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Their most recent feature film, "Bound," which they wrote and directed, stars Gina Gershon, Jennifer Tilly and Joe Pantoliano. Little else is known about them.
JOEL SILVER (Producer) is one of the most successful producers in the motion picture industry today, with the combined gross of his films at $2.8 billion. With 1998's release of "Lethal Weapon 4," 13 of Silver's films have each earned worldwide box-office totals of more than $100 million.
Silver began his career at Lawrence Gordon Productions, eventually becoming president of motion pictures. He associate produced "The Warriors" and, with Gordon, produced "48 HRS.," "Streets of Fire" and "Brewster's Millions."
Silver's first independent production under his Silver Pictures banner was "Commando," followed by "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Predator." Silver then produced (with Richard Donner) "Lethal Weapon," "Lethal Weapon 2," "Lethal Weapon 3" and "Lethal Weapon 4" (all directed by Donner), as well as "Die Hard," "Die Hard 2: Die Harder," "The Last Boy Scout," "Demolition Man," "Richie Rich" and "Conspiracy Theory" (with Donner, who also directed). Silver also executive produced, with Richard Donner, Robert Zemeckis, David Giler and Walter Hill, two "Tales From the Crypt" films: "Demon Knight" and "Bordello of Blood."
Silver most recently announced the creation of a new company, Dark Castle Entertainment, in partnership with Robert Zemeckis, through which they have begun production on "The House on Haunted Hill," a remake of the William Castle horror classic directed by William Malone and starring Geoffrey Rush.
Executive Producer BARRIE OSBORNE most recently produced "Face/Off" starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, directed by John Woo. Prior to that, he executive produced Tony Scott's "The Fan," which starred Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes; "Dick Tracy"; "Child's Play"; "Wilder Napalm"; and "Rapa Nui." He also produced "China Moon."
Accepted into the trainee program of the Director's Guild of America, Osborne worked under the tutelage of directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Alan Pakula and Sydney Pollack on films which included "The Godfather, Part II," "Three Days Of The Condor" and "All The President's Men." He subsequently worked in various capacities on such films as "Apocalypse Now," "The Big Chill," "King Of Comedy," "The Cotton Club," "Peggy Sue Got Married," "Cutter's Way" and "Fandango."
During a two-year tenure as Vice President for Feature Production at Walt Disney Pictures, Osborne oversaw 15 motion pictures, including "Ruthless People," "The Color Of Money," "Tin Men," "Three Men And A Baby," "Tough Guys," "Outrageous Fortune," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and "Good Morning, Vietnam."
Executive Producer ANDREW MASON produced the science-fiction thriller "Dark City," starring William Hurt, Keifer Sutherland and Rufus Sewell, directed by Alex Proyas.
Mason began his career in the early 1970s as a film editor in documentaries and commercials. Within a short time he was heading a highly successful commercial production company. He then ran a large Sydney film laboratory for two years before forming Australia's first visual-effects company. He worked as a visual-effects supervisor on such films as "Playing Beatie Bow," "One Night Stand," "Burke And Wills" and "The Time Guardian," and as optical-effects supervisor on Vincent Ward's "The Navigator: An Odyssey Across Time."
Mason returned to producing and, in 1990, joined forces with Alex Proyas at Meaningful Eye Contact, producing numerous music videos and commercials directed by Proyas. In 1993 Mason served as visual-effects supervisor and second-unit director on "The Crow," directed by Proyas. Later, Mason and Proyas formed Mystery Clock Cinema; "Dark City" was the company's first feature production.
Executive producer ERWIN STOFF is a principal partner in the management firm 3 Arts Entertainment. Stoff's producing credits include "Picture Perfect," starring Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Bacon, and "National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon." He executive produced "The Devil's Advocate," starring Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino, as well as "Feeling Minnesota" and "Chain Reaction."
Executive producer BRUCE BERMAN began his career in the entertainment business working as assistant to Jack Valenti at the MPAA in Washington, D.C. while simultaneously completing law school at Georgetown University. After relocating to Los Angeles, he worked at Casablanca Films and then at Universal Pictures, where he eventually became a vice president of production.
Berman next moved to Warner Bros. as a production vice president. He was promoted to President of Theatrical Production and, later, President of Worldwide Theatrical Production for Warner Bros. Under his aegis, the studio produced and distributed such titles as "Driving Miss Daisy," "GoodFellas," "Presumed Innocent," "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," "Batman Forever," "Malcolm X," "The Bodyguard," "JFK," "The Fugitive," "Dave," "A Time to Kill" and "Twister."
In 1996, Berman started Plan B Entertainment, the Warner Bros.-based independent production company, which was later acquired by Village Roadshow Pictures.
Village Roadshow Pictures, where Berman now holds the post of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, currently has 21 projects in various stages of development at Warner Bros. Most recently, Berman executive produced "Analyze This" and "Practical Magic"; over the coming year he will executive produce "Gossip," "Three Kings," "Three to Tango" and "Deep Blue Sea" through Village Roadshow's relationship with Warner Bros.
Co-producer DAN CRACCHIOLO is a Los Angeles native who began his entertainment career as an agent trainee at ICM under Ed Limato. In 1991 he joined Joel Silver's Silver Pictures, where his first project was "Lethal Weapon 3." Since then, Cracchiolo has associate-produced Silver's and Donner's HBO television series "Tales From The Crypt" for three seasons, as well as the two "Crypt" feature offshoots, "Demon Knight" and "Bordello of Blood." In addition, he co-produced the feature films "Lethal Weapon 4," "Assassins" and "Conspiracy Theory."
Cracchiolo's next project as executive producer is "House on Haunted Hill," directed by William Malone, which Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis are producing for their Dark Castle Entertainment.
