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Mike Newell

 
Director: Mike Newell
  • Born: Mar 28, 1942 in England
  • Occupation: Director
  • Active: '70s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Drama
  • Career Highlights: Traffic, High Fidelity, Donnie Brasco
  • First Major Screen Credit: Spindoe (1968)

Biography

A film director of sure hand and considerable range, Mike Newell credits his ability to juggle numerous genres and subject matters to his diverse assignments and early experiences in British television. Generally shunned as a redheaded stepson to film, Newell considers television a key component in the scheme of the entertainment industry, claiming that his work at Granada Television fueled his versatility by allowing him the room for experimentation that the non-existent British film industry of the late '60s and early '70s couldn't provide. Born in England in March of 1942, Newell studied at Cambridge, later moving on to work at Granada Television as a trainee in 1963, where he worked in various aspects of production for several years before making his TV directorial debut. Spawning such contemporaries as Ken Loach, Stephen Frears, and Michael Apted, television work provided the creative outlet that many young filmmakers of the time so desperately needed. Newell's U.K. television feature debut, The Man in the Iron Mask (1977) served as his springboard to international success, finding theatrical release in the U.S. Continuing with work in television in the following years, Newell began to concentrate on his attempts to move into feature territory in the late '70s. Newell's first theatrical feature The Awakening (1980), a U.S./U.K. co-produced adaptation of Bram Stoker's Jewel of the Seven Stars, earned mixed reviews, though it began to cement Newell's reputation as a talented and versatile director with a gift for getting the best performances possible from his actors. Following Awakening with Bad Blood (1982), a disturbing study in small town alienation set in New Zealand, Newell continued to refine his gift for darkly enchanting, personalized films on a feature level. Working through the remainder of the decade in multiple genres, including crime (Dance With a Stranger, [1985]), drama (Soursweet, [1989]), and the activist sports drama Amazing Grace and Chuck (1987), Newell proved time and again that his sure directorial hand and sharp eye for storytelling transcended genre restrictions in favor of deeply rooted character studies. Though he had over 54 credits to his name upon entering the final decade of the millennium, the 1990s proved to be the decade in which Newell began to gain the international recognition that he so richly deserved. Making his '90s theatrical debut with the charmingly romantic Enchanted April (1992), Newell continued with a critically praised melancholy family fable in 1993, Into the West, before making his breakthrough with the influential romantic comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). Offered directorial hand on a slew of similarly themed romantic comedies in the wake of the success of Four Weddings (including Notting Hill, [1999]), and taking advantage of one such offer with the less successful Hugh Grant comedy An Awfully Big Adventure, Newell proved his versatility and struck gold again in 1997, with Donnie Brasco. In 1999, Newell spun a tale of dysfunctional air-traffic controllers with Pushing Tin, "a movie about people crashes, not plane crashes." ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
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Wikipedia: Mike Newell (director)
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Mike Newell
Born Michael Cormac Newell
28 March 1942 (1942-03-28) (age 67)
St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England
Spouse(s) Bernice Stegers

Michael Cormac "Mike" Newell (born 28 March 1942) is an English[1] director and producer of motion pictures for the screen and for television.

Contents

Early life

Newell was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, the son of amateur actors.[2] Newell was educated at St Albans School and Magdalene College, Cambridge. He then attended a three year training course at Granada Television, with the intention of entering the theatre.

Career

Newell directed various British TV shows from the 1960s onwards (Such as Spindoe (1968), credited as Cormac Newell, and Big Breadwinner Hog). However, he eventually graduated into film direction and then he went on to make the horror film The Awakening (1980) and Bad Blood (1981) about a New Zealand mass murderer.

His first film was The Man in the Iron Mask (1977), made for TV. His first critically acclaimed movie was Dance with a Stranger (1985), a biographical drama starring Miranda Richardson as Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Great Britain. For his directing efforts, Newell won the Award of the Youth at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival.

Newell continued his successes in the film industry with Enchanted April (1992), an adaptation of the 1922 novel The Enchanted April; Miranda Richardson received a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical and Joan Plowright won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy/Musical.

The comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) was also critically acclaimed – it won numerous awards, including a César Award (Best Foreign Film), a Golden Globe (Best Actor - Hugh Grant), and a few London Critics Circle Film Awards (Best Director, Film, Producer, and Screenwriter).

Since these award-winning productions, Newell has directed a number of films in Hollywood, such as Donnie Brasco (1997) (starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp), Pushing Tin (1999) (starring John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett, and Angelina Jolie), and Mona Lisa Smile (2003) (starring Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, and Julia Stiles).

In 2005, Newell became the first British director of the Harry Potter film series, on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The previous directors in the series, Chris Columbus and Alfonso Cuarón, were American and Mexican, respectively. The film was the fourth installment of the series and was a major success worldwide. Newell is heard briefly as the voice of the radio announcer at the beginning of the film.

In 2005, Newell was presented with an honorary degree of Doctor of Arts by the University of Hertfordshire which has a campus in St Albans, his birthplace.

Filmography

References

External links


 
 

 

Copyrights:

Director. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
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