The Young Messiah

A Film by Cyrus Nowrasteh

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The Young MessiahDirector’s Statement

There is a rich history of Jesus movies that have dramatized Jesus’ ministry and crucifixion, but none have ever glimpsed into his life as a boy. What kind of child was he? What was his family like? What kind of parents were Joseph and Mary? How could they guide and protect this special child?

Obviously there are great challenges in depicting this because we know very little about Jesus’ childhood. This movie seeks to present a realistic portrait of Jesus rooted in faith. Scripture is the inspiration for the emotions and actions of the boy Jesus as they are envisioned in our story. We do this with respect and reverence in order to imagine a child consistent with Jesus as revealed in the Bible.

Our story takes place during one year in Jesus’ life when he was seven. With the Holy Land in turmoil, young Jesus and his family leave Egypt for their home in Israel. Joseph and Mary are fully aware of the dangers of their world: a corrupt King Herod, civil unrest, and a brutal occupying Roman force. We see a real family face crises and foes large and small with love, fidelity, humor and especially faith.

Knowledgeable viewers will see in our film events and images that foreshadow Jesus’ life as depicted in the Gospels. His compassion and understanding far exceed his years, yet in time he will grow “in wisdom, and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52)

While we hope that our film finds a place alongside other Jesus classics, it’s more important to us that it inspires people to visit, or revisit, the Jesus story from a fresh new angle. As believers, we hope that children will be attracted by another child’s story — Jesus’ story — and that this can be a Passion of the Christ for the entire family. We even hope that, in some small way, our film leads viewers to the transformation and grace that Jesus extends to us all.

-- Cyrus Nowrasteh

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The Young MessiahSynopsis

The inspiring and unique story of seven-year-old Jesus Christ and His family as they come to a fuller understanding of His divine nature and purpose.

A Focus Features presentation in association with Ocean Blue Entertainment of a 1492 Pictures/CJ Entertainment production. A Film by Cyrus Nowrasteh. The Young Messiah. Adam Greaves-Neal, Sara Lazzaro, Vincent Walsh, Clive Russell, and Sean Bean. Music by John Debney. Edited by Geoffrey Rowland, ACE, Paul Seydor, ACE. Production Design by Francesco Frigeri. Director of Photography, Joel Ransom. Executive Producers, Enzo Sisti, William V. Andrew, Mark Burton, Miky Lee, Tae-sung Jeong, Ashok Amritraj, Andrew Spaulding, Richard Sandfer. Produced by Chris Columbus, Mark Radcliffe, Michael Barnathan, Tracy K. Price, Mark W. Shaw. Based on the novel Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice. Screenplay by Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh & Cyrus Nowrasteh. Directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh. A Focus Features Release.

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The Young MessiahAbout the Production

Page to Screenplay

In 2005, Anne Rice wrote a fictional account of the childhood of a young Jesus Christ, entitled Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. It quickly landed near the top of The New York Times bestseller list that year.

Screenwriter Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh read the book when it was first released. “I was a fan of Anne’s books and was interested to see how she’d approach this material, and I loved it,” she says. The novel excited her so much that she even found herself giving the book to a number of friends, something she says she never does. She didn’t, however, immediately think of the book as a movie. It wasn’t until director and co-screenwriter Cyrus Nowrasteh (Betsy’s husband) received a call from the agent he shared with Anne Rice about the potential project several years later that the film adaptation, The Young Messiah, started taking shape. It transpired that Rice was already familiar with the Nowrastehs’ previous film, The Stoning of Soraya M., and had written a glowing review on Amazon.com about the movie. Rice wondered whether the Nowrastehs would be interested in taking a look at her book. Cyrus read the novel quickly and, like his wife, responded immediately to the unique take on the story of Jesus as a young boy and how his family comes to a fuller understanding of his nature and purpose. “I thought it could make a beautiful film,” he remembers.

Cyrus happened to be working with 1492 Pictures on another project. Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh recalls, “He was talking to producer Michael Barnathan, the usual chit-chat, and Cyrus mentioned that this book had been brought up.”

“It instantly lit up as a great idea,” Barnathan says. “It’s the notion that it’s just about a child. We’d see it from the perspective of this boy who over the course of a year comes to understand much more about who he is, why the world around him is the way it is, why people are after him and why he is special.”

At the heart of The Young Messiah is a relatable tale about the struggle of a family trying to cope with a child who is realizing how very different he is from everyone else. Barnathan elaborates, “Anne said she chose this time period to write about because in human development at age seven, a human being starts to look inward. It’s the first time a child says, ‘Who am I?’ and ‘What am I going to be when I grow up?’ as opposed to ‘I’m hungry’ or ‘I’m cold’. It’s their first look inside, and this happened to coincide with the year the first King Herod died. So she lined up those two things and thought, what an interesting time for this young boy to be looking inward and to wonder who he is.”

With 1492 on board as producers, Betsy and Cyrus got to work on adapting the novel for the screen – a process which didn’t come without challenges. The first

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was that the book spans a longer period covering several physical journeys for the holy family. The filmmakers believed that the movie version would benefit from being tighter. “It needed a ticking clock,” Cyrus says. “For it to be a movie, it really needed this drive to a conclusion.”

The film commences seven years after the family has fled to Egypt from their home in Nazareth. “Betsy and I felt that it needed things that Anne alludes to in the story, but doesn’t completely dramatize. What she alludes to in the book is the sense of threat, chaos, danger, and civil war. A young Herod has assumed the throne and he’s worried because everyone’s talking about a Messiah, a boy who’s performing miracles. That’s a threat to his power. We felt that young Herod needed to be a character and that should send someone off on a mission to find this boy who’s performing miracles, who may be the Messiah, who may be the child who was missed in Bethlehem seven years ago.”

Rice has gone on record to say that Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt is her favorite book that she’s written, so the Nowrastehs were unsurprisingly nervous to hand over the script draft for her to read. “We showed her the script and she couldn’t have been more enthusiastic and effusive. It was a huge relief,” Betsy laughs. “For all of the changes we made, she saw that we understood the story. All the themes were intact and all the basic moves were from her material and the characters. We were faithful in all the ways that I think she hoped, knowing that there would be changes. It’s very personal to her – and it is to us, too. We all felt a kinship and there was something very devotional about it in a way. We wanted to respect that.”

Cyrus adds, “I want this to be a faith-affirming movie because I have been touched by the experience of working on this. Telling this story and what it has to say and what it’s about are things that I think are very dear to many, many people, not just Christians. Family and faith are universal. Each of us brings something different to it and will take away something different from it. I just hope the audience thinks it’s a beautiful story and that it was worth the experience to go and watch it.”

Casting a Famous Family

“This movie really hangs on a young child,” says director Cyrus Nowrasteh. Knowing that his producing partners at 1492 Pictures – Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan, and Mark Radcliffe – had cast children very successfully in some of the biggest family films of all time including Harry Potter, Home Alone, and Percy Jackson, Nowrasteh was keen on their participation in the process.

“Whenever you have a child at the center of a movie, the greatest challenge becomes finding that actor,” says producer Michael Barnathan. “We had casting directors in the U.K., Italy, Jordan, Israel, the United States, and one that was looking everywhere else in the world. We knew that we had to find that child who instantly – by looking at him, hearing him – captures the innocence and the intelligence that the character should have. This is a child who is a product of God

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and man so the child had to be special, had to have a spirit in his eyes. You know it when you see it.”

Nowrasteh estimates that including self-tapes he looked at 2000 boys for the part. “Then I got a call from our casting director, Suzanne Smith in London, who told me that a little boy, Adam Greaves-Neal, had just walked in who made the hair stand up on the back of their necks.” Nowrasteh flew to London to meet with him. “When he came into the room, it was immediately and powerfully evident to me that he was a very special young boy,” he reflects.

Nowrasteh decided to send Chris Columbus a tape of Adam, along with tapes of four other boys that he thought were pretty good. The response was immediate: “He said that no one else came close to Adam.”

“Adam leapt off the screen,” Barnathan recalls of seeing those initial tapes. “He has this ability to focus and that quality where he seems like he’s been here before. He’s older than his years and he embodies that beauty that we imagine Jesus would have had as a child.”

Adam, just nine years old at the time he was cast, approached this monumental role the only way he could without feeling overwhelmed. He explains, “To me, I don’t think about it being ‘Jesus.’ I just think, I’m a boy that can do good and surprising things.”

With the role of the young Jesus finally cast, the filmmakers looked to the rest of the family. They felt strongly about casting relative unknowns in order to immerse the audience in this world and to give the feeling that the people on screen are this family. They started with Mary and Joseph and faced the arduous task of finding actors who could embody one of the most famous relationships in history.

“You want to make sure that the people you’re picking for this incredibly iconic couple are going to fit, that they’ll be a good match,” says Nowrasteh.

