TOM CRUISE (Ray Ferrier) has achieved unprecedented success as an actor and producer in a career spanning two decades.  He is a three-time Academy Award® nominee whose films have earned in excess of six billion dollars worldwide.  In addition, while continuing to explore new artistic challenges, Cruise has utilized his professional success as a vehicle for positive change, becoming an international advocate, activist and philanthropist in the fields of health and education.
“War of the Worlds” marks Cruise’s second collaboration with director Steven Spielberg.  In 2002, Cruise starred in Spielberg’s futuristic thriller “Minority Report.”

Through Cruise/Wagner Productions, which he founded in 1993 with his partner, Paula Wagner, Cruise has moved seamlessly into the broader role of producer, bringing a range of diverse projects from new and established talents to the screen.  The first film released under the C/W banner was the international hit “Mission: Impossible,” and in 1997 resulted in the company being honored with the Nova Award for Most Promising Producers in Theatrical Motion Pictures.  The company went on to produce the critically acclaimed films “Without Limits,” “Shattered Glass,” “Narc,” and the period thriller “The Others.”  The last marked Cruise’s first collaboration with director Alejandro Amenabar, whose film “Abre Los Ojos” became the basis for the C/W production “Vanilla Sky,” under the direction of Cameron Crowe.  The producing team was honored recently with the UCLA /Producers Guild of America Vision Award.
Immediately following the release of “War of the Worlds,” Cruise will begin filming the third installment of the Cruise/Wagner blockbuster “Mission: Impossible” franchise, which has grossed over one billion dollars worldwide to date.  In addition, in his role as producer through Cruise/Wagner Productions – which he founded in 1993 with his partner, Paula Wagner – he is producing Cameron Crowe’s “Elizabethtown,” starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst, set for release this fall.

Cruise made his feature film debut in 1981 at the age of nineteen in the romantic drama “Endless Love,” followed by the critically acclaimed “Taps,” co-starring Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton, and Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Outsiders.”  His breakout performance in “Risky Business” earned him his first Golden Globe nomination in 1983. The role of Maverick in Tony Scott’s “Top Gun” catapulted Cruise to international stardom as the film went on to become the highest grossing picture of 1986. 
He next starred opposite Paul Newman in Martin Scorsese’s “The Color of Money” and opposite Dustin Hoffman in Barry Levinson’s Oscar®-winning “Rain Man.”  In 1989, Cruise received his first Academy Award® nomination and earned the Golden Globe for Best Actor for his portrayal of Vietnam veteran and anti-war activist Ron Kovic in Oliver Stone’s “Born on the Fourth of July,” which received a Best Picture nomination.  His performance in Rob Reiner’s “A Few Good Men,” opposite Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore, led to a third Golden Globe nomination, and, in 1997 he received his second Academy Award® nomination and the Golden Globe for Best Actor for his work in Cameron Crowe’s “Jerry Maguire.”

In 1999, Cruise received critical acclaim for his powerful performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s ensemble drama “Magnolia,” earning a third Academy Award® nomination and his third Golden Globe, for Best Supporting Actor.  That same year, he starred in Stanley Kubrick’s final film, the psychological thriller “Eyes Wide Shut.”
His additional screen credits include Ron Howard’s epic “Far and Away,” Sydney Pollack’s legal thriller “The Firm,” and Neil Jordan’s “Interview with the Vampire,” based on the bestselling novel by Anne Rice.  He most recently starred in the critically acclaimed box-office hit “Collateral” for director Michael Mann. 
Cruise has been the recipient of numerous awards and tributes, reflecting both critical and commercial recognition within the industry and the broad popular support of audiences worldwide. 

This November Cruise will receive the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for excellence in film from the British Academy of Film & Television Arts.  He was recently honored with the MTV Generation Award, which celebrated Cruise as the actor of his generation.  And in April 2005, Cruise received a David di Donatello award for lifetime achievement.  He has been honored twice by the People’s Choice Awards, and received two Screen Actors Guild nominations for his work in “Jerry Maguire” and “Magnolia.” He was recognized by the Chicago Film Festival as the ‘Actor of the Decade’ in 1993 and earned the NATO/SHOWEST Meritorious Achievement Award that same year.  Cruise has also been honored with a Saturn Award for “Vanilla Sky,” both the Chicago Film Critics Award and the Blockbuster Award for “Magnolia,” and an MTV Award for “Mission: Impossible 2.”
Cruise has also been honored with tributes ranging from Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Man of the Year Award to the John Huston Award from the Artists Rights Foundation, The American Cinema Award for Distinguished Achievement in Film, and the American Cinematheque Award.

