ABOUT THE CAST

ABOUT THE
CAST
MARK WAHLBERG (Marcus Luttrell/Produced
by) earned both Academy Award® and Golden Globe
nominations for his standout work in the family boxing
biopic The Fighter and Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed
drama The Departed. Wahlberg has played diverse
characters for visionary filmmakers such as David O.
Russell, Tim Burton and Paul Thomas Anderson. His
breakout role in Boogie Nights established Wahlberg as
one of Hollywood’s most sought-after talents.
Wahlberg’s remarkable film career began with
Renaissance Man, directed by Penny Marshall, and The
Basketball Diaries, with Leonardo DiCaprio, followed
by a star turn opposite Reese Witherspoon in the thriller
Fear. He later headlined Three Kings and The Perfect
Storm, with George Clooney, and The Italian Job, with
Charlize Theron. Wahlberg then starred in the football
biopic Invincible, with Greg Kinnear, and Shooter, based
on the best-selling novel “Point of Impact.” He reunited
with The Yards director James Gray and co-star Joaquin
Phoenix in We Own the Night, which he also produced.
Other projects include The Happening, Max Payne, The
Lovely Bones, Date Night, The Other Guys, Contraband,
Ted and Broken City. In 2013, Wahlberg starred in
Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain, with Dwayne Johnson, and
Baltasar Kormákur’s 2 Guns, with Denzel Washington.
Wahlberg recently wrapped production on Bay’s highly
anticipated fourth installment of the Transformers
franchise, Transformers: Age of Extinction.
Also an accomplished film and television producer,
Wahlberg has won many awards, among them a Golden
Globe Award, a Peabody Award and a BAFTA Award.
He has also been nominated for an Oscar®, nine Golden
Globes and five Primetime Emmy Awards. In addition
to Lone Survivor, Broken City, Contraband, The
Fighter and We Own the Night, Wahlberg is executive
producer of the HBO series Boardwalk Empire. He also
executive produced HBO’s Entourage, In Treatment
and How to Make It in America.
A committed philanthropist, Wahlberg founded The
Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation in 2001 to benefit
inner-city children and teens.
TAYLOR KITSCH (Michael Murphy) was most
recently seen alongside Brendan Gleeson in The
Grand Seduction, which premiered at the 2013 Toronto
International Film Festival on September 8. In June,
Kitsch will be seen alongside Mark Ruffalo and Julia
Roberts in HBO’s The Normal Heart, based on the Tony
Award-winning play and directed by Ryan Murphy.
In 2012, Kitsch was seen in Oliver Stone’s Savages,
which tells the daunting story of a fight against a Mexican
drug cartel. Kitsch starred alongside the riveting Salma
Hayek and Benicio Del Toro. Earlier that year, he starred
in Peter Berg’s Battleship, alongside Liam Neeson,
Rihanna and Alexander Skarsgård, and Disney’s liveaction film John Carter, which was directed by two-time
Academy Award® winner Andrew Stanton (WALL-E,
Finding Nemo) and co-starred Lynn Collins.
Kitsch previously starred in Steven Silver’s The
Bang Bang Club as Kevin Carter, one of four young
photojournalists whose graphic images drew the world’s
attention to the last stages of apartheid in South Africa.
Based on a true story, this gripping drama portrays the
stresses, tensions and moral dilemmas of working in
situations of extreme conflict. The film premiered at the
2010 Toronto International Film Festival, screened at
the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2011, and was
released theatrically the following day.
Lone Survivor marks Kitsch’s third film directed
by Berg. In addition, Berg directed him on NBC’s
critically acclaimed sports drama Friday Night Lights
(FNL), in which Kitsch played the role of Tim Riggins,
a troubled Texas high-school fullback who struggles to
find his identity while wrestling with personal demons.
The fifth and final season of the series premiered on
April 15, 2011, and ran throughout the summer season.
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During one of FNL’s summer hiatuses, Kitsch filmed
the 2008 feature Gospel Hill, alongside Julia Stiles,
Danny Glover, Angela Bassett and Samuel L. Jackson.
Directed by actor/director Giancarlo Esposito, the story
focuses on a bigoted former sheriff of a Southern town
and a civil-rights worker whose intersecting lives are
still haunted by events that took place decades before.
Kitsch, who grew up in British Columbia, Canada,
began his career in 2002, when he moved to New York
to study with renowned acting coach Sheila Grey. He
landed his first major feature film back on familiar ground
(Vancouver) the next year in David R. Ellis’ cult classic
Snakes on a Plane, which starred Samuel L. Jackson.
His additional feature film credits include Renny
Harlin’s horror flick The Covenant; Betty Thomas’
comedy John Tucker Must Die; and Gavin Hood’s 2009
sci-fi action-adventure X-Men Origins: Wolverine, in
which he starred as Gambit, alongside Hugh Jackman,
Liev Schreiber, Ryan Reynolds and his John Carter costar Collins.
EMILE HIRSCH (Danny Dietz) can next be seen
in the TV miniseries Bonnie & Clyde as Clyde Barrow,
starring opposite William Hurt, as Frank Hamer, and
Holliday Grainger, as Bonnie Parker. The miniseries is
directed by Bruce Beresford and will air on Lifetime,
A&E and History.
Hirsch, a Screen Actors Guild Award nominee,
starred alongside Paul Rudd in David Gordon Green’s
offbeat comedy Prince Avalanche, which premiered at
the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win
an award for Best Director at the Berlin International
Film Festival. He can also be seen in Sergio Castellitto’s
romantic comedy Twice Born, opposite Penélope
Cruz. The film, which premiered at the 2012 Toronto
International Film Festival, is scheduled for release
on December 6. In addition, Hirsch starred alongside
Stephen Dorff and Dakota Fanning in Alan and Gabe
Polsky’s The Motel Life, which won the Audience
Award at the 2012 Rome Film Festival.
