ROCKET SCIENCE PRODUCTION NOTES

SYNOPSIS

A teenager tackles the mysteries of life, love and public speaking in ROCKET SCIENCE, a wry comedy of adolescent angst by Jeffrey Blitz, director of the Academy Award®-nominated documentary SPELLBOUND. Making his feature narrative debut, Blitz leaves behind the conventions and clichés of coming-of-age tales to instead conjure a world where everyone, regardless of age, is befuddled by desire and the longing for human connection. Mixing humor with a compassionate regard for his characters and their idiosyncrasies, Blitz creates a film about the little insights that can emerge from, and ultimately eclipse, the agonies and disappointments of youth.

Life is not easy for teenager Hal Hefner (Reece Daniel Thompson) of suburban Plainsboro, New Jersey. His parents, Juliet (Lisbeth Bartlett) and Doyle (Denis O’Hare), have abruptly split; his older brother, Earl (Vincent Piazza) is a budding obsessive-compulsive who pushes him around; and he has an unpredictable stutter that makes high school an exercise in embarrassment, self-effacement and terrible lunches. While Earl sets out to conquer the world through a combination of assiduous planning, an intimidating demeanor and habitual theft, Hal remains well in the background at Plainsboro High.

Given that his active mind and quick wit tend to be obscured by his problematic voice, Hal is not an obvious candidate for his school’s high-powered debate team. So it comes as a complete, though not unwelcome, surprise when the team’s star member, the hyper-articulate Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick), approaches Hal on the school bus one afternoon. The Plainsboro debaters need a replacement for Ginny’s former partner, the brilliant Ben Wekselbaum (Nicholas D’Agosto), who dropped out of school following a calamitous performance at the New Jersey State High School Policy Debate Championships the previous spring. Ginny, who can compress an eight minute argument into ten seconds without breaking a sweat, dropping a word, or botching a barb, proceeds to present her case for Hal’s potential as a public speaker. Her command of language is superb, her wit sharp, and her reasoning hard to fault. She has seen Hal, she has seen his promise. Hal is more than just shocked, or even dazed; he is smitten.
As the notion of debating takes hold in Hal’s mind, so, too, do thoughts of the attractive and dazzlingly confident Ginny. Gambling that his voice will cooperate with the rest of him, Hal joins the Plainsboro High debate team as Ginny’s partner. Trundling back and forth to her house with his ever-growing pile of research, Hal starts to see new possibilities in his life. Perhaps he can tame his balky voice and become a master of rhetoric. Perhaps he can succeed in love -- where so many, including his parents, have failed -- and win Ginny’s heart.

The road ahead holds many twists, turns and bumps for Hal Hefner; despite his best efforts, people and circumstances prove more unpredictable than any stutter. But Hal rises to the occasion, and in doing so he scores a victory that has nothing to do with winning a debate – and everything to do with finding his voice.

ROCKET SCIENCE had its world premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Picturehouse and HBO Films present ROCKET SCIENCE. Written and directed by Jeffrey Blitz. The producers are Effie T. Brown and Sean Welch. The director of photography is Jo Willems, the production designer Rick Butler, the editor Yana Gorskaya, and the costume designer Ernesto Martinez. The music is by Eef Barzelay, and the music supervisor is Evyen Klean. The casting is by Matthew Lessall, CSA. Starring Reece Daniel Thompson, Anna Kendrick, Nicholas D’Agosto, Vincent Piazza, Margo Martindale, Aaron Yoo, Josh Kay, Stephen Park, Maury Ginsberg, Utkarsh Ambudkar, and Denis O’Hare.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

When Jeffrey Blitz made his feature film debut in 2002 with the documentary SPELLBOUND, he was lauded as a gifted storyteller whose attention to human detail made the film not only a gripping chronicle of the National Spelling Bee finals, but a moving portrait of contemporary America. Equally impressive was the film’s respectful, yet un-self-conscious approach to its young subjects, who emerged as individual personalities rather than symbols or types. SPELLBOUND, produced by Blitz’s longtime friend and collaborator Sean Welch, received both Academy Award® and Independent Spirit Award nominations, and became a sleeper hit upon its theatrical release.

Like Hal, Blitz stuttered as a youth. He elected to try high school debate in an effort to better comprehend the workings of speech, and went on to great success. He became his team captain, and in his senior year won the New Jersey state championship in policy debate, among other events. But that was not the story Blitz wanted to tell in ROCKET SCIENCE, and indeed he had strong reservations about mining his personal history for his filmmaking. “I’m generally allergic to autobiographical fiction films,” he acknowledges. “I had to think long and hard about whether I could: (1) wrest the story from autobiography to create something generally unconnected to my own experience except in its most basic emotional content; and (2) get it far enough from the world of SPELLBOUND that it could feel like new turf to explore instead of just a lateral move. This movie had to be its own thing.”
He constructed a story that follows a year in life of Hal Hefner and the cosmically ridiculous, often incomprehensible world he inhabits in suburban Plainsboro, New Jersey. Hal’s burdens are both comic and relatively common: his home life has been disrupted by his parents’ sudden split; his older brother veers between threatening Hal and advising him, generally quite poorly; and school is less than scintillating. On top of this, there is the erratic stutter that can leave Hal hopelessly tongue-tied at the worst possible moments, sending him fleeing for his secret refuge, the janitor’s closet.
Apart from the stutter, Blitz enjoyed an adolescence very different from Hal’s; he was active socially and academically, and he had a close relationship with his two brothers. “Except for some of the ridiculousness and some of the pain of stuttering, my own life isn’t really well represented,” comments Blitz. His personal understanding of the mechanics of stuttering makes Hal’s speech impediment believable; his craft as a writer makes Hal a full-bodied character who is defined not by his stutter, but rather by his personality, perspective and actions. As Blitz describes him, “Hal is the put-upon kid trying to gain the upper hand against a world that won’t allow anyone to have the upper hand. Hal is ordinary to the nth degree in many ways, but he’s also an incredible risk-taker and someone very perceptive and connected to the world around him.”

