Editor, Visual FX Supervisor and Music Composer

Eric Strand (Editor)

Eric Strand grew up watching 16mm films in his living room.  His mother Chick Strand was a critically acclaimed experimental and documentary filmmaker in the 60’s and 70’s, and until retiring, ran the film department at Occidental College.  So ever since he could remember, there was always an editing room at home.

Starting out as a sound assistant on Saturday morning cartoons such as “Fangface” and “Plasticman” in 1979, Strand soon secured a job in film shipping at Paramount Pictures before eventually moving up to be film apprentice on Airplane 2.  Moving from an apprentice to a 1st Assistant Editor, Strand has worked on films such as Gremlins, Staying Alive, Firestarter, To Live and Die in L.A., Eddie Murphy, RAW, Hand That Rocks The Cradle, I’ll Do Anything, and Cutthroat Island.  

Over a spread of twenty years, Strand worked with editor Geoffrey Rowland, A.C.E on TV series “Hill Street Blues” which won an Eddy Award, followed by “Stagecoach” starring Willie Nelson, Kris Kristopherson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, and then on the controversial mini-series “Path to 9/11” for ABC, which won numerous awards including an Emmy and an American Cinema Editors award for editing.

As Additional Film Editor, Strand worked on the John Hughes film She’s Having A Baby, and then on The Experts.  He also scoured WWII archive footage editing the documentaries for the huge mini-series “War & Remembrance” and edited the 60-minute TV series “Over My Dead Body” for CBS.  

1992 was the pivotal year when Strand co-edited with Academy Award® winning editor Ralph Winters, A.C.E. on Troubleshooters, noted for its editing in a review by Variety.  Since then, he has gone on to be co-editor on the Universal feature The Hunted starring Christopher Lambert, John Lone and Joan Chen, the multiple award-winning Lethal Weapon 4 and Deep Blue Sea (both working with award-winning editor Frank Urioste) and with Stuart Baird on Mission Impossible 2 and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, also both nominated and winner of numerous awards.

In 2000, Strand co-edited the critically acclaimed and highly decorated nominee and award-winning cult classic Donnie Darko starring Jake Gyllenhaal.  This has led to a slate of interesting independent films such as the festival-winning Briar Patch (aka Plain Dirty), Deepwater and Shooting Gallery.  He has also donated his time to edit a short Glory Girl directed by Martha Cotton for the Director’s Workshop for Women at AFI.

His other recent credits include the skateboard comedy Grind, teen witch horror movie Tamara, cable movie Ambers Story, crime thriller Borderland and the poker Deal, starring Burt Reynolds.

Much like the Jason character in The Forbidden Kingdom, Strand was a big fan of Bruce Lee movies and had his room plastered with Bruce Lee posters when he was young.  Having studied martial arts for a total of 7 years, Eric has always wanted to work on a martial arts film, so he is extremely proud to be the Editor on The Forbidden Kingdom.

Ron Simonson (Senior Visual Effects Supervisor)

Ron Simonson’s experience as a Visual Effects Supervisor has its roots in Cinematography.  His career began in feature films as a Cameraman and Director of Photography shooting miniatures, explosions and various other elements related to special and visual effects.  After some years at the acclaimed Richard Edlund’s Boss Film Studios working on films like Air Force One, Starship Troopers, Multiplicity, Simonson moved to Metrolight Studios as Post Production Supervisor.  There he worked on several ride films for Universal theme parks as well as Disney World and Epcot.  Simonson later became Visual Effects Supervisor on Universal’s Dragonheart II - A New Beginning.

Following Metrolight, Simonson reunited with Richard Edlund to Co-Supervise Harold Ramis’ Bedazzled for Fox Studios, and later join forces on HBO’s “Angels in America” for which they were nominated for an Emmy in 2004 for Best Visual Effects in a mini-series or movie.  

Simonson went on to supervise the award-winning mini-series “Uprising” for NBC and “Something the Lord Made” for HBO, winner of the 2004 Emmy for Best Movie.  For The Forbidden Kingdom, Simonson underwent a globetrotting experience, as he had to oversee effects work in Hong Kong, Los Angeles as well as Seoul, Korea where the bulk of the work was being done.  He is currently finishing up post production on The Brothers Bloom.

David Buckley (Music Composer)

David Buckley is a British-born film and television composer working in Los Angeles, where he moved his main studio in 2006.  He has written music for a number of Harry Gregson-Williams's scores, including Shrek the Third (Dreamworks SKG), Shrek the Halls (Dreamworks SKG), Gone Baby Gone (Miramax), Flushed Away (Dreamworks SKG/Aardman), The Number 23 (New Line Cinema), The Revenge (Scott Free), and Jolene.  He has also contributed music to the Playstation game, Metal Gear Solid 4.  Recently, Buckley completed the score for Town Creek (Lionsgate, directed by Joel Schumacher).

Educated at Cambridge University, Buckley's first involvement with film music was as a cathedral chorister, performing on Peter Gabriel's score for Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ.  His commercial work began with composing for the Tussauds Studios, writing tracks, which featured in the leading theme parks across the UK and Europe.  In 2002 he teamed up with television composer Keith Bayley, and between them they have written scores for dozens of television shows and advertising campaigns.

Buckley still has works performed in UK concert venues and on radio stations, and is frequently used as an arranger for pop and crossover artists.

A wide range of musical styles has influenced Buckley’s output. This ranges from classical, historic, ambient, electronic, choral to ethnic.  He is equally at home with a large-scale symphony orchestra as he is scoring from his Los Angeles studio.