After his breakthrough performance in Into the
Wild, Hirsch starred in Milk, opposite Sean Penn, and
Speed Racer, for which he earned a Teen Choice Award
nomination for Choice Movie Actor: Action Adventure.
Additional film credits for Hirsch include Oliver
Stone’s Savages, Nick Cassavetes’ Alpha Dog, Peter
Care’s The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys and Luke
Greenfield’s The Girl Next Door.
BEN FOSTER (Matt “Axe” Axelson) was most
recently seen in David Lowery’s Ain’t Them Bodies
Saints, alongside Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck,
and John Krokidas’ Kill Your Darlings, with Daniel
Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan and Michael C. Hall. The
Village Voice noted about both performances that
“Foster dazzled as the young William Burroughs on
the edges of the Beat true-crime tale Darlings, then
impressed even more as a kindly deputy trying to keep
the peace in Saints, a performance that evokes the young
Gene Hackman in its understated masculine authority.”
In an Indiwire survey of critics, Foster’s work in Ain’t
Them Bodies Saints was ranked the Best Supporting
Performance of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
Earlier this year, Foster made his Broadway debut
opposite Alec Baldwin and Tom Sturridge in a revival
of Lyle Kessler’s play Orphans.
In 2009, Foster starred opposite Woody Harrelson
and Samantha Morton in Oren Moverman’s The
Messenger. The film, a moving portrayal of one soldier’s
journey to re-assimilate after his turn in Iraq, was an
official selection at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival
and won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay and the
Peace Film Award at the 2009 Berlin International
Film Festival. It also won the Grand Special Prize for
Best Film at the 2009 Deauville Film Festival. Foster
reteamed with Moverman in 2011 to co-star in and
produce Rampart, which tells the story of a veteran
police officer who gets caught up in a corruption
scandal. Foster portrays a homeless man at the center
of the scandal.
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In 2007, his portrayal of outlaw and a cold-blooded
killer Charlie Prince in James Mangold’s 3:10 to Yuma,
earned Foster rave reviews. Of his performance, Todd
McCarthy of Variety noted that Foster “puts the kind of
indelible imprint on this juicy role that, in earlier eras,
allowed such thesps as Lee Marvin, Richard Boone, Dan
Duryea, James Coburn, Jack Palance, Lee Van Cleef,
Strother Martin and others to immortalize themselves
in the annals of Western villainy. He is a mad delight to
watch.” The cast received a Screen Actors Guild (SAG)
Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a
Cast in a Motion Picture.
Foster’s additional credits include Fernando
Meirelles’ 360, Baltasar Kormákur’s Contraband,
Braden King’s Here, Simon West’s The Mechanic, Nick
Cassavetes’ Alpha Dog, Brett Ratner’s blockbuster
X-Men: The Last Stand, David Slade’s 30 Days of Night,
Florent-Emilio Siri’s Hostage and Barry Levinson’s
Liberty Heights, which marked his film debut.
On the small screen, Foster portrayed Russell Corwin
for three seasons on HBO’s critically acclaimed drama
Six Feet Under, which won the 2004 SAG Award for
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama
Series. He was also a part of the Primetime Emmynominated HBO telefilm The Laramie Project. Foster
appeared on several episodes of the cult hit Freaks and
Geeks as the mentally handicapped student Eli, and
Foster’s lead performance in Showtime’s Bang Bang
You’re Dead garnered him a Daytime Emmy Award.
Foster is currently shooting as the lead in Stephen
Frears’ biopic of Lance Armstrong, for Working
Title Films.
ALI SULIMAN (Gulab) made his American movie
debut with a starring role in Peter Berg’s The Kingdom,
opposite Jamie Foxx and Chris Cooper. Suliman then
played the role of Omar Sadiki in Warner Bros. Pictures’
Body of Lies, alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell
Crowe. More recently, Suliman played the lead role of
Amin in Ziad Doueiri’s feature The Attack, which won
a top prize at the 2012 San Sebastián International
Film Festival and made its world premiere at the 2012
Toronto International Film Festival.
Suliman came to international attention in 2005’s
award-winning feature Paradise Now, playing the role
of Khaled, one of two boyhood friends recruited for a
suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in what may be the last two
days of his life. The landmark film, directed by Hany
Abu-Assad, collected an Academy Award® nomination
for Best Foreign Language Film, the first Palestinian
movie ever to earn that distinction. The film also won
a Golden Globe, Independent Spirit Award, National
Board of Review Award, the Blue Angel Award at the
Berlin International Film Festival, the Golden Calf at
the Netherlands Film Festival and the VFCC Award
from the Vancouver Film Critics Circle.
Suliman has also appeared in a half-dozen other
big-screen productions, including The Syrian Bride, The
Barbecue People, The Diary of a Male Prostitute, The
Check Point, The Border and Elia Suleiman’s drama
Chronicle of a Disappearance, which won the Luigi De
Laurentiis Award at the Venice International Film Festival.
His television work includes The Battle of Jerusalem, Puzzle,
Hafuch and the pilot episode of Showtime’s Homeland.
The Nazareth, Israel, native began his career in
theater, logging roles in plays from some of the world’s
most distinguished playwrights including Tennessee
Williams (The Glass Menagerie), Arthur Miller (A View
from the Bridge), Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot),
Oscar Wilde (Salome) and William Shakespeare (The
Tempest). Suliman’s additional stage credits include
Victor Lanou’s Can Opener; Ach Ach Boom Trach, at
the Arab-Hebrew Theatre of Jaffa, for which he won the
Best Actor Award at the Haifa International Children’s
Theater Festival; and Martin Crug’s Eyes Can See,
Antar, Missing, The Heart’s Key, staged by the ArabHebrew Theatre of Jaffa; Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s
Nathan the Wise; Heiner Müller’s The Mission; the
original production of The Freedom Trap at the Acco
Festival in Israel; and Slawomir Mrozeck’s Out at Sea.
