5e1af38f-MACGRUBER Production Notes APPROVED · has the right answer for ... able to keep a straight face because I was always concentrating on not blowing my lines. ... crime fighter’s

Production Information

Only one American hero has earned the rank of Green Beret, Navy SEAL and

Army Ranger. Just one operative has been awarded 16 purple hearts, 3 Congressional

Medals of Honor and 7 presidential medals of bravery. And only one guy is man enough

to still sport a mullet.

In 2010, WILL FORTE (Baby Mama, The Brothers Solomon) brings Saturday

Night Live’s clueless soldier of fortune to the big screen in the action-comedy

MacGruber.

In the 10 years since his fiancée, Casey (MAYA RUDOLPH of Away We Go,

television’s SNL), was killed, special op MacGruber has sworn off a life of fighting crime

with his bare hands and become a man of peace. But when his former commanding

officer, Colonel Faith (POWERS BOOTHE of Sin City, television’s 24), tells him that his

country needs him to find a nuclear warhead that’s been stolen by his sworn enemy, black

market arms dealer Dieter Von Cunth (VAL KILMER of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,

Tombstone), MacGruber figures he’s the only one tough enough for the job.

Assembling an elite team of experts—Lt. Dixon Piper (RYAN PHILLIPPE of

Crash, Flags of Our Fathers) and Vicki St. Elmo (KRISTEN WIIG of Knocked Up,

Whip It)—MacGruber will navigate an army of assassins to hunt down Cunth and bring

him to justice. His methods may be unorthodox. His crime scenes may get messy. But

if you want the world saved right, you call in MacGruber.

Making his feature film directorial debut with the action-comedy is SNL

writer/director JORMA TACCONE. He is joined in screenwriting duties by Will Forte

and JOHN SOLOMON (television’s SNL, Extreme Movie). Saturday Night Live creator

LORNE MICHAELS (Baby Mama, Mean Girls) produces the film with JOHN

GOLDWYN (Baby Mama, television’s Dexter).

MacGruber—Production Information 2

Leading MacGruber’s behind-the-scenes team are director of photography

BRANDON TROST (Crank: High Voltage, In Good Company), production designer

ROBB WILSON-KING (Just Friends, Scary Movie), editor JAMIE GROSS (Role

Models, television’s Wainy Days) and costume designer SUSANNA PUISTO (Dark

Country, Cleaner).

Relativity Media’s RYAN KAVANAUGH and TUCKER TOOLEY, as well as

Taccone’s fellow SNL colleagues AKIVA SCHAFFER, SETH MEYERS and ERIN

DAVID serve as the action-comedy’s executive producers.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

A Dead Man With a Mission:

MacGruber is Greenlit

Will Forte’s mullet-sporting, gadget-savvy action hero was introduced to

Saturday Night Live audiences several years ago and quickly became a fan favorite.

“MacGruber was a pitch I had at SNL that has morphed into this character with a lot of

problems,” writer/director Jorma Taccone explains. “He’s very insecure and very bull-

headed. We’ve done a number of these sketches on the show, which are always in three

parts, and it’s usually MacGruber getting worse and worse at his job in some way. He

either becomes more and more of an alcoholic, more of a closet racist or has just lost all

his money in the stock market. He’s a real American hero...with issues.”

The character was slated to star in a feature film almost immediately after

appearing in a national television commercial in February 2009. SNL creator Lorne

Michaels offers: “MacGruber has always been popular on the show. The commercial we

did for the Super Bowl got a great reaction, and we decided to make a movie based on the

character.”

The SNL veteran and his fellow producer, John Goldwyn, joined forces with Ryan

Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media to assemble the creative team and develop the feature-

length film. Michaels shares that the team’s rationale for creating the MacGruber movie

was a simple one: to make people laugh. “There’s a certain kind of movie that has no


other reason to exist other than it’s funny,” he reflects. “I’ve never been bashful about

how much I like that kind of movie. It’s like a confection. When you want it, you want

it.”

The MacGruber script became a collaborative effort by Forte and two of his SNL

co-writers, Taccone and John Solomon. “When Lorne first got excited about trying to

make a movie about MacGruber, we thought, ‘Are you crazy?’” laughs Forte. “This is a

60-second sketch on SNL that ends in an explosion every time. And then we said, ‘We’d

be crazy not to think about it,’ and we started coming up with fun ideas.”

Forte says that finding time to focus on the screenplay was tough during the

weekly sketch comedy’s grueling rehearsals and shoots. “The SNL schedule is physically

and mentally draining,” he explains. “We were writing every spare second that we had.

The easiest part was that Jorma and John are two of my closest friends. As long as one

person had good ideas one day, that took the pressure off the other two. It was a pretty

awesome experience to get to share with two of your best buddies.”

“We love ’80s action movies,” adds writer John Solomon, “so it was easy to start

with MacGruber being out of the game…and then having him get back into it. We were

very lucky that Jorma is also a performer. He’s good with actors, and he’s also very

creative and visual.”

Of the opportunity to turn an SNL sketch into a feature, Solomon says he

welcomed the chance to create a multidimensional story. “MacGruber is a very insecure

person,” Solomon adds. “We had the chance to make the story bigger and richer than

what you’d normally see in a three-minute sketch. Plus, making an R-rated movie gave

us an opportunity to have more violence…and add a little sex.”

SNL has a staff of approximately 20 writers who work each week to create 45-50

set pieces that are whittled down to less than a dozen by 11:30 p.m. on Saturday night.

The three men working on MacGruber, however, had a much smaller writing team as

they created the feature’s screenplay. In a world where it can sometimes take years to

make a film, the project went from conception to shooting in less than six months; it was

shot during the team’s hiatus from SNL.

“This is a group of people who understand that time is their enemy and that there

is a limitation to the amount of time you get to do anything,” producer Goldwyn shares.


“With SNL, you start with a blank page on Monday and you’re on air on Saturday, so you

have to think fast. There’s no mediocrity. The best idea survives and there’s no room for

anybody to get hurt feelings because their ideas didn’t make it into the show…or for

people to have too much time to over think things.

“Speed generates a certain efficiency,” Goldwyn continues. “It keeps

performances fresh and people on their toes. It can create something really exciting on

film that you might not otherwise get.” The producer believes that this environment

helped his cast and crew to perform well beyond expectations. “We were blessed that the

performers at the center of the movie had all worked together for so long and so

successfully. And with Jorma, there was a confidence with him as a new film director.

They just hit the ground running.”

As the three friends developed the screenplay, they kept true to their love of

action films. Offers the director: “We were huge fans of late ’80s/early ’90s action

movies like Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and Rambo III. We knew that we wanted to make

the film in that style, more out of love than anything else.”

