Michael Collins - The Filmmakers

Neil Jordan - Director
Stephen Woolley - Producer
Redmond Morris - Co-producer
Chris Menges - Director of Photography
J. Patrick Duffner - Editor
Tony Lawson - Editor
Anthony Pratt - Production Designer
Sandy Powell - Costume Designer
Elliot Goldenthal - Composer

NEIL JORDAN recently finished directing "Butcher Boy," based on the award-winning novel by Patrick McCabe. Prior to "Michael Collins," he most recently directed "Interview With The Vampire," starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt and based on Anne Rice's best-selling supernatural thriller. In 1992 he directed one of the year's most notable films, "The Crying Game," which was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Stephen Rea), Best Supporting Actor (Jaye Davidson) and Best Editing, and which won Jordan the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
In addition, it was voted Best Foreign Film by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and Best Screenplay by the New York Film Critics Circle and the Writers Guild of America. It also received the Best Foreign Film Independent Spirit Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Drama and for the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Film. In the United Kingdom, the film was nominated for five BAFTA awards: Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Editing. Jordan was selected Best Director by the Guild of Regional Film Writers and nominated for Best Screenplay by the Writers Guild of Great Britain. It also received Norway's award for Best Foreign Film.
Born in Sligo, in northwest Ireland, Jordan began his career as a novelist. In 1974, he founded the Irish Writers Cooperative. In 1979, his collection of stories, Night in Tunisia, won the Guardian fiction prize.
Jordan is also a published author whose works include The Past, Night in Tunisia, The Dream of the Beast and Sunrise With Sea Monster, which was published in 1995.
Jordan began his film career in 1981 as a creative consultant on John Boorman's "Excalibur." In 1982, Jordan wrote and directed his first film,"Angel" (a.k.a. "Danny Boy"), which won him the London Evening Standard's Most Promising Newcomer Award.
His next film, "The Company of Wolves," was honored with Best Film and Best Director Awards by the London Critics' Circle and a Golden Scroll for Outstanding Achievement from the Academy of Science Fiction and Horror Films.
Jordan's third feature, "Mona Lisa," starred Bob Hoskins, Michael Caine and Cathy Tyson, and was selected for competition at the Cannes Film Festival. "Mona Lisa" was honored with a Golden Globe Award, a Los Angeles Film Critics' Award and a Best Screenplay nomination from the Writers Guild of America; in addition, it earned Bob Hoskins an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. It was also nominated in the categories of Best Film, Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay at the 1986 BAFTA Awards.
In 1987, Jordan directed Peter O'Toole, Daryl Hannah and Steve Guttenberg in the comedy "High Spirits." It was followed by Jordan's first entirely American production , "We're No Angels," starring Robert De Niro and Sean Penn, and "The Miracle," starring Beverly D'Angelo.

