Bridge to Terabithia - LaughingPlace.com Movie Guide

About the Filmmakers

World-renowned animation artist GABOR CSUPO (Director) makes his live-action debut with BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA. Csupo is the chairman and co-founder of Klasky Csupo, Inc., the entertainment industry's leading independent animation company. A fiercely independent artist, Csupo is a Renaissance man, who, in addition to his film, TV and commercial animation career, is an acclaimed musician, the founder of two record labels, a devoted father and an engaged member of the arts community in Los Angeles.

Born in Budapest, Hungary, Gabor studied music for eight years and attended art school for four, before commencing his professional training in animation at Hungary's famed Pannonia Studios in 1971. Leaving Communist Hungary in 1975 for artistic opportunities in the West, Csupo and four fellow artists and musicians escaped into Austria through a darkened train tunnel. With few resources and no passport, he traveled first to West Germany, then to Denmark and ultimately to Stockholm, Sweden. While employed there in the animation studio of a friend, Csupo contributed to the production of Sweden's first animated feature.

Having learned English in order to understand the lyrics of Frank Zappa, his favorite musician, Csupo moved to Hollywood in 1979, where he and Arlene Klasky were married. Csupo's first job in the U.S. was at the legendary Hanna-Barbera Studios, where he worked as an animator. In 1981, Csupo and Klasky formed their own animation company, Klasky Csupo, in a spare room of their apartment. Klasky Csupo moved into its first real office in 1983, expanding into motion graphics and live-action production. Over the next six years, Csupo presided over all aspects of the studio's business, designing, supervising and animating commercials, company logos, TV station promos, motion picture trailers, on-air network promotions and industrial films.

Then, in 1988, Klasky Csupo was asked by director James L. Brooks to animate a cartoon strip called "The Simpsons" that was to be shown on "The Tracy Ullman Show." The enormous success of those early bumpers led to work on the series, which Klasky Csupo animated for the first three seasons of the show. For its efforts, Klasky Csupo garnered worldwide recognition and Emmyï ¿ ½ Awards two years in a row. Continuing to break new ground, Csupo co-developed, produced and animated the phenomenally successful "Rugrats" series, the most popular children's show in the United States. Enlarging Klasky Csupo's roster of programming, Csupo produced and animated such distinguished series as "Duckman," "Aaahhh!!! Real Monsters," "Santo Bugito," "Rocket Power," "The Wild Thornberrys" and the latest Nickelodeon hit, "As Told by Ginger."

Tireless and inventive, Csupo has expanded Klasky Csupo's product offerings to all areas of entertainment media. He launched Klasky Csupo Publishing and KACHEW! COMMERCIALS. In 1998, Csupo co-produced the company's first venture into feature filmmaking, the enormously successful "The Rugrats Movie," as well as its hit sequel, "Rugrats in Paris: The Movie."

As an expression of his lifelong passion for music, Csupo founded the record labels Tone Casualties and Casual Tonalities in 1994. Both were dedicated to discovering new artists within the genre of ambient electronica and had over 100 releases distributed worldwide. Csupo's artwork can be seen on the cover of the latest release by his idol and friend, the late Frank Zappa: The Lost Episodes.

DAVID PATERSON (Writer/Producer) brings to the screen the story his mother, Katherine Paterson, wrote for him when he was just a boy. An award-winning screenwriter and playwright, he has written over 25 full-length plays and nine screenplays. He was a finalist for Sundance's esteemed Humanitas awards, and The New Play Contest and his work has received rave reviews from The New York Times, The Village Voice and New York Post. David is also the only playwright on record to have premiered three plays in New York City in one month. His musical adaptation of his mother's novel "The Great Gilly Hopkins" opened on Broadway for a sold-out limited run to great reviews. A screenwriting professor at NYIT in Manhattan, he has sold several screenplays and made his feature-film debut with "Love Ludlow," which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Paterson is also a former actor on the New York soap "One Life to Live." He's currently a proud member of The Manhasset Lakeville Fire Department. His experience as a rescue worker at Ground Zero was published in the novel 911: BOOK OF HELP, with profits going to children of Trade Center victims.

JEFF STOCKWELL (Writer) made his feature debut with "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys," starring Jodie Foster, Emile Hirsch and Jena Malone. Stockwell also wrote "Wilder Days," a TNT telefilm starring Peter Falk and Josh Hutcherson that was nominated for the WGA award for Best Original Long Form TV.

Stockwell has done many adaptations for film companies, including "Artemis Fowl" for Miramax and "A Child's Book of True Crime" for This Is That Productions. He is currently at work on "Kiki's Delivery Service" for Disney and "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" for New Line Cinema.

Stockwell is from Newburyport, Massachusetts, and lives with his wife and twelve-yearold son in California. He frequently runs the Screenwriting Lab at Film Independent (FIND), Los Angeles.