According to Taccone, a leaner production inspired even more creativity on the

set, in every aspect of this production. “We had to think on our feet,” he says. “At SNL,

we have a huge warehouse of props. You can literally say, ‘I need a giant inflatable

carrot and a donkey head,’ and they appear 15 minutes later. It was much harder in New

Mexico where our prop guys did an amazing job, but we had to improvise because we

didn’t have the resources at hand. We were coming up with jokes on the fly, and we had

to reshape ideas based on what we had to work with; that made it very exciting.”

Operatives and Goons:

Casting the Action-Comedy

Will Forte knew it wouldn’t be simple to play a former Green Beret, Navy SEAL

and Army Ranger who fights crimes with his bare hands, but the performer was game for

the challenge. He explains that the filmic version of MacGruber keeps basically the

same character as in his sketch version, but the audience will be introduced to more of the


hapless super soldier’s life. “He’s the same boob,” Forte laughs. “MacGruber thinks he

has the right answer for everything, and quite often, he doesn’t.”

Of Forte’s ability to blend comic timing with action, Taccone compliments: “Will

is an amazing comedy machine. He gives 150 percent to every single take. He will work

until he is nearly dead. At four in the morning, he’ll be screaming, putting energy into

every shot.”

Goldwyn agrees with the director on the star’s enthusiasm and talents. “Will has

such a complete commitment to this part and to everything that is MacGruber and all of

his craziness,” he says. “There is a fearlessness that enters into it that’s exciting to watch

and hilariously funny. There is always the element of the unpredictable, and that’s what

makes MacGruber so exciting and fun.”

Even though the Groundlings-trained comedian has been improvising for years,

Forte still found it difficult to keep in character on set with so many of his SNL cohorts

standing nearby. “There were so many funny people around me,” he offers. “I was only

able to keep a straight face because I was always concentrating on not blowing my lines.

It gets very hard with Kristen Wiig. She’s as funny as they come.”

A veteran of both small and big screen, Wiig made her big screen debut in Judd

Apatow’s smash-hit Knocked Up, and she moved on to co-star in several more films,

including Adventureland and Whip It. On SNL, she is known for characters such as the

one-upping Penelope, impish Gilly and acerbic Judy Grimes, as well as her spot-on

impressions of Suze Orman and Nancy Pelosi. In MacGruber, she reprises her role as the

crime fighter’s often imperiled comrade, Vicki St. Elmo.

“I have always loved being in sketches with Forte,” notes Wiig, “so to get to do

an entire movie with him was beyond fantastic.” Wiig says she enjoyed seeing many of

the familiar SNL faces on the set, including Taccone. “Jorma did a great job,” she

commends. “It was really nice having a family out there, especially on a movie set in the

middle of Albuquerque.”

For the role of the soft-spoken operative who has both a subtle singing voice and

a phenomenal backspin kick, Wiig donned an ’80s-style wig and period-appropriate

makeup. As Vicki St. Elmo, a woman whose life is now her music, she has given up her

life of crime fighting and has been silently pining for the man she believed died 10 years


earlier. Of her character, Wiig laughs: “Vicki’s got her own style. You don’t see a lot of

those hairstyles walking around…or the blue eye shadow.”

Ryan Phillippe, Val Kilmer and Powers Boothe were cast in pivotal roles opposite

Kristin Wiig and Will Forte in the action-comedy. “They provide the context for

MacGruber,” Goldwyn explains. “They are the characters that give MacGruber

legitimacy, because they’re the real people to his unbelievable character.”

Goldwyn explains the process by which Phillippe and Kilmer joined the

production. “We needed to get together a legitimate cast for the read-through,” he says.

“We wanted to make sure that reps from the studio walked into a room with all people

that they recognized. We already had Will, and then we had to fill out the table. Casting

agent SHEILA JAFFE pulled together a table reading. She had the idea of Ryan and Val.

Jorma, Will and John were so impressed with the quality of the work that those two did at

the table reading that they asked them to be in the movie. It was very lucky for us,

because they both said yes.”

Lorne Michaels agrees that he knew immediately that Kilmer was right for the

role of the megalomaniac (and MacGruber’s former best friend) Cunth. “Val did SNL

years ago and was really funny,” Michaels recalls. “This is a villain part, but it needed to

be played lightly. He came in and killed it. Val was the first and only person we went

after.”

“It was the funniest read-through I’d ever been to,” offers Kilmer. “Will was

ridiculous. I actually spat out my coffee twice during the session, he was so outrageous.

The whole gang, Jorma and everyone, has a kindness about them that’s infectious. You

just want to be around them.”

Kilmer read his character as deliciously evil, but still quite petty. “Cunth could

have done anything he wanted to MacGruber,” the actor explains. “He finally had him

captured, but he’d rather get in his face, like on a playground, and try to make him squirm

over something trivial.”

Ryan Phillippe was recruited for the role of Lieutenant Dixon Piper, who works

with MacGruber to bring Cunth down. After MacGruber begrudgingly lets Piper join the

team, the soldier spends much of his time barely tolerating MacGruber and shaking his


head in different iterations of disgust at his unorthodox methods…such as strategically

placed celery and sleights of hand that never quite work.

Known primarily for his appearances in dramas and thrillers, Phillippe was

excited to become a part of this action-comedy. “In most of my films, I have a lot more

anguish,” he laughs. “I thought it would be so much fun to do something where I got to

laugh from morning until night. From the time I was 11, I’ve seen almost every episode

of SNL, and I am a huge fan of Will’s and Kristen’s. They’re both just comic geniuses.”

As this style of comedy was relatively new to Phillippe, he had many challenges

on set. “I just tried not to break,” he says. “I’ve never had to deal with having an

incredibly funny person right in your face, saying the most ridiculous things as you try to

keep yourself composed.” The actor admits he has an indentation from digging his

thumbnail into his finger to stop from breaking up. “When Will did what was on the

page, I could prepare myself for it,” Phillippe remembers. “But when he deviated and

improv’d, you never knew what was going to come out of his mouth.”

Veteran performer Powers Boothe portrays Piper’s boss, Colonel Faith, the man

responsible for tracking down MacGruber and re-enlisting him in the fight to save the

world from the evil Cunth. Boothe says that, like Phillippe, he is usually cast in dramas;

for this film, he enjoyed letting loose and having fun on screen. “It was a personal

triumph that these Saturday Night Live guys picked me,” he says. “It was so exciting

because these guys are young and smart and into a world of creativity. It was sensational

for me to share that with them.”

