The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – The Filmmakers

Dec 142012

PETER JACKSON (Director/Producer/Screenwriter) is one of the world’s most successful filmmakers. His monumental achievement was “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, which he directed, as well as co-wrote and produced together with fellow Academy Award® winners and frequent collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. Collectively, the films earned a total of 30 Academy Award® nominations, winning 17 Academy Awards®, including Best Picture for the final film. Jackson and Walsh had received their first Oscar® nomination for Best Original Screenplay for their acclaimed film “Heavenly Creatures.”

Jackson, through his New Zealand-based WingNut Films banner, also was responsible for the globally successful 2005 remake of “King Kong,” which earned over $500 million worldwide and three Academy Awards®. Jackson more recently directed the Academy Award®-nominated “The Lovely Bones,” an adaptation of the acclaimed best-selling novel by Alice Sebold, and produced the global sensation “District 9,” which received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Picture.

Jackson also produced, with Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, “The Adventures of Tintin,” which was directed by Spielberg. The film won, amongst many other awards and nominations, the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature and the Producers Guild of America Award for Animated Motion Picture Producers of the Year. The movie is the first of three, based on the world-renowned comic book series by Herge, and Jackson will direct the second film in the trilogy.

In 2010, he received a knighthood for his services to film.

FRAN WALSH (Producer/Screenwriter) shared writing, producing and songwriting credits on Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” for which she won three Academy Awards®, two BAFTA Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards, all including Best Picture. She also won a Grammy Award for the song “Into the West,” and earned a Producers Guild Award. She had previously been recognized with a number of award nominations, including three Oscar® nods, for her work as a screenwriter and producer on the first two films in the trilogy: “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.”

Walsh received her first Academy Award® nomination, for Best Original Screenplay, for her work on “Heavenly Creatures,” which she co-wrote with Jackson. She more recently collaborated with Jackson as both a producer and screenwriter on the 2005 remake of “King Kong” and “The Lovely Bones,” based on the best-selling novel. Her earlier credits as a co-writer with Jackson include “The Frighteners,” “Dead Alive” and “Meet the Feebles.”

Walsh began her writing career soon after leaving Victoria University, where she majored in English Literature. She also has a background in music.

PHILIPPA BOYENS (Screenwriter/Co-Producer) won an Academy Award® and a BAFTA Award, both shared with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, for Best Adapted Screenplay for “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King,” also receiving a Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award nomination. She had earned Oscar®, BAFTA Award and WGA Award nominations for her work on the first film in the trilogy, “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” which also marked her screenwriting debut. In addition, Boyens co-wrote the screenplay for “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.”

Boyens has since collaborated with Jackson on the screenplays for the director’s remake of “King Kong” and “The Lovely Bones,” based on the best-selling novel. She also served as a co-producer on both films.

Prior to screenwriting, Boyens worked in theatre as a playwright, teacher, producer and editor. She segued to film via a stint as director of the New Zealand Writers Guild. In 2000, she was named by Variety as one of the Ten Screenwriters to Watch.

GUILLERMO DEL TORO (Screenwriter) earned international acclaim as the director, writer and producer of the 2006 fantasy drama “Pan’s Labyrinth.” The film received six Academy Award® nominations, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay, while winning the Oscars® for Art Direction, Cinematography and Makeup. It remains the highest-grossing Spanish-language film of all time in the United States, has won more than forty international awards, and appeared on thirty-five critics’ Best Film of the Year lists.

Del Toro most recently directed and co-wrote the sci-fi actioner “Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures Pacific Rim,” on which he is also a producer. The film is slated for release in July 2013. On the animation front, he is an executive producer on the films “Puss in Boots” and “Rise of the Guardians.”

Del Toro first gained worldwide recognition for the 1993 Mexican-American co-production “Cronos,” a supernatural horror film, which he directed from his own screenplay. It won the Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival as well as nine Mexican Academy Awards (Ariels).

He followed that with the environmental horror film “Mimic,” which he also directed and co-wrote, and the supernatural Spanish Civil War film “The Devil’s Backbone.” In 2004, after completing the vampire thriller “Blade II,” del Toro wrote and directed the action adventure “Hellboy.”