Tom Cruise Filmography
Actor
2006 Mission Impossible: 3
2005 War of the Worlds
2004 Collateral   
2003 The Last Samurai
2002 Minority Report
2001 Vanilla Sky
2000 Mission Impossible: 2
1999 Magnolia
1999 Eyes Wide Shut
1996 Jerry Maguire
1996 Mission Impossible
1994 Interview with the Vampire
1993 The Firm
1992 A Few Good Men
1992 Far and Away
1990 Days of Thunder
1989 Born on the Fourth of July
1988 Rain Main
1986 The Color of Money
1986 Top Gun
1986 Legend
1983 All the Right Moves
1983 Risky Business
1983 Losin’ It
1983 The Outsiders
1981 Taps
1981 Endless Love  Producer
2006 Deathrace 3000
2006 Mission Impossible: 3
2005 Elizabethtown
2003 The Last Samurai
2003 Shattered Glass
2002 Narc
2001 Vanilla Sky
2001 The Others
2001 Mission Impossilbe: 2
1998 Without Limits
1996 Mission Impossible

Hailing from Conyers, Georgia, DAKOTA FANNING (Rachel) began her career only five years ago at the age of six.  Guest appearances on such Emmy Award winning television series as “ER,” “The Practice,” “Malcolm in the Middle,” and “Spin City” led to her breakout role opposite Academy Award® winner Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer in New Line’s “I Am Sam.”  For her stunning performance as Lucy, Dakota won a BAFTA award and became the youngest actor ever nominated for a Screen Actor’s Guild Award.  Shortly thereafter, she starred in the miniseries “Taken” for executive producer Steven Spielberg, which not only became the Sci-Fi Channel’s highest rated show, but also won the 2003 Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries.

In 2004, Dakota was honored to star opposite Academy Award Winner Denzel Washington in “Man on Fire,” directed by Tony Scott.  This 20th Century Fox release earned Dakota her second BAFTA nomination and her performance.
Dakota teamed again  with 20th Century Fox, starring opposite Academy Award® winner Robert DeNiro in “Hide and Seek,” released this past January.  The film opened #1 at the box office.
Dakota has also just wrapped the DreamWorks feature “Dreamer,” starring opposite Kurt Russell.  Dakota is also proud to be part of a remarkable ensemble of women including Glenn Close, Holly Hunter, Sissy Spacek, and Robin Wright Penn in the film “Nine Lives,” which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
She is currently in production in the starring role of  Fern in Paramount’s/Walden Media’s live-action version of the beloved E.B. White novel, “Charlotte’s Web.”  Also starring in voiceover roles will be such luminaries as Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, and Robert Redford.

Dakota will soon tackle another classic as DreamWorks has committed to develop with her the definitive adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, which will be written by Emmy Award winner Les Bohem.
Other credits include “Trapped,” opposite Academy Award® winner Charlize Theron, “Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat,” opposite Mike Myers, “Uptown Girls” S with Brittany Murphy, and a cameo role as young Reese Witherspoon in “Sweet Home Alabama.”
Dakota is an avid reader who plays the piano, knits, collects dolls, rides horses, and dances ballet.  She is also learning to speak both Spanish and French.  She resides in Los Angeles with her parents, Joy and Steve Fanning, and her sister, actress Elle Fanning.

TIM ROBBINS (Ogilvy) has a long list of notable film credits as an actor, his career highlighted by writing, producing, and directorial accomplishments. In 2003, Robbins starred in Mystic River, for which he won the Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actor. Other memorable roles include his performances in the remarkable “The Shawshank Redemption,” “The Player,” “Bull Durham,” “Jacob’s Ladder,” “Bob Roberts,””The Hudsucker Proxy,” “Short Cuts, “High Fidelity,” and “Five Corners.”
Robbins also appeared in the films “Nothing To Lose,” “Arlington Road,” “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” “Cadillac Man,” “The Sure Thing,” “Jungle Fever,” “Mission to Mars,” and “Code 46.”

In addition to his Academy Award®, Robbins has won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes International Film Festival and The Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor for “The Player.” In 2003, Robbins won a Golden Globe Award, a SAG Award, and A Critic’s Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor for “Mystic River.” He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor for “Bob Roberts” and by the Screen Actors Guild for Performance by an Actor for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor for “The Shawshank Redemption.”