As Boothe and Kilmer had worked together years ago on Tombstone, the project

gave the actor the chance to reunite with an old friend. “Val is just brilliant,” Boothe

compliments. “People going to see MacGruber who are expecting to see skits from

Saturday Night Live are going to be in for a huge surprise. The audience will get

involved with it and excited while they’re laughing.”

Also appearing in the film is another longtime SNL player, actress Maya Rudolph.

As MacGruber’s late fiancée (and Vicki’s best friend), Casey guides MacGruber back to

reality. The team agreed that, together, Rudolph and Forte created some of the most

memorable moments in the film.


“We wanted to get Maya in here as well because she was our original Casey on

SNL,” explains Taccone. “Fun fact: the original sketch characters were called K-Ci &

JoJo. I was a big fan of late ’90s R&B, and the group K-Ci & JoJo inspired these

names.”

When casting former members of Mac’s elite team, whom he tries to bring back

together for another mission, Taccone and the producers approached some of the

superstars of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

The men asked to come aboard the production were CHRIS JERICHO as M-16

wielding assassin Frank Korver; “BIG SHOW” (aka Paul Wight) as mechanic Brick

Hughes, MARK HENRY as Tut Beemer, the flashy “MVP” (MONTEL VONTAVIOUS

PORTER) as grenade-specialist Tug Phelps, KANE (aka “The Big Red Monster”) as

eagle-eye marksman Tanker Lutz and “THE GREAT KHALI,” currently the tallest

WWE superstar (coming in at 7’ 3” and 420 lbs.), as welder Vernon Freedom.

Longtime SNL fan Jericho, known in the ring as Y2J, was quick to sign up for the

job. When asked about his entry into the project, he tells: “I said, ‘Sure. What time and

what boxing gym in Albuquerque?’” The performer relates that both he and Forte had

something else in common: they are both former members of the famous L.A. improv

group called the Groundlings (as were Wiig and Rudolph). “Suddenly, we had a nice run

of jokes going through our scene that we just came up with on the spot.”

For the members of the WWE, the improv that Taccone encouraged on set wasn’t

all that different from the world to which they were accustomed. “Being in the WWE is

like show business boot camp,” says Jericho. “You learn a little bit of everything: drama,

action, adventure, comedy. Everybody who works in the WWE is very able to adapt to

any situation and can really fit in.”

Other members of the pro wrestling organization who portray MacGruber’s dream

team joined Jericho to help bring Cunth to justice. Known in the ring as “The World’s

Largest Athlete,” Big Show (aka Paul Wight), stands 7 feet tall, weighs 440 lbs and

sports a 64” chest. As the wrestler has feet that are an unbelievable size 22 EEEEE,

finding shoes for Wight posed a bit of a challenge for costume designer Susanna Puisto.

Wight believes that working on the film with Taccone was, in certain ways, much

easier than his time with the WWE. “In film, they take a lot of time to prep with different


camera angles,” Wight says. “You tell people where to go and what to do. At WWE, we

show up, Vince might hand me a promo five minutes before I walk out of the curtain and

I’m supposed to know it.”

“Hot as Hell, MacGruber!”:

Design and Locations

MacGruber was shot in the heat of Albuquerque, New Mexico with a tight

shooting schedule of just 28 days. Production designer Robb Wilson-King and his team

had their work cut out for them every day, with much, according to King, “creative

problem solving” happening at every turn.

Although they’ve been friends for a long time, Forte admits that he wasn’t sure of

the look that Taccone had in store for the film. While the audience is used to seeing the

SNL cast in a sketch with three walls, Forte reflects, “This movie looks like a big-budget

action movie. It’s all because of Jorma and DP Brandon Trost.”

Location scouts were extremely busy during pre-production as they kept everyone

on the move to search for ideal locales. “We needed a lonely Russian road where a

convoy of military transports would be brutally held up,” explains Wilson. “We also

needed a South American monastery where MacGruber, deep in prayer and meditation,

would be called back into action. There was that sea cliff wedding location to deal with;

the Pentagon; a Washington, D.C., suburban house; a D.C. urban coffee shop; and more.”

The crew joked that because of the many locations required, Wilson-King needed a fresh

location scout every few hours.

Forte had costuming issues of his own as the cast and crew baked in the hot

Albuquerque sun. “This was supposed to be the ’90s, and I had to wear a long-sleeve

undershirt, flannel shirt and a vest every day…then I had to wear a wig. It got very hot.”

The first day of filming took place at a huge gypsum mine located on the Zia

Pueblo. North of Albuquerque, this served as the setting for the film’s Russian road, the

place where Cunth’s men do their dastardly deeds. Designed for moving enormous mine

machinery, the wide road had no vegetation and offered shallow ponds of water that

provided visual interest for the director and DP.


The crew drove before sunrise into an overly lit base camp and found white dust

covering everything in sight. As the sun rose, it revealed the smoking Russian military

trucks, scattered dead soldiers, Cunth and his tattooed bad guys, as well as a huge truck

carrying the deadly nuclear missile. The next day took cast and crew to the “monastery”

set, which was actually El Rancho de las Golondrinas near Santa Fe—a museum that

includes buildings dating back to the early 1700s.

The Pentagon, where Colonel Faith holds tense briefings, was a combination of

the old marble-walled Bernalillo courthouse and the Emergency Operations Center,

operated by FEMA, the state of New Mexico and the city of Albuquerque. This high-

tech command center had never been used for filming, and King and his team were

thrilled to receive approvals for the shoot.

The location for Dieter Von Cunth’s compound was actually a power plant owned

by the Public Utility of New Mexico (PNM). Generously, Malcolm Long of PNM

allowed the crew to build a mock missile on top of one of the older generators. King and

his construction crew spent weeks creating the sets within the power plant, and the

neighbors surrounding the plant were kind enough to put up with the explosions and

gunfire that occurred during night filming.

The Las Vegas club scenes in which MacGruber confronts his nemesis were shot

at the Isleta Casino & Resort, a beautiful new casino and club in the area. Next up, the

D.C. coffee shop in which Vicki (dressed as MacGruber) goes ballistic was lensed in the

popular Gold Street Caffè in downtown Albuquerque.

King and his team had scouted the Albuquerque Botanic Garden for other films,

but this time they discovered a Japanese garden hidden at the back of the property—the

perfect spot to shoot the film’s signature wedding.

The spectacular van explosion, in which MacGruber realizes his old crew may not

be able to make it to the next mission, took place at the Albuquerque airport. The

production team posted signs along the nearby freeway in both directions to warn people

that pyrotechnics were being deployed. The crew didn’t want emergency services

swamped with hundreds of phone calls about a plane crash…especially since there were

fake body parts littering a runway.


