The Island - Production Notes
Last Update: 24 July 2005
Island Formation
Island Inhabitants
Cast
Crew
CREW
MICHAEL BAY (Director/Producer) is one of the film industry's most successful
action directors. He made his feature film directorial debut in 1995 on the
action comedy hit "Bad Boys," which established both Will Smith and Martin
Lawrence as action stars and launched Bay's hugely successful alliance with
producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The following year, Bay scored an even more
impressive hit with the big-budget actioner "The Rock," starring Sean Connery,
Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris. The film wowed critics and audiences alike and
took in more than $335 million worldwide, becoming one of the mega hits of
1996.
Continuing to build on his own success, Bay reunited with Bruckheimer to
make "Armageddon," based on a story Bay conceived with writer Jonathan
Hensleigh. Starring Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton and Liv Tyler,
"Armageddon" earned more than $550 million at the worldwide box office,
making it the top-grossing film of 1998 globally, and making Bay one of the
youngest directors ever to reach the billion-dollar mark.
Bay next took on one of the most momentous events in history when he
directed the epic "Pearl Harbor," which he also produced with Bruckheimer.
A sweeping saga of love and war, the film starred Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett,
Kate Beckinsale, Jon Voight and Alec Baldwin. "Pearl Harbor" became a hit
with young audiences and World War II veterans alike, going on to gross
$450 million. Today it stands as one of the top-selling DVDs of all time.
More recently, Bay helmed "Bad Boys II," which emerged as one of the
biggest hits of the highly competitive summer of 2003, going on to gross
more than $270 million at the worldwide box office. Reteaming Will Smith
and Martin Lawrence, the film also marked Bay's fifth collaboration with
Bruckheimer.
A Los Angeles native, Bay graduated from the prestigious film program at
Wesleyan University, and then studied at Pasadena's Art Center College of
Design. He began his career making music videos, earning praise for directing
Donny Osmond's musical comeback video. Soon after, he was recruited by
Propaganda Films, where he directed award-winning videos for such artists
as Aerosmith, Tina Turner, Meat Loaf, and the DiVinyls.
Segueing to commercials, Bay won a coveted Clio Award for his first
television ad, for the American Red Cross. He went on to direct some of
the most widely seen and best remembered commercials in history, including
spots for Nike, Budweiser, Levi's, Bugle Boy, Coca-Cola, Isuzu, Miller,
Mercedes, and the latest provocative Victoria's Secret campaigns. Perhaps
his most honored ads--and among the most imitated--are from the "Got
Milk?" commercial campaign, which Bay created. He won a Grand Prix Clio
for Commercial of the Year for the "Got Milk?/Aaron Burr" spot, which was
dubbed one of the top ten commercials of all time by USA Today and the
History Channel. Bay also garnered the Museum of Modern Art Award for
Best Campaign of the Year. By the age of 26, Bay had won every major
directing prize for commercials, including many Gold and Silver Lions at
Cannes, and a Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial
Achievement for Commercials.
Bay recently established his Platinum Dunes production banner, designed to
create lower-budgeted film fare to help new directors break into movies. The
first feature under the Platinum Dunes shingle was a re-imagining of the
cult-hit horror film "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," which Bay produced. The
next effort from Platinum Dunes, also produced by Bay, was a remake of the
horror classic "The Amityville Horror," released earlier this year. Next up is
"The Hitcher," and there are four other films on Platinum Dunes' upcoming
slate.
Bay also recently helped found a commercial and music video production
entity, The Institute for the Development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness,
which represents several directors.
WALTER F. PARKES (Producer) and LAURIE MacDONALD (Executive Producer)
are two of today's most active motion picture producers. Following "The
Island," they have several films upcoming, including "The Legend of Zorro,"
the sequel to their earlier hit "The Mask of Zorro," which reunites Antonio
Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones; and the romantic comedy "Just Like
Heaven," which stars Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo under the direction
of Mark Waters.
The couple's recent credits include the fantasy adventure hit "Lemony
Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," starring Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep
and Jude Law under the direction of Brad Silberling; and the horror sequel
"The Ring Two," starring Naomi Watts and directed by Hideo Nakata. They
had previously produced the groundbreaking horror film "The Ring," directed
by Gore Verbinski, which became one of 2002's biggest sleeper hits. That same
year, Parkes was a producer on "Minority Report," starring Tom Cruise, and
"Catch Me If You Can," starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, both for
director Steven Spielberg. MacDonald served as an executive producer on the
latter.
