You, Me and Dupree - About the Filmmakers

About the Filmmakers
	ANTHONY & JOE RUSSO (Directed by) made their start writing and directing the feature film Pieces, which debuted at Slamdance in 1997. The film later screened at the AFI Film Festival, where Joe won for Best Actor. The Russo brothers wrote and directed Welcome to Collinwood, produced by Steven Soderbergh and his Section Eight partner George Clooney, which was selected as the closing night film for the Director's Fortnight at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. The brothers made their move into the television world by directing the pilot for FX's Lucky and multiple episodes of Fox's Arrested Development, which won an Emmy Award for Best Comedy Direction for their work on the pilot episode. MICHAEL LE SIEUR (Written by) was raised in Southern California and graduated from UCLA in 1994. After a spectacular crash and burn in the life insurance industry and a two-year apprenticeship working under the foremost Western practitioner of taxidermy, specializing in small game and waterfowl, Michael entered the screenwriting program at the USC School of Cinema in 1998. In 2000, Michael signed with United Talent Agency, and in 2001, his first spec script, The Ballad of Paul Finley, Accountant, sold to New Line Cinema. He then worked on scripts for Fox 2000 and Warner Bros. before selling You, Me and Dupree to Universal in 2005. Michael resides in Newport Beach with his wife and son. In August 2005, producers SCOTT STUBER and MARY PARENT (Produced by) founded production company Stuber/Parent and entered into a five-year exclusive producing agreement with Universal Pictures, after leaving their posts as the studio's vice-chairmen of worldwide production. During their eight years at Universal-five of which they spent running production-they were responsible for many of the studio's critically acclaimed and commercially successful films including King Kong, Jarhead, A Beautiful Mind, Seabiscuit, Cinderella Man, Munich, Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, About a Boy, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, 8 Mile, The Mummy franchise, the American Pie franchise, Friday Night Lights, The Family Man, Bring It On and many others. Over the last decade, Stuber and Parent supervised over 90 films between them-more than 20 of which grossed over $100 million domestically. As producers, Parent and Stuber have put together a prolific and varied slate of films that includes tent-pole comedies and compelling story- and star-driven dramas and thrillers, buying both high-profile books and original scripts by established and visionary writers. Their first production under the Stuber/Parent banner is You, Me and Dupree. Stuber comes to Dupree straight from his recent production with Vince Vaughn of The Break-Up (starring Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston), the highest-opening romantic comedy of all-time. Starting production next for Stuber/Parent is The Kingdom, directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights), co-produced with Michael Mann and starring Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper and Jason Bateman. The film begins shooting June 27, 2006. Other projects include Halo, adapted from the best-selling video game, which will be executive produced by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh (King Kong, The Lord of the Rings trilogy); The Wolfman, written by Andy Kevin Walker (Seven) and starring Benicio Del Toro; an updated version of the classic British TV series The Prisoner; a film adaptation by David Self of acclaimed author Stephen Pressfield's book Gates of Fire about a legendary battle waged in ancient Greece; Goners, an original script written by Joss Whedon (TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity, X-Men); Live Bet, starring Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson (Get Rich Or Die Tryin'); Hard Sell, based on Jamie Reidy's book about the behind-the-scenes look at Pfizer and the launching of their most popular drug; as well as an as yet-titled Steve Carell (The 40-Year-Old Virgin) project, which Carell will both star in and write based on his original idea. MICHAEL FOTTRELL (Executive Producer), a graduate of the USC School of Cinema, has served in various executive and co-producer roles on such high-profile movies as 2 Fast 2 Furious, Sweet Home Alabama, Sorority Boys, The New Guy, Rock Star, Blue Streak, Cruel Intentions and A Very Brady Sequel. In addition to his producing credits, Fottrell served as production manager for Mighty Joe Young, Volcano, Crimson Tide, Gross Anatomy, Warlock and Shy People, among others. Fottrell served as the executive production manager for years at Walt Disney and Touchstone Pictures, supervising all facets of film production on Father of the Bride, When a Man Loves a Woman, Pretty Woman, Sister Act and What About Bob?, to list a few. AARON KAPLAN and SEAN PERRONE (Executive Producers) founded Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment in 2000. The company has a first-look producing deal with Sony-based Escape Artists. You, Me and Dupree will mark their first feature to go into production. They are currently casting the thriller Knowing which Alex Proyas is attached to direct for Sony Pictures and Escape Artists. CHARLES MINSKY, ASC (Director of Photography) is a veteran cinematographer with numerous commercial, television and feature-film credits to his name. Minsky's visually inventive photography has earned him repeat collaborations with several filmmakers, including director Garry Marshall on The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, Raising Helen, Pretty Woman and Dear God. Minsky's other film credits include The Producers, Tomcats, Guinevere, Looking for an Echo, Kazaam, The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag and Dutch, among others. Minsky's select television credits include Related, Lucky, starring John Corbett for F/X Networks, the Showtime telepic Past Tense, the television series Amazing Stories and the pilots for Keys, Lois & Clark, Capital News and China Beach. BARRY ROBISON (Production Designer) has a diverse array of feature-film credits that includes Fun with Dick and Jane, The Rookie, October Sky, Highway, Bubble Boy, Home Fries, Loved, The Man Who Wouldn't Die, My Family, Sensation and Candyman: Farwell to the Flesh. His television credits include Deadly Relations, Treacherous Crossing and Deadly Game. Before working as a production designer, Robison worked as a set designer on Merry Christmas, George Bailey and as a costume designer on L. Frank Baum's The Marvelous Land of