Morgan Creek Productions' "In Crowd," Starring an Ensemble Cast of Exciting Young Talent, Begins Production in Charleston, S.C.; Warner Bros. to Distribute.

BURBANK, Calif.--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Aug. 12, 1999--

Principal photography began Aug. 9, 1999, in Charleston, S.C., on Morgan Creek Productions' "In Crowd," a psychological thriller featuring a talented ensemble cast that includes Susan Ward, Lori Heuring, Nathan Bexton, Ethan Erickson, Matthew Settle, Kim Murphy, Katharine Towne, Laurie Fortier and Daniel Hugh Kelly.

The announcement was made by Morgan Creek founder, chairman and chief executive officer, James G. Robinson.

"In Crowd" is directed by Mary Lambert, with Robinson producing and Jonathan Zimbert and Michael Rachmil serving as executive producers. The script is by Mark Gibson & Phil Halprin and Caleb Carr.

The Morgan Creek Productions film will be distributed by Warner Bros. Adrien Williams (Lori Heuring) enters the "In Crowd" when she is hired by a posh East Coast country club and befriended by Brittany Foster (Susan Ward), the charismatic leader of a clique of wealthy teen-agers.

Brittany takes Adrien under her wing, attempts to show her the benefits of the good life and introduces her to other members of her inner circle, including the object of Brittany's affection, tennis pro Matt Curtis (Matthew Settle). When Matt shows interest in Adrien, Brittany begins to reveal her dark side and Adrien slowly starts to learn that Brittany and her pack of friends will do anything to protect their circle and the dark secrets they harbor.

Sometimes, being popular can be murder.

Susan Ward is familiar to audiences as the young heroine Meg Cummings on Aaron Spelling's NBC daytime drama, "Sunset Beach." Ward was first seen on the popular ABC daytime drama "All My Children," where she returned a year after her debut as a recurring character. In 1995 she landed the part of Bree on Spelling's NBC prime-time series "Malibu Shores." Ward's other television credits include a two-episode stint as a daring princess opposite Kevin Sorbo in the hit syndicated series "Hercules." Originally from Monroe, La., Ward began her career as a model at age 13, signing with the prestigious Ford agency after being spotted by an agent at a local mall.

Texas native Lori Heuring has worked consistently in feature films and television since leaving her home state for Los Angeles just a few years ago. Heuring's feature film credits include Richard Linklater's cool Western, "The Newton Boys" (starring Matthew McConaughey, Skeet Ulrich, Ethan Hawke and Julianna Margulies), "8 Seconds" (with Luke Perry and Stephen Baldwin) and the independent features "Just Sue Me," "The Operator," "The Red Lion," "Restaurant" and others. Her extensive list of television credits includes a series regular role in "The Player" and guest-starring roles in "To Have and To Hold," "Legacy," "Early Edition," "Murder One" and "Ellen."

Nathan Bexton, at age 21, is a versatile young actor on the rise. Bexton is perhaps best known from his work as Montgomery in Gregg Araki's underground hit "Nowhere" and as Mannie in Doug Liman's recent hit "Go," starring opposite Sarah Polley, Scott Wolf, Jay Mohr and Katie Holmes. His upcoming feature projects include roles in the 60s satire "Psycho Beach Party" and the black comedy "Play Dead," starring opposite Diva Zappa. The native of Vancouver counts among his additional feature credits "Dangerous Minds," "Recon" and "Our Father Who Art..." He has also had guest-starring roles on the television series "ER," "Profiler" and the BBC's "Hollywood Families."

Minneapolis native Ethan Erickson has been a performer since he began training as a gymnast at age 8. Erickson spent his freshman year at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque before transferring to the University of California at Santa Barbara to focus on gymnastics; he graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in English literature and moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. Since then, he has appeared in several feature films, including the recent "Jawbreaker," "Two Bits & Pepper," "Love and the Art of Destiny" and "New Testament." His television credits include a recurring role on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," but he is perhaps best known as daytime hunk J. Chamberlain on CBS' "Guiding Light." Erickson's other television credits include guest-starring roles on "General Hospital" and "Beverly Hills, 90210" and a recurring role on "Step by Step."

Matthew Settle will soon be seen in writer/director Jonathan Mostow's WWII ensemble drama, "U-571," along with Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel and Jon Bon Jovi. The actor from the East Coast was most recently seen on the big screen in the hit sequel "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" (opposite Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr.) and on television on HBO's organized crime drama, "Lansky" (appearing as Bugsy Siegel). Settle starred in the lead role in the telefeature "Crime in Connecticut: The Story of Alex Kelly" and had starring roles in the made-for-television movies "Whatever Happened to Bobby Earl" and "Murder in Mind" (alongside Ellen Burstyn).

A native of Olympia, Wash., Kim Murphy was most recently seen in "City of Angels," starring Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage. Murphy's role (opposite Sinbad) as the daughter of Phil Hartman in "Houseguest" brought her to the attention of Hollywood. Her other feature film credits include David Semel's "Campfire Tales." Murphy's television credits include a recurring role on "Party of Five" and guest-starring roles on "LA Doctors," "Touched by an Angel," "Almost Perfect" and "Cybill"; she also appeared alongside Brittany Murphy and Lukas Haas in Oprah Winfrey's "David and Lisa."

