Oscar winner Ben Affleck (“Argo,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”) stars in the title role of “The Accountant,” from director Gavin O’Connor (“Miracle,” “Pride and Glory,” “Warrior”).

Christian Wolff (Affleck) is a math savant with more affinity for numbers than people.  Behind the cover of a small-town CPA office, he works as a freelance accountant for some of the world’s most dangerous criminal organizations.  With the Treasury Department’s Crime Enforcement Division, run by Ray King (J.K. Simmons), starting to close in, Christian takes on a legitimate client: a state-of-the-art robotics company where an accounting clerk (Anna Kendrick) has discovered a discrepancy involving millions of dollars.  But as Christian uncooks the books and gets closer to the truth, it is the body count that starts to rise.

“The Accountant” also stars Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick (“Up in the Air,” the “Pitch Perfect” films), Oscar winner J.K. Simmons (“Whiplash,” the “Spider-Man” films), Jon Bernthal (“Fury,” “The Wolf of Wall Street”), Jean Smart (TV’s “Fargo,” “24”), and Cynthia Addai-Robinson (“Star Trek: Into Darkness”), with Jeffrey Tambor (TV’s “Transparent,” “The Hangover” films) and two-time Oscar nominee John Lithgow (“Terms of Endearment,” “The World According to Garp”).

O’Connor directed the film from a screenplay by Bill Dubuque (“The Judge”).  The film was produced by Mark Williams and Lynette Howell Taylor, with O’Connor, Jamie Patricof and Marty Ewing serving as executive producers.

The behind-the-scenes creative team included two-time Oscar-nominated director of photography Seamus McGarvey (“Anna Karenina,” “Atonement”), production designer Keith Cunningham, Oscar-nominated editor Richard Pearson (“United 93”), costume designer Nancy Steiner, and Oscar-nominated composer Mark Isham (“Warrior,” “A River Runs Through It”).

Warner Bros. Pictures presents an Electric City Entertainment/Zero Gravity Management Production, a Gavin O’Connor Film, “The Accountant.”  The film will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

ADDING IT UP

“This guy risks his life uncooking the books for some of the
scariest people on the planet.  Drug cartels. Arms brokers.
Money launderers.  Assassins… Imagine the secrets this guy has.”

“It’s always compelling when people have secrets—when you think someone is one thing and then discover they’re something else entirely,” says director Gavin O’Connor.

That is certainly the case with the title character of his new film, “The Accountant.”  At first glance, Christian Wolff seems to be nothing more than a storefront CPA, right down to his spreadsheets and pocket protector.  However, his usual clientele are among the world’s most powerful crime lords, and his mild-mannered demeanor and somewhat innocuous appearance belie the fact that he may be more dangerous than any of them.

Ben Affleck, who stars in the role, notes, “The story speaks to the duality in all of us.  It might be easy to pigeonhole a guy like Chris, but we find out he’s capable of much more than you imagine.”

The actor goes on to reveal that there is another unexpected wrinkle to Christian, who is able to crunch more than just numbers.  “On the one hand, he’s this effectively trained fighter and on the other, he’s a math savant.  Those facets of his personality—seemingly at odds in him—were unlike anything I’ve ever done before and made it both exciting and challenging.”

O’Connor agrees.  “The center point of the film was this fascinating character that I loved and wanted to explore.  How did he become this man?  How did he get those skills?  How did he become this lethal fighter?  The story has intertwining puzzles, which gave it a high IQ factor and made it especially intriguing.”

The spark for the story initiated with producer Mark Williams, who explains, “I had heard the term ‘forensic accountant’ and thought it sounded like a detective of some sort.  But then I started pushing the envelope, raising the stakes with who he’s working for and that had the potential to kick the action into high gear.  Once I had the general framework in my head, I took it to Bill Dubuque, who is a writer I’ve worked with before and is flat-out great.  He responded to the idea and started fleshing out the script.”

Dubuque affirms, “The concept of an accountant—a profession that we normally think of as pretty mundane—who is outside what most would consider conventional and had extraordinary abilities was something different.  If you’re a mainstream company and think someone’s embezzling funds, you have a team of accountants who can determine where the money is going.  But if you’re a drug cartel or a Mafia kingpin, you can’t do that.  You’ve got to be able to call somebody who can come in, figure out the patterns in your books, and say, ‘This is where the leak is.’  And then get out.  As I thought more about what would make this person special, I hit on the notion that he is on the autism spectrum.  But he uses it to his advantage, and I just loved the idea of that.”

O’Connor emphasizes, “We learned the term ‘spectrum’ is especially fitting because there is really no single type of autism; every person is an individual and at a different place on that spectrum.  Christian is fictional and not based on anyone in real life—his remarkable aptitude for figures is a gift and his physical attributes are a product of his unique upbringing.”

Dubuque surrounded Christian with other characters that are just as multifaceted, pointing out, “Almost no one is really who they seem to be.”

Producer Lynette Howell Taylor says, “Bill created a fantastically written screenplay.  I had never read anything like it before and found it completely unpredictable, which is always a good sign.  There were twists that took me by surprise and I had a couple of gasp moments.  That’s what ultimately made me want to make the movie.”

With the script in hand, the producers chose O’Connor to helm “The Accountant” after meeting with him and finding “he had a deep understanding of these characters and a vision for how to shoot their interwoven storylines,” Williams recalls.  “We knew he was the perfect director for this.  He has such a fine eye for detail and kept track of all the puzzle pieces so they would all fit together in the end, which was very important for this film.”

Affleck adds, “I’d seen Gavin’s work on ‘Warrior’ and ‘Miracle,’ and in both of those movies I saw tremendous integrity in the performances.  I thought, ‘This is a director who doesn’t let a false note land in his films.’  I knew ‘The Accountant’ needed that kind of unflinching eye to capture the complexity and the nuances and ground it in reality.  At the end of the day, I was so glad he directed this movie because amidst the incredible action, he imbued it with authenticity, originality, humanity and heart.  I loved working with him.”

Anna Kendrick, who stars alongside Affleck in the film, says she especially appreciated the director’s “reverence for the emotional content,” noting, “It’s an interesting thing because, in many ways, Gavin is such a dude.  He and Ben would get so excited about all the action sequences, but then he also took such joy in the really sweet, emotional scenes.”

O’Connor says the divergent elements of the story and its characters were what attracted him to the project.  “It’s refreshingly unconventional and defies definition because it’s a suspense thriller, a drama, an action film and a character study.  I thought the script was one of the best that I’d read, so I really wanted to do it.”

The cleverly constructed screenplay also drew the film’s impressive acting ensemble.  “It kept me guessing until the very last page,” Affleck states, “and I thought it was very smart, rich in detail and in character depth, and inventive in its evolution.”

J.K. Simmons concurs, “Bill Dubuque crafted a layered script with very deep characters, so it has a great combination of an intricate plot with a range of fascinating people.”

Joining Affleck, Kendrick and Simmons in the main cast were Jon Bernthal, Jean Smart, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Jeffrey Tambor and John Lithgow.

“Part of my job as a director,” O’Connor says, “is surrounding myself with people who are really good at what they do—people who are going to constantly lift up the material and make me better and make the movie the best it can be.  All of these actors are of that caliber.”

THE SUM OF THE PARTS

As “The Accountant” opens, we meet Christian Wolff as a child whose parents are seeking professional help for him.  Telling the couple their son is actually more gifted than handicapped, the neurologist offers to work with him.  But Chris’s dad has his own ideas of how to prepare his son for a world that can be harsh for anyone deemed “different.”

O’Connor shares, “His father knew people could be cruel to a kid like him, so he decided to raise him with the tools he had learned as a military man.  Maybe there could have been another way to go about it, but that’s what he knew.”

“Chris’s father puts him through all kinds of rigorous training to toughen him up for a world he thinks could hurt him,” says Affleck.  “Instead, in a way, he ends up damaging him even further.  I thought that was an interesting theme—how he reconciles his past with the man he is now.

“What resonated with me about this character was not the ways he is different, but the ways he is similar to everyone else,” the actor continues.  “He grapples with the differences between himself and what is considered ‘normal,’ and those pose real challenges for him to get by in life.  But deep down he’s very much the same: he wants to be happy, he wants human contact, he wants love, he wants friendship… He has things that bother him, like we all do, but he has goals in his life that he wants to meet, and he wants to succeed.  He just defines those things differently from how other people do.”

Prior to the start of filming, O’Connor and Affleck engaged in research they knew was essential “to make sure we got this character right,” the director says.  “We all have our advantages and disadvantages as people, so it was important to me that we embrace Chris as an individual and never look at him as a tragic figure.”

The two consulted with several autism experts, including Dr. Neelkamal Soares, Laurie Stephens, Cheryl Klaiman, Christine Hall and Shelley Carnes.  They also visited a number of homes and schools.  “I was lucky,” Affleck says.  “I had my director doing research with me, which gave us a shared vocabulary and made it a lot easier.  There’s no task Gavin won’t undertake if he thinks it might make the movie better.  We learned that there’s quite a range to what people refer to as being on the spectrum.  Ultimately, I tried to strike a balance between letting the audience in on what’s going on with Christian and not doing it in too obvious a way.”

