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GLORIA
Production Information
Gloria (Sharon Stone) has survived more than her share of risky relationships. This time she's hooked up with a guy who’s real trouble, a guy who could get her killed.
He is six years old.
Fresh off a three-year prison term (she took a fall for her mobster boyfriend, Kevin), Gloria immediately violates parole and returns to New York City and a bleak future littered with broken promises. Desperate and angry, she lashes out, putting to good use the tough education she earned growing up in Hell's Kitchen. In the process, she accidentally becomes guardian of a stubborn six-year-old boy (Jean-Luke Figueroa) whose family has been wiped out by her criminal consorts. He possesses devastating information that can destroy an underworld empire.
Gloria has always traveled light and been in control. Now she's forced to scurry through the streets of New York burdened by this excess baggage, whom she doesn’t like or understand. And he has an even lower opinion of her. As Gloria’s life spins out of control, she realizes that both she and the boy are marked for murder by the mob. They have nobody but each other.
Ultimately, these two misfits brought together by a twist of fate transform each other. Gloria gives her charge a second crack at childhood. And he gives her a second chance at life, revealing more about love than all the tough men she's ever known.
Gloria, a Mandalay Entertainment Presentation for Columbia Pictures, demonstrates that change is both painful and possible. Directed by Sidney Lumet and produced by Gary Foster and Lee Rich, the motion picture stars Academy Award® nominee Sharon Stone in the title role of a woman who could always handle anything life threw her way—until now.
Lumet has directed some of the screen's most memorable motion pictures, which have garnered over 50 Academy Award® nominations. Personally, he has earned five Oscar® nominations and seven Directors Guild of America Award nominations. Of his latest film, he says, “What happens to Gloria, played with remarkable insight by Sharon Stone, is something I find quite moving. We discover her spirit encased in cement. We watch as it gets chipped away against her will. Gradually, we see a real, changed human being emerge."
The screenplay was written by Steven Antin and based on a story by John Cassavetes. G. Mac Brown and Chuck Binder served as executive producers, with Josie Rosen as co-producer and Donald J. Lee, Jr. and Amberwren Briskey-Cohen as associate producers.
Filmed almost entirely in New York City, the setting for most of Lumet's pictures, Gloria spotlights both compelling characters and high-octane action. Sharon Stone portrays a street-smart woman who, in less politically correct times, would be labeled a dame, a broad, a moll.
"Everything about Gloria is big," Stone recounts. "Her mouth, her hair, her attitude, her curves, her shoes, her trouble. She's always got a plan. But when she gets stuck with this kid, for the first time in her life she doesn't have a clue what to do.
"Though Gloria is forced to deal with buried maternal issues, there's nothing soft about this movie. This is one tough talking, rough dealing character.
"The story is filled with so much internal conflict. Gloria hates Kevin, but loved him enough to go to prison for three years, and those feeling still simmer. He's torn between affection for her and sworn loyalty to his organization. Should he ice her or marry her? She grows protective of a helpless child whose entire family has been killed, but sometimes it's just too much work and she earnestly wants to dump him. The three principal characters spend so much time simply not knowing, as most of us do in our lives."
Jeremy Northam is cast opposite Stone as Kevin, her former lover and current nemesis. Six-year-old Jean-Luke Figueroa is the little boy who brings complication, chaos and compassion to Gloria's life. Cathy Moriarty is a sympathetic purveyor of female companionship, while Mike Starr is an underworld underling and Bonnie Bedelia appears as Gloria's estranged sister. George C. Scott makes a special appearance as an underworld kingpin whose intimate history with Gloria might now save her life.
Gloria returns Stone to the underworld she inhabited in Casino, for which she was honored with a Golden Globe Award and a 1995 Academy Award® nomination. "Both Ginger in Casino and Gloria are Irish Americans," Stone compares. "They're big, wildly alive characters. Ginger had drug and alcohol problems. Gloria's sober, but has man and mob problems. I like that she's capable of laughing through her tears."
Gloria is the perfect role for Stone, an actress who has made variety and challenge the hallmark of her career. Stone says, "I'm generally thought of to play characters who are in control—very knowing and savvy. Gloria is different. She never knows, at least not in the course of this movie.
"She's been dumped on by a guy she loved for a long time. She's homeless and betrayed, and doesn't have a clue where she's going. She unknowingly steps into the middle of underworld turmoil and discovers a little boy who must be killed to protect the organization. On an impulse she grabs the kid, though she has no use for children. She tries to lose him, but he's a boomerang. Then she learns his family has been wiped out. She's on parole, she's in life-threatening trouble, she's got this combative kid she's doesn't like, and she has no idea what to do, who to trust or where to go. She's just trying to figure out moment by moment how to keep it together and survive through an unbelieveably harrowing experience.
"The story is about a week in a woman's life—the very worst week! If she'd known that she would have to run through New York with a target on her back, she probably wouldn't have worn four-inch heels and a miniskirt," Stone laughs.