As a director, Robbins has distinguished  himself with “Cradle Will Rock,” which he also wrote and produced, winning Best Film Director honors at The Barcelona/Sitges Film Festival and the National Board of Review Award for Special Achievement in Filmmaking. “Dead Man Walking,” which he also wrote and produced, won multiple awards, including the Humanitas Award and four awards at The Berlin Film Festival, as well as an Oscar® nomination for Best Director and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Screenplay. His first film, “Bob Roberts,” won the Bronze Award for Best Film at the Tokyo International Film Festival and Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor Awards at the Boston Film Festival. In addition, Robbins served as executive producer for the films “Specter of Hope” and “The Typewriter, The Rifle, and The Movie Camera,” a documentary about filmmaker Sam Fuller, which won the Cable Ace award for Best Documentary.

Robbins also serves as Artistic Director for the Actor’s Gang, a group formed in 1982 that has over 85 productions and more than 100 awards to its credit. As a playwright, he has written seven plays produced in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and at the Edinburgh Festival. He most recently wrote and directed “Embedded” at the Actor’s Gang Theatre in Los Angeles, The Public Theatre in New York, and at The Riverside Studios in London. The play began a national tour this year. In addition, his stage adaptation of “Dead Man Walking” is currently being introduced into the curriculums of forty Jesuit high schools and universities. 
Earlier this year, Robbins was named Man of the year by Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals.

Robbins lives in New York City with his partner in crime, Susan Sarandon, and is the proud father of three mischievous children

After earning top accolades for her Australian film and stage work, MIRANDA OTTO (Mary Ann) rose to fame as the warrior Eowyn in “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” and “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.”  She also recently starred opposite Dennis Quaid in “Flight of the Phoenix,” in the New Zealand film “In My Father’s Den,” and in “Through My Eyes,” a miniseries for Australian television.  Other recent roles include the title character in “Julie Walking Home” for acclaimed Polish director Agnieszka Holland, which premiered at the 2002 Venice and Toronto Film Festivals, as well as “The Three-Legged Fox” and “Doctor Sleep.”  
Otto also starred in “Danny Deckchair,” which re-teamed her with Rhys Ifans after co-starring with Ifans in the Charlie Kaufman-written film, “Human Nature.”

Otto garnered rave reviews in the spring of 2002 for her portrayal of Nora Helmer in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of the Henrik Ibsen classic “A Doll’s House.”
A graduate of the prestigious Australian theatrical school NIDA, which also boasts such alumni as Mel Gibson, Judy Davis, and Cate Blanchett, Otto has been honored with Australian Film Institute award nominations for her work in “In The Winter Dark,” “The Well,” “Daydream Believer,” and “The Last Days of Chez Nous.”  She also earned an Australian Film Critics Circle Award nomination for her performance in “Last Days of Chez Nous,” as well as for “Love Serenade,” which won the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Otto’s other credits include Robert Zemekis’s “What Lies Beneath,” Terence Malick’s “The Thin Red Line,” “Kin,” “Dead Letter Office,” “Doing Time for Patsy Cline,” “True Love and Chaos,” and “The Jack Bull,” opposite John Cusack, for HBO.

JUSTIN CHATWIN (Robbie) most recently starred opposite Ralph Fiennes, Glenn Close, Rita Wilson and Allison Janney in the Newmarket film “The Chumscrubber,” which will be released this summer.  Chatwin will also appear in the upcoming Showtime pilot “Weeds,” co-starring Mary Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins.  Chatwin first garnered recognition for his starring role in the in the USA miniseries “Traffic,” directed by Stephen Hopkins.  Based on his performance in the program, Newsweek magazine singled him out as an Actor to Watch.  He also co-starred with Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke in the Warner Bros. thriller, “Taking Lives.”
The son of an engineer father and an artist mother, Chatwin was born and raised on Vancouver Island (Nanaimo), British Columbia.  He fell into acting by accident at age 18 when a friend dared Chatwin to join him on an audition.  It was then that he fell in love with acting – he got an agent immediately after.

STEVEN SPIELBERG (director) is a three-time Academy Award® winner, earning two Oscars® for Best Director and Best Picture for “Schindler’s List” and a third Oscar® for Best Director for “Saving Private Ryan.”  He has also received Best Director Oscar nominations for “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
In 1994, Spielberg’s internationally lauded “Schindler’s List” emerged as the year’s most honored film, receiving a total of seven Oscars, including the aforementioned nods for Best Picture and Best Director.  The film also collected Best Picture awards from many of the major critics organizations, in addition to seven BAFTA Awards, including two for Spielberg.  He also won the Golden Globe Award and received a Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award.

