What
if there were more to the histories of Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin), the Easter
Bunny (Hugh Jackman), the Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher) and the Sandman than anyone
ever believed? What if the benevolent givers of gifts, eggs, money and dreams
were much more than they seemed? In DreamWorks Animation’s “Rise of the
Guardians,” they are! Immortal, strong and swift, these childhood legends have
been tasked with protecting the innocence and imagination of kids of all ages
to the fullest extent of their powers. When a menace arrives with a plan to
erase the Guardians from existence by robbing children of their hopes and
dreams, these beloved crusaders need the help of Jack Frost (Chris Pine), a reluctant new recruit who’d rather
enjoy a snow day than save the world.
From
the deepest recesses of the North Pole, to the rooftops of Shanghai, to a tiny
town in New England and beyond, the Guardians engage in an epic, global battle
against the seductively wicked bogeyman Pitch (Jude Law), whose machinations to
conquer the world by spreading fear across the globe can only be conquered by
the power of belief…and the magic of the Guardians.
DreamWorks
Animation SKG Presents “Rise of the Guardians,” a PDI/DreamWorks Production
featuring the voices of Chris Pine, Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, Isla Fisher,
Jude Law and Dakota Goyo. The film is directed by Peter Ramsey. The screenplay is
written by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire (“Oz: The
Great and Powerful,” “Rabbit Hole”) based on the original story of
award-winning author William Joyce. It is produced by Christina Steinberg
(“National Treasure,” “Bee Movie”), and Nancy Bernstein (“The Lord of the
Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”) with executive producers Guillermo del Toro
(“Pan’s Labyrinth” “Hellboy”), William Joyce (“The Fantastic Flying Books of
Mr. Morris Lessmore”), and Michael Siegel (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”)
The music is by four-time Academy Award nominee, Alexandre Desplat. This film
has been rated PG.
DO THEY KNOW EACH OTHER?
Fourteen years ago, William Joyce’s 6 year-old daughter Mary Katherine asked her dad if
Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny were friends. It was a question that intrigued
the author and illustrator. After giving it some thought, he answered with a
resounding “Yes!” and began to weave colorful bedtime stories for Mary
Katherine and her younger brother Jackson, who heard tales not only about old
Saint Nick and the Easter Bunny but also about Jack Frost, the Tooth Fairy, the
Sandman, the Man in the Moon and even the Bogeyman. As the stories became more
elaborate, Joyce began to see their potential.
“This was the lore that began to develop in
our household,” Joyce says, “and I soon came to realize that I needed to do
something with it. It was interesting stuff! So I began to draw pictures
of these characters and figure out a basic mythology for each one of them based
on what I could find out about them,” which
wasn’t much. Clement Clarke Moore’s “The Night Before Christmas”
notwithstanding, Joyce found that Santa Claus didn’t have a lot of backstory.
There was even less for the other characters.
“Superman and
Batman have mythologies but the one group of characters we ask our kids to
believe in as fact had none,” Joyce says. “I looked around and said, ‘Am I the
only guy that realizes this?’”
Today, Joyce, the Oscar winning
writer-director of the animated short film “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr.
Morris Lessmore” and author of such books as “George Shrinks” (on which the PBS
children’s series is based) and “Dinosaur Bob” has amassed a collection of 13
stories in the “Guardians of Childhood” series (only five of which have been
released thus far) that depict the deep folklore of each character – and surprisingly,
they’re more powerful than any of us imagined.
They’re “cool and
grand and magnificent and heroic,” Joyce says. “They have giant empires that
oversee what they do, whether it’s traveling the world in one night to deliver
presents and Easter eggs or flying around 365 nights retrieving baby teeth.”
Given their unique
premise, there was a lot of Hollywood interest in turning Joyce’s rich tales
and exquisite art into a feature film – even before any of the books were
published.
“Almost every
other studio in town vied for this property, but none of them saw the grander
canvas that I wanted to achieve with it – because there’s so much to tell about
these guys,” Joyce says. “I didn't feel like it could be just in a movie or
just in a book. It needed to be across a whole bunch of different mediums.”
It wasn’t until he
had a series of meetings with DreamWorks Animation Chief Creative Officer Bill
Damaschke in late 2006 that Joyce knew he had found the right home for his
stories.
“DreamWorks said,
‘We agree. Work on the movie. Work on the books. Let the two feed each other.’
It has been the most interesting and exciting experience,” Joyce says. “I've
worked on movies before, but I've never worked on movies and books at the same
time and had them deal with the same subjects and yet be different.”
The veteran
filmmaking team that came alongside Joyce to bring “Guardians” to life was
equally passionate about the project. First on board was producer Christina Steinberg, who had enjoyed a
long career in live-action filmmaking and feature film development before
joining DreamWorks Animation in 2005 as a producer on Jerry Seinfeld’s Golden
Globe nominated “Bee Movie” (for which she was a Producers Guild of America
Awards nominee).
“The idea was
always that Bill was going to be writing the books simultaneously as we were
developing the movie,” she says. “We loved the core idea, and we were excited
by the deep history that Bill’s mythologies created. There are so many stories
to tell. For the movie, we came up with the idea of jumping into the future
after all these characters have become Guardians and telling the story of how
they must come together to fight the greatest force of evil in the world, the
boogeyman.”
Adds Joyce: “I
didn't want the movie to compete with the books and have people say, "Oh.
It was different from the book," and I didn't want them to know what
happens in the movie. I wanted to build a history for these guys. That’s why
the movie picks up about 300 years after the resolution of the books series.”
Peter Ramsey, who spent a number of
years as a story board artist on numerous live-action films including
“Independence Day” “The Hulk” and “Minority Report,” was approached to direct
“Guardians” after helming DreamWorks Animation’s hit Halloween special
“Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space” and having previously
been head of story on “Monsters vs. Aliens.” He puts it this way: “These
characters represent fundamental elements that are vital not just to kids but
to adults as well: A sense of wonder, dreams, hope. It’s a big story.”
“We had a lot of conversations with Bill about
the characters,” Ramsey continues, “about Jack Frost and his relationship to
the group, about what the Guardians mean, about their personalities and their
roles. The biggest idea that came from those conversations was that we knew
that they were real, and to pay attention to the fact that people believe in
them and love them when they’re young. For me, that determined everything about
how to present them in the movie and how to follow them through the story.”
That keep-it-real
philosophy naturally extended to the visual design of the film.
“Veteran cinematographer Roger Deakins consulted with us as he did on ‘How to Train Your
Dragon’ and helped us achieve a rich, real-world appearance,” says Ramsey. “We’ve got incredibly talented people, from
production design to animation to lighting and modeling, which have pushed hard
to get a sophisticated and stylized – but very lifelike – look. It’s different
from anything the studio’s ever done before.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning
screenwriter David Lindsay-Abaire
had just finished writing the lyrics for DreamWorks Animation’s “Shrek: The
Musical” when Damaschke, Ramsey and Steinberg brought him on board to write the
screenplay to “Guardians.” Says Steinberg, “Given his love of superheroes and
fantasy, he was the perfect choice to screenplay.”
Lindsay-Abaire
recalls a visit to DreamWorks Animation, shortly after “Shrek: The Musical” had
opened on Broadway: “I met with Bill (Damaschke) and Christina Steinberg, they
pitched me some basic ideas, showed me the most gorgeous concept art I’ve ever
seen, and loaded me up with a stack of Bill Joyce books. A few days later, I was writing a
screenplay.”
Soon,
Lindsay-Abaire was also swept up in the world of the Guardians. “They’re great
entertainments,” says the screenwriter of Joyce’s books. “He (Joyce) writes
these legendary characters and manages to make them flesh and blood without
losing their magic. He captures the unique wonder of childhood that often feels
like a distant memory to those of us who have grown up, and brings that wonder
back and makes it present again. That
feat alone is a kind of magic.”