His successful collaboration with Universal on “Hellboy 2: The Golden Army,” in 2008, led Del Toro to join forces with the studio in a first-look producing deal, through which he has written and developed material both for himself as a director and for other filmmakers. The first film to arise from this deal will be “Mama,” a supernatural thriller directed and co-written by Argentinian newcomer Andy Muschietti and starring Jessica Chastain. Among these projects will be “Drood,” based on the novel by Dan Simmons; “Midnight Delivery,” from an original treatment by Del Toro; and “Crimson Peak,” from a screenplay by Del Toro and Matthew Robbins. Del Toro further intends to remake several key Universal library films, returning to the source material to reinvent Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

In 2007, Del Toro produced the Spanish supernatural thriller “The Orphanage,” which became the highest-grossing local language film in Spain’s history. His other credits include the sci-fi thriller “Splice,” which he executive produced; the gothic horror film “Don’t be Afraid of the Dark,” which he wrote and produced; “Kung Fu Panda 2,” as an executive producer; and “Megamind,” as a creative consultant. He partnered with fellow Mexican directors Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu to produce “Rudo Y Cursi,” in 2008, directed by Carlos Cuaron, and “Biutiful,” written and directed by Inarritu, in 2010.

Del Toro has also recently turned his attention to publishing. With novelist Chuck Hogan, he co-authored the horror novel The Strain, which was published in June 2009 by William Morrow and debuted at #9 on The New York Times Bestseller List. They have since collaborated on the books The Fall and The Night Eternal, both of which also debuted as The New York Times top ten bestsellers. Del Toro is currently developing the Strain novels as a television series for FX.

CAROLYNNE CUNNINGHAM (Producer) has an entertainment industry career spanning more than thirty years. She first collaborated with filmmaker Peter Jackson on “Heavenly Creatures” as first assistant director. They reunited on the challenging and Academy Award®-winning “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, winning a Directors Guild of America Award as part of the directing team on the finale, “The Return of the King.” After completion of the trilogy, Cunningham continued with Jackson on “King Kong” and “The Lovely Bones” in a producer role, while also maintaining her first assistant director duties.

Cunningham then teamed with director Neill Blomkamp and produced the hugely successful sci-fi feature “District 9.” For this film, she was nominated alongside Jackson for an Academy Award® for Best Picture and a Producers Guild Award.

Cunningham’s diverse credits as a first assistant director also include “Peter Pan,” “Swimming Upstream,” “Dating the Enemy,” “Shine,” “The Sum of Us,” “Flynn” and many other features, miniseries, and telefilms.

ZANE WEINER (Producer) was recently the co-producer on “One for the Money.” Weiner first collaborated with Peter Jackson as the unit production manager on the blockbuster “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy.

After executive producing “The Big Bounce,” Weiner became President of Physical Production for Shangri-La Entertainment from 2003 to 2009. In this role, he produced Martin Scorsese’s “Shine a Light,” and was the company’s production executive on Robert Zemeckis’s “Beowulf” and “The Polar Express,” Christopher Guest’s “For Your Consideration” and Albert Brooks’ “Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World.”

His other film credits include: co-producing “The Crew,” starring Richard Dreyfuss and Burt Reynolds; unit production manager on “Rapa Nui”; Curtis Hanson’s critically acclaimed “8 Mile”; and “Wonder Boys.”

Prior to beginning his film career, Weiner acted as stage manager for over twenty Broadway and touring theatrical productions, including “A Chorus Line,” “Cats,” “Dreamgirls,” “Ballroom,” “The Pirates Of Penzance,” “Chess,” and The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of “Nicholas Nickleby.”

ALAN HORN (Executive Producer) has for more than 40 years been one of the industry’s most influential and respected executives. Currently, he is Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, where he oversees worldwide operations including production, distribution, and marketing for live-action and animated films from Disney, Pixar and Marvel, as well as marketing and distribution for DreamWorks Studios films released under the Touchstone Pictures banner. He also oversees Disney’s music and theatrical groups.