Spielberg’s critically acclaimed World War II drama “Saving Private Ryan,” starring Tom Hanks, was the highest-grossing release (domestically) of 1998.  The film also won five Oscars®, including the one for Spielberg as Best Director, two Golden Globe Awards for Best Picture (Drama) and Best Director, and numerous critics groups awards for Best Picture and Best Director.  In addition, Spielberg won a DGA Award and a Producers Guild of America (PGA) Award.  That year, the PGA also presented Spielberg with the prestigious Milestone Award for his historic contribution to the motion picture industry.
Spielberg won his first DGA Award for “The Color Purple” and also earned DGA Award nominations for “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Empire of the Sun,” “Jaws” and “Amistad.”  With nine in all, Spielberg has received more DGA Award nominations than any director in history and, in 2000, he received the DGA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.  He is also the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute and the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  More recently, Spielberg was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from Italy’s David Di Donatello Committee.

For television, on the heels of “Saving Private Ryan,” Spielberg and Tom Hanks executive produced the miniseries “Band of Brothers” for HBO and DreamWorks Television.  Based on the book of the same name by the late Stephen Ambrose, the fact-based World War II project won both Emmy and Golden Globe Awards for Best Miniseries.  Spielberg and Hanks are currently in development on an as-yet-untitled World War II miniseries, focusing on the battles in the Pacific theatre.
Last year, Spielberg won another Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries for “Steven Spielberg Presents Taken,” a Sci Fi Channel drama about alien abduction, which he executive produced.  He is currently developing another miniseries to air on the Sci Fi Channel called “Nine Lives.”  Also for television, Spielberg is currently executive producing “Into the West,” an original limited series Western to air next year on the TNT cable network.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Spielberg was raised in the suburbs of Haddonfield, New Jersey and Scottsdale, Arizona.  He started making amateur films while still in his teens, later studying film at California State University, Long Beach.  In 1969, his 22-minute short “Amblin” was shown at the Atlanta Film Festival, which led to a deal with Universal, making him the youngest director ever to be signed to a long-term deal with a major Hollywood studio.

Four years later, he directed the suspenseful telefilm “Duel,” which garnered both critical and audience attention.  He made his feature film directorial debut on “The Sugarland Express” from a screenplay he co-wrote.  In addition to the aforementioned films, his earlier film credits as a director include “Always,” “Hook,” and the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” sequels “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”

Spielberg’s more recent films include “Catch Me If You Can,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, the futuristic thriller “Minority Report,” starring Tom Cruise, and “The Terminal,” starring Tom Hanks.  He also wrote, directed and produced “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” which was realized from the vision of the late Stanley Kubrick.  In 2000, Spielberg won the Stanley Kubrick Brittania Award for Excellence in Film, presented by BAFTA - Los Angeles.
In 1984, Spielberg formed his own production company, Amblin Entertainment.  Under the Amblin banner, he has served as a producer or executive producer on more than a dozen films, including such successes as “Gremlins,” “The Goonies,” “Back to the Future I, II, and III,” “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” “An American Tail,” “The Land Before Time,” “The Flintstones,” “Casper,” “Twister,” “The Mask of Zorro,” “Men in Black” and “Men in Black II.”  Amblin Entertainment also produces the hit series “ER” with Warner Bros. Television. 

In October 1994, Spielberg partnered with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen to form the new studio DreamWorks SKG.  Since then, the studio’s successes have included three consecutive Best Picture Oscars® for “American Beauty,” “Gladiator” and “A Beautiful Mind,” the latter two in partnership with Universal.
Spielberg has also devoted his time and resources to many philanthropic causes.  The impact of his experience making “Schindler’s List” led him to establish the Righteous Persons Foundation using all his profits from the film.  He also founded Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, which has recorded more than 50,000 Holocaust survivor testimonies.  In addition, Spielberg executive produced “The Last Days,” the Shoah Foundation’s third documentary, which won the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature.  He is also the Chairman Emeritus of the Starbright Foundation, which combines the efforts of pediatric health care, technology and entertainment to empower seriously ill children.

JOSH FRIEDMAN (written by) is also the author of the screenplay “The Black Dahlia,” based on the novel by James Ellroy, currently in production with director Brain De Palma.  His screenplay “Orphan’s Dawn” is in development at 20th Century Fox.
A graduate of Brown University, he lives in Los Angeles with his wife and child.

