Team
A lot went into planning a 1500 mile journey on motorbikes, and even more to turn Charley and Ewan's dream trip into a TV documentary. The Long Way Down team was headed up by Ewan, Charley, Russ Malkin and David Alexanian. The work of the Road Team and London HQ Team made the Long Way Down rtrip, documentary, book, CD, website and BBC website possible.
The Creators
Ewan McGregor
Ewan McGregor is one of Britain's most successful movie actors. Known for taking on challenging and inspirational roles Ewan has taken time out from his stellar career to take on these amazing events.
Having gained his first theatrical experience at the Perth Repertory Theatre, Ewan trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
He was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series 1997 Emmy Award for ER. Shal was named Best Film at the 1994 Dinard Film Festival and Ewan shared the Best Actor award with co-stars Christopher Ecclestone and Kerry Fox. The Variety Club have awarded Ewan both the Best Actor and Best Newcomer awards.
Ewan has recently appeared in The Men Who Stare at Goats, Amelia with Hilary Swank, Angels and Demons and I Love You Phillip Morris alongside Jim Carrey. His latest film, The Ghost directed by Roman Polanski was released in April 2010.
Charley Boorman
Actor and Adventurer Charley Boorman has successfully been involved in adventure travel documentaries for the BBC, SKY and National Geographic Channel since 2004.
More recently Charley has gone solo, travelling overland for BBC series Charley Boorman:Wicklow to Sydney By Any Means where he travelled by any means of transport appropriate to the country from his hometown of Wicklow in Ireland to Sydney, Australia. This was then followed by a second BBC series in 2009; Charley Boorman: Sydney to Tokyo By Any Means.
Born in London in 1966, he grew up in Ireland and has a passion for motorbikes, spending much of his childhood riding motorcross. From 1998 to 2002, he also ran a British motorcycle team with Ewan McGregor, winning the Superstock Series with David Jeffries.
David Alexanian
David Alexanian runs Elixir Films which he co-founded with his sister Alexis in 1999. Elixir Films intends to distinguish itself as an innovative producer of independent feature films. www.elixirfilms.com
Building on the success of Long Way Round and Long Way Down, David next teamed up with Emilio Estevez in 2008 to produce The Way, a different sort of road trip filmed along an ancient pilgrimage road called the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.
Upon wrapping The Way, David quickly travelled to South Africa to direct and produce a documentary with Ziggy Marley and his brothers Rohan and Robbie. On a short deadline, David filmed the Marleys, criss-crossing the country during the World Cup, jamming with local musicians, and organizing a charity concert in Soweto promoting African Unity.
Russ Malkin
From 2000 to 2003 Russ produced television programming for many of the leading world motor sports series, including Formula One motor racing.
Motorcycles have become a recurring theme and in 2006 Russ followed up Long Way Round with Race to Dakar - a series charting Charley Boorman’s attempt to take on the Lisbon-Dakar Rally. Long Way Down was followed by By Any Means and later By Any Means 2 which both featured Charley Boorman as he traveled from Ireland to Australia and then Australia to Japan, using any methods of transport he could get his hands on.
In 2009 Russ also launched his adventure travel website, also called Big Earth and is currently writing a book about his travels, 101 Amazing Adventures of the World.