Parkes and MacDonald subsequently produced Spielberg's dramatic comedy
"The Terminal," starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones. They also
produced the sequel "Men in Black II," which reteamed stars Tommy Lee
Jones and Will Smith and director Barry Sonnenfeld. They had earlier
produced the 1997 blockbuster "Men in Black," for which they were named
ShoWest Producers of the Year.
Parkes' and MacDonald's additional credits as executive producers or
producers include the Oscar®- and Golden Globe-winning Best Picture
"Gladiator," "Deep Impact," "Amistad," and "The Peacemaker."
In addition to their producing work, Parkes and MacDonald served as the
co-heads of DreamWorks Pictures from the inception of the studio until
mid-2005. During their tenure, they were responsible for the development
and production of the company's diverse slate of films, which achieved both
box office success and critical acclaim. There were also numerous award
winners, including--for only the second time in the history of the Motion
Picture Academy--three consecutive Best Picture Oscar® winners: "American
Beauty," "Gladiator," and "A Beautiful Mind," the latter two produced in
partnership with Universal. Other critical and commercial successes produced
under their leadership include: Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous," Bob
Zemeckis' "What Lies Beneath," Adam McKay's "Anchorman: The Legend of
Ron Burgundy," Michael Mann's "Collateral," and Steven Spielberg's Academy
Award®- and Golden Globe-winning drama "Saving Private Ryan," which was
the top-grossing film domestically of 1998.
Parkes is a three-time Academy Awardâ nominee, earning his first nomination
as the director/producer of the 1978 documentary "California Reich," which
exposed neo-Nazi activities in California. He garnered his second Oscar
nomination for writing (with Lawrence Lasker) the original screenplay for
"WarGames," and his third nod for his work as a producer on the Best Picture
nominee "Awakenings." Parkes also co-wrote and produced the thriller
"Sneakers," starring Robert Redford and Sidney Poitier.
MacDonald began her producing career as a documentary and news producer
at KRON, the NBC affiliate in San Francisco. She later joined Columbia
Pictures, where she served as a Vice President of Production. After four
years, she started a production company with Walter Parkes. Immediately
prior to joining DreamWorks, MacDonald oversaw development and production
at Amblin Entertainment.
IAN BRYCE (Producer) was a producer on Sam Raimi's mega-blockbuster
action adventure "Spider-Man," starring Tobey Maguire as the web-casting
superhero, which was the top-grossing film domestically of 2002. The
following year, he produced Antoine Fuqua's drama "Tears of the Sun,"
starring Bruce Willis.
Bryce had earlier won a Golden Globe Award and earned an Academy Award®
nomination for his work as a producer on Steven Spielberg's widely acclaimed
World War II drama "Saving Private Ryan." The movie won Best Picture
honors from numerous critics organizations, including the New York, Los
Angeles and Broadcast Film Critics associations. Bryce also shared a
Producers Guild of America Award for the film. He went on to produce
Cameron Crowe's nostalgic comedy-drama "Almost Famous," which won a
Golden Globe for Best Picture - Musical or Comedy, and received a BAFTA
Award nomination for Best Picture.
Bryce's other producing credits include "Forces of Nature" starring Ben Affleck
and Sandra Bullock; the action thriller "Hard Rain" with Morgan Freeman and
Christian Slater; Penelope Spheeris' big-screen version of the classic
television series "The Beverly Hillbillies"; and Jan de Bont's blockbusters
"Twister" and directorial debut film, "Speed."
Born in England, Bryce started his career as a production assistant on the
third installment of the first "Star Wars" trilogy, "Return of the Jedi." He
moved up to second assistant director on Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom," and later served as a production manager on
"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." In addition, Bryce served as the line
producer/production manager on Philip Kaufman's "Rising Sun," and was an
associate producer/production manager on Tim Burton's smash hit "Batman
Returns." He also worked as a production manager on such films as Francis
Ford Coppola's "Tucker: The Man and His Dream," Ron Howard's "Willow" and
Joe Johnston's "The Rocketeer."