Joyce knew that
“Guardians” would be in good hands, having previously worked with
Lindsay-Abaire on the 2005 animated feature “Robots.”
“David is very
astute and has a keen, subtle intelligence,” Joyce says. “One of the things
that was difficult about the story is it’s so big. We have all these major
characters and mythologies and we have to tie them together into one narrative.
The hardest thing on any film is to get the story clean, clear, concise and
entertaining – to find the emotional core of it, the thing that makes you care.
David had an instinct about how to simplify that story and keep the characters
centered while at the same time juggling all of them and all the situations.
It’s got this epic feel to it but each story within the epic is very intimate
and feels very real.”
Says producer
Steinberg, “David was able to pull the plot of the movie together and uncover the
heart and soul of these characters while simultaneously creating an epic
fantasy adventure. He has the ability to
find a unique voice for each character that is expressive of truth and humor
and universally relatable.”
Award-winning
filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, who
collaborated with DreamWorks Animation as a creative consultant on “Megamind”
and was an executive producer on “Kung Fu Panda 2” and “Puss in Boots,”
returned as an executive producer to add his unique perspective to “Guardians.”
“Thematically, the movie has a lot in common
with what I do,” del Toro says. “I really felt it was a project of great
ambition, of great scope, of visual richness and that it also had a big heart.
I was empathetic to what they were creating.”
WHAT WOULD SANTA SOUND
LIKE?
According to Billy Joyce’s books, North,
better known as Santa Claus, is the de facto leader of the Guardians – but it
is the Man in the Moon, “the wise watcher of the world,” Ramsey says, who chose
him many centuries ago.
“When
the Man in the Moon decided a group of special people was needed to protect
Earth’s children from Pitch, the
first guy he found was Nicholas St. North,” says Joyce, who envisioned North as
a sword-wielding Cossack in his early days, “the wildest young warrior and
thief in all of Russia,” until his mission in life changed to become a
protector of children.
For the film, everyone agreed that North,
with his booming voice, blustering, uncompromising attitude and “naughty” and
“nice” tattoos emblazed on his forearms, was a boisterous, larger-than-life
character that needed to be played by a larger-than life actor. Who better than
Oscar nominee Alec Baldwin?
“Alec personifies
North,” says Ramsey. “He’s playful and mischievous, and he’s a bit of a
hotshot. When audiences see North’s eyes on screen with Alec’s voice coming out
of him, there will be no mistaking whose soul is inside that character.”
Adds Joyce, “No
one could capture North’s personality as brilliantly as Alec does.”
Baldwin sees his
character this way: “In my mind, North is a combination of personalities. He’s
kind of a magician – almost like the Wizard of Oz. He’s very benevolent, like
your favorite teacher, and he has the best interests of his constituency –
children – at heart. On the more human side, he’s obsessed with getting credit
for everything. He wants to make sure everybody knows that Santa is the one
who’s laying down this deal here. Christmas is number one. He’s constantly
fighting with the Easter Bunny about which is more important, Easter or Christmas.
In that regard, he’s like Donald Trump.”
“I can relate to
North, because like a producer, he has to will everything into existence, even
when he doesn’t actually know if he can pull it off,” producer Steinberg says.
“He truly believes he can make anything happen just because he says so. We always describe him as a Hell’s Angel with
a heart of gold. He has this amazing spirit of joy, wonder, and hope. At the
same time, he’s tough and analytical. There are no gray areas for him.”
As our story
unfolds, it is North (along with his massive Yetis, who make all his toys, and
the ubiquitous elves, who just get underfoot) who encounters the shadow of an
enemy he thought was long gone: The bogeyman Pitch, who invades the workshop of
North’s magnificent North Pole Fortress and sends menacing black sand swirling
around North’s sputtering Globe of Belief. The globe is an enormous orb usually
lit up with millions of tiny lights representing the belief of children around
the world. The fact that it’s growing dim is evidence that Pitch is up to no
good.
Director Ramsey
explains, “Pitch’s issue is that children love and believe in the Guardians.
They have a lot of emotional investment in them, and their parents encourage
them to believe in these characters. But
with the bogeyman, it’s exactly the opposite. Parents always say, ‘Oh, there’s
nothing in the dark.’ ‘You’re just having a bad dream.’ ‘There’s no such thing
as the bogeyman.’ The whole story gets going because Pitch is sick and tired of
that dynamic. He represents fear and his ultimate goal is to be believed in by
canceling out belief in the Guardians.”
“The Guardians represent hope, joy, wonder
and dreams,” producer Steinberg notes. “If Pitch is able to take them out, they
will literally cease to exist. The attributes they represent would be gone from
the world and fear would reign.”
The way Pitch
attempts to do that is by corrupting one of the Guardians’ tools. “He has a huge amount resentment for being
shoved under the beds for hundreds of years,” says actor Jude Law, who gives voice to Pitch. “He figures out a way to take the Sandman’s
dream sand – the positive, pure golden sand that gives everyone happy dreams –
and twist it into nightmares (which take the form of amorphous black stallions
subject to Pitch’s command), creating fear within children.”
And by design, the manner in which he
operates is quite compelling, Ramsey says.
“We thought a lot
about the way fear works in the real world, and the logic behind it. If you think, ‘I want to go outside, but
there are some clouds in the sky and that means it might rain. If it rains, I
might get a cold. If I get a cold…’ Pretty soon you’re not going outside and
you’re missing all the best stuff in life because you let your fear snowball
into something unhealthy. Fear shuts down your world. So we knew that we wanted a character that
was alluring and could falsely convince you that being afraid was the only
thing that made sense.”
Steinberg agrees.
“These iconic characters needed a worthy opponent. Peter, Bill Joyce, David
Lindsay-Abaire and I spent a lot of time talking about our favorite villains in
past movies. We all loved the feeling we had watching ‘The Wizard of Oz’ when
we hid behind our bedroom doors, peeking our heads out to watch the Wicked
Witch of the West. She was scary, but exciting and charismatic at the same
time. We wanted to bring that dynamic to Pitch as well. So, he’s not a terrifying,
moustache twirling villain. He has a lot of personality. He’s wicked, funny and
smart.”
Lindsay-Abaire
adds, “There’s a human side to Pitch, as well.
Like our hero, Jack Frost, Pitch is a lonely soul who simply wants to be
believed in. Unfortunately, he thinks
the way to make that happen is through fear and intimidation.”
“When Jude Law’s
name came up for the role, everybody’s bells just went off,” Ramsey says. “We
listened to his voice in combination with some animated tests and we knew we
had the right casting. Pitch moves through shadows. He moves on the edges of
what you can see. Jude’s voice has this beautiful quality to it – we call it
‘the velvet touch of Pitch’ – and you just want to listen to it forever even
when it’s telling you these terrible things.
“Pitch’s story is
pretty compelling,” Ramsey continues. “He’s a guy who’s been on the bottom for
a long time and who has now found a way to strike back and take power for
himself. Jude has been able to flesh out the nuances of this character’s many
layers. It’s a magnificent thing to listen to – the hair literally stands up on
the back of your neck.”
“The voice casting
was, no pun intended, pitch perfect,” executive producer Guillermo del Toro
says. “Jude brings fragility, refinement, intelligence and cunning – a lot of
stuff that is beyond the lines – to his character. There’s a sense of isolation
and loneliness in Pitch that is all Jude’s doing.”
After the
bogeyman’s “visit” to the fortress, North summons his fellow Guardians – the
Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and the Sandman – to the North Pole for a summit.
