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HBO Films Presents In Association with BBC Films A Playtone Picture In Association with Neal Street Productions Starter for 10 'A terrific Desert Island Discs film for the 1980s... One of those rare bitter-sweet comedies that scores winners on every level...' - THE TIMES 'The most refreshing, painfully funny comedy in years' - ARENA 'The smartest romantic comedy of the year' - EMPIRE **** 'Utterly delightful...a cross between About a Boy and The Breakfast Club' - TOTAL FILM **** Directed by Tom Vaughan Screenplay by David Nicholls Based on his book, "Starter for ten" Produced by Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman, Pippa Harris Executive Produced by Sam Mendes, Steven Shareshian, Nathalie Marciano, Michelle Chydzik Sowa Starter for ten is a romantic comedy set in the mid-eighties about a working class kid (James McAvoy) as he navigates through his turbulent first year at University. On his way to achieving his long-held ambition to appear on University Challenge, he falls in love with his beautiful team-mate and forms a plan to win her heart through his advanced general knowledge skills. Starter for ten is a charming coming of age comedy about loyalty, class, falling in love and the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Based on David Nicholls best-selling novel and directed by newcomer Tom Vaughan. www.starterfortenthemovie.co.uk Running Time: 96 minutes David Nicholls' debut novel STARTER FOR TEN was first published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2003 and instantly became the must-read book of the year. Selected as a Richard & Judy Book Club choice, it went on to sell over 300,000 copies. This autumn sees the release of the film tie in version of the book. Starter for ten Synopsis "Ever since I can remember, I've wanted to be clever," Brian Jackson confesses in voice over at the start of Starter for ten. A working-class student from Essex navigating his first year at Bristol University, Brian (James McAvoy) has a lot to prove. While his hometown mates worry about him turning into a poncy wanker, Brian's biggest concern is making the team for the long-running British television quiz show University Challenge. (The game show, which began in 1962 and is something like the UK's answer to Jeopardy, pits four-member teams from posh universities against each other. "Starter" questions, worth ten points each, give the film its title.) Amidst Tarts & Vicars dances, anti-Apartheid rallies, minging dorm rooms and puffs of marijuana smoke, Brian also finds himself romantically torn between two very different co-eds: ultra-fit blonde bombshell and University Challenge team-mate Alice (Alice Eve), and thoughtful, politically-conscious Rebecca Epstein (Rebecca Hall, soon-to-be seen in Christopher Nolan's The Prestige). With Margaret Thatcher's economically depressed Blighty as a backdrop, and a killer, pitch-perfect New Wave soundtrack - featuring music by The Cure, Wham!, Bananarama, Yaz, The Smiths, New Order, Tears For Fears, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Buzzcocks, and The Psychedelic Furs - in the foreground, Starter for ten is the great British teen 80s movie that never was. . . It is also altogether delightful, with UK comedy sensation Catherine Tate co-starring as Brian's steadfast mum, and McAvoy (The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe's Mr Tumnus the Faun) delivering the kind of charming, humorous performance that reinvigorates a genre. Though Brian Jackson knows everything, like all honest coming-of-age stories, Starter for ten is ultimately about its hero discovering the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Directed by Tom Vaughan, based on the novel by David Nicholls, Starter for ten is produced by Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman and Pippa Harris and executive produced by Sam Mendes, Steven Shareshian, Nathalie Marciano and Michelle Chydzik Sowa. Credits Cast James McAvoy Brian Jackson Alice Eve Alice Harbinson Rebecca Hall Rebecca Epstein Catherine Tate Julie Jackson Dominic Cooper Spencer Benedict Cumberbatch Patrick James Corden Tone Mark Gatiss Bamber Gascoigne Guy Henry Dr Morrison John Henshaw Des Elaine Tan Lucy Chang Simon Woods Josh Charles Dance Michael Harbinson Lindsay Duncan Rose Harbinson Joseph Friend Young Brian James Gaddas Martin Jackson Robert Cawsey University Challenge Competitor Rasmus Hardiker University Challenge Competitor Sule Rimi Marcus Joe Van Moyland Hippy at the Party Ian Bonar Colin Reuben Henry Biggs Anthony Salmon Ben Willbond University Challenge Co-ordinator Su Elliot Cleaning Lady Gerard Monaco Waiter Bethan Bevan Cordelia Sykes Raj Ghatak Nigel De Havilland Tom Allen Tristram Neville Kenneth Hadley Television Director Nicholas Gleaves Speaker for Nuclear Disarmament Crew Directed by TOM VAUGHAN Screenplay by DAVID NICHOLLS Produced by TOM HANKS GARY GOETZMAN PIPPA HARRIS Executive Producers SAM MENDES STEVEN SHARESHIAN NATHALIE MARCIANO MICHELLE CHYDZIK SOWA Co-Producer MARY RICHARDS Director of Photography ASHLEY ROWE BSC Production Designer SARAH GREENWOOD Editors JON HARRIS HEATHER PERSONS Costume Design by CHARLOTTE MORRIS Make-up and Hair Designer JENNY SHIRCORE Music by BLAKE NEELY Music Supervisors DEVA ANDERSON DELPHINE ROBERTSON Casting by NINA GOLD Co-Producer DIANA CHOI SACHS First Assistant Director GUY HEELEY Location Manager GILES EDLESTON Supervising Art Director IAN BAILIE Set Decorator KATIE SPENCER Production Sound Mixer TONY DAWE Production Accountant BETTY WILLIAMS Supervising Sound Editors CAMERON FRANKLEY KIMBERLY HARRIS Re-Recording Mixers MICHAEL MINKLER CAS MICHAEL KELLER CAS Title Design PABLO FERRO In Association With SCION FILMS Scion Films Executive Producers JULIA BLACKMAN JEFF ABBERLEY Production Manager SIMON FRASER Second Assistant Director PHIL BOOTH Third Assistant Director VICKY MARKS Co-Third Assistant Director CHARLES REED Assistant Production Co-ordinator HOLLIE MORETON Script Supervisor ANGELA NOAKES WHARTON Camera Operator IAN CLARK Focus Puller JOHN EVANS Clapper Loader TIM MORRIS Key Camera Grip DAVID CROSS Video Operator Trainee KATHRYN COX Stills Photographer GILES KEYTE Gaffer CAMPBELL McINTOSH Best Boy LEE ELDRED Rigging Gaffer PHIL READER Electricians TOBY FLESHER AARON KEATING Generator Operator LARRY KNOX Chief Make-up Artist MANDY GOLD Chief Hairdressers LOULIA SHEPPARD COLIN WYATT Make-up & Hair Artist SUE HOWARD Crowd Make-up & Hair Artist JULIA VERNON Additional Make-up & Hair Artists JULIE KENDRICK EVE WIGNALL Wardrobe Supervisor TAMAR ZAIG Assistant Costume Designer SAGA WIDÉN Wardrobe Assistant CLAIRE COLLINS Wardrobe Department Trainee REBECCA ELSON Art Director NICK GOTTSCHALK Standby Art Director JEANETTE CHAPMAN Assistant Art Director LINDSAY BRUNNOCK Art Department Assistant GEORGINA MILLETT Art Department Trainee CHRIS KITISAKKUL Production Buyer SOPHIE TYLER Assistant Buyers/Set Decorators ALISON CARDY KATRINA DUNN Property Master DENNIS WISEMAN Property Storeman SIMON MORRISSEY Chargehand Dressing Propman PAUL EMERSON Dressing Propmen MARK BILLINGHAM KEN BURNETT LEE WISEMAN ANDREW KIFF Chargehand Standby Propman JOSH BARRAUD Standby Propman CHRIS ULUSELE Sound Maintenance PAUL SCHWARTZ Sound Assistant DENISE YARDE Location Scouting SARAH LEE Locations Unit Manager NICK OLIVER Assistant Location Manager SIMON NIXON Location Assistant JOHN DAVID GUNKLE First Assistant Accountant DEBORAH LEAKEY Accounts Assistant/Cashier MATTHEW BOVINGTON Post Production Accountants TARN HARPER OWEN & DE SALVO