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Tagline: They Know Each Other By Heart.
Having achieved success as a NY model, Brier (James) decides to move to L.A. to launch an acting career. With the support of her acerbic agent and sometimes surrogate mom, Carrie (Fisher), Brier lands a spot in a highly sought after acting class where she befriends another would-be actress, Clea (Simpson).
While out on the town discovering the music scene, Brier again crosses paths with Luke (Strait), a singer/songwriter who has been toiling for years without a record deal. Brier and Clea decide to help Luke and unbeknownst to him, they set out to create some L.A. style hype to get him noticed. As Luke’s profile rises, so do the demands of his budding new career. When Luke and Brier can’t hide the spark that was always there, they both discover that the price of fame may be higher than anyone expected.
Undiscovered, a romantic comedy with a big heart, begins during a cold, winter New York City day. What seems like just another ordinary afternoon soon proves to be the beginning of a relationship between two people that will change their lives forever. Struggling musician Luke Falcon, played by Steven Strait, exits a crowded subway train and accidentally drops one of his gloves.
It is picked up by Brier Tucket, played by Pell James, a beautiful young model whom he spotted on the train. Unable to get back onboard, Luke tosses the remaining glove to her. Their eyes meet and it is love at first sight. But as the train pulls out they know they’ll never meet again.
Each carries on with their lives, searching for their dream. Luke wants to become a singersongwriter and heads to Los Angeles where he starts regularly playing The Mint nightclub. Brier wants to become an actress and thinks she should go to Hollywood as well. Her agent, Carrie, played by Carrie Fisher, encourages her but warns her against getting involved with another rock star musician like Mick, played by Stephen Moyer, a guy she is in love with but who constantly gives her the run-around and is not exactly Mr. Faithful.
At acting class, Brier makes friends with Clea, played by Ashlee Simpson, an actress and sometimes singer. When they go to the Mint, Luke is performing and Clea joins him on stage. He immediately recognizes Brier but it is not until he asks the audience if they have seen his missing glove that she realizes who he is.
Brier and Clea decide to try and help Luke make it as a popular singer. Through Carrie, they enlist the help of Josie, played by Shannyn Sossamon, a stunningly beautiful Brazilian model who is now seen accompanying Luke everywhere, resulting in his name and picture landing on “Page Six.” As Luke starts to become the Next Big Thing, he is signed to a contract by record producer and label president, Garrett Schweck, played by Fisher Stevens. Luke’s growing success begins to affect his relationships with his friends and even his brother Euan, played by Kip Pardue, who warns him about how he is beginning to change for the worse.
Brier is ending her relationship with Mick and she hears from Euan that Luke really loves her. Luke fights with Josie and, when Brier explains that she and Clea were responsible for putting them together, he walks out on her leaving her in tears. Josie tells Schweck that he was tricked and everyone cheering Luke at the club was organized by his friends. The producer immediately drops his contract and Luke’s concert dates start getting cancelled.
Luke and Clea get together to write a song and he is asked to play at The Mint again. Brier, meanwhile, has decided to go back to New York. When Carrie brings a well-known impresario into the club to hear Luke, all the young music executives take note. However, when he hears that the impresario is also giving Brier a ride to the airport, he and Euan take off after her. After hassles with airport security and a loan from Euan, Luke finally makes it on to the plane for New York. As Brier settles down for the flight, the flight attendant approaches a glove into her lap...
About the Production
A heartfelt and comic love story about a struggling musician and a model trying to launch an acting career, Undiscovered is the perfect vehicle for the talents of first-time theatrical feature director Meiert Avis. The acclaimed music video director and documentary filmmaker has worked extensively the biggest music stars of today including U2, Melissa Etheridge, Bruce Springsteen and Audioslave.
Set in Los Angeles, UNDISCOVERED uses the L.A. music scene as the backdrop for two talented young performers trying to deal with the trials and tribulations of success and fame in today’s celebrity-oriented media world. They share an unspoken love for one another that seems to get thwarted at every turn. Still, only when it looks like the price of fame will take its toll is their love revealed. The pressure of dealing with their respective careers almost eliminates their feelings and aspirations, yet it becomes apparent to both of them that it is a love too powerful to stop.
Says director Avis, “It’s about what you have to give up in order to make a relationship work, and about how success can take away the things that are worth having in your life. It’s a romantic comedy, but it deals with what happens if you just pursue fame and notoriety, how you can end up an empty shell.
Avis was attracted to the project because music is such a large part of the film. “It seemed like an area that I knew enough about to do something that was interesting without falling on my face,” he chuckles. “I thought I could do this well and that it was worth spending a year of my life doing. There are a lot of music performances in the film and some of the sections are inevitably shot in a kind of a music video style.” Thanks to Avis’ sensibility and experience, the music performances were taken to another level. His natural expertise gave them the dynamism and vitality they deserved.