Horn previously served as President and COO of Warner Bros. Entertainment from 1999 to 2011, leading the studio’s theatrical and home entertainment operations, including the Warner Bros. Pictures Group, Warner Premiere, Warner Bros. Theatrical Ventures and Warner Home Video. During Horn’s tenure, Warner Bros. was the top-performing studio at the global box office seven times and released numerous critically acclaimed films and box office hits, including the eight-film “Harry Potter” series, “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Happy Feet,” “Sherlock Holmes,” “The Departed,” “Million Dollar Baby,” the second and third “Matrix” films, and the “Ocean’s Eleven” trilogy.

Prior to Warner Bros., Horn enjoyed a very successful career as a hands-on executive in film and television. In 1987, he co-founded Castle Rock Entertainment (CRE), where he served as Chairman & CEO until joining Warner Bros. Under Horn’s leadership, Castle Rock attained worldwide recognition for the most successful series in television history, “Seinfeld,” as well as such Best Picture Oscar® nominees as “A Few Good Men,” “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile,” and other hits, including “When Harry Met Sally” and “In the Line of Fire.” In 1993, CRE was sold to Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., and, with the merger of TBS and Time Warner Inc. in 1996, Castle Rock became part of the Warner Bros. family, with the Studio taking over Castle Rock’s worldwide film and television distribution in 1998. Prior to Castle Rock, Horn served from 1971 to 1985 as Chairman & CEO of Embassy Communications, a company owned by A. Jerrold Perenchio and legendary producer Norman Lear.

Horn received a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and spent two years in brand management with Procter & Gamble. Prior to working at Procter & Gamble, he served nearly five years in the U.S. Air Force, achieving the rank of Captain.

In 2004, he received the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation’s Pioneer of the Year Award; in 2007, he was honored with the Harvard Business School’s Leadership Award; and, in 2008, he was the recipient of the Producers Guild of America’s 2008 Milestone Award. Horn received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from his alma mater, Union College in Schenectady, NY, in 2010. He serves on the Board of Directors of the American Film Institute; as a Vice Chairman of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC); on the Board of Trustees for the Autry National Center in Los Angeles; and on the board of Harvard-Westlake School. He is also a founding Board Member of the Environmental Media Association.

TOBY EMMERICH (Executive Producer) has served as President and COO of New Line Cinema since 2008. Previously, he held the position of President of Production, to which he was promoted in January 2001, and oversaw the most successful period in company history.

Since Emmerich took the production helm, New Line has released such diverse features as the Academy Award®-winning blockbuster “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King”; 2005’s highest-grossing comedy, “Wedding Crashers”; “Elf”; “The Notebook”; “Hairspray”; “Sex and the City”; “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island”; “He’s Just Not That Into You”; “Four Christmases”; “Valentine’s Day”; “Horrible Bosses”; and “17 Again.” Upcoming are such films as “Jack the Giant Slayer,” “The Conjuring” and “We’re the Millers.”

A longtime studio veteran, Emmerich previously served not only as president of New Line Music but also as an accomplished screenwriter and producer who wrote and produced New Line’s sleeper hit “Frequency,” starring Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel.

Emmerich joined the company in 1992 as a dual development and music executive. In his position as president of music, he oversaw the development of platinum- and gold-selling soundtracks for such films as “Seven,” “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery,” “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “Elf,” “Friday After Next,” “Menace II Society,” “Love Jones,” “Freddy vs. Jason,” “Who’s the Man?,” “Above the Rim,” “The Mask,” “Dumb and Dumber” and “Mortal Kombat.”

Prior to his posts at New Line, Emmerich was an A&R representative at Atlantic Records from 1987 to 1992. He attended The Calhoun School and Wesleyan University, from which he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1985 with honors in English and concentrations in classics and film.

Emmerich serves on the board of directors for the American Cinematheque.

KEN KAMINS (Executive Producer) was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Northwestern University’s School of Speech. He landed into the film business straight after college, with a job at MGM/UA as a sales rep in their 16mm non-theatrical division. He then became Vice President, Worldwide Acquisitions for RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video.

