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ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Toni Myers (Producer/Director) began her career on early Canadian successes such as the television series This Hour Has Seven Days, Forest Rangers and Seaway and the National Film Board feature Nobody Waved Goodbye. Moving to England, she spent six years working on various films for the BBC and music projects for the Beatles company, Apple. She returned to Canada to edit dramas for CBC-TVs For the Record series, working with directors Gilles Carle, Francis Mankiewicz and Claude Jutra. Her feature film work includes By Design, Surfacing and Abortion: Stories from the North and South, which was awarded First Prize at the 1985 San Francisco Film Festival.
Myers began her association with large-format films in 1967 as assistant editor of Graeme Fergusons stunning multi-screen documentary for EXPO 67, Polar Life, then with the debut of the IMAX technology, edited Fergusons pioneering large-format film North of Superior. She then went on to edit many other IMAX films, including Ocean, Snow Job, Nomads of the Deep, Hail Columbia! and Heart Land and was associate producer of Rolling Stones at the Max. A key member of the IMAX space team, Myers wrote and edited the space films The Dream Is Alive, Blue Planet and Destiny In Space, and was producer/writer/editor of L5: First City in Space and Mission To MIR.
Graeme Ferguson (Consulting Producer), Co-founder of IMAX Corporation, has been an active filmmakers since the early 1950s. His pioneering multi-screen film, Polar Life, was one of the big hits of EXPO 67 in Montreal. The success of that multi-screen technique led Ferguson and his partners to develop the giant screen 15perforation/70mm IMAX system. Ferguson has produced the IMAX films North of Superior, Man Belongs to the Earth, Snow Job, Ocean, Hail Columbia!, The Dream Is Alive, Blue Planet, Destiny In Space, Into the Deep, L5: First City in Space and Mission To MIR.
Ferguson has been recognized with many awards, including the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Medal, the Canadian Government Environmental Achievement Award and two Genie Awards, Canadas highest film honor. In 1993, he was invested into the Order of Canada and received an honorary Doctorate from the University of Bradford, England. Ferguson was honored with NASAs coveted Silver Snoopy Award for outstanding contribution to the space industry.
After working in television news at CTV and on documentary films for several years, Judy Carroll (Associate Producer) joined the IMAX Space Team in 1989. Her IMAX credits include Blue Planet, Destiny In Space, Journey to the Planets, Into the Deep, L5: First City in Space and Mission To MIR. A hands-on producer, Carroll excels at managing the intricacies of location shoots on-site and long distance. Her IMAX film work has taken her to Russia, Kazakhstan, Europe and across North America.
Micky Erbe (Composer) and Maribeth Solomon (Composer) have been collaborating on diverse musical projects for more than 20 years. Their work includes the scores for numerous IMAX-produced films, including: North of Superior, Nomads of the Deep, Ocean, Hail Columbia!, The Dream Is Alive, Blue Planet, Destiny In Space, Into the Deep, L5: First City in Space and Mission To MIR. They have written Gemini Award-winning soundtracks for some of the best Canadian television series, including The Struggle for Democracy, Adderly, Street Legal, E.N.G. and Peacekeepers.
Recent telefilms include Friends at Last with Kathleen Turner, Against Her Will with Marlee Matlin, To Save the Children with Richard Thomas, Dancing in the Dark, Gene Roddenberrys Battleground Earth, Blackjack and Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy. Their scores for feature films include Threshold, Care Bears II, Ticket to Heaven and Improper Channels. Solomon and Erbe have composed, arranged or produced songs and albums for such performers as Isaac Hayes, Anne Murray, Natalie Cole, The Canadian Brass and opera star Maureen Forrester.
James Neihouse (Director of Photography and Astronaut Training) has been involved in the professional film and video business since his graduation from Brooks Institute of Photography in 1976 (B.A. Professional Photography). His credits include work on the IMAX films Ocean, The Great Barrier Reef, Hail Columbia!, The Dream Is Alive, Race the Wind, On the Wing, Blue Planet, Rolling Stones at the Max, Destiny In Space, Whales, L5: First City in Space, Mission To MIR, Michael Jordan to the Max and Ocean Oasis, as well as the upcoming Bears, India: Kingdom of the Tiger and Pulse: A Stomp Odyssey.