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ALEXANDER LUDWIG (Shane Patton) was
most recently seen in the Adam Sandler comedy
Grown Ups 2. In 2012, Ludwig appeared in the boxoffice smash-hit The Hunger Games in the role of Cato.
He previously starred in Walt Disney Pictures’ hugely
successful Race to Witch Mountain, opposite Dwayne
Johnson and Carla Gugino.
On the small screen, Ludwig can next be seen as
Bjorn Lothbrok on the History Channel’s series Vikings,
and as Abigail Breslin’s co-star and nemesis in the film
Final Girl. He recently wrapped production on Sony
Pictures’ When the Game Stands Tall, opposite Jim
Caviezel, Laura Dern and Michael Chiklis. The film is
set to be released in September 2014.
Ludwig grew up in Vancouver, Canada. After
beginning his acting career at age nine with commercial
and television parts, he landed the starring role of Will
Stanton in 20th Century Fox’s 2007 action-adventure
The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising.
When he is not working, Ludwig is a student at
the University of Southern California, studying film,
theater and entrepreneurship. In addition to acting and
filmmaking, he is a gifted musician and is in discussions
to record his original material.
In his free time, Ludwig competes in extreme
freestyle skiing on Whistler Mountain and surfs the
coast of California.
Already well-known to audiences in his native
Australia, ERIC BANA (Erik Kristensen) was first
introduced to the worldwide film community with
his portrayal of the real-life (and larger-than-life)
crime f igure Mark “Chopper” Read in Andrew
Dominik’s Chopper, which had its U.S. premiere at
the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. His performance
in the title role earned him awards for Best Actor from
the Film Critics Circle of Australia and Australian
Film Institute.
Bana subsequently starred in Ridley Scott’s Black
Hawk Down and Australian writer/director Bill Bennett’s
comedy The Nugget. Bana next played Bruce Banner in
Ang Lee’s Hulk; portrayed Hector, the prince of Troy, in
Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy; voiced a character in Andrew
Stanton and Lee Unkrich’s Academy Award®-winning
animated blockbuster Finding Nemo; and starred in
Steven Spielberg’s critically acclaimed Munich.
Bana also starred in Curtis Hanson’s Lucky You,
opposite Drew Barrymore and Robert Downey, Jr.; Justin
Chadwick’s The Other Boleyn Girl, alongside Natalie
Portman and Scarlett Johansson; and Robert Schwentke’s
The Time Traveler’s Wife, with Rachel McAdams.
Bana’s additional film credits include the Australian
feature Romulus, My Father, directed by Richard
Roxburgh, for which he won his second Australian Film
Institute Award for Best Lead Actor; Judd Apatow’s
Funny People, with Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen and
Leslie Mann; Stefan Ruzowitzky’s Deadfall, alongside
Olivia Wilde, Charlie Hunnam, Kris Kristofferson and
Sissy Spacek; and J.J. Abrams’ hit Star Trek, as the
villainous Nero.
Bana most recently starred in John Crowley’s
Closed Circuit, opposite Rebecca Hall, for Focus
Features. Bana’s company Pick Up Truck Productions
acquired the Australian distribution rights to Closed
Circuit and will release the film there later this year
along with director/producer Robert Connolly’s
CinemaPlus. He was previously seen in Joe Wright’s
adventure thriller Hanna, opposite Saoirse Ronan
and Cate Blanchett, also for Focus Features. He
will next be seen in Scott Derrickson’s paranormal
thriller Beware the Night, with Edgar Ramirez and
Olivia Munn.
Bana’s directorial debut, the dramatic documentary
feature Love the Beast, had its U.S. premiere at the
2009 Tribeca Film Festival. Bana appears in the film
with Jay Leno, Dr. Phil and Jeremy Clarkson, among
others. Love the Beast explores the meaning of Bana’s
25-year-long (and counting) relationship with his first
car, and the importance of the bonds that form through
a common passion.
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ABOUT THE
FILMMAKERS
PETER BERG (Written by/Directed by/Produced
by) has enjoyed success as a writer, director, producer
and actor.
Berg made his feature film directorial debut (from
his own original screenplay) on the 1998 cult favorite
Very Bad Things, which starred Cameron Diaz, John
Favreau and Christian Slater and earned kudos at
the Deauville and San Sebastian film festivals. He
went on to direct the actioner The Rundown, which
starred Dwayne Johnson and Christopher Walken, and
returned to the action genre with the war drama The
Kingdom, which starred Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner
and Chris Cooper. In 2008, he directed the action hit
Hancock, which starred Will Smith in the title role.
He directed Battleship, which hit theaters worldwide
in 2012. In 2007, Berg executive produced the offbeat
independent comedy Lars and the Real Girl, which
starred Ryan Gosling.
Berg is known for his fierce portrait of high
school football in the 2004 film adaptation of H.G.
Bissinger’s blistering best-seller “Friday Night Lights,”
which starred Billy Bob Thornton. The film’s success,
both in theaters and on DVD, spawned the acclaimed
television series of the same name, which aired for
five seasons and garnered multiple Primetime Emmy
Award nominations and wins. In addition to serving
as the series’ executive producer, Berg directed several
episodes of the show, including the 2006 pilot, for
which he earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination
for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. As one
of the series’ writers, he also shared a Writers Guild of
America Award nomination for Best New Series.
