Tommy’s Honour is based on the powerfully moving true story of the challenging relationship between “Old” Tom and “Young” Tommy Morris, the dynamic father-son team who ushered in the modern game of golf. As their fame grew, Tom and Tommy, Scotland’s Golf Royalty, were touched by drama and personal tragedy. At first matching his father’s success, Tommy’s talent and fame grew to outshine his father’s accomplishments and respect as founder of the Open Championship in 1860 with a series of his own triumphs. But in contrast to Tommy’s public persona, his personal turmoil ultimately led him to rebel against both the aristocracy who gave him opportunity and the parents who shunned his passionate relationship with his wife.
Directed by Jason Connery, the film stars Peter Mullan (War Horse), Jack Lowden (’71), Ophelia Lovibond (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Sam Neill (Jurassic Park).
Peter Mullan is a Scottish actor, writer and director, whose role as the recovering alcoholic in My Name is Joe won him the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998.
A variety of roles in gritty British films, including Trainspotting, Tyrannosaur and Shallow Grave, is balanced with performances in blockbusters including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Braveheart and War Horse.
Peter is also known internationally for television dramas such as Top of the Lake (BBC) and Olive Kitteridge (HBO).
Directing credits include Orphans, Neds and the award winning The Magdalene Sisters.
Hailing from the Scottish Borders and just 24, Jack Lowden has already had an enviable career in the theatre industry and film and television are not very far behind. In 2014 he was listed as one of Screen International’s “Stars of Tomorrow” and was awarded an Olivier Award.
He attended the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and, whilst there, was cast in the touring production of the National Theatre of Scotland’s Black Watch. He garnered much praise and attention for his leading role and this performance was shortly followed by his West End debut. Jack was cast as the lead role Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire, which originated at Hampstead Theatre before transferring to the Gielgud. Again, Jack’s performance was well received by critics and audiences alike. Jack then starred as Oswald opposite Lesley Manville in Richard Eyre’s production of Ghosts at the Almeida Theatre. His heart-breaking performance was described by Dominic Maxwell of the Times as “so quietly excellent you almost forget anyone is acting.” Ghosts transferred to the Trafalgar Studios in the West End and received a host of awards. Jack was awarded a prestigious Olivier Award for his performance and won the Ian Charleson Award for Outstanding Performance in a Classical Role, an award set up by the National Theatre and The Times to honour actors under 30. Jack’s most recent theatre credit was starring as Orestes opposite Kristen Scott Thomas in Electra at The Old Vic Theatre. In film, Jack has been involved in a varied array of projects. His film credits include uwantme2killhim? (2013) and Yann Demange’s award winning ’71 (2014).
Jack’s television career began in 2012 opposite Sheridan Smith in ITV’s Mrs. Biggs, he then appeared in hugely popular Sky/Canal+ drama The Tunnel (2013) and starred as lead role Michael in The Passing Bells (2014), a powerful drama for BBC One to commemorate WW1. He has just finished filming the lead role of Nikolai Rostov in the highly anticipated new adaptation of War and Peace for BBC One, produced by The Weinstein Company and is about to start filming a leading role with Peter Mullan in the feature film Tommy’s Honour.
Ophelia Lovibond was born in London. Aged 14, she secured her first professional role in the Channel 4 sitcom, The Wilsons, about the dysfunctional life of the Wilson family.
Ophelia’s additional television credits include Loving You, Single, Nathan Barley, Messiah, Delta Forever (Nominated for a BAFTA Scotland Award - Best Entertainment Programme), FM, Titanic: Blood and Steel, and The Poison Tree.
In 2005, Ophelia made her film debut in Roman Polanski’s award winning adaptation of the classic Dickens tale, Oliver Twist. In 2009, Ophelia starred in Sam Taylor Johnson’s directorial debut Nowhere Boy, a biopic about John Lennon’s adolescence, the creation of his first band, The Quarrymen, and its evolution into The Beatles. Ophelia played Marie Kennedy, John Lennon’s girlfriend alongside Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kristin Scott Thomas and Anne-Marie Duff. The film was nominated for four British Academy Film Awards, six British Independent Film Awards and sixteen other awards.
Other early film roles include Chatroom, London Boulevard, and 4.3.2.1. In 2011, Ophelia had a supporting role in American romantic comedy and box office hit, No Strings Attached starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. The film grossed a worldwide total of $147.7 million. Following this, Ophelia starred in the leading role in, Turnout, based on an original screenplay by director Lee Sales and actors Francis Pope and George Russo. Ophelia was also seen in Mr. Popper’s Penguins an American comedy family film directed by Mark Waters, and starring Jim Carrey. The film earned a total of $187,361,754 worldwide.