The male lead, aspiring rock singer Luke Falcon, is played by the fast-rising young star Steven Strait. Director Avis quickly realized that the talent he was dealing with was exceptional.
“Steven Strait has a two octave vocal range with all types of music from ballad to straight-out rock tracks. He really pulled it off. He can act, but he’s also a rock star so we were very lucky to find him.” Strait concurs, “Being able to sing the tracks myself and tackling both aspects of music and acting has made this project really special to me.”
Steve describes his character Luke as “a normal guy, a little shy who sort of internalizes quite a bit. Yet, the stage is an outlet for him. It’s a release of all he thinks and writes about and he gets to express it up on stage. That’s where he really becomes alive. It’s a great character to play.” In this regard he is a success but feels incomplete because he cannot express his feelings for the one he loves.
He continues, “It’s a self-realization of the character throughout the film: Brier and Luke are in love with each other. It’s a story of the boundaries and barriers that sometimes have to be crossed for things that are important.”
Stunning young actress Pell James plays Brier, the young model and counterpart to rock singer Luke. Strait and James, both fellow New Yorkers, display a natural comic timing that adds enormously to the humor inherent in the story. Avis is equally enthusiastic about her performance.
“She gives such a very detailed, nuanced performance,” says the director. James notes the similarities between her character and her own experience and adds, “I’m from New York where I studied acting and also came out to L.A. to act. My first audition was for this movie, so it was kind of cool. I was really excited.
Someone who knows about breaking through in the music business and dealing with fame is singer Ashlee Simpson who makes her feature film debut in the role of Clea, an up-and-coming singer who tries to help her friends succeed. “I play an aspiring actress and musician,” says Simpson, “something that really relates to my life. I love the whole music aspect of the movie, how there’s songwriting involved and struggling artists trying to make their way. I’ve seen struggling musicians and I’ve been a struggling musician myself.
In the film, Ashlee’s character finds her self-confidence both in writing music and singing. “At one point in the film I get up and sing a song which is actually on my album. It’s called ‘Undiscovered’ and it’s a really cool moment because it’s a moment of self-discovery.” What was important to her was the real sense of kinship she had with her character and the timing couldn’t be more perfect. Yet, it wasn’t about playing a carbon copy of her but creating a fresh role that her unique talents and experience could bring.
Like her co-actors and performers, working with a director that understands the music business was also a plus for Ashlee. “Meiert’s an incredible director. He’s so creative and so kind to the cast. I love the way that he shot the film. It’s been wonderful to get to work with him.”
It was important for the city of Los Angeles to look and feel authentic. To get a real feeling for the city, the production decided to use as many real locations as possible. Musical landmarks were used including The Mint, a legendary small rock club; the renowned Chateau Marmont and The Viper Room. For the scenes shot at Los Angeles International Airport, the production was permitted to shoot inside. It was a logistical nightmare that involved a hundred extras and film equipment passing through the X-ray machines of the airport’s security system.
Ultimately, Strait feels that it’s important to stress that, although it’s about two individuals’ rise to the top, the heart of the story is really about love. “Everybody can relate to that and the sacrifices people make to pursue that,” says Strait. Luke wrestles with the notion of stardom and asks should he sacrifice his artistic integrity to stay famous? Or does he keep that something special with somebody who has inspired him to write his songs in the first place? It’s only then that the story comes full circle.
About the Cast
Pell James (Brier)
With her exceptional roles in three films this year, Pell James is quickly capturing attention as a talented and promising young actress.
James currently stars in the Focus Feature film, “Broken Flowers”, with Bill Murray, Sharon Stone and Jessica Lange, which was released on August, 2005. The film also screened at Cannes Film Festival and won the Grand Prix Award. The film was directed and written by Jim Jarmusch.
James also stars in the independent film, “The King”, with Gael Garcia Bernal and William Hurt which screened at Cannes Film Festival. Pell plays Malerie Sandow, the daughter of a pastor (William Hurt) who is seduced by a stranger, Elvis (Gael Garcia Bernal). The film was directed by James Marsh.
Born in Virginia, Pell currently resides in New York. James attended the Tisch School of Arts at NYU. Her first role was as a guest star on a CBS pilot that was directed by Barry Levinson. She also starred in an Ikea commercial directed by Wes Anderson and a few independent films and shorts.
Steve Strait (Luke)
Steven made his feature film debut in the Disney feature SKY HIGH about a high school for Super Heroes in the sky. Steven plays Warren Peace, the high school rebel who can shoot fire from his hands. The film also stars Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston. Strait has been working on the New York Stage for seven years and has studied acting at the famed Stella Adler Acting Studio and the Black Nexus Acting Studio, among others.