CO, CPAs Choreographer JACK MURPHY Stunt Co-ordinator PAUL HERBERT Casting Associate STEPHEN MOORE Floor Runners HELEN CHAPMAN JAMES HOBSON Office Assistants SOPHIE EASTON RICHARD SMITH Assistant to Mr Vaughan TIM ELLIOTT Assistants to Mr Goetzman JULIE SHIMER TORY HALJUN Assistants to Mr Hanks SOOKI RAPHAEL ALLISON DIAMOND Assistant to Mr Mendes MILLY LEIGH Extras Casting LESLEY GOGARTY CASTING NETWORK LIMITED Construction Managers STUART WATSON ROB BROWN Supervising Carpenter TONY HOSKINS Supervising Painter DAVE HAYNES Chargehand Carpenter LEIGH THURSON Carpenters CARL ALSOP SIMON LEWIS CHRIS BROUGH GRAHAM MITCHELL DAVE CHETTLEBOROUGH RUSS SARGENT NIGEL CRAFTS TOM WALKER GAVIN DEMPSEY ALEX WELLS GUY HUNT CHRIS WHITE Painters PAUL BALE JOHN HAYNES JOHN CAMPBELL STEVE MARQUISS GLYNN EVANS Stagehands PAUL OAKMAN NEIL ROBERTSON Standby Carpenter DAVID WELLS Standby Painter NICK PEARCE Standby Riggers PAT CRONIN MICHAEL SEYMOUR Re-Recording Engineer GARY SIMPSON Post Production Supervisors TIM PEDEGANA JEANETTE HALEY Post Production Co-ordinator FRANCES P VALLIERE First Assistant Editors CATRIONA RICHARDSON MONICA ANDERSON Assistant Editor STACI PONTIUS Dialogue Editors DAVID ARNOLD JAMES MATHENY ULRIKA AKANDER Sound Effects Editors RANDY KELLEY JAY JENNINGS RYAN B JUGGLER AI-LING LEE First Assistant Sound Editor JON MICHAELS Supervising Foley Editor CHRISTOPHER FLICK Foley Artists JEFFREY WILHOIT JAMES MORIANA Foley Mixer NERSES GEZALYAN ADR Stages POP SOUND GOLDCREST POST LONDON ADR Engineer MICHAEL MILLER ADR Recordists COURTNEY BISHOP JAMIE RODEN Sound Re-Recorded at TODD-AO STUDIOS WEST Music Editor TOM TRAFALSKI Score Produced by BLAKE NEELY Score Recorded & Mixed by JOEL IWATAKI Score Recorded & Mixed at COW ON THE WALL CAPITOL STUDIOS Scoring Assistant MICHAEL D SIMON Music Studio Manager ELIZABETH NEELY Unit Drivers DAVID SPEIRS TERRY BLEASDALE COLLIN KIDDELL GEORGE ANDREWS Minibus Drivers GAVIN MULLINS GWYN ETHALL Camera Car Driver STEVE MEEKS Grips Truck Driver MARTIN PARRY Prop Standby Driver GEORGE GREEN Construction Standby Driver CLIFF PENWRIGHT Props Runaround Driver EDDIE RODMELL Wardrobe Truck Driver STEVE PIKE Location Facility Drivers MIKE HARRIS DUNCAN PRENTIS RICHARD ONG ALBERT SMITH Health & Safety Advisor JAKE EDMUNDS - MSL Unit Medic NICK PEARSON Catering by CHORLEY BUNCE Home Economist KATHARINE TIDY Visual Effects, Titles & Digital Opticals by PACIFIC TITLE AND ART STUDIO Visual Effects Supervisor MARK FREUND Compositors MICHAEL BOGEN MAUREEN HEALY KILEY BOND Colour & Prints by DELUXE Colour Timer MICHAEL HATZER Dailies by TECHNICOLOR UK Negative Cutting NEGATIVE PEOPLE INC Dolby Sound Consultant BRYAN ARENAS Snow Effects SNOW BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL Rain Effects MARK HOLT SPECIAL EFFECTS Costumiers ANGELS BBC COSTUMES CARLO MANZI LONDON FILM & FASHION CENTRE Wigs Supplied by TERRY JARVIS Insurance Services AON/ALBERT G RUBEN Legal Services HARBOTTLE & LEWIS ROBERT STORER CHARLIE GOLDBERG LINDSAY DAWSON Camera & Lenses ARRI-MEDIA Motion Picture Film FUJI Lighting Equipment LEE LIGHTING Action Vehicles MGM CARS Telecine Facilities MIDNIGHT TRANSFER UK "COLLEGE BOY" (UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE THEME) Written by DEREK NEW Published by EMI BLACKWOOD MUSIC INC Courtesy of GRANADA TELEVISION LIMITED “BOYS DON’T CRY” Performed by THE CURE Written by ROBERT SMITH, LAURENCE TOLHURST, MICHAEL 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(UK) under license from UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES “THE HURTING” Performed by TEARS FOR FEARS Written by ROLAND ORZABAL Published by CHRYSALIS SONGS Courtesy of MERCURY RECORDS LIMITED under license from UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES “WONDERFUL LIFE” Performed by BLACK Written by COLIN VEARNCOMBE Published by HORNALL BROTHERS MUSIC LTD Courtesy of NERO SCHWARZ LTD “I’M YOUR MAN” Performed by WHAM! Written by GEORGE MICHAEL Published by CHAPPELL & CO O/B/O MORRISON-LEAHY MUSIC LTD Courtesy of COLUMBIA RECORDS/SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT (UK) By arrangement with SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT “VENUS” Performed by BANANARAMA Written by ROBERT LEEUWEN Published by DAYGLOW MUSIC/NANADA MUSIC BV Courtesy of LONDON-SIRE RECORDS LTD By arrangement with WARNER MUSIC GROUP FILM & TV LICENSING “LOVE MY WAY” Performed by PSYCHEDELIC FURS Written by JOHN ASHTON, RICHARD BUTLER, TIMOTHY BUTLER, VINCENT DAVEY Published by EMI BLACKWOOD MUSIC INC Courtesy of COLUMBIA RECORDS/SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT (UK) By arrangement with SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT “EVER FALLEN IN LOVE” Performed by THE BUZZCOCKS Written by PETER MacNEISH Published by COMPLETE MUSIC LTD & INCOMPLETE MUSIC INC Courtesy of EMI RECORDS under license from EMI FILM & TELEVISION MUSIC “DO IT CLEAN” Performed by ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN Written by PETER De FREITAS, IAN McCULLOCH, LESLIE PATTINSON, WILLIAM SERGEANT Published by WB MUSIC CORP Courtesy of WARNER MUSIC UK LTD By arrangement with WARNER MUSIC “IN BETWEEN DAYS” Performed by THE CURE Written by ROBERT SMITH Published by FICTION SONGS LTD/BMG SONGS INC/BMG MUSIC PUBLISHING LTD Courtesy of ELECTRA ENTERTAINMENT GROUP By arrangement with WARNER MUSIC GROUP FILM & TV LICENSING Courtesy of FICTION RECORDS/POLYDOR LTD (UK) under license from UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES “PICTURES OF YOU” Performed by THE CURE Written by ROBERT SMITH, SIMON GALLUP, PAUL THOMPSON, BORIS WILLIAMS, LAURENCE TOLHURST, ROGER O’DONNELL Published by FICTION SONGS LTD/BMG SONGS INC/BMG MUSIC PUBLISHING LTD Courtesy of ELECTRA ENTERTAINMENT GROUP By arrangement with WARNER MUSIC GROUP FILM & TV LICENSING Courtesy of FICTION RECORDS/POLYDOR LTD (UK) under license from UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES “TEENAGE KICKS” Performed by THE UNDERTONES Written by JOHN JOSEPH O’NEILL Published by UNIVERSAL MUSIC CORP O/B/O WEST BANK SONGS LTD Courtesy of SANCTUARY RECORDS GROUP “THE MAN WITH THE CHILD IN HIS EYES” Performed by KATE BUSH Published by BEACHWOOD MUSIC C/O SCREEN GEMS EMI Courtesy of EMI RECORDS under license from EMI FILM & TELEVISION MUSIC under license from UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES “IDEAS AS OPIATES” Performed by TEARS FOR FEARS Written by ROLAND ORZABAL Published by CHRYSALIS SONGS Courtesy of MERCURY RECORDS LIMITED under license from UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES “LOVE SONG” Performed by THE CURE Written by ROBERT SMITH, SIMON GALLUP, PAUL THOMPSON, BORIS WILLIAMS, LAURENCE TOLHURST, ROGER O’DONNELL Published by FICTION SONGS LTD/BMG SONGS INC/BMG MUSIC PUBLISHING LTD Courtesy of ELECTRA ENTERTAINMENT GROUP By arrangement with WARNER MUSIC GROUP FILM & TV LICENSING Courtesy of FICTION RECORDS/POLYDOR LTD (UK) under license from UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES Soundtrack Available on PLAY-TONE RECORDS/RHINO ENTERTAINMENT UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE RECREATION Licensed From COLLEGE BOWL and GRANADA Books & Artwork Provided Courtesy of FABER AND FABER LTD PENGUIN BOOKS LTD SONY BMG MUSIC LAWRENCE AND WISHART, LONDON NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON STUDIOCANAL IMAGE UNIVERSAL STUDIOS LICENSING LLP The Producers Wish To Thank 26 FILMS SCOTT PASCUCCI RUSSELL ALLEN QUEENS COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE STEVE BAKER JACKIE ROWDEN THOMAS BENSON ROBERT SMITH BAMBER GASCOIGNE BARRY TAYLOR