Reservation Road Press Notes

Reservation Road
Synopsis
Based on the critically acclaimed novel of the same name by John Burnham Schwartz, Reservation Road is the compelling new dramatic thriller from two-time Academy Award-nominated writer/director Terry George (Hotel Rwanda). A tale of anger, revenge, and great courage, Reservation Road follows two fathers as their families and lives converge.

On a warm September evening, college professor Ethan Learner (two-time Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix), his wife Grace (Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly), and their daughter Emma (Elle Fanning) are attending a recital. Their 10- year-old son Josh (Sean Curley) is playing cello – beautifully, as usual. His younger sister looks up to him, and his parents are proud of their son. On the way home, they all stop at a gas station on Reservation Road. There, in one terrible instant, he is taken from them forever.

On a warm September evening, law associate Dwight Arno (Mark Ruffalo) and his 11-year-old son Lucas (Eddie Alderson) are attending a baseball game. Their favorite team, the Red Sox, is playing – and, hopefully, headed for the World Series. Dwight cherishes his time spent with Lucas. Driving his son back to his ex-wife, Lucas’ mother Ruth Wheldon (Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino), Dwight heads toward his fateful encounter at Reservation Road.

The accident happens so fast that Lucas is all but unaware, while Ethan – the only witness – is all too aware, as a panicked Dwight speeds away. The police are called, and an investigation begins. Haunted by the tragedy, both fathers react in unexpected ways, as do Grace and Emma. As a reckoning looms, the two fathers are forced to make the hardest choices of their lives.

A Focus Features and Random House Films presentation of a Nick Wechsler/Miracle Pictures production in association with Volume One Entertainment. A Film by Terry George. Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly, Mira Sorvino. Reservation Road. Casting by Amanda Mackey, C.S.A. and Cathy Sandrich Gelfond, C.S.A. Music Supervisors, Budd Carr and Nora Felder. Music by Mark Isham. Costume Designer, Catherine George. Editor, Naomi Geraghty. Production Designer, Ford Wheeler. Director of Photography, John Lindley, ASC. Executive Producers, Dean M. Leavitt, Gina Resnick. Produced by Nick Wechsler, A. Kitman Ho. Based on the novel by John Burnham Schwartz. Screenplay by John Burnham Schwartz and Terry George. Directed by Terry George. A Focus Features Release.

About the Production
Writer/director Terry George was looking for a film to be able to follow his Hotel Rwanda, which had received three Academy Award nominations. George says, “I pursued Reservation Road in part because it investigated the motives of revenge and hatred and fear, and where those lead people. In this post-9/11 world, ‘an eye for an eye’ needs to be examined through drama. What happens when that thing we see on television – ‘revenge’ – comes home to you on a very personal level? I saw this story as realistic and important.

Producer Nick Wechsler states, “The narrative is so suspenseful, as the lives of these two men are being propelled on a collision course. It’s such a tense and powerful story; you can’t help but think, ‘What would I do in either of these fathers’ situations?’”

“Dwight has done something that he can never take back,” adds author and screenwriter John Burnham Schwartz. “Ethan begins to weigh doing something that he will never be able to take back.”

The story and the characters originated in Schwartz’ novel Reservation Road. First published in 1998, the novel was selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and was praised by The Los Angeles Times as “a dark and irresistible miracle: a heartbreaking thriller.”

Schwartz comments, “Like many storytellers, I suppose I’m naturally drawn to extreme situations. I wanted to see who the characters would become under great and difficult pressure. It was when I imagined the character of Dwight that I realized he was a father, too. That’s when the full scope of the narrative came into view.” “Great tragedy encompasses life and death and family, and I think Reservation Road is a classic example of that,” says George. “What these people go through is tragic, and all too human. Those emotions, plus the suspense of the hunt for Dwight, made this a perfect story to tell on-screen.”

The author worked on the book for several years. It would be several more years before the novel became a motion picture. Schwartz reveals, “It was optioned for five years to two production companies. Ultimately, my wife, Aleksandra Crapanzano, who is herself a screenwriter, encouraged me to adapt it myself. I did so on spec, over a six-month period. It went out again and there was renewed interest. “But Nick Wechsler was the first producer who called me. He’d read the book in an afternoon and phoned me right away. What he had to say about what it was in the story that spoke to him, and why he thought it would be a good movie, gave me a sense of shared perspective. That was important, since novelists by nature sit in a room alone and are not collaborators. The process became a great education for me; Nick optioned it in February 2005.”

While developing the project, Wechsler was also producing We Own the Night, his third movie starring Joaquin Phoenix. The producer got the Reservation Road script to Phoenix, who responded to it immediately. Two-time Academy Award-nominated producer A. Kitman Ho had produced Hotel Rwanda with George, who had directed Phoenix in a small but pivotal role in the movie. Fortuitously, “Joaquin loved the script and suggested showing it to Terry,” says Ho. “Terry and I were developing another project when this one came to our attention.”

George immediately switched to working on Reservation Road. He explains, “I took the script and read the book, then made a compression and distillation of both. I wanted to find the immediacy of it, and lock the audience into these characters’ lives to see how they interact. They all live in a small town, and by the nature of small towns throughout America and the world, people’s paths will cross.” From the actor’s standpoint, Phoenix offers that he “had a visceral reaction to the script. I liked that was a thriller, but most interesting to me was its successfully telling two sides of the same story; both Ethan and Mark are fully realized, completely different and unique. Terry George understands deep emotions, yet he is unsentimental; I knew he would find the right balance.”

George notes, “It was important to investigate all the characters and really get inside their heads to see what they were going through. Ethan has an almost idyllic life, and suddenly the world falls apart for him and his wife. In Dwight's case, the accident follows a life of procrastination and bad decisions. Is he finally going to come to terms with who he is and what he will become?”

