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Chronicling the events of the seven days leading up to the murder of Laura Palmer, Twin Peaks -- Fire Walk With Me opens on a grisly scene that foreshadows by a year and one week the tragedy soon to befall the seemingly idyllic town: we spy the body of Teresa Banks as it bobs along the Wind River in Washington. This turn of events leads FBI Bureau Chief Gordon Cole (DAVID LYNCH) to summon Agent Chester Desmond (CHRIS ISAAK) to his Oregon office to confer on the baffling case.

From the time Desmond gets off the plane -- where he's met by Cole and Cole's peculiar cousin Lil -- clues to the mysterious case begin to present themselves, often in startling forms and at the most unexpected moments.

Desmond deduces that the malignant current that extinguished Teresa Banks' life has wended its way through the entire community where she lived, including the local police force. Investigating the shabby trailer park Teresa called home, he stumbles across a clue so charged with meaning that its discovery leads to implications beyond the merely magic.

Next on the scene is Agent Dale Cooper (KYLE MACLACHLAN), whose keen intuitive powers are key to cracking a case fraught with perplexing riddles.

While these first-rate investigative minds strive to stem the tide of evil that will claim yet another victim, we follow the activities of Laura Palmer (SHERYL LEE). The physical and emotional extremes Laura has experienced make it impossible for her to lead a normal life.

Moreover, as we become aware of the private doings of Laura's friends and relatives in Twin Peaks, it is evident that the citizens in this town are on a bad trip -- and Laura is the blondest, baddest trip of all.

A visitation from FBI Agent Phillip Jeffries (DAVID BOWIE), presumed dead when he vanished several years earlier, sheds further light on the conspiracy threatening Laura's life. Warnings of pending disaster become increasingly urgent when a neighbor's gift to Laura reveals the true source of her torment.

As her nightmares invade her real life, Laura's drug use and promiscuity accelerate her life , 's downward spiral. At The Power and the Glory, the infamously wild nightclub on the U.S.-Canadian border, Laura betrays her best friend Donna Hayward (MOIRA KELLY). Determined that she will no longer be the conduit for the evil that has invaded her heart, Laura takes the only escape available to her.

As the story closes, it becomes clear that the voracious dark force has not yet finished with the town of Twin Peaks -- and that Laura's struggle will continue from another place.

When Laura Palmer's shrink-wrapped body washed up on a craggy lakeshore, David Lynch put the hamlet of Twin Peaks on the mythic map. It was a wondrous place to visit in search of wooded vistas, weird villagers, dark, erotic secrets ... and a damn fine cup of coffee. But not everyone who lived there lived there, at least not for long.

The mystery of who killed Laura Palmer became a national guessing game. But who was Laura Palmer?

That question has taken Lynch beneath the township's tranquil surface, beyond the boundaries of television and back to the scenic scene of the crime ... one year and seven days before its occurrence.

Twin Peaks -- Fire Walk With Me is a New Line Cinema release of a Francis Bouygues presentation of a David Lynch Film. Directed by Lynch from a screenplay he wrote with Robert Engels, the film stars Kyle MacLachlan, Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, Chris Isaak, Moira Kelly, Harry Dean Stanton and David Bowie. The producer is Gregg Fienberg; the executive producers are David Lynch and Mark Frost.

When "Twin Peaks" was first conceived, a movie "pre-quel" wasn't part of the plan. But as the community assumed its own bizarre identity, Lynch found himself "falling in love with the place." "A small town surrounded by deep woods," is the way he describes it. "It's almost like a fairy tale. I had to go back in."

It was also an opportunity to expand on themes which have resonated through much of Lynch's work. From the gentle soul of The Elephant Man -- hidden by a hide of monstrous deformity; to the sexual catacombs of Lumberton, the complacent community of Blue Velvet -- what you see isn't always what you get. Appearances are deceiving. And, sometimes, dreams and illusions are more real than reality.

