Roger Michell
Encyclopedia
Roger Michell is an English
theatre, television and film director
.
, Damascus
and Prague
as his father was a diplomat. He was educated at Clifton College
where he became a member of Brown's house in 1968. He studied at Cambridge University
and in 1977, he won the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company
Buzz Goodbody Award, named after the acclaimed British female director Buzz Goodbody
, who committed suicide at the age of 29. Michell graduated from Cambridge in 1977.
He was married to the actress Kate Buffery
, but they are now divorced. He has two children, daughter, actress Rosie and son Harry. His partner is Anna Maxwell Martin
, with whom he has a daughter.
and worked as assistant director to noted British playwright John Osborne
and Irish playwright Samuel Beckett
. During this period, he also worked with stage manager Danny Boyle
, who would also go on to a successful directing career with his international hit, Trainspotting
.
In 1979 he left the Royal Court Theatre
and began writing and directing projects on his own. The most successful of these ventures was 1982's Private Dick a comedy which won the Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival
. The play later debuted in in London's West End and featured Robert Powell
as Philip Marlowe
.
In 1985, Michell joined the Royal Shakespeare Company
where, over six years, he was an assistant director and then a resident director. At the RSC, Michell directed Some Americans Abroad, which transferred to Broadway
in 1990.
In 1993, he directed the acclaimed BBC miniseries adaptation of Hanif Kureishi
's autobiographical novel The Buddha of Suburbia
, starring Naveen Andrews
. He followed that with the BBC film Persuasion
in 1995. After it won the 1995 BAFTA for Best Single Drama., the film was released in theaters in America to great success. Michell then directed My Night with Reg
(1997) and Titanic Town
(1998).
Michell was next chosen by Richard Curtis
to direct his script Notting Hill
, which ended up becoming one of the highest grossing British movies of all time on its release in 1999. At the end of that film, Julia Roberts
's character is seen reading the novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin
as she and Hugh Grant
relax in a park. This is a little in-joke, as it was to be Michell's next film for the same company, Working Title Films
. However he had a health scare, which required him to pull out and be replaced by John Madden
.
He then directed the 2002 box office hit Changing Lanes
starring Ben Affleck
and Samuel L. Jackson
. In 2003, he directed The Mother
, written by Hanif Kureishi
and starring Daniel Craig
. Craig also starred in Michell's next film, Enduring Love (2004), an adaptation of Ian McEwan
's novel. Michell then directed Peter O'Toole
to an Oscar nomination in 2006's Venus
, again written by Kureishi.
Michell was in negotiations to re-team with Craig yet again in 2006 and direct the James Bond
film Quantum of Solace, but talks fell through due to "creative differences".
His most recent film is Morning Glory
, a comedy starring Rachel McAdams
and Harrison Ford
set in the world of morning news, produced by J.J. Abrams.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
theatre, television and film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
.
Personal life
He was born in Pretoria, South Africa but spent significant parts of his childhood in BeirutBeirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
and Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
as his father was a diplomat. He was educated at Clifton College
Clifton College
Clifton College is a co-educational independent school in Clifton, Bristol, England, founded in 1862. In its early years it was notable for emphasising science in the curriculum, and for being less concerned with social elitism, e.g. by admitting day-boys on equal terms and providing a dedicated...
where he became a member of Brown's house in 1968. He studied at Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
and in 1977, he won the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
Buzz Goodbody Award, named after the acclaimed British female director Buzz Goodbody
Buzz Goodbody
Mary Ann "Buzz" Goodbody was an English theatre director.She was educated at Roedean and the University of Sussex. A product of the political and cultural upheavals of the 1960s, Goodbody regarded herself as a radical and a revolutionary who was involved in the feminist movement...
, who committed suicide at the age of 29. Michell graduated from Cambridge in 1977.
He was married to the actress Kate Buffery
Kate Buffery
Katharine Buffery is an English actress/writer, known as Kate Buffery.Buffery is possibly best known for her role in the British TV drama Wish Me Luck, as Liz Grainger and as DI North in Trial and Retribution...
, but they are now divorced. He has two children, daughter, actress Rosie and son Harry. His partner is Anna Maxwell Martin
Anna Maxwell Martin
Anna Maxwell Martin , sometimes credited as Anna Maxwell-Martin, is a two-time BAFTA award-winning English actress who has won acclaim for her performances as Lyra in His Dark Materials at the Royal National Theatre, as Esther Summerson in the BBC's 2005 adaptation of Bleak House, and as N in...