Reservation Road soon came together as the first movie to be made in the unique filmmaking partnership between Focus Features and Random House Films. The multi-year deal, announced in November 2005, has the companies developing movies together and co-financing and co-producing them. Reservation Road was published in 1998 by Random House, Inc.’s Alfred A. Knopf hardcover imprint. To coincide with the film’s release, Random House’s Vintage Books imprint is reissuing the book in both mass market and trade paperback as movie tie-in editions.

With a safe haven for the project, casting quickly progressed. George reports, “Joaquin and I talked about who could play Dwight, and Mark Ruffalo was the first person that we both talked about. We’d both met him and wanted to work with him.” Ruffalo was drawn to not only “the cat-and-mouse thriller aspect, but how these two men’s paths crossing in this horrible situation makes for intense drama that shows you something about aspects of humanity. The character of Dwight intrigued me because he’s the sort of person that we write off, get a little righteous about and just say, ‘What a scumbag.’ I liked the challenge of finding what was human about what Dwight does and how he reacts. This kind of thing happens to people all the time, in a split second. I tried not to judge him too hard.

“The key was the line, ‘Getting away is not the same as being free.’ Dwight is an underachiever who hates himself so deeply. At this point in his life, he’s struggling to come to peace with himself and his past. After the accident, he becomes less and less a part of the living. What keeps him going is his love for his son and his realization of the importance of being a father, and what he has to do for his son.” Schwartz marvels, “Mark inhabits Dwight. He found variations on the character that only a great actor could. Watching him work, I’d see things come across that I hadn’t written in, but that he was able to get at.

“These two fathers, though very different, mirror each other in terms of their relationships. They both love their sons, and there’s proximity between them that increases to partial knowledge and acquaintance.”

Phoenix had stepped in for Ruffalo on a movie [M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs] a few years back when the latter had to withdraw because of an emergency. Phoenix laughs, “I remember when I saw You Can Count on Me [even earlier,] I nearly retired. I thought, ‘Whoever this Mark Ruffalo is, he’s the best and he's doing something really special’. He's just an incredible actor.

“It was very fortunate for us that Mark wanted to be part of this journey on Reservation Road. As a fellow actor, he turned out to be constantly surprising and emotionally available, with a brilliant understanding of character and story.” Ruffalo reveals, “The initial plan was that Joaquin and I would never see each other until it came time to do our scenes together. But we hit it off pretty strongly, so we ended up hanging out a lot. He’s one of our best actors, and I knew I could learn quite a bit from him working on Reservation Road – which I did. He is generous and thoughtful.”

George further praises Phoenix’ “amazing power as an actor. There's a truthfulness about Joaquin that keeps you grounded; he will not let something stay in, or play out, if he thinks it's false or doesn’t ring true. For a director, that's an emotional lifeline.” Phoenix notes, “Ethan is a man who can't really cope with his grief, or express it. He isn’t able to mourn in the way that his wife does. His grief then manifests itself in vilifying the man who was on Reservation Road.”

In trying to better understand his character, Phoenix felt strongly that he needed to “meet with people that had had this terrible experience. We contacted Mothers Against Drunk Driving [M.A.D.D.], who introduced us to a number of people who came in and shared their stories with us. I was able to see firsthand a bitterness and a pain that doesn’t seem to go away.

“I also read a number of books about grieving and loss and learned how men deal with loss differently than women, and how families can clash. If we were going to tell this story, it was very important to me that we told it as accurately as possible and understood what these families’ experiences were.”

Schwartz remembers, “On book tours, I had people come up to me who had lost children, sometimes in just this way. It was difficult to talk to them, but it was gratifying as well because they felt that they had been helped a little by the story being told.”

Telling the story and sustaining the tension on-screen, as opposed to on the page, required some streamlining. Schwartz affirms, “Terry, as a writer himself, made any number of improvements in the way the story moved and flowed. It was important for the audience to stay emotionally involved with these characters all the way through, especially as the suspense intensifies as to just what Ethan will do.”

Also key to the story are the characters of the mothers of the two men’s sons. Wechsler and Phoenix had both worked with Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly before, and “she was my first choice for Grace,” states Wechsler. Schwartz confirms, “During scripting, she was the first person I thought of for the character. Once on the set, in the scenes where Grace is grieving, I saw Jennifer was Grace. For her own sake, I hope that she's going to do a comedy next.”

Connelly admits, “I read the script, put it down, and tears were streaming down my face as I walked over to my husband. I said to him, ‘I’ve just read the most beautiful script.’ It was quite tense, and moving and cathartic. I also read the book and made notes from it; ‘Oh, I’ll take that,’ or ‘Mmm, I’m not sure that works for me in what I want to do.’ “But Grace was, without a doubt, the toughest role I have ever played.” Ruffalo admits, “As much as you try to separate yourself from the characters you play, I was caught by surprise sometimes by how deeply it was affecting me.” George, who did not call for a pre-production rehearsals process with his actors, adds, “This story had to be grounded in reality – and in an emotional reality that people don’t ever want to face. With this cast, we were blessed that they could explore it.”

Ruffalo remarks, “I’ve only ever worked with a few directors who have the willingness to let it all hang out and talk things through the way Terry does. One of the themes in his movies, and from his own life experiences, is forgiveness; you look at someone you’ve demonized and see that there’s a human being in there.”

Connelly says, “You think, ‘What kind of villain could do this?’ Watching Ethan get closer and closer to Dwight, the man he’s trying to catch, is so suspenseful that you’re bracing yourself for what will happen between them.

“Terry’s patience and support on the set were marvelous. He’s one of my favorite people that I’ve ever worked with. I know Terry was helpful with Joaquin, too. Through his and Mark’s humanizing performances, you feel for both Ethan and Dwight.”