When Hal joins his school debate team, he tackles the challenge of not only mastering his balky voice, but of wooing Ginny Ryerson, the brilliantly articulate and preternaturally driven senior who has recruited him to be her debate partner. Blitz sees Hal’s quest as larger than merely conquering public speaking or love. “For me, the story is simply about a boy trying to achieve a certain kind of mastery over his life,” Blitz affirms. “It’s not just Hal’s speech or Ginny; it’s nearly everything that’s beyond his control. People come into Hal’s life suddenly and then vanish abruptly -- and he’s powerless to do anything about it. Love, likewise, appears and disappears just as haphazardly. Ditto Hal’s particular form of stuttering that is frustrating in its randomness. Sometimes he can speak fluently, sometimes not. It’s a world where the most important things feel like they’re applied randomly. Hal struggles against that -- that randomness, the unknown.”

Smitten by Ginny, Hal sees sex and desire everywhere he turns: at school, where students canoodle on the quad; at home, where Hal’s mom Juliet and her new boyfriend Judge Pete make out feverishly in the kitchen; and even at his friend Lewis’s house, where Lewis’s parents play unconventional duets for cello and piano to juice up their marriage. As it happens, the adults are just as bewitched, bothered, and bewildered by Eros as Hal is. “Everyone is lost in the mystery of love and sex,” remarks Blitz. Given his own growing romantic preoccupations, Hal cannot help but be enthralled by the spectacle of others falling in or out love. “I sometimes think that the world of a movie is just the internal workings of the main character made tangible,” Blitz reflects. “That was my operating assumption here—that the shape of the world, the details that would jump out to Hal as being relevant, would all emerge from his own confusion.”

In searching for inspiration for how to create a world that had one foot in reality and one foot in deadpan comedy, Blitz kept coming back to the films of Hal Ashby, most notably HAROLD & MAUD and BEING THERE. “Ashby found an approach that let his characters detour into absurdity, sometime for long stretches, without ever having us lose the empathy we feel for them,” Blitz said. “Over and over, he finds the perfect balance of humor and heart; I tried to keep those films in mind as I wrote and then later as the scenes unfolded in production.”

HBO Films had expressed interest in working with Blitz prior to the release of SPELLBOUND. Blitz and Welch had met with the company’s Maud Nadler, an early and ardent fan of their documentary. Blitz recalls that Nadler encouraged him to use his experience of high school debate and stuttering as a springboard for a narrative film. “Maud was a real guiding light,” the filmmaker affirms.

Producer Effie T. Brown, who had worked previously with HBO Films on films including REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES, also joined the ROCKET SCIENCE team before Blitz had completed his screenplay. When she read ROCKET SCIENCE, she was immediately struck by its distinctive tone. Comments Brown, “What I find really wonderful about Jeff’s voice is that he’s sort of a unique Everyman. Since he grew up as a stutterer, voice is something he’s very conscious of. I think stuttering makes you sort of slow down to focus on communication in a different way, which I think is reflected in his writing. Also, Jeff has a wicked, wicked sense of humor. His mind and his language move at lightning speed, way ahead of most people.”

She adds that for all the characters’ eccentricities, none feel like cartoons or straw men. “Jeff created fabulous, well-rounded characters that you don’t get to see everyday. But no one’s made fun of. You root for them all.”

Throughout its narrative, ROCKET SCIENCE subverts expectations, notes producer Welch. “It keeps you always wondering where it’s going to go because it never seems to follow any normal rules the way simple genre stories do. By keeping it out of any single genre trajectory, Jeff made the story feel more real. I believe in the characters more because they don’t seem like movie formulaic types. They are just more complex and less predictable than that.”

With the script completed, the casting process began in late 2004. Finding the right Hal proved frustrating. Recalls Brown, “We went all over the place. We tore apart all of L.A. We didn’t want Hollywood-type kids that looked like they did yoga and Pilates and were way more pulled together than any adult. That’s not the movie that we were doing. We needed someone that had chops, and we didn’t want 30-year-olds playing teenagers. We went to New York, and then we went to Baltimore. We went to Seattle, we went to Vancouver, we went to Chicago, San Francisco … we kept pushing and pushing because we weren’t going to make this movie without THE right person. This movie really hangs its whole hat on this one kid, Hal.”
At one point, a young actor was cast, only to have to withdraw because of scheduling problems. Already in pre-production, the filmmakers had to gear up for a new search. Says Blitz, “Over the next few weeks, we scrambled to find a new Hal. After seeing hundreds of potential Hals there were real questions as to whether we’d find a great one under these conditions.” Then one day they received a batch of videotaped auditions, including one by a young Canadian actor, Reece Daniel Thompson. Remembers Blitz, “I watched Reece’s tape and knew immediately we had a promising candidate. We flew Reece out, auditioned him with a bunch of other contenders and had our Hal. One of the things that struck me was that Reece has a certain physicality that reminded me of young Bud Cort in HAROLD AND MAUD. And although Hal is full of angst that Reece is not, he’s a very natural and receptive actor and was willing to take some big chances. And his natural sense of comedy -- especially physical comedy -- is really excellent.”

A Vancouver native, Thompson has been acting professionally for several years. ROCKET SCIENCE marks his first starring role. Thompson describes Hal as a boy who is somewhat invisible in his own life. “Hal’s that kid in the back of the class that no one notices. No one really knows who he is and he just kind of blends in. He’s so far under the radar that bullies don’t even notice him. But Hal is smart, and he totally sees the humor in life and in what he’s going through.”

Thompson also appreciated the colorful lineup of characters. “That’s one of the greatest things about the movie, is that every character in it is so bizarre – which is so true to real life. How often do you meet a leading man-type character? Everyone in life is weird in some way.”

