Leonard Mlodinow, Ph.D. - Screenwriter

Leonard Mlodinow brings a unique perspective of being a physicist, a screenwriter, and an author to the project.

Leonard Mlodinow received his PhD in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley. His doctorate, on quantum theory in infinite dimensions, though less than thirty pages long, made enough of a splash to land him on the faculty of the prestigious California Institute of Technology.

Mlodinow has written for many hit television series, ranging from comedies like "Night Court," to "Star Trek: the Next Generation," where he worked alongside Gene Roddenberry. His television credits include MacGyver, Hunter, O'Hara, The New Adam 12, It's Garry Shandling's Show, Grand, What's Happening Now!!, and Nine to Five. He is currently involved in several major film and television projects.

Dr. Mlodinow's critically acclaimed first book, Euclid's Window (2001), is an accessible and humorous history of geometry, from Euclid to our present theories of curved space. His second book, Feynman's Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life, was nominated for the 2003 California Booksellers Award. He is currently working on a series of books about math and science for young readers for Scholastic. His collaboration with Stephen Hawking on A Briefer History of Time (scheduled for release in 2004), led to his involvement as screenwriter on the first film visualization of the work of Stephen Hawking: BEYOND THE HORIZON.

Mlodinow's ability to combine drama with science will be instrumental in making Beyond the Horizon both entertaining and educational.

Bruce Neibaur – Director

Mr. Neibaur has been a writer and director in the independent motion picture arena for over 25 years. His experience spans the mediums of television, broadcast news, feature filmmaking, and IMAX motion picture production. He is perhaps the only member of the Director's Guild of America to have successfully written and directed award-winning projects in each of these disciplines. His large format films include Mysteries of Egypt, India: Land of the Tiger and Lewis and Clark: Great Journey West.

Neibaur has directed films in 18 countries on five continents. His 1996 effort, Hearst Castle: Building the Dream, the story of William Randolph Hearst’s quest to build his castle at San Simeon, broke new ground in the large format arena. The film successfully combines the elements of documentary and dramatic filmmaking. Neibaur has taken this approach to a new level in his collaboration with Professor Hawking.

Jeff Miller – Producer

Mr. Miller is an IMAX veteran, having produced more than a dozen large-format projects. Recent credits include Lewis & Clark for National Geographic, as well as several large-format projects with Academy Award-winning director Keith Merrill, including: Dinosaur Hunters, Zion Canyon: Treasure of the Gods and Yellowstone National Park.

Miller has produced 12 feature films, including the Chicago International Film Festival's 1997 Liv Ullman Peace Prize-winning film Friendship's Field. Mr. Miller is currently developing The Celebration of Flight for the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the Henry Ford Museum and National Geographic.

Diane Beam - Producer / Writer / Project Originator

Ms. Beam has an extensive background in physics, cosmology and astronomy, including a physics BA. She teaches courses and delivers public lectures at Brigham Young University and The Hansen Planetarium. While serving as Education Program Coordinator, and International Show Distribution Manager, she had several roles including director, producer, and writer on a number of programs distributed to science theaters and planetariums internationally. Beam most recently was science advisor on the NASA/JPL production Ring World 2003. Beam currently serves as the Utah Science Center Creative Visionary.

Beam first began working with Professor Hawing in 1992 when they co-authored the science theater program Fate of the Universe . This highly successful show was accompanied by other productions including two public lectures and companion videos, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Does God Throw Dice?. Following these successes, Beam and Hawking agreed to create the Stephen Hawking Imax project.

Christophe Galfard - Co-Writer/Science Advisor

Christophe Galfard's background enables him to bring a valuable perspective to the project. A graduate from the University of Paris with a degree in advanced mathematics, he went on to gain a Diploma of Engineering at Ecole Centrale des Arsts et Manufactures de Paris. Christophe continued his education, earning a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, where he is currently pursuing his PhD under the direction of Professor Stephen W. Hawking. Christophe also brings a teacher's mind to the team. He is currently supervising first and second year students for the Mathematical Methods course and fourth year students for the General Relativity Course and Black Holes courses at Cambridge.

As a writer/science advisor, Christophe helps the team in selecting and understanding the theoretical ideas the movie will address. His creative skills, knowledge and deep fondness for theoretical research enhance the team's ability and desire to introduce modern theories to a general audience in a new, entertaining, and yet accurate manner.

