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Michael Nozik
Born	Michael Gary Nozik Holyoke, MA, USA
Occupation	Film Producer
Years active	1981 - present

Michael Nozik is an American film producer. He won a BAFTA award for The Motorcycle Diaries in the category of 'Best Film Not In The English Language' in 2004. His credits also include Love in the Time of Cholera, Syriana, Quiz Show, and The Legend of Bagger Vance.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Michael Nozik at the Internet Movie Database

Paul Haggis
Paul Haggis, April 2007
Born	Paul Edward Haggis (1953-03-10) March 10, 1953 (age 59) London, Ontario, Canada
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter, and producer
Years active	1975–present
Spouse	Diane Christine Gettas (1977–94) Deborah Rennard (1997–present)

Paul Edward Haggis (born March 10, 1953) is a Canadian screenwriter, producer, and director. He spent his early career producing and directing various American and Canadian television network series.

Early life and education[link]

Haggis was born on March 10, 1953, in London, Ontario,^[1] the son of Mary Yvonne (née Metcalf) and Edward H. Haggis.^[2] He was raised as a Catholic,^[3] but considered himself an atheist until joining the Church of Scientology.^[4] The Gallery Theatre in London, Ontario, was owned by his parents, and Haggis gained experience in the field through work at the theatre.^[5] He attended St. Thomas More Elementary School,^[6] and after being inspired by Alfred Hitchcock and Jean-Luc Godard, proceeded to study art at H. B. Beal Secondary School.^[1] After viewing Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film Blowup, he traveled to England with the intent of becoming a fashion photographer.^[1] Haggis later went back to Canada to pursue studies in cinematography at Fanshawe College.^[1] In 1975, Haggis moved to Los Angeles, California, to begin a career in writing in the entertainment industry.^[1][5]

Career[link]

Haggis began to work as a writer for television programs, including The Love Boat, One Day at a Time, Diff'rent Strokes, and The Facts of Life.^[5] With The Facts of Life, Haggis also gained his first credit as producer.^[5] During the 1980s and 1990s, Haggis wrote for television series including The Tracey Ullman Show, Due South, L.A. Law, and EZ Streets.^[5] He helped to create the television series Walker, Texas Ranger, Family Law, and Due South.^[5] Haggis served as executive producer on series including Michael Hayes and Family Law.^[5]

He gained recognition in the film industry for his work on the 2004 film Million Dollar Baby, which Allmovie described as a "serious milestone" for the writer/producer, and as "his first high-profile foray into feature film".^[5] Haggis had read two stories written by Jerry Boyd, a boxing trainer who wrote under the name of F.X. Toole.^[5] Haggis acquired the rights to the stories, and developed them into the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby. Clint Eastwood portrayed the lead character in the film.^[5] Eastwood also directed the film, and used the screenplay written by Haggis.^[5] Million Dollar Baby received four Academy Awards including the Academy Award for Best Picture.^[5]

After Million Dollar Baby, Haggis worked on the 2004 film Crash.^[5] Haggis came up with the story for the film on his own, and then wrote and directed the film, which allowed him greater control over his work.^[5] Crash was his first experience as director of a major feature film.^[5] Critical reception of Crash was positive, and Roger Ebert called it the best film of 2005.^[5] It received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, in addition to four other Academy Award nominations.^[5] Haggis received two Academy Awards for the film; Best Picture (as its producer), and Best Writing for his work on the screenplay.^[5] With Million Dollar Baby and then Crash, Haggis became the first individual to have written Best Picture Oscar-winners in two consecutive years.^[7]

Personal life[link]

Haggis lives in Santa Monica, California.^[8]

After maintaining active membership in the Church of Scientology for 35 years, Haggis left the organization in October 2009.^{[9][10][11][12]} He was motivated to leave Scientology in reaction to statements made by the San Diego branch of the Church of Scientology in support of Proposition 8, the ballot initiative which banned gay marriage in California.^[11] Haggis wrote to Thomas Davis, the Church's spokesman, and requested that he denounce these statements; when Davis remained silent, Haggis responded that "Silence is consent, Tommy. I refuse to consent."^[11][12][13] Haggis went on to list other grievances against Scientology, including its policy of disconnection, and the smearing of its ex-members through the leaking of their personal details.^[11][12] The Observer commented on defections of Haggis and actor Jason Beghe from Scientology, "The decision of Beghe and Haggis to quit Scientology appears to have caused the movement its greatest recent PR difficulties, not least because of its dependence on Hollywood figures as both a source of revenue for its most expensive courses and an advertisement for the religion."^[14] In an interview with Movieline Haggis was asked about similarities between his film The Next Three Days and his departure from the Scientology organization; Haggis responded, "I think one’s life always parallels art and art parallels life."^[15] In February 2011, The New Yorker published a 25,000-word story, "The Apostate", by Lawrence Wright, detailing Haggis's allegations about the Church of Scientology. The article ended by quoting Haggis: "I was in a cult for thirty-four years. Everyone else could see it. I don’t know why I couldn’t."^[4]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Haggis at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival

Television[link]

Video Games[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

Haggis has been nominated for dozens of awards.^[18]

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	California portal
	Film portal
	Ontario portal
	Scientology portal

• List of Canadian directors
• List of film and television directors
• List of film director and cinematographer collaborations
• List of film producers
• List of British and Commonwealth Academy Award winners and nominees
• List of Big Five Academy Award winners and nominees
• List of Big Three Academy Award winners and nominees
• List of people who have won multiple Academy Awards in a single year
• List of people from Santa Monica, California
• List of people from London, Ontario
• List of former Scientologists
• Scientology controversies

Further reading[link]

• Wells, Barry. "Paul Haggis wants to inspire London students". Alt London (www.altlondon.org). http://www.altlondon.org/article.php?story=20060909170849642. 
• Forsythe, Coco (January 27, 2008). "Down In The Valley". FutureMovies (www.futuremovies.co.uk). http://www.futuremovies.co.uk/filmmaking.asp?ID=232. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Paul Haggis

Wikinews has news related to: Paul Haggis

• Paul Haggis at AllRovi
• Paul Haggis at the Internet Movie Database
• Paul Haggis at the TCM Movie Database
• Works by or about Paul Haggis in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Adrien Brody
Brody at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Detachment
Born	(1973-04-14) April 14, 1973 (age 39) Woodhaven, Queens, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1988–present

Adrien Brody (born April 14, 1973) is an American actor and film producer. He received widespread recognition and acclaim after starring in Roman Polanski's The Pianist (2002), for which he became the youngest actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor at age 29. Brody is also the only American actor to receive the French César Award.

Early life[link]

Brody was born in Woodhaven, Queens, New York, the son of Sylvia Plachy, a photojournalist, and Elliot Brody, a retired history professor and painter.^[1] Brody's father is of Polish Jewish descent; Brody's mother – who was raised Catholic – was born in Budapest, Hungary, the daughter of a Catholic Hungarian aristocrat father and a Czech Jewish mother.^[2][3][4] Brody was raised "without a strong connection to" Judaism or Catholicism.^[5] As a child, he performed magic shows at children's birthday parties as "The Amazing Adrien".^[6] He attended the I.S. 145 Joseph Pulitzer middle school and New York's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (famous as the inspiration for television's Fame). His parents enrolled him in acting classes to distance him from the dangerous children with whom he associated^{[citation needed]}. He attended summer camp at Long Lake Camp for the Arts in the Adirondacks in upstate New York.^[7] Brody attended the State University of New York at Stony Brook before transferring to Queens College for a semester.

Career[link]

Taking acting classes as a youth, by age thirteen, he appeared in an Off-Broadway play and a PBS television film.^[8] Brody hovered on the brink of stardom, receiving an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his role in the 1998 film Restaurant and later praise for his roles in Spike Lee's Summer of Sam and Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line. He received widespread recognition when he was cast as the lead in Roman Polanski's The Pianist (2002). To prepare for the role, Brody withdrew for months, gave up his apartment and his car, was left by his then-girlfriend,^[8] learned how to play Chopin on the piano, and lost 29 lbs (13 kg). The role won him an Academy Award for Best Actor, making him, at 29, the youngest actor ever to win the award, and to date the only winner under the age of 30. He also won a César Award for his performance.

Brody appeared on Saturday Night Live on May 10, 2003, his first TV work, but he was banned from the show after giving an improvised introduction while wearing faux dreadlocks for Jamaican reggae musical guest Sean Paul (the show's producer, Lorne Michaels, is notorious for hating unscripted performances). However, the unscripted intro remains in reruns of the episode. Other TV appearances include NBF's The Today Show and on MTV's Punk'd after being tricked by Ashton Kutcher.

