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Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions Present

A Hologram for the King

Written and Directed by Tom Tykwer

RUNNING TIME: 97 Minutes

Roadside Attractions Contacts: David Pollick / Stephanie Northen

(323) 882-8490 DavidP@RoadsideAttractions.com

StephanieN@RoadsideAttractions.com

Los Angeles Contact:

42 West Max Buschman (310) 477-4442

max.buschman@42West.Net HOLOGRAM@42West.Net

New York Contact: 42 West

Jordan VanBrink (212) 413-0807

Jordan.VanBrink@42West.Net HOLOGRAM@42West.Net

For production notes and stills please visit: www.RoadsideAttractionsPublicity.com

(Username: publicity@roadsideattractions.com / Password: publicity)

For downloadable trailer and clips please visit: www.epk.tv

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SHORT SYNOPSIS

Cultures collide when an American businessman (Tom Hanks) is sent to

Saudi Arabia to close what he hopes will be the deal of a lifetime. Baffled by

local customs and stymied by an opaque bureaucracy, he eventually finds his

footing with the help of a wise-cracking taxi driver (Alexander Black) and a

beautiful Saudi doctor (Sarita Choudhury).

LONG SYNOPSIS

In recession-ravaged 2010, American businessman ALAN CLAY (Tom

Hanks), broke, depressed and freshly divorced, arrives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

to close what he hopes will be the deal of a lifetime. His mission: sell a state-of-

the-art holographic teleconferencing system to the Saudi government.

Adrift and alone in an unfamiliar land, Alan befriends taxi driver

YOUSEF (Alexander Black), who chauffeurs him through the desert to the

“King’s Metropolis of Economy and Trade,” a surreal ghost town of vacant

skyscrapers and half-completed construction projects. Baffled by the

bureaucratic reception he gets at the so-called “Welcome Center,” Alan

struggles to figure out why his small IT support team is being forced to spend

its days in a sweltering tent as it preps for the big presentation. Worse, because

of the Saudi way of doing business, he’s unclear if the king will ever show up

for the long-scheduled meeting.

Back in Jeddah, the stressed-out salesman winds up in the hospital,

where he is treated by the beautiful and empathetic Muslim doctor ZAHRA

HAKEM (Sarita Shoudhury). As Alan gets to know his new Saudi friends

better, cultural barriers break down and he begins to contemplate the

possibility of a fresh start in a land where tradition and modernity meet in

perplexing ways.

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Based on Dave Eggers’ novel, A Hologram for the King is written and

directed by Tom Tykwer (Cloud Atlas, Run Lola Run) and stars Tom Hanks

(Bridge of Spies, Sleepless in Seattle, Forrest Gump), Sarita Choudhury (“Homeland,”

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2) and Alexander Black (“30, Debt-Free &

Far From Happy”). The cast also includes Tom Skerritt (“Picket Fences”),

Sidse Babett Knudsen (“Borgen”) and Tracey Fairaway (Enough Said). Director

of Photography is Frank Griebe (Cloud Atlas, Run Lola Run). Production

designer is Uli Hanisch (Cloud Atlas, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer). Costume

designer is Pierre-Yves Gayraud (Cloud Atlas, The Bourne Identity). Music

composed by Johnny Klimek (Cloud Atlas, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer).

Produced by Uwe Schott (Cloud Atlas, Venus and Mars), Stefan Arndt

(Cloud Atlas, Run Lola Run), Arcadiy Golubovich (American Heist, 99 Homes),

Tim O’Hair (Third Person, Brotherhood), and Gary Goetzman (Ricki and the Flash,

The Silence of the Lambs). Executive producers are Steven Shareshian (My Big Fat

Greek Wedding, Larry Crowne), Gastón Pavlovich (The Price of Desire, Max Rose),

Claudia Bluemhuber (Eye in the Sky, The Railway Man), Irene Gall (Getaway, Grace

of Monaco), Gero Bauknecht (Under the Skin), Jim Seibel (Grace of Monaco, Jobs),

Bill Johnson (The Host, Killing Them Softly), and Shervin Pishevar (Blue Weekend).