Phoenix offers, “On the set and during takes, we would make discoveries in the moment, which I already knew Terry to be very good at. The journey of making a movie is mysterious when you start out. You don’t really know what you are going to end up with, which is part of the joy and excitement of making a film. Why Reservation Road was one of the hardest I’ve done, and I think maybe why Jennifer felt it was the most difficult one she’s done, was because each scene was a discovery. Having not rehearsed, we went in never really knowing the answer. We had freedom in terms of movement because Terry used multiple cameras, a lot of which were handheld.”

Connelly notes, “Joaquin is always exploring; he leaves no stone unturned, so it makes for a working environment where another actor can’t be lazy – which is great, especially since I didn’t always know where to turn with this role.

“There are different stages of Grace’s grief. In the beginning, Grace is just in shock and it’s difficult for her to fathom what has happened. Then she goes through extreme guilt, self-loathing, and fear. Ultimately, she comes to realize that, for the sake of her family, she has to cope and stay in the everyday and navigate it.”

Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino, cast as Dwight’s ex-wife Ruth – who is also music teacher to both Learner children – states, “I was haunted by the script, which I found to be so suspenseful and exciting; I think audiences will watch this movie with bated breath, waiting to see what’s going to happen next.

“My character’s ex-husband, Dwight, goes through an intense self-excoriation. Consumed by his guilt, he’s trying to figure out how to become a man again because he's really sort of lost his sense of manhood. Ruth and Dwight had a knock-down, drag-out kind of marriage, and the divorce was equally explosive. Their son Lucas was and is caught in the middle.”

Schwartz sees the character of Ruth as “essential for the story and for the audience, which Mira understood. Ruth is very strong and has an optimism about life going on, which is a very important outlet in the story.”

Sorvino elaborates, “My character is now a music teacher at an elementary school, but she used to be a jazz singer. So I saw her as finding fulfillment and real pride in bringing music into the lives of children. Ruth almost communicates better with children than with adults. She encourages Emma, to help her cope with what has happened.”

George knew that the characters of the children were as central to the story as those of their parents. He relates, “I wanted to see how the children’s lives were affected. Reservation Road is a story about family, and the children are the catalysts for many of the actions in it. Lucas is pivotal in terms of the accident and in terms of motivating Dwight at every point; Emma is the surviving child in the Learner family, and how she copes and how her parents now relate to her is dramatic as well.” Elle Fanning, who previously etched a notable on-screen portrayal of a child coping with family tragedy in The Door in the Floor, sees her on-screen family in the new film as “trying to get back on their feet again, and trying to heal. I learned a lot from Joaquin and Jennifer; I would get into my mood and my character and do it as real as possible. Terry always knew exactly what he wanted, but he would let you put your word into it too.”

Eddie Alderson, who makes his screen debut as Lucas, adds, “Terry would do a camera rehearsal and then talk with the actors. It’s really cool working with him. “Lucas is already in a tough situation because of the fighting going on between Dwight and Ruth. Then, Dwight should have turned around and gone back after the accident. But I feel in that situation, a lot of people would get scared and not know what to do.”

Sorvino, the only adult actor who has scenes with both of those young actors, found herself “blown away by Elle and Eddie’s humility and their normalcy. They’re sweet kids, but they also worked so hard on their characters.”

Connelly adds, “I was a child actress myself, though not yet at Elle’s age; she has been working basically since she was a baby – and she’s great, so energetic and enthusiastic. She watches carefully, takes everything in, and – considering the subject matter of our movie – has a good time.”

Indeed, when not working on the set, the younger actors could be found spending time with the crew hotel, or shooting pool in and around Connecticut locations, where filming took place in the fall of 2006 – just after some of the state’s new tax breaks for film productions had been instituted.

While Schwartz had set his story in the state’s northwestern passage, the production established Stamford as their base because of its proximity to New York City, where actors, technicians, and craftsmen could be tapped for roles in front of and behind the camera.

Further, George set the backdrop of the film as being the state’s Fairfield County, in the southwestern part of “The Constitution State.” He points out, “There are people in Connecticut living in some of the most comfortable, affluent settings in the world. But I wanted to explore what would happen in a somewhat more rural Connecticut, to a family in this situation. So the settings we had in Stamford and Greenwich epitomized a dichotomy.”

Some of the locations chosen for the film included Greenwich Academy, a secondary school dating back to 1837, which stood in as the small New England college where Ethan teaches; Cove Island Park, on Long Island Sound, where the outdoor concert was staged (with the help of the chamber orchestra from Central Middle School in Greenwich) and where Ethan and Grace sprinkle their son’s ashes after his funeral; the Long Ridge Church, a Christian chapel where the funeral sequence unfolds; and the tony Shippan Point neighborhood, where the Learner residence was found along a tree-lined street.

Another key location was the Lake Compounce amusement park (established in 1846, and now the nation’s oldest continuously operating family entertainment park), in Bristol.

The production filmed for a couple of days at a local grade school, Northeast Elementary in Stamford. Fanning needed little coaxing for the recital sequence filmed in the school’s small auditorium, since she is not only an accomplished actress but also an accomplished pianist. “I was so excited,” she reports. “I had played piano, but then I stopped. When this movie came along with my character playing piano, I started up again and now I want to keep doing it.” As take after take was filmed, Fanning earned applause from the assembled extras.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Reservation Road scenes were staged during the first full week of production, at the nearly 70-year-old Old Bluebird Garage in the village of Easton. George had found that this “gas station had the feel of rural America to it that I wanted to epitomize. We were actually driving to look at another gas station when we drove past this one. The minute I saw it, I thought ‘This is it.’ What with the station’s own existence wavering, it was the perfect location.”

Location manager Thomas J. Whelan relays, “[Director of photography] John Lindley said, ‘This place offers us a lot.’ So both he and Terry wanted it, even though we’d been looking for off-the-beaten-path places that we could make into our gas station. “Terry also wanted to use it because there is a dangerous curve on that road. The inn next to the Bluebird has been run into by cars.”

