Notes On a Scandal

Starring: JUDI DENCH, CATE BLANCHETT, BILL NIGHY, ANDREW SIMPSON, PHIL DAVIS, MICHAEL MALONEY, JUNO TEMPLE, MAX LEWIS, JOANNA SCANLAN, JULIA MCKENZIE, and SHAUN PARKES

Directed by: RICHARD EYRE
Screenplay by: PATRICK MARBER
Produced by: SCOTT RUDIN and ROBERT FOX
Based on the book by: ZOË HELLER
Executive Producer: REDMOND MORRIS

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

"People have always trusted me with their secrets.
But who do I trust with mine?"
-- Barbara Covett, NOTES ON A SCANDAL

Two women caught up in a drama of need and betrayal are at the heart of this psychological thriller, NOTES ON A SCANDAL. The twists and turns of the story are noted in the acerbic diary of Barbara Covett (Dame Judi Dench), a domineering and solitary teacher who rules with an iron fist over her classroom at a decaying state-run secondary school in London. Save for her cat, Portia, Barbara lives alone, without friends or confidantes - but her world changes when she meets the school's new art teacher, Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett). Sheba appears to be the kindred spirit and loyal friend Barbara has always been seeking. But when she discovers that Sheba is having an incendiary affair with one of her young students (Andrew Simpson), their budding relationship takes an ominous turn. Now, as Barbara threatens to expose Sheba's terrible secret to both her husband (Bill Nighy) and the world, Barbara's own secrets and dark obsessions come tumbling to the fore, exposing the deceptions at the core of each of the women's lives.

Two of the world's best actresses deliver tour de force performances in NOTES ON A SCANDAL, a presentation of Fox Searchlight Pictures and DNA Films. The film is directed by Richard Eyre (STAGE BEAUTY, IRIS) and stars Oscar® winner Judi Dench (SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, IRIS, MRS. BROWN) and Oscar® winner Cate Blanchett (THE AVIATOR, ELIZABETH, BABEL) along with newcomer Andrew Simpson and Bill Nighy (PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST, LOVE ACTUALLY, THE CONSTANT GARDENER). With a screenplay by Patrick Marber (CLOSER), adapted from Zoë Heller's Booker Prize-nominated novel, the film is produced by Scott Rudin and Robert Fox, who previously collaborated together on both IRIS and THE HOURS.
The artistic crew includes two-time Academy Award® winning director of photography Chris Menges (THE MISSION, THE KILLING FIELDS, DIRTY PRETTY THINGS), Tony Award® nominated production and costume designer Tim Hatley (CLOSER) and Academy Award-nominated composer Philip Glass (THE HOURS, THE TRUMAN SHOW, THE ILLUSIONIST).

A SCANDAL BEGINS:
BRINGING NOTES ON A SCANDAL TO THE SCREEN

"Now more than ever, we are bound by the secrets we share."
-- Barbara Covett

In this age of loneliness, isolation and disconnect, we live in cities that house millions of people yet everyone at one time or another yearns for companionship, for someone to reach out and connect with us on some level...any level. This is the universal feeling that comes through in Zoë Heller's 2001 page-turner of a novel, What Was She Thinking: Notes On a Scandal, a suspenseful story of loneliness and obsession that cuts, with equal parts dark humor and realism, right to the shadowy center of the human yearning for connection. Readers were drawn in by Barbara Covett's blisteringly funny, yet ultimately deceptive, revelations about her so-called friendship with fellow teacher, Sheba Hart. Between Sheba's dangerously ill-conceived affair with a student and Barbara's own "spin" and hidden agenda, what might have been merely a character study unfolded more like a thriller. Eventually, the book would garner not only widespread acclaim but numerous awards, including being short-listed for the coveted Man Booker Prize for English literature. The rights were quickly acquired by leading producers Scott Rudin and Robert Fox, who also recently brought Michael Cunningham's beloved, multi-stranded novel The Hours to the screen. Rudin had already contracted with leading playwright and screenwriter Patrick Marber to tackle the adaptation, knowing he would create a brilliant screenplay.

When noted theatre and film director Richard Eyre was approached by Rudin and Fox about directing the film version of NOTES ON A SCANDAL he, like so many others, had already read the book. Eyre had found it at once funny, touching and beautifully observed -- precisely the kind of material that intrigues him. Says Eyre: "I saw it as a story of friendships and sexual intoxications. It's really a tale of two obsessions, of two women in the grip of their own self-destructive, uncontrollable passions."

Eyre and Rudin had previously collaborated with great success, along with Judi Dench, on the acclaimed IRIS, the film about the extraordinary life-long love affair between the brilliant author Iris Murdoch and her devoted husband, John Bayley as well as the critically lauded stage production Amy's View. IRIS garnered both an Oscar® and Golden Globe® for Jim Broadbent, as well as Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Dench and Kate Winslet. Eyre next directed the critically praised STAGE BEAUTY, a comedy-drama set on the 17th Century London stage, but had since returned to the theatre, directing two highly successful and utterly opposite productions: the new musical stage version of Mary Poppins in London and on Broadway and his fresh adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's classic drama Hedda Gabler in London's West End.

"I'd just done the two extremes of the spectrum in theatre - so to get back to filmmaking with a project with the fantastic credentials of NOTES ON A SCANDAL was irresistible," he comments.
Marber's adaptation would be challenging, as Heller's novel was written as a series of highly subjective journal entries in the pen of Barbara Covett which he masterfully crafted as diary entries, slowly revealing through her unreliable words the depths of her delusions and manipulations when it came to Sheba Hart. But based on Marber's previous body of work, there was no doubt that he was up to the task. He recently came to the fore as the author of the play Closer, a darkly funny look into the realities of love and desire which won the Olivier, Evening Standard and both London and New York Critics Circle Awards for Best Play before going on to write the adaptation of the acclaimed feature film.

Now, Marber had to come up with a way to turn Zoë Heller's distinctly literary approach to the story of Barbara and Sheba into something far more dynamic, immediate and cinematic.
"I did find writing this screenplay very difficult," admits Marber, "but I was greatly helped by Scott Rudin, who pushed me through every draft. The novel is so rich and expansive that the job was to find a way to somehow compact all this into the story."

That essence - at once comic and observant - became key to what Marber hoped to create in scenes of witty, tense and revealing dialogue. He carved the story around the book's most relevant and pressing theme: the overwhelming isolation that wreaks so much havoc in modern lives, which is the ultimate undoing of Barbara Covett. "I hope the film says something about a particular kind of modern loneliness, the desperation one can experience even in a city of millions that I think that everyone feels at times," he says.

For Heller, Marber was an inspired choice to attempt the feat. "With Patrick Marber, I felt I'd gotten the most interesting and clever screenwriter possible," she comments. "He was able to take what I had written and make something new out of it. He's done an amazing job of turning it into something that really works on screen. I like to think my book was a page-turner, but he upped the excitement and the suspense of the book, which is all for the good."

