This act was in defiance of a prediction by Tiberius's soothsayer Thrasyllus of Mendes that Caligula had " no more chance of becoming emperor than of riding a horse across the Bay of Baiae ".

Spacey was Mendes ' first choice for the role of Lester, even though DreamWorks had urged the director to consider better-known actors ; similarly, the studio suggested several actors for the role of Carolyn until Mendes offered the part to Bening without DreamWorks ' knowledge.

Mendes considers the voice to be Ball's, but even while the writer was " strongly influential " on set, he often had to accept deviations from his vision, particularly ones that transformed the cynical tone of his script into something more optimistic.

Mendes came across American Beauty in a pile of eight scripts at Swofford's house, and knew immediately that it was the one he wanted to make ; early in his career, he had been inspired by how the film Paris, Texas ( 1984 ) presented contemporary America as a mythic landscape and he saw the same theme in American Beauty, as well as parallels with his own childhood.

Mendes found that he still had to convince DreamWorks ' production executives to let him direct.

In June 1998, DreamWorks confirmed that it had contracted Mendes to direct the film.

" Mendes offered Bening the role of Carolyn without the studio's consent ; although executives were upset at Mendes, by September 1998, DreamWorks had entered negotiations with Spacey and Bening.

Spielberg — who visited the set a few times — also advised Mendes not to worry about costs if he had a " great idea " toward the end of a long working day.

Mendes realized during editing that the film was different to the one he had envisioned.

Instead, Mendes was drawn to the emotion and darkness ; he began to use the score and shots he had intended to discard to craft the film along these lines.

He trialled several versions of the opening ; the first edit included bookend scenes in which Jane and Ricky are convicted of Lester's murder, but Mendes excised these in the last week of editing because he felt they made the film lose its mystery, and because they did not fit with the theme of redemption that had emerged during production.

He and Mendes argued, but Ball was more accepting after Mendes cut the sequences completely ; Ball felt that without the scenes the film was more optimistic and had evolved into something that " for all its darkness had a really romantic heart ".

Conrad Hall was not the first choice for director of photography ; Mendes believed he was " too old and too experienced " to want the job, and he had been told that Hall was difficult to work with.

Hall was recommended to Mendes by Tom Cruise, because of Hall's work on Without Limits ( 1998 ), which Cruise had executive produced.

Mendes was directing Cruise's then-wife Nicole Kidman in the play The Blue Room during pre-production on American Beauty, and had already storyboarded the whole film.

Vasco also had one known sister, Teresa da Gama ( who married Lopo Mendes de Vasconcelos ).

Mila Kunis received the 2011 Fun, Fearless Female of the Year honor, a title that had been previously awarded to Anna Faris ( 2010 ), Ali Larter ( 2009 ), Katherine Heigl ( 2008 ), Eva Mendes ( 2007 ), Beyoncé ( 2006 ), Ashlee Simpson ( 2005 ), Alicia Silverstone ( 2004 ), Sandra Bullock ( 2003 ), Britney Spears ( 2002 ), Debra Messing ( 2001 ), Jennifer Love Hewitt ( 2000 ), Shania Twain ( 1999 ) and Ashley Judd ( 1998 )

Mendes, having recently finished 1999's acclaimed American Beauty, pursued a story that had minimal dialogue and conveyed emotion in the imagery.

" To keep Hanks ' character from justifying his violent actions in the film, Mendes left out scenes in the final cut that had Sullivan explaining to his son about his background.

Sam Mendes directed Spacey in a Shakespeare's Richard III.

Reviewers praised most aspects of the production, with particular emphasis on Mendes, Spacey and Ball ; criticism tended to focus on the familiarity of the characters and setting.

Mendes did not want a big star " weighing the film down "; he felt Spacey was the right choice based on his performances in the 1995 films The Usual Suspects and Seven, and 1992's Glengarry Glen Ross.

During the film, Lester's physique improves from flabby to toned ; Spacey worked out during filming to improve his body, but because Mendes shot the scenes out of chronological order, Spacey varied postures to portray the stages.

Before filming, Mendes and Spacey analyzed Jack Lemmon's performance in The Apartment ( 1960 ), because Mendes wanted Spacey to emulate " the way moved, the way he looked, the way he was in that office and the way he was an ordinary man and yet a special man ".