To finance tuition at his private high school, Strait worked as a model for such top photographers as Bruce Weber, Herb Ritts, Steven Klein, and Tony Duran while pursuing theatre roles.
Born and raised in Greenwich Village, Strait was planning a move to Southern California to pursue film work, when he was cast in SKY HIGH. While in Los Angeles with the sole objective of finding an apartment, Strait’s agent insisted he go on just one audition. Strait is also the lyricist and lead singer for the band “Tribe.”
Ashlee Simpson (Clea)
“I’m a simple girl in a complex world,” sings 20-year-old Ashlee Simpson on “Autobiography,” a track from her debut Geffen Records album, but that doesn’t begin to sum up this multi-talented performer’s accomplishments at her tender age. With a regular role as Cecilia in WB’s hit TV Seventh Heaven, the Ashlee reality series on MTV and a Number One debut album, Ashlee has emerged from, like the name of another new song on the album, this one about her famous family, the “Shadow.”
Ashlee co-wrote every song on the album, including the first single, “Pieces of Me,” a full-throttle rocker about a best friend who brings comfort at the end of a long, stressful day of work. “It’s like a sigh,” she says. “When I finally see him, all the other dramas fade away.”
The Waco, TX-born Ashlee has been dancing since she was three, and by 11, she was the youngest person ever admitted into the prestigious School of American Ballet. She moved to L.A. with her parents and sister Jessica when she was 14, pursuing an acting career and dancing in her sister’s stage show, but dreaming of doing music all the while. She went on to make appearances on Malcolm in the Middle and The View before landing a regular role in Seventh Heaven. She had the track “Just Let Me Cry” on Disney’s Freaky Friday soundtrack, and began recording on breaks from filming the TV show.
Shannyn Sossamon (Josie)
Shannyn Sossamon earned the key role of Jocelyn, opposite Heath Ledger, in “A Knight’s Tale” after being spotted by the film’s casting director while deejaying at a friend’s birthday party. She had headed from Reno to Los Angeles to dance just one day after her high school graduation. Six auditions later, she had the role.
In 2002, Shannyn was seen in “40 Days 40 Nights” co-starring Josh Hartnett, and “The Rules of Attraction” for director Roger Avery. In 2003, she co-starred with Heath Ledger in “The Order” for director Brian Helgeland, and has completed principal photography on “Devour”, “Catacombs”, “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” and “Chasing Ghosts.”
Carrie Fisher (Carrie)
Since her feature debut opposite Warren Beatty in “Shampoo” in 1975, Carrie Fisher has been a compelling force in the film industry. She attained international recognition as Princess Leia, a role that made her a cultural icon, in the box office sensation “Star Wars” and its smash hit sequels “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of The Jedi.”
Ms. Fisher became a sensation on the literary front with The New York Times bestseller, Postcards From the Edge, for which she won the Los Angeles Pen Award for Best First Novel. Director Mike Nichols had her write the script for the 1990 film adaptation, which starred Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine. Three additional best selling novels Surrender the Pink, Delusions of Grandma, and The Best Awful followed. Fisher wrote the comedy script “These Old Broads”, which was directed by Matthew Diamond and premiered on February 12, 2001 on ABC-TV. The film starred her mother Debbie Reynolds, along with Elizabeth Taylor, Shirley MacLaine, and Joan Collins.
Other previous credits include “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” “Austin Powers,” “This is My Life,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “The Burbs,” “Hannah and Her Sisters,” “The Blues Brothers,” "Charlie's Angels - Full Throttle," "Stateside," and "Wonderland."
Carrie Fisher’s triumph over mental illness has made her a very popular speaker on the lecture circuit. She has appeared on the Senate floor sponsored by Eli Lily and Company urging state legislators to increase government funding on medication for people living with mental health issues. She has also been the keynote speaker at the 5th Annual Breaking the Silence, benefiting the Community alliance and has received dozens of various awards for her courage and commitment to fighting mental illness and the stigmas that are associated with it. She's currently working on her fifth novel, and resides in Los Angeles with her daughter, Billie.
Kip Pardue (Euan Falcon)
After graduating from Yale University in 1998, Kip Pardue relocated to the West Coast to pursue an acting career. In a short span of only a few years, Kip has landed coveted roles in both studio and independent features. He has been singled out by the industry trade Variety and by Vanity Fair as a “Hollywood star on the rise.” In 2001, he starred as the hot quarterback Sunshine in producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s Disney hit “Remember the Titans” (grossing more than $100 million), opposite Denzel Washington and Will Patton.