Anna Kendrick, who made her film debut in the musical CAMP, was cast as the formidably intelligent and driven Ginny. “When Anna auditioned I knew instantly that she was the right match,” says Blitz. “A big part of the role was just to handle the flow of the dialogue. Anna was able to do it and then some. I got the sense that she truly understood everything Ginny said and, more than that, got intuitively the mix of vulnerability and strength in her. Anna herself is nothing like Ginny which makes the remarkable way she inhabited her all the more impressive.”

A facility with intellectual dialogue was also a necessity for the role of Ben, the legendary Plainsboro High debater who decamps for a working-class life in Trenton after fumbling the State debating finals. Says Blitz of Nicholas D’Agosto, who plays Ben, “Nick takes his work very seriously -- it’s an approach that’s very much like Ben, in my mind. He takes his thinking seriously, his decisions seriously. And he’s wonderfully bright himself. That intelligence combined with a generally high level of confidence and bravado that Nick brought to shape Ben was just right.”

Vincent Piazza was a student at the New York acting school where casting sessions were being held, and decided to audition. He ended up being one of the first actors cast. Comments Blitz, “Vince brought just the right combination of humor and threat to the part. In his first audition for Earl, Vince had all the basics down but also decided to use a heavy lisp. I eventually decided to do away with the lisp --one major speech impediment per family is plenty -- but kept many of the rest of the choices Vince brought to Earl. He’s a very physical actor and a very funny one, too.”

The filmmaker was also delighted with the young actors portraying Hal’s New Jersey peers, including Aaron Yoo as Heston and newcomer Josh Kay as Lewis. “Aaron made Heston almost an alien among the kids of New Jersey. He’s never quite connected to the scene but he’s always aware of it,” remarks Blitz. “And when Josh Kay came in to audition in New York, it was instantly obvious that he was perfect: smart, deadpan and with a natural ability to either nail the timing of the lines himself or mimic my reading to him.”
Another critical role was that of Doyle Hefner, Hal’s father, played by Tony Award nominee Denis O’Hare to play the small but critical part of Doyle Hefner. “Denis was a must-have for me. With no real rehearsal time, he was able to step in on two nights of shooting -- one at the start of the shoot, one at the very end -- and nail some pretty emotionally fraught scenes with Reece,” says Blitz.

Rounding out the primary cast are Lisbeth Bartlett as Juliet Hefner, Stephen Park as Judge Pete, Margot Martindale as Coach Lumbly, Maury Ginsberg as Mr. Lewinsky, and Utkarsh Ambudkar as high school debater Ram. ROCKET SCIENCE began production in summer 2005, filming for approximately 30 days in Baltimore, MD and Asbury Park, NJ.

The day before filming began, Blitz proposed taking Thompson, Piazza and Yoo out to dinner. But he insisted that they remain in character throughout the evening. “Because Reece, Vince and Aaron were in roles that required them to act in embarrassing ways I wanted to make sure that they could be comfortable around each other inhabiting their roles without self-consciousness,” Blitz explains. The actors agreed, so long as Blitz portrayed a character too – in his case, Uncle Chaz, a Hefner relative referred to, but never seen. They went to the ESPN Sportzone in Baltimore, and Blitz spent most of the evening trying to get his actors to break character. Reports the filmmaker, “We must have had the most patient waitress in the world because the guys threw everything they could at her. Vince, as Earl, played up both an obsessive compulsive streak (asking for a fresh straw for his drink each time he saw her) and his propensity for physical intimidation (he closely and briskly followed her back to her station once, much to her shock). Aaron, as Heston, seemed to barely grasp the way a restaurant functioned and must have asked her to explain the menu a dozen times before realizing he had no idea what he wanted. And Reece, as Hal, couldn’t order what he wanted and, even when he was forced to go for his second-choice dinner, still couldn’t say it. He was forced to come up with synonyms and roundabout ways to convey what he wanted. For all the fun -- and fun it was --- I think it was the beginning of them feeling comfortable around each other in character. And they started to think beyond the script to understand how their characters might be in the real world.”

In preparation for his role as Hal, Thompson had practiced stuttering with his mother, who had experience working with kids who stuttered. “The stutterers that my mom had known blocked a lot, which is when you’re trying to force the words out and you can’t get them out. But the kind of stuttering Jeff wanted was different, because the stutterer doesn’t get to the point of blocking; he knows that he’s going to block, so he tries to work his way around the word that he’s going to block on,” Thompson explains. “Instead of the stutter being a physical thing with my mouth, this was more of a mental process, where I would get to a word and I would have to think of another word. It was interesting learning to stutter in a certain way. Jeff helped, because he struggled with stuttering while he was growing up.”

Thompson acknowledges some nerves in taking on his first leading role, but he quickly began to feel at ease as the shoot got underway in Baltimore. He worked closely with Blitz, who shared stories from his own youth and became a good friend. “Jeff’s a great writer and director, and we got along really well,” Thompson remarks. “Hal was so well drawn and I understood him so much – we both did, Jeff and I – that I could just step into the role. It was such a great experience and I’m really grateful to have been given that chance.”

Kendrick and D’Agosto had to learn debating skills in preparation for their roles as Ginny and Ben. Among other things, they had to master the debating technique known as spreading, which involves speaking very rapidly to maximize the amount of evidence and arguments a debater can present in the short time allotted. The filmmakers brought in a college debate coach to discuss current techniques, and the actors were also given debate videos to watch. But the invaluable lessons came from watching an actual high school debate in Baltimore. Remembers Blitz, “They came back from that debate full of realizations of how the kids moved, stood, talked. Spreading, even if you understand what it is, can be very hard to pull off well. Anna and Nick were both so good at it that we had to rough their approach up a bit.”

