The USC School of Cinematic Arts, 20th Century Fox,
and USC Visions and Voices: The Arts & Humanities Initiative,
invite you and a guest to attend a special retrospective screening of
 

Aliens (1986)

About Aliens (1986)

About the Guests

PAUL REISER (Actor - "Burke")

Comedian, actor, television writer, author, and musician Paul Reiser has spent the last 30+ years acting in Oscar and Emmy award-winning movies and TV shows. He was voted one of Comedy Central's "Top 100 Comedians of All Time."

The NY-bred and LA-based Reiser has made a number of appearances on screen and even lent his talents behind the camera.

Reiser created and produced the seven-episode series ‘There’s…. Johnny!’ The series, which Reiser co-created with filmmaker David Steven Simon and co-produced with David Gordon Green, intertwines authentic footage from 'The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson with a fictional story taking place behind the scenes at the iconic show in the early 1970’s. ‘There’s…. Johnny!’ premiered on Hulu in November 2017, to critical praise. Decider called ‘There’s… Johnny!’ an “antidote” to 2017 cynicism, commenting that it “…adds up to a television experience unlike any I’ve seen on TV in recent years. ‘There’s…Johnny!’ is an effortless watch...This show unfolds like a dream, a memory fondly recalled.”

Reiser also joined the cast of Netflix's 'Stranger Things' for the series' highly anticipated second season, which was released October 2017 and renewed for a third season. In a role created by the Duffer brothers with him specifically in mind, Reiser played Dr. Owens, a high-ranking member of the Department of Energy who is brought to the small town to investigate the supernatural situations at play.

Reiser collaborated once again with David Gordon Green ('Pineapple Express,' 'Prince Avalanche’), as well as with Steven Soderbergh on the critically-acclaimed hit Amazon series 'Red Oaks.’ Reiser's role as Doug Getty, the president of a New Jersey country club in a nostalgic 80's themed setting, was called "one of his absolute finest, not just of late, but of ever." The show’s third and final season premiered October 2017.

The actor co-stars alongside Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon in the new action-comedy, ‘The Spy Who Dumped Me,’ which debuted on August 3, 2018.

Additionally, Reiser has been cast in the latest project of ‘Mad Men’ showrunner Matthew Weiner, ‘The Romanoffs.’ The Amazon mini-series is centered around the modern-day descendants of the mysterious Romanov dynasty. It is the first-ever anthology series that Amazon Prime will roll out on a weekly basis. In his episode, Reiser co-stars alongside Christina Hendricks, Isabelle Huppert and Jack Huston. The show premiered on October 12th, 2018.

Paul will also be involved in an upcoming eight-part series that tells the story of the romantic and creative partnership between Fosse and Verdon, exploring the hidden corners of the show business, the price of pursuing greatness and suffering inflicted in the name of art, set to premiere April 9th, 2019.

Reiser’s recent films include John McDonagh's 'War on Everyone' with Alexander Skarsgard and Michael Pena, 'The Book of Love' with Jessica Biel and Jason Sudeikis,'The Little Hours' with John C. Reilly and Aubrey Plaza, and the Lake Bell-directed 'I Do… Until I Don’t' with Ed Helms, Amber Heard, and Mary Steenburgen.

Reiser has had notable performances in films such as 'Diner,' 'Bye Bye Love,' 'The Marrying Man,' 'Aliens,' 'One Night At McCool's,' and 'Beverly Hills Cop' (I and II). He also co-created and starred in the critically acclaimed NBC series 'Mad About You,' which garnered him multiple Emmy, Golden Globe, American Comedy Award and Screen Actors Guild nominations. More recently, Reiser earned acclaim for his supporting role in the 2015 Golden Globe-winning and Academy Award-winning film, 'Whiplash,' starring JK Simmons and Miles Teller.

Reiser’s book, Couplehood, has sold over two million copies and reached the number one spot on The New York Times bestseller list. Reiser’s second bestseller, Babyhood, features his trademark humorous take on the adventures of being a first-time father, followed by his third bestseller, Familyhood.

Reiser, who attended the State University of New York at Binghamton and majored in music, co-wrote "The Final Frontier" – the theme song from 'Mad About You' with Grammy-winning producer Don Was, and in 2011 he released an album of original songs with British singer / songwriter Julia Fordham called 'Unusual Suspects.'

Paul Reiser and his family reside in Los Angeles.

LANCE HENRIKSEN (Actor - "Bishop")

Iconic actor Lance Henriksen has starred in a multitude of films and television projects exemplifying the diversity of his talent. He’s worked with some of the most prominent directors in the motion picture industry, including Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Sidney Lumet, Jim Jarmush, Kathryn Bigelow, John Woo, Paul W. S. Anderson and Sam Raimi.

