
Director FREDERIK Du CHAU started drawing as a
child, turning his creations into movies using his father's 8-millimeter
camera. He attended film school in his native Belgium, where he studied
both live-action filmmaking and animation. He soon began working as a director
and animator on commercials and television series. He next worked in animation
for Disney France, and then made a short animated film, The Mystery of the
Land, that brought him to United States for the first time when it was
selected for screening in the Animation Celebration.
Du Chau then spent time as an animator for independent animators Dale and Jane
Baer at Baer Animation, where he worked on a number of Disney projects. He
next co-directed (with Hoyt Yeatman of Dreamquest Images) a live-action,
animated and CGI short for Sony Wonder, and directed the animation on "The Land
Before Time 3," a direct-to-video spinoff of the hit feature film.
Du Chau then spent a stint at Chuck Jones Productions, where he came to the
attention of Warner Bros. just as the studio was forming its Feature Animation
division. Once there, Du Chau worked in development and was soon attached to
direct a story set in the South Pacific that he'd sold to Warner Bros. When
he was asked to direct Quest for Camelot, he put that other project aside to
give his full attention to his first theatrical animated feature-length film.
Producer DALISA COOPER COHEN was born and raised in Los Angeles,
and graduated from UCLA with a degree in communications. She began her career
as part of the Columbia Pictures Internship Program and later moved on to the
William Morris Agency as assistant to agent Elaine Goldsmith. Next, Cooper
Cohen worked in development at Bruce Willis' TriStar-based production company.
In 1989, she was involved in establishing Mel Gibson's Icon Productions, where
she served as the company's Vice President, setting up projects with such
diverse talent as director David Cronenberg and singer Bono Hewson of U2. She
also served as the co-producer on Gibson's directorial debut, "The Man Without
a Face." After that, she worked as a consultant to media mogul Ted Turner's
company, helping to establish his feature-film division, Turner Pictures. She
then joined Barry Levinson's Baltimore Pictures and served as producer Mark
Johnson's co-producer on "A Little Princess," which was released by Warner
Bros. She joined Warner Bros. Feature Animation as Senior Vice President of
Creative Affairs just prior to beginning work on "Quest for Camelot."
KIRK DE MICCOsold his spec script "A Day in November" to Warner
Bros. and producer Arnold Kopelson for $1 million before signing to write
"Quest for Camelot."
WILLIAM SCHIFRIN was previously a staff writer on the television
series "Townies."
Multiple Grammy-winner DAVID FOSTER has won 14 Grammy Awards and has been nominated 41 times as a composer, producer, arranger and artist. Foster, a native of British Columbia, Canada, began his musical career as a keyboard performer, working with Chuck Berry, John Lennon, Barbra Streisand and Rod Stewart, among others, as well as with his own rock group, Skylark. He received his first Grammy Award for writing 1979's "After the Love Has Gone," performed by Earth, Wind & Fire. His second Grammy was awarded for his production of the cast album for "Dreamgirls," the Tony Award-winning Broadway play. It was followed by Foster's entry into film songwriting, which resulted in the hit songs "Love, Look What You've Done to Me" by Boz Scaggs for "Urban Cowboy," and Chicago's "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" for the film "Summer Lovers."
During the 1980s, Foster produced numerous platinum albums for Chicago, which earned him a Grammy Award as 1984's Producer of the Year, and additionally produced, arranged and composed award-winning music for superstars Barbra Streisand, Michael Bolton, Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Neil Diamond, Dionne Warwick, Kenny G, Manhattan Transfer, Olivia Newton-John and The Pointer Sisters, among many others. He composed numerous film scores, as well as songs for such movies as "Footloose," "Ghostbusters," "Pretty Woman" and "Three Men and a Baby."
More recently, Foster has produced songs that have driven several No. 1 albums, including Celine Dion's Falling Into You, Natalie Cole's Unforgettable, Barbara Streisand's Back To Broadway, Michael Bolton's The Classics, Kenny G's Breathless and Toni Braxton's Secrets. He also produced songs for such films as "Made In America," "Sleepless in Seattle," "Beethoven 2" and the international multi-platinum soundtrack to "The Bodyguard." In 1994, Foster was the year's top Grammy nominee with seven nominations, and won the Producer of the Year award for the third time. His current production roster includes Brandy, Monica, Michael Jackson, En Vogue, All 4 One, Michael Crawford, Bette Midler, Madonna, Rod Stewart, Vanessa Williams and Faith Hill, among others.