, with whom he has a daughter.
Career
After graduating from Cambridge in 1977, he moved to London and began an apprenticeship at the Royal Court TheatreRoyal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
and worked as assistant director to noted British playwright John Osborne
John Osborne
John James Osborne was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and critic of the Establishment. The success of his 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre....
and Irish playwright Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
. During this period, he also worked with stage manager Danny Boyle
Danny Boyle
Daniel "Danny" Boyle is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for his work on films such as Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Trainspotting. For Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle won numerous awards in 2008, including the Academy Award for Best Director...
, who would also go on to a successful directing career with his international hit, Trainspotting
Trainspotting (film)
Trainspotting is a 1996 British satirical/drama film directed by Danny Boyle based on the novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh. The movie follows a group of heroin addicts in a late 1980s economically depressed area of Edinburgh and their passage through life...
.
In 1979 he left the Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
and began writing and directing projects on his own. The most successful of these ventures was 1982's Private Dick a comedy which won the Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
. The play later debuted in in London's West End and featured Robert Powell
Robert Powell
Robert Powell is an English television and film actor, probably most famous for his title role in Jesus of Nazareth and as the fictional secret agent Richard Hannay...
as Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler in a series of novels including The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. Marlowe first appeared under that name in The Big Sleep published in 1939...
.
In 1985, Michell joined the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
where, over six years, he was an assistant director and then a resident director. At the RSC, Michell directed Some Americans Abroad, which transferred to Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in 1990.
In 1993, he directed the acclaimed BBC miniseries adaptation of Hanif Kureishi
Hanif Kureishi
Hanif Kureishi CBE is an English playwright, screenwriter and filmmaker, novelist and short story writer. The themes of his work have touched on topics of race, nationalism, immigration, and sexuality...
's autobiographical novel The Buddha of Suburbia
The Buddha of Suburbia
The Buddha of Suburbia may refer to:* The Buddha of Suburbia , a 1990 novel by Hanif Kureishi* The Buddha of Suburbia , a 1993 BBC television series based on the book...
, starring Naveen Andrews
Naveen Andrews
Naveen William Sidney Andrews is a British American actor. He is best known for portraying Kip in the movie The English Patient and Sayid Jarrah on the American television series Lost.-Early life:...
. He followed that with the BBC film Persuasion
Persuasion (1995 film)
Producer Fiona Finlay had for several years been interested in making a film based on the novel Persuasion, and approached screenwriter Nick Dear about adapting it for television...
in 1995. After it won the 1995 BAFTA for Best Single Drama., the film was released in theaters in America to great success. Michell then directed My Night with Reg
My Night with Reg
My Night with Reg is a play by British playwright Kevin Elyot which was produced in 1994 by the Royal Court Theatre, London, directed by Roger Michell...
(1997) and Titanic Town
Titanic Town (film)
Titanic Town is a 1998 film. Ciarán Hinds and Julie Walters play Aidan and Bernie McPhelimy, a mother and father caught in the Northern Ireland Troubles in Belfast . Bernie's close friend is killed in the crossfire and so she becomes involved in the peace process.-Their children:*Nuala O'Neill ......
(1998).
Michell was next chosen by Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit...
to direct his script Notting Hill
Notting Hill (film)
Notting Hill is a 1999 British romantic comedy film set in Notting Hill, London, released on 21 May 1999. The screenplay was by Richard Curtis, who had written Four Weddings and a Funeral. It was produced by Duncan Kenworthy and directed by Roger Michell...
, which ended up becoming one of the highest grossing British movies of all time on its release in 1999. At the end of that film, Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman , which grossed $464 million worldwide...
's character is seen reading the novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, released simultaneously as Corelli's Mandolin. in the United States, is a 1994 novel written by Louis de Bernières which takes place on the island of Cephallonia during the Italian and German occupation of World War II. The main characters are Antonio Corelli, an...
as she and Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant
Hugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His films have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis's...
relax in a park. This is a little in-joke, as it was to be Michell's next film for the same company, Working Title Films
Working Title Films
Working Title Films is a British film production company, based in London, UK. The company was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. It produces feature films and several television productions, including films starring comic actor Rowan Atkinson...