Blitz worked with a longtime collaborator, noted Belgian director of photography Jo Willems, to create a visual scheme for ROCKET SCIENCE that complimented both the offbeat comedy and the emotional substance of the story. Blitz has been working with Willems since the beginning of his career, when Willems shot “spec” commercials that Blitz and co-director Mac Carter used to break into the field. Since then, Willems has shot most of Blitz and Carter’s commercials, and Blitz credits the Dutch-born cinematographer with helping him hone his visual aesthetic. “Jo has a very European sensibility about shooting, and he’s enormously talented; he’s also a genuinely great guy,” says Blitz. “Jo was my creative partner during production and I knew I could rely upon his judgment for what was working. We really set out to tell a story that was equal parts deadpan and suggestive of the ‘real’ world. We wanted a look that let the emotion of the movie feel true, but also allowed the deadpan style of the comedy to hit right. These are almost opposite impulses -- to make something feel intimate and observed; to make something feel theatrical enough to carry the comedy through. We would generally go for a sense of lighting and art direction that felt completely real, with a sense of framing that would feel more deadpan.”

To unify the film and underscore its comic tone, they opted for a tightly controlled color palette in production design as well as wardrobe. Production designer Rick Butler sought out unobtrusive furnishings and nondescript cars, giving the film a sense that it could take place anywhere, at any recent time.

With production completed, Blitz began post-production work with editor Yana Gorskaya, who had edited SPELLBOUND. He also began thinking about the film’s music. While writing the screenplay, he had been listening to CDs by the band Clem Snide, helmed by singer/guitarist/songwriter Eef Barzelay. He found an affinity between Barzelay’s music and world he was creating in ROCKET SCIENCE. “Eef grew up in suburban New Jersey and writes ironic songs about suburban alienation,” says Blitz. “At some point, I gave a Clem Snide CD to Maud Nadler at HBO, and she flipped for them. When Yana and I began cutting, we used lots of Clem Snide music as temp score and we ended up hiring Eef on the basis of that. Then I changed direction on the score entirely -- going for a quirky instrumental feel instead -- and we kept Eef on to do it. For me, the important part of the score was that it always be simple, have a quirkiness about it that matched the brain of the movie and also capture the underlying emotional sense without ever pushing it. And I felt Eef could do that.”

”Jeff wanted the music to be kind of sad-funny: tragicomic,” recalls Barzelay. “And so naturally I thought ukulele! What’s sadder than a ukulele? So I was messing around with this little ukulele, and I gave it this kind of open tuning. It made the music more meditative, not bouncy and jumpy like most ukulele music. That became the foundation for the entire score. I wanted the ukulele to basically be Hal – a sort of helpless yet hopeful little guy, off in the wilderness.”

Barzelay’s score for ROCKET SCIENCE employs a wide range of instruments, including the aforementioned ukulele, tuba, accordion, cello, banjo and kazoo as well as more traditional rock instruments. There are handclaps, whistles and other homemade sounds. “I wanted to feel the person in the room playing these instruments,” Barzelay explains. “I didn’t want, and Jeffrey certainly didn’t want, some luscious, string-y kind of score. We wanted the music to feel a little awkward, in the same way that Hal feels awkward. And make that awkwardness graceful.”

The concept of graceful awkwardness also encompasses Hal’s getting of wisdom in ROCKET SCIENCE. Hal’s small personal victory is at the end of the film is in keeping with the film’s fundamentally humane outlook as well as its ironic humor. Blitz confirms that he was never tempted to have Hal triumph in the conventional sense, by winning the debate and getting the girl. “In the end, winning the debate tournament is unimportant,” he remarks. “Discovering that you have the inner resources to examine your life and wish that it could be better – that’s a more intriguing and meaningful ending to a coming-of-age story, at least for me.”

Brown agrees, adding, “The film definitely touches on a lot of different themes, like life. It can’t be typed. It’s not the high school teen movie, it’s not the kid overcoming his disability, and it’s not the jilted lover. It’s not as easy as that. But I think this film is very accessible to everybody. I’m a black woman from Jersey, and I totally identified with this world. I got it. I think these are all very common experiences; everybody has been through something like this.”

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

JEFFREY BLITZ (Writer/Director)

Jeffrey Blitz made his feature directorial debut in 2003 with the documentary SPELLBOUND, an exploration of the National Spelling Bee. Financed on credit cards, SPELLBOUND took three and a half years to complete and was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Documentary, an Emmy Award for directing, an Independent Spirit Award, and the International Documentary Association Award, and won a News & Documentary Emmy.

Like his main character in ROCKET SCIENCE, Blitz grew up as a stutterer - a condition that gave rise to an early fascination with speech and storytelling and, perversely, inspired a desire to test himself in the realm of public speaking. He entered the world of high school debate and, slowly and steadily, found himself able to compete. In his senior year, he was accomplished enough to be elected president of his team and, with his partner, win the New Jersey state debate championships.

Blitz's fascination with language led him into creative writing in college where he studied with John Barth, Grace Paley and J.M. Coetzee and then onto study film at USC. While completing his MFA and prepping SPELLBOUND, Blitz worked at the Writers Guild of America researching the secret screenplay histories of writers blacklisted in the 1940s and '50s.

After finishing ROCKET SCIENCE, Blitz directed on the American version of "The Office" and, with the team from SPELLBOUND, is now completing a documentary on big lottery winners.

EFFIE T. BROWN (Producer)

Los Angeles-based producer Effie T. Brown received a degree in film production and theater from Loyola Marymount University before going on to participate in the IFP’s Project Involve, an intensive fellowship program for people of color seeking a career in the film industry. The fellowship provided an invaluable introduction to the independent film world and Brown quickly worked her way up through the ranks to become Director of Development for Tim Burton Productions in 1995. Eager to try her hand at producing, she landed assignments as a line producer on feature films including DESERT BLUE (1998); BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER (1999); and THINGS YOU CAN TELL JUST BY LOOKING AT HER (2000).