Marber began by exploring the story's two main characters, starting with Barbara, the unforgettable narrator who comes to harbor corrosive secrets about her new "best friend," Sheba Hart. Says Marber: "I thought Zoë had done such a brilliant job that it was all there waiting for me in the book. I was very faithful to what Zoë had written about Barbara. The thing that's really different in the novel is that Barbara is telling the story from her point of view, so my job was to try to bring a more objective ballast to who she is, but at the same time keep her persona as this prickly, funny, at times stoic, figure. She's no-nonsense, but she's also got this aching, beating, vulnerable heart, and is someone who has never known love. Everything she does is out of a desperate loneliness and yet, at the same time, she's a monster. I've always been attracted to characters who you love and despise simultaneously, and Barbara inspires both reactions."
Marber felt a similarly invigorating conflict towards the character of Sheba. "I gave Sheba a slightly more offbeat, bohemian background than she has in the book, but her vulnerabilities and complicated feelings remain the same," he comments.

Upon reading the completed screenplay, Richard Eyre was impressed with Marber's skill at shifting the story from the subtlety of the page to the grander scale of the big screen, turning Barbara's journal entries into palpably realistic scenes. "It was especially wonderful how he was able to keep the narrative in Barbara's point of view, yet with a minimum of voice-over, avoiding the dangers of the relentless narrator," comments the director.

Also important to Eyre was the screenplay's honest handling of the highly topical but definitely controversial notion of a middle-aged, married teacher carrying on a torrid affair with her underage student. "It was important that the relationship between Sheba and Steven be presented truthfully, by which I mean that the audience sees that it's hinged on both a passionate, sexual attraction and a kind of tenderness and mutual curiosity," Eyre comments. "I mean clearly what Sheba's doing is deeply wrong, but there's a delicate balance we wanted to strike of showing the honest truth of her relationship without in any way romanticizing it."

Ultimately, Eyre was most pleased by how the screenplay seemed to capture the irresistible speed and fearless verve of Heller's novel, while retaining its rich emotions of laughter, horror and grief - which he knew would be heightened further via the film's visual style and performances.
"I really hope people find this film funny, as well as occasionally frightening, shocking and sad," Eyre sums up. "There is something at once comical, ghastly and terribly human about this delusion that Barbara has that she will have a passionate, lifelong friendship with Sheba. And Barbara's feelings for Sheba are analogous to Sheba's feelings for Steven, the schoolboy. These two women are not in control - any more than any of us are in control when it comes to love."

THE SECRET KEEPER:
JUDI DENCH IS BARBARA COVETT

"In a different (better) age, we would be ladies of leisure, lunching together, visiting galleries,
traveling, putting the world to rights . . . we would be companions."
-- Barbara Covett

With Zoë Heller's novel, What Was She Thinking: Notes on a Scandal, Barbara Covett became one of the most fascinating unreliable narrators in contemporary literature.
To play such a complex, dangerous woman, the filmmakers knew early on they would need one of the finest actresses working in film today - it was then that Scott Rudin approached Dame Judi Dench very early on in the project's genesis. Dench has riveted screen-goers in a wide variety of roles, including her Oscar® winning turn as the Queen of England in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, her lauded role as Iris Murdoch at the end of her life in IRIS, and another Oscar-nominated role in the recent MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS.

From the moment Rudin read the novel, he knew it had to be Dench to play the part of Barbara. Rudin realized there was no other actress alive today that could pull off this role with the determination and resolve that the character demanded.

At first, Dench was quite taken aback by Barbara's acid tongue and dark, wounded heart, not to mention her manipulative relationship with Sheba Hart. "It's a really shocking story," says Dench of her initial reaction to NOTES ON A SCANDAL. "But the challenge of doing it was very exciting to me. It was thrilling to be asked to do something that couldn't be more different from anything I've ever played before."

It was precisely that difference that Richard Eyre felt made Dench a perfect match for the unpredictable nature of the character. "Judi Dench is universally loved and people usually identify with this magnificently generous, beautiful and brilliant person who often plays monarchs and has tremendous personal dignity," he remarks. "So to experience Judi Dench being caustic and acerbic and rather ungenerous we felt would be a wonderful, bracing shock. I mean, her portrait of Barbara is still deeply vulnerable, but this is not a nice woman and I think from an audiences' point of view to see Judi playing that will be quite refreshing."

Zoë Heller had a similar feeling. "In casting Judi Dench, one knows she will bring an intelligence and vulnerability to the role. She's not just a stage villain twirling her mustache and plotting the downfall of others, but someone who does real justice to the humor of the role," she says.
Having read both the book and the screenplay, Dench notes her pleasure at Patrick Marber's adaptation. "I thought it was very skillfully adapted. It's quite faithful to Zoë Heller's style while still being very individual to Patrick," she observes.

Dench was also pleased that the screenplay steadfastly refused to place damning judgments on its wayward characters. "I think it's very much left to the audience to make up its own mind on the ethics of it all and I think that's right," she notes.
Indeed, as wicked as Barbara can be when she feels slighted or rejected, Dench also found elements of her character quite familiar and at times, devastatingly poignant. "I've known several people like her," she says. "A very, very lonely person who craves affection and to have any friend of some kind. I think there are a lot of people out there just like that who have been lonely all their lives and dream of friendship. But when Barbara essentially blackmails Sheba Hart into becoming close to her, that's when things turn nasty."

To get deeper into Barbara's desperation, Dench worked closely with Cate Blanchett to develop just the right rapport between the two unlikely comrades. "It was very intense and very, very hard work but we had a lot of laughs and she was terrific," says Dench. "She is a phenomenal actress and she was phenomenal to work with. I think she is just fantastic, imaginative and quite inspirational."

Another draw for Dench was getting yet another chance to work with director Richard Eyre. "He has such wonderful instincts," she comments. "You feel very secure in his company because he knows what he wants but, within that parameter, he also allows you to really breathe and that's very exciting."

THE SCANDAL MAKER:
CATE BLANCHETT IS SHEBA HART

"This voice inside me was going, why shouldn't you be bad? Why shouldn't you transgress?" -- Sheba Hart

While Barbara Covett secretly hopes for a life-long friendship with Sheba Hart, Sheba unwittingly seals the deal by following her own precarious desires - betraying her loving, older husband and family by diving headlong into an affair with one of her own teenaged students. With Sheba's scandalous behavior and her frantic need to keep it a secret, Barbara gains the upper hand . . . or so she thinks.

The delicate nature of Sheba's encounters with both Barbara and the schoolboy Steven called for an actress of consummate skill, so it immediately made sense to the filmmakers to pair Judi Dench with Cate Blanchett - Blanchett having garnered an Oscar nomination starring in the title role of ELIZABETH most recently won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress with a spirited turn as screen legend Katherine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's THE AVIATOR. But as with Dench, the role of Sheba would take Blanchett far from those more regal performances.
Patrick Marber had always envisioned Cate Blanchett as Sheba. "When I was writing the screenplay, I became even more certain that she had to play Sheba," says Marber. Friends for many years, he knew she would be perfect for the role. "I know Cate socially and we're pals, but I've never worked with her before. And I couldn't be more thrilled with her performance. I think she's really raw in a way that I think will shock people."