Ophelia’s additional film credits include Crusade In Jeans, Shadows in the Sun, GOZO and A Single Shot. Ophelia was also featured in the February 2013 music video “Please Don’t Say You Love Me,” by singer Gabrielle Aplin. In 2014, Ophelia starred in the warped urban comedy film Eight Minutes Idle, and Inside No. 9, a dark British comedy anthology series written by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton and produced by the BBC. Following this, Ophelia appeared in the sci-fi short, Exit Log, and TV series Mr. Sloane.
Last Summer Ophelia was seen in James Gunn’s American superhero film Guardians of the Galaxy, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Ophelia played the character, Carina Walters, The Collector’s aide. The film featured an ensemble cast including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Karen Gillan, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, and Benicio del Toro. Guardians of the Galaxy has become the third highest-grossing Marvel Studios film at the domestic box office. The sci-fi action comedy had grossed $319 million in its ninth week of release. Only Marvel Studios’ The Avengers and Iron Man 3 have higher domestic box office totals than Guardians of the Galaxy.
Ophelia recently made her US television debut in the third series of Emmy® nominated CBS/Sky Living drama Elementary, a modern take on the cases of Sherlock Holmes, with the detective now living in New York City. She played the recurring role of Kitty Winter, Sherlock’s new protégé. Ophelia starred opposite Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu.
Earlier this year Ophelia reprised her role as Izzy Gould in the second series of BBC2’s British comedy series W1A, John Morton’s follow-up to multi-BAFTA-winning comedy series Twenty Twelve. Ophelia also appeared in a supporting role in the indie romantic comedy Man Up, opposite Simon Pegg and Lake Bell. The film screened at the Tribeca Fim Festival 2015.
Ophelia has recently completed filming indie thriller The Autopsy of Jane Doe, alongside Emile Hirsch and Brian Cox and directed by André Øvredal.
Ophelia recently made her professional stage debut in the revival of Lucy Prebble’s The Effect at Sheffield Theatres. The award winning play premiered at the National Theatre in 2012. Ophelia starred alongside Stuart Bunce, Priyanga Burford and Henry Pettigrew. WhatsOnStage described the play as “brain-racing, pulse-quickening, pupil-dilating theatre that puts people front and centre. Unmissable.” And said “Pettigrew and Lovibond are both flat-out outstanding.” The Stage commented that, “It helps that, in a play about chemistry, the attraction between Ophelia Lovibond and Henry Pettigrew feels unforced. Their performances are both spot on; he’s a bit of a waster but charming with it and she’s nervy but appealing. Their final scenes together are incredibly sad and tender.”
Ophelia will begin filming the golf drama Tommy’s Honour alongside Peter Mullan and Jack Lowden this August. The film is based on the golfing pioneer Tom Morris’ multi-faceted relationship with his son Tommy, and will be directed by Jason Connery.
Sam Neill was born in Northern Ireland, to army parents, a New Zealand-born father and an English-born mother. His family returned to the South Island of New Zealand in 1954. He went to boarding schools and then attended the universities at Canterbury and Victoria. He has a BA in English Literature. Following his graduation, he worked with the New Zealand Players and other theater groups. He also was a film director, editor and scriptwriter for the New Zealand National Film Unit for 6 years. His first feature film was Sleeping Dogs (1977). He then moved to Australia and his performance in My Brilliant Career (1979) was noticed in London by British actor James Mason who lobbied for Neill to get the lead role in Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981). Because of this, Neill moved to England where he also became famous as the title character in Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983). After his Great Britain stint, he moved back to Australia in the late 1980s. He now makes films all over the world to great commercial and critical success with A Cry in the Dark with Meryl Streep (1988), Dead Calm with Nicole Kidman (1989), Jurassic Park (1993) and The Piano (1993), The Horse Whisperer (1998), Jurassic Park III (2001), In Her Skin with Guy Pearce (2009), The Vow with Rachel McAdams (2012) and the upcoming A Long Way Down.