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

After Tom Hanks gave Dave Eggers’ National Book Award-nominated

novel A Hologram for the King a rave review on his Twitter feed in 2012, only

one issue remained unresolved for the two-time Oscar®-winning actor. “I was

already a big fan of Dave Eggers’ work, having read a bunch of his stuff

including things he did with McSweeney’s literary review,” Hanks says. “Then I

read A Hologram for the King in one sitting and my only question when I

finished it was whether or not he wanted a movie made out of his book.”

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German filmmaker Tom Tykwer, who co-directed Hanks in the 2012

sci-fi epic Cloud Atlas, felt just as strongly about the source material. “A

Hologram for the King hit a very particular nerve in me,” Tykwer recalls. “It

was the most contemporary novel I’d read in a very long time so I felt like it

couldn’t wait: this story had to be made into a movie. It’s very much about now,

yet it still it has the sense of a classic novel in that it’s a book for all times. I

found that to be a brilliant mix so I turned into this very pushy machine trying

to put the movie together as fast as I could.”

Tykwer, who had worked with Eggers previously on a miniseries

adaptation of the San Francisco-based author’s novel What Is the What: The

Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, arranged a meeting with Hanks and

Eggers at a Los Angeles hotel. After pitching his ideas for the book’s cinematic

adaptation, Tykwer and Eggers came to a very un-Hollywood-like agreement.

“Dave and I trust each other,” the director explains. “I love that he offered to

get rid of all the contract stuff and just write on some piece of paper ‘I promise

not to be an asshole’ and then we would both sign it. We’re very much on the

same page when it comes to artistic exchange. Dave understands that once you

let somebody take over your vision, you have to keep some distance.”

Tykwer was equally excited about partnering once again with Hanks.

“Working with Tom is liberating for a filmmaker because he’s so open-minded

to every moment and every situation,” Tykwer says. “He’s like a super-

intelligent child who comes into a room and says, ‘Okay, what are our toys?’

And then, ‘Let’s explore what we can do with them!’ That’s super inspiring

because when you come up with a new idea, he picks it up really greedily and

does something with it in a wonderfully playful way.”

Finding the Humor in Alan’s Plight

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Adapting Eggers’ story for the big screen, Tykwer took advantage of

Hanks’ inherent likeability by building out the comedy elements embedded in

Alan Clay’s grim predicament. “The novel has a strange sense of humor, but it

was standing next to a lot of profoundly melancholic and tragic moments,”

Tykwer says.

Hanks elaborates. “At the start of the movie, Alan’s adrift, he’s divorced,

his job at the Reliant Corporation is tenuous and he’s worried about

maintaining a connection with his own daughter.” Alan’s father, portrayed by

Emmy®-winning veteran Tom Skerrit, only compounds his distress by scolding

his son on the phone about a career low point: the time he steered the once-

mighty Schwinn Bicycle Company into bankruptcy after outsourcing hundreds

of manufacturing jobs to China.

“It’s like Alan’s alone on an iceberg, or in the desert, as the case may be,”

Hanks says. “You wonder if the guy has any friends, and on top of that, he’s

got this boil on his back and at three o’clock in the morning, he’s absolutely

convinced it’s going kill him just as slowly as his slow-melting iceberg of

loneliness is going to disappear out from under him. Poor Alan’s in a tough,

sad spot, but you’re able to laugh because we see this juxtaposition: he’s trying

to make sense of this country at the same time he can’t even make sense of his

own life.”

In his adaptation, Tykwer mined Alan’s predicament for laughs. “I

decided to put most of my effort into making it work as a comedy,” he says.

“Even though it’s a dark story about someone who’s in a really bad place, at the

same time there’s something absurd about Alan’s situation. If you have Tom

Hanks playing with all the potentials of that situation, the movie will be funny

in a meaningful, complicated, but very fascinating way. That’s what I aimed for

when I started the adaptation.”

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Hanks was initially taken aback by Tykwer’s approach to the material.

“When Tom Tykwer told me he thought the book was very funny, I was

surprised that he would amused by this painful, terrible fate that Alan Clay’s

going through. I filed that away thinking we might come to loggerheads over it

at some point. But when I read Tom’s screenplay, I saw that he had found the

comedy in Alan’s outside observations as opposed to the great sturm und drang

that are going on inside his head.

Clay arrives in Saudi Arabia without any prior knowledge of the place,

other than his own cartoonish, stereotypical concept, according to Hanks.