“We were shooting digital, and at warp speed,” explains producer Michaels. “The

level of production is as good as anything I’ve ever worked on. There’s also something

special about how the picture looks, because of the light in Albuquerque and because of

all the amazing locations we were able to find.”

Two-by-Fours and AK-47s:

Stunt Work

In many an action-comedy, at some point, someone will take a board to the head.

Will Forte actually did a couple of his own stunts and accidentally collided with a

stuntman more than once. “I felt so bad,” he says. “For the fight scene with Val, I did

the fight with a stunt guy. There were a bunch of elbows thrown. During that sequence,

I elbowed the guy in the face. Of course, he’s a stunt guy, so he said, ‘Oh, it’s all right.

I’m cool. I’m fine.’

“About 10 minutes later, I was supposed to hit him with a two-by-four,” Forte

continues. “The two-by-four is actually a hard piece of plastic, and I accidentally hit him

in the face again. It looked real on camera…because it was! Again, I said, ‘Oh, my God,

I’m so sorry. I hit you in the face with the board. He said, ‘Oh, no, no. No, you didn’t.’

These guys are just bad asses. They make us look very good. The stuntmen were put

through a very tough schedule and worked long hours while still keeping positive

outlooks.”

While he had every intention of staying behind the camera, Taccone eventually

got in on the action himself. “I didn’t want to be in the movie at all,” he laughs. “I just

thought it was enough to try to direct for the first time, but I got so excited about a big

shoot-out. We were downstairs in a building at about four in the morning, and I said, ‘I

have to gear up. I’ve got to shoot an AK-47!’ I had never shot a gun before, and getting

to shoot automatic weapons is pretty fantastic. So you will get to see my childlike,

mustachioed face in the background shooting an AK in this movie.”

****

Rogue Presents A Relativity Media/Michaels-Goldwyn Production: MacGruber,

starring Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Phillippe, Powers Boothe, Maya Rudolph and


Val Kilmer. The casting is by Sheila Jaffe, CSA, and the costume designer is Susanna

Puisto. MacGruber’s music is composed by Matthew Compton, and the music

supervisors are Happy Walters and Season Kent. The film’s editor is Jamie Gross, and

the production designer is Robb Wilson-King. MacGruber’s director of photography is

Brandon Trost, and its line producer is Patty Long. The action-comedy’s co-producer is

Kenneth Halsband, and its executive producers are Ryan Kavanaugh, Tucker Tooley,

Akiva Schaffer, Seth Meyers, Erin David. MacGruber is produced by Lorne Michaels,

John Goldwyn. The film is written by Will Forte & John Solomon & Jorma Taccone,

and it is directed by Jorma Taccone. © 2010 Universal Studios

www.iamrogue.com/macgruber

ABOUT THE CAST

WILL FORTE (MacGruber/Written by) has established himself as one of the

most versatile comedy actors in film and television. He recently began his eighth season

on Saturday Night Live. Forte also recently completed the comedy A Good Old

Fashioned Orgy for Endgame Entertainment, in which he co-stars opposite Jason

Sudeikis. He was most recently seen in Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, written and

directed by John Krasinski, and lent his voice to Sony Pictures’ hit animated film Cloudy

With a Chance of Meatballs.

During his time at SNL, Forte has produced many memorable sketches. He has

showcased his singing talents as an unhinged “Fly High Duluth” bandleader with a

penchant for chugging Jack Daniel’s. He’s created lasting characters in The Falconer—

the once-successful executive who has mysteriously chosen to live in the woods with his

faithful falcon Donald—and the very soft-spoken politician Tim Calhoun, as well as the

creepily naïve office worker, Neil, whose ventures outside of work with colleague Jean

quickly turn perverse. Forte has also brought life to MacGruber, the resourceful-albeit-

distractible man who can disarm a bomb with just about anything.

Forte wrote and starred in the feature The Brothers Solomon, opposite Will Arnett

and SNL cast mate Kristen Wiig. His additional film credits include Baby Mama, The

Slammin’ Salmon and Beerfest.


Forte recently had very memorable guest-starring roles on the hit comedies How I

Met Your Mother, NBC’s award-winning 30 Rock, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great

Job! and on HBO’s The Flight of the Conchords. He also lent his voice to a handful of

animated series including FOX’s The Cleveland Show, from creator Seth MacFarlane,

and FOX’s recent animated sitcom Sit Down Shut Up, from creator Mitchell Hurwitz, as

well as MTV’s Clone High.

Forte came to SNL from Los Angeles’ improv-sketch theater The Groundlings,

where SNL alum Chris Parnell and former cast mate Maya Rudolph got their start. Forte

has a great deal of experience behind the camera, serving as a producer on That ’70s

Show and as a story editor for 3rd Rock From the Sun and Action, as well as working as a

writer for Late Show With David Letterman and the MTV Movie Awards.

Forte currently divides his time between New York and Los Angeles.

A comedic star born from the Saturday Night Live stage, KRISTEN WIIG

(Vicki St. Elmo) has become one of the most sought-after talents in film and television

today. Wiig recently earned her first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting

Actress in a Comedy Series for her incredible work playing such memorable characters

as the excitable Target clerk, the hilarious one-upper Penelope, House Speaker Nancy

Pelosi and Suze Orman, among others.

Wiig’s upcoming films include Greg Mottola’s Paul, co-starring Simon Pegg, and

her first dramatic role, Andrew Jarecki’s All Good Things, opposite Ryan Gosling,

Kirsten Dunst and Frank Langella. She also contributed her voice to the recently released

animated feature film How to Train Your Dragon, starring Gerard Butler and Jay

Baruchel for DreamWorks Animation, and the upcoming film Despicable Me, starring

Steve Carell and Jason Segel for Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures.

Wiig made her big-screen debut to universal high praise as Katherine Heigl’s

passive-aggressive boss in Judd Apatow’s smash-hit comedy Knocked Up. Her

additional film credits include Mike Judge’s Extract, with Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck

and Mila Kunis; Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut Whip It, starring Ellen Page; Greg

Mottola’s Adventureland, with Ryan Reynolds, Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg;

David Koepp’s Ghost Town, with Ricky Gervais; and Jake Kasdan’s Walk Hard: The


Dewey Cox Story, another Apatow-produced film in which she starred opposite John C.

Reilly.

A native of Rochester, New York, Wiig worked as a main company member of

the Los Angeles-based improv/sketch comedy troupe The Groundlings. As a

Groundlings alumna, she joins the ranks of such SNL cast mates as Maya Rudolph, Will

Ferrell, Phil Hartman and Jon Lovitz.

Wiig lives in New York City.

