James Franco Arctic Justice

They Never Meant to Save the World but They're Warming up To the Idea

Cast: Jeremy Renner, Heidi Klum, John Cleese, James Franco, Anjelica Huston, Alec Baldwin, Michael Madsen
Director: Aaron Woodley
Genre: Animation
Running Time: 88 minutes

Synopsis: Swifty the Arctic fox works in the mail room of the Arctic Blast Delivery Service but dreams of one day becoming a Top Dog (the Arctic's star husky couriers). To prove himself worthy of the Top Dog role, Swifty secretly commandeers one of the sleds and delivers a package to a mysterious location. He stumbles upon a secret fortress where he comes face to face with Otto Von Walrus, a blubbery evil genius who walks around on mechanical legs and commands a loyal army of oddly polite puffin henchmen. Swifty soon discovers Von Walrus' plan to melt the polar ice caps and flood the world in order to reign supreme. Now, Swifty has to enlist the help of his friends: PB, a concerned polar bear, Lemmy, a scatterbrained albatross, Bertha and Leopold, two conspiracy theorist otters and Jade, a worldly fox. This ragtag group of Arctic misfits has to band together to stop Von Walrus' sinister plans and save the day.

Arctic Justice
Release Date: 7 November, 2019

About The Production

Note From The Director, Aaron Woodley

The Theme Of The Story

Swifty grows up feeling invisible. I think a lot of kids sometimes feel that away when they do Social Media and see the popular kid in school. Why anybody doesn't see me? This is where Swifty's insecurity and his obsession with being famous stems from. I hope audience are entertained and have a fun but, at the same time, after the movie, I hope not only kids but also adults accept themselves for who they are, go chase after much deeper pursuits in life and more meaningful things.

The film also deals with Climate change. For me, it is one of the most important issue in our times. It's not directly dealing with it. Still, it is to a certain level. I hadn't seen animated film to deal with that issue. It will be a great message.

Technical Challenge

The Arctic was a wonderful epic-back drop for our movie. There is a sense of frontier, Arctic Tundra. It's visually stunning. We tried to capture that beauty. We also wanted the town where it takes place to have a sense of classic fairy tale such as a Santa's village - Lost in time. You really don't know what period this is. It might look like 50 years ago or maybe sometime in the future. There is a lot of technology to antiquate it.

Another thing which visually struck me about the Arctic is the quality of the light. You are way up there and close to the sun in a way. We use a sort of extremely bright hot lights, which is almost like blowing out areas of the frame and the character. Nothing between you and the sun and super reflective white surface.

You will see the nice dynamic range of looks to the movie; cold, blue and icy area on the exterior and a warm interior.

Note From The Producer, Graham Moloy

I want people to entertain and come out happy. On the top of that, we touched on the global situation about the environment with the polar icecap melting theme. We hope people stop and think for a minute about that. What can we do to protect it? Animation is approachable and kind of open to everyone. It would hit every age of group.

I love the story because it has few different layers to it - Adventure story where Swifty has to go save his town and ultimately the planet from the evil, the love story between Swifty and Jade, and just his story finding himself.

About The Cast

Jeremy Renner as "Swifty"
As a young Arctic fox, Swifty's parents taught him the arctic fox mantra: "Out of sight, you're all right," which is to say, as long as you're invisible (blend with your environment) you're safe. But for someone born with a reckless streak, safe is just... well... boring. Swifty took the opposite path, seeking attention and becoming obsessed with being a top dog " Taigasville's star courier huskies. Craving their fame, he feels slighted and ignored, never allowed to realize his full potential, until a "simple" delivery changes everything.

Jeremy Renner, in his early career, devoted himself to theatre, most notably starring in and codirecting the critically acclaimed Search And Destroy. After several commercials and supporting roles in television movies and series, Renner captured the attention of critics with his gripping, complex portrayal of the infamous serial killer in the 2002 film DAHMER. Renner's performance, which earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination, is especially remarkable for painting a humane and sympathetic, yet deeply disturbing, portrait of the title character. Renner took a break from small indie films to work on his first commercially successful movie, S.W.A.T. (2003), with Colin Farrell.

