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EPIC MOVIE is big. Really big. It's a movie of, well, epic proportions. We know…because we measured.

The story centers on four not-so-young orphans: one reared by a curator at the Louvre (where an albino assassin lurks); another, a refugee from Mexican "libre" wrestling; the third a recent victim of snakes on her plane; and the fourth a "normal" resident of a mutant "X"-community. The hapless quartet visits a chocolate factory, where they stumble into an enchanted wardrobe that transports them to the land of Gnarnia (with a silent "G"). There they meet a flamboyant pirate captain and earnest students of wizardry - and join forces with, among others, a wise-but-horny lion to defeat the evil White Bitch of Gnarnia.

EPIC MOVIE comes from the new masters of the parody genre - Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer - who now set their parodic sights on the largest genre of them all: Hollywood's big-budget, special effects-laden, blockbuster franchise films. After successfully skewering the scary movie and romantic comedy franchises as two of the six writers of "Scary Movie," and as the writers/director of "Date Movie," the duo now focus on this untapped niche - Hollywood's summer and fall tentpoles - proving once again that they are proud of being "first to be second."
For the last thirty years, from "Airplane" to "Hot Shots" to "Scary Movie," parodic comedies have focused on specific movie genres. With the studios' ongoing deluge of summer and holiday blockbusters becoming the norm, writers/directors Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer felt the time was ripe to expand the scope of genre parodies to include recent action films, comic book films, and children's fantasy films.

The idea for the film came to Friedberg and Seltzer while they were making "Date Movie" with producer Paul Schiff. "We had so much fun making that movie we didn't want to stop, so we came up with another one," says Schiff. "We were just brainstorming and talking about targets of opportunities ripe for parodies."
Friedberg and Seltzer decided to build the framework for the film around the general plot of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." Thus was born the characters of Edward, Peter, Susan and Lucy - four unrelated orphans in search of their homes, who are magically transported into the fantasy world of Gnarnia ("with a G, like Gnarly"), where they meet The White Bitch (Jennifer Coolidge), and her team of assistants and assassins. Along the way they meet numerous incarnations of characters from recent tentpole films.

"We just like these movies and thought they'd be great movies to ridicule," says Aaron Seltzer. "Like 'The Da Vinci Code' and 'Superman' and 'X-Men' and 'Nacho Libre.' It just seemed like fun to parody them all, using 'Narnia' as the broad outline, and then it just stemmed from there."

EPIC MOVIE reunites four of the stars from "Date Movie" - Adam Campbell, Jennifer Coolidge, Tony Cox and Fred Willard - and introduces many actors new to the directors' repertory company. The filmmakers note that they fell in love with a lot of great, funny actors on "Date Movie," and felt lucky to be able to bring some of them back. "Overall," notes Jason Friedberg, "we wanted a really strong ensemble cast and lots of different personalities."
A quartet of talented comedic actors plays the orphans who, strangely, look nothing alike. Kal Penn plays Edward, who falls under the White Bitch's spell; Adam Campbell is Peter, who tries to be a true leader even though his natural inclinations are to cut and run; Faune Chambers is Susan, the practical and stoic one; and Jayma Mays is Lucy…the idiot.

"Edward is loosely based on the Edmund character from 'Narnia,'" Kal Penn relates. "He's jealous of his older brother, Peter, and doesn't really think that he's part of the family. He's the traitorous character. He's led to believe that the witch is going to make him king of this land, whereas my siblings are on a separate mission. He doesn't feel like he really belongs, but through the course of the story they all come together as a family to fight off the witch."

In a spoof of Penn's own body of work, the directors added a reference to "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle." "It was definitely important to me to ridicule something that I've done as just part of the good-natured aspect of EPIC MOVIE," Penn says. "I think the great thing about all the movies we're ridiculing is that they're such a form of pop culture reference, that to even have the White Castle reference was kind of an honor."
Adam Campbell, who starred as the foppish, charming, bumbling British lad Grant Funkyerdoder in Seltzer & Friedberg's romantic comedy spoof "Date Movie," portrays the foppish British lad, Peter, who sprouts chicken wings. But instead of flying majestically through the air, Peter clucks and runs. "My character is a rather anxious, nervous, frightened mutant boy who eventually gains his courage and becomes something bigger than he's ever dreamt," says Campbell.
Jayma Mays, who co-starred opposite Rachel McAdams in "Red Eye," plays dimwitted Lucy, a parody of the youngest of "Narnia's" Pevensie children. Lucy discovers early on that the only person in her life is killed, but they've left her a trail of clues. Along with the others, Lucy goes on a quest where she eventually discovers that she actually has had a family all along.