As an actor, producer and writer, RYAN PHILLIPPE (Lieutenant Dixon Piper)

has quickly established himself as one of Hollywood’s most versatile talents.

Phillippe has starred in many diverse roles, beginning with his first film, Disney’s

White Squall, a project that enabled him to work with acclaimed director Ridley Scott. In

his early films, Phillippe was able to work with exceptional actors and directors. These

roles included work in Little Boy Blue, with Nastassja Kinski; Gregg Araki’s Nowhere

(the third film in Araki’s controversial trilogy); Homegrown, with Billy Bob Thornton;

and Playing by Heart, with the ensemble cast of Sean Connery, Angelina Jolie and Gena

Rowlands.

Starring roles soon followed with the box-office smash I Know What You Did

Last Summer; Cruel Intentions, which co-starred Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Michelle

Gellar; and 54, with Mike Myers.

Phillippe has also starred in Robert Altman’s Oscar®-nominated film Gosford

Park; Igby Goes Down, with Susan Sarandon and Kieran Culkin; Antitrust, with Tim

Robbins; Paramount Classic’s Company Man, with Sigourney Weaver; the cult classic

The Way of the Gun, with Benicio Del Toro; the war drama Stop-Loss, alongside Joseph

Gordon-Levitt and Channing Tatum; Franklyn, opposite Eva Green; Clint Eastwood’s

Flags of Our Fathers; Breach, opposite Chris Cooper; Five Fingers, with Laurence

Fishburne; Chaos; as well as the Academy Award®-winning film Crash, for director Paul

Haggis.

Phillippe has formed the production company Great White Ape Productions and

has a number of films and television shows currently in development.

Phillippe makes his home in Los Angeles.


Veteran actor POWERS BOOTHE’s (Colonel Faith) long and enviable career is

filled with powerful performances on the silver screen, on television and in the theater.

Boothe was last seen opposite Sean Astin in the baseball film The Final Season, which

premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Boothe previously starred in Sin City, directed by Robert Rodriguez. His

extensive list of additional film credits include Frailty, directed by Bill Paxton; Men of

Honor; U Turn and Nixon, both directed by Oliver Stone; Blue Sky; Tombstone; Sudden

Death; Rapid Fire; Extreme Prejudice; The Emerald Forest, directed by John Boorman;

Red Dawn; Southern Comfort; Cruising; and The Goodbye Girl, to name a few.

On the small screen, he appeared as the vice president of the United States on the

sixth season of the Emmy Award-winning drama 24. He also starred as Cy Tolliver in

HBO’s critically lauded drama Deadwood, for which the cast earned a SAG Award

nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Boothe

won an Emmy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Reverend Jim Jones in the

television movie Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones. He has also starred in various

television miniseries including Attila, Joan of Arc and True Women, opposite Dana

Delany and Angelina Jolie. He played the lead in the television movie By Dawn’s Early

Light, with James Earl Jones, and starred as the title character in the HBO series Philip

Marlowe, Private Eye. Other television credits include Second Nature, Showtime’s The

Spree, Web of Deception, Marked for Murder, Wild Card and HBO’s Into the Homeland.

Boothe’s career began in the theater after he received his MFA from Southern

Methodist University and became a resident actor at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Shortly thereafter, he made his New York stage debut in the Lincoln Center production of

Richard III and later went on to star on Broadway as the lead in James McClure’s

critically acclaimed one-act comedy, Lone Star.

MAYA RUDOLPH (Casey) began her performing career with the famed

improvisational troupe The Groundlings.

In 2000, she made her debut on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, where she continued

as one of the show’s regular players for more than seven years. Rudolph’s turns included

memorably skewed portrayals of Oprah Winfrey, Donatella Versace and Michelle


Obama; and such recurring sketches as “Wake Up Wakefield” and “Time-Travelin’ Scott

Joplin” (in which she played piano as Mr. Joplin).

Rudolph was recently seen starring opposite John Krasinski in the Sam Mendes

comedy Away We Go, and in a recurring role on the NBC comedy series Kath & Kim.

Her previous films include Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion; Mike

Judge’s Idiocracy; Bruce Paltrow’s Duets; Peter Segal’s 50 First Dates; Miguel Arteta’s

Chuck & Buck; Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca; James L. Brooks’ As Good as It Gets; and as

the voice of Rapunzel in Shrek the Third.

Rudolph will next be seen opposite Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Salma Hayek

in Grown Ups.

VAL KILMER (Dieter Von Cunth) is one of the most prolific actors of his

generation. From his more recent work as a career military officer in David Mamet’s

Spartan, back through his work with Oliver Stone in The Doors and Michael Mann in

Heat, to his early work in Top Gun, Kilmer has worked with many of the film industry’s

most respected directors and actors. His recent films include Millennium Film’s The Bad

Lieutenant: Port of Call—New Orleans, with Nicolas Cage and directed by Werner

Herzog, and Streets of Blood, with Sharon Stone and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.

Other recent projects include Ric Roman Waugh’s Felon, with Stephen Dorff;

Déjà Vu, an action-thriller produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Films for Touchstone Pictures

in which Kilmer starred with Denzel Washington and Jim Caviezel; and Kiss Kiss Bang

Bang, written and directed by Shane Black, and co-starring Robert Downey Jr.

The youngest student ever admitted to the drama department at Juilliard, Kilmer

made his feature debut in the comedy Top Secret!, which he followed with Real Genius

and his breakout role as Iceman in Tony Scott’s Top Gun, opposite Tom Cruise.

Kilmer’s other memorable roles include Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The

Doors, the title character in Batman Forever, Doc Holliday in Tombstone and Simon

Templar in The Saint. His other starring roles include Michael Mann’s Heat, with Robert

De Niro and Al Pacino; True Romance, directed by Tony Scott; Ron Howard’s Willow;

At First Sight; and Thunderheart. He won a Prism Award for his work in The Salton Sea,

appeared in the 3-D epic Wings of Courage and voiced the character of Moses in the


animated film The Prince of Egypt.

Kilmer’s films also include Oliver Stone’s Alexander, Renny Harlin’s

Mindhunters, the animated feature Delgo, Ron Howard’s The Missing and Wonderland.

During the production of Wonderland, Kilmer began a photography project that

blossomed into a behind-the-scenes pictorial book. Released by Pocket Books, the

photographs were exhibited in several cities in the United States.