With all necessary precautions taken, the company spent four long nights filming the accident sequence. Schwartz, at the site, saw the actors “basically scraped raw, emotionally. At one point, I had to step away, because watching Joaquin and Jennifer affected me physically.

“Reservation Road is ultimately a story about how you continue to love – your family, your world, life itself – after a tragedy. Everyone in the story faces up to the challenge.”

George emphasizes, “We sought to make Reservation Road as a truthfully told story about the one of the most intense human dramas that any group of regular people could face. There is fulfillment at the end of the journey. That theme is what motivates me to make the movies I make.”

No matter how each individual filmgoer responds to Reservation Road, George hopes that “audiences leave the cinema feeling that they’ve seen a complex and emotional thriller. I also hope that they feel that there is a basic morality which we all need to find within ourselves. When anger and fear boil up in someone, you've got to see beyond the monster opposite you, or the person who you think is the monster. “You have to be careful not to demonize anyone, no matter how horrendous the situation. Because doing that forces you into positions of aggression and anger that have repercussions for you down the line.” 10 Reservation Road About the Cast Two-time Academy Award nominee JOAQUIN PHOENIX (Ethan Learner) first starred for his Reservation Road writer/director Terry George in the Academy Award-nominated Hotel Rwanda.

For his performance as legendary singer/songwriter Johnny Cash in James Mangold’s Walk the Line, Mr. Phoenix was nominated for the Academy, BAFTA, and Screen Actors Guild Awards; and won the Golden Globe Award, among other honors.

Mr. Phoenix was born in Puerto Rico. Living and working in California, began his acting career at the age of 8. As a boy, he made appearances on such hit television shows as Hill Street Blues, The Fall Guy, and Murder, She Wrote. He was a regular on the 1986 television series Morningstar/Eveningstar, and that same year starred in his first feature film, Harry Winer’s SpaceCamp. He next starred with his sister Summer in Rick Rosenthal’s Russkies, before being cast in Ron Howard’s smash hit Parenthood opposite Academy Award nominee Dianne Wiest.

After an acting sabbatical of several years, Mr. Phoenix returned with a starring role opposite Nicole Kidman in Gus Van Sant’s To Die For. He then made his first movie with fellow Reservation Road actor Jennifer Connelly, Pat O’Connor’s Inventing the Abbotts.

His subsequent movies have included Oliver Stone’s U Turn; Joseph Ruben’s Return to Paradise and David Dobkin’s Clay Pigeons (both of which starred Mr. Phoenix with Vince Vaughn); Joel Schumacher’s 8MM; M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs and The Village; Gregor Jordan’s Buffalo Soldiers; Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker’s Brother Bear (in voiceover); Jay Russell’s Ladder 49; and, James Gray’s We Own the Night.

Mr. Phoenix’ performances in several 2000 film releases earned him both the National Board of Review and Critics’ Choice Awards for Best Supporting Actor; the three films were James Gray’s The Yards, Philip Kaufman’s Quills, and Ridley Scott’s Academy Award-winning Gladiator. The latter film earned him Academy, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Award nominations, among other honors.

Actor/director/producer/writer MARK RUFFALO (Dwight Arno)’s performance opposite Academy Award nominee Laura Linney in Kenneth Lonergan’s You Can Count on Me earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination; the New Generation Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association; and Best Actor honors at the 2000 Montreal World Film Festival.

He most recently was seen starring alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey, Jr. in David Fincher’s critically acclaimed Zodiac. Among his other films as actor are Michel Gondry’s Academy Award-winning Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (also for Focus Features); Michael Mann’s Collateral; Isabel Coixet’s My Life Without

Me; Jane Campion’s In the Cut; Gary Winick’s 13 Going on 30; Mark Waters’ Just Like Heaven; Steven Zaillian’s All the King’s Men; Austin Chick’s xx/yy; John Woo’s Windtalkers; Rod Lurie’s The Last Castle; and Ang Lee’s Ride with the Devil. His upcoming films include Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret, Rian Johnson’s The Brothers Bloom, and Fernando Meirelles’ Blindness.

Mr. Ruffalo co-wrote the screenplay for Michael Hacker’s independent feature The Destiny of Marty Fine, which was first runner-up at the Slamdance Film Festival; has directed several plays, including Timothy McNeil’s Margaret (at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Los Angeles, in early 2001); and executive-produced John Curran’s independent feature We Don’t Live Here Anymore, in which he starred with Laura Dern, Peter Krause, and Naomi Watts.

The Wisconsin native trained with Joanne Linville at the Stella Adler Conservatory before beginning his acting career on the stage. He gained entertainment industry attention starring in the off-Broadway production of This is Our Youth for playwright/director Kenneth Lonergan, for which Mr. Ruffalo won a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Actor. He has also been honored with Dramalogue and Theatre World Awards. More recently, he made his Broadway debut in Bartlett Sher’s revival of Clifford Odets’ Awake and Sing!, and received a Tony Award nomination. Academy Award winner JENNIFER CONNELLY (Grace Learner) previously starred opposite fellow Reservation Road actor Joaquin Phoenix in Pat O’Connor’s Inventing the Abbotts.

For her portrayal of Alicia Nash in Ron Howard’s Academy Award-winning A Beautiful Mind, Ms. Connelly was honored with the Academy Award, the Golden Globe Award, the BAFTA Award, the American Film Institute (AFI) Award, and the Critics’ Choice Award.

She most recently starred in Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou. Ms. Connelly is currently working on another film for Focus Features, voicing one of the main characters in Shane Acker’s animated epic 9. Her other film credits include Todd Field’s Little Children; Walter Salles’ Dark Water; Vadim Perelman’s House of Sand and Fog; Ang Lee’s The Hulk; and Ed Harris’ Pollock.