"Lucy's a simple gal," says Mays. "She's definitely a little slower than the rest of the group. She figures things out a few steps behind everybody else."
For the role of Susan, the most responsible and practical of the orphaned adventurers, the filmmakers selected Faune Chambers, whose credits include "White Chicks" and "Bring It On Again." In casting the role they were looking for someone to provide a good counterbalance to Jayma Mays' Lucy.

"Susan has been an orphan all of her life," explains Chambers, "so she feels that she's never been a part of anything worthwhile. So when she finds this golden ticket that says, 'an epic adventure,' she's just so excited. And once she gets there, of course, it turns into something they're not expecting, but what she's discovered is a nice little family unit that she's never had and never been a part of."
Jennifer Coolidge plays The White Bitch, a reference to Jadis, the White Witch, the principal villain from "The Chronicles of Narnia." Coolidge, who co-starred for Seltzer & Friedberg in "Date Movie," is best known for her work in a host of Christopher Guest comedies, including the recent "For Your Consideration," as well as the "Legally Blonde" films.

Coolidge says that playing the bad girl is more interesting to play than a more virtuous character. "I guess I just get offered the bad girl a lot," she says. "I seem kind of typecast, I guess, but yeah, it's just more fun."

In a first for a parodic film - or any film in history - two separate actors portray roles originated by Johnny Depp in other films. "Saturday Night Live" veteran Darrell Hammond, best known for his brilliant takes on everyone from Bill Clinton to Sean Connery, plays the roguish Captain Jack, referencing Johnny Depp's memorable performances as Captain Jack Sparrow in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films.
In preparing for the role, Hammond says "I spent almost every hour of every day watching 'Pirates of the Caribbean,' trying to get every single little thing I could get my hands on, because the thing about the character is that it has so many layers to it, so I had to take a look and find as many aspects to parody as I could."

Crispin Glover ("Back to the Future") injects his trademark eccentricities into the character of Willy, channeling Johnny Depp's performance from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," Gene Wilder's original Willy Wonka - and even a bit of Michael Jackson.

"We were searching high and low for an actor to have the courage and sense of abandon to ridicule Willy Wonka as played by Johnny Depp," recalls Paul Schiff. "Crispin twisted the character and played with it."

Fred Willard plays Aslo, in a tongue in cheek reference to the computer-generated lion, Aslan, from "The Chronicles of Narnia." "Aslo is kind of a randy lion, who has an eye for the ladies," says the comedy veteran.

Willard undertook some unorthodox research to get into the mind of a lion. "I went to several zoos," he says. "I ate with the lions. I slept with the lions. Made love to the lions. Made love to the zookeepers. And finally they said, 'That's enough. Out you go.' And I said, 'But I'm preparing for a movie.'"
In creating Aslo's makeup effects, every expense was spared. "My days consisted of them slicking down my hair, putting on a skullcap, putting on the wig, struggling with the pants and shoes, and shaving my chest so they could glue the fake chest hair on," Willard says.

Diminutive character actor Tony Cox, best known as Billy Bob Thornton's sidekick in "Bad Santa" as well as his spoof of Hitch in "Date Movie," plays Bink, an assistant (and chauffeur) to the White Bitch. "Bink is a real bad-ass mo-fo sidekick to the White Bitch," says Cox, whose character sports a Fu Manchu beard.

Kevin Hart, a veteran of the "Scary Movie" series, plays Silas, the Albino Monk, a parody of the self-flagellating assassin portrayed by Paul Bettany in "The Da Vinci Code." In EPIC MOVIE, Silas works for the White Bitch as one of her many assassins. Hart underwent three hours of makeup and sported special contact lenses to play the character.
Even the blockbuster "X-Men" series doesn't escape ridicule. When we first meet Peter, he's a classmate of Mystique, Rogue, Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, and Magneto at the "Mutant Academy of Arts and Sciences."