Oz. PETER B. ELLIS (Editor) has served as editor on the film The Scoundrel's Wife, as well as episodes from the television series Criminal Minds, LAX, Carnivàle, Roswell, NYPD Blue and the television films Semper Fi and The Audrey Hepburn Story. The filmmaker has also directed an episode of Roswell. In addition to You, Me and Dupree, DEBRA NEIL-FISHER's, ACE (Editor) work can most recently be seen in 2006's Just My Luck and last year's Son of the Mask. She has been an editor for over 20 years, working on such comedy blockbusters as How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. Neil-Fisher's other credits include films such as Up Close & Personal, Fried Green Tomatoes, Black Dog and Teaching Mrs. Tingle. KAREN PATCH (Costume Designer) most recently designed costumes for Bad News Bears and Team America: World Police. Her additional credits include The School of Rock, starring Jack Black, and The Royal Tenenbaums, for which she received the Costume Designers Guild Award. Patch also designed costumes for Wes Anderson's Rushmore and Bottle Rocket, as well as costumes for Simpatico, My Girl, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, Bright Angel, Chattahoochee and The Big Picture. RANDALL POSTER's (Music Supervisor) talent for creating distinctive film soundtracks was on display in three of the past year's most memorable music-driven feature films: Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Sam Mendes' Jarhead. In creating musical scenarios for films, Poster has collaborated with many of the world's most creative and successful filmmakers, including: Scorsese, Anderson, Danny Boyle, Richard Linklater, Jay Roach, Mike Newell, Frank Oz, Kevin Smith, Todd Phillips, Harmony Korine, Todd Haynes, Alison Maclean and Sean Penn, among others. Poster's other recent credits include music for The Squid and the Whale, Meet the Parents, Starsky & Hutch, Along Came Polly, Nancy Meyers' Something's Gotta Give and the beloved The School of Rock, for which Poster received a Grammy nomination for the year's best soundtrack album. Poster started putting music in movies soon after his graduation from Brown University, when he co-wrote and produced the independent feature A Matter of Degrees, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1990. The film spawned a much-acclaimed soundtrack album, released by Atlantic Records, that was awarded Soundtrack of the Year by CMJ, the College Music Journal. Poster then decided to concentrate exclusively on music supervision and began an association with Christine Vachon's Killer Films, which continues to this day. For Killer, Poster supervised the music in Kids, Postcards from America, Stonewall, I Shot Andy Warhol, Todd Haynes' Velvet Goldmine, and the Academy Award®-winning Boys Don't Cry. In 1996, Poster began working with Anderson on the soundtrack to Anderson's debut, Bottle Rocket, and has supervised the music on all three of Anderson's subsequent features: Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and the recently released The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Working with Anderson to create rare and remarkable film soundtracks, these collections have gone on to receive awards and accolades around the world. Poster has been lucky to work with a variety of great film composers. He has collaborated with Academy Award® winners Howard Shore, Randy Newman and the late Jack Nitzsche. He has done five features with Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh and has championed new composers whenever possible. These include Theodore Shapiro, Nathan Larson, Craig Wedron, Christophe Beck and Joe Henry. Poster has also worked with the legendary Alan Silvestri, John Cale of the Velvet Underground, and the multitalented John Ottman on Shane Black's directing debut Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. And yet it is his singular ear for great songs that has earned him his stellar reputation. Be it Folk Implosion's “Natural One” from Kids, which was a Top 40 hit from the soundtrack album; The Faces' “Ooh La La” at the end of Rushmore; The Chico O'Farrell Big Band's dynamic “Cumenco” that launched the scandalous dance sequence in John McTiernan's The Thomas Crown Affair; Wilco's blissful “Airline to Heaven” in Jesus' Son; or the rousing The School of Rock anthem that brought out the heart and soul of that picture-Poster has harnessed the power of music to create moments of cinematic transcendence. Poster has shown an incredible versatility, showcasing the music of diverse periods. In The Aviator, Poster and director Scorsese wove panoply of period songs, often on-camera, to render the journey Howard Hughes undertook over the course of the 1920s, '30s and '40s in Hollywood. Poster also used songs to evoke the repressive tension of the 1950s in Mike Newell's Mona Lisa Smile, to distinguish 1960's bohemian New York in Mary Harron's I Shot Andy Warhol and to celebrate the glittery glamour of the 1970's pop world in Todd Haynes' Velvet Goldmine. Poster is currently working on a number of new projects. He has been enlisted by David Fincher to supervise the music in the upcoming Zodiac, which details the investigation of the notorious Zodiac Killer; he will continue his ongoing collaboration with director Todd Phillips in the upcoming School for Scoundrels; and he will soon start working with Todd Haynes on his highly anticipated Bob Dylan film, I'm Not There. ROLFE KENT (Music by) is the composer of more than 30 film scores, including this year's Failure to Launch, as well as last year's smash hit Wedding Crashers with Owen Wilson, The Matador and Just Like Heaven. In 2005, Kent received a Golden Globe nomination for his score for Alexander Payne's award-winning hit Sideways. Just Like Heaven marked Kent's fourth film collaboration with Mark Waters. He scored Waters' first feature, The House of Yes, and more recently composed the score for the successful comedies Freaky Friday and Mean Girls. Kent has also scored three other films for director Alexander Payne: About Schmidt, Election and Citizen Ruth. Kent's film credits also include Legally Blonde, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, Nurse Betty and Slums of Beverly Hills, to name only a few.	<A class="APCAnchor" HREF="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?AID=246987&PSTID=5&LTID=16&lang=1">Buy Posters at AllPosters.com </A> More Movie Posters Americana Posters Poster Store Motivational Posters Movie Posters Sports Posters Vintage Posters Trends & Lifestyles Legendary Bands Politics Posters Decorating Posters Travel Posters Photography Posters Gardening Posters Landscape Posters College Posters