Sara Lazzaro, an Italian actress raised in both Italy and the U.S. was cast as Mary. “She’s the most important female character in the history of mankind so it was a bit daunting,” she says. Lazzaro found herself immediately thinking, “How would people imagine Mary?”

She notes, “I grew up in Italy and I have an art degree, so I grew up seeing all of the Madonnas. There’s a part of you that wants to fulfill an image of what people perhaps would like to see, but at the same time with the script I was entitled to step away from that. In this period, she does not know what is coming next. I see her as a young mother, just trying to do the right thing, as much as she knows what right is for herself and her family.”

When it came to the casting of Joseph, Nowrasteh says that he always wanted to find a strong Joseph, something that traditionally hadn’t been portrayed before on-screen. He found that quality in Irish-born actor Vincent Walsh. “Joseph is the

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rock. He’s been misportrayed I think in a lot of movies in the past. He was just wallpaper; the guy hanging around pulling the donkey,” Nowrasteh laughs. “In The Young Mesiah, we wanted someone who you could believe was this man, a carpenter who’s been given this task, this journey with Mary to raise and protect this special child. Vincent Walsh looked to me to be both protective and accessible. At the same time he has to have a very sensitive, very human side as well as the masculine iconic side.”

Like Lazzaro, Walsh was slightly intimidated by the prospect of playing this important character. “It’s been one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever had to face. I was going in cold, as there’s not much to draw from. I’m a father of two, so I drew a lot from that and took it from there.” He also responded to the relevance of the material for a modern audience, “Any father can relate to protecting his family, especially today with what’s going on around the world. There are so many displaced families who have been forced out of their country and are just trying to get home.”

In terms of the partnership between Mary and Joseph, Lazzaro comments that despite being one of the only actors in the film who isn’t a parent yet herself, through working with Walsh she really “understood the teamwork it entails to be a parent.”

Walsh adds, “Mary believes in her husband and for a relationship to be solid there has to be that trust.”

Lazzaro comments, “I think Adam is quite incredible. I was so curious to meet him. When I finally did I was drawn to him. It was very easy to be his mother.”

The next crucial casting decision to be made was for the newly written role of Severus, a character who was not featured in the novel. Severus is a Roman Centurion hired by Herod to find and kill the boy Jesus.

Sean Bean, who had worked with 1492 Pictures on both Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Pixels, was immediately drawn to the project from a historical perspective, as well as to the complexity of the character of Severus. “He’s reluctant to get involved. He sees the rebellions that are happening and the brutality of the environment around Jerusalem with the various factions, but he has orders from Rome to obey Herod. He’s in the middle of two worlds, but you can see compassion there.”

Cyrus Nowrasteh notes, “When we were writing the script, I wanted Sean Bean from day one. I’ve been a fan of Sean for years. I’ve seen him play villains, I’ve seen him play heroes, and I think he’s a tremendous actor. Sean has a presence about him and a believability. He seems to have an interior life, and he always seems to be thinking. There’s a lot to him. The character he’s playing is a guy who’s seen a lot, done a lot, knows a lot, and felt a lot – and we have to see that on his face without his saying much. Sean’s that kind of actor.”

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Filming in Italy

When the filmmakers began discussing possible filming locations for this story, the central concern was being able to replicate the look of ancient Jerusalem and Nazareth. It became one of the greatest early challenges for the film. They scouted several different locations in Jordan, Morocco, and Israel before settling on Italy. “We knew that a number of Bible-themed movies had been shot in Italy,” notes director Cyrus Nowrasteh.

Production got underway in the southern Italian town of Matera. Producer Michael Barnathan was immediately taken with how the town resembled the historical locations in The Young Messiah. “Italy is fantastic because they don’t tear down their old things; they keep them and they cherish them and they’re very proud of them. Matera is an ancient town that has a beautifully preserved look, a white stone look very much like Jerusalem stone.”

After The Passion of the Christ had been filmed there over a decade earlier, the city underwent a resurgence and tourism flourished.

For the actors, Matera was a particularly special location that aided their performances. Sara Lazzaro notes, “The locations grounded you right away. As long as you understood that and allowed them to come into the scene, they were a crucial part of the making of this movie. I had never been to Matera, despite being Italian, and I was quite shocked. I had seen images online, but once you’re there I think it’s very different. I believe it was a character in itself. You are kind of humbled and reminded of what story you are telling with these caves that are from 3000 BC.

“I actually went for a walk because I wanted to see the caves and I got lost. I was climbing rocks to get to grottos and it was quite extraordinary. I discovered this church built within the ruins, within the rocks. It took about an hour to get there and it was really beautiful to see how this story has been ongoing forever and how much it has drawn people to build such things.”

Vincent Walsh agrees, “When you put the gear on, and then you stand by a cliff face or on top of the hill and you see the caves and Matera…if you take away the modern signs, you could be back in Biblical times. You don’t have to do much acting.”

For the remainder of the shoot, production moved to Rome’s famed Cinecittà Studios and locations in the mountains surrounding Rome. “Everywhere we went, there were pieces of time that you can’t duplicate,” notes Barnathan.

Cinecittà Studios is steeped in film history, both Italian and American. The studios were founded in 1937 by Mussolini to not only promote filmmaking in Italy, but also to produce propaganda films. Since that time, films such as Roman Holiday, Ben-Hur, and La Dolce Vita have been shot at Cinecittà. Lazzaro admits, “It was

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emotional for me to be there, being Italian. Fellini was there and so were so many extraordinary people.”

The Design of Ancient Jerusalem

“Everything you see we basically had to build, unless it’s the countryside,” says Cyrus Nowrasteh. ”It was a big challenge recreating 2000 years ago. In the prep stage, the conversations are about creating a natural world that people believe. I wanted the audience to experience the holy family as if it were them. To make them feel like they can walk up through that screen into the first century, A.D. I wanted the world to be completely believable.”

To that end, Nowrasteh chose to work once again with director of photography Joel Ransom, whom he had previously collaborated with on several other projects including The Stoning of Soraya M. Nowrasteh says that their process involved having Ransom come on board very early and discussing every scene in minute detail. “He read the script very carefully and we talked about it. He executed it wonderfully and brings to the table an incredible number of ideas. He has a way of getting inside my head and taking me inside his head so we’re thinking alike.” The initial conversations between Nowrasteh and Ransom centered on the need to film everything in a way that demonstrates that The Young Messiah is about a very special child. “His POV really is our story. That’s how we want to see the world and experience this story,” Nowrasteh says.

For the actors, this close relationship was evident and invaluable every day of the shoot. “It’s a real collaboration,” says Sara Lazzaro. “There’s such symbiosis. It seems like there’s one human being split in two!”

When it came to designing the important historical sets of Alexandria, Nazareth, the Temple, and Herod’s Palace, Nowrasteh had only one production designer in mind. “What attracted me to working in Italy the most was the idea of working with the tremendous designers, craftsmen, and art directors who are here. The first one on my list was Francesco Frigeri, who was the production designer on The Passion of the Christ, The Legend of 1900, and a number of other big European films. Here’s a man who recreates a world for you that you inhabit. He doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Italian, yet we were really speaking the same language from day one. He’s very passionate and he wants things done a certain way.”

It wasn’t only the studio sets that Frigeri was responsible for. He also helped secure locations and ultimately built new structures at these historic places. Nowrasteh says, “He built the Temple on the studio lot in Rome, built the town square of Nazareth, built Alexandria. He also augmented the locations where we filmed in Matera, Hadrian’s Villa, Craco, and Puglia – a lot of great and difficult-to-access locations.”

For Frigeri, “the starting point came from a film I saw many years ago, Francesco Giullare di Dio, directed by Roberto Rossellini, which I consider to be the best

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representation of the neo-realistic era of filmmaking, because it gives a point of view of that time period, almost as if it were a documentary. This is what I wanted to do for The Young Messiah, to give the sense of it being realistic and current in the sense of not being stereotypical. The technique I used to do that was to put away all of the old Roman artifacts and decorations that are generally used in movies to represent this historical time period in Palestine and Jordan. I researched a lot of artifacts and elements from Yemen and Syria and, starting from there, I created a specific style for our movie. Ultimately, the production designer is not an archeologist, but is an artist who creates and invents. I don’t want the audience to think they’re at Disneyland or that what they watch is fake; they really have to feel as if they are there.”

When it came to creating the looks of the characters costume designer Stefano De Nardis and his department created over 1,400 individual pieces for the film. Nowrasteh notes, “My initial conversations with Stefano were via Skype and would go on and on and on! I am no costume expert. I can’t tell you what people were wearing at that time or what a woman who is going to the Temple is going to be wearing, but I know what I like and what I think fits. I do some research on all phases and all aspects of it, but I expect that a costume designer will know that world better than I do and give alternatives and options. Stefano’s terrific and his whole staff did a great job; the costuming is rich and evocative.”