When Kilmer was at Juilliard, he co-wrote the play How It All Began, based on

the true story of a West German radical. The play was directed by Des McAnuff and was

produced by Joseph Papp for The Public Theater. He made his Broadway debut in the

1983 production of The Slab Boys, with Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon. He also appeared

in Papp’s Delacorte Theater production of Henry IV: Part One, As You Like It, the title

role in Hamlet and ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, also at Papp’s Public Theater. He starred as

Moses in the Max Azria-produced musical The Ten Commandments at the Kodak Theatre

in Los Angeles. In 2005, he starred on London’s West End at the Playhouse Theatre in

Andrew Rattenbury’s adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice, as Frank

Chambers, the drifter played by Jack Nicholson in the 1981 film version.

On television, Kilmer starred in the critically acclaimed HBO Original Movie The

Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains, for which he received a CableACE nomination, and in

Gore Vidal’s Billy the Kid, playing the title role.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

JORMA TACCONE (Written by/Directed by) is a writer/director and composer

for Saturday Night Live. Along with his writing partners Andy Samberg and Akiva

Schaffer, he is responsible for creating the popular SNL “Digital Shorts,” which have

reinvigorated the series and spurred many watercooler moments over the past several

seasons. Some of the most notable shorts include their Emmy-winning “D**k in a Box”

(with Justin Timberlake), “Lazy Sunday” (a rap about The Chronicles of Narnia) and

“The Natalie Portman Rap,” all of which Taccone co-wrote and for which he composed

music with the help of his brother, Asa.


Taccone has also directed many digital shorts, including “MacGruber,” “Business

Meeting” (with Rainn Wilson and Arcade Fire), “Roy Rules” and “Sloths.” Taccone was

honored with a Writers Guild Award for his work on the 2005/2006 season and a

Peabody Award for the 2008/2009 season of the show.

Taccone, Samberg and Schaffer, collectively known as The Lonely Island, have

been friends since junior high school in Berkeley, California. In 2000, the trio began

writing, directing and producing its own brand of comedy and showcasing it on their

Web site www.thelonelyisland.com. The Lonely Island’s debut album, “Incredibad,”

was released by Universal Republic in February 2009 and is the first comedy album to

reach No. 1 on iTunes.

Taccone is also an engaging performer, who made his feature acting debut in Hot

Rod. In the film, he appeared opposite Andy Samberg, Ian McShane, Sissy Spacek, Isla

Fisher and Bill Hader, as Rod’s (Samberg) geeky and lovable half-brother, Kevin. He

also appeared as the lovable monkey-boy Chaka in Universal Pictures’ Land of the Lost,

starring Will Ferrell and directed by Brad Silberling.

Taccone is the son of accomplished theater director Anthony Taccone and a

graduate of the UCLA theater department, where he studied acting. He currently resides

in New York City.

JOHN SOLOMON (Written by) is a staff writer at Saturday Night Live.

LORNE MICHAELS (Produced by) is the creator and executive producer of

Saturday Night Live, the longest-running and highest-rated weekly late-night television

program in history.

Over the last 30 years, SNL has won numerous Emmy Awards and was honored

with the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award (1990, 2008, 2009) and cited as “truly

a national institution.” Michaels has personally won 13 Emmys as a writer and producer.

In 2004, he received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at The Kennedy Center

in Washington, D.C. He was also inducted into the Academy of Television Arts &

Sciences Hall of Fame.


Michaels has produced numerous motion pictures, most recently Baby Mama,

starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and the hit comedy Mean Girls, starring Lindsay

Lohan and Tina Fey, who also wrote the film. Past film credits include Wayne’s World,

Tommy Boy and ¡Three Amigos! (which he produced and co-wrote with Steve Martin and

Randy Newman).

In addition to his weekly duties on SNL, Michaels is executive producer of NBC’s

Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and the hit comedy 30 Rock, starring Tina Fey, Alec

Baldwin and Tracy Morgan.

Michaels’ past television credits also include The Kids in the Hall and Night

Music, as well as specials with Lily Tomlin, Steve Martin, Paul Simon, The Rutles, Flip

Wilson, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, Randy Newman, Neil Young and Simon

and Garfunkel in Central Park.

On Broadway, he produced and directed Gilda Radner Live From New York and

produced the subsequent motion picture Gilda Live.

Michaels began his career in Toronto, where he attended the University of

Toronto, worked as a writer and producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and

starred in the comedy series The Hart & Lorne Terrific Hour. In 1968, he moved to Los

Angeles and worked as a writer for NBC’s Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and other

television series, until he left in 1975 to begin SNL in New York.

In 1979, Michaels founded the New York-based production company Broadway

Video Inc.

JOHN GOLDWYN (Produced by), grandson of the legendary Hollywood

producer Samuel Goldwyn, began his motion picture career at The Ladd Company in

1981. During his tenure there, Goldwyn developed the hugely successful Police

Academy franchise, the second installment of which he executive produced in 1985.

In the fall of 1985, Goldwyn joined Alan Ladd, Jr., at MGM/United Artists and

oversaw such hits as Running Scared (1986), Moonstruck (1987) and A Fish Called

Wanda (1988). In 1988, Goldwyn became executive vice president of worldwide

production and was responsible for all aspects of production and development for the

studio.


In 1990, Goldwyn left MGM/United Artists to join Paramount Pictures and was

promoted to president of the Paramount Motion Picture Group one year later. In 2002,

chairwoman Sherry Lansing elevated Goldwyn to vice chairman of the Paramount

Motion Picture Group.

While Goldwyn was a senior executive at the studio, Paramount Pictures took

home three Best Picture Oscars® for Forrest Gump, Braveheart and Titanic. Other

notable films released under his aegis include Indecent Proposal; Wayne’s World and its

sequel, Wayne’s World 2; The Firm; The Truman Show; The First Wives Club; Mission:

Impossible and its sequel, Mission: Impossible II; Tom Clancy’s Patriot Games, Clear

and Present Danger and The Sum of All Fears; What Women Want; Saving Private Ryan;

Deep Impact; Mean Girls; and many others.

In 2004, Goldwyn became an independent producer at the studio. He produces

the award-winning Showtime hit series Dexter, starring Michael C. Hall. He also

produced the critically acclaimed I’m Not There, with Christine Vachon. This biography

of Bob Dylan, written and directed by Todd Haynes, starred Richard Gere, Cate

Blanchett, Heath Ledger and Christian Bale. For her outstanding work portraying one of

the many sides of Dylan, Cate Blanchett was nominated for an Academy Award®.

In 2005, Goldwyn teamed with Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels to

form Michaels-Goldwyn Productions at Paramount. Their first collaboration, Hot Rod,

starring Andy Samberg and directed by Akiva Schaffer, was released in August 2007. In

2008, they released the comedy Baby Mama, starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.

RYAN KAVANAUGH (Executive Producer) is a principal of Relativity Media,

LLC, a self-sustaining media company engaged in the business of developing, creating

and acquiring content and content-related assets.