Brown soon took on the role of producer on critically acclaimed, awarding-winning feature projects from HBO Films, including Cheryl Dunye’s STRANGER INSIDE, a World Premiere at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival; Patricia Cardosa’s REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES, winner of the 2002 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award and Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Performance; and Jim McKay’s 2004 drama, EVERYDAY PEOPLE. Brown also executive produced, in association with Sony Screen Gems and Pathe International, Jane Campion’s 2003 drama IN THE CUT. Recognized for her innovative vision, Brown received the Motorola Producer Award at the 2003 Independent Spirit Awards, and was honored by her alma mater with the 2003 Distinguished Young Alumni Award. She also serves on the board of Film Independent.

SEAN WELCH (Producer)

Sean Welch produced the Oscar®-nominated documentary SPELLBOUND, directed by Jeffrey Blitz. A native of Los Angeles, Welch spent his more formative years in Berkeley, CA, working as a carpenter and playing soccer. After returning to L.A., Welch worked on feature films including CRIMSON TIDE and FACE/OFF and began producing commercials. He has made traveling and photography a priority and has backpacked through South America, Europe, North America, Africa, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and the Middle East, believing that his journeys are the midwives of thought.

JO WILLEMS (Director of Photography)

Of Belgian descent, Jo Willems attended the Saint Lukas Institute for Visual Arts in Brussels and continued his studies in filmmaking at the London Film School.

After shooting more than 100 music videos and commercials in England, Willems relocated to Los Angeles to continue his career in music videos, commercials and features. Some of Willems’ most important work includes projects with directors such as Paul Hunter, Roman Coppola, Bennett Miller, Mark Romanek, Francis Lawrence, David LaChapelle, and David Slade. He has lensed countless commercials, including spots for Adidas, Sony, Virgin, Gap, iPod and Motorola as well as music videos featuring Prince, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Will Smith, Outkast and Kanye West. He was nominated for Best Cinematography at the English CAD Awards for “Mr. Writer”/The Stereophonics and “Clubbed to Death”/Rob Dougan.

Willems made his feature film debut with HARD CANDY, directed by long-time collaborator David Slade; the film garnered Willems the Best Cinematography award at the 2006 Malaga Film Festival. His second feature, LONDON, starred Jessica Biel and was released in February 2006. He is currently lensing Slade’s sophomore feature, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT.

RICK BUTLER (Production Designer)

Rick Butler designs for feature films, television and commercials. His feature credits include Dan Harris’ IMAGINARY HEROES, Peter Hedges’ PIECES OF APRIL, Michael Lehman’s FLAKES, GQ’s JUST ANOTHER STORY, Ethan Hawke’s CHELSEA WALLS, Alan Taylor’s KILL THE POOR, and Gary Winick’s THE TIC CODE. He is production designer for Oscar® winner Paul Haggis’ upcoming television project THE BLACK DONNELLYS, as well as Ethan Hawke’s upcoming feature THE HOTTEST STATE. He is currently at work on Monica Winter Vigil’s feature directorial debut HIGHWAY 101.

Butler served as art director for Anthony Minghella’s THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY, John Dahl’s ROUNDERS, Jim Sheridan’s IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, and Nora Ephron’s SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE. He worked as art director on the original pilot and first season of the long-running crime series “Law & Order” and created designs for “Law & Order Criminal Intent.” Educated at Boston University and Yale, Butler began his career in New York theatre, designing for off-Broadway and Broadway productions and eventually designing for the prestigious Juillliard School.

YANA GORSKAYA (Editor)

Yana Gorskaya received the 2004 American Cinema Editors Eddie award for her work on Jeffrey Blitz's much acclaimed and Academy Award®-nominated SPELLBOUND, which follows eight children on their way to the National Spelling Bee. Other documentary credits include IN THE NAME OF LOVE, a multi-award winning exploration of Russian marriage agencies executive produced by Sydney Pollack; SEEDS, a chronicle of the Seeds of Peace Camp in Maine, which brings together children from war-torn regions on both sides of the conflict; and SONNY BOY, directed by Soleil Moon Frye. Gorskaya is currently at work editing another documentary with the SPELLBOUND team, and looks forward to a career straddling documentary and fiction. She received her B.A. from Columbia University and her MFA from USC, both with numerous honors.

ERNESTO MARTINEZ (Costume Designer)

Ernesto Martinez has designed costumes for features including Peter Ettinger’s upcoming LONELY STREET, Michael Traeger’s THE MOGULS, Mark Dippe’s VIRTUAL PERFECTION, Paul Quinn’s NEVER GET OUTTA THE BOAT, and Joe Cardone’s THE FORESAKEN. He also designed costumes for the Disney Channel telefilm LIFE IS RUFF. Martinez worked as an assistant designer on such films as Michael Radford’s DANCING AT THE BLUE IGUANA, Michael Apted’s ALWAYS OUTNUMBERED, Joel and Ethan Coen’s THE HUDSUCKER PROXY and BARTON FINK, Jessie Nelson’s CORINA, CORINA, and Paul Schrader’s LIGHT SLEEPER. He is a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parson’s School of Design in New York City.

EEF BARZELAY (Music)

Eef Barzelay is a singer/songwriter and the founder of the widely admired band Clem Snide. Barzelay has recorded five albums with Clem Snide. In February 2006, he made his solo recording debut with the critically acclaimed “Bitter Honey.”

Barzelay formed Clem Snide in Boston in 1991. Despite an ill-fated major-label deal early in its career, the band persevered and achieved a string of remarkable successes while amassing a loyal following. The song “Moment In The Sun,” from the band’s 2001 release “The Ghost Of Fashion” became the theme for the NBC TV series “Ed.” Clem Snide has appeared on television and radio programs including “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” “The Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn,” and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Clem Snide surfaced on several of 2004’s most prominent and popular compilation CDs, including “The Late Great Daniel Johnston,” the soundtrack to the video game Stubbs the Zombie, and the McSweeney’s/MoveOn.org benefit “Future Soundtrack For America.” The band’s most recent release, “The End of Love,” was named one of 2005’s 10 best by critics at the Onion A.V. Club; earlier releases, including “Soft Spot” and “The Ghost of Fashion,” made year-end critics lists at The Onion, radio station WNYU and the NPR online music program “All Songs Considered.”

