Ko, Chen Shu) at the Chinese National Space Agency (CNSA) make a remarkable overture that could either create a new sense of harmony and cooperation in international relations and diplomacy – or add some major new wrinkles in this delicate balance. CNSA initiates contact with Sanders to offer the services of a prototype Chinese rocket that could undertake a resupply mission to Mars. Here we see professional courtesy in action: men and women who share common ground, or rather “space,” seeking a way around government bureaucracy. It speaks to the common bond highly trained professionals share in any industry, regardless of location or nationality.

Once he has secured the assistance of China, Sanders has to worry about challenges to his authority from one of his own team — Ares III flight director Mitch Henderson (Sean Bean). Unlike Sanders, who must look after the interests of both Mark Watney and NASA, and not necessarily in that order, Henderson doesn’t have dual loyalties. He couldn’t give a damn about NASA’s public relations problems. His one and only concern is getting his astronauts home. All of them.

“Mitch is not as conventional as the other members of the team, but he’s highly focused and no-nonsense,” describes Sean Bean. “He’s one of those rare people who’s not content to pass the buck and is willing to stand up to superiors. He’s furious that the Hermes crew has not been informed of Watney’s survival. He’s going to do what he thinks needs to be done, regardless of personal consequence.”

Henderson will set in motion an exceedingly risky chain of events that may jeopardize his job and force the crew of Hermes to make a profound decision that could result in charges of mutiny.

Neither Henderson nor anyone else at NASA would even be aware of Watney’s survival if not for the curiosity of lower-level employee Mindy Park (Mackenzie Davis), who works the night shift at the Satellite Communications desk. In the middle of the night, she’s fulfilling orders from Dr. Kapoor to view satellite images of the Ares III site to determine if its supplies are intact and available for a subsequent mission. It’s been a month since Watney’s presumed death and Mindy cannot resist the temptation to look for the body. She is stunned by what she sees.

“Mindy’s discovery sends a shockwave through NASA, and suddenly thrusts her into a higher weight class,” explains Davis. “Now she sits at the grownups table in meetings with the brass, and it’s intimidating. She has to learn quickly and gain a sense of confidence because her new responsibilities mean people will be looking to her for answers.”

For Mark Watney, the questions he needs answered are clear: How to devise a way to grow food once the crew rations are exhausted? How to establish communications with NASA? What about dwindling oxygen supplies?

And how does he sustain the will to live with only Commander Lewis’ disco playlist for entertainment?

LIFE ON MARS

Mars is unwelcoming. Its wide temperature range – from -153°C to around 22°C on a summer day – makes for tricky wardrobe choices. (Layering can only take you so far.) Breathing is even more problematic. The air is 95 percent carbon dioxide. The soil lacks bacteria needed to grow food. Water exists, but only as ice.

Even its reddish color acts as a warning sign: Nothing for you here – except death by asphyxiation and hypothermia.

But humans have never been deterred from going where we are not wanted. So we go to Mars.

Creating an artificial living habitat (Hab) is necessary to facilitate human exploration of the planet. In THE MARTIAN, NASA/JPL has for four years been using unmanned probes to airdrop pre-fabricated parts for assembling a Hab, along with various supplies, food and equipment. The Ares III crew will arrive to such amenities as computers, fixings for a Thanksgiving dinner and a badass ATV known as the Rover. A Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) stands by to return them to the Hermes after their 31-sol mission.

The story begins on sol 18, after the crew has already assembled its Hab: a pressurized canvas structure with 90 square meters of floor space. Significant amounts of solar and neutron radiation penetrate Mars’ thin atmosphere, requiring the Hab to be paneled on the outside with filtering layers of Kevlar and Mylar foils and upholstered foam material.

The Hab’s interior provides sparse sleeping quarters, a shared work area, pressurizing airlocks for entry and exit, and compact storage for equipment – as well as such life-sustaining appliances as an oxygenator, atmospheric regulator and water reclaimer. It’s stocked with enough rations to last six astronauts a precautionary 68 sols. With just Watney remaining, that will stretch to 400 sols. It’s enough to buy time, but likely not enough to last until a rescue mission can arrive.

Watney, a botanist, has a few potatoes in the Hab and devises a way to provide the necessary bacteria to make Martian soil fertile for growing more spuds. The humble potato, which once saved an entire civilization from starvation, will again be called upon to sustain human life, on another planet. One problem solved.

Proving once and for all that one agency’s trash is another man’s treasure, Watney uses the Rover to track down the defunct Pathfinder probe, last heard from in 1997. He uses its camera to rig up a way to communicate with NASA and JPL. Problem two solved. He even figures out how to create more oxygen.

That leaves Lewis’ disco music as his remaining major issue.

Things are looking up. Watney has pressurized shelter and oxygen. Food, and a way to grow more. Water, and the knowledge to make more. He can communicate with NASA, with whom he exchanges both jokes and choice words when disagreeing with their directives.

If nothing else goes wrong, the odds of his survival have increased dramatically since he pulled the piece of antenna out of his abdomen.

But Murphy’s Law is universal. And something does go wrong.

A terrifying incident destroys Watney’s hard work and much of his optimism.

Now the clock is ticking, and NASA’s rescue timeline is blown to pieces. A sense of urgency is replaced by the feeling of pending disaster. This is now a 24/7 operation.

A man in peril. A world transfixed by the drama. And only a handful of scientists and astronauts burdened with the decisions that could save him.

From Houston to Beijing, Melbourne to Moscow, people are spellbound by Mark Watney’s plight because he is more than an astronaut; he is a symbol. His crisis is testing some of our planet’s best thinkers, who are not just trying to rescue a human; they’re trying to rescue the aspirations of humanity. It’s Mars versus Earthlings and the world is rooting for the home team.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Principal photography on THE MARTIAN began November 8, 2014 in Budapest. The gorgeous Central European capital has become known for hosting a litany of big budget Hollywood movies because of its beautiful locales and experienced local crews. But what particularly drew filmmakers to the city for this project are the soundstages at nearby Korda Studios.

Korda’s Stage 6, said to be the largest in the world, was ideal for constructing a Martian landscape that would include the Hab and the launch pad for the MAV. The set was used primarily for dialogue scenes, Hab interiors, and the giant sandstorm sequence. Matching wide-scope vistas were later filmed in Jordan.

Says producer Mark Huffam: “We had scouted the Australian Outback as a possible landscape for the Martian surface. That didn’t work out, and we decided to shoot most of the Martian sequences as interiors, giving us greater control of the environment, and then matching those with exteriors at Wadi Rum in Jordan.”

During production, Korda was a bustling hub of activity, as all six soundstages were being utilized for constructing and revamping a dozen major sets, including the spacecraft Hermes and the astronauts’ Hab on Mars. The art department was constantly racing to stay a step in front of Scott, who works quickly and has been known to get ahead of schedule.

In addition to Korda Studios, Budapest delivered another bonus in the form of a dazzling building known as The Whale (due to its profile and its proximity along the Danube River). The Whale played host to the sequences involving NASA personnel, including the offices of Teddy Sanders and Annie Montrose, as well as conference rooms, a break area and coffee shop, a main entrance, and a flight control room. Production designer Arthur Max describes the building as “sophisticated, cutting-edge architecture on a world-class level. It’s a geodesic structure with enormous scale, loads of glass and concrete, and wonderful louvered blinds that open and close with motors. We can fully control the light levels. This building was a godsend. It would cost a fortune to construct a composite of sets like these on a soundstage.”

To maximize flexibility, simulated concrete walls were mounted on wheels in order to quickly configure any number of office designs in the buildings open spaces. The Whale’s gleaming, futuristic, curvilinear glass exterior also served as NASA’s “next generation” headquarters.

The showpiece set, however, is the Mission Control Room, NASA’s communications hub. A huge central screen, surrounded by more than a dozen other screens, displays vital data and images NASA is monitoring at any given time. These images are being sent from satellites, reconnaissance orbiters, probes, and the International Space Station. It is in Mission Control where Mindy Park learns Watney is still alive – and where NASA leaders will months later command and monitor the launch of the rocket intended to save him.

Rather than having greenscreen appear on the control room monitors and then adding imagery in post, Ridley Scott prefers to see the graphics “in shot,” using them as light sources and allowing the actors to react to the images in real time. The UK company Territory (Spy, Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation) was brought onboard to work with graphics artist Felicity Hickson in utilizing a substantial amount of graphics, high resolution satellite imagery and video footage from NASA.

Indeed, NASA was a key collaborator, consultant and advisor on the entire project, from script through principal photography. Producer Mark Huffam remembers calling NASA during the first production meeting with Ridley Scott and being “very pleased to learn that they knew the book and were enthusiastic about an open-door relationship and free exchange of ideas.”

Production was allowed to film rocket launches at Cape Canaveral, including the December 2014 liftoff of the Orion, a next-generation spacecraft designed to take humans deep into space as a first step toward human exploration of Mars. The Orion was sent into orbit containing a Ridley Scott tribute: the first sketch the director made of Mark Watney, on the script’s cover page, with the astronaut’s bold declaration, “I’m going to science the shit out of this planet.”

The partnership with NASA initiated with Bert Ulrich, the agency’s film and television liaison, and then expanded to include, among others, Dr. James Green, NASA’s Director of Planetary Sciences, and Dave Lavery, from the Mars office, who acted as technical consultants on the script and the production.

