Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas: About the filmmakers

TIM JOHNSON (Director) previously co-directed the computer-animated hit “Antz,” which marked the first animated feature film from PDI/DreamWorks. He is currently directing DreamWorks’ computer-animated comedy “Over the Hedge,” based on the popular comic strip by Michael Fry and T Lewis, and starring the voices of Jim Carrey and Garry Shandling.

Johnson’s background in film and animation dates back to his college years. While earning a B.A. in English Literature at Northwestern University, he produced two animated films, both of which earned Richter Grant Organization Awards. Upon graduation, he worked for two years as a freelance cel animator and director. His introduction to computer animation came in 1985 while he was on staff at Post Effects in Chicago.

In 1988, Johnson joined what was then PDI, and two years later co-founded the studio’s Character Animation Group. He subsequently served as animation director on “The Simpsons” 1995 Halloween special, “Homer3,” leading the team in transforming the two-dimensional Homer into a three-dimensional world. The episode has remained a favorite of fans of “The Simpsons,” and has become a classic to animation aficionados.

Patrick Gilmore (Director) makes his film directorial debut with “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.”

Gilmore earned a B.A. in film production from the School of Cinema – Television at the University of Southern California before starting out in motion picture and television production and development at ABC, MGM/UA and then Disney. In 1989, he joined Disney Software, the fledgling division of Disney Consumer Products, which would later grow into Disney Interactive and would mark the beginning of Gilmore’s long career in interactive.

At Disney, Gilmore worked on more than 25 games, and had an instrumental role in producing key products, which helped shift that company from a strictly licensed business to a developer/publisher. Collaborating with Virgin Interactive, he produced the Sega Genesis “Aladdin” product, which established a new benchmark for animation in a video game. That success was followed by more standard-setting games based upon “The Lion King,” “Mickey Mouse” and “Toy Story.”

In 1996, Gilmore came to DreamWorks Interactive, where he launched game console development with the million-selling “The Lost World” video game. He followed with the successful “Small Soldiers” game, and DreamWorks’ first original console title, “Medal of Honor,” based upon a concept by Steven Spielberg, which launched a hugely successful franchise of its own. Gilmore joined DreamWorks Feature Animation in September 1999 to begin working on “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.”

MIREILLE SORIA (Producer) most recently produced DreamWorks’ animated adventure “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron,” which earned an Academy Award® nomination for Best Animated Feature. The film marked her first producing credit for an animated motion picture, though she has an extensive background in live action film and television.

Prior to taking the producing reins for “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron,” Soria had a producing deal at Fox Family Pictures, where she produced the romantic Cinderella story “Ever After,” starring Drew Barrymore and Anjelica Huston. Soria also executive produced the Disney Channel horror comedy “Under Wraps.”

She had previously held the post of vice president of production for Walt Disney Pictures from 1990 to 1995. During her tenure, she oversaw the development and production of such projects as “Cool Runnings,” “The Mighty Ducks” and its two sequels, and 1994’s live action version of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book.”

Soria had come to Disney from the Steve Tisch Company, where she was a vice president and also produced several projects. Her producing credits there included the pilot and 13 episodes of the series “Dirty Dancing,” the telefilms “Victim of Love” and “Out on the Edge,” and the CBS Afterschool Special “Lies of the Heart.” She also developed a number of feature film and cable and network television projects.

Soria began her career in 1982 as manager of dramatic series development at ABC. Two years later, she joined Columbia Pictures Television as director of current programs. In 1985, she returned to ABC as director of dramatic series development, and was responsible for developing the groundbreaking series “thirtysomething.”

JEFFREY KATZENBERG (Producer) is a principal partner in DreamWorks SKG, the multi-faceted entertainment company he co-founded with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen in October 1994.

Katzenberg most recently produced DreamWorks’ traditionally animated “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron,” which earned an Oscar® nomination for Best Animated Feature. He had previously produced the computer-animated blockbuster “Shrek,” which won the first-ever Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature. “Shrek” was also one of the top-grossing films of the year, and is the second-highest grossing animated feature of all time. The film’s many additional honors include Best Animated Film Awards from a number of critics organizations, including the Broadcast Film Critics and the Los Angeles Film Critics, as well as Golden Globe and Producers Guild Award nominations.

Katzenberg had earlier served as an executive producer on DreamWorks’ clay-animated hit “Chicken Run,” which was named the best-reviewed movie of 2000, in addition to winning awards for Best Animated Feature from several critics groups. He was also an executive producer on the animated epic “The Prince of Egypt,” which won an Oscar® for Best Original Song (“When You Believe”), and on “The Road to El Dorado.”