MATTHEW LESSALL, CSA (Casting)

Matthew Lessall is a freelance casting director based in Los Angeles. A member of the Casting Society of America and BAFTA/LA, Lessall recently was nominated for his third Artios Award for casting the short film STARCROSSED; his previous Artios nominations were in the Mini-Series and Short Film categories. He recently completed casting for TRICK ‘R TREAT for writer/director Michael Dougherty and producers Bryan Singer, Imaginary Pictures and Warner Bros. His upcoming projects include THE CROOKED EYE, DEADGIRL and BIG TOP. In addition to his freelance work, Lessall was Director, Feature Film Casting at 20th Century Fox Studios from 2005-2006, where his credits included THE OMEN.

His credits as an independent casting director include EYE OF THE DOLPHIN, BORDERLAND, NEARING GRACE, MEAN CREEK (Independent Spirit Special Distinction Award winner for its ensemble cast), BIG TOP, EVIL REMAINS and ALI AND DANNY. His mini-series and movie-of-the-week credits include THE CURSE OF KING TUT’S TOMB, BLACKBEARD, KING SOLOMON’S MINES, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, FRANKENSTEIN, and LA FEMME MUSKETEER. His video feature credits include DREAM WARRIOR, ENDANGERED SPECIES and WARRIOR ANGELS.

Born in London and raised in New York (UK & US passport holder), Lessall trained as an actor at LAMDA and received a BA in Communications from DePauw University.

ABOUT THE CAST

REECE DANIEL THOMPSON (Hal Hefner)

A native of Vancouver, British Columbia, Reece Daniel Thompson made his feature film debut in Lawrence Kasdan’s horror/thriller DREAMCATCHER. He will next be seen in Jon Kasdan’s comedy IN THE LAND OF WOMEN. He had a recurring role in the 2006 television series “Three Moons Over Milford” and recently guest starred on “Smallville.”

Thompson got his first taste of acting when he enrolled in classes at Vancouver’s respected drama school, Tarlington Training. Encouraged by Tarlington staff, he signed with an agent after a few weeks of class. Auditions soon led to a role in the TV mini series, “Living with the Dead,” directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal. Thompson subsequently played lead roles on two Canadian children’s series and made several guest appearances on television series shot in Vancouver, including “Jeremiah”, “Tru Calling,” “Stargate Atlantis” and “The 4400.” In addition, he has voiced roles in many anime and children’s cartoon series, including “Megaman: NT Warrior,” “Infinite Ryvius,” and “Trollz.”

Thompson enjoys writing and has aspirations to become a screenwriter and director one day. He resides with his family near Vancouver, B.C.

ANNA KENDRICK (Ginny)

Acclaimed young actress Anna Kendrick is rapidly making her mark in theatre, film and television. She became the second youngest Tony Award nominee ever when she was nominated as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance as Dinah in the Broadway revival of “High Society.” She was also honored with Drama League and Theatre World awards, as well as Drama Desk and Fany award nominations.

Kendrick made her feature film debut in Todd Graff’s Sundance Film Festival hit CAMP, and received an Independent Spirit Award nomination in the “Someone to Watch” category, as well as a best supporting actress nomination at the Annual Chlotrudis Awards. She will next be seen as the star of the Nathan Hope’s crime/thriller ELSEWHERE. Her television credits include the WB comedy series “The Mayor,” whose producers included Adam Sandler.

Kendrick was featured in the New York City Opera House production of “A Little Night Music,” starring Jeremy Irons, directed by Scott Ellis and choreographed by Susan Stroman. She was a lead performer with in the “Cabaret” segment of “My Favorite Broadway/The Leading Ladies” at Carnegie Hall Live, and work-shopped “Jane Eyre” and “The Little Princess” for Broadway.

NICHOLAS D’AGOSTO (Ben Wekselbaum)

Nicholas D’Agosto made his feature film debut in Alexander Payne’s ELECTION. Other feature credits include Robert Lee King’s cult comedy PSYCHO BEACH PARTY, Jeff Mahler’s INSIDE, which won the 2006 Los Angeles Indiefest competition, and the upcoming independent films DRIVE-THRU, directed by Shane Kuhn and Brendan Cowles, and LA BLUES, directed by Ian Gurvitz.

On television, D’Agosto starred in the pilot “Orpheus,” directed by Bruce Beresford for CBS, as well as the pilots “Joint Custody” for ABC and “Cracking Up” for FOX. He has guest starred on numerous series, including “Without a Trace,” “House,” “Cold Case,” “Six Feet Under,” and “Boston Public,” and was seen in recurring guest roles on “E.R.” and “Related.”

D’Agosto served as dramaturg, co-author and principal performer in the play “Chomsky 9/11,” produced at Theatre X in Milwaukee. He also appeared in “Life Is a Dream” at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. D’Agosto graduated Cum Laude from Marquette University, with degrees in theatre and history.

VINCENT PIAZZA (Earl Hefner)

Vincent Piazza made his feature film debut in STEPHANIE DALEY, which won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at 2006 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. He will next be seen in Joy Dietrich’s drama TIE A YELLOW RIBBON and has just wrapped filming Daniel Schechter’s drama GOODBYE BABY.

Piazza’s television credits include the recurring role of “Hernan O’Brien” in Season 6 of “The Sopranos,” and a guest-starring role on “Law & Order Criminal Intent.”