Ulrich says Andy Weir’s novel, which is now unofficial recommended reading at Johnson Space Center, and Ridley Scott’s acclaimed body of work resonated deeply within the agency as it prepares its journey to Mars.

“Science fiction, especially in films, is continually an influence on real science,” Ulrich states. “I think both art and science draw from similar aspects of creativity, curiosity and vision.”

Arthur Max’s production designs began to take root during an extensive tour of Houston’s Johnson Space Center, led by Dr. Green, providing deep immersion into the requirements of getting a human on Mars. Max also viewed the old Mercury and Apollo mission control centers, as well as the current Center, which handled the Space Shuttle missions and tracks the International Space Station.

“I combined some of the elements we saw at NASA and then pushed out into the future with the design – what we think their next control room may look like,” says Max. “NASA was remarkably helpful in not only giving us great resources and input, but approving all of our designs.”

After filming at Max’s NASA sets at the Whale, the company moved to a 100-acre complex of buildings called the Hungarian Expo, where sets for the JPL offices, lab, and garage were constructed.

Filming at the Hungarian Expo concluded at the end of November, marking the picture wrap of cast members Ejiofor, Daniels, Wiig, Bean, Davis, Wong and Glover. After a short hiatus, filming began on “Mars” at Korda Studios, taking up the separate storylines of Watney and the astronauts.

Says Damon: “I think 54 actors had wrapped before I even arrived at Korda.”

Reflective of the characters’ storylines, Damon’s schedule only overlapped with those of Chastain and the other astronauts during three days in mid-December, and then again with only Chastain for a couple of additional days in February.

“Matt and I have now done two movies together [Interstellar was the other], and have only worked with each other on set for about a week,” says Chastain.

The entire crew of Hermes appears together in the harrowing Martian sandstorm that sets the story in motion. Eschewing reliance on visual effects, Ridley Scott wanted the storm to look and feel real, both to the cast and audience. Shot on the gargantuan Stage 6 Martian exterior set, the sequence was filmed over a period of three days, involving giant fans, thick dust, poor visibility, and lots of dirt. Day one of the storm pushed everyone to the limit.

“Hardest day of my career,” remarks costume designer Janty Yates. Adds Damon: “Like walking in a hurricane.”

Even facemasks failed to prevent dirt and dust getting into eyes, ears and mouths. The particles worked their way into the air vents of the cast’s space helmets, causing inhalation issues. Between takes, wardrobe assistants would rush in and help remove the helmets to enable the actors to breathe easier.

“Come to Mars, have a few laughs,” jokes Michael Peña between mouthfuls of dust. “I came to set wearing this suit for the first time, thinking, ‘This is so cool. I’m an astronaut. It’s a huge scene. This is what it means to be in a Ridley Scott movie. I’m gonna crush this!’ And then suddenly I’m fighting the wind, trying to breathe and not fall over, and it’s more, like, ’Oh, shit, I just hope I don’t mess up this shot.’”

“Baptism by fire,” agrees Jessica Chastain. “We shot the storm on one of our very first days together, and weren’t yet familiar with each other. We were literally and figuratively trying to find our characters’ footing while huge turbines are chucking dirt and little rocks at us.”

While the cast was often disoriented and could scarcely see each other at times, they had each other’s voices in their heads – and Ridley’s. The sound department rigged each astronaut’s helmet with small intercom speakers and mics for communication with each other and the director. It made for a surreal bonding experience, relates Kate Mara.

“We bonded quickly because with the helmets on we couldn’t hear the crew around us – only each other,” Mara says. “We started teasing and telling jokes, and it brought us closer together. Some of it got kind of racy. Once in awhile we would forget ourselves, and then ask, ‘Hang on, can Ridley hear this?’”

The weight of the helmets and surface suits, a combined 40 pounds, added to the cast’s exertion to stumble through sand and fight 65 mile-per-hour winds.

Both helmets and suits were the work of costume designer Jany Yates and space suit specialist Michael Mooney. The helmets contain six lights, separately operated by a small, two-channel battery-powered remote. A fan inside the life support backpack of the suit sends air via a hose into the helmet. Ranging from one to four millimeters in thickness, the helmets were manufactured by a vacuum casting process by FBFX. Mooney modified them to be as light as possible, around nine pounds, but “because out of necessity they weren’t supported by the shoulders,” he says, “the helmets became quite heavy for some of the cast over the course of a 10-hour shooting day.”

Below the helmets, the orange-and-white surface suits are worn by the astronauts when exploring the planet’s surface, and are streamlined and close-fitting, yet sufficiently malleable to allow full movement.

Yates took an initial prototype surface suit design to Damon early in pre-production, and the actor says the final result was “exactly as she designed it. While reading the script I was thinking, ‘This story is great, and it probably means 80 days in some really cumbersome outfits.’ But the surface suit was actually pretty comfortable, given that it was as skintight as a wetsuit.”

Prior to designing the costumes, Yates met with a curator of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., which houses a fascinating collection of spacesuits dating back to the beginnings of the Mercury program, and conducted research at Johnson Space Center and JPL. The experience left her “mesmerized.”

Adds Yates: “I saw the rovers, I saw them building satellites…It felt like I was already in a science fiction film. They sent me so many images that were incredibly useful. We saw the designs of the suits that they are planning for missions extending beyond even 2030.

“From the start, Ridley said he wanted the surface suits to be slender and allow for movement, yet still offer a nice silhouette. NASA’s suits have the helmet built in, which wouldn’t work for our purposes, so we had to change that design. We also needed to make some changes for aesthetics and practical needs of filming, and I think we hit the mark between function and form.”

Form is much less a consideration with what’s known as the “EVA” (Extra Vehicular Activity) costume – what’s commonly recognized as an ‘outer space’ suit. (Or what Ridley Scott refers to as the “doughboy.”) Worn when conducting zero gravity activities outside the Hermes, the EVA is bulky and heavy. The core is made of carbon fiber backplates, with eight bolted 3mm steel rings that attach to stunt wires. Damon’s stunt rig alone weighed 55 pounds, which, when added to the weight of the suit and helmet, required him at times to support 100 extra pounds.

More than a dozen vendors were employed in creating the helmets and 15 surface/EVA suits.

Yates designed a third look for the astronauts that she describes as “like a track suit. It’s for their day-to-day activities aboard the Hermes. They’re sleek, formfitting and comfortable, and, as they are only worn inside the pressurized space ship, don’t require life support systems.”

The Hermes provides its own life support, sustaining the Ares III crew during its nine-month journey to Mars. (The length of the trip can vary, based on the orbits of the respective planets.) The Hermes was constructed on Stages 2 and 3 at Korda Studios, based on design properties of the International Space Station, which utilizes a series of interlocking modules. The exterior of the craft is equipped with solar panels, oxygen and water storage cells, heat dissipation fins, communications modules, and other vital life support mechanisms.

Based on NASA advanced design plans, the Hermes is powered by a nuclear powered ion plasma propulsion engine, which Arthur Max says has yet to be depicted in a movie because the technology is so new. The design incorporates a large telescopic arm that places the heat-emitting reactor a safe distance from the ship.

“We’ve tried to stay close to practical reality and cutting-edge technology while creating an eye-catching aesthetic,” he says.

Max grew up in the Sputnik era during the intense space race between the U.S. and the USSR, and had a childhood obsession with science. “I was in the rocketry club, and we used to make fuel on the kitchen stove, with sometimes near disastrous results,” he recalls. “THE MARTIAN was a chance to rekindle my interest in space exploration while being part of the telling of a classic adventure story about a trip into the unknown.”

The Hermes’ gleaming white interior, a nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey, extends from the flight deck down a long corridor that stretches hundreds of feet.

Roughly halfway down the corridor is a right-angle connection tunnel referred to as the knuckle, which leads to the Rec Room. Inside, a rotating drum known as the gravity wheel spins at a sufficient speed to generate a centrifugal force that simulates the effects of gravity.

Rudi Schmidt, a scientist with the European Space Agency and an on-set technical advisor, says the gravity wheel was first experimented with on the Skylab missions in the 1970s, a forerunner to the current International Space Station.

“It’s highly desirable for the astronauts to be exposed to these gravitational effects to keep bone mass and the muscular system intact,” says Schmidt. “The gravity wheel theoretically can generate roughly half the force of gravity on Earth, which is sufficient for health purposes.”

The Rec Room is equipped with exercise bikes, treadmills, and other fitness equipment. Constructed as a separate set on Korda’s Stage 4, it was mounted on hydraulic lifts that tilt the contained gravity wheel a full 30 degrees to each side.

Depicting the astronauts’ movement aboard the Hermes’ zero gravity environment required cast members to be harnessed to wire rigs that lend the impression they are floating from one spot to another. Stunt coordinator Rob Inch and his team designed a massive square 2D winch system, suspended from above the Hermes roofless set, allowing them to fly the actors anywhere within a squared spatial area. The wires connect to a spin rig attached at the waist, and also to leg and shoulder cuffs. The system was computerized and mechanized, but also required stunt team members to pull harness ropes to create vertical movement and “puppeteer” the actors. The use of winches and aluminum heads enabled movement in all directions, as well as 360-degree turns.