Carmen Electra, who appeared in a "King Kong" parody in "Date Movie," portrays a character modeled after Mystique, shape-shifting mutant in the "X-Men" films. "I worked with directors on 'Date Movie' and on the first 'Scary Movie,'" explains Electra. "So we've built this relationship, and when they called me up last-minute and asked me to be in this movie I thought it would be fun to dress up as Mystique and get to work with the guys again."
Had EPIC MOVIE faithfully followed the films it ridicules, it would have been a globe-spanning adventure for the cast and crew alike, taking them from the lush forests and fields of New Zealand to the waters of Costa Rica; and from the museums of Paris to a tiny backwater village in Kazakhstan. However, with the help of movie magic, the filmmakers were able to create magisterial sets in the suburbs and stages of Southern California.
Producer Paul Schiff notes that making a parodic movie like EPIC MOVIE is deceptively complicated. "Because we're taking on some pretty big and spectacular movies to ridicule, in order for the joke to work the scene has to be grounded in enough reality of that movie so that you can twist it and turn it and ridicule it."

Executive producer Rodney Liber agrees that there is a level of difficulty inherent in parody films that aren't found in more mainstream movies. "Unlike other movies where you're actually concentrating on one storyline, with this one you have maybe twenty to thirty storylines you could be concentrating on, because you're commenting on so many different movies," he says.
Los Angeles' Museum of Natural History stands in for the Louvre Museum in Paris, where we are introduced to the character of Lucy (Jayma Mays), who is sent on her adventure after discovering an intriguing code from an elderly, breakdancing museum curator played by veteran actor David Carradine of "Kung Fu" and "Kill Bill" fame.
"The Chronicles of Narnia" was filmed in New Zealand, but EPIC MOVIE found its lush, rolling hills in Newhall, California, about 30 miles north of Los Angeles.

A ranch in Placerita Canyon in Newhall was the setting for the exterior battlefields of Gnarnia, along with Aslo's camp. A veritable Renaissance Fair of vintage-garbed background performers - woodsmen, archers, and soldiers - usually 100-200 in total, were brought in daily to the location for two weeks of filming, mostly in sweltering heat approaching 110 degrees.

Costume designer Frank Helmer had one of his proudest moments with the work he did with Jennifer Coolidge's The White Bitch. "The first time the White Bitch was shot in her full glory was part of the battle scene in which she is reviewing her troops," he recalls. "It was the first time we had her complete look together: her amazing dreadlock wig, the jackalope headdress I designed, the brown battle dress and her leather arm gauntlets. When I saw her finally in place with the 200 Gnarnia warriors and Bink by her side she looked exactly as I had envisioned, and it was a glorious moment."
In an age where the visual effects budgets of major Hollywood blockbusters alone is more than the entire budget of most films, visual effects producer Greg Baxter and visual effects supervisor Ariel Shaw, were charged with the task of creating - and at some times recreating - lavish visual effects sequences from the vast array of films parodied by EPIC MOVIE.

The most complicated sequence for the duo and their team of CGI animators and technicians was a sequence featuring a certain pirate captain atop an out-of-control mill wheel.
A talking beaver character and a White Bitch/Davy Jones octopus tentacle character were designed and operated by master puppeteer Mark Rappaport and his team of on-set puppeteers from his special effects company Creature Effects Inc. Five animatronic puppeteers articulated the body and facial features of Mr. Beaver, with the on-set voice provided by Katt Williams.
Supervising the vast army of stunt soldiers and other stunt performers throughout the film was stunt coordinator Keith Adams, best known for his stunt coordinating work on Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" films.

Production designer William Elliott replicated the original films' looks as much as possible, while avoiding obvious touches. "We try to base all the comedy in reality and let the comedy come from the script and the actors, to give them a good, firm foundation in which to work."
Not content with mastering the art of parodic movie screenwriting, with EPIC MOVIE, writers/directors Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer have turned to the craft of songwriting. "We're more songwriters than filmmakers," jokes Friedberg.

The duo wrote the lyrics for two memorable song and dance numbers: the maniacal "He's Willy," performed by Loompa Oompas, and "Lazy Pirate Day," as executed by Captain Jack and his merry band of pirates.

"We like lots of music in our movies," says Seltzer. "It keeps things upbeat, fun and different, and some of the movies we're parodying have music in them, like "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."
The dancing in the film's two big musical numbers was choreographed by Stacy Walker, who also choreographed sequences for Friedberg and Seltzer on "Date Movie."