His most famous role is Sergeant First Class William James in The Hurt Locker for which he received an Academy Award nomination for best actor. He also has starred in Ben Affleck bank-heist thriller The Town, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, The Avengers, American Hustle, and Kill The Messenger.

"I wanted to do something my daughter can watch. I hope audience learns confidence and to believe in yourself. You don't need to listen to the others to define who you are. You are exactly who you are meant to be. You are awesome. That's wonderful message to send the kids. Self-confidence is huge."
– Jeremy Renner

"Jeremy is an incredible actor to work with. He comes thoroughly prepared. Amazing charisma and sense of humor. He is famous for dramatic roles, but he is actually very, very funny. He lifts Swifty to another level."
– Director, Aaron Woodley

Heidi Klum as "Jade" and "Bertha"

Jade is tough as nails, but Jade, the red fox, has always had a soft spot for Swifty. After leaving town to study at a prestigious engineering school, she returns home and becomes the town's resident mechanic. Bored by the small jobs, she takes on challenging freelance work. But there's a slight problem: her mystery client proves to not only be highly intelligent"but also highly dangerous. Good thing Jade is one clever red fox.

Bertha is one of two European conspiracy theorists travel the world in search of fringe-worthy mysteries, which is how they ended up in Taigasville. They believe the remote town holds the answer to the question perplexing the world: Why has global warming spiked so suddenly and dramatically? Anti-social, paranoid and often erratic, their conclusions are a bit extreme... or are they?

Heidi Klum began her career as a top fashion model and swimsuit star almost by accident when Klum won the model competition hosted by Petra, and signed with Metropolitan, the German modelling agency. After modelling in Europe for a few years to great success, she went to the United States to pursue modelling there, culminating in her relationship with Victoria's Secret. This brought her to the pinnacle of modelling and the coveted cover of Sports Illustrated's annual Swimsuit Issue, cementing her status as one of the world's top models.

Klum then sought to parlay her fame into a career in Hollywood. She has appeared frequently on TV in the US and in Germany, and has had several small parts in movies, including a cameo playing Swiss bombshell Ursula Andress in the Peter Sellers biopic The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers.

"When you have four kids, the coolest thing to do as mom is a voice in animated children's movie. We can all go, enjoy watching the movie and hear mama talking instead of someone else. Also, what I love about this movie is there is a real message, which is good for children to see and understand. If global warming keeps getting worse, icecaps will go eventually, then you won't see the beautiful and cute animals we are showing in the movie. They will most likely disappear. I got Bertha's role first. I wasn't supposed to play the lead, Jade. When I was doing the voice over for Bertha, I heard that they were still looking for an actress for Jade. I asked them if I can try it out. I told them I can play the heavy German accent for Betha and use an American accent for Jade. So they sent me over the lines and I tried it out and I got it!"
– Heidi Klum

"Heidi plays two separate characters in this movie. Jade, a mature and brilliant woman, and Bertha, a radical eccentric conspiracy theory author from Germany. She is able to bridge that divide. There is one scene where she is playing against herself – Bertha speaking to Jade. You can't tell they are the same actor."
– Director, Aaron Woodley

Alec Baldwin as "P.B."

P.B. is Swifty's best friend, co-worker and the perfect example of a gentle giant. A lovable polar bear, he's known across the Arctic for being a big softy. P.B.'s thoughtful and cautious nature are really the polar opposite of Swifty's more impulsive, brash personality. He's always a reliable, trustworthy and honest friend to Swifty... but his loyalty is tested once things begin to go awry.

Alec Baldwin is best-known, of the four Baldwin brothers in the acting business (the others are Stephen Baldwin, William Baldwin and Daniel Baldwin).

Alec burst onto the TV scene in the early 1980s with appearances on several series, including The Doctors (1963) and Knots Landing (1979), before scoring feature film roles in Forever, Lulu (1987), Beetlejuice (1988), Working Girl (1988), Married To The Mob (1988) and Talk Radio (1988). In 1990, Baldwin appeared in the first on-screen adaptation of the "Jack Ryan" character created by mega-selling espionage author, Tom Clancy. The film, The Hunt For Red October (1990), was a box office and critical success, with Baldwin appearing alongside icy Sean Connery. Baldwin won over critics as a lowlife thief pursued by dogged cop Fred Ward in Miami Blues (1990) and made an indelible ten-minute cameo as a hard-nosed real estate executive laying down the law in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992). He also made a similar tour-de-force monologue in the thriller Malice (1993).