Jason Connery started directing feature films six years ago through his production company Unconditional Entertainment. He directed and produced his first film Pandemic, which was sold worldwide, and led to the Sony release of his second film, The Devil’s Tomb, starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Ron Perlman and Ray Winstone. Connery then went on to direct Syfy’s highest viewed film of the year, 51, starring Bruce Boxleitner, and John Shea. His most recent film, based on a true story, The Philly Kid, was made for Warner Brothers, produced by Joel Silver, and starred Wes Chatham, Neal McDonough, and Michael Jai White.
Connery has also been an actor for over thirty years, appearing in more than 100 films and television shows. While he continues to act, he is also commissioned to travel countrywide utilizing his expertise in teaching on camera seminars. Additionally, Connery has directed many plays throughout his career and founded Short Mondays, a venue for artists to exhibit their short films. Connery is perfectly suited to tell this story, having been educated in, and currently owning a cottage in Scotland. He grew up on a golf course playing with his father, Sean Connery, whose well-documented passion for the game has been a wonderful asset. Sean has lent his knowledge and storytelling abilities to Tommy’s Honour, working with Jason to craft such a dramatic and personal story between a father and son.
Connery has a number of films in the works, including Lion’s Den, but Tommy’s Honour is a huge priority. Jason is excited to direct Tommy’s Honour: “It’s a fantastic story, a father and son love story, with golf being the backdrop. Also we shoot in my native country of Scotland, what could be better?!!”
Keith Bank is the founder of Chicago based venture capital firm KB Partners and has a diverse background in start-up companies, real estate and other entrepreneurial ventures. Mr. Bank has been a very “hands on” venture capital and angel investor in a wide variety of industries, including the feature film, cable TV, sports and golf, semiconductor, computer hardware and software, medical device and pharmaceutical, internet, consumer and retail, and social media arenas. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of SteadyMed, Ltd. (NASDAQ:STDY), Versatile Sports Partners, and Club Champion Golf. Prior to forming the KB Partners’ venture funds, Mr. Bank co-founded and served on the Board and as President of MST Analytics, Inc., a semi-conductor product and services business and was a Principal at HSA, Inc., a Chicago based national real estate development, investment, management and brokerage firm.
Mr. Bank is a founding board member and past Chairman of the Illinois Venture Capital Association. He also founded, and for 16 years, served as the Chairman of the Chicago Select Golf Invitational, the largest American Cancer Society golf fundraising event in the country, having raised approximately $7 million since inception. Other career highlights include procuring the equity and debt financing for, and serving as the Producer of a feature film entitled Heaven Is a Playground.
Mr. Bank is active in CEOs Against Cancer and NU Wave, an athletic fundraising vehicle for Northwestern University. He graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. degree in Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MBA in Finance with honors from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He is 99% of the way toward completing playing the Golf Digest Top 100 Courses in the U.S.
Producer Bob Last of Sellout Pictures has produced or executive produced numerous critically acclaimed films, including Academy Award® nominated Sylvain Chomet’s L'illusionniste; Terence Davies’ The House of Mirth starring Gillian Anderson, Eric Stoltz, and Dan Aykroyd; and the children’s animated feature adaptation of The Three Musketeers, co-produced with Lars Von Trier’s Zentropa. In addition, Last has a slate of projects currently in development or production; the contemporary noir Cold Hands with producer Carole Sheridan, Bullet Trick co-produced with Berlin’s Studio Babelsberg, Out of the Woods, a stop motion feature, and the Terence Davies adaptation of Sunset Song, featuring Peter Mullan and Agyness Deyn, produced with Hurricane Films.
Mr. Last plays an active role in public policy around the cultural economy and creative industries as a member of advisory boards for Glasgow University’s Centre for Cultural Policy Research, and recently completed a study of the role of micro-businesses in the creative industries for the Scottish Government. Additionally, Mr. Last is the chairman of the non-profit Cultural Enterprise Office, Scotland’s foremost organization advising new creative businesses within the country, and he has occasionally been a tutor and consultant at The London Consortium, the National Film and Television School, and the International Film School, Cologne.
Filmmaker Jim Kreutzer and CEO of Wind Chill Media Group created and developed the film project based on the book Tommy’s Honor after a “bucket list” visit to St. Andrews with an ill friend in 2010. Tommy’s Honour was selected to be the opening night film for the 70th Edinburgh Film Festival in June, 2016. Tommy’s Honour is due to be released globally in Spring, 2017. His 25 year film career began as an executive producer on the feature film Fever Lake in 1994. He has since produced, consulted on and financed nearly 10 feature films. Kreutzer’s additional executive producing and producing credits include, Just Write, Last Great Ride, Big Brother Trouble, Dexter Dickie and Ghost Club. In 2007, he also founded Wind Chill Distribution LLC. He created and acted as supervising producer on the 100 years of history & music compilation CD for the Chicago Cubs – one of the top selling sports CDs of 2008.
