FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

and INDIAN PAINTBRUSH

Present
An AMERICAN EMPIRICAL PICTURE
by WES ANDERSON

BRYAN CRANSTON SCARLETT JOHANSSON

KOYU RANKIN HARVEY KEITEL
EDWARD NORTON F. MURRAY ABRAHAM
BOB BALABAN YOKO ONO
BILL MURRAY TILDA SWINTON
JEFF GOLDBLUM KEN WATANABE
KUNICHI NOMURA MARI NATSUKI
AKIRA TAKAYAMA FISHER STEVENS
GRETA GERWIG NIJIRO MURAKAMI
FRANCES MCDORMAND LIEV SCHREIBER
AKIRA ITO COURTNEY B. VANCE

DIRECTED BY ....................................................................... WES ANDERSON

STORY BY .............................................................................. WES ANDERSON
................................................................................................. ROMAN COPPOLA
................................................................................................. JASON SCHWARTZMAN
................................................................................................. and KUNICHI NOMURA
SCREENPLAY BY ................................................................. WES ANDERSON
PRODUCED BY...................................................................... WES ANDERSON
................................................................................................. SCOTT RUDIN
................................................................................................. STEVEN RALES
................................................................................................. and JEREMY DAWSON
CO-PRODUCER ..................................................................... OCTAVIA PEISSEL
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY ......................................... TRISTAN OLIVER
ANIMATION DIRECTOR ...................................................... MARK WARING
PRODUCTION DESIGNERS ................................................. ADAM STOCKHAUSEN
................................................................................................. and PAUL HARROD
SENIOR VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR ......................... TIM LEDBURY
HEAD OF PUPPETS DEPARTMENT ................................... ANDY GENT
ORIGINAL MUSIC BY .......................................................... ALEXANDRE DESPLAT
MUSIC SUPERVISOR ............................................................ RANDALL POSTER
SUPERVISING EDITOR ........................................................ ANDREW WEISBLUM, A.C.E.
EDITORS ................................................................................. RALPH FOSTER
................................................................................................. and EDWARD BURSCH
ANIMATION PRODUCER .................................................... SIMON QUINN
ANIMATION SUPERVISOR ................................................. TOBIAS FOURACRE
LEAD ANIMATORS .............................................................. ANTONY ELWORTHY
................................................................................................. KIM KEUKELEIRE
................................................................................................. and JASON STALMAN
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS ................................................... CHRISTOPHER FISSER
................................................................................................. HENNING MOLFENTER
................................................................................................. and CHARLIE WOEBCKEN
CASTING BY .......................................................................... DOUGLAS AIBEL, CSA
................................................................................................. KUNICHI NOMURA
www.foxsearchlight.com/press
Rated PG-13 Running time 101 minutes

Publicity Contacts:
Los Angeles New York Regional
Lauren Gladney Sarah Peters Isabelle Sugimoto
Tel: 310.369.5918 Tel: 212.556.8658 Tel: 310.369.2078
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

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 Fox Searchlight Pictures and Indian Paintbrush present, an American Empirical Picture,
ISLE OF DOGS, directed and written by Wes Anderson and story by Anderson, Roman
Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, and Kunichi Nomura The film stars Bryan Cranston, Koyu
Rankin, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Kunichi Nomura, Akira
Takayama, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Akira Ito, Scarlett Johansson, Harvey Keitel, F.
Murray Abraham, Yoko Ono, Tilda Swinton, Ken Watanabe, Mari Natsuki, Fisher Stevens,
Nijiro Murakami, Liev Schreiber and Courtney B. Vance

ISLE OF DOGS tells the story of ATARI KOBAYASHI, 12-year-old ward to corrupt
Mayor Kobayashi. When, by Executive Decree, all the canine pets of Megasaki City are exiled to
a vast garbage-dump, Atari sets off alone in a miniature Junior-Turbo Prop and flies to Trash
Island in search of his bodyguard-dog, Spots. There, with the assistance of a pack of newly-found
mongrel friends, he begins an epic journey that will decide the fate and future of the entire
Prefecture.

The creative team includes producers Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales and Jeremy
Dawson, director of photography Tristan Oliver, animation director Mark Waring, production
designers Adam Stockhausen and Paul Harrod, senior visual effects supervisor Tim Ledbury,
head of puppets department Andy Gent, original music by Alexandre Desplat, music supervisor
Randall Poster, supervising editor Andrew Weisblum, A.C.E., editors Ralph Foster and Edward
Bursch, animation producer Simon Quinn, animation supervisor Tobias Fouracre, lead animators
Antony Elworthy, Kim Keukeleire and Jason Stalman, co-producer Octavia Peissel, executive
producers Christopher Fisser, Henning Molfenter and Charlie Woebcken, and casting by Douglas
Aibel, CSA and Kunichi Nomura.

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 The Japanese Archipelago, twenty years in the future.

Canine-Saturation has reached epidemic proportions. An outbreak of Snout-Fever rips

through the city of Megasaki.

Dog-Flu threatens to cross the species threshold and enter the human disease pool.
Mayor Kobayashi of Uni Prefecture calls for a hasty quarantine: the expulsion and
containment of all breeds, both stray and domesticated. By official decree, Trash Island
becomes an exile colony.

The Isle of Dogs.

Six months later, a tiny, single-engine, miniature airplane crash-lands onto the teeming
waste-land. A pack of five starving but fierce abandoned dogs scrambles to the wreckage
and discovers a twelve-year-old pilot staggering from the burning fuselage. Atari,
orphan-ward to Mayor Kobayashi.

With the assistance of his new canine friends, Atari begins a search for his lost dog, Spots
-- and, in the process, exposes a conspiracy that threatens to destroy all the dogs of
Megasaki City forever.

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 The Citizens of Megasaki City

Atari Kobayashi (Koyu Rankin): Ward of the Mayoral household. Boy pilot in search of his dog.

Mayor Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura): Corrupt mayor of Megasaki City.

Major Domo (Akira Takayama): Mayor Kobayashi’s Assistant Hatchet-Man.

Tracy Walker (Greta Gerwig): American foreign exchange student. Conspiracy theorist and pro-dog
activist.

Professor Watanabe (Akira Ito): Science-Party Candidate who seeks a cure for Dog-Flu.

Assistant-Scientist Yoko-Ono (Yoko Ono): Professor Watanabe’s Assistant-Scientist.

Interpreter Nelson (Frances McDormand): Translator; can’t help getting emotionally involved in the
unfolding dog drama.

Editor Hiroshi (Nijiro Murakami): Editor of the student newspaper, The Daily Manifesto. Pro-dog
activist.

Head Surgeon (Ken Watanabe) Auntie (Mari Natsuki)

News Anchor (Yojiro Nada) Simul-Translate Machine (Frank Wood))
and Courtney B. Vance as The Narrator

The Dogs of Trash Island

Spots (Liev Schreiber): Bodyguard dog to the Mayoral household, best friend to Atari Kobayashi.
Missing.

Rex (Edward Norton): Plucky, decisive, de facto leader of our hero pack.

Boss (Bill Murray): Former mascot to the Megasaki Dragons Little League baseball team.

King (Bob Balaban): Former spokesdog for Doggy Chop.

Duke (Jeff Goldblum): Loves gossip.

Chief (Bryan Cranston): A stray.

Nutmeg (Scarlett Johansson): Trained as a show-dog. Glamorous but street- smart.

Jupiter (F. Murray Abraham): A wise dog.

Oracle (Tilda Swinton): A mystical dog, Jupiter’s colleague.

Gondo (Harvey Keitel): Leader of a mysterious pack of aboriginal Trash Island dogs.

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 Introduction & Origin
ISLE OF DOGS, writer/director Wes Anderson’s 9th feature film and his second stop-motion
animated film, is a grand adventure set in a near-future Japan in the grips of a canine crisis and mass anti-
dog hysteria. Here, in a far-flung floating junktopia known only as Trash Island, a scrappy pack of exiled
dogs who’ve banded together to survive makes an amazing discovery: the crash-landing of a little human
pilot who will take them on a life-changing journey.
The resulting journey is packed with humor, action and friendship. But on its trek, it also pays
homage to the epic scope and beauty of Japanese cinema, to the noble loyalty of canine companions, to
the hopeful heroism of the small and the overlooked, to the rejection of intolerance and most of all to the
unbreakable boy-dog bond that has launched countless escapades.
It all began with an unlikely, but potent mix of fascinations shared by Anderson and his story
collaborators Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and Kunichi Nomura: dogs, the future, garbage
dumps, childhood adventures and Japanese movies. The latter was key. In fact, ISLE OF DOGS may
owe as much to the storytelling legacy of Akira Kurosawa as the history of stop-motion animation. Says
Anderson, “Kurosawa and his little teams of co-writers worked together to create his stories and shape his
scripts. It’s quite a common thing in Italian cinema as well: movies written in a writing-room. Like a TV
show. We try to make our own version of that.” The story’s invention expanded from a dreamlike spark
to the spectacularly detailed creation of Megasaki City, the rubbish-geography of Trash Island, and a cast
of misfit but hopeful characters, both fur-bearing and human.
“We wanted to do something sort of futuristic. We wanted a pack of alpha dogs who were all the
leader. And we wanted to live in a land of garbage,” says Anderson. “The Japanese setting came entirely
because of Japanese cinema. We love Japan, and we wanted to do something that was really inspired by
Japanese movies, so we ended up mixing the dog movie and Japan movie together.”
The story, with its chatty canines, furred femmes fatales, a boy aviator, an intrepid school
reporter, mutant viruses, mythical isle and step-by-step unraveling of a big human mistake, developed
over time and innumerable cups of tea. Roman Coppola explains the unstructured shape of the process:
“There’s banter, discussion, and then when something feels right, Wes will make a note of it in his
notebooks. Jason will say something that’ll spark off an idea, or a piece of dialogue. And then,
sometimes, we’ll assume the roles of the characters. We did this a lot in Darjeeling because there were
three main characters and three of us. Then there’s a gestation period of gathering materials, and then
there’s another phase where the writing begins, and because it is an animated film, the writing really
continues through production.”

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 Anderson likes the writing to be ever open to something new. He says: “It’s just always changing
and once we reach the end, we start reworking it.”
Adds Schwartzman: “You’re always creating and changing and rethinking. But there’s always
this pile of ideas that were there from the beginning that somehow have a truth to them.”
The screenplay that emerged is, in some ways, an analogue of the classic yarn of an outsider (the
little pilot) arriving in a new land (Trash Island), and an analogue of the timeless tale of … well, in this
case literal underdogs striving against blinded oppressors. But the magic of it all sprang out of the details
– from the charm and texture of each dog’s story, from the cluttered but artful architecture of Trash
Island, from the idea that a child searching for his faithful pet might set off a world-altering chain of
events.
Producer Jeremy Dawson notes that it was the film’s extreme design challenges—even for
Anderson who has a way with dizzyingly complex spaces—that led the director to think in terms of
another stop-motion film. It just seemed the matching form for emotionally fluent, if down-and-out, dogs
and a Japanese island lined with society’s strange, funny and downright calamitous discards.
“If it were possible for Wes to do this live action, maybe he would have,” Dawson suggests, “but
it’s not something that could have been done. It’s a movie about talking dogs. Yet, it’s not a cartoon—it’s
a movie. I think it pushes the boundary in terms of what people think can be done in this medium.”
In fact, stop motion animation’s century-long evolution has long been more creative than
technical. Little has changed in the fundamentals. Though digital cameras and computers have smoothed
the process, it’s still a matter of shooting the infinitesimally small movements of 3D objects frame-by-
frame, in a painstaking process that nevertheless generates palpable life. So the biggest changes in the
form have come in the content, in the kinds of stories one might tell, in pressing the limits of imagination.
For decades before the advent of CG, stop-motion was primarily a special-effects tool. From
Jean Cocteau’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST to 1933’s KING KONG to George Lucas' first STAR
WARS film, it was a means of making the impossible practicable. Only more recently have full-length
stop motion features come to the fore, from Tim Burton’s pioneering THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE
CHRISTMAS to Anderson’s FANTASTIC MR. FOX to the recent KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS.
ISLE OF DOGS is something different again, a worldbuilding story that by its very nature breaks
animation norms and, as Dawson notes, brings together all the themes, shots, emotional intricacy and
adventurousness of perhaps Anderson’s most ambitious filmmaking to date. From the intricate puppets
and micro-sets arises this living, breathing realm of cold-nosed questers whose plight is intimately
relatable. The feel is of a whimsical legend but the grounding is in the real concerns, big and small, of
modern life: friendship, family, humanity’s future and coming together to clean up our messes.

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 Anderson and team assembled a diverse multicultural voice cast consisting of artists, rock
musicians, designers and of course, actors, all bringing their unique talent in breathing life into the
citizens of Megasaki City and the canines of Trash Island. And as always with people and dogs, they may
not understand one another’s words but still enjoy deep, true blue friendship.
Says composer Alexandre Desplat, who marks his fourth collaboration with Anderson on this
film: “This one is a huge, huge animal, there's so much going on. It’s an even more ambitious film than
FANTASTIC MR. FOX and it doesn’t look like anything else you’ve seen. The animation is wild and
the amount of detail packed into every frame is astonishing. It is a beautiful fable that takes you into a
world of its own, a world no one else could have imagined.”

Influences

With its semi-fictional Japanese setting, its construction out of comic book-like chapters and its
intercut themes of nature, heroism, technology, rescue and honor, perhaps it was only natural that the film
would also reverberate with echoes of Japanese pop culture and some of Japan’s greatest film directors,
from Yasujiro Ozu to Kurosawa to Seijun Suzuki, as well as the Japanese monster films of the 50s and
60s, with their climactic disasters. “We think of it as referring to a whole range of Japanese filmmakers
and Japanese culture, but Kurosawa is the main movie influence,” says Anderson.
It’s hard to even quantify Kurosawa’s impact on cinema because he arced so gracefully through a
huge pendulum of genres from noir, to Samurai, to Shakespeare, to melodrama. But for ISLE OF DOGS,
Anderson was mostly focused on Kurosawa’s contemporary (for their time), city-based movies:
DRUNKEN ANGEL, STRAY DOG, HIGH AND LOW and THE BAD SLEEP WELL. Each of these
kinetically charged films unfolds in gritty domains of crime and corruption. Each seems to transcend the
dark side of the modern world with characters of the utmost honesty and humanity. And seen in each is
the legendary Toshiro Mifune, whose expressive countenance inspires the look of Mayor Kobayashi.
Another branch of inspiration came from two 19th Century, Edo-period woodblock print masters:
Hiroshige and Hokusai, whose emphasis on color and line deeply influenced European Impressionists.
Their ukyio-e (translates to “pictures of the floating world”) artworks capture fleeting moments of
pleasure focusing on natural landscapes, far-flung travels, flora and fauna, geishas and kabuki actors. In
preparation for the film, Anderson collected a wide swath of woodblock print images and the storyboard
artists trawled through the extensive collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Then, by
osmosis, the folkloric Japanese style began to merge with the tactile, handmade feel of stop-motion.

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 Recalls animatic editor Edward Bursch: “The first thing I received on this film, on April 12th,
2015, was the script from Wes, along with several reference images and a video. The reference images
were just a few Japanese woodblock prints, a picture of a dog and a picture of a dog statue in Japan. The
video was of three taiko drummers drumming this ferocious beat, and that set the mood.”
For all the Japanese (and other) influences one might joyfully trace in the film, the world it
conjures is decidedly like no other. Says the film’s graphic designer Erica Dorn, who grew up in Japan, of
how it all comes together: “The world of ISLE OF DOGS is kind of an alternative reality. It looks and
feels like Japan, but it's a slightly dreamier version, a slightly more Wes Anderson version. That is the
beauty of setting the film in a made-up city, in a made-up time: you get a certain amount of artistic
license. The blending of old and new is very common in Japan. There are scenes in the film that are very
minimalist and wabi-sabi; but then you switch over to the city, which is maximalist and very intense. So,
there’s that feeling of Japan but it’s all filtered through Wes’s own way of seeing.”
While the sheer number of individual moving pieces, physical and thematic, that make up ISLE
OF DOGS might be staggering, the paradox is that the prevailing core of the film is one of the most
timelessly simple relationships on earth. Sums up storyboard artist Jay Clarke: “No matter what is going
on visually, at heart this is an adventure film about a boy and his dog.”

Character & Performance: The Dogs

Each member of the conversationally gifted Trash Island pack has a well-worn canine name
suggesting they were once beloved as top dogs—Chief, Rex, King, Duke, Boss—which only serves to
remind them of how much they miss their former human homes. Their descriptions follow below:
• A wiry, wire-haired mutt with spiky, mottled coat and the eyes of an Arctic sled-dog. His ribs
stick out like a cast-iron radiator. He is Rex.

• A graceful, red-haired mutt with a sable snout and a handlebar moustache. He is dappled with
scabs, scars, scuffs, and scratches. He is King.

• A stout, liver-spotted mutt with black paws and a tail like a stubbed-out cigar. He wears a soiled,
grimy, unraveling, striped, woolen dog-sweater with embroidered baseballs and the word
Dragons scrolled across it in cursive. He is Boss.

• A bohemian mountain-dog. Slender face, sleek ears, and a ballet-dancer’s overly-nimble gait. He
has seven missing teeth and a consumptive dry-cough. He is Duke.

• A coal-black hound with long legs, black nose, a boxer’s jaw, and floppy, black ears with white
spots all over them. He has the sturdy frame of a middleweight, but the starved mass of a long
distance-runner. He is Chief.

