Neil Marshall
Encyclopedia
Neil Marshall is an English film director, editor and screenwriter. Marshall began his career in editing and in 2002 directed his first feature film Dog Soldiers, which became a cult film. He followed up with the critically acclaimed horror film The Descent
in 2005. Marshall also directed Doomsday
in 2008, and wrote and directed Centurion
in 2010.
, England. He was first inspired to become a film director when he saw Raiders of the Lost Ark
(1981) at the age of eleven. He began making home movies using Super 8 mm film
, and in 1989, he attended film school at Newcastle Polytechnic (now Northumbria University
). In the next eight years, he worked as a freelance editor
. In 1995, he was hired to co-write and edit for director Bharat Nalluri
's first film, Killing Time. Marshall continued to write and develop his own projects, directing his first film in 2002, Dog Soldiers, a horror film that became a cult film
in the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2005, he followed up with a second horror film, The Descent
(2005). With his direction of The Descent, Neil Marshall was identified as a member of the Splat Pack
.
Marshall identified nine of his "guilty pleasures" in cinema: 1941
(1979), Battle Beyond the Stars
(1980), Excalibur
(1981), Top Secret!
(1984), Race for the Yankee Zephyr
(1981), High Risk (1976), Big Trouble in Little China
(1986), The Sword and the Sorcerer
(1982), and The Legend of Boggy Creek
(1972).
for "Best Director of a British Independent Film" for The Descent
. The horror film also won a Saturn Award for Best Horror Film
.
The Descent
The Descent is a 2005 British horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall. The film follows six women who, having entered an unmapped cave system, become trapped, and are hunted by subterranean flesh-eating humanoids....
in 2005. Marshall also directed Doomsday
Doomsday (film)
Doomsday is a 2008 British science fiction film written and directed by Neil Marshall. The film takes place in the future. Scotland has been quarantined because of a deadly virus. When the virus is found in London, political leaders send a team led by Major Eden Sinclair to Scotland to find a...
in 2008, and wrote and directed Centurion
Centurion (film)
Centurion is a 2010 British action thriller film directed by Neil Marshall, loosely based on the supposed disappearance of the Roman Ninth Legion in Caledonia in the second century CE. The film stars Michael Fassbender, Olga Kurylenko and Dominic West....
in 2010.
Life and career
Marshall was born in Newcastle upon TyneNewcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
, England. He was first inspired to become a film director when he saw Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford. It is the first film in the Indiana Jones franchise...
(1981) at the age of eleven. He began making home movies using Super 8 mm film
Super 8 mm film
Super 8 mm film is a motion picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement of the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format....
, and in 1989, he attended film school at Newcastle Polytechnic (now Northumbria University
Northumbria University
Northumbria University is an academic institution located in Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England. It is a member of the University Alliance.- History :...
). In the next eight years, he worked as a freelance editor
Film editing
Film editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. It involves the selection and combining of shots into sequences, and ultimately creating a finished motion picture. It is an art of storytelling...
. In 1995, he was hired to co-write and edit for director Bharat Nalluri
Bharat Nalluri
Bharat Nalluri is a British television director, best known for his work with the independent production company Kudos Film & Television in the 2000s and early 2010s. For Kudos, he has directed episodes of Spooks, Life on Mars, Hustle , and Outcasts: all for transmission on BBC One...
's first film, Killing Time. Marshall continued to write and develop his own projects, directing his first film in 2002, Dog Soldiers, a horror film that became a cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
in the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2005, he followed up with a second horror film, The Descent
The Descent
The Descent is a 2005 British horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall. The film follows six women who, having entered an unmapped cave system, become trapped, and are hunted by subterranean flesh-eating humanoids....
(2005). With his direction of The Descent, Neil Marshall was identified as a member of the Splat Pack
Splat Pack
The Splat Pack is a collection of filmmakers who, since 2002, have directed a large number of horror films.-History:The term was coined by Alan Jones of Total Film. The group has been credited with bringing back ultra-violent movies, as well as moving away from PG-13 rated movies and into the...
.
Marshall identified nine of his "guilty pleasures" in cinema: 1941
1941 (film)
1941 is a 1979 period comedy film directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, and featuring an ensemble cast including John Belushi, Ned Beatty, John Candy, Toshiro Mifune, Christopher Lee and Dan Aykroyd...