In 1992, Kamins joined the InterTalent Agency where Peter Jackson signed with him, beginning their 19 year collaboration. Kamins then joined talent agency ICM as its Executive Vice President, where he secured financing for the Academy Award®-winning “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, as well as other independent films, including Robert Altman’s “Gosford Park,” Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York” and John Boorman’s “The General.”

In 2004, Kamins formed Key Creatives, his own literary management firm, whose clients include Academy Award®-winning artists Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and screenwriter/producer Christopher McQuarrie, as well as the filmmaking team of Paul W.S. Anderson and Jeremy Bolt.

His other executive producer credits include: Neill Blomkamp’s cult sci-fi hit “District 9”; Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones,” starring Saoirse Ronan, Mark Walberg and Rachel Weiss; and “Valkyrie,” with Christopher McQuarrie as writer and producer, Bryan Singer as director and starring Tom Cruise. Kamins was also executive producer on the recent Jackson and Steven Spielberg collaboration “The Adventures of Tintin,” directed by Spielberg.

CAROLYN BLACKWOOD (Executive Producer) is Executive Vice President of Strategy and Operations for New Line Cinema, where she plays an integral role in the strategic direction for the company and is responsible for managing day-to-day operations, including oversight of the business and legal affairs group. Blackwood was a key member of the team that worked to secure the production of “The Hobbit” Trilogy in Peter Jackson’s home country of New Zealand, and along with New Line’s President, Toby Emmerich, is continuing to oversee production of the entire trilogy.

Blackwood joined New Line Cinema in 1999 as a production lawyer and rose through the ranks to Senior Vice President of Business Affairs and later Executive Vice President of Business Affairs and Co-Productions, where she specialized in film acquisitions, co-productions and co-financing deals. In 2005, she played a crucial role in the launch of Picturehouse, New Line’s joint venture specialty label with HBO, and oversaw Picturehouse’s business and legal affairs. Her role at New Line was expanded to her current post in early 2008.

Prior to joining New Line, Blackwood worked for independent production and sales company MDP Worldwide as a business and legal affairs executive. She attended Fordham University where she studied American Studies and Fine Arts and later earned a law degree at Pepperdine University.

She previously served as an executive producer on writer/director Diane English’s comedy/drama “The Women.”

ANDREW LESNIE (Director of Photography) collaborated with Peter Jackson on “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, “King Kong” and “The Lovely Bones.” Lesnie won an Oscar® for Best Cinematography in 2002 for “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” and a BAFTA Award in 2004 for “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” as well as numerous critics’ awards.

He has received three BAFTA Award nominations, three American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Award nominations and twice held the Australian Cinematographers Society MILLI Award, making him Australian Cinematographer of the Year two years running.

“Doing Time for Patsy Cline” achieved the Australian Film Institute award for Best Cinematography, the Film Critics Circle of Australia award, and an A.C.S. Gold Award. Lesnie also garnered A.C.S Golden Tripod awards for “Babe,” “Spider and Rose,” and “Temptation of a Monk,” a film shot in China starring Joan Chen.

His more recent film credits are “I Am Legend,” starring Will Smith, Australian independent films “Love’s Brother” and “Bran Nue Dae,” “The Last Airbender” and “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” Other feature credits include “Babe: Pig In The City,” “The Sugar Factory,” “Two If by Sea,” “Dark Age,” “The Delinquents,” “Boys in the Island,” “Daydream Believers” and “Unfinished Business.”

His television credits include the miniseries “The Rainbow Warrior Conspiracy”; “Melba,” earning him an A.C.S. Merit Award; and “Cyclone Tracy,” earning him an A.C.S. Golden Tripod Award for Best Photographed Miniseries.

With a colorful background in news, documentaries, current affairs and several hundred commercials and music videos, Lesnie has photographed many diverse projects, such as “The Making Of The Road Warrior”; “The Comeback,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; “Stages,” with Peter Brook and the Paris Theatre Company; and “Inside Pine Gap” with Australia and U.S. relations.