For De Nardis, this wasn’t his first film of the time period. “I had the chance when I was very, very young to be an assistant to the late costume designer, Enrico Sabbatini, an Oscar nominee who was costume designer on the iconic Jesus of Nazareth by Franco Zeffirelli, and after that I did quite a lot of projects on Biblical subjects with him. For this reason, I had a huge amount of documents. So things started from there and then everything evolved following the vision of Cyrus.

“Cyrus wanted to approach the story of the young Jesus as the story of a normal kid. We had to convey the idea that the Jesus in this movie is just a normal kid, but at the same time, we had to convey the idea that he’s very special. We have to try to make that manifest through costume, which was not so simple. For Jesus, we tried to create clothing that was close to the original truth, meaning that our costumes don’t have buttons, don’t have zippers, and only use natural fabrics such as cotton or silk or wool.”

Adam Greaves-Neal, who plays Jesus, loved his costumes and quickly adapted to the dress-like tunics he wore every day of the shoot. “There’s only one problem with them,” he laughs. “Mosquitoes!”

Children, Animals, Music

With horses, donkeys, camels, oxen, calves, and a wide array of bird species being just some of the animals on set every day, thankfully the old Hollywood adage of “never work with children and animals” was disproved on The Young Messiah.

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“I think our first day we had birds, children, and water,” laughs producer Michael Barnathan. “That’s everything you’re supposed to avoid, at least on the first day. We were incredibly lucky. The animals we had were extremely well trained…well, the donkeys not so much; they make a lot of noise. We had to work out how to shut them up without just taking them out of the scene.”

With so many large and powerful animals on set, safety was of paramount concern for the filmmakers. Stunt coordinator Franco Salamon worked closely with renowned horse master and ex-jockey Jacqueline Freda to ensure that the film’s potentially dangerous scenes were completed without incident. “Jacqueline was terrific with the animals and everything was done safely,” director Cyrus Nowrasteh says.

On the subject of music, co-screenwriter Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh notes, “We wanted traditional Hebrew songs typical of the period, because in the book there’s a lot of singing. It’s encouraged in the Bible to sing and to be joyful.”

On figuring out how the music could add to the story, and for which scenes, Cyrus comments, “There’s a journey that the family is on to Jerusalem where it starts to rain and people gather for shelter under trees and ‘lean-tos’ and just do the best they can. Three people are singing to these weary pilgrims who have stopped in the rain. Of course, Jesus and his family are amongst those pilgrims and I thought it could be really sweet to have that moment.”

To sing during this scene and in other carefully selected places, the filmmakers brought in the well-known Jewish Roman choir Ha-Kol (meaning “the voice”), a group that was founded by singers of the Great Synagogue of Rome. Cyrus remembers, “It then became about picking the right song. We also have them singing at the Temple, and a family singing at the campsite at the Jordan River. Those are situations, where naturally as part of the background you would have music.”

For the scene at the Jordan River, Cyrus adds, “We wanted to select a song that would also be pleasing to a modern audience. It’s part of the world you’re creating. These are Jewish travelers going to the Temple. This is very much a Jewish family in this story and I wanted to make sure that it was authentic and felt right.”

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The Young MessiahAbout the Cast

ADAM GREAVES-NEAL (Jesus) is age 11, and has already been acting for several years in short films and on British television.

His work in the latter medium includes appearances on the popular Sherlock, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Holmes and Watson; and a starring role on the hit CBBC TV series All at Sea, about a family bed-and-breakfast by the sea.

Mr. Greaves-Neal lives with his family in his native U.K. This includes two brothers, who are also actors, and a pet tortoise, who is not.

SARA LAZZARO (Mary) was born in a small town in the hills of northern Italy to an Italian father and American mother. Sara is bilingual, and spent her early childhood between Italy and the United States. She obtained a BA in Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Architecture in Venice, Italy (IUAV). While there, she began accumulating enriching professional experiences in theatre, and decided to pursue acting as a profession.

She moved to London and began training there, ultimately graduating from Drama Centre London with an MA in Performance. Ever since, she has been acting on film and on stage across Italy, the U.K., and the U.S.

Ms. Lazzaro’s movie work includes the romantic drama Dieci Inverni, directed by Valerio Mieli; and James McTeigue’s short film Caserta Palace Dream, in which she portrayed an icon, Zelda Fitzgerald. She will soon be seen in Paolo Sorrentino’s highly anticipated new HBO television series The Young Pope, starring Jude Law and Diane Keaton.

VINCENT WALSH (Joseph) was born in Ireland and raised in Dublin and Toronto. Building an international career, he has amassed an impressive list of feature credits including Academy Award winner Steven Spielberg’s classic Saving Private Ryan; Suri Krishnamma’s A Man of No Importance, with Albert Finney; David Keating’s The Last of the High Kings; John Schlesinger’s telefilm The Tale of Sweeney Todd; Mark Joffe’s The MatchMaker; John Mackenzie’s When the Sky Falls, with Joan Allen; John Carney’s On the Edge; Stefan Schwartz’s The Abduction Club; Noam Murro’s 300: Rise of an Empire; and Michael DeCarlo’s CBC-TV miniseries Hemingway: That Summer in Paris (a.k.a. Hemingway vs. Callaghan). In the latter, Mr. Walsh portrayed the legendary American author Ernest Hemingway through his friendship and boxing rivalry with Canadian author Morley Callaghan.

Also for television, the versatile actor received a Gemini Award nomination for his performance as Captain Charlie Collins in the CBC-TV miniseries Shattered City:

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The Halifax Explosion, directed by Bruce Pittman. He was again a Gemini nominee for his performance in “The Prince and the Rebel” episode of the popular series Murdoch Mysteries, directed by John L’Ecuyer. He starred with Megan Follows in the CBC-TV telefilm Open Heart, directed by Laurie Lynd; guest-starred on the celebrated thriller series The Fall; and starred on the CTV crime drama Played.

Mr. Walsh’s stage work includes productions of The Christening, The Shape of Things, The Man Who Became a Legend, Borstal Boy, and Oliver!

CLIVE RUSSELL (Weer) was born in Winchester, England and brought up in Fife, Scotland. His early career saw him perform at London’s Royal Court Theatre and play leading roles with such troupes as the Royal Shakespeare Company, Monstrous Regiment, and Belt and Braces.

Moviegoers saw him as Tyr in Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World, and as Captain Tanner in Guy Ritchie’s blockbuster hit movies Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows.

Among Mr. Russell’s other films are Mort Ransen’s Margaret’s Museum, for which he received a Genie Award (Canada’s Oscars equivalent) nomination; Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Tree; Annie Griffin’s The Festival; Charles Dance’s Ladies in Lavender; Gillian Armstrong’s Oscar and Lucinda; and Antoine Fuqua’s King Arthur.

His many television credits include starring as Inspector Abberline in the first three seasons of the BBC hit Ripper Street; portraying Brynden “Blackfish” Tully on Game of Thrones; Mountain Goats; Shetland; The Mayor of Casterbridge miniseries directed by David Thacker; Julian Jarrold’s telefilm of Great Expectations; David Blair’s telefilm Bert & Dickie; and the beloved Spaced.

CHRISTIAN McKAY (Cleopas) received international acclaim for his film debut in the title role of Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles. The great American film critic, Roger Ebert, declared in The Chicago Sun-Times: “the extraordinary presence of Christian McKay is the centerpiece of the film, and from it, all else flows.” Mr. McKay received awards from the San Francisco, Austin, and Utah Film Critics’ Circles as well as a further twenty nominations including the BAFTA.

His other films include Ron Howard’s Rush; Woody Allen’sYou Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger; and Stephen Frears’ forthcoming Florence Foster Jenkins, with Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant. Also for Focus Features, he has appeared in Tomas Alfredson’sTinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and James Marsh’s The Theory of Everything. His work in independent film includes Tony Britten’s forthcoming ChickLit, with Dame Eileen Atkins and Sir John Hurt; Bernard Rose’s Mr. Nice and The Devil’s Violinist; Elaine Constantine’s Northern Soul; Duncan Ward’s Here Lies; and Mark Pellington’s I Melt with You. 

Mr. McKay will make his film directorial debut in April 2016 with Proven(an)ce.

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SEAN BEAN (Severus) is an award-winning actor whose distinguished career has spanned film, TV and theatre.