Neihouse was director of photography on the IMAX Dome film The Eruption of Mt. Saint Helens, which was nominated for an Academy AwardÒ
for Best Short Documentary in 1980. Neihouse served as co-director and principal cinematographer on Destiny In Space, which opened at the Smithsonians National Air and Space Museum in June 1994. He also served as director of photography on IMAXs Mission To MIR and has also worked extensively in smaller film formats. Neihouse has also been an astronaut trainer and IMAX camera equipment integration supervisor for the space team since 1988. During production on SPACE STATION, Neihouse was awarded NASAs highest astronaut honor, the Silver Snoopy, "for the many years of superlative support he has given--and continues to give--Americas space program."
Narrator: Tom Cruise
Making his film debut in 1981 with the critically acclaimed film Taps, Tom Cruise (Narrator) has experienced a distinguished career in the entertainment industry, and he shows no signs of slowing down 20 years later. Beginning his rise to stardom in 1983 with his Golden Globe-nominated performance in Risky Business, Cruise then created one of the most memorable characters of the Eighties, flying-ace Maverick, in the top-grossing film of 1986, Top Gun. The role established him among the most bankable stars in Hollywood and added to his remarkable lists of credits, which include the Academy Award-winning films Rain Man and The Color of Money, as well as All the Right Moves, Legend, Cocktail, Days of Thunder, Far and Away, The Firm and Interview with the Vampire. In 1989 Cruise received his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor and won his first Golden Globe for his starring role in Born on the Fourth of July. More accolades and a Golden Globe nomination followed in 1992 with the Rob Reiner film, A Few Good Men.
Cruise turned to producing in 1993 when he and partner Paula Wagner formed Cruise/Wagner Productions. In 1996 they created the blockbuster hit Mission: Impossible and that same year, Cruise teamed up with writer/director Cameron Crowe on the critically acclaimed Jerry Maguire, which garnered him a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and his second Golden Globe win. Both Cruise and Wagner were celebrated in 1997 by the Producers Guild of America when they were presented with the Nova Award for the most Promising Producers in Theatrical Motion Pictures. The following year Cruise/Wagner released the critically acclaimed film Without Limits, written by the Oscar-winning writer of Chinatown, Robert Towne.
Once again proving his dramatic acting abilities, Cruise starred in the 1999 ensemble drama Magnolia. Applauded by critics and audiences alike, his powerful performance garnered him his third Academy Award nomination and his third Golden Globe win, this time for Best Supporting Actor.
Cruise entered the new millennium serving once again as both producer and star in the sequel hit, Mission: Impossible 2, which gave Cruise/Wagner Productions one of the most successful franchises in history, grossing over one billion dollars to date. Earlier last year, the company also produced the highly- successful film The Others, which marked Cruises first collaboration with the films director Alejandro Amenabar, who also wrote and directed Abre Los Ojos, the romantic Spanish thriller upon which Vanilla Sky, Cruises recent project, was based. Most recently, Cruise finished working on Stephen Spielbergs futuristic film Minority Report.
A testament to his critical and popular success, Cruise has surpassed many industry standards by receiving numerous awards, tributes and nominations, which include: the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, the British Academy Awards, the Chicago Film Critics Association, the MTV Movie Awards, the Golden Satellite Awards, the National Board of Review, the Peoples Choice Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Kids Choice Awards.
In 1987, the ShoWest Convention acknowledged Cruise as the Box Office Star of the Year and in 1990, the American Cinema presented him with its Distinguished Achievement Award. He garnered the Hasty Pudding Man of the Year Award from Harvard University in 1994; and in 1996, he received the prestigious American Cinematheque Award for his significant contributions to the art of film and video. In 1998, the Artist Rights Foundation recognized Cruise with the John Huston Award, an honor given to those known for safeguarding the integrity of the artistic process.
Vanilla Sky marked Cruises second collaboration with the Academy Award-winning Cameron Crowe, one of the most distinguished directors in the industry. As an actor, Cruise has established himself as one of the best and the brightest by working with other elite filmmakers, including Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, John Woo, Brian De Palma, Ron Howard, Neil Jordon, Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, Rob Reiner, Sydney Pollack, Barry Levinson, Oliver Stone and Steven Speilberg. He also has had the privilege of working with such remarkable talent as Dustin Hoffman, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Renee Zellweger, Brad Pitt, Julianne Moore, Gene Hackman, Jack Nicholson and Paul Newman. Tom Cruise has made over 24 films, tallying almost 40 Oscar nominations between them, with a gross of nearly two billion dollars, clearly marking his place in Hollywood history.
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