Berg was the creator/executive producer of the
critically acclaimed HBO documentary series On Freddie
Roach. He executive produced the police procedural
drama Prime Suspect, which starred Maria Bello, and
the medical drama series Trauma, both for NBC. Berg
previously created and executive produced the ABC
drama series Wonderland, for which he also wrote and
directed episodes. He got his start as a writer and director
on David E. Kelley’s critically acclaimed series Chicago
Hope, on which he starred for three seasons as the brash,
hockey-playing surgeon, Dr. Billy Kronk.
As an actor, Berg’s film work includes roles in
Robert Redford’s Lions for Lambs, with Redford, Meryl
Streep and Tom Cruise; Smokin’ Aces, for director Joe
Carnahan; and Michael Mann’s Collateral, with Cruise
and Foxx. Berg’s additional film acting credits include
Cop Land, The Great White Hype, John Dahl’s The Last
Seduction, A Midnight Clear and Late for Dinner.
Berg, a New York native (and son of a naval
historian) is developing several projects under his
Film 44 banner. In December, HBO will premiere
Berg’s sports documentary series State of Play, which
he executive produced and will serve as moderator
for each episode’s panel discussion. Next, Berg will
executive produce and direct the pilot for the upcoming
HBO series The Leftovers, starring Justin Theroux and
Liv Tyler.
MARCUS LUTTRELL’s (Based on the Book
by) “Lone Survivor,” The New York Times No. 1 bestseller, tells the harrowing story of four Navy SEALs
who, in 2005, journeyed into the mountainous border
of Afghanistan and Pakistan on Operation Red Wings.
An unparalleled motivational story of survival,
the book is also a moving tribute to the friends and
teammates who did not make it off the mountain. A
powerful testament to the courage, integrity, patriotism
and community that forged these American heroes,
“Lone Survivor” is an incredible account of teamwork,
fortitude and modern warfare.
Operation Red Wings’ mission was to gather
intelligence on a Taliban leader with ties to Osama
bin Laden. When the team encountered several goat
herders, the SEALs questioned them and, after a debate
– 45 –
about the rules of engagement, let them go. Shortly
thereafter, a large Taliban force ambushed the four-man
team on a remote ridge. Luttrell and his teammates
valiantly fought for hours, displaying characteristic
SEAL determination and bravery, refusing to retreat
from the fight despite being heavily outnumbered.
Hours later, after Luttrell had watched all three friends
die—and literally had been blown off the mountain
by a rocket-propelled grenade—a rescue helicopter,
carrying 16 special operation forces, was shot down,
killing all onboard.
His face shredded, nose broken, rotator cuff torn,
three vertebrae cracked, his body riddled with shrapnel
and unable to stand, Luttrell began to crawl through the
mountains in search of shelter. Help arrived by way of
the Afghan villagers of Sabray. They took Luttrell in,
cleaned his wounds and, honoring their tribe’s custom,
protected him from the Taliban at the risk of their
own lives. As the Taliban circled the village and the
threats intensified, the village elder sought help from
the nearest Marine Corps outpost. Five nights after the
nightmare began, Luttrell was rescued.
In this emotionally raw account, Luttrell honors the
memories of all those who died, sharing with us the
incredible bravery, courage and honor of these extraordinary warriors. He holds up their lives as examples of
the Navy SEAL code: “I will never quit. I persevere and
thrive on adversity. My Nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies. If
knocked down, I will get back up, every time.”
When speaking in-person, Luttrell describes
the rigors of SEAL training and what it takes to join
America’s elite fighting force, to the battle on the
mountain, his family’s experience of community
support and generosity, and back to his own incredible
story of survival and grace.
In powerful narrative, he weaves a rich account of
courage and sacrifice, honor and patriotism, community
and destiny that audiences find both wrenching and
life-affirming.
In his new best-selling book “Service: A Navy
SEAL at War,” Luttrell turns his focus from his own
experiences as a combat-trained Navy SEAL to the
nature of service on America’s battlefields and the
soldiers who give their lives to defend their nation and
each other.
Luttrell joined the U.S. Navy in March 1999 and
became a combat-trained SEAL in January 2002.
After serving in Iraq for two years, he was deployed to
Afghanistan in the spring of 2005. As a SEAL, Luttrell
was trained in weapons, demolition and unarmed
combat. He also served as platoon medic.
After recuperating from Operation Red Wings, he
redeployed to Iraq for another tour. President George W.
Bush awarded him the Navy Cross for combat heroism
in 2006. Then, in the spring of 2007, Petty Officer First
Class Luttrell retired.
To honor his lost comrades from Operation
Red Wings, Luttrell established the Lone Survivor
Foundation in 2010. It is dedicated to honoring and
remembering American warriors by providing unique
educational, rehabilitation, recovery and wellness
opportunities to U.S. Armed Forces service members
and their families.
In addition to cowriting The New York Times No.1
nonfiction best-seller “Lone Survivor,” PATRICK
ROBINSON (Based on the Book by) is the author
of several international best-selling U.S. Navy–
based novels, including “Intercept,” “Diamondhead,”
“To the Death” and “The Delta Solution,” as well
as several nonfiction best-sellers, including The
New York Times best-seller “A Colossal Failure of
Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of
Lehman Brothers” and the international best-seller
“One Hundred Days.”
Robinson is also the author of several thrillers
featuring the U.S. Navy, including “Nimitz Class,”
“Kilo Class,” “Barracuda 945,” “Scimitar SL-2,” “USS
Seawolf ” and “The Shark Mutiny.”
– 46 –
Robinson lives in Ireland but spends his summers
in Cape Cod.
SARAH AUBREY (Produced by) is partnered
with Peter Berg in their production company, Film
44. Together they have produced film and television
projects, including the acclaimed film and television
series Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, Battleship,
On Freddie Roach, the upcoming HBO series State of
Play and The Leftovers.