Highlights of his film work have included the role of Boromir in Peter Jackson’s Academy Award-winning The Lord of the Rings trilogy, for which Mr. Bean received the Best British Actor accolade at the Empire Awards; Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, directed by The Young Messiah producer Chris Columbus, in which he portrayed Zeus; Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy; John Frankenheimer’s Ronin; Martin Campbell’s GoldenEye, opposite Pierce Brosnan as James Bond; Gary Fleder’s Don’t Say a Word; Jon Turteltaub’s National Treasure; Robert Schwentke’s Flightplan; Michael Bay’sThe Island; Christophe Gans’ Silent Hill; Dave Meyers’ The Hitcher; Asif Kapadia’s Far North; Bernard Rose’s Anna Karenina; Phillip Noyce’s Patriot Games; Derek Jarman’s Caravaggio and War Requiem; Roy Battersby’s Winter Flight; Jim Sheridan’s The Field; and Mike Figgis’ Stormy Monday.

The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA)-trained British actor first came to the attention of television audiences in the 1990s in the role of Richard Sharpe in the hugely popular series Sharpe. Other major television dramas that he has starred in have included HBO’s Game of Thrones; Channel Four’s celebrated Red Riding telefilms, directed by Anand Tucker and Julian Jarrold; an episode of Jimmy McGovern’s series Accused, for which Mr. Bean won an International Emmy Award (Best Performance by an Actor) and earned a BAFTA Award nomination (Best Leading Actor); Tom Clegg’s telefilm Bravo Two Zero; David Hayman’s miniseries A Woman’s Guide to Adultery; and Ken Russell’s miniseries Lady Chatterley.

His notable theatre credits include the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) staging of Romeo & Juliet, directed by Michael Boghdanov; Trevor Nunn’s RSC Stratford/Mermaid production of Fair Maid of the West; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; and Edward Hall’s staging of Macbeth.

Mr. Bean’s recent film work includes voicing the character Arrog in the animated feature The Snow Queen 2: The Snow King; the Wachowskis’ Jupiter Ascending, opposite Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis; and Ridley Scott’s acclaimed The Martian, one of the biggest hits of 2015.

His latest TV credits include the second season of Howard Gordon’s Legends, for TNT; and ITV Encore’s new six-part period crime drama The Frankenstein Chronicles, which will air in the U.S. on A&E.

About the Filmmakers

CYRUS NOWRASTEH (Director; Screenwriter) has worked in the motion picture and television business for over 25 years as a writer, producer, and director. He has won two PEN Awards, the Orson Welles Award, a Freedom of Expression award, awards at the Toronto, Los Angeles, and Berlin Film Festivals, an NAACP Award, and a MovieGuide Award. 

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He began his work in series television, most notably on the hit USA Network show La Femme Nikita which he developed, writing the pilot episode. In 2001, he wrote and directed the highly acclaimed cable feature The Day Reagan Was Shot, which starred Richard Dreyfuss as Alexander Haig and was executive-produced by Oliver Stone; the program remains the highest-rated two-hour telefilm to be broadcast on Showtime. Mr. Nowrasteh received the PEN Award for Best Teleplay; the film also received the American Cinema Editors’ Eddie Award, and Mr. Dreyfuss was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award. Mr. Nowrasteh again won a PEN Award as screenwriter of the Showtime film 10,000 Black Men Named George, which recounted the history of the Pullman porters. In 2006, he wrote and produced the controversial ABC miniseries The Path to 9/11, which attracted nearly 28 million viewers. The editing team won an Emmy Award, and the project was nominated for six additional Emmys. Mr. Nowrasteh co-wrote – with his wife Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh – and directed the feature The Stoning of Soraya M., which was released theatrically in 2009 to strong reviews. Telling the powerful true story of a woman stoned to death in Iran, and of how the story came to world attention, the movie won prizes at film festivals around the world, including the Audience Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival; and was selected for a number of Top 10 lists, including from the MovieGuide Awards. The film was also honored with the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Foreign Motion Picture and the Cinema for Peace Award for Justice at the Berlin Film Festival.

Among his projects in development are The Last Campaign and The Battle of New Orleans.

BETSY GIFFEN NOWRASTEH (Screenwriter) drove from Ohio to Los Angeles three days after getting a degree in Creative Writing at Miami University. She became a production artist and copywriter for film advertising, freelancing for various agencies and studios. Six years later she met and married Cyrus Nowrasteh. As his filmmaking career burgeoned, they had two sons, and she stayed home to raise them and work out of the house. She wrote the original screenplay Bad Day on the Block for Largo Entertainment, which was later retitled Under Pressure, and was production designer on the independent feature Norma Jean, Jack and Me, which her husband directed. She co-wrote The Stoning of Soraya M. with her husband, who also directed the award-winning film. She continues to collaborate on various projects with her husband. She loves Italy, paints for fun, and walks Lilly, the family’s giant German Shepherd.

CHRIS COLUMBUS (Producer) is a longtime force in Hollywood as one of the most successful film writers, producers, and directors of his generation. An

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Academy Award nominee, his work in movies has run the gamut from thrilling adventure to smash comedy to the launch of one of the industry’s most popular franchises ever. Mr. Columbus was born in Spangler, Pennsylvania, and grew up outside of Youngstown, Ohio. As a youngster, he aspired to be a cartoonist for Marvel Comics and eventually made the connection between comic books and movie storyboards. In high school, he began making 8mm films from his own storyboards – a practice which he continues to this day. After high school, he enrolled in the Directors Program at New York University’s (NYU) prestigious Tisch School of the Arts.

The aspiring director first attained success as a screenwriter, selling his first script Jocks (a semi-autobiographical comedy about a Catholic schoolboy who tries out for a football team) while still in college. After graduating from NYU, he immediately gained prominence in Hollywood when his uniquely creative and thrilling original screenplays were made by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment: Gremlins (directed by Joe Dante),The Goonies (directed by Richard Donner), and Young Sherlock Holmes (directed by Barry Levinson).

These screenwriting achievements led him to direct his first two features, the comedy hit Adventures in Babysitting; and his Elvis Presley homage Heartbreak Hotel, the latter of which he also wrote.

A meeting with prolific writer/producer John Hughes brought Mr. Columbus to the helm of the box office phenomenon Home Alone, the first of three collaborations for the duo; the others were the blockbuster Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and the semi-autobiographical Only the Lonely. The latter, a bittersweet comedy-drama which he directed from his own original screenplay, was praised for featuring one of the late John Candy’s best performances, and for the return to the screen of legendary movie star Maureen O’Hara in a role he wrote specifically for the actress.

Great critical and public acclaim followed for his next film as director, the smash hit comedy Mrs. Doubtfire, starring the late Robin Williams and Sally Field, which won an Academy Award for Best Make-up as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture [Comedy/Musical]. Mr. Columbus next directed and wrote another comedy, Nine Months, with Hugh Grant and Julianne Moore, before turning to drama with Stepmom, starring Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon. He then again directed Mr. Williams, in the poignant fantasy Bicentennial Man.

His next assignment as director was a daunting one: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, adapted from the first of author J.K. Rowling’s monumentally successful series of books. With millions of fans anticipating the movie, Mr. Columbus cast completely unknown youngsters Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint in the lead roles -- once again demonstrating his acumen for nurturing and cultivating young talent. The worldwide success of the movie launched one of the biggest series of films in the history of the medium, and he

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reunited with the young actors to direct the second movie in the saga, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

He served as producer on the third film in the franchise, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, before directing a contemporary musical, the movie version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Rent. He then directed and produced the romantic comedy I Love You, Beth Cooper; the fantasy adventure Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, based on the best-selling book by Rick Riordan; and the video games-themed action comedy Pixels.

As producer, Mr. Columbus and his producing partners at 1492 Pictures have brought to the screen several commercial blockbusters. These have included the three Night at the Museum movies, all directed by Shawn Levy; Fantastic Four and its sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, both directed by Tim Story; Christmas with the Kranks, directed by Joe Roth, which Mr. Columbus adapted; and Jingle All the Way, directed by Brian Levant and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

1492’s The Help brought Mr. Columbus an Academy Award nomination, as producer, in the Best Picture category; the Tate Taylor-directed film was nominated for three other Academy Awards, winning for Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer). The movie’s many other accolades included BAFTA and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Picture; and the Screen Actors Guild Awards’ top prize, for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

MARK RADCLIFFE (Producer) continues his long association with director Chris Columbus, which dates back to 1988 when he served as assistant director on Mr. Columbus’ second film as director, Heartbreak Hotel. His producing duties began on the director’s next three movies: Home Alone (on which he was assistant director and associate producer), Only the Lonely (on which he was co-producer and assistant director), and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (on which he was executive producer).

Mr. Radcliffe has since served as executive producer on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; and as producer on Mrs. Doubtfire, Stepmom, Rent, Bicentennial Man, Nine Months, Pixels, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, and I Love You, Beth Cooper. All of the aforementioned films were directed by Chris Columbus. He also produced Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, for which he shared the BAFTA Award for Best Children’s Film and a second BAFTA nomination for Best British Film.