Demand for Baldwin's talents in the 1990s saw more scripts swiftly come his way, and he starred in a remake of the Steve McQueen action flick, The Getaway (1994), brought to life the famous comic strip character, The Shadow (1994). Baldwin's distinctive vocal talents then saw him voice US-aired episodes of the highly popular UK children's show, THOmas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures! (1984), plus later voice-only contributions to other animated/children's shows, including Clerks (2000), Cats & Dogs (2001), Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) and The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (2004).

In the early 2000s, Baldwin excelled in a number of lower-profile supporting roles in a variety of films, including State And Main (2000), Pearl Harbor (2001), The Cooler (2003) (for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor), The Aviator (2004), Along Came Polly (2004) And The Departed (2006). As he was excelling as a consummate character actor, Baldwin found a second career in television comedy. Already known for his comedic turns hosting Saturday Night Live (1975), he essayed an extended guest role on Will & Grace (1998) in 2005 before taking on what would arguably become his most famous role, that of network executive "Jack Donaghy", opposite Tina Fey in the highly-acclaimed sitcom, 30 Rock (2006). The role brought Baldwin two Emmy Awards, three Golden Globes, and an unprecedented six Screen Actors Guild Awards (not including cast wins).

Anjelica Huston as "Magda"

She's Russian, she's curmudgeonly and she's set in her ways, and oh "don't mistake her for a moose " she's a caribou! Magda is head of the ABDS and doesn't like change, partly because she's old-school and partly because she's been burned in the past, namely by Otto von Walrus whom she took a chance on (and things didn't end up so well). Since then her walls have been up higher than ever, so she won't be taking a chance on Swifty, or anyone else for that matter.

Anjelica Huston, whose father is director and actor John Huston, took a few small roles in her father's movies. While modelling, Huston had a few smaller film roles, but decided to focus more on movies in the early 1980s. She prepared herself by reaching out to acting coach Peggy Feury and began to get roles. The first notable part was in Bob Rafelson's remake of the classic noir movie The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) (in which Jack Nicholson, with whom Huston was living at the time, was the star). After a few more years of on-again, off-again supporting work, her father perfectly cast her as calculating, imperious Maerose, the daughter of a Mafia don whose love is scorned by a hit man (Nicholson again) in his film adaptation of Richard Condon's Mafia-satire novel Prizzi's Honor (1985). Huston won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance, making her the first person in Academy Award history to win an Oscar when a parent and a grandparent (her father and grandfather Walter Huston) had also won one.

Huston thereafter worked prolifically, including notable roles in Francis Ford Coppola's Gardens Of Stone (1987), Barry Sonnenfeld's film versions of the Charles Addams cartoons The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993), in which she portrayed Addams matriarch Morticia, Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004). Probably her finest performance on-screen, however, was as Lilly, the veteran, iron-willed con artist in Stephen Frears' The Grifters (1990), for which she received another Oscar nomination, this time for Best Actress. A sentimental favourite is her performance as the lead in her father's final film, an adaptation of James Joyce's The Dead (1987). With her many years of residence in Ireland, Huston's Irish accent in the film is authentic.

Endowed with her father's great height and personal boldness, and her mother's beauty and aristocratic nose, Huston certainly cuts an imposing figure, and brings great confidence and authority to her performances. She clearly takes her craft seriously and has come into her own as a strong actress, emerging from under the shadow of her father, who passed away in 1987.

"This movie is not only fun, but educational. I like the subject matter a lot. I'm environmentalist. Global warming means a lot to me. I think this is the most important message in the 21st century. I like when there is an important message with animation, because it makes it not only accessible for children but also their parents. I hope audiences get a sense of social justice and awareness of what is happening in the Arctic from this story." – Anjelica Huston


John Cleese as "Otto Von Walrus"

Where does one begin? A self-proclaimed megalomaniac genius? A vindictive, insecure, narcissistic, classic evil villain? Yes. All of the above. But at the same time, he's charming, funny and irresistibly entertaining " someone you'd want to hang out with if only he weren't constantly trying to destroy the Arctic. Otto considers himself the "World's Greatest Engineer" but spent a lifetime watching his "visionary" ideas rejected. So, he vows to seek vengeance, with a bunch of puffins helping to carry out his sinister deeds.