DAVID KOEPP (written by) most recently served as writer-director of the films “Secret Window,” “Stir of Echoes,” “The Trigger Effect,” and “Suspicious.”  He wrote or co-wrote the films “Spider-Man,” “Panic Room,” “Snake Eyes,” “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” “Mission: Impossible,” “The Paper,” “Jurassic Park,” “Carlito’s Way,” “Death Becomes Her,” “Bad Influence,” and “Apartment Zero.” 
Koepp was born in Wisconsin and went to film school at UCLA.  He lives in New York City.

KATHLEEN KENNEDY’S (producer) record of achievement has made her one of the most successful executives in the film industry today.  Among her credits are three of the highest grossing films in motion picture history:  ”E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,” “Jurassic Park,” and “The Sixth Sense,” which she produced with Steven Spielberg, Gerald R. Molen, and Frank Marshall, respectively.
She currently heads The Kennedy/Marshall Company, which she founded alongside director/producer Frank Marshall in 1992.  In 1999 and 2000, three films produced by The Kennedy/Marshall Company were released.  The first, Universal’s “Snow Falling on Cedars,” was directed by Scott Hicks, award-winning director of “Shine.”  It was followed by “The Sixth Sense,” which starred Bruce Willis and received six Academy Award® nominations, including Best Picture. Next release was “A Map of the World,” starring Sigourney Weaver and Julianne Moore.  The Kennedy/Marshall Company also recently produced the IMAX film “Olympic Glory,” which was released in May, 2000.

In the summer of 1995, The Kennedy/Marshall Company released the Marshall-directed “Congo,” which Kennedy produced with Sam Mercer, and “The Indian in the Cupboard,” directed by Frank Oz and produced by Kennedy, Marshall and Jane Startz.
That same year, Kennedy produced the Amblin Entertainment/Malpaso Production “The Bridges of Madison County,” directed by Clint Eastwood.  It was followed by Amblin Entertainment’s Jan DeBont-directed action thriller “Twister,” which Kennedy produced with Ian Bryce in 1996.  Kennedy also served as executive producer on the Spielberg-directed “Jurassic Park” sequel “The Lost World.”
Kennedy began a successful association with Steven Spielberg when she served as his production assistant on 1941. She went on to become his associate on “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” associate producer of “Poltergeist” and producer of “E.T.”  While “E.T.” was becoming an international phenomenon, Spielberg, Kennedy and Marshall were already in production on “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” which she and Marshall produced with George Lucas.

In 1982, Kennedy co-founded Amblin Entertainment with Spielberg and Marshall, for which she produced or executive-produced such films as “The Flintstones,” “Hook,” “Always,” “Gremlins,” “Gremlins 2: The New Batch,” “An American Tail,” “The Land Before Time,” “Young Sherlock Holmes,” “The Goonies,” “Innerspace,””The Money Pit,””*batteries not included,” “Dad,” “Joe Versus the Volcano,” “Noises Off,” “An American Tail:  Fievel Goes West,” “Cape Fear,” and “We’re Back.”
Kennedy also teamed with Spielberg, Marshall and Quincy Jones to produce “The Color Purple,” which earned eleven Academy Award® nominations in 1985, including Best Picture.  Later that same year, Kennedy, Spielberg and Marshall produced 1985’s highest grossing film, “Back to the Future,” and later produced its two highly successful sequels: “Back to the Future, Part II” and “Back to the Future, Part III.”

In 1998, Kennedy again earned the distinction of top grossing film of the year for “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,” which she produced with Marshall and Robert Watts.  She then went on to produce “Empire of the Sun” with Spielberg and Marshall, which the National Board of Review named Best Picture of the Year.
Kennedy also served as executive producer on the critically acclaimed Spielberg-directed Holocaust drama “Schindler’s List,” which garnered seven Academy Awards® in 1993, including Best Director and Best Picture.
Kennedy also produced Marshall’s 1990 directorial debut “Arachnophobia” with Richard Vane and re-teamed with Robert Watts to produce Marshall’s second film, “Alive,” in 1993.

In 2001, Kennedy produced the Spielberg-directed “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” with Bonnie Curtis.  That same year, she produced “Jurassic Park III” with Spielberg and Gerald Molen.  The end of 2001, she served as executive producer on M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs,” staring Mel Gibson, released August, 2002.  In 2003, Kennedy produced (along with Marshall, Gary Ross and Jane Sindell) the critical and popular hit “Seabiscuit,” which was nominated for seven Academy Awards® and proved to be the biggest-selling drama on DVD for the year. 