Producer STEPHEN WOOLLEY continues a longterm partnership with Neil Jordan that began with "The Company Of Wolves" in 1983. His most recent collaborations with Jordan include the blockbuster "Interview With The Vampire," which has so far grossed over $220 million worldwide, and the Oscarwinning "The Crying Game," which grossed over $65 million at the US box office alone. Woolley also produced Jordan's "Mona Lisa," which won numerous international awards. The pair worked together again on "High Spirits" and on "The Miracle."
Woolley's career began in the summer of 1976 at the "Screen on the Green" cinema in London, where he tore tickets, sold icecream, projected films and helped manage the cinema. After working with the "Other Cinema," he programmed and subsequently owned his own cinema, "The Scala," which won acclaim for its diverse, original and alternative programming. During this period, he also wrote film criticism, helped edit a film journal and produced a TV series for Channel 4 entitled "The Worst Of Hollywood."
In 1982 Woolley launched Palace Video in partnership with Nik Powell, releasing titles such as "Eraserhead" and "Mephisto." Establishing a theatrical arm one year later, Palace acquired, marketed and distributed some 250 independent and European movies, from "Diva" to "When Harry Met Sally."
During this period Woolley's producing career flourished, with the controversial "Absolute Beginners," starring David Bowie, Ray Davies, Patsy Kensit and James Fox, and the dance comedy "Shag," for which Bridget Fonda was nominated for a Golden Globe . "Scandal," starring Joanne WhalleyKilmer, John Hurt and Bridget Fonda, attracted phenomenal critical acclaim and box office success on both sides of the Atlantic.
More recent productions include "The Big Man," starring Liam Neeson and Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, "A Rage In Harlem," with Robin Givens, Forest Whitaker, Danny Glover and Gregory Hines, and "The Pope Must Die," starring Robbie Coltrane. Woolley also acted as Executive Producer on director Richard Stanley's first and second features "Hardware" and "Dust Devil," as well as "Waterland," starring Jeremy Irons, and Terence Davies' "The Neon Bible."
After receiving the 1992 Producer of the Year Award for "The Crying Game" from the Producer's Guild of America, Woolley's first film with his company Scala Productions, "Backbeat," the story of the fifth Beatle, was produced in 1993. He has subsequently executive produced "The Hollow Reed" and "Fever Pitch."
Forthcoming productions include Scala/Egg Pictures' "Jonathan Wild," which Woolley will produce with Jodie Foster, and "B. Monkey," to be directed by Michael Radford, starring Asia Argento and Jared Harris.

Co-producer REDMOND MORRIS first worked with Neil Jordan as producer (with Stephen Woolley) on "The Miracle." Since then he has acted as assistant director on "The Crying Game," and as co-producer on "Interview With The Vampire."
Morris also produced (with Simon Bosanquet) "Splitting Heirs," starring Eric Idle, Rick Moranis and Barbara Hershey. As associate producer, his credits include "Map Of The Human Heart" for Working Title Films, "The Big Man" and "Scandal," both produced by Stephen Woolley for Palace Productions, "December Bride," for Little Bird Productions, "Buster" for NFH Films and "Comrades," for Skreba Productions.
Prior to producing, Morris worked for ten years as a production manager on films including "Gorky Park," "Secret Places" and "The Ploughman's Lunch," and as location manager on "Reds," "Agatha" and "Yanks."

Director of photography CHRIS MENGES' only previous collaboration with Neil Jordan was on Jordan's debut feature film, "Angel." Since then, Menges has won two Oscars, in 1985 and 1987, for his cinematography on "The Killing Fields" and "The Mission." In addition, he has established an international reputation as a director in his own right.
His first feature film, the critically acclaimed "A World Apart," was awarded the Cannes Festival Grand Jury Prize and the New York Film Critics Award for Best Director , and earned Best Actress Awards for each of its three leading ladies.
In 1990 Menges directed the feature film "Crisscross" for PathŽ Entertainment, and in 1995 he completed "Second Best," starring William Hurt, for New Regency Films and Sarah Radclyffe Productions.

Production Designer ANTHONY PRATT's recent credits include David Seltzer's "Shining Through" for 20th Century Fox, Peter Yates' "Year Of The Comet" for Castle Rock/ Columbia Pictures and John Boorman's "Beyond Rangoon," also for Castle Rock. Pratt's association with Boorman goes back to 1968, when he acted as art director on "Hell In The Pacific." Since then, he has come to Ireland twice to design films for Boorman, on "Zardoz" and "Excalibur." Pratt's production design for Boorman's "Hope & Glory" gained him an Academy Award nomination, a BAFTA nomination and the London Standard Award for Outstanding Technical Achievement.
A graduate of the Regent Street School of Art, Pratt's many credits as production designer include "Santa Claus - The Movie," "Naked Tango" and "Not Without My Daughter ."

Editor J. PATRICK DUFFNER is also reunited with Jordan for the first time since "Angel." Dublin-based Duffner is one of Ireland's foremost editors, with 20 years of experience, and credits including the Oscar-winning "My Left Foot," directed by Jim Sheridan and starring Daniel DayLewis, Brenda Fricker and Ray McAnally. He also acted as editor on Sheridan's second film "The Field," starring Richard Harris, Tom Berenger, John Hurt and Brenda Fricker.
Other credits include three films -- "Exposure," "A Child's Voice" and "Attracta" -- with Irish director Kieran Hickey; Thaddeus O'Sullivan's "The Woman Who Married Clark Gable"; and Peter Ormrod's "Eat The Peach." He has recently completed post production on "The Disappearance Of Finbar," directed by Sue Clayton.