PETER GWYN DAVID THOMPSON ROBIN HURLEY JANE TRANTER POLLY MALLINSON UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL MAURICE MARCIANO MARTIN WHITE Shot on Location in LONDON, BRISTOL and JAYWICK, ENGLAND About the production "He's a brilliant everyman, someone trying to fit in and I think that's something we can all relate to," says James McAvoy, the brilliant young actor who plays Brian Jackson, a working class student from an English coastal town starting his first year at prestigious Bristol University in 1985. "The story will appeal to adults who grew up in the 80s, anyone who has gone through higher education, and anyone who's tried to fit into something they weren't meant for. It's not your typical teenage gross-out comedy." If Starter for ten feels perhaps more heartfelt and authentic than most films of its genre, it may be because director Tom Vaughan and author-turned-screenwriter David Nicholls attended Bristol University together during the 1980s. Years later, when Vaughan was a successful BBC television director and Nicholls' critically acclaimed bestselling first novel Starter for ten was published, Vaughan remembers "trying to pretend it wasn't there, because I felt I wouldn't have a chance to direct it." Tom Hanks' production company, Playtone, soon optioned the book rights and began looking for a director. Recognizing in the book some of the qualities of his own buoyant coming-of-age directorial debut, That Thing You Do! Hanks shared the script with American Beauty and Road To Perdition director Sam Mendes who suggested they co-produce the film and stay true to the book by shooting in England with an all-British cast. A BBC producer suggested Vaughan, knowing he had worked well with Nicholls before on the BBC productions Cold Feet and I Saw You. "What delighted me was the fact that I was making my first movie on a subject that felt so close to me, that was so personal to me," says Vaughan. "While I'm not a writer myself I do feel very personally close to David's writing, and as a director you need to feel a certain amount of ownership of the movie even if you haven't written it." Asked about the challenges of adapting his own novel for the screen, Nicholls admits, "You take a deep breath and accept you're going to lose some things you love. The novel is written in the first person, and I originally thought it was un-adaptable because it's so much about Brian's voice. I think it's quite rare to have a very funny voice over in a film, so the biggest rule I set myself when adapting was never to include voice over if it wasn't necessary to moving the plot forward, if it was just a joke or a passage I loved from the book." Starter for ten was filmed over eight weeks on location in London, Bristol, and Jaywick, England. One of the high points of shooting involved recreating the University Challenge television set from 1985 using specifications provided by Granada Television (both the set and actor Mark Gatiss, a dead ringer for the show's original host, Bamber Gascoigne, score big laughs with British audiences during the film's morally complicated climax). For scenes set in Brian's hometown on the Essex Coast, Vaughan and company moved the production to Jaywick, an English coastal town that had never hosted a film crew before (nor had the local pub, Never Say Die, been subjected to an open-to-the-public night shoot). "I wanted to get a sense of the geographic contrast between these two places," explains the director. "One is all about the horizon, the university is very vertical and intimidating. I didn't want to draw attention to the camera and wanted to maintain a naturalistic shooting style - a film like Gregory's Girl is very appealing to me in terms of its style of filmmaking innocence and charm - but I did want the viewer to understand on a deep, visual level, the contrast between where this character comes from and where he's going." Brian Jackson knows everything "A character like Brian Jackson can be really tricky for an actor because he has to take the audience through the story but he's going to make annoying mistakes," says Vaughan, who likens the role to Tom Courtenay's title role in Billy Liar, John Schlesinger's 1963 gem about a young Englishman's dreams of escaping his working class family and dead-end job. "What James brings to it is a kind of 'X' factor which makes you care about him even when he's doing something cringe-worthy," says Vaughan of McAvoy, the brilliant young actor familiar to American audiences as Leto Atreides II in the Emmy Award-winning mini-series, Children Of Dune and Tumnus the Faun from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. "He walks the line being a young guy making mistakes and keeping you on his side. You know what he's striving for, and I think James could identify with that." Says Nicholls of the young actor who dominates virtually every frame of Starter for ten: "James manages to make the character likable in a way I wasn't sure he always was on the page. He makes terrible mistakes and has terrible failings, but you see the essential goodness of his intentions even if he goes about things in a foolish way. Even before he opens his mouth he brings an amiability and likeability that's immensely appealing. I remember seeing James for the first time on TV some time ago and thinking instantly that he's exceptional and is going to be a big star. He's my dream casting, really, I can't think of anyone else for the role. He's also just about the most committed, hardworking, serious actor that I've ever worked with." Proving disarmingly moving, too, is English television sketch comedy sensation Catherine Tate as Brian's steadfast mum, Julie Jackson. "I worked with her very briefly on a short play just before we began casting the movie, and we're completely delighted to have her," says Nicholls. "She has such likeability, warmth, and presence. Although she's known primarily as a comedienne, when you watch her sketch show it's just so evident that she has fantastic range and invests so fully in the characters." While on paper, the character of Alice Harbinson - Brian's upper-crust University Challenge team-mate - could be seen as a quintessential blonde bombshell, actress Alice Eve is able to invest her with considerable reserves of intelligence, charm, and sympathy. "The relationship with the other actors informs the playing of the character, as do days living with her in your head," says Eve, currently seen in Tom Stoppard's new play Rock n Roll in London's West End. "It is an organic process that you can't measure." Rounding out a cast that includes such English acting notables as Charles Dance and Lindsay Duncan, is another major acting find: Rebecca Hall, who portrays Brian's friend and possible romantic interest Rebecca Epstein. "She's like a young Shirley MacLaine-type character, a shrewd, smart heroine who doesn't necessarily conform to the hero's romantic expectations," says Nicholls of Hall and McAvoy's Punch-and-Judy chemistry. "She has a quality of wisdom and intelligence while always, always, always suggesting she's the smartest person in the room. And, of course, she is an incredibly striking beauty." A luminous screen presence appearing in her first film, the classically trained actress - daughter of legendary theatre director Sir Peter Hall, soon-to-be-seen in Christopher Nolan's The Prestige, with Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, and Michael Caine - makes an interesting distinction between the worlds of theatre and film: "In theatre you have a context for the story that you