O’Connor was so impressed with Affleck, he stated, “I would make every movie with Ben if I could.  He just poured himself into the role, and the more you give him to do, the more he just keeps attacking it.”

The producers agree, as Taylor comments, “The key factor in portraying Chris was understanding how each little mannerism shapes who he is, and Ben fully got that.  Chris is someone who’s incredibly smart, but the character is also physically imposing.  Ben is totally believable in both capacities, strong and very smart.  He was the perfect choice.”

A man in Christian’s line of work can’t exactly advertise to the criminal underworld, so his jobs come through word of mouth.  But the chatter has now caused an undue amount of “unfriendly” attention, so his unseen handler thinks it’s best to change gears and take on a legitimate client.  Living Robotics, a cutting-edge electronics company best known for constructing state-of-the-art prosthetic limbs, has a discrepancy in their books just as they are about to go public, so they hire Christian Wolff to find the missing money.

Setting up in the company’s glass-walled conference room, Chris meets Dana Cummings, the junior accountant who uncovered the problem.  Anna Kendrick, who plays the role, confirms, “Dana is the one who first noticed that something isn’t adding up in the company finances, so she’s a little disappointed when Chris comes in and takes the whole investigation out from under her.  She’s not necessarily ambitious, but she wants to be included.”

“Dana has this bubbly personality, and that’s the last thing Christian wants when he’s trying to work,” Williams suggests.  “But he soon realizes she speaks his language as far as numbers go; she gets exhilarated the same way he does when the pieces start to come together.  For that reason, he starts to bond with her and care about her.”

As Chris shows Dana what he’s found, “she gets reenergized by the idea that they’re working together to solve this puzzle,” Kendrick asserts.  “She’s intrigued by him because he’s sort of a dorky accountant, but there’s something mysterious, too, which becomes even more obvious when things take a frightening turn.  Basically, nerding it up with Chris is the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to her,” she laughs.

Kendrick says she shares that sentiment from her own professional perspective.  “Working with Ben, as well as Gavin, was hugely exciting for me, too.  It was especially interesting acting opposite Ben in this role because Chris is so uncomfortable relating to people, but Ben found a way to make it so charming that Dana is drawn in by his vulnerability.  He’s a big guy and physically stronger, but on an emotional level, he’s the one Dana feels needs to be protected.”

The admiration is mutual.  “Anna brings a tremendous energy and honesty to her scenes,” Affleck remarks.  “She’s someone I admired a lot beforehand, so I was thrilled to have the chance to work with her.”

O’Connor adds, “One thing I discovered about Anna is she can take the dialogue in a scene and—no matter how many times you’ve heard it—create an entirely new interpretation.  Every take would be a variation on the theme of how she played it, and I loved that.”

Christian took the job at Living Robotics to lay low after his handler detected increased inquiries into his whereabouts, including from the Treasury Department’s Crime Enforcement Division.  The head of the division, Ray King, is determined to find the identity of the underworld numbers cruncher known only as “the Accountant.”  O’Connor chose J.K. Simmons for the part immediately after seeing his Oscar-winning performance in “Whiplash.”  He recounts, “As soon as I walked out of the theatre, I called Lynette, one of my producers, and said, ‘I want J.K. Simmons to play Ray.’  I just think he’s one of the greats.  Two days later we met and I offered him the part.”

Picking up the story, Simmons remembers, “When we first sat down to talk, I was impressed by Gavin’s brains and his heart—the passion for the work and the intelligence to get it done right.  It’s the combination you’re always looking for as an actor.  He also has another nice combination of being prepared, but able to think on his feet.  It’s always good to have a director who has an idea of what he wants but is also open to whatever the actors are bringing to the table on any given day.”

Simmons adds that the role was what sealed the deal.  “What fascinated me about Ray is that he’s this real alpha male when we meet him and then, as the story develops, we find different aspects to him, as we do with most of the characters.  It adds a lot of depth and some surprises.”

Taylor offers, “Casting somebody with the kind of gravitas J.K. Simmons has was essential for the role.  Ray King is a very multi-layered character—you don’t know what his motives are for much of the movie—and J.K. conveys all that in his superb performance.”

Ray recruits a bright, young analyst named Marybeth Medina to track down the elusive Accountant…although “blackmails” might be a more accurate description of her enlistment.  O’Connor explains, “Ray has information about Marybeth that proves she lied on her application, which could be very damaging, so he’s able to squeeze her to do something that might betray her own sense of integrity.  But he gives her little choice.”

Cynthia Addai-Robinson, who plays the role, contends, “Marybeth has been happy just to fly under the radar; she’s not looking to stand out at work for reasons that become quite clear.  When Ray King summons her to his office, it’s jarring because she doesn’t know what he wants.  He lets Marybeth know he’s accessed old files that were supposed to be sealed and is aware of her juvenile criminal record, so the stakes are high for her.  If she doesn’t come through on this case, she stands to lose everything.  But even though she’s tried to put some distance between her former self and the life she currently leads, I think that part of her past allows her to have a certain amount of street smarts.  And, as a Treasury Department analyst, she’s observant and has good instincts.  Those are all qualities that ultimately benefit her, and allow her to pick up clues and get to the truth.”

O’Connor notes that Addai-Robinson won the role over numerous other hopefuls.  “I must have seen more than a hundred actresses for Marybeth.  But when Cynthia came in, I said to the producers, ‘I think she’s the one.’  She’s a terrifically talented actress and I was really happy to have her in the movie.”

The Treasury Department is not the only one on the hunt for Christian.  Somehow, his “legitimate” assignment has unexpectedly put him in the crosshairs of a crack hitman named Brax, whose deadly skills rival Chris’s own.  Affleck attests, “Brax is proficient in a way that’s commensurate with Chris, and we get a sense that these two mysterious characters are on a collision course.”

Cast in the role, Jon Bernthal describes Brax as “highly unpredictable and extremely dangerous and he seems to enjoy what he does.  He’s a lone wolf who is quite capable of taking care of business by himself.”

O’Connor states that Bernthal was his first and only choice for the role.  “I wanted Jon to play Brax because he’s a great actor and I knew he would bring ingredients to the character that I was looking for.”

Responding in kind, Bernthal says, “I’m a huge fan of Gavin’s movies and have been dying to work with him, so when the phone rang, I was in.  Gavin is a real actor’s director and it was a real honor to be among the group of actors he put together for the film.  I’m so glad I got to be a part of it.”

Living Robotics is headed by its founder, Lamar Blackburn, and his sister, Rita, played by John Lithgow and Jean Smart, respectively.  “Lamar’s great passion is helping people who have lost limbs by making what he calls ‘neuro-prosthetics,’ which connect mechanical limbs with the actual muscles and nervous system of the body,” Lithgow says.  “He’s a technological genius, so you have these two people, Lamar and Christian, both with extraordinary minds, who are put together.”

Revealing that Lamar and Christian have something else in common, Lithgow continues, “I always look for two sides of a character, whether it’s a villain who has a good streak, or a good guy with a villainous streak.  I won’t tell you what the dualities are in Lamar; he may be exactly what he appears to be or he may not, and that made him fascinating to play.  The whole script was an enthralling read with such a tightly woven plot.  You don’t know what’s going to happen until the end when all the tumblers come crashing together, and I love movies like that.”

“John Lithgow is one of the nicest, brightest, most lovely people I’ve ever worked with,” O’Connor says.  “He’s got a deep humanity and is a highly intelligent man, so I knew he could bring a kind of intellectual verisimilitude to the role, which was important.”

While Lamar handles the innovation side of the company, his sister, Rita, oversees the business end.  Williams maintains, “Rita is the practical rock behind the more creative Lamar.  She is the reason Christian Wolff is brought in; something is amiss and she is determined to figure out what went wrong.  Jean Smart is such a strong woman; she brought that quality to the character with her own personality and Southern charm.”

Christian Wolff’s background and distinctive skill sets are largely established through flashbacks, beginning as a child, and later including a stint in Leavenworth.  There, he forms a bond with a fellow inmate and former black money accountant named Francis Silverberg, played by Jeffrey Tambor.  O’Connor expounds, “Francis is like a second father to Chris, whose own dad made sure he had physical strength but never understood the mathematics of his brain.  What he learns from Francis is that there’s another way to utilize your powers if you want to make money.”

Tambor affirms, “Francis is Chris’ mentor in prison and, in a way, it’s a very loving father-son relationship.  It was a wonderfully written script with a beautiful puzzle to it, and I think everyone will really enjoy trying to work it out.”

In casting Tambor, the only question was the age difference between him and his character.  “Jeffrey is not nearly old enough to play a guy who worked for the mob in the ‘50s,” Williams states, “so we had to age him up at least 10 years.  Fortunately, we had the brilliant special effects makeup artist Bill Johnson, who made him appear older and more fragile.”

O’Connor remarks, “I’ve been a huge Jeffrey Tambor fan since ‘The Larry Sanders Show.’  He’s an extraordinary actor, so I knew if he was willing to put up with the aging makeup, he’d create a very sympathetic character and, in just a short amount of screen time, establish a strong connection between Francis and Christian, which he did.”