The Austin, Texas, native and former entertainment
lawyer (who earned her law degree at the University of
Texas after graduating from Princeton University) also
produced Terry Zwigoff’s irreverent hit comedy Bad
Santa, which starred Billy Bob Thornton and marked
her first motion picture producing credit. She also
served in a similar capacity on the original romantic
comedy-drama Lars and the Real Girl, which starred
Ryan Gosling and Patricia Clarkson.
As one of the entertainment industry’s most prolific
film producers, RANDALL EMMETT (Produced
by) has produced more than 50 feature films since
his start as Mark Wahlberg’s assistant in the 1990s.
Combining financial acumen with an incisive creative
sensibility, Emmett is partner and co-founder alongside
GEORGE FURLA (Executive Producer) of Emmett/
Furla Films, a production company dedicated to the
development, financing and production of top-tier
filmed entertainment for the theatrical marketplace with
its own equity fund. Emmett is also founder and partner
of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s production company,
Cheetah Vision Films.
In the past decade, Emmett’s ability to package films
with well-known actors and filmmakers has resulted
in major box-office success—netting more than $250
million at the U.S. box office alone. Additionally, he
has forged strong partnerships with major Hollywood
studios to finance and distribute commercial films
to audiences both domestically and internationally.
Aside from high-concept films, Emmett has produced
smaller, critically acclaimed indie fare such as Narc
and Wonderland. These films, and others, have played
at acclaimed film festivals worldwide, including
Sundance, Toronto, Berlin, Venice and Telluride. Many
have also been nominated for Independent Spirit
Awards and Golden Globe Awards.
In the past year, Emmett completed Baltasar
Kormákur’s 2 Guns, which starred Denzel Washington
and Mark Wahlberg; Empire State, which was written
by Adam Mazer, directed by Dito Montiel and starred
Liam Hemsworth, Dwayne Johnson and Emma
Roberts; Escape Plan, which was written by Miles
Chapman, directed by Mikael Håfström and starred
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone; and
The Frozen Ground, which was written and directed by
Scott Walker and starred Nicolas Cage, John Cusack,
Vanessa Hudgens and 50 Cent.
Most recently, Emmett signed on to finance and
produce Martin Scorsese’s highly anticipated Silence; as
well as Expiration, starring Bruce Willis. Other projects
he is set to finance and produce include Everest, for
Universal Pictures and Working Title Films, and The
Last Witch Hunter, for Summit Entertainment and
Lionsgate, starring Vin Diesel.
Emmett/Furla’s recently released films include
End of Watch, written and directed by David Ayer,
which starred Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña; Lay
the Favorite, directed by two-time Oscar®-nominated
Stephen Frears, which starred Bruce Willis, Catherine
Zeta-Jones, Rebecca Hall and Vince Vaughn; and
Freelancers, which starred Robert DeNiro, 50 Cent
and Forest Whitaker.
Emmett/Furla’s past films include Bad Lieutenant:
Port of Call New Orleans, Righteous Kill, 88 Minutes,
King of California, 16 Blocks and The Contract.
Born and raised in Miami, Emmett graduated from
the respected performing arts high school, New World
School of Arts. As an undergraduate, he attended the
prestigious School of Visual Arts in New York City.
– 47 –
Presently, he speaks at various industry conferences
and mentors up-and-coming filmmakers at UCLA’s
school of continuing education.
Emmett lives in Los Angeles with his family.
NORTON HERRICK (Produced by) is chairman
and CEO of The Herrick Company, Inc., one of the
nation’s most successful real estate investment firms.
Several years ago, the company formed Herrick
Entertainment and began its foray into the financing
and production of major motion pictures with My One
and Only, which starred Renée Zellweger and Kevin
Bacon. Herrick Entertainment’s coming-of-age film,
Very Good Girls, was written and directed by Naomi
Foner. The film starred Dakota Fanning, Elizabeth Olsen
and Demi Moore, and premiered at the 2013 Sundance
Film Festival. Most recently, Herrick Entertainment
produced 2 Guns, which starred Denzel Washington
and Mark Wahlberg. Herrick Entertainment is currently
in postproduction on the horror-thriller Nightlight.
Other films Herrick produced include Lee
Tamahori’s The Devil’s Double, which featured
Dominic Cooper’s chilling interpretation of Saddam
Hussein’s son and his body double; Vanishing on 7th
Street, which starred Hayden Christensen; Madison,
which starred Jim Caviezel; and The Moth Diaries,
directed by Mary Harron.
Herrick was the producer of the Las Vegas stage
show Hairspray, which was performed at the Luxor
hotel; and the theater adaption of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The
Lord of the Rings.” Herrick produced the Broadway
revivals of Exit the King, which starred Geoffrey Rush
and Susan Sarandon; Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the
Elms, which starred Brian Dennehy and Carla Gugino;
American Buffalo; Promises, Promises, which starred
Kristin Chenoweth and Sean Hayes; Hair; and Pippin,
for which Herrick won Tony Awards for each show for
Best Revival of a Musical. Herrick produced Dolly
Parton’s 9 to 5: The Musical; Bloody Bloody Andrew
Jackson; and the currently running Spider-Man: Turn
Off the Dark. He is an investor in the Broadway revival
and touring show of West Side Story.
Announced in early 2013, HerrickTV is developing,
producing and deficit financing both scripted and
unscripted programming, including adaptions of
international formats.
With offices in Boca Raton, Florida; Cedar Knolls,
New Jersey; New Hampshire and Norwalk, Connecticut,
The Herrick Company, under Herrick’s direction, has
become a major force in the real estate marketplace
over the last 45 years with income property transactions
totaling more than $5 billion. Throughout the 1980s and
1990s, Herrick managed, purchased and sold hundreds
of apartment complexes throughout the eastern United
States. Today, he is considered a foremost authority on
net lease real estate transacting and financing, as well as
the construction, structuring and financing of net lease
and sale-leaseback transactions that include hospitals
and power plants.