As Lynch and co-writer Robert Engels trekked the Pacific Northwest, tantalizing new riddles emerged. Was there a link between the spike-haired drifter, Teresa Banks, whose body was found bobbing in Washington's Wind River, and the homicide of the homecoming queen? Why did a ring, an FBI man and a motorhome from the Fat Trout Trailer Park vanish at virtually the same time?

Most importantly, how did Laura Palmer spend the week before her death? Was she with friends, family or phantoms?

To film the answers, the director assembled what one observer called "the original Lynch mob," along with some surprising new faces, in the crisp mountain air of Snoqualmie, Washington.

Kyle McLachlan is again Special Agent Dale Cooper, mini-recorder in hand, shooting streams of consciousness -- and torrents of trivia -- back to his unseen secretary, Diane. Omitted, however, are his dreams of the "Red Room," where interrogation is conducted in reverse English. J. Edgar Hoover's boys would never understand. (Fortunately, the audience does, thanks to subtitles.)

Another returnee -- and a candidate for the motion picture medal of honor for gallantry in the face of the surreal -- is Sheryl Lee who plays the late Laura Palmer. "Nothing that happened in the series held a candle to the scenes in this picture, the TV censors saw to that," she explains.

Now, though, Lynch could finally film Laura's last tryst in a derelict railroad car as he'd envisioned it ... surrounded by macabre mirror images of Frank Silva as the hulking intruder, Bob, and Michael Anderson as the 'Man From Another Place.'

Lee was grateful for a closed set -- and lengthy breathers between takes. "Playing a character like Laura Palmer, your brain does strange things to you," she admits. "I still have nightmares in which I'm riding with Bob on an old abandoned train."

By a quirk of scheduling, the scene in the decayed Pullman was shot on Halloween. "That's also the birthday of both Frank (Silva) and Michael (Anderson). Honest!" Lee says. "Spooky things happen around David Lynch. It's not like they're intentional. They just happen."

In the end, she adds, "I was able to do things I never thought I could. It gave me an incredible sense of freedom," a satisfaction symbolized by a lighter engraved with the Twin Peaks logo and the legend, "I'll Never Forget You," which she gave each crew member the night production wrapped. Lee then headed east to test her new-found freedom on Al Pacino's King Herod in the acclaimed New York stage production of Oscar Wilde's "Salome."

Other returning residents of Twin Peaks include Ray Wise as Laura's father, Leland Palmer, obsessed as ever with clean fingernails and dirty thoughts; Grace Zabriskie, Laura's chain-smoking Mom; Dana Ashbrook as Bobby Briggs, the source of Laura's nightly white-line nightcap; and James Marshall as lovestruck biker James Hurley.

Among the newcomers is Moira Kelly as Laura's best friend, Donna Hayward, who protectively follows her to a strobe-lit hell-hole only to be spellbound by the sensual surroundings. She describes the Power and Glory party land as "the sort of place everybody's parents are sure the kids are going when they borrow the car." Added Kelly regarding Lynch's directing style: "When he tells you what he has in his head, you say, no, that's impossible, nobody can pull off a scene like that. Then the next day, it's a circus act, and you're in it."

The FBI contingent, nominally headed by Lynch himself as bureau chief Gordon Cole, includes two of today's foremost rock stars, David Bowie and Chris Isaak. Bowie describes his character as an agent who "has either been dead for eight years or else took a long leave of absence and forgot to check in. I heartily endorse working with David Lynch. He's delightfully bonkers."

As intrepid investigator Chet Desmond, Isaak re-teams with Lynch who directed the Grammy winner's rock-a-billy music video. A one-time amateur boxer who appeared in two Jonathan Demme films, (Married to the Mob and The Silence of the Lambs) Isaak was troubled by only one scene -- a tussle with a wisecracking deputy sheriff. "The acting part was easy," he explains. "But pulling my punches was murder. On one take, I really thought I broke the other guy's nose."