establish and you create an entire world on stage from beginning to end, whereas in film, you're really at those places, at that school, on that campus with extras with Flock-Of-Seagull haircuts and shoulder pads and too much blue eye shadow," Hall says. "It's an imaginative adjustment that you make, and I loved it." Though in Nicholls' novel the character of Rebecca - quick-witted and cool, with an arm's-length list of political causes - might come across as a bit astringent, Vaughan encouraged the actress to locate the character's warmth. "On first reading Rebecca can come across as very angry, but Tom definitely encouraged me to find out why she's like that and find the good things, the nice things, the quietness, how her sarcasm is a kind of defence mechanism" says Hall. "He asked me not to worry about playing the angry young woman and that was a really nice director's note." Brian Jackson is 80s-tastic! "Something I felt very strongly about from the beginning," says Vaughan, "is that I didn't want Starter for ten to be a cheesy 80s movie where the viewer spends the whole time laughing about haircuts and shoulder pads." Knowing Brian's world extremely well having lived through it as a student himself, Vaughan's directorial imperative demanded he be faithful to the period without turning the film into a parodic, skinny-tie nostalgia trip. "Rather than adding the 80s, what I did with the costume and production design and set departments was remove elements that were too modern. We reduced things, stripped things back, in order to locate the period," explains Vaughan of how the crew located its universal 1985. "Our feeling was always that this is a classic story that could be told anytime." Says Nicholls: "We didn't want to strive for laughs through the production design but we wanted to be accurate to the fashion of the period. Going through old photographs, we realized that the mid-eighties were a lot less flamboyant than the early eighties. Fashion-wise, the mid-eighties were actually quite gloomy; there wasn't a kind of peacock quality people normally associate with the era. The dress was more utilitarian, darker-hued, not particularly glamorous or ostentatious. But you don't want to watch people who look terrible for 90 minutes. Rebecca always looks kind of stylish and timeless and Brian never makes any major fashion errors." While McAvoy is too young to remember the 1980s much apart from its "amazing television cartoons" (counting Thundercats, The Mask, and Mysterious Cities of Gold among his favourites), he does recall "a prized possession at the time: a pair of ill-fitting stone-wash jeans with Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble on either side." In some ways, Starter for ten plays like the great, lost British teen movie of the 1980s, a UK counterpart to the American canon of John Hughes teen classics. "I grew up with those films and remember them all really well," says Vaughan of that glorious cinematic moment when Molly Ringwald's freckles were as mysterious and iconic as Garbo's smile. "When thinking about Starter for ten, I certainly went back and looked at Pretty In Pink and The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off and St. Elmo's Fire. They had a sensibility that felt right." Says Nicholls: "Those movies always seemed kind of alien and strange to us; there hasn't been that same kind of teen movie tradition in the UK. I think going to school here is much more tied up in issues of class and British audiences are very wary of addressing that. Class is a sort of British obsession and I think it's impossible to deal with education in this country without dealing with class." If Starter for ten effortlessly recalls the ebullience of films like Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, it's not without an overlay of Mike Leigh or Ken Loach class conflict. Without pushing too hard, Starter for ten offers a convincing time capsule of the failing economic policies of the Thatcher era. Not incidentally, University Challenge, the game show that plays such an important part in the film, not-too-subtly presses sensitive class issue buttons in its very format as students from new, red-brick, working class colleges and universities go up against the grand old institutions of Oxford and Cambridge. "The politics and class issues were very much there in David's writing and are a very important part of the story," says Vaughan, recalling his own university days. "The politics of the time were very apparent and very much happening on campus. It's always there, even in the background of scenes you'll see anti-Apartheid rallies and nuclear disarmament protests. At Bristol you'd always be aware of different classes, too. I went through a state school in Scotland that in some ways mirrored Brian's journey, and it was a real culture shock when I first got to university. The class differences were very pronounced at the time. Coming from a working class background, Brian not only has to deal with the issue of leaving behind his friends but the fact that once he gets there his upbringing and education to that point have not prepared him for that world whereas the more posh kids have the confidence and are prepared for that." McAvoy, too, related to this aspect of Brian's journey. "I identified with him as I went through a similar process going from my home life to drama school where the people were just so different and I ended up making several terrible Brian-like faux-pas," McAvoy explains. "I responded to Brian's response: the effort that goes into trying to fit into his new surroundings. It's interesting because class transition can be a healthy thing, but not if it is your outright objective." Says Nicholls: "Starter for ten fulfils all those elements of a teen romantic comedy but we haven't had to eradicate elements of class and politics and sexual politics of the time. It's a rich mix." And, as period-specific as it is, Starter for ten manages to transcend the 80s. "The film deals in many ways with the things that never change," says Eve. "Love, the University experience, music, mistakes, and relationships of all colours." Brian Jackson's "In between days" "Musically, my memories of that time are all about The Cure," says Nicholls, whose original novel contains a good number of musical cues and quoted lyrics. "What I didn't realize is that when you quote a song in a book you have to pay for it, and it can cost quite a bit of money!" For his part, director Vaughan had a dream 80s soundtrack - The Cure, New Order, Yaz, Wham!, Bananarama, The Psychedelic Furs, Tears For Fears, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Smiths, Blue Monday - playing in his head during the editing process. "I tried a lot of different tracks in the editing room. I thought, let me just put on all my favourite 80s tracks. It was real trial-and-error, and I never expected to get them all." The film's unlikely musical patron saint proved to be The Cure's frontman Robert Smith. A fan of the book, there was a moment when it appeared Smith would contribute original material for the soundtrack (something he had never done before). When the timing didn't coalesce, Smith was still able to give the project his blessing, which opened a multitude of doors for musical clearance rights. (Smith's contribution is thanked in the film's end credits.) No fewer than five Cure classics - "Love Song," "Pictures of You," "Six Different Ways," "In Between Days," and "Boys Don't Cry" - can be heard on the soundtrack, soon to be available on Playtone Records/Rhino Entertainment. The