The Virginia Film Festival

The Virginia Film Festival announced today that noted actor David Morse will be appearing with his new film Passengers on Friday, October 31 at 7PM at Newcomb Theatre.

Morse is well known to film, television and theatre audiences alike thanks to a long and distinguished resume that began with his starring role as Dr. Jack Morrison in the hit medical drama St. Elsewhere beginning in 1982.  His many high profile film roles include a number of “bad guy” roles such as a prison guard opposite Tom Hanks in The Green Mile and  the questionable neighbor in the 2007 film Disturbia.  Morse’s other films include Desperate Hours, The Crossing Guard, The Indian Runner and Hearts in Atlantis, among others.  He earned a pair of Emmy nominations for his role as George Washington in the recent HBO miniseries John Adams and for a recurring role on the Fox series House, where he played a detective with a vendetta against Dr. Gregory House. The critic Jon Podhoretz has said that he “enlivens and deepens every movie fortunate enough to have him in the cast.”

“We are thrilled that David Morse will be joining us this year and greatly look forward to his appearance and to his film, Passengers, which also stars Anne Hathaway. Our preview screening will also include a remote hookup interview with its director, Rodrigo Garcia,” said Virginia Film Festival Artistic Director Richard Herskowitz.  “David Morse is one of those actors who, no matter what role he is in, seems to jump off the screen and create indelible characters.  ”

David Morse joins Sissy Spacek, actor Troy Garity, actor/director Peter Riegert and acclaimed director and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, as just some of the featured guests of the Aliens! themed program, which runs from October 30-November 2 at venues throughout Charlottesville.  Aliens! will explore two distinct sides of its theme title, from extraterrestrial visitors to global immigrants.

In addition, the Festival has announced the addition of a pair of noted Washington attorneys who have represented individuals who have been indefinitely detained without charge by the United States at Guantanamo Bay.  The attorneys, Agnieszka M. Fryszman of Cohen Milstein, Hausfeld and Toll; and David G. Dickman of Venable LLP, will join writer Sig Libowitz and actor Peter Riegert for a discussion following the 1PM screening of the new film The Response on Saturday, November 1 at Regal Downtown #4.  The panel discussion will be moderated by Dahlia Lithwick, contributing editor at Newsweek and senior editor at Slate.

The idea for The Response, a half-hour film taken directly from the transcripts of the Guantanamo Bay tribunals was hatched by Libowitz, a character actor who decided he had played so many lawyers he might as well learn to be one.  While in a class at the University of Maryland Law School, Libowitz was fascinated when one of his professors read from the transcripts and suggested after class that it would make for a compelling movie.  The school then became a financial supporter of the film.

For more information on the upcoming 2008 Virginia Film Festival, visit www.vafilm.com or call 1-800-UVA-Fest.  Tickets may be ordered online at this site until 6PM on Sunday, October 27 and after that date in person at the Regal Downtown Box Office.  Box office hours are from 10AM until 4PM through Wednesday, October 29 and 10AM until 10:15PM during the Festival weekend.