A New York native of German-Italian descent, Piazza grew up in an ethnic Queens that encouraged his early affinity for acting and entertainment. After high school, he enjoyed a brief stint playing Division 1-AA ice hockey at Villanova University before a shoulder injury forced him to quit playing and leave the University after only one year. After a few years spent traveling throughout the Middle East and Europe, Piazza decided to focus on an acting career. He began working with acting coach Alice Spivak in 2000. She has kept him focused on stage training for both classics and contemporary works. He has appeared in a number of New York stage productions, including the Off Broadway production of “Baby Steps” for the terraNOVA Theatre Collective at the Lion Theatre and “Much Ado About Nothing” at Central Park.

MARGO MARTINDALE (Coach Lumbly)

Tony Award-nominee Margo Martindale has acted in a host of acclaimed features, television series and plays since the late 1980s. Among her many feature credits are: Clint Eastwood’s MILLION DOLLAR BABY; Stephen Daldry’s THE HOURS; Robert Benton’s THE HUMAN STAIN, TWILIGHT, NOBODY’S FOOL and his upcoming FEAST OF LOVE; Sydney Pollack’s THE FIRM and SABRINA; Moises Kaufman’s THE LARAMIE PROJECT; Tim Robbins’ DEAD MAN WALKING; Rob Reiner’s GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPI; and George Miller’s LORENZO’S OIL. She appeared in Alexander Payne’s segment of the omnibus film PARIS JE T’AIME which premiered at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and will next be seen in Michael Ian Black’s upcoming comedy THE PLEASURE OF YOUR COMPANY. She recently completed filming roles in Tamara Jenkins’ THE SAVAGES and Alan Brown’s SUPERHEROES.

Her television credits include a recurring role on the NBC drama “Medium,” Showtime's "Dexter" and Sidney Lumet's "100 Centre Street.” Telefilms and miniseries include IRONJAWED ANGELS; PLAINSONG; PERFECT MURDER, PERFECT TOWN; FIRST DO NO HARM; and LONESOME DOVE. Upcoming television projects include a regular role in the new FX series “The Riches,” starring Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver.”

Martindale was nominated for the Tony Award for best supporting actress in a play for her role as Big Mama in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Off-Broadway credits include “Steel Magnolias,” “Always Patsy Cline,” “Curse of the Starving Class,” and “Miss Firecracker Contest.”

AARON YOO (Heston)

In addition to ROCKET SCIENCE, Aaron Yoo’s upcoming film releases include THE AMERICAN PASTIME (ShadowCatcher Entertainment), an indie in which he plays the lead role of Lyle, a young saxophone playing baseball pitcher relocated to the Topaz interment camp for Japanese-Americans during WWII. Yoo also stars in the Dreamworks feature DISTURBIA, scheduled for a summer 2007 release. When not in front of the camera, Yoo chronicled a behind-the-scenes video diary of the cast and crew. DISTURBIA marks the first of a two-picture deal with Dreamworks for Yoo.

Yoo was seen in the recurring role of James Fong in WB’s “The Bedford Diaries.” Other television appearances include “Law & Order: SVU,” “Love Monkey” and “Ed”.

Yoo’s career began Off-Broadway. He starred in U.S. and world premiere productions including “Where Do We Live” at the Vineyard Theatre, “wAve” and “Savage Acts” for the Ma-Yi Theatre Company, “Cellophane” at the Flea Theatre, and the National Asian-American Theatre Co.’s “Fuenteovejuna.” Other NYC credits include “The Gifted Program” at the LAByrinth and “Karaoke Stories” for the Imua! Theatre Company.

Yoo is a skilled DJ, plays the cello and pole vaults. He is a soccer fiend and holds a second degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. He earned a BA in Theatre from the University of Pennsylvania, grew up in East Brunswick, NJ and was born in Dallas, TX.

JOSH KAY (Lewis)

Josh Kay makes his feature film debut with ROCKET SCIENCE. He previously appeared in the Japanese telefilm THE CHRISTMAS TREE. Josh can be seen as Vito Jr.’s gothic friend in an upcoming episode of “The Sopranos” finale season. He has appeared twice on "Saturday Night Live," opposite Robert DeNiro and Natalie Portman, respectively. One of Kay’s goals is to be the youngest cast member on "Saturday Night Live." Between appearing on the show, winning the Bazooka Joe Wisecracking Kid Contest at Caroline’s Comedy Club in NY, doing stand-up comedy, and studying sketch comedy and improvisation at a Second City class, he’s well on his way. Kay studied drama at the Hudson Valley Conservatory, where he starred in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Lord of the Flies,” “Love’s Labor Lost,” and “Little Shop of Horrors”; and at the French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts, where he starred in “Oklahoma!.” “Big,” “Oliver,” “Aladdin,” and “The Lion King.” He has also trained with Diane Hardin (LA), Samuel E. Wright (Broadway), and Geoffrey Cantor (NY). Kay has appeared in television commercials for AOL, A & E, Microsoft, and Radio Shack. In his spare time, he likes to snowboard, sail, and hip hop dance.

LISBETH BARTLETT (Juliet Hefner)

Lisbeth Bartlett’s acting career spans feature films, theatre and television. Her feature credits include R.T. Herwig’s THE GOOD THIEF (Best Supporting Actress Nominee, 2003 Method Fest Independent Film Festival), Milos Forman’s AMADEUS, Peter Yates’s SUSPECT, and Doris Dorrie’s ME AND HIM. Her television credits include guest roles in “Hack” and “The Jamie Kennedy Experiment,” as well as a lead role on “One Life to Live.”

Bartlett’s Broadway credits include “The Dresser” with Tom Courtenay, “Execution of Justice,” and Circle in the Square’s “Tribute to William Saroyan.” She frequently performs with Philadelphia theatre companies, including the Philadelphia Theatre Company (“How I Learned to Drive,” “Three Viewings”) and the historic Walnut Street Theatre (“Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Last Night at Ballyhoo”). Other regional stage credits include “Hamlet” with Christopher Walken at the American Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford; and the world premiere of Theresa Rebeck’s “Loose Knit” at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT.