(1979), Battle Beyond the Stars
Battle Beyond the Stars
Battle Beyond the Stars is a Roger Corman-produced science fiction film, directed by Jimmy T. Murakami and released in 1980. The film, intended as a "Magnificent Seven in outer space," is a pastiche of The Magnificent Seven, the Western remake of Akira Kurosawa's film Seven Samurai...
(1980), Excalibur
Excalibur (film)
Excalibur is a 1981 dramatic fantasy film directed, produced and co-written by John Boorman that retells the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. Adapted from the 15th century Arthurian romance, Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory, Excalibur features the music of Richard Wagner...
(1981), Top Secret!
Top Secret!
Top Secret! is a 1984 comedy film directed by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. It stars Val Kilmer , Lucy Gutteridge, Omar Sharif, Peter Cushing, Michael Gough and Jeremy Kemp. The film is a parody of the GDR era and Elvis films...
(1984), Race for the Yankee Zephyr
Race for the Yankee Zephyr
Race for the Yankee Zephyr is a 1981 New Zealand supense-action-thriller film directed by David Hemmings and starring Ken Wahl, Lesley Ann Warren, George Peppard and Donald Pleasence.-Plot:...
(1981), High Risk (1976), Big Trouble in Little China
Big Trouble in Little China
Big Trouble in Little China is a 1986 American martial arts comedy film directed by John Carpenter. It stars Kurt Russell as truck driver Jack Burton, who helps his friend Wang Chi rescue Wang's green-eyed fiancee from bandits in San Francisco's Chinatown...
(1986), The Sword and the Sorcerer
The Sword and the Sorcerer
The Sword and the Sorcerer is a 1982 fantasy film, starring Lee Horsley, Richard Lynch, and Richard Moll, directed by Albert Pyun. A mercenary with a three-bladed sword rediscovers his royal heritage when he is recruited to help a princess foil the designs of a brutal tyrant and a powerful...
(1982), and The Legend of Boggy Creek
The Legend of Boggy Creek
The Legend of Boggy Creek is a 1972 horror docudrama about the "Fouke Monster", a Bigfoot-type creature that has been seen in and around Fouke, Arkansas since the 1950s. The film mixes staged interviews with some local residents who claim to have encountered the creature, along with fictitious...
(1972).
Recognition
Marshall won the British Independent Film AwardBritish Independent Film Awards
The Moët British Independent Film Awards is an annual award ceremony celebrating achievement in independently funded British film and cinema. Nominations and jury are announced at the beginning of November with the award ceremony taking place in late November or early December.-History:The British...
for "Best Director of a British Independent Film" for The Descent
The Descent
The Descent is a 2005 British horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall. The film follows six women who, having entered an unmapped cave system, become trapped, and are hunted by subterranean flesh-eating humanoids....
. The horror film also won a Saturn Award for Best Horror Film
Saturn Award for Best Horror Film
The following are a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Horror Film:-References:...
.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Credit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Killing Time | Writer, editor | Co-wrote with Caspar Berry Caspar Berry Caspar Berry is a professional poker player, screenwriter, actor, after-dinner speaker and television presenter on Poker Night Live, and more recently as an analyst for Sky Poker.... and Fleur Costello |
| 2002 | Dog Soldiers | Director, writer, editor | |
| 2005 | The Descent The Descent The Descent is a 2005 British horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall. The film follows six women who, having entered an unmapped cave system, become trapped, and are hunted by subterranean flesh-eating humanoids.... |
Director, writer | Won British Independent Film Award British Independent Film Awards The Moët British Independent Film Awards is an annual award ceremony celebrating achievement in independently funded British film and cinema. Nominations and jury are announced at the beginning of November with the award ceremony taking place in late November or early December.-History:The British... for Best Director of a British Independent Film and won Saturn Award for Best Horror Film Saturn Award for Best Horror Film The following are a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Horror Film:-References:... |
| 2008 | Doomsday Doomsday (film) Doomsday is a 2008 British science fiction film written and directed by Neil Marshall. The film takes place in the future. Scotland has been quarantined because of a deadly virus. When the virus is found in London, political leaders send a team led by Major Eden Sinclair to Scotland to find a... |
Director, writer, editor | |
| 2009 | Executive producer | ||
| 2010 | Centurion Centurion (film) Centurion is a 2010 British action thriller film directed by Neil Marshall, loosely based on the supposed disappearance of the Roman Ninth Legion in Caledonia in the second century CE. The film stars Michael Fassbender, Olga Kurylenko and Dominic West.... |
Director, writer |
Planned Works
- Outpost is a planned film that Neil Marshall announced before starting The DescentThe DescentThe Descent is a 2005 British horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall. The film follows six women who, having entered an unmapped cave system, become trapped, and are hunted by subterranean flesh-eating humanoids....
. He described the premise to be zombies terrorizing an oil rig, but he placed the film on hold for the time being. - The Eagle's Nest is a planned film that Marshall described as a World War II action-adventure that would be a hybrid of Die HardDie HardDie Hard is a 1988 American action film and the first in the Die Hard film series. The film was directed by John McTiernan and written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. It is based on a 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp titled Nothing Lasts Forever, itself a sequel to the book The Detective, which...
(1988) and The Remains of the DayThe Remains of the Day (film)The Remains of the Day is a 1993 Merchant Ivory film adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. It was directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant, Mike Nichols and John Calley. It starred Anthony Hopkins as Stevens and Emma Thompson as Miss Kenton with James Fox,...
(1993). He said the film was an action adventure tribute to films like Where Eagles DareWhere Eagles DareWhere Eagles Dare is a 1968 World War II action-adventure spy film starring Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood and Mary Ure. It was directed by Brian G. Hutton and shot on location in Upper Austria and Bavaria....
(1968) and The Eagle Has LandedThe Eagle Has Landed (film)The Eagle Has Landed is a 1976 film version of the novel The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins. It was directed by John Sturges and starred Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland and Robert Duvall...
(1976). The premise would be about a rescue attempt for a parachutist, Rudolph Hess, who lands in Scotland during World War II. The rescue is botched, and Hess is taken by a German unit to a country castle. He also said "It's a little bit of Where Eagles Dare, Indiana Jones, James Bond and its kind of an espionage story set during WWII but its not really a war movie as such it's a full on action-adventure." - The Sword and the Fury is a planned film about a heist that takes place in medieval times. The story takes place 30 years after the death of King ArthurKing ArthurKing Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
when his sword ExcaliburExcaliburExcalibur is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Great Britain. Sometimes Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone are said to be the same weapon, but in most versions they are considered separate. The sword was...
is stolen. Arthur's queen GuinevereGuinevereGuinevere was the legendary queen consort of King Arthur. In tales and folklore, she was said to have had a love affair with Arthur's chief knight Sir Lancelot...
hires a band of thieves to steal it back. - Sacrilege is a planned film that takes place in the Old West. Marshall described the film, "It is set during the Gold Rush, a time remembered for incidents like the Donner PartyDonner PartyThe Donner Party was a group of American pioneers who set out for California in a wagon train. Delayed by a series of mishaps, they spent the winter of 1846–47 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada...
. It is meant to be a pitch-black, gritty, period horror movie." The film will be themed on paranoia and isolation, and the director will draw inspiration from the 1982 film The Thing. "This is UnforgivenUnforgivenUnforgiven is a 1992 American Western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood with a screenplay written by David Webb Peoples. The film tells the story of William Munny, an aging outlaw and killer who takes on one more job years after he had hung up his guns and turned to farming...
by way of H.P. Lovecraft, with that grim, gritty setting and a horror element nobody has seen before," Marshall said. - Burst 3D is a horror thriller film, first announced in October 2009, that Neil Marshall plans to direct. The film, based on a screenplay by Gary Dauberman, would follow travelers stranded in a blizzard and being attacked by an entity that makes them spontaneously combustSpontaneous combustionSpontaneous combustion is the self-ignition of a mass, for example, a pile of oily rags. Allegedly, humans can also ignite and burn without an obvious cause; this phenomenon is known as spontaneous human combustion....
. Sam RaimiSam RaimiSamuel Marshall "Sam" Raimi is an American film director, producer, actor and writer. He is best known for directing cult horror films like the Evil Dead series, Darkman and Drag Me to Hell, as well as the blockbuster Spider-Man films and the producer of the successful TV series Hercules: The...
produced with his company Ghost House Pictures the film. - On September 12th, 2011, it was announced that Marshall would direct an episode of HBO's Game of ThronesGame of Thrones (TV series)Game of Thrones is an American medieval fantasy television series created for HBO by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. Based on author George R. R. Martin's best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels, the first of which is called A Game of Thrones, the television series debuted in...
for the show's second season. It will be shown next year.