Several characters who pop in and out of the tale reflect Lynch's fondness for off-beat casting, quirky humor and, of course, wood. The Log Lady, a rustic Cassandra communing with a tree stump, combines all three. She is portrayed by Catherine E. Coulson, a documentary filmmaker who first worked with Lynch when she was tied to a wooden bed in his film debut, Eraserhead.

Coulson whimsically speaks of Lynch's passion for lumber in terms of "his family tree." The filmmaker's father was a research scientist for the U.S. Forest Service, who devoted his Ph.D. thesis to ponderosa pine, the Log Lady's stump of choice. The character, she notes, was originally created as the hostess of a TV series, "I'll Test My Log with Every Branch of Knowledge," which never made it to the air.

"It was an interesting idea," she explains, "You'd find out about the contestants by what they did with the log. Sort of like 'Oprah' with foliage."

Michael Anderson, the 37' tall "major domo" of the Red Room, is an ex-NASA computer programmer (a member of the Challenger ground crew) who moved east to become a disco dancer at a New York nightery. It was an impressive accomplishment for a man who was unable to walk due to a genetic bone defect until he was nearly 30 years old.

His character's eerie impact was achieved, in part, by having him recite his lines backward, then reversing the film. Only after Anderson was cast did Lynch discover that he actually could speak backward, a talent he's perfected at a school for gifted children.

Then there's Frank Silva who joined Lynch's troupe as a set dresser. While decorating Laura Palmer's bedroom, he was asked by the director to "crouch behind the bed." The impromptu screen test led Lynch "to cast me as this woodland maniac, Bob," Silva recalls.

"David said I looked the part, which I'm not sure is a compliment." Silva isn't quitting his day job, however. "There are only so many lunatics in the woods," he observes.

Silva was surprised to learn that his malevolent character's name was inspired by the director's weakness for a well-known cheeseburger, symbolized by a cherub-faced, streamlined modern little boy. But paradox has long been part of the Lynch persona.

Impeccably dressed in a long-sleeved shirt, buttoned at the neck, dark jacket and hunting or baseball cap, whatever the weather, Lynch peppers his direction with words like "neat," "golly" and "nifty." Mel Brooks, whose company produced The Elephant Man, called him "Jimmy Stewart from Mars."

Michael Anderson says: "It's as if Mr. Rogers was telling us to go out and do these awful things."

Lynch's friend Coulson puts it in perspective. "He's still the eagle scout from the Big Sky Country of Missoula, Montana whose greatest thrill, as a youngster, was attending the Kennedy inauguration."

It is hardly surprising that when the mysterious Mrs. Tremond and her Pinocchio-nosed grandson present Laura Palmer with a prescient present, it is a painting of a doorway which can be entered in dreams. Originally intending to be an artist following four years at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Lynch turned to film "to see my paintings move."

"You could almost hear the sound in them in your head, maybe just the wind," he once told an interviewer. "And you'd want the edges to disappear. You'd want to be in there."

The fact that Twin Peaks -- Fire Walk With Me boasts some of the Pacific Northwest's finest hash houses is also personal. Dale Cooper may hit the Double R Diner for a second helping of addictive cherry pie, but Lynch goes to coffee shops to write. "It's the ultimate place for capturing ideas, like the bank of a river is a great place to fish," he explains. "You sit and get kind of revved up with caffeine and sugar and the words pour out." He adds one note of caution to fledgling screenwriters: "It helps to have a story idea before you get to the coffee shop."

It also doesn't hurt to be a movie buff. Just as Wild at Heart was laced with references to The Wizard of Oz ("the ultimate road movie," Lynch explains) there is more film lore in Twin Peaks -- Fire Walk With Me than Ninas in a Hirshfield cartoon.

A prime example is Gordon Cole, the FBI honcho played by Lynch. The original Cole was the studio executive on the other end of Norma Desmond's desperate phone calls in Sunset Boulevard. (One of Lynch's all-time favorite films. When he came to California, he says, he would drive Sunset Boulevard, imagining that the Desmond manse was around each bend.)

