Wednesday February 16, 3:17 pm Eastern Time

Company Press Release

SOURCE: Paramount Pictures

World Premiere of Paramount Pictures' 'WONDER BOYS'

WHAT: World Premiere Of "WONDER BOYS" Benefiting "Ploughshares Fund"

WHO: ``WONDER BOYS'' cast attendees include: Michael Douglas, Tobey

Maguire, Frances McDormand, Rip Torn, Jane Adams, Richard

Thomas, Michael Cavadias

               Filmmaker attendees include:  Curtis Hanson, Adam Schroeder and
               novelist Michael Chabon

               Additional attendees include: Catherine Zeta-Jones,
               Julianna Margulies, Madeleine Stowe, Danny DeVito,
               Rhea Pearlman, Joel Coen, Tom Sizemore, Laura San Giacomo,
               and more to come.... 

    WHEN:      Tuesday, February 22, 2000 7:30 PM
               (arrivals begin at 6:30)

    WHERE:     PARAMOUNT PICTURES, 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood

``WONDER BOYS''

An unfinished novel, a stolen car, a murdered pet, an unstable student, a fed-up wife, a pregnant lover -- it's safe to say that Grady Tripp has a number of issues to deal with this weekend. Grady is a 50-ish English professor who hasn't had a thing published in years -- not since he wrote his award-winning Great American Novel seven years ago. It's hardly surprising, then, that his college's annual literary festival fills the former wonder boy with more than his usual quota of self-doubt and anxiety. This festival weekend, however, proves even worse than he could have imagined as he finds himself reeling from one misadventure to another in the company of a new wonder boy, James Leer. He's Grady's most gifted writing student. He's also a fluent liar whose peculiar behavior launches the professor on a picaresque odyssey of self-discovery.

    Release Date:             February 25, 2000
    Starring:                 Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances
                              McDormand, Robert Downey Jr., Katie Holmes, Rip
                              Torn, Richard Knox, Jane Adams, Michael
                              Cavadias, Richard Thomas, Alan Tudyk and Philip
                              Bosco
    Directed by:              Curtis Hanson
    Screenplay by:            Steve Kloves
    Produced by:              Scott Rudin, Curtis Hanson
    Executive Producers:      Adam Schroeder, Ned Dowd
    Based on the Novel by:    Michael Chabon
    MPAA Rating:              R

The Ploughshares Fund is dedicated to stopping the spread of weapons of war, from nuclear arms to landmines. It is the only organization that directs resources contributed by thousands of individuals to the most promising initiatives for reducing the threat from nuclear weapons, armed conflict and the unchecked trafficking in small arms. Specializing in seed funding for new, sometimes risky ventures, Ploughshares was an early supporter of the campaign to rid the world of landmines, which yielded an international treaty abolishing these cruel weapons in record time. Since it was founded in 1981 by Sally Lilienthal, the Ploughshares Fund has awarded more than twenty million dollars to programs to build a peaceful, more secure world.

ALL PRESS MUST BE ACCREDITED TO COVER ARRIVALS

For further information, please call: Photo: Mike Berman, 323-956-5681, or Print/Radio: Soni Ede, 323-956-8975, or TV: Gail Silverman, 323-956-4721, or International: Mariangela Hall, 323-954-5858, all for Paramount Pictures

SOURCE: Paramount Pictures