KATHERINE PATERSON (Novelist) won the Newbery Medal and millions of devoted readers for her novel Bridge to Terabithia, first published in 1978. She has won numerous awards throughout her career, including the Newbery Medal for Jacob Have I Loved and the National Book Award for The Master Puppeteer and The Great Gilly Hopkins. She was also given the Hans Christian Anderson Medal and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for her entire body of work, honoring her lasting contributions to children's literature. Paterson was born to missionary parents in China, where she spent part of her childhood.

She later moved to the American South and spent four years in Japan, the setting of her first three novels. She currently lives with her husband in Vermont. Her most recent book is Bread and Roses, Too, published in 2006, about the effects of the famous 1912 strike at the Bread and Roses mill on a family.

HAL LIEBERMAN (Producer) began his entertainment career as a screenwriter and then moved into the studio system. Almost ten years ago, he branched out on his own, serving as executive producer on "The Jackal," starring Bruce Willis and Richard Gere, before teaming up with Jonathan Mostow to form Mostow-Lieberman Productions. He then served as executive producer of the action film "U-571" and produced the blockbuster "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," both directed by Mostow. Most recently, he produced a new version of the adventure classic "Around the World in 80 Days" starring Jackie Chan. His forthcoming films include the Sony/Screen Gems thriller "Vacancy" and the Sony comedy "Big Man on Campus," which begins shooting in April.

Lieberman's experience at Universal Pictures has given him the knowledge to be a success outside of the studio. He was first hired as a production executive and then moved up through the ranks, eventually becoming president of production for the studio. He was named director of development in 1987, and then promoted to vice-president in 1989, senior vice-president in 1990, executive vice-president in 1992 and, finally, president of production in 1994.

During his tenure, Lieberman developed and supervised a diverse slate of films, including: "Apollo 13," "Fried Green Tomatoes," "The Nutty Professor," "Liar Liar," "Death Becomes Her," "Dragonheart," "The River Wild," "The Paper," "Billy Madison," "Happy Gilmore" and "Problem Child."

LAUREN LEVINE (Producer) recently produced the acclaimed family adventure "I Am David" for Walden Media. She began her production career in 1986 on "The Max Headroom Show." In 1988, Levine joined the startup MTV Europe as Head of Programming. She moved to New York to join MTV Networks in 1992. As VP Production, she was Executive Producer of more than 16,000 hours of MTV programming, including "New Year's Eve Live from Times Square," "Yo! MTV Raps," the "MTV Beach House," "Headbanger's Ball" and, tragically, the final television interview with Kurt Cobain.

After eight years at MTV, Levine joined Broadway Video, which became Golden Books Family Entertainment, to run their TV and Film division. This was her opportunity to follow her love of storytelling and produce narrative based series for the family audience. Over the next couple of years, she was Executive Producer of a new series of "Lassie" and "The Little LuLu Show" still running on HBO. Levine set up her own production company, LLPi, in 2000.

As well as "I Am David," her credits include: "Musicians," a music and interview show for Bravo starring Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello and Tony Bennett, among many others. Levine's next projects are both Nickelodeon Original Movies: "Shredderman Rules!" and "Last Days of Summer," which will premier on the network later this year. She was raised in Manchester, England, and now lives and works in New York City.

MICHAEL CHAPMAN, ASC (Director of Photography), has captured some of the most enduring images in American cinema. He has earned two Academy Awardï ¿ ½ nominations for his innovative camerawork on Martin Scorsese's landmark classic "Raging Bull" and Andrew Davis's thriller "The Fugitive," also garnering a nomination from the American Society of Cinematographers for the latter.

Early in his career, Chapman became a protï ¿ ½gï ¿ ½ of cinematographer Gordon Willis, working as his camera operator on seven films, including Irvin Kershner's "Loving," Hal Ashby's "The Landlord," Alan J. Pakula's "Klute," Robert Benton's "Bad Company" and Francis Coppola's masterpiece "The Godfather." He also operated the camera for Bill Butler on Steven Spielberg's seminal thriller "Jaws."

He received his first credit as director of photography on Hal Ashby's Oscarï ¿ ½-nominated "The Last Detail," signaling an auspicious beginning to his career. Among his first features behind the lens was Martin Scorsese's acclaimed Oscarï ¿ ½-nominated film "Taxi Driver." He continued his collaboration with Scorsese on four films, including the beloved rockumentary "The Last Waltz," "American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince" and "Raging Bull," for which he received not only an Academy Awardï ¿ ½ nomination but also the National Society of Film Critics Award.

Chapman's early work also includes Martin Ritt's "The Front," James Toback's "Fingers," Abby Mann's Emmyï ¿ ½-nominated miniseries "King," Paul Schrader's "Hardcore" and Philip Kaufman's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." (Chapman would reteam with Kaufman on "The Wanderers" and "Rising Sun.")