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 Voicing the role of Chief, the fiercely independent stray who takes an unexpected turn, is Bryan
Cranston. “Chief is the odd one out, but he also has a great nobility,” observes Cranston.
Cranston sees a clear human allegory behind the dogs’ banishment from modern society and their
quest to survive. “This is a story of disenfranchised dogs, but that is also a very real experience for human
beings in every country and walk of life. There are disenfranchised people, the throwaways. And the
demagoguery of fear, the kind that leads all the dogs of Megasaki City to be put on an island to fend for
themselves, is something humans are dealing with as well. I think it’s a very timely theme.”
In preparing to play Chief, Cranston had in his mind the 1967 Robert Aldrich classic THE
DIRTY DOZEN, about 12 hardened convicts sent on an impossible mission deep inside Nazi Germany.
“Those men were throwaways as well. They had no hope of a future so they took a sliver of a chance to
stay alive. If you take someone, in this case a dog, who is down and out, and give them just a tiny bit of
hope it sparks that desire to attempt something greater. Whether or not that greatness comes to fruition is
almost immaterial. The important part is that you have the ambition, the will, the fortitude, the strength
and the tolerance of life in order to put one foot forward in front of the other, and march on. What I love
about Chief is that he represents the idea that with hope can come second chances.”
Edward Norton voices Rex, who as the pack’s industrious leader aims to keep the peace. Says
Norton of Rex’s origins: “Rex describes himself as sleeping on a lamb’s wool beanbag next to an electric
space heater. So, he’s not some rich man’s dog. He was probably comfortably middle-class, maybe upper
middle-class. But he has a work ethic. He’s scrappy, willing to be resourceful and to fight for what he
needs. At the same time, he has had a certain baseline of comfort and so psychologically Trash Island is
difficult for him. He can only take so much.”
As Boss, Bill Murray plays a dog who once had a grand purpose: as a sports mascot. Murray
says: “When there is the chance of a great success, you need a mascot, someone that’s going to be with
you when things get tough, but someone that you’re really going to want to be there when things go well.
That’s Boss.” A fan of canine kind, Murray says of the species: “They are the property of heaven, I think.
And they’re here for the purpose of enlightening the humans that are their caretakers.”
Jeff Goldblum felt a kinship with Duke, the chatty, curious hound who has his ears to the ground
for the latest rumors. “I believe Duke, in this time of great social crisis in the dog world, just wants what
he’s always wanted: a balanced diet, regular grooming and his annual physical check-up, which are
roughly the same three things that I myself require,” Goldblum says.
Ultimately, Goldblum found little difference between a Wes Anderson stop-motion film and a
Wes Anderson live-action, of which he has done many. “It all feels like acting to me, no matter how
you’re doing it. I suppose with voice acting, you don’t have to worry about your hair or the sun going
9
down and things like that,” he says. “But when you’re working with someone like the brilliant cinematic
genius Wes Anderson, it’s really fun because you just get to do what feels like pure acting and try out
every reading that you can think of and exhaust the variety of your imagination.”
Spots has seen his share of trouble, danger and even the supposedly fearsome cannibal dogs on
the island. Liev Schreiber voices the key role of Spots, the Short-Haired Oceanic Speckle-Eared Sport
Hound, who was once the beloved assigned bodyguard to the Mayoral ward Atari, but is now lost to the
winds on Trash Island. Schreiber describes Spots as “a highly trained, highly sophisticated animal who is
not only the constant companion to Atari but also protects him. I think in many ways Spots embodies the
ideals of loyalty, duty and honor. And he has a compassionate side, which was really nice, because I
don’t normally get to play those kinds of characters.” Spots also finds romance amid the ruins with the
steadfast survivor Peppermint. “Peppermint has been terribly mistreated and Spots goes from feeling bad
for her to falling in love with her,” says Schreiber. “He’s really a dog who cares about other dogs.”
Bob Balaban’s character, King, had risen to the heights of canine celebrity as spokesdog for
Doggy Chop dog food, before he found himself deposited on Trash Island. “I imagine he felt a little
special,” says Balaban. “Like William Wegman’s Weimaraners, I suspect King secretly liked wearing a
hat or a costume, having 20 people focusing lights on him and having everybody care about what he’s
doing. And the occasional extra treat was just the icing on the dog food cake I guess you would say.”
Among the most enigmatic of Trash Island’s dogs is Nutmeg, the coquettish show dog with her
femme fatale persona and curiously spotless coat of fur. She is played by Scarlett Johansson who has her
own ideas about how Nutmeg stays impeccably groomed in a noxious world.
“Nutmeg is incredibly resourceful. She keeps her fur clean by collecting garbage ash in an old
coffee bean can. Then she works the ash through her fur from root to tip. That’s a very important part of
the process. You have to work the ash through from root to tip. And then she shakes off the remaining ash
and collects it in the found coffee bean can. Which she then stores for next time. Because as I said she’s
very resourceful,” says Johansson.
Far removed from the life of tricks and wonders that were once her bailiwick, Nutmeg is a bit of a
loner on Trash Island, but Chief changes that. Sparks fly at first sniff. “I think Nutmeg sees in Chief a
survivor,” says Johansson. “She knows what it’s like to lose something and come back stronger. She
might be more civilized than Chief, but she recognizes in him a fighting spirit and a leadership quality she
admires. Plus, he has just the right amount of bite; and who doesn’t like a guy with bite?”
Tilda Swinton voices the dog known far and wide as Oracle for her visions, and her
understanding of television. Says Swinton: “How does The Oracle see the future? She understands TV.
She reads the signs on peoples' faces—specifically the twitches of their noses and their mouths. She can

10
tell their levels of anxiety this way.” Swinton notes that there is just one big thing to keep in mind when
portraying a dog: “The heart of a dog is a bottomless thing.”
F. Murray Abraham greatly admires his character, the wise if Turpentine Brandy-lapping Jupiter.
Abraham says: “Jupiter has chosen to live his life as though he’s given himself over to a Zen existence.
When I say he’s the creature I would like to become I’m not kidding. I love that he has a barrel of spirits
around his neck. I think it’s very wise because you never know when you might need a little shot, or when
you’ll run into someone who could use one. And it’s a communal, convivial thing: we’re all going to
drink from the same barrel; we’re all going to enjoy this together; and we’re going to find a way out of
this mess. We would sure use Jupiter right about now in this poor old world of ours. That’s how I feel
about Jupiter.”

Character & Performance: The Humans

Taking the primary human role of Atari Kobayashi, the heartbroken Japanese boy who makes a
heroic flight to search for his lost dog, is Koyu Rankin, a young Canadian actor who is bilingual in
Japanese and English. Only 8 years old at the time of recording, Rankin makes his feature film debut in
the role. Says Rankin of why Atari risks everything to search for Spots: “Atari’s dog was basically his
best friend. Spots is all he ever had, and since he is an orphan, Spots was like his brother, basically. He’s
determined to find him, so that’s why he takes the plane and runs away from home.”
Atari’s adopted guardian, Mayor Kobayashi, is the authoritarian who outlaws dogs from
Megasaki City, though the consequences hit closer to home than he ever imagined. Voicing the role,
unexpectedly, is co-story writer and longtime friend of Anderson’s, Kunichi Nomura. He didn’t know he
was being cast until Anderson told him he liked his voice. “Wes said, ‘Well, Kun, you've got a really low
voice. You sound like a mayor, even though you are much younger than the actual Mayor Kobayashi.’
And I said, ‘All right.’”
Nomura was delighted to see that his character resembles Kurosawa’s celebrated artistic partner,
the magnetic screen idol Mifune. “I didn't know how my character looked at first, so when Wes showed
me, I just laughed, like, ‘this is me?’” As for Kobayashi’s pet-intolerant actions, Nomura notes Anderson
left a hint of room in the character for redemption. “Kobayashi is a good example of how power
corrupts,” he observes. “But I’m glad he isn’t 100% a bad guy. He has some humanity.”
Mayor Kobayashi’s greatest nemesis proves to be a feisty young foreign exchange student and
editor of the Megasaki Senior High Daily Manifesto: actor and filmmaker Greta Gerwig as Tracy
Walker. Says Gerwig: “The Megasaki Senior High Daily Manifesto is a paper that stands for

11
transparency and truth. And Tracy believes that’s what all newspapers and news outlets should stand for.
Even though it’s a student publication, they hold themselves to a very high, rigorous standard.”
That standard pushes her to discover the truth about the dog virus and Atari’s trip to Trash Island,
and perhaps also … the first hints of a crush. “Tracy just admires Atari’s bravery,” Gerwig demurs.
“And she thinks he has a nice face. He’s the only person standing up to the madness that’s going on in
Megasaki City. And he’s doing it on his own for the love of his dog, which she thinks is noble.”
When Gerwig first saw the Tracy puppet, it further inspired her. “I love the way this puppet
looks,” she says. “I think probably my favorite part is her hair and she has a very resolute face. It’s really
great and it makes me very happy. I wish I looked like this puppet all the time. She’s very charming.”
Frances McDormand portrays Interpreter Nelson, who translates all that happens in Megasaki’s
Municipal Dome, including the Mayor’s dire pronouncements. After MOONRISE KINGDOM, this
marks the second time McDormand has worked with Anderson. “I found working with him really
liberating because I trust his vision. As an actor, I really like serving filmmakers who have a complete
vision like Wes does,” she says.
That trust proved a collective experience among all the actors—who also include Akira
Takayama as the henchman Major Domo, Akira Ito as the virus-hunting opposition leader Professor
Watanabe, Fisher Stevens as the canine Scrap, Nijiro Murakami as the Daily Manifesto’s Editor Hiroshi
and Yoko Ono as a scientist named Yoko Ono--as they came and went in the vast process of recording.
Sums up Bryan Cranston of working with Anderson: “What's great about Wes is that he is
specific, but not rigid. And those things aren't contradictory. You can know what you want, and yet the
pathway to get what you want doesn't have to be pre-destined. You don't have to have it mapped out,
because art doesn't work that way.”

Language, Barks & Translation

With a film set in Japan and among chatty dogs, a question arose early on: how will this
disparate set of characters communicate with the audience? Ground rules were set that Japanese-speaking
characters would speak in Japanese unless speaking through a human translator or translation devices.
Dogs, on the other hand, have their innate barks, yips and howls automatically translated into English.
Subtitles were used minimally only for signs written in Japanese or an occasional word or phrase.
Says Wes Anderson: “Subtitles didn’t seem that fun … when you’re reading subtitles, you’re
really focused on the subtitles all through the movie and you don’t listen to the language as much. The
language part of your brain is focused on the text. By having them speaking Japanese without translating

12
it, I just feel you listen to them speaking Japanese. You don’t understand the words, but you understand
the emotion. But it did mean having to come up with different devices. For some scenes, like in the
Municipal Dome, it made sense to have an interpreter, a UN–style thing. We also have Tracy Walker
[Greta Gerwig], an American exchange student, so there’s somebody there who only speaks English.”
What at first seemed risky came to make perfect sense in the universe of the film. Says art
director Curt Enderle: “The whole bilingual storytelling—which is an audacious idea—worked really
well. I think it's really clear. You get to know the stuff that you need to know at that moment.”
To assure authenticity in the Japanese language—and all things Japanese—Anderson worked
with Kunichi Nomura, who was one of the story collaborators, but also became a consultant and portrays
the imposing voice of Mayor Kobayashi. “Kun, who we’ve all been friends with for some years, helped
us keep a variety of details authentic and to make it feel more Japanese, because we were all writing from
the point of view of non-Japanese people,” says Anderson.
Nomura admits that translating Anderson’s very particular kind of understated yet emotionally
bare yet poignantly romantic yet funny characters wasn’t always straightforward. “I’ve done some work
with subtitles for American movies. But translating Wes's script was something so different. I know him
well. I know what kind of a sense of humor he has. But it isn’t easy to translate that,” he says.
Anderson also tapped Nomura’s knowledge of Japanese culture, especially the post-War period
that comes so alive in Kurosawa’s films. “Wes was sending emails asking for very specific references,
like: ‘Can you find a traditional department store uniform in Japan from the early '60s?’” recalls Nomura.
For Nomura, part of the joy of ISLE OF DOGS is seeing Japan reflected back so dreamily
through Anderson’s outsider eyes and the universe he creates for the story. It isn’t a real Japan seen in the
film, but it also isn’t a faux Japan. “I think what Wes captures is the beauty of mixing old and new. He
brings in the imagination of Japanese comic books and Kurosawa in his heyday in the '60s. And he did
lots of historical research for all the film’s background elements. But I also feel that everything doesn’t
have to be perfectly matched with Japanese history or completely accurate for it to be right for the film.
I'm grateful to see his creation, especially since it’s based on my own country.”

The Next Stop in Stop-Motion

Once the decision was made to make ISLE OF DOGS in stop-motion, Anderson knew what he
was in for, the requisite patience, the craftsmanship needed, the way to manage the workflow, from his
experiences making FANTASTIC MR. FOX. That said, every element of this story was quite different.
The design of this film’s constructed world, not based on source material, was going to be more immense

13
and complicated. It would involve a different, desaturated palette and photographic style. Even the
animals live under different rules in the film, moving on four limbs rather than two.
That is why, though he surrounded the production with experts in their fields, Anderson’s
approach was to ask each team member to strip away their experience and start all over again, with a kind
of beginner’s mind. The idea was to go back to the roots of stop-motion animation, to think anew of all
the inherent possibilities of giving the inanimate life, of building something that no matter how far-
fetched, would feel tactile and rife with the tiny emotional details that summon the fervor of real life.
Says one of the lead animators Jason Stalman, who was a key animator on FANTASTIC MR.
FOX: “FOX became a touchstone of stop-motion animation, but now that Wes established that, I think he
felt this time he could kind of freak out and do his own thing. Maybe it’s a natural evolution for stop
motion.”
Co-producer Octavia Peissel observes: “This being Wes's second stop-motion film, I think he's
now much more comfortable and at ease within the medium, and the ways in which it's radically different
from live action. So he's able to play within that more, and maybe break the codes in the same way he
does in live action. He is looking at what you can you do within the medium that you can't do anywhere
else—what can you do with the story, with the design, with the cameras and lights?”
Adds animation director Mark Waring: “This story is a completely new thing with the number of
levels that it is playing at, with all the themes of leadership, authority, animal cruelty, the treatment of
individuals and groups, and more. All those deeper levels are there, but it also works perfectly on the
level of just being a really lovely journey of a boy and his dog. It’s fascinating how Wes has built so
many layers into this and yet made it feel so consistently whole as an adventure.”
A two-year journey of its own, production of ISLE OF DOGS involved more than 670 crew,
including more than 70 manning the puppet department and another 38 in the animation department.
Stop-motion is of course among the most time-consuming and labor-intensive of all cinematic
forms. All the heart, humor and inventiveness of ISLE OF DOGS had to be stitched out of 130,000 stills
that create the illusion of immersive action. In recent years, the process has been streamlined by
specialized software and digital cameras—the film utilized Canon IDX digital cameras and the software
package known as Dragonframe to be able to manipulate and instantly preview the frames—but it remains
the kind of thing that tests the endurance of even the most focused filmmakers.
Since film typically moves at 24 frames per second, for the action to be maximally lifelike, a
puppet must be moved into twenty-four distinct postures for every second of screen time. This is called
animating “on ones”—one position per frame and 24 positions per second. But Anderson has cultivated
an affinity for animation “on twos,” which gives the motion a slightly more uncanny, crunchy, imperfect
feel that evokes a certain kind of aesthetic and maybe even carries its own distinct emotional atmosphere.
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Even animating on twos, however, only a few seconds of animation can be shot per day. Time, and how
to work with time, is simply a different creature on a stop-motion feature.
Unlike most CG animation, stop-motion also dispenses with the aim for an exacting facsimile of
reality. This is especially true under Anderson’s direction. ISLE OF DOGS spotlights that its characters
are fuzzy, flawed, with more internal than external dimensionality.
Says animation producer Simon Quinn: “Wes enjoys animation for what it is. He's not trying to
hide the fact that these are made objects. He's celebrating the art form. He's not trying to compete with
CG. He's actually saying, ‘Okay, this is a model set. So how can we play with that? What sort of visual
gags can we use in that?’ You end up doing things like using cotton wadding for smoke or carving soap to
make candle flames. All of these things are joyous. They're the things that make the work exciting.”
One of the great paradoxes of the film is that even as Anderson and the entire crew were
approaching their work with fastidiousness, they were creating a fantasy land overflowing with the icky,
sticky stuff of prodigious human refuse. But the trash of Trash Island is also a kind of map, tracing a past
filled at once with nostalgia, unjust cast-offs and history’s overruled ideas. Says Anderson: “I always
loved the idea of a story in a garbage dump … but I will say, this is probably the most neatly organized
garbage dump…if it was all just continual garbage together, then it would turn into nothing, so we had to
create identities for the different kinds of garbage.”
Perhaps the film’s most complicated single sequence proved to be the preparation of the sushi
delivered to Professor Watanabe, which required literally going down to the detail of a grain of rice. That
one moment had its own Animation Director, Brad Schiff, who worked with 3 animators, Andy Biddle,
Tony Farquhar-Smith and Tobias Fouracre, over two months. Anderson sought an authentic aura of sushi
chef perfectionism. “It’s partly invented sushi, it has a sort of fantasy element to it,” Anderson notes, “but
at the same time, I felt if these puppets are not using the knives properly or approaching the fish with the
meticulousness of a real sushi chef then to me, it’s silly and it’s not interesting.”

Puppets – The Dogs

There exists in East London a real “isle of dogs,” a thumb of a peninsula that juts into the Thames
River and has been known by that moniker since the reign of Henry VIII, though its etymology remains
mysterious. Fittingly, the production of ISLE OF DOGS took place just three miles north of this
namesake, at 3 Mills Studios, the historical film and television facility where much of the work for
FANTASTIC MR. FOX also took place.