An affiliate of The Herrick Company has been
involved with the financing, construction and ownership
of the world’s largest, and the first in the United States,
electric producing power plants, which utilize biomass
(turkey manure) to generate electricity. The Herrick
Company has been involved in transactions involving
plants and manufacturing facilities that produce
ethanol and utilize biomass for building materials. He
has earned a reputation as one of the fastest builders,
acquisition decision makers and closers in the country.
Another affiliate of The Herrick Company has
investments in thoroughbred horse racing, which
reached new heights in 2011 when Animal Kingdom,
trained by Graham Motion, won the Kentucky Derby
and in 2013, won the $10 million World Cup in Dubai.
Herrick is a longtime supporter of progressive
and humanitarian causes. He has served on the board
of directors of the People For the American Way, the
advisory board of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of
America and the advisory committee of the National
Multi Housing Council. Herrick is the recipient,
– 48 –
along with former President Ronald Reagan and Isaac
Stern, of the Jerusalem 3000 Award, presented by
Prime Minister Shimon Peres. He is the recipient of
the President’s Medal from the University of Miami,
which was presented by its president, Donna E.
Shalala, and the Guardian Award from The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem.
BARRY SPIKINGS (Produced by) won an Oscar®
for producing The Deer Hunter, the seminal film that
collected five Academy Awards®. Marcus Luttrell
watched it regularly with his SEAL buddies, which led
to him approaching Spikings to produce Lone Survivor.
Spikings served as chairman and CEO of EMI
Film and Theater Corporation—Europe’s largest
entertainment group. He was chairman of Shepperton
Studios and Elstree Studios, where he authorized
construction of a new soundstage to house George
Lucas’ Star Wars movies.
Spikings has produced, financed or invested in several
films, including The Man Who Fell to Earth, Bernardo
Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor, The Elephant Man,
Tender Mercies, The Deep, Close Encounters of the Third
Kind, Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet and Beyond Rangoon.
As president of Nelson Entertainment, Spikings provided
majority financing for Castle Rock films, including
When Harry Met Sally, City Slickers and Misery.
Born in Boston, England, Spikings was honored in
the presence of Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth
as one of the 300 individuals who had shaped the U.K.
during the 20th century.
Spikings was awarded an honorary doctorate of arts
from the University of Lincoln.
Raised in Brooklyn Heights, New York, AKIVA
GOLDSMAN (Produced by) received his bachelor’s
degree from Wesleyan University and studied fiction
writing at New York University.
His feature writing credits include Silent Fall,
The Client, Batman Forever, A Time to Kill, Practical
Magic, I, Robot, Cinderella Man, The Da Vinci Code,
Angels & Demons and A Beautiful Mind, for which he
won an Academy Award®, Golden Globe Award and
Writers Guild of America Award.
Under his Weed Road Pictures banner at Warner
Bros. Pictures, Goldsman has produced Deep Blue Sea,
Lost in Space, Starsky & Hutch, Constantine, Mr. &
Mrs. Smith, I Am Legend, Hancock and Fair Game.
Goldsman served as executive producer on
Paranormal Activity 2, 3 and 4. He also worked as a
consulting producer on the television show Fringe,
which he directed and co-wrote episodes for. His work
on Fringe garnered him a Saturn Award and a Hugo
Award nomination.
Currently, Goldsman is in postproduction on his
feature directorial debut Winter’s Tale, which filmed
last winter in New York City and will be released in
February 2014. Goldsman wrote the script based on
Mark Helprin’s novel of the same name. The film stars
Colin Farrell, Jessica Brown Findlay, Jennifer Connelly,
Will Smith and Russell Crowe.
STEPHEN LEVINSON (Produced by) is an
American film and television producer. Levinson is
the recipient of a Producers Guild of America Award,
a BAFTA Award, two Peabody Awards and a Golden
Globe Award. He has been Mark Wahlberg’s longtime
manager and producing partner. Together, they have
executive produced such acclaimed HBO television
series as Entourage, In Treatment, How to Make It in
America and Boardwalk Empire, as well as the films
Contraband and Broken City.
Levinson grew up in Manhasset Hills, New
York, and earned his bachelor’s degree from Tulane
University. He moved to Los Angeles in 1991 to begin
a career in entertainment, having previously worked as
an accountant and founded his own clothing company.
His early jobs in Hollywood included mail-room
positions at InterTalent (which became United Talent
Agency). He founded Leverage Management in 1996
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to help a select group of accomplished artists further
develop their careers. As Leverage clients found more
and more success, Levinson was able to grow the
production side of the company, which took off in 2004
with the premiere of Entourage. The show was partly
inspired by the real life of Wahlberg.
Levinson is also the owner and creator of
WhoRepresents.com, an Internet database of talent
representatives in the fields of film, television, music,
pro sports and media. Launched as a free site in 2000,
WhoRepresents.com is now one of the most popular
subscription-based services of its kind, used by
professionals in all areas of media and entertainment.
In 2010, Levinson launched TheQuickList.net, a site
custom-designed for viewing, creating and sharing
casting ideas online.
Born in Baku, Russia, VITALY GRIGORIANTS
(Produced by) began his foray into film financing
in 2011, when he entered into a joint venture with
Envision Entertainment Corporation for the purpose
of investing in U.S.-produced feature films. In addition
to Lone Survivor, this venture has invested more than
$100 million in the production of films, including 2
Guns, Escape Plan and the upcoming And So It Goes.
