|
COVER STORY: John Hancock
Directs Suspense Thriller.
|
John
Hancock's early interest was music. As an adolescent, he was an
accomplished violinist, and concertmaster of the Chicago Youth
Orchestra. He became interested in the theatre while attending
Harvard University and directed a number of plays there. Because of
the promise he exhibited, he received a grant from Harvard to
study theatre in Europe. He spent the time observing Bertolt
Brecht's Berline Ensemble.
His directorial debut was the hit
Off-Broadway production of Brecht's A Man's a Man. This was
followed by Robert Lowell's Endicott and The Red Cross at the
American Place Theatre, and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's
Dream at the Theatre de Lys with sets by Jim Dine, for which
Hancock received the Obie Award. Cue Magazine noted, "This
brutal, vulgar, and erotic production of Shakespeare's sex
fantasy is the most original and arresting I've ever witnessed.
This is the best of all the dreams and an important pioneering
effort in re-interpreting the play."
His success on the New York stage led to his being appointed
Artistic Director of the famed San Francisco Actors Workshop and
later to directing assignments at the Pittsburgh Playhouse and
the New Repertory Theatre Company in New York. Hancock has
received widespread critical acclaim for his approach to the
work of many contemporary and classic playwrights.
He worked closely on several occasions
with Tennessee Williams, who says in his autobiography that of
all the directors he ever worked with Hancock, was "the
most gifted for cuts and transpositions."
In 1970, with a grant from the American
Film Institute, Hancock directed the short film, Sticky My
Fingers, Fleet My Feet, for which he received an Academy Award
Nomination.
Hancock's feature film credits include Bang The Drum Slowly
(Paramount), California Dreaming (AIP), Let's Scare Jessica to
Death (Paramount), Baby Blue Marine (Columbia), Weeds (DEG), and
the Christmas classic Prancer (Orion), starring Sam Elliott,
Cloris Leachman, Abe Vigoda, and Rebecca Harrell, which he shot
on his family's fruit farm in LaPorte County, Indiana, as was A
Piece of Eden.
He has also directed episodic
television, notably The Twilight Zone, Lady Blue, and
Hill
Street Blues.
John Hancock has always been interested in action movies. He was
particularly intrigued by the snowmobile chases in Suspended
Animation. "The film gave me the chance to scare people
again. It's been a while since I've done something like
that." |
Robert
Hiler Steps in as Producer for Film |
Producer Robert J. Hiler
joined Film Acres during the production of A Piece
of Eden and served as its Executive Producer. He
brings a business background, having served as Director
and Treasurer of three successful manufacturing
facilities as well as having served on the boards of six
other corporations.
Hiler attended the University
of Notre Dame and served 5-1/2 years in the United
States Army with 2-1/2 of those years in the Republic of
Viet Nam. Captain Hiler received numerous awards
including 3 Bronze Stars and 3 Army Commendation awards,
with "V" devices, as well as the Purple Heart.
He is currently associated with
numerous civic organizations and is active in both state
and national politics.
|
|
|
Executive Producer, Carey Westburg
Mr. Westberg has provided
capital and financial management resources to OCE., Inc.
as producer of the film Learning Curve. His experience
comes from his partnership in Q&W Management, Inc.;
from investment in real estate and the management of
Q&W's various holdings.
His enterprising skill, through acquisition of real
estate and family entertainment venues, has grown
Q&W into a multi-million dollar enterprise. He is
associated with and active in many community and charity
organizations.
He graduated from the University of Illinois, cum laude,
with a Bachelors of Science.
|
|
|
Dorothy
Tristan Adapts Novel.
Dorothy Tristan, John Hancock's wife
and professional partner, is a versatile artist. She's acted,
modeled, sung, painted, and is now pursuing her love of writing.
This film's screenplay is an adaptation of her novel, Suspended
Animation. She has written three of her husband's films: Steal
the Sky, Weeds, and A Piece of Eden.
Born in New York City, Tristan began
her acting career in theatre, playing Charlotte Corday in the
national touring production of Marat/Sade. She was Helena in A
Midsummer Night's Dream and Lady MacDuff in Macbeth at
Stratford, Connecticut. She played Blanche Dubois opposite Jon
Voight in A Streetcar Named Desire. She had leading or
supporting roles in six major motion pictures including Klute,
Man on a Swing and End of the Road with James Earl Jones and
Stacy Keach.
Reflecting on her career change, Dorothy Tristan explained,
"Writing is more fulfilling than acting. In acting, you're
always an applicant, always looking for a job. With writing, I
sit in my little room, my dungeon, and just do it. I don't have
to ask anybody. And they're not so different really. Creativity is a spring that isn't easily stopped. If you
block one way, it will go another. Is has to flow. I felt like
this was it. This is what I'm going to do. And so I changed
midstream, went from acting to writing. And never turned
back." |
|
Dean
Jacobson Co-Produces Project
Dean Jacobson received his
BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) degree from The School of
the Art Institute of Chicago with concentrations in
photography, printmaking, film, and video. His
earlier studies began at Indiana University,
Bloomington, Indiana and the Rhode Island School of
Design, Providence, Rhode Island.
From 1980-1986, in unison
with twelve to fifteen faculty members, he taught
various college level fine art photography
courses/workshops while maintaining the position of
Managing Director for the Photography Department of
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
He was former co-owner, producer and director of
Mothlight Pictures, Inc. a Chicago based commercial
film and video production company. His
fifteen-year partnership concentrated in regional and
national commercial spot campaigns, documentaries and
business films, earning many industry awards.
Mr. Jacobson first began
working with Mr. Hancock in 1998 on his feature film A
Piece of Eden. Dean worked in the capacity of
Associate Producer, Unit Production Manager, and 2nd
Unit Director. Mr. Hancock's current feature
film, Suspended Animation, continued Dean's
association in the capacity of Co-Producer and 2nd
Unit Director. |
|
Ken
Kitch Lends a Hand as Co-Producer
Ken Kitch has known and worked
with John Hancock since 1965 and greatly respects his
filmmaking abilities.
"John understands the acting process.
He recognizes an actor's essential quality and knows how to
use it. He also has a
streak of craziness, a willingness to take risks with concepts
you think wouldn't work, but ultimately do in the end."
Suspended Animation adds to the many film and theatre projects
on which they have collaborated. Kitch was Co-Producer on A
Piece of Eden as well as Associate Producer on both Weeds and
the HBO production Steal the Sky.
Kitch's film experience includes working with Peter Yates on
the Disney prison thriller An Innocent Man with Tom Selleck and
F. Murray Abraham. Sharing roots in the theatre, Kitch also
worked with Hancock at the San Francisco Actors Workshop, the
Pittsburgh Playhouse, Off-Broadway and in Los Angeles.
|
Misha's
Suslov Directs Photography
Misha Suslov was a
star in the Soviet Union, shooting more than
30 films there before moving to the United
States.
His first film in the
country was Stranger's Kiss. This was followed
by Black Moon Rising, Nobody's
Fool, Verne Miller, 3.15 and
Roanoke.
He has worked with
John Hancock on Weeds, Steal the
Sky, Prancer,
and A Piece of Eden.
Suslov, who lives in Los Angeles, says,
"I always look forward to working with
John because of all the directors I have
worked with, John is number one." |
|
|
Music Composed by Angelo Badalamenti
Angelo
Badalamenti composed the score for Suspended
Animation. This is the third major film Angelo
Badalamenti has worked on with John Hancock. Previous
films included A Piece of Eden and Weeds. Grammy
winner for his haunting music for Twin Peaks,
Badalamenti has created a wealth of scores for
productions ranging from David Lynch's feature films,
Lost Highway and Blue Velvet, to the Chevy Chase
madcap movie, National Lampoon's Christmas
Vacation.
He has arranged and
orchestrated music for Lisa Minelli, Paul McCartney,
David Bowie, and The Pep Shop Boys. He wrote and
recorded music for Michael Jackson's "Black and
White" video.
Recent projects have included
working with Danny Boyle in the Leonardo DiCaprio
movie The Beach, Paul Schrader on Forever Mine, Jane
Campion on Holy Smoke, Mark Pellington on Arlington
Road and David Lynch on The Straight Story. |
|
|
|
Casting by Rosemary Welden
Casting Director, Rosemary Welden
C.S.A., has
been an award winning casting director for over ten years with
offices on both coasts. Her first casting job was at CBS for The
Twilight Zone. She has cast over twenty films and during one
season cast more than 450 actors for a series (Weekly World
News).
Rosemary is known for her ability to discover talented
new actors and directors, and for the off beat and interesting
aspects of her projects, which range from the independent film,
Joy Ride (Benecio DelToro and Tobey McGuire) to Fatal Charm (the
highest audience rating to date on Showtime) to The Girl Gets
Moe (an HBO International Debut). She is known for being on the
cutting edge having cast VOYEUR, the first SAG CD ROM, at a time
when no one had heard of interactive media.
Her most recent
independent films include The Hi Line (in competition Sundance 1999) directed by Ron Judkins (Academy
Award winner for Sound…Shindler's List and Saving Private
Ryan) and executive produced by Barbara Boyle and Michael
Taylor. Her latest casting was working with Academy Award
winner Chuck Workman on his feature, A House on a Hill.
|
|
Dennis
O'Connor Edits 3rd Hancock Feature
Dennis O'Connor has been editing Film and TV for 30
years. His association with John Hancock goes back to Weeds. Dennis
also worked with John Hancock on Steal the Sky, A Piece of Eden and
Prancer. Dennis is originally from New York and in the 70's until
1984, had cut some of the largest TV commercials in that era
including Dr. Pepper, McDonalds, Volkswagon, TWA, KFC, etc. He has
won 5 CLIO Awards for cuttings spots and ended his commercial career
with Michael Jackson' s 1984 infamous PEPSI commercial.
He moved to Los Angeles to work on Feature Films in 1985. His
reputation for training assistant editors is well known in the
industry. He has given lectures at both USC and UCLA on the Art of
Montage Editing in shorter formats for TV spots and Action
sequences.
|
|
Production
Designer,
Don Jacobson
Born in Chicago and raised in
Michigan City, Indiana, Don Jacobson received a BFA from
Herron School of Art at Indiana University, and MFA from
Rhode Island School of Design, where he was also an
instructor.
He has shown his kinetic
paintings/sculpture in numbers solo and group exhibitions
at museums and galleries in New York City, Connecticut,
and Rhode Island and has been reviewed by the New York
Times, New York Magazine and Art News. Rudy Stern featured
one of his monumental neon and mechanical pieces in his
book Contemporary Neon. Neon has played a large part in
Don's stage designs for the composer's forum of NYU's
University Theatre and the 1988 U.S. tour of Bjork and the
Sugar Cubes.
While Don Jacobson has
concentrated mainly on fine art, he has applied this
expertise to scenic design for video, television, and
feature films. He has a wide background in theatre production, beginning in 1968 as master carpenter/scenic
artist for the Dunes Arts Foundation Summer Theatre at age
15. He was Technical Director at DAF for many seasons and
continues his association with that organization in an
advisory capacity.
He has also held positions as
scenic artist, set designer, and technical director with
the prestigious New Haven Opera Theatre. He went on to
lighting design for CBS's As the World Turns and has done
scenic design for numbers corporate information and
education short films and videos for clients as varied as
Canada Dry, Federal Express, Kellogg's and Abbott
Laboratories.