Kennedy’s latest project, “War of the Worlds” – directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise – opens nationwide June 29. The contemporary re-telling of H.G. Wells’ seminal science fiction classic centers on the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind as seen through the eyes of one American family fighting to survive it.  Kennedy produced the film, along with Colin Wilson.  Also upcoming for Kennedy is the as-yet untitled Steven Spielberg Project, a historical drama set in the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics; the film will be a Universal Pictures/DreamWorks co-production, directed by Spielberg.
Kennedy also currently serves as the President of the Producers Guild of America, as well as the Chair of the Producers Council Board of Governors.

Raised in the small Northern California towns of Weaverville and Redding, Kennedy graduated from San Diego State University with a degree in telecommunications and film.  While still a student, she began working at a local San Diego television station.  Following jobs as a camera operator, video editor, floor director and news production coordinator, Kennedy produced the station’s talk show, “You’re On.”  She then relocated to Los Angeles and worked with director John Milius prior to beginning her association with Spielberg.

COLIN WILSON (producer) frequently collaborates with Steven Spielberg, with whom he began as an editor.  He associate produced “Jurassic Park,” co-produced “The Flintstones,” and produced “Casper”, “Amistad”, “Small Soldiers”, “The Lost World”, “The Haunting”, “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”, “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” and most recently, “Troy”.

PAULA WAGNER (executive producer) and Tom Cruise partnered to form C/W Productions in 1993, and have been based at Paramount Pictures for the past 12 years.  The company has released eight diverse, groundbreaking films -- earning multiple awards, widespread critical praise and international box office success.  Together Cruise and Wagner have produced films that range in scope from the action blockbusters “Mission: Impossible” and “M:I 2” to Cameron Crowe’s films “Vanilla Sky” and upcoming “Elizabethtown,” Alejandro Amenabar’s chilling supernatural thriller “The Others,” as well as Robert Towne’s critically acclaimed portrait of the late runner Steve Prefontaine, “Without Limits,” and forthcoming adaptation of John Fante’s novel “Ask the Dust,” starring Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek. 

Wagner and Cruise were also producers on Ed Zwick’s “The Last Samurai,” starring Tom Cruise, and Billy Ray’s directorial debut “Shattered Glass,” starring Hayden Christensen and Peter Sarsgaard. Wagner and Cruise are currently in pre-production on the third installment of the “Mission: Impossible” series, a franchise that has earned over a billion dollars to date.
Prior to producing, Wagner spent nearly 15 years at CAA as one of the industry’s top talent agents. Before becoming an agent, Wagner was an accomplished stage actress, appearing at the Yale Repertory Theater as well as on and off-Broadway. Also a published playwright, she co-authored “Out of Our Father’s House.”

In 2001, Wagner was honored by Premiere magazine with the Women in Hollywood Icon Award, and was featured the following year in Bravo’s “Women on Top,” a documentary profiling top women in entertainment. In 2004, she returned as co-chair to the Hollywood Film Festival for the second year in a row and is a member of the American Cinematheque’s Board of Directors. She has been the recipient of the Producers Guild Nova Award, as well as their Vision Award in 2004.  Additionally, Wagner is on the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Mellon University and serves on the Executive Committee of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

JANUSZ KAMINSKI, ASC (Director of Photography), a two-time Academy Award® winner, took home his first Oscar® for his black-and-white cinematography on Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List.”  For his work on that film, Kaminski was also honored with a BAFTA Award and numerous critics awards, including the Los Angeles and New York Film Critics Awards for Best Cinematography.  He won his second Academy Award® for his cinematography on Spielberg’s World War II drama “Saving Private Ryan.”  In addition, Kaminski received a third Best Cinematography Oscar® nomination for Spielberg’s “Amistad.”

