generation kill: executive produced and co-written by david

For Immediate Release June 27, 2008

HBO FILMS PRESENTS THE SEVEN-PART MINISERIES EVENT

GENERATION KILL, A GRITTY, UNCOMPROMISING ACCOUNT OF THE

IRAQ INVASION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF AN ELITE MARINES UNIT

-------From David Simon And Ed Burns, The Award-Winning Team Behind “The Wire,” AndBased On The Nonfiction Book By Journalist And First-Hand Witness Evan Wright;

Directed by Susanna White And Simon Cellan Jones-------

GENERATION KILL, a seven-part miniseries from HBO Films, is the first-hand

narrative account of the young Marines of the First Reconnaissance Battalion – the “tip of

the spear” for the American military’s march into Iraq.

Based on the award-winning nonfiction account of the same name by Evan Wright,

the journalist embedded in the lead Humvee of First Recon’s Bravo Company’s Second

Platoon, the miniseries is a precise retelling of the early weeks of the military campaign

from the point of view of the guys on the ground: the non-commissioned officers and

platoon-level commanders who led the way to Baghdad.

Real events are depicted. Real names are used. As much as possible, the film

employs the precise dialogue reported by Wright, a Rolling Stone correspondent

assigned to First Recon Battalion during their last weeks in Kuwait. The filmmakers made

Contact: New York: Angela Tarantino or Katherine Pongracz (212) 512-1631 or 5658Los Angeles: Nancy Lesser or Karen Jones (310) 382-3274 or 3278

homeboxoffice.com

GENERATION KILL – 2

every effort to recreate Wright’s account of Bravo Two Marines riding from the Kuwait

border into the slums of Baghdad.

GENERATION KILL debuts SUNDAY, JULY 13 (9:00-10:15 p.m. ET/PT), followed

by other parts on subsequent Sundays at the same time, running for seven weeks

through the end of August, exclusively on HBO. Beginning with week two, the previous

week’s episode will be presented prior to the new one.

From David Simon and Ed Burns, the team behind the acclaimed HBO series “The

Wire,” GENERATION KILL is executive produced and co-written by Simon and Burns,

and co-written by Wright, who also served as a consulting producer throughout production

and editing. The miniseries was filmed throughout Southern Africa as a close

collaboration between Simon’s Blown Deadline Productions and Company Pictures, the

London-based producers responsible for HBO’s Emmy®-winning miniseries “Elizabeth I.”

The miniseries is also executive produced by George Faber, Charles Pattinson

and Anne Thomopoulos. Nina K. Noble serves as a co-executive producer; the producer

is Andrea Calderwood.

Directed by Susanna White (“Bleak House”) and Simon Cellan Jones (“The Trial of

Tony Blair”), GENERATION KILL’s ensemble cast includes Alexander Skarsgård, James

Ransone, Lee Tergesen, Jon Huertas and Stark Sands.

Rolling Stone reporter Evan Wright was embedded with the elite First Recon

Battalion just prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in spring 2003. He rode in one of the

lightly-armored lead vehicles at the front of the invasion for seven weeks, while most of

the other media was embedded towards the rear of the troops with the heavy artillery.

Wright wrote three subsequent articles for the magazine about his three weeks with the

Marines of Bravo Two, and later expanded his detailed account in the book “Generation


Kill,” which was published in 2004.

Wright’s book, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Award, a PEN Faulkner

Award and the General Wallace M. Greene Award for Best History of the Marine Corps.

from the Marine Corps. Heritage Foundation, is regarded among the most significant war

reporting from Iraq and has been compared favorably with such classics as Michael

Herr’s “Dispatches” and Michael Kelley’s “Martyr’s Day.” His original magazine articles on

which the book is based were awarded the prestigious National Magazine Award for

Excellence in Reporting.

People magazine hailed Wright’s book “A Top 10 Book of the Year.” The Boston

Herald described it as “visceral, sometimes shocking…a brutally honest account of

America’s latest generation to experience the stark, horrifying realities of warfare.”

Publisher’s Weekly called the book “a personality-driven, readable and insightful look at

the Iraq war’s first month from the Marine grunt’s point of view…compelling portraits…a

vivid, well-drawn picture.”