Zoë Heller found Blanchett's casting eerily close to what she had always imagined Sheba to be like as a person. "Cate is as damn near an incarnation of what I had in my head as you could get," she says. "So it was like having a dream and then seeing it acted out before you."
From her first encounter with Heller's book, Blanchett herself was compelled. "It's an absolute page-turner," she says. "It's all told from Barbara's perspective so the challenge for Patrick Marber as the screenwriter and for me as an actor was to liberate Sheba from Barbara's point of view for the film, to make her live and breathe in her own right. Ultimately, on the screen, I think the two women hold up a mirror to one another."

"Marber actually turned and adapted the novel into its own creature, which is often I think the trick to making an adaptation work," says Blanchett. "I've been involved in several adaptations where they've almost been too slavish to the form that the novel has taken and you really need to liberate yourself from that in order to make the film live and breathe in its own right."
Blanchett was excited to get a chance to explore Sheba from several angles, none of them easy or simple. "Cinematically, I think to spend time with someone who transgresses a moral boundary like Sheba does, you have to go deep inside who that woman is," she explains. "There are a number of things in the novel that really struck me and I hope I've brought them to the film. Sheba's a young woman who has married an older man, who feels she has sort of whittled away her youth and has found herself feeling hopelessly without accomplishment or any sense of larger meaning. She's ready to change her life and, in a strange way, her opening act of rebellion is this relationship with a 15 year-old boy. You could say she's trying to recapture her lost youth. It seems she's unable to function in the grown-up world and part of her journey is accepting that she is a product of her own choices."

The irony of Sheba, Blanchett notes, is that Barbara enviously believes her to be entirely privileged and happy. "From Barbara's perspective, Sheba has the gift of being in a loving marriage and being surrounded by people who adore her - but Sheba feels just as profoundly, deeply lost and isolated," she observes.

Yet for all her understanding of how Sheba ends up in her scandal-ridden position, Blanchett still found it a serious challenge to embody the character's unlawful desires. "It's really been the hardest journey of connection I've ever had with a character," she admits, "because I could understand having a relationship with a much older man but I look at a 15 year-old boy and all I see is a child. But I think Sheba herself is surprised by it. She's not someone who has targeted a child. Rather, I think she would say in the beginning that this is a great love - but part of her journey is to be boldly and frighteningly revealing to her inner self."

Indeed, Blanchett believes that Sheba was already on a collision course with radical change in her life even before Barbara began playing her dangerous games. "I feel if Sheba had ended the affair when she told Barbara she had, she would still have done something else to upset her life," the actress says. "People who are hidden from themselves will create all kinds of circumstances to expose themselves. I think Sheba gives herself an intellectual excuse for the attraction. She idealizes the notion of taking a working class boy and introducing him to art and life. But, of course, in the end, attraction to another person is a deeply subconscious thing that can't be simply explained."

In working with Richard Eyre and the film's artistic crew, Blanchett was taken with their consistently careful approach. "I don't think you can deal with this kind of subject matter without a touch of humor and irony and visual warmth, and they brought all of that," she remarks. "I've always seen the story as being a distinctive portrait of loneliness and that's definitely the way Richard has shepherded the film. He's been incredibly focused on the actors and created the best possible environment to deliver a performance."

Eyre, in turn, was delighted with Blanchett's embracing of Sheba both light and dark. Remarks the director: "Cate comes to the set prepared for all eventualities, and is therefore able to be truly spontaneous. She has a tremendously deep knowledge of each scene, and contributes a great deal in details and big ideas. As Sheba, she is able to portray a woman who is unguarded to the point of self destruction, and I admired Cate's courage as well as her skill in doing that so beautifully."
Eyre was especially moved by Blanchett's delicate dance of attraction and fear with Steven as played by young Andrew Simpson. "I think those scenes between them are very, very powerful and wholly plausible because not only have you got two good actors but you've got the generosity of Cate with a much younger actor, and her brilliance at handling awkwardness and her ability to make sure that it comes off as intimate and true without being romanticized," says Eyre.
He adds: "I'm weary of superlatives, but in the case of Cate and Judi, it would be indecent not to apply them because they are both such extraordinarily skillful actors."

THE BETRAYED HUSBAND:
BILL NIGHY IS RICHARD

"If you meant to destroy us, why not do it with an adult?
That's the convention. It's worked for centuries."
-- Richard

When Sheba Hart gives in to her desires and begins a romantic liaison with school-aged Steven Connelly, she not only inspires the machinations of Barbara Covett - she also betrays her husband, a somewhat older professor and loyal partner played with understated charm by Bill Nighy. Nighy is one of Britain's leading screen stars, with roles that have ranged from the British ensemble comedy LOVE ACTUALLY to the Emmy Award® winning telefilm GIRL IN THE CAFÉ to the recently blockbuster action film THE PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST. Nighy, whose work spans screen, television and stage, had previously worked with Richard Eyre at the National Theatre and the West End.

Nighy notes that by the time he was approached to do the film, it was essentially impossible to say no. He recalls: "Both Dame Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett were already in place and I knew Richard Eyre was going to direct and that Scott Rudin and Robert Fox were producing and that Chris Menges was going to photograph it - so it was a pretty safe place to be, in such illustrious company!"

Upon reading Zoë Heller's novel, Nighy became even more interested by the story's provocative subject matter, which he laughingly sums up as: "Sex famously makes fools of us all. Or at least, I hope it's everybody and not just me!"

Eyre was especially impressed by Nighy's performance as the injured husband. "I've known Bill as a friend and as an actor for about 25 years. I've always envied the way that he does the hardest thing in acting and makes it look easy. He appears spontaneous, as if the thought, the words, the actions are occurring to him at that moment in time when the audience and the camera are watching," says Eyre. "He's a very romantic figure but somehow gives the impression that his feet are planted firmly on the ground. Whatever he says as a character he makes his own. And he never fails to make me laugh."

As for Richard, Nighy found himself quite sympathetic to the character's plight as that rarity in film: the betrayed husband who isn't a bad guy in the least. "My character married Sheba when she was 20 and he was considerably older than her," he explains. "I think he's a perfectly nice man who loves his wife a lot, adores her and especially their two children. The interesting part is that they seem to have such a pleasant, successful marriage and then Sheba suddenly and seemingly inexplicably has an affair with a 15 year-old. That makes it a far richer dramatic situation than if my character were a villain."

Working with two actresses of the abilities of Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench was also a distinct bonus for Nighy. "Working so closely with Cate was as satisfying as anyone I've ever worked with," he says. "There are a very few, rare individuals like Cate who are that spookily talented. And she appears to achieve all that she achieves with a minimum of fuss. Between her and Judi Dench, I think you have two of the finest performers currently working. It's an especially unusual part for Judi Dench because it's not something she's been asked to deliver before, playing someone so manipulative and destructive. Having these two on the case definitely made things pretty exciting for all of us."