John Cleese, since he was young, was devoted to the radio comedy show The Goon Show" starring the legendary Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, and Harry Secombe. In his college days, Cleese devoted a great deal of time to the university's legendary Footlights group, writing and performing in comedy reviews. Several of these comedy reviews met with great success. He toured New Zealand and America under the name "Cambridge Circus." He appeared in a BBC radio series, I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again for several years. He had a series of collaborations with some of the finest comedy-writing talent in England at the time, some of whom – Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Chapman - eventually joined him in Monty Python. These programs included The Frost Report and Marty Feldman's program Marty.

Meanwhile Cleese had established a production company, Video Arts, for clever business training videos in which he generally starred, which were and continue to be enormously successful in the English-speaking world. He continues to act prolifically in movies, including in the hit comedy A Fish Called Wanda, in the Harry Potter series, and in the James Bond series as the new Q, starting with The World Is Not Enough, in which he began as R before graduating to Q. Cleese also supplies his voice to numerous animated and video projects, and frequently does commercials.

James Franco as "Lemmy"

Lemmy lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle for years playing bass guitar in obscure bands, and as a roadie for more famous ones. Now he lives the simple life as a mail-stamper at the ABDS. He's spaced-out in his own universe and always in his "happy place." That is, until you mention flying. Lemmy is terrified of flying, and it's something he'll have to overcome if he's to help save the day from the dastardly Walrus.

James Franco is known for his breakthrough starring role on Freaks And Geeks (1999). In his college days, he got into acting to overcome his shyness, which, much to his parents' dismay, he left after only one year. After fifteen months of intensive study at Robert Carnegie's Playhouse West, James began actively pursuing his dream of finding work as an actor in Hollywood. In that short time, he landed himself a starring role on Freaks And Geeks (1999). The show, however, was not a hit to its viewers at the time and was cancelled after its first year. Now, it has become a cult-hit. Prior to joining Freaks And Geeks, Franco starred in the TV miniseries To Serve And Protect (1999). After that, he had a starring role in Whatever It Takes (2000).

Although he'd been working steadily, it wasn't until the TNT made-for-television movie, James Dean (2001) that James rose to fan-magazine fame and got to show off his talent. Since then, he has been working non-stop. After losing the lead role to Tobey Maguire, James settled for the part of "Harry Osborne", Spider-Man's best friend in the summer 2002 major hit Spider-Man (2002). He returned to the Osborne role for the next two films in the trilogy. Next was Deuces Wild (2002) and City By The Sea (2002), in which Robert De Niro personally had him cast, after viewing his performance in James Dean. He was seen in David Gordon Green's Pineapple Express (2008) opposite Seth Rogen, in George C. Wolfe's Nights In Rodanthe (2008), starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane and in Paul Haggis' In The Valley Of Elah (2007), starring Tommy Lee Jones. Also starring opposite Sean Penn in Gus Van Sant's MILK (2008) in which his performance earned him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor. Definitely growing out of his shyness, James Franco is turning into a legend of his own.

Omar Sy as "Leopold"

Leopold is one of two European conspiracy theorists travel the world in search of fringe-worthy mysteries, which is how they ended up in Taigasville. They believe the remote town holds the answer to the question perplexing the world: Why has global warming spiked so suddenly and dramatically? Anti-social, paranoid and often erratic, their conclusions are a bit extreme... or are they?

Omar Sy was born on January 20, 1978 in Trappes, Yvelines, France. He is an actor and writer, known for The Intouchables (2011), Jurassic World (2015) and X-Men: Days Of Future Past (2014).

Michael Madsen as "Duke"

Duke is the friendly leader of the top dogs, Taigasville's biggest celebrities. The top dogs deliver life-saving goods to needy citizens, and though Duke works long, hard days, he's always sure to make time for his fans. Arctic Strong!