Working with Chris Columbus in their 1492 Pictures production entity, Mr. Radcliffe executive- produced Tate Taylor’s multi-award-winning The Help as well as Tim Story’s two blockbuster Fantastic Four movies and Thor Freudenthal’s Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. He executive-produced Shawn Levy’s first two Night at the Museum movies and returned to produce the capper to the series, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. His other films as producer include

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Christmas with the Kranks, directed by Joe Roth; and Jingle All the Way, directed by Brian Levant.

A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mr. Radcliffe began his film career as production manager on the fan favorite Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, directed by Allan Arkush. He next worked as an assistant director on the Francis Ford Coppola production The Escape Artist, directed by Caleb Deschanel. He reteamed with Mr. Coppola when the latter directed Rumble Fish and Peggy Sue Got Married. He then worked as assistant director to John Hughes, on She’s Having a Baby and Planes, Trains and Automobiles; to Donald Petrie, on the beloved Mystic Pizza; to Paul Schrader, on the rock ‘n’ roll Light of Day; and to Jerry Zucker, on the Academy Award-winning blockbuster Ghost.

MICHAEL BARNATHAN (Producer) is president of 1492 Pictures, in which he is a producing partner with Chris Columbus and Mark Radcliffe. The company was formed in May 1994. Mr. Barnathan was an Academy Award nominee as producer on 1492’s Best Picture-nominated The Help, directed and adapted by Tate Taylor from Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel into a major box office success.

He has served as producer on the Chris Columbus-directed features Nine Months, Rent, Stepmom, Pixels, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, and I Love You, Beth Cooper. For 1492, he also produced Thor Freudenthal’s Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters; Jingle All the Way, directed by Brian Levant; Christmas with the Kranks, directed by Joe Roth; and the Shawn Levy-directed Cheaper by the Dozen, Night at the Museum, and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.

Mr. Barnathan executive-produced the first three installments of the Harry Potter franchise: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, both directed by Chris Columbus, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, directed by Alfonso Cuarón. He was also executive producer on Tim Story’s Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Before the formation of 1492, he was senior vice president of production at Largo Entertainment for four years, overseeing the company’s feature film slate. During this time, he executive-produced Used People, directed by Beeban Kidron and starring Shirley MacLaine and Marcello Mastroianni; and supervised production on Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break, Manny Coto’s Dr. Giggles, Stephen Hopkins’ Judgment Night, and Roger Donaldson’s The Getaway.

Prior to joining Largo, Mr. Barnathan spent seven years working for Edgar J. Scherick Associates, the last two as executive vice president of production, producing and-executive producing telefilms and miniseries including The Kennedys of Massachusetts. Directed by Lamont Johnson, the latter received eight Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one apiece.

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Mr. Barnathan is a graduate of New York University, where he first met Chris Columbus during their freshman year.

TRACY K. PRICE (Producer) has, throughout his life, always been drawn to movies. Growing up, he looked up to such screen stars as Clint Eastwood, Sean Connery, Steve McQueen, and Paul Newman. His passion for film has led him to venture into producing, as an executive producer of Cyrus Nowrasteh’s award-winning The Stoning of Soraya M. His friendship with Mr. Nowrasteh has in turn led to a partnership with Chris Columbus’ 1492 Pictures, and together they have made The Young Messiah.  Mr. Price’s production company is named Ocean Blue Entertainment. A serial entrepreneur with three successful exits, Mr. Price has more than 25 years of experience in building trades, energy efficiency, and business management; he has been a driving force in revolutionizing the building services industry. His vision to incorporate technology and process standards has resulted in growth and success at every company he has led. As a testament to this, he received the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (in the business services category for Orange County/Desert Cities Program) in 2008.  A native of Orange County, California and graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) with a BA in Economics, he began his career at Honeywell and after several fast-track promotions,  purchased a half interest in Mesa Energy Systems, which he grew to the largest non-union mechanical/energy service company in California. In 1996, he implemented leading-edge work order management software and wireless mobile tools developed by FieldCentrix Inc., a software company he co-founded. This risk paid off when he sold Mesa to EMCOR Group in 1998. His innovative use of wireless technology earned Mesa the world’s first ISO 9001 certification for paperless workflow management with field service technicians. After selling Mesa, he brought his domain expertise and leadership abilities to the venture capital-backed FieldCentrix as President and CEO. He sold the company to Enron, creating a revolutionary new building services company, ServiceCo, for Enron’s energy services division. He led a management buyout of ServiceCo in conjunction with a private equity group in December 2003. With Mr. Price as Chairman, CEO, and President, the company was launched as The Linc Group (TLG) and became the leading independent provider of facility infrastructure operations and energy retrofits in the U.S.; it experienced record year-over-year growth and employed more than 4,000 people with operations in 45 states and 30 countries. Mr. Price’s initial vision and dedication to quality and technology was recognized by Microsoft, which awarded the company its top customer honor, the Overall Customer Achievement Award, in 2009; and the Pinnacle Excellence Award for Technology Evangelism in 2007.  In December 2010, TLG agreed to be acquired by ABM Industries. ABM combined TLG with its existing engineering services division to create a $1 billion-revenue, 8,000-employee Facilities Solutions Division. Mr. Price was named President of the

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new unit (ABM Building & Energy Solutions) as well as Executive Vice President of ABM Industries. Within six months he was tasked by ABM’s CEO Henrik Slipsager to rebrand the 100-plus-year-old company to signify the new vision, positioning, and strategies that he helped develop with the ABM executive team. Mr. Price was given additional ABM corporate responsibilities, including Marketing, Sales, and Learning & Quality.

In the fall of 2015, Mr. Price closed on a transaction to spin out his new vision for a SaaS software platform that he developed internally at ABM, and now with his ABM responsibilities having been handed over, he is leading his new company QMerit; he is Chairman, CEO and President, and the majority owner.  In addition to his BA, Mr. Price holds C-10 and C-20 Mechanical and Electrical contracting licenses, and has been published by The Conference Board in the area of Human Capital Analytics.

MARK W. SHAW (Producer) is CEO across the Korean conglomerate CJ Group’s entertainment affiliates in the U.S., including CJ E&M America, CJ CGV America, and CJ 4Dplex America. Based in Los Angeles since 2005, the company is pursuing multiple opportunities in North America including Asian-inspired content for film production and distribution across major markets (CJ Entertainment); Cable (Mnet America) and Satellite (tvN) broadcasts; premium theatrical exhibition (CGV); immersive theatrical exhibition technology (4DX); and live concerts and the largest convention for K-Culture (KCON).

Previously, Mr. Shaw was President of The Grace and Mercy Foundation, a private family foundation based in New York. Prior to that, he was the CFO and Managing Partner at Inmost Partners LLC, the investment management company of Pica Media Fund LP, a hedge fund focusing on global media, entertainment, and internet companies, based in New York.

Before moving back to New York, he was the CFO and Head of International at CJ Entertainment Inc., CFO at CJ CGV Co., Ltd., and Executive Vice President of the CJ Group Strategy Division of the Chairman’s Office.

Prior to joining CJ, Mr. Shaw was a Director in the corporate finance and investment banking division of Merrill Lynch in Seoul and Hong Kong; was Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Prudential Investments in Hong Kong; and served in various investment banking positions at Lehman Brothers and Bankers Trust in New York and Hong Kong.

He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York; and is a retired Captain in the U.S. Army.

JOEL RANSOM (Director of Photography) is a native Canadian raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, He received an Emmy Award nomination for his cinematography on the miniseries The Path to 9/11. The latter marked his first

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teaming with director Cyrus Nowrasteh; since then, they have made the acclaimed The Stoning of Soraya M. and now The Young Messiah together.

He was previously an Emmy Award nominee as cinematographer on “The Post-Modern Prometheus” episode of The X-Files, one of the series’ most celebrated installments, written and directed by the show’s creator Chris Carter. He was an American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Award nominee for another episode of the show, “Traveler,” directed by William Graham. In total, he was cinematographer on two dozen episodes of the original series. Mr. Ransom recently completed work as cinematographer on all six of the event-series episodes of The X-Files that will air on the Fox Network in the winter of 2016.

Among the other television programs that he has been the director of photography on are the series Harsh Realm, also created by Chris Carter, and Camelot; several parts of the classic miniseries Band of Brothers; several installments of the hit science-fiction miniseries Taken; the miniseries Traffic; the limited-run series Revelations and Out of Order; Peter Markle’s telefilm The Tenth Circle; the “A Clean Escape” episode of the anthology series Masters of Science Fiction, directed by Mark Rydell; and the miniseries Battlestar Galactica, directed by Michael Rymer, which led into a hit series.

Mr. Ransom’s other features as director of photography include David Cunningham’s The Seeker: The Dark is Rising. Michael Berry’s Frontera, starring Ed Harris, Michael Pena, Eva Longoria, and Amy Madigan; and Nick Powell’s Outcast and recently completed Darc.

