Lonesome Jim : About The Filmmakers


Steve Buscemi (Director/Producer) has built a career out of portraying some of the most
unique and unforgettable characters in recent cinema.
In 2002 he won the Independent Spirit Award, The New York Film Critics Award and was
nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in MGM’s “Ghost World” directed by Terry Zwigoff, costarring
Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson. He was also nominated for an Emmy and a DGA
Award for directing the “Pine Barrens” episode of HBO’s “The Sopranos”.
Buscemi was most recently seen as a series regular on the 5th season of “The Sopranos” for
which he received an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
On the big screen Buscemi appeared in Columbia Picture’s “Big Fish” costarring Ewan McGregor,
and directed by Tim Burton, which was nominated for 4 Golden Globes including Best Motion
Picture – Musical or Comedy.
Other completed projects include “Mr. Deeds”, “Spy Kids 2: The island of Lost Dreams”, “The
Grey Zone”, “Love in the Time of Money”, “13 Moons”, “Double Whammy”, and the HBO telefilm
“The Laramie Project”. He has also provided the voices for characters in the animated features:
Pixar’s “Monsters, Inc.” and Columbia Pictures’ “Final Fantasy”.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Buscemi began to show an interest in drama while in his last year of
high school. Soon after, he moved to Manhattan to study acting with John Strasberg. There he
and a fellow actor/writer Mark Boone Junior began writing and performing their own theatre
pieces in performance spaces and downtown theatres. This soon led to his being cast in his first
lead role in Bill Sherwood's “Parting Glances” as a musician with AIDS.
Since then, he has become the actor of choice for many of the best directors in the business. His
resume includes Jim Jarmusch's “Mystery Train” for which he received an IFP Spirit Award
Nomination, Alexandre Rockwell's 1992 Sundance Film Festival Jury Award-winner “In the Soup”,
Martin Scorcese's “New York Stories”, the Coen Brothers' “Millers Crossing”, “Barton Fink”, the
Academy Award-winning “Fargo” and “The Big Lebowski”, Stanley Tucci's “The Imposters”, the
Jerry Bruckheimer productions “Con Air” and “Armageddon”, Tom DiCillo's Sundance Film
Festival award-winning “Living in Oblivion” with Dermot Mulroney and Catherine Keener, “Twenty
Bucks”, John Carpenter's “Escape from L.A.” with Kurt Russell, “Desperado”, Paramount’s
“Domestic Disturbance”, opposite John Travolta and Vince Vaughn, “Things to Do in Dever
When You’re Dead”, Alexandre Rockwell's “Somebody to Love”, with Rosie Perez, in which he
played a transvestite taxi dancer, an IFP Spirit Award-winning performance as Mr. Pink in
Quentin Tarantino's “Reservoir Dogs”, Robert Altman's “Kansas City”, and numerous cameo
appearances in films such as “Rising Sun”, “The Hudsucker Proxy”, “Big Daddy”, “The Wedding
Singer” and other films.

In addition to his talents as an actor, Buscemi has proven to be a respected writer and a director,
as well. His first project was a short film entitled “What Happened to Pete”, which was featured at
several film festivals including Rotterdam and Locarno, and aired on the Bravo Network.
He marked his full-length feature film directorial debut with “Trees Lounge”, which he also wrote,
and starred in. The film, which co-starred Chloe Sevigny, Sam Jackson, and Anthony La Paglia,
made its debut in the Directors' Fortnight at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.
Buscemi’s second feature film as a director, “Animal Factory”, told the story of a young man sent
to prison in an unjustly harsh sentence, who eventually becomes a product of his environment.
The film, based on a book by Edward Bunker, starred Willem Dafoe and Edward Furlong, and
premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.



JAMES C. STROUSE (Writer) is a writer and cartoonist from Goshen, Indiana. His stories have
appeared in Nerve and Open City. “Lonesome Jim” is his first
screenplay.



PLUM PICTURES (Producers) was founded in 2003 by Galt Niederhoffer, Celine Rattray and
Daniela Taplin Lundberg to produce intelligent and heartfelt feature films. Based in downtown
Manhattan, the company produces two to three films a year, focusing on both studio and
independent films.
In addition to “Lonesome Jim”, Plum recently finished “The Baxter”, a romantic comedy about ‘Mr.
Wrong’. The film follows the guy who always loses the girl, and allows him to finally tell the story
from his perspective. The film is directed by Michael Showalter, starring Michelle Williams,
Elizabeth Banks, Paul Rudd, Peter Dinklage and Justin Theroux. IFC will release in the summer
of 2005.
Plum recently completed a documentary called “Pack, Strap, Swallow”. It follows the lives of
American and European girls, who were drug mules, and are now imprisoned in Ecuador. The
Sundance Channel will air in the summer of 2005.

Plum sold a pitch to New Line based on the true story of Michael Pellegrino, a small time crook
who conned the world into believing that he was Carlo Gambino's grandson. Emmy award winner
James Manos is writing.
Plum also has a project in development with Sony about Angelo Brooks, whose story gained
attention in a 60 Minutes segment. Brooks, a cop from Baltimore, formed a debate league with
inner-city kids and gang members that ultimately won the regional debate championships. David
Veloz is writing.
Plum has also acquired books or stories by the following award winning writers: Jamaica Kincaid,
Edmund Morris, Rick Moody and David Foster Wallace. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt,
Edmund Morris’ Pulitzer prize winning bestseller, will be adapted by Nicholas Meyer.