Then there's accident-prone Special Agent Sam Stanley whose quivering hair recalls another well-known Stanley ... Laurel ... and a one-armed madman named Gerard.

The professional history shared by much of the Twin Peaks -- Fire Walk With Me cast applies to those behind the scenes, as well. Production and costume designer Patricia Norris is a six-time Oscar nominee for films which Lynch directed, dating back to The Elephant Man. Cinematographer Ron Garcia shot the pilot for the "Twin Peaks" series which was edited by Mary Sweeney, a collaborator since Blue Velvet.

The grace notes of Twin Peaks -- Fire Walk With Me are the work of Angelo Badalamenti who won a Grammy for the series' mesmerizing musical score. Included is a new ballad sung by Julee Cruise whose hit album, "Floating Into the Night," Badalamenti composed and co-produced with Lynch.

Twin Peaks -- Fire Walk With Me was written by David Lynch & Robert Engels and is directed by David Lynch. The film is produced by Gregg Fienberg with Mark Frost & David Lynch as Executive Producers.

As for the residents of Snoqualmie, Washington, in the Cascade Mountains just east of Seattle, they couldn't be more pleased to have their twin city rise again like a carnal Camelot. Not that Twin Peaks ever really left. Its popularity created a tourist cottage industry, led by an influx of visitors from Japan (where the show was consistently atop the ratings and where the movie just opened to record-breaking grosses.) Among recent arrivals were members of Tokyo's "Agent Dale Cooper Club," fresh from a mock funeral service for Laura Palmer.

That's the one thing that's certain in Twin Peaks. Laura Palmer is dead.

Isn't she?

Kyle MacLachlan (FBI Agent Dale Cooper) began his film career -- and his working relationship with David Lynch -- with the 1984 film Dune, the director's adaptation of the science-fiction classic.

A former member of the prestigious Oregon Shakespeare Festival, MacLachlan went on to star in Lynch's Blue Velvet with Laura Dern and Isabella Rosselini before reteaming with him on the "Twin Peaks" series.

MacLachlan's other film credits include The Hidden, Don't Tell Her It's Me, and director Oliver Stone's The Doors in which he portrayed keyboardist Ray Manzarek.

The actor's upcoming film projects include Rich in Love with Albert Finney and Jill Clayburgh and The Trial with Anthony Hopkins and Jean Stapleton.

Sheryl Lee (Laura Palmer) made her acting debut as Laura Palmer in the "Twin Peaks" television series. A veteran of the Seattle theater circuit, Lee was also cast in Lynch's feature film Wild at Heart.

Lee, who attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena, California and the National Conservatory Theater in Denver, Colorado, also had a leading role in the NBC-TV mini-series "Love, Lies & Murder." The actress recently completed a role in the upcoming feature film Jersey Girls and also starred Off-Broadway with Al Pacino in Ocsar Wilde's "Salome.""

Ray Wise (Leland Palmer) began his career playing Jamie Rollins for six years on the daytime drama "Love of Life."

His television credits include ABC-TV's "Moonlighting)" "Hart to Hart," and "The Colbys," in addition to his role as Leland Palmer on 'Twin Peaks;" the CBS-TV series "Lou Grant," "Knots Landing," and "Dallas;" and the NBC-TV series "Hunter."

Wise has appeared in more than 90 plays around the country, winning a 1983 Obie Award (Off-Broadway's Tony) for his performance in Sam Shepard's "The Tooth of Crime."

His film credits include Swamp Thing, Cat People, Robocop, The Journey of Natty Gann and Race for Glory.

Chris Isaak (Chester Desmond) is a critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter with three albums to his credit. His most recent album, "Heart Shaped World," featured the Top Ten hit "Wicked Game," which was heard in Lynch's Wild at Heart.

Isaak's other feature film appearances include Married to the Mob and The Silence of the Lambs.