With the role of Richard filled by Nighy, Patrick Marber knew the character would have a certain depth and charm. "I've wanted to work with Bill Nighy for as long as I can remember. There's no one quite like him. I don't know how he does it but he seems to be completely loose and incredibly specific simultaneously," says Marber. "He's free. He never labored the pain of the role yet he's incredibly moving, he never tries for laughs he just seems to get them. He wears a suit as well as any man I know. He loves Bob Dylan. Bill Nighy is…well, he's just cool.

THE ALLURING ART STUDENT:
NEWCOMER ANDREW SIMPSON IS STEVEN CONNELLY

"You wanted a sob story, I gave it to you. Made you feel like Bob Geldof."
-- Steven

The fireworks between Judi Dench's Barbara and Cate Blanchett's Sheba in NOTES ON A SCANDAL are sparked when one of Sheba's art students develops a flattering crush that develops into a full-blown sexual affair. The role of Steven - the cocky, story-spinning, infatuated teenager caught up in something far larger than he can understand - would clearly require special handling. To find a fresh face, the filmmakers held extensive auditions and it was in Ireland that they first saw the young man from Donegal, Andrew Simpson, who previously had a role in the British film SONG FOR A RAGGY BOY.

Also an athletically talented rugby player, Simpson was in the middle of a rugby tour of Australia and Fiji when he received a call-back to England for a reading with Cate Blanchett. The intercontinental trip was worth it. Once the filmmakers saw their rapport, the deal was sealed. Simpson himself was stunned by the turn of events. "I really wanted the part so much, but I felt like it was beyond my dreams," he admits.

Meanwhile, everyone else felt that Simpson was clearly the right decision. "We didn't set out to cast an Irish actor but he was simply the best actor we saw for the part," explains Richard Eyre. "I think also there is something about his Irishness that is very good for the character - there is a poetic streak to him that I think plays right into Sheba's fantasies and her justifications for falling in love with him."

Eyre continues: "We knew that Andrew would have the one of the biggest challenges in the film. But he was so immensely conscientious, good-natured, intelligent and talented, we trusted that he would rise to the occasion." Adds Blanchett: "From the minute I met him, Andrew was remarkably self-possessed and incredibly focused. As Steven, he rides the line between innocence and maturity in a way that doesn't let the audience have an easy way out."
Simpson describes his character as "a bit cheeky and also a bit dangerous." He continues: "Steven is really your average schoolboy who has a crush on a teacher - except that Steven is more prepared to take his flirting to the next level. Once he gets a response from Sheba, he just grabs onto it for all it's worth."

But while Sheba attaches romantic feelings to their relationship, it is the boyish Steven who sees it much more pragmatically. "I really don't think Steven wants a relationship," notes Simpson. "He's a teenager, he's charged up, he simply wants to try new things and see what he can get away with and what he can discover. So when Sheba's emotions start getting stronger and stronger, I think he realizes he's way out of his depth and he wants to move on. Although he wants to be an adult, I don't think all of him is grown up yet, and he realizes that."

As for getting the extremely unlikely chance to shoot romantic love scenes with Cate Blanchett, Simpson notes that, after the initial thrill, he very quickly came to view them as just another demanding aspect of the job. "After twenty takes, you don't see it as a passion-filled encounter anymore," he laughs. "And everyone was just so professional, there was nothing uncomfortable in it at all."

Simpson felt especially encouraged by Richard Eyre. "He's amazing. He's so down-to-earth and such a gentleman. After every take he comes up to the actors and tells you what he thought, being brutally honest. He makes you want to try even harder for him," he says.
The shoot was another new adventure for Simpson, who had never been to London before. The city in itself was a revelation to him. "There are so many people in London that you really get the sense it could be so very lonely if you were living there on your own," he says. "I come from an area where everyone, even if you don't know them, will stop and say hello. But in London there's not any space for that. It just really shows how incredibly alone Barbara must feel when all she has in all the world, before she meets Sheba, is her cat."

A SCANDAL PERSONIFIED:
THE FILM'S DESIGN AND MUSIC

"People like Sheba think they know what it is to be lonely. But of the drip-drip of the long-haul, no-end-in-sight solitude, they know nothing."
-- Barbara Covett

In bringing NOTES ON A SCANDAL to the screen, Richard Eyre wanted to capture the story's unique tone - combining astringent humor and stark humanity in its view of the contemporary crossroads where obsession and loneliness link paths. The film would shoot primarily in Eastbourne, a historic seafront town outside of London, under the photographic aegis of Academy Award-winning cinematographer Chris Menges. With past films that have ranged from the charming comedy of LOCAL HERO to the power of THE KILLING FIELDS and THE MISSION as well as his recent work capturing the grit of today's London underworld in DIRTY PRETTY THINGS, Eyre felt that Menges would be a strong match with the film's intimate, darkly psychological themes.

"Chris is a very gifted, human and intelligent cinematographer," says Eyre. "Above all, he's interested in people. I think he's almost matchlessly good at lighting and he brings a kind of spontaneous luminousness to the life of the human face, which was so important to this story. There's also a brave honesty to his work that I thought made him perfect for this project."
"Chris and I discussed an approach to the film before we started shooting. Every decision we made was aimed towards making the carefully constructed and exact script feel spontaneous, so that the performances should appear to be 'caught on the wing'," explains Eyre. "Much of the film was shot hand-held. Through many years as a documentary film-maker Chris is a master of this technique: the camera becomes an extension of his eye. Even when the actors were static, seated at a table perhaps, he kept movement in the camera to achieve a sense of nervy energy. The lighting always aimed at a natural look, but for each scene Chris tilted the color and shape of the lighting towards the required mood. But above all, his concern was with the human element - the performances. He loves the luminousness of skin, the animation and beauty of the human face. "

When Chris Menges was approached by Eyre to capture the essence of these two complicated women, he could not resist the chance. "I was caught by the story of Barbra's isolation, living her lonely life as a teacher in the vast urban landscape of a modern city. The chance of touching or hugging is an impossibility, no matter how hard she strives. I also wanted to capture Sheba's lunacy, falling in love with youth, the adrenalin, the excitement and the wonderment. I relished the chance to capture these complicatd, turbulent emotions by two such amazing but different actresses, so attuned to their roles in this story," Said Menges. It was essential to see them at a distance, spatially, and have them converge as the story progresses and their characters become more intimate and intertwined. It was so challenging, especially since we always wanted to protect the excitement of the moment that only they could deliver.

Eyre also brought in his long-time collaborator Tim Hatley, with whom he worked on STAGE BEAUTY and in several theatrical productions, to draw double duty as both the film's production and costume designer. Impressed with Hatley's evocation of the private interior spaces probed in Mike Nichol's film version of CLOSER, Eyre expected that Hatley had the kind of keen eye that would be able to capture the inner architecture of Barbara and Sheba's worlds as well as a portrait of England that would go well beyond visual clichés.

