Scottish actor Ewan Gordon McGregor was born in 1971. He has had success in mainstream, indie, and art house films. McGregor is perhaps best known for his roles as heroin addict Mark Renton in the drama by Danny Boyle Trainspotting (1996), young Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the George Lucas' Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999-2005), and poet Christian in the musical film Moulin Rouge! by Baz Luhrmann (2001). He has also received critical acclaim for his starring roles in theatre productions of Guys and Dolls (2005-07) and Othello (2007-08). Among his other movies, Brassed Off (1996) by Mark Herman, Velvet Goldmine (1998) by Todd Haynes, Big Fish (2003) by Tim Burton, The Island (2005) by Michael Bay, I Love You Phillip Morris (2009) by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, and The Ghost Writer (2010) by Roman Polanski.

American director, screenwriter and producer Bryan Jay Singer was born in 1965. He attended West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, graduating in 1984, and studied filmmaking for two years at New York's School of Visual Arts and at USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles. After his feature debut Public Access (1993), Singer won critical acclaim for his work on The Usual Suspects (1995), for which Christopher McQuarrie won an Academy Award for the screenplay and Kevin Spacey for Best Supporting Actor. In 1998, Singer directed Apt Pupil, an adaptation from a Stephen King novel. He began well-known among fans of the science fiction and superhero genres for his work on the X-Men films (X-Men, 2000; X2, 2003) and Superman Returns (2006). In 2008 he directed Tom Cruise in the historical thriller Valkyrie, set in Nazi Germany during World War II.