Katharine Towne has completed starring roles in a slate of upcoming projects including the dark comedy "But I'm A Cheerleader"; the comedy "The Bachelor," opposite Chris O'Donnell and Renee Zellweger; and "Town and Country," starring Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn. Her upcoming projects include director Robert Zemeckis' motion picture thriller "What Lies Beneath," starring alongside Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer, as well as writer/director Don Roos' mid-season replacement series for NBC, "M.Y.O.B." She was most recently seen in Doug Liman's dark comedy, "Go" (opposite Sarah Polley, Scott Wolf, Jay Mohr and Katie Holmes), the hit romantic comedy "She's All That" (with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook) and in the dramatic story of Olympic runner Steve Prefontaine, "Without Limits." She also recently completed shooting on the upcoming season premiere of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and the David Lynch pilot "Mulholland Drive."

Laurie Fortier is best known for her performance in "To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday," where she starred alongside Michelle Pfeiffer, Peter Gallagher and Claire Danes. Fortier will next be seen starring in the upcoming independent film "Dean Quixote." In addition to numerous roles in episodic network television, her credits include series regular roles on ABC's "Push" and NBC's "Running the Halls."

Daniel Hugh Kelly most recently appeared in the HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon," as well as starring in the TNT Movie "Passing Glory" and the feature "Star Trek: Insurrection." Kelly is probably best known for his starring role opposite Brian Keith in the ABC television series "Hardcastle & McCormick." He also had series regular roles on NBC's "Black Jack Savage" and ABC's "Oh Baby." Kelly's mini-series and telefilm credits include "The Nutcracker" (with Lee Remick), "Murder Ink" (with Ellen Barkin), "Dark Eyes" (with Kelly McGillis), "Citizen Cohn" (with James Woods) and "Tuskegee Airmen" (with Lawrence Fishburne). His feature film credits include Stephen King's "Cujo," "Bad Company," "The Good Son," "Labor of Love" and "Someone to Watch Over Me."

Mary Lambert has an eclectic and prodigious body of work that includes Clio-winning television commercials, Top Ten Videos (including Madonna's groundbreaking and controversial video for "Like a Prayer"), an award-winning interactive game (for Sega), movies for television and a feature film career that began with the independent film "Siesta," starring Ellen Barkin, Gabriel Byrne, Jodie Foster and Julian Sands.

Lambert began her music video career in the 80s, pioneering the format and collaborating with some of the foremost artists of that decade including Janet Jackson, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, Motley Crue, Annie Lennox, Bobbie Brown, Debbie Harry, Chrissie Hynde and Sting. She directed "Borderline" for Madonna in 1983 and would eventually direct four more videos for her (including the classic Marilyn Monroe-inspired "Material Girl"). Recently, Lambert has come back to the music video genre with videos for the bands The Devlins, Live and She Moves.

She has directed three movies for television: "Grand Isle (starring Kelly McGillis and Ellen Burstyn), "Face of Evil" (starring Tracy Gold and Shawnee Smith) and "No Recourse" (starring Rachel Ward). In addition, she directed CableACE-nominated episodes for HBO's "Tales From the Crypt" and Showtime's "Drive-In Classics."

At the end of 1997, Mary finished shooting "Clubland" (an independent feature about the music scene in Los Angeles), produced by Mimi Polk-Gitlan and Glen Ballard (who produced a soundtrack for the film). Her additional feature film credits include Stephen King's "Pet Sematary" (starring Fred Gwynne and Miko Hughes) and "Pet Sematary II" (starring Anthony Edwards and Eddie Furlong).

Mark Gibson studied film theory with Andrew Sarris at Columbia University and started in the New York independent film community producing television specials for Comedy Central and NBC and music videos for such artists as Bob Dylan, the B-52's, Phil Collins and Billy Joel. Gibson also produced "Choices," a documentary on prison life hosted by Lawrence Fishburne and Martin Sheen, which aired on the Discovery Channel. He also developed and produced the Bravo television series "Fishing with John Lurie," with episodes featuring Dennis Hopper in Thailand, Willem Dafoe in Maine, Matt Dillon in Costa Rica and Tom Waits in Jamaica. Gibson wrote and directed his first independent feature, "Lush," in January 1999. Gibson and writing partner, Phil Halprin, have been writing together for five years.

Originally from Catskill Mountains, New York, Phil Halprin earned a bachelor's degree from New York University and a master's degree from University of Southern California (both degrees in film). At N.Y.U., he won a student Emmy for "Justice Is a Constant Struggle," his film about the history of the National Lawyers Guild. Halprin has produced music videos at Motown Records and his script, "Red Clays of Georgia," was a finalist in the Walt Disney Screenwriting Fellowship program.

Caleb Carr is the author of the best-selling historical novels The Alienist (published in 1994, currently being produced as a motion picture by Scott Rudin) and "The Angel of Darkness" (published in 1997). Born and raised in New York City, Carr attended Kenyon College in Ohio for two years and then returned home to earn a history degree at New York University.

He contributed to the World Policy Journal, The New York Times and Military History Quarterly and published the coming-of-age novel Casing the Promised Land in 1980. He then wrote two books of nonfiction -- American Invulnerable (with James Chace) and a well-received biography of American mercenary Frederick Townsend Ward, The Devil Soldier (which was optioned by Tom Cruise, with John Woo directing and supervising development of a script by Carr) -- and returned to writing fiction in 1994. Carr also wrote the television movie "Bad Attitudes."