15
 It is here that Andy Gent, the film’s head puppet maker, started up a workshop in 2015 that was,
as Anderson warned him prior to giving him the job, “what you might call puppet-heavy.” Says Gent:
“The amount of parts on this film was off the scale. These have been the quickest two years of my life.”
Some 1000 creaturely puppets were handmade for ISLE OF DOGS: 500 dogs and 500 humans.
For each individual character, a range of puppets was made in 5 different scales: Oversized, Large,
Medium-Small and XS. Each main or “hero” puppet, took about 16 weeks to build.
It is impossible to over-emphasize the exacting nature of building minute stop-motion puppets,
which is unlike anything else in moviemaking. “I always say that making a stop-motion film is like
working in a world that is 12 times smaller than anything you’ve ever seen but 200 times more complex
than anything you’ve ever done because we have to make every single thing,” explains Gent. “We’ve got
to make not just the dogs and humans in different scales, but every test tube in three scales, every wig in
three scales. So, you end up with 12 of each puppet in 5 scales on 20 sets. It can get pretty crazy.”
Because the puppets were so small, the model-making was challenging. “We've had to up our
model-making game,” says animation producer Simon Quinn. “Some of the model-makers have said this
is more like jewelry making or watch making because of the small scale of the puppets. We had to really
come to grips with how these things would look being blown up huge, trying to keep the relationships and
the detail. When I see how big it is on the screen, I'm kind of shocked at what we've accomplished.”
The puppet work started with the dogs. Whereas the animals in FANTASTIC MR. FOX were
more human in form than animal, this time things were reversed. These dogs are steeped in canine
behaviors—they sit, lie down, fetch and do fancy tricks much like their real-world counterparts as well as
display a loyalty, tenacity and instinct for affection that often outshine the humans who abandoned them –
not to mention the crafting of their hair and fur.
Anderson did not lay out breeds for the puppet makers. Rather, he laid out emotional tones. “It
was never ‘a Golden Labrador’ that Wes was interested in: it was ‘a sad dog,’” Gent recalls. “The early
sculpts had a character air to them, a sense of dishevelment that he liked and that we built on.”
To never lose sight of the target, the puppet team kept plenty of live pups around. “The only
difference between the real dogs and the puppets is that the puppets can talk,” muses Gent. “I think it was
very good form, having real dogs around in the workshop. Dogs can look sorrowful and you can tell when
they’re really happy, so we mirrored that in the puppets’ faces and ears.”
Instead of making sketches, Gent’s team initially created more tactile clay sculptures they could
let Anderson ponder from all angles. Once a design received Anderson’s blessing, the rigorous building
of the armature – the moveable metal skeleton inside each puppet – began. Each puppet’s personal arc
and actions were analyzed in depth. “When you’re building, you have to think about all the puppet’s
being asked to do in the script. Has it got to jump, has it got to run, has it got to stretch, has it got to lie
16
down, has it got to bite something and all of those things. From there, we work out the various processes
of how we mold and armature it and what choice of silicon or foams we use,” Gent explains.
The “furring” of the dogs was also a highly-involved procedure. The “fur” was actually
harvested alpaca and merino wool used for teddy bear manufacture and re-purposed for the film. The
material can be especially tricky in stop-motion because even the slightest ruffling, made by say a human
hand lightly touching the puppet, makes for a blurred quality. Yet, this proved to be a boon for ISLE OF
DOGS, enhancing the feeling that these are flea-bitten, scruffy, unwashed dogs long separated from soap
and grooming tools.
The film’s dangerous robot dogs were a creation unto themselves, and the only characters in the
film created with 3D printers. Describes Octavia Peissel: “The robot dog has three different forms: its
neutral form, its cute-and-friendly form and then its attack mode where spikes pop out of its neck. It
seemed fitting and appropriate for the robot dog to be the only 3D printed puppet in the movie.”

Puppets – The Humans

To craft the humans, that was of course a very different process. To give the human visages a vibrant
warmth, that feeling of blood rushing beneath the skin, the team experimented with translucent resins.
Explains Head of Paint in the puppet department, Angela Kiely: “The translucent resin gives you a lovely
glow about the face. Wes wanted this sort of ethereal look to some of the characters, so that came directly
from him. He wanted us to find a new way of using materials that hadn’t really been done before to show
this kind of glowy look. You’ll see it especially on Atari, as he has that see-through kind of appearance to
his skin.” Also, the team crafted a handy “face-replacement system.” Every time there was a tiny change
in expression, even a slyly raised eyebrow, the animators could quickly switch faces frame by frame.
One of the most challenging human puppets was Tracy, who sports exactly 320 freckles, each of
which travels whenever she smiles. The team designated a “key freckle” around which all the other
freckles would move in an established pattern.
To dress the puppets in an array of looks, from Mayor Kobayashi’s tailored suit to Professor
Watanabe’s kimono lab coat to Tracy’s sailor suit, Anderson worked with costume designer Maggie
Haden, who has specialized in crafting miniature clothing for decades, and also worked on FANTASTIC
MR. FOX. Still, she was unprepared for the sheer volume of costumes required for ISLE OF DOGS.
“I have to say I wasn’t prepared for the amount of puppets we were actually going to have to
make. I assumed, wrongly it turns out, that it would be a similar amount of puppets as we used on FOX.
But there are masses of puppets, because there are huge crowd scenes. You can’t just get ‘puppet extras’

17
in for the day,” she points out, “so we had to make and dress all of them. Which was amazing, really. In
30 years of doing this, I’ve never seen so many puppets all together, which was very exciting.”
For Mayor Kobayashi’s square-shouldered, Mid Century suit, Haden approached a Savile Row-
trained tailor. “That suit had to be sharp and beautifully tailored, which is very difficult to achieve on that
scale,” she says. “We had loads of film references for that sort of cool, slightly gangster look, so we
knew what we were trying to achieve. But it nearly broke the tailor. It took nearly three months to get it
right.”
Haden’s favorite costume of the prodigious collection is Atari Kobayashi’s shiny, retro flight-suit,
which seemed to reflect back both Atari’s poignant childishness and his courage to venture outside his
known world. She recalls that she thought she heard Anderson use the word silver early on for Atari and
somehow that translated to her as “space suit,” which somewhat surprised Anderson. Hayden continues:
“I found all these beautiful tech fabrics, which are fairly new. I think they might have even originated in
Japan, actually. They’re a very, very fine synthetic weave. And they’re incredibly strong. I was a big
Bowie fan, so when Wes said, ‘He looks a bit like Ziggy Stardust,’ I was thinking, ‘Yeah!’”
Once all the puppets are built and dressed, that’s when their spirits are conjured physically by the
animators. Explains head animator Jason Stalman of how chunks of metal, cloth and resin morph into
beings whose minute mannerisms can make you giggle or break your heart: “I describe it as sculpting a
performance. It’s about feeling the form of the character in three-dimensional space.”
Adds lead animator Kim Keukeleire: “Animating is like internal performing. And you have the
voice track to help carry you, which gives you lots of inspiration. There are a lot of comic moments in this
film, but they’re not slapstick like in so many animated films. It’s more about the rhythms of these
characters. When the pack is together, they seem a bit to me like a bunch of old ladies bantering.”
Waring understood the essence of what Anderson sought. “In our conversations, Wes was very
insistent about keeping that handmade feel. He wants you to see the craft—don’t disguise it, embrace it,”
he explains. “Even with the face replacement, he wanted a sense that these are not super-smooth changes.
He likes to feel the pops and crackles in the animation. He wanted to see the crawl in the fur of the
animals. He wanted to see the movement in the costumes and embrace all of that.”
Senior Visual Effects Supervisor Tim Ledbury and his team honed in the rest of the stark but
richly textured physical design, using almost zero CG. Floating clouds are cotton fluff, drifting rivers are
made to flow with miniature conveyer belts of sandwich wrapping. “It’s actually harder to do it this way
than to use CG because with CG you can completely control everything,” he admits. “This film was more
of an old-fashioned sort of challenge rather than generating things in the computer, which Wes hates.”

18
 Even beyond eschewing the digital, Anderson tends to prefer designs that are structural. “At one
point, we explored the idea of doing glass matte paintings for the skies,” notes Ledbury, “but Wes always
wanted a physical model. He wants to know something has been built.”

Photography & Set Design

Though he was often working remotely from other countries via arrays of monitors, Anderson
was as creatively hands-on as ever with his crew. He eyeballed and explored every visual and tactile
element of ISLE OF DOGS, down to each speck of sand in Trash Island’s windswept dunes, each splinter
in the bamboo bridges, each creaking wall of each rusted-out factory, each fluttering blade of grass.
Anderson and director of photography Tristan Oliver re-united on ISLE OF DOGS for the first
time since FANTASTIC MR. FOX. Oliver, a stop-motion specialist who worked on the original, classic
Claymation WALLACE & GROMIT shorts and shot such stop-motion features as CHICKEN RUN and
PARANORMAN, knew Anderson has his own approach to lighting, hue, framing and composition.
But ISLE OF DOGS would prove to be unusually cinematic, even for a Wes Anderson animated
film, involving such non-standard techniques as long tracking shots and variations on the pan-focus shots
(in which every character is in focus) Kurosawa favored. Notes Oliver: “I didn’t take references from
other animated movies because we didn’t make any concessions to the fact that this movie is animated.”
The bugaboo of stop-action is that photographing tiny objects in close proximity drastically
narrows your options. This became the mother of invention at times. “There’s a lot to consider when
photographing small things. Forget the art; the general physics of the lens comes into play,” Oliver
explains. “Focus is intensely difficult. I think Wes wishes he could have all the focus he gets in live
action. But in stop-motion animation, we have an inch of depth of field, so we work with that reality.”
Lighting the dogs’ fur the way that Anderson likes was another challenge for Oliver. “Fur, in and
of itself, isn’t difficult, but it’s an issue when you want a very flat look as Wes does. Hair has a certain
refractive quality, no manner how flat you light it. It’s slightly incandescent because it’s got that very
high, defined radius to it. It splits the light. So, we’ve softened the fur beyond soft sometimes.”
Taking place as it does during a societal crisis, reels of news footage line ISLE OF DOGS. The
decision was made that all on-air footage would appear in a different animation style: a 2D, hand-drawn
look. Gwenn Germain, the 25-year-old French animator who headed the small, 12-person 2D department ,
was inspired by Japanese Anime: “Our team did something very different from what is usually done in 2-
D animation. It’s not broad, Disney-style animation; it’s a quite restrained, ‘Wes Anderson-style’ 2-D. I
don’t think it’s ever been done like this, where a 2-D animation department is working so closely with

19
stop-motion.”
ISLE OF DOGS involved the creation of 240 eye-catching sets—from the red lacquered
Municipal Dome to the monochromatic science labs to the ashen ruins of Trash Island with its overhead
trash tram—a massive task overseen by the production designers – Oscar® winner Adam Stockhausen
and Paul Harrod. Even all the natural phenomena that saturates the film—waves, clouds, smoke, fire,
toxic fumes, sweat and tears—had to be made of physical stuff.
Harrod immersed himself in Japanese cinema as preparation. “I got very, very steeped in
Japanese movies and it was a regular reference point,” Harrod says. “Early on, Wes and I talked about
how some of the themes echo Kurosawa films, so we looked in particular at THE BAD SLEEP WELL
and HIGH AND LOW, and I also used some ideas from DRUNKEN ANGEL.”
He looked beyond Kurosawa as well, to the “tokusatsu” (special effects) and “kaiju” (monster)
films of director Ishiro Honda, a friend of Kurosawa’s, who directed the original GODZILLA as well as
RODAN, MOTHRA and THE WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS, among others. “We have robot dogs.
We have drones. There’s a bit of Honda’s THE MYSTERIANS in there. We’ve also referenced some
lesser-known films of Honda such as GORATH and MONSTER ZERO,” says Harrod. “Our televisions
are taken from kaiju movies because they always have scenes of someone freaking out in a control room.”
The grandmaster of Japanese cinema, Yasujiro Ozu, whose rigorous style and stirring portraits of
Japanese families in a changing post-war era have made his films among the most influential of all time,
was also on Harrod’s mind. “Architecturally, I would say Ozu is the biggest influence on the sets. I’m not
the first person to say there is a certain similarity between Ozu and Wes: that precision, the use of
symmetry, the very, very structured placement of characters—they’re both very ceremonial.”
Beyond Japanese references, Harrod cites Kubrick, Bond films and a touch of Tarkovsky’s
bleakly alluring wastelands from STALKER in the look of Trash Island. “There’s some 2001: A SPACE
ODYSSEY referenced—the very, very white lab is an homage to Kubrick,” he points out. “I was also
happy to pay homage to production designer Ken Adam with the DR. STRANGELOVE-ian control
room. Ken has probably been the biggest influence on me. And since he passed away during the
production of this film, to be able to add that little homage to him seemed very poignant.”
Harrod continues: “I thought a lot about STALKER when we were doing the animal testing plant.
Tarkovsky’s films are important references for creating worlds out of discarded objects. Wes is not a
filmmaker known to the public for neutrals, grays and blacks, so it’s fascinating to see him play with
that.”
To assure he incorporated a broader Japanese point of view, Harrod also brought in two key
consultants: “I knew right from the beginning that I had to get some good Japanese advisors. Hiring Erica

20
Dorn as our graphic designer and Chinami Narikawa as a graphic artist was a real coup. They were
really, really valuable for making sure things were accurate and well researched.”
Dorn points out that the film is not intended to replicate any real time period in Japanese history,
that it exists suspended in imagination, but still there was a desire to honor the core principles of Japanese
aesthetics and culture within that. “The aim was not so much to make a film that’s 100% authentically
Japanese as a film that’s authentically Wes Anderson,” Dorn says. “So, when those two things clashed,
sometimes it might fall one way, sometimes it falls the other, and there is a balance.”

Music

ISLE OF DOGS marks the 4th feature film collaboration between Oscar® nominated filmmaker
Wes Anderson and Oscar®-winning composer Alexandre Desplat, who worked together for the very first
time on FANTASTIC MR. FOX (Desplat went on to win the Academy Award® for his work on THE
GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL). Desplat once again expanded his horizons with a score that, like the
film, brings in elements of Japanese culture but creates its own original sonic presence.
Desplat foresaw from the moment he started talking with Anderson about ISLE OF DOGS that
this one would set him off on a musical exploration. “I knew the music would have to be something that
we’ve never heard before to help create this island that is something strange and unexpected,” the
composer explains. “I also knew from MR. FOX that stop-motion is a very long process but along the
way, I saw a lot of the animatics and was chatting with Wes about Japanese artists, about instruments,
about the characters. Even as I was working on other films, this was always sizzling in the background.”
As the score came into the foreground, Desplat found the seed of his approach in a revered
Japanese instrument: the taiko drums, which have been played since the 6th Century CE (in Japanese
myth, taiko drums were born when a goddess danced on an upside-down sake barrel, producing that
rumbling vibe), and are an essential component of Kabuki theatre. But rather than harken back to
traditional taiko compositions, Desplat instead began mixing the drums with surprising and unexpected
partners, such as saxophones and clarinets, creating a sound as unusual and inviting as Trash Island itself.
“I like that you could not really anticipate the matches between the drums and the horns that we
use. The idea was to have these clear elements from Japanese music but without really referencing
Japanese history or films because we did not want the music to feel like a pastiche. It had to come
organically from the story,” Desplat says. “The drums are very adaptable because they have such a huge
range of dynamics. They can be so deep in sound and so powerful in volume but they can also play so

21
softly. They can feel modern but they also have a very ancient kind of beauty to them. I have used them
before but never in this way where they are the lead instrument.”
The emotional tone of the film was perhaps as deep an influence as the drums. “The film’s
characters have such a melancholy and a tenderness to them so the music is always aiming to never
directly go to the sentiment and it has a gentleness to it,” he elucidates. “I wanted the music to sort of
gently brush against the characters but not really touch them. The music never comes too close so that
you have that space around their emotions.”
Desplat notes that composing for a Wes Anderson stop-motion film populated with verbose
canines is not particularly different from composing for a live-action film, outside of the extended
production time. “The main characters might be dogs, but they exist in a zone between animals and
humans. They have all the dog behaviors we know and recognize but we connect to them through their
very human emotions, through their excitement, sadness, anger, hope and their love for one another and
their friends,” he says. “And then we also have the marvelous voices of all these actors we are already
familiar with and that creates it own very warm human feeling.”
As he always does with Anderson, Desplat recorded the score one instrument at a time,
rather than as a full band. “By doing it this way, Wes and I can reorganize the tracks in the mix
as we wish,” he explains. “It was also really necessary with this movie because there is a lot of
dialogue and a lot of very precise sound effects so we needed to really be able to mold and tailor
the score around those elements.”
Further adding to the film’s soundscapes are dreamy acoustic songs by the 1960s psychedelic
rock group West Coast Experimental Pop Art Band and an opening taiko drum sequence composed by
Kaoru Watanabe. Brooklyn-based Watanabe, a specialist in both taiko drums and shinobue flutes, is
renown for moving fluidly between East and West, traditional forms and contemporary forms. One day he
got a call saying Anderson would like to meet him.
He takes up the story: “So Wes shows up, and within about five minutes of him walking through
the door, we were jamming. He’d probably be the first to say he’s not a trained musician. He’s definitely
not a drummer. But he is a very intuitive musician. I handed him the sticks, and he started coming up with
these little figures and riffs, and I started riffing with him. I didn’t know he was working on a movie, but
after jamming, he says, ‘So when can you come to the studio?’ It was a really wonderful kind of meeting
and musically, we were able to just kind of fall right into each other’s groove, if you will.”
Watanabe believes that the taiko drums add a folkloric feeling. “Taiko drums were traditionally
used to convey important stories or to communicate with other people, gods or ancestors. So using them
as storytelling device is just going back to the roots of what the drums are about.”

