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This son of Hollywood screenwriter Arthur Ross initially wrote fiction but eventually followed in his father's footsteps, scoring a mega-hit with his first produced feature script. "Big" (1988), co-written and co-produced with Anne Spielberg, recounted the story of a young boy who wakes up one morning--BIG--and must navigate the world in a man's body. The writers shared an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay and Ross netted a second nod for his first solo effort, "Dave" (1993), about a look-alike who steps in after the US President has a heart attack. Gary Ross has proven his ability to tap the zeitgeist and create gentle, somewhat exaggerated scripts which revolve around mistaken identities and subversion of the status quo by an outsider who often is pretending to be something other than his or her true self.

The apotheosis of this scenario was his feature directorial debut "Pleasantville" (1998), a Capraesque fable in which two 90s teens find themselves transported into the homogenized, black-and-white world of 50s television. Like the main characters in his previous efforts, the pair both upset and embellish the society in which they find themselves, bringing much-needed change that comes at a price. When Ross naively hit upon the concept of making a movie that began in black-and-white and gradually turned to color (a metaphor for coming alive), he had no idea of the technical expertise required to make it work. 1,700 special effects and $40 million later and after a post-production period spanning more than a year, the finished film opened to generally praiseworthy reviews. For his part, though, the director said, "I'm dying to do a movie that doesn't have any special effects in it. That would be a walk in the park."

It would be five years before Ross would step behind the camera again--although he kept busy with uncredited rewriting chores on films such as "Inspector Gadget" (1999), "Kangaroo Jack" (2003) and "Just Married" (2003)--this time in an attempt to film writer Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling nonfiction book "Seabiscuit" (2003), about the real-life 1920s-era racehorse who became an unlikely champion and an American folk hero of his day. Reteaming with past collaborators Tobey Maguire and William H. Macy as well as top-line performers Jeff Bridges and Chris Cooper, Ross assembled an inspirational, often moving and beautifully photographed version of the historical events, although his desire to capture as much of the book's historical information led to intentionally shorthanded and brisk scenes that often avoided plumbing the characters' genuine emotional depths. The film, however, was rewarded with an Academy Awards nomination as Best Picture as well as a nomination as best Adapted Screenplay for Ross.

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PRODUCER NIRA PARK TALKS ABOUT SHAUN...

By Allan Walsh
Shaun of the Dead has made it’s own cult following. We did a phone interview with producer, Nira Park, who lives in London. Now we would like to share this never-been-published interview with you. Enjoy!

What was the budget on the film and did you have to get help financing the film. If so, was it a tough sell or did they get the script right away?
Nira: The budget was approx £4 mil (approx $7 mil) - which is not a huge budget considering the set pieces, the extras, the visual fx, the shooting schedule – and the fact that shooting in London is very costly etc. Many of our friends in the industry were very generous and supportive of us and we were particularly lucky that the fans of the genre and of our TV comedy series wanted to be zombies and worked for days on end without being paid!

The screenplay was developed by FilmFour – who before the company’s collapse in the summer of 2002 were due to finance the film. Edgar, Simon and I had made two series of a hit comedy for FilmFour’s sister company Channel 4 and FilmFour therefore felt like the spiritual home for the film. After FilmFour collapsed our agreement with them was put into turnaround and I (as producer) was free to take the project elsewhere. By this time the screenplay had been developed to 4th draft stage and was pretty much ready to go. I sent the script to pretty much every financier in the country. Although the reaction to the script – and to Edgar as director – was very positive (and nearly everyone was keen because of our work on Spaced) – there was a concern that there were no ‘names’ in terms of the cast. We were adamant that this was how we wanted to make the film – with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in the main roles – and were not open to casting up in these roles. It took about 6 months of meeting everyone before Working Title approached us. I had to. By the time they approached us we had nearly set the film up with BBC Films and The Film Consortium (and both companies had been very supportive of us) but we were missing the final piece of the financing – approx 30% of the budget – and so when WT said that they would fully finance the production we chose to make the film with them. It was the right decision – as they have been a brilliant company to work with and they have supported all of our creative decisions.

This has all the feelings of cult classic, will there be a part two?
Nira: There wont be part two. The next film – which Simon and Edgar have just started writing – will be a sequel in tone only – this time they are tackling another much loved genre – the action/cop genre. The idea is to make The Great British Action film! A big action adventure but all set in a small English village. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost will take the title roles again.

From a production standpoint, what were some of the pros and cons of shooting in a small town? And did you get any of the locals involved?
Nira: Is London really perceived as a small town? Most of our problems came from filming exteriors on location in a country where it always rains! The weather during the shoot was terrible and we battled with filming though rain, thunderstorms, hail etc. When you are shooting a scene over a period of three days outside and the weather is changing every couple of hours it is incredibly difficult in terms of continuity. The scene in the garden with The Hulk and Mary (the first zombie attack) was the most difficult to film. Shooting was brought to a halt several times for several hours and we had to go back to the location for two extra days – which then had a huge impact on our schedule.

In terms of the locals getting involved – we were quite lucky. We had big signs warning people that some of the make-up might be shocking – and a few people did complain about the blood – but lots and lots of people wanted to be extras and we were more than happy for people to get made-up and to join the zombie crowds.

Can you tell us how big a hit this movie is over in England?
Nira: The film did very well in England – it made approx £6.8 mil (so $12 mil) and it out-grossed Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later.

Article graciously provided by Producermag.com. For more great content about Producers and the art of putting a film together visit http://www.producermag.com