Also seen in flashback, Rob Treveiler portrays Chris’s stern father, who believes he is doing the right thing in hardening both his sons for an unforgiving world.  Seth Lee and Jake Presley appear, respectively, as the younger Chris and his little brother.

Rounding out the main cast, Andy Umberger plays Living Robotics executive Ed Chilton, who has his doubts about Christian, and Ron Prather and Susan Williams are seen as Frank and Dolores Rice, who are shocked when their bookish tax accountant demonstrates his physical prowess in their defense.

TRAINING BY THE NUMBERS

Gavin O’Connor knew that Christian Wolff should have an idiosyncratic fighting style, forged by his childhood training and his personal penchant for order.  He maintains, “I wanted to approach the action through character, with the thought being when Chris got into a situation that required violence, he would eliminate the threat as quickly and economically as possible.  It’s math.  It’s ‘How do I make my move and get them off the chessboard?’”

Conferring with stunt coordinators Sam Hargrave and Fernando Chien, the director explored various types of martial arts.  Nothing quite fit the bill until they showed him an Indonesian method that is less widely known, called pentjak silat.  “I immediately said, ‘I want that,” he recalls.  “I’d never even heard of silat before, but it’s incredibly efficient, so it served our purpose in a very cinematic way.  We honed in on that form and built the action around it.”

Hargrave and Chien, together with their stunt team, started training Affleck, keeping in mind O’Connor’s desire to mirror Chris’s persona in the action.  Chien confirms, “His style needed to be almost surgical—very linear and direct.  He wouldn’t bounce around like a boxer.  We mainly focused on silat, but because of how dynamic Ben needed to be in his fights, we also taught him judo, jiu-jitsu…everything from the ground up, but extremely stylized.”

“This martial arts technique hasn’t been seen in too many movies before so it felt fresh and new,” Affleck says.  “I loved the style, so I dove into training as hard as I could.  I spent months ahead of filming learning elaborate fight choreography, which involved a lot of flips and throws.  Performing almost all of the action myself was difficult and demanding, but, luckily, I had the benefit of some really strong coaches and stunt performers who came up with some cool and unique stuff for me to do.  It was very intense, but when it all came together and was done right, it could be beautiful and elegant, even though it was brutal.”

Chien acknowledges that Affleck, who came into the film right after portraying Batman, was already in fighting shape—just not in the same way that Christian had to be.  “For that film, he became really buff and muscular, but this character needed to be slick and more quick—very direct and explosive—so we did more martial arts conditioning with a lot of dynamic movements.”

Hargrove adds, “We had a small gym where we would go for about two hours a day.  Fernando and I put him through his paces, making drills out of the choreography and having Ben practice them over and over again until every move became like second nature to him.  We sometimes drove him to the point of exhaustion, but Ben never gave up.  He put in the work and came back stronger every day.”

Jon Bernthal also underwent training to play the ruthless mercenary Brax, but with a difference.  Chien clarifies, “What we wanted to do with Brax was to create a counter to Christian.  Brax is more rough and tumble; he likes to mix it up.  Jon has a background as a legit boxer and that frenetic type of boxing movement, where he’s in and out, left and right, punches in bunches and continually coming at his opponent, is in contrast to Christian.”

“Brax is more freestyle,” Hargrove agrees, “so we worked to differentiate the two characters, with one being very methodical and the other a bit more wild.  And then you have Jon, who, from day one, was 100 percent game for anything and never missed a beat.  Because of his boxing experience, he picked up the moves very quickly.  It makes our job easier when you have an actor who has actually fought and can readily adjust to what we need.”

Bernthal offers, “I like to do all my fighting myself and I came in feeling pretty prepared and confident, but these guys had a level of expertise that I can only dream of.  It was great to train with them every day, learning all these moves and combining different styles to design the fights. The entire stunt team on this movie was unparalleled and it was a thrill to work with them.

Apart from his physical prowess, Christian is also an expert marksman, capable of taking out a target from a considerable distance.  Stuntman Thayr Harris was largely responsible for teaching Affleck how to handle any gun like a pro, with safety being the top priority.  Harris specifies, “We started in a controlled gym environment with prop weapons and as that evolved and he became more comfortable, we went out to a range.  It can take years of weapons training to understand all the nuances that go into working with firearms.  It was impressive that, within a couple of months, he achieved a skill level that looked like he’d been doing it for years.”

O’Connor observes, “Ben had to travel different paths in making sure we got both the physical and emotional aspects of the character right, which was vital.  He was working out every day and getting all the choreography down because he was doing most of it himself.  In just a short amount of time, he had to look like he’d been studying his entire life, so it was a crash course for him and I think he did an amazing job.”

THE BOTTOM LINE

While the stunt team was training cast members, O’Connor was prepping the movie with his creative team.  The director offers, “I went through the script multiple times with my cinematographer, Seamus McGarvey, and production designer, Keith Cunningham.  We had to make sure we were on the same page with regard to the look, the feel, the tone, and the palette.  All your narrative elements have to be functioning in a very synchronistic way, so the three of us together created the visual style.”

“The Accountant” was filmed in and around Atlanta, Georgia, where the filmmakers utilized a number of locations, as well as a soundstage in nearby Decatur.  One of the main sets built on the stage was the interior of Christian Wolff’s moveable home: a sleek, silver Airstream trailer kept secreted away in a huge storage locker.

Cunningham details, “It was a complicated build because we needed to keep the interior true to scale—super compact and efficient—but everything had to be movable to allow for cameras and lighting setups.  The trailer home exemplifies quality and comfort, with fine finishes, handcrafted details and warm, soothing tones.  Everything also appears pristine and perfectly organized in keeping with Chris’s need for order.”

Affleck attests, “Chris is someone who has difficulty with chaos and has to have things ordered in a certain way, and his personal space reflects that.  Keith really had to take that into account when creating his environment and I thought he nailed it.  The Airstream trailer has everything in the world that’s important to Chris and—more importantly in his line of work—he can hook it up to his truck and disappear in five minutes.  It was such a cool thing that I actually turned the Airstream into my own personal trailer,” he smiles.

The tools of Chris’s trade are neatly stored in the Airstream, including an assortment of high-powered weapons, multiple passports and a small fortune in cash, gold and foreign currencies.  There are also the spoils of his dealings with some extremely wealthy clientele, including priceless works by Renoir and Pollock, as well as rare collectibles and other treasures.  “The set decorator, Douglas Mowat, put a lot of thought into every little detail of Chris’s home, which is a mix of the nerdy and the dangerous,” says Cunningham.

The actual Airstream Chris owns is, in and of itself, another of his rare collectibles.  Cunningham verifies, “That specific model is not easy to find.  It is a custom-build and very few were ever made.”  After an extensive search, the production finally found the prized Airstream in Texas, and it was fortunately in perfect condition.

To divert prying eyes, Chris keeps a separate home that was crafted as a total departure from his trailer.  To the casual observer, the modest, sparsely furnished ranch-style house offers no indications of his real life, though, upon closer examination, it does hold a few clues, including a sophisticated surveillance system and defensive armaments.  Similarly, Cunningham designed ZZZ Accounting—the small-town accounting office Chris uses as a front—to be as nondescript as possible so as not to draw any undue attention.  A house in the neighborhood of Conyers, Georgia, stood in for the home, while a small strip mall in the city of Roswell became the site of ZZZ Accounting.

The campus of Georgia Tech served as the location for the ultra-modern headquarters of Living Robotics, with its centerpiece being a large conference room with glass walls that become Chris’s canvas.  Cunningham explains, “His ‘artwork’ is comprised of colliding red and black numbers.  It was no easy task to find an all-glass conference room, but it was worth it because the glass ‘box’ gave Gavin and Seamus more options to shoot those scenes.”

The production enlisted the expertise of an accounting professor from Georgia Tech to generate myriad number formulas befitting a large, multi-million-dollar corporation.  Cunningham’s team then had the painstaking job of filling the clear walls with thousands of figures “as if Christian Wolff had been writing them all night,” he says.  “Ben provided us with a sample of his ‘hasty’ handwriting, which we customized and digitally reproduced.  We then printed rolls of clear static-cling vinyl—glass wallpaper, if you will—and hung it in stages as the scene progressed.  We also left blank areas for Ben to write in ‘live’ as we shot.  It was truly one of the biggest design challenges of the entire film.”

A mansion in an upscale Atlanta suburb was used as the exterior of Lamar Blackburn’s luxurious home.  Its multi-leveled interior, mirroring the same contemporary design as his company, was constructed on the soundstage.

The Gwinnett Jail in Lawrenceville, Georgia, doubled as Leavenworth, where Christian Wolff is schooled in the fine art of black money accounting by Tambor’s Francis Silverberg.  The interior of the Treasury offices were located inside Atlanta’s Academy of Medicine.  A farm near Bishop, Georgia, became the rural home of Frank and Dolores Rice, where Chris temporarily finds a welcoming home away from home.