For his part, Hatley had long been a fan of Zoë Heller's novel and relished the chance to work with Eyre on another screen project. "Having worked together on STAGE BEAUTY, as well as working in theatre and opera, Richard and I have a tried and true working relationship," says Hatley. "This was important. The work was so intense that you needed to be surrounded by people you trust."
Though rare in film, designing both the costumes and the production in tandem allowed Hatley to have each individual element of the aesthetic and palette work together as part of a larger whole to create the environment that Barbara and Sheba will occupy and live. "The beauty is that I was able to design a total world," he remarks. "I'm actually used to designing both costumes and productions in the theatre, so I find it quite natural to think of spaces and the characters who inhabit them as almost the same thing. For example, when I went to look at schools for NOTES ON A SCANDAL, I was looking both at the buildings and at what the teachers were wearing as all part of the same overall look."

When it came to the film's distinctive tone, Hatley hoped to mirror that same fine line between playful satire and gripping human drama that forms the core of the movie. "I kept in mind the idea that the best comedy always comes from what we know to be true and can relate to," he explains. "So everything is very real, very honest, very British, that these people truly live and breathe. There is a constant claustrophobia to Barbara and Sheba's lives and a daily rhythm that we established through the design to heighten the feelings and emotions the characters feel."
In creating Barbara and Sheba's inner realms, Hatley played up their contrasting classes and lifestyles. "Barbara's place is very small and cramped, a very dated feeling basement flat that is filled with the stuff of memories; while Sheba's house is full of light, space and shabby chic furnishings and is very artistically Bohemian," he says.

Key to the design of Sheba's house was her "refuge," the detached studio that becomes the scene of her torrid love affair with a student, despite being mere yards from Sheba's adoring husband and family. "We created the refuge out of a converted shed that was semi-sunk into the ground," explains Hatley. "The site of it was very important because it had to be private enough that it could become a kind of love nest, yet close enough to the main house that there was always risk involved."

Another vital location was that of St. George's school where the story of Barbara and Sheba begins to take its many twists and turns. "For St. George's, we found a large comprehensive school that was well worn at the edges, with a mixture of Victorian architecture and more modern touches," Hatley says. "It also had an art room that was a temporary structure apart from the main building - a suggestion that art is always the lowest priority on the syllabus."

In his production designs, Hatley collaborated closely with Chris Menges. "Menges likes to work in very small spaces, which has the benefit of feeling very sharp and intimate," he observes. "So together we continuously addressed the scale and sizes of the spaces, as well as how light, natural and otherwise, fell into them. My job was to get as much information as I could about the characters into the frame, yet not to ever clutter or hinder Menges' work."
When it came to the characters' clothing, Hatley's creativity was inspired by a close working relationship with leading ladies Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench. "I thought it was really important that we work together in this area because they knew the characters so well from the inside, and I saw it as my job to take that knowledge and combine it with what an audience needs to see in order to understand that visually," Hatley explains.

All of the clothes for the film were bought either in High Street stores or London thrift shops, in which Hatley quested for just the right touches. "I wanted everything to have a very lived in quality," the designer says. This also allowed the characters to develop an organic range of outfits that added to the film's underlying note of realism. "Both central characters have a specific way of approaching their dress, each in their own ways," Hatley continues. "In a sense, each wears a uniform -- a specific repetition of shapes and styles and colors that suit Barbara and Sheba's personalities. The process was that I built up a core wardrobe for each of them, and then we had fun putting outfits together in different combinations from those same clothes, just as one does in life. I tried to repeat clothes often, too. I get irritated when a new outfit is worn for each new day in films. That is not life. When people find jeans they like, shoes they like, skirts they like, they tend to wear them into the ground - and the fact that Barbara and Sheba are very set in their patterns is a part of who they are."

Finally, weaving together all the braided strands of Barbara and Sheba's stories is renowned minimalist composer Philip Glass' layered, hypnotic and cascading score. Considered one of the most innovative and influential modern composers, Glass had previously collaborated with producers Scott Rudin and Robert Fox on THE HOURS, for which he received numerous honors including an Academy Award nomination, a Golden Globe nomination, a Grammy® nomination and the BAFTA Award - and looked forward to this latest collaboration. "Richard Eyre has a tremendous history in theatre, Scott Rudin has the same in film as well as theatre - and between the three of us we have a few hundred years of experience," laughs Glass. "Add to that a cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench and Bill Nighy, and there was a great deal of intensity."
Eyre knew for the adaptation there was only one person who could pull off creating a brilliant score, Philip Glass. "NOTES ON A SCANDAL is an adaptation of a novel that tells its story entirely through a first person narrator. No film can achieve the sort of total subjectivity that a novel is capable of, so we wanted a score that would help to enforce the sense of the story being viewed through the eyes of the main character, Barbara Covett," noted Eyre. "The score brilliantly reflects and reveals her interior life, helping to emphasize her self-delusion and her subjective view of events. In addition, the music provides a pulse to a story of two women getting drawn, through loneliness and obsession, into an emotional vortex."

When Glass was enlisted to create the score, Patrick Marber knew that his screenplay would be not only be enhanced but the tensions within the script heightened. "With its high-wire act of merging comedy, suspense and sudden moments of human revelation, NOTES ON A SCANDAL posed utterly unique challenges for the composer, whose score became an engine that drives the film from deep within. I was very excited when Philip Glass came on board. He has delivered a score of such austere beauty," says Marber. "He identified the pulse of the film and made it surge. Everyone knows he's a brilliant composer but here he is not only providing great music, he is part of the writing of the film as well. There is such power in the score, it provides the yearning undertow for the whole story."

"This film was a really intense process, even more so than most films," Glass comments. "Working with Richard and Scott, there were quite a few versions of every cue - quite a few - before we settled on the final one. It seemed that every time we thought something was working we would then ask a new question about the characters or the structure of the story that would send me back. It was a matter of thinking and re-thinking each scene, especially towards the end of the film as things build to a climax, A fundamental function of any score is creating distance or closeness and we were constantly playing with how near or how far away the audience should be at each moment."
The performances themselves became Glass' musical inspiration. "These are very authentic performances and because of that they're very complex," he says. "Like real life, they're not black-and-white but filled with shades of gray in the middle. So the music becomes a way of revealing or verifying the characters' points of view - what is Barbara really up to, what is Sheba thinking, what does her husband really believe about what's going on, what is the boy feeling? The music helps to create those perceptions. If you put a different score on the film, the perceptions would also be quite different."

"The score essentially is about Barbara. It begins with Barbara and it ends with Barbara. It was important that the first cue be a kind of signature piece for her and it comes back in various forms throughout the film," Glass says. "Also, the character of the music had to, in a way, begin to anticipate and define a rather slippery and duplicitous person. And I do that not so much through the melodic languages but through the harmonic language, which tends to be a little bit more chromatic than you'd expect but not quite as easy to define harmonically. This became an exercise of ingenuity-to use this piece of music to indicate character when necessary without revealing the surprising twists of the story."