The cast also includes David Barrera, Josh Barrett, Wilson Bethel, Benjamin

Busch, Nabil Elouahabi, Neal Jones, Chance Kelly, Michael Kelly, Eric Ladin, Jonah

Lotan, Billy Lush, Kellan Lutz, J. Salomé Martinez, Jr., Marc Menchaca, Eric Nenninger,

Pawel Szajda, Rey Valentin, Brian Patrick Wade and Owain Yeoman.

Eric Kocher, Jeffrey Carisalez and Rudy Reyes, Marines from the First Recon

Battalion who were featured in the book, serve as advisors and are also cast members.

Key military advisor Kocher plays another Marine in the miniseries, while Reyes portrays

himself. Carisalez plays a composite character who is featured in Part 4.

The miniseries covers the first 40 days of the invasion into Iraq in 2003, as seen

through the eyes of the elite First Recon Battalion as they lead U.S. forces across a


barren landscape on the long road to Baghdad, often working in uncertain conditions with

little protection except their lightly armored Humvees. As the “tip of the spear” of the

invasion, the Marines faced indicators of what was to come for the invasion: insufficient

supplies, conflicting orders, military strategy, unknown enemy, insurgency and civilians

caught in the middle. The men of Bravo Company and their sister company Alpha

adapted with skill, resolve, subversive humor, stoicism and occasionally blind faith.

ABOUT RECON MARINES

Reconnaissance Marines are among the most elite of the military, achieving top IQ

scores and undergoing rigorous physical training to qualify. Candidates first attend a

basic training school, which is designed to weed out 80% of the applicants and is

commonly known as “the last superman school on the planet.” After graduating, Recon

Marines attend multiple ongoing training schools – jump school, dive school, mountain

warfare training, interrogation techniques and survival training – and refer to themselves

as “jacks of all trades, masters of none.” They train in a variety of terrains and conditions

for optimal success, with the cost of each Marine’s training often rising well above a

million dollars.

Recon Marines operate in small teams to gather information on a subject in order

to understand how to combat them more effectively. Their missions are usually run in

highly dangerous conditions deep behind enemy lines, often involving stealth tactics and

asymmetrical warfare against conventional forces. They often work closely with both

local civilians and governments to assist in conflicts, learning much about the

environments and cultures they are operating in.

At the time of the Iraq invasion in 2003, there were only 700 Recon Marines out of


225,000 total U.S. Marines around the world. First Recon Battalion totaled about 350,

which consisted of only about 155 operators, who actually engaged in combat, and about

195 support personnel, who covered areas such as communications, logistics and

transportation.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

The filmmakers were attracted to the story for a number of reasons and felt that it

was an important story to tell.

“The book is a universal war story and it captures the very heart of what it means

to be a soldier on the battlefield in modern-day warfare,” says co-creator and executive

producer Ed Burns. “The trick for us was to keep it the way that Evan wrote it, to follow

the exquisitely written adventure. He immerses the reader in the world of Recon, using

their language, their mindset, their lives. These Marines are a unique breed – these guys

are like Superman – their knowledge is remarkable, their physical training is unheard of,

their skill set is impressive. They are unlike any soldier I encountered when I served in

Vietnam. The nature of war and the warrior has changed dramatically.”

“One reason I wanted to make GENERATION KILL was because I felt that Evan’s

book was the best piece of journalism about Iraq that I had read,” says co-creator and

executive producer David Simon. “Although it covers the first six weeks of the war, a few

weeks of prep time in Kuwait and then the first few weeks of the invasion, the subsequent

history of the Iraq conflict is actually addressed by the book. You feel it building in the

seven episodes – you start to see the insurgency, the arrival of the jihadiis, the atypical

use of these Recon Marines. While there was a plan of maneuver warfare to topple a

country in a minimal amount of time, there was no plan of what to do with Iraq once it was


conquered.

“That being said, the worst thing we can do is impose more politics or infuse our

own politics into the piece, that has no purpose in this film,” asserts Simon. “Let the film

stand for itself and tell its own story.” The miniseries focuses on the men on the ground,

a portrait that is rarely seen in American film or television. Adds Simon, “GENERATION

KILL gives an absolute interior point of view, and in doing so, gives viewers a chance to

see something they haven’t before.”