It’s been a long time. The Guardians don’t always work together, as each has
“incredibly complicated jobs,” Ramsey notes. “North is delivering toys to
everybody in the world in one night. It’s a huge operation! The Easter Bunny,
too, has a lot preparation to do to give eggs to kids all over the world. And Tooth
and Sandy are busy every night. So they only come together when they genuinely
need to.” Well, they need to now.
In Joyce’s books, E.
Aster Bunnymund, better known as the Easter Bunny, is a Pooka, the last of an
ancient race of giant, warrior rabbit-priests that protect life. Bunnymund has the ability to create magical
portals that allow him to travel throughout the world in the blink of an eye to
deliver beautifully decorated Easter eggs.
“This Easter Bunny is the coolest character
you’ve ever met,” says Hugh Jackman,
who voices Bunnymund in the film. “He’s pretty badass. Think Indiana Jones with
a touch of Steve Irwin. He protects nature, he’s a brilliant martial artist and
he’s very strong. He can jump high, of course, and he has these two boomerangs
on his hips, instead of six-shooters, which he uses to great effect. It was
great that they allowed me to play him as this irascible Australian – tough, a
little bit grumpy, and no-nonsense. He doesn’t muck around. He’s got a job to
do and he’s going to get it done, no matter what.”
“He’s almost like a cowboy in some ways,”
Ramsey says. “He’s got a little bit of that feel about him. He’s a perfect
counterpoint to North who comes into a room and knocks everything over because
he’s so big.”
“He’s a fierce
warrior when he needs to be,” Steinberg agrees, “but he also has this amazing
other side to him. He’s a ranger and a nurturer – of Spring, of hope, of new
beginnings, of the little eggs that he grows.”
“One of things
Hugh latched onto was the rivalry that we’ve got between Bunny and North,”
Ramsey adds. “Hugh loved that. He did so many riffs where he’s annoyed because
North is always trying to steal the spotlight and elbow Easter out of the way.
But Bunny is going to protect his holiday to the very last breath. Hugh brought
that to life.”
Isla
Fisher plays the
half-human, half hummingbird Tooth Fairy who is able to collect lost teeth all
over the world, 365 days a year. “She’s tiny, but with these gorgeous teal blue
and green wings and big, big eyes,” Fisher says. “As far as personalities go,
she’s definitely type-A and a little bit like Tracy Flick from ‘Election.’ She
has to get everything right and on time. She’s quite militant in the way she
collects teeth but she has a soft side too, and gets extremely excited when she
sees pearly white incisors.”
“We envisioned her as a hummingbird
because she’s always on the job,” Ramsey says. “She’s always flitting here and
there, always with a thousand things to do, her mind always in a million places
at once, always talking, always communicating.”
She doesn’t work alone, though. “Tooth has
lots of Baby Teeth, little fairies that are miniature versions of herself,”
Fisher says. “They flutter around, collecting teeth and leaving little gifts
and money.”
Says Lindsay-Abaire,
“Tooth is an air traffic controller, managing all of the children and their
teeth in every country.”
“For a long time, the
Tooth Fairy was, conceptually, one of the trickiest characters to get right,”
Ramsey says. “But there were a few tests that
the animators did early on with Isla’s voice where we all went, that’s the
Tooth Fairy. Isla is a great comedienne.
She also handles these very emotional scenes, with the perfect balance
of toughness and vulnerability, where you really see what matters to her about
her work. She gets all sides of Tooth dead on.”
Whereas one would be hard-pressed to get
Tooth to stay quiet for more than a minute, the Sandman – Sandy for short –
doesn’t say a word. The architect and bringer of good dreams, “the one
who sets your imagination free and let’s you dream of possibilities and
fantasies at night,” Ramsey says, doesn’t need to.
“It’s great to
have one character who’s in the center of the hurricane,” adds Ramsey. “Sandy
ends up being a pivotal character in a lot of scenes. He may not say anything,
but he packs a huge punch in terms of his role in the story and what he means
to the Guardians. His ability, the power of dreams, is one of the strongest any
of them has.”
“He communicates with dream images above his
head,” explains Steinberg. “He’s like Buddha. He’s very mellow and calm, but
he, too, has another side, and when he needs to he will defend himself and
defend children. He’s actually a fierce warrior, who, like Yoda in the ‘Star
Wars’ films, can pull it out when he needs to. He can use sand to create and
control any object he needs in a pinch, and he usually wins every fight he’s
in.”
Guardians
convened, the Man in the Moon shines down on them and gives them some
surprising news. In order to defeat Pitch, they’re going to need some help from
an unlikely source: Jack Frost.
“They know Jack as a troublemaker, as this immature
kind of guy,” says Ramsey, and by all
appearances, he is. Jack is a
300-year-old prankster in a 17-year-old body, with the power to create frost,
wind and snow. Happiest when he’s
causing havoc, controlling winter with a swing, tap or touch of his staff, to
him, a successful day is measured by how many snowballs he’s thrown, how many
windows have been fogged and how many schools have closed after it’s been
declared a snow day. He has no responsibilities, no one to answer to, and
ultimately, at least in his mind, no purpose.
“That bothers him,” says Ramsey. “Other
than knowing that his name is Jack Frost, he doesn’t know anything about himself,
much less what he’s meant to do in this world. To make matters worse, no one
can see him and, unlike the Guardians, no one believes in him, so he’s kind of
a loner and an outsider.”
To play the role of Jack, Ramsey and the
“Guardians” team knew they had to find an actor that could demonstrate the
conviction of a leading man – in many ways, “Guardians” is Jack’s story – but
who could also be playful and vulnerable to express Jack’s range of emotions in
the film. They found what they were looking for in actor Chris Pine.
“We loved Chris in
‘Star Trek,’” says Ramsey. He’s exciting and smart. That comes through as soon
as you see him on-screen. He’s got a twinkle in his eye that can be heard in
his voice. He’s a leading man with energy, charisma and a sense of fun – all
the qualities that Jack Frost has.”
For his part, Pine
gravitated to the role because of Jack’s plight.
“One of the journeys of this film is how
Jack finds a home, friendship, community and a sense of purpose,” he says.
“Jack will instigate snowball fights, desperately wanting kids to have fun but
also wanting them to know that he’s the guy behind it, that he’s reason that
they’re having a good time. Jack’s quest – to have connections with others and
to find the answer to what are we put on this Earth to do – is something that’s
so very human.”
LEGENDARY CHARACTERS
REQUIRE LEGENDARY ARTISTS…
As Bill Joyce tells it, he had many sources
of inspiration when he created his book series.
“The backstories
for these characters are so unanswered, I was able to take bits and pieces of
other mythologies – Greek and Roman, fairy tales, Tarzan – and swish them all
together in ways that would fit each story,” he recalls.
The resulting drawings that brought life to
those backstories were so intricate, elaborate and visually stunning, they
provided an invaluable launching pad. “Everything
in the film was inspired by the original Bill Joyce mythology, which is fantastical,
magical and wonderful,” production
designer Patrick Hanenberger says – it was important to the filmmakers that
“Guardians” have its own look, separate from its literary counterparts.
Hanenberger, who
joined DreamWorks Animation in 2004 as a visual development artist (“Over the
Hedge,” “Bee Movie,” “Monsters vs. Aliens”) and later served as art director
for the TV special “Monsters vs.
Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space” prior to his current role on
“Guardians,” notes, “Because the whole story is based on belief, the audience
needs to believe in the veracity of these characters,” he says. “That limited
us in certain stylistic choices that we wanted to make. If you make something
too outrageous or too crazy audiences are just not going to relate to it. If
it's too photo real, it's not an animated movie anymore. For us, the big
challenge was to find that sweet spot: It’s an animated movie that feels as
real as it can be.”