“Though he’s not a happy guy, when Alan tries to sell the upbeat nature of the

3-D hologram and rally his team, he becomes this other guy, the former Alan

Clay, a man with energy and vibrancy. That’s where the comedy comes from.”

The Doctor in the Hijab

In addition to emphasizing the book’s humor, Tykwer bolstered the

romantic elements as he translated Eggers’ story from page to screen. “The

longer I worked on the script, the more profound the love story became

because it connects to this whole third-act decision where the movie becomes a

more optimistic tale,” Tykwer says.

Alan is coaxed out of his funk by Zahra Hakem, an alluring, talented

surgeon portrayed by London-born Sarita Choudhury. In her role as CIA

Division Chief Saul Berenson’s long-suffering wife Mira on the Emmy-winning

series “Homeland,” the half-Indian, half-English actress developed an avid

following that included Hanks himself. “I remember seeing Sarita for the first

time on ‘Homeland’ and thinking, ‘Alright, I don’t know who she is, but that

woman is riveting. I don’t know where she comes from but I can’t take my eyes

off her.”

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Choudhury made an equally indelible impression when she got together

with Hanks and Tykwer to audition for the role. “In the movie, Alan’s attracted

to Zahra because she’s so much more secure and fearless than he is,” Hanks

says. “She has a calming effect, which is something that Sarita herself exudes.

Those eyes of hers and that mass of beautiful, thick hair that you just want to

curl up and sleep in — she’s an incredible physical specimen and at the same

time Sarita’s got a soul as deep as those black eyes of hers. I was thrilled to

work with her in this film.”

Choudhury says she had her work cut out for her portraying a character

that is so completely different from her. “Zahra is so not like me,” Choudhury

laughs. “Although she’s smart and independent, Zahra lives in a country where

rules bind her to a certain way of behaving. I could see her leading this very

free life in New York but Zahra chose to stay in Saudi Arabia. She has so many

contradictions, I had to be careful not to soften the ones I didn’t understand

and just play it.”

To inform her performance, Choudhury followed doctor friends on

their rounds, learned to speak Arabic and mastered a Jeddah-specific accent for

her English-language dialogue. Once filming began, Choudhury assumed the

traditional clothing of a Saudi woman. “The first time I put on the hijab, it felt

weird, like I was wearing a scuba-diving suit kind of thing,” she says. “It was

strange wearing the scarf and the hijab until I got used to it. I didn’t think I

would feel attractive in those clothes but I actually felt almost pretty, which I

didn’t expect.”

The wardrobe helped her get to the heart of her character’s reserved

manner. “Zahra’s got a certain strictness to her,” Choudhury says. “When Tom

Hanks’ character comes to me the first time, he talks about his thoughts and

feelings but I’m like, ‘I’m a doctor. I listen. That’s it.’ I’m not used to a man

coming into my office and sharing his feelings with me. There’s a certain wall

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that Zahra puts up. I don’t put up walls like that in my own life, so it was

challenging to bring that into the scene.”

Like Hanks, Tykwer admired Choudhury from her work in “Homeland”

as well as earlier indie films including Lady in the Water and Mississippi Masala.

“Sarita’s a fantastic actress,” the director says. “We needed a really strong

woman who could make a statement on eye-level with Tom Hanks so we

looked for quite a while to find the perfect match. Alan and Zahra to me are

like a middle-aged Romeo and Juliet. They’re from different tribes, so the

audience needs to believe that they really could become lovers, no matter how

complicated or impossible it might seem.”

Riding with Yousef

Before he meets Sarita, Alan forges his first solid human connection in

Saudi Arabia with Yousef, a taxi driver played by Egyptian-born actor

Alexander Black. “Yousef is walking on a border between two cultures,”

explains Black, who worked primarily as a stand-up comedian before being cast

in A Hologram for the King . “He’s set in some of his Saudi ways, and at the

same time he’s acclimated to western culture and listens to American music.

When I read the part of the script they sent me for the initial audition, Yousef

talks about how there could be a bomb in the car because he’s been texting a

married woman, and that made me laugh. I thought, ‘This guy’s really an

impulsive character who has a lot of chaos he’s gotten himself into.’”

Black’s Egyptian heritage proved to be a plus for director Tykwer.