Brody at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival

After The Pianist Brody appeared in four very different films. In Dummy (released in 2003 but originally shot in 2000, just prior to his work in The Pianist) he portrayed Steven Schoichet, a socially awkward aspiring ventriloquist in pursuit of a love interest (his employment counsellor). He learned ventriloquism and puppetry for the role (under the tutelage of actor/ventriloquist Alan Semok) convincingly enough to perform all of the voice stunts and puppet manipulation live on set in real time, with no subsequent post dubbing. He played Noah Percy, a mentally disabled young man, in the film The Village, by M. Night Shyamalan, shell-shocked war veteran Jack Starks in The Jacket, writer Jack Driscoll in the 2005 King Kong remake, and father-to-be Peter Whitman in The Darjeeling Limited by Wes Anderson. King Kong was both critical and box office success; it grossed $550 million worldwide and is Brody's most successful film to date in monetary terms. Additionally, Brody played a detective in Hollywoodland. He has also appeared in Diet Coke and Schweppes commercials as well as Tori Amos' music video for "A Sorta Fairytale".

On January 5, 2006, Brody confirmed speculation that he indeed was interested and very willing to play the role of The Joker in 2008's The Dark Knight. However, Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. decided instead to cast Heath Ledger in the role.^[9] He was also in talks with Paramount to play Spock in J. J. Abrams Star Trek XI, but it ultimately went to Zachary Quinto.^[10][11] Brody starred with Mark Ruffalo as gentlemen con men in Rian Johnson's The Brothers Bloom, released in May 2009.^[12] Also in 2009 was the box office release of Splice, a science fiction film written and directed by Vincenzo Natali. Originally a Sundance film, Splice was adopted by Dark Castle Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros. Most recently, he played the star role of Royce in Predators (a sequel to the original Predator), directed by Nimród Antal and produced by Robert Rodriguez.^[13]

In 2011, Brody starred in a Stella Artois beer ad called "Crying Jean," that premiered right after half-time of the Super Bowl XLV as part of Stella's "She Is a Thing of Beauty” campaign.

On January 16, 2012, Adrien made his runway debut as a model for Prada Men Fall/Winter 2012 show.^[14] Also in January, he was named ambassador for the Gillette Fusion ProGuide Styler which the company is scheduled to market the following month.^[15]

Personal life[link]

In 1992, Brody was seriously hurt in a motorcycle accident in which he flew over a car and crashed head-first into a crosswalk.^[16] He spent months recuperating. He has broken his nose three times doing stunts; the most recent was during the filming of Summer of Sam.^[17]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Adrien Brody

• Adrien Brody at the Internet Movie Database
• Adrien Brody at AllRovi

Awards for Adrien Brody v t e Academy Award for Best Actor (2001–present) Denzel Washington (2001) Adrien Brody (2002) Sean Penn (2003) Jamie Foxx (2004) Philip Seymour Hoffman (2005) Forest Whitaker (2006) Daniel Day-Lewis (2007) Sean Penn (2008) Jeff Bridges (2009) Colin Firth (2010) Jean Dujardin (2011) Complete list (1928–1940) (1941–1960) (1961–1980) (1981–2000) (2001–2020) v t e César Award for Best Actor 1976 Philippe Noiret · 1977 Michel Galabru · 1978 Jean Rochefort · 1979 Michel Serrault · 1980 Claude Brasseur · 1981 Gérard Depardieu · 1982 Michel Serrault · 1983 Philippe Léotard · 1984 Coluche · 1985 Alain Delon · 1986 Christophe Lambert · 1987 Daniel Auteuil · 1988 Richard Bohringer · 1989 Jean-Paul Belmondo · 1990 Philippe Noiret · 1991 Gérard Depardieu · 1992 Jacques Dutronc · 1993 Claude Rich · 1994 Pierre Arditi · 1995 Gérard Lanvin · 1996 Michel Serrault · 1997 Philippe Torreton · 1998 André Dussollier · 1999 Jacques Villeret · 2000 Daniel Auteuil · 2001 Sergi López · 2002 Michel Bouquet · 2003 Adrien Brody · 2004 Omar Sharif · 2005 Mathieu Amalric · 2006 Michel Bouquet · 2007 François Cluzet · 2008 Mathieu Amalric · 2009 Vincent Cassel · 2010 Tahar Rahim · 2011 Éric Elmosnino · 2012 Omar Sy