Moira Kelly (Donna Hayward) has her second major film role as Laura Palmer's best friend following her starring role in the feature The Cutting Edge. She also starred with Sheryl Lee in the NBC-TV mini-series "Love, Lies & Murder," and the feature film Billy Bathgate with Dustin Hoffman. Kelly's next project is the Charlie Chaplin bio-pic Charlie, in which she stars with Robert Downey, Jr. as the fabled comic's wife, Oona O'Neill.

Harry Dean Stanton (Carl Rodd) is one of the industry's most celebrated character actors, having appeared in over 60 feature films since his career began in 1957. His credits include Coo/ Hand Luke, Farewell, My Lovely, The Godfather II, Repo Man, Fool for Love, Two Lane Blacktop, and Wild at Heart. The actor won the British Film Critics Award for Best Actor in 1984 for his role in Paris, Texas.

Stanton also co-starred in Bob Rafelson's Man Trouble with Jack Nicholson and Ellen Barkin.

Musician David Bowie (FBI Agent Phillip Jefferies) is one of rock's most enduring and legendary performers.

He made his film debut in 1967 in the film The Image. His acting credits since then include the films The Man Who Fell to Earth, Ziggy Stardust, Just a Gigolo, The Hunger, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, and The Last Temptation of Christ.

David Lynch (Director, Co-Writer, Executive Producer) made his feature film debut with the cult film Eraserhead, a project that began at the American Film Institute for Advanced Studies, where Lynch was a student.

His second film, The Elephant Man, was a critical and commercial success that earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay (Based on Material from Another Medium.)

When Lynch's disturbing film Blue Velvet was released starring Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rosselini and Laura Dern, it was hailed by critics as one of the Ten Best Films of the Decade.

Lynch's other feature film credits include Dune and Wild at Heart. The director sustained his international prominence as one of the industry's most visionary talents with the debut of the ABC-TV series"Twin Peaks," which developed an instant cult following.

In addition to directing and screenwriting, Lynch is also a musician, author and cartoonist. He wrote and produced his first album "Floating into the Night" in collaboration with Angelo Badalamenti in addition to creating and directing a number of symphonies.

At present, the director's Lynch/Frost production company is producing the new ABC- TV comedy, "On the Air." His next project is the feature film One Saliva Bubble.

Lynch was born in Missoula, Montana and lives in Los Angeles. He has two children, Jennifer and Austin.

Patricia Norris (Production Designer) is a six-time Academy Award nominee for production and costume design for David Lynch films including The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart. She also received an Emmy nomination for her production design on ABC-TV's "Twin Peaks." The designer was also Oscar-nominated for her contributions to Sunset, Victor, Victoria, and Days of Heaven.

Mary Sweeney (Editor) worked in New York in an editorial capacity on both feature and documentary films until 1983 after receiving her Master's Degree in cinema studies at New York University.

She then worked on a series of projects at Lucasfilm and Fantasy Film prior to spending two years to study painting at the Corcoran School of Fine Art in Washington, D.C.

Sweeney first worked with Lynch on Blue Velvet and on subsequent projects including Wild at Heart, Industrial Symphony, "Twin Peaks," and the new Lynch/Frost ABC-TV comedy, "On the Air."

Ron Garcia (Director of Photography) shot the acclaimed pilot for "Twin Peaks," and serves the same duties on Lynch's comedy series "On the Air."

His feature film credits include Storyville, Side Out, Disorganized Crime, The Night Before, One from the Heart, Rainy Day Friends, and Doing Time.

Garcia's television credits include cinematography for the NBC-TV pilot "Stingray," and episodes of "Hunter" and "Crime Story" for the same network. He has also been nominated for an ACE (Award for Cable Excellence) Award for his work on "Nightbreaker" for Turner Broadcasting.

Angelo Badalamenti (Music Composer) won a Grammy for the haunting theme music he composed for ABC-TV's "Twin Peaks." The album has been certified gold (over 500,000 copies sold) in 15 countries.