He was special effects/scenic
artist on A Piece of Eden. |
|
|
Art
Director, Brian Adams
Brian H. Adams returned to his native
Indiana from California to work as the Art Director on Suspended
Animation. During the California location shoot he also worked as
the On Set Production Coordinator.
He has worked as a set dresser and park
decorator for the Walt Disney Co. and a model sculptor for the
Disneyland Design Studios. He continues his association with
Universal Studios as stage manager for various shows including the
Wild Wild Wild West Stunt Show. He was the Animation Director for
Nitro Golf Corporation and Spectracef. He was able to bring his
animation background and knowledge to enhance the scenes in Suspended
Animation. Brian has gained experience as a camera asst/grip,
set designer, set dresser, scenic artist, and camera/light asst.
Brian has attended Indiana
University/Purdue University, Columbia College in Chicago, Il. and
Glendale Community College in Glendale, CA.
|
|
Richard Donnely, Expert Costume
Designer
Donnelly serves as
the Director of Theatre on the faculty at the University of
Notre Dame where he teaches courses in costume design,
costume history and costume construction as well as makeup
for the stage.
He has designed and constructed
costumes for more that 180 stage productions at universities
and professional theatres across the United States,
including American Players Theatre in Spring Green,
Wisconsin; the Alley Theatre in Houston; the Mark Taper
Forum in Los Angeles; the McCarter Theatre in Princeton and
the Old Glove Theatre in San Diego.
Richard was costume designer for
the award winning, internationally acclaimed film What
Farocki Taught. He is nationally recognized for his free
hand computer costume designs and has conducted workshops
and master classes at many universities and colleges in
"Rendering Costume Designs on the Computer".
He holds memberships in Phi Kappa
Phi and the United States Institute for Theatre Technology,
Costume Society of America.
Donnelly was born and raised
Racine, Wisconsin and is a 1970 graduate of J.I. Case High
School. He completed his BFA in Costume Design at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1974. He was awarded
his MFA in Costume Design in 1975 from the Goodman School of
Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago. |
|
Margaret
Clifford leads the Production Office
Production
Office Coordinator, Margaret Clifford, came out of
retirement to work with FilmAcres after 34 years in
education as a teacher and principal. She is a
graduate of Indiana University, Bloomington, School
of Business and has her Master's Degree in
Education, as well as, her Principal's license from
IU. She is currently President of the Delta Mu
Chapter of Tri Kappa.
Since joining FilmAcres during the production of
A
Piece of Eden, Margaret has had the opportunity to
experience numerous areas of filmmaking. During
the filming of Suspended Animation, She was a
Production Coordinator, going with the crew on
location to Los Angeles, CA, in addition to managing
the production office in Indiana.
|
|
|
Beth Behler, Assists the Director
Beth Behler, a
graduate of Indiana University, began working full-time
for John Hancock at the onset of his Indiana-based
production company, FilmAcres, in June of 1998.
Being her first introduction into filmmaking, the
opportunity to learn first-hand from a director of
John's stature quickly sparked her interest in the
industry. Prior to joining the FilmAcres team, her
Bachelor of Arts in Journalism landed her a job as a
copywriter for an advertising agency in Chicago and
various freelance photojournalism projects.
In addition to the multiple roles she and her associates
filled during the production of Hancock's A Piece of
Eden, Beth also collaborated with Producer Dan
Jacobson in capturing behind the scenes footage and
interviews for documentary purposes. With John's
second Indiana-based feature, Suspended Animation,
Beth's continued full-time employment allowed her to
gain experience in all phases of filmmaking:
pre-production through post-production, including
marketing and assistance with the editorial process
using an Avid Non-Linear System. In addition to
being Assistant to the Director, Beth's' credits for Suspended
Animation include: Production Coordinator,
Product Placement Coordinator, and Script
Supervisor.
She currently freelances in commercial
film, video, and still photography while continuing to
work closely with John Hancock in all phases of
FilmAcres
|
|
|