Pardue will soon be seen in Sony Classic’s “Imaginary Heroes” opposite Sigourney Weaver, Jeff Daniels and Emile Hirsch. He can be seen in Academy Award winner Roger Avary’s “The Rules of Attraction” for Lions Gate Films. He also stars in “Loggerheads” opposite Bonnie Hunt and Tess Harper, and recently wrapped “Laura Smiles” opposite Petra Wright.
Another independent film in which Kip can be seen is “The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things” directed by Asia Argento.
Other films of Kip’s include Warner Bros. auto-racing action film “Driven” opposite Sylvester Stallone; the indie feature “American Crime” opposite Rachel Leigh Cook; “Vacuums”, a musical drama in which he starred with Rose McGowan, produced by Quincy Jones; “The Long Sunset,” directed by Nikolai Lebedev opposite Anne Archer and Agnes Bruckner; and “This Girl’s Life” opposite James Woods, Rosario Dawson and Isaiah Washington.
In addition to his busy schedule, Kip makes time to participate in such charitable organizations as MS, Make A Wish and the Tim Redovian Fund.
Peter Weller (Wick Treadway)
A star of stage, screen and television, as well as being a talented jazz musician, Peter Weller most recently completed starring roles in “The Hard Easy” with Henry Thomas, Bruce Dern and Nick Lachey, and “The Poseidon Adventure” with Rutger Hauer and Bryan Brown for The Hallmark Channel.
Weller made his professional debut on the New York stage in Joseph Papp’s NY Shakespeare Festival’s Tony Award-winning “Sticks and Bones,” a role he also re-created for the London premiere. He starred in “Streamers”, produced by Papp and directed by Mike Nichols at Lincoln Center, and originated the role of “Nick” opposite Patty LuPone in David Mamet’ “The Woods,” directed by the author. Other notable stage work includes his roles in “Serenading Louie” opposite Diane Wiest, “Daddy Wolf,” “Rebel Women,” “The Woolgatherer,” “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” with Christine Lahti, and “A Streetcar Named Desire” with Shirley Knight.
On television, he worked in the adaptation of Dorothy Parker’s “Dusk Before Fireworks” directed by Ken Russell for HBO.
His numerous film roles include Sidney Lumet’s “Just Tell Me What You Want”, Alan Parker’s “Shoot The Moon”, George Pan Cosmatos’ “Of Unknown Origin”, Michael Apted’s “Firstborn”, Abel Ferrara’s direction of Elmore Leonard’s “Cat Chaser”, he created the metal man in Paul Verhoeven’s “Robocop”, and the title role in the cult classic “Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai”. He was nominated for Canada’s equivalent of the Oscar for his performance in David Cronenberg’s “Naked Lunch”. He flew between New York and Paris working simultaneously with Woody Allen in “Mighty Aphrodite” and Michaelangelo Antonioni in “Beyond the Clouds”.
Weller’s directorial debut, “Partners” received an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short. It was scored by his friend, jazz great Miles Davis, and was the first film to feature a song by Bob Marley. Weller himself blows trumpet in a modern jazz group with Jeff Goldblum every Tuesday night in L.A. He also directed an adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s “Gold Coast” for Showtime / Paramount, and is preparing to direct another picture for Showtime
Fisher Stevens (Garrett)
Fisher Stevens is an accomplished actor, producer and, most recently, director. Stevens made his motion picture debut at the age of sixteen in the horror film “The Burning.” But it was “The Flamingo Kid,” in 1984 that established Stevens as a serious young actor. Since then, Stevens has gone on to star in such films as “My Science Project,” “Reversal of Fortune,” “Short Circuit,” “Hackers” “Only You,” and most recently, “Undisputed.” Other acting credits include two years as a series regular on CBS’ “Early Edition,” and FOX’s “Key West,” as well as numerous stage performances, both on- and off-Broadway.
Stevens is also a founding partner of GreeneStreet Films, a New York based independent film and television production company. Under the GreeneStreet banner, Stevens has produced numerous films including the five-time Oscar-nominated “In the Bedroom,” the three time ALMA award winning “Piñero,” “The Chateau,” “Lisa Picard is Famous,” and the box office hit, “Swimfan.” Most recently, Stevens produced the MGM romantic comedy “Uptown Girls,” starring Brittany Murphy, and executive produced the thriller “Slow Burn,” starring Ray Liotta and LL Cool J.
As a director, Stevens made his feature debut with the romantic comedy “Just A Kiss,” which starred Marisa Tomei, Taye Diggs and Kyra Sedgwick. The film was released by Paramount Classics in September 2002.
 These production notes provided by Lionsgate Films. |
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Undiscovered