“Besides having an incredible sense of humor, Alexander brought this

interesting balance between Western influences and Middle-Eastern roots from

his own life,” he says. “We wanted an actor who is not well known, so that he

comes out of nowhere like a discovery for the audience, just as Yousef does for

Alan.”

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Hanks savored bantering with the quick-witted actor during their

sometimes grueling driving sequences. “Because Alexander’s a comedian, his

instincts about what works were quite dazzling,” Hanks says. “He has this odd

timing not predicated on getting specific laughs at the moment, but on

something more subtle.”

Two Trips to Jeddah

The geographic, cultural and psychological landscape depicted in A

Hologram for the King draws on one journey taken separately by two men.

First, Eggers traveled to Saudi Arabia and used his experiences there as a

foundation for the novel. Then, Tykwer researched his film adaptation by

retracing Eggers’ path to Jeddah and the ghost town formally known as “King

Abdullah’s Economic City” or KAEC.

“In order to really understand the cultural subtext, I decided to travel to

Saudi Arabia,” Tykwer explains. “Like Dave, I flew to Jeddah and asked this

guy Mandur to be my guide. He turned out to be the same man who drove

Dave around — the role model for Yousef. So I actually became like Alan Clay,

making this trip with the driver that inspired Dave to write the book in the first

place.”

On the way back from KAEC (dubbed “King’s Metropolis of Economy

and Trade” in the film), Tkywer accidentally wound up in the holy city of

Mecca, just as Alan Clay does in the film. “I’m not Muslim so I’m not allowed

to go to Mecca, but we actually missed the exit and drove through the city,”

Tykwer recalls. “That was kind of intimidating. I didn’t want to break this law,

but it just happened and there we were in the middle of the city and my guide

said, ‘Well, let’s just go through and nobody will realize.’ Then we went to the

countryside and visited Mundar’s father’s house, so all these places you see in

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the movie are very similar to what I actually experienced. My trip to Saudi

Arabia gave me the confidence to make a movie about this part of the world.”

Finding Saudi Arabia 3,000 miles to the West

Denied permission to shoot A Holograph for the King in Saudi Arabia,

Tykwer and his team began scouting locations in the neighboring United Arab

Emirates, where landscape and architecture would have provided a near-perfect

match. But UAE officials ultimately decided to prohibit production there.

Jordan and Egypt also proved unworkable, so the filmmakers wound up in

Morocco, about 3,000 miles west of Saudi Arabia, where they began principal

photography in March 2014.

“In the beginning Tom Tykwer had been keen to film at the real place

because it was such an absurd ghost town of a city,” says production designer

Uli Hanisch. “But the more we realized we’d never be able to shoot there, the

more Tom got into the idea that we could leave the real place behind and

exaggerate things for effect.”

Working from a few iPhoto images that Tykwer snapped while in Saudi

Arabia, filmmakers fashioned their own version of KAEC in southern

Morocco. “The real place has a handful of big buildings and connecting streets,

so we down-scaled that into this absurd kind of roundabout street system that

circles about itself,” Hanisch says. “We put up this big huge black tent and a

couple of construction-site buildings in the back, plus one very modern

building in the front along with this overdone ‘Welcome Center’ at the side,

and everything’s surrounded by desert. By overdoing it, I think the location

became stronger and funnier.”

Hanks had worked briefly in Morocco during the shoot of Charlie

Wilson’s War, but this time around the actor spent nearly eight weeks in some of

the nation’s most remote regions. “There were times driving to a location

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where I could not believe we were so far removed from humanity,” he recalls.

“My idea of desert is Palm Springs or Death Valley, where if you just keep

going a little bit further there’s going to be a city with hot water and every

convenience. But we were shooting in the Western Sahara, a place where if you

were on foot, you wouldn’t make it out alive.

“You’re also living in a culture that tolerates you but doesn’t embrace

you,” he continues. “All of that helped me to internalize Alan’s sense of

alienation, because we were so far removed from anything that was

recognizable to me as an American.”

That sense of place was big factor in Tykwer’s decision to shoot the

film’s exteriors on location rather than filming on a stage and using visual

effects to create the backgrounds. “You don’t really have to go into the desert

to shoot the desert, but we felt that for the actors and the crew and everybody

involved, filming in an actual desert would give the performances more of an

intensity, because it is such an intense voyage that Alan goes on.”