Kreutzer is currently in development on multiple projects including feature films as well as several TV series. He has now formed King Hawk Multimedia with Scott Jones of Artist View where he is the co-CEO in charge of production while Jones, a 25 year film industry veteran, will serve as co-CEO of distribution. King Hawk’s slate of US and international film and television projects are currently in different stages of development.
Tim Moore has overseen the physical production of all of Clint Eastwood’s films since 2002. He served as executive producer on American Sniper, the smash box office hit of 2015 starring Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller. Mr. Moore was recently an executive producer on the action hit Need for Speed and the movie version of Jersey Boys. In 2009, he executive produced the critically acclaimed drama Invictus, starring Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman, which received widespread acclaim and several Oscar® and Golden Globe® nominations, including a Golden Globe® nod for Best Picture – Drama. In addition, Moore was an executive producer on J. Edgar, Hereafter, Gran Torino and Changeling, and served as a co-producer on the dual World War II epics Flags of Our Fathers and the award-winning Letters from Iwo Jima, which was Globe®-nominated for Best Picture.
He was also a producer on the 2011 drama In the Land of Blood and Honey, which marked Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut. The film received a Golden Globe® nomination for Best Foreign Language film, the Stanley Kramer Award from the Producers Guild and the Best Foreign Film Award at the NAACP Image Awards.
His work with Eastwood also includes the dramas Mystic River, which earned six Oscar® nominations, including Best Picture, and Million Dollar Baby, which won four Academy Awards®, including Best Picture. Additionally, he was an executive producer on Rob Lorenz’s Trouble with the Curve, starring Eastwood, Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake, and co-producer on Alison Eastwood’s directorial debut, Rails & Ties.
Moore has also worked several times with director Rowdy Herrington over the last two decades, including as a producer on the ESPY-nominated biopic Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius. Their earlier collaborations include the films A Murder of Crows, Road House and Jack’s Back.
Moore’s other producing credits include Steve Buscemi’s Animal Factory and Arne Glimcher’s The White River Kid. For television, he was the production manager on the telefilm Semper Fi and produced the telefilm Stolen from the Heart.
Before starting his film career, Moore attended UCLA, where he met John Shepherd. The two have gone on to produce four independent features together: Eye of the Storm, The Ride, The Climb and the aforementioned Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius.
Since April 2013 Mr. Whitney has managed a private family investment office focused on startup businesses and entertainment projects, where he is a Tony Award winning producer. Since his retirement from Blackstone Group L.P. in April 2013 until September 2015, he was also a Senior Advisor to Blackstone. Mr. Whitney was previously a Senior Managing Director and Head of Blackstone’s Investor Relations & Business Development Group from 1996 to April 2013. After joining Blackstone in 1988, Mr. Whitney focused his efforts in raising capital for Blackstone’s private investment funds and the establishment of Blackstone affiliates in the alternative investment area. He was a Member of the Executive Committee and was responsible for the development of Blackstone Real Estate Partners, Blackstone Mezzanine Partners, and Blackstone Debt Advisors and oversaw Blackstone’s initial investments and joint ventures in the real estate area, as well as the establishment of the Park Hill business. Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Whitney began his career at Coopers & Lybrand in 1980, where he spent time in the firm’s accounting and audit areas as well as in the tax and mergers and acquisitions areas. Mr. Whitney currently sits on the Board of Trustees for The First Tee, and the University of Delaware, where he received a B.S. in accounting.
A former feature writer for the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Times, Pamela Marin has also written for Playboy, Redbook, Parents and other magazines. An essay she wrote was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Her critically acclaimed memoir, Motherland, was a Chicago Tribune “Editor’s Choice” selection in 2005. She is at work on her next screenplay.
Kevin Cook has written for Sports Illustrated, GQ, Playboy, the New York Times, Golf Digest and Golf Magazine. He is the author of Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on Everything; Flip: The Inside Story of TV’s First Black Superstar; and an investigative biography of Kitty Genovese, Kitty: The Murder, the Bystanders, the Crime that Changed America. His first book, Tommy’s Honor, won the U.S. Golf Association’s Herbert Warren Wind Award as the best golf book of 2007.