result is perhaps the most evocative soundtrack since Rushmore, a playlist perfectly attuned to the pulse of its lead character's angst and innate heroism. About the filmmakers Tom Vaughan (Director) Tom Vaughan was born and brought up in Helensburgh, Scotland. As a teenage actor Vaughan used the money he earned from appearing in a TV show to buy a video camera so he could pursue his burgeoning interest in filmmaking. He spent the rest of his teenage years re-making his favourite movies starring his friends and family. After studying Drama at Bristol University Vaughan moved to London and started making short films. His first short Super Grass (Executive Produced by Mike Leigh's producer Simon Channing Williams) won a distribution deal with Richard Linklater's movie Dazed And Confused and played in theatres across the UK as well as at film festivals. It was bought by Film Four and shown on national TV. With casting director Stephanie Duala, Vaughan ran an acting workshop at the Holborn Centre for Performing Arts from which came the ideas and characters for his next short film Box. A devised piece set around a phone box over one night in London the film caught the attention of the organizers of a Levi's sponsored short film competition. Vaughan's comedy Still Buzzin' became the first film made under this scheme and was shown at festivals around the world. It too won a theatrical distribution deal this time in front of Richard Linklater's movie Suburbia. On the strength of Still Buzzin' ad agency St Luke's approached Tom to direct a short film they were producing as part of a campaign for BBC Radio 1. The resulting film Plotless was again shown at cinemas across the UK and the four TV spots shot as part of the production went on to win Tom a Creative Circle Award for Best Newcomer. Within a year Vaughan had won a BTAA Gold Arrow for his Yellow Pages commercial. He was named by Campaign as one of the UK's Hottest Directors and was selected as part of Saatchi & Saatchi's New Directors' Showcase at Cannes. Film Four fully financed Vaughan's next short film Truel a period drama based on a game theory problem and he took time out of commercials to direct episodes of the hit TV show Cold Feet. Since then Vaughan has successfully balanced a busy commercials career with his drama work. Most recently Vaughan directed He Knew He Was Right for the BBC. This highly acclaimed four-hour mini-series was adapted from Anthony Trollope's novel by Andrew Davies and stars Bill Nighy, Oliver Dimsdale, Matthew Goode, David Tennant, Stephen Campbell Moore, Laura Fraser, Geoffrey Palmer, Ron Cook and Anna Massey. Starter for ten is Vaughan's first feature film. Vaughan has known writer David Nicholls since college days when they both attended the same degree course studying Drama at Bristol University. Vaughan linked up with David to direct his first original TV screenplay - the award-winning mini-series I Saw You. When the time came to find a director for Starter for ten Vaughan was the obvious choice. Vaughan is represented by Natasha Galloway at PFD and Brian Siberell at CAA. David Nicholls (Writer) Born in 1966 on the south coast of England, David Nicholls studied Drama and English at Bristol University, before moving to New York, where he trained as an actor at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. Returning to London, Nicholls worked as an actor for eight years, performing in many plays, including several years at the Royal National Theatre. After a period working as a TV story editor, he began to work full-time as a writer eight years ago. Nicholls' TV writing credits include the hit British TV series Cold Feet, Rescue Me , and I Saw You. His most recent play for television, a modern version of Much Ado About Nothing for BBC TV, received critical acclaim and a BAFTA nomination for Best Drama. His next play for BBC television, After Sun, will be screened this September. Nicholls' first film credit was as co-writer (with director Matthew Warchus) of the film adaptation of Sam Shepard's Simpatico, which starred Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges, Albert Finney and Sharon Stone. He has also written two best-selling novels, Starter for ten (published in the US as A Question of Attraction) and The Understudy, which he is currently developing as a screenplay. Tom Hanks (Producer) One of the world's most admired and respected actors today, Tom Hanks also holds the distinction of being the first actor in 50 years to be awarded back-to-back Best Actor Academy Awards. In 1993, he was rewarded for his compelling performance as the AIDS-stricken lawyer in Philadelphia and the following year he won the Oscar for his outstanding performance in Forrest Gump. He also won Golden Globes for both of these performances. For Forrest Gump, Hanks also won a Peoples Choice Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Chicago Film Critics Award, a National Association of Theatre Owners Male Star of the Year Award and the Hollywood Women's Press Club Award. In addition to the many honours Hanks has received, he was named "Man of the Year" by the nation's oldest undergraduate dramatic group, Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals, for his performance as astronaut Jim Lovell in Ron Howard's Apollo 13. In 1996, Hanks made his feature film writing and directing debut with That Thing You Do!, which followed the meteoric rise to fame of a local rock band named "The Wonders" in the summer of 1964. The film's title song not only reached the Top 10 in many contemporary music charts, but was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Hanks also appeared in the film in a supporting role. Born and raised in Oakland, CA, Hanks first became interested in acting during high school. He attended California State University in Sacramento, where he appeared in a production of The Cherry Orchard and met director Vincent Dowling, the resident director of the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Cleveland. Dowling invited Hanks to intern with the company, where he made his professional debut portraying Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew. Hanks appeared in other Great Lakes productions, including The Two Gentlemen of Verona, for which he received the Cleveland Critics Award for Best Actor. From Cleveland, Hanks went on to New York, where he appeared in his first feature film He Knows You're Alone and onstage in The Taming of the Shrew. Hanks got his first big break when he was cast as the lead in the ABC television comedy series Bosom Buddies. This led to starring roles in Bachelor Party followed by Ron Howard's Splash - a box office hit that started him on his path to becoming one of Hollywood's busiest and most sought-after leading men. Hanks many film credits include Volunteers, Nothing in Common and A League of Their Own. In 1988, with his box office success established, Hanks found himself a critical success with acclaimed performances in Punchline and Big (for which he earned his first Academy Award nomination and his first Golden Globe Award). The same year, the Los Angeles Film Critics recognized both performances, bestowing on Hanks their Best Actor Award. Constantly challenging himself, Hanks served as executive producer for HBO's From the Earth to the Moon - an ambitious 12-hour dramatic film anthology that explored the Apollo space program. Not only did Hanks personally help make this show a reality, he directed the first episode and wrote and appeared in the final episode. In 1998, Hanks starred in Steven Spielberg's war drama