In fact, the Morocco production involved as much “intensity” as any

filmmaker could ask for. Equipment trucks broke down. The March-April rainy

season caused flooding on coastal areas that were supposed to appear arid.

Insects swarmed. “We had one disaster or another every other day, from

sandstorms and winds to the time billions of ladybugs came down on our set in

Casablanca,” recalls producer Arcadiy Golubovich. “One time we shipped

three days of footage to Berlin and it got completely lost for almost 36 hours.

Thankfully, we had a wizard of a line producer in Marcus Loges.”

Choudhury, who grew up in Jamaica, Mexico and Italy, found that some

of the Moroccan locations reinforced her character’s sense of cultural

constraint. “Casablanca is architecturally beautiful but also a little scary for a

woman,” she says. “I didn’t go out walking at night. The location kind of

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limited my freedom, which just made me realize I wasn’t in the West any more.

That was useful.”

Hope Blooms in the Desert

In Hollywood’s finest black-comedy tradition, A Hologram for the

King delivers laughs spiked with bittersweet undertones. “We’ve made a crisis

comedy that points the finger at the fact that our economic structure is falling

apart and the apocalypse seems to be looming just around the corner,” Tykwer

says. “We use comedy as a tool to embrace tragedy like a balloon you stick with

a needle so it explodes and the energy that comes out is cheerful. Despite all of

Alan’s problems, I hope this movie cheers people up.”

Choudhury sees the film as a cross-cultural study in human aspiration.

“Dave Eggers’ book is filled with anxiety and existential despair but there’s also

something in the way Tom adapted the story that leads you to believe that

people can move on if they just make the extra effort,” she says. “It’s really

hard to do that because all these characters have been stuck for so long, but I

find that idea very moving.”

For Hanks, who’s earned iconic status and five Academy Award®

nominations by playing regular, good-hearted Americans who triumph over-

hard luck circumstances, A Hologram for the King is the story of a man who

stumbles upon an emotional and spiritual oasis after wandering in the desert.

“Why make a movie about a guy where nothing ever works out for him? That

might work fantastically as a piece of literature but as far as the cinema goes,

the story requires this other thing — for want of a better word, let’s just call it

hope.”

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THE CAST

TOM HANKS (Alan) is an award-winning actor, producer and director.

One of only two actors in history to win back-to-back Best Actor Academy

Awards®, he won his first Oscar® in 1994 for his moving portrayal of AIDS-

stricken lawyer Andrew Beckett in Jonathan Demme’s “Philadelphia.” The

following year, he took home his second Oscar® for his unforgettable

performance in the title role of Robert Zemeckis’ “Forrest Gump.” He also

won Golden Globe Awards for both films, as well as a Screen Actors Guild

(SAG) Award® for the latter.

Hanks has also been honored with Academy Award® nominations for

his performances in Penny Marshall’s “Big,” Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private

Ryan,” and Robert Zemeckis’ “Cast Away,” also winning Golden Globes for

“Big” and “Cast Away.”

Hanks was most recently seen in Stephen Speilberg’s “Bridge of Spies,”

and has upcoming films that include Tykwer’s “A Hologram for the King,”

Ron Howard’s “Inferno,” James Ponsoldt’s “The Circle," and Clint Eastwood’s

“Sully.”

In 2013, Hanks was seen starring in Academy Award® and Golden

Globe nominated film “Captain Phillips,” for which he received SAG, Bafta

and Golden Globe nominations as well as in AFI’s Movie of the Year “Saving

Mr. Banks” with Emma Thompson.

His other feature credits include the Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski and

Lana Wachoski film “Cloud Atlas,” Stephen Daldry’s “Extremely Loud &

Incredibly Close,” the animated adventure “The Polar Express,” which he also

executive produced and which reunited him with director Robert Zemeckis; the

Coen brothers’ “The Ladykillers”; Steven Spielberg’s “The Terminal”

and“Catch Me If You Can”; Sam Mendes’ “Road to Perdition”; Frank

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Darabont’s “The Green Mile”; Nora Ephron’s “You’ve Got Mail” and

“Sleepless in Seattle”; Penny Marshall’s “A League of Their Own”; Ron

Howard’s “Apollo 13,” “The Da Vinci Code,” “Angels & Demons” and

“Splash”; and the computer-animated blockbusters “Cars,” “Toy Story,” “Toy

Story 2” and “Toy Story 3.”