A step in that
direction was the envelope-pushing work done on the complexions of the film’s
human and human-like characters.
“The way we dealt
with skin in ‘Guardians’ was groundbreaking for the studio,” producer Nancy
Bernstein says. “Our R&D department worked with a team who formerly worked
at Stan Winston’s studio and together they built it the way you would build
prosthetic skin, that is, in layers. This allowed for translucency, the way
real skin responds to light. In the past, light would reflect off it but
wouldn’t be absorbed by it. We had much more control over the way our
characters looked and the way their skin moved. We were also able to add subtle
elements such as facial creases, which take the animation up a notch.”
Another challenge for the filmmakers was
creating six unique environments – one for each of the Guardians and for Pitch
– that reflected the personalities of each character, but that made for a
unified film when looked at together as a whole.
“Each environment
is distinctive, but we made sure Bill Joyce’s original style was present
throughout,” Hanenberger says. “We
wanted each of the Guardians to be differentiated by their own color palates.
For example, in the North world, there are warm and cool blues and red-grays,
with bright red crimson for North himself; in the Tooth Fairy world there’s
lavender, salmon and preach, accented by Tooth’s iridescent turquoise. Our
color palates were inspired by traditional turn-of-the-century children’s book
illustrations done in pencil and watercolor because they evoked a feeling of
nostalgia.
“We also felt the
need to have six different environments to give the movie an international
appeal,” he continues. “We didn’t want the story to take place in a fantastic
place that no one recognized. It couldn’t be in outer space, it couldn’t be on
another planet, it had to be on Earth.”
Not surprisingly, the team was inspired by
real-world locations.
“Since North is a
Russian Cossack warrior, we looked at Russian architecture such as the
Kremlin,” art director Max Boas says. “His home in the North Pole is a giant
wooden fortress. He’s a gung-ho, untamable wild guy, so we wanted his
architecture to be very masculine and strong. His home is built by interlocking
wood pieces, a bit like the game Tetris. There’s no glue, no nails, it’s just
wood jammed together like a big puzzle piece.”
For Tooth Fairy’s
palace, located in Southeast Asia, the team turned to Thai architecture.
“It’s very bird-based
and has a lot of wing and beak motifs,” Boas says. “Tooth is amazingly complex
and a really fast communicator. Since she stores the baby teeth of all mankind,
she’s basically a librarian, so we wanted her environment to have the sense of
a library,” he says. “There’s tons of detail everywhere: carvings, mosaics and
wall murals, because it’s all about communication and visual information. It’s
the most visually overwhelming of all the locations because it fits her
personality best.
“Her palace is
made up of giant columns that represent the continents of the world,” he
continues. “Within those continents are rings that are organized by country,
state, city, street, and house, and within that are millions of little boxes in
which the fairies store the teeth. It's all organized, color coded and really
beautiful.”
Pitch’s dark
dungeon was motivated by classical Venetian architecture and, in fact, the
production design team placed it beneath Venice, Italy.
“Think of an
ancient palace that sunk into the ocean floor, surrounded by mud and rock,”
Boas says. “That’s Pitch’s home. His whole environment is built at an angle and
it feels like it’s falling off a cliff into an abyss. In addition, it has
negative elements from all of the Guardians’ respective worlds. For example, he
has a globe, just like North does, to keep track of the belief of the world’s
children, but it’s colored grey and black.”
In complete
contrast to the architecturally significant domains of North, Tooth and Pitch,
Easter Bunny’s garden home is an underground oasis where all life originates.
Bunny lives there with giant sentinel eggs, ancient stone sculptures that come
to life when invaders intrude, as well as magic eggs, which, on Bunny’s order,
march out on little feet into the world and become the eggs found during Easter
egg hunts.
“Bunny’s
environment is very understated,” Hanenberger says. “It’s basically rocks,
grass and trees but it suits his personality and reflects what he’s all about,
that is, to protect nature. Since his home is the birthplace of nature, we
designed a shrine environment after doing a lot of research on old temples,
forest spirits, hieroglyphs and ancient carvings. It’s only featured briefly in
the movie but it’s actually my favorite world.”
To bring dreams to
the world every night, Sandman doesn’t need an elaborate home base, either. He
lives on a Dream Cloud right between night and day and travels with the sunset.
“Think of him as
navigating an ocean of clouds,” Hanenberger says. “If you're on a red-eye
flight to the East Coast at sunset and you see that last little bit of sunlight
hitting the clouds, you should look outside for Sandman, because that's where
he would be.”
And then there’s
Jack Frost. He’s an Earth-bound vagabond and, unlike the Guardians or even
Pitch, he doesn’t have a place to call home – although something keeps drawing
him back to a small town: Burgess, Pennsylvania.
“Jack has a magical connection with
that town but he doesn't know why,” Hanenberger says.
The filmmakers
made an intentional contrast between the all-American human town and the global
feel of the Guardians’ dominions.
“To ground the
human world in reality, we built it fairly flat so when the audience sees the
Guardians’ various realms, they’re beholding really breathtaking stereo
moments, which emphasize the magic of their worlds,” Boas says.
When viewing
Burgess scenes, Ramsey notes, “We wanted to see some of the grit. We wanted to
feel the atmosphere. We didn’t want to feel like we were watching some kind of
Christmas card.”
The “Guardians”
team set out to use Tru 3D – standard in all DreamWorks Animation films – in an
organic way that was integral to the story, not as a stunt or an afterthought.
“The use of 3D was
never discussed as a gimmick, ever,” notes producer del Toro. “We wanted to
create a world that was different from any other 3D animated movie that we have
seen. The movie takes a lot of risks and succeeds in texture, color, lighting,
and cinematography.”
“3D is an integral
part of the process,” notes producer Bernstein, “Our goal was to use it as
another tool to enhance our storytelling.
From the very beginning, we envision every aspect of the film in
stereo. Every decision regarding the
film’s design, camera placement and movement, as well as animation and visual
effects is made after reviewing the work in 3D.”
“We
were constantly thinking about 3D in our production design,” Hanenberger
agrees, “creating spaces that would look interesting in 3D and then trying to
find a rhythm throughout the story: How do these sets tie into the overall
stereoscopic kind of motif of the movie?”
“The challenge
presented in a 3D film is how to assimilate the effects into the story, and to
be aware when composing a shot how it might be enhanced by 3D,” says Visual
Consultant Roger Deakins. “The film has
a sense of wonder and magic to it that 3D is very much a part of.”
Adds del Toro:
“Jeffrey Katzenberg is a huge believer in animation as a medium to tell big
stories with big canvases. He has a vision for 3D, for the expanse and scope of
the movies. The stories we tell are meant to be told in a big way. They’re not
meant for the small screen, so we go for huge vistas, big moments, big
movements, big characters. But at the same time, we populate that with moments
of grace and intimacy and relationships that are even beyond what a live-action
movie can do. We’re not emulating any other film. We tend to use the medium to
the max.”
“Our movie is the biggest, most dramatic film
DreamWorks Animation has ever done,” Hanenberger says. “It's a giant, epic
story that needs to be supported with giant, epic visuals. We had to do justice
to this powerful story.”
“You often hear
live-action movies being called ‘visual effects extravaganzas.’” says
Bernstein, ““Guardians” is every bit as visually complex and sophisticated as
those films. I believe that what makes our film different is the artistic use
of effects in the development of the characters; the visual effects are
seamlessly integrated into our characters and help define their personalities. Jack Frost’s power over wind and frost
reflect his mood. Sandy’s dream creations display his playful and gentle
nature. Pitch is able to corrupt dreams
and create brand new nightmare characters which are literally a combination of
visual effects and animation. We were
careful to strike a balance where the visuals would support the characters and
not overwhelm the story.”
