Suspense Thriller Stars Academy Award® Winners Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank
Double Play Premieres on Two Consecutive Nights:
Saturday, August 20 and Sunday, August 21 at 8 PM ET/PT
NEW YORK, NY, JULY 28, 2005 – For the first time on network television, AMC presents the 2002 suspense thriller INSOMNIA from acclaimed director Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, Memento). Starring a trio of Oscar® winners Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank, the film premieres on Saturday, August 20 and Sunday, August 21 at 8 PM ET/PT. INSOMNIA is the story of Will Dormer (AL PACINO), a good cop and a seasoned LAPD detective. Dormer has seen it all – murder, brutality, corruption – yet he remains unflinchingly committed to his mission: solving crimes and catching the criminals who commit them. When his partner is killed during the course of a homicide investigation in a remote Alaskan town, a grieving Dormer is forced into a compromising relationship with the primary suspect, Walter Finch (ROBIN WILLIAMS), that gradually undermines his judgment and threatens his psychological stability… and quite possibly his entire career.
The film also features Maura Tierney (ER), Martin Donovan (Traffic), Nicky Katt (Sin City), Jonathan Jackson (Tuck Everlasting) and Paul Dooley (A Mighty Wind). From a screenplay by Hillary Seitz (Taking Lives), INSOMNIA is produced by Paul Junger Witt, Edward L. McDonnell, Broderick Johnson and Andrew A. Kosove, executive produced by George Clooney, Steven Soderbergh, Tony Thomas, Kim Roth and Charles J.D. Schlissel. The Witt/Thomas Section Eight Production is presented by Warner Bros. Pictures and Alcon Entertainment.
In the film, Will Dormer (AL PACINO), a veteran LAPD detective travels to a small Alaskan town with his partner Hap (MARTIN DONOVAN) to investigate the disturbing murder of a seventeen year-old girl. Under the glare of the region’s perpetual daylight, Dormer and Hap close in on the primary suspect, reclusive novelist Walter Finch (ROBIN WILLIAMS). Dormer is on a tense stakeout on a rocky, fog-shrouded beach, when Finch slips into the mist and out of Dormer’s grasp. As he makes his escape, shots ring out… and Hap is killed. As Dormer struggles to cope with his sense of responsibility and remorse over his partner’s death, he is forced into a psychological game of cat-and-mouse by the brilliantly malevolent Finch. The stakes escalate as Dormer contends with an unproven but perceptive local cop (HILARY SWANK) and becomes increasingly entangled in Finch’s web of manipulation. Unable to find respite from the relentless Midnight Sun or his own distorted judgment, the dangerously sleep-deprived detective finds his stability gravely threatened.
In addition, starting August 1, viewers can visit AMC’s website www.amctv.com for a special look at “Eyes Wide Open”, a mini-documentary about INSOMNIA. In this featurette, also found on the INSOMNIA DVD, doctors and sufferers discuss the condition that Pacino’s character, Will Dormer, struggles with under Alaska’s surreal midnight sun: How long can periods of insomnia last? How much sleep do people really need? And what are the dangers of sleep deprivation? “Eyes Wide Open” sheds light on these and other relevant questions.
AL PACINO (Will Dormer) is an eight-time Academy Award® nominee. After having received four Best Actor nominations for… And Justice For All, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico, for which he also earned a Golden Globe Award, Pacino’s portrayal as Lt. Colonel Frank Slade in Scent Of A Woman won him a Best Actor Academy Award® and Best Actor Golden Globe Award. Pacino has been thrice nominated by the Academy as Best Supporting Actor for his roles as Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Big Boy Caprice in Dick Tracy (he won a 1990 American Comedy Award for this role), and as Ricky Roma in David Mamet’s screen adaptation of Glengarry Glen Ross. Pacino starred in Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday, The Insider, and in Chinese Coffee, a film that Pacino directed, starred in and produced. Pacino also starred as Richard III in Looking for Richard, a meditation on Shakespeare’s Richard III, which he conceived and directed and for which he received the Outstanding Directorial Achievement for a Documentary award from the Directors Guild of America. Pacino also appeared in Mike Newell’s Donnie Brasco, and Devil’s Advocate with Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron.
Other film credits include Two Bits with Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio; Heat for Warner Bros. Pictures, starring with Robert De Niro and Val Kilmer; co-starring with Jon Cusack and Bridget Fonda in City Hall; and Brian De Palma’s Carlito’s Way. Additional credits include Frankie & Johnny, The Godfather, Part III, Sea of Love, Revolution, Scarface (written by Oliver Stone), Author! Author!, Bobby Deerfield and Scarecrow, for which he received the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973. Pacino also produced, starred in and co-directed the independent film adaptation of the play The Local Stigmatic, presented in March 1990 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Public Theatre. Pacino made his film debut in 1971 in The Panic in Needle Park.
Pacino won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Independent Feature Project (IFP) at their 1996 Gotham Awards. Pacino recently starred and won a 2004 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries in Angels in America with Emma Thompson and Meryl Streep, directed by Mike Nichols.
ROBIN WILLIAMS (Walter Finch) is one of the most gifted and abundantly talented actors of our time. He is the recipient of the 1997 Best Supporting Actor Academy Award® for bringing compassion and intelligence to the part of Dr. Sean McGuire in Good Will Hunting, a role for which he also received the Screen Actors Guild award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role. Williams received a Golden Globe Award for his unforgettable performance in Chris Columbus’ Mrs. Doubtfire and also earned a Special Achievement Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for his vocal contributions as Genie in Walt Disney Pictures now-classic animated blockbuster feature Aladdin.
In 1996 E! Entertainment Television named Williams “Celebrity of the Year” for his singularly outstanding feature film career, which now includes the immensely successful Flubber and the 1998 box office hit Patch Adams, directed by Tom Shadyac. In 1999 Robin Williams executive produced and starred in Blue Wolf Productions’ Jakob The Liar, a story of life in a Nazi occupied Polish ghetto. In 2000 Williams re-teamed with director Chris Columbus in the screen adaptation of the Isaac Assimov story Bicentennial Man. Most recently, Williams starred in Danny De Vito’s dark comedy Death To Smoochy.
HILARY SWANK (Ellie Burr) won the 2005 Academy Award® for Best Actress for Million Dollar Baby and the 1999 Academy Award® for Best Actress for her performance as Brandon Teena in Boys Don’t Cry. In addition to the Oscar®, Swank won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama and Best Actress prizes from the New York Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics, the Chicago Film Critics and the Broadcast Film Critics. She most recently executive produced the AMC hit series “Celebrity Charades” with her husband Chad Lowe and friend Bob Balaban (A Mighty Wind).
About AMC
AMC, a division of Rainbow Media’s Entertainment Services, which also includes WE: Women’s Entertainment and IFC Companies, is a 24-hour, movie-based network, dedicated to the American movie fan. The network, which reaches over 86,000,000 homes, offers a comprehensive library of popular movies and a critically-acclaimed slate of original programming that is a diverse, movie-based mix of original series, documentaries and specials. Over the past three years, AMC has garnered many of the industry’s highest honors, including 14 Emmy awards. AMC is “TV for movie people.”
About Rainbow Media Holdings LLC
A leader in sports, news and entertainment programming, Rainbow Media Holdings LLC is a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation. Rainbow owns and manages national networks: AMC, Fuse, IFC (The Independent Film Channel) and WE: Women’s Entertainment, as well as on-demand services including Mag Rack and sportskool. Rainbow’s other businesses include its regional programming services – Rainbow Sports Networks, News 12 Networks and Metro Traffic & Weather – in addition to the Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation and Rainbow Network Communications.
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