Peter Twist, an expert on 18th century history and the historical and technical adviser on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, answered our questions about the pirates of history, their Hollywood counterparts, and the difference between the two.

Honor among thieves

Pirates may be notorious for being bloodthirsty and lawless, but, like Captain Jack and Captain Barbossa in The Curse of the Black Pearl, they still lived life aboard ship according to a strict set of codes. Before setting sail, crews often signed a contract establishing the division of booty and compensation for injuries sustained in combat (800 Pieces of Eight for the loss of a limb). Unlike the regular navy, pirate ships often elected their captains (and replaced them mid-voyage if they fell from favour). Punishments were clearly defined and harsh: smoking in the hold without a cover on your pipe could get you forty lashes; for planning to desert his ship a pirate could expect to be marooned on a small island with one flask of water, a bottle of rum, one gun and one bullet. Says Peter Twist: “The captain and crew were more or less equal to one another. The code, which would vary from ship to ship, would cover everything from dividing up the treasure, sort of like today's profit-sharing schemes, to general standards of behavior. Some ships were quite puritanical: no gambling, no drinking, etc, etc.”

The Skull and Crossbones

“Pirate flags in general were either red or black,” says Twist, “and they play a significant role in Dead Man's Chest.” Pirates really did fly the traditional Skull and Crossbones too (as does the Black Pearl) although there were many variations on the best-known pirate flag and its origins are unclear. “The death's head or skeletons or the devil were very common images on flags,” says Twist. “Basically anything that would let intended victims know that something bad would happen to them if they resisted.” When they weren't flying the Skull and Crossbones, pirates weren't averse to flying the Union Jack or French or Spanish flags to suggest friendly intentions as they approached their prey.

“The real-life Captain Kidd famously buried treasure when he knew he was going to be tried as a pirate,” says Twist. “But basically pirates would spend their money as they got it by going into the nearest port and drinking it all away. Typical pirates weren't usually lucky enough to get their hands on much gold or silver either. They'd take any ship that they happened to come across and it might be carrying some less glamorous cargo, like food supplies for example, so they'd just take what they could.” Between groceries and buried treasure however, Hollywood has usually gone for the buried treasure. As for the final resting place of Captain Kidd's loot, it's still to be found.

Just like Captain Jack, real-life pirates and sailors did wear earrings, though not just to look dashing. Back in the 17th and 18th centuries it was generally believed that piercing the ears with silver and gold improved one's eyesight (oddly enough contemporary scientific studies -- and acupuncturists -- have suggested there may be some truth to the idea). “As for their clothes, pirates wore what they could get their hands on,” Twist explains. “If there was a high-born person onboard a ship they captured they'd just help themselves to their clothes. So if they were somewhat extravagant dressers, like Captain Jack, they'd have plenty of opportunities. There was a real-life pirate called Bartholomew Roberts who was renowned for his fine clothes.”