Glass continues: "There were also musical idioms that evolved, the way the harmonies and melodies work together, that have to do with the interplay of the characters with each other. The emotional perceptions are reflected through the language of music."
Though the score begins with a more spare instrumentation, primarily strings and wind instruments, it ultimately crescendos along with the story into a larger, more lush orchestration. "The score follows the structure of the screenplay," sums up Glass. "To me, the function of the music is to articulate the deeper emotions of the story and not to be decoration. I think of it is as being more like the bones in the body, rather than the surface of the skin, and I hope that's the way it operates in NOTES ON A SCANDAL. Working with director Richard Eyre and producer Scott Rudin was a most satisfying experience. In the end I think the arc of the score helps to articulate the arc of the story itself."

ABOUT THE CAST

JUDI DENCH (Barbara Covett)
In a career spanning over forty years on stage, screen and television, Judi Dench has won numerous awards beginning with the BAFTA Most Promising Newcomer (1965), and more recently, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Queen Elizabeth in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (1999). In addition she has received Academy Award nominations for MRS. BROWN (1998), CHOCOLAT (2001), and IRIS (2002). In 2006, she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for her performance in the title role of MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS. She has been nominated for no less than twelve BAFTA Awards, winning eight, and has more than fifty nominations and wins for other awards in the USA and UK for her work on screen.Her television work was most recently recognized by the Golden Globe Award for "Last Of The Blond Bombshells" (2000); and recent stage accolades include 1999 Tony Award for Amy's View on Broadway.

Dench will reprised her role as M, in the James Bond series in CASINO ROYALE currently in theatres, having appeared in GOLDEN EYE, TOMORROW NEVER DIES, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH and DIE ANOTHER DAY. Other recent film credits include TEA WITH MUSSOLINI, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. She recently appeared alongside Dame Maggie Smith in Charles Dance's well-received directorial debut LADIES IN LAVENDER.
In 1970 Judi Dench was awarded the Order of the British Empire, and in 1998 became a Dame of the British Empire.

CATE BLANCHETT (Sheba Hart)
In 2005, Cate Blanchett was awarded the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Katherine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's THE AVIATOR. She was also honored with the BAFTA Award and a SAG Award™ for her role in the film. Additionally, she was recognized by several critics' organizations and received a nomination from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

In 1998, Blanchett portrayed Queen Elizabeth I in the critically acclaimed ELIZABETH, directed by Shekhar Kapur, for which she received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama and a BAFTA for Best Actress in a Leading Role as well as Best Actress Awards from The Chicago Film Critics Association, The London Film Critics Association, The Toronto Film Critics Association, On-line Film Critics, Variety Critics and UK Empire Award. She also received a Best Actress nomination from the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts, & Sciences.
Other work for which she has garnered international award recognition includes starring roles in THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU, directed by Wes Anderson, THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY, directed by Anthony Mingella, THE GIFT, directed by Sam Raimi, BANDITS, directed by Barry Levinson, THE SHIPPING NEWS, directed by Lasse Hallström, VERONICA GUERIN, directed by Joel Schumacher and Jim Jarmusch's COFFEE AND CIGARETTES. She was also seen in Peter Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy as Galadriel, Queen of the Elves.

After graduating from Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art, Cate Blanchett worked extensively in theatre. Her Australian film roles include Bruce Beresford's PARADISE ROAD, THANK GOD HE MET LIZZIE, directed by Cherie Nowlan for which Cate was awarded both the Australian Film Institute (AFI) and the Sydney Film Critics awards for Best Supporting Actress, and OSCAR AND LUCINDA opposite Ralph Fiennes and directed by Gillian Armstrong, a role that earned her an AFI nomination for Best Actress.

In 2005 she completed production on BABEL, co-starring with Brad Pitt and Gael Garcia Bernal currently in release and THE GOOD GERMAN starring opposite George Clooney, directed by Steven Soderbergh which opens in December 2006. In 2007, she will be reunited with Shekhar Kapur to star in THE GOLDEN AGE, co-starring with Clive Owen.

BILL NIGHY (Richard Hart)
Bill Nighy delighted international audiences with his scene-stealing turn as aging rocker Billy Mack in Richard Curtis' LOVE ACTUALLY, which won him a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor. In the same year, he won a BAFTA Best Actor TV Award for the series "State Of Play." He also received the Los Angeles Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor in I CAPTURE THE CASTLE, LOVE ACTUALLY, AKA and THE LAWLESS HEART. His work in Peter Cattaneo's LUCKY BREAK brought him a Best Supporting Actor nomination from the British Independent Film Awards, as did his chilling performance in Fernando Mireilles THE CONSTANT GARDENER in 2005. He was most recently seen as Davy Jones in the blockbuster PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST.

Nighy has twice won the Evening Standard‚ "Peter Sellers Award for Best Comedy Performance": in 1998's hit ensemble comedy STILL CRAZY and in 2004 for LOVE ACTUALLY.
His numerous feature-film credits have included EYE OF THE NEEDLE, CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER, THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL, FAIRY TALE: A TRUE STORY, UNDERWORLD and, more recently, the acclaimed zombie comedy SHAUN OF THE DEAD, THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION and STORMBREAKER.

On television, his role in the recent THE GIRL IN THE CAFÉ brought him a 2004 Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television. On stage, Nighy's recent honours include the Barclays Theatre Award for Best Actor in David Hare's Skylight, and an Olivier Best Actor nomination for his role in Blue/Orange in 2001. He is currently starring in the Sam Mendes directed The Vertical Hour on Broadway which opened in November 2006.

ANDREW SIMPSON (Steven Connolly)
Andrew Simpson has been attending the Foyle School of Speech and Drama in Londonderry since the age of five and has appeared on stage with the group throughout Ireland, winning several prizes in drama festivals. He is currently preparing for grade seven in speech and drama at the Royal Irish Academy. He recently appeared in Aisling Walsh's drama feature SONG FOR A RAGGY BOY, and two television commercials. Andrew is currently studying for O level examinations, and intends to study law at university.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

RICHARD EYRE (Director)
Richard Eyre's most recent feature film was STAGE BEAUTY, starring Billy Crudup and Clare Danes. His previous film, IRIS won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Jim Broadbent and received nominations for both Judi Dench and Kate Winslet as the older and younger Iris Murdoch.
His sell-out London production of Mary Poppins came to Broadway in the fall of 2006. In 2005, he directed an award-winning adaptation of Hedda Gabler at the Almeida Theatre. His London production of Vincent in Brixton (2002) transferred to Broadway, as did his production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible (2001) starring Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, for which he received a Tony nomination for Best Director to add to his 1997 nomination for Skylight.

