Amazing Grace

IOAN GRUFFUDD as William Wilberforce
Ioan Gruffudd will reprise his role as Mr. Fantastic in The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, based on the Marvel Comic Superheroes, starring alongside Julian McMahon, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chilkis, following the success of the last year’s blockbuster The Fantastic Four.

Ioan began acting in his teens in his home town of Cardiff. He enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and immediately began work upon graduation. He starred in the Welsh language Academy-nominated romantic drama Solomon and Gaenor.

He first found fame in the title role of the award-winning television series Hornblower. Other recent television successes include the popular miniseries The Forsyte Saga, with Damian Lewis and Gina McKee; the lead role in the adaptation of Tony Parson’s bestselling novel Man And Boy, and the role of Pip in Tony Marchant’s Great Expectations, starring alongside Charlotte Rampling and Justine Waddell.

His film profile continued to rise with recent leading roles in 102 Dalmatians, co-starring with Glenn Close and Alice Evans and TV Set, starring with David Duchovny and Sigourney Weaver.

ROMOLA GARAI as Barbara Spooner
Romola Garai’s first screen role was playing the young Judi Dench in the award-winning series The Last of the Blond Bombshells, after being spotted by an agent in a school production.

Her first leading role was in the television adaptation Daniel Deronda, but she came gained critical attention and a nomination for a British Independent Film Award as Most Promising Newcomer for her leading role in the film adaptation of Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle, starring alongside Bill Nighy. Her role in Damien O’Donnell’s Inside I’m Dancing led to nominations for the London Critics Circle and British Film Awards. In 2005 she was nominated for an Australian Film Institute Award for her performance in the title role in the television mini-series Mary Bryant.

On London stage, Romola played the role of James Joyce’s wife Lucia, for which she was nominated for an Evening Standard Award as Outstanding Newcomer.

Since completing AMAZING GRACE, she has filmed Joe Wright’s adaptation of Ian McEwan’s Atonement, starring with Keira Knightley and co-star Benedict Cumberbatch and starred in Kenneth Branagh’s Japanese adaptation of As You Like It.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH as William Pitt
A relative newcomer to film, Benedict Cumberbatch quickly established his reputation on television. For his portrayal of scientist Stephen Hawking in the television biopic Hawking he was nominated for a BAFTA and won the Golden Nymph Award at Monte Carlo Television Festival. He recently played a leading role in the television adaptation of William Golding’s novel To the Ends of the Earth. The son of two actors, Benedict studied drama at LAMDA.

Benedict recently completed work on Tom Vaughan’s feature Starter For Ten, and Joe Wright’s feature adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement, starring alongside Keira Knightley, James McAvoy and co-star Romola Garai.

MICHAEL APTED as Director
Michael Apted enjoys a career spanning film and television, winning recognition and many awards for his work in both media

He began working as a researcher at Granada Television and soon became established as an investigative reporter and television director of the news series World in Action, before becoming a drama director on the long running British soap Coronation Street. Among his sixty plus television credits are The Lovers and Folly Foot, which won BAFTA Awards, and Another Sunday and Sweet FA and Kisses at Fifty, both of which won him the award as Best Dramatic director.

In 1972, Apted made his directorial film debut with Triple Echo, starring Glenda Jackson and Oliver Reed, followed by the acclaimed rock and roll drama Stardust, then The Squeeze, with Stacy Keach and Agatha, starring Dustin Hoffman and Vanessa Redgrave.

In 1980, his first American feature Coal Miner’s Daughter, garnered seven Academy nominations, including Sissy Spacek’s Oscar for her portrayal of the country-western singer Loretta Lynn. He then directed John Belushi in Continental Divide, and William Hurt in an adaptation of the best-selling novel Gorky Park. In 1985, Bring On The Night, which chronicled the creation of rock star Sting’s Blue Turtles album and his subsequent tour, won Apted a Grammy Award.

Gorillas in the Mist, starring Sigourney Weaver, gained five Academy nominations. This was followed by Class Action, a court room drama starring Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Thunderheart, starring Val Kilmer, Blink, a thriller with Madeleine Stowe and Aidan Quinn and Nell, starring Jodie Foster, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in the title role.

In 1996, Apted directed Extreme Measures, a medical ethics drama starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant, followed by Always Outnumbered, starring Laurence Fishburne, written by Walter Mosley.

In 1999 he directed the James Bond adventure The World Is Not Enough, which became the most successful film in the franchise to date, starring Pierce Brosnan, Judi Dench and Denise Richards. This was followed by Engima, a World War II drama starring Kate Winslet and Dougray Scott and Enough, starring Jennifer Lopez.

In 2004, Apted directed the three establishing episodes of the epic HBO drama Rome, which follows two soldiers form Julius Caesar’s army as the Republic collapses and the Empire begins.

Parallel to his feature film career, Michael Apted has made documentaries that have attracted awards, as well as critical and box office success. The most notable of these is the series which began with 7 Up, following the lives of a group of 14 British schoolchildren from the age of seven, in 1963, visiting them every seven years to chart their lives. The most recent of the series, 49 Up, aired in 2005. Other documentaries include Married in America, the Rolling Stones Forty Licks Tour and The World 2006, following soccer and it’s global influence leading up to the 2006 World Cup.

Michael Apted is currently President of the Directors Guild of America, for a second term, and was recently awarded the International Documentary Association’s highest honour, the IDA Career Achievement Award.