Confidence : About The Filmmakers


James Foley (Director)
Themes have always been vital to James Foley's filmmaking. The complexities of his films have drawn the best and brightest actors-ranging from Gene Hackman and Al Pacino to Sean Penn and Kevin Spacey.

His debut film, the teen thriller "Reckless" starring Aidan Quinn and Daryl Hannah, established his unique ability to combine suspense with complicated, unsentimental character portraits. He next directed the critically admired "At Close Range," starring Sean Penn, Christopher Walken, Christopher Penn and Mary Stuart Masterson in a story that probed to the dark heart of family ties by exploring the relationship between a criminal father and his coming-of-age sons.

Switching gears again, Foley directed Madonna in her first major leading role in the screwball comedy "Who's That Girl?," before delving into the noir world of Jim Thompson in the acclaimed "After Dark, My Sweet," starring Jason Patric, Rachel Ward and Bruce Dern. Foley also directed "Glengarry Glen Ross," featuring a stellar cast including Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino and Kevin Spacey, the no-holds-barred screen version brought Mamet's scorchingly funny tale of moral chaos to cinematic life.

Foley's other films include "Two Bits," "Fear," "The Chamber," and "The Corrupter. " Twice in his career, Foley has stepped briefly away from cinema for forays into innovative television, directing David Lynch's "Twin Peaks" and Robert Altman's "Gun" series on ABC.

DOUG JUNG (Screenwriter)
Doug Jung graduated from New York University Film School. After graduation, Jung started writing for television dramas. "Confidence" is his first feature film script. Jung is currently working on screenplays for Universal and Warner Brothers Pictures.

JUAN RUIZ-ANCHIA (Director of Photography)
Juan Ruiz-Anchia was born in Bilbao, Spain in 1949. He graduated in 1972 from the Escuela Oficial de Cinematografia in Madrid. He went on to attend the American Film Institute and graduated in 1979. His AFI film, "Miss Lonelyhearts," won a prize at Cannes and was shown on PBS. Some of his other films include "Off the Map" and "The House on Turk Street. "

MARC BUTAN (Producer)
Marc Butan, Executive Vice President of Lions Gate Films Productions, began his career working in investment banking, where he spent two years at Kidder, Peabody & Co. and three more years at Prudential Securities. In 1998, Butan left Prudential to run Ignite Entertainment, an independent film production company founded by Michael Burns. During Butan's tenure as President of Ignite Entertainment, the Company produced five films including Sundance Film Festival favorite and indie hit "But I'm A Cheerleader" starring Natasha Lyonne and Clea DuVall; TriStar's Pictures "The Suburbans" starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Will Ferrell, Amy Brennamen and Ben Stiller; and Miramax Films' "Get Over It" starring Kirsten Dunst, Shane West and Colin Hanks. In 2001, Lions Gate Entertainment absorbed Ignite and Butan was named Executive Vice President of Production for the mini-major. While at Lions Gate, Butan has produced "Confidence," directed by James Foley and stars Ed Burns, Rachel Weisz, Andy Garcia, and Dustin Hoffman. He is also producing "Godsend," starring Robert De Niro, Greg Kinnear, and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. Butan has supervised and served as an Executive Producer on Academy Award-winner Roger Avary's film "The Rules Of Attraction" based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis, which stars James Van Der Beek, Shannyn Sossamon and Jessica Biel.

MICHAEL PASEORNEK (Producer)
Michael Paseornek, President of Lions Gate Films Productions, started the U. S. operation of Lions Gate Films predecessor Cinepix Film Properties (CFP) in New York, in 1993. When Lions Gate Entertainment purchased the indie producer/distributor in 1998, he was named President of Lions Gate Films Productions. In that role, he has overseen all of the company's motion picture development and production initiatives for the past five years.

Paseornek has been instrumental recently in ramping up Lions Gate's feature film slate to 15 to 18 releases a year. He served as executive producer of many of these films, including: the critically-acclaimed Oscar contender "Monster's Ball," directed by Marc Forster and starring Halle Berry, Billy Bob Thornton, Heath Ledger, Sean Combs and Peter Boyle; the urban comedy "The Wash," directed by DJ Pooh and starring Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg; the thriller "Frailty," starring Matthew McConaughey and Bill Paxton and "The Cat's Meow," directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Kirsten Dunst. Other projects include "The Rules of Attraction," directed by Roger Avary and starring James Van Der Beek, Shannon Sossamon, Jessica Biel and Kip Pardue in the adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' best-selling book; and "Hypercube," directed by Andrej Sekula.

Under Paseornek's production leadership, several Lions Gate films have received commercial success, critical recognition and festival acclaim since 1998, including: "American Psycho," "Shadow of the Vampire" and "Buffalo 66. "

MICHAEL BURNS (Producer)
Michael Burns is Vice Chairman and a director of Lions Gate Entertainment, which creates, produces and distributes a broad range of motion picture, television, and other filmed entertainment content worldwide.

Burns spearheads Lions Gate's interaction with financial institutions and the investment community, while working closely with CEO Jon Feltheimer on the development and implementation of Lions Gate's long-term strategic plan. Additionally, Burns supervises the Company's expanding motion picture production operations, which generated the Academy Award-winning hit "Monster's Ball. "
On the entrepreneurial front, Burns has served as chairman of Ignite Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based entertainment production company, was co-founder of the Hollywood Stock Exchange (www. hsx. com) and currently serves as chairman of Novica. com. Novica, in association with National Geographic, has constructed a global infrastructure that enables thousands of world artisans to directly access the world market through online and wholesale channels.

