JIM SHERIDAN (Director/Producer/Writer) has not only impressive
feature film screenwriting, producing and directing credits. However is
also an accomplished stage director and playwright. With eight plays produced
in both New York and Dublin, but it was his directorial feature film debut
in 1989, My Left Foot, with Daniel Day-Lewis' stunning Academy Award®
-winning performance, that first brought him international acclaim. The
true story of writer/painter "Christy Brown" who was afflicted
with cerebral palsy, My Left Foot also marked the beginning of his long-standing
professional relationship with Day-Lewis.
After the success of My Left Foot, Sheridan opted to remain in Ireland,
where he followed-up with The Field in 1990, which he wrote and directed.
Featuring an Oscar® -nominated performance by Richard Harris as a farmer
who defends his land from an American real estate developer, the film solidified
Sheridan's reputation in Hollywood. Next came his screenplay Into the West,
starring Gabriel Byrne and Ellen Barkin, which Mike Newell directed.
Sheridan then re-teamed with Day-Lewis on In The Name Of The Father in 1993,
to tell the story of "Gerry Conlon," the man thought to be the
leader of the Guildford Four, a group wrongly prosecuted and imprisoned
for an IRA bombing for 15 years. The film, which co-starred Emma Thompson,
was nominated for seven Academy Awards®, including Best Picture, Best
Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Screenplay.
TERRY GEORGE (Writer), a native of Belfast, recently made his feature
film debut with the compelling true drama Some Mother's Son, starring Helen
Mirren, written and produced by Jim Sheridan and co-produced by Arthur Lappin.
He previously co-wrote In The Name Of The Father, also with Sheridan and
Lappin, for which he received an Academy Award® nomination for Best
Screenplay, as well as Best Screenplay nominations by the Writers' Guild
of America and BAFTA.
George began his career in journalism when he moved to the United States,
first working as a fact-checker at New York Magazine, then as a researcher
for several prominent writers, including Peter Hamill, Peter Maas and Shana
Alexander. In 1986, he researched and helped write (with Shana Alexander)
The Pizza Connection, a non-fiction book covering the criminal investigation
of the Sicilian Mafia's control of the American heroin market. He also wrote
a two-act stage drama, The Tunnel, which is the story of a foiled escape
attempt from Long Kesh prison camp in Northern Ireland, which was produced
at the Irish Arts Center in New York. Sheridan directed and starred in the
successful six month run.
When Sheridan returned to Ireland to direct My Left Foot, George continued
at the I.A.C., producing plays, art exhibitions, readings and concerts.
Throughout the 1980's, he continued his magazine and television work, writing
for such publications as the New York Daily News, The Village Voice, Rolling
Stone and Elle.
ARTHUR LAPPIN (Producer) has worked with Jim Sheridan on numerous
films. Most recently, he and Sheridan served as producers on Some Mother's
Son, which was directed by Terry George. He co-produced In The Name Of The
Father, and served as line producer on My Left Foot and The Field. Other
feature film and television producing credits include The End Of The World
Man, When Reason Sleeps, Dubliner's Dublin, Sticks And Stones, Fatal Inheritance
and Now I Know.
Lappin established Ireland's leading independent theatrical production company
Groundwork in 1988 with director Ben Barnes.
CHRIS MENGES (Director of Photography) has won accolades for both
his cinematography and his directing. His work for Roland Joffe has garnered
him two Academy Awards®: one for 1985's The Killing Fields and another
for 1987's The Mission. Menges first worked with Neil Jordan on his debut
film Angel, and was recently nominated for an Academy Award® on another
Jordan collaboration, Michael Collins. His many other cinematography credits
include, High Season, Shy People, Marie, Comfort And Joy, Local Hero and
The Empire Strikes Back, among others.
Menges' first stab at directing was the critically-acclaimed A World Apart,
which was awarded the Cannes Festival Grand Jury Prize and the New York
Film Critics Award for Best Director. In 1990, he directed a feature film
for Pathe' Entertainment entitled Crisscross and in 1995 completed Second
Best, starring William Hurt.
BRIAN MORRIS (Production Designer) most recently worked with Alan
Parker on Evita, for which he received an Oscar® nomination for Best
Achievement in Art Direction and a BAFTA nomination for Best Production
Design. His relationship with Parker dates back to Pink Floyd-The Wall.
Other films with Parker include The Road To Wellville, The Commitments and
Angel Heart. Morris worked with The Boxer's director of photography Chris
Menges, on his directorial debut A World Apart. Other credits include Sydney
Pollock's Sabrina, Adrian Lyne's Jacob's Ladder, Tony Scott's The Hunger,
Louis Malle's Damage and Jean-Jacques Annaud's Quest For Fire.
GERRY HAMBLING (Editor) is a six-time Oscar® nominee, most recently
recognized for his work on Alan Parker's Evita. He has worked with Parker
for many of his other films, including Bugsy Malone, Midnight Express, Fame,
Mississippi Burning, Birdy and The Commitments, receiving Oscar® nominations
for Midnight Express and Mississippi Burning. Gerry has worked with Jim
Sheridan on In The Name Of The Father, for which he also received an Oscar®
nomination. In 1992, he directed his first film, Lazy Hazy Daze. He is a
member of the British Guild of Film Editors and the American Cinema Editors
Guild.
GAVIN FRIDAY and MAURICE SEEZER (Composers) first collaborated
on Friday's 1990 Brecht/Weill-influenced album "Each Man Kills the
Thing He Loves" and 1992 "Adam 'N' Eve." The two then wrote
one track for Robert Altman's film Short Cuts as well as compiled the soundtrack
and wrote 3 original songs for Jim Sheridan's In The Name Of The Father,
and released the highly acclaimed album "Shag Tobacco." Additionally,
Friday's song "Angel" (re-mixed by Nellee Hooper) was featured
on the soundtrack of 1996's William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.
BARRY McGUIGAN (Boxing Consultant) has had a distinguished career
both in and out of the boxing ring. In 1985, he was named WBA World Featherweight
Champion, WBA Boxer of the Year, BBC Sports Personality of the Year and
won the British Boxing Board of Control Fight of the Year Award for his
title match. In 1983, he won both the European and British titles. Highlights
of McGuigan's amateur boxing career include serving as captain of the Irish
Olympic Boxing Team at the 1980 Moscow Games, and in 1978 winning both the
European Junior Bronze Medal and the Commonwealth Games Gold Medal.
Since retiring from the ring in 1990, McGuigan was appointed president of
the Professional Boxers Association in 1993, awarded the MBE for services
to boxing the following year, and is a sought-after television and newspaper
boxing commentator around the UK who also works extensively for a variety
of charities.
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