Nick Willing
Encyclopedia
Nick Willing is a British director, writer and producer of films and television programs.
Willing is the son of Portuguese painter Paula Rego
and English artist Victor Willing
and was largely brought up in Portugal, but settled in England at the age of 12. He graduated from The National Film and Television School in 1982 and started directing music videos for bands such as The Eurythmics, Bob Geldof
, Swing Out Sister
, Debbie Gibson, Kirsty MacColl
, Kim Appleby
, Tony Banks
and Nik Kershaw
.
Throughout this period he was also writing screenplays, and in 1996 his adaptation of the Steve Szilagyi
novel Photographing Fairies
was financed by Polgram Filmed Entertainment and made into a feature film. Photographing Fairies was a critical success and won several awards including the Méliès d’Or in 1998.
Alice in Wonderland
followed with a cast which included Whoopi Goldberg
, Ben Kingsley
, Robbie Coltrane
, Martin Short
, Peter Ustinov
, Gene Wilder
, Ken Dodd
, Christopher Lloyd
, George Wendt
and Miranda Richardson
. Alice was made for NBC television in 1999 and won 4 Primetime Emmys.
and Doctor Sleep
and went on to develop the short stories of H.G. Wells into a semi-biographical television series, The Infinite Worlds of H.G. Wells, which premiered in 2001. More recently he wrote the series Alice
for the Syfy network which received 2 Primetime Emmy Nominations and Neverland for Sky Movies.
Willing is the son of Portuguese painter Paula Rego
Paula Rego
Paula Rego is a painter born in Portugal although she is a naturalised British citizen.-Biography:Rego was born in the Portuguese capital Lisbon, the daughter of an electrical engineer who worked for the Marconi Company. Although this gave her a comfortable middle class home, the family was...
and English artist Victor Willing
Victor Willing
Victor Arthur James Willing was a British painter-Life and work:Victor Willing was born in Alexandria, Egypt, the only son of George Willing, professional soldier, and his wife Irene Cynthia Tomkins. The first four years of his life were spent there and, briefly, in Malta...
and was largely brought up in Portugal, but settled in England at the age of 12. He graduated from The National Film and Television School in 1982 and started directing music videos for bands such as The Eurythmics, Bob Geldof
Bob Geldof
Robert Frederick Zenon "Bob" Geldof, KBE is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, occasional actor and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk rock movement. The band had hits with his...
, Swing Out Sister
Swing Out Sister
Swing Out Sister are a British "sophisti-pop" group best known worldwide for their 1986 song "Breakout". Other hits include "Surrender", "Twilight World", "Waiting Game" and a remake of "Am I the Same Girl?" Though album sales in the U.S. and Europe have levelled off since the early 1990s, the...
, Debbie Gibson, Kirsty MacColl
Kirsty MacColl
Kirsty Anna MacColl was an English singer-songwriter.MacColl scored several pop hits from the early 1980s to the early 1990s...
, Kim Appleby
Kim Appleby
Kim Appleby , is an English singer, songwriter and actor. She participated in the duo Mel and Kim, with her sister Melanie Appleby, until her sister's death from pneumonia following treatment for cancer.- Biography :...
, Tony Banks
Tony Banks (musician)
This article is about the musician. For other people named Tony Banks, see Tony BanksAnthony George "Tony" Banks is a British composer, and multi-instrumentalist, who performs as a keyboardist and a guitarist...
and Nik Kershaw
Nik Kershaw
Nik Kershaw is an English singer-songwriter. The one time jazz-funk guitarist was a mid-1980s teen idol. His 50 weeks on the UK Singles Chart in 1984 beat all other soloists...
.
Throughout this period he was also writing screenplays, and in 1996 his adaptation of the Steve Szilagyi
Steve Szilagyi
Critic, journalist, novelist Steve Szilagyi is the author of Photographing Fairies , and co-author, with Bill Mesce, Jr., of The Advocate ....
novel Photographing Fairies
Photographing Fairies
Photographing Fairies is 1997 fantasy film based on Steve Szilagyi's 1992 novel Photographing Fairies.- Themes :This film explores some of the themes of folk religion such as: possession, paganism, animism, hallucinogens, parapsychology and fairy...
was financed by Polgram Filmed Entertainment and made into a feature film. Photographing Fairies was a critical success and won several awards including the Méliès d’Or in 1998.
Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland (1999 film)
Alice in Wonderland is a television film first broadcast in 1999 on NBC and then shown on British television on Channel 4. It is based upon Lewis Carroll's books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass....
followed with a cast which included Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
, Ben Kingsley
Ben Kingsley
Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
, Robbie Coltrane
Robbie Coltrane
Robbie Coltrane, OBE is a Scottish actor, comedian and author. He is known both for his role as Dr...
, Martin Short
Martin Short
Martin Hayter Short, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, singer and producer. He is best-known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live...
, Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...
, Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder is an American stage and screen actor, director, screenwriter, and author.Wilder began his career on stage, making his screen debut in the film Bonnie and Clyde in 1967. His first major role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1968 film The Producers...
, Ken Dodd
Ken Dodd
Kenneth Arthur Dodd OBE is a British comedian and singer songwriter, famous for his frizzy hair or “fluff dom” and buck teeth or “denchers”, his favourite cleaner, the feather duster and his greeting "How tickled I am!", as well as his send-off “Lots and Lots of Happiness!”...
, Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi and more...
, George Wendt
George Wendt
George Robert Wendt III is an American actor, best known for the roles of Norm Peterson and Tug Clarke on the television shows Cheers and Modern Men.-Early life:...
and Miranda Richardson
Miranda Richardson
Miranda Jane Richardson is an English stage, film and television actor. She has been nominated for two Academy Awards, and has won two Golden Globes and a BAFTA during her career....
. Alice was made for NBC television in 1999 and won 4 Primetime Emmys.
Director filmography
- 1997 - Photographing FairiesPhotographing FairiesPhotographing Fairies is 1997 fantasy film based on Steve Szilagyi's 1992 novel Photographing Fairies.- Themes :This film explores some of the themes of folk religion such as: possession, paganism, animism, hallucinogens, parapsychology and fairy...
- 1999 - Alice in WonderlandAlice in Wonderland (1999 film)Alice in Wonderland is a television film first broadcast in 1999 on NBC and then shown on British television on Channel 4. It is based upon Lewis Carroll's books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass....
- 2000 - Jason and the ArgonautsJason and the Argonauts (2000 film)Jason and the Argonauts, aka Jason and the Golden Fleece is a 2000 TV movie, directed by Nick Willing and produced by Hallmark Entertainment. It is very loosely based on the Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts.-Plot:...
- 2002 - Doctor SleepDoctor SleepDoctor Sleep aka Close Your Eyes , Hypnotic is a 2002 film directed by Nick Willing based on the book of the same name written by Madison Smartt Bell....
aka Close Your Eyes aka Hypnotic - 2004 - Sea of SoulsSea of SoulsSea of Souls is a BBC paranormal drama series, based around the fictional activities of a group of investigators into psychic and other paranormal events. Produced in-house by BBC Scotland, initially in association with Sony Pictures Television International, the series debuted on BBC One in the UK...
- 2005 - The River KingThe River KingThe River King is a 2005 film starring Edward Burns, Rachelle Lefèvre and Jennifer Ehle as a policeman, student and teacher all searching for the truth behind the apparent suicide of a young man at small private school...
- 2006 - JackanoryJackanoryJackanory is a long-running BBC children's television series that was designed to stimulate an interest in reading. The show was first transmitted on 13 December 1965, the first story being the fairy-tale Cap o' Rushes read by Lee Montague. Jackanory continued to be broadcast until 24 March 1996,...
, The Magician of SamarkandThe Magician of SamarkandThe Magician of Samarkand is a children's book by Alan Temperley which was made into a Jackanory special television program in 2006 starring Ben Kingsley and produced and directed by Nick Willing.-External links:* BBC relaunches Jackanory...
and Muddle EarthMuddle Earth"Muddle Earth" is also the title of a 1993 novel by John Brunner.Muddle Earth is a children's book by Paul Stewart, published in 2003, and illustrated by Chris Riddell. It is largely a parody of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien... - 2007 - Tin ManTin Man (TV miniseries)Tin Man is a 2007 four and a half hour miniseries co-produced by RHI Entertainment and Sci Fi Channel original pictures that was broadcast in the United States on the Sci Fi Channel in three parts. The first part aired on December 2, and the remaining two parts airing on the following nights...
- 2009 - AliceAlice (TV miniseries)Alice is a 2009 television mini-series that was originally broadcast on Canadian cable television channel Showcase and an hour later on American cable television channel Syfy...
- 2011 - Neverland
As Writer
Nick Willing wrote his first two movies Photographing FairiesPhotographing Fairies
Photographing Fairies is 1997 fantasy film based on Steve Szilagyi's 1992 novel Photographing Fairies.- Themes :This film explores some of the themes of folk religion such as: possession, paganism, animism, hallucinogens, parapsychology and fairy...
and Doctor Sleep
Doctor Sleep
Doctor Sleep aka Close Your Eyes , Hypnotic is a 2002 film directed by Nick Willing based on the book of the same name written by Madison Smartt Bell....
and went on to develop the short stories of H.G. Wells into a semi-biographical television series, The Infinite Worlds of H.G. Wells, which premiered in 2001. More recently he wrote the series Alice
Alice (TV miniseries)
Alice is a 2009 television mini-series that was originally broadcast on Canadian cable television channel Showcase and an hour later on American cable television channel Syfy...
for the Syfy network which received 2 Primetime Emmy Nominations and Neverland for Sky Movies.
External links
- Interview with Nick Willing at Urban Cinefile