- Born
- Birth namePaul William Scott Anderson
- Height6′ 3″ (1.91 m)
- Paul W.S. Anderson gained a fair bit of notoriety in his native England
when he directed the ultra-violent
Shopping (1994) (which he also wrote),
starring Jude Law and
Sean Pertwee in a story about thieves who
steal by ramming a car into storefronts. The film was banned in some
cinemas in England, and became a direct-to-video slightly edited
release in the United States.
Shopping (1994) allowed Anderson to get
the chance to direct
Mortal Kombat (1995), an adaptation
of the hit video game, which showcased his directorial trademarks -
visually stunning scenery and quick-cut editing. The film did well
enough for him to choose his next project, which was
Soldier (1998) with Warner Bros.,
with Kurt Russell in the lead.
Unfortunately, Russell decided at the time to go on hiatus, pushing the
release date of that film into 1998. In the meantime, Anderson directed
Event Horizon (1997) from a script
by Philip Eisner, which featured Anderson
regulars Sean Pertwee and
Jason Isaacs. The science fiction/horror
film, a Gothic horror version of
Solaris (1972), was stylish and scary,
but was critically panned and did not do well in the box office, which
Anderson blamed on studio-enforced cuts to the story. (Anderson has
promised a Director's Cut, though none has been announced as of yet).
Soldier (1998) didn't fare well with
critics and box office either, and Anderson's planned 2000 remake of
Death Race 2000 (1975) was
canceled. This forced him to think smaller, which led to
The Sight (2000), a
supernatural mystery movie that was a minor hit. He then resurfaced to
direct another video game adaption,
Resident Evil (2002). Long rumored
among fans to be a choice comeback vehicle for zombie grandfather
George A. Romero, the writing
and directing credits eventually transferred to Anderson. He next was
given the helm for the long-awaited film adaption of the popular Dark
Horse comic book,
Alien vs. Predator (2004).- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jonah Falcon < jonahnynla@mindspring.com>
- SpouseMilla Jovovich(August 22, 2009 - present) (3 children)
- ChildrenDashiel Edan Jovovich-AndersonOsian Lark Elliot Jovovich-Anderson
- Visually stunning scenery
- Quick-cut editing
- Tough female characters
- Very often, he uses odd tilted high or low angles for a creepy effect to the
atmosphere of his films. - Dialog and characters that transcend their video game origins, thus highlighting
humanity's place in the universe.
- Sick and tired of having to explain the significance of the raining
frogs in Magnolia (1999), he added the initials W.S. to his name to avoid
confusion with indie filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson. Unfortunately, the modified
name is too similar to another celebrated auteur, Wes Anderson, and Paul is
constantly fielding questions about what it's like to work with
Bill Murray. - Constantly mentions plans to release director's cut editions of all of his movies on DVD. To date, the only one that has surfaced is Alien vs. Predator (2004).
- Daughter, Ever Anderson, born 3 November 2007. Mother is his fiancée, Milla Jovovich.
- One of only two people to have both written and directed an Alien movie
(the other being James Cameron).
- I don't think it would be possible for me to respect people like
Ridley Scott or James Cameron more than I already do. They're gods of
filmmaking. - Alien vs. Predator (2004) is not trying to be Alien (1979) or Aliens (1986), and it's not trying to be Predator (1987). Those are genius movies. The impact that these creatures had on audiences was immense. But 26 years on, and dozens of comic books later, everyone knows what the Alien looks like. You've got to do something different with it, and make a slightly different movie. So, in a way, we were definitely making an Alien and a Predator movie, but a different one from the one the other directors had made.
- If you work with a subject matter beloved by a hardcore fan base, then
there's going to be a huge amount of discussion of what you've got
wrong or right. In some ways you can never please overly obsessive
fans, it's just impossible. - [on casting Kit Harington in Pompeii (2014)] I was a huge fan of Kit from Game of Thrones (2011). He was the one person that I felt really popped in the show, he really stood out from the rest of ensemble. Kit certainly looks like a movie star. I met him and was very impressed. But at that time, he wasn't quite the gladiator that we needed for the movie. But he assured me that he would get there and he became very disciplined and focused on getting that perfect physique -- the gladiatorial physique, which is what you see in the movie. He looks awesome.
- [on the production sets of Event Horizon (1997)] It took over nine sound-stages at Pinewood Studios in London to shoot the film. Because most of the movie is set on the ship, they had to construct a huge labyrinthine space that one could walk through for days and days and not enter the same room. You could be alone in there and there could be someone else with you, and you wouldn't meet them for a week unless you knew exactly where they were. We really wanted to emphasize that scale, and the best way to do that was to build sets which really conveyed that idea.
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