“We had to work out a lot of rather complicated shots getting our cast down the corridor and into other rooms,” Inch states. “For instance, in one shot we have to travel Jessica and Michael down the main (fuselage) and then right-angle turn them down a corridor leading to the gravity wheel. And it had to be a fluid motion. It was a complex and tricky thing to pull off.”

According to stunt rigger Leonard Woodcock, 150 meters of truss, 90 meters of track, 70 pulleys and some 400 meters of Tech-12 rope were required to construct the rig. “I don’t even know how much scaffolding,” he says. “More than I can count.”

Jessica Chastain prepared for the zero gravity work by drawing on her days as a dancer to mimic the physical movements of weightlessness. Well known for her meticulous preparation, Chastain also spent several days visiting NASA facilities, and read up on the lives of astronauts, such as Sally Ride.

“In [the 2014 motion picture] Interstellar my character was Earthbound, and I remember at the screening thinking how much fun it must have been for [co-stars] Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway to do the space stuff,” Chastain recalls. “I thought it would be really cool to play an astronaut. A couple of weeks later I learned Ridley wanted me to play one in THE MARTIAN. So I went all in. I visited JPL and the Johnson Space Center, and saw some amazing things. I went inside a MAV and a mockup of the space shuttle.

Chastain says she was fortunate in being able to spend some time with astronaut-chemist Tracy Caldwell Dyson, a Mission Specialist on Space Shuttle Endeavour flight STS-118 in August 2007, and who was part of the Expedition 24 crew on the International Space Station in 2010.

Dyson briefed Chastain on both the technical and human elements of being an astronaut. Chastain says Dyson and other female astronauts are true role models. “They inspire women everywhere to pursue careers in science and mathematics,” the actress notes.

Another favorite part of Chastain’s preparation was donning Oculus 3D glasses and experiencing panoramic images of Mars taken by the Curiosity rover. “It made it feel as if I were actually there,” she says.

The Curiosity rover served as the model for the Rover in THE MARTIAN, although the latter is even larger and more stylized. Based on designs by Arthur Max and overseen by Oliver Hodge, the six-wheeled, high-clearance Rover features a trapezoidal cab and chassis built by Szalay Dakar, a Hungarian outfit that builds racecars for the grueling Dakar Rally.

Two full-scale versions of the Rover were made by a team of 22 crew technicians, along with the 15 members of Szalay. Essentially a very advanced all-terrain agricultural vehicle, the Rover is equipped with huge industrial tires designed to travel rough, rocky landscapes. The design includes hydraulic gull-wing doors and running gear, and a two-liter diesel engine, although the exterior is dressed with solar panels to make it appear as though it runs on solar energy.

Says vehicle FX technician Glenn Marsh: “The solar powered engine plays an important role in the story, as it limits the vehicle’s operation to 40 kilometers at a time. This poses yet another challenge to Mark Watney when he has to make an epic journey to get to his point of departure for a possible rescue attempt.”

The panels and hatches on the Rover were designed for quick and easy removal to facilitate the insertion of 4K cameras on spigots, which capture Watney’s communication with NASA, and provide interior images of him driving the vehicle.

As Marsh mentions, the Rover was designed to travel over rough terrain, and was put through its paces in a Hungarian quarry prior to filming in Jordan.

Before that, the Rover was used in several scenes shot on the Stage 6 Martian landscape. Four thousand tons of soil and other materials went into creating a topographical palette that would match that of Jordan’s Wadi Rum desert. Arthur Max notes that Wadi Rum is uncannily similar to Mars in its reddish orange hues, and that the goal is to achieve a seamless integration of the stage and location visuals.

Greensman Roger Holden mixed three types of Hungarian soil by machine and by hand to find just the right color. And while the surface of the Martian set was being perfected over a period of two months, Holden was also growing the potatoes that Watney raises and tends to in the Hab. Holden grew half-cut potatoes following the same procedures seen in the film.

“We built a nursery at the studio with a completely artificial environment, including lighting, heating, and fertilizing,” Holden says. “Our fertilization process was, however, far less challenging than Watney’s.” Altogether, Holden grew some 1,200 potatoes, at an average of about eight spuds per plant.

Surrounding Holden’s well-tended Martian landscape on Stage 6 was perhaps the largest greenscreen ever assembled. Measuring 312 feet in length and 65 feet in height, it encompassed about 21,000 square feet of greenscreen surface. Visual effects supervisor Matt Sloan explains, “Ridley likes a lot of scope, and we have a full 360 degrees of backdrop on this stage, where we can add plate shots from Wadi Rum, as well as above-the-horizon sky and moons.”

To help match the stage shots with subsequent shooting in Jordan, Sloan and his team studied solar path charts in Wadi Rum so that he and director of photography Dariusz Wolski, ASC would always know the proper lighting direction. Wolski employed a mounted portable key light source that extended upward up to 65 feet, allowing him to match the appropriate angle of the sun.

Both the camera and VFX departments utilized an innovative visual reference tool that projects onto a portable screen the precise background that will be seen from any particular shot, which helps enormously in framing. Says Sloan: “If Ridley or Dariusz wanted to widen or extend a shot on the soundstage onto the greenscreen, they could see exactly what VFX elements will exist in the shot, as well as what particular landscape features in Jordan will be visible from that angle, such as bushes, rock formations, small sand dunes, etc.”

ALONE ON “MARS”

Sitting among the rocks and dirt on Stage 6, Matt Damon is about to complete the final days of shooting at Korda. It’s late February, and every other cast member wrapped two weeks ago. “It’s just been me and Ridley on Mars,” Damon jokes.

The unusual dynamic of working alone in nearly all of his scenes was a new experience for Damon, who comments, “This movie is essentially three separate but connected storylines. Watney is a Robinson Crusoe figure. I really like the character and admire the way the story celebrates the courage and ingenuity of these astronauts. As Drew (Goddard) said to me, it’s a love letter to science.”

Working in the gravitational orbit of Ridley Scott was another irresistible lure for Damon, who says Scott has elicited performances from actors that are “too good to be an accident. He’s willing to break a rule if it buys a bigger emotional connection from the audience. He paints on a much bigger canvas than most people, and it’s exciting to do things on that scale.”

Damon mentions that Scott essentially had the movie in his head before shooting began, so was able to walk him though specific camera shots, coverage and setups. “He allows his actors to see the movie as he envisions it, which is incredibly useful for performance.”

Throughout nearly five weeks of solo acting, Damon had been asked to not only carry the story but at times a substantial amount of astronaut gear on his back. His unfailing high spirits and good humor buoyed the entire crew during some intense and strenuous moments.

Through much of shooting he says his mind would reflect on the touching lengths that people go to save Mark Watney.

“He represents more than just one life. He embodies humanity’s pioneering instincts and our hopes for the future. It’s been a privilege to play this character.”

 

ABOUT THE CAST

MATT DAMON (Mark Watney) has been honored for his work on both sides of the camera, most recently earning Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award^® and BAFTA Award^® nominations for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries for his performance opposite Michael Douglas in Stephen Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra. The HBO telefilm takes a behind-the-scenes look at the tempestuous relationship between Liberace (Douglas) and Scott Thorson (Damon), his younger limo driver and live-in lover, is the seventh film that Damon has done with Soderbergh.

Damon also earned Academy Award®, Screen Actors Guild Award and Critics’ Choice Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of South African rugby hero Francois Pienaar in Clint Eastwood’s true-life drama Invictus. In addition, he garnered dual Golden Globe Award nominations: one for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Invictus and one for Best Actor for his starring role in Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant! Earlier in his career, Damon won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay and received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his breakthrough feature Good Will Hunting.

Audiences recently saw Damon star in Monuments Men, alongside the film’s director, co-writer George Clooney. Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action-thriller focusing on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with rescuing artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners.

In 2002 Damon originated the role of Jason Bourne in the blockbuster The Bourne Identity, reprised his role in the hit sequels, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, both directed by Paul Greengrass. He also teamed with Steven Soderbergh as part of the all-star cast in the Ocean’s Eleven trilogy.

Damon’s other recent film credits include the sci-fi thriller Elysium for director Neil Blomkamp; Promised Land, which reunited Damon with director Gus Van Sant and was written and produced by Damon and John Krasinki; We Bought a Zoo, directed by Cameron Crowe; the Coen brothers’ remake of the classic Western True Grit; George Nolfi’s thriller The Adjustment Bureau, opposite Emily Blunt; Happy Feet 2, to which he lent his voice to the animated feature; the thriller Contagion for director Steven Soderbergh; the drama Hereafter, which reunited him with director Clint Eastwood; the action thriller Green Zone directed by Paul Greengrass; Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning Best Picture The Departed, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg; Robert De Niro’s dramatic thriller The Good Shepherd, with De Niro and Angelina Jolie; and Stephen Gaghan’s geopolitical thriller Syriana, with George Clooney.

For the small screen, Damon both executive produced and appeared in the History Channel project The People Speak, based on a book co-written by famed historian Howard Zinn and featuring dramatic readings and performances from some of the most famous names in the entertainment industry.

Hailing from Boston, Damon attended Harvard University and gained his first acting experience with the American Repertory Theatre. He made his feature film debut in Mystic Pizza, followed by roles in School Ties, Walter Hill’s Geronimo: An American Legend, and the cable projects Rising Son and Tommy Lee Jones’ The Good Old Boys. He first gained attention with his portrayal of a guilt-ridden Gulf War veteran tormented by memories of a battlefield incident in 1996’s Courage Under Fire.