Saving Private Ryan in which he played a soldier who went deep behind enemy lines to save a trapped private during the Allied invasion. He received another Oscar nomination for his work. The following year he starred in The Green Mile, which was written and directed by Frank Darabont and is based on the six-part serialized novel by Stephen King. In 2000, Hanks starred in Cast Away for which he received yet another Oscar nomination for his portrayal as the sole survivor of a plane crash who is marooned on a deserted island. Cast Away was directed by Robert Zemeckis, from a screenplay by William Broyles Jr. In 2000, he served as executive producer (for another epic HBO miniseries), Band of Brothers, based on Stephen Ambrose's book. He also directed one of the episodes. The miniseries aired in the spring of 2001 to wide-scale critical acclaim, leading to a Golden Globe win for the Best Mini-Series in 2002. In 2002, Hanks starred in the depression era drama The Road to Perdition opposite Paul Newman and Jude Law under Sam Mendes' direction. It was followed by Spielberg's stylish caper Catch Me If You Can opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, which was based on the true-life exploits of international confidence man Frank Abagnale Jr. Hanks teamed again with Spielberg in The Terminal opposite Catherine Zeta Jones and followed it with the Coen brothers' dark comedy The Lady-killers, the story of an eccentric Southern professor who assembles a band of inept thieves to rob the Bandit Queen, a Mississippi riverboat casino. In November 2004, Hanks starred in the film adaptation of the Caldecott Medal-winning children's book The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. Hanks portrayed The Conductor in this beloved children's book, which reunited him with Cast Away director Robert Zemeckis. Tom can currently be seen playing Robert Langdon in the film adaptation of Dan Brown's best selling novel The Da Vinci Code. The film is helmed by Ron Howard and also stars Audrey Tatou, Paul Bettany, Ian McKellen and Jean Reno. Hanks currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Rita Wilson, and their family. Gary Goetzman (Producer) Gary Goetzman's producing credits include The Ant Bully, The Polar Express, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Beloved, That Thing You Do!, The Silence of the Lambs, (winner of 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture), Philadelphia, Devil In a Blue Dress, Miami Blues, Modern Girls, Amos and Andrew, Storefront Hitchcock, Neil Young Heart of Gold, the Imax 3-D short Magnificent Desolation, the HBO Series Big Love and the Emmy and Golden Globe winning mini-series, Band of Brothers. At 20, Goetzman production managed Jonathan Demme's directorial debut Caged Heat. He also produced the Talking Heads' concert film Stop Making Sense, Neil Young's long form video The Complex Sessions and music videos for Bruce Springsteen, Suzanne Vega, David Byrne, and Jane Child's number one music video Don't Wanna Fall in Love, which he also directed. Goetzman is currently producing the films Charlie Wilson's War starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Phillip Seymour Hoffman and directed by Mike Nichols, Where The Wild Things Are, based on the beloved children's book, to be directed by Spike Jonze, The Great Buck Howard starring John Malkovich and Colin Hanks and City of Ember to be directed by Gil Kenan. A native of Los Angeles, Goetzman has a rich musical background and has written and produced songs for many recording artists including Smokey Robinson, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, The Staple Singers, Thelma Houston, The Manhattans, David Ruffin, and Robert John. He has contributed his talents to many motion picture soundtracks including Something Wild, Colours, Married to the Mob, That Thing You Do!, Devil In a Blue Dress, Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World, and Philadelphia, which includes Bruce Springsteen's Academy Award and Grammy winner for Best Original Song, "Streets of Philadelphia." He produced the socially provocative and star-studded music DVD What's Going On? for the Artists Against AIDS Fund. In 1998 Goetzman teamed up with Tom Hanks to form PLAYTONE, a film, television and record company. Pippa Harris (Producer) Pippa Harris set up Neal Street Productions in 2003 with Sam Mendes and Caro Newling. Prior to this she was Head of Drama Commissioning for the BBC. Drama Commissions include State of Play (RTS, Best Drama Serial & Best Writer), The Lost Prince (Emmy Award, Outstanding Mini-Series), Cutting It, Daniel Deronda (BANFF Rockie Award, Best Mini-Series), Out of Control (Edinburgh Best British Feature, RTS Best Single Drama) and Flesh and Blood (Prix Europa Best Drama). She joined the BBC in 1997 as Development Executive, BBC Films and later became Executive Producer, BBC Drama Serials. Production Credits include: The Young Visitors, The Way We Live Now (BAFTA Best Drama Serial), Care'(BAFTA Best Single Drama, Prix Italia Best TV Drama), Warriors (BAFTA Best Drama Serial, Prix Italia Best Television Programme). Prior to joining the BBC in 1997 Pippa worked in the drama divisions of Carlton TV and Channel 4 as a development executive. Pippa is currently producing Stuart: A Life Backwards for HBO/BBC and Executive Producing Things We Lost in the Fire' for DreamWorks. She also co-produced Jarhead for Universal Pictures. Ashley Rowe (Director of Photography) Ashley Rowe has recently served as director of photography on Charles Shyer's films The Affair of the Necklace with Hillary Swank, Adrien Brody, and Christopher Walken; and Alfie with Jude Law and Marisa Tomei. Rowe also shot Calendar Girls with Helen Mirren and Julie Walters; Sacha Baron Cohen's Ali G Indahouse; the Mandy Moore teen comedy Chasing Liberty; director Brian Gibson's music comedy Still Crazy; Marshall Herskowitz' The Castle; Michael Radford's B-Monkey; and Phil Agland's The Woodlanders, for which he received the 1999 Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Technical/Artistic Achievement in Cinematography. Other awards include a Camerimage "Golden Frog" nomination for director Chris Menges' Second Best, Best Cinematography award at the Troi Film Festival for One Full Moon, and a BAFTA award for Best Cinematography for Om Edwards. For television, Rowe contributed notable work to the BBC Dennis Potter project Karaoke, and was honoured with BAFTA Best Cinematography awards for the BBC productions The Cormorant and Friday On My Mind. Upcoming for Rowe, the crime drama Butterfly On A Wheel starring Pierce Brosnan and Maria Bello. Rowe is represented by International Creative Management. Heather Persons (Editor) Heather Persons began her career apprenticing for Dede Allen on The Addams Family and later assisted on several films including Flesh and Bone, starring Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid; Something to Talk About, directed by Lasse Hallström, starring Julia Roberts; and American Rhapsody, starring Scarlett Johansson. With Mia Goldman, she co-edited My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which was a huge domestic and international success, and The In-Laws, starring Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks. She edited the TNT movie The Ron Clark Story, starring Matthew Perry for director Randa Haines and she most recently edited Open Window (Sundance 2006) starring Robin Tunney and Joel Edgerton. Sarah Greenwood (Production Designer) Last year Sarah Greenwood received an Academy Award nomination for outstanding