22
 The music becomes another layer of a film that, not unlike Trash Island, is piled high with bits
and pieces that, when combined, seem to alchemically forge a world that feels lived-in and alive in its
fantasia. If any single word seems to define the movie that word might be scale, both for the tiny scale of
the intricate stop-motion work and the enormous scale of the story of how the Trash Island pack unites in
their trek towards freedom and to discover the potential in themselves.
Says Anderson, “In animation you can keep adding things, keep revising. As you make the
movie, you mock up the movie, edit it so you can see how it works. And, in this case – with many of the
voices not being actors – with drawings, which is sort of a simulation of the movie, which is sometimes a
complicated thing to make, which is why it takes a long time to do it.”
Sums up Jeremy Dawson: “ISLE OF DOGS has comedy, drama – but also the vast sweep of an
epic journey. We wanted that kind of scope, the scope of Samurai movies and adventure. It's a big movie
in every way, but with simple basic themes that anyone can relate to.”
###

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 CAST BIO

BRYAN CRANSTON (CHIEF) is an Academy Award nominee, and Emmy, Golden

Globe, SAG, and Tony Award winner.
Cranston recently starred in Richard Linklater’s LAST FLAG FLYING with Steve Carell
and Laurence Fishburne. The film premiered at the New York Film Festival in September 2017
and was released by Amazon in November 2017. He will next star in Neil Burger’s THE UPSIDE
with Kevin Hart.
Cranston recently made his West End debut currently starring in Network at the National
Theatre. Based on the iconic film by Paddy Chayedsky, which won four Academy Awards in
1976, director Ivo Van Hove brings the story of NETWORK to the stage with Cranston in the
principal role of Howard Beale. Cranston recently won a Critics Circle Award for “Best Actor”
for his performance.
Cranston made his Broadway debut in 2014 as President Lyndon B. Johnson in All The
Way by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan. He won the 2014 Tony® Award
for his performance, as well as a Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, and Theater
World Award for “Outstanding Actor in a Play.” Cranston went on to produce the film adaption
of the play through his production company, Moonshot Entertainment, along with Steven
Spielberg’s Amblin Television and Tale Told Productions. It premiered on HBO in May 2016
and was nominated for eight Emmy Awards including “Outstanding Television Movie” and an
individual nomination for Cranston for “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.”
“All The Way” was nominated for four Critics’ Choice Awards, including “Best Television
Movie” and an individual nomination for Cranston for “Best Actor in a Television Movie.”
Additionally, Cranston was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for “Best Actor in a Television
Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television” and won the SAG Award for
“Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series.”
In addition to “All the Way,” Moonshot Entertainment has developed three television
series for Amazon including “Sneaky Pete,” “The Dangerous Book for Boys,” and Philip K.
Dick’s “Electric Dreams”. Season two of “Sneaky Pete” will air in March 2018, and “The
Dangerous Book for Boys” and “Electric Dreams” will premiere in 2018. Moonshot also
developed the animated series “SuperMansion” for Crackle, which received two Emmy Award
nominations and was renewed for a third season.

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 In 2015, Cranston starred as the title character in Jay Roach’s TRUMBO. His
performance garnered him nominations for an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, SAG
Award, BAFTA Award, and Critics’ Choice Award in 2016 for “Best Actor.”
Cranston’s other feature film credits include: Robin Swicord’s WAKEFIELD, Dean
Israelite’s POWER RANGERS, John Hamburg’s WHY HIM?, Brad Furman’s THE
INFILTRATOR, Gareth Edwards’ GODZILLA, Ben Affleck's ARGO, Len Wiseman’s remake
of TOTAL RECALL, Nicholas Winding Refn’s DRIVE, Steven Soderbergh’s CONTAGION,
Brad Furman’s THE LINCOLN LAWYER, Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris’ LITTLE MISS
SUNSHINE, Steven Spielberg’s SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, and Tom Hanks’ LARRY
CROWN and THAT THING YOU DO!, among others. Bryan has also lent his voice to
DreamWorks Animation films KUNG FU PANDA 3 and MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE’S
MOST WANTED.
On television, Cranston’s portrayal of Walter White on AMC’s “Breaking Bad” garnered
him four Emmy® Awards, four SAG Awards and a Golden Globe Award. He holds the honor of
being the first actor in a cable series and the second lead actor in the history of the Emmy®
Awards to receive three consecutive wins.
As a producer on “Breaking Bad,” Cranston won two Emmy® Awards and a Producers
Guild of America (PGA) Award for “Outstanding Drama Series.”
Behind the camera, Cranston was nominated for the Directors Guild of America (DGA)
Award for “Breaking Bad” (in 2014) and “Modern Family” (in 2013 and 2014). Cranston also
wrote, directed, and acted in the original romantic drama “Last Chance” as a birthday gift for his
wife and star of the film, Robin Dearden.
Cranston’s career began with a role on the television movie “Love Without End,” which
led to him being signed as an original cast member of ABC's “Loving.” He went on to appear as
Hal on FOX's “Malcolm in the Middle,” which ran for seven seasons and for which Cranston was
nominated for a Golden Globe Award and three Emmy® Awards.
Aside from his acting career, Cranston is a New York Times bestselling author of his
riveting memoir A Life in Parts.
Cranston is also a spokesperson and longtime supporter of the National Center for
Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). NCMEC is the leading nonprofit organization in the
U.S. working with law enforcement, families and professionals on issues related to missing and
sexually exploited children.

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 Born in 2007 in Vancouver, Canada, to a Scottish-Canadian father and Japanese mother,
KOYU RANKIN (ATARI) is bilingual in both Japanese and English. Rankin enjoys playing
soccer and drums and when not in school loves going to Japan. ISLE OF DOGS is Koyu's first
role in a film. Rankin’s since acted in a local short film and appeared in a music video.

EDWARD NORTON (REX) has acted in the films PRIMAL FEAR, EVERYONE
SAYS I LOVE YOU, THE PEOPLE VS LARRY FLYNT, AMERICAN HISTORY X,
ROUNDERS, FIGHT CLUB, KEEPING THE FAITH, THE SCORE, DEATH TO SMOOCHY,
FRIDA, RED DRAGON, THE 25TH HOUR, THE ITALIAN JOB, DOWN IN THE VALLEY,
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, THE ILLUSIONIST, THE PAINTED VEIL, THE
INCREDIBLE HULK, PRIDE & GLORY, LEAVES OF GRASS, STONE, MOONRISE
KINGDOM, THE BOURNE LEGACY, GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, BIRDMAN,
SAUSAGE PARTY and COLLATERAL BEAUTY.
Norton has been nominated for three Academy Awards, for PRIMAL FEAR,
AMERICAN HISTORY X and BIRDMAN, and won a Golden Globe along with numerous other
awards for his performances. In 2002 he won the Obie Award for his performance in the
Signature Theater production of Lanford Wilson’s Burn This.
His last two films were each nominated for 9 Academy Awards, including his nomination
for Best Supporting Actor in BIRDMAN, and each won 4, including Best Picture for BIRDMAN.
He directed the film KEEPING THE FAITH and also produced DOWN IN THE
VALLEY (Cannes Film Festival Selection), THE PAINTED VEIL, LEAVES OF GRASS,
THANKS FOR SHARING and the documentaries BY THE PEOPLE: THE ELECTION OF
BARACK OBAMA and MY OWN MAN, a Netflix Original documentary.
Norton also founded and runs Class 5 Films in partnership with Academy Award-
nominated screenwriter Stuart Blumberg and producer Bill Migliore. Class 5’s first two features,
DOWN IN THE VALLEY (Cannes Film Festival) and THE PAINTED VEIL, were released in
2006. Class 5 more recently produced LEAVES OF GRASS (written and directed by Tim Blake
Nelson) and Blumberg’s directorial debut, THANKS FOR SHARING. The company is
developing adaptations of American Hippopotamus and Jonathan Lethem’s MOTHERLESS
BROOKLYN for which Norton wrote the screenplay and will direct.
Class 5's documentary, BY THE PEOPLE: THE ELECTION OF BARACK OBAMA,
was released by HBO in November 2009, and was nominated for 3 Emmy awards and won one.
The company’s most recent documentary production MY OWN MAN, by David Sampliner,
premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and was acquired by Netflix.
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 Class 5’s other documentaries include: THE GREAT RIVERS EXPEDITION, a film by
Jim Norton, and DIRTY WORK, a film by David Sampliner that premiered at the Sundance Film
Festival and aired on the Sundance Channel. Class 5 also collaborated with the Sea Studios
Foundation on their highly acclaimed, multi-million-dollar series about earth system sciences for
National Geographic, “Strange Days on Planet Earth,” which Norton hosted and narrated, and
which premiered on PBS in April 2008.

BOB BALABAN (KING) has appeared in over a hundred movies

including MIDNIGHT COWBOY, ABSENCE OF MALICE, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE
THIRD KIND; all five of Christopher Guest’s improvised movies; George Clooney’s
MONUMENTS MEN; and Wes Anderson’s MOONRISE KINGDOM and THE GRAND
BUDAPEST HOTEL. He’s currently featured in “Wormwood,” Errol Morris’s limited series for
Netflix, and can soon be seen in the Audience Network’s series “Condor.”
Balaban has appeared on Broadway in A Delicate Balance with Glenn Close and John
Lithgow, The Inspector General (for which he received a Tony Award nomination), and Speed-
the-Plow. Off-Broadway acting credits include: Marie and Bruce and The Basic Training
of Pavlo Hummel at the Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival; The Three Sisters at
Manhattan Theatre Club; and Some Americans Abroad at Lincoln Center Theater. He was the
original "Linus" in You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown.
Some of his television credits include HBO’s “Show Me A Hero” and “Recount” (Emmy
nomination), as well as “Seinfeld,” “The Good Wife,” Broad City,” and “Girls.”
Balaban co-produced, co-created-, and co-starred in Robert Altman’s Academy Award-
winning GOSFORD PARK, which won BAFTA, SAG, Golden Globe, and New York Film
Critics Awards as well.
Balaban produced and directed the HBO film “Bernard and Doris,” starring Susan
Sarandon and Ralph Fiennes, which earned ten Emmy nominations, three Golden Globe
nominations, and two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, as well as PGA and DGA
nominations. He also directed the multi-award-nominated Lifetime film “Georgia O'Keeffe,”
starring Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons. He produced, directed and wrote the film THE LAST
GOOD TIME, starring Armin Mueller-Stahl, Maureen Stapleton and Lionel Stander; and directed
the film PARENTS, starring Randy Quaid, Sandy Dennis and Mary Beth Hurt.
Balaban produced and directed the hit Off-Broadway play The Exonerated starring
Richard Dreyfuss and Jill Clayburgh (Drama Desk Award, New York Times #1 Play, Outer
Critics Circle Award, Court TV’s Scales of Justice Award, Defender of Justice Award from the
27
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers), as well as the National Tour and a film
adaptation starring Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, and Brian Dennehy.
Balaban wrote a series of best-selling children’s books for Scholastic called McGrowl.
The diary he kept during the filming of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND has
been published under the title, Spielberg, Truffaut, and Me.
A Chicago native, Balaban's roots are in the entertainment world: his uncle was long-time
president and Chairman of the Board of Paramount, and his grandfather headed production at
MGM for many years during the golden age of movie musicals. He now lives in Bridgehampton,
NY.

BILL MURRAY (BOSS) portrayal of ‘Herman Blume’ in Wes Anderson’s

RUSHMORE brought him the New York Film Critics Circle Award, National Society of Film
Critics Award, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, and Independent Spirit Awards for
Best Supporting Actor. He has acted in all of Mr. Anderson’s subsequent features, including THE
ROYAL TENENBAUMS, THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU, THE DARJEELING
LIMITED, FANTASTIC MR. FOX (in voiceover), MOONRISE KINGDOM and THE GRAND
BUDAPEST HOTEL.
Born in Chicago, he began his acting career there with the improvisational troupe Second
City. He joined the cast of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” in the show’s second season, and
shortly thereafter won an Emmy Award as one of the show’s writers. He later authored the book
Cinderella Story: My Life in Golf.
After making his screen debut in Ivan Reitman’s MEATBALLS, Murray reteamed with
the director on STRIPES, GHOSTBUSTERS, and GHOSTBUSTERS II. His film credits also
include Harold Ramis’ CADDYSHACK and GROUNDHOG DAY; Art Linson’s WHERE THE
BUFFALO ROAM; Sydney Pollack’s TOOTSIE; John Byrum’s THE RAZOR’S EDGE (1984);
Richard Donner’s SCROOGED; Frank Oz’s WHAT ABOUT BOB?; John McNaughton’s MAD
DOG AND GLORY and WILD THINGS; Tim Burton’s ED WOOD; Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s
KINGPIN; Jon Amiel’s THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO LITTLE; Tim Robbins’ CRADLE WILL
ROCK; Michael Almereyda’s HAMLET; Gil Kenan’s CITY OF EMBER; Aaron Schneider’s
GET LOW, for which he received Spirit and Satellite Award nominations; Mitch Glazer’s
PASSION PLAY; Roman Coppola’s A GLIMPSE INSIDE THE MIND OF CHARLES SWAN
III; George Clooney’s THE MONUMENTS MEN, Theodore Melfi’s ST. VINCENT, Cameron
Crowe’s ALOHA, and Jon Favreau’s THE JUNGLE BOOK.

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 He has starred for Jim Jarmusch in the “Delirium” segment of COFFEE AND
CIGARETTES; in BROKEN FLOWERS, for which he was nominated for a Satellite Award for
Best Actor; and in THE LIMITS OF CONTROL.
For his performance as Bob Harris in Sofia Coppola’s LOST IN TRANSLATION,
Murray received the Golden Globe, BAFTA, Independent Spirit, and New York, Los Angeles,
and Chicago film critics’ Awards, among others, for Best Actor. He also was nominated for the
Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award.

JEFF GOLDBLUM (DUKE) is a stage, film, and television actor. His film credits
include: JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM, THOR: RAGNAROK, INDEPENDENCE
DAY, THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, LE WEEK-END, ADAM RESURRECTED, THE
LIFE AQUATIC, IGBY GOES DOWN, JURASSIC PARK, NASHVILLE, THE TALL GUY,
ANNIE HALL, THE BIG CHILL, and THE FLY. On television, his credits include “Will &
Grace” and “Portlandia.” He appeared in the Lincoln Center Theatre’s production of
Domesticated; The Pillowman, on Broadway; the West End’s The Prisoner of Second Avenue;
and Speed the Plow, at the Old Vic Theatre.

Born in Tokyo 1973, KUNICHI NOMURA (MAYOR KOBAYASHI) traveled around

the world as backpacker on and off for 6 years retuning to Tokyo in 1999. Upon his return,
Nomura started the Sputnik Project for Interview magazine made up of 86 creative people around
the world called “Sputnik: Whole Life Catalogue” and created a summer limited beach house
with IDEE Design Firm. Since then Nomura has been working as one of the leading writers and
editors in Japan with numerous domestic and international magazines about culture, architecture,
music, fashion. In 2004, Nomura set up design company Tripster Inc, designing commercial
stores, restaurants, and offices, such as The North Face Store, Beams Harajuku, Café On The
Corner, among others. Nomura has his own radio program on JWave every Sunday “Travelling
Without Moving.” Nomura’s screen credits include LOST IN TRANSLATION and THE
GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL.

AKIRA TAKAYAMA (MAJOR-DOMO) performed in many film, television, and

stage productions in Japan. In the United States, he played Gandzalin in the Broadway
production of Zoya’s Apartment, and worked under Andrzej Wajda in the Brooklyn Academy of
Music’s workshop of Sansho the Bailiff. More recently, Akira played Lt. Mamiya in Haruki

29
Murakami’s Wind-up Bird Chronicle, presented in New York, Edinburgh, Scotland, and
Singapore.
On film, he has portrayed Matsuji, the male lead in Miramax’s PICTURE BRIDE; Hisao,
the father in Universal’s SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS; and a businessman in Disney’s OLD
DOGS.
Takayama is happy to give voice to a dog – in this, the year of the dog.

GRETA GERWIG (TRACY WALKER) has rapidly emerged as one of Hollywood’s

most engaging actresses, screenwriters, and directors. Gerwig wrote and directed the Golden
Globe winning film LADY BIRD, which also recently garnered five Oscar nominations for Best
Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Best
Supporting Actress. The film appeared on over 300 “Top Ten” lists in 2017, was awarded “Best
Picture” from the New York Film Critics Circle and Gerwig received “Best Director” honors
from the National Board of Review. In addition, Gerwig has been nominated for Best Director
from the Director’s Guild of America, as well as for Best Original Screenplay from the Writers
Guild of America.
As an actress, Gerwig was last seen in 20th CENTURY WOMEN alongside Annette
Bening and Elle Fanning from director Mike Mills. Gerwig received a Critics’ Choice Award
nomination in the category of “Best Supporting Actress” for her portrayal of “Abbie,” a
photographer who is being treated for cervical cancer. Last year, Gerwig also starred in Pablo
Larrain’s JACKIE alongside Natalie Portman and Peter Sarsgaard; Todd Solondz’s WIENER-
DOG opposite Danny DeVito, Ellen Burstyn, and Kieran Culkan; and Rebecca Miller’s romantic
dramedy MAGGIE’S PLAN opposite Ethan Hawke and Julianne Moore.
In 2015, Gerwig starred in MISTRESS AMERICA, a comedy that she co-wrote with
director Noah Baumbach, which premiered to rave reviews at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
Gerwig’s previous collaboration with Baumbach, FRANCES HA, earned her Golden Globe and
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award nominations in the category of “Outstanding Lead
Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy.” The film, which also earned an Independent
Spirit Award nomination for “Best Feature,” premiered at the 2012 Telluride Film Festival,
Toronto Film Festival, and New York Film Festival.
Gerwig first received critical acclaim for her breakout role as “Florence” in
GREENBERG, which marked her first collaboration with writer/director Noah Baumbach. In the
film, she starred opposite Ben Stiller and her performance earned her several nominations

30
including a Gotham Award nomination for “Breakthrough Performance” and an Independent
Spirit Award nomination for “Best Female Lead.”
Other film credits include Barry Levinson’s THE HUMBLING opposite Al Pacino and
Dianne Wiest; ARTHUR opposite Russell Brand and Helen Mirren; the romantic comedy NO
STRINGS ATTACHED with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher; Whit Stillman’s comedy
DAMSELS IN DISTRESS; and Fox Searchlight’s LOLA VERSUS. A darling of the independent
film scene, Gerwig’s prior credits include Ti West’s “art-house horror film” HOUSE OF THE
DEVIL; the Duplass brothers’ genre-bender BAGHEAD; Joe Swanberg’s HANNAH TAKES
THE STAIRS as a writer and actress, and NIGHTS AND WEEKENDS which she co-wrote and
co-directed.
Gerwig graduated Magna Cum Laude from Barnard College and currently resides in New
York City.