Like Christian’s inconspicuous ranch house, his wardrobe was conceived to allow the character to hide in plain sight.  Costume designer Nancy Steiner says, “The most important thing was that he not stand out, so his clothes were more about being subtle than making any kind of statement.  When he’s at his house or at the Rice farm, he wears a Carhartt jacket, like he’s an ‘everyman.’  At work, he wears a plain suit and we decided he would always wear a white shirt.  We changed out the ties, but they’re very understated.  The exception is when he knows he’s walking into a fight.  Then he wears tactical gear, all in black.”

Steiner designed Anna Kendrick’s costumes to showcase a subtle change in her character as the story progresses.  She illustrates, “There is an arc from the first time we see her in the office, where she is pretty conservatively dressed.  But her clothes get a little more feminine and flirty to show her as wanting to be noticed more.”

When filming wrapped, O’Connor reunited with composer Mark Isham, with whom he had collaborated on three films, including “Miracle” and “Warrior,” to score “The Accountant.”  Isham expresses that he wanted to capture Christian’s unique persona in the music, stating, “He is a mathematical prodigy who lives in a world of numbers and numeric patterns, and I wanted the score to reflect that.  Parts of the music were created using a series of simple patterns with competing tempos and enough randomness to create texture and nuance.”

“Mark’s mix of music captures the juxtaposition of action, emotion and suspense, even as it elevates the humanity of the story,” O’Connor offers.  “His interplaying themes reflect the duality of the characters, influencing the dramatic impact of the film.  There are a lot of mysteries in the plot…everybody has a secret.”

Affleck remarks, “The great thing about ‘The Accountant’ is it’s smart and it has a ton of action and fun twists.  And when it all comes together, I think the audience is in for a surprise.”

O’Connor concludes, “I wanted to make a film that was intellectually engaging, while also being a rollercoaster ride that can sweep the audience up in a story that doesn’t let up until the end.  And if it moves you or makes you think or want to talk about it after you leave the theatre, that’s cool, too.”

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ABOUT THE CAST

BEN AFFLECK (Christian Wolff) is a two-time Academy Award winner who has been recognized for his work as a director, actor, writer, and producer.

Affleck recently starred as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the worldwide blockbuster “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.”  He will reprise the role in the upcoming action adventure “Justice League,” slated for release in November 2017, and he is also set to direct and star in a new standalone Batman film.  Also upcoming, he directed and stars in “Live by Night,” a period action drama, due out in January 2017.  Affleck also wrote the screenplay for the film, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane.

Affleck previously directed, produced and starred in the award-winning hit “Argo,” a fact-based drama about the then-classified mission to rescue six Americans trapped in Iran during the hostage crisis.  The most acclaimed film of 2012, “Argo” swept the year’s top honors, including the Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards for Best Picture.  Affleck also won Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Critics’ Choice Awards for Best Director, and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor.  In addition, he won a Directors Guild of America Award; a Producers Guild of America Award, shared with George Clooney and Grant Heslov; and a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award as a member of the film’s ensemble, which won for Outstanding Motion Picture Cast.  The cast also garnered Best Ensemble Awards from the National Board of Review, Hollywood Film Awards, and the Palm Springs International Film Festival.  Among its many other honors, the film won Oscars for Best Screenplay and Best Editing, earned four more Oscar nominations, and was named one of the top 10 outstanding films of the year by the American Film Institute (AFI), as well as numerous critics.

Affleck made his directorial debut in 2007 with the feature “Gone Baby Gone,” for which he earned several critics groups’ awards, including the Best Directorial Debut Award from the National Board of Review.  Additionally, he won the Breakthrough Director of the Year Award at the 2007 Hollywood Film Festival.  Affleck also co-wrote the screenplay for the film, adapted from the Dennis Lehane novel.

In 2010, Affleck directed and starred in “The Town,” in addition to co-writing the screenplay.  The film was named among the top 10 films of the year by the AFI, and the cast won the National Board of Review Award for Best Ensemble.  Affleck received a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for “The Town,” which also brought Oscar, Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations to co-star Jeremy Renner.

Affleck first came to prominence in 1997 with the acclaimed drama “Good Will Hunting,” which he starred in and co-wrote with Matt Damon.  The two won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, as well as a Golden Globe Award and Humanitas Prize.  The following year, Affleck starred in John Madden’s Oscar-winning “Shakespeare in Love,” sharing in a SAG Award for Outstanding Motion Picture Cast.

In 2006, Affleck earned widespread praise for his portrayal of ill-fated actor George Reeves in the noir drama “Hollywoodland.”  The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where he won the coveted Volpi Award for Best Actor.  He also received Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award nominations for Best Actor, as well as the Best Actor Award at the Hollywood Film Festival.

He has also starred in such diverse films as David Fincher’s “Gone Girl,” Terrence Malick’s “To the Wonder,” “The Company Men,” “State of Play,” “He’s Just Not That Into You,” “Jersey Girl,” “Daredevil,” “The Sum of All Fears,” “Changing Lanes,” “Pearl Harbor,” “Boiler Room,” “Forces of Nature,” and “Armageddon.”

In 2000, Affleck partnered with Damon, Chris Moore and Sean Bailey to form LivePlanet, Inc.  Their first endeavor, “Project Greenlight,” premiered in 2001 on HBO and drew critical, audience and industry attention for its behind-the-scenes look at the challenges faced by a first-time filmmaker.  The second season of “Project Greenlight” aired on HBO in 2003, with a third season on Bravo in 2005.  All three seasons were nominated for Emmy Awards.  The fourth season of “Project Greenlight,” aired on HBO in 2015.

In addition to his successful film career, Affleck is also a passionate advocate and philanthropist.  In March 2010, he founded the Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI), the first U.S.-based advocacy and grant-making initiative wholly focused on the mission of helping the people of eastern Congo support local community-based approaches that create a sustainable and successful society in the long-troubled region.  Affleck is also a longtime political activist, as well as a strong supporter of many charitable organizations.

ANNA KENDRICK (Dana Cummings) is an Oscar-nominated actress whose variety of accomplishments continue to showcase her impressive range of talents.  She starred in the musical hit “Pitch Perfect,” performing the song “Cups,” which went multi-platinum and was one of Billboard’s top songs of 2013.  Last year, she reprised her role in “Pitch Perfect 2,” which had a record-breaking opening and went on to became the top-grossing musical comedy of all time, domestically.

Kendrick has also completed a collection of humorous, autobiographical essays, to be published in fall 2016 by Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.  Employing her witty, one-of-a-kind commentary, Kendrick shares the absurdities she has experienced.

Kendrick was most recently seen in the independent film “The Hollars,” directed by and also starring John Krasinski, which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was just released in theatres; and the comedy “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates,” with Zac Efron and Adam Devine.  This fall, she will be heard in the animated musical comedy adventure “Trolls,” opposite Justin Timberlake, and she also stars in the independent comedy “Table 19,” due out in 2017.

In 2009, Kendrick starred opposite George Clooney and Jason Bateman in Jason Reitman’s widely acclaimed feature “Up in the Air,” for which she earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.  She also won a number of critics’ group awards, including the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress, and received the MTV Movie Awards for Best Breakout Star.  In addition, she was honored with nominations for a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award and a Critics’ Choice Award.

Kendrick’s other recent credits include “Into the Woods,” playing Cinderella as part of an all-star cast, also including Meryl Streep and Johnny Depp; the film adaptation of the musical “The Last Five Years”; the indie features “Cake,” with Jennifer Aniston, “Happy Christmas,” and “Drinking Buddies,” in which she starred opposite Olivia Wilde and Ron Livingston; David Ayer’s intense crime drama “End of Watch,” opposite Jake Gyllenhaal; and the comedy-drama “50/50,” with Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  Kendrick was also seen in the blockbuster “The Twilight Saga” franchise, including “Twilight,” “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” and “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1.”

Kendrick made her feature film debut in director Todd Graff’s “Camp,” a favorite at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.  Her performance in the cult classic earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Debut Performance, as well as a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Chlotrudis Awards.  She went on to star in Jeffrey Blitz’s “Rocket Science,” which premiered at Sundance in 2007, receiving a Grand Jury Prize nomination.  For her performance, Kendrick earned another Independent Spirit Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress.

An accomplished theatre veteran, Kendrick began her career as Dinah Lord in the 1998 Broadway musical production of “High Society,” for which she was honored with a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.  At just 12 years old, she was the second-youngest Tony nominee in history.  Kendrick also won Drama League and Theatre World Awards, and garnered Drama Desk and FANY Award nominations for her role.

Kendrick’s additional theatre credits include a feature role in the New York City Opera’s production of “A Little Night Music,” starring Jeremy Irons; “My Favorite Broadway/The Leading Ladies: Live at Carnegie Hall”; and Broadway workshops of “Jane Eyre” and “The Little Princess.”

J.K. SIMMONS (Ray King) is an Oscar-winning actor whose illustrious career includes diverse roles in projects spanning film, television, and the stage, both on and off-Broadway.