Together with his lifelong friend Ben Affleck, Damon co-wrote the acclaimed 1997 drama Good Will Hunting, for which they won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as several critics groups awards for Best Original Screenplay. Damon also garnered Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award nominations for Best Actor.

Additionally in 1997, Damon starred as an idealistic young attorney in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Rainmaker and made a cameo appearance in Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy.

The following year, Damon played the title role in Steven Spielberg’s award-winning World War II drama Saving Private Ryan and also starred in John Dahl’s drama Rounders, with Edward Norton. Damon earned his third Golden Globe nomination for his performance in 1999’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, under the direction of Anthony Minghella. He also reunited with Ben Affleck and director Kevin Smith to star in the controversial comedy Dogma.

Damon’s subsequent film credits include starring roles in Robert Redford’s The Legend of Bagger Vance; Billy Bob Thornton’s All the Pretty Horses; the Farrelly brothers’ comedy Stuck on You, opposite Greg Kinnear; Terry Gilliam’s The Brothers Grimm, with Heath Ledger; and a cameo in George Clooney’s Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

In 2000, Damon and Affleck formed the production company LivePlanet to produce film, television and new media projects. LivePlanet produced the documentary Running the Sahara, directed by Oscar winner James Moll.

LivePlanet also produced three Emmy-nominated seasons of Project Greenlight, chronicling the making of independent films by first-time writers and directors. The Project Greenlight films produced to date are Stolen Summer, The Battle of Shaker Heights and Feast.

In April 2014, HBO announced it will bring back the competition documentary series for a new season following two directors through the process of bringing their first feature to the screen.

In 2008, Oscar winners Damon and Affleck formed Pearl Street Productions to produce stories in film and television, and recently co-produced Promised Land.

Damon co-founded H20 Africa in 2006, now known as Water.org.

 

JESSICA CHASTAIN (Commander Lewis) has emerged as one of Hollywood’s most sought after actresses of her generation. Last year, she starred in Christopher Nolan’s box office hit, Interstellar, and in the drama A Most Violent Year. Later this year comes Legendary Pictures’ Crimson Peak, directed by Guillermo Del Toro, in which she stars alongside Tom Hiddleston and Charlie Hunnam.

Following a whirlwind year in 2011, in which Chastain received several nominations and accolades for her work from the LA Film Critics, British Academy of Film and TV, Broadcast Film Critics, HFPA, Screen Actors Guild and the Academy, Chastain’s success reached new heights in 2012, when she was featured by Time Magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.”

Her performance in Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark 30 garnered several awards, including the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama, and her second consecutive Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In the film, Chastain stars as Maya, whose character was inspired by a real CIA analyst who was instrumental in the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Zero Dark 30 earned several nominations, including Best Film (among many others) for the NYT Critic Awards and Independent Spirit awards.

Chastain also starred in the horror film Mama, directed by Andres Muschietti for Guillermo Del Toro’s production company Toma, for which was nominated for an MTV Movie Award in the category Best Scared as Sh*t Performance. Additionally, she starred in The Weinstein Co’s Lawless, opposite Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy, as Maggie Beauford. Chastain also lent her voice to DreamWorks Animation’s Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted as the character of Gia the Jaguar. Meanwhile she also made her Broadway debut in the classic stageplay “The Heiress.”

Chastain starred in The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them, opposite James McAvoy and Viola Davis, written and directed by Ned Benson. She also played the lead role in the drama Miss Julie, a film adaptation of August Strindberg’s play, directed by Liv Ullmann, which premiered at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival.

In the aforementioned year of 2011, she starred opposite Brad Pitt and Sean Penn in the Academy Award nominated drama Tree of Life, written and directed by Terrence Malick for River Road Productions. The film won the Palm d’Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and the Chicago Film Critics award for Best Picture.

Also in 2011, she was seen in Ami Mann’s feature, Texas Killing Fields opposite Sam Worthington and Chloe Grace Moretz; Miramax’s The Debt alongside Helen Mirren and Sam Worthington; as Virgilia in the on screen adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy Coriolanus opposite Ralph Fiennes and Gerard Butler; and in Jeff Nichol’s Take Shelter opposite Michael Shannon, which won a plethora of awards during the 2011 film festival circuit and received an Independent Spirit Award nomination.

Chastain is well known for her role as Celia Foote, an insecure Southern lady constantly trying to fit in with the high society women who reject her, in DreamWorks’ Academy Award nominated adaptation of the best-selling Kathryn Stockett novel The Help, which won numerous awards in 2011 including Chastain’s Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, Golden Globe nomination, Screen Actors Guild nomination and Critics’ Choice nomination.

Born and raised in Northern California, Chastain attended the Juilliard School in New York City. While there, she starred in Romeo and Juliet and went on to receive glowing reviews for her performances in The Cherry Orchard opposite Michelle Williams at Williamstown, and Richard Nelson’s Rodney’s Wife opposite David Strathairn, off-Broadway at Playwright’s Horizons.

Jessica returned to the stage in the Los Angeles Wadsworth Theatre production of Salome, where Academy Award winners Estelle Parsons (director) and Al Pacino handpicked Jessica to play the title role of Salome opposite Pacino. Continuing the collaboration, producer Barry Navidi commenced the film version of the play, entitled Wild Salome, directed by Pacino, where they filmed behind the scenes and portions of the play’s production.

This led to her landing the dynamic title role in Jolene, a Dan Ireland directed production, opposite Rupert Friend, Frances Fisher and Dermot Mulroney. It earned Chastain the Best Actress Award at the 2008 Seattle Film Festival. She stayed on stage in 2009, playing the role of Desmonda in the classic play Othello opposite Phillip Seymor Hoffman. Directed by Peter Sellars, the play ran in Vienna and Germany before finishing in New York.

CHIWETEL EJIOFOR (Dr. Vincent Kapoor) is a BAFTA Award winning actor with a breadth of critically acclaimed work across stage and screen. He previously worked with director Ridley Scott in 2008’s American Gangster.

The year 2014 was a memorable one for Ejiofor and saw him star in Steve McQueen’s Oscar winning Twelve Years A Slave. He played the role of Soloman Northup, which gained Ejiofor both Oscar and Golden Globe nominations and won him a Best Actor BAFTA. Later in the year Ejiofor starred in Half of a Yellow Sun, based on the highly acclaimed novel of the same title, which also starred Thandie Newton and Joseph Mawle.

He recently starred in the film Z for Zachariah, alongside Chris Pine and Margot Robbie. The film about a nuclear war in a small American town is directed by Craig Zobel, and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Next up is Triple Nine, where he is seen in a cast including Kate Winslet, Casey Affleck, Gal Gadot, Aaron Paul and Norman Reedus.

2013 saw Ejiofor star in Stephen Poliakoff’s BBC series Dancing on the Edge, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Mini Series and an Emmy Award nomination. Prior to that he was in the award winning The Shadow Line, a thrilling drama for the BBC, in which he played lead character ‘Jonah Gabriel’ alongside a superb cast including Christopher Eccleston, Lesley Sharp and Rafe Spall.

Ejioifor’s other films include Salt, alongside Angelina Jolie and Liev Schreiber, and Roland Emmerich’s 2012 opposite John Cusack, Danny Glover and Thandie Newton. The same year his performance in Endgame, Channel 4’s moving drama set in South Africa, earned Ejiofor a Golden Globe nomination for the Best performance by an actor in a mini-series or a motion picture made for television.

In 1996, Ejifor caught the attention of Stephen Spielberg, who cast him in the critically acclaimed Amistad, starring alongside Morgan Freeman and Anthony Hopkins. He returned to the big screen in Stephen Frears’ 2001 thriller Dirty Pretty Things, for which his performance as Okwe won him the Best Actor Award at the British Independent Film Awards, the Evening Standard Film Awards, and the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards.  In 2003, Ejiofor co-starred in three films: Richard Curtis’ Love Actually, Slow Burn and Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda. His subsequent credits include Talk to Me, David Mamet’s Redbelt, Kinky Boots (in which he played the loveable drag queen Lola), the urban drama Four Brothers alongside Mark Wahlberg, Spike Lee’s Inside Man alongside Clive Owen, Jodie Foster and Denzel Washington, and the Oscar nominated Children of Men, again alongside Clive Owen.

Ejifor balances his film and television commitments with his theatre work. In 2013 he was seen in the Young Vic’s adaptation of A Season in the Congo, directed by Joe Wright. His performance as Patrice Lumumba received rave reviews.

His 2008 performance in the title role of Michael Grandage’s Othello at the Donmar Warehouse alongside Kelly Reilly and Ewan McGregor was unanimously commended, and won him the 2008 Olivier Award for Best Actor, the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor, as well as nominations for the South Bank Show Awards 2009 and the What’s On Stage Theatregoers’ Choice Awards.  His other stage credits include A Season in the Congo at the The Young Vic, Roger Michell’s Blue/Orange in 2000, which earned an Olivier Award for Best Play, and the same year Tim Supple’s Romeo and Juliet, with Ejiofor in the title role.

In addition to his acting career, Ejiofor directed the short film Slapper, which screened at the 2008 Edinburgh Film Festival.