DAN HENNAH (Production Designer) has been involved in the film industry since 1981. He had a variety of different roles before he settled in the Art Department. He has been art directing since 1982 for both television and feature films.

Hennah’s first feature film as art director was “Nate and Hayes” in 1982, followed by “My Letter to George.” He first worked with Peter Jackson as an art director on “The Frighteners” in 1995. His next collaboration with Jackson was on “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, from 1998 until 2003, as supervising art director and set decorator. For his role on these films he was nominated for and won numerous awards, including winning an Academy Award® for “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.” The trilogy was followed closely by “King Kong,” for which he also received an Oscar® nomination as the supervising art director and set decorator. After “King Kong,” he worked on “The Water Horse” in the same capacity.

Hennah’s other recent production design credits include “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans” and “The Warriors Way.” His credits as production designer for television include William Shatner’s “A Twist in the Tale,” as well as “Swiss Family Robinson,” “The Legend of William Tell” and “Adrift.” He was also associate designer on the British TV series “99-1.”

Hennah was born in Hastings, New Zealand. He studied architecture at the Wellington School of Architecture.

JABEZ OLSSEN (Editor) gained a BA with Honors in Philosophy from the University of Otago in New Zealand. He then moved from his home town of Dunedin to attend film school in Auckland. There, he began his editing career in commercials before working as an assistant editor, then editor, in television drama. Olssen ended up in Wellington when he got his break into feature films on “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy. Olssen operated the Avid editing equipment on “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” for the film’s editor, Mike Horton, working closely with Peter Jackson and Horton for almost three years.

Olssen then departed from his native New Zealand and spent time in the British film industry as a VFX editor and assistant editor on films such as “Wimbledon” and “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life.”

Returning to New Zealand to work on “King Kong,” Olssen edited the Previz Animatics for the film with Jackson during pre-production, before operating the Avid for the film’s editor, Jamie Selkirk, during the editing of film. His first solo feature film editing credit was on Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones.”

Olssen recently performed previz and additional editing work on Steven Spielberg’s “The Adventures of Tintin.”

ANN MASKREY (Costume Designer) studied at Wimbledon School of Art, where she gained a BA in Theatre Design and Crafts.

She began her professional career in the costume department at Glyndebourne Opera in Sussex, and then as head of costume at the Crucible theatre in Yorkshire. Leaving the theatre to go freelance, she subsequently went on to design and produce costumes for many well known British television productions, such as “French and Saunders,” “Miss Marple,” “Bleak House,” “Jane Eyre,” “Black Adder” and “Lipstick on your Collar,” as well as for European opera and ballet companies.

Maskrey has spent the majority of her career since then working on many high profile films. She was chief cutter and workshop manager on “The Duchess,” “Batman Begins,” “Clash of the Titans,” “The Fifth Element,” “John Carter” and “Troy.” She was the assistant costume designer on “Star Wars, Episode I – The Phantom Menace” and “The Borrowers.” She has also managed her own freelance costume business, producing costumes for “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Die Another Day,” “Restoration,” “Dangerous Liasons,” “The Last of the Mohicans,” “Elizabeth: the Golden Age” and “Nine.”

Maskrey was associate costume designer on Terry Jones’ “The Wind in the Willows,” and costume designer on “Thunderpants.”

She has specialized in period and fantasy costumes throughout her career.

RICHARD TAYLOR (Costume Design/Armour, Weapons, Creatures and Special Makeup) is co-owner and creative lead at Weta Workshop, which he runs with his wife Tania Rodger. He is a five-time Academy Award®-winning design and effects supervisor who draws on 25 years of filmmaking experience. He is also a co-founder of the Weta companies and the Stone Street Studio complex in Wellington, New Zealand.

Although Taylor is best known for his work on award-winning film projects, including the “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, “King Kong,” “The Chronicles of Narnia,” “Avatar” and “District 9,” Weta Workshop offers its services to all creative industries throughout the world. Taylor and his team also run a publishing arm; a commercial chainmail manufacturing business and fine art bronze foundry, with their partner in China; a high-end collectibles division, and a retail store called the Weta Cave.