In the motion picture arena, Burns has produced or executive produced numerous theatrical releases including Sony's "Dancer Texas, Pop 81," and "The Suburbans," Goldwyn's "Desert Blue," Palm's "Six-String Samurai," Miramax's "Get Over It," and Lions Gate's "But I'm A Cheerleader" and "Monster's Ball. "

Previously, Burns served for nine years as managing director and head of Prudential Securities Incorporated Los Angeles Investment Banking office. While at Prudential, Burns specialized in raising equity in the media and entertainment space. Prior to joining Prudential Securities, Burns spent nine years at Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc. (now Salomon Smith Barney) in New York City and Los Angeles.

Burns graduated with a B. S. from Arizona State University and received his M. B. A. from The John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California at Los Angeles. Burns also received the Distinguished Leadership Award from the American Ireland Fund.

MICHAEL OHOVEN (Producer)
German businessman Michael Ohoven, formed Infinity International Entertainment Inc. in 2000 and is the company's CEO. He was raised and educated in Germany and learned financing and institutional investment at the prestigious Commerzbank. He joined the International Corporate Affairs division of RTL Television, Europe's largest private broadcaster, where he was mentored by the station's renowned founder, the television mogul Professor Helmut Thoma. After two and a half years, Mr. Ohoven left the company to create Infinity International Entertainment. Under his leadership, the company quickly established strong working relationships with major studios, talent representatives, and financial institutions, allowing it to complete production on five films, each featuring bankable star names, in its first two years of operations.

ERIC KOPELOFF (Executive Producer/ Unit Production Manager)
Eric Kopeloff is currently producing "My American Dream" with Marc Forster for Lions Gate Films. Kopeloff co-produced Lions Gate Films "Monster's Ball," directed by Forster, starring Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, Heath Ledger and Peter Boyle. Kopeloff served as the production executive/associate producer on the film "Get Well Soon" for Lions Gate Films starring Courtney Cox and Vincent Gallo. Other recent credits include associate produced/ line produced "Perfume" starring Jeff Goldblum, Rita Wilson, Mariel Hemingway, Paul Sorvino, Peter Gallagher and Michelle Williams. Kopeloff co-produced the independent features "Ropewalk" starring Peter Facinelli, Fred Ward, Frank Vincent, Lena Headey and Max Perlich; associate produced "Home Sweet Hoboken" starring Ben Gazzara, Aida Turturro, and Issach deBankoe; produced an Eric Bogosian monologue, "The Wedding Toast," directed by Bob Balaban, airing on Showtime.

BILL ARNOLD (Production Designer)
William Arnold made his debut as a production designer on the feature film "Mo' Money" in 1992. He first started as an art director in 1988 on the feature film "Music Box," and continued as an art director on "Losing Isaiah," "The Bridges of Madison County," and "Snow Falling on Cedars. " His art direction credits also include "LA Confidential" and "Pleasantville" with both pictures garnering Academy Award nominations in the category of Best Art Direction. He was Co-Production Designer for the film "Magnolia," and Production Designer for the films "Slackers," "Punch-Drunk Love," and "Confidence. "

SHEILA JAFFE (Casting Director)
Sheila Jaffe is co-executive of Walken & Jaffe Casting. She has cast several films and television series, winning an Emmy in 1999 and an Artios Award in 2000 for The Sopranos. Among the recent films she has cast include: "The Italian Job," starring Mark Wahlberg, Ed Norton, Donald Sutherland, Charlize Theron, "Just Married," directed by Shawn Levy and starring Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy, "The Mothman Prophecies," starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney and "The Banger Sisters," starring Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon.
SHEILA JAFFE (Casting Director)
Sheila Jaffe is co-executive of Walken & Jaffe Casting. She has cast several films and television series, winning an Emmy in 1999 and an Artios Award in 2000 for The Sopranos. Among the recent films she has cast include: "The Italian Job," starring Mark Wahlberg, Ed Norton, Donald Sutherland, Charlize Theron, "Just Married," directed by Shawn Levy and starring Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy, "The Mothman Prophecies," starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney and "The Banger Sisters," starring Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon.

MICHELE MICHEL (Costume Designer)
Michele Michel design credits include: Antoine Fuqua's "Training Day," Ken Loach's "Bread and Roses" (official entry in the 2000 Cannes Film Festival), Rowdy Herrington I Witness," and "La Donna del Moro," the short film-winner at the 1993 Venice Film Festival.

Born in Mexico City, Michel was raised in Taxco with her family of silversmiths, "Los Castillo". Her grandmother, Mexican designer Tachi Castillo, inspired Michel to pursue a career in fashion. In 1987, she graduated from the Istituto Europeo de Design in Rome, Italy. Michel then worked as a junior fashion designer for several companies in Rome, Mexico City and Los Angeles.

In 1989, Michel started her career in film costume design at Cinecitta Studios in Rome. Her first position was as a set-costumer on Francis Coppola's "The Godfather: Part III. "

Michel's additional credits include: assistant costume designer on Michael Mann's "The Insider," and Andrew Niccol film "Simone", starring Al Pacino and Catherine Keener, to be released in 2002; costume illustrator for "Austin Powers: Goldmember," "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me," "Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery," "The X-Men," "Mystery Alaska," "Bedazzled," "Life," and "Jackie Brown. " She was the costume researcher for Bernardo Bertolucci's "Little Buddha. "

Author : Lions Gate Films