achievement in production design for Joe Wright's Pride And Prejudice, an adaptation of the Jane Austen classic starring Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Dame Judi Dench, and Donald Sutherland. Other recent feature films include David Kane's Born Romantic and This Year's Love; Sandra Goldbacher's The Governess with Minnie Driver, Tom Wilkinson, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers; and Bob Bierman's film version of George Orwell's Keep The Aspidistra Flying (aka A Merry War) with Richard E. Grant and Helena Bonham Carter. Greenwood's artistic collaboration with Joe Wright began with their successful work in British television including: the BAFTA Award-winning BBC drama Charles II, Channel Four's Bodily Harm, and BBC's Nature Boy. Greenwood is currently re-teaming with Wright for the filmmaker's highly-anticipated adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel, Atonement, starring James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Kristin Scott Thomas, Brenda Blethyn, and Romola Garai. Greenwood is represented by International Creative Management. About the cast James McAvoy (Brian Jackson) James McAvoy was born in the Scotstoun area of Glasgow, Scotland in 1979 and is a graduate of the prestigious Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. In his short career, he has tested himself with an incredible variety of work, on stage, television and film and is regarded as one of the UK's most exciting acting talents. Although he cut his teeth with small parts in high-profile projects like the World War One drama Regeneration, alongside Jonathan Pryce and Dougray Scott, and the hugely-successful HBO series, Band of Brothers, produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, McAvoy first came to prominence in the UK with the role of Josh in the Channel Four adaptation of Zadie Smith's popular novel, White Teeth, with Geraldine James, John Simm and Naomie Harris. This brought McAvoy to the attention of Hollywood and in 2002 he was cast as Leto Atreides II in the Emmy Award-winning mini-series, Children Of Dune. Directed by Greg Yataines and co-starring Susan Sarandon and Steven Berkoff, the series was a massive hit, with The Hollywood Reporter describing James as "excellent as a young man forced to battle great odds," adding that "he adeptly engages in some Matrix-style battles." Also in 2002, McAvoy filmed his first lead role in a feature film, as Jay in the British comedy, Bollywood Queen. Directed by Jeremy Wooding, the film tells the story of a cross-cultural romance between Jay and Geena (Preeya Kalidas). McAvoy went straight from this to play student casanova, Liam, in the cult BBC sitcom, Early Doors. As McAvoy's body of work grew, the roles being offered to him grew more and more significant and he next found himself playing the memorable role of Dan Foster in the BAFTA-winning BBC ONE political drama series, State Of Play, with Bill Nighy, John Simm and Kelly Macdonald. Written by Paul Abbott and directed by David Yates, it ran in the UK in Autumn 2003, on BBC America in 2004 and became one of the most successful UK TV series in recent years. While impressing on the small screen, McAvoy also proved to be a hit on the big screen, when Stephen Fry's much-anticipated comedy, Bright Young Things was released in October 2004. The BBC said at the time that he "burns brightly and brilliantly as the tragic Lord Balcairn" and the Guardian reported that "there are some excellent performances, most notably by James McAvoy as a desperately ambitious gossip writer". The film has an all-star international cast, including Emily Mortimer, Dan Aykroyd, Sir Peter O'Toole, Jim Broadbent, Richard E Grant and many more. Bright Young Things was released in the US in August 2004. McAvoy's popularity in the UK grew with his portrayal of the car thief, Steve, in the BAFTA-winning, Channel Four series Shameless, which began in the UK in early 2004. Once again written by Paul Abbott, who handpicked McAvoy for the role, the series tells the story of the fortunes and misfortunes of a family on a Manchester council estate. The show returned for a second series in December 2004 before debuting on BBC America in April 2005. McAvoy was nominated in the Best Comedy Newcomer category at the 2004 British Comedy Awards for his performance. Late 2004 saw McAvoy gain further critical acclaim for two major films. First, in September, came Wimbledon, in which he starred alongside Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst. McAvoy plays Carl Colt, brother to Bettany's Wimbledon hopeful, Peter, who makes a habit of betting large sums against his inspired sibling winning. A month later, in October, Inside I'm Dancing was released in the UK. Directed by Damian O'Donnell and co-starring Steven Robertson and Romola Garai, the film tells the story of Rory O'Shea, a young Irishman with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, who leads his cerebral palsy-stricken friend in a fight for physical and emotional freedom. The film received great critical acclaim, with McAvoy's landmark performance being especially noted. Film Review wrote that "McAvoy, last seen in Wimbledon, steals the film in a performance of sly anarchy, all the more impressive in that he can only act from the neck up." The Independent described James as "brilliant", The Sunday Telegraph called him "superb," Screen International said that "McAvoy burns with charisma" and The Sunday Times praised the fact that "McAvoy at last gets to command centre stage." The film was released in the States as Rory O'Shea Was Here. McAvoy was nominated in the Best British Actor category at the 2005 London Film Critics Circle Awards for his performance. December 2005 saw the long-awaited arrival of Disney's big budget The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Filmed in New Zealand over the second half of 2004, McAvoy plays Mr Tumnus The Faun in this adaptation of the CS Lewis classic, directed by Andrew Adamson and co-starring Tilda Swinton, Rupert Everett and Liam Neeson. The film became a massive international success and is one of the twenty highest grossing films of all time. McAvoy was nominated in the British Actor in a Supporting Role at the 2006 London Film Critics Circle Awards for his performance. In the summer of 2005, McAvoy travelled to Uganda to take on the lead role in The Last King Of Scotland, directed by the Oscar and BAFTA-winning Kevin Macdonald. The film tells the story of Nicholas Garrigan, a Scottish doctor on a Ugandan medical mission who becomes irreversibly entangled with one of the world's most barbaric figures, Idi Amin, played by Forest Whitaker. The film co-stars Kerry Washington and Gillian Anderson and will be released in September 2006 in the US and January 2007 in the UK. McAvoy will also soon be seen in Penelope, directed by Mark Palansky. Co-starring Reese Witherspoon, Christina Ricci and Richard E. Grant, McAvoy plays a man called upon to save a young woman cursed with the snout of a pig. Penelope was filmed in London from February 2006 and will premiere at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. In April 2006, McAvoy moved to Dublin to start work on Becoming Jane. Directed by Julian Jarrold and co-starring Dame Maggie Smith and Julie Walters, McAvoy plays the brilliant, roguish Irishman, Tom Lefroy whose affair with Jane Austen (Anne Hathaway) inspired her to write Pride & Prejudice. From Dublin, McAvoy returned immediately to the UK to begin work on Atonement. An adaptation of the popular Ian McEwan novel, the movie is