Kaminski more recently collaborated with Spielberg on the ‘60s-era dramatic comedy “Catch Me If You Can,” the futuristic thriller “Minority Report,” and “The Terminal.”  He also served as the director of photography on the Spielberg-directed films “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” and “The Lost World: Jurassic Park.”  Kaminski’s other film credits include Cameron Crowe’s hit “Jerry Maguire,” “How to Make an American Quilt,” “Trouble Bound,” “Tall Tale” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”
A native of Poland, Kaminski came to the United States in 1981.  He studied cinematography at Columbia College in Chicago, receiving his B.A. in 1987.  After graduating, he relocated to Los Angeles to become a cinematography fellow at the prestigious American Film Institute, and began his professional career on the feature “Fallen Angel.”  He also lensed two television projects: the Amblin production “Class of ‘61,” and the acclaimed cable movie “Wildflower,” directed by Diane Keaton.
In 2000, Kaminski made his feature film directorial debut with the thriller “Lost Souls,” starring Winona Ryder, Ben Chaplin and John Hurt.  He has also directed a number of commercials.

RICK CARTER, A.C.E. (Production Designer) has been designing sets for the worlds of film and television for over 25 years. Among his recent credits are Steven Spielberg’s “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence,” for which Carter was nominated for both the AFI Production Designer of the Year and the Art Directors Guild Award; and the acclaimed Robert Zemeckis film “Cast Away.”
Carter previously teamed with Spielberg on “Jurassic Park,” “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” “Amistad” (which earned another Art Directors Guild Award nomination), and the Spielberg-produced anthology series “Amazing Stories.”  Carter has also collaborated with Zemeckis several times, including the films “What Lies Beneath,” “Death Becomes Her,” “Back to the Future Part II” and “Part III,” and “Forrest Gump,” for which he earned an Academy Award® nomination.

MICHAEL KAHN (Editor) has won three Academy Awards® for Best Editing for his work on films directed by Steven Spielberg.  He won his first Oscar® in 1982 for the blockbuster “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and was also honored by his peers with an Eddie Award from the American Cinema Editors.  In 1994, he received his second Oscar® for the editing of “Schindler’s List,” for which he also won a BAFTA Award.  His most recent Oscar® came for his work on Spielberg’s World War II drama “Saving Private Ryan,” which brought him another Eddie Award.  In addition, Kahn has garnered Oscar® nominations for his work on Spielberg’s “Empire of the Sun” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” as well as Adrian Lyne’s “Fatal Attraction,” winning another BAFTA Award for the last.
Kahn has edited nearly all of Steven Spielberg’s films, most recently working with the director on “Catch Me if You Can,” “Minority Report,” and “The Terminal.”  His other Spielberg collaborations include “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” “Amistad,” “Jurassic Park” and the sequel “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” “Hook,” “Always,” “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” “1941,” and “The Color Purple.”

Kahn has also edited a wide range of films for other directors, including “The Haunting,” “Twister,” “Casper,” “Alive,” “Arachnophobia,” “The Goonies,” “Poltergeist” and “Eyes of Laura Mars.”  His most recent credit is “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” for director Brad Silberling.

JOANNA JOHNSTON’s (Costume Designer) feature film credits as a costume designer began with the 1987 horror fantasy “Hellraiser”; directly following that, she created Jessica Rabbit’s trademark form-fitting evening gown for “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” for director Robert Zemeckis and producer Steven Spielberg.  She has gone on to collaborate many times with Spielberg (“Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” and “Saving Private Ryan”) and Zemeckis (“The Polar Express,” “Cast Away,” “Contact,” “Forrest Gump,” “Death Becomes Her,” and “Back to the Future Parts II and III.”)

Other credits include Ron Howard’s romantic epic “Far and Away”; Lawrence Kasdan’s “French Kiss”; M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Sixth Sense” and “Unbreakable”; “About a Boy”; and “Love Actually.”  She earned a Costume Designers Guild Award nomination for her work on “About a Boy.” Earlier in her career, she worked on a number of high-profile films including “The Color Purple,” “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” “The Pirates of Penzance,” “Tess,” and “Death on the Nile.”

JOHN WILLIAMS (Composer) is one of the most esteemed and prolific film composers of all time, and the recipient of numerous honors, including five Academy Awards®, three Golden Globe Awards, a British Academy Award, four Emmy Awards and eighteen Grammy Awards.  Williams won three of his five Oscars for his work on the Steven Spielberg films “Jaws,” “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,” and “Schindler’s List.”  His other Academy Awards came for the unforgettable “Star Wars” score and the scoring of the screen version of “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Williams has also earned a remarkable 43 Oscar nominations – more than any other living person – most recently for “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.”  In 2003, he was nominated for his work for Spielberg’s “Catch Me if You Can,” and in 2002, he received dual nominations for his scores for Spielberg’s “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” and the blockbuster “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”  A master of every genre, he has created many of the most familiar themes in movie history, including the Oscar-nominated scores for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Superman,” and all three of Spielberg’s “Indiana Jones” movies: “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”  Williams’ other Academy Award nominations have included Best Original Score nods for “The Patriot,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “Amistad,” “Nixon,” “Sabrina,” “JFK,” “Home Alone,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” “Empire of the Sun,” “The River,” “The Towering Inferno” and “The Poseidon Adventure,” to name only a few.