“GENERATION KILL offers a view of the Iraq war and the troops fighting it which

the American public has never seen,” says Evan Wright, author of the book “Generation

Kill” and co-writer of the miniseries. “When the invasion happened, there were no news

cameras or other reporters where I was, up with this advanced recon unit. When my

articles first ran in Rolling Stone, the troops themselves were surprised at how candid and

uncensored their war was presented. My work was never political. It was war from the

perspective of a bunch of well-trained 20-year-olds fighting at the tip of the spear.”

GENERATION KILL began as a project at HBO in summer 2003. At that time,

Wright had already begun expanding his Rolling Stone articles into a book. When he met

with HBO executives and proposed turning his book into a miniseries, the network

optioned it immediately. Later, HBO Films executives suggested that David Simon and

Ed Burns, who had worked with the network on the miniseries “The Corner” prior to “The

Wire,” would be a good fit for the project. “The Corner,” also based on real events, was

based on a book by Simon and Burns, and received rave reviews and three Emmy ®

Awards.

Wright traveled to Baltimore to meet with Simon and Burns. He recalls, “I had

been having many meetings in Hollywood and always would hear from studios about the


things they wanted to change about my book, so I was a little dubious about the process.

When I sat down with David and asked what he wanted to do with my work, David said,

‘We want to make your book.’ I was stunned and didn’t believe him. I asked, ‘What else

are you going to do?’ and he simply replied, ‘No, we want to make your book.’ David had

an absolute belief in the primacy of reported material in shaping the drama, and during

the next two years, as he and Ed and I worked on the scripts, the two of them proved

faithful to the material, even when this meant tossing out conventional wisdom of how a

drama ought to be done.”

“Having been through that process with my own book ‘The Corner,’ I was not about

to sit on my hands and let someone else’s book get trashed,” notes Simon on the

importance of staying faithful to the journalism. “That being said, this is not a

documentary. The characters in Evan’s book are real people played by actors; it was

shot in Africa, not Iraq. There is artifice in every frame of the film, of course; there are

moments that have to be finessed because there are certain things that prose journalism

can do that film can never do. You can’t be inside someone’s head in film, you have to

demonstrate it. With prose journalism, you can study a person, get to know them, ask

questions and observe their actions – with film, you must find a way to translate that.”

The filmmakers were committed to presenting the events as truthfully as possible.

Part of their strategy was to keep Wright closely involved in the miniseries. Generally in

Hollywood, when a written piece is adapted to film, it is handed off to filmmakers.

“Oftentimes, it will not bear much resemblance to the journalism you created,” notes

Simon. “And why should it? It’s a bunch of strangers trying to figure out what you meant

in every passage. One of the reasons I agreed to do the project was because Evan was

a tremendous resource for the characters, the events and the details. We actually used a


lot of material that he had that didn’t make it into his book.”

“It’s not easy dramatizing the lives of real Marines, several of whom are still

serving in Iraq. We took care to stick to the reporting and neither embellish nor diminish

what I had observed and experienced,” adds Wright. Much of the dialogue spoken in

GENERATION KILL is pulled directly from the Marines quoted in Wright’s original

dispatches from Iraq. Wright took copious notes, photographs and audio recordings while

riding with the Marines in the lead vehicle of Bravo Second Platoon. He also conducted

extensive interviews of troops and commanders across the entire recon battalion.

Susanna White, who directs Parts 1, 2, 3 and 7, found that her background in

documentary filmmaking was essential to working on GENERATION KILL. Explains

White, “We developed a technique using a reactive camera where the camera follows the

action as it happens. The rule was we never want the camera to know more than the

people on screen. Whereas, in a traditional drama, the camera sometimes anticipates

what is going to happen and tips the viewer to action. Here, the viewer discovers the

action as the Marines in the Humvee do.”

Simon Cellan Jones, who directs Parts 4, 5 and 6, says, “Authenticity was

everything. If it wasn’t based on what really happened, it was out. The intention was to

have the camera among the Marines the whole time – with them in their Humvees, next to

them as they sat through briefings, around them as they argued and bantered – to record

their reactions and emotions rather than manufacture them, to capture the fear and

exhilaration of battle, as well as the domestic and personal politics of being in a unit with

an established – and not always reliable – chain of command, and to never apologize for

strange or unattractive reactions to their surroundings.”