Ms. Connelly was widely praised for her haunting portrayal of a drug addict in Darren Aronofsky’s critically acclaimed Requiem for a Dream. The role earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination.

She is also well known for her roles in Keith Gordon’s Waking the Dead; John Singleton’s Higher Learning; Joe Johnston’s The Rocketeer; and Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. Her first film was Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America. MIRA SORVINO (Ruth Wheldon) won the Academy Award, the Golden Globe Award, the Critics’ Choice Award, and the National Board of Review and New York

Film Critics Circle citations, among other honors, for her performance in Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite. She was recently a Golden Globe Award nominee for her performance in Christian Duguay’s miniseries Human Trafficking; and had previously been nominated for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in Tim Fywell’s Norma Jean and Marilyn, which also earned her an Emmy Award nomination. Ms. Sorvino’s other features include Robert Redford’s Quiz Show; Spike Lee’s Summer of Sam; David Mirkin's Romy and Michele's High School Reunion; Clare Peploe’s The Triumph of Love; Whit Stillman’s Barcelona; Gary Winick’s Sweet Nothing; Ted Demme’s Beautiful Girls; Rob Weiss’ Amongst Friends, which she associate-produced; and Brooks Branch’s recently completed Multiple Sarcasms. Additionally, she produced Griffin Dunne’s acclaimed independent feature comedy [Lisa Picard is] Famous, which world-premiered at the 2000 Cannes International Film Festival; and associate-produced the documentary Freedom to Hate, tracing anti-Semitism in the former Soviet Union.

Onstage, Ms. Sorvino has appeared in Joyce Carol Oates’ Greensleeves; in Best of Schools, as part of UBU Repertory’s Festival of New Plays; and off-Broadway in the Classic Stage Company’s adaptation of Naked, among other productions. She is the official ambassador for the worldwide human rights organization Amnesty International’s “Stop Violence Against Women” program. Her work with Amnesty was recognized at the Artivist Film Festival, which acknowledges socially conscious filmmakers, activist celebrities, and charitable organizations. In March of 2006, she was honored with Amnesty International's Artist of Conscience Award, which is given to those who have displayed strong philanthropic and humanist efforts. Through her work with Amnesty, she has lobbied Congress on such topics as human trafficking and the atrocities in Darfur, Sudan.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Ms. Sorvino is the daughter of veteran actor Paul Sorvino. She attended to Harvard University, where she graduated magna cum laude in East Asian studies and received the Hoopes Prize for her thesis. She has also won the National Italian American Foundation’s Achievement Award.

ELLE FANNING (Emma Learner) is, at age 9, already a film and television veteran. At age 3, the Conyers, Georgia native appeared as the younger version of her older sister Dakota’s character in Jessie Nelson’s I Am Sam, opposite Sean Penn. The Fanning sisters again played the same character at different ages in Taken, the Emmy Award-winning epic SciFi Channel miniseries.

Ms. Fanning’s subsequent films include Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Academy Award-nominated Babel, alongside Academy Award nominee Adriana Barraza; Tod Williams’ The Door in the Floor (also for Focus Features); Steve Carr’s Daddy Day Care; Wayne Wang’s Because of Winn-Dixie; Tony Scott’s Déjà Vu; and David Fincher’s just-wrapped The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

She next stars in the lead role of Daniel Barnz’ independent feature Phoebe in Wonderland, with Patricia Clarkson, Felicity Huffman, and Bill Pullman; and in Andrei Konchalovsky’s musical fantasy Nutcracker – The Untold Story, with John Turturro and Nathan Lane.

On television, Ms. Fanning has appeared in episodes of such popular shows as House, Law & Order: SVU, CSI: New York, CSI: Miami, Judging Amy, and Criminal Minds. She recently starred in her second SciFi Channel miniseries, The Lost Room.

EDDIE ALDERSON (Lucas Arno) is making his motion picture debut in Reservation Road, which is only his second professional acting assignment. The 13-year-old Pennsylvania native has been part of the cast of the daytime drama One Life to Live since 2001. For his portrayal of Matthew Buchanan, Mr. Alderson has received the Fan Club Best Younger Actor Award two years in a row.

Since filming Reservation Road, he has shot a Verizon Fios infomercial in which he plays a principal role.

He attends a performing arts school, and loves to play sports; he is a Yankees fan.

SEAN CURLEY (Josh Learner), age 12, makes his motion picture debut in Reservation Road.

The New Jersey native was drawn to acting at age 5, after attending a workshop in the town of Red Bank. He landed a spot in the cast of the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast, and performed in the stage show for six months. This was followed by an 18-month stint in the Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof. Recently, he was invited by Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman to be part of the special benefit performance of their musical adaptation Zhivago, in London. Mr. Curley can currently be heard on the popular animated television series The Backyardigans, as the singing voice of the character Pablo.

About the Filmmakers
TERRY GEORGE (Director/Screenplay) was most recently an Academy Award nominee in the Best Original Screenplay category (with Keir Pearson) for Hotel Rwanda, which he also directed and produced (with Reservation Road producer A. Kitman Ho). Stars Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo also received Academy Award nominations for their performances in the film, among other honors. The film was also the first in which he directed Reservation Road star Joaquin Phoenix.

The drama about the brutal genocide of the Tutsis that consumed the African nation in the 1990s also received Best Picture nominations from the Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice, and NAACP Image Awards, as well as the People’s Choice Award at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival, among other accolades. The screenplay also earned BAFTA and Writers Guild of America Award nominations.

Mr. George earlier received Academy Award and BAFTA and WGA Award nominations for his very first produced script, In the Name of the Father. He adapted the screenplay with director Jim Sheridan from wrongfully imprisoned Irishman Gerry Conlon’s autobiography Proved Innocent. The film received six additional Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture and its stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Emma Thompson, and Pete Postlethwaite, among other honors.