Hanks’ work on the big screen has translated to success on the small

screen. Following “Apollo 13,” he executive produced and hosted the

acclaimed HBO miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon,” also directing one

segment, and writing several others. His work on the miniseries brought him

Emmy, Golden Globe and Producers Guild Awards, as well as an Emmy

nomination for Best Director.

His collaboration with Steven Spielberg on “Saving Private Ryan” led to

them executive producing the HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers,” based on

the book by Stephen Ambrose. Hanks also directed a segment and wrote

another segment of the fact-based miniseries, which won Emmy and Golden

Globe Awards for Best Miniseries. In addition, Hanks earned an Emmy Award

for Best Director and an Emmy nomination for Best Writing, and received

another Producers Guild Award for his work on the project.

In 2008, Hanks executive produced the critically acclaimed HBO

miniseries “John Adams,” starring Paul Giamatti, Laura Linney and Tom

Wilkinson. It won 13 Emmy Awards, including the Emmy for Outstanding

Miniseries, as well as a Golden Globe for Best Miniseries, and a PGA Award.

More recently, Hanks and Spielberg re-teamed for the award-winning HBO

miniseries “The Pacific,” for which Hanks once again served as executive

producer. The ten-part program won eight Emmy Awards, including

Outstanding Miniseries, and brought Hanks his fourth PGA Award.

In 2012, Hanks executive produced the HBO political drama starring

Julianne Moore and Ed Harris, which follows Sarah Palin as John McCain’s

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running mate in his 2008 Presidential campaign. GAME CHANGE was

awarded Emmy and Golden Globes for Best Miniseries/Television Film as

well as earning several other awards and nominations. In 2013, Hanks served

as host, narrator and historical commentator for the two hour National

Geographic television movie based on the best-selling book Killing Lincoln. In

2013, Hanks and Playtone produced the Emmy nominated CNN documentary

series, “The Sixties,” and in 2014, the HBO miniseries, “Olive Kitteridge,”

based on the Pullitzer Prize-winning novel by Elizabeth Strout. In 2015,

“Oliver Kitteridge” won eight Emmy awards, including Outstanding Limited

Series, three Critics' Choice Television Awards, a DGA award and a SAG

award.

In 1996, Hanks made his successful feature film writing and directing

debut with “That Thing You Do,” in which he also starred. He more recently

wrote, produced, directed and starred in “Larry Crowne,” with Julia Roberts.

Under his and Gary Goetzman’s Playtone banner, they produced 2002’s smash

hit romantic comedy “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” with his wife Rita Wilson.

Other producing credits include “Where the WildThings Are,” “The Polar

Express,” “The Ant Bully,” “Charlie Wilson’s War,” “Mamma Mia!,” “The

Great Buck Howard,” “Starter for 10” and the HBO series “Big Love.”

In 2013, Hanks made his Broadway debut in Nora Ephron’s Lucky Guy.

His performance earned him Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle,

and Tony nominations.

In 2002, Hanks received the American Film Institute’s Lifetime

Achievement Award.

He was later honored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center with the

Chaplin Award in 2009. In 2014, Hanks received a Kennedy Center Honor.

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ALEXANDER BLACK (Yousef) is a versatile American actor chosen

from a world-wide search to play the 2nd lead opposite Tom Hanks in 'A

Hologram for the King'. He is known to go to great lengths to portray

characters. In the upcoming movie 'Tim', he lost 40 pounds and gained 15

pounds of muscle in order to play both Tim and Tim's Ego. In 'A Hologram

for the King', he traveled from Los Angeles to Jeddah in order to immerse

himself in the culture in preparation for the role. In the stage play 'Grand Hill',

in which he played a standup comic, he performed stand up in various Los

Angeles and New York venues under the names 'Omar', 'Guillermo' and

'Theodore'.

SARITA CHOUDHURY (Zahra) most recently portrayed the role of

Jasleen in Isabel Coixet’s drama LEARNING TO DRIVE, which was released

this past summer. Choudhury will next appear opposite Tom Hanks in Tom

Tykwer’s film, A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING, as well as, opposite Danny

Huston in Simon Astaire’s film, THE LAST PHOTOGRAPH.