In 2000, Grigoriants became chairman of the Vitoil
Corporation, a California real estate development
company with assets exceeding $400 million and
consisting of nine unique properties in Las Vegas, San
Jose, Malibu, Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Since
then, he has located and supervised the acquisition of
more than 13,900 acres of land in Hawaii and has plans
to build and develop more than 10,000 single family
homes and condos; supervised the acquisition and
planned development of 37 residential lots for singlefamily homes in Las Vegas; and located and supervised
the acquisition of 2,400 acres of beachfront property on
the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In 1991, Grigoriants founded Arch Ltd., which
specializes in the extraction and refining of crude oil,
the trading of crude oil and other petroleum products,
as well as the distribution of petroleum products
throughout the company’s own distribution network
within Ukraine.
Over the last 15 years, Grigoriants has formed
more than 30 subsidiary companies, all within the Arch
Ltd. organization, to assist in the company’s quest to
continue its tremendous growth. Just a few of the many
assets of these subsidiaries include two refineries, more
than 550 retail and wholesale petrol stations, and one of
the largest privately owned financial institutions within
Ukraine, known as Ukrainian Industrial Bank, with
more than 300 branches.
With the success of Arch Ltd.’s petroleum business,
Grigoriants has expanded into the lucrative real estate
market. In addition to investing in the film industry,
Grigoriants has involved Arch Ltd. in real estate
development projects in some of the most prestigious
residential and commercial areas in Moscow.
These developments range from large shopping
centers and luxurious office buildings to high-rise
residential condominium complexes and large housing
developments in the suburbs.
One of Grigoriants’ many assets is Arch Ltd.’s
corporate headquarters, a $68 million office building
in one of the most prestigious areas of central Moscow.
In July 2004, for his outstanding services for the
prosperity of Armenia, Grigoriants was decorated with
the St. Grigor Lusavorich Order by the Catholicos of
All Armenians Karekin II, at the sacred location of the
Holy Etchmiadzin, Armenia. In addition to his many
contributions to the people of Armenia, Grigoriants
financed the construction of an Armenian Orthodox
cathedral in Moscow.
Currently, Grigoriants employs more than 23,000
people in his many companies and maintains an
impeccable reputation with all of his customers and
clients, which include some of the world’s largest
financial institutions, such as BNP Paribas, ING and
AMRO Bank.
– 50 –
In his spare time, Grigoriants enjoys skiing and
playing tennis.
TOBIAS SCHLIESSLER, ASC (Director of
Photography) reunites with director Peter Berg after
their collaboration on four previous projects: the action
hit The Rundown, the fierce sports drama Friday Night
Lights, the box-office smash Hancock, with Will Smith,
and the sea adventure Battleship.
A German native, Schliessler studied filmmaking at
Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada.
He began his career in Canada, shooting documentaries
such as Close to Home, and then segued into music
videos, independent features, television movies and
commercials. Schliessler relocated to Los Angeles
in 1997, after he had firmly established his career,
particularly in the commercial and telefilm arenas.
Schliessler was honored in consecutive years by
the Association of Independent Commercial Producers
(AICP) for his cinematography on two celebrated TV
spots: in 2001 for Lincoln Financial’s 90-second spot
“Doctor” and in 2000 for Audi’s 30-second “WakeUp” commercial. Both are now part of the permanent
archives of The Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA)
Department of Film and Video in New York City.
In addition to his commercial work (for such
companies as Lexus, Ford, AOL and AT&T) and music
video photography (for such artists as Justin Timberlake
and Christina Aguilera), Schliessler has also compiled
a lengthy list of credits on both the motion picture and
television screens, which include Tony Scott’s 2009
remake of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3; Bill Condon’s
rousing big-screen musical Dreamgirls, which
earned eight Academy Award® nominations (and two
wins) upon its release in 2008; and the recent thriller
The Fifth Estate, with Benedict Cumberbatch and
Daniel Brühl.
His other feature credits include Bait, The Guilty,
Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh and Killer. His
television work includes such telefilms as Legalese,
The Long Way Home, Outrage, The Escape, The Limbic
Region and Joseph Sargent’s Mandela and de Klerk,
among several other titles.
A native of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, TOM
DUFFIELD (Production Designer) traveled to San
Luis Obispo, to attend California Polytechnic State
University’s School of Architecture. After graduating
and working in architecture, Duffield soon discovered
that film design and art direction were personally
more rewarding, having learned about the business
as a tour guide at Universal Studios. Making his way
up through the art department ranks on classic films
like Blade Runner, he teamed up with production
designer Bo Welch in 1986. As art director, Duffield
collaborated with Welch on 15 films, three of which
(A Little Princess, Men in Black and The Birdcage)
were nominated for Academy Awards® in art direction.
Other films art directed by Duffield during that period
included The Lost Boys, Beetlejuice, The Accidental
Tourist, Ghostbusters II, Edward Scissorhands, Joe
Versus the Volcano, Grand Canyon, Batman Returns,
Wolf, Primary Colors and Wild Wild West.
His first film as production designer was Tim
Burton’s critically acclaimed biopic Ed Wood. Duffield
quickly developed a touch for the fine art of blackand-white filmmaking. Since then, he designed Gore
Verbinski’s hit thriller The Ring, narrowly missing a
close encounter with the terrorist attacks of September
11, 2001. Then it was on to Peter Berg’s action/comedy
The Rundown, again having a close call with disaster
in the jungles of Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian
Amazon. For that film, he created a Brazilian jungle
mining town in Los Angeles. Duffield then reunited
with Verbinski for The Weather Man, using Chicago
in winter as a character in the film. He reteamed with
Peter Berg for The Kingdom, re-creating downtown
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in Mesa, Arizona. He partnered
with director Ron Shelton (Bull Durham) to design the
pilot Hound Dogs for Warner Bros. and TNT, turning
– 51 –
the entire stadium of the AAA New Orleans Zephyrs
into a fictional stadium in Nashville. At the end of 2012,
Duffield designed Allen Hughes’ Broken City, which
starred Russell Crowe, Mark Wahlberg and Catherine
Zeta-Jones.