Mr. George made his directorial debut with Some Mother’s Son, the drama about the mothers and sons affected by the real-life 1981 hunger strike in Britain protesting the treatment of jailed IRA members. The film, written by Mr. George and Jim Sheridan and starring Helen Mirren and Fionnula Flanagan, won the Audience Awards at the Angers European First Film Festival and the San Sebastian International Film Festival. The picture won Mr. George a European Film Award for Best Young Film.

He was next in the director’s chair with the Emmy Award-nominated telefilm A Bright Shining Lie, which he adapted from Neil Sheehan’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnam War book of the same name. Star Bill Paxton earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for his portrayal of John Paul Vann, the Lt. Colonel who was forced out of the military because of his outspoken opinions about the war in Vietnam but who later returned as a civilian advisor.

Mr. George’s other screenwriting credits include The Boxer, written with director Jim Sheridan, which starred Daniel Day-Lewis, Emily Watson, and Brian Cox; and Gregory Hoblit’s Hart’s War. With Jack Maple, he co-created and produced the television drama series The District, starring Craig T. Nelson. The program ran for four years, during which time Mr. George wrote and directed several episodes. Before writing and directing films, the Belfast native wrote and produced plays at NYC's Irish Arts Center in the 1980s. It was there that Mr. George first collaborated

with Jim Sheridan, on his 1985 play The Tunnel, based on Mr. George’s own experiences as a prisoner in British jails in Northern Ireland. He was recently given the U.S.-Ireland Alliance’s Oscar Wilde Award, honoring screenwriting.

JOHN BURNHAM SCHWARTZ (Screenplay; Novel) has written the novels Bicycle Days (1989); Reservation Road (1998); and Claire Marvel (2003). His fourth novel, The Commoner, will be published in January 2008 by Random House, Inc.’s Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group imprint Nan A. Talese/Doubleday. His works have been translated into fifteen languages.

Reservation Road was cited as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. It was published in hardcover by Random House, Inc.’s Alfred A. Knopf imprint; the Vintage Books paperback edition was issued in 1999. To coincide with Reservation Road’s release, Vintage is reissuing the book in both mass market and trade paperback as movie tie-in editions.

The NYC native’s writing has also appeared in such publications as The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Boston Globe, DoubleTake, Vogue, and Newsday.

A past winner of the Lyndhurst Foundation Award, Mr. Schwartz has taught his vocation at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Harvard University (from which he graduated), and Sarah Lawrence College. He is currently deputy director of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference.

NICK WECHSLER (Producer) has, for over two decades, brought both independent and studio motion pictures to the screen.

He has made three films prior with Reservation Road star Joaquin Phoenix, as producer of Philip Kaufman’s Quills, which was named Best Picture by the National Board of Review; and James Gray’s The Yards and We Own the Night.

Mr. Wechsler’s previous projects with other stars of Reservation Road also include producing Omar Naim’s The Final Cut, which starred Mira Sorvino; and executiveproducing Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream, which starred Jennifer Connelly. He recently reteamed with the latter director, as executive producer of The Fountain.

His other notable credits as producer include Robert Altman’s The Player, which won him the Golden Globe Award, New York Film Critics Circle award, and Independent Spirit Award for Best Picture; Gus Van San’s Drugstore Cowboy, named Best Picture by the National Society of Film Critics; Michael Tolkin’s The Rapture and The New Age; Theodore Witcher’s Love Jones, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival; and Niki Caro’s North Country, for which stars Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand both received Academy Award nominations.

Mr. Wechsler has executive-produced such notable films as Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape, which won the top prize (the Palme d’Or) at the Cannes International Film Festival; James Gray’s Little Odessa, which won the Silver Lion at the Venice International Film Festival; and Kasi Lemmons’ Eve's Bayou, which won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature; and Spike Lee’s 25th Hour. His current producing project is the feature adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger’s novel The Time Traveler’s Wife; Robert Schwentke is directing Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana in the lead roles.

He recently optioned Cormac McCarthy's newest best-seller The Road, with John Hillcoat attached to direct the film version; plans to reteam with Reservation Road executive producers Dean M. Leavitt and Gina Resnick’s Volume One Entertainment on a feature adaptation of Frank Miller’s classic graphic novel Ronin; and, also following Reservation Road, plans to reteam with the Focus Features/Random House Films filmmaking partnership on a feature based on Los Angeles Times investigative reporter Bob Drogin’s nonfiction book Curveball, named after the code name for the Iraqi informant whose deceptive information about biological weapons was used by the U.S. government to justify the war in Iraq. The latter book is scheduled for publication in fall 2007 by the Random House imprint.

Mr. Wechsler, a Great Lakes area native, was educated at USC, Loyola, and the University of Pennsylvania before beginning a career as a lawyer. In 1985, he became president of the motion picture division of Northcorp, a company created by Frank Yablans and the Producers Sales Organization. He left Northcorp to develop and produce motion pictures as well as manage such musicians as The Band's Robbie Robertson. He co-wrote the story for Ken Friedman’s Made in USA before making his first movie as producer, Paul Mones’ The Beat.

He was also the founder and co-chairman (with Keith Addis) of Industry Entertainment, a management and production company representing writers, directors, and actors in feature films and television.

A. KITMAN HO (Producer) most recently produced, with director Terry George, Hotel Rwanda, in which Reservation Road star Joaquin Phoenix appeared. The film earned honors around the world, including three Academy Award nominations; Best Picture nominations from the Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice, and NAACP Image Awards; and the People’s Choice Award at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival.

