The Filmmakers
Thomas Tull is the Chairman and CEO of Legendary Pictures, a private equity-backed film production company with over 1.5 billion dollars in total financing. Legendary Pictures’ current deal, through which it co-produces and co-finances films with Warner Bros. Pictures, runs through 2012. Since its inception in 2005, Legendary has joined with Warner Bros. to make such successful films as Superman Returns, Batman Begins, Watchmen, the blockbuster 300 and the record-breaking, award-winning film phenomenon, The Dark Knight, which has earned in excess of $1 billion worldwide.
Upcoming releases in the partnership include director Todd Phillips’ The Hangover; Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are and James McTeigue’s Ninja Assassin. Clash of the Titans has begun filming in the UK and both Jonah Hex and Gears of War (with New Line) are approaching production.
Legendary Pictures is also developing a number of film projects in-house, including Paradise Lost, Warcraft, Kung Fu, The Mountain and The Lost Patrol.
Mr. Tull conceived of and is producer on the music documentary It Might Get Loud, featuring The Edge (U2), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) and Jack White (The White Stripes). Directed by Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim, the film had its World Premiere at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival and Sony Classics will release it in the U.S. in August o f 2009.
Prior to forming Legendary Pictures, Mr. Tull was President and served on the Board of Directors of The Convex Group, a media and entertainment holding company headquartered in Atlanta. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Film Institute (AFI) and is on the Board of Trustees of Hamilton College, his alma mater. He serves on the Board of the Fulfillment Fund and is a board member of the San Diego Zoo.
Davis Guggenheim directed and executive–produced the 2007 Academy Award–winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which featured former Vice President Al Gore and garnered worldwide box office receipts of more than $50 million. Guggenheim has been a producer and director on the Emmy Award–winning HBO series Deadwood as well as such critically acclaimed television series as The Unit, The Shield, Alias, 24, NYPD Blue, ER, and Party of Five. He is the documentary filmmaker behind Norton Simon: A Man and His Art (on permanent exhibition at the Norton Simon Museum) and JFK and the Imprisoned Child (on permanent exhibition at the John F. Kennedy Library).
After graduating from Brown, Guggenheim moved to Los Angeles to pursue filmmaking. He was executive producer for the film Training Day and director of Gossip, both released in 2001. In 2002, Guggenheim’s documentary The First Year, which chronicled the challenges of novice public–school teachers in Los Angeles, won a Peabody Award in broadcast television and the Grand Jury Prize at the Full Frame Film Festival, the premiere U.S. documentary film festival.
In 2007, Guggenheim directed the feature film Gracie, about a teenaged girl soccer player who overcomes family tragedy to play for her high school boys’ team. The script was based on the real–life experience of Guggenheim’s wife, actress Elisabeth Shue.
Guggenheim’s most recent feature documentary, It Might Get Loud, premiered at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. It Might Get Loud explores the artistry of three great electric guitarists: Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White.
This summer Guggenheim directed the Barack Obama bio film, A Mother’s Promise, which played at the Democratic National Convention. He also contributed to the Barack Obama “infomercial”.
Lesley began her career in the 1990s at MTV Networks, working on large multi–camera shows and was part of the creation of the first MTV Movie Awards. After MTV Lesley helped launch Tenth Planet Productions, producing music specials as well as multi–camera shows. Lesley moved on to producing music videos and commercials as an independent producer and has produced hundreds of commercials and PSA’s for many distinguished directors. Lesley also produces for several ad agencies as well.
In 2006 Lesley was a producer of the Academy Award winning An Inconvenient Truth, her first foray into documentaries. She has produced several feature documentaries including: Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird (2007) about the cartoonist Gahan Wilson and, with producing partner and AIT director Davis Guggenheim, It Might Get Loud (2008). In addition to her work as producer, in 2008 Lesley co–founded the non–profit Unscrew America which continues her dedication to sustainability and environmental issues. She is also a green correspondent and writer for several magazines.
Most recently Lesley produced the Barack Obama bio film, A Mother's Promise, for the Democratic National Convention as well as the animated short It Was A Dark and Silly Night. Current projects include an in–depth documentary about the flailing American public education system.
Peter Afterman was born and raised in San Francisco and graduated from UC Davis in 1978. While at Davis he was responsible for all of the concert bookings at the University including debut tours of The Police, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, Devo, Talking Heads, Peter Tosh and The Dire Straits. After finishing college he moved back to San Francisco and was hired to book the main showcase nightclub chain in the Bay Area, The Keystones. During his four year employment he was responsible for booking three bands per night seven nights a week at three locations: San Francisco, Berkeley and Palo Alto. A partial list of artists includes James Brown, Prince, U2, Billy Idol, UB 40, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Jerry Garcia Band, Clifton Chenier, Fats Domino, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Van Halen, Metallica, Dead Kennedys and Roy Buchanan.
In 1982, he was approached by the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee and offered a VP of Contemporary Entertainment position with the LAOOC. He accepted the job and moved to Los Angeles. His Olympic responsibilities included designing, booking and managing all of the entertainment facilities at the three Olympic athlete villages (at UCLA, USC and UC Santa Barbara) as well as being responsible for arranging for all of the ambient entertainment outside of all of the Olympic sports venues. He also booked all of the contemporary music events for the Olympic Arts Festival.
In 1984, Peter met Jon Peters and Peter Guber, who were eager to work on soundtracks having just shot Flashdance. He joined the Guber–Peters Company as their music executive and began working on the film Vision Quest. Afterman then formed his own music supervision company, Inaudible Productions, in 1986. His many credits during the early days of the company include Gung Ho, The Color Purple, The Big Easy, Wild At Heart, Earth Girls Are Easy, Honeymoon in Vegas, Coneheads, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and French Kiss.
Some of Inaudible’s more recent credits include Juno, The Express, Bolden!, the Ashes and Snow exhibition in Santa Monica, Thank You For Smoking, Me and You And Everyone We Know, The Passion of the Christ, Hellboy, The Girl Next Door, Runaway Jury, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider 1 & 2, The Good Girl, Road Trip, The Last Days of Disco, Stealing Beauty and The Apostle, for which Peter won a Grammy in 1998 in the category of Best Country, Southern or Bluegrass Gospel Album.