FRANCES MCDORMAND (INTERPRETER NELSON) received a Masters in Fine

Arts from the Yale School of Drama. On Broadway, she received the Tony Award, Drama Desk
Award, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her performance in David Lindsay-Abaire’s Good
People, directed by Daniel Sullivan. Other stage appearances include The Country Girl directed
Mike Nichols on Broadway, Caryl Churchill’s Far Away directed by Stephen Daldry at New
York Theatre Workshop, her Tony-nominated performance as ‘Stella’ in A Streetcar Named
Desire, The Sisters Rosenzweig directed by Daniel Sullivan at Lincoln Center Theatre, The Swan
at The Public Theatre, A Streetcar Named Desire (this time as ‘Blanche’) at the Gate Theater in
Dublin, and Dare Clubb's Oedipus at the Blue Light Theater Company. With The Wooster Group,
she performed in To You, The Birdie!, North Atlantic and Early Shaker Spirituals. She recently
appeared in the Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s production of Macbeth and collaborated and
performed at national museums with the conceptual artist Suzanne Bocanegra on a performance
piece, Bodycast.
McDormand recently won a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Mildred Hayes in
Martin McDonagh’s critically acclaimed THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING,
MISSOURI. The film has garnered 6 Golden Globe nominations, receiving 4 awards including
Best Actress in a Drama Motion Picture and Best Drama Motion Picture; 4 Screen Actors Guild
nominations, receiving 3 awards including Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a
Leading Role and Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture; and received 7 Oscar
nominations. Other films include MOONRISE KINGDOM, THE GOOD DINOSAUR,
PROMISED LAND, THIS MUST BE THE PLACE, MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE'S MOST
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WANTED, TRANSFORMERS-DARK OF THE MOON, MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A
DAY, FRIENDS WITH MONEY, LAUREL CANYON, SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE,
WONDER BOYS, CITY BY THE SEA, MADELINE, PRIMAL FEAR, LONE STAR,
PALOOKAVILLE, CHATTAHOOCHEE, DARKMAN, HIDDEN AGENDA, SHORT CUTS,
BEYOND RANGOON, PARADISE ROAD, HIDDEN AGENDA, and DARKMAN. She has
been nominated for the Academy Award for her work in MISSISSIPPI BURNING, ALMOST
FAMOUS, and NORTH COUNTRY, while receiving the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading
Role for her iconic portrayal of “Marge Gundersen” in Joel and Ethan Coen’s FARGO. She has
appeared in five additional collaborations with the Coens: HAIL, CAESAR!, BURN AFTER
READING, THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE, RAISING ARIZONA, and BLOOD SIMPLE.
With her company Hear/Say, Frances produced “Every Secret Thing” and “Olive
Kitteridge,” the latter of which was nominated for 13 Emmys- receiving 8 of the awards including
2 for herself as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series and for Outstanding Limited Series
(as an Executive Producer), as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Actress in a
Limited Series. She is currently developing screen adaptations of Michael Pollan's
OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA and Conrad Richter’s AWAKENING LAND.
She last appeared in a reading of Voices of a People’s History of the United States in
Pittsburgh focused on labor history. She is a proud board member, and active participant with The
52nd St. Project in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen.

AKIRA ITO (PROFESSOR WATANABE) was born in Kobe, Japan, and started
acting as a member of The Second Theater Company in Osaka. After graduation from Osaka
University, he came to New York in 2008 and performed in many productions. In 2016, he
relocated his base to Kyoto, Japan.
Theatre: Wind-up Bird Chronicle (Ohio Theatre; King's Theatre; Esplanade Theatre);
Utsuyo Kakuryo (HERE); Modern Noh Play (J-Collabo); Kayaba Rockets! (in→dependent
theatre 1st) Straw Band (Wing Field); Fugue for X and Y (Kobe Art Village Center), Jigoku
(Kaitokudo), and many more. Film & TV: Academy Award winning BIRDMAN OR (THE
UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE) directect by Alejandro González Iñárritu, “The
Detour” on TBS, “Broke A$$ Game Show” on MTV. Music Video: Lil Yachty's 1Night.

Tony and BAFTA winner and four-time Golden Globe nominee SCARLETT
JOHANSSON (NUTMEG) was most recently seen alongside Kate McKinnon and Zoe Kravitz
in the R-rated comedy ROUGH NIGHT and in the lead role of the Major in GHOST IN THE
32
SHELL. She is currently filming a yet-to-be-titled Noah Baumbach movie opposite Laura Dern
and Adam Driver. Up next, she will reprise her role as ‘Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow’ in the
third and fourth installments of the AVENGERS film series, including AVENGERS: INFINITY
WAR, which is set for release on May 4, 2018. Her recent roles include CAPTAIN AMERICA:
CIVIL WAR, LUCY, UNDER THE SKIN, and HER, which earned her a Best Actress award at
the Rome Film Festival.
Johansson received rave reviews and the Upstream Prize for Best Actress in the
Controcorrente section at the Venice Film Festival for her starring role opposite Bill Murray in
LOST IN TRANSLATION, the critically-acclaimed second film by director Sofia Coppola. She
also won a Tony for her Broadway debut in the Arthur Miller play A View from a Bridge opposite
Liev Schreiber. She wrapped her second run on Broadway as ‘Maggie’ in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
in 2013.
At the age of 12, Johansson attained worldwide recognition for her performance as Grace
Maclean, the teen traumatized by a riding accident in Robert Redford’s THE HORSE
WHISPERER. She went on to star in Terry Zwigoff’s GHOST WORLD, garnering a “Best
Supporting Actress” award from the Toronto Film Critics Circle. Her breakthrough role came at
the age of 10 in the critically-praised MANNY & LO, which earned her an Independent Spirit
Award nomination for “Best Female Lead.”
Her other film credits include: HAIL, CAESAR!, THE JUNGLE BOOK, SING, CHEF,
THE AVENGERS, DON JON, HITCHCOCK, WE BOUGHT A ZOO, IRON MAN 2, IN
GOOD COMPANY, A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG, MATCH POINT, HE’S JUST NOT
THAT INTO YOU, VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA, THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL, THE
SPIRIT, GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, THE ISLAND, THE BLACK DAHLIA, THE
PRESTIGE, THE NANNY DIARIES, NORTH, JUST CAUSE, and THE MAN WHO WASN’T
THERE.
A New York native, Johansson made her professional acting debut at the age of eight in
the off-Broadway production of Sophistry, with Ethan Hawke, at New York’s Playwright’s
Horizons.

HARVEY KEITEL (GONDO) is an Oscar and Golden Globe nominated actor as well
as a producer. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's MEAN
STREETS and TAXI DRIVER, Ridley Scott's THE DUELLISTS and THELMA & LOUISE,
Quentin Tarantino's RESERVOIR DOGS and PULP FICTION, Jane Campion's THE PIANO,
Abel Ferrara's BAD LIEUTENANT, James Mangold's COP LAND and playing ‘The Devil’ in
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LITTLE NICKY. Along with actors Al Pacino and Ellen Burstyn, he is the current co-president
of the Actors Studio, considered the nation's most prestigious acting school.

F. MURRAY ABRAHAM (JUPITER) has appeared in more than 80 films including

AMADEUS, for which he received the Academy Award® for 'Best Actor,' as well as Golden
Globe® and L.A. Film Critics Awards. His other films include Lina Wertmüller's HOUSE OF
GERANIUMS (with Sophia Loren); THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY (with Robert De Niro);
WHERE LOVE BEGINS (with Virna Lisi); THE NAME OF THE ROSE and Gus Van Sant's
FINDING FORRESTER, both with Sean Connery; Brian De Palma's SCARFACE and THE
BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES; THE RITZ; STAR TREK: INSURRECTION; THE GRAND
BUDAPEST HOTEL (Wes Anderson) and INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (Joel and Ethan Coen).
Mr. Abraham's television appearances have included Zanuck Productions' “Dead
Lawyers,” “Noah's Ark,” “Dead Man's Walk,” “Largo Desolato,” “A Season Of
Giants,” “Excellent Cadavers,” “Quiet Flows The Don,” “The Betrothed,” “Journey To The
Center Of The Earth,” “Marco Polo,” “The Good Wife,” “Louie (Louis C.K.),” and the hit series
“Homeland.”
A veteran of the theater stage, F. Murray Abraham has appeared in more than 90 plays,
among them Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (for which he received an Obie Award), Trumbo, Standup
Shakespeare, the Italian tour of Notturno Pirandelliano (with Michele Placido), Susan Stroman's
A Christmas Carol, the musical Triumph Of Love (alongside Betty Buckley), A Month In The
Country, the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac, The Seagull, Oedipus Rex, Creon, Angels In
America (both Millennium Approaches and Perestroika), The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, Waiting
For Godot, The Caretaker, The Ritz, Sexual Perversity In Chicago, Duck Variations, A Life In
The Theatre, Paper Doll and The Threepenny Opera. Most recently, he appeared in Terrence
McNally's It's Only A Play, for which he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. He made his
LA debut in Ray Bradbury's The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit and his NY debut as a Macy's Santa
Claus, soon thereafter to Broadway in The Man In The Glass Booth, directed by Harold Pinter.
In 2005, Mr. Abraham penned A Midsummer Night's Dream: Actors On Shakespeare, a
commentary chronicling his experience playing the character of "Bottom" in A Midsummer
Night's Dream on stage.
In January of 2013, Mr. Abraham was honored with The Moscow Art Theatre Award,
also received by the distinguished director Peter Brook.
Mr. Abraham lives in New York and is a proud grandfather.

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 YOKO ONO (ASSISTANT-SCIENTIST YOKO-ONO) is an award-winning artist,
singer, songwriter, musician, filmmaker and peace activist and advocate.
As a child of war, Yoko has always been acutely aware of how fragile world peace is and
that it takes constant vigilance to maintain.
In 1969 when Yoko Ono and John Lennon created their Bed Ins for Peace in Amsterdam
and Montreal, their message was Peace. Initially it was a protest against the Vietnam War. But
it’s universal idea and call for peace among all people and working towards a non-violence
society is an eternal one.
The Ono-Lennon collaboration resulted in the songs “Give Peace a Chance”, “Happy
Xmas (War Is Over)” and the slogan/billboard campaign, “WAR IS OVER (if you want it).
When Lennon became a victim of handgun violence in 1980, Ono became an even more
committed peace advocate and activist.
In 1985, in memory of John Lennon, Strawberry Fields “Garden of Peace” in Central
Park was opened by Yoko and the City of New York. It continues to be a welcoming and
peaceful area of the park where people from all over the world can co-exist in harmony.
In 1996, “Wish Tree” is a participatory art work that has been shown worldwide. People
write down a wish and tie it to the branch of the tree and continue wishing. The power of positive
thinking and wish-fulfillment continues to engage everyone who comes in contact with a Wish
Tree.
In 2001, Ono began installing IMAGINE PEACE billboards and they have since been
shown around the world.
In 2007, Yoko unveiled her highly anticipated public art installation IMAGINE PEACE
TOWER in Reykjavik, Iceland. It’s endless beam of light extends into the stratosphere and serves
as a beacon of hope for peace in the world. On the well of the tower, the white glass tiles are
engraved with the phrase “IMAGINE PEACE” in 24 different languages.
In 2013, “Artists Against Fracking” was founded by Yoko Ono to promote awareness
about the environment and the dangers of fracking. Her very public activism has successfully
brought a peaceful end to fracking in NY State.
In 2016, “SKYLANDING” is Ono’s most recent work, and her first permanent Public
Artwork work in the USA. Installed at the site of the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago’s Jackson
Park, it is a work about peace and hope. The site is where Japan’s 1893 contribution stood, the
“Phoenix Pavilion”. Using this site is a reminder of the power of the World Fairs to bring all
people and cultures of the world together; fostering peace and understanding.

35
 TILDA SWINTON (ORACLE) started making films with the English experimental
director Derek Jarman in 1985, with CARAVAGGIO. They made seven more films together,
including THE LAST OF ENGLAND, THE GARDEN, WAR REQUIEM, EDWARD II (for
which she won the Best Actress award at the 1991 Venice International Film Festival), and
WITTGENSTEIN, before Mr. Jarman’s death in 1994. She gained wider international recognition
in 1992 with her portrayal of ORLANDO, based on the novel by Virginia Woolf under the
direction of Sally Potter.
She has established rewarding ongoing filmmaking relationships with Lynn Hershman-‐
Leeson, with John Maybury, with Jim Jarmusch, with Wes Anderson, with Joel and Ethan Coen
and Luca Guadagnino with whom she made The Love Factory, the widely applauded I AM
LOVE, and A BIGGER SPLASH.
She also worked with Bong Joon Ho on the international hits SNOWPIERCER and
OKJA. She received both the BAFTA and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress of 2008
for Tony Gilroy's MICHAEL CLAYTON.
In 2011, Swinton starred in and executive produced WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT
KEVIN with Lynne Ramsay directing. The film debuted in the main competition at the Cannes
Film Festival to huge critical acclaim and garnered multiple honors including Golden Globe and
BAFTA nominations for Best Actress. Swinton is the mother of twins and lives in the Scottish
Highlands.

Since KEN WATANABE (HEAD SURGEON) made his American film debut in Ed
Zwick’s THE LAST SAMURAI (Oscar, Screen Actors Guild, Critics’ Choice and Golden Globe
award nominations) opposite Tom Cruise, the actor has collaborated with some of most
significant filmmakers of our time. In 2006, Watanabe portrayed the courageous Japanese
General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in Clint Eastwood’s award-winning World War II drama
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA. Watanabe first worked with director Christopher Nolan on the
2005 blockbuster BATMAN BEGINS and subsequently on INCEPTION. For Rob Marshall,
Watanabe starred in MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, the lush screen adaptation of Arthur Golden’s
best-selling novel.
In 2018, Watanabe stars alongside Julianne Moore and Demian Bichir in BEL CANTO,
an adaptation of Ann Patchett’s bestselling novel directed by Paul Weitz based on actual events in
Peru in the mid-1990s.
Watanabe is currently at work with Ryan Reynolds in DETECTIVE PIKACHU,
Legendary Entertainment’s live-action Pokemon movie directed by Rob Letterman. In a role
36
specifically created for the film, Watanabe plays a character named Detective Yoshida. Universal
is set to release DETECTIVE PIKACHU on May 10, 2019.
In 2014, Watanabe co-starred with Sally Hawkins and David Strathairn in Warner
Bros/Legendary’s GODZILLA, directed by Gareth Edwards. Next year, he reprises the role of
Dr. Ishiro Serizawa in GODZILLA: KING OF MONSTERS, directed by Michael Dougherty and
co-starring Hawkins, Kyle Chandler and Millie Bobby Brown. Watanabe’s English-language
credits also include Gus Van Sant’s SEA OF TREES and the voice of Drift in Michael Bay’s
previous two TRANSFORMERS chapters.
In 2006, Watanabe starred in and executive produced the Japanese film MEMORIES OF
TOMORROW, for which he won several Best Actor awards, including the Japanese Academy
Award and the Hochi Film Award. In 2009, Watanabe lead SHIZUMANO TAIYÔ (THE
UNBROKEN) for which he won his second Japanese Academy Award, and the Hochi Film
Award for Best Actor. His credits also include YURUSAREZARU MONO, Sang-il Lee’s
Japanese language remake of Clint Eastwood’s UNFORGIVEN (Japanese Academy Award
nomination), the international hit comedy TAMPOPO, directed by Juzo Itami, RAGE, which
premiered at the 2016 Toronto Film Festival, IKEBUKURO WEST GATE PARK, SPACE
TRAVELERS, OBORERU SAKANA (DROWNING FISH) and SHIN JINGINAKI
TATAKAI/BOSATSU (FIGHT WITHOUT LOYALTY/MURDER), an updated version of the
popular Yakuza movie series.
In 2015, Watanabe garnered a Tony Award nomination for his performance as the King
of Siam opposite Kelli O’Hara in Lincoln Center Theater’s acclaimed revival of Rodgers and
Hammerstein’s The King and I, directed by Bartlett Sher. The production marked Watanabe’s
American stage and Broadway debuts. He returns for the revival at London’s West End
Palladium Theatre in June 2018.
Watanabe began his acting career with the Tokyo-based theater company En. His lead
performance in the company’s production of Shitayamannen-cho monogatari, directed by Yukio
Ninawara, caught the attention of both critics and Japanese audiences. Last year, Watanabe
returned to the Tokyo and Osaka stages in critically acclaimed, sold out runs of the comedy
Dialogue with Horowitz by Koki Mitani. His Japanese theatre credits also include Hamlet, The
Lion in Winter and The Royal Hunt of the Sun.
In 1982, Watanabe made his television debut with “Michinaru Hanran.” His formidable
screen presence in the subsequent Samurai drama series “Dokuganryu Masamume” led to
additional roles in the historical series “Oda Nobunaga” and “Chushingsra," and the film
BAKUMATSU JUNJOU DEN.
37
 MARI NATSUKI (AUNTIE) made her debut as a singer in 1973 and during 80's
expanded her career into acting for theatre and films.
Natsuki received several awards - Japan Selected Art Award and Best New Artist.
In 1993, Natsuki participated in Edinburgh, Avignon Festival with her own conceptual
performing art project “IMPRESSIONIST.”
In 2009, she presided her performance troupe MNT (Mari NATSUKI Terroir) and helps
foster new talent through workshops, which she was awarded the Mont Blanc International Art &
Culture Prize.
Since 2014, Natsuki has been making a cultural offering: “PLAY x PRAY” at the Kyoto
Kiyomizu Temple (world cultural heritage) every autumn.
In the spring of 2017, Natsuki achieved success by performing the newest production of
THE IMPRESSIONIST: “NEO vol.3 / Snow White in Wonderland” in Tokyo, Kyoto and Paris
(Musee du Louvre).
Recent music activity includes summer rock festivals such as the FUJI ROCK
FESTIVAL, RISING SUN ROCK FESTIVAL in EZO with her unique outstanding performance
as well as performing at the BLUE NOTE Jazz Club Tokyo. Natsuki’s stylish act “MARI de
MODE” is set for a 2-night run as a special returning engagement in the spring of 2018.
Natsuki has worked on a number of films, stages, TV-Drama and received many awards.
She has lent her voice for award winning animations including Hayao Miyazaki's SPIRITED
AWAY, Disney's MOANA, French Animation BALLERINA LEAP, and most notedly voice
acting in acclaimed American TV-Drama “FEUD/Betty & Joan” for which she dubbed Joan
Crawford (Jessica Lange).
Natsuki can soon be seen in the lead role about a family that survived East Japan
earthquake & tsunami IKIRU-MACHI directed by Hideo Sakaki to be released in March 2018 as
well as in VISION the upcoming film by Naomi Kawase.
Natsuki continues to vigorously support a wide range of activities for under-developed
countries such as “One of Love Project”, which she has presided over for almost for a decade

FISHER STEVENS (SCRAP) has been in the entertainment business for over 30 years.
His recent acting includes roles in the HBO series “Vice Principals,” and “The Night Of,” NBC’s
“The Blacklist,” as well as the Coen Brothers film “Hail Caesar!” and Wes Anderson’s “The
Grand Budapest Hotel.” In addition to documentary films, Stevens has directed theatrical films
(“Stand Up Guys,” starring Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin) and Broadway
38
theater (John Leguizamo’s “Ghetto Klown”). In 2010 Stevens co-founded Insurgent Media,
producers of the 2012 SXSW Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary “Beware of Mr. Baker,” the
critically acclaimed “Blank City”, American Masters’ “Woody Allen: A Documentary” and the
Netflix Original “Mission Blue,” which he also directed. Stevens will direct the upcoming feature
“Palmer,” which made the 2016 Blacklist.