Williams’ long association with Spielberg began with the director’s first feature, “The Sugarland Express,” and has encompassed almost all of Spielberg’s films, more recently including “Minority Report,” “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” and “The Terminal.” Williams’ latest film franchise credits include “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” and “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”; and “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace,” “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones” and the upcoming “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.”

In addition to his feature film work, Williams created official themes for several Olympic games, and also wrote an orchestral work to accompany Spielberg’s film tribute to the new millennium, “American Journey.”  He has also composed numerous concert pieces, including two symphonies, and a cello concerto premiered by Yo- Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1994, as well as concertos for flute, tuba, violin, clarinet, bassoon and trumpet.  Williams was also Music Director of the Boston Pops Orchestra for 14 highly successful seasons from 1980 to 1993.  He still holds the title of Laureate Conductor of that famed ensemble, as well as that of Artist in Residence at Tanglewood.  As a guest conductor, he appears regularly with many of the world’s most renowned orchestras.

DENNIS MUREN is the Senior Visual Effects Supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic.  Recipient of eight Academy Awards®for Best Achievement in Visual Effects, Muren is actively involved in the evolution of the company, as well as the design and development of new techniques and equipment.  In June 1999, Muren became the first visual effects artist to be honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Muren’s many credits include, the first five released episodes of the “Star Wars” saga, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Dragonslayer,” “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” “Young Sherlock Holmes,” “Innerspace,” “Willow,” “The Abyss,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” “Jurassic Park,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Twister,” “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” and, most recently, “The Hulk.”  He also received an Academy Award® for Technical Achievement for his role in creating the Go-Motion Figure Mover.

Born and raised in Miami Beach, Florida, DEBRA ZANE (casting director) is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.  After college, Zane studied acting at the William Esper Studio in New York City before moving to Los Angeles.
She began her casting career as an assistant to David Rubin.  After seven years with Mr. Rubin, ending with their happy collaboration as partners on such films as “Get Shorty” and “Men in Black,” Zane created Debra Zane Casting in 1996.
Directors such as Sam Mendes, Gary Ross, Ridley Scott, Steven Soderbergh and Steven Speilberg have regularly called upon Ms. Zane to collaborate on the casting of their films.  Her list of credits includes “Pleasantville,” “American Beauty,” “The Limey,” “Stuart Little,” “Galaxy Quest,” “Traffic,” “Ocean’s Eleven,” “Road to Perdition,” “Solaris,” “Seabiscuit,” “Matchstick Men,” “Ocean’s Twelve,” and Ridley Scott’s soon-to-be-released “Kingdom of Heaven.”

Zane’s recent collaborations with Steven Speilberg include “The Terminal” and “Catch Me if You Can.”
A member of the Casting Society of America, Zane has won their Artios Award twice for the casts of “American Beauty” and “Traffic.”  The Screen Actors Guild also honored Zane as the casting director for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Motion Picture for “American Beauty” and “Traffic.”
Zane is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

She is the wife of Jeff Jarkow, whom she has known since elementary school.  They are the proud parents of Ben and Amy.

Before partnering with Debra Zane on “War Of The Worlds,” TERRI TAYLOR (casting director) was co-casting director of the comedy hit “13 Going On 30” directed by Gary Winick.

Taylor has been part of the casting community for twelve years.  Seven of those years were spent with mentor Debra Zane.  Together they worked with such prominent directors as Steven Spielberg, Steven Soderbergh, Sam Mendes, Robert Redford, Gary Ross and Ridley Scott.  She was the casting associate on “Galaxy Quest,” “Traffic,” “Ocean’s 11,” “Road To Perdition,” “Catch Me If You Can,” “Solaris,” “Matchstick Men,” and “Seabiscuit”.

Currently, Taylor is re-teaming with producer, Kathleen Kennedy and director Steven Spielberg on an untitled project scheduled to go before cameras this summer.

Terri attended Syracuse University and lives in Los Angeles with her husband of ten years, Gregg Taylor and their 18-month old son, Joe.