Born in Hong Kong, Mr. Ho emigrated with his family to the United States when he was 5 years old, and grew up in NYC’s vibrant Chinatown neighborhood. After graduating from Goddard College in Vermont with a Masters degree in Cinema, he continued his studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

He has been involved in all aspects of film production, beginning his career as a New York-based location manager on such films as Walter Hill’s The Warriors. He moved up to production manager on such projects as Richard Benjamin’s My Favorite Year, Richard Pearce’s Heartland; Robert M. Young’s One Trick Pony; and Academy Award winner Warren Beatty’s epic Reds, on the New York portion of the

shoot. His first credit as producer came with Kathryn Bigelow and Monty Montgomery’s independent feature The Loveless, starring Willem Dafoe. Some 16 years later, Mr. Ho would reunite with Kathryn Bigelow, as producer on her film The Weight of Water.

He enjoyed a lengthy association with Academy Award-winning writer/director Oliver Stone, working with the filmmaker on several projects, beginning as co-producer of the Oscar-winning Platoon and Wall Street, starring Academy Award winner Michael Douglas. Their subsequent projects together were produced by Mr. Ho, including Talk Radio; the Oscar-winning Born on the Fourth of July, for which he won a Golden Globe Award and was an Academy Award nominee in the respective Best Picture categories; The Doors; JFK, for which he again earned Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations in the respective Best Picture categories; and Heaven and Earth. The duo also collaborated on the miniseries Wild Palms, which they executive-produced.

Mr. Ho’s other credits as producer include Stephen Hopkins’ The Ghost and the Darkness, which reteamed him with star Michael Douglas; and Michael Mann’s Ali, for which stars Will Smith and Jon Voight received Academy Award nominations. The latter film was named Best Picture at the NAACP Image Awards.

DEAN M. LEAVITT (Executive Producer) is chairman and senior managing member of Volume One Entertainment, LLC, a New York and Los Angeles-based investment company engaged in the financing, acquisition, and production of feature films. Volume One is a majority-owned subsidiary of Unicorn Partners, LLC, a New York City holding company of which Mr. Leavitt is the founder and chairman.

Prior to forming Unicorn in 2004, he served as chairman and CEO of publicly traded U.S. Wireless Data, Inc., an enabler of wireless transactions for the electronic payments industry.

Before his five-year tenure with USWD, Mr. Leavitt founded and was president of U.S. Data Capture, a New York-based credit card processing company serving the institutional marketplace. Prior to forming U.S. Data Capture, he served as a principal at a real estate development and investment banking organization, where he was responsible for securing equity capital from third-party investors.

Away from the corporate world, Mr. Leavitt serves on the boards of various charitable and civic organizations. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with high honors in economics, psychology, and art history from Atlanta’s Emory University, at which he currently sits on the school’s Alumni Board of Trustees.

Reteaming with Reservation Road producer Nick Wechsler, Volume One is currently developing a feature adaptation of Bruce Bauman’s novel And the Word Was as part of its slate of films.

GINA RESNICK (Executive Producer) currently serves as president, and is a principal, at Volume One Entertainment, LLC, a New York and Los Angeles-based investment company engaged in the financing, acquisition, and production of feature films.

Ms. Resnick’s film business career has encompassed not only the corporate suites but also the movie sets. Prior to becoming an independent producer, she served as executive vice president of acquisitions, co-productions and business affairs at Columbia/Tri-Star Home Video. During her decade-long tenure at CTHV, she supervised an annual acquisitions and production portfolio in excess of $150 million, which was the feature film industry’s largest independent acquisitions “war chest” at that time. Ms. Resnick was also responsible for all theatrical acquisitions on behalf of Columbia/Tri-Star International and the Triumph Films label.

She then segued into the production end of the business, as co-producer of Triumph’s Solo, starring Mario Van Peebles and directed by Norberto Barba; and as executive producer of Susan Streitfeld’s Female Perversions, starring Tilda Swinton, Karen Sillas, and Marcia Cross. The latter feature world-premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival.

Ms. Resnick next produced Jill Sprecher’s Clockwatchers, starring Toni Collette, Lisa Kudrow, Parker Posey, and Alanna Ubach. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the top prize at the Torino International Film Festival of Young Cinema. She reteamed with Ms. Sprecher on Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, starring Matthew McConaughey, Alan Arkin, John Turturro, and Clea DuVall. The film had a Gala Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival; was cited as one of the year’s best by the National Board of Review; was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards; and won three awards from the San Diego Film Critics Society, among other honors.

Her recent credits as producer include Alex Steyermark’s Prey for Rock & Roll, starring Gina Gershon, Drea de Matteo, and Lori Petty; and Dan Harris’ Imaginary Heroes, starring Emile Hirsch, Sigourney Weaver, and Jeff Daniels.

A graduate of New York University’s School of the Law, Ms. Resnick has been admitted to the New York State Bar Association. During a feature film career spanning over two decades, JOHN LINDLEY, ASC (Director of Photography) has established longstanding creative collaborations. These include multiple features that he has shot for directors Mel Damski (the telefilms An Invasion of Privacy and Badge of the Assassin); Nora Ephron (Michael, You’ve Got Mail, Lucky Numbers, and Bewitched); Jonathan Kaplan (Immediate Family and the telefilms The Gentleman Bandit and Girls of the White Orchid); Phil Alden Robinson (the Academy Award-nominated Field of Dreams, Sneakers, The Sum of All Fears, and In the Mood); Joseph Ruben (The Stepfather, Sleeping with the Enemy, The Good Son, Money Train, and True Believer); and Charles Shyer (Father of the Bride and I Love Trouble).

Mr. Lindley’s work on Gary Ross’ Pleasantville, in both black-and-white and color, brought him acclaim as well as awards nominations from the Online Film Critics Society and the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, among others. After studying his craft at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, the native New Yorker began his career in documentaries for the BBC and in U.S. television.