Born in 1997, NIJIRO MURAKAMI (EDITOR HIROSHI) has starred in the movie
SECOND WINDOW (67th Cannes Film Festival Competition) and debuted as an actor.
Murakami credits include I SWORE I WILL NOT FORGET, DISTRACTION BABIES,
GOODBYE, SECOND SUMMER, NEVER MEET YOU AGAIN and NAMIYA GENERAL
STORE'S MIRACLE. Nominated for 41st Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Performance by
an Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in MUKOKU.

Heralded as “the finest American theater actor of his generation” by the New York Times,
LIEV SCHREIBER’s (SPOTS) repertoire of resonant, humanistic and oftentimes gritty
portrayals have garnered him praise in film, theatre and television.
Schreiber stars as the title role of “Ray Donovan” in Showtime’s critically-acclaimed hit
series alongside Jon Voight. This powerful family drama centers on Ray as L.A.’s best
professional fixer – the go-to guy in Hollywood who deftly solves the complicated, controversial
and confidential problems of the city’s elite. Schreiber’s riveting performance as ‘Ray’ garnered
him five Golden Globe Award nominations in the category of ‘Best Actor in a Television Series
Drama’ and three Primetime Emmy nominations in “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.”
He also directed the first episode of season four. The show recently finished airing its fifth
season.
Last year, he was seen in IFC’s CHUCK which he also co-produced and co-wrote. The
bio-pic tells the story of Chuck Wepner, the liquor store salesman and heavyweight boxer who
was given the opportunity to fight Muhammad Ali as an underdog and was the inspiration for the
film, ROCKY. The film also stars Naomi Watts, Ron Perlman, and Elisabeth Moss.
In 2015, Schreiber was seen in SPOTLIGHT, an award-winning film about the true story
of when The Boston Globe uncovered the scandal of child molestation within the Catholic
Church. The film won several awards including an Oscar for Best Picture, a Golden Globe for
Best Motion Picture – Drama, and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Picture. It was also listed
on the American Film Institute’s Top Ten Films of 2015.

39
 Schreiber's many feature credits include Sony’s THE 5TH WAVE; Ed Zwicks’ PAWN
SACRIFICE; THE GOOD LORD BIRD; Lee Daniels’ THE BUTLER; Larry David’s CLEAR
HISTORY; FADING GIGOLO; THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST; SALT with
Angelina Jolie; X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE; DEFIANCE with Daniel Craig; REPO
MEN; THE PAINTED VEIL; THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, opposite Meryl Streep and
Denzel Washington; THE SUM OF ALL FEARS; Ang Lee’s TAKING WOODSTOCK; KATE
& LEOPOLD; GOON; EVERY DAY; Michael Almereyda’s HAMLET; SPRING
FORWARD; THE HURRICANE; A WALK ON THE MOON with Diane Lane; THE
DAYTRIPPERS; Nora Ephron's MIXED NUTS; and Wes Craven's SCREAM trilogy.
His portrayal of Orson Welles in Benjamin Ross' “RKO 281” brought Schreiber
Emmy and Golden Globe® Award nominations. His other telefilm credits include George C.
®

Wolfe's “Lackawanna Blues” and John Erman's “The Sunshine Boys,” opposite Woody Allen and
Peter Falk. As one of the documentary medium's foremost narrators, he has lent his voice to such
works as “Mantle,” “:03 from Gold;” “A City on Fire: The Story of the ‘68 Detroit Tigers;”
“Nova;” and “Nature.”
In 2010, Schreiber received his third Tony® nomination for his role in Arthur Miller’s A
View from the Bridge alongside Scarlett Johansson. His performance as Ricky Roma in the 2005
Broadway revival of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, directed by Joe Mantello, earned him
his first Tony Award. He was again a Tony nominee for his portrayal of Barry Champlain in the
2007 Broadway revival of Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio, directed by Robert Falls. Other stage
work includes in Les Liaisons Dangereuses in the lead role opposite Janet McTeer, the Public
Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of Macbeth, in the lead role opposite Jennifer Ehle,
directed by Moisés Kaufman; Othello; Hamlet; Henry V; and Cymbeline.
In 2005, Schreiber made his feature directorial debut with EVERYTHING IS
ILLUMINATED, which he also adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer's best-selling novel of the
same name. The film, starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hutz, was named one of the year's 10
Best by the National Board of Review.

From studying history at Harvard to making history in Hollywood, COURTNEY B.

VANCE (THE NARRATOR) has carefully cultivated an exceptional career that showcases his
passion, talent, and intellect. His penchant for successfully finding the dignity and honor in each
character exploration has made this Tony and Emmy award-winning actor a powerful presence
from the theatrical boards to the silver screen.

40
 Courtney was awarded the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series;
the Critics Choice Award for Best Actor in a Movie Made for Television or Limited Series; and
the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Limited-Series or
Dramatic Special for his stunning portrayal of Johnnie Cochran in the FX series “The People vs.
OJ Simpson: American Crime Story.” He also earned SAG and Golden Globe nominations for
his critically acclaimed performance.
He recently co-starred in DreamWorks Pictures’ ensemble comedy OFFICE
CHRISTMAS PARTY alongside Jennifer Aniston, Olivia Munn, Kate McKinnon, T.J. Miller,
and Jason Bateman; appeared opposite Tom Cruise in Universal Pictures’ THE MUMMY; and
went head-to-head with Oprah Winfrey in HBO Film’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,”
in which he portrayed Sir Lord Keenan Kester Cofield, a Southern con artist who inserts himself
into the Lacks’ legal matters.
His talents have also extended to many notable TV series and movies including “The
Lawn Chair,” a pivotal episode on ABC’s “Scandal” that mirrored recent police shooting
headlines; Dr. Charles Hendricks on Showtime’s “Masters of Sex;” First Gentleman Marshall
Payton on NBC’s “State of Affairs;” Manhattan defense attorney Benjamin Barnes on ABC’s
“Revenge;” Stanford Wedeck on ABC/Disney’s “Flashforward;” Showtime’s “Twelve Angry
Men” and “Blind Faith;” August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” for Hallmark; HBO’s :The
Tuskegee Airmen;” TNT’s “The Closer;” NBC’s “ER;” and NBC’s long-running hit series “Law
& Order: Criminal Intent,” in which he played A.D.A. Ron Carver. Courtney was the recipient of
an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal
of this role and an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a
Drama Series for his work on “Masters of Sex.”
Courtney walked into his first theater rehearsal while a student at Harvard University and
found “home” for the first time. There he began to hone his craft by appearing with the Boston
Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare and Company. During his tenure at the Yale School of
Drama, he appeared with Yale Repertory Theatre and the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center. Soon,
he headed to New York and quickly established himself on Broadway by being honored with a
Tony Award nomination, the Theater World Award and Clarence Derwent Award for his debut
performance in August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences starring James Earl Jones
and directed by the late Lloyd Richards. He then received his second Tony Award nomination
when he starred in John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation with Stockard Channing and directed
by Jerry Zaks. He received an Obie Award for his inspired work in South African playwright
Athol Fugard’s My Children! My Africa!, starred in Vaclav Havel's Temptation with David
41
Strathairn and as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet at the Public Theater, and performed to rave
reviews with his wife, Angela Bassett, in John Guare’s U.S. premiere of the stage adaptation of
His Girl Friday and The Front Page at Minneapolis’ renowned Guthrie Theater.
2013 saw him as the winner of the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his
stellar performance as Hap Hairston in Nora Ephron's Lucky Guy, and also garnered him a Drama
League Distinguished Performance Award Nomination.
He easily transferred his talents from the stage to the silver screen. His film debut as Spc.
Abraham ‘Doc’ Johnson in HAMBURGER HILL launched his prolific cinematic career that
currently includes noteworthy films such as THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, THE
PREACHER’S WIFE, SPACE COWBOYS, THE ADVENTURES OF HUCK
FINN, COOKIE’S FORTUNE, THE LAST SUPPER, HURRICANE
SEASON, EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES, JOYFUL NOISE, FINAL DESTINATION 5,
THE DIVIDE, and TERMINATOR GENISYS.
Courtney and his wife, actress Angela Bassett co-wrote the book, Friends: A Love
Story. The inspirational book is their personal love story, and chronicles their story about healthy
relationships. A native of Detroit, Michigan, he is a proud Ambassador for the Boys and Girls
Clubs of America. Currently he resides in Southern California with his wife Angela and their
twins, Bronwyn Golden and Slater Josiah.

42
 FILMMAKER BIOS

WES ANDERSON (DIRECTED BY, STORY BY, SCREENPLAY BY,

PRODUCED BY) was born in Houston, Texas. His films include BOTTLE ROCKET,
RUSHMORE, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU,
THE DARJEELING LIMITED, FANTASTIC MR. FOX, MOONRISE KINGDOM, and THE
GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL.

ROMAN COPPOLA (STORY BY) was an Academy Award nominee, Writers Guild of
America Award nominee, and BAFTA Award nominee for Best Original Screenplay category as
co-writer, with director Wes Anderson, of Focus Features’ MOONRISE KINGDOM. The film
received accolades including the Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Feature, and their
screenplay was honored by several critics’ groups. Mr. Coppola was a producer and co-writer on
Mr. Anderson’s earlier film THE DARJEELING LIMITED.
Mr. Coppola grew up in the world of filmmaking, and has developed his directing skills
by working in multiple capacities – from sound recordist to cinematographer, from writer and
producer, to inventor.
He began his directing career with visual effects direction and second-unit direction on
BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA, which garnered a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Special
Effects. His first feature film, C.Q., world-premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival
and was well-received critically. He has lent his talents as second-unit director to, among other
films, Sofia Coppola’s LOST IN TRANSLATION and MARIE ANTOINETTE; and Wes
Anderson’s THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU. His most recent feature as director
and writer was A GLIMPSE INSIDE THE MIND OF CHARLES SWAN III, starring Charlie
Sheen, Bill Murray, and Jason Schwartzman.
He is also the founder and owner of The Directors Bureau (TDB), an award-winning
production company. It is through TDB that Mr. Coppola has directed highly acclaimed and
influential music videos, for such bands as The Strokes and Green Day; and commercials, for
such clients as Coca-Cola, Honda, Prada, and The New Yorker. His work has earned him various
industry honors, including a Grammy Award nomination and two MTV Video Music Awards.
His stream-of consciousness music video for Phoenix’s “Funky Squaredance” track was invited
into the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
Mr. Coppola is a founding partner of the Photobubble Company, which markets a
patented inflatable film enclosure; details can be viewed at www.photobubblecompany.com.
43
 He is president of the pioneering San Francisco-based film company American Zoetrope.
Among his producing credits are Sofia Coppola’s THE BLING RING and SOMEWHERE (also
for Focus Features), which won the top prize, the Golden Lion Award, at the 2010 Venice
International Film Festival. He also produced ON THE ROAD, directed by Walter Salles, based
on Jack Kerouac’s iconic novel. Mr. Coppola executive-produced Ms. Coppola’s A VERY
MURRAY CHRISTMAS, sharing with his fellow producers the show’s Emmy Award
nominations for Outstanding Television Movie.
Mr. Coppola is an executive producer of Amazon’s hit series “Mozart in the Jungle,” and
shared with his colleagues from the program a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series
[Comedy or Musical]. He has written and directed several episodes of the show, the most current
being season four, which premieres in February 2018.

JASON SCHWARTZMAN (STORY BY) is an American actor, screenwriter, producer

and musician. He made his motion picture debut as Max Fischer, in Wes Anderson’s acclaimed
comedy, RUSHMORE.
Currently, Jason stars opposite Jack Black and Jenny Slate in Maya Forbes’ THE
POLKA KING on Netflix. Next up, he joins Mary‐Louise Parker, Chloe Svgeny, Analeigh
Tipton, Lily Rabe, and Emily Browning in Alex Ross Perry’s GOLDEN EXITS. The film is the
second collaboration between the actor and Perry, since 2014’s LISTEN UP PHILIP, in which
Schwartzman plays the title character opposite Elizabeth Moss and Jonathan Pryce.
His film acting credits include Judd Apatow’s FUNNY PEOPLE opposite Adam Sandler,
Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill; Edgar Wright’s SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD; Sofia
Coppola’s MARIE ANTOINETTE alongside Kirsten Dunst; David O. Russell’s I HEART
HUCKABEES; THE OVERNIGHT opposite Adam Scott and Taylor Schilling, SAVING MR.
BANKS alongside Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson, 7 CHINESE BROTHERS, opposite
Olympia Dukakis; Tim Burton’s BIG EYES opposite Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz, Anand
Tucker’s SHOPGIRL, adapted by Steve Martin from his own book; Jonas Åkerlund’s Spun;
Andrew Niccol’s S1M0NE with Al Pacino; CQ and A GLIMPSE INSIDE THE MIND OF
CHARLES SWAN III, both written and directed by Roman Coppola.
The Los Angeles native also starred for three seasons as Jonathan Ames on HBO’s
acclaimed, Brooklyn-based series, “Bored to Death,” which also starred Ted Danson and Zach
Galifianakis. He is also credited for composing show’s theme song.
In addition, Jason has continued working with Wes Anderson, whom he describes as his
mentor. Over a now 20 year working relationship, the two have worked together on numerous
44
films in a variety of different ways. As an actor, he appeared alongside Frances McDormand and
Bill Murray in MOONRISE KINGDOM, FANTASTIC MR. FOX, alongside Jude Law and
Ralph Fiennes in THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, with Natalie Portman in Hotel Chevalier,
as Ash in FANTASTIC MR. FOX. He also starred opposite Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody in
THE DARJEELING LIMITED, a film which he co-wrote with Anderson, along with Roman
Coppola.
He co‐created, produces and writes Amazon’s award winning show MOZART IN THE
JUNGLE, which releases its 4th season this year.
He produced the documentary TEENAGE, directed by Matt Wolf based on the seminal
book by legendary writer Jon Savage.
As a musician and songwriter, he composed music for Judd Apatow’s FUNNY PEOPLE
alongside Mike Andrews. He and musical legend, Woody Jackson, joined and wrote/performed
the soundtrack for the SXSW film GOATS.
From age 14-22, he was the drummer and co-songwriter in the band Phantom Planet.
During his time with the band, they released 3 records and toured the world extensively. Their
song CALIFORNIA became the theme song for the hit show THE OC.
He also released two solo LP’s under the moniker Coconut Records, which he releases
through his own imprint. He is currently writing a new album.
He hosts a monthly show on SiriusXMU called Coconut Radio, which is, according to
Schwartzman, “a dream come true”.
He has three kids. And One dog. He likes dried fruit too much, drinks coffee and doesn’t
sleep well.