FRANCESCO FRIGERI (Production Designer) became interested in painting as a young man growing up in his native Italy, and went on to attend art school. He found his way to the film medium and has been a production designer for movies for over 30 years.

Among his many movies as production designer have been Nothing Left to Do But Cry, directed by and starring Roberto Benigni and Massimo Troisi; short films, in the “Love at First Sight” anthology series, directed by Clive Donner; Giuseppe Tornatore’s Malèna andThe Legend of 1900, for which Mr. Frigeri received a Satellite Award nomination, and won Italy’s David di Donatello Award, Ciak D’Oro Award, and Nastro D’Argento Award; Liliana Cavani’s Ripley’s Game; Sergio Castellitto’s Don’t Move, for which he again won a Ciak D’Oro Award, and Twice Born, both starring Penélope Cruz; and Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, starring Jim Caviezel.

He has won the David di Donatello Award two additional times; the Ciak d’Oro Award once more; and the Nastro D’Argento Award two more times. Mr. Frigeri was an Emmy Award nominee for his work as art director on the television miniseries Christopher Columbus, directed by Alberto Lattuada; and was honored with the Dante Ferretti Award for his production design of Roberto Faenza’s feature I Vicerè.

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He has also been production designer on television commercials and theater productions including the stage version of the film The Mission, scored by Ennio Morricone. Since 2012, Mr. Frigeri has been chair of the Production Designers Department at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Scuola Nazionale di Cinema) in Rome.

GEOFFREY ROWLAND, ACE (Editor) had a fascination with the movies from a young age, and always knew that he was going to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. After attending film school at Columbia College and serving in the Navy, he began working in post-production and was soon a full assistant editor on such groundbreaking films as John G. Avildsen’s Rocky – which won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Film Editing (Richard Halsey, Scott Conrad) – and Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

After the latter, Mr. Rowland began editing for television, working on several trailblazing series and movies. He was an Emmy Award nominee and an American Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddie Award winner for his work on Cagney & Lacey; an Eddie Award nominee for editing Ted Post’s telefilm Stagecoach, which starred Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash; won his second Eddie Award for an episode of Hill Street Blues; and was an Emmy Award nominee for editing Jeff Bleckner’s telefilm Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story, which starred Emmy Award winner Glenn Close and Judy Davis. He reteamed with Mr. Bleckner for the miniseries The Beach Boys: An American Family, for which he was Emmy-nominated and won a third Eddie Award.

Among the many other shows that Mr. Rowland has edited episodes of are ER, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Moonlighting, and Survivor, for which he was again an Emmy Award nominee.

His first project with director Cyrus Nowrasteh, the miniseries The Path to 9/11, brought him his fourth Eddie win and first Emmy win. The duo has since reteamed on the feature films The Stoning of Soraya M. – which won the Audience Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival – and now, The Young Messiah.

PAUL SEYDOR, ACE (Editor) is an accomplished film editor whose feature credits include a half-dozen movies in collaboration with director Ron Shelton: White Men Can’t Jump, Cobb, Tin Cup, Play It to the Bone, Dark Blue, and Hollywood Homicide; Roger Spottiwsoode’s Turner & Hooch, HBO feature The Last Innocent Man, and documentary feature Beyond Right & Wrong; and David S. Ward’s Major League II and The Program.

He has also teamed several times with The Young Messiah filmmaker Cyrus Nowrasteh, winning an American Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddie Award for his editing of the Showtime feature The Day Reagan Was Shot, which was written and directed by Mr. Nowrasteh.

He was an Academy Award nominee as director of the documentary short The

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Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage, and an Eddie Award nominee as editor of the film, which he also wrote and co-produced. Fusing silent black-and-white behind-the-scenes footage from the production, actor and crew interview voiceovers, production stills, and more, the project uniquely documents and illuminates director Sam Peckinpah’s classic 1969 movie The Wild Bunch. Mr. Seydor had previously authored Peckinpah: The Western Films (later revised and republished as Peckinpah: The Western Films: A Reconsideration), widely regarded as the best critical study of the director’s work; and had played an instrumental role as consultant in the 1995 theatrical restoration and re-release of The Wild Bunch. He has also contributed audio commentaries to DVD releases of Mr. Peckinpah’s films, as well as to those of several other directors’ movies, including John Frankenheimer, Martin Ritt, and Roger Spottiswoode.

Mr. Seydor received his PhD from the University of Iowa, and has taught at the University of Iowa and the University of Southern California. He is currently Professor of Cinema at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, where he teaches advanced film editing.

JOHN DEBNEY (Composer) is one of the most prolific and successful composers in the film and television industry. He earned an Academy Award nomination for his original score to The Passion of the Christ, directed by Mel Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel. The score also earned him a Dove Award. In 2005, Mr. Debney premiered a symphony performance of the score with an 83-person choir and a 96-piece orchestra, with special guest vocalist Lisbeth Scott and woodwind soloist Pedro Eustache. That concert in Rome received a 15-minute standing ovation and the composer received a personal blessing by the Archbishop of the Vatican. This led to an internationally televised broadcast. The Passion symphony has since been performed around the world, including this year to a record attendance at the second-oldest mosque in the world in Cordoba, Spain; and at a concert hall in the Czech Republic. In 2016, the Passion symphony will premiere in Poland for the 1050 anniversary of Christianity in that country.

Mr. Debney’s classical training and strong knowledge of contemporary sounds allow him to adapt to any assignment. He incorporates a myriad of musical styles and techniques into his work, from contemporary beats to ancient instrumentation.

The son of Disney Studios producer Louis Debney, John Debney grew up in Glendale, Calif., where he began guitar lessons at age six and played in rock bands in college. He earned his BA in Music Composition from the California Institute of Arts before entering into the composer field with the help of television composing legend Mike Post, and hands-on training with Hanna-Barbera composer Hoyt Curtin. He began scoring television projects including SeaQuest DSV, for which his title theme earned him an Emmy Award, one of three he has won. In 1993, he secured his first studio feature film composing assignment, Hocus Pocus.

The ultimate film music “character actor,” he has enjoyed creative partnerships

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with directors on multiple films, including Garry Marshall on The Princess Diaries movies; Robert Rodriguez; Jon Favreau, on Iron Man 2 and the upcoming The Jungle Book; and Tom Shadyac. For director Cyrus Nowrasteh, he has scored the award-winning The Stoning of Soraya M. and now The Young Messiah.

In 2009, Variety profiled John Debney as a “Billion-Dollar Composer” for an issue highlighting his films’ box office successes. That same year, he was honored with a Career Achievement Award at the Burbank International Film Festival. In 2005, he became the youngest recipient of ASCAP’s prestigious Henry Mancini Career Achievement Award.

In addition to his composing career and live concert performances, he has broken new ground composing for the videogames Lair and The Sims Medieval. The former brought him a BAFTA Award nomination and the award for Best Videogame Score by The International Film Music Critics Association. In the tradition of classical composers, John Debney enjoys conducting his own work and has conducted some of the world’s great orchestras, including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra on a series of classic film scores for Varèse Sarabande Records. He is a proponent of giving the next generation the ability to learn and play music, and is on the advisory board of Education Through Music – Los Angeles – an organization that supports music programs in schools for underprivileged children.

STEFANO DE NARDIS (Costume Designer) did his professional training in the world of Haute Couture in Rome, while he was at the same time studying Fashion and Costume. Ultimately, he segued from Product Manager in the Far East for an Italian ready-to-wear firm into the costume design field, thanks to his productive experience in running big, demanding workshops.

He has therefore been able to alternate his own commitments as costume designer with the responsibilities of supervising costume-making for large-scale international projects: he ran manufacturing workshops for, among other movies, Mike Newell’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time; Rob Marshall’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides; and Carl Rinsch’s 47 Ronin. He has supervised costume departments for the Italy shoots of, among other movies, Doug Liman’s Jumper; Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron; and Sam Mendes’ Spectre, starring Daniel Craig as James Bond.

Over the years, Mr. De Nardis has contributed his skills and creativity to numerous Bible-themed works. These have included several international telefilms now available in a set called “The Bible Collection;” Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings; and Killing Jesus, directed by Christopher Menaul. He was costume designer on the latter feature, which received Emmy and Critics’ Choice Movie Award nominations for Outstanding Television Movie.

He was a Costume Designers Guild Award nominee for his work on Christian Duguay’s telefilm Coco Chanel, which starred Shirley MacLaine and Barbora

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Bobulova, respectively, in the title role. Mr. De Nardis has completed work as costume designer on the first feature film directed by Luke Scott, Morgan, starring Kate Mara and Boyd Holbrook.