To achieve a greater sense of reality, the filmmakers chose not to have a music


score. Since the Marines were not permitted to have CD players or iPods in Iraq, they

had to provide their own soundtrack – with conversation, radio communication and even

breaking into song. “Their voices on the radio is the music background for the series,”

notes Simon, who felt that music would be an unnatural occurrence and would pull the

viewers out of the film. Many of the voices heard in radio chatter are real Marines from

Bravo Two who were recorded in post-production sessions.

“Every time I watch the episodes, it puts me back there. I re-live the things I’ve

been through,” says First Recon Marine and key military advisor Eric Kocher. “Everything

is so real – the dialogue, the characters.”

White explains, “With such a large cast, I felt it was important to bring a clear

sense of character. When each person speaks, you know exactly who that person is and

you invest in their journey. It is very much about their journey, both the physical journey

and their mental journey. Many of them grow up in those few weeks.”

Simon sees the characters in the first Humvee much like a family, observing, “I

always envisioned Colbert’s Humvee as like the family car on a road trip, because

honestly, these Marines are on a massive road trip contending with both action and

boredom. Colbert is the dad who must keep the road trip on schedule, Person is the

mom who chatters, Trombley is the kid who is impatient and Scribe is the relative who

comes to visit and stays a bit too long.”

A dysfunctional family road trip always leaves room for both conflict and humor,

which appear often in the book and miniseries, reflecting the Marines’ way of life. Humor

is often a coping mechanism for the extreme situations that they face.

“War is generally 80% waiting around and 20% action, so that’s a lot of downtime,”

says Kocher. “We use humor to get through boredom and extreme stress – the humor is


very creative because of the boredom and very raw because of the extreme nature of the

job.”

“Early in the process, I went out to Camp Pendleton and talked to Marines there,”

recalls White. “I was impressed by their intelligence and their fantastic sense of humor. I

think that is crucial to helping them get through war and I wanted to show the importance

of humor.”

Real Marines on the set helped maintain the production’s authenticity. Each one

contributed to the technical details, including the set, props, location, actors’

performances, weapons, actual scenes and interpretation of events. Eric Kocher, as key

military advisor, was instrumental to help get it right. He began with the production by

setting up a boot camp for the actors and then advised on weapons, equipment, vehicles,

wardrobe, props, procedures, tactics and fight choreography, as well as the real events

and characters. In post-production, he also advised about visual effects and radio

chatter, recruiting real Recon Marines into the sound booth to record the radio

communications recordings that are heard in the episodes. Kocher also plays operations

chief Gunnery Sgt. Barrett, who is often seen with Alpha Company’s Capt. Patterson.

Additional direction came from Marines technical advisor Jeff Carisalez, who

began his career as support staff with the Recon Battalion and later filled in for an injured

operator, quickly becoming a core member of the unit. For the production, he began by

rebuilding much of the equipment, such as the Humvees, and then grew to more technical

advising responsibilities and even an on-screen role in Part 4.

Also advising the set at many points during production was Rudy Reyes, who plays

himself in the miniseries. A specialist with extensive martial arts training, he worked with

the actors on their physical training, weapons handling and military procedures.


Kocher explains the general traits of Marines may seem different to outsiders,

noting, “If people want to see the way it really is over there, especially on the human level,

this is the way it is; the miniseries sheds light on Marines culture. We are seeing very

extreme things because that is how it is in war. Similarly, when the guys say things that

seem to cross the line, that is them just testing each other. Marines are extremists and

are always pushing the limits.”

The filmmakers hope that GENERATION KILL creates a sense of what it was like

to ride into battle with these Marines, just as Evan Wright experienced the war – with all

its humor, frustration and terror – from inside a First Recon Humvee.

“I think when you create something, you put it out there for people to interpret,”

says Ed Burns. “When I read the book, I initially saw it as anti-war, and yet the Marine

Heritage Foundation gave Evan an award for writing it, so they must have seen a pro-

Marine side. It has that kind of range and that’s a credit to the work itself. Evan has said

his own politics were kind of beside the point; he just wanted to tell the story of these guys

and what they went through.