Taylor also co-owns, with Rodger and Martin Baynton, the children’s entertainment company Pukeko Pictures. They have created and developed a number of properties together, including the award-winning television show “Jane and the Dragon,” and the hit pre-school series “The WotWots.” Most recently, Pukeko Pictures has formed a co-production partnership in China with distribution of their television show into this market.

Complementing this is Taylor and Rodger’s IP development company, Stardog. This company focuses on the support and development of ideas from the creative talent at Weta Workshop. Their primary property in development is the retro Edwardian satire Dr Grordbort’s.

Taylor has also won four BAFTA Awards, two VES Awards and a number of national and international entertainment, business and community awards for his work. In 2010, Taylor was awarded a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to film. Taylor and Rodger are also Patrons of the Neo Natal Trust in New Zealand.

BOB BUCK (Costume Designer) counts “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” as his first major feature film as a costume designer.

Growing up in Hamilton, New Zealand, Buck gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Drama at Ilam School of Art, Christchurch. Moving to Auckland, he began his career in New Zealand’s premiere theatre, The Mercury, then ventured into the freelance world of the New Zealand Film and Television industry, where he has worked for the past 18 years.

Buck first worked with director Peter Jackson on “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, on which he served as hero armour coordinator at Weta Workshop, and then as extras costume coordinator in the costume department. He worked again with Jackson on “King Kong.” He has traveled around the country working on various projects such as “The Last Samurai” (as armour design coordinator), “River Queen” (as background designer) and “The Warriors Way” (as assistant costume designer).

As costume designer, Buck designed the independent feature film “Tracker,” and co-designed the docudrama “Rain of the Children,” both of which received nominations for Best Costume at the New Zealand Film and Television Awards.

For television, Buck was the costume designer for several series in New Zealand, including “Burying Brian” and “The New Tomorrow,” and has designed costumes for many TV commercials for both national and international release.

HOWARD SHORE (Composer) is among today’s most respected, honored, and active composers and music conductors. His work with Peter Jackson on “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy stands as his most towering achievement to date, earning him three Academy Awards®, two for Best Score and one for Best Original Song. He has also been honored with four Grammys and three Golden Globe Awards.

One of the original creators of “Saturday Night Live,” Shore served as the music director on the show from 1975 to 1980. At the same time, he began collaborating with David Cronenberg and has scored 13 of the director’s films, including “The Fly,” “Crash” and “Naked Lunch.” His original scores for Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method,” “Eastern Promises” and “Dead Ringers” were each honored with a Genie Award. Shore continues to distinguish himself with a wide range of projects. He most recently earned another Oscar® nomination for his music for Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo,” and also scored the director’s films “The Departed,” “The Aviator” and “Gangs of New York.” His film work also includes the scores for such diverse films as Tim Burton’s “Ed Wood”; Jonathan Demme’s “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Philadelphia”; and Chris Columbus’s “Mrs. Doubtfire,” to name only a few.

Shore’s music has been performed in concerts throughout the world. In 2003, Shore conducted the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in the world premiere of The Lord of the Rings Symphony in Wellington. Since then, the work has had over 140 performances by the world’s most prestigious orchestras.

In 2008, Howard Shore’s opera The Fly premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and at the Los Angeles Opera. His other recent works include Fanfare for the Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia, and the piano concerto Ruin and Memory for Lang Lang, which premiered in Beijing, China on October 11, 2010. He is currently working on his second opera.

Shore received the Career Achievement for Music Composition Award from the National Board of Review; the New York Chapter of the Recording Academy Honors; ASCAP’s Henry Mancini Award; the Frederick Loewe Award; and the Max Steiner Award from the city of Vienna. He holds honorary doctorates from Berklee College of Music and York University, is an Officier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la France, and is the recipient of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award in Canada.

JOE LETTERI’s (Senior Visual Effects Supervisor) pioneering work on digital visual effects has earned him four Academy Awards® for Best Visual Effects on “Avatar,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” and “King Kong.” He has also received the Academy’s Technical Achievement Award for co-developing the subsurface scattering technique that brought Gollum to life.