Michael Madsen's long career spans 25 years and more than 170 films in which he has played memorable characters in myriad box office hits, including: Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Vol.2 (2004) Sin City (2005), Hell Ride (2008), Die Another Day (2002), Donnie Brasco (1997), Species (1995), The Getaway (1994), Thelma & Louise (1991), and Free Willy (1993). Michael is notably recognised for his role as Mr. Blonde, in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992).

In recent years, Madsen has received Best Actor awards for his role in the Irish boxing film Strength And Honour, from the New York International Film Festival, the Boston Film Festival and the Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival. Madsen received the Golden Dolphin Award at the 25th Festroia Festival in Portugal, an award also given to veterans Kirk Douglas and Robert Mitchum. In 2012, Madsen was named President of the first annual Champs Elysees Film Festival in France which honoured producer Harvey Weinstein. Recent television appearances include guest starring roles on TheE Mob Doctor (2012), Golden Boy (2013) and Blue Bloods (2010).

Madsen is well recognized as an accomplished poet. His first book Burning In Paradise with a Foreword by Dennis Hopper, won the Independent Firecracker Award and was later translated into Norwegian. He has a world-wide following with his work, honoured at International Poetry Festivals in Genoa, Italy and Mexico. He was recently the Guest of Honour at the Crossing Border Festival in Netherlands. His The Complete Poetic Works is an international bestseller. This was followed by his Signs Of Life dedicated to Chris Penn. This unique work combined his new poetry with his own original photography. His next book of poetry American Badass was dedicated to the memory of the late David Carradine, his friend and Kill Bill co-star. His newest book Expecting Rain has a Foreword by Jerry Hopkins.

Laurie Holden as "Dakota"

The only female top dog, Dakota's not just as tough as they come, but as kind as well. While she loves delivering mail, after a freezing cold Arctic workday she dreams of retiring on a beach with coconut shell drinks, complete with tiny umbrellas.

Laurie Holden is best known to audiences as Andrea in the hit AMC drama series The Walking Dead. However, Laurie's big acting break came much earlier in her career, starring in the critically acclaimed TNT mini-series Young Catherine. Since that, she has appeared in several ground-breaking television series, including seminal roles on FOX's The X-Files, Fx's The Shield, and currently FX's The Americans. Holden's big screen debut found her starring alongside Jim Carrey in Frank Darabont's The Majestic. The 1950's period piece earned Holden critical acclaim and a place on Entertainment Weekly's "100 Most Creative People in Entertainment" list and Variety's "Ten Actors To Watch" list. Laurie entered the comic book world when she co-starred opposite Michael Chiklis in Fox's Fantastic Four and then ventured into the gamer genre with her starring role as the iconic Cybil Bennett opposite Sean Bean in Christophe Gans' cult horror classic Silent Hill. She also starred in Stephen King's sci-fi thriller The Mist and in the Farrelly Brothers' Dumb And Dumber with Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels.

Holden received two Best Supporting Actress nominations for her work on The Walking Dead: one from Spike TV's Scream Awards and another from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films' Saturn Awards. She won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Walking Dead in 2013. Earlier in her career, she also received a Best Actress nomination from the Genie Awards (Canada's equivalent to the Emmys) for her guest- starring role on the Canadian comedy hit Due South. Holden executive produced her first motion picture: Rebecca Johnson's critically acclaimed film Honeytrap, which garnered a nomination at the London Film Festival. Laurie is also an Executive Producer on The Time Of Their Lives (Bright Pictures/Daryl Prince Productions).

Holden is also a human rights activist and dedicates much of her time and effort to enriching and protecting the lives of women and children victimized by the sex trade. She volunteered in the field in Cartagena, Colombia with O.U.R. on a mission that helped liberate 55 young sex slaves and brought down notorious sex trafficker Marcus Bronschidle. The successful sting operation was featured on ABC's Nightline and is the subject of the documentary The Abolitionists.

Music In The Film

Vision

"My vision is to have a soundtrack that not only provides great songs, but in doing so, takes you into the actual mindset of the film's protagonist, 'Swifty'. By having Jeremy Renner perform a great deal of the soundtrack, the music becomes the perfect companion to the movie. All of the songs provide a soundscape for Arctic Justice that is quite unique in that sense."
- Jeymes Samuel

Arctic Justice
Release Date: November, 2019