David J. Allen – Executive Producer

Mr. Allen is an experienced financier, developer, and lead executive. As managing director of Universe Partners and as an Executive Producer of Stephen Hawking’s Beyond the Horizon, David draws upon his business expertise and his fundraising and financial talents to provide the project with sound guidance and responsible management. A seasoned executive, his leadership skills are attracting the very best talent in large format movie making to the picture. He has created a synergistic production environment focused on creating an entertaining, enlightening, and profit-generating motion picture experience.

Christopher Harding – Executive Producer

Mr. Harding has more than 15 years experience in the entertainment industry, developing, producing, and marketing hundreds of television programs, movies, music projects, and other media projects. As a producer, executive producer, and the lead entertainment executive of BWE Distribution, Inc., a Los Angeles-based production and distribution company, Harding was a key player in establishing output arrangements with major studios and television and cable networks that resulted in the creation of variety of programs and products.

Harding has produced music specials for ABC and Disney Television, created top-rated television movies for CBS and ABC - including sponsored movie specials for Kraft and Proctor & Gamble - and has been involved with projects that have garnered such honors as an Oscar, an Emmy, a Humanitas Award, and the Environmental Media Award. Harding also was an executive producer of the Emmy winning movie, The Christmas Box, starring Maureen O’ Hara and Richard Thomas and the festival favorite Disney's Summer of the Monkeys, starring Wilford Brimley.

Jeffrey Kirsch, Ph.D. - Executive Producer and Senior Museum Advisor

Dr. Kirsch will provide leadership in assuring science content advisors' reviews are incorporated into the films production and in developing and distributing STEPHEN HAWKING'S BEYOND THE HORIZON's as a science education tool. Dr. Kirsch is Executive Director of the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center and current President of the Museum Film Network (MFN). MFN is an international consortium of 15 science museums that collaborate to produce and facilitate museum distribution of science-based large-format films. Dr. Kirsch, will lead the effort to present this film to the Network.

Geralyn Dreyfous - Executive Producer

Geralyn Dreyfous has an impressive record both as a filmmaker and in the world of philanthropic endeavors, having raised funds for and aided numerous prestigious organizations. Among her many accomplishments, in 1998 the Institute for Civil Society, a private foundation, hired Geralyn to help spin DoubleTake Magazine out of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. DoubleTake Magazine has won every coveted literary and photographic award, including the General Excellence Award. In 2001 she launched a DoubleTake Summer Institute for teachers, activists and emerging documentarians. The Institute was held at Hampshire College and led by Ken Burns and Robert Coles. In 2002 she and Nicole Guillemet founded THE SALT LAKE CITY FILM CENTER where she currently serves as its Executive and Artistic Director. She has produced a documentary of the child sex slave trade narrated by Tim Robbins called THE DAY MY GOD DIED, which was broadcast on PBS and is distributed by Tapesty. Geralyn also Executive Produced the Academy-award winning documentary, BORN INTO BROTHELS which is distributed by THINK FILMS and HBO.

Artemis Joukowsky, III - Executive Producer
Artemis A.W. Joukowsky, III, M.A. is the Chairman and co-founder of No-Limits Media, a non-profit corporation whose goal is the development of innovative media projects for people with disabilities. Among his many professional accomplishedments he has also acted as a venture capitalist, asset advisor, entrepreneur and non-profit activist for the past 17 years in his professional life. He has formed twenty-five for-profit and eight non-for profit institutions and has been a founding partner in two venture capital funds. Mr. Joukowsky is the Vice-Chairman of Econergy International.

In addition, Mr. Joukowsky is Chairman and CEO of Avalon Financial Group, Union Limited Partnership and HFG Financial Group, which advises and manages a total of over $100 million in equity and in venture assets. He is a partner of Enterprise Design of Pataluma, CA, a firm that works closely with executives to design competitive enterprises. In 1997, he was a co-founder of Solstice Capital, an $85 million dollar early stage venture fund.

Matt Williams - Director of Photography

Matt Williams has served as Director of Photography on numerous televisions series, feature films, and large format movies including two hit CBS-TV series, Touched By an Angel and Promised Land; the feature film Friendship's Field, winner of the Chicago International Film Festival and the Liv Ullmann Peace Prize; and the stunning large format films Hearst Castle: Buidling the Dream and India - Kingdom of the Tiger.