As director of The Royal National Theatre, Eyre produced over 100 productions, and directed 27 plays, including Guys and Dolls (Olivier, Evening Standard and Critics Circle Awards for Best Director); Richard III with Ian McKellen; Tom Stoppard's The Invention Of Love (Evening Standard Award); King Lear with Ian Holm (winner of Evening Standard, Olivier and Critics Circle Awards) which he also directed for BBC TV and WGBH (Peabody Award); and David Hare's Amy's View with Judi Dench and Absence of War which he also directed for BBC TV. Under Eyre's direction, the National became the first British theatre company to visit Lithuania, and also traveled to Korea, mainland China, South Africa, and New Zealand.

Eyre's screen credits include THE PLOUGHMAN'S LUNCH (winner of the Evening Standard Best British Film Award). His work for television includes, "The Insurance Man", "Suddenly Last Summer," and the BAFTA-winning BBC drama "Tumbledown.".

His books include the memoir Utopia And Other Places and Changing Stages, a guide to 20th century British and American theatre which Eyre later presented as a BBC Television series. National Service, Eyre's account of his 10 years at the National Theatre, was published in 2003 by Bloomsbury.

SCOTT RUDIN (Producer)
Films include: THE QUEEN, VENUS, FAILURE TO LAUNCH, THE LIFE AQUATIC, CLOSER, TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE, I HUCKABEES, THE VILLAGE, SCHOOL OF ROCK, THE HOURS, IRIS, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, ZOOLANDER, SHAFT, SLEEPY HOLLOW, ANGELA'S ASHES, WONDER BOYS, BRINGING OUT THE DEAD, SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT, THE TRUMAN SHOW, A CIVIL ACTION, IN AND OUT, RANSOM, MARVIN'S ROOM, THE FIRST WIVES CLUB, TWILIGHT, CLUELESS, SABRINA, NOBODY'S FOOL, THE FIRM, SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER, SISTER ACT, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, LITTLE MAN TATE, MRS. SOFFEL and HE MAKES ME FEEL LIKE DANCING (Academy Award - Best Documentary).

Theater includes: Passion (Tony Award - Best Musical), Indiscretions, Seven Guitars, Skylight, The Chairs, The Judas Kiss, Stupid Kids, The Blue Room, Closer (London and New York), Amy's View, Copenhagen (Tony Award - Best Play), The Designated Mourner, The Caretaker (London), The Goat (Tony Award - Best Play), Caroline, or Change, The Normal Heart, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Doubt (Tony Award - Best Play), Red Light Winter, Faith Healer, The History Boys (Tony Award - Best Play), Shining City, and The Vertical Hour.

Upcoming Films: Kenneth Lonergan's MARGARET, Noah Baumbach's MARGOT AT THE WEDDING, Kim Peirce's STOP-LOSS, Joel and Ethan Coen's NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, Paul Thomas Anderson's THERE WILL BE BLOOD, Alan Ball's UNTITLED, Justin Chadwick's THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL, Wes Anderson's FANTASTIC MR. FOX and THE DARJEELING LIMITED, and Stephen Daldry's THE READER.

ROBERT FOX (Producer)
Robert Fox recently executive produced CLOSER, directed by Mike Nichols, and starring Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Clive Owen and Natalie Portman. Clive Owen won the Golden Globe® and BAFTA Award® for his performance, and he and Natalie Portman were recognized with Academy Award® nominations.

He produced, with Scott Rudin, THE HOURS, directed by Stephen Daldry, starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore, and IRIS, directed by Richard Eyre, starring Judi Dench, Kate Winslet and Jim Broadbent. Both films garnered Academy Awards in 2003. Other producing credits include executive producer on ANOTHER COUNTRY, a television film of SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER starring Maggie Smith, directed by Richard Eyre, and A MONTH BY THE LAKE, starring Vanessa Redgrave, Edward Fox and Uma Thurman.

Robert Fox has been producing theatre in London's West End and on Broadway for over two decades. Productions include Another Country (in which Rupert Everett, Kenneth Branagh, Daniel Day-Lewis and Colin Firth made their West End debuts), Burn This, starring John Malkovich; the world premiere of Arthur Miller's The Ride Down Mount Morgan and Edward Albee's Three Tall Women. His collaborations with David Hare include Skylight, with Michael Gambon and Leah Williams, Amy's View with Judi Dench and Sam Mendes' production of The Blue Room on Broadway with Nicole Kidman and Ian Glen, and My Zinc Bed and Breath Of Life, which united Maggie Smith and Judi Dench for the first time on stage.

Other recent productions include The Judas Kiss, starring Liam Neeson; Closer, by Patrick Marber; The Lady In The Van, by Alan Bennett, starring Maggie Smith and directed by Nicholas Hytner; a revival of Pinter's The Caretaker directed by Patrick Marber, with Michael Gambon, Rupert Graves and Douglas Hodge; Gypsy, on Broadway, directed by Sam Mendes; the Tony Award winning production of The Boy From Oz, starring Hugh Jackman, and The Pillowman, starring Billy Crudup and Jeff Goldman.

PATRICK MARBER (Screenwriter)
Patrick Marber's second play, Closer, was filmed by Mike Nichols, from the playwright's own script, starring Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Jude Law and Natalie Portman. The film gained Oscar nominations for Owen and Portman, with Owen winning the Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards. Marber was nominated for Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards.

Closer had its stage premiere at the National Theatre in 1997 before transferring to the West End in March 1998 and Broadway in March 1999 (produced by Robert Fox and Scott Rudin). Closer was an international hit and has been produced in more than 100 different cities across the world. It received both the Olivier Award for Best Play and the New York Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Play on Broadway.

Marber also co-wrote the screenplay adaptation of Patrick McGrath's novel Asylum, which was directed by David Mackenzie and starred Natasha Richardson and Ian McKellen.
Marber's first play, Dealer's Choice, was produced at the National Theatre (Artistic Director, Richard Eyre) in February 1995 before transferring to the West End. It won the UK Writer's Guild Award for Best West End Play and the London Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy. His third play, Howard Katz, opened at the National Theatre in June 2001. Most recently, After Miss Julie, his version of Strindberg's Miss Julie, was performed at the Donmar Warehouse directed by Michael Grandage. His play for teenagers, The Musicians, had its premiere at the National Theatre in summer 2005.

In addition to directing his own plays, Marber has directed Craig Raine's 1953(Almeida), Dennis Potter's Blue Remembered Hills (National Theatre), David Mamet's The Old Neighborhood (Royal Court) and Harold Pinter's The Caretaker (Comedy Theatre).
A collected edition of Patrick Marber's work, Plays One, was published in 2004 by Methuen.

ZOË HELLER (Novelist)
Zoë Heller was born in London. She graduated from St Anne's College, Oxford University and later gained an M.A. at Columbia University, New York.
Heller began her writing career as a feature writer for the Independent on Sunday newspaper in the UK. Heller's profiles, essays, columns and criticism have subsequently appeared in a wide range of British and American publications including the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, the New Republic and the London Review of Books.