“For me, I would like viewers to see the humanity of these young men. They’re like

warriors in the old tradition, and they pride themselves on what they do. So when you let

them off the leash, it should be for the right reasons, because lots of people will die. It’s

not their fault; this is just how war is. And when we let them do what they do, we should

honor them for it.”

White adds, “I’d like viewers to come away from the show with a new

understanding of what it was really like on the ground for those Marines in the early

weeks of the war, thinking there were weapons of mass destruction, going out in thin-

skinned Humvees and putting their lives on the line for what they believed would be a


straightforward transition to democracy in Iraq.”

“I hope viewers conclude that war is a blunt and inexact instrument that is at best a

clumsy and inefficient (and utterly brutal) way of imposing one’s will, but also that it

produces complicated and conflicted emotions – fear, boredom, rage and joy,” adds

Cellan Jones. ”However, the whole point of the show is that the audience is not led by

the hand. They will make up their own minds how they feel.”

Simon observes, “Regardless of whether they believe this to be the right war at the

right time, or whether they believe otherwise, I’d like people to think clearly about the

nature of modern war itself, and to acknowledge at least, that whether it is justified or not,

war is hardly as clean, precise and clinical as we wish to imagine it. More than that, I’d be

happy if some viewers were compelled to simply acknowledge the war and share the

collective responsibility for it; absent the military families affected, much of America

seems to have tuned out.”

Evan Wright feels the Marines’ story is a compelling one, adding, “I hope it will

make the audience feel more connected with the hundreds of thousands of people who

are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. In my view, any time you send a group of Americans

to war, they automatically become the Greatest Generation of their time. The troops I

know who serve are the best of their generation, the best America has.”

Kocher concludes, “GENERATION KILL gives an objective view of what happened

without politics or agenda. It’s the lives of these individuals and their road trip, and that’s

the main story. The war is just the backdrop.”

FILMMAKER BIOS

David Simon (screenwriter, executive producer) was a reporter for the Baltimore


Sun on the city desk for 13 years and continues to freelance for various publications.

Simon penned two books of narrative nonfiction, “Homicide: A Year on the Killing

Streets,” which inspired the hit series “Homicide: Life on the Street,” and “The Corner: A

Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood,” which inspired the HBO miniseries “The

Corner,” for which Simon received two Emmy® awards. He was subsequently the creator

and executive producer of the Peabody Award-winning HBO drama series “The Wire.”

Ed Burns (screenwriter, executive producer), who spent nine months on location in

Africa to film the miniseries last year, is a veteran of the Vietnam War. A former Baltimore

police detective and public school teacher, he co-authored the book “The Corner” with

Simon. Burns was a member of the award-winning writing staff of “The Wire,” and

executive produced season five with Simon.

Evan Wright’s (screenwriter, book author, consulting producer) book “Generation

Kill,” a first-hand, embedded account of the elite Marine reconnaissance unit that

spearheaded the invasion of Iraq, served as the basis for the HBO miniseries. He has

written extensively about war in Afghanistan and Iraq for Rolling Stone. Wright is a two-

time recipient of the National Magazine Award for reporting, while the Marine Corps

Heritage Foundation honored “Generation Kill” as “Best History” of the Corps. He is

currently adapting his Vanity Fair article “Pat Dollard’s War on Hollywood” for Fox

Studios.

George Faber (executive producer) has executive produced such TV programs as

HBO’s Emmy®-winning miniseries “Elizabeth I” (starring Helen Mirren), HBO’s Emmy®-

winning “The Life and Death of Peter Sellers,” “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas

Nickleby,” “Anna Karenina,” “Sons and Lovers,” Jimmy McGovern’s “The Lakes,” “White

Teeth” and the Paul Abbott series “Shameless.” He was executive producer on HBO’s


“Deadly Voyage” and associate producer on HBO’s “Shot Through the Heart” and HBO

Films’ upcoming “Einstein and Eddington.” His feature film credits include “Priest,”

“Persuasion,” “Morvern Callar,” “Mojo,” “My Son the Fanatic” and “A Room for Romeo

Brass.” More recently, Faber executive produced the series “The Invisibles,” “The

Palace” and “Skins.”