CELINE RATTRAY was raised in London and is a graduate of Oxford University with degrees in
Mathematics and Philosophy. During her three-year tenure at McKinsey's Media and
Entertainment Practice, she consulted on various projects for American and British Media
Companies. In 2000, she joined HBO as Director, Marketing and Business Development, where
she was responsible for the development and launch of new businesses, including HBO on
Demand. Under her management, HBO on Demand became a major ancillary revenue stream for
HBO, and is currently available in over 50 cities nationwide, with over a million
subscribers.



While still a student at Harvard University, GALT NIEDERHOFFER produced her first feature
titled "Hurricane Streets" which won Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Cinematography at
the Sundance Film Festival in 1997. She produced and adapted the screenplay for Elizabeth
Wurtzel's best selling memoir "Prozac Nation" starring Christina Ricci and Jessica Lange. She
has been named to Variety's 'Top Ten Producers to Watch' and Entertainment Weekly's 'Young
Hollywood List.' She and her husband, writer Jim Strouse, had their first child in August 2004.
Galt's credits include: “Prozac Nation” starring Christina Ricci and Michelle Williams, “Get Well
Soon” starring Vincent Gallo and Courtney Cox, “The Intern” starring Dominique Swain, “Blue
Ridge Fall” starring Peter Facinelli and Tom Arnold, “Jump” starring Amanda Peet and Ione Skye,
“Myth America” starring Ally Sheedy, which Galt directed as well, “The Restaurant” starring
Adrien Brody, and “Hurricane Streets” starring Brendan Sexton and Edie Falco, and directed by
Morgan Freeman.



Born and raised in Los Angeles, DANIELA TAPLIN LUNDBERG grew up
surrounded by the film industry. As the daughter of film producer Jonathan Taplin (“Mean
Streets”, “The Last Waltz”) she was able to work closely under the tutelage of such industry
veterans as Lisa Henson (President, Sony) and Janet Yang (The People vs. Larry Flynt). Upon
graduating from Princeton University, Lundberg began producing films with Galt Niederhoffer.
The pair have been partners for six years, producing films such as “The Intern”, “Get Well Soon”
and “Six Chicks in a Kitchen”. Daniela lives in New York City with her husband.



GARY WINICK (Producer) teamed up with John Sloss and IFC Productions to create
Independent Digital Entertainment (InDigEnt) to produce digital video feature films to be released
theatrically.
Winick’s producing credits include: “Final”, directed by Campbell Scott starring Hope Davis and
Denis Leary; “Chelsea Walls”, directed by Ethan Hawke starring Kris Kristofferson, Steve Zahn,
and Natasha Richardson; “Tape”, directed by Richard Linklater starring Ethan Hawke and Uma
Thurman; “Women In Film”, directed by Bruce Wagner starring Beverly D'Angelo, Marianne Jean-
Baptiste and Portia de Rossi; “Ten Tiny Love Stories”, directed by Rodrigo Garcia starring Radha
Mitchell, Elizabeth Pena and Deborah Unger; “Personal Velocity”, directed by Rebecca Miller
starring Kyra Sedgwick and Parker Posey which won the Grand Jury Prize and the
Cinematography award at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival; “Pieces of April”, directed by Peter
Hedges starring Katie Holmes, Oliver Platt, and Patricia Clarkson who was nominated for an
Academy Award for her role; “Kill The Poor”, directed by Alan Taylor starring David Krumholtz ;
“November” directed by Greg Harrison, starring Courteney Cox which won the Cinematography
Award at Sundance 2004; Mark Christopher’s “Pizza” starring Ethan Embry; and “Land Of Plenty”
directed by Wim Wenders, starring Michelle Williams and John Deihl.

Winick’s film directing credits include “Curfew” (1988), “Out of the Rain” (1991), “Sweet Nothing”
(1996) starring Mira Sorvino and Michael Imperioli, distributed by Warner Brothers and “The Tic
Code” (2000), starring Polly Draper and Gregory Hines, distributed by Lion’s Gate. Winick
directed two digital feature films, “Sam the Man”, starring Fisher Stevens and Annabella Sciorra
and “Tadpole” starring Sigourney Weaver, John Ritter, Bebe Neuwirth and Aaron Stanford.
Tadpole won the Best Director Award at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and was released by
Miramax in the summer of 2002. Winick most recently directed “13 Going On 30” starring Jennifer
Garner and Mark Ruffalo for Revolution Studios released in April 2004. Currently, Winick is in
pre-production to direct Paramount's “Charlotte's Web” due out in 2006.


JAKE ABRAHAM (Producer) shares producing responsibilities on all films with InDigEnt partner
Gary Winick. He also manages operations at the company. In 2003, he produced “November”,
directed by Greg Harrison and starring Courteney Cox, “Pizza”, directed by Mark Christopher and
starring Ethan Embry and “Land Of Plenty”, directed by Wim Wenders and starring Michelle
Williams and John Diehl. In 2004, in addition to “Lonesome Jim”, he produced “Sorry, Haters”,
directed by Jeff Stanzler and starring Robin Wright Penn. Abraham is currently producing
“Flakes”, directed by Michael Lehmann and starring Zooey Deschanel and Aaron Stanford.
Abraham previously served as associate producer on Winick’s “Tadpole” (Directing award,
Sundance 2002) and production supervisor on Richard Linklater's "Tape" (American Spectrum,
Sundance 2001).