Lance just wrapped Falling (Baral Waley Productions), written, directed and starring Viggo Mortenson, Lance and Laura Linney. He recently shot The Unhealer (Shared Card), and had the leading role in the feature Gone Are The Days (Lionsgate) with Tom Berenger and Danny Trejo. He played the role of Old Demetri in the soon to be released Cliffs of Freedom (Aegean Entertainment) directed by Van Ling. Lance recurred on both seasons of Into The Badlands (AMC), The Black List (NBC), The Night Shift (NBC), and also appeared on Legends of Tomorrow (CW), Criminal Minds (CBS), and Grey's Anatomy (ABC).

Recent releases include After the Sun Fell (Choice Films) and Daylight’s End (Throttle Films). Pacific Pictures released Harbinger Down created by the Academy Award winning special effects team at Amalgamated Dynamics.

Born in New York, Henriksen studied at the Actors Studio and began his career Off Broadway in Eugene O'Neill's Three Plays of the Sea. One of his first film appearances was for director Sidney Lumet in Dog Day Afternoon, followed by Lumet's Network and Prince of the City. Henriksen then appeared in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind with Richard Dreyfuss and Francois Truffaut, Damien: Omen II and director Philip Kaufman's The Right Stuff, in which Henriksen portrayed Mercury astronaut Lieutenant Commander Walter Schirra, Jr.

James Cameron cast Henriksen in his first directorial effort, Piranha Part Two: The Spawning, followed by The Terminator, and he next featured him as android Bishop in the sci-fi classic, Aliens. Director Sam Raimi, who cast the actor in The Quick and the Dead opposite Russell Crowe, Sharon Stone and Gene Hackman, says, "Lance is a brilliant performer who goes way beyond acting. He becomes his character completely, leaving no trace of his former self and making something of every moment on screen."

Henriksen's additional feature credits include The Pit and the Pendulum, Pumpkinhead, The Horror Show, Survival Quest and director Walter Hill's Johnny Handsome. Other famed titles include Appaloosa, directed by Ed Harris for New Line Cinema, Jennifer Eight, Aliens 3, Color of Night, Powder, Stung by Rat Pack Film produktion, and writer/director Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man. Of course there is Disney's animated feature Tarzan, Kathryn Bigelow's cult vampire film Near Dark, and director John Woo's first American film, Hard Target, for which Henriksen received a Saturn Award as Best Supporting Actor. He was also seen in Twentieth Century Fox's release, AVP: Alien Versus Predator. AVP was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and produced by John Davis.

Henriksen starred in Dreamworks and TNT's 12-hour miniseries Into the West, executive produced by Steven Spielberg. He also starred for three seasons on Millennium, Fox-TV's critically acclaimed series created by Chris Carter (The X-Files). Henriksen's performance as 'Frank Black,' a retired FBI agent who has the ability to get inside the minds of killers, garnered three consecutive Golden Globe nominations for "Best Performance by a Lead Actor in a Drama Series" and a People's Choice Award nomination for "Favorite New TV Male Star." He was also nominated for a Golden Satellite Award for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in the TNT original film The Day Lincoln Was Shot.

In addition to his abilities as an actor, Henriksen is an accomplished painter and potter. His talent as a ceramist has enabled him to create some of the most unusual ceramic artwork available on the art market today.

Henriksen resides in Southern California.

JENETTE GOLDSTEIN (Actress - "Vasquez")

Jenette Goldstein was born in Los Angeles. Determined from childhood to become a character actor, she trained at Circle in the Square in New York and Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where she was cast in James Cameron’s Aliens, as Private Vasquez.

Other notable film roles include the vampire Diamondback in Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, Janelle Voight in Terminator 2, Alice the Maid in Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, and the doomed Irish mother in Titanic. She has exploded many times and often goes down with the ship.

Goldstein is also the co-founder and CEO of Jenette Bras, the popular bra fitting and swimwear boutiques known for its slogan ‘The Alphabet starts at 'D'. She lives with her artist husband and a changing cast of children and cats in Virgil Village.

RICCO ROSS (Actor, "Frost")

A father, actor & writer, Ricco comes from a family of six boys & five girls. From age 7 to 13, he lived in what Oprah stated was the poorest town in the US: Pembrook, Illinois. Ricco received a MFA from UCLA. His first year out of college he booked reoccurring roles on Hill St. Blues & The Young & the Restless. Soon afterwards, feeling type-cast as a young angry Black man, he decided to study Shakespeare for a year in England at the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA). That year turned into 13, living abroad. He worked as an English actor in London, while moon lighting as a model in France & Italy for 4 yrs. He also turned down a European Pro basket ball contract in Cyprus. He has lived and worked all over the UK, Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, & Asia. He now has an impressive resume with credits such as Aliens, Mission Impossible, The Practice, Highlander, JAG, E.R. & more. Projects coming out this year are the movie The Apocalypse According to Doris and a Japanese movie called Hayabusa where he plays the head of NASA opposite Ken Watanabe. He also stars in the zombie web series Bite Me which aired March 6th, 2012. He is currently in rehearsal for a film about John Coltrane and Miles Davies where he plays John Coltrane called "Trane & Miles". The shooting starts Feb. 24. To date, his biggest accomplishments are his children Aisha, Rami, Makaila, Miles and his Godson Nicolas. As an actor feels his best work is yet to come.