KRISTEN WIIG (Annie Montrose) has become one of the industry’s most versatile actresses of her generation. From her breakout performance on Saturday Night Live to the Oscar nominated film Bridesmaids, Wiig has transitioned from television to film as a writer and producer. In 2012, Time magazine honored Wiig in their esteemed Time 100 issue. In 2009, Entertainment Weekly acknowledged Wiig as one of the top 15 great performers for her work on SNL. Wiig has been nominated for seven Emmy Awards and received her first Oscar nomination for writing Bridesmaids.

This summer, Wiig starred in the Sony Pictures Classics drama The Diary of a Teenage Girl, directed by Marielle Heller. Wiig stars opposite Bel Powley and Alexander Skarsgard in the coming of age story, based on the graphic novel written and illustrated by Phoebe Gloeckner. The story follows a teenage artist living in 1970’s San Francisco who enters into an affair with her mother’s (Wiig) boyfriend. The film screened at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim, and was released by Sony Pictures Classics on August 7, 2015.

Wiig stars opposite Owen Wilson and Zach Galifianakis in Relativity’s comedy, Masterminds. Directed by Jared Hess and produced by John Goldwyn and Lorne Michaels, the film chronicles the true story of one of the biggest bank heists in American history in 1997 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Relativity will release Masterminds on October 9, 2015.

Later that month, Wiig stars in Sebastian Silva’s Nasty Baby. Written and directed by Silva (Crystal Fairy), the film chronicles the lives of a gay couple (Silva and Tunde Adebimpe), who embark on a failed mission to have a baby with the help of their best friend, Polly (Wiig.) Nasty Baby screened at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and will be released by The Orchard on October 23, 2015.

Wiig recently completed production on Zoolander 2, in which she will star alongside Ben Stiller (who is also directing), Will Ferrell and Owen Wilson. Written by Justin Theroux and produced by Scott Rudin, Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld, Zoolander 2 will follow Derek and Hansel as they are modeling again when an opposing company attempts to take them out from the business. Paramount Pictures will release the comedy on February 12, 2016.

Wiig is currently in production on Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters 3, in which she will star alongside Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones. The film, produced by Amy Pascal, will be released by Columbia Pictures on July 22, 2016.

Earlier this year, Wiig starred in Alchemy’s drama Welcome to Me, directed by Shira Piven (Fully Loaded) and produced by Wiig and Gary Sanchez productions. The film screened at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. It tells the story of Alice Klieg (Wiig,) a woman with Borderline Personality Disorder, who wins the lottery, quits her medication and buys her own talk show. The film follows a year in the life of this “extraordinary” woman, who, inspired by Oprah, broadcasts her dirty laundry as both a form of exhibitionism and a platform to share her peculiar views on life.

Last year, Wiig starred in the IFC film Hateship Loveship, alongside Guy Pearce, Nick Nolte, and Hailee Steinfeld. Based on the short story by the Nobel Prize winning Canadian author Alice Munroe, the film is directed by Liza Johnson.  In a dramatic turn, Wiig portrays Johanna, a shy, introverted housekeeper hired to care for Mr. McCauley (Nolte) and his granddaughter Sabitha (Steinfeld.) Through the act of a mean spirited joke, Johanna is forced to deal with the repercussions of falling in love with an illusion.

Also in 2014, Wiig starred in the critically acclaimed The Skeleton Twins, directed by Craig Johnson, opposite Bill Hader and Luke Wilson.  The film chronicled the story of twins Maggie (Wiig) and Milo (Hader) who cheat death, prompting them to reunite after ten years. The film screened at the Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews. Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate released the film in September 2014.

Wiig received an Emmy nomination for her performance in the epic IFC television miniseries spoof, The Spoils of Babylon, written and directed by Matt Piedmont and Andrew Steele and executive produced by Will Ferrell. Wiig, starring opposite Tobey Maguire and Tim Robbins, portrayed Cynthia Morehouse, the daughter of the rich and successful patriarch, Jonas Morehouse (Robbins.) The six-episode miniseries takes you through two decades of this unlikely family’s trials and tribulations. The Spoils of Babylon was one of the highest-rated debuts ever on IFC television. IFC premiered a second season in July titled Spoils Before Dying, in which Wiig also starred. Also in July, Wiig will appear as Courtney in the Netflix remake of Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp. The eight-episode series launched on Netflix on July 31^st.

For Christmas 2013, Wiig starred in the critically acclaimed Twentieth Century Fox drama The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, opposite Ben Stiller, who also produced and directed the film. Based on the 1939 short story by James Thurber, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a breathtaking look into the world of fantasy seen through the eyes of Walter (Stiller) and his daydream sequences. Wiig portrays Cheryl Melhoff, Walter’s co-worker at Time Magazine who inspires him to take action into his own hands when their jobs are threatened. Also in December 2013, Wiig starred in the box office smash, Anchorman Two: The Legend Continues, portraying Chani Lastname, opposite Steve Carell. Wiig also voiced the character of SexyKitten in the Oscar nominated film, Her. Last summer, Wiig voiced the character of Lucy in the Oscar nominated, Despicable Me 2, starring opposite Steve Carell.

In 2012, Wiig finished her seventh and final season as a cast member on NBC’s revered show Saturday Night Live. During her time on SNL, Wiig received four Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, playing such memorable characters as the excitable Target Lady, Lawrence Welk singer Doonese, the irritating one-upper Penelope, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Suze Orman. In 2013, Wiig was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her return as a host on the show earlier that year.

In 2011, Wiig starred in the critically acclaimed breakout film Bridesmaids, which she co-wrote with Annie Mumolo, and for which they were nominated for an Academy Award, Writers Guild of America Award, and BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay. Directed by Paul Feig and produced by Wiig and Judd Apatow, Bridesmaids is Apatow’s highest-grossing production and is the top R-rated female comedy of all time. Wiig was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Lead Actress in a Comedy or Musical, along with the film being nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical. The film also received a SAG Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

Other film credits include Apatow’s Knocked Up; Girl Most Likely, directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, Friends with Kids, written and directed by Jennifer Westfeldt; Greg Mottola’s Paul and Adventureland, All Good Things with Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst;  MacGruber alongside Will Forte; Mike Judge’s Extract with Jason Bateman and Ben Affleck, Drew Barrymore’s Whip It, David Keopp’s Ghost Town  and Jake Kasdan’s Walk Hard, another Apatow-produced film in which Wiig starred opposite John C. Reilly.

Voice acting credits include the Cartoon Network’s The Looney Toons Show, for which Wiig received an Emmy nomination, Fox’s The Simpsons and the animated feature films Despicable Me (parts 1 and 2) and How to Train Your Dragon (parts 1 and 2).

Wiig has also guest-starred in the NBC television series 30 Rock, HBO’s Bored to Death, Netflix’s Arrested Development, Comedy Central’s Drunk History and IFC’s Flight of the Concords and Portlandia.

A native of Rochester, New York, Wiig began her career as a main company member of the Los Angeles-based improvisational and sketch comedy group, The Groundlings. Wiig currently resides in Los Angeles.

JEFF DANIELS (Teddy Sanders) has performed with distinction for over 38 years on stage, screen and television.

For his portrayal of Will McAvoy in HBO’s The Newsroom, Daniels received two SAG Nominations, two Emmy Nominations, and the 2013 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

He earned a Tony Award Nomination for Best Actor in the celebrated Broadway Production of God of Carnage. Off Broadway, in Manhattan Theatre Club’s Blackbird, Daniels received a Drama League Award and two Drama Desk Nominations for Second Stage’s Production of Lemon Sky, and the Broadway Production of Fifth of July. At the Circle Repertory Company, his role in the one-man show adaptation of Dalton’s Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun won him an Obie Award.

Daniels’ extensive list of feature films includes The Squid And The Whale (Independent Spirit and Golden Globe Nom, London Film Critics and Newsweek’s Actor Of The Year), Something Wild (Golden Globe Nom), The Purple Rose Of Cairo (Golden Globe Nom), Gettysburg, Good Night & Good Luck, Looper, The Lookout, The Hours, Pleasantville, 101 Dalmatians, Fly Away Home, Speed, Arachnophobia, Blood Work, Terms Of Endearment, Ragtime, and Dumb And Dumber for which he shared a 1995 MTV Movie Nomination for Best On-Screen Duo with Jim Carrey.

Later this year, Daniels stars as John Sculley in the motion picture Steve Jobs, directed by Danny Boyle from a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin.

MICHAEL PEÑA (Rick Martinez) has distinguished himself in Hollywood as an actor with a wide range of performances and has worked with an impressive roster of award winning directors. Last year he reteamed with director David Ayer for the feature Fury opposite Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf.

Peña earned notable recognition for his performance in Paul Haggis’ provocative Oscar winning film Crash, alongside Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon and Terrence Howard.  The film was critically acclaimed for its interpretation of complex race relations in contemporary America, and Peña garnered multiple best ensemble nominations for his role as Daniel the locksmith,’ winning awards from the Screen Actors Guild and the Broadcast Film Critics Association for the cast’s performance. In 2013 he was seen in the David O’Russell film American Hustle, which won a Golden Globe, as well as ensemble awards from the Screen Actors Guild and the Broadcast Film Critics. It is was also nominated for BAFTA and Academy awards.