Over the last three decades, Chapman has worked with many of the industry's most prominent directors on films as varied as Robert Towne's "Personal Best," Carl Reiner's "The Man With Two Brains" and "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid," Joel Schumacher's vampire thriller "The Lost Boys," Richard Donner's "Scrooged" and four Ivan Reitman projectsï ¿ ½ "Kindergarten Cop," "Ghostbusters 2," "Six Days, Seven Nights" and "Evolution." His credits also include "Quick Change," "Shoot to Kill," "Doc Hollywood," "Whispers in the Dark," "Space Jam," "Primal Fear," "The Story of Us," "Eulogy," "The Watcher," "Suspect Zero," "Hooter" and "House of D."

In 1983, the gifted cinematographer made his directorial debut with the football drama "All the Right Moves," which also marked Tom Cruise's first starring role. He followed with "Clan of the Cave Bear," the prehistoric epic based on Jean M. Auel's novel, and also wrote and directed the critically acclaimed "The Viking Sagas." He also directed the telefilm "The Annihilator."

In 1994, Chapman was awarded the A.S.C. Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the art of cinematography.

JOHN GILBERT, A.C.E. (Editor), was nominated for both an Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Editor for "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring." He has edited a wide range of films, including the recent "The World's Fastest Indian," starring Anthony Hopkins. His credits also include Gaylene Preston's "Perfect Strangers," Annie Goldson's "Punitive Damage," Alison Maclean's "Crush," Anna Campion's "Loaded" and Anthony McCarten's "Via Satellite." He was associate editor for Peter Jackson's "The Frighteners."

Gilbert has also executive produced seven short films, which have screened at the Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance and New York film festivals.

ROB GILLIES (Production Designer) has worked for over 25 years on a diverse variety of New Zealand feature film and television productions. He most recently served as production designer on "The World's Fastest Indian." He has also designed projects ranging from Gaylene Preston's New Zealand feature "Ruby and Rata" to the Sam Raimi-produced horror film "Boogeyman" to over 400 episodes of the successful TV series "Xena: Warrior Princess" and "Hercules." His stage work includes theatrical design for "The Whale Rider on Stage."

BARBARA DARRAGH (Costume Designer) has won two New Zealand Film Awards for Best Costume Design for the television series "Greenstone" and the film "End of the Golden Weather," directed by Ian Mune. In a distinguished career, her feature-film credits include the recent "River Queen," directed by Vincent Ward, as well as "Eye of the Storm," "Taking Liberties," "Never Say Die" and "Shaker Run." She was also assistant costume designer on "Beyond Borders" and "Scooby Doo." Her television movies include "Not Only But Always," "Raising Waylon," "Forbidden Island," "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" and "Hercules." She was also the original costume designer on the television series "Hercules, the Legendary Journeys."

AARON ZIGMAN (Music) is a songwriter, producer, arranger, hit maker and musician who has moved beyond the pop world to establish himself in a new voice in film composing. He made his feature debut for director Nick Cassavetes on the critically acclaimed "John Q." Their collaboration continued with "The Notebook," starring Gena Rowlands and James Gardner and based on the Nicholas Sparks novel, and most recently with the crime drama "Alpha Dog," starring Sharon Stone and Justin Timberlake.

Zigman's recent films include the high school dance hit "Step Up," the remake of the family classic "Flicka," the critically praised indie drama "Akeelah and the Bee," which earned Zigman a nomination for a Black Reel Award for Best Original Score, and Chris Robinson's feature-film debut, "ATL."

Zigman is also an accomplished composer of concert works and has written numerous symphonic pieces. These include a 35-minute-long tone poem, a tribute to Yitzhak Rabin, which was performed by the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, and "Impressions," a suite for wind ensemble that has been performed by the USC orchestra.

He has also worked extensively as a producer, arranger and writer for artists such as Christina Aguilera, Seal, Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, Oleta Adams, Phil Collins, Tina Turner, Patti LaBelle, Chicago, Nona Gaye, Carly Simon, the Pointer Sisters, Huey Lewis and Big Mountain. His song work has been featured on such film soundtracks as "Mulan," "Buster," "What's Love Got to Do With It," "The Bird Cage," "License to Kill," "Pocahontas" and "Corrina, Corrina."

Zigman's upcoming films include Lionsgate Films "Pride," starring Terrence Howard and New Line's "Martian Child," starring John Cusack.

WETA DIGITAL LTD (Visual Effects) is a four-time Academy Awardï ¿ ½-winning visual effects facility based in Wellington, New Zealand. Best known for its work on Peter Jackson's masterpiece, "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, and the recent "King Kong," their film credits also include "I, Robot," "X-Men: The Last Stand" and "Eragon." One of Weta Digital's first projects was to provide the visual effects for Peter Jackson's "Heavenly Creatures," which were completed on a single computer, an early Oxberry film scanner and a Solitaire film recorder.

Since that time, Weta Digital has made considerable achievements in visual effects. They brought Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy to life and created Gollum and Kong, two of the most believable, fully digital creatures in film. For "King Kong," Weta Digital also created photorealistic 1930s New York City, down to the finest detail.

The company's digital artists use the latest hardware, software and proprietary tools to create a world-leading creature pipeline with some of the most convincing digital doubles and digital environments in the industry.