In "Shattered Glass," Hayden Christensen stars as Stephen Glass, a staff writer for the respected current events and policy magazine The New Republic and a freelance feature writer for publications such as Rolling Stone, Harper's and George. By the mid-90's, Glass' articles had turned him into one of the most sought-after young journalists in Washington, but a bizarre chain of events - chronicled in Buzz Bissinger's September 1998 Vanity Fair article on which "Shattered Glass" is based - suddenly stopped his career in its tracks. "Shattered Glass" is a study of a very talented - and at the same time very flawed - character. It is also a look inside our culture's noblest profession, one that protects our most precious freedoms by revealing the truth, and what happens when our trust in that profession is called into question.

"Shattered Glass" is jointly produced by Cruise / Wagner Productions and Baumgarten Merims in association with Forest Park Pictures. The film's executive producers are Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner of Cruise / Wagner as well as Lions Gate executives Michael Paseornel, Marc Butan and Tom Ortenberg. A Lions Gate production, "Shattered Glass" is produced by Craig Baumgarten, Adam Merims, Gaye Hirsch and Tom Christensen.

HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN (Stephen Glass)

Hayden Christensen became an international film star when George Lucas cast him as Anakin Skywalker in the blockbuster epic "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones." But it was the role of a troubled teenager he portrayed in Irwin Winkler's drama "Life as a House" for which Christensen first received acclaim, including an award for Best Breakthrough Performance from the National Board of Review and nominations for the Screen Actors Guild award and the Golden Globe award.

Christensen is currently on location in Sydney, shooting "Star Wars: Episode III," which will be released in the summer of 2005.

Christensen broke into acting in an unusual way. His older sister, a Junior World Trampoline champion, had done a commercial endorsement for Pringles. A he recalls, "When she went to meet a talent agent, there was no one to baby-sit me so I went along for the ride." By the time he was 12, he had a continuing role in the first Canadian soap opera, the daily "Family Passions."

Christensen was a regular on the Fox Family Channel series "Higher Ground," and was featured in Sofia Coppola's acclaimed debut film "The Virgin Suicides." His other film credits include Sarah Kernochan's "All I Wanna Do" and John Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness." Other television credits include "Purple Haze" and Free Fall."

PETER SARSGAARD (Chuck Lane)

Best known for his role in "Boys Don't Cry" opposite Hilary Swank and Chloe Sevigny for director Kimberly Peirce, Peter Sarsgaard received critical acclaim for his portrayal of John Lotter, the tightly wound young man who first accepts Brandon Teena into his small-town circle, then begins to suspect her true identity concluding with troubling, violent results.

He recently wrapped "Large's Ark" opposite writer/director Zach Braff and Natalie Portman and Lodge Kerrigan's "In God's Hands," executive produced by Stephen Soderbergh.

Sarsgaard co-starred opposite Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson in last summer's submarine thriller "K-19: The Widowmaker."

In Castle Rock's "The Salton Sea," Sarsgaard starred opposite Val Kilmer in the twisted tale of a man (Kilmer) who goes undercover among a group of drug addicts to avenge his wife's death. Sarsgaard portrayed Kilmer's closest compatriot in the underground world of crystal meth.

Other roles include the black comedy, "Unconditional Love" with Rupert Everett and Kathy Bates, "Empire" opposite John Leguizamo and Wayne Wang's controversial "Center of the World" opposite Molly Parker.

On the small screen Sarsgaard starred in Showtime's acclaimed feature, "Freak City," produced by Michael Stipe and Sandy Stern's Single Cell Pictures.

Sarsgaard first gained notice as Leonardo de Caprio's rival and Zjohn Malkovich's son in "The Man in the Iron Mask." Other films include Larry Clark's "Another Day in Paradise" and Tim Robbins' "Dead Man Walking" with Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon.

A member of Douglas Carter Bean's New York-based theatre company, The Drama Department, Sarsgaard appeared in their off-Broadway production, "Kingdom of Earth," directed by John Cameron Mitchell. He attended the Actors' Studio Program at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, after which he was cast in Horton Foote's "Laura Dennis" at the Signature Theatre Company Off-Broadway.