…AND LEGENDARY MUSIC SURROUNDING THEM
The role that music plays in “Guardians”
cannot be understated. The filmmakers knew they needed a score that was as
sweeping and heroic as the story itself. When it came to finding the right
composer to do the job, four-time Academy Award nominee Alexandre Desplat (“The
King’s Speech,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox”) was the only name the “Guardians” team had
in mind.
“There is much
more music in ‘Guardians’ than is found in the average live-action film,” says
Desplat, who conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in the recording of his
original compositions. “It practically runs throughout the whole movie. The
goal with the score, which is primarily a symphonic one – though I did bring in
a few babies of mine, like saxophones and a fantastic cimbalom – was to
emphasize every moment of joy, sadness and soul so that audiences would be able
to dive with the characters into their worlds.”
“We
began meeting with Alexandre over two years ago, so by the time he began
writing the music, he was as familiar with the story and characters as we
were,” says Steinberg. “I think that what we tried to do was emphasize every
moment of joy and soul throughout the film, so that we are not be distant from
the characters – we dive with them into their world so it is all very exciting,
emotional, and real. With Alexandre, his
music became a new character in our film.
His score adds richness, tenderness and humor, all of which support the
characters and emotion of the story.”
Ramsey is also thrilled with the results.
“Alexandre worked furiously for months on
the music,” he says. “It’s perfect. Magical and fun, it’s the crown on our
film. I predict there won’t be a dry eye in the house when audiences hear it.”
A YOUNG GIRL’S QUESTION,
FINALLY ANSWERED
It has been 14 years since Bill Joyce’s
daughter first asked her innocent question: “Do they know each other?” The filmmakers, eagerly anticipating the
film’s imminent arrival in theaters, reflect on their labor of love.
Joyce, for one, is looking forward to
audiences coming away from the cinematic experience with a renewed faith and
sense of wonder. “I'm excited for them to see these characters that
they’ve all known and grown up with in this new and heroic way,” he says,
“that, yes, they deserve our devotion and our belief, and that they're grander
than we realized.”
Ramsey predicts,
“It’s a world audiences will want to be a part of. There’s adventure and drama
but there’s humor, too. Every character is really funny, and the way they poke
fun at each other and argue with each other and work together on this
incredibly important mission is inspiring.”
Says Steinberg, “By the end of the
movie I hope they’ll feel the way we do, which is that the Guardians are
everything you’d expect heroes to be – awe-inspiring, powerful and courageous –
but at the same time are as delightful and approachable as old friends.”
“What amazes me the most about seeing the
final image on-screen is the fact that we actually made it happen,” says
Hanenberger. “ I call it pixel magic. You’re creating something out of nothing.
The most rewarding satisfaction I get out of it is from seeing a tiny little
sketch I had in my sketchbook become a beautiful finished image on the screen
as the collaboration of all the people involved, because you can’t make these
movies without tons of very dedicated and extremely talented and smart people
that collaborate and communicate to pull off this insanely creative
undertaking.”
Finally, Joyce
contemplates nearly two decades of association with his Guardians.
“To get to hang
out with these guys I believed in so powerfully as a child, and reconnect with
them…I mean, now we're buddies, you know?” says Joyce. “So many kids dream of
doing that when they’re small, hanging out with Santa Claus and the Easter
Bunny, getting to see how they do what they do. That's my job. That's what I
get to do when I write my books and watch this movie – hang out with the guys I
thought, as a kid, were the coolest guys in the world. How does it get any
better than that?”
Award-winning actor Alec Baldwin (North) began
his prolific career in television, appearing in series such as “Hotel” and
“Knot’s Landing” before seguing to roles on Broadway and in film. His feature
credits include John McTiernan’s “The Hunt for Red October,” the David
Mamet-penned “Glengarry Glen Ross,” Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed,” and Nancy
Meyers’ “It’s Complicated,” among many others. In 2004, Baldwin received an
Academy Award for his role in “The Cooler.” In 2008, he lent his voice to the
DreamWorks Animation feature “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.” Since 2006, Baldwin
has played the charismatic Jack Donaghy on the NBC comedy “30 Rock,” a role
that has garnered him two Emmy and six Screen Actors Guild Awards. Broadway
roles include his 1992 Tony Award nominated performance in “A Streetcar Named
Desire.”
Baldwin is a 1994 BFA graduate of Tisch
School of the Arts and received an honorary doctorate in 2010.
He is also the radio announcer for, and a
board member of, the New York Philharmonic.
Jude Law (Pitch) is considered one of
Britain’s finest actors, with a wealth and variety of film and theater performances
to his credit.
In
November 2012, Law will star opposite Keira Knightley in Joe Wright’s “Anna
Karenina.” Last year, he reunited with Guy Ritchie and Robert Downey Jr., on
“Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” reprising his role from the global boxoffice
success “Sherlock Holmes”; starred in Steven
Soderbergh’s “Contagion” alongside Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kate
Winslet and starred in Fernando Meirelles’s
“360” with Rachel Weisz and Anthony Hopkins. He recently performed in the West
End’s “Anna Christie” to rave reviews.
In
2009, Law starred in the title role of the Donmar Warehouse production of
Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” first in London’s West End and then reprising the role
on Broadway, earning him a second Tony nomination.
On
the big screen, Law first drew major critical attention for his performance as
Oscar Wilde’s lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, in 1997’s “Wilde,” for which he won
an Evening Standard British Film Award. He went on to earn international
acclaim for his work in Anthony Minghella’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” Law’s
performance as doomed golden boy Dickie Greenleaf brought him both Oscar and
Golden Globe nominations, as well as a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Law
was later honored with Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations, for
Best Actor in a Leading Role, for his role in the 2003 Civil War epic “Cold
Mountain,” also directed by Minghella. He also earned a Golden Globe nomination
for his role in Steven Spielberg’s “AI: Artificial Intelligence.”
In
2004, Law starred in five very different films, including two for which he
shared acting ensemble honors: Mike Nichols’ acclaimed drama “Closer,” also
starring Julia Roberts, Clive Owen and Natalie Portman, with whom he won the
National Board of Review Award for Best Ensemble; and Martin Scorsese’s epic
biopic “The Aviator,” for which he shared in a Screen Actors Guild Award
nomination for Outstanding Cast Performance. That same year, Law starred in
“Alfie,” playing the title role under the direction of Charles Shyer; David O.
Russell’s “I Heart Huckabees”; and “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,”
which he also produced. In addition, he lent his voice to “Lemony Snicket’s A
Series of Unfortunate Events.”
His
wide range of film credits also includes Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of
Dr. Parnassus”; Kenneth Branagh’s “Sleuth,” which he also produced; Wong Kar
Wai’s first English-language film, “My Blueberry Nights”; Nancy Meyers’
romantic comedy hit “The Holiday,” with Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet and Jack
Black; “Breaking and Entering,” which reunited him with Anthony Minghella; Sam
Mendes’ “Road to Perdition,” with Tom Hanks and Paul Newman; Jean-Jacques
Annaud’s “Enemy at the Gates”; David Cronenberg’s “eXistenZ”; Clint Eastwood’s
“Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”; and “Gattaca,” which marked his
American film debut.
Law
began his career on the stage, acting with the National Youth Theatre at the
age of 12. In 1994, he created the role of Michael in Jean Cocteau’s play “Les
Parents Terribles,” for which he was nominated for the Ian Charleson Award for
Outstanding Newcomer. The play was renamed “Indiscretions” when it moved to
Broadway, where Law received a Tony Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting
Actor. His subsequent stage work includes “`Tis Pity She’s a Whore” at London’s
Young Vic Theatre and a highly acclaimed performance in the title role of
Christopher Marlowe’s “Dr. Faustus,” both directed by David Lan. Law was
recently closely involved in the fundraising efforts for the major
refurbishment of the Young Vic Theatre.
In
2007, the French Academy awarded Law a César d’Honneur in recognition of his
contribution to cinema, and the government of France named him a Chevalier de
l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his artistic achievements.
Hugh
Jackman (E. Aster Bunnymund, aka The Easter Bunny) made
his first major U.S. film appearance as Wolverine in the first installment of
the “X-Men” franchise, a role he reprised in the enormously successful “X2” and
“X-Men: The Last Stand” in 2006. Most recently in the franchise, he played
Wolverine in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” which serves as a prequel to the
popular series and grossed $85 million domestically in its first weekend of
release in May 2009. Audiences will see Jackman in the role again in the next
“X-Men” chapter, “The Wolverine,” which is currently filming in Australia.
Jackman recently wrapped production on the
much-anticipated film adaptation of the musical “Les Miserables,” directed by
Academy Award-winning director Tom Hooper, and co-starring Anne Hathaway and
Russell Crowe. The film is slated for a December 25, 2012 release.
Last year, Jackman was seen on the big
screen in the DreamWorks action film “Real Steel,” for director Shawn Levy,
which led the boxoffice two weeks in a row in Fall 2011.
In October 2011, Jackman, a Broadway
veteran, made his return to the Big White Way in his one-man show “Hugh Jackman
– Back on Broadway.” Backed by an 18-piece orchestra, the revue, which
previously opened to rave reviews during its limited engagements in San
Francisco and Toronto earlier that year, was comprised of both Broadway hits
and a selection of some of Jackman’s personal favorite standards. Although the
show ran only until the end of the year, Jackman’s continued dedication to the
Broadway community was feted at the 2012 Tony Awards, where he received a
Special Award from the Tony Awards Administration Committee, recognizing his
accomplishments both as a performer as well as a humanitarian.
On February 22, 2009, Jackman hosted the
81st Annual Academy Awards. Live from the former Kodak (now Dolby) Theater in
Hollywood, he wowed those in attendance and helped ABC score a 13% increase in
viewership from the previous year. This wasn’t, however, Jackman’s first foray
into Awards show hosting. Previously, Jackman served as host of the Tony Awards
three years in a row from 2003-2005, earning an Emmy Award for his 2004 duties
at the 58th Annual ceremony, and an Emmy nomination for his 2005 appearance at
the 59th Annual ceremony.
In late 2008, Jackman starred opposite
Nicole Kidman in 20th Century Fox’s romantic action-adventure epic “Australia,”
directed by Baz Luhrmann. In the film, set in pre-WWII northern Australia,
Jackman portrayed a rugged cattle driver who assists an English aristocrat in
driving a herd of 2,000 cattle across hundreds of miles of rough terrain where
they also face the Japanese bombing of Darwin, Australia.
Additionally, Jackman has starred in Darren
Aronofsky’s “The Fountain,” Christopher Nolan’s “The Prestige,” and Woody
Allen’s “Scoop.” He has also lent his voice to the animated features “Happy
Feet” and “Flushed Away.” Other credits include leading roles in “Deception,”
“Someone Like You,” “Swordfish,” “Van Helsing” and “Kate and Leopold,” for
which he received a 2002 Golden Globe nomination.
In Fall 2009, Jackman appeared on Broadway
in the Keith Huff-penned “A Steady Rain.” Co-starring Daniel Craig, the play
told the story of two Chicago cops who are lifelong friends and whose differing
accounts of a few traumatic days change their lives forever.
For his portrayal of the 1970s
singer-songwriter Peter Allen in “The Boy From Oz,” Jackman received the 2004
Tony Award for Best Actor in a musical as well as Drama Desk, Drama League,
Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World awards.
Previous theater credits include “Carousel”
at Carnegie Hall, “Oklahoma!” at the National Theater in London (Olivier Award
nomination), “Sunset Boulevard” (receiving a MO Award, Australia's Tony Award)
and Disney's “Beauty and the Beast” (MO Award nomination).
Jackman's career began in Australia in the
independent films “Paperback Hero” and “Erskineville Kings.”
Chris
Pine (Jack Frost), who has
emerged as one of Hollywood’s hottest young actors, is currently shooting “Jack
Ryan,” slated for a December 2013 release, assuming the mantle of the Tom
Clancy action hero previously portrayed on film by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford
and Ben Affleck. Most recently, Pine was seen opposite Michelle Pfeiffer,
Elizabeth Banks and Olivia Wilde in the Touchstone Pictures drama “People Like
Us,” and co-starring with Reese Witherspoon and Tom Hardy in the 20th
Century Fox action-comedy “This Means War.”
Previously, Pine starred opposite Denzel
Washington in the 20th Century Fox action film “Unstoppable,”
directed by the late Tony Scott. In 2009, Pine starred as James T. Kirk in
Paramount’s box-office smash-hit feature film “Star Trek” for director J. J.
Abrams. The film chronicles the early days of Kirk and his fellow USS
Enterprise crewmembers. He will reprise the role in two upcoming sequels of the
franchise.
Pine’s additional feature credits include
the Paramount Vantage film “Carriers,” the educational animated feature
“Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey,” “Bottle Shock” for writer/director
Randall Miller, the independent feature “Small Town Saturday Night” for
writer/director Ryan Craig, Joe Carnahan’s gritty ensemble drama “Smokin’ Aces”
for Working Title Films and Universal Pictures, “Blind Dating” co-starring
Eddie Kaye Thomas and Jane Seymour, and the Fox/New Regency romantic comedy
“Just My Luck” opposite Lindsay Lohan. Pine made his feature film debut
opposite Anne Hathaway in “The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.”
On the stage, Pine was most recently seen
starring in Martin McDonagh’s “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” at the Mark Taper
Forum in Los Angeles. In March 2011, the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle
honored him with their Best Lead Performance award for his work in “Inishmore.”
Pine also received a 2009 Ovation Award
nomination for his performance in the drama “Farragut North” starring opposite
Chris Noth at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. His additional stage credits
include the Neil LaBute play “Fat Pig,” also at the Geffen Playhouse, and “The
Atheist,” a one-man show performed off-off-Broadway.
Pine graduated from the University of
California, Berkeley with a degree in English and studied acting at the
American Conservatory Theater and University of Leeds in the U.K. His extensive
theater work includes performances in productions of “Our Town,” “American
Buffalo,” “No Exit,” “Waiting for Godot,” and “Orestes.”
Pine comes from a performing family. His
parents are actors Gwynne Gilford and Robert Pine, and his late grandmother,
Anne Gwynne, was a film actress of the ‘30s and ‘40s.
Isla
Fisher (Tooth Fairy) recently completed work on “The Great Gatsby,” Baz
Luhrmann’s 3D adaptation of the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, in which she
stars with Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan, as well as the
independent comedy “Bachelorette,” written and directed by Leslye Headland and
starring Kirsten Dunst and Lizzy Caplan, which premiered at the 2012 Sundance
Film Festival. Fisher recently completed “Now You See Me,” an independent
thriller with Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Melanie Laurent
and Morgan Freeman. Fisher also has a number of comedy projects in development
at Universal including “Cookie Queen,” which she is also producing,
“Desperados” and “Life Coach.”