JASON FRIEDBERG (Director, Writer, Executive Producer) and AARON SELTZER (Director, Writer, Executive Producer) are longtime writing partners who have sold more than 20 screenplays over 17 years, including the very successful lampoons "Spy Hard" and "Scary Movie." (They were two of the six credited writers on "Scary Movie"). Seltzer and Friedberg wrote "Date Movie," which Seltzer directed.
Both natives of Southern California, Seltzer and Friedberg met at the University of California - Santa Barbara, where the duo developed several businesses together while putting themselves through school. By graduation, they owned two successful shoe stores on trendy Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood and had sold their first screenplay, "Spy Hard," which was produced by Hollywood Pictures. Before long, they were selling original screenplays as well as adaptations with such frequency that they decided to sell the shoe stores and focus exclusively on their writing career.

PAUL SCHIFF (Producer) began his career as a documentary cameraman in New York City. He segued to directing for MTV, where he was on staff for four years during the groundbreaking early days of the cable channel. Schiff moved to feature films as an associate producer of "Streets of Gold," beginning a longstanding collaboration with its director, Revolution Studios founder and head, Joe Roth.
Schiff then spent a successful seven years at Twentieth Century Fox, where he produced such films as "My Cousin Vinny" starring Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei; "The Vanishing" starring Jeff Bridges and Kiefer Sutherland; "PCU" and "Ghost in the Machine." Prior to his tenure at Fox, Schiff produced "Coupe de Ville," directed by Joe Roth; "Renegades;" and "Young Guns" and its sequel "Young Guns II" at Morgan Creek Productions.
In 2006, Schiff produced the hit romantic comedy spoof "Date Movie" from the writing/directing duo of Aaron Seltzer & Jason Friedberg. Schiff also produced three independent films that completed production in 2006: "The Air I Breathe," featuring an all-star cast led by Kevin Bacon, Brendan Fraser, Andy Garcia and Sarah Michelle Gellar; the ensemble comedy "You Are Here;" and "Numb," starring Matthew Perry.
Schiff's producing credits include "Green Street Hooligans," starring Elijah Wood; "Maid in Manhattan," the hit romantic comedy starring Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes; and "Mona Lisa Smile" starring Julia Roberts and directed by Mike Newell.
Schiff also produced Wes Anderson's critically acclaimed "Rushmore" starring Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman, and served as head of production at Propaganda Films.

ARNON MILCHAN (Executive Producer) is widely renowned as one of the most prolific and successful independent film producers of the past 25 years, with over 100 feature films to his credit. Born in Israel, Milchan was educated at the University of Geneva. His first business venture was transforming his father's modest business into one of his country's largest agro-chemical companies. This early achievement was a harbinger of Milchan's now-legendary reputation in the international marketplace as a keen businessman.
Soon, Milchan began to underwrite projects in areas that had always held a special interest for him - film, television and theater. Early projects include Roman Polanski's theater production of "Amadeus," "Dizengoff 99," "La Menace," "The Medusa Touch" and the mini-series "Masada." By the end of the 1980s, Milchan had produced such films as Martin Scorsese's "The King of Comedy," Sergio Leone's "Once Upon at Time in America" and Terry Gilliam's "Brazil."
After the huge successes of "Pretty Woman" and "The War of the Roses," Milchan founded New Regency Productions and went on to produce a string of successful films including "J.F.K," "Sommersby," "A Time to Kill," "Free Willy," "The Client," "Tin Cup," "Under Siege," "L.A. Confidential," "The Devil's Advocate," "The Negotiator," "City of Angels," "Entrapment," "Fight Club," "Big Momma's House," "Don't Say a Word," "Daredevil," "Man on Fire," "Guess Who," "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," "Big Momma's House 2" and "Date Movie."
Upcoming projects include: "Firehouse Dog," a family comedy starring Josh Hutcherson, Bruce Greenwood, Dash Mihok, Steven Culp and Bree Turner, directed by Todd Holland; "Jumper," a sci-fi action-adventure starring Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, Jamie Bell, and Samuel L. Jackson, directed by Doug Liman; "Dallas," based on the television phenomenon starring John Travolta, directed by Gurinder Chadha; and "Shutter," a horror-thriller directed by Masayuki Ochiai
Along the way, Milchan brought on board two powerful investors and partners who share his vision: Nine Network and Twentieth Century Fox. Fox distributes Regency movies in all media worldwide (excluding an output arrangement Regency has in Germany), including on U.S. pay television, and international pay and free television.
Milchan also successfully diversified his company's activities within the sphere of entertainment, most specifically in the realm of television through Regency Television ("Malcolm in the Middle," "The Bernie Mac Show"). Regency recently acquired a stake in Channel 10, BabyFirstTV, and an Israeli TV network. In addition, Regency holds television rights to Sony Ericsson Women's Tennis Association events.