Choudhury can be seen on HOMELAND in the pivotal role of Saul

Berenson’s wife Mira. Recent film credits include the Francis Lawrence film

THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 1 and PART 2, Paul

Weitz comedy ADMISSION, the Independent Spirit Award nominated film

GAYBY, Deepa Mehta's adaptation of the Salman Rushdie novel

MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN, Mark Mann's drama GENERATION UM...,

Sona Jain's FOR REAL, and the Tribeca Film Festival selection ENTRE NOS.

Other films include THE ACCIDENTAL HUSBAND, M. Night Shyamalan's

LADY IN THE WATER and the Independent Spirit Award nominee, THE

WAR WITHIN.

Choudhury made her film debut as the love interest to Denzel

Washington's character in Mira Nair's MISSISSIPPI MASALA. Choudhury's

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performance as the Queen in Mira Nair's controversial film KAMA SUTRA: A

TALE OF LOVE captured the attention of many critics. Other film credits

include Spike Lee's SHE HATE ME, Sarah Rogacki's RHYTHM OF THE

SAINTS, Lee Davis' 3 A.M., Fisher Stevens' JUST A KISS, David Attwood's

WILD WEST, Lisa Cholodenko's HIGH ART, Bille August's THE HOUSE

OF THE SPIRITS, Sidney Lumet's GLORIA, and Andrew Davis' A

PERFECT MURDER.

Garnering raves on stage for her performance as Frida Kahlo in THE

RISE OF DOROTHY HALE, Choudhury has also appeared in the acclaimed

productions of playwright Vijay Tendulkar's SAKHARAM BINDER, The

New Group's ROAR with Annabella Sciorra, and RAFTA, RAFTA...

On television, Choudhury has portrayed recurring roles on

BLINDSPOT, KINGS, DEADLINE, 100 CENTRE STREET, and

HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET. She has also appeared on THE

GOOD WIFE, BORED TO DEATH, DAMAGES, and LAW & ORDER.

THE FILMMAKERS

In 1985, TOM TYKWER (Writer/Director) moved from his

hometown of Wuppertal to Berlin, began studying philosophy at the Free

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University Berlin, and working as a projectionist in repertory theaters. In 1988,

he took over programming of the Berlin cinema Moviemento and kept his head

above water by editing screenplays and shooting portraits of a variety of film

directors for German television. It was during this period that he met

cinematographer Frank Griebe, with whom he's worked on nearly every film

he's made to this day.

In 1994, along with Stefan Arndt, Wolfgang Becker, and Dani Levy,

Tykwer co-founded the production company X Filme Creative Pool. Stefan

Arndt, who had also co-produced Deadly Maria, and X Filme co-manager

Maria Köpf, formed a producer team that would work closely with Tykwer

over the years to come.

Tykwer spent 1995 and 1996 writing the screenplay for Life Is All You

Get with Wolfgang Becker before directing his own second feature, Winter

Sleepers (1997). The project introduced him to several new collaborators,

among them the sound designer and mixer Matthias Lempert, with whom

Tykwer has worked on every single one of his films since.

Run Lola Run followed in 1998, scoring X Filme its first great success

abroad. Despite – or perhaps even because of – its unusual narrative structure,

Run Lola Run was the most profitable German film of that year, and it's since

won over 30 prestigious awards around the world.

In 2008, Tykwer and his wife Marie Steinmann-Tykwer co-founded the

non-profit organization One Fine Day, which fosters art education and

development for young people in Kenya, East Africa. This work has led to the

founding of the production company One Fine Day Films, which has been

developing feature-length films in workshops since 2009. Among the projects

have been Soul Boy (2010, by Hawa Essuman), Nairobi Half Life (2012, by

David “Tosh” Gitonga), Something Necessary (2013, Judy Kibinge) and Veve

(2014, Simon Mukali).

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As a producer, Tykwer has helped realize such films as Gigantics (1999,

directed by Sebastian Schipper), Soundless (2004, directed by Mennan Yapo), A

Friend of Mine (2006, Sebastian Schipper), and The Heart is a Dark Forest

(2007, Nicolette Krebitz).

UWE SCHOTT (Producer) previously served as managing partner at

Modern Media Filmproduktion GmbH, which made numerous TV

productions, as well as managing director of various film funds. Among many

others he was responsible for the accurate execution of American productions

such as Walk The Line, The Fast And The Furious, Star Trek XI, representing

German producers with his production company, Oberon Film GmbH.