Producer Gary Foster, whose filmography includes Sleepless In Seattle, says, "The producer's challenge and reward is combining complimentary elements to create a film. I really believe we have a rare and compatible assemblage of talents on this picture. The foundation was screenwriter Steven Antin's idea to update a fascinating character created by the brilliant John Cassavetes almost 20 years ago. He felt it could be contemporized into a strong '90s film."
"It was most peculiar how I came to the project," Stone remembers. "A dear friend of mine—a brilliant woman—happened to have the script even before Steven Antin submitted it to Mandalay. After reading three pages and wondering how the writer got inside my head, I knew I was going to do it. There simply was no question."
"I honestly can't imagine another actress as Gloria," insists Foster, whose producing credits include Tin Cup, Short Circuit and Desperate Measures. "She's strong, she can be the dame, she's smart, beautiful, physical and, as we see in this film, she can be poignantly vulnerable."
With Lumet directing and Stone starring, Foster feels the project represents a first-class meeting of East and West. "Sharon is Hollywood's glamorous superstar, cast as a resilient New Yorker who knows her way around. When you're talking about the streets of New York, no director does it better, grittier and more realistically than Sidney. Look at the amazing power of his work, represented by Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, Network, The Hill, Prince Of The City, The Verdict, The Pawnbroker, Murder On The Orient Express. Sidney and Sharon are an exciting team."
Of her director, Stone knew he was “the perfect choice. This is a character-driven piece, and so many of his masterpieces are about the nitty-gritty of a character and what happens when that person is in extremely intense, confined circumstances."
Producer Foster continues the positive appraisal of the veteran director. "It is because of Sidney's involvement that we were able to attract such a top-flight company. Actors are attracted to him not just because of his credits, but because of his rich background. He began as a child actor in Yiddish theater and contributed so much as a director in the era of live television. And consider his very first feature film, 12 Angry Men. Actors appreciated that he is rooted in performance rather than technology."
The fabric of Gloria was enriched by the addition of Academy Award®-winning screen legend George C. Scott; British actor Jeremy Northam, the romantic lead of Emma, the hero of Mimic, and the villain of The Net; Cathy Moriarty, Academy Award® nominee for Raging Bull; and an assortment of New York character actors.
Northam reflects a unanimous sentiment on the part of the Gloria cast when he says, "Of course, I seized the opportunity to work with Sidney Lumet. He's one of my idols. Just look at the fantastic films and the performances done under his guidance.
"But, also," Northam admits, "this character of Kevin is different than anything I've done. I want each role to be a different challenge. It's not often I'm offered the part of an Irish New Yorker. The prospect of working with Sharon Stone was a major attraction, I must admit. I was so aware of the public image, and it was a pleasurable surprise to see the person behind it. She is a generous actor, always with ideas. And she is so very brave. Much braver than I am when the cameras are rolling."
Sidney Lumet's team included veteran cinematographer David Watkin, whose extensive background includes an Academy Award® for Out Of Africa, and Production Designer Mel Bourne, a three-time Oscar® nominee whose New York movies include numerous collaborations with filmmaker Woody Allen. Costume Designer Dona Granata joined Lumet for a fourth time, while Stone's costume designer was Judianna Makovsky. For Editor Tom Swartwout, this marked a third teaming with the director.
Discussing the thrill of collaborative filmmaking, Sidney Lumet says, "You have 120 people in one place, focused on one goal, utilizing their own specific crafts and unique talents. It's quite an amazing process, and so important to assemble an appropriate crew."
An overriding concern during pre-production was finding a young boy to play the other half of the Gloria odd couple, Stone's leading man who could spell death for her character. Without the right child, the entire exercise was rather pointless. Casting director Lou Digiaimo and three assistants scoured the tri-state area and saw thousands of boys. The field was narrowed to 15.
"The casting director told us there was one finalist he felt was perfect, but didn't say which one it was," remembers Foster, who had faced a similar dilemma producing Sleepless In Seattle. "When Jean-Luke Figueroa came into the room, we knew instantly. He was beautiful, energetic, intelligent, compelling, focused, and you could tell he really wanted to be there. We were very lucky to find Jean-Luke."
Now seven, Jean-Luke remembers it this way. "I had to go to this place and make my eyes water. I did it better than the other guys."
Gloria is based on a story by the late filmmaker John Cassavetes. His wife, actress Gena Rowlands, received an Academy Award® nomination for her performance in the1980 film, which Cassavetes directed. As the updated Gloria was in pre-production, Stone and Rowlands acted together in another picture, The Mighty.
"Gena and I talked about it," Stone reveals. "Of course, she was concerned that it be done right. But she was very supportive and acknowledged that differences in the times and the actresses required different approaches. It certainly can't be easy seeing people touch something you once put your heart and soul into. However, she pointed out that people keep producing Shakespeare's works and it is high tribute to the author. So she said she found our efforts a genuine compliment."
Lumet adds, "John Cassavetes was a good friend, and I admire his work enormously. He was so interested in the moment by moment existence of his characters. In the case of Gloria, there was an opportunity to take this great character and enhance the story."
About The Production
In Sidney Lumet's popular and illuminating book Making Movies, the director details an intense pre-production rehearsal schedule that is his foundation for principal photography.
