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The Director Stephen Daldry 
Three-time Academy Award nominated director Stephen Daldry is an Englishman with a taste for high-impact drama who believes in quality over quantity – he only has three full-length feature films under his belt but all come with Oscar nods, not to mention numerous BAFTAs (British Academy Of Film And Television Arts) and Golden Globe wins.
From a theatre background, his first cinematic effort, the mining town movie "Billy Elliot" (2000) got nominated for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actress In A Supporting Role for Julie Walters. His second effort, the grim three-in-one suicide biopic "The Hours" (2002) won an Oscar for Nicole Kidman as Best Actress, in addition to eight other nominated categories. Now in "The Reader" (2008), the learned director has shot a post-wartime movie with an outside chance of landing Best Picture and also Best Director for himself in a third-time-lucky bid - but his talent in bringing the best out of his cast has ensured that leading lady Kate Winslet is one of the strongest contenders for Best Actress at this year's Oscars at the time of publishing. Precise, moving and incredibly rich – the celebrated works of Stephen Daldry are a proud showcase of British filmmaking at its finest. CAST Ralph Fiennes as the adult Michael Berg 
Revisiting the setting in "Schindler's List" (1993), trained English actor Ralph Fiennes ("Red Dragon" 2002, "The Constant Gardener" 2005) plays yet another memorable role, this time as the adult Michael Berg, a German lawyer who is still struggling to come to terms with his boyhood affair with an older woman. Fiennes is reported to be attracted to the script because "... it balances complex emotional issues. The questions it asks about blame, judgment, guilt, love and sexuality are all very complicated but in the end it's a very humane story".
Kate Winslet as Hanna Schmitz 
Perhaps never being able to live down her star-making "Titanic" (1997) role in the eyes of mainstream audiences, Kate Winslet's colossal talent is hardly seen in Malaysian screens, simple because she stars in movies that do not make it here. Playing a scandalous 36-year-old tram worker who hides a dark secret, she has already landed a BAFTA for Best Actress and is up for an Academy Award for the equivalent, at the time of publishing. It is reported that novelist Schlink had nobody else in mind but Winslet for the role because "... she is a sensuous, earthy woman – exactly like Hanna".
David Kross as the young Michael Berg 
Playing the underage lover of Hanna Schmitz is German upstart David Kross, now a 19-year-old actor whose mother initially did not agree to the project unless his yearend grades were very good. Director Daldry reportedly auditioned him many times to make sure he was the right choice and the young star, starring in his first English-speaking role, endured up to seven hours of dialect coaching daily. Due to the sexual relationship between Hanna and Michael, the shooting schedule was also structured so that David would turn 18 before any of the bedroom scenes were shot.
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