JOHN LOGAN (Screenwriter) co-wrote the screenplay for the Academy Awardâ -winning blockbuster “Gladiator,” for which he received both Oscarâ and BAFTA Award nominations. Logan had previously been honored by his peers with a Writers Guild of America Award for his screenplay for the HBO movie “RKO 281,” for which he also earned an Emmy nomination.

Logan more recently scripted the upcoming Howard Hughes biopic “The Aviator,” which will star Leonardo DiCaprio under the direction of Martin Scorsese; and Ed Zwick’s “The Last Samurai,” starring Tom Cruise, which is due out later this year. His other writing credits include the recent remake of “The Time Machine”; the latest big-screen installment of the “Star Trek” franchise, “Star Trek: Nemesis”; and Oliver Stone’s football drama “Any Given Sunday,” starring Al Pacino and Cameron Diaz.

An accomplished playwright, Logan has written 14 plays, including “Never the Sinner,” which was produced on the stages of Chicago, New York, London, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, Austria and Uruguay; and “Hauptmann,” which was seen in Chicago, New York, Tokyo, Edinburgh and Australia. Logan’s recent adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s “The Master Builder” will open in London’s West End this summer.

HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS (Composer) co-composed the score for the Academy Award®-winning animated blockbuster “Shrek.” He also co-composed the scores for the clay-animated hit “Chicken Run,” and “Antz,” which was the first computer-animated success from PDI/DreamWorks. Gregson-Williams is currently composing the score for the sequel “Shrek 2,” due out in Summer 2004.

On the live action side, Gregson-Williams most recently created the music for the films “Phone Booth,” “Spy Game” and the upcoming “Veronica Guerin.” His other film credits include “Enemy of the State,” “The Match,” “The Borrowers,” “The Replacement Killers,” “Deceiver,” “Smilla’s Sense of Snow” and “The Rock.”

Born in England to a musical family, Gregson-Williams earned a scholarship from the music school of St. John’s College in Cambridge at the age of seven. By age 13, he had been a soloist on over a dozen records, and then earned a coveted spot at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

He started his film career as an orchestrator and arranger for composer Stanley Myers, and went on to compose his first scores for Nicolas Roeg’s “Full Body Massage” and “Hotel Paradise.” His early credits also include a series of shorts for the BBC, the independent “White Angel,” and “The Whole Wide World,” for director Dan Ireland.

His collaborations with other leading composers have resulted in Gregson-Williams providing additional music for such films as “The Rock,” “Broken Arrow,” “The Fan,” “Muppet Treasure Island,” “Armageddon” and “The Prince of Egypt.”

TOM FINAN (Editor) has had a career spanning 20 years, encompassing both animated and live action projects. He was the supervising editor on the animated blockbuster “The Lion King,” and also edited the animated feature “Hercules.” On the live action front, his credits include “Stuart Little,” “Pet Sematary II,” “The Wizard” and “It Had to Be You.”

Earlier in his career, Finan served as an associate editor on “Platoon” and “Salvador,” and as an assistant editor on “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” In addition to his feature film work, Finan has also edited for television, including several telefilms and episodics.

RAYMOND ZIBACH (Production Designer) previously worked as an art director on “The Road to El Dorado.” Before coming to DreamWorks, he worked at Warner Bros. as a background key and production painter on animated portions of the hit basketball comedy “Space Jam,” which blended live action and animation. He also worked as a background key on such popular Nickelodeon cartoons as “Ren & Stimpy” and “Rocko’s Modern Life.” His other credits include the television and direct-to-video projects “Darkwing Duck,” “Aladdin and the King of Thieves,” “Timon and Pumbaa” and “Shnookums and Meat.”

Zibach is a graduate of the Otis/Parsons School in Los Angeles, where he majored in design and illustration. In addition to his work on the screen, he has lent his artistry to book illustrations for such titles as Around the World With Timon and Pumbaa, The Genie’s Tale, and Disney’s Aladdin’s Quest Series, The Lion King Series, and Princess Collection.

Damon O’Beirne (Head of Layout) is currently serving as a Head of Layout on DreamWorks’ computer-animated feature “Over the Hedge,” being directed by Tim Johnson. O’Beirne joined the studio in 1996 as a key layout and workbook artist on DreamWorks’ first traditionally animated feature “The Prince of Egypt.” He went on to supervise the layout team on “The Road to El Dorado,” and was a workbook/animatic layout artist on “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.”