The composer began his association with David Lynch when he wrote the music for Blue Velvet in 1986. He then went on to compose the score for the Lynch film Wild at Heart. He also composed and co-produced with Lynch the music for the Julee Cruise album *Floating into the Night." Together, the two co-wrote and co-produced the Brooklyn Academy of Music's theatrical production of "Industrial Symphony #1," which received the American Music Video Entertainment Award.

Badalamenti studied at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York and the Manhattan School of Music, where he received masters degrees in composition, French horn and piano. He was the recipient of eight ASCAP (American Society of Composers and Performers) Awards, the Anthony Asquith award given by the British Film Institute for the best music score of 1991, and the BPI best album of 1991.

His songs have been recorded by artists including Patti Austin, George Benson, Nancy Wilson, Melba Moore and Roberta Flack. He has also arranged and orchestrated music for Liza Minnelli and the Pet Shop Boys. Badalamenti also wrote and recorded music for Michael Jackson's "Black or White" video.

A resident of New Jersey, Badalamenti has written scores for films including Law and Disorder, Wait Until Spring, Bandini, Weeds, Tough Guys Don't Dance, Cousins, and The Comfort of Strangers.

The composer has also been selected to write the Torch Theme for the 1992 Olympic Summer Games.

Robert Engels (Co-writer) earned an MFA degree in theater from the University of Minnesota and later won the prestigious Bush Fellowship which enabled him to continue his acting training at Minneapolis' Guthrie Theater. He then spent two years performing in classical and modern stage productions prior to moving to New York.

While in New York, Engels focused his attention on directing, later helming the hit play 'The Basement Tapes" for the Los Angeles Public Theater. He later wrote and sold a screenplay and began writing documentaries for HBO and Showtime, including Michael Jackson's 'The Legend." He was story editor on CBS-TV's "Wiseguy" and was a producer and writer on ABC-TV's "Twin Peaks."

Currently, Engels is serving as executive producer and writer for the ABC-TV comedy series "On the Air."

Francis Bouygues (Producer) heads The Bouygues Group, an international contracting and building conglomerate. Bouygues formed CIBY Pictures in Los Angeles and CIBY 2000 in Paris following his purchase of France's Channel 1 television system when the French government put it up for sale.

CIBY was established to produce feature films for international audiences. Some of the productions to date include Pedro Almodovar's High Heels; Gerard Jugnot's Wonderful Times; and Jean-Loup Hubert's The White Queen, to name a few. Future productions will include Jane Campion's The Piano Lesson and Bernardo Bertolucci's The Little Buddha in addition to agreements for productions with filmmakers Wim Wenders and Maurice Pialat.

With the goal of producing up to 12 films yearly, Twin Peaks -Fire Walk With Me is CIBY's first American co-production (with Lynch/Frost Productions) with agreements for Lynch's next three films, as well.

This year marks New Line Cinema's 25th Anniversary as one of the leading independent producers and distributors of theatrical motion pictures. The company was founded in 1967 by its Chairman and CEO Robert Shaye. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, A Nightmare On Elm Street and House Party film series, along with My Own Private Idaho, Metropolitan, and The Player are among New Line's and its Fine Line division's critically acclaimed and commercially successful releases.

New Line Cinema's 1992 releases include Poison Ivy, Deep Cover, Glengarry Glen Ross, Twin Peaks - Fire Walk With Me, Excessive Force, Johnny Stecchino and Louis Malle's Damage.

Most recently, the company formed New Line Television and will become actively involved in the production and distribution of quality television programming. The company's divisions include New Line Home Video, and Fine Line Features.

Fine Line Features' 1992 releases include Robert Altman's The Player, Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth; Spalding Gray's Monster in a Box; and Waterland, starring Jeremy Irons.

New Line also licenses its films to ancillary markets, including cable and broadcast television, as well as to all international markets. The company is traded on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol AMEX/NLN.

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