Charles Pattinson (executive producer) is a producing partner with George Faber

at Company Pictures. His producing credits include the films “Morvern Callar,” “A Room

for Romeo Brass,” “The Stringer” and “Saigon Baby.” Pattinson’s extensive TV credits

include HBO’s award-winning “Elizabeth I” and “The Life and Death of Peter Sellers,” as

well as “Shameless,” “P.O.W.,” Jimmy McGovern’s “The Lakes,” “40”, “Unconditional

Love,” “Sons and Lovers,” “Serious and Organized,” “White Teeth,” “The Life and

Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby,” “Anna Karenina” and HBO’s “Shot Through the Heart.”

He also executive produced the upcoming HBO Films presentation “Einstein and

Eddington” as well as the series “The Invisibles,” “The Palace” and “Skins.”

Anne Thomopoulos (executive producer) is a former senior vice president at HBO.

During her tenure at the network, she worked on the HBO series “OZ,” “The Sopranos,”

“Sex and the City” and “Six Feet Under,” as well as the multiple Emmy® Award-winning

miniseries “Band of Brothers.” Her credits also include the Emmy®-winning series

“Rome,” which Thomopoulos developed while an executive at HBO, before leaving her

executive position to become an independent producer working exclusively with the

network, and subsequently executive produce the series’ second season.

Nina Noble (co-executive producer) spent ten years working as a freelance

assistant director on feature films, traveling throughout the U.S. with many prominent

directors, including Alan Parker, Paul Mazursky, Ron Shelton, Stephen Frears, Paul


Verhoeven and Ivan Reitman. In 1995, she began producing and production managing

TV pilots and two-hour made-for-TV movies, primarily for the Levinson/Fontana company

in New York. This association led to a meeting in 1999 with David Simon, who was then

developing “The Corner” for HBO, and hired Noble as producer. This began a successful

collaboration that continued on “The Wire,” which recently concluded its fifth and final

season.

Andrea Calderwood (producer) has produced several feature films, including

“Shane Meadows’ Once Upon a Time in the Midlands,” and Kevin Macdonald’s “The Last

King of Scotland.” Calderwood was also head of production at Pathe Pictures, where she

was executive producer of eight feature films, including “Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher,”

“Michael Winterbottom’s The Claim” and “The Hole.” She was previously Head of Drama

at BBC Scotland, where she was responsible for commissioning series and miniseries,

including “Hamish Macbeth,” “The Crow Road” and “Cardiac Arrest.”

Susanna White (director, parts 1, 2, 3 and 7) started out in documentaries and

went on to win a BAFTA award for her direction of the highly acclaimed BBC/WGBH

drama series “Bleak House,” based on Charles Dickens’ novel. Last year she received

an Emmy® nomination for Best Director, Miniseries for her work on the BBC production

“Jane Eyre.” Among her other productions are “Love Again” (Royal Television Society

nomination for Best Single Drama), the comedy series “Teachers” and the Emmy®-

nominated documentary “Tell Me The Truth About Love.”

Simon Cellan Jones (director, parts 4, 5 and 6) has received seven BAFTA

nominations for such productions as “The Queen’s Sister,” “Storm Damage,” “The Trial of

Tony Blair” and “Cracker.” His film “Some Voices,” starring Daniel Craig, was selected

for Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes in 2000. He has won three RTS awards and received


the Prix Italia for “Eroica,” as well as the BAFTA award for the miniseries “Our Friends in

the North.”

Staff Sergeant Eric Kocher (key military advisor, actor) was a U.S. Marine and a

member of First Reconnaissance Battalion and was covered in Evan Wright’s original

articles and book. During his nine years with the U.S. Marine Corps., he served four tours

in Iraq and one tour in Afghanistan. Kocher was awarded two Purple Hearts and a

Bronze Star with “V” for Valor for heroism during an enemy ambush near Fallujah, and

received two navy Commendations with Combat Distinguishing Device for Valor. He is

an expert in asymmetrical warfare and counter-insurgency tactics, and graduated from

more than 20 Recon Schools, including Amphibious Reconnaissance, Combatant Diver,

Survival Evasion Resistance Escape, Assault Climber, Basic and Urban Sniper and

Tactical Air Control Party. He also appears in the miniseries, portraying Gunnery

Sergeant Rich Barrett, another Marine from the Battalion.