In 2014 Peña was seen as civil right and labor organizer Cesar Chavez in Chavez.  The film is directed by Diego Luna and produced by Canana and Mr Mudd. In the film, Peña plays Chavez, a man who embraced non-violence as he battled greed and prejudice in his struggle for the rights of farm workers.

Also last year, he appeared in the Fox hour mini-series Gracepoint, a remake of the UK’s Broadchurch. The show centers on Detective Emmett Carver (David Tennant), the lead investigator on the case of a shocking murder of 11-year-old Danny, which puts a small town under scrutiny. Peña played Danny’s father a well-liked local plumber and family man.

Most recently he appeared in the Marvel film Ant Man.

In 2012, Peña was seen in the critically acclaimed movie End of Watch, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. The film is about two young officers in South Central LA who are marked for death after confiscating a small cache of money and firearms from the members of a notorious cartel, during a routine traffic stop. For his role as Officer Zavala Peña was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and the film was recognized by the National Board of Review as one of the Top 10 Independent Films of the year.

Peña was also recently seen in the films Everything Must Go alongside Will Ferrell and Rebecca Hall, Gangster Squad opposite Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling, and in the DreamWorks animated feature Turbo.

Peña’s film credits include The Lucky Ones, co-starring Rachel McAdams and Tim Robbins; Jody Hill’s comedy Observe and Report with Seth Rogen; Robert Redford’s political drama Lions for Lambs, along with Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep; and Werner Herzog and David Lynch’s psychological thriller My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done with Michael Shannon, Willem Dafoe and Chloe Sevigny.

Peña’s other noteworthy credits consist of Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center, which chronicled the heroism of American servicemen in the direct aftermath of the September 11th attacks; Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby; Matthew Ryan Hoge’s The United States of Leland; Gregor Jordan’s Buffalo Soldiers; Antoine Fuqua’s Shooter; Brett Ratner’s Tower Heist and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel.  

On television, Peña starred in the HBO film Walkout.  Based on the true story of a young Mexican American high school teacher who helped stage a massive student walkout in the mid-1960s, Peña received an Imagen Award for Best Actor in the television category for his performance.  He re-teamed with Danny McBride on the second season of HBO’s Eastbound and Down.  Peña appeared on the F/X drama The Shield for its fourth season as one of the central leads opposite Glenn Close and Anthony Anderson.  Other television credits include Steven Spielberg’s NBC series Semper Fi.

Raised in Chicago, Peña began acting when he beat out hundreds of others in an open call for a role in Peter Bogdonovich’s To Sir, With Love 2, starring Sidney Poitier.

KATE MARA (Beth Johanssen) was born and raised in Bedford, New York and began acting at age fourteen in local theater projects. At fifteen Kate made her feature film debut in Random Hearts for director Sydney Pollack.

Kate’s impressive list of film credits include Brokeback Mountain for director Ang Lee in which she portrayed Heath Ledger’s daughter; Transsiberian with Sir Ben Kingsley and Woody Harrelson for director Brad Anderson; We Are Marshall with Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox for director McG; Shooter with Mark Wahlberg for director Antoine Fuqua; Stone of Destiny with Charlie Cox for director Charles Martin Smith; The Open Road with Justin Timberlake and Jeff Bridges for director Michael Meredith; Iron Man 2 with Robert Downey Jr. for director Jon Favreau; Iron Clad with Paul Giamatti and James Purefoy for director Jonathan English; and HappyThankYouMorePlease with Josh Radnor and Malin Akerman.

Kate also appeared in the Academy Award nominated film 127 Hours with James Franco and Amber Tamblyn for director Danny Boyle, Ten Years with Channing Tatum, Oscar Isaac, Brian Geraghty and Max Minghella for director Jamie Linden, and in the independent film Deadfall opposite Eric Bana, Charlie Hunnam and Olivia Wilde, for Oscar-winning director Stefan Ruzowitzky.

Last year, Kate starred alongside Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, Rebecca Hall and Morgan Freeman in the film Transcendence, which marked the directorial debut of Academy Award-winning cinematographer Wally Pfister.

Recent film credits include the psychological thriller Man Down in which she plays Natalie Drummer, wife of war veteran Gabriel Drummer played by Shia LaBeouf; Fantastic Four alongside Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell; and Captive in which she stars with David Oyelowo as a single mother struggling with meth addiction in the adaptation of the best-selling book An Unlikely Angel.

Upcoming is the thriller Morgan, directed by Luke Scott.

On television Mara received an Emmy Award nomination for her role in David Fincher’s critically acclaimed television series, House of Cards in which she co-starred alongside Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright.

Kate also portrayed a mentally unstable ghost alongside Jessica Lange in Season One of Ryan Murphy’s critically acclaimed series American Horror Story for F/X and has appeared on numerous television shows, including arcs on 24 and Entourage.

SEAN BEAN (Mitch Henderson) is an award-winning film, television and theatre actor most recently seen in the film Jupiter Ascending and in TNT’s new series Legends, now in production on season two. Bean lent his voice to the character Arrog in The Snow Queen 2: The Snow King, which is already in international release. He has a role in the recent comedy Pixels, directed by Chris Columbus, and in the ITV six-part period crime drama The Frankenstein Chronicles.

Bean’s distinguished career has spanned film, TV and theatre. Highlights have included the role of Boromir in Peter Jackson’s acclaimed Lord of the Rings trilogy, for which Bean received the Best British Actor accolade at the Empire Awards; as well as Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Troy, Ronin, Goldeneye, Don’t Say A Word, National Treasure, Flight Plan, The Island, Silent Hill, The Hitcher, True North, Anna Karenina, Patriot Games, Caravaggio, Lorna Doone, The Field and Stormy Monday.

The RADA trained British actor first came to the attention of television audiences in the 1990s in the role of Richard Sharpe in the hugely popular series Sharpe. Other major television dramas have included HBO’s Game of Thrones,’Channel Four’s celebrated Red Riding, Jimmy McGovern’s Accused, for which Bean won an International Emmy (Best Performance by an Actor) and earned a BAFTA nomination (Best Leading Actor), Bravo Two Zero, A Woman’s Guide to Adultery, Lady Chatterley, Fool’s Gold, Inspector Morse, Clarissa, Prince, Troubles, Small Zone, My Kingdom for A Horse, War Requiem, Winter Flight, Samson & Delilah and The True Bride.

Notable theatre credits include the RSC’s Romeo and Juliet directed by Michael Boghdanov, Trevor Nunn’s RSC Stratford/Mermaid production of Fair Maid of the West, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and, more recently, Edward Hall’s Macbeth.

SEBASTIAN STAN (Chris Beck) is best known for his role as Bucky Barnes in Captain America: Winter Soldier, and will also be reprising the role in the sequel, Captain America: Civil War.

Stan’s other credits include Black Swan, Gone and The Covenant, as well as the television series Labyrinth, Once Upon A Time, Gossip Girl (as Carter Baizen) and Kings, an NBC series based on the biblical story of King David.

AKSEL HENNIE (Alex Vogel) is a celebrated Norwegian actor whose films, Headhunters and Max Manus are the two biggest box office successes in Norwegian cinema history. Headhunters was nominated for a BAFTA and based on the best-selling Joe Nesbo novel.  The film premiered in North America at the Toronto Film Festival to stellar reviews, praising Aksel’s performance as the lead character, Roger Brown.

Hennie was also seen last summer in Hercules alongside Dwayne Johnson and stars opposite Clive Owen and Morgan Freeman in The Last Knights. 

He won the Amanda (Norway’s Oscar) in 2005 for Best Director for his feature Uno, which he also wrote and starred in.

DONALD GLOVER (Rich Purnell) is an actor, producer, award-winning comedian and writer, and Grammy-nominated artist.

Glover was recently seen in the film Magic Mike XXL, starring alongside Channing Tatum, Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer and Amber Heard.

As the writer, executive producer, and lead of his own FX half-hour pilot Atlanta, Glover will play Earnest Earn Marks, a college drop-out who taps into his own musical aspirations when his estranged family member finds sudden fame. The show begins production this month.

Glover’s past films include David Gelb’s The Lazarus Effect opposite Olivia Wilde and Mark Duplass; Miguel Arteta’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day; Maggie Carey’s The To Do List opposite Aubrey Plaza and Bill Hader, and James Bobin’s The Muppets.

On television, Glover starred for five seasons as Troy on NBC’s critically acclaimed series Community created by Dan Harmon. He has also made guest appearances on Judd Apatow’s HBO series, Girls, Disney XD’s Ultimate Spider Man as the voice of Miles Morales, and on the cult favorite Adult Swim animated series, Adventure Time.

Glover began his comedy career under the mentorship of Tina Fey, writing for the Emmy award-winning NBC series 30 Rock, where his work on the third season ultimately earned him a WGA Award for Best Comedy Series. During this time, Glover was also named one of Variety’s Top 10 Comics to Watch, filmed a half-hour and a full hour stand-up special for Comedy Central, and received the Rising Comedy Star award at the Just for Laughs festival in July 2010.

As a musician, Glover is known for his success under the stage name Childish Gambino. He released his first album, Camp, in 2011. His second album, Because the Internet, was nominated for two Grammy Awards and generated the hit song 3005.