. However he had a health scare, which required him to pull out and be replaced by John Madden
John Madden
John Madden may refer to:*Jack Madden, basketball referee*John Madden , American former football coach and television announcer*John Madden , ice hockey player...
.
He then directed the 2002 box office hit Changing Lanes
Changing Lanes
Changing Lanes is a 2002 drama-thriller film directed by Roger Michell and starring Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson. It was released on April 12, 2002 in North America by Paramount Pictures.-Plot:...
starring Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...
and Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...
. In 2003, he directed The Mother
The Mother (film)
-Plot:May is an ordinary grandmother from Northern England. When her husband dies on a family visit to London, she recedes into the background of her busy, metropolitan children's lives. Trapped in an unfamiliar city, far from home, May fears that she has become another invisible old lady whose...
, written by Hanif Kureishi
Hanif Kureishi
Hanif Kureishi CBE is an English playwright, screenwriter and filmmaker, novelist and short story writer. The themes of his work have touched on topics of race, nationalism, immigration, and sexuality...
and starring Daniel Craig
Daniel Craig
Daniel Wroughton Craig is an English actor. His early film roles include Elizabeth, The Power of One, A Kid in King Arthur's Court and the television episodes Sharpe's Eagle, Zorro and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: Daredevils of the Desert...
. Craig also starred in Michell's next film, Enduring Love (2004), an adaptation of Ian McEwan
Ian McEwan
Ian Russell McEwan CBE, FRSA, FRSL is a British novelist and screenwriter, and one of Britain's most highly regarded writers. In 2008, The Times named him among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945"....
's novel. Michell then directed Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
to an Oscar nomination in 2006's Venus
Venus (film)
Venus is a 2006 British comedy-drama film starring Peter O'Toole, Leslie Phillips, Vanessa Redgrave and Jodie Whittaker. It is directed by Roger Michell and written by Hanif Kureishi....
, again written by Kureishi.
Michell was in negotiations to re-team with Craig yet again in 2006 and direct the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film Quantum of Solace, but talks fell through due to "creative differences".
His most recent film is Morning Glory
Morning Glory (2010 film)
Morning Glory is a 2010 American comedy-drama film directed by Roger Michell, produced by J.J. Abrams and written by Aline Brosh McKenna. It stars Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Patrick Wilson and Jeff Goldblum. After some delays, the film was released in the United States on November...
, a comedy starring Rachel McAdams
Rachel McAdams
Rachel Anne McAdams is a Canadian actress. After graduating from a theatre program at York University, Toronto in 2001, she worked steadily as an actress until finding fame in 2004 with starring roles in teen comedy Mean Girls and romantic drama The Notebook...
and Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in...
set in the world of morning news, produced by J.J. Abrams.
Filmography
- PersuasionPersuasion (1995 film)Producer Fiona Finlay had for several years been interested in making a film based on the novel Persuasion, and approached screenwriter Nick Dear about adapting it for television...
(1995) (For TV) - My Night with RegMy Night with RegMy Night with Reg is a play by British playwright Kevin Elyot which was produced in 1994 by the Royal Court Theatre, London, directed by Roger Michell...
(1996) - Titanic TownTitanic Town (film)Titanic Town is a 1998 film. Ciarán Hinds and Julie Walters play Aidan and Bernie McPhelimy, a mother and father caught in the Northern Ireland Troubles in Belfast . Bernie's close friend is killed in the crossfire and so she becomes involved in the peace process.-Their children:*Nuala O'Neill ......
(1998) - Notting HillNotting Hill (film)Notting Hill is a 1999 British romantic comedy film set in Notting Hill, London, released on 21 May 1999. The screenplay was by Richard Curtis, who had written Four Weddings and a Funeral. It was produced by Duncan Kenworthy and directed by Roger Michell...
(1999) - Changing LanesChanging LanesChanging Lanes is a 2002 drama-thriller film directed by Roger Michell and starring Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson. It was released on April 12, 2002 in North America by Paramount Pictures.-Plot:...
(2002) - The MotherThe Mother (film)-Plot:May is an ordinary grandmother from Northern England. When her husband dies on a family visit to London, she recedes into the background of her busy, metropolitan children's lives. Trapped in an unfamiliar city, far from home, May fears that she has become another invisible old lady whose...
(2003) