Career: After a few stage gigs and a handful of made-for-TV movies, he scored a supporting role in the Rob Lowe hockey flick Youngblood (1986), which was filmed in Canada. His first popular success came in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure three years later. He then showed his range with more dramatic roles in My Own Private Idaho and Much Ado About Nothing. He truly hit the big time with action flick Speed and struck box-office gold again a few years later with the Wachowski siblings' cyber-adventure The Matrix and its sequels. Reeves' first film as director, Man of Tai Chi, was released in 2013.

Career: Freeman's first credited big-screen appearance was in 1971's Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow?, before he landed a regular role on children's show The Electric Company. In the mid-1980s, Freeman started getting more prominent roles in movies. Among his biggest hits have been Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption, Se7en, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Glory, Amistad, Deep Impact and Bruce Almighty. He is also an in-demand voice-over artist, lending his dulcet tones to sci-fi blockbuster War of the Worlds and the Oscar-winning documentary March of the Penguins. Freeman received an Academy Award of his own for his supporting role in Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby. A prolific actor, he has more recently appeared in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy and always has several films in pre-production.

Career: Following a number of low-key movies, Weisz appeared in 1996 big-screen hit Chain Reaction, then in Stealing Beauty, before more commercial success arrived with The Land Girls in 1998. She then starred in blockbuster The Mummy with Brendan Fraser, and its sequel The Mummy Returns, as well as giving critically acclaimed performances in Beautiful Creatures, About a Boy, Enemy at the Gates, Confidence, Runaway Jury, Constantine, and The Constant Gardener. More recently, she has starred in Eragon, Fred Claus, Definitely, Maybe, The Lovely Bones, The Whistleblower, Dream House and The Deep Blue Sea. Weisz occasionally appears on stage, and won an Olivier Award for her performance in a 2010 production of A Streetcar Named Desire.

Career: Cox's earliest TV appearances were as an extra in cult TV series The Prisoner. He has been a mainstay in the world of TV and film ever since, popping up in Hammer House of Horror, Minder, Frasier and Deadwood. He played Hannibal Lecktor in Manhunter, Michael Mann's adaptation of Red Dragon. (The name was later spelled Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs). He has appeared in a string of major Hollywood offerings, including The Long Kiss Goodnight, X-Men 2, Troy, The Bourne Supremacy, Zodiac and Red. On the stage he has appeared in Titus Andronicus, Taming of the Shrew and King Lear. He has also voiced characters in the video games Killzone and Manhunt.