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The Young MessiahIn Association with Echo Lake

Cast

Jesus Adam Greaves-NealMary Sara LazzaroJoseph Vincent WalshJames Finn McLeod IrelandCleopas Christian McKayMiriam Agni ScottSalome Lois EllingtonOld Sarah Jane LapotaireRiba Dune MedrosThe Demon Rory KeenanSeverus Sean BeanWeer Clive RussellHerod Jonathan BaileyOld Rabbi (Nazareth) David BradleyThe Blind Rabbi David BurkeEleazer Jacopo AlaimoEleazer’s Mother Dorotea MercuriEleazer’s Father Jarreth MerzTeenage Boy Gabriele DentoniPhysician Douglas DeanTeacher Christopher JonesCynical Stranger Matt PatresiAmbusher Matteo CarlomagnoFemale Soothsayer Giselda VolodiBald Soothsayer Lydia MuijenWizened Soothsayer Iaon GunnTall Pilgrim Niccolò SenniPilgrim #2 Gian Piero RotoliAssailant Giorgio AntoniniRoman Squad Leader Lee BoardmanRoman Private Giulio CristiniOptio Paul IrelandShepherd #1 Michele BevilacquaShepherd #2 Harold BradleyShepherd #3 Francesco De VitoImpoverished Pilgrim Simone SpinazzèHarried Woman Silvia De SantisDove Seller Andrea Scarduzio

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Old Friend Francesco CarneluttiSeleni Isabelle AdrianiWise Man #1 Ben OduwoleWise Man #2 Terence NadesanWise Man #3 Marco IannoneShepherd’s Boy Niccolò AlaimoCrying Mother #1 Gabrielle ChiararoCrying Mother #2 Paola LaviniDove Seller Helper Pierluigi Pasino

Stunt Coordinator Franco SalamonAssistant Stunt Coordinator Giorgio AntoniniSeverus Double Roberto SgarbiWeer Double Danilo CapuziOptio Double Carlo AntonioniRoman Squad Leader Double Marco StefanelliUtility Stunts Paolo Antonini, Guido Aversano, Mauro Aversano,

Mauro Balmas, Simone Bonelli, Daniele Chiofalo,

Eros Conforti, Luca Cugliardi, Umberto De Luca,

Fabrizio Del Signore, Christian Dell’Acqua,Federica Della Martina, Michele Ierace,

Andrea Marini,Catia Pasqualoni, Marco Patrassi, Angelo

Ragusa,Gabriele Ragusa, Federico Regazzo, Rocco

Russo,Marco Tartaglia, Massimo Tartaglia, Pietro

Torrisi,Massimiliano Ubaldi, Vittorio Verdirosi

Stunt Rigger Gionata MarzedduWater Safety Massimiliano Bagnaia, Federico Benvenuti

Crew

Directed by Cyrus NowrastehScreenplay by Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh & Cyrus Nowrasteh

Based on the novel Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne RiceProduced by Chris Columbus, Mark Radcliffe, Michael Barnathan

Tracy K. PriceMark W. Shaw

Executive Producers Enzo Sisti, William V. Andrew, Mark Burton

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Miky Lee, Tae-Sung JeongAshok Amritraj, Andrew Spaulding, Richard

SandferCo-Producers Sang H. Cho, Guy Inzalaco, Richard Lee, Steven NamDirector of Photography Joel RansomProduction Design Francesco FrigeriEdited by Geoffrey Rowland, ACE Paul Seydor, ACEMusic by John DebneyCostume Designer Stefano De NardisCasting by Suzanne M. Smith, CDG

Associate Producer Karen SwallowUnit Production Manager Vito ColazzoFirst Assistant Director Luca LachinLine Producer Enzo Sisti

Supervising Art Director Domenico SicaAssistant Art Directors Rocco Ceraolo

Gianni Coletti

A Camera Operator Joel RansomA Camera First Assistant Emanuele LeuriniA Camera Second Assistant Alberto ViscardiB Camera/Steadicam Operator Emiliano LeuriniB Camera First Assistant Andrea QuaglioB Camera Second Assistant Riccardo PauC Camera Operator Roberto RuzzoliniC Camera First Assistant Claudio PalmieriC Camera Second Assistant Stefano PallaD Camera Operator Fabirizo VicariD Camera First Assistant Gian Claudio GiacominiD Camera Second Assistant Valeria LattanziCamera PA Spenser Price

Video Assist Operator Donatella SforzaAssistant Video Operator Alessio Ciattini

Digital Workflow Supervisor Francesco GiardielloDigital Imaging Technician Fabio FerrantiniData Lab Technician Davide UlissiDIT Cable Wrangler Elia Colazzo

Script Supervisor Rachel GriffithsAssistant Script Supervisor Martina Campagna

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Post-Production Supervisor James K. Jensen

First Assistant Editor Steve SahagunAssistant Editor Wendy TzengPost-Production Assistant Molly Josephson

Production Sound Mixer Marco FiumaraBoom Operator Luigi PiniCable Man Marco Saveriano

Key Grips Tommaso MeleMassimiliano Dessena

Best Boy Grip Giorgio PezzottiDolly Grip Massimo SpinaGrips Roberto Angelelli

Daniele DessenaStefano Di Pasquali

Key Rigging Grip Fulvio SergianniRigging Grips Luigi Calvitti

Mauro Faina

Gaffer Francesco ZaccariaBest Boy Electric Massimiliano SticchiElectricians Luca Martis

Luca SardiniMirko PalermiRenato Massacesi

Rigging Gaffers Giovanni TancrediMarco Sticchi

Rigging Electrician Renato Zamarion

Generator Operator Marco Cartocci

Art Department Coordinator Karin PavonePainter Giancarlo Di FuscoAssistant Painter Lorenzo MonacaArt Department Trainees Margherita De Stefani

Claudia GranucciStoryboard Artist Cristiano Donzelli

Set Decoration Francesco FrigeriAssistant Set Decorator Patrizia AlfonsiBuyer Donato TieppoDrapery Master Luca De StefanoAssistant Drapers Vincenzo De Stefano

Renata Zofia StecProperty Master Riccardo Passanisi

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Assistant Prop Master Valerio BarbetPrep Prop Master Mauro MasottiAssistant Prep Prop Master Umberto RossiSet Decoration Carpenter Nino NastasiSet Decoration Painter Paolo CameliAssistant Set Decoration Painter Ivan PirolliSet Decoration Trainee Gilda Dolmetta

Special Effects Supervisor Renato AgostiniSpecial Effects Foreman Claudio QuagliettiSpecial Effects Technician Franco SimeoneSpecial Effects Assistant Kevin Orfanò

Associate Costume Designer Claudio ManziCostume Supervisor/Coordinator Simona SciannamanicoKey On-Set Costumer Bruno De SantaOn-Set Costumer Freda BassoHead Seamstress Massimiliana TiberiSeamstresses Vanna Donatone

Maria Laura ColleoniSeamstress/Costume Assistant Nadia SalvatoriCostume Assistants Alessandro Baro

Cristina MartaStandby Costume Assistant Roberto BenettiDyer Pamela PaoliniCostume PA Andrea CatalanoAdditional Crowd Costume Assistants Costanza Bastanti

Rita BucchiStefano ColliniKatia FolcoEnrica IacoboniCarlotta MoricciGiulia MoschioniGiulia Orascchiotto

Make-up Designer Luigi RocchettiMake-up Artists Giuseppe Desiato

Federico CarrettiCrowd Make-up Coordinator Federico LaurentiAdditional Crowd Make-up Artists Diego Avolio

Andreina BeccagliAlberto BlasiGiacinto BrettiGoffredo CalisseRenato FrancolaGiulio PezzaAntonello Resch

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Hair Designer Francesco PegorettiHair Stylists Paola Genovese

Anna De SantisSamankta Mura

Additional Crowd Hair Stylists Elisa AulicinoClaudia BianchiPablo CabelloPatrizia CorridoniAlberta GiulianiLoredana GiulianiGianna Viola

U.K. Casting by Suzanne Smith CastingCasting Associate Sophie HollandItaly Casting by Shaila Rubin European Casting Service

Location Managers Vincenzo TestaFilippo Lovatelli

Location Coordinator Elisabetta TomassoLocation Assistant (Matera) Raffaele Stifano

Financial Controller Giancarlo SiniProduction Accountant Maria FioritoAssistant Accountant Marilena La FerraraKey Payroll Accountant Cristiano SebastianelliCrew Payroll Assistant Daniele DonnarummaCrowd Payroll Accountant Mario MercuriCashier Janna RykovaAccounting PAs Antontella Villanti

Rasa VilkaityteAdriano Chiossi

Tax Credit Accountant Chiara StefaniLocation Accountant (Matera) Mimma Pietragalla

Post-Production Accounting Trevanna Post, Inc./Sandra ConstantineKevin Cybulski

Unit Managers Enrico LatellaMassimiliano Sisti

Production Coordinator Norma Marie MasciaAssistant Production Coordinator Willy FasoCoordinators’ Assistant Diana NegoitescuTravel/Accommodation Coordinator Margherita De TullioAccommodation Assistant Ludovica LugliKey Office Production Assistant Alessandro MinisolaOffice Production Assistant Nico Di Marzio