directed by Joe Wright and co-stars Keira Knightley, Kristin Scott Thomas, Brenda Blethyn and Romola Garai. McAvoy plays Robbie Turner, a Cambridge graduate falsely accused of rape, who goes on to fight in the Second World War with the accusation hanging over him. McAvoy won the Rising Star Award at the 2006 BAFTAs. Rebecca Hall (Rebecca Epstein) Rebecca Hall makes her feature film debut in Tom Vaughn's Starter for ten. In the fall, she stars opposite Christian Bale in Christopher Nolan's The Prestige (Touchstone Pictures), a tale of two turn-of-the-century London magicians whose rivalry jeopardizes the lives of everyone around them. Last year, Hall received wide acclaim for her performance as Rosalind, Shakespeare's love conflicted heroine in Peter Hall's production of As You Like It, which began at The Theatre Royal Bath in 2003 and was followed by an international tour. It was revived in 2005 at the Rose Theatre in Kingston and subsequently ran at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theatre and the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. In summer 2004, she starred in three productions at the Theatre Royal, Bath: as the title role in Timberlake Wertenbaker's Galileo's Daughter, (d: Peter Hall), Elvira in Simon Nye's version of the Molière comedy Don Juan (d: Thea Sharrock) and as Ann Whitfield in Shaw's epic Man and Superman (d: Peter Hall). For her West End debut as Vivie, the tough minded daughter in Mrs Warren's Profession (Strand Theatre, premiered October 2002), Hall garnered the Ian Charleson Award. In 2003 she was again nominated for the Ian Charleson Award for As You Like It. While reading English at Cambridge, she played Miranda in The Tempest, Martha in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and directed productions of Cuckoo by Giuseppe Manfredi and Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound. Hall's television credits include Brendan Maher's forthcoming Wide Sargasso Sea, for BBC 4, Peter Hall's acclaimed adaptation of Mary Wesley's novel The Camomile Lawn for Channel 4 and Don't Leave Me This Way, directed by Stuart Orme. Alice Eve (Alice Harbinson) Alice Eve was born in London, to Trevor Eve and Sharon Maughn (the well known British actors.) She went to school in London before going on to study English at Oxford University. Whilst at university Eve took part in many theatre productions which is where she developed her love of acting. Her roles at University included Galatica in Scenes from an Execution and Mabel in An Ideal Husband. Eve's first major film role came whilst she was still at University. This was playing the mischievous character of Miss Frain in the hit film Stage Beauty directed by Richard Eyre. The rest of the cast included Billy Crudup, Rupert Everett, Clare Danes, and Ben Chaplin. The film received fantastic reviews and really launched Eve into the British film scene. Her next role came in the summer holidays of her second year at Oxford in Philip Martin's BBC television drama Hawking, the story of the search for the beginning of time in which she played the character of Martha. After gaining her English degree from Oxford Eve was immediately cast in the role of Cicely Boyd in the hit UK TV series The Rotters Club. This cult series was an adaptation of the novel by Jonathan Coe about three friends growing up in Birmingham in the 1970s. It also proved to be a showcase for many young British talent, other cast members included Julian Rhind-Tutt and Hugo Speer. Following The Rotters Club Eve was immediately cast in the much-anticipated Starter for ten. Eve's next project, Big Nothing is directed by Jean-Baptiste Andrea. It is the story of a frustrated, unemployed teacher (played by David Schwimmer) joining forces with a scammer and his girlfriend Josie (played by Eve) in a blackmailing scheme. This hilarious comedy, in which Eve shines brightly, is due for release late in 2006 or early 2007. Immediately after finishing filming Big Nothing Eve left for the shores of India to begin filming Losing Gemma. This is an ITV1, two-part, 90-minute movie which documents Eve's characters travels around India. It is due for release in the UK in November. After returning from India Eve went straight in to rehearsals for the critically acclaimed Rock n Roll - Tom Stoppard's new play directed by Trevor Nunn - in London's West End. Eve stars alongside Rufus Sewell, Brian Cox, and Sinead Cusack. The play has been sold out months in advance and has received rave reviews from all of London's top theatre critics. Rock n Roll is running in London until the end of November 2006. Dominic Cooper (Spencer) Currently performing on Broadway in the critically-acclaimed play, The History Boys, Dominic Cooper will soon be seen starring in the highly-anticipated film adaptation as well. Reprising the role of Dakin that earned him both Drama Desk and Evening Standard Award nominations, Dominic is quickly emerging as one of the most exciting talents in the industry. Upon completion of his professional training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), Dominic landed a role at the prestigious National Theatre under resident director Nicholas Hytner in Mother Clap's Molly House. Subsequent theatre credits included roles in the Royal Shakespeare Company's A Midsummer Night's Dream and the Caryl Churchill Event at the Royal Court Theatre, before re-teaming with Hytner at the National Theatre for His Dark Materials and The History Boys. Winner of three Olivier Awards including Best New Play, The History Boys tells the story of a group of students and their professors as they prepare for life and the pursuit of higher learning. Written by Alan Bennett, The History Boys has since been made into a Fox Searchlight film and toured Japan and New Zealand before landing on Broadway in 2006, where it was the recipient of six Tony Awards, including Best Play. Making the seamless leap from stage to screen, Dominic's film credits include roles in Boudica, I'll Be There, Neil Jordan's The Good Thief, and Albert Hughes's From Hell. Television credits include a series regular role on BBC's Down to Earth, Sparkling Cyanide, BBC's The Gentleman Thief, Hallmark's Davison's Eyes, and Steven Spielberg's acclaimed Band of Brothers. Benedict Cumberbatch (Patrick) Son of actor Timothy Carlton and actress Wanda Ventham, Benedict Cumberbatch trained at the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). Cumberbatch had the privilege of meeting with Professor Stephen Hawking in preparation for the title role of the BBC television drama Hawking - a role for which he was honoured with a 2005 BAFTA nomination and the 2004 Best Actor award from the Monte Carlo Television Festival. Film highlights include Paige Cameron's short film based on Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants and director Michael Apted's upcoming Amazing Grace starring Albert Finney, Michael Gambon, Ciarán Hinds, Rufus Sewell, and Romola Garai. On stage, Cumberbatch has performed in Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler in West End's Almedia Theatre under the direction of Richard Eyre (for which he received Olivier and Ian Charleson Award nominations); and in Lady From The Sea for theatrical impresario Trevor Nunn. Cumberbatch will soon be seen opposite Starter for ten colleague James McAvoy in director Joe Wright's highly-anticipated adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel, Atonement. When he's not busy on stage, screen, or television, Cumberbatch's interests include guitar, harmonica, cricket, rugby, and scuba diving.