KUNICHI NOMURA (STORY BY/see cast bio)

SCOTT RUDIN (PRODUCED BY) films include: LADY BIRD, FENCES, EX

MACHINA, STEVE JOBS, BEST WORST THING THAT EVER COULD HAVE HAPPENED,
TOP FIVE, WHILE WE’RE YOUNG, THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, CAPTAIN
PHILLIPS, DE PALMA, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, FRANCES HA, MOONRISE KINGDOM,
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, MARGARET, MONEYBALL, TRUE GRIT,
THE SOCIAL NETWORK, GREENBERG, IT’S COMPLICATED, FANTASTIC MR. FOX,
JULIE & JULIA, DOUBT, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, MARGOT AT THE WEDDING, THE
DARJEELING LIMITED,NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, NOTES ON A SCANDAL, THE
QUEEN, CLOSER, THE LIFE AQUATIC, TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE, THE
45
VILLAGE, SCHOOL OF ROCK, THE HOURS, IRIS, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS,
WONDER BOYS, SLEEPY HOLLOW, SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT, A
CIVIL ACTION, THE TRUMAN SHOW, IN & OUT, THE FIRST WIVES CLUB, MOTHER,
CLUELESS, NOBODY’S FOOL, ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES, SEARCHING FOR BOBBY
FISCHER, THE FIRM, SISTER ACT, AND THE ADDAMS FAMILY. Theater includes
Passion, Seven Guitars, A Funny Thing..., The Chairs, The Blue Room, Closer, Amy’s View,
Copenhagen, The Goat, Medea, Caroline, or Change, The Normal Heart, Who’s Afraid of
Virginia Woolf?, Doubt, The History Boys, Faith Healer, Stuff Happens, The Year of Magical
Thinking, Gypsy, God of Carnage, Fences, The Book of Mormon, The Motherf**ker with the Hat,
Jerusalem, Death of a Salesman, One Man, Two Guvnors, Betrayal, A Raisin in the Sun, This Is
Our Youth, The Curious Incident..., A Delicate Balance, The Iceman Cometh, Between Riverside
and Crazy, Fish in the Dark, The Audience, Skylight, The Flick, King Charles III, A View From
the Bridge, The Humans, The Crucible, Blackbird, Shuffle Along, The Front Page, The Wolves,
The Glass Menagerie, Hello, Dolly!, and A Doll’s House, Part 2. Television includes: “The
Newsroom,” “Silicon Valley,” and “The Night Of.”

STEVEN RALES (PRODUCED BY) founded Santa Monica-based production

company Indian Paintbrush Productions in 2006. Films include: LIKE CRAZY; ME EARL AND
THE DYING GIRL; JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME; LABOR DAY; THE DARJEELING
LIMITED; FANTASTIC MR. FOX; MOONRISE KINGDOM AND THE GRAND BUDAPEST
HOTEL.

JEREMY DAWSON (PRODUCED BY) most recently produced Alfonso Gomez-

Rejon’s ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL, which won both the Grand Jury Prize and
the Audience Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and Wes Anderson's THE GRAND
BUDAPEST HOTEL for which he was nominated for an academy award for best picture and
won the 2015 Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical. Previously, Dawson
served as a producer on MOONRISE KINGDOM, which won a Gotham Award for Best Film
and went on to be nominated for multiple awards including an Academy Award for Best Original
Screenplay and a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture. Additionally, he produced
FANTASTIC MR. FOX, which was nominated for two Academy Awards and a Golden Globe
Award and co-produced THE DARJEELING LIMITED for Anderson. Dawson began his
continuing association with Wes Anderson when he served as visual effects supervisor on THE
LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU.
46
 Dawson started in the film industry by designing the title sequence for Darren
Aronofsky’s acclaimed debut feature π. He has since designed visual effects and animation for
numerous films, including Julie Taymor’s FRIDA and ACROSS THE UNIVERSE; and,
reteamed with Aronofsky on REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, THE FOUNTAIN (on which he was
also the second unit director), and BLACK SWAN (for which he designed the main titles).
Dawson has been nominated twice for the Visual Effects Society (VES) Award, with his
colleagues from FRIDA and THE FOUNTAIN.

OCTAVIA PEISSEL (CO-PRODUCER) is an independent Franco-American

producer. After starting out in the international film market in New York and Paris, Octavia
began working with director Wes Anderson on THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX in 2008. She was
an Associate Producer on MOONRISE KINGDOM (2012) and THE GRAND BUDAPEST
HOTEL (2014).
Peissel also serves as a consultant and producer on a variety of film, television,
advertising, and video projects including Errol Morris’ Netflix Series, “Wormwood” (2017).

TRISTAN OLIVER (DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY) has been a

cinematographer for over 20 years and has worked across the disciplines. His long collaboration
with director Nick Park includes Academy award winners, THE WRONG TROUSERS, A
CLOSE SHAVE and THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT. His work with other directors has
produced BAFTA short winners, STAGE FRIGHT and THE BIG STORY as well as the popular
feature films CHICKEN RUN and the Academy award nominated, FANTASTIC MR FOX and
PARANORMAN.
He was also live action cinematographer for the Academy Award nominated 'Loving
Vincent', the first fully painted animated movie where live footage is painstakingly overpainted in
the style of Van Gogh.
In the field of commercials, he has filmed a number of significant live action/animation
mix campaigns most notably for Sony, Becks, Tesco and Tennants.
A member of AMPAS & BAFTA, he has sat on the BAFTA Film and Children’s
committees with responsibility for children’s and family film and has chaired the animation
category awards’ jury on several occasions.
He has also mentored students at the NFTS and numerous other film schools around the
world.

47
 A graduate of the University of Bristol and Bristol Film School, Tristan’s early success in
winning the BP Kodak and Fuji Student Cinematography prizes led to a short period at the
Moscow film school before moving into the world of pop promos and commercials which
launched his career.

After studying animation in the UK at the prestigious West Surrey College of Art and
Design, MARK WARING (ANIMATION DIRECTOR) started his professional career at
renowned London based animation company Filmfair. Here he quickly rose through the
animation ranks to direct on many of their stop-frame children’s series and specials.
Moving into freelance animating and directing work lead to Mark being signed to the
director’s roster of some of London’s noted animation production companies, including Tandem
Films, Bermuda Shorts, and most recently directing with Passion Pictures.
Through these production companies Mark has directed numerous commercials, promos
and short films with such noted clients as General Motors, Wrigley’s, MacDonald’s, Disney and
Nike.
With the resurgence of the stop-frame format in feature production, Mark worked as lead
animator on Tim Burton’s film CORPSE BRIDE. Following this, Mark then helmed the role as
animation supervisor on both Wes Anderson’s first stop-frame feature FANTASTIC MR FOX
and the Tim Burton feature FRANKENWEENIE.
All three of these stop-frame animated features were Oscar nominated.

PAUL HARROD (PRODUCTION DESIGNER) has worked three decades as a

designer, art director and director of both animated and live action projects, with a special
emphasis on stop-motion animation.
In his capacity as a designer, model maker and sculptor, he lent his skills to such diverse
projects as sculpting aliens for STAR TREK V and designing and building miniature sets for the
opening titles of “Pee Wee’s Playhouse.” Specializing in miniature sets for visual effects and
stopmotion projects, he set the tone for a variety of commercial campaigns, including the first
several Chevron “Talking Cars” spots at Aardman Animations in 1994, a campaign which
continues to this day.
Harrod moved from Los angeles to Portland, Oregon in the early 90’s taking on the
mantle of Senior Art Director at Will Vinton Studios, overseeing the design demands of all studio
output. He served as production designer and director of five episodes over the three-season run
of the Fox TV series, “The PJs” for which he was nominated for an Annie award in 2000. He also
48
directed the first episode of UPN’s, “Gary and Mike” animated series and the pilot demo for
Warner Brother’s, “Slacker Cats”, both for Will Vinton Studios.
Joining the directing team at Bent Image Lab in 2003 his animated commercials for
Tractor Supply Company (TSC) received awards and attention for their outstanding creative
design and dry, understated humor. TSC’s “Koi Pond”, was voted one of the 50 best spots of
2006 by Adweek. He have directed numerous commercials for clients including Kellogg’s
Twistables, Quaker, Chips Ahoy!, Hallmark, Ensure, Cartoon Network, Lowes and Aflac.
In 2010, he was designer and Art Director for a stop-motion sequence in A Very Harold
& Kumar 3D Christmas for HouseSpecial, directed by Mark Gustafson.

Originally from Derbyshire ANDY GENT (HEAD OF PUPPETS DEPARTMENT)

made his way to London to train as an illustrator before specializing in animation. After free
lancing in all areas of stop motion making he found his passion was in Puppet Design and
fabrication.
Gent most recent collaborations include, Wes Anderson on THE GRAND HOTEL
BUDAPEST and FANTASTIC MR. FOX; Tim Burton’s MISS PEREGRINES SCHOOL FOR
PECULIARS, FRANKENWEENIE and THE CORPSE BRIDE as well as Henry Sellick’s
CORALINE.
Gent runs his own Puppet and Character making studio in the East end of London with
his chocolate Labrador Charlie.

ALEXANDRE DESPLAT (ORIGINAL MUSIC BY) Oscar-winning composer

Alexandre Desplat is one of the most coveted film composers in the world today. Desplat is noted
for his collaborations with some of the world’s top filmmakers: Wes Anderson, George Clooney,
Stephen Daldry, David Fincher, Stephen Frears, Tom Hooper, Ang Lee, Terrence Malick, Roman
Polanski and Angelina Jolie garnering nine Academy Award nominations.
Desplat first captivated American ears with THE GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING
and BIRTH. The two-time Golden Globe and Oscar winner has since scored a range of incredible
films, eight of which have been Oscar-nominated: THE QUEEN, THE CURIOUS CASE OF
BENJAMIN BUTTON, FANTASTIC MR. FOX, THE KING’S SPEECH, ARGO,
PHILOMENA, THE IMITATION GAME and Wes Anderson’s THE GRAND BUDAPEST
HOTEL which won the 2015 Oscar for Best Score. Desplat’s thematic score to Guillermo Del
Toro’s film, THE SHAPE OF WATER garnered a 2018 Golden Globe and is currently
nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score.
49
 Desplat’s recent work includes Angelina Jolie’s UNBROKEN, his second collaboration
with Tom Hooper (THE KING’S SPEECH), THE DANISH GIRL, Illumination Entertainment’s
recent box office smash hit, THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS, FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS
starring Meryl Streep, and Touchstone’s THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS starring Michael
Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, THE SHAPE OF WATER directed by Guillermo Del Toro, and
George Clooney’s comedy crime feature, SUBURBICON.
Born to a Greek mother and French father, Desplat grew up in France with a budding
love for Hollywood film music, and broke into the French film industry in the 1980s. With a
penchant for lyricism, elegant orchestrations, and precise dramatization, Desplat has quickly
joined the pantheon of all-time greats.

RANDALL POSTER (MUSIC SUPERVISOR) is a longtime collaborator of director

Wes Anderson. ISLE OF DOGS is the ninth film Poster and Anderson have worked on together.
Poster works regularly with a renowned group of directors including Todd Haynes,
Richard Linklater, Todd Phillips, Martin Scorsese, Sam Mendes, and Karyn Kusama, among
others.
Recent credits include Haynes’ WONDERSTRUCK, Kathryn Bigelow’s DETROIT,
James Gray’s THE LOST CITY OF Z, and Martin Scorsese’s SILENCE.
Poster is currently at work on Scorsese’s next film, THE IRISHMAN.
Poster oversaw the music on all five seasons of HBO's BOARDWALK EMPIRE; work
for which he won a Grammy. Poster won a second Grammy in 2016 for his work, along with Mr.
Anderson, as producer of soundtrack to THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL.

ANDREW WISBLUM, A.C.E. (SUPERVISION EDITOR) previously collaborated

with Wes Anderson on such films as MOONRISE KINGDOM (for which he was an American
Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddie Award nominee), FANTASTIC MR. FOX (also an ACE Eddie
Award nominee) and THE DARJEELING LIMITED.
Mr. Weisblum has also worked regularly with Darren Aronofsky on the films THE
WRESTLER, MOTHER!, NOAH and BLACK SWAN, for which he was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Editing. His work on that film was also recognized with, among other
honors, BAFTA and Eddie Award nominations, and the award for best film editing from the
Boston Society of Film Critics. He previously worked with Mr. Aronofsky as visual effects editor
on THE FOUNTAIN.

50
 Weisblum’s other credits as film editor include James Bobin’s ALICE THROUGH THE
LOOKING GLASS; Zal Batmanglij's THE EAST; Jason Reitman's YOUNG ADULT (ACE
Eddie nominated); Zoe Cassavetes’ BROKEN ENGLISH; Amy Hobby’s CONEY ISLAND
BABY; Nevil Dwek’s UNDERMIND; and the pilot episode of the television series “Smash”
(ACE Eddie nominee), directed by Michael Mayer.
As an Assistant Editor for over a decade, he worked in the editorial department on such
films as John Waters’ A DIRTY SHAME and CECIL B. DEMENTED; Brian De Palma’s
FEMME FATALE and SNAKE EYES; Allison Anders’ GRACE OF MY HEART; Richard
Linklater’s THE SCHOOL OF ROCK; and Rob Marshall’s multi-Academy Award-winning
CHICAGO, on which Mr. Weisblum served as visual effects editor.

RALPH FOSTER (EDITOR) is an editing graduate of the National Film & Television
School, Beaconsfield, UK. Foster has worked in editorial departments on both live action and
stop motion animated feature films. He was involved as 1st Assistant Editor on Tim Burton’s
CORPSE BRIDE, the first stop frame animated feature to be shot digitally at 3 Mills Studios in
east London. He was one of the editors on FANTASTIC MR FOX shot at the same studio some
years later. Whilst at Laika, Portland Oregon USA, he was Associate Editor on
PARANORMAN, Additional Editor on THE BOXTROLLS and helped develop animatics for
some of their future projects.

SIMON QUINN (ANIMATION PRODUCER) has been working in the Film and
Television industry for nearly 30 years and working with Baby Cow Animation & Smiley Guy
Studios Canada in 2014-15 produced “Wussywat the Clumsy Cat,” a 52 x 5 minute preschool
series he co-created with Simon Rolph and is currently airing on CBeebies & S4C in the UK and
SVT in Sweden, the show is distributed worldwide by Aardman Animations. Quinn started his
career at Spitting Image as a puppet maker in 1987 and discovered stop-motion animation while
working at Film Fair in 1990, on classics such as “The Wombles.” He later formed a model
making company The Puppet Factory in 1994 providing models to the animation industry. In
2002, he re-booted and line-produced the new series of “Fireman Sam” (CBBC) and two series of
“Hanna’s Helpline” (Ch5 Milkshake) then Line Produced Wes Anderson’s critically acclaimed,
Academy nominated FANTASTIC MR. FOX. He then line produced Tim Burton’s stop-frame
feature FRANKENWEENIE. Seeking fresh challenges, he switched from long format
productions to producing over sixteen commercials in 3D CGI and 2D with multi award winning

51
Passion Pictures before securing funding for Wussywat. Currently he is developing shows with
Bigfatstudio & Baby Cow Productions.

TOBIAS FOURACRE (ANIMATION SUPERVISOR) works as a freelance stop-

motion Animator and Director. He graduated in 1989 from West Surrey College of Art and
Design with a BA (honors) Degree in Film and Animation. During the 90s he worked as an
Animator on various projects including short films, pop promos and title sequences before
entering a period in children's television series as an animator and eventually Director on projects
such as the BAFTA nominated THE KOALA BROTHERS. In 2004 he became a Key Animator
on Tim Burton's CORPSE BRIDE. In 2007 he began working for Tandem Films where he
animated and directed various high profile commercials including the Marmite "Paddington"
campaign, Anchor Butter "Fuzzy Felt Cows" commercials and Specsavers "Thunderbirds"
commercial. He has also animated on dozens of commercials for many other high end production
companies in the UK and Europe. More feature film work followed including Key Animator on
Wes Anderson's FANTASTIC MR. FOX and between 2010 and 2012 he became Lead Animator
on Tim Burton's FRANKENWEENIE. Between 2013 and 2016 he continued to animate and
direct numerous commercials. He is currently working again as a freelance Animator/ Director
whilst developing personal projects.