"This is one of the reasons actors are eager to work with Sidney," says Jeremy Northam, who plays Gloria's lover and deadly adversary in Gloria. "It's particularly wonderful for someone like me, who has done a lot of theater. You can experiment, fail, try new things that allow you to have a fairly good grasp of not only the story, but the feelings inside your character's bones. By the time we started shooting, I knew this was a collaboration between director and actors, that he was a firm helmsman you could trust.
"It is refreshing that he doesn't use the video monitor most directors rely on these days," Northam volunteers. "He spends a lot of time looking through the lens before you actually shoot, so he knows the framing, the lighting and what he's got. When the cameras roll, he trusts his eyes rather than technology. His eyes are part of the process instead of some mechanical device. He becomes part of the scene."
There was never any question about where those scenes would be filmed. It had to be in New York.
Lumet explains, "These two fugitives, these outsiders, have to battle the unrelenting energy, the tremendous drive that only New York fully delivers. Killers are on their heels and New York is in their face.
"I'll tell you a secret," the director confides. "Although I'm associated with shooting in real places, the truth is that I don't like doing it anymore. It's inordinately difficult, especially in New York. For example, we did a full, very important sequence in Times Square at rush hour, on a matinee day, no less. And we shot other big scenes and stuntwork right in the heart of Manhattan. It is not at all easy. But the style of this particular picture demanded it. And I think it was very good for our young actor. It helped him get a clearer sense of what was happening in the story."
"Sidney's a killer," Stone laughs. "Let's not pretend otherwise. He had us in the streets of New York for two months of real traffic, real people, instead of well-fed extras and picture cars. Life was all around us with chaotic, obtrusive, frenetic energy. It was throw and go. Never two rehearsals, six takes, five set-ups, different things to cut to. No endless Hollywood refinements by hair, makeup and wardrobe people. You get out of the car, get a take and you're out of there. It was commando filmmaking.
"I learned such an important lesson from Sidney," the star confides. "I want things to be good, so I'm a planner. It was exciting to discover that sometimes the work is most interesting because of the mistakes, vulnerability and things you don't plan. When you have a six year old in live traffic with people screaming, it's scary and serious and you have to pay such intense attention. So it just becomes what it is, despite all your plans. Very raw and, I hope, exciting."
Only Gloria's former apartment, commandeered by her ex-lover, plus a motel room and subway car interior, were shot on sets created by Production Designer Mel Bourne at the New York State Armory on West 14th Street and studio space at Chelsea Pier. Lumet took cast, crew and cameras up to Washington Heights at 175th and Broadway, to Harlem, down to the Lower East Side, into tenements and posh brownstones, from Brooklyn to Newark airport.
Producer Foster says, "We had no problems. Not an issue arose. That's because both the government bureaucrats and native New Yorkers respect the honesty of Sidney's movies. People want to help him. He and Woody Allen stand out as New York's filmmakers."
Lumet called on the expertise of Stunt Coordinator Jack Gill for action sequences. Among these is a harrowing car chase in which Gloria and terrified little Nicky flee a hit man by driving down a long set of stairs at 125th Street near Riverside Drive. Gill was stunt coordinator on Lumet's Night Falls On Manhattan and A Stranger Among Us.
Other specialists involved in making Gloria included two top dialect coaches. Jill Massie, based in Nashville, worked to transform Stone's lovely velvet-voiced diction into the strong sound of New York's Hell's Kitchen. She earlier assisted the actress in developing a hard rural Southern dialect for Last Dance. Hollywood's foremost expert in the field, Robert Easton, helped Northam become a smooth New York tough guy of Irish descent.
Dialects, stunts and locations can be planned. But the behavior of child actors is entirely unpredictable. Lumet had never worked with an actor as young as Jean-Luke Figueroa, and admits to having been apprehensive. A former child actor himself, Lumet confesses, "I went to Bob Benton and Alan Pakula, both of whom got marvelous performances from youngsters, and they gave the same advice. They felt that the character the child is playing has to be the most important element. But, giving credit where it’s due, Sharon is one of the main reasons Jean-Luke is as good as he is. She got involved with him on a personal level, from sheer discipline to the most complicated emotional moments. I don't think we would have gotten what we got without her full commitment."
While Jean-Luke took his job seriously, there were other things to focus on during his movie debut. "The funnest part of making a movie," he volunteers, "is free food and making cash. Sleeping in different nice hotels is cool. The hardest part is when you're not supposed to laugh. Like when Gloria makes the bad guys take their clothes off.
"I tell my friends at school, 'When you get a chance, if you have the guts, ask your mom if you can be in a movie. It's the best thing to do.' But it takes a lot of brains and a lot of heart. And courage," the young New Jersey resident adds.
Stone has a special word about working with George C. Scott, who plays a man from her past with power over her future. "I've worked with some of the finest actors in the business, people I've admired my whole life and who inspired me to join the profession. But when you sit down with George, you’d better be ready, because he is singularly the most focused, finely tuned artist I've ever encountered. You're lucky if you can keep up with him. Working with him was really extraordinary. It made me proud to be an actor."