ROBERT SKOTAK (Visual Effects Supervisor)

Bio coming soon.

ALEC GILLIS (Creature Effects Supervisor, Co-Founder of Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. )

Alec Gillis grew up watching genre movies. Watching is a bit of an understatement. He devoured them. Early memories of movies such as Zulu! and Planet Of The Apes inspired Alec to make his own backyard epics. A childhood spent creating monsters in his mother’s garage led him to a job with Roger Corman at age 19. There he met film newcomer James Cameron, with whom he worked on several low budget sci?fi films under the Corman shingle.

In 1985, after taking time off to go to UCLA film school, Alec was brought on to Aliens by Cameron. On that film he became a Creature Effects Supervisor for Stan Winston. After racking up credits on top ‘80’s creature films like Predator, Alec left Stan Winston’s and co?founded Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. with another Winston alum, Tom Woodruff, jr.

After A.D.I.’s first feature Tremors, business boomed and the duo won accolades for their work, including Academy Award nominations for Alien 3 and Starship Troopers. Death Becomes Her that earned them an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, and they have gone on to contribute to many of the most recognized genre films of the last 3 decades. The pair’s work has garnered multiple other awards such as the British Academy Award, multiple Saturn awards, and even a Golden Doozie Award.A.D.I. is nearing its 30th anniversary and still going strong. Gillis and Woodruff’s recent work can be seen in the upcoming Bright, Shane Black’s The Predator and IT.

In addition to being at the top of the craft of Special Makeup and Animatronic Character Effects, Alec directed Harbinger Down in 2015. The film was boasted all Practical Creature FX and was an homage to the films of the ‘80’s that Alec worked on in his early career. Alec is also a 3 times published author.

Alec’s unique creative and professional approach has been employed by filmmakers like James Cameron, David Fincher, Robert Zemeckis, Paul Verhoeven, Mike Nichols, Nora Ephron, Matthew Vaughn, Ivan Reitman, Nick Cassavetes, Sam Raimi, David Zucker, Curtis Hanson, Paul Anderson, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. His work with these filmmakers has informed and shaped Alec’s filmic sensibilities and point of view.

About the Moderator

TIMOTHY DOWLING (Moderator, USC Alumnus)

Timothy Dowling is a graduate of the School of Theatre at the University of Southern California. As an actor he was in the films: The Beautician and the Beast, Dr. Benny, and Terminator 3. As a screenwriter he was named one of Variety's Ten Writers to Watch, Fade In Magazine’s Top 100 People In Hollywood and had two scripts listed on the prestigious Black List. He co-wrote the award winning short film: George Lucas in Love, which is still the best selling short film of all time. He has since co-written the feature films: Role Models, Just Go With It, This Means War, Office Christmas Party and Pixels, directed by Chris Columbus. Role Models was nominated for a Critics Choice Award for Best Comedy of the Year in 2008 and Just Go With It was the most rented Red Box movie in America and in the world in 2011. Timothy also wrote the forthcoming Another Midnight Run starring Robert De Niro and the Disney action comedy Dashing Through the Snow starring Kevin Hart. Timothy is on the Board of the USC School of Cinematic Arts and in 2012 proudly donated a Urinal to the School that bears his name. He has since donated a bathroom stall in the Lucas Building and a urinal in the Norris Theatre. His mother is very proud.

Check-In & Reservations

This screening is free of charge and open to the public. Please bring a valid USC ID or print out of your reservation confirmation, which will automatically be sent to your e-mail account upon successfully making an RSVP through this website. Doors will open at 6:30 P.M.

All SCA screenings are OVERBOOKED to ensure seating capacity in the theater, therefore seating is not guaranteed based on RSVPs. The RSVP list will be checked in on a first-come, first-served basis until the theater is full. Once the theater has reached capacity, we will no longer be able to admit guests, regardless of RSVP status.

Parking

The USC School of Cinematic Arts is located at 900 W. 34th St., Los Angeles, CA 90007. Parking passes may be purchased for $12.00 at the USC Royal Street Entrance, located at the intersection of W. Jefferson Blvd. & Royal Street. We recommend the USC Royal Street Structure, at the far end of 34th Street. Limited street parking is also available along Jefferson Blvd.

Contact Information

Name: Alessandro Ago
Email: aago@cinema.usc.edu