STORMBREAKER (UK) aka ALEX RIDER:
OPERATION STORMBREAKER (USA)

Year: 2006
USA: The Weinstein Company
UK: Entertainment Film Distributors
Cast: Alex Pettyfer, Sarah Bolger, Robbie Coltrane, Stephen Fry, Damian Lewis, Ewan McGregor, Bill Nighy, Sophie Okonedo, Missi Pyle, Andy Serkis, Alicia Silverstone, Ashley Walters, Mickey Rourke
Director: Geoffrey Sax
Countries: Germany / USA / UK
USA & UK: 93 mins
USA Rated: PG for sequences of action violence and some peril
UK Certificate: PG contains moderate action violence
USA Release Date: 13 October 2006 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 21 July 2006

Synopsis

This summer sees the eagerly awaited big screen debut of 14 year-old special agent Alex Rider in STORMBREAKER. The film is based on the first of Anthony Horowitz's chart-topping series of novels about a reluctant teenage super spy forced by the Special Operations Division of Britain's secret intelligence service, MI6, for a mission which will save millions of lives, which have so far sold 9 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 28 languages.

Alex Rider (Alex Pettyfer) is a normal teenager who lives with his uncle, a nondescript bank manager....or so it seems, until Uncle Ian Rider (Ewan McGregor) dies in mysterious circumstances. Alex discovers his uncle was in fact a spy and has been murdered by Yassen Gregorovich (Damian Lewis), one of the most dangerous assassins in the world. Recruited by Mr Blunt (Bill Nighy) and Mrs Jones (Sophie Okonedo) of the Special Operations Division of MI6, the schoolboy realizes that by encouraging his hobbies his uncle has thoroughly prepared him for a career in espionage. Linguist, scuba diver, mountaineer, crack shot and martial arts expert, Alex has all the attributes to make the perfect teenage superspy. Armed with these and his own set of special gadgets, he embarks on his first mission.

Billionaire Darrius Sayle (Mickey Rourke) has offered to donate a free Stormbreaker mega-computer to every school in Britain. Is there more to his seeming generosity than meets the eye? Alex is sent to investigate. Going undercover as the winner of a computer magazine competition, he infiltrates Sayle's heavily-guarded lair. He meets the tycoon's sinister sidekicks Mr. Grin (Andy Serkis) and Nadia Vole (Missi Pyle) and is shown the cutting-edge Stormbreaker computer. Sneaking out of his bedroom window in the dead of night, he watches the delivery of mysterious containers - he is on the trail of something big!

But the next day Alex finds himself in terrible danger when his cover is blown and, held prisoner, he is forced to admit he's a spy. Sayle tells Alex the deadly secret contained in his computers, before throwing the teenager to die in the poisonous embrace of a giant jellyfish. Alex escapes and hitches a high risk ride to London. The Prime Minister is at the Science Museum, about to press the official launch button, for the Stormbreaker, which will activate deadly computers in schools all over Britain, when Alex parachutes to the rescue. At the last minute, he disables the lethal network and, with the help of his housekeeper Jack Starbright (Alicia Silverstone) and school friend Sabina Pleasure (Sarah Bolger), pursues Sayle through the streets of the city. Finally, he confronts the megalomaniac businessman in a gripping showdown on the roof of his headquarters, fifty floors above London. Will Alex's first assignment be his last?

Rounding off the impressive cast are Stephen Fry (HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN) Robbie Coltrane (HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE), Ashley Walters (GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN) and Jimmy Carr (CONFETTI). Directed by Geoffrey Sax (WHITE NOISE) and produced by Marc Samuelson, Peter Samuelson, Steve Christian and Andreas Grosch, STORMBREAKER is the biggest budget independent film ever produced in the UK.