Mendes encouraged some improvisation ; for example, when Lester masturbates in bed beside Carolyn, the director asked Spacey to improvise several euphemisms for the act in each take.

Mendes spent two days filming Spacey against bluescreen, but removed the sequence as he believed it to be too whimsical —" like a Coen brothers movie "— and therefore inappropriate for the tone he was trying to set.

Critically acclaimed, American Beauty was widely considered the best film of 1999 by the American press ; it received overwhelming praise, chiefly for Spacey, Mendes and Ball.

* American Beauty ( film ), a 1999 film starring Kevin Spacey and directed by Sam Mendes

In 2011, well-known film actor Kevin Spacey starred in an Old Vic production which subsequently toured the United States, directed by well-known stage and film director Sam Mendes.

Mendes made his directorial debut with the critically acclaimed and box-office success American Beauty, starring Kevin Spacey.

" Bening and a hair stylist collaborated to create a " PTA president coif " hairstyle, and Mendes and production designer Naomi Shohan researched mail order catalogs to better establish Carolyn's environment of a " spotless suburban manor ".

To help Bening get into Carolyn's mindset, Mendes gave her music that he believed Carolyn would like.

Her only film appearance that year, Milder has a small role in Diane English's comedy film The Women, starring Meg Ryan, Annette Bening and Eva Mendes among others.

Recent motion pictures in which the agency has been involved in include Fox Searchlight's Crazy Heart, starring Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Robert Duvall, and directed by Scott Cooper ; Richard Eyre ’ s The Other Man, starring Liam Neeson, Antonio Banderas and Laura Linney ; Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer, starring Pierce Brosnan, Ewan McGregor, Olivia Williams, and Kim Cattrall ; James Toback's documentary Tyson, which was the official selection in Un Certain Regard at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and won a specially named " Knockout " prize ; Chris Rock's documentary Good Hair, which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and won a special jury prize ; and The Women, directed by Diane English and starring Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith, Candice Bergen, and Bette Midler.

Diane English directed and co-wrote a long-in-development contemporary remake of the film, starring Jada Pinkett Smith, Meg Ryan, Eva Mendes and Annette Bening, which was released in 2008.

The comedy, which is a remake of the 1939 George Cukor film of the same name, stars Meg Ryan, Eva Mendes, and Annette Bening, and was released in 2008, to mostly negative reviews, although tripling its budget worldwide .< ref >

Mendes avoided using close-ups, as he believed the technique was overused ; he also cited Spielberg's advice that he should imagine an audience silhouetted at the bottom of the camera monitor, to keep in mind that he was shooting for display on a screen.

However, these scenes are not on the DVD as he changed his mind after recording the commentary ; Mendes felt that to show scenes he previously chose not to use would detract from the film's integrity.

The prototype for this model can be found in Bolos of Mendes ' second century BCE work, Physika kai Mystika ( On Physical and Mystical Matters ).

At the temple of Mendes, figures of Osiris were made from wheat and paste placed in a trough on the day of the murder, then water was added for several days, until finally the mixture was kneaded into a mold of Osiris and taken to the temple to be buried ( the sacred grain for these cakes were grown only in the temple fields ).

Though a Broadway production starring Nathan Lane and Victor Garber and directed by Sam Mendes was announced for Spring 2000, the New York debut of the musical was delayed.

Next he teamed up with American Beauty director Sam Mendes for the adaptation of Max Allan Collins's and Richard Piers Rayner's graphic novel Road to Perdition, in which he played an anti-hero role as a hitman on the run with his son.

He also built a sun deck for actress Sally Kellerman and a recording studio for Brazilian band leader Sérgio Mendes.

Beth Swofford of the Creative Artists Agency arranged meetings for Mendes with studio figures in Los Angeles to see if film direction was a possibility.

The studio soon approached Mendes with a deal to direct for the minimum salary allowed under Directors Guild of America rules —$ 150, 000.

Mendes did use a hand-held camera for the scene in which Col. Fitts beats Ricky.

Mendes and an assistant edited the film for ten days between the appointments.

Hall was involved for one month during pre-production ; his ideas for lighting the film began with his first reading of the script, and further passes allowed him to refine his approach before meeting Mendes.