Director of Photography BILL POPE is a world-acclaimed purveyor of motion-picture photography. He can also play cowboy songs on the piano. Once, he saw a Grizzly bear.
Editor ZACH STAENBERG, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin with a degree in communications, began his career as a production assistant on Brian De Palma's "The Fury." On his next feature, "The Omen II," he became an apprentice editor and, from that experience, decided to concentrate on editing.
Among his film credits are "Police Academy," "The Tender" and "Eyes Of An Angel," both starring John Travolta; "Nowhere To Run," starring Jean Claude Van Damme and Rosanna Arquette; "Blackout"; and "Stripped To Kill."
Most recently, Staenberg edited "Bound" for Larry and Andy Wachowski and "Phoenix," starring Ray Liotta and Angelica Huston, for director Danny Cannon.
His television credits include the 1997 Robert Harmon telefeature "Gotti," for HBO, for which he received an American Cinema Editors Eddie Award and was nominated for an Emmy and a CableACE Award; "Weapons Of Mass Distraction," starring Gabriel Byrne and Ben Kingsley; "Cisco Kid" and "Connagher" for TNT; and "La Pastorela" for PBS.
Production Designer OWEN PATERSON's credits include Stephen Elliot's "The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert," for which he won an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Production Design; Stephen Elliot's "Welcome To Woop Woop"; "Race The Sun"; "Minnamurra"; and "Travelling North." Paterson also worked as art director on the Australian features "Bliss" and "The Coolangatta Gold."
His television credits include "Beast," the telefilm "The Riddle Of The Stinson" and "Heartbreak High" for ABC TV.
Composer DON DAVIS previously collaborated with the Wachowskis when he scored their film "Bound."
His composing credits include "Warriors of Virtue," "Route 9," "The Lesser Evil," "Session Man" and "Blackout" as well as the telefilms "Weapons of Mass Distraction" for HBO (starring Ben Kingsley and Gabriel Byrne) "Life of the Party: The Pamela Harriman Story" (Starring Ann-Margret), "The Lake," "The Agency" (starring Tom Berenger and Ron Silver), "A Match Made in Heaven" (Starring Olympia Dukakis), "The Alibi," "Not in This Town," "In the Lake of the Woods," "Leave of Absence," "Murder of Innocence," "A Little Piece of Heaven" "Woman With a Past," "Home Fires Burning" and "A Stoning in Fulham County."
He also composed the music for such miniseries as "The Third Twin," "House of Frankenstein 1997," "Invasion," "Pandora's Clock," "The Beast" and "In the Best of Families," as well as for the TV series "SeaQuest DSV," "Capitol Critters," "My Life and Times," "Tiny Toon Adventures," "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "Beauty and the Beast."
Davis worked as an orchestrator and arranger on such films as "A Bug's Life," "Titanic," "Pleasantville," "Lost in Space," "Michael," "Ransom," "Courage Under Fire," "James and the Giant Peach," "Balto," "Toy Story," Apollo 13," "Clear and Present Danger," "Maverick," "Legends of the Fall," "The Pelican Brief," "The Last Action Hero," "Death Becomes Her," "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" and "Die Hard 2: Die Harder," among many others.
Costume Designer KYM BARRETT's credits include Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet," for which she received a Saturn Nomination; "Zero Effect," directed by Jake Kasdan, starring Ben Stiller and Bill Pullman; and David O. Russell's upcoming drama, "Three Kings."
Her Australian theater credits include "The Alchemist," starring Geoffrey Rush, directed by Neil Armfield; "Henry V"; "Falsettos" for the Sydney Theatre Company; "Lady Bracknell's Confinement" for the Melbourne Festival; and "Aftershock" and "A Little Like Drowning" for the Belvoir Street Theatre.
Hong Kong Fight Coordinator YUEN WO PING was born in Guangzhan in 1945, one of 12 children. He studied Peking Opera and Kung Fu under the tutelage of his father, Yuen Siu Tin, who was also a father figure to the young Jackie Chan.
Yuen Siu Tin brought his eldest son to the attention of the well-known "Wong Fei Hung" series producers and Wo Ping worked on some of their films during the 1960s. He subsequently worked as a Kung Fu fighter and stuntman at Shaw Brothers and can be seen in films such as Wang Yu's "The Chinese Boxer."
In 1971 he received his first credit as a choreographer on "Mad Killer," directed by Ng See Yuen. Yuen Wo Ping choreographed most of Ng's early Kung Fu hits, including "Bloody Fists" and "Secret Rivals 2." For Shaw Brothers, Wo Ping arranged the fights for Chu Yuan's films "The Lizard" and "The Bastard."
He made his directorial debut for Ng See Yuen's Seasonal Films in 1978 with the hugely successful and influential "Snake In The Eagle's Shadow," followed by "Drunken Master," also starring Jackie Chan, and "Dance Of The Drunk Mantis," starring Wo Ping's brother, Sunny Yuen. Wo Ping also worked for Golden Harvest, directing the Wong Fei Hung films "Magnificent Butcher" and "Dreadnought."
He formed his own company in 1979 and produced and choreographed Tsai Siu Ming's "Buddhist Fist" the following year. He directed his protégé, Donnie Yen, in "Drunken Tai Chi," followed by "Tiger Cage," "In The Line Of Duty 4" and "Tiger Cage 2."
The revival of traditional Kung Fu movies saw Wo Ping work on the fight sequences of Tsui Hark's "Once Upon A Time In China" films with Jet Li, and on Wong Ching's "Last Hero In China." His other credits include the Kung Fu epics "Tai Chi Master" and "Wing Chun." In 1993, Wo Ping directed one of his finest films, "Iron Monkey," again starring Donnie Yen; and in 1994, he was fight choreographer on the film "Fist Of Legend." It was his work on this film that caught the attention of the Wachowski brothers.
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