CASPIAN TREDWELL-OWEN (Screenwriter/Story) recently wrote the drama
"Beyond Borders," which starred Angelina Jolie and Clive Owen under the
direction of Martin Campbell. Set in civil war-ravaged Africa, the film drew
praise from critics and from outside the film industry, including United
Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Born and raised in Buckinghamshire, England, Tredwell-Owen was schooled
at Eton College. He was on course to study modern languages at Cambridge
University when the opportunity arose to work on the feature film "Dangerous
Liaisons." Turning his attention to film, he was subsequently hired by Warner
Bros. to work in television production, which brought him to Los Angeles.
While working at the studio, he developed an interest in screenwriting.
"Beyond Borders" marked Tredwell-Owen's first produced screenplay.
ALEX KURTZMAN and ROBERTO ORCI (Screenwriters) are fast becoming one
of the busiest and most sought-after writing teams in the business. They
have co-written two more upcoming films, including the
Parkes/MacDonald-produced action adventure "The Legend of Zorro," starring
Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones under the direction of Martin
Campbell, which is due out in fall 2005. Kurtzman and Orci more recently
co-wrote the much-anticipated sequel "Mission: Impossible III," starring Tom
Cruise as the indefatigable secret agent Ethan Hunt, which is slated for
release in 2006. Additionally, they are currently working on the screenplay
for the "Transformers" feature.
The duo have been writing partners since attending high school together in
Los Angeles. After graduation, Kurtzman crossed the country to attend New
York University and later transferred to Wesleyan University, where he earned
his Bachelor's Degree. Orci attended the University of Texas at Austin, but
despite their geographical separation, they continued their collaboration over
the phone.
Reuniting in Los Angeles after college, the pair immediately landed their first
professional job as staff writers on the popular series "Hercules: The
Legendary Journeys," eventually moving up to head writers. Kurtzman and
Orci then took over as head writers of the breakout spin-off series "Xena:
Warrior Princess," starring Lucy Lawless. In 2000, they were writers on the
series "Jack of All Trades," which they also executive produced, marking their
first producing credit.
In 2001, Kurtzman and Orci became writers and supervising producers on the
immensely popular and critically acclaimed ABC series "Alias," starring
Jennifer Garner as double agent Sydney Bristow. The following year, they
moved up to executive producers and served as executive producers until
2004, when they left the show to focus on their feature film scripts.
MAURO FIORE (Director of Photography) has collaborated with director
Antoine Fuqua on two films, the acclaimed drama "Training Day" and, more
recently, "Tears of the Sun."
Fiore came to the United States as a child, settling with his family near
Chicago. He studied his craft at Columbia College, where he first met
another budding cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski. The two subsequently
trained together at the American Film Institute. When Kaminski began his
collaboration with Steven Spielberg, Fiore joined him as a gaffer on
"Schindler's List." He later served as the cinematographer on Kaminski's
directorial debut feature, "Lost Souls."
Fiore's other director of photography credits include Wayne Wang's "The
Center of the World"; Renny Harlin's "Driven"; "Get Carter," starring Sylvester
Stallone; the Olsen twins' "Billboard Dad"; and "Breaking Up," starring Russell
Crowe. He also lensed one of the innovative BMW shorts, "The Hire: Ticker."
"The Island" is Fiore's first collaboration with Michael Bay as a
cinematographer, although he was the second unit director of photography on
"Armageddon" and did additional photography on "The Rock."
NIGEL PHELPS (Production Designer) most recently recreated the world of
ancient Greece for Wolfgang Petersen's "Troy." He also collaborated with
Michael Bay on the World War II-era drama "Pearl Harbor." Phelps' other film
credits as a production designer include Phillip Noyce's thriller "The Bone
Collector," Neil Jordan's thriller "In Dreams," and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's sci-fi
horror sequel "Alien: Resurrection."
Phelps began his career working with Oscar®-winning production designer
Anton Furst, starting as an illustrator on Neil Jordan's "The Company of
Wolves" and then serving as the assistant art director on Stanley Kubrick's
"Full Metal Jacket." He moved up to art director on Jordan's "High Spirits" and
Tim Burton's blockbuster "Batman." Phelps also began designing music
videos and commercials for such directors as Mark Romanek, Alex Proyas and
Michael Bay. He earned three MTV Video Award nominations for his work on
music videos for Lenny Kravitz, En Vogue and David Bowie.
PAUL RUBELL (Editor) earned an Academy Award® nomination this past year
for his editing work on Michael Mann's dramatic thriller "Collateral." He had
previously been Oscar®-nominated for his editing on Mann's true-life drama