In 1994, Foster joined Atlantic Records as Vice President and in 1995,
established his own Atlantic-distributed label, 143 Records. In 1997, he was named Senior Vice President of the Warner Music Group.
Foster has previously collaborated as a producer and composer several times
with Carole Bayer Sager, notably on the song "It's Falling in Love," performed by Michael Jackson, and on Sager's songs for the films "Beethoven 2" and "Forget Paris."
Academy Award-winner CAROLE BAYER SAGER's lyrics have earned her an Academy Award (plus seven nominations), a Grammy Award (and nine
nominations), a Golden Globe Award (and seven nominations) and induction into
the Songwriters' Hall of Fame. Her songwriting collaborations in the last four
years have earned her back-to-back Grammy nominations, for "When You Love
Someone" (from the film "Forget Paris"), "Look What Love Has Done" (from
"Junior") and "The Day I Fall in Love" (from "Beethoven 2"). The latter two
songs also received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, and a remake of Sager's
#1 hit, "On My Own," recorded by Reba McEntire, was nominated for a Grammy
Award.
While still in her teens, Sager wrote her first #1 hit song, "A Groovy Kind of
Love," which has been a hit three times in the past two decades.
"That's What Friends Are For," recorded by Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder,
Gladys Knight and Elton John, was the #1 song of 1986, earning a Grammy for
Song of the Year and heightening public awareness of AIDS. Sager and her
former writing partner/husband, Burt Bacharach, donated the song's publishing
revenues, totalling two million dollars to date, to the American Foundation for
AIDS Research. That same year, the success of the Grammy-nominated "On My Own"
(recorded by Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald) and "That's What Friends Are
For" enabled Sager and Bacharach to top the music charts in three genres at
once, a first for a songwriter/producer team.
Sager's song credits include "Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do),"
which earned her an Academy Award and a Golden Globe in 1984; the Golden
Globe-nominated "They Don't Make Them Like They Used To"; and such popular hits
as "When I Need You," "Midnight Blue," "It's My Turn," "Everything Old is New
Again," "You and Me, We Wanted It All," "Heartlight," "I'd Rather Leave While
I'm in Love," "Come in From the Rain" and "Don't Cry Out Loud."
Her songs have been recorded by artists as diverse as Barbra Streisand, the
Doobie Brothers, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Natalie Cole, Carly
Simon, Leo Sayer, Dionne Warwick, Phil Collins and even Sager herself, on her
own internationally platinum LP.
Sager has written with a number of collaborators, including Melissa
Manchester, Peter Allen and, most recently, Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds and Jon B.
Her collaboration with Marvin Hamlisch resulted in two Oscar nominations, for
"Looking Through the Eyes of Love," from the motion picture "Ice Castles," and
"Nobody Does It
Better," from "The Spy Who Loved Me." Sager's lyrics can also be heard in the
Tony Award-winning musical "They're Playing Our Song," which she co-wrote with
Marvin Hamlisch and Neil Simon.
Composer PATRICK DOYLE was educated at the Royal Scottish
Academy of Music and Drama, where he studied piano and singing. Following
graduation, he worked as a piano teacher before writing his first score, for
the musical comedy "Glasvegas," seen at the 1978 Edinburgh Festival. He then
went on to a dual career in acting and composing for British television.
Doyle joined Kenneth Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company in 1987 as actor,
composer and musical director after he was commissioned to score a televised
version of the company's successful stage production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth
Night." Doyle composed his first film score for Branagh's acclaimed version of
"Henry V." Further collaboration with Branagh produced scores for the features
"Dead Again"(Golden Globe nominee), "Much Ado About Nothing," "Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein" and "Hamlet" (Academy Award nominee). His other feature
composing credits include "Donnie Brasco," "Mrs. Winterbourne," "Sense and
Sensibility" (Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations), "A Little Princess,"
"Carlito's Way," "Indochine" and the forthcoming "Great Expectations," a
modernization of the Dickens novel.
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