Born in Dusseldorf, Uwe Schott worked as unit manager and later as

production Manager for various German film & TV companies. He went on to

work as line producer for several productions in Los Angeles. He then

returned to Germany, working as producer and managing director for a

number of companies.

Uwe Schott executive produced the award winning X Filme co-

production Amour (Palme D’Or at Cannes / Oscar Best Foreign Language

Film), directed by Michael Haneke.

He produced together with Stefan Arndt the epic Cloud Atlas by Tom

Tykwer and Lana & Andy Wachowski, overseeing the complex international

financing.

He has produced Me and Kaminski by Wolfgang Becker, who before has

gained international success with X Filme production Good Bye Lenin!.

Presently, he is in preparation of “Babylon Berlin”, a TV show based on

the novels of Volker Kutscher, written by Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries

and Hendrik Handloegten.

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STEFAN ARNDT (producer) has produced more than 20 films,

receiving 31 German Film Awards, 10 European Film Awards, 16 Bavarian

Film Awards, one César Award, two Golden Globes and one Academy Award

for Best Foreign Language Film.

In 1994, Arndt founded the production company X Filme Creative Pool

with Tom Tykwer, Wolfgang Becker and Dani Levy, where he is currently

managing director together with Uwe Schott. He has produced Michael

Haneke’s The White Ribbon, which was nominated for an Academy® Award and

received a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film, many European and

German Film awards, and the 2009 Cannes Palme D’Or. More recently, he

produced Amour by Michael Haneke, which won the Palme D’Or at Cannes

and the Academy® Award. The Academy® nominated Stefan Arndt in the

category Best Picture.

With “Cloud Atlas” by Tom Tykwer and Lana and Andy Wachowski, he

and Uwe Schott set a milestone in German film producing by bringing together

a completely independent financing structure for the biggest budget of a

German film ever since.

One of his recent productions “Alone in Berlin” starring Emma

Thompson, Brendan Gleeson and Daniel Brühl, directed by Vincent Perez had

its world premiere in competition at this year’s International Film Festival

Berlin.

The next upcoming films are Before Dawn about Stefan Zweig in exile,

Indignation, the directorial debut of James Schamus, Junction 48 by Udi Aloni. In

2016 there will be presented Frantz by Francois Ozon, The Little Dictator by

Dani Levy and the TV series Babylon Berlin by Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries

and Hendrik Handloegten. For many years now, Stefan Arndt has produced

projects together with Uwe Schott.

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In 2000, Arndt founded X Verleih AG, together with Manuela Stehr, to

distribute films in Germany. From 2003 to 2009 Arndt was chairman of the

German Film Academy as well as a member of the board of the Allianz

Deutscher Produzenten Film & Fernsehen (Association of Production

Companies), an organization that supports the interests of filmmakers in

Germany.

GARY GOETZMAN’s (Producer) producing credits include My Big

Fat Greek Wedding 2, Where the Wild Things Are; Mamma Mia!; Charlie Wilson’s

War; The Polar Express; Larry Crowne; My Big Fat Greek Wedding; That Thing You

Do!; The Silence of the Lambs, which won five Academy Awards® including Best

Picture; Philadelphia; Devil in a Blue Dress; Beloved; Miami Blues; Ricki and the Flash;

The Great Buck Howard; Starter for 10; Amos & Andrew; Modern Girls; the Talking

Heads’ concert film Stop Making Sense; the 3-D IMAX film Magnificent Desolation:

Walking on the Moon 3D; the Primetime Emmy Award winning miniseries’ John

Adams, Band of Brothers, The Pacific and Olive Kitteridge; HBO special events: The

25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concert, The 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies and The Concert for Valor; the

Primetime Emmy- and Golden Globe Award-nominated HBO series Big Love;

the Primetime Emmy- and Golden Globe Award-winning HBO film Game

Change; and the Primetime Emmy-nominated CNN docuseries, The Sixties and

The Seventies.

Currently, Goetzman is producing the feature film The Circle, from Dave

Eggers’ novel, directed by James Ponsoldt. He is also producing the Justin

Timberlake 20/20 Experience concert film and the film adaptations of Beautiful:

The Carole King Musical and Spring Awakening.

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