Letteri joined Weta Digital as Visual Effects Supervisor on “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” and, over the last 11 years, has led Weta Digital to become one of the world’s premiere visual effects studios.

Letteri has developed many techniques that have become standards for bringing photographic quality to digital visual effects. He specializes in the creation of compellingly realistic creatures, from the dinosaurs of “Jurassic Park,” to Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, the 25-foot gorilla in “King Kong,” the Na’vi in “Avatar,” and Caesar in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.”

As senior visual effects supervisor on “Avatar,” Letteri oversaw a program of research and development over four years that produced shots larger and more complex than ever attempted before. This involved shooting on a virtual stage with a new camera system, along with the development of a full pipeline of tools, effectively launching a new approach to filmmaking called virtual production.

Letteri was more recently nominated for an Academy Award® for the visual effects in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” and also worked on Steven Spielberg’s “The Adventures of Tintin.”

PETER SWORDS KING (Hair and Makeup Designer) is a renowned make-up and hair designer who has received numerous honors, including winning the Oscar® and BAFTA Award for his work on “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, distinguishing himself as a master of his craft. He also worked with Peter Jackson on “King Kong.” King has received an additional six nominations for BAFTA Awards throughout his career.

He began his career in 1970 when he left school and was involved in a variety of small theatre companies, which culminated with King heading an arts center for two years before realizing his path would be in make-up and hair. He began work at the Bristol Old Vic theatre in 1980, where he met Peter Owen, who was head of make-up. Following him to the Welsh National Opera, King continued to work with Owen for five years before forming their company, Owen King and Co.

King highlighted his career with designing the original stage production of “Phantom of the Opera,” now playing all over the world. From that point, King has focused his career on film with his forte in wig design and period work. His recent film credits include “Nanny McPhee,” “Nanny McPhee Returns,” “Beyond the Sea,” Chris Weitz’s “The Golden Compass,” Robert B. Weides’ “How to Lose Friends & Alienate People,” Francis Ford Coppola’s “Youth Without Youth,” and the Rob Marshall-directed films “Nine” and “Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.”

JOHN HOWE (Conceptual Designer) is best known throughout the world for his contributions to a wide range of Tolkien publications, ranging from calendars, posters and maps to book jackets and board games.

Howe has illustrated dozens of books, primarily fantasy, historical, and children’s titles. He has illustrated Beowulf and been commissioned to create paintings for a limited edition of George R.R. Martin’s A Clash of Kings. He has recently published Fantasy Art Workshop, which he calls a philosophical how-to book on drawing and painting, followed by two other titles: Forging Dragons and Fantasy Drawing Workshop. Howe has also written and illustrated Lost Worlds, an exploration of two dozen lost civilizations, both historical and mythological, and is working on new titles in the same series.

He has regularly held personal exhibitions in France, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland over the past twenty years. Two documentaries, “John Howe, There And Back Again” in Sweden and Switzerland in 2004, and “The Lord of the Brush” in Canada in 2005, trace his life and career.

ALAN LEE (Conceptual Designer) is responsible for the fifty watercolor illustrations in the centenary edition of The Lord of the Rings, along with The Hobbit, Ring, and The Children of Hurin. He spent six years in New Zealand working on designs for “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy.

His other ventures in the film industry have included conceptual design work on Ridley Scott’s “Legend,” Terry Jones’ “Eric the Viking,” and a few weeks on Skull Island in Peter Jackson’s “King Kong.”

Lee has long had a preoccupation with the Celtic and Norse myths. His other books include Faeries, with Brian Froud, The Mabinogion, Castles, The Mirrorstone, The Moon’s Revenge, Merlin Dreams, Black Ships before Troy, and The Wanderings of Odysseus. Lee has received several prestigious awards including the Kate Greenway Medal for Black Ships before Troy. His most recent book is Shapeshifters: Tales from Ovid’s Metamorphosis, written by Adrian Mitchell.