Duffield has been a member of the Screen Actors
Guild since 1983 after appearing in Heart Like a Wheel,
in which he played drag racer Shirley Muldowney’s crew
chief, opposite Bonnie Bedelia and Anthony Edwards.
He has also been a member of the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences for nearly 20 years and is a
member of the Designers Branch Executive Committee.
Primetime Emmy Award-winning costume
designer AMY STOFSKY (Costume Designer) splits
her creative efforts between films and high-profile
television series.
Stofsky was nominated for a Costume Designers
Guild Award for her work on David Lynch’s
Mulholland Dr.
As a costume supervisor, Stofsky’s credits include
The Pentagon Wars, for which she won a Primetime
Emmy Award, Air Force One and In the Line of Fire.
Stofsky’s costume design work for the small screen
was seen on such series as Prime Suspect, Weeds
and Medium.
COLBY PARKER, JR. (Editor) continues his
longtime collaboration with filmmaker Peter Berg
on Lone Survivor, which marks their eighth project
together. After working with Berg on his original
ABC television series Wonderland, he served as an
additional editor on the action hit The Rundown and
an editor on Friday Night Lights and The Kingdom.
The pair first worked together on a music video
produced in conjunction with Berg’s big-screen
directorial debut, the 1998 black comedy Very Bad
Things. Their professional partnership continued
on Berg’s 2009 megahit, Hancock, and 2012 sea
adventure, Battleship.
Parker grew up in Brooklyn and studied film at
SUNY New Paltz. He began his professional career
editing sports segments for WPIX-TV in New York
before branching out on his own. He opened his
own music video and commercial editing facility,
where he cut more than 100 videos for such musical
artists as Missy Elliott, Green Day, P. Diddy and
Alien Ant Farm.
EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY (Music by)
formed in February 1999, when three longtime
friends from Midland, Texas, were in a record store
in Austin, Texas, and saw a flyer that said “Wanted:
Sad, triumphant rock band.” As it happened, that was
exactly what the three Midlanders wanted as well. A
drummer from Illinois had just moved to Austin, and
had put up the flyer. The four met up the next day
and started playing. They flirted with singing at the
very beginning, but quickly settled into a standard
rock setup—two guitars, a bass guitar and drums, or
sometimes three guitars and drums.
Over the coming months, they picked a band name
(Breaker Morant, named after the movie), then picked
a better band name (named after fireworks), then wrote
and recorded an album. That album was called “How
Strange, Innocence,” and they self-released a few
hundred copies on CD-R in January 2000. While it was
largely out of tune, it set the tone for what the band
would do over the course of the next 14 years, all with
the same founding members. They have referred to
their often-lengthy-narrative instrumentals as “cathartic
mini-symphonies.”
A friend of theirs sent a recording of one of their live
shows to Temporary Residence (a record label that was
based in Baltimore at that time), and the label offered
to put out albums for the band. The band agreed. A year
later, they put out a second album, “Those Who Tell the
Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live
Forever.” They began to tour often, all over the world.
In 2003, they released “The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead
– 52 –
Place” and in 2007, they put out “All of a Sudden I
Miss Everyone.” Their most recent album was 2011’s
“Take Care, Take Care, Take Care.”
They also put out an EP called “The Rescue” in
2005, and recorded the score for Universal Pictures’
Friday Night Lights in 2004. Most recently, they created
the score for Magnolia Pictures’ Prince Avalanche.
STEVE JABLONSKY (Music by) has composed
the music for many of Hollywood’s blockbuster films.
Jablonsky wrote the score for director Michael Bay’s
2007 film Transformers, the hit sequel Transformers:
Revenge of the Fallen, and the third installment of
the blockbuster franchise, Transformers: Dark of the
Moon. He also composed the music for Bay’s 2005
futuristic thriller The Island, and also worked with Bay’s
Platinum Dunes on the original music for the horror
remakes A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th,
The Hitcher, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The
Amityville Horror. In addition, Jablonsky created the
original score for the Japanese anime film Steamboy,
directed by legendary filmmaker Katsuhiro Otomo, the
man behind Akira. More recently, Jablonsky wrote the
scores for Bay’s Pain & Gain, Peter Berg’s sci-fi actionadventure Battleship and Ruben Fleischer’s actioncrime Gangster Squad, which starred Sean Penn, Josh
Brolin and Ryan Gosling.
Jablonsky most recently composed the music for
the epic adventure Ender’s Game, which starred Asa
Butterfield and Hailee Steinfeld and was written and
directed by Gavin Hood.
On television, Jablonsky composed music for the hit
ABC series Desperate Housewives. He also composed
the score for the award-winning telefilm Live from
Baghdad, as well as Threat Matrix and ESPN’s Sports
Century: The Century’s Greatest Athletes.
Jablonsky developed his career as a film composer,
collaborating with such noted composers as Hans
Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams. He has written
additional music for such films as Bad Boys II, Pirates
of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,
Armageddon, Tears of the Sun, Pearl Harbor, Hannibal
and Deceiver.
As the world of video games becomes more
sophisticated with each passing year, the need
for exciting, innovative music has grown with it.
Jablonsky’s striking melodies can be heard in a number
of video games, including The Sims 3, Gears of War 3,
Gears of War 2, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands,
Transformers: The Game and Command & Conquer
3: Kane’s Wrath. He has composed for commercials
for companies such as Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, the
U.S. Army and Marlboro. One of the highlights for
Jablonsky was scoring the BMW short film Hostage,
for director John Woo.
– 53 –
—lone survivor—
NOTES
– 54 –
NOTES
– 55 –