Fisher is most widely recognized for her
critically acclaimed performance as Vince Vaughn's off-kilter love interest in
the blockbuster “The Wedding Crashers.” Her additional film credits include
Gore Verbinski’s award-winning animated feature “Rango,” opposite Johnny Depp;
John Landis’s “Burke and Hare” with Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis; “Confessions of
a Shopaholic,” based on the best-selling book series by Sophie Kinsella;
“Definitely, Maybe,” a romantic comedy starring Ryan Reynolds; the
critically-acclaimed film “The Lookout,” written and directed by Scott Frank
and also starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jeff Daniels; “Horton Hears a Who,”
with Jim Carrey and Steve Carrell; the comedy “Hot Rod” with Andy Samberg;
“Wedding Daze” with Jason Biggs and written and directed by Michael Ian Black;
David O. Russell’s “I Heart Huckabees” and “Scooby-Doo.” She also starred in
the scripted/improvisation TV series, “Pilot Season,” with comedic actors David
Cross, Andy Dick, and Sarah Silverman.
Born in the Middle Eastern country of Oman,
Fisher’s family moved to the small city of Perth in Western Australia when she
was a young girl. At the age of nine, Fisher was already appearing in
commercials broadcast on Australian television. She then became best known for
her role as "Shannon Reed" in the popular soap “Home & Away,”
which also helped launch the careers of Guy Pearce, Naomi Watts, and Heath
Ledger. While working on the set of “Home & Away,” she also found the time
to write and release two best-selling teen-themed novels.
Dakota
Goyo (Jamie Bennett) hails from Toronto, Canada. At an early age, Goyo
discovered an appetite for acting and playing in front of the camera. This
passion along with Dakota’s tremendous work ethic and natural acting talent led
him to a burgeoning film career at the young age of eleven.
Goyo recently wrapped shooting Darren
Aronofky's “Noah” in Iceland, in which he plays the young version of Russell
Crowe's title character. He is currently shooting Dimension Films’ “Dark
Skies,” opposite Keri Russell.
In 2011, Goyo starred opposite Hugh Jackman
in DreamWorks’ “Real Steel,” for director Shawn Levy and executive producer
Steven Spielberg. He also portrayed “Young Thor” opposite Anthony Hopkins in
the Paramount/Marvel boxoffice hit “Thor,” directed by Kenneth Branagh.
Goyo’s other feature credits include “Resurrecting
the Champ,” starring opposite Josh Hartnett and Samuel L. Jackson, “Emotional
Arithmetic,” opposite Susan Sarandon, and “Defendor,” opposite Woody Harrelson
and Kat Dennings.
Rise of the Guardians is Peter Ramsey’s (Director)
first feature film after directing the hit DreamWorks Animation
Halloween special, “Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space.” This project followed the feature film, “Monsters
vs. Aliens” on which Ramsey served as Head of Story. While at DreamWorks Animation, Ramsey also
served as a story artist on “Shrek the Third,” and as a story board artist on “Shark
Tale.”
Before joining DreamWorks Animation in 2004,
Ramsey’s talent as a storyboard artist was on display while working on a
notable number of live action feature films, including “Adaptation,” “Minority
Report,” “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” “Cast Away”, “How the Grinch Stole
Christmas,” “Fight Club,” “Godzilla,” “Men in Black,” “Independence Day,” “Batman
Forever,” “Far and Away,” “Backdraft,” and “Predator 2” amongst others.
Ramsey’s directing skills were also honed
early, as he served as Second Unit Director on live action feature films
including “Godzilla,” “Tank Girl,” “Higher Learning,” and “Poetic Justice”.
Having grown-up in Crenshaw, Ramsey is a
lifelong resident of Los Angeles, California.
He is a graduate of Palisades High School and attended the University of
California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
After a long career in live-action
filmmaking and feature film development, Christina
Steinberg (Producer) joined
DreamWorks Animation in 2005 to produce Jerry Seinfeld’s first
computer-animated comedy, “Bee Movie,” and received a Producer of the Year
nomination from the Producers Guild of America.
Prior to joining DreamWorks, Steinberg ran
Junction Entertainment, a production company she formed in 1998 with director
Jon Turteltaub. Together, they produced a wide range of feature films, such as
the blockbuster Jerry Bruckheimer film “National Treasure,” starring Nicolas
Cage, Disney’s “The Kid,” starring Bruce Willis, and “Instinct,” starring
Anthony Hopkins. Before teaming up with Turteltaub, Steinberg served as a
senior vice president of production at Touchstone Pictures, where she worked
with such key talent and filmmakers as Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer on
“Up Close and Personal,” director Penny Marshall on “The Preacher’s Wife” and
John Travolta on “Phenomenon.”
Steinberg graduated from Cornell University
and started her career in publishing, as an assistant editor at Harper’s
Bazaar.
Prior to her work on DreamWorks Animation’s
“Rise of the Guardians,” Nancy Bernstein
(Producer) served as Head of
Production at DreamWorks Animation’s Glendale campus, overseeing all aspects of
physical production in Glendale. Bernstein came to DreamWorks Animation from
Digital Domain. While there, she led the
studio’s feature effects production on the Academy Award-winning “What Dreams
May Come” and the Academy Award®-nominated “I, Robot.” She has worked as the
visual effects executive producer on more than thirty films, including “The
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” “A Beautiful Mind,” and “Aeon
Flux.” She also oversaw visual effects
production on seven of Academy Award®- winning director Ron Howard’s films.
Prior to joining Digital Domain in 1997,
Bernstein spent 10 years at R/GA Digital Studios. As Head of Production, she
was responsible for feature films, commercials, and new media, and served as
the visual effects producer on such films as “In the Line of Fire” and “Last
Action Hero.” She was also instrumental
in transitioning R/GA from optical imaging to digital production.
William
Joyce (Executive Producer) has achieved worldwide recognition as an
author, illustrator and leader in the digital animation industry. He was named
by Newsweek Magazine as one of the 100 People to Watch in the New
Millennium and recognized as the Louisiana Author of the Year in 2008. He is
also a cover artist for The New Yorker and a member of both the Producers
and Writers Guilds of America. His projects have been sought after, as
well as produced, by nearly every major animation studio including Disney,
Fox/Blue Sky, and DreamWorks. Projects based on his works have been
successfully translated into feature films and television shows,
including “Robots,” “Meet the Robinsons” and the Emmy Award-winning
television series “Rolie Polie Olie” and “George
Shrinks.” Joyce co-directed the Academy Award-winning short film “The
Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.” He is also the writer,
producer, and production designer on the 20th Century Fox/Blue Sky Studios
feature film “Epic,” based on his book “The Leaf Men.”
David
Lindsay-Abaire (Screenwriter) is a Pulitzer Prize
winning playwright, screenwriter, lyricist and librettist. His most recent play, Good People, premiered on Broadway last season, and was awarded the
2011 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, The Horton Foote Prize,
The Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award, and two Tony nominations. Theater Communications Group recently named
David as the most produced playwright in America for the 2012-13 season, and Good People as the most produced
play. His previous play, Rabbit Hole received the Pulitzer Prize
for Drama, five Tony nominations, and the Spirit of America Award. David was nominated for a Grammy Award and
two Tonys for his work on Shrek The
Musical: Best Score, and Best Book of a Musical. Prior to that David was awarded the Kleban
Award as America’s most promising musical theatre lyricist. His other shows include Fuddy Meers, Kimberly Akimbo, Wonder of the World and A Devil Inside, among others. In addition to his work in theatre, David's
screen credits include his film adaptation of Rabbit Hole (starring Nicole Kidman – Oscar Nomination), as well as
the upcoming feature Rise of the
Guardians (Dreamworks.)
Since winning the
Critic’s Prize at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival and nine Mexican Academy Awards
for his first feature “Cronos,” Guillermo del Toro (Executive
Producer) has established himself among the most critically and
commercially successful international writer-directors.
Del Toro has built
his career by moving between independent, Spanish-language films and
increasingly big budget studio productions. His films include “Mimic,” “The
Devil’s Backbone,” “Blade 2,” “Hellboy” and its sequel “Hellboy 2: The Golden
Army.”