Heller's first novel, Everything You Know (Knopf) was published in 1999. Her second novel, Notes on a Scandal, which originally appeared in the U.S. under the title, What Was She Thinking: Notes on a Scandal, was published in 2003 and was short listed for the Man Booker Prize. Her third novel, The Believers, will be published in 2007.

REDMOND MORRIS (Executive Producer)
Redmond Morris began his career in the film business in his native Ireland before moving to London. As a location manager, he worked on several international productions including John Schlesinger's YANKS, Michael Apted's AGATHA and Warren Beatty's REDS. Working with Michael Caton-Jones on SCANDAL was the beginning of a lengthy collaboration with Steve Woolley and Palace Pictures, which in turn led to an association with director Neil Jordan, for whom Morris produced/ co-produced THE MIRACLE, INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE, MICHAEL COLLINS, THE BUTCHER BOY and IN DREAMS.

Other recent credits include THE AFFAIR OF THE NECKLACE, directed by Charles Shyer, THE ACTORS, directed by Conor McPherson, ASK THE DUSK, directed by Robert Towne and THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY, directed by Ken Loach, winner of the 2006 Palme D'Or at Cannes Film Festival.
Morris now lives in Ireland where he has set up Four Provinces Films, and has several projects in development with the Irish Film Board including AN INDIAN GIRL and THE CREOLE GIRL.

CHRIS MENGES (Director of Photography)
As Director of Photography, Chris Menges has twice won the Academy Award, for THE MISSION and THE KILLING FIELDS, both directed by Rolland Joffe. He was nominated for the Academy Award for his work on MICHAEL COLLINS directed by Neil Jordan. Menges is three times winner of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Cinematography for his work on MICHAEL COLLINS, THE MISSION and THE KILLING FIELDS and was nominated for the Best Cinematography Award by the American Society of Cinematographers for THE BOXER, MICHAEL COLLINS and THE MISSION.

Other recent films include THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA, directed by Tommy Lee Jones, THE GOOD THIEF, directed by Neil Jordan and DIRTY PRETTY THINGS, directed by Stephen Frears.

As a director, his film A WORLD APART won the Grand Jury Prize and the Ecumenical Prize at Cannes Film Festival in 1988 and Menges was recognised as Best Director by the New York Film Critics Circle. He has directed THE LOST SON, starring Daniel Auteuil and Natassja Kinski, CRISS CROSS, starring Goldie Hawn and Keith Carradine, and SECOND BEST, starring William Hurt which won the Special Jury Prize at San Sebastian.

TIM HATLEY (Production Designer and Costume Designer)
Tim Hatley's film credits, as costume designer, include STAGE BEAUTY, directed by Richard Eyre, and, as production designer, CLOSER, the award winning film, directed by Mike Nichols and written by Patrick Marber.

His career in production design for the theatre on Broadway and London's West End has won him critical acclaim, including nominations for 2005 Tony Award for Set and Costume Design for a Musical, for Monty Python's Spamalot, for which he also won the New York Drama Desk Award. In 2002, he won the Tony and Drama Desk Award for Best Set Design for his work on Private Lives. In the same year he won the Olivier Award for Best Set Design for Humble Boy and Private Lives. In 1999 he was awarded Best Set Design at the London Evening Standard Awards for Suddenly Last Summer, Darker Face of the Earth and Sleep with Me. He won the Olivier Award for Best Set Design for Stanley, staged at the Royal National Theatre.

Hatley's theatre work also includes Vincent In Brixton (2002) and The Crucible (2001), both directed by Richard Eyre and several collaborations with director Howard Davies, including The Talking Cure, The Play About A Baby and Flight. Hatley trained in Theatre Design at Central St. Martins School of Art & Design, London, graduating with First Class Honors.

PHILIP GLASS (Composer)
Philip Glass is a graduate of the University of Chicago and the Juilliard School. In the early 1960s, Glass spent two years of intensive study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and while there, Glass earned money by transcribing Ravi Shankar's Indian music into Western notation. Upon his return to New York, he applied the eastern techniques he learned to his own music. By 1976, he had composed a large collection of new music, culminating in Music in Twelve Parts, followed by the landmark opera, Einstein on the Beach created with Robert Wilson. Since Einstein, Glass repertoire includes music for opera, dance, theater, chamber ensemble, orchestra, and film.
His film work for Stephen Daldry's THE HOURS earned Golden Globe, Grammy, and Academy Award nominations, along with winning a BAFTA in Film Music. More recent film scores include Errol Morris' Academy Award winning film THE FOG OF WAR, David Koepp's SECRET WINDOW, DJ Caruso's TAKING LIVES, and David Gordon Green's UNDERTOW. Current 2006 film scores are George Butler's ROVING MARS IMAX project, Neil Burger's THE ILLUSIONIST, and Stephen Hopkins' THE REAPING

In 2004, Glass premiered the new work Orion - a collaboration between Glass and six other international artists opening in Athens as part of the cultural celebration of the 2004 Olympics in Greece. Premieres in 2005 included Glass' new opera, Waiting for the Barbarians, libretto by Christopher Hampton, based on the book by J.M. Coetzee and his Symphony No. 8 with the Bruckner Orchestra.. Glass continues to tour with his ensemble, performing live to the films of Godfrey Reggio's 'Qatsi Trilogy' - NAQOYQATSI, POWWAQQTSI, and KOYAANISQATSI.

JOHN BLOOM (Editor)
John Bloom is a multiple Academy and Emmy award nominee and winner. His credits encompass a broad range of films for both the big screen and television including THE LION IN WINTER with Katherine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole; George Cukor's TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT; THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN with Meryl Streep; GANDHI starring Ben Kingsley; Richard Attenborough's A CHORUS LINE; JACKNIFE with Robert De Niro; AIR AMERICA with Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr.; NOBODY'S FOOL, with Paul Newman; THE FIRST WIVES CLUB starring Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler; THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN with Michelle Pfeiffer; SHAFT starring Samuel L. Jackson; and CLOSER starring Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen among many others. Bloom's television credits include Mike Nichols' "Wit" and "Angels in America." Currently Bloom is working on Mike Nichols' CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.

ANTONIA VAN DRIMMELEN (Editor)
Antonia Van Drimmelen's credits span a diverse range of comedies and dramas, including SHAFT starring Samuel L. Jackson; and CLOSER starring Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen. Van Drimmelen was an associate editor on CAMILLA, starring Jessica Tandy and Bridget Fonda; NOBODY'S FOOL, with Paul Newman; THE FIRST WIVES CLUB starring Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler; THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN with Michelle Pfeiffer; Mike Nichols "Wit"and as an assistant editor on THELMA AND LOUISE, starring Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis and Brad Pitt. Van Drimmelen received an Emmy nomination for her work on Mike Nichols' Emmy Award winning television program "Angels in America." Currently Van Drimmelen is working on Mike Nichols' CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.

e-mail


Advertise on PopCultureMadness