On the 24p High-Definition front, Matt was also one of only seven cinematographers chosen to shoot Bud Greenspan's Stories of Olympic Glory, the official film of the 2002 Winter Olympics. In the commercial world, Matt has filmed numerous award-wining spots for clients including McDonald's, United Way, Salvation Army, Cadillac and numerous other prestigious organizations. He also recently completed campaigns for TBS' syndicated release of the hit series Friends and the feature film Austin Powers.

Craig Barron – Special Effects Supervisor

Stephen Hawking’s Beyond the Horizon will be the 90th film on Craig Barron’s visual effects filmography. His visual effects credits begin in 1981 and include some of the greatest blockbusters of all time. From matte photography assistant on Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back (1997) to matte camera assistant on Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981 and to visual effects supervisor on more than 60 films, there are few such talents – if any – in the visual effects world. Highlights from Mr. Barron’s most recent filmography include: The Ring (2002), The Mummy Returns (2001), X-Men (2000), Mission: Impossible II (2000), The Green Mile (1999), Armageddon (1998), The Truman Show (1998), Titanic (1997), Con Air (1997), Star Trek: First Contact (1996).

Irene Smookler - Strategic Alliance Executive

Irene Smookler, formerly of WNET, has developed over $60 million in sponsorships and an equal amount in in-kind alliances from corporations. Examples of her previous sponsor relationships include the United States Postal Service and Microsoft, PBS and Lexus/Toyota, PBS and IBM, Disney and Procter and Gamble, CBS and Kraft, United States Postal Service and Time, Inc., and an Atlanta Olympics cultural event and Chrysler.

Bunny Lester - Foundation and Government Agency Consultant

Bunny has over 30 years of fundraising, program development, and project management experience. As president of Cirocon Group, Inc. since l999, her clients include: Vulcan, Inc., Seattle, WA; Sesame Workshop, NY; WTTW - Chicago; Thirteen/WNET - NY; WNYC - NY; International Youth Foundation, MD; and the Heinz Family Philanthropies, Washington, DC. From 1992-1999, she served as Vice President for Development at Sesame Workshop, where she raised $20 million for domestic and international co-productions and served as co-principal investigator on several National Science Foundation grants. From 1987-1992, she was Executive Director of Foundation and Government Underwriting at Thirteen/WNET, NY. Lester has served on the NSF Committee of Visitors, and numerous review panels for NSF, the National Endowment for the Humanities and for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Program Fund.

Patrick Murray - Distribution and Finance Consultant Patrick Murray is the former Senior Vice President of Operations and Distribution for IMAX (the originator of IMAX technology and one of the industry's largest distributors). He brings to the project his expertise in guiding the distribution and marketing process, as well as providing guidance and relationships in regard to financing.

Edward Labowitz - Legal Counsel

Edward Labowitz, with the international law firm Alexander, Nau, Lawrence, Frumes & Labowitz, is one of the film industry's leading attorneys in the areas of motion pictures, international distribution, and ancillary products. Labowitz provides his legal advice and wisdom to the project to ensure fairness and wisdom in the creation of contractual relationships.

Scientific Advisory Board

• Professor Stephen W. Hawking, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Cambridge University
  
• Andrew Strominger, Ph.D., Professor of Physics, Harvard University
  
• John Stokes, Manager of Informal Education, Hubble Space Telescope
  
• Alan Guth, Ph.D., Weisskopf Professor of Physics, MIT
  
• Michio Kaku, Ph.D., Professor of Theoretical Physics, CUNY
  
• Donna Cox, Ph.D., National Center for Supercomputing Applications and Professor of Art and Design, University of Illinois
  
• Christopher Johnson, Ph.D., Professor of Computing, University of Utah
• Robert S. Root-Bernstein, Ph. D., Professor of Physiology, Michigan State University
  

Educational/Museum Advisory Board

• Robert “Mac” West, Ph.D., Informal Learning Experiences
  
• Lynn Kennedy, Deputy Executive Director of Education and Science Programs, Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, San Diego.
• Afshad Mistri, Director of Marketing for Scientific Education and Arts, SGI Inc.
• Laura Danly, Ph.D., Curator of Space Sciences, Denver Museum of Nature and Science
• Beth Brown, Ph.D., Astrophysicist, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
• Michael M. Shara Ph.D., American Museum of Natural History curator of the 2002-2003 AMNH Einstein exhibition

• Education and Outreach Partner: Dr. Roy Gould, Science Media Group at the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics Observatory
• Evaluation: Barbara Flagg and Valerie Knight-Williams