His 2006 film
“Pan’s Labyrinth” received six Academy Award nominations (including Best
Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay for del Toro) and won three
Oscars. It was also the recipient of three BAFTA Awards, seven Goya Awards, a
Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, and was selected by the
National Society of Film Critics as the best film of the year. It is the
highest-grossing Spanish language film of all time in the U.S. and the fifth
highest-grossing foreign language film in U.S. box office history, with $37.6
million in box office receipts.
In 2007, del Toro
produced the Spanish supernatural thriller “The Orphanage,” which is currently
the highest-grossing local language film in Spain’s history, with over $80
million in worldwide box office. His other producing credits include “Rudo y
Cursi,” directed by Carlos Cuaron and starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego
Luna; and Alejandro Gonzalez-Iñarritu's “Biutiful,” which was featured in
competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and received Academy Award
nominations for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor.
In 2010, del Toro
named DreamWorks Animation his home for animated feature film projects. Last
year, he executive produced the year’s highest grossing animated film, “Kung Fu
Panda 2” as well as the smash hit “Puss in Boots.”
Apart from his
film work, del Toro is co-authoring the horror trilogy “The Strain” with
acclaimed novelist Chuck Hogan. The first book in the series was published by
William Morrow in 2009. The second volume, “The Fall,” debuted at No. 8 on the
New York Times Bestseller List in October 2010.
Michael
Siegel (Executive Producer) has a literary management and production company
that represents leading children’s authors including the estate of Roald
Dahl (“James and the Giant Peach”), William Joyce (“Santa Calls”), and Lauren
Child (“Charlie and Lola”). He helped establish Moonbot Studios, which won the
Academy Award for best animated short film for “The Fantastic Flying Books of
Mr. Morris Lessmore” and was an executive producer of “Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory.” Siegel is also a founding member of 5D, a group of
forward-thinking scientists, designers and storytellers.
Patrick
Hanenberger (Production Designer) began his vocation
in design at young age, drawing caricatures of his teachers and building
vehicles and environments for his action figures. After several internships in
advertising and production companies in Europe and an education as an
industrial designer at the University of Michigan, Hanenberger realized that
his true passion was to work in film. He subsequently moved to Los Angeles to
study entertainment design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. During
that time Hanenberger interned at Pixar Animation Studios, which set his path
to work as a designer in feature animation.
After graduating Art Center and freelancing
for a year, Hanenberger joined DreamWorks Animation in 2004 where he worked as
a visual development artist on “Over the Hedge,” “Bee Movie” and “Monsters vs.
Aliens.” After the latter, Hanenberger worked as the art director on the TV
short “Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space.”
Prior to joining DreamWorks Animation,
Hanenberger worked as a concept artist in Los Angeles for several clients
including Rhythm and Hues, Lego Concept Lab and Hot Wheels and was a storyboard
artist for various commercial projects.
In 2007 Hanenberger launched PatrickHanenberger.com
with the ambition of expanding into new fields of art and design around the
world. He currently teaches at Art Center and recently taught a workshop at the
renowned Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm,
Sweden.
Hanenberger was born in Melbourne, Australia
and grew up in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Max
Boas (Art Director) began his career at DreamWorks Animation in 2003 as
a layout artist and background painter on “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.”
He went on to work as a visual development artist on “Over the Hedge,” where he
helped design locations, create production illustrations and color keys for the
lighting department and design a plethora of props found in the suburbia
scenes. Boas also worked as a visual development artist on “Flushed Away” and
the Academy Award-nominated “Kung Fu Panda.” Boas was most recently art
director on “Shrek Forever After.”
Prior to joining DreamWorks Animation, Boas
studied illustration at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California,
where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts with honors distinction in 2002. Before Art Center, Boas spent two years at
the Kansas City Art Institute, where he studied illustration and general
foundation in art.
Boas graduated from Fairview High School in
1996 in his hometown Boulder, Colorado.
He was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1978 and spent his first five
years in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Roger Deakins (Visual
Consultant) ASC, BSC, is an award-winning cinematographer who has been
honored by the American Society of Cinematographers, BAFTA, BSC, NBR and the
Independent Spirit Awards. He has also been nominated nine times for an Academy
Award for his work on Joel and Ethan Coen’s “No Country for Old Men”; Frank Darabont’s “The Shawshank Redemption”; Martin
Scorsese’s “Kundun”; Andrew
Dominik’s “The Assassination of Jesse
James by the Coward Robert Ford”; Stephen Daldry’s “The Reader” (shared credit with Chris
Menges); and Joel Coen’s “Fargo,”
“The Man Who Wasn’t There,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and “True Grit.”
He received the ASC’s Lifetime Achievement award in 2011.
Born in Torquay, Devon, England, Deakins
began his career in still photography after attending art college and the
National Film School. Many of his first cinematographic projects were
documentaries lensed in Africa. He also covered the Whitbread Round the World
Yacht race, which required him to work for more than nine months as a
crewmember while filming and directing the documentary.
Other
credits include Norman Jewison’s “The Hurricane,” Ron Howard’s “A Beautiful
Mind,” and Sam Mendes’ “Revolutionary
Road.” His work will next be seen in Mendes’ “Skyfall,” the latest
installment in the James Bond franchise, slated for release on November 9.
Deakins has been the visual consultant on a
number of animated feature films including Disney-Pixar’s “Wall-E,” Paramount’s
“Rango,” and DreamWorks Animation’s “How to Train Your Dragon” and the
upcoming “The Croods.”
ALEXANDRE DESPLAT (Composer/Songwriter) is a four-time Academy Award® nominee, who is one of the most coveted film
composers, noted for his
creative collaborations with some of the world’s top filmmakers. He
received his most recent Oscar® nod for his score for the Best Picture winner “The King’s Speech,” for
which he also won a BAFTA Award, a Grammy Award and earned a Golden Globe
nomination. He previously garnered Oscar® and BAFTA Award nominations for his score
for the animated “Fantastic Mr. Fox”; Oscar®, Grammy, Golden Globe and BAFTA
Award nominations for David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”;
and Oscar® and BAFTA Award
nominations for Stephen Frears’ “The Queen.”
In
addition, Desplat won a Golden Globe Award for John Curran’s “The Painted
Veil,” and also received Golden Globe nominations for his scores for Stephen
Gaghan’s “Syriana” and Peter Webber’s “The Girl with a Pearl Earring.”
Born to a Greek mother and French father, Desplat grew up in France with a love
for Hollywood film music, and broke into the French film industry in the
1980s. In his native France, Desplat won the César Award for his score
for “The Beat That My Heart Skipped,” which also earned him a Silver Bear from
the 2005 Berlin Film Festival. He received his latest César Award
nomination for his score for Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer.” Desplat
has earned four more César Award nominations, including one for the
Oscar®-nominated 2009 French film “A Prophet.”
His
other film work includes the Chris Weitz-directed films “A Better Life,” “The
Twilight Saga: New Moon” and “The Golden Compass”; Jonathan Glazer’s “Birth,”
Nora Ephron’s “Julie & Julia”; Anne Fontaine’s “Coco Before Chanel” and Ang
Lee’s “Lust, Caution.” He also composed the scores for the two-film
finale of the Harry Potter film franchise, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
– Parts 1 and 2.”
Desplat
more recently created the scores for the critically acclaimed features “The
Tree of Life,” directed by Terrence Malick; George Clooney’s “The Ides of
March”; “Carnage,” which reunited him with Roman Polanski; Stephen Daldry’s Oscar-nominated
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom” and
Ben Affleck’s “Argo.” His upcoming projects include Jacques Audiard’s
“Rust and Bone” and Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty.”
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