About The Cast
As Gloria, Academy Award® nominee SHARON STONE adds another strong character to her impressive list of diverse performances.
Her other recent pictures are Sphere, opposite Dustin Hoffman, and The Mighty, in which she was particularly pleased to play a mother.
The Pennsylvania-born actress made her first, fleeting-but-memorable film appearance as the blonde goddess glimpsed by Woody Allen from a passing train in Stardust Memories. Her first major role was as Ryan O'Neal's conniving actress-girlfriend in Irreconcilable Differences.
She received invaluable on-the-job training in a unique assortment of movies in which she generally outshone the material.
Her filmography includes King Solomon's Mines and its sequel, Allan Quartermain And The Lost City Of Gold; Action Jackson in 1988; Above The Law, which marked Steven Seagal's debut; Scissors, her first top-billing; a comedy titled He Said, She Said; John Frankenheimer's Year Of The Gun, a thriller for which she earned excellent reviews as an aggressive photojournalist; and the respected Diary Of A Hitman.
Along the way, Stone starred in the short-lived Steven Bochco television series "Bay City Blues" and co-starred as Robert Mitchum's daughter-in-law in the "War And Remembrance" miniseries.
Hot roles in two blockbusters earned the experienced actress "overnight sensation" status. She gained wide attention as the secret agent masquerading as Arnold Schwarzenegger's loving wife in Total Recall. She then starred with Michael Douglas in Basic Instinct, the top-grossing film of 1991, receiving a Golden Globe nomination for her memorable performance as Catherine Tramell.
She subsequently starred in the psychosexual thriller Sliver, a worldwide boxoffice favorite, and teamed with Richard Gere for Intersection, drawing favorable reviews in a role that marked a departure from audience expectations. She starred as a no-name western gunslinger opposite Gene Hackman in The Quick And The Dead, and joined Sylvester Stallone in another boxoffice smash, The Specialist.
For her performance opposite Robert DeNiro in Martin Scorsese's Casino, Stone received a Golden Globe Award and a 1995 Academy Award® nomination as Best Actress. The film spotlights her as Ginger, a Las Vegas denizen who slowly disintegrates as a mobster's wife.
In 1996, she played a condemned killer in Last Dance and an icy, murderous mistress in Diabolique.
Gloria is her 30th motion picture.
JEREMY NORTHAM stars as Kevin, who will do absolutely anything to protect the upscale criminal organization of which he is a vital part.
One of Britain's finest young actors, Northam came to the attention of American audiences as businessman Jack Devlin opposite Sandra Bullock in the techno-thriller, The Net. In a dramatically different role, he then portrayed Mr. Knightley opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in the popular film, Emma. Recently, he starred as Dr. Peter Mann, who teams with his entomologist wife, played by Mira Sorvino, to eradicate an epidemic with nightmare results in the film, Mimic.
Northam starred as British composer Peter Warlock in the motion picture Voices From A Locked Room, filmed in 1994. In 1992, he acted with Ralph Fiennes in a remake of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, and played seafaring adventurer Bernard Penrose opposite Emma Thompson in Carrington.
His most recent film work includes Steven Spielberg's Amistad and The Misadventures of Margaret, made in Britain with Parker Posey and Brooke Sheilds also starring.
In England, Northam is recipient of the prestigious Olivier Award, British equivalent of the Tony, for outstanding newcomer for his 1990 performance as Edward Voysey in the Royal National Theatre revival of the1905 play, "The Voysey Inheritance." He received wide recognition in the title role of "Hamlet" at the Olivier Theatre, and acted in "Country Wife" at the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he also appeared in "Love's Labour's Lost."
JEAN-LUKE FIGUEROA is six-year-old Nicky, a little boy in big trouble. The middle of three children in a Puerto Rican family living in New Jersey, where the father is an Air Force professional, he was chosen by director Sidney Lumet after an extensive search involving hundreds of little boys.
Gloria marks Jean-Luke's first major acting role. He earlier appeared in a television commercial, worked a day on an afternoon TV serial and appeared in one nighttime television series episode.
Wise beyond his years, the youth says, "I liked doing Gloria for lots of reasons. One was working with Sidney. He's the best director. Who would not want to work with Sidney? All the other kids are just dying to work with him. And being with Sharon was big fun. In the movie we don 't like each other at first and she's trying to dump me off everywhere 'cause we're bad for each other. But that was pretend.
“I definitely would like to be an actor. I'd make movies called 'Star Fox,' 'Star Wolf,' 'Star Monster.' They already did 'Star Wars' and 'Starship Troopers.' Sharon's nice and she's my friend, but the one I really want to work with is Luke Skywalker."
CATHY MORIARTY appears as Diane, who runs a stable of callgirls and pays dearly for aiding Gloria during her terrifying ordeal.