STEPHEN PARK (Judge Pete)

Stephen Park has appeared in numerous films, television programs and regional theatre productions. His feature credits include Barbet Schroeder’s DESPERATE MEASURES, Joel and Ethan Coen’s FARGO, Bill Murray’s QUICK CHANGE, and Spike Lee’s DO THE RIGHT THING. Park was a series regular on the hit comedy series “In Living Color”; other television credits include guest appearances on “The Venture Brothers,” “Law and Order,” “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” “Hope and Faith,” “Friends,” and “Mad About You,” and a recurring role on “Boy Meets World.” Among his regional theatre credits are “Aunt Dan and Lemon” at the New Group, “Gravity Falls From Trees” at the American Asian Theatre, and “Eating Chicken Feet” and “Three Sisters” at the Pan Asian Rep.

MAURY GINSBERG (Lewinsky)

Maury Ginsberg is active in film, theatre, and television. His film credits include Gore Verbinski’s THE RING, Daniel Pyne’s WHERE’S MARLOWE and the HBO telefilm LANSKY, directed by John McNaughton. Ginsberg has appeared on the television series “Kidnapped,” “Law and Order,” “Law and Order: SVU,” “Joan of Arcadia,” “Without a Trace,” “NYPD Blue,” and “Friends,” among others.

Ginsberg has acted in several productions at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, among them “Marat-Sade,” “Mother Courage,” and “Henry IV.” Other regional stage credits include “Intimate Apparel” at the Philadelphia Theatre Co.; “Vilna’s Got a Golem” at the Mark Taper Too; and “Freedomland” at the South Coast Repertory.

UTKARSH AMBUDKAR (Ram)
Utkarsh Ambudkar is a 22-year-old emcee, poet, and actor born in Baltimore, Maryland. He will next be seen in SPINNING IN TO BUTTER, starring Sarah Jessica Parker and COMING SOON by Stephen Tannenbaum.
His theatre credits include: “The Me Nobody Knows” at Vineyard Theater, “Rerites” at New York University; “History of the Word” at Crossroads Theater,, and “Welcome to Arroyo's” at Lark Theater and the Hip Hop Theater Festival. Ambudkar earned his B.F.A. in Drama at NYU, where he became a founding member of the 5th Project Collective, a hip-hop theater company focused on creating and collecting stories for, by, and of the hip hop generation. The collective travels to universities and community institutions worldwide conducting workshops, which include a beat-box intensive, writing, emceeing, and dance training. In 2007 they will premiere their second full-length production QUIETUS at the Hip-Hop Theater festival in NYC which was birthed in Ghana, West Africa.
A winner of multiple rap battles at Sin Sin Leopard Lounge NYC, he hosts the monthly Mixtape Riot series whose homebase is Fat Baby in Manhattan; in 2007 the party will move through Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and Vancouver before coming back to NYC.
Ambudkar can also be seen on MTVdesi, a brand new MTV WORLD channel available on DirectTV dedicated to the interests and lifestyles of Southasian-American youth, as a VJ and musician. In September 2006, he finished recording his solo EP Lo-fi Champ.

DENIS O’HARE (Doyle Hefner)

Denis O’Hare is an award-winning stage actor who has worked with some of theatre’s finest directors, including Sam Mendes, Rob Marshall, Joe Montello and Daniel Sullivan. O’Hare originated the role of Mason in the off-Broadway and Broadway productions of the hit play “Take Me Out,” winning the Tony Award, the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award and the Clarence Derwent Award for Featured Actor, as well as Off-Broadway’s Obie and the Lucille Lortel Award in the same category. He received a second Drama Desk Award for Featured Actor in a Musical, as well as an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for his performance in the Broadway revival of “Sweet Charity.” His performance in “Assassins” earned him a Tony Award nomination for Featured Actor in a Musical and a Drama League Award nomination for Distinguished Performance. In early 2007, O’Hare will star opposite Zoe Caldwell in the highly-anticipated English-language premiere of Yasmina Reza’s THE SPANISH PLAY, directed by John Turturro.

Additional Broadway credits include “Major Barbara,” “Cabaret,” and “Racing Demon.” Off-Broadway credits include Greg Kotis’ “Pig Farm,” Tony Kushner’s production of “Helen” at the New York Shakespeare Festival, “The Devils” at New York Theatre Workshop, and “Silence, Cunning, Exile” at the New York Shakespeare Theatre. He performed in the London production of “Take Me Out” at the Donmar Warehouse and “Never the Sinner” at the Playhouse Theatre. O’Hare has also been active in Chicago theatre, and has twice won the Jeff Award, for his work in “Hauptmann” and “Voice of the Prairie.” Other Chicago stage credits include “The Iceman Cometh” at the Goodman Theatre; “What the Butler Saw,” “Caucasian Chalk Circle,” and “Fuente Ovejuna” at the Court Theatre; and “King Lear” at Body Politic.

His feature credits include Ryan Fleck’s HALF NELSON, DERAILED, Jim McKay’s ANGEL, Zach Braff’s GARDEN STATE, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s 21 GRAMS, Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh’s THE ANNIVERSARY PARTY, ST. PATRICK'S DAY, RIVER RED, Woody Allen’s SWEET AND LOWDOWN, and Campbell Scott’s HAMLET. He will be seen in several upcoming releases, among them Hilary Brougher’s Sundance Film Festival Award winner STEPHANIE DALEY; Joby Harold’s AWAKE; Tony Gilroy’s MICHAEL CLAYTON; David Ross’ THE BABYSITTERS; and John Krasinski’s BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN. He is currently filming Michael Winterbottom’s A MIGHTY HEART, about journalist Daniel Pearl, and Mike Nichols’ CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR.

On television, O’Hare starred in the acclaimed musical “Once Upon a Mattress,” directed by Kathleen Marshall, and the Hallmark Hall of Fame film ST. MAYBE, directed by Michael Pressman. He has guest starred in numerous series.