In 2015, Simmons swept every major Best Supporting Actor award for his performance in the acclaimed drama “Whiplash,” culminating with his Academy Award win.  The film, directed by Damien Chazelle and also starring Miles Teller, garnered four more Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.  For his portrayal of merciless jazz instructor Terence Fletcher, Simmons also won Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe, Independent Spirit, Critics’ Choice, and BAFTA Awards.  In addition, he was named the year’s Best Supporting Actor by numerous critics groups, including those in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Chicago, and London, among others, both in the U.S. and abroad.  “Whiplash” had premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Dramatic Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize for Best Film.

Simmons has a wide range of films upcoming.  Later this year, he appears with Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in “La La Land,” which reunited him with Chazelle, and Peter Berg’s “Patriots Day,” about the Boston Marathon bombing.  Among his other upcoming films are the comedy “Bastards,” with Owen Wilson and Ed Helms; the crime drama “The Snowman,” starring Michael Fassbender; the drama “I’m Not Here,” directed by his wife, Michelle Schumacher; and the romantic drama “The Bachelors,” also starring Julie Delpy.  In November 2017, he will be seen in the action adventure “Justice League,” joining the ensemble cast as one of DC Comics’ most indelible characters, Commissioner Gordon.

Simmons is well known to moviegoers for the role of J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” trilogy, and for his portrayal of the off-beat father, Mac McGuff, in Jason Reitman’s hit comedy/drama “Juno.”  He had earlier worked with Raimi on “For the Love of the Game” and “The Gift.”  He has also collaborated multiple times with Reitman, on the films “Labor Day,” “Up in the Air” and “Thank You for Smoking,” and the Coen brothers, on “Burn After Reading” and “The Ladykillers.”

His more recent films include “The Meddler,” opposite Susan Sarandon and Rose Byrne; “Terminator: Genisys,” with Arnold Schwarzenegger; and the animated features “Kung Fu Panda 3” and “Zootopia.”  Simmons’ long list of credits also includes “Jobs”; “The Words,” with Bradley Cooper; “Contraband”; “The Music Never Stopped”; “A Beginner’s Guide to Endings”; “Jennifer’s Body”; “Extract”; “I Love You, Man”; “The Vicious Kind”; “Rendition”; “Hidalgo”; Gore Verbinski’s “The Mexican”; “Off the Map”; and Lasse Hallström’s “The Cider House Rules,” to name only a portion.

On the small screen, Simmons will star in the new sci-fi drama series “Counterpart,” for the Starz cable network.  He previously played LAPD Assistant Chief Will Pope in TNT’s hit series “The Closer” and Vern Schillinger on HBO’s acclaimed drama “Oz,” and had a recurring role as Dr. Emil Skoda on NBC’s “Law & Order.”  He has also had regular, recurring or guest starring roles on more than 70 other television and cable programs.

Simmons has appeared on the Broadway stage in performances of “Guys and Dolls,” “Laughter on the 23rd Floor,” “A Change in the Heir,” “Peter Pan” and “A Few Good Men.”

JON BERNTHAL (Brax) stars in the Netflix series based on Marvel Comics’ “Daredevil,” playing Frank Castle a.k.a. Punisher.  He is also playing the character as the title role in the spinoff series “Punisher.”

On the big screen, he has several films upcoming, including the period adventure “Pilgrimage,” with Richard Armitage; the thriller “Shot Caller,” opposite Lake Bell; the actioner “Baby Driver,” alongside Jon Hamm, Lily James, Kevin Spacey, Ansel Elgort and Jamie Foxx; the thriller “Wind River,” with Elizabeth Olsen and Jeremy Renner; and the drama “Sweet Virginia.”  Together with his father, Bernthal launched the production company Story Factory, with several film and television projects in development.

Last year, Bernthal co-starred with Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro in Denis Villeneuve’s acclaimed action drama “Sicario,” and was also seen in Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, winning the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for Best Dramatic Film.  In 2014, he played one of the main tank crew in David Ayer’s hit World War II drama “Fury,” with Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman and Michael Peña.  The year before, he co-starred with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill in Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

Bernthal’s additional film credits include “Grudge Match,” starring with Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone; “Snitch,” with Dwayne Johnson; “Date Night,” with Steve Carell and Tina Fey; Roman Polanski’s award-winning “The Ghost Writer,” opposite Ewan McGregor; “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” with Ben Stiller; “The Air I Breathe,” with Kevin Bacon; the indie film “Day Zero,” with Elijah Wood and Chris Klein; and Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center,” with Nicolas Cage, which marked his first major film role.

On television, Bernthal most recently had a starring role in the true-life HBO miniseries “Show Me a Hero,” directed by Paul Haggis.  He also starred in Frank Darabont’s “Mob City” for TNT, and played zombie apocalypse survivor Shane Walsh in AMC’s breakout hit television series “The Walking Dead.”  He earlier joined the ensemble cast of Tom Hanks’ and Steven Spielberg’s award-winning HBO miniseries “The Pacific.”  His other television work includes guest appearances on “Boston Legal,” “CSI: Miami,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “How I Met Your Mother” and “Without a Trace.”  His first series starring role was in “The Class,” directed by James Burrows.

A veteran of more than 30 stage productions, Bernthal earned a 2011 Ovation Award nomination for his role in Rogue Machine Theatre’s “Small Engine Repair,” which he also produced and which had its New York premiere in 2013.  His other theatre credits include Neil LaBute’s “Fat Pig,” at the Geffen Playhouse; Langford Wilson’s “Fifth of July” at New York’s Signature Theatre; the title role in the off-Broadway production of “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui”; and “This is Our Youth,” in Washington, D.C. His love of theatre led him to open his own non-profit theatre company, Fovea Floods, in upstate New York.

During his college years, Bernthal was given the opportunity to study at the prestigious Moscow Arts Theatre (MAT) in Russia.  While there, he was discovered by the Director of Harvard University’s Institute for Advanced Theatre Training, at the American Repertory Theatre in Moscow.  He was invited to study and graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree.

Bernthal was a professional baseball player both in the U.S. minor leagues and European Professional Baseball Federation.  These days, he boxes six days a week and also teaches boxing to at-risk children to instill discipline and a work ethic.  He also works to retrain pit bulls that have been abused, and place them in new, loving homes.

JEFFREY TAMBOR (Francis Silverberg) is one of today’s most respected film and television actors.  He is currently starring on the groundbreaking and award-winning Amazon series “Transparent,” co-starring Judith Light, Gaby Hoffman, Amy Landecker and Jay Duplass.  For his portrayal of Maura, who spent most of her life as Mort, the Pfefferman family patriarch, Tambor just won his second Emmy, for Best Actor.  He had previously won an Emmy, a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award and a Critics’ Choice TV Award for his performance in the series.  The show is entering its third season this fall, and has already been picked up for a fourth season.

Tambor previously had memorable roles in two popular and acclaimed series: HBO’s “The Larry Sanders Show,” receiving four Emmy nominations for his performance as self-centered sidekick Hank Kingsley; and “Arrested Development,” earning two more Emmy nods for the dual role of twin brothers George Bluth Sr. and Oscar Bluth.  In addition, Tambor co-starred in the HBO biopic “Phil Spector,” with Al Pacino and Helen Mirren.  He also had recurring roles on such series as “The Good Wife” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”

For the big screen, Tambor’s upcoming films include the drama “55 Steps,” directed by Billie August and also starring Hilary Swank and Helena Bonham Carter, and Armando Iannucci’s historical drama “The Death of Stalin,” opposite Steve Buscemi, Olga Kurylenko and Timothy Dalton.  His voice will also next be heard in the animated feature “Trolls,” with Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake, opening in November.

Film audiences know him as Alan’s long-suffering dad in Todd Phillips’ smash hit “The Hangover” trilogy, with Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis.  Over the past four decades, he has also had a wide range of roles in such films as “For the Love of Money,” “Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” “Flypaper,” “Paul,” “Win, Win,” the two “Hellboy” films, “Pollock,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “Girl, Interrupted,” “Meet Joe Black,” “There’s Something About Mary,” “Doctor Dolittle,” “Radioland Murders,” “City Slickers,” “Brenda Starr,” “Mr. Mom,” “The Dream Chasers,” and “…and justice for all,” which marked his feature film debut.

Tambor previously provided voices for the animated films “Tangled,” “Monsters vs. Aliens,” and “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.”  Tambor was also the voice of Professor Cakes in the Adult Swim series “China, IL.”

Tambor attended San Francisco State University, where he received a BA degree in Drama in 1965.  He then went to Wayne State University earning an MFA in 1969.  He was studying for his PhD when he left in 1970 for a role in “Richard II,” with Richard Chamberlain, at the Seattle Repertory Theater.  In 1976, he made his Broadway debut in the comedy “Sly Fox,” directed by Arthur Penn and starring George C. Scott.  That same year, he appeared in the New York Shakespeare Company production of “Measure for Measure.”

In 2005, he returned to Broadway as George Aaronow in David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross,” which won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.  Tambor has remained active in theater as both an actor and director.  He directed Lanford Wilson’s “Burn This” at the Skylight Theatre in Los Angeles, and has acted and directed with many regional theatre companies, including the Academy Festival Theatre in Chicago and the Loeb Drama Center at Harvard.