Moriarty received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her 1980 motion picture debut opposite Robert De Niro in "Raging Bull." She subsequently acted in Neighbors, Kindergarten Cop, Soapdish, White Of The Eye, Burn Down, Going To Mexico, Another Stakeout, Pontiac Moon, Forget Paris, A Brother's Kiss, Opposite Corners, Hugo Pool, Cop Land, Digging To China, Dream With Fishes, The Master Mechanic and P.U.N.K.S.
Moriarty's career began when, as a high school senior, she won the choice role of Vicki LaMotta in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull. In addition to an Oscar® nomination, the performance also brought her Golden Globe nominations as Best Supporting Actress and Newcomer Of The Year, as well as a BAFTA nomination from the British Academy of Film And Television Arts, the equivalent of an American Academy Award®.
Her television work includes a regular role on the "Bless This House" series and the TV movie "Foxfire."
When not acting, she tends to her popular Los Angeles restaurant, renowned for its pizza.
MIKE STARR co-stars as Sean, the kind of guy you don't want to cross. The veteran actor has appeared in such popular movies as The Natural, Last Exit To Brooklyn, Radio Days, New York Stories, Born On The 4th Of July, Miller's Crossing, GoodFellas, The Bodyguard, Blown Away, Ed Wood, Dumb And Dumber, Hoodlum and Deli.
His vast television resumé includes regular roles on "EZ Streets" and "Hardball," recurring roles on "The Doyles" and "People V," and the recent "Path To Paradise" for HBO.
He appeared in two Academy Award®-winning short films, Dear Diary and The Appointments Of Dennis Jennings, and acted in the Broadway productions of “Requiem For A Heavyweight” and “The Guys In The Truck."
BONNIE BEDELIA, who appears as Gloria's understandably estranged sister Brenda, began her acting career on Broadway at the age of 10 in "Isle Of Children." After acting in New York stage productions and a soap opera, she landed the starring role opposite Louis Gossett, Jr. in the two-character play "My Sweet Charlie," for which she won the Theatre World Award.
Bedelia's film debut was in "The Gypsy Moths," followed by They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Lovers And Other Strangers, The Big Fix, Death Of An Angel, Violets Are Blue, The Boy Who Could Fly, The Stranger, The Prince Of Pennsylvania, Die Hard and Die Hard 2. She earned special acclaim for her 1983 performance in Heart Like A Wheel, playing race-car driver Shirley Muldowney. Among her other movie credits are Presumed Innocent, Needful Things, Judicial Consent and Speechless.
Her televison work includes "Fallen Angels," for which she received an Emmy nomination.
GEORGE C. SCOTT makes a special appearance at Ruby Goldman, a powerful man from Gloria's past who may now possibly ensure that she has a future.
After winning acclaim on the stage, the legendary star made his movie debut in The Hanging Tree and received a 1959 Academy Award® nomination as Best Actor for his second picture, Anatomy Of A Murder. His third screen performance, in The Hustler, brought a 1961 Oscar® nomination, an honor he chose to decline. For playing the title role in Patton, Scott was honored with the 1970 Academy Award® as Best Actor, which he refused to accept, as he did with his Oscar® nomination for The Hospital in 1971.
His other motion pictures include Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb, The List Of Adrian Messenger, The Yellow Rolls Royce, The Bible, Not With My Wife You Don't, The Flim Flam Man, Petulia, They Might Be Giants, and The Last Run and Rage, which he also directed. His filmography also includes Oklahoma Crude, The Day Of The Dolphin, Bank Shot, The Savage Is Loose, which he produced and directed, The Hindenburg, Plaza Suite, Islands In The Stream, Movie Movie, Hardcore, The Changeling, Taps, Firestarter and The Exorcist III.
Scott gained initial prominence as an actor in the New York Shakespeare Festival's 1953 presentation of "Richard III," followed by "Children Of Darkness," which brought him virtually every award given an off-Broadway show. His Broadway debut was opposite Judith Anderson in "Comes A Day." Other New York theatrical credits include "The Andersonville Trial," "The Wall," "Desire Under The Elms," "Plaza Suite," "Uncle Vanya," "Death Of A Salesman," which he also directed, "Sly Fox," and "The Boys Of Autumn." He earned a Tony nomination for his work in "Inherit The Wind."
His television work includes starring in two series, "East Side/West Side" and "Mr. President." His first TV directing assignment was on "The Andersonville Trial," honored with an Emmy Award as Best Drama, and in 1971 he won an Emmy for "The Price."
About The Cast
Few filmmakers know the varied turf of New York as thoroughly as director SIDNEY LUMET, a New Yorker since the age of two who has made 30 of his 42 feature films there.
His motion pictures have received over 50 Academy Award® nominations. His many honors include four Oscar nominations as Best Director, for 12 Angry Men (1957), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976) and The Verdict (1982). He also received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Screenplay as co-writer of Prince Of The City (1981). He has been honored with an impressive seven Director's Guild of America Award nominations for his work.
The son of an actor in Europe's Yiddish theaters, Lumet was a child actor from age five until he entered the U. S. Army at 17. After military duty, he returned to New York and became a director in theater and television. During the 1950s, he directed over 250 television shows, many of them broadcast live. His TV credits include "Danger," "You Are There," "Mama," "Kraft Television Theatre," "The Alcoa Hour," "Goodyear TV Playhouse," "Studio One," "Omnibus," "Playhouse 90," "The Sacco & Vanzetti Story" and "The Iceman Cometh."