MACKENZIE DAVIS (Mindy Park) was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, and attended McGill University in Montreal and then the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York.  Shortly after graduating, she was cast in Drake Doremus’ feature film Breathe In, alongside Guy Pearce, Amy Ryan, and Felicity Jones.

Davis is currently starring in the critically acclaimed AMC series Halt & Catch Fire opposite Lee Pace and Scott McNairy, and she recently filmed the features A Country Called Home with Imogen Poots, and the independent film Always Shine with Anson Mount and Cailtin Fitzgerald. Davis will next be seen in Bad Turn Worse with Jeremy Allen White, as well as the Sony’s Kitchen Sink with Nicholas Braun.

Davis currently resides in New York.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

Director/Producer RIDLEY SCOTT has been honored with Academy Award nominations for Best Director for his work on Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, and Thelma & Louise. All three films also earned him DGA Award nominations. Scott’s most recent directorial credits include the recently released Exodus: Gods and Kings starring Christian Bale, Prometheus starring Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron and The Counselor, written by Cormac McCarthy and starring Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, and Javier Bardem.

Scott has garnered multiple award nominations over his illustrious career. In addition to his Academy Award and DGA nominations, he also earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director for American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. He also served as a producer on the true-life drama receiving a BAFTA nomination for Best Film. Scott also received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Best Director for his epic Gladiator. The film won the Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA awards for Best Picture.

In 1977, Scott made his feature film directorial debut with The Duellists, for which he won the Best First Film Award at the Cannes Film Festival. He followed with the blockbuster science-fiction thriller Alien, which catapulted Sigourney Weaver to stardom and launched a successful franchise. In 1982, Scott directed the landmark film Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford. Considered a science-fiction classic, the futuristic thriller was added to the U.S. Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 1993, and a director’s cut of Blade Runner was released to renewed acclaim in 1993 and in 2007.

Scott’s additional film directing credits include Legend, starring Tom Cruise; Someone to Watch Over Me; Black Rain, starring Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia; 1492: Conquest of Paradise; White Squall, starring Jeff Bridges; G.I. Jane, starring Demi Moore and Viggo Mortensen; Hannibal, starring Anthony Hopkins and Julianne Moore; Body of Lies, starring Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio; A Good Year, starring Russell Crowe and Albert Finney; the epic Kingdom of Heaven, with Orlando Bloom and Jeremy Irons; and Matchstick Men, starring Nicolas Cage and Sam Rockwell. Scott’s hit version of the timeless tale of Robin Hood marked his fifth collaboration with star Russell Crowe, also starring Cate Blanchett.

Screenwriter DREW GODDARD is a film and television screenwriter, director and producer.  He has written on television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Alias, and Lost.  His feature writing credits include Cloverfield, The Cabin in the Woods (which he also directed), and World War Z.  He is the creator and the executive producer of the Marvel/Netflix series Daredevil.

Producer SIMON KINBERG has established himself as one of Hollywood’s most prolific filmmakers, having written and produced projects for some of the most successful franchises in the modern era.

Kinberg graduated from Brown University, and received his MFA from Columbia University Film School, where his thesis project was the original script Mr and Mrs Smith. Released in 2005, the film starred Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. In 2006, Kinberg wrote X-Men: The Last Stand, which opened on Memorial Day to box-office records, and began his ongoing relationship with the franchise. In 2008 Kinberg wrote and produced Doug Liman’s film Jumper for 20th Century Fox. In 2009 Kinberg co-wrote the film Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr., directed by Guy Ritchie. It set the box-office record for the biggest Christmas Day opening in history. Robert Downey, Jr. received a Golden Globe for Best Actor, and the film was nominated for two Academy Awards.

In 2010, Kinberg established his production company Genre Films, with a first look deal at 20th Century Fox. Under this banner, he produced X-Men: First Class, executive produced Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and wrote and produced This Means War. In 2013, Kinberg produced Elysium, starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, directed by Neill Blomkamp.

On Memorial Day 2014, Fox released X-Men: Days of Future Past, which Kinberg wrote and produced. The film opened number one at the box-office, received critical acclaim, and went on to gross $750 million worldwide.

This year, Kinberg re-teamed with Neill Blomkamp to produce Chappie starring Hugh Jackman and Sharlto Copley, and produced Disney’s Cinderella, starring Cate Blanchett, directed by Kenneth Branagh. The latter was Kinberg’s ninth picture to open number one at the box-office. Also in 2015, he wrote and produced Fantastic Four and the next X-Men movie, X-Men: Apocalypse, to be released Memorial Day 2016. In addition, Kinberg is producing the X-Men spinoff movies Deadpool starring Ryan Reynolds, Gambit starring Channing Tatum, and the next Wolverine movie with Hugh Jackman.

Kinberg is also writing and producing one of the upcoming Star Wars films, serves as consultant on Star Wars: Episode VII, and is the creator and executive producer of the animated show Star Wars: Rebels, on Disney XD.

MICHAEL SCHAEFER, p.g.a. (Producer) is President of Scott Free Productions. Born and raised in Germany, his first job in Hollywood was working for Harvey Weinstein in London and New York as a Vice President of Production for The Weinstein Company. Prior to joining Scott Free, Schaefer was a senior executive at Summit Entertainment, where he oversaw a variety of films including the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker, The Impossible, 50/50, Source Code, Sinister and the worldwide box office hit Now You See Me.

During his time at Scott Free, Schaefer has produced a variety of movies over the last few years including Exodus: Gods and Kings, The Counselor, Child 44, and the upcoming films Equals (starring Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult), Morgan (starring Kate Mara and Paul Giamatti) and Concussion (starring Will Smith).

The company is in active development and pre-production on a few movies to be shot in 2016, including Murder on The Orient Express, to be directed by Kenneth Branagh.

.Producer ADITYA SOOD is the President of Simon Kinberg’s production company, Genre Films, which they started together in 2010. Genre Films has a first look deal at 20th Century Fox. Sood was an executive producer on the successful action-comedy Let’s Be Cops and is an executive producer on the upcoming Deadpool.

Prior to working at Genre, Sood ran Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald’s production company at DreamWorks and was Vice President, Production at Warner Bros. Pictures. He started his career at New Line Cinema and DreamWorks, and later was a story editor for producer Mark Johnson. A Seattle native, Sood is a graduate of Pomona College and lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife, Becky Chassin.

Producer MARK HUFFAM, p.g.a. has been active in the film industry since 1983 and ha been working as a producer for the last twelve years.  Huffam’s first major producing credit was earned on Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan starring Tom Hanks, which went on to win five Oscars at the 1999 Academy Awards.  In recognition of his own contribution to the film, Huffam was presented with the Directors Guild of America (DGA) award for Best Production Team that year.

In 2000 Huffam co-produced the highly acclaimed Quills, starring Geoffrey Rush and Kate Winslet, which was nominated for three Oscars and five BAFTA Awards. After this he produced Captain Corelli’s Mandolin for Working Title Films.  Directed by John Madden, it starred Nicolas Cage and Penélope Cruz.

In 2002 Huffam teamed up with Scott Rudin to produce The Hours, directed by Stephen Daldry, starring Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep.  The film received eight Academy Award nominations and Kidman went on to win Best Actress for her role as Virginia Woolf.

Huffam then produced the highly successful Johnny English in 2003 – again for Working Title.  The film, starring Rowan Atkinson, grossed $147 million at the box-office worldwide, and picked up a number of nominations including Best Film, British Comedy Awards 2003, and Best British Film (Empire Awards 2004).  He joined forces with Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner again to produce the film version of the popular 60s television series Thunderbirds in 2004.

Also in 2004, and with Stephen Daldry on board as executive producer, Huffam produced Mickybo and Me, a project he developed with the writer-director Terry Loane.  Filmed in Northern Ireland and starring Julie Walters, it won awards and acclaim at the Irish Film Festival in 2005 and at other festivals around the world.

In 2005 and 2006, Huffam was involved in the highly successful GOAL! series set in the world of international soccer, producing the first two films of the trilogy for Milkshake Films and Buena Vista Pictures.

Huffam then produced Mamma Mia,! the film version of the popular stage musical, for Universal Pictures, starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth.  It was a worldwide smash hit, accumulating more than $600 million at the box office to become one of Universal’s top-grossing and most profitable films ever.

In 2008 Huffam established Generator Entertainment with Simon Bosanquet to develop and produce a cutting edge slate of genre films.  Generator’s films to date include the horror thriller Red Mist, coming-of-age drama Cherrybomb, with Rupert Grint, and the supernatural thriller Ghost Machine.

In 2009 Huffam produced the feature film Your Highness for Universal Pictures, starring Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman and Zooey Deschanel.  In the same year, he produced the acclaimed HBO television pilot and series one of Games of Thrones, based on the first volume of the fantasy book series’ A Song Of Fire And Ice, by George RR Martin.

At the start of 2010 Huffam produced Nick Hamm’s Killing Bono under the Generator slate in conjunction with Salt Company and Greenroom Entertainment.  It starred Ben Barnes, upcoming Irish actor Robert Sheehan, and the late Pete Postlethwaite.

The next year Huffam collaborated with Ridley Scott for the first time, serving as executive producer on Scott’s science fiction epic Prometheus, reprising this role for the director on The Counselor starring Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Michael Fassbender. In the same year he co-produced the Cardiff sequence of the Brad Pitt blockbuster World War Z.