52
 Production Supervisor
Angela Poschet

First Assistant Director

James Emmott

Hand-drawn Animation and Design by

Gwenn Germain

Taiko Composer / Advisor

Kaoru Watanabe

Additional Editor
Barney Pilling

Associate Producers
Ben Adler
John Peet

Consulting Producer
Molly Cooper

Co-Producer for Scott Rudin Productions

Eli Bush
Art Director
Curt Enderle

Lead Graphic Designer

Erica Dorn

Supervising Sound Editors/Re-recording Mixers

Wayne Lemmer
and Christopher Scarabosio

Music Editor
Yann McCullough

Conductor and Orchestrator

Conrad Pope

Digital Intermediate Colourist

Asa Shoul

Lead (and only) Storyboard Artist

Jay Clarke

53
 Additional Voice Cast (In Order of Appearance)

Taiko Drummer Voices Satoshi Yamazaki

Gen Ueda
Igor Roman Coppola
Mute Poodle Anjelica Huston
News Anchor Yojiro Noda
Junior Scientist 1 Takayuki Yamada
Junior Scientist 2 Kozue Akimoto
Junior Scientist 3 Shota Matsuda
Junior Scientist 4 / Ryuhei Matsuda
Bartender
Mission Control Drone Jun Takahashi
Pilot
Mission Control Luli Shioi
Technicians Erica Dorn
Chinami Narikawa
Junior Interpreter Ernie Jake Ryan
Editor Hiroshi Nijiro Murakami
Punk Girl Eliza Ikeda
Daily Manifesto Students Kikunosuke
Taichi Kodama
Karin Okoso
Simul-Translate Machine Frank Wood
Owl Edward Bursch
Aboriginal Dogs Chris Benz
Alex Orman
J. Wurster
Peppermint Kara Hayward
Election Night Tabulator Kiyotaka 'Mozu' Mizukoshi
Surgical Assistants Ryuhei Nakadai
Shin Mononobe

Animation Department

Key Animators
Tim Allen Danail Kraev
Chuck Duke Matias Liebrecht
Steve Warne

Animators
Daniel Abalo Michael Hughes
Tucker Barrie Sergio Lara Jimenez
Frej Bengtsson Rachel Larsen
Andy Biddle Max Martin
Thiago Calçado Cesar Diaz Melendez
Elie Chapuis Rob Millard
Tony Farquhar-Smith Marjolaine Parot
54
 Daniel Gill Andy Shackleford
Marcos Valin

Assistant Animators
Luke George Carla Pereira
Quentin Haberham Kecy Salangad
Reuben Loane Sam Turner
Anna Mantzaris Hannah Wright
Adam Watts

Trainee Animators Gareth Hirst

Assistant to the Animation Lewis Humble

Director
Dope Sheet and Animation Shelley Nicholls
Assistant

Sushi Animation Supervisor Brad Schiff

Sushi Consultant David Bouhadana

Art Department

Head of Art Department Roddy Macdonald

Assistant Art Director Kevin Hill
Assistant Art Director (US) Carl Sprague
Art Department Coordinator Caitlin Fraser

Character Designer Félicie Haymoz

Concept Artists Turlo Griffin

Victor Georgiev
Junior Concept Artist Katren Wood

Draughtspersons Richard Hardy

Chris Lees
Albert McCausland
Sarah Notley
Chris Peters
Sarah Priest
Harriet Storey
Chantelle Valentine
Junior Draughtsperson Sophie Lockwood
Lead Graphic Designer Erica Dorn

Graphic Designer Annie Atkins

Assistant Graphic Designers Chinami Narikawa

Ina Thuresson

55
 Illustrator Molly Rosenblatt
Cabal Screens by Camille Moulin-Dupré

Additional Graphic Tomomi Maezawa

Design Mio Yokota
Caitlin Jedski

Additional Illustration Colin Batty

Marlowe Hermanovski
Bill Mudron
Barry Reynolds
Yuko Shimizu
Hugh Sicotte
Yukki Yaura
Paul Zenk

Titles by Erica Dorn

Title Animation by Jeff Kryvicky - COLLIDER

Art Department Buyer Rachel Hudson

Workshop Coordinator Milos Mali

Lead Storyboard Artist Jay Clarke

Art Department Modelers

Maquette Fabrication

Modelers
Bonnie Vannucci
Charlotte Henery
Anna Yates

Sets and Props

Lead Modeler Paul Persighetti

Modelers
Colin Armitage Grant Humberstone
Edward Barton John Lee
Derek Bell David London
Jamie Carruthers Duncan Mude
Mick Chippington Gavin Richards
Luke Daniels Isabelle Riley
Mark Fischer Yossel Simpson Little
Charles Fletcher Andy Stead
Graham French Michael Van Kesteren

56
 Mark Gunning Karl Wardle

Junior Modeler Thomas James

Paint

Lead Modeler Roy Bell

Modelers
Clemency Bunn Fiona Stewart
Richard Davidson Laura Treen
Peter Le Pard Beth Quinton

Junior Painter Ellie Rowlands

Rebecca Sellick
Trainee Junior Painter Amelia Bennett

Set Dressing
Lead Modeler Barry Jones

Modelers
Cristina Acuña Solla Paul Mazonas
Tom Ashton-Booth Jo McDonald
Holly Blenkins Marie Parsons
Sarah Crombie Collette Pidgeon
Joe Vettese

Junior Modeler Hetty Bax

Miniature Unit (Berlin, Germany)

Head of Modelmaking Simon Weisse

Modelers
Alex Friedrich Nico Nitsch
Alice Büchner Holger Delfs
Gerold Bublak Claudia Brugnaletti
Cindy Schnitter Hanns Otto
Peter Mühlenkamp Robert Wiesner
Susanna Jerger Stefan Kolbe

Intern Modelers Maria Lissel

Lucy Weisse

Additional Sets by Mackinnon & Saunders

Animortal Studio

57
 Puppet Department

Puppet Department Coordinator Madeleine Macdonald

Puppet Workshop Coordinator Elisabeth Schusser
Puppet Wrangler Daisy Garside
Puppet Department Assistant Juan C. Orihuela Cuesta
Coordinator

Lead Maintenance Modelers Charlotte Tymms

Kerry Dyer
Andre Masters

Lead Modelers
Magda Bieszczak Cormac Mackee
Josie Corben Christy Matta
Maggie Haden Collette Pidgeon
Angela Kiely Aine Woods
Alex Williams

Modelers
Beverley Alvarez Grace McComisky
Pablo Bach Helly McGrother
Lorna Bailey Finola Mclennan
Vicky Ball Graham Michie
Mitch Barnes Jordi Morera Serra
Ivan Bejarano Susanna Morthorst Staal
Richard Blakey Jess Murphy
Lisa Carracedo Carlos Padilla
Becky Cain Angela Pang
Patrycja Cichocka Nadine Patterson
Carrie Clarke Christine Polis
Tony Clark Rose Popham
Stefano Cordioli Molly Porter
Lauren Curran Benoit Polveche
Natalie Ellner Louise Pratt
Gemma Fee Katrina Probert
Joshua Flynn Marina Ralph
Nathan Flynn Lizzie Searle
Jade Gerrard Anna Sofia Raundahl
Mireille Hadchiti Beck Smith
Wesley Harland Sofia Sorrano
Rob Hazeldine Sally Taylor
Valma Hiblen Frankie Tongue
Bethan Hollington Annie Toop
Sonia Iglesias Rey Olaf Trenk
Robin Jackson Rut Villamangna

58
 Neil Jones Claire Waldron
Ola Kucharska Caroline Walotka
Magda Madra Katie Williams
Jessica Martin Louis Wiltshire
Ciara McClean Faye Windridge

Junior Modelers
Areeya Bass Lucy Isherwood
Caroline Bowman Joana Leitao
Rachel Brown Tom Hartnett O'Meara
Francesca Carriero Eleanor Rowlands
Helen Tweed

Trainee Modeler Natalia Bartyzel

Deanna Sharp

Nutmeg Costume Design Juman Malouf

by

Additional Puppets by LIKAON (Łódz, Poland)

Producers Justyna Rucińska

Anna Mroczek
Wojciech Leszcznyński

Lead Puppet Maker Sylwia Nowak

Marcin Zalewski

Puppet Makers
Janusz Grzelak Piotr Knabe
Agnieszka Mikołajczyk Agnieszka Smolarek
Dariusz Kalita Sergiusz Teodorczyk

Production Assistant Piotr Šmiałek

Additional Puppets Fabricated by Mackinnon & Saunders

Amanda Thomas Kate Arthur

Diane Dwyer Noel Estevez Baker
Kevin Scillitoe Rosie Taylor
Neil Sutcliffe Robbie Manning
Laura Kerrigan Beth Jupe
Anne Sutcliffe Takashi Tateoka
Andy Bell Alicia Canovas Verdu

59
Additional Armatures Supplied Tim Spring
by John Wright

Armature Joints Supplied by Merrick Cheney

Rigging Department

Lead Modelers Chris Gough

Andree Neemann
Riggers James Olsen
Keary Scanlon
Junior Rigger Roxannah Linklater
Additional Rigging Richard Blakey
Robin Jackson
Richard Modlen

Hand-Drawn Animation Department

Technical Director Fabrice Faivre

Animators Duncan Gist

Geoff King
Laura Nailor
Andrea Simonti
Aya Suzuki

Lead After Effects Animator Aaron Lampert

Supervising Assistant Animator Jonathan Wren

Assistant Animators Denise Dean

Michael Douglas
Gerry Gallego
Jessica Leslau
Eleonora Quario

Layout Artist Mamiko Okada

Compositor Adam Zygadlo

Animation Trainees Fanny La Trouitte

Leigh Salvage

Additional After Effects Jeff Kryvicky - COLLIDER

Animation by

60
 Production Department

Production Coordinator Karen Rodrigues

Assistant Production Coordinators Sophie Peacock
Viviana Cabral
Facilities Coordinator Faye Robinson
Production Secretaries Katherine Felstead
Jack Plummer
Production Assistants Oscar Gordon-Lyons
Ronnie Marques
Sam Martin
Jacopo Miceli
Juan C. Orihuela Cuesta
Andre Parker-Laing
Pamela Pifferi
Eszter Telegdy
Agnes Walkowska
Production Driver Robert D. G. Walker
Production Trainee Frank Hesketh

Assistants to the Producer May Ziadé

Zara Burdett

Second Assistant Director Mark Lacey

Third Assistant Directors Emily Stevens

Francesca Alberigi
Alan Halls
Alex Moffat
Daniel Parslow
Floor Runner Louise Pichon

Assistant to Mr. Anderson (France) Leo Gack

Assistant to Mr. Anderson (U.S.) Nashwa Zaman
Co-Producer for Scott Rudin Eli Bush
Assistant to Mr. Rudin Kyrha Lever

Clearances Jeva Clearances

Phil Ball
Cassandra Sigsgaard
Mariko Nishizawa

Script Supervisor J. Caitlin Ringness

Japanese Script Translators Sumi Watanabe

Japanese Script Consultant Jo Allan

Digital Systems Manager Dave Powell

61
 IT Technicians Rami Sarras Pantoja
Gabrielle Wakefield
Junior IT Technician Benjamin Murray
Health & Safety Media Safety Ltd
Facilities Contractor BES Duncan Motagalli
Immigration Advisor Victoria Stone
Casting Associates Henry Russell Bergstein, CSA
Stephanie Holbrook, CSA

Accounts Department

Financial Controller Nuala Alen-Buckley

Production Accountant Fry Martin
First Assistant Accountant Emma Fuller
Mehdi Abbaspour
Assistant Production Accountants Alyson Ripo
Neringa Rukaite
Jack Knott
Second Assistant Accountant Tom Pritchard
Junior Accounts Assistants Carolyn Burke
Eve Dautremant
Sarah Bishop

Camera & Electrical Department

Head Camera Operator Mark Swaffield

Lighting Camera Persons James Lewis

Malcolm Hadley
Max Williams

Camera Assistants Ozlem Akturk

Siwan Hughes
Kathrin Woodtli
Charlotte Northam

Trainee Camera Assistant Shaun Grimsley

Motion Control Operator / Camera Christophe Leignel

Assistant
Lead Motion Control Operator Stuart Galloway

Junior Motion Control Operator Ayumi Ishikawa

Motion Control Supplied by Portable Motion Control

Ltd
Justin Pentecost

62
 Gaffer Toby Farrar

Practical Electrician Gary Welch

Electrician Paulo Fernandes

Junior Electricians Daniel Ansell

Max Milner

Trainee Electrician Kacper Slonina

Unit Stills Photographers Ray Lewis

Valerie Sadoun
Documentarian Robert Rafalat
Martin Scali

Editorial Department

Associate Editor John Addis

Assistant Editor David Quinn

Second Assistant Editors Samuel Clough

Eiko Emersleben

Trainee Assistant Editor Edward Crompton

Visual Effects
Visual Effects Supervisor Lev Kolobov
Visual Effects Producer Catherine Duncan
Visual Effects Editor Lucy Benson

Lead Matte Painter Victor Georgiev

CG Generalist Robin Huffer
Junior 3D CG Generalist Claudio Tassone

Lead Compositors
Qian Han Erik Schneider
Martin Hjalmarsson Keith Jones

Compositors
Gergana Alexandrova Jessica Phelan
Richard Baillie Angela Rinaldi
André Brandt Gerard Romea
Aleksandra Chocholska Francesco Russo
Germán Díez Balanza Zsolt Sebok
Kye Dorricott Luke Sikking
63
 Guy Lubin Gillian Simpson
Leonardo Paolini Kathy Toth
Dipika Patel Mark Tremble
Scott Patton Mohit Varde
Hugo Vieites Caamaño

Roto / Prep Artists

Jerom Op't Root Miyuki Tatsuda

Indian Paintbrush
Chief Financial Officer Deborah Wettstein
Chief Operating Officer Peter McPartlin
EVP Business & Legal Affairs Gene Kang
Financial Controller Kristen Yi
Office Coordinator Kamesha Rodriguez
Family Office Executive Joseph O. Bunting III
Assistant to Mr. Steven Rales Sandra K. Schilling
Assistants to Mr. Peter McPartlin Kayla Kantola and Ben Empey
Assistant to Ms. Deborah Wettstein Hannah Park

Studio Babelsberg

Business Affairs Katja Hörstmann

Financial Controller Wolfgang Schwedler
Accountant Margit Jütw
Assistants to Mr. Fisser and Mr. Felix Schreiber and Lukas Kaddik
Director of Woebcken
Marketing Eike Wolf
Head of Corporate Communications Bianca Makarewicz
Legal Counsel Unverzagt Von Have - Dr. Andreas
Pense
Legal and Financial Services
Production Legal Services Irwin M. Rappaport, P.C.
U.K. Production Legal Services Wiggin LLP
Sarah Bing
Deepti Burton
James Hope
Alexander Lea
Seth Roe
Legal Services Avy Eschenasy
Dan Waggoner
German Counsel Christiane Stuetzle, Morrison Foerster

Production Insurance Broker DeWitt Stern Group

Media Insurance Ltd
Post Production Script FATTS / Liz Green

64
 Post Production

Post Production Supervisor Gisela Evert

Foley Artist Steve Baine

Foley Recordist Peter Persaud
Foley Assistant Gina Wark
Foley Recorded at Foley One

Sound Re-Recorded at Goldcrest Post Production

Head of Operations Simon Ray
Mix Technicians Robbie Scott
Rachel Park
Candela Palencia
Studio Manager Rob Weatherall
Studio Engineer Campbell Pratt
Post Production Sound Manager Karolina Dziwińska

Digital Intermediate
Digital Intermediate by Molinare TV & Film
Digital Intermediate Coordinator Steve Knight
Digital Intermediate Conform Johnathan Dickinson
Operator Alan Pritt
Digital Intermediate Producer
Post Production Coordinator Joanna Burt

Music Department
Orchestra Contractor Isobel Griffiths
Assistant Orchestra Contractor Amy Stewart
Librarian Jill Streater Music
Score Technical Advisor Bill Newlin
Auricle Preparation Jay Duerr
Executive Music Producer - Galilea Xavier Forcioli
Music
Programmer and Composer's Romain Allender
Assistant

Music Editor Yann McCullough

Additional Music Editor Robin Baynton
Music Editor Assistants Paul Chandler
Peter Gregson
Edward Hartwell
Music Coordinator Meghan Currier
Music Licensing Jessica Dolinger

65
Score Recorded and Mixed Air Studios Lyndhurst
Score Recorded and Mixedat Simon Rhodes
by
ProTools Operator and John Prestage
Recordist
Assistants Ashley Andrew-Jones
Alex Ferguson

Musicians
Taiko Drummers Mark Alcock
Paul Clarvis
Joji Hirota
Ed Pickering
Frank Ricotti
Corrina Silvester
Recorders Clare Findlater
Karen Jones
Eliza Marshall
Nicholas Perry
Saxophones Howard McGill
Jamie Talbot
Phil Todd
Martin Williams
Piano/Celeste Simon Chamberlain
Double Bass Chris Hill
French Horn Elise Campbell
Phillip Eastop
David Pyatt
Chorus Masters Terry Edwards and Ben Parry

Choir London Voices

Nicholas Ashby Jimmy Holiday
Neil Bellingham Gavin Horsley
Robert Davies Timothy Murphy
Michael Dore Christopher Jay Neale
Simon Grants Robert O'Connell
Edward Grint Adrian Peacock

Whistling by Edward Bursch

66
 “Kosame No Oka”
“Kanbei & Katsushiro – Kikuchiyo’s
Music and Words by Ryoichi Hattori, Hachiro
Sato Mambo (from “Seven Samurai”)"
(c) 1940 by Ryoichi Hattori & Hachiro Written by Fumio Hayasaka
Sato Administered by Nichion, Inc. for rights Performed by Toho Symphony
of Ryoichi Hattori Orchestra
International Copyright Secured. All Rights Courtesy of Toho Music Corporation
Reserved. “Drunken Angel” © 1948 Toho Co.,
Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

“I Won’t Hurt You” “Midnight Sleighride

Written by Robert Markley, Michael Lloyd, (From "The Lieutenant Kije Suite”)”
Shaun Harris Performed by The West Coast Pop Written by Sergei Prokofiev, arrangement by Eddie
Art Experimental Band Sauter and Bill Finegan Performed by The Sauter-
Published by Alley Music Corporation c/o Carlin Music Finegan Orchestra
America (BMI), Trio Music Company (BMI) Published by Boosey and Hawkes, an
administered by BMG Rights Management (US) LLC Imagem Company Courtesy of Sony
Courtesy of Reprise Records Classical
By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film By arrangement with Sony Music
& TV licensing Licensing

“Tokyo Shoe Shine Boy”

Written by Tasuku Sano and
Seiichi Ida
Performed by Teruko Akatsuki
Courtesy of JVCKENWOOD Victor
Entertainment Corporation

Special Thanks
Juman Malouf
Maki and Mark Rankin
Satch Watanabe
Dawn Bailie
Jake Paltrow
Noah Baumbach
Brian DePalma
Wally Wolodarsky
Maya Forbes
George Drakoulias
John Carpenter - Curator of Japanese Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Bud Cort
Steve Park
Ab Rogers
Jan Kallista
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 Hertfordshire College Modelmaking Department
Canon
JAKKS
Formlabs
Apple
TVPaint

Filmed at 3 Mills Studio, London

In Association with Studio Babelsberg Film

[Canon Logo] [3 Mills Studios Logo]

Supported by [FFA Logo] Supported by [MBB Logo]

[MPAA Logo]
MPAA#51283

© 2018 IOD Distribution LLC and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
All Rights Reserved.

IOD Distribution LLC and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation are the authors of this motion picture
for the purpose of copyright and other laws.

The characters, entities and incidents portrayed herein and the names used herein are fictitious,
and any similarity to the name, character or history of any person or entity is entirely coincidental
and unintentional.

Ownership of this motion picture is protected by copyright and other applicable laws of the
United States of America and other countries. Any unauthorized duplication, distribution, or
exhibition of this motion picture (including soundtrack) is prohibited and could result in criminal
prosecution as well as civil liability.

©2018 TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED. PROPERTY OF FOX. PERMISSION IS GRANTED TO NEWSPAPERS
AND PERIODICALS TO REPRODUCE THIS TEXT IN ARTICLES PUBLICIZING
THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE MOTION PICTURE. ALL OTHER USE IS STRICTLY
PROHIBITED, INCLUDING SALE, DUPLICATION, OR OTHER TRANSFER OF THIS
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SOLD, OR GIVEN AWAY.

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