His motion picture directorial debut, 12 Angry Men in 1957, earned three Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. The next two years he directed Stage Struck and That Kind Of Woman.
During the ’60s, he directed The Fugitive Kind, A View From The Bridge, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Fail-Safe, The Pawnbroker, The Hill, The Group, The Deadly Affair, Bye Bye Braverman, The Sea Gull, and The Appointment. He was one of the creators of King: A Film Record...Montgomery To Memphis.
In the1970s, he made The Last Of The Mobile Hot-Shots, The Anderson Tapes, Child's Play, The Offense, Serpico, Lovin' Molly, Murder On The Orient Express, Dog Day Afternoon (six Academy Award® nominations, including Best Picture), Network (10 Academy Award® nominations and four wins), Equus and The Wiz.
Ten Lumet films were released in the '80s: Just Tell Me What You Want (which he also co-wrote and produced), Prince Of The City (also co-writer), Deathtrap, The Verdict, Daniel, Garbo Talks, Power, The Morning After, Running On Empty and Family Business.
He began the ’90s directing Q & A, also his first solo writing credit, followed by A Stranger Among Us, Guilty As Sin, and Night Falls On Manhattan, which he also wrote. While making Gloria on the streets of New York, his scathing social satire of the medical establishment, titled Critical Care, was released.
With Gloria, Sharon Stone joins the distinguished company of screen giants who have been directed by Sidney Lumet, among them Marlon Brando, Katharine Hepburn, Paul Newman, Ingrid Bergman, Al Pacino, Henry Fonda, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, William Holden and Faye Dunaway. He says of Stone, "She's so smart. So professional. So right on it."
His many honors include the Director's Guild prestigious D. W. Griffith Award, given for an unusually distinguished body of work; the New York Film Critics Award for Prince Of The City and the Los Angeles Film Critics Award and Golden Globe for Network. The Museum Of Modern Art in New York honored him with a retrospective, as has virtually every major international film academy. In 1997, he was given the Billy Wilder Award For Excellence And Achievement In Film Direction from the National Board Of Review, and the Writers Guild Of America's Evelyn Burkey Award for his contribution to films that brought dignity and honor to writers.
He is the author of an extremely popular filmmaking primer titled Making Movies (Vintage Books), currently in its eighth printing.
Producer GARY FOSTER's association with Sony Pictures includes producing one of the studio's most successful releases, Sleepless In Seattle.
A second generation Hollywood filmmaker, he is the son of noted producer David Foster. After attending the University Of Colorado and studying film production and theater at the University Of Southern California, he was a production associate on the 1984 hit, The Flamingo Kid, and worked as an agent assistant at The William Morris Agency in New York. While associated with the Turman-Foster Company, he was involved in the making of Running Scared, The Mean Season and the television drama "News At Eleven."
Foster's independent career was launched when he discovered an original screenplay about a mischievous, near-human robot and took it to PSO and TriStar. Short Circuit, which gave the young filmmaker his first associate producer credit, turned out to be an important 1986 hit. In 1988, he produced Short Circuit 2. Again at TriStar, in 1989, he produced the romantic-comedy Loverboy, starring Patrick Dempsey and Kirstie Alley, and Side Out, with Peter Horton and C. Thomas Howell.
Sleepless In Seattle, A Gary Foster Production of a Nora Ephron Film, became one of the most successful motion pictures of 1993. Starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, the audience favorite received Academy Award® and Golden Globe nominations and grossed well over $300 million worldwide.
Foster became president of Lee Rich Productions in 1993. He co-produced the murder mystery Just Cause, starring Sean Connery, and with Rich produced The Amazing Panda Adventure, the first Western motion picture ever filmed in the Jiuzhiajou Panda Reserve in the Western Himalayas. In 1995, he produced Big Bully, a comedy by Mark Steven Johnson, who wrote Grumpy Old Men.
He subsequently produced Tin Cup, a 1996 Warner Bros. release starring Kevin Costner and Rene Russo under the directon of Ron Shelton.
Foster and Rich formed a new production entity, Eagle Point Productions, and entered into a non-exclusive arrangement with Peter Guber's Sony-based Mandalay Entertainment. Their first project was Desperate Measures, a 1998 release starring Michael Keaton and Andy Garcia and directed by Barbet Schroeder. Sidney Lumet's Gloria is their second.
With partner Mark Steven Johnson, Foster recently organized Horseshoe Bay, an independent production company with a large number of movie projects in active development.
Producer LEE RICH has enjoyed an extremely successful, multi-faceted career as a creative producer and innovative executive.
His reputation was launched with involvement in TV network programming at the advertising firm of Benton And Bowles, where he was a participant in such long-running series as "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "The Danny Thomas Show" "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Gomer Pyle."