Hooks and peg legs

“There aren't any hooks or peg legs in Pirates of the Caribbean,” says Twist, “but usually Hollywood can't resist them.” The idea of pirates using hooks to replace missing hands became a stereotype after the success of the fictional Peter Pan, while pirates with peg legs were popularized by Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Treasure Island. The majority of real-life pirates who lost hands or legs in combat probably died of a subsequent infection (pirate ships didn't have doctors). The survivors were often put to work in the ship's kitchen. “People with missing limbs wouldn't have been much use in combat,” Twist explains. Meanwhile, fans of Johnny Depp will remember that he played Captain Hook (and his creator James Barrie) in the hit film Finding Neverland.

“Pirates would bathe in seawater,” Twist explains, “but they certainly weren't what we'd call clean by today's standards.” Fresh water was a luxury on a ship and wouldn't have been used for washing. There were generally no toilets onboard either (just a hole in a plank). The dirty water that sloshed around at the bottom of a ship (the bilges) gave off the odour of rotting fish and the livestock kept onboard didn't help matters either.

Parrots on the Shoulder

“Pets were popular on ships but it had to be something that wouldn't need too much care or food,” Twist says. “Barbossa's monkey and the parrot who talks for the mute in The Curse of the Black Pearl would live on table scraps, so are probably quite typical.” Still, a parrot on the shoulder would be a little messy and during lean times at sea a parrot might well substitute for a chicken in the cooking pot. More common and unwanted shipboard companions were rats, fleas and poisonous spiders.

As Twist explained, being cook on board a pirate ship was a lowly position often given to a crew member no longer fit to fight. The reluctant chef didn't have many ingredients to work with either: usually hard crackers made of flour and water and some dried or salted meat. Cattle, sheep, chicken and pigs would be brought on board at the start of journeys to provide some fresh meat, as would fresh vegetables, but, as Twist points out, they wouldn't last for the length of an entire voyage.

Surprisingly enough, tea and coffee were drunk aboard pirate ships, but, like Captain Jack, pirates generally preferred rum. “Welcome to the Caribbean, love,” says Jack in the first film, proffering a bottle of rum to Keira Knightley. Small amounts of rum, or other spirits, were often added to the stale and filthy water on board ship to take away the taste. A large amount of rum was an antidote to boredom and the tough conditions of the pirate's life. “One famously unsuccessful pirate captain, Jack Rackham, was actually captured because his crew was too drunk to fight,” Twist says. Bartholomew Roberts, the famous teetotaler pirate, was definitely the exception to the rule.

Walking the Plank

Walking the plank - as Elizabeth and Jack do in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - was probably not as common a form of punishment among real-life pirates as it is in Hollywood. On the whole pirates probably preferred the swifter and simpler method of the "heave to" -- simply tossing their unfortunate victims overboard - or came up with things much grislier than walking the plank. “Often pirates would consult with the crews of the ships they captured and if the captain had a reputation for being brutal, they'd come up with some truly nasty punishment for him,” Twist explains.

Whether a real life pirate ever said, “Shiver me timbers” is unclear (it's the parrot's line in The Curse of the Black Pearl). But like all sailors of the time, Twist explains, they did call non-seafaring folk “landlubbers”; they did “swab” (clean) the deck and drink “grog” (rum mixed with water). “Davy Jones” was sailor slang for the evil spirits that lurked in the sea. “Davy Jones' Locker” was the ocean floor. To be “sent to Davy's Locker” was to die at sea. To “send someone to Davy Jones” was to kill them. To “awaken Davy Jones” was to cause a storm. In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Davy Jones is an actual character (played by Bill Nighy).

“Virtually all pirates that were caught were hung,” Twist explains. British maritime law ranked piracy, along with desertion and mutiny, as the most serious crime a sailor could commit. A condemned pirate was to be hanged within ten days of being found guilty, the only hope of a reprieve being snitching on one's former crew members, convincing a judge you had been forced into piracy against your will, or, as in Captain Jack's case, making a daring escape.

Avoiding a Fight

“I think the single biggest inaccuracy in Hollywood pirate movies,” says Twist, “is that pirates were always spoiling for a fight. Pirates were essentially just after the money, so the last thing they wanted to do was actually fight with another ship and risk damage to their own ship or being injured or killed.” Typically a pirate ship would come alongside its intended prey and fire a warning shot in the hope that the other ship would surrender without a firing a shot. “And that's what usually happened,” Twist says. “People knew that if they resisted they'd be killed. The Pirates of the Caribbean films and Captain Jack are much more realistic in that respect. Like most real-life pirates, Captain Jack enjoys his rum and has an eye on the main chance, but he's not going to fight unless he really has to.”

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