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Second Assistant Director Gilles CannatellaSecond Second Assistant Directors Federica Durigon

Gianluca MangiasciuttiTiziana Kinkela

Third Assistant Directors Giaime GrecoPaolo Merosi

Set PAs Aurelia TamburrinoIlenia Tedesco

PA Trainee George PedolExtras Casting Coordinator Antonio SpoletiniCrowd Marshals Cristiano Cosimi

Barbara SpoletiniMinors’ Permits Romina SpoletiniMinors’ Permits (Matera) Francesco GagliardiTutor Joan MillsChaperone Linda Russell

Assistant to Cyrus Nowrasteh Simona De AngelisAssistant to Mark Radcliffe, Enzo Sisti Lucia MarasàAssociate to Sean Bean Rebecca Booth

Acting Coach Mark W. Travis

Transportation Manager Daniele AbeilleTransportation Captain Massimiliano RocchettiTransportation Assistant Fabio CrepaldiDrivers Mauro Della Costa, Mauro Sembroni, Mauro Vico,

Michele Innocente, Alessandro Sensoni,Claudio Fierro, Matteo Rubbio, Nicola

Simioli,Dario DeCotiis, Lorenzo Carrera, Maurizio

Cartocci,Giuseppe Gambella, Massimo Rana,

Massimo Fanni,Pietro Carpentieri, Ciccio Renda, Gabriele

Petrucci,Enzo Calera, Tommaso Montemurro, Angelo

Tardioli,Ivan Capitani, Andrea Benucci, Stefano

Spitoni,Maurizio Bisceglia, Aldo Mea, Paolo

Rapisarda,Alessandro De Vena, Michele Cappiello,Edoardo Peschisolido, Carlo Lamoratta,Damiano Scalcione, Corrado Mantoni,

Alfredo Spinelli,Gianmarco Lamoratta, Domenico Ronci,

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Giovanni Vetrugno, Nando Cartocci, Alessio Avella,

Natale Mazzaferri, Marco Trabalza, Enrico Cocozza

Catering (Rome) by Clic Service SRLCatering Crew (Rome) Marco Barlocci

Fabio CiprianiFabrizio De AngelisStefano De Cristofaro

Catering (Matera) by Food Village SRLSet Caterers (Matera) Donadio Pasquale

Antonio Lentino

Unit Nurses Sharon RichardsonAttila De Mario Sartor

Facilities Manager Diego D’AndreaFacilities Coordinator Luca AlunniFacilities Marco Maurizi

Renato LatellaStefano AlunniVincenzo CalandriniLuca Stecconi

Dressing Room Attendant Eleonora Sabatini

Unit Publicist Melissa Loseby

Still Photographers Philippe AntonelloStefano Montesi

Horse Master Jacqueline FredaAssistant Horse Master Elena Barra FernandezHorse Trainer Hassane MajdoulDonkey Master Marco TosiGrooms Alessandro Casolino

Riccardo DonatoniGianni MariniVincenzo MezzatestaMichele Saviello

Animals provided by Zoo Grunwald SRLAnimal Wrangler Edoardo Martino

1492 Development Jennifer Blum

Visual Effects Supervisor Raymond McIntyre

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Visual Effects by Pixel Magic

Executive Producer Ray ScaliceProduction Supervisor Victor DimichinaLead 3D Artist Jordan Alphonso3D Artist David RidlenCompositing/Paint Artist Patrick TrahanVisual Effects Supervisor Chris CooperVisual Effects Producer Dan Briney2D Supervisor Richard LandryCG Supervisor Jacob KebodeauxVisual Effects Production Manager Evan James

Supervising Sound Editor Ethan Beigel

Re-Recording Mixers Aaron LevyEthan Beigel

Sound Effects Editors Daniel PaganRyan Collins

Dialogue Editors Todd A. Niesen, MPSESarah Payan

ADR Supervisor Paul ConwaySound Designer David BarnabySupervising Foley Editor/Mixer Shawn KennellyFoley Artists Vince Nicastro

Melissa KennellyMix Tech Michael Marion

ADR Mixer Nick Kray

Digital Intermediate Services provided by Modern VideofilmDigital Intermediate Colorist David ColeConform Editor Craig C. PriceDigital Intermediate Producer Carl MooreDigital Intermediate Junior Producer Carissa ClarkDigital Intermediate Color Assists Noel Albornoz

Ismael SalasDigital Cinema Chris Kirkpatrick

Emmanuel AcostaData Management Rene Clark

Ed ThompsonQuality Control Operator Eric CantoEnd Titles by Rafi Pogosyan

Mkrtich Hmbartsumyan

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Account Executive Amber Taylor

Score Recorded and Mixed at Air Lyndhurst Studios, LondonScoring Engineer Simon RhodesScoring Assistant Adam MillerScore Coordinator Lola DebneyScore Production Supervisors Stephanie Pereida

Natalie StowellUnder Score Production Supervisor Josh DebneyScore Producer Dan SavantOrchestra Contractor Isobel GriffithsConcert Master Perry Montague-MasonSolo Cello Josephine KnightSolo Vocal Bethany WoodsMusic Editors Jim Harrison

Jeff Carson

ADR Voice Casting Louis ElmanAbigail Barbier

Additional Voices James Daniel Wilson, Suzy Westerby, Matthew Gammie,

Kevin Howarth, Tamaryn Payne, David John,Rupert Farley, Sean Barrett, Babette Barat,Tim Bentinck, Dean Williamson, Zoe

Thorne,Nigel Pilkington, Neil McCaul, Amy Noble,Antony Byrne, Nigel Greaves, Alison

Dowling,John Hasler, Shai Matheson, Oliver

Finnegan,Julia Brams, William Vanderpuye, Guillermo

Bedward,Dominique Provost-Chalkley, Ben Elliot,

Cristina Fray

Main Titles by FilmographTitle Designer Aaron BeckerExecutive Producer Seth Kleinberg

Dolby Consultant Jim Wright

“Barcheinu Avinu” Written by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, BMI

Used with the permission of The Estate of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach

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AVID Systems and Support provided by Catalyst Post

Camera, Grip, and Lighting Equipment supplied by Panalight S.P.A.

Digital Production Services provided by Kiwii Digital

Payroll Service provided by Ease Entertainment Services

Insurance provided by Arthur J. Gallagher & CompanyAssimovie SRL

Completion Guaranty provided by Film Finances, Inc.

Legal Services provided by Fischbach, Perlstein, Lieberman & Almond, LLP/

Robert H. Lieberman & Paul S. Almond

Italian Legal Services by Guendalina Ponti

Executive Production Services by Cinecittà Studios – Rome

Special Thanks

Patricia R. Andrew Valerie Price Dr. John Kapoor Andrea A. ShellyJoe & Joani Halcomb

Wayne & Linda Lindholm Alex Witherill

Scott M. Horn Jacqueline S. Anderson

The Andrew Family Edith AndrewEdward J. Andrew Jr.Charlene D. Andrew Richard G. Andrew Diane Buchanan Laurel J. Andrew Edward J. Andrew Victor Onufrieff Kathryn A. Willett James E. Willett

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National Tax Credit Region of Basilicata

Lucana Film CommissionL’Ente Parco Della Murgia Materana

Regione Lazio Thomas P. Garry

This film has been produced with the assistance of the Italian Tax Credit provided for by

Law N. 244 of December 24, 2007

Italian Tax Credit advice by Cine Consulting Group(Gian Marco Committeri & Federico Giuseppini)

Film produced with the support ofthe Lazio Regional Fund for Film and Audiovisual

Filmed on location in Matera and Region of Lazio, Italy

Thanks to the Authority of Parco Della Murgia Materana

Filmed on the archaeological site of Villa Adriana, under the authorization of Mibact,

supervising authorities for the Archaeological Heritage of Lazio

Stages and Backlot of Cinecittà Studios S.P.A. Rome, Italy

The administration and citizens of the City of Matera, Città Dei Sassi,A World Heritage Site, European Capital of Culture 2019

The City of Craco, Craco Ricerche, and Craco ProductionFor Having Authorized the Filming

The Historic Center of Craco included in The 2010 World Monuments Fund Watch List

Ha-Kol Choir Conducted by Maestro Andrea Orlando

[#49250]

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The events, characters, and firms depicted in this photoplay are fictitious.Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or firms is

purely coincidental.

This motion picture is protected under laws of the United States and other countries.

Unauthorized duplication, distribution, or exhibition may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution.

©2015 CTL Films LLC and CJ E&M Corp. All Rights Reserved.

Running Time: 111 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for some violence and thematic elements)

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A Focus Features Release

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