In 1969, Rich joined Merv Adelson in founding Lorimar, which swiftly became an extremely potent television force. During the next 17 years as president and co-CEO of Lorimar, he produced over 850 episodes of 48 television programs, and gained access to over 3,500 hours of programming for international distribution by acquiring rival Telepictures Corporation.
He is credited as the creator of such revolutionary TV formats as the mini-series ("The Blue Knight" in 1973) and the primetime soap opera ("Dallas," the all-time ratings champion; "Knot's Landing," which spanned 12 seasons). Also produced under his aegis at Lorimar were such extraordinary special television presentations as "Sybil," "Helter Skelter," "Lace" and "The Homecoming," as well as such primetime series as "The Waltons," "Eight Is Enough," "Perfect Strangers" and "Falcon Crest." During his Lorimar tenure, the company earned an unprecedented 106 Emmy Award nominations, resulting in 36 wins.
When Lorimar began producing for the big screen, including Being There with Peter Sellers and Shirley MacLaine, and The Postman Always Rings Twice, with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lang, Lee Rich became a presence in both TV and film.
In 1986, he was named chairman and CEO of MGM/UA and further demonstrated his dual talents as creative executive and corporate manager. The television arm made such successes as "In The Heat Of The Night" and the trend-setting "thirtysomething." The motion picture division released such hits as Rain Man, A Fish Called Wanda, Moonstruck, The Living Daylights, Baby Boom, Willow, Spaceballs and Betrayed.
In 1988, he formed Lee Rich Productions, which has made such films as Hard To Kill, Passenger 57, Innocent Blood and Just Cause, which Gary Foster co-produced.
Rich's films have earned 20 Academy Award® nominations and eight wins, collectively generating well over $730 million in domestic box office receipts.
Rich and Foster produced The Amazing Panda Adventure and Big Bully. In 1993, they formed Eagle Point Productions and entered a non-exclusive agreement with Sony-based Mandalay Productions, for which they produced Desperate Measures and Gloria.
Executive producer G. MAC BROWN has held that title on The Cowboy Way, Once Around and Gloria. He was producer on To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar and Urban Anxiety and co-produced In & Out, Michael, With Honors, Flesh And Bone, Light Sleeper, She-Devil and Hello Again. He served as associate producer on Scent Of A Woman and line produced Last Exit to Brooklyn and Me And Him.
Brown's filmmaking foundation springs from his work as production manager on a number of major productions, including Baby Boom, Who's That Girl, The Pick-Up Artist, Ishtar, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Miracles, That's Dancing and Amityville II: The Possession and Amityville 3-D.
Executive producer CHUCK BINDER was executive producer on The Specialist, Diabolique, and now, Gloria. He co-produced The Quick And The Dead and Last Dance.
He co-produced the 1996-97 CBS-TV series "Can't Hurry Love" and HBO's “Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman."
He heads Binder & Associates, an entertainment personal management firm he founded over 20 years ago.
Co-producer JOSIE ROSEN is president of production at Gary Foster's Horseshoe Bay Productions, where she oversees motion picture and television projects. She has been associated with Foster for six years, earlier as president of production for Foster and Lee Rich at Eagle Point Productions and as vice president of Lee Rich Productions. During that period, she was co-producer of Desperate Measures, directed by Barbet Schroeder and starring Michael Keaton and Andy Garcia, and associate producer on The Amazing Panda Adventure, photographed in China in 1995.
Earlier, she was director of development at Sandollar Productions and held the same post for Helpern/Meltzer Productions.
Associate producer DONALD J. LEE, JR. also served as unit production manager on Gloria. He was production manager on In & Out, Michael and The Indian In The Cupboard, for which he was also first assistant director on its visual effects unit. He was second unit first assistant director on Interview With The Vampire.
Lee learned his craft as second assistant director on a number of motion pictures, among them, The Paper, Six Degrees Of Separation, Gary Foster's Sleepless In Seattle, The Last Boy Scout, HouseSitter, What About Bob?, Once Around, Blaze, White Palace, The Dream Team, Chances Are, The January Man, Born On The Fourth Of July, Sea Of Love, Scrooged and Bull Durham.
Associate producer AMBERWREN BRISKEY-COHEN has been associated with producer Gary Foster for over four years, involved in the development and filming of Just Cause, The Amazing Panda Adventure, Big Bully, Tin Cup and Desperate Measures.
She is currently part of the production team at Foster's Horseshoe Bay organization, working as associate producer on Gloria.
Briskey-Cohen's background includes two years at the prestigious ICM theatrical agency and a development assistant post at Sandollar Productions.
Screenwriter STEVEN ANTIN is also an actor and creator of the popular film Inside Monkey Zetterland.
The Los Angeles native launched his career as a star of the teen cult classic, The Last American Virgin. He co-starred in The Accused and The Goonies, and received a CableACE Award as Best Actor in a dramatic series for HBO's "Vietnam War Stories." For three seasons he played Detective Savino on the top-rated "NYPD Blue" series.