Before coming to DreamWorks, O’Beirne worked on the animated features “We’re Back: A Dinosaur’s Story” and “Balto” at the London-based Amblimation.

O’Beirne is a native of South Africa, where he studied graphic art and earned an advanced degree in illustration.

Jakob Hjort Jensen (Lead Supervising Animator ‘ Sinbad) came to DreamWorks in 1995 as an animator on the character of Young Moses in “The Prince of Egypt.” His subsequent credits include “The Road to El Dorado,” on which he worked on the lead character Tulio, and “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron,” where he was a supervising animator on the title character.

Jensen started his career in animation at the age of 17 as an assistant animator at A-Film studios in his native Copenhagen, Denmark. He worked on several commercials and features, including “Asterix Conquers America” and “Jungle Jack,” and moved up to animator on “All Dogs Go to Heaven 2.” Jensen also worked at Amblimation in London as an animator on the feature “Balto.”

Jensen is currently serving as a supervising animator on DreamWorks’ upcoming computer-animated comedy “Over the Hedge.”

William Salazar (Supervising Animator ‘ Marina) most recently served as the supervising animator for the equine character Rain in “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.” He had previously supervised the animation on the character of Young Moses in “The Prince of Egypt,” and was the lead animator on the character Tulio in “The Road to El Dorado.”

Hailing from Corsica, France, Salazar graduated from Paris’ animation school CFT Gobelins in 1980. He went on to work at London’s Amblimation, where he worked as an assistant animator on “An American Tail: Fievel Goes West,” as an animator on “We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story,” and as a supervising animator on the three comedic dogs, Nikki, Kaltag and Star, in “Balto.”

DAN WAGNER (Supervising Animator ‘ Eris) most recently worked as a supervising animator on the title character in “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.” Prior to that, he had served as an animator on the characters of Tulio in “The Road to El Dorado” and Older Moses in “The Prince of Egypt.”

Wagner had come to DreamWorks from Warner Bros. animation, where he was the supervising animator on Devon and Cornwall, the two-headed dragon, in “Quest for Camelot.” He also worked on “Space Jam,” which blended live action and animation.

A native of Canada, Wagner is a self-taught animator who started animating when he was only eight years old. He began his professional career at age 16, spending summer vacations working at Ken Perkins Animation in Winnipeg. Over the next ten years, he had stints at several animation houses, working on both film and commercial projects. His first job as a supervising animator for an animated feature was on the characters of Chamberlain and King William in “The Swan Princess.”

Rodolphe Guenoden (Supervising Animator ‘ Proteus) joined DreamWorks as the supervising animator on the character Tzipporah in the studio’s first traditionally animated feature “The Prince of Egypt.” He went on to supervise the animation on the character of Chel in “The Road to El Dorado.”

Before coming to DreamWorks, Guenoden worked at Amblimation in London as a supervising animator and story artist on “Balto.” He also served as a senior animator on “We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story” and as an assistant animator on “An American Tail: Fievel Goes West.”

Guenoden comes from Noyon, France, and attended CFT Gobelins in Paris, France.

Bruce Ferriz (Supervising Animator ‘ Kale) first came to DreamWorks as an animator on the character of Moses in “The Prince of Egypt,” and was later an animator on the character Chel in “The Road to El Dorado.” He recently supervised the animation on the character of Spirit as a colt in “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron,” and is currently at work on DreamWorks’ computer-animated comedy “Sharkslayer,” slated for release in 2004.

Ferriz is a graduate of the popular art and animation school CFT Gobelins in Paris, France. He began his career animating commercials at Bibo Films, a studio founded by DreamWorks Animation director Eric “Bibo” Bergeron. Prior to joining DreamWorks, Ferriz worked as an animator on “A Goofy Movie” at the Disney Studios in Paris, France.

Serguei Kouchnerov (Supervising Animator ‘ Spike) was an animator on the character of Little Creek in “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.” He also worked as a supervising animator on the characters of Miguel in “The Road to El Dorado,” and Young Rameses in “The Prince of Egypt.” Kouchnerov is currently working on “Shrek 2,” the sequel to the Academy Award®-winning blockbuster “Shrek,” due for release in Summer 2004.

Before coming to DreamWorks, Kouchnerov worked at Walt Disney Studios as an animator and character designer on “Fantasia 2000.” He also produced, directed and animated the short films “9′ Minutes,” “The Log” and “The Hopeless Wombat.”

Hailing from Kiev, Ukraine, Kouchnerov studied animation at Ukranimafilm Studio in his home country.