JOHN LITHGOW (Lamar Blackburn) is well known for his roles in films and on television, but he also has deep roots in the theater.  In 1973, only three weeks after making his Broadway debut in David Storey’s “The Changing Room,” he won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance.  He has since returned to the Broadway stage in more than 20 plays and musicals, winning another Tony, for Best Actor in a Musical, for 2002’s “Sweet Smell of Success,” and earning four more Tony nominations, for “Requiem for a Heavyweight,” “M. Butterfly,” “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” and “The Columnist.”  He has also been honored with three Drama Desk Awards and was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.  His other Broadway performances have included major roles in “My Fat Friend,” “Trelawney of the ‘Wells,’” “Comedians,” “Anna Christie,” “Bedroom Farce,” “Beyond Therapy,” “The Front Page,” “The Retreat from Moscow” and “All My Sons.”  Lithgow recently returned to the New York stage, first in the title role of “King Lear” for The Public Theatre’s Shakespeare in the Park, and then on Broadway in Edward Albee’s “A Delicate Balance.”

In 2007, Lithgow became one of a very few American actors ever invited to join The Royal Shakespeare Company, playing Malvolio in “Twelfth Night” at Stratford-upon-Avon.  In 2008, he devised his own one-man show, “Stories by Heart,” for The Lincoln Center Theater Company, and has been touring with it around the country ever since.  He also played the title role in Arthur Wing Pinero’s “The Magistrate” at London’s National Theatre.

In the early 1980s, Lithgow began to make a major mark in films, earning back-to-back Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations, in 1983 and 1984, for “The World According to Garp” and “Terms of Endearment,” respectively.  His film career encompasses more than 50 films, recently including “Love is Strange,” for which he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination, and Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar.”  His other credits include such notable titles as “This is 40,” “The Campaign,” “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” “Dreamgirls,” “Kinsey,” “Orange County,” “Shrek,” “A Civil Action,” “The Pelican Brief,” “Cliffhanger,” “Raising Cain,” “Ricochet,” “Memphis Belle,” “Harry and the Hendersons,” “2010,” “Footloose,” “Twilight Zone: the Movie,” “Blow Out” and “All That Jazz.”

Audiences will next see him starring alongside Jessica Chastain and Mark Strong in John Madden’s “Miss Sloane,” opening in December.  In 2017, Lithgow will star in the comedy “Beatriz at Dinner,” with Salma Hayek, Chloe Sevigny and Connie Britton.

Lithgow has been honored numerous times for his work on television.  He has been nominated for eleven Emmy Awards and has won five, including three for the starring role of the alien Commander, Dr. Dick Solomon, on the hit comedy series “3rd Rock from the Sun.”  For his work on the show, he also earned three more Emmy nominations and won two Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, a Golden Globe Award and an American Comedy Award.  He won Emmy and Golden Globe Awards for his diabolical turn as the Trinity Killer on Showtime’s “Dexter.”  In addition, he received a SAG Award nomination for his performance in the title role of the telefilm “Don Quixote,” and earlier won his first Emmy for his guest role on the anthology series “Amazing Stories.”  Upcoming, Lithgow will appear as Winston Churchill in Netflix’s original series “The Crown,” and stars in the new NBC comedy series “Trial & Error,” playing an eccentric poetry professor accused of murdering his wife.

Apart from his acting work, over the past decade he has written nine New York Times best-selling children’s picture books, most recently Never Play Music Right Next To The Zoo.  He has performed concerts for children with major American orchestras and has released three children’s albums, Singin’ in the Bathtub, Farkle & Friends, and the Grammy-nominated The Sunny Side of the Street.  Lithgow was honored with the New Victory Theater Arts Award for his work bringing kids to the arts and the arts to the kids.

In 2011, HarperCollins published Lithgow’s memoir, Drama: An Actor’s Education, presenting his life and career up to the age of 35.  The book vividly portrays the worlds of New York, London, and American regional theater in the 1970s, and relives his collaborations with renowned performers and directors of that era.

Lithgow was born in Rochester, New York, but grew up in Ohio, graduated from high school in Princeton, New Jersey, attended Harvard College, and studied at the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art on a Fulbright Grant.  He has been honored with the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, induction into The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Harvard.  On that last occasion, he became the first actor ever to deliver Harvard’s Commencement Address.

CYNTHIA ADDAI-ROBINSON (Marybeth Medina) is perhaps best known for her leading role as Naevia on the critically acclaimed Starz action series “Spartacus.”  This fall she stars as the female lead in USA Network’s newest conspiracy series, “Shooter,” opposite Ryan Phillippe.

In 2015, Addai-Robinson starred in the History Channel’s miniseries “Texas Rising,” opposite Bill Paxton and Olivier Martinez.  She also recently had recurring roles on NBC’s “Chicago Med” and the CW’s “Arrow.”  Her additional television credits include guest roles on “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “The Vampire Diaries,” “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “CSI: NY,” “Numb3rs,” “Entourage,” “CSI: Miami,” “Dirt” and “Flashforward.”

Her previous film credits include the 2013 sci-fi action adventure “Star Trek Into Darkness” and 2011’s “Colombiana,” in which she co-starred with Zoe Saldana.

Born in the United Kingdom to a Ghanaian mother and an American father, Addai-Robinson moved to the United States at a young age, spending her formative years in a suburb outside of Washington, D.C.  She fell in love with acting as a teenager and furthered her love of the theatre when she went on to pursue a degree at the prestigious Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.

JEAN SMART (Rita Blackburn) is a three-time Emmy Award winner: two for her role on “Frasier,” and a third for her role on “Samantha Who?”  She has garnered additional Emmy nominations for her performances on “The District,” “24” and “Harry’s Law,” and most recently received her eighth Emmy nomination and won a Critics’ Choice Television Award for her performance on the hit FX series “Fargo.”

Smart has also been honored for her work on the big screen, receiving an Independent Spirit Award nomination for her critically acclaimed performance in the feature “Guinevere.”  She more recently starred in the indie film “Miss Meadows,” opposite Katie Holmes.  Smart has also been seen in such films as David Frankel’s “Hope Springs,” opposite Meryl Streep; “Youth in Revolt,” alongside Michael Cera; Curtis Hanson’s “Lucky You,” opposite Drew Barrymore; David O. Russell’s “I Heart Huckabees,” with Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin; “Garden State,” directed by and starring Zach Braff; Andy Tennant’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” opposite Reese Witherspoon; Jon Turteltaub’s “The Kid,” opposite Bruce Willis; “The Odd Couple II,” with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau; and “Mistress,” opposite Robert De Niro.

On the stage, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role in the Broadway production of “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” opposite Nathan Lane, and earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for “Last Summer at Bluefish Cove.”  In 2016, she also received a Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word Album for her work on “Patience and Sarah.”

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

GAVIN O’CONNOR (Director / Executive Producer) is a native New Yorker who began writing while studying at the University of Pennsylvania.  After graduation, he returned to New York, where he began his career writing short films and plays.  He made his screenwriting debut with the award-winning short film “The Bet,” which also marked Ted Demme’s film directorial debut.  O’Connor then wrote and directed the short film “American Standoff.”

O’Connor first garnered attention when he directed the independent feature “Tumbleweeds,” starring Janet McTeer and Kimberly Brown.  He also co-wrote the screenplay with Angela Shelton, based on Shelton’s childhood diaries.  The mother-daughter road drama brought O’Connor the Filmmaker’s Award at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, and went on to earn critical acclaim.  In addition, McTeer earned several Best Actress honors for her performance, including Oscar and Independent Spirit Award nominations and a Golden Globe Award, while Brown won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress.

O’Connor’s next directing effort was the widely acclaimed 2004 hit “Miracle.”  The film, starring Kurt Russell, told the inspiring story of the U.S. Hockey Team’s Gold Medal triumph at the 1980 Winter Olympics, including a stunning victory over the seemingly invincible Russian team.  Following the success of “Miracle,” he co-wrote and directed the 2008 drama “Pride and Glory,” starring Edward Norton, Colin Farrell and Jon Voight.  The film follows a multi-generational police family whose moral code is tested when one son investigates an incendiary case of corruption and murder that involves his brother and brother-in-law, forcing the family to choose between their loyalties to one another and their loyalties to the department.

In 2010, O’Connor co-wrote, produced and directed the acclaimed film “Warrior,” starring Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy and Nick Nolte.  The story of two estranged brothers whose pasts collide in an elite Mixed Martial Arts tournament, “Warrior” received great critical praise for O’Connor and its cast.  Nolte’s performance earned him Academy Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and Critics’ Choice Award nominations, as well as the 2011 San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor, among other honors.

Turning his attention to the small screen, O’Connor directed the pilot of the award-winning television series “The Americans,” which stars Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, and Noah Emmerich.  He also served as an executive producer on the show’s first season.

O’Connor is currently set to helm the pilot of the new Netflix original series “Seven Seconds,” which he will executive produce alongside series creator Veena Sud.  Following that, he is slated to direct “Atlantic Wall,” a dramatic World War II action film.  He has also reteamed with Affleck and Warner Bros. in developing a feature film adaptation of Ken Bensinger’s soon-to-be-released book Houses of Deceit, which details the story of the FIFA sports corruption scandal.