Editor TONY LAWSON, A.C.E. collaborates with Neil Jordan for the first time on "Michael Collins," though the list of filmmakers with whom he has previously worked includes such distinguished names as Stanley Kubrick, Roger Donaldson, Sam Peckinpah and Nicholas Roeg. Lawson has cut eight films for Roeg, including "Two Deaths," "Cold Heaven," "The Witches," "Track 29," "Castaway," "Insignificance," "Eureka" and "Bad Timing." For Peckinpah he co-edited "Straw Dogs" and "Cross of Iron," and for Kubrick he served as consultant editor on "Barry Lyndon
Lawson's other credits include Oliver Parker's "Othello," Mark Peploe's "Victory," Brian Gilbert's "Tom and Viv," Chris Menges' "Crisscross," Dusan Makavejev's "Manifesto," Roger Donaldson's "Marie" and "The Bounty" and Matthew Robbins' "Dragonslayer."

Composer ELLIOT B. GOLDENTHAL has created works for orchestra, theater, opera and film. His score for "Interview With The Vampire" won him both a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score. He also created innovative scores for "Batman Forever," for which he received a Grammy nomination, and "Heat," which earned him a Best Score nomination from the Chicago Film Critics. Most recently Goldenthal scored "A Time to Kill." His other film scores include "Cobb," which starred Tommy Lee Jones; Gus Van Sant's "Drugstore Cowboy"; and "Fool's Fire," directed by Julie Taymore for American Playhouse.
Goldenthal's symphony, Fire Water Paper, a commemorative tribute created for the 20th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, was released in April, 1966, and recently received its East Coast debut in critically acclaimed performances in Boston, in New York's Carnegie Hall, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
He collaborated in 1988 with stage director Julie Taymor on Juan Darien -- A Carnivval Mass, for which they received Obie Awards. That same year, Goldenthal was commissioned to compose a work in celebration of Leonard Bernstein's 70th birthday. The piece, Shadow Play Scherzo, was performed by the Brooklyn Philarmonic Orchestra in New York's Town Hall. His other stage credits include the musical The Transposed Heads, The King Stag; and Liberty's Taken. Goldenthal recently collaborated again with Julie Taymor on The Green Bird, which opened in New York to critical acclaim and reopened at the LaJolla Playhouse to equally strong reviews.
Goldenthal's trumpet concerto for Wynton Marsalis will debut this fall, in addition to a new version of Juan Darien, opening at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York. He has also been commissioned by the American Ballet Theater to write a full-length ballet of Othello, to be choreographed by Lar Lubovitch for their 1997 season.
Goldenthal, a student of Aaron Copeland and John Corigliano, earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees in musical composition at the Manhattan School of Music. He has written extensively for full orchestra as well as chamber and vocal compositions. He has received the Arturo Toscanini Award, the New Music for Young Ensembles composition prize, the Stephen Sondheim Award in Music Theater and a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship.

Costume Designer SANDY POWELL is working with Neil Jordan for the fourth time on "Michael Collins," following her highly praised costumes for "The Miracle," "The Crying Game" and "Interview With The Vampire." Powell's other recent credits include the Scottish epic "Rob Roy," starring Liam Neeson and Jessica Lange, and "Being Human ," with Robin Williams. In 1994 she was nominated for an Academy Award for her work on Sally Potter's "Orlando," for which she received an Evening Standard Award. She was a regular collaborator with Derek Jarman, for whom she designed the costumes for "Caravaggio, The Last Of England," "Edward II" and "Wittgenstein." Other credits include "The Pope Must Die," "Venus Peter" and "Stormy Monday."

A Special Note From Director Neil Jordan
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