After several years as an actor, Antin became interested in writing. His first produced screenplay was Inside Monkey Zetterland, which he starred in, wrote, produced, and for which he assembled an impressive cast that included Katherine Helmond, Patricia Arquette, Sandra Bernhard, Sofia Coppola, Rupert Everett, Bo Hopkins, Martha Plimpton and Ricki Lake. The modestly budgeted, highly regarded movie made the Official Competition at the Sundance Film Festival and was picked up for international distribution.
It was Antin who came up with the idea to update John Cassavetes' Gloria. As it was being made in New York, several of his other scripts were in pre-production at various Hollywood motion picture and television companies.
Director Of Photography DAVID WATKIN is a 1985 Academy Award® winner for Out Of Africa. Prior to Gloria, he was associated with filmmaker Sidney Lumet on Night Falls On Manhattan and Critical Care.
Beginning as a cameraman on British Rail documentaries in the late l940s, Watkin subsequently worked with a number of the great post-war feature film directors. His movie career began in 1965 with Help! and The Knack, And How To Get It, followed by Catch-22, The Boy Friend, The Devils, The Three Musketeers, Robin And Marian, To The Devil A Daughter, Joseph Andrews, Hanover Street, That Summer and Cuba.
He began the ’80s with Chariots Of Fire, followed by Endless Love, Yentl, The Hotel New Hampshire, Out Of Africa, Return To Oz, White Nights, Sky Bandits, Moonstruck, The Good Mother and Masquerade.
He filmed Hamlet in 1990, then Memphis Belle, Bopha!, This Boy's Life, Used People, Milk Money, Jane Eyre, Night Falls On Manhattan and Critical Care.
Watkin recently completed an autobiography titled Why Is There Only One Word For Thesaurus?
Production designer MEL BOURNE's interesting resume begins in 1977 with Annie Hall, his first of many impeccable collaborations with Woody Allen. It was followed by Nunzio, The Greek Tycoon, Interiors and Manhattan. He stayed exceptionally busy during the eighties as production designer on Stardust Memories, Windows, Thief, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, Still Of The Night, Zelig, The Natural, Broadway Danny Rose, Manhunter, F/X, Fatal Attraction, Cocktail and Rude Awakening.
Bourne's credits during the ’90s include Reversal Of Fortune, The Fisher King, Man Trouble, Indecent Proposal, Angie, Kiss Of Death, Something To Talk About and Striptease.
Gloria is his first collaboration with filmmaker Sidney Lumet.
A graduate of the Yale School Of Drama, he received Academy Award® nominations for Interiors (1978), The Natural (1984), and The Fisher King (1991).
The professional relationship between Costume Designer DONA GRANATA and filmmaker Sidney Lumet spans more than two decades. Before Gloria, she worked on Lumet's Critical Care, and earlier was associate designer to Tony Walton on the director's Deathtrap and The Wiz.
A theater arts MFA graduate of Columbia University, her early costume design experience was in theater and opera in New York, Europe and regional U. S. stages.
Her films include The Goodbye People, Scenes From The Class Struggle In Beverly Hills, Love Is All There Is, Kansas City, Shadrack, The Gingerbread Man and the forthcoming Cookie's Fortune.
Granata has designed extensively for television, including the Emmy Award-winning "Miss Cage" and "David's Mother." In 1997, she was honored with an Emmy Award nomination for Best Costume Design for Robert Altman's PBS presentation of "Jazz '34." Her stage work includes "Canciones De Mi Padre" on Broadway, and "The Makropulos Case," which marked her Metropolitan Opera debut. Late in 1987, she traveled to Australia to design for the opera, "Beatrice And Benedict." Her Covent Garden debut in England is scheduled for 1999.
Costume designer JUDIANNA MAKOVSKY created Sharon Stone's wardrobe for Gloria. She also designed for the Stone films The Quick And The Dead and The Specialist.
Makovsky designed costumes for Gardens Of Stone, Big, Lost Angels, Reversal Of Fortune, Six Degrees Of Separation, The Ref, A Little Princess, White Squall, The Devil's Advocate, Great Expectations, Pleasantville, Lolita and Practical Magic. She was assistant designer on many major pictures, including The Cotton Club, Radio Days, September, The Secret Of My Success, The Squeeze and Tucker: The Man And His Dream, and associate designer for Dick Tracy.
Her television work includes the Oliver Stone series "Wild Palms," Hallmark's "Miss Rose White," the movie "Those Secrets," the series pilot for "Tribeca," TNT's "Margaret Bourke-White" and the 1990 series "H. E. L. P."
She attended the MFA program at the Yale School Of Drama, and holds a BFA from The School Of The Art Institute Of Chicago.
Film Editor TOM SWARTWOUT is one of the youngest members of filmmaker Sidney Lumet's Gloria team. He previously worked with Lumet as editor on Critical Care, and as assistant editor on Night Falls On Manhattan.
A graduate of Cornell University, he was an independent maker of short films before turning to editing television commercials. He was assistant editor on Lasse Hallstrom's Something To Talk About, Mike Nichols' Wolf and Herb Gardner's I'm Not Rappaport.
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® Academy Award(s) and Oscar(s) are registered trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
3/4/98
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