MARK WILLIAMS (Producer) is a feature film director, producer and partner at Zero Gravity Management, a top-tier literary and talent management/production company he founded in 2001.

Williams began his producing career with the Sundance favorite “The Cooler,” starring William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin and Maria Bello.  He has since produced over a dozen movies, including “Flawless,” “Chaos,” “The Canyon,” and “Arena.”

In 2016, he co-created, with Bill Dubuque, the Netflix original series “Ozark,” which he is executive producing.

A Denver native, Williams earned his undergraduate degree at Vanderbilt University and a Masters in Film at the University of Miami.  He originally relocated to Los Angeles to work full-time as a screenwriter.

Most recently, Williams produced his directorial debut, “The Headhunter’s Calling,” starring Gerard Butler, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Gretchen Mol and Alison Brie.  The movie just premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.

LYNETTE HOWELL TAYLOR (Producer) is a UK-born independent producer who has produced feature films, documentaries, television, digital content and theatre for the past 15 years.  Taylor also co-founded the independent production company Electric City Entertainment, alongside Jamie Patricof.

Taylor recently produced “Captain Fantastic,” written and directed by Matt Ross and starring Academy Award nominee Viggo Mortensen, which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was released in July.  She is currently producing the HBO miniseries “American Lion,” based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of President Andrew Jackson and starring Sean Penn.

In 2014, Taylor produced Tim Burton’s true-life drama “Big Eyes,” starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz, which was released to much acclaim in the holiday season.  Both stars were nominated for Golden Globes and Adams won for Best Actress.  That same year, Taylor produced Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s “Mississippi Grind,” starring Ryan Reynolds, Ben Mendelsohn and Sienna Miller.  Previously, she produced Fleck and Boden’s “Half Nelson,” starring Ryan Gosling in a performance that garnered him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

Taylor also produced Derek Cianfrance’s “The Place Beyond the Pines,” starring Gosling, Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes.  This marked her second collaboration with Cianfrance, following “Blue Valentine,” which starred Gosling and Michelle Williams in performances that garnered Golden Globe nominations for both actors and an Oscar nomination for Williams.

Taylor’s other films include “Alex of Venice,” “Terri,” “On the Ice,” “Stephanie Daley,” “28 Hotel Rooms,” “Kristy,” “The Passage,” “Phoebe in Wonderland,” “The Greatest,” “An Invisible Sign,” “Shark Night 3D,” “Levitated Mass” “The Space Between,” and multiple episodes of ESPN’s award-winning “30 for 30” docu-series.

BILL DUBUQUE (Screenplay) turned to screenwriting after working 12 years as a corporate headhunter, and poured his recruiting experiences into one of his first screenplays, “The Headhunter’s Calling.”  The film, which Dubuque wrote and executive produced, just premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.

In 2014, Dubuque gained critical attention with his first produced screenplay, the family drama “The Judge.”  Directed by David Dobkin, the film starred Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall, who earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.  Dubuque subsequently signed a two-picture deal with Team Downey, the Warner Bros.-based production company of Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey.

In addition, he recently wrote “The Real McCoy,” which has Chris Pratt attached to star as the famous prohibition-era bootlegger, William McCoy.  Dubuque also has a number of projects in development with various studios.

Dubuque is the co-creator and executive producer of the upcoming Netflix series “Ozark,” starring Jason Bateman, which is currently in production.

JAMIE PATRICOF (Executive Producer) is a co-founder of Electric City Entertainment, a production company based in Los Angeles.  He most recently produced “The Zookeeper’s Wife,” an adaptation of the Diane Ackerman novel, directed by Niki Caro and starring Jessica Chastain, slated for release in 2017. In addition, he was a producer on the film “Captain Fantastic,” from writer/director Matt Ross, which stars Viggo Mortensen, and was just released this summer.  The film won several film festival awards, including the Un Certain Regard Prize for Best Directing for Ross at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

Patricof was previously a producer on the film “Mississippi Grind,” starring Ryan Reynolds, Ben Mendelsohn, and Sienna Miller, and marking his third collaboration with filmmakers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden.  It premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and was released in September of that year.  Patricof’s first feature with Fleck and Boden, 2006’s “Half Nelson,” garnered significant awards attention, highlighted by Independent Spirit and Gotham Award victories as well as an Academy Award nomination for Gosling.  Patricof reunited with the directors in 2008 on “Sugar.”

In prior years, Patricof teamed up with The Weinstein Company to executive produce Tim Burton’s biographical drama “Big Eyes,” starring Amy Adams, who won a Golden Globe for her performance, and Christoph Waltz, who was Golden Globe-nominated.  Patricof collaborated with writer/director Derek Cianfrance to produce the 2010 film “Blue Valentine” and 2012’s “The Place Beyond the Pines.”  “Blue Valentine” starred Gosling and Michelle Williams who both earned multiple Golden Globe nominations, in addition to a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Williams.  “The Place Beyond the Pines” starred Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Rose Byrne and Ray Liotta.  Patricof also produced the indie feature “Little Birds,” from writer/director Elgin James.

Patricof’s documentary projects include “Levitated Mass,” from filmmaker Doug Pray, and “Confessions of a Superhero,” directed by Matthew Ogens.  In addition, he produced “The Offseason” in 2014, an HBO documentary about NBA MVP Kevin Durant, as well as three documentaries for ESPN’s acclaimed “30 for 30” series: “Straight Outta LA,” directed by Ice Cube; “The Day the Series Stopped,” directed by Fleck; and “Sole Man,” directed by Jon Weinbach & Dan Marks.

MARTY P. EWING (Executive Producer) most recently served as an executive producer on the comedy “Fist Fight,” starring Ice Cube and Charlie Day, which will be in theatres next year.  He is currently executive producing the horror film “It,” based on Stephen King’s bestseller and starring Bill Skarsgård.

Ewing’s other recent executive producer credits include the comedies “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2,” starring Kevin James; “Here Comes the Boom,” written, produced by and starring James; and the outrageous comedy “Project X,” produced by Todd Phillips.

His previous executive producing credits include “Observe and Report,” starring Seth Rogen; “Yes Man,” starring Jim Carrey; “Blades of Glory,” pairing Will Ferrell and Jon Heder; “She’s the Man,” starring Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum; “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio,” starring Julianne Moore; “Man of the House,” starring Tommy Lee Jones; Jay Russell’s “Ladder 49,” starring Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta; “My Dog Skip,” starring Frankie Muniz, Diane Lane, Luke Wilson and Kevin Bacon; and “Holes,” from director Andrew Davis.  In addition, he served as a line producer on “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.”

Ewing has also enjoyed a long and successful career as a unit production manager, with credits including Tim Burton’s “Big Eyes,” “Stealing Harvard,” Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous,” “The Haunting,” “The X Files,” “Face/Off” and “Jumanji.”  He earlier served as an assistant director on a wide range of films, including “The Flintstones,” “Death Becomes Her,” “Terms of Endearment” and “Flashdance,” to name only a few.

SEAMUS McGARVEY (Director of Photography) has earned two Academy Award nominations for Best Cinematography, the first on Joe Wright’s 2007 drama “Atonement,” and another for Wright’s 2012 adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic “Anna Karenina.”  His work on those two films also brought McGarvey several more honors.  He won Evening Standard British Film Awards and Irish Film & Television (IFTA) Awards and earned BAFTA Award and American Society of Cinematographer Award nominations for both films; won a British Society of Cinematographers (BSC) Award for “Anna Karenina”; and earned a BSC Award nomination for “Atonement.”

McGarvey also won an Evening Standard British Film Award for his work on Stephen Daldry’s “The Hours”; IFTA Awards for “We Need to Talk About Kevin” and “Sahara”; and an IFTA Award nomination for Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center.”  In 2004, he was awarded the Royal Photographic Society’s prestigious Lumière medal for contributions to the art of cinematography.

Hailing from Northern Ireland, McGarvey attended film school at the University of Westminster in London.  Upon graduating, he began shooting short films and documentaries, including “Skin,” which was nominated for a Royal Television Society Cinematography Award, and “Atlantic,” directed by Sam Taylor-Wood (now Taylor-Johnson).  The latter project, an experimental, three-screen projected film created in 1997, earned Taylor-Wood a nomination for the 1998 Turner Prize and began an ongoing association between McGarvey and the director.

He has served as the director of photography on more than 40 other feature films, including Taylor-Johnson’s “Fifty Shades of Grey” and “Nowhere Boy”; Joe Wright’s “Pan” and “The Soloist”; Gareth Edwards’ “Godzilla”; Joss Whedon’s record-breaking super hero blockbuster “Marvel’s The Avengers”; Gary Winick’s “Charlotte’s Web”; John Hamburg’s “Along Came Polly”; Mike Nichols’ HBO movie “Wit”; Michael Apted’s “Enigma”; Stephen Frears’ “High Fidelity”; Tim Roth’s directorial debut, “The War Zone”; Alan Rickman’s directorial debut, “The Winter Guest”; and Michael Winterbottom’s “Butterfly Kiss,” which marked McGarvey’s first feature film credit.  He was also the cinematographer on the pilot for the BBC/HBO TV series “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency,” directed by Anthony Minghella.