RODNEY LIBER (Executive Producer) recently collaborated with director Paul Weitz as producer of the comedy "American Dreamz," starring Hugh Grant and Dennis Quaid, and as executive producer of the critically acclaimed drama "In Good Company," also starring Quaid, Scarlett Johansson and Topher Grace In 2000, Liber executive produced the box-office smash hit comedy "Big Momma's House," starring Martin Lawrence.
Liber served as producer of the sexual thriller "Wild Things," starring Matt Dillon, Kevin Bacon and Neve Campbell, and was executive producer of "Dunston Checks In," starring Jason Alexander, Faye Dunaway and Rupert Everett.
As a vice president of production for 20th Century Fox, Liber worked on Michael Mann's "The Last of the Mohicans," Ron Shelton's "White Men Can't Jump," and the classic spoof comedy "Hot Shots!" directed by Jim Abrahams. He also supervised production on the comedies "My Cousin Vinny" and "Dutch," and served as production consultant on "Bad Girls" and "Cousin Bette."
Liber began his career as a production assistant on such notable feature films as the hit Zucker/Abrams/Zucker comedy "Ruthless People" and the crime thriller "F/X."

SHAWN MAURER (Director of Photography) collaborated with directors Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer on their first film, the hit spoof comedy "Date Movie." Maurer's recent credits also include the comedies "The Honeymooners" and "Johnson Family Vacation."
Maurer's first feature credit was "Bandwagon," directed by John Schultz. Maurer re-teamed with Schultz on Twentieth Century Fox's "Like Mike," and on the independent feature "When Zachary Beaver Came to Town." Two of Maurer's feature films, "The Big Empty" and "Show and Tell," were selected for Kodak's First Look Series, which showcases notable independent films by first-time directors.
Maurer's first feature for a major studio, the cheerleading drama "Bring It On," was a box-office hit for Universal Pictures.
Born and raised in Eugene, Oregon, Maurer received a BFA in cinema from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. His student film, "Leila," won best documentary at the Student Academy Awards.

WILLIAM ELLIOTT (Production Designer) previously collaborated with Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg on the comedy "Date Movie." His extensive feature film credits also include "Roll Bounce," "Scary Movie 3," "Undercover Brother," "Malibu's Most Wanted," "Ghosts of Mars," "The Nutty Professor" and "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps," "Jane Austen's Mafia!," "Doctor Dolittle," "Metro," "For Better or Worse," "Andre," "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective," "Honeymoon in Vegas," "Hot Shots!" and "Hot Shots! Part Deux" and "Impulse." Earlier in his career, Elliott earned an Oscar® and BAFTA nomination for his work as an art director on Brian De Palma's "The Untouchables."

PECK PRIOR (Editor) began his career as an apprentice at Universal Studios where he worked on "Blues Brothers," "Continental Divide" and "Conan The Barbarian." He has a strong comedy background, having edited on such projects as "The Benchwarmers," "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo," "Joe Dirt," "Without a Paddle," "The Hot Chick," "The Master of Disguise," and "The Animal." He also edited "Dating Games People Play," Taylor Hackford's Oscar-nominated "Ray," "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer," and "Terminal Velocity." He was also an editor on John Hughes' "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" and was the supervising film editor for "Curly Sue."

EDWARD SHEARMUR (Music) is one of today's most in-demand score composers. His many credits include "The 40 Year Old Virgin," "The Skeleton Key," "Bad News Bears" (2005), "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous," "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," "Reign of Fire," "Miss Congeniality" and "Charlie's Angels."
He has won three BMI Film & TV Awards - for his scores for "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," "Charlie's Angels," and "Miss Congeniality." He was awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music for the series "Masters of Horror."