In 2014 Huffam produced with Ridley Scott again on biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings, starring Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton and John Turturro, shot on location in Spain. He was also executive producer of Robot Overlords, directed by John Wright and starring Gillian Anderson and Ben Kingsley.

DARIUSZ WOLSKI, ASC (Director of Photography) collaborated with Ridley Scott in 2014 on Exodus: Gods and Kings, in 2013 on The Counselor, and in 2012 on the science fiction epic Prometheus.

He served as director of photography on Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, following his acclaimed work on The Curse of the Black Pearl, Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End. Wolski also worked with Johnny Depp on Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Alice in Wonderland, as well as on Bruce Robinson’s The Rum Diary.

Wolski has collaborated with many other notable directors, including Gore Verbinski on The Mexican; DJ Caruso on Eagle Eye; Andrew Davis on A Perfect Murder; Alex Proyas on Dark City, and his cult classic The Crow; Peter Medak on Romeo Is Bleeding; John Polson on Hide And Seek; as well as with Tony Scott on The Fan and the Don Simpson-Jerry Bruckheimer production on Crimson Tide. For his work on the highly acclaimed Crimson Tide, Wolski garnered an ASC Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography.

Born in Warsaw, Poland, Wolski attended the Film School in Lodz. After moving to the United States in 1979, he worked on documentaries and independent films. His big break came in 1986 on the film Heart, when he was called in to replace a cinematographer who left the project. Soon after, Wolski moved to Los Angeles where he worked as director of photography on music videos and commercials for various directors, including Alex Proyas, David Fincher, Tony Scott, and Jake Scott.

ARTHUR MAX (Production Designer) began collaborating with director Ridley Scott in the TV commercial arena more than two decades ago. Max has received an Academy Award nomination for his work on two Scott-directed films: Best Picture Oscar winner Gladiator, on which he brought ancient Rome to vivid life, and American Gangster, for which he recreated 1970s Harlem. For Gladiator, Max also won a BAFTA, a National Board of Review award, a Broadcast Film Critics award, and an Excellence in Production Design award from the Art Directors Guild. He received his fourth Art Directors Guild nomination for American Gangster.

Max’s collaborations with Scott also include Exodus: Gods and Kings, Prometheus, and Robin Hood, for which he received his first Art Directors Guild nomination, Body of Lies; Kingdom of Heaven; Black Hawk Down, for which he received his second Art Directors Guild nomination, as well as an American Film Institute award nomination; and GI Jane.

Max has twice collaborated with director David Fincher, designing the filmmaker’s dark 1995 crime drama Se7en, and more recently on his claustrophobic thriller Panic Room, for which Max received his third Art Directors Guild nomination.

A native New Yorker, Max graduated from New York University in the late 1960s and began his career as a stage lighting designer in the music industry. His early work included the historic 1969 Woodstock Festival and projects at Bill Graham’s famous venue Fillmore East in New York’s East Village. During the following decade, he designed concert stages for such legendary musical artists as T-Rex and Pink Floyd. After studying architecture in England, earning degrees in the early 80s from Polytechnic of Central London and the Royal College of Art, Max went on to do several architectural design projects in London.

He worked in the British film industry as an assistant to such prominent production designers as Stuart Craig on Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes and Cal, and Asshetton Gorton on Revolution. Max subsequently shifted his career focus to television commercials and, for a decade, designed for such clients as Pepsi, Nike, Jeep, Coke and Levi’s, which led to his association with filmmakers Ridley Scott and David Fincher.

PIETRO SCALIA, ACE (Editor) has been honored twice with an Academy Award for Best Film Editing: for Oliver Stone’s controversial 1991 conspiracy theory drama JFK, on which he shared the honor with co-editor Joe Hutshing and also took home a BAFTA and the American Cinema Editors’ (ACE) Eddie Award; and for his work on Ridley Scott’s acclaimed 1991 war drama Black Hawk Down, for which he also won an ACE Eddie Award and received a BAFTA nomination. In addition, Scalia received nominations for an Oscar and an ACE Eddie Award for Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting, and an Oscar nomination, an ACE Eddie Award and a BAFTA for Scott’s Oscar-winning film Gladiator. Scalia has also edited Scott’s Prometheus; Robin Hood; Body of Lies; American Gangster, for which he received a BAFTA nomination; GI Jane; Hannibal; and The Counselor.

Recent credits include The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Child 44 and The Sea of Trees.

Scalia served as editor on actor-producer Leonardo DiCaprio’s acclaimed 2007 documentary The 11^th Hour and on Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass.

Earlier, Scalia collaborated with fellow Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci on Little Buddha and Stealing Beauty. He also worked with Sam Raimi on The Quick and the Dead; Rob Marshall on Memoirs of a Geisha; and Larry Charles on Masked and Anonymous.

He began his career by collaborating with Oliver Stone, first as assistant editor on the filmmaker’s Wall Street and Talk Radio. He went on to serve as associate editor on Born on the Fourth of July, which won an Oscar for Best Film Editing, and an additional editor on The Doors.

Born in Sicily, Scalia was raised in Switzerland. He came to the U.S. to attend college, eventually earning his MFA in film and theatre arts from UCLA in 1985.

JANTY YATES (Costume Designer) won the 2000 Academy Award and earned a BAFTA nomination for her costumes evoking ancient Rome in Ridley Scott’s Best Picture Oscar winner Gladiator. The film marked the first of nine feature film collaborations to date with Scott, which also includes Exodus: Gods and Kings, The Counselor; Prometheus; Robin Hood, for which she received both Saturn and Satellite nominations for Best Costume Design; Body of Lies; American Gangster; Hannibal and Kingdom Of Heaven, for which she received a Goya Award nomination for Best Costume Design.

Yates’ notable film credits also include the Michael Winterbottom films Welcome To Sarajevo, Jude and With Or Without You; Michael Mann’s Miami Vice; Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Enemy At The Gates; Christopher Monger’s The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain; Jon Amiel’s The Man Who Knew Too Little; Gillian Armstrong’s Charlotte Gray; and Irwin Winkler’s Cole Porter biographical drama De-Lovely, for which her designs of post-Depression elegance earned Yates a Costume Designers Guild Award nomination.

Yates began her career in the fashion world, and then segued to the film industry as a costume assistant on Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Quest for Fire. She subsequently worked on two Mike Newell films: the 1985 thriller Dance with a Stranger and the 1988 drama Soursweet. She served as wardrobe supervisor on Alan Parker’s acclaimed Irish music tale The Commitments, and then made her debut as a feature film costume designer with the 1993 British comedy Bad Behaviour.

HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS (Music) is one of Hollywood’s most sought after composers, whose scores span the spectrum of high-profile projects from action to drama to animation – each infused with the emotional punch and atmospheric intensity that mark his distinctive musical style.  He was the composer on all four installments of the blockbuster Shrek franchise; garnered a BAFTA nomination for the score for the first Shrek; and received Golden Globe and Grammy Award nominations for his score to Andrew Adamson’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

His recent scores include the upcoming Miss You Already for director Catherine Hardwicke, Blackhat for Michael Mann, Monkey Kingdom for Disney Nature, The Equalizer starring Denzel Washington, Total Recall starring Colin Farrell and Kate Beckinsale, music for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, the Aardman animated film Arthur Christmas, the action thriller Cowboys & Aliens directed by Jon Favreau as well as the unique documentary Life in a Day.

His long list of film credits also includes the critically acclaimed The Town, marking his second collaboration with director Ben Affleck. Gregson-Williams first worked with Affleck as the composer on Gone Baby Gone. He has worked multiple times with other directors, including Joel Schumacher on the films Twelve, The Number 23, Veronica Guerin and Phone Booth; and Tony Scott on Unstoppable, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Déjà Vu, Domino, Man on Fire, Spy Game and Enemy of the State.  Gregson-Williams’ prolific output has also seen him scoring Mike Newell’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time; X-Men Origins: Wolverine; Adamson’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and Mr. Pip; Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven; Beeban Kidron’s Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason; Aardman’s animated smash Chicken Run; Return to Sender and Smilla’s Sense of Snow, both for director Bille August; Antoine Fuqua’s The Replacement Killers; and the first computer generated animation from DreamWorks, Antz.

Gregson-Williams has scored three of the five games in the highly successful Metal Gear Solid franchise for Konami and recently scored Call of Duty for Activision, which became the top selling video game of 2014 and for which he received various music gaming awards.

Born in England to a musical family, Gregson-Williams earned a music scholarship to St. John’s College, Cambridge at the age of 7 and subsequently gained a coveted spot at London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama from which he recently received an Honorary Fellowship. Gregson-Williams then turned his attention to teaching, initially in schools in England but later in Alexandria, Egypt. He started his film career as assistant to composer Richard Harvey and later as orchestrator and arranger for Stanley Myers, and then went on to compose his first scores for director Nicolas Roeg. His subsequent collaboration and friendship with composer Hans Zimmer resulted in Gregson-Williams providing music for such films as The Rock, Armageddon and The Prince of Egypt and helped launch his career in Hollywood. He has also been a regular and valued mentor at the Sundance Composers Lab, working directly with talented emerging composers from all over the world.

Gregson-Williams has five children and has lived and worked in Los Angeles since 1995.