Kavanaugh created business and financial structures for a number of studios,

production companies and producers. Since moving from venture and private equity to

entertainment industry transactions, he has introduced more than $10 billion of capital to

these structures including Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., Marvel and

many others.


In 2008, Relativity Media finalized its acquisition of Rogue from Universal. The

purchase of Rogue, a company that specializes in the production and distribution of

lower-budget films, includes the label’s entire library of films, as well as producing deals

and more than 30 projects currently in development. Rogue has had particular success

within the horror genre; the first Rogue release under Relativity’s ownership was The

Unborn, starring Gary Oldman, Cam Gigandet, Odette Yustman and Idris Elba. The

Unborn grossed more than $19 million at the box office on opening weekend and has

earned nearly $60 million to date. The Last House on the Left, based on a Wes Craven

film, opened to $15 million at the box office, and Fighting, starring Channing Tatum and

Terrence Howard, grossed a strong $11.5 million in its opening weekend. Additionally,

Relativity Media recently launched Rogue as an overall lifestyle brand to include a

clothing line, a social networking platform and a music label.

In a significant milestone for the entertainment finance industry, Kavanaugh

created a wholly owned subsidiary, Relativity Media Holdings, which has concluded an

agreement with Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking on a co-financing package

for approximately 45 studio films for the next five years. With this deal, Relativity will

co-invest in approximately 75 percent of Columbia Pictures’ films, under a five-year

revolving credit facility.

Jill Goldsmith of Variety wrote of Kavanaugh: “His co-financing deals are the

most successful ever in Hollywood. He’s been amazingly proactive and is the envy of

many on Wall Street involved in the business.”

Kavanaugh has created a number of unique financing packages, including Gun

Hill Road I and Gun Hill Road II, which provide discrete and separate funds for both

Sony Pictures Entertainment and Universal Pictures, marking the first time two studios

received funding from the same source. In January 2008, Relativity Media announced

the formation of the wholly owned subsidiary Relativity Capital, which is to be a

principal investor in major media transactions, including studio slates, the Relativity

Media Single Picture Business, library acquisitions and other media-related cash-flow

investments. Elliott Associates, L.P., a New York-based hedge fund, will be working

with and providing financing to Relativity Capital in these media transactions.


As part of its “single-picture business,” Relativity Media develops, produces,

finances and distributes approximately one film per month, packaged with top-tier talent

and filmmakers and imbued with strong commercial appeal both domestically and

internationally. Credits under this single-picture business include 3:10 to Yuma, starring

Russell Crowe and Christian Bale for director James Mangold; The Forbidden Kingdom,

teaming Jet Li and Jackie Chan for director Rob Minkoff; and The Bank Job, starring

Jason Statham for director Roger Donaldson. Relativity’s recent single-picture lineup

includes Jim Sheridan’s Brothers, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire and Natalie

Portman; Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman, starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and

Emily Blunt; Lasse Hallström’s Dear John, starring Channing Tatum and Amanda

Seyfried; the heist thriller Brilliant, starring Scarlett Johansson; the family action film

The Spy Next Door, starring Jackie Chan; and Rob Marshall’s Nine, starring Daniel Day-

Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Penélope Cruz, Marion Cotillard and Sophia Loren.

Prior to his work with Relativity, Kavanaugh started a venture capital company at

age 22 and, during that time, raised and invested more than $400 million of equity due to

a number of venture and private equity transactions.

TUCKER TOOLEY (Executive Producer) began his producing career in 1997

and, over the course of the next decade, became a prolific and successful independent

producer. Described as “the rarest of combinations” by Fade In magazine in its top-100

people in Hollywood issue, Tooley was able to consistently produce commercial films,

package A-list talent and deliver films on budget and on schedule.

In 1999, Tooley established the production shingle Newman/Tooley Films with

then producing partner Vincent Newman. Over the next seven years, the duo produced a

successful slate of both independent and studio movies, working with some of the top

talent in Hollywood.

In 2006, Tooley served as CEO of Tooley Productions and produced

Shadowboxer, starring Academy Award® winner Helen Mirren and directed by Lee

Daniels (Precious), as well as the critically acclaimed Felon, directed by Ric Roman

Waugh.


After a decade of producing 12 feature films and television on his own, Tooley

joined Ryan Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media as president of production. Along with

Kavanaugh, Tooley has built the company’s Single Picture Films Division into a full-

fledged production company, developing, financing and producing eight to 10 films a

year. Tooley and his executive team currently oversee all of Relativity Media’s

upcoming single pictures including Immortals, an action-adventure from the producers of

300 and acclaimed director Tarsem Singh; The Fighter, starring Academy Award®-

nominated actor Mark Wahlberg, Academy Award®-nominated actor Amy Adams and

Christian Bale; Academy Award® winner Steven Soderbergh’s Knockout; and the 3-D

action picture Sanctum, from the legendary James Cameron.

Two recent pictures (Nine and Brothers) released by Relativity’s Single Picture

Films Division and overseen by Tooley were nominated for seven Golden Globe awards.

Other recent releases include Dear John, directed by Academy Award®-nominated Lasse

Hallström and starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried, and The Spy Next Door,

starring Jackie Chan, George Lopez and Billy Ray Cyrus.

Tooley was most recently honored with the 2009 Ischia Global Film & Music

Fest Executive of the Year Award.

A gifted writer and an innovative force behind the camera, AKIVA SCHAFFER

(Executive Producer) is poised to lead a new generation of directors with his fresh vision

of true comedy. Schaffer is currently a writer/director for Saturday Night Live and has

received an Emmy and two Writers Guild Awards for his work on the show. Along with

his writing partners, Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone, he is responsible for creating the

popular SNL “Digital Shorts,” which have reinvigorated the series and spurred many

watercooler moments over the past four seasons. Some of the most notable shorts

include the Emmy-winning “D**k in a Box” and its sequel “Motherlover” (featuring

Justin Timberlake), “Lazy Sunday,” “J**z in My Pants,” “United Way,” “I’m on a Boat”

(featuring T-Pain) and many others, all of which Schaffer co-wrote and directed. Many

of the videos have garnered unprecedented online interest and acclaim.

Taccone, Samberg and Schaffer, collectively known as The Lonely Island, have

been friends since junior high school in Berkeley, California. In 2000, the trio began


writing, directing and producing its own brand of comedy and showcasing it on their

Web site www.thelonelyisland.com. The Lonely Island’s debut album, “Incredibad,”

was released by Universal Republic in February 2009 and became the No. 1 comedy

album of the year, featuring the Grammy-nominated platinum single “I’m on a Boat,”

which has sold more than one million copies in the U.S.