McGarvey’s documentary work includes “Lost Angels: Skid Row Is My Home,” which was filmed in the same locales as “The Soloist; “Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction”; “Rolling Stones: Tip of the Tongue”; and “The Name of This Film Is Dogme95.”  He has also lensed numerous short films.  Apart from his work on features and television projects, McGarvey has photographed and directed more than 100 music videos for such artists as Coldplay, Paul McCartney, Dusty Springfield, The Rolling Stones, U2, and Robbie Williams.

KEITH CUNNINGHAM (Production Designer) most recently completed work on Jason Hall’s upcoming film “Thank You for Your Service,” about PTSD and its effects on American servicemen, starring Haley Bennett and Miles Teller.

He previously designed the film about the life, love and genius of Brian Wilson, “Love & Mercy,” starring Paul Dano, John Cusack, Elizabeth Banks and Paul Giamatti; the drama “The Gambler,” directed by Rupert Wyatt and starring Mark Wahlberg; Nicole Holofcener’s comedy “Enough Said,” starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini; “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone,” starring Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi and Jim Carrey; and Jonathan Kasdan’s romantic comedy drama “The First Time,” which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

Cunningham’s television production design credits include the pilots for the hit series “Suburgatory”; “Cinnamon Girl,” co-created by Renée Zellweger and directed by Gavin O’Connor; and “Browsers.”

As an art director, Cunningham collaborated with some of today’s most respected filmmakers and production designers.  Five of the hit films on which he worked were nominated for Excellence in Production Design Awards from the Art Directors Guild: Paul Feig’s “Bridesmaids”; David Fincher’s “The Social Network”; Ron Howard’s “Angels & Demons”; J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek”; and Steven Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s Eleven.”  He also served as an art director on such films as David Fincher’s “Zodiac,” Chris Columbus’s “Rent,” Stephen Sommers’ “Van Helsing,” M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs,” and the Soderbergh-directed films “Solaris” and “Traffic.”  Cunningham also worked with Soderbergh as an assistant art director on the seminal hits “Erin Brockovich” and “Out of Sight.”

Born and raised in Chicago, Cunningham studied fine arts and architecture at the University of Illinois.  Moving to California, he started out designing scenery for exhibitions and theme parks.  He later pursued film studies at the American Film Institute (AFI) under the mentorship of legendary production designer Robert Boyle.

Cunningham’s commercial credits include such campaigns as Subaru, US Bank, Ameritrade, Travelocity, Capital One and the NBA.

RICHARD PEARSON (Editor) earned an Academy Award nomination and won a BAFTA Award for Best Editing (shared with Clare Douglas and Christopher Rouse) for writer/director Paul Greengrass’s gripping historical drama “United 93.”  For his work on that film, he also received an Eddie Award nomination from the American Cinema Editors.

Pearson is currently working on the action adventure “Kong: Skull Island,” starring Brie Larson, Tom Hiddleston and Samuel L. Jackson and slated for release in March 2017.  His other recent credits include “Dracula Untold,” “Maleficent” and “Safe House.”

He previously served as editor on such diverse films as Jon Favreau’s blockbuster “Iron Man 2”; the James Bond hit “Quantum of Solace,” for director Marc Forster; the action comedy “Get Smart”; the Will Ferrell comedy “Blades of Glory”; Chris Columbus’s film adaptation of the groundbreaking Broadway musical “Rent”; Greengrass’s action hit “The Bourne Supremacy”; Peter Berg’s “The Rundown”; Barry Sonnenfeld’s “Men in Black II”; the Frank Oz-directed films “The Score” and “Bowfinger,” among others.

Pearson earned both an Emmy Award nomination and an Eddie Award nomination for his work on the 1998 HBO miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon.”  He also created the title design for the award-winning project.

NANCY STEINER (Costume Designer) is an award-winning and sought-after costume designer who has worked on a wide range of acclaimed film and television projects, as well as notable music videos and commercials.

Currently, Steiner is working on the independent drama “The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” being directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell.  For television, she just finished designing the costumes for David Lynch’s reboot of the cult phenomenon series “Twin Peaks,” airing next year.

Steiner has been honored by her peers with Costume Designers Guild (CDG) Award nominations, in the category of Excellence in Contemporary Feature Films, for her designs in “Little Miss Sunshine,” directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and Anand Tucker’s “Shopgirl.”

She has collaborated multiple times with several directors, including Sofia Coppola, on “The Virgin Suicides” and “Lost in Translation”; Miguel Arteta, on “The Good Girl,” “Youth in Revolt” and “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”; and Dayton and Faris, with whom she reunited on “Ruby Sparks.”  Steiner also created the costumes for Mike White’s “Year of the Dog,” and for the series “Enlightened,” created by White and Laura Dern, with episodes directed by White and Arteta, as well as Nicole Holofcener, Jonathan Demme and Todd Haynes, among others.

Her other film credits include Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones,” Judd Apatow’s “Funny People,” Cameron Crowe’s “Elizabethtown,” Wim Wenders’ “The Million Dollar Hotel,” and Haynes’ “Safe,” which marked Steiner’s first film as a costume designer.

Steiner won two CDG Awards for Excellence in Commercial Costume Design, for “Bacardi & Cola” and “Call of Duty.”  She has also worked on commercials for such companies as Nike, Volvo, Audi, Pepsi, Lacoste, T-Mobile, Verizon, Coca-Cola, Samsung, Microsoft, Miller, Nissan, Chevy, Budweiser, Lexus, BMW, Volkswagon, Puma, Cadillac, American Express, HSBC, Citibank, and Apple, to name only a portion.

Beginning her career in the music video arena, Steiner designed costumes for some of the most popular and influential artists in the industry.  Just a few of the names include Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, R.E.M., Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bjork, Sheryl Crow, Stone Temple Pilots, Air, No Doubt, David Bowie, and the Rolling Stones.

MARK ISHAM (Composer) is an Oscar-nominated composer who has composed the scores for more than 120 films and has collaborated with such filmmakers and artists as Robert Redford, Tom Cruise, Brian De Palma, Chick Corea, Jodie Foster, Robert Altman, Sting, Will.i.am, Sidney Lumet and Mick Jagger, to name only a few.

Isham previously worked with Gavin O’Connor on the sports dramas “Warrior” and “Miracle,” as well as the police family drama “Pride and Glory.”  His collaboration with Redford yielded the scores for “A River Runs Through It,” for which he received Oscar and Grammy Award nominations; “Quiz Show”; “Lions for Lambs”; and “The Conspirator.”  He has also composed the music for the Alan Rudolph-directed films “Trouble in Mind,” “Made in Heaven,” “The Moderns,” “Love at Large,” “Mortal Thoughts,” “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle,” “Afterglow,” “Breakfast of Champions” and “Trixie.”

Isham was already a successful musician when he began composing for film with the true-life drama “Never Cry Wolf.”  His subsequent credits include such diverse features as Gillian Armstrong’s “Mrs. Soffel”; Barbet Schroeder’s “Reversal of Fortune”; the Jodie Foster-directed films “Little Man Tate” and “Home for the Holidays” ; Ralph Bakshi’s “Cool World”; Gary Sinise’s “Of Mice and Men”; “Timecop”; Mike Figgis’s “The Browning Version”; Michael Apted’s “Nell,” for which he earned a Golden Globe nomination; David Frankel’s “Miami Rhapsody”; Irwin Winkler’s “The Net”; Carroll Ballard’s “Fly Away Home”; Gary Fleder’s “Kiss the Girls” and “Don’t Say a Word”; Stephen Norrington’s “Blade”; Joe Johnston’s “October Sky”; Irwin Winkler’s “Life as a House”; and Frank Darabont’s “The Majestic.”

In addition, Isham scored the Oscar-winning Best Picture “Crash.”  His later film work includes Curtis Hanson’s “In Her Shoes,” Frank Marshall’s “Eight Below,” Ericson Core’s “Invincible,” Brian de Palma’s “The Black Dahlia,” Richard LaGravenese’s “Freedom Writers,” Terry George’s “Reservation Road,” Darabont’s “The Mist,” Fleder’s “The Express,” Richard Loncraine’s “My One and Only,” Simon West’s “The Mechanic,” Charles Martin Smith’s “Dolphin Tale,” Brian Helgeland’s “42,” Fleder’s “Homefront,” Scott Hicks’ “Fallen,” and Bruce Beresford’s “Mr. Church.”

For the small screen, he scored the celebrated miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon.”  Currently Isham writes the music for two hit ABC series, “Once Upon a Time,” in its sixth season, and the critically acclaimed “American Crime.”

A native New Yorker, Isham showed an early gift for the trumpet, and went on to record with Herbie Hancock and Bobby McFerrin.  He has since released nine solo albums, and has performed with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, and Kenny Loggins.  In 2006, he was honored with ASCAP’s Henry Mancini Lifetime Achievement Award.