His early credits included the TV series Nurse, starring Michael Learned; and Emile Ardolino’s Academy Award-winning documentary feature He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin’ (about Jacques d’Amboise).

Mr. Lindley’s other feature credits as cinematographer include Laurie Anderson’s Home of the Brave; Wes Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow; Jon Amiel’s The Core; Jeff Nathanson’s The Last Shot; and, most recently, Bruce A. Evans’ Mr. Brooks.

He has also shot music videos (notably, the Talking Heads’ “Road to Nowhere,” now included in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection) and commercials (including the award-winning FedEx “Desert Island” spot).

FORD WHEELER (Production Designer) was most recently production designer on writer/director James Gray’s We Own the Night, starring Joaquin Phoenix of Reservation Road.

His other credits in this capacity include the independent features Sleeping Together (written and directed by Hugh Bush) and Into My Heart (written and directed by Sean Smith and Anthony Stark); and the television series Queens Supreme.

As set decorator, Mr. Wheeler has worked extensively with production designer Kevin Thompson. Their features together include James Gray’s Little Odessa and The Yards (the latter also starring Joaquin Phoenix); Marc Forster’s Stranger than Fiction; Jonathan Glazer’s Birth; David O. Russell’s Flirting with Disaster; Ismail Merchant’s The Proprietor; Cindy Sherman’s Office Killer; and Larry Clark’s Kids. Mr. Wheeler has also worked as set decorator or art director on such features as Philip Haas’ The Music of Chance (which was his first movie project) and The Blood Oranges; Spike Lee’s She Hate Me and Bamboozled; Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday; and Nigel Finch’s Stonewall.

For director Jonathan Demme, he has worked as set decorator, on Beloved; as set dresser, on Philadelphia; and as art director, on The Truth About Charlie. Mr. Wheeler hails from the Southern California coastal town of Corona del Mar. He studied fine art at Brigham Young University. Prior to beginning his motion picture design career, he owned and operated a major retail wholesale store in Manhattan’s SoHo that was the largest importer of traditional African utilitarian items in the U.S., supplying stores, museums, and dealers worldwide.

NAOMI GERAGHTY (Editor) previously teamed with director Terry George as editor on Hotel Rwanda; editor on episodes of the television series The District; and assistant editor on Some Mother’s Son.

Born in Dublin, Ms. Geraghty moved to New York in 1993. She first worked, as an associate or assistant film editor, on such features as James Mangold’s Cop Land; Joseph Ruben’s Return to Paradise; and Angus Gibson and Jo Menell’s Academy Award-nominated documentary Mandela.

Her credits as film editor include Jim Sheridan’s In America, starring Academy Award nominees Samantha Morton and Djimon Hounsou; Scott Elliott’s A Map of the World; John A. Gallagher’s Blue Moon; and, most recently, Neil Burger’s acclaimed The Illusionist.

Ms. Geraghty is reteaming with the latter filmmaker as editor on a new movie, The Return (the title of which is subject to change), starring Rachel McAdams, Tim Robbins, and Michael Peña.

Belfast native CATHERINE GEORGE (Costume Designer) initially studied fashion before going on to design in London. She began her career in film on Jim Sheridan’s The Boxer, which was co-written by her brother Terry.

Ms. George went on to work as wardrobe supervisor on In America, again for Jim Sheridan; the “Cousins” segment of Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes, with Cate Blanchett in a dual role; and Jon Favreau’s Elf.

As assistant costume designer, her credits include Zach Braff’s Garden State; Dan Harris’ Imaginary Heroes; and, Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s The Nanny Diairies.

She made her costume-designing debut with Yale Strom’s musical drama On the Q.T. She has since designed the costumes for Katherine Dieckmann’s Diggers; Lodge Kerrigan’s award-winning Keane; Peter Mattei’s Love in the Time of Money; and Amos Kollek’s Angela.

Ms. George’s current project as costume designer is Clark Gregg’s Choke, based upon the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, starring Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston.

MARK ISHAM (Music) has scored dozens of feature films. In addition to the traditional orchestral approach, he has explored other musical styles. Soon to be released are several movies for which he has composed the scores; Robert Redford’s Lions for Lambs, Paul Haggis’ In the Valley of Elah, and Gavin O’Connor’s Pride and Glory.

Mr. Isham’s previous film scores include the ones for Robert Redford’s A River Runs Through It, for which he received Academy Award and Grammy Award nominations, and Quiz Show; Paul Haggis’ Academy Award-winning Crash; Gavin O’Connor’s Miracle; George Tillman Jr.’s Men of Honor, for which he was a Grammy Award nominee; Robert Altman’s Short Cuts and The Gingerbread Man; Carroll Ballard’s Never Cry Wolf and Fly Away Home; Michael Apted’s Nell, for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination; Jodie Foster’s Home for the Holidays and Little Man Tate; Rob Epstein’s Academy Award-winning The Times of Harvey Milk; and nine films for Alan Rudolph (The Moderns [for which he was honored by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association], Trouble in Mind, Made in Heaven, Love at Large, Mortal Thoughts, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, Afterglow, Breakfast of Champions, and Trixie). He won an Emmy Award for scoring Paul Haggis’ television series EZ Streets; and

has been Emmy-nominated three additional times. He also won a Clio Award for his television commercials work. In 2006, Mr. Isham was honored with the ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards’ Henry Mancini Award.

A recording artist who explored electronic music early on, he also gained renown as a trumpet player. In that capacity, he has collaborated with such musicians as Chris Isaak, Lyle Lovett, Ziggy Marley, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, and The Rolling Stones.

Mr. Isham continues to record solo albums, spanning jazz to New Age to world music. These have included such celebrated works as Miles Remembered and Blue Sun. He received Grammy Award nominations for his albums Castalia and Tibet, and won the Grammy for Mark Isham.

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