CAST BIOS

Alexander Skarsgård’s (Sgt. Brad “Iceman” Colbert) credits include “Exit,” “Kill

Your Darlings,” “The Last Drop” and “Zoolander.” He recently joined the cast of “True

Blood,” the upcoming HBO series created by Alan Ball, playing a thousand year-old

vampire. His other upcoming projects include the films “The Burrowers” and “Metropia.”

Skarsgård directed “To Kill a Child” which won the Grand Prix and Press Awards at the

2003 Danish Film Festival. He has worked in film, television and theater since age seven.

A former Sergeant in the Swedish Marines, Skarsgård currently resides in Stockholm and

Los Angeles.

James Ransone (Cpl. Josh Ray Person) is best known for his breakout


performance as Chester “Ziggy” Sobotka in the second season of the critically acclaimed

HBO series “The Wire.” He was last seen as Steve-O in Spike Lee’s “Inside Man,”

starring opposite Denzel Washington and Clive Owen. Ransone also had memorable

roles in cult films such as Larry Clark’s “Ken Park” and John Waters’ “A Dirty Shame.”

Lee Tergesen (Evan “Scribe” Wright) won critical acclaim playing Tobias Beecher

in HBO’s “OZ” for six seasons. He also won rave reviews for his performance as Frank

Gilmore, Jr. in HBO’s “Shot in the Heart,” which was based on Mikal Gilmore’s book. His

film credits include “Monster,” “The Forgotten,” “Shaft” and “The Texas Chainsaw

Massacre: The Beginning.” Among his most recent projects are HBO’s award-winning

“Bury My Heart and Wounded Knee,” as well as “Desperate Housewives,” “Cane,” “Law &

Order: Criminal Intent” and “Rescue Me.”

Jon Huertas’ (Sgt. Antonio “Poke” Espera) film credits include “Hot Tamale,”

“Believers” and “Right at Your Door.” He has appeared in numerous TV series, among

them “Prison Break,” “CSI,” “Cold Case” and “Without a Trace.” A native New Yorker, he

also was a member of the military for eight years.

Stark Sands (Lt. Nathaniel Fick) was most recently seen in “Day of the Dead.” His

other film credits include “Flags of our Fathers,” “Shall We Dance?” and “Chasing Liberty.”

Sands has also appeared in the TV series “Nip/Tuck,” “Hope and Faith” and HBO’s “Six

Feet Under.” Last year, he was nominated for a Tony Award for the Broadway production

of R.C. Sheriff’s “Journey’s End.”

David Barrera’s (Sgt. Daniel “Casey Kasem” Griego) film credits include “Evan

Almighty” and the upcoming “7 Days.” His TV credits include “Shark,” “Smith,” “Heroes”

and “CSI: Miami.”

Josh Barrett (Sgt. Larry Shawn “Pappy” Patrick) will be seen in the upcoming


feature film “Eavesdrop.”

Wilson Bethel (Cpl. Evan “Q-Tip” Stafford) appears in the upcoming “Tunnel Rats.”

His TV credits include “Navy NCIS,” “JAG” and “The OC.”

Benjamin Busch (Maj. Todd Eckloff) spent four years as an active duty infantry

officer and served from 1996 to the 2006 in the Selected Marine Reserve. He had a

recurring role in the HBO series “The Wire,” and has also appeared in the TV series

“Party of Five” and “Homicide: Life on the Street.” Busch made his debut as a writer and

director earlier this year with “Sympathetic Details.”

Jeff Carisalez (Cpl. Smith) makes his acting debut in GENERATION KILL. As a

United States Marine for four years, he served one tour in Iraq. He was a Humvee

mechanic with the Fifth Marines, and was later reassigned with First Recon Battalion,

where he replaced a combat wounded Marine as an operator. A native of Eastern Texas,

he is currently studying at Texas A&M University.

Nabil Elouahabi’s (Meesh) film credits include “The Boat People,” “The Path to

9/11” and “Code 46.” He starred on “EastEnders” for three years. Elouahabi’s other TV

credits include “Keen Eddie” and “Holby City.”

Neal Jones (Sgt. Maj. John Sixta) was seen in the films “Mona,” “In America,” and

“Changing Lanes.” He has a recurring role in hit series “Rescue Me,” and has also

appeared in such shows as “Crossing Jordan,” “Criminal Minds” and “Law & Order:

Criminal Intent.”