Schaffer made his feature-length directorial debut with Hot Rod for Paramount

Pictures, starring Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, Ian McShane, Sissy Spacek, Isla

Fisher, Bill Hader and Danny McBride.

Schaffer is a graduate of the film department of the University of California,

Santa Cruz.

SETH MEYERS (Executive Producer) recently returned to Saturday Night Live

for his ninth season. It is his fourth season as head writer and his fourth season as the

anchor of SNL’s “Weekend Update.” Before focusing his attention solely on “Weekend

Update,” Meyers was a regular player in sketches, performing numerous characters and

impressions, most notably, an uncanny portrayal of Senator John Kerry for the show’s

satire of the 2004 presidential election.

A graduate of Northwestern University, he studied and performed at

ImprovOlympic (where many SNL cast members and writers got their start, including

Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler) before moving on to Boom Chicago in

Amsterdam, Holland. His acclaimed show Pickups and Hiccups, with partner Jill

Benjamin, toured Europe and eventually caught the eye of SNL.

Most recently, Meyers wrote the script for an upcoming feature, Key Party, for

Lorne Michaels’ Broadway Video Inc. He has appeared in Paul Weitz’s American

Dreamz and alongside Brendan Fraser in Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, and he

was seen in 2008’s Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist.

Meyers currently resides in New York. His birthday is December 28.

ERIN DAVID (Executive Producer) works in development and production at

Michaels-Goldwyn Productions. She most recently co-produced Universal Pictures’ hit

comedy Baby Mama, starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Previously, she served as an


associate producer on Akiva Schaffer’s cult comedy Hot Rod, starring Andy Samberg,

and served in the same role during her time at Saturday Night Live.

A graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder, David and her husband

currently live in Los Angeles with their family.

BRANDON TROST (Director of Photography) is a fourth-generation filmmaker

and has worked in the film industry for his entire life. Raised on sets, he began young as

an assistant to his father in the craft of special effects. After years of working, creating

and learning the intricacies of filmmaking, he developed an appreciation for the look of

film and for the art of cinematography.

To pursue his passion for film, Trost enrolled in the Los Angeles Film School,

where he developed a personal style and aesthetic while studying under Academy

Award®-winning and -nominated cinematographers such as William A. Fraker, Ralf

Bode and John A. Alonzo. After years of filmmaking experience behind him, he quickly

gained extensive experience shooting in all formats. This experience shows in his work

with more than 20 feature films, dozens of music videos and more than 80 short films

under his belt.

Trost continues to push the boundaries of film with a promising career. His

recent films include He Was a Quiet Man, winner of Best Cinematography at the

Newport Beach Film Festival and starring Christian Slater, William H. Macy and Elisha

Cuthbert; Crank: High Voltage, starring Jason Statham and Amy Smart; and Rob

Zombie’s Halloween II.

The world of production design has a good friend in ROBB WILSON-KING

(Production Designer). For a very long time, his career has been full of varied genres,

styles and unique visions.

Wilson-King was born in Hollywood to a jazz pianist mother and a

designer/builder father. His early roots were influenced greatly with design, theme and

possibility. Wilson-King’s “childhood fort” was on Disney’s backlot (on the Zorro set),

so his eventual path into film design was both passionate and deeply sought.


Wilson-King’s recent film credits include comedies such as Rush Hour, Money

Talks, Scary Movie, Run Ronnie Run, Just Friends, The Librarian: Return to King

Solomon’s Mines on TNT and, most recently, AMC/Sony Pictures Television’s hit series

Breaking Bad.

While working on MacGruber, Wilson-King enjoyed revisiting his action pictures

of the 1980s. The style of the film was a marriage of sentiment and recollection mixed

with the funny writing of the talented Saturday Night Live writers—to Rob, a perfect fit!

Wilson-King recently finished Brett Ratner’s feature Happy Birthday for

Relativity Media and is now designing the pilot for FOX’s dark comedy Chaos, with

Ratner at the helm.

Wilson-King’s mantra is to keep delivering the wealth of design magic to every

project he tackles. He shows no sign of slowing this process down any time soon.

JAMIE GROSS (Editor) got her start assistant editing on the Oscar®-nominated

documentary Murderball. She was an editor on the Comedy Central show Michael &

Michael Have Issues. and the IFC sketch comedy show The Whitest Kids U’Know. She

worked with director David Wain on his comedy shorts Wainy Days and with Rob

Corddry on Childrens’ Hospital.

Previously, Gross worked as an assistant editor on Role Models and The Ten.

MATTHEW COMPTON (Music by) has previously written tracks on the

soundtracks for Whip It, Igor and The Signal. For television, Compton works for the

commercial house Black Iris Music and has written music for MTV’s The Hills, Video

Music Awards and The Real World.

Compton wrote for and played on The Lonely Island’s debut album, “Incredibad,”

and has recorded with the bands Har Mar Superstar and Cursive.

SUSANNA PUISTO (Costume Designer) is a native of Finland and has brought

her style and vision to the silver screen since the early ’90s. She started out styling music

videos and commercials for many of the hottest directors including Gore Verbinski and

worked with Bad Religion, Counting Crows and the Eels, among others.


Her leap into the world of feature films came in Lookin’ Italian, starring Matt

LeBlanc. Puisto’s other film credits include The Chameleon, starring Marc-André

Grondin, Ellen Barkin and Famke Janssen; Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, starring Michael

Douglas, Amber Tamblyn and Jesse Metcalfe; Cleaner, starring Samuel L. Jackson, Ed

Harris and Eva Mendes; American Venus, starring Rebecca De Mornay; Shade, starring

Gabriel Byrne, Sylvester Stallone, Jamie Foxx, Melanie Griffith, Thandie Newton and

Stuart Townsend; Under the Hula Moon, starring Stephen Baldwin, Chris Penn and

Emily Lloyd; Still Breathing, starring Brendan Fraser; Gunshy, starring William Petersen

and Diane Lane; Primary Suspect, starring William Baldwin; Splendor, directed by

Gregg Araki; Pilgrim, starring Ray Liotta; Fascination, starring Jacqueline Bisset; and

many others.

Puisto’s television credits include creating the looks for Buffy the Vampire Slayer,

MTV’s ultra-hip Dead at 21 and the CBS hit How I Met Your Mother.

Puisto calls herself a pink-collar worker and, when not working in movies, she

loves to garden in stilettos.

—macgruber—

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5e1af38f-MACGRUBER Production Notes APPROVED · has the right answer for ... able to keep a straight face because I was always concentrating on not blowing my lines. ... crime fighter’s