Tim Roth stars as an Ivy League grad under investigation for murder in Josh and Jonas Pate's Liar, the 25-year-old twins' subversive follow-up to last year's Sundance midnight hit The Grave.

Roth plays Wayland, a pathological liar and charismatic son of the local gentry who may have killed a prostitute (Jerry Maguire's Renee Zellweger) and is definitely enjoying the opportunity to manipulate the two cops (Chris Penn and Michael Rooker) charged with his interrogation.

Little is as it seems as Liar unfolds through flashbacks, and Wayland may have less on his conscience than the cops. "We break the fourth wall early here," admits Jonas Pate, who says Liar's script got started when a producer friend testing new game show ideas hooked him up to a polygraph. The Pates grew up all over the Carolinas and say they set Liar in Charleston to take advantage of the city's stunning antebellum settings.

Liar find the Pates reteamed with Grave producer Peter Glatzer, who financed this film through Mark Damon's MDP Worldwide. An industry leader in international sales, MDP has of late been producing a mix of specialized and genre films and currently has six in various stages of production including Abel Ferarra's latest, Blackout, made in association with Ed Pressman.

The 35mm color Liar rolled October 7 in Charleston with venerable cinematographer Bill Butler (Jaws, The Conversation, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) behind the camera. "He's an unbelievable collaborator with the spirit of an 11-year-old with a train set," says Josh Pate. "We'd have one shot left before we wrapped at 6:00 A.M. on a night shoot and he'd come up and say ċI can do this lighting gag where all the light in the room drops out and there's just a band left across Tim's eyes.' He's 75, but he pushed us." All rights are available.

Cast: Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Michael Rooker, Renee Zellweger, Rose-anna Arquette, Ellen Burstyn, Michael Parks. Crew: Producer, Peter Glatzer; Executive Producer, Mark Damon; Line Producer, John Saviano; Screenwriters/Directors, Josh Pate and Jonas Pate; Cinematographer, Bill Butler; Production Designer, John Kretchmer; Casting, Laurel Smith; Editor, Dan Lebental. Contact: Peter Glatzer, Polygraph, Inc., 6626 Franklin Avenue, #402, Los Angeles, CA 90028. Tel: (310) 248-2786, Fax (310) 248-3927.

(pi) - Darren Aronofsky
Floating - Meredith Cole
Liar - Josh Pate & Jonas Pate
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Louis and Frank - Alexandre Rockwell
Push - Jason Jennings
Remembering Mario - Val Franco
The Second Wife - Michael Steinberg
Shopping For Fangs - Quentin Lee & Justin Lin
The Sticky Fingers of Time - Hilary Brougher
Whatever - Susan Skoog