Chance Kelly’s (Lt. Col. Stephen “Godfather” Ferrando) film appearances include

“American Gangster,” “The Departed,” and the upcoming “A Jersey Christmas.” He has

appeared in numerous TV series, including “As the World Turns,” “The Black Donnellys”

and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.”


Michael Kelly (Cpt. Bryan Patterson) has appeared in such series as “The

Sopranos,” “CSI: Miami,” “Law & Order” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” He

recently appeared in the feature films “Tenderness” and “Changeling.” Kelly’s upcoming

film releases include “The Afterlight” and “The Narrows.”

Eric Ladin’s (Cpl. James Chaffin) film credits include “Bar Starz,” “Cursed” and

“Toolbox Murders.” He has appeared in various TV series, including “Veronica Mars,”

“The Unit,” ER” and “CSI: Miami.”

Jonah Lotan’s (Navy Hm2 Robert Timothy “Doc” Bryan) film credits include “One

Night with the King” and “The Jacket.” Lotan was a regular on season five of “24” and

has also appeared in “CSI: NY.”

Billy Lush (Lance Cpl. Harold James Trombley) starred in the series “The Black

Donnellys” and has appeared in numerous other TV series, including “Huff,” “Law &

Order: Criminal Intent,” “ER” and HBO’s “Six Feet Under.” Lush’s film credits include

“Beautiful Dreamer,” with James Denton, “Arc” and “Stateside,” with Rachael Leigh Cook

and Val Kilmer. He is currently filming the independent feature “Norman,” with Dan Byrd,

directed by Jonathan Segal.

Kellan Lutz’ (Cpl. Jason Lilly) film credits include “Stick It, “Accepted” and the

recently released “Prom Night.” Lutz was also a regular on HBO’s “The Comeback” and

has appeared in such TV shows as “Heroes” and “CSI: New York.”

J. Salomé Martinez, Jr. (Cpl. Jeffrey “Dirty Earl” Carisalez) can be seen later this

year in the films “Brooklyn to Manhattan,” and “A Jersey Christmas.” His TV credits

include “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “Law & Order.”

Marc Menchaca’s (Gunnery Sgt. Mike “Gunny” Wynn) film credits include “Screen

Door Jesus” and “The Alamo.” His stage credits include Sam Shepard’s “Fool for Love,”


which he also produced.

Eric Nenninger (Cpt. Dave “Captain America” McGraw) starred in the film “Jeepers

Creepers II.” He also had a recurring role on “Malcolm in the Middle.” Nenninger’s other

TV credits include “JAG,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “The X-Files.”

Sgt. Rudy Reyes makes his acting debut in GENERATION KILL, playing himself.

As a United States Marine and a member of the First Recon Battalion, he served two

tours in Iraq and one tour in Afghanistan and was a team leader for more than 50 patrols

behind enemy lines. Reyes received a Navy and Marine Corps. Commendation Medal

(with Combat V) and two Achievement Medals (with Combat V). He was written about

extensively in Evan Wright’s original articles and book. Reyes is a Shaolin Kung Fu

Champion and a tri-athlete competitor; he owns a successful personal training business

and is currently developing a fitness, training and lifestyle program.

Pawel Szajda’s (Cpl. Walt Hasser) film credits include “Death without Consent,”

“Venom,” and “Under the Tuscan Sun.”

Rey Valentin (Cpl. Gabe Garza) has guest starred on numerous TV shows,

including “Law & Order”, “CSI: New York,” “Numbers” and “One Tree Hill.” Valentin can

be seen opposite Harrison Ford and Sean Penn in “Crossing Over” later this year.

Brian Patrick Wade’s (Cpt. Craig “Encino Man” Schwetje) film credits include “Bring

it on Again” and “The Guardian.” His many TV appearances include “The Big Bang

Theory,” “The Closer,” “Til Death” and “Two and a Half Men.”

Owain Yeoman (Sgt. Eric Kocher) appeared in the films “Troy” and “Beerfest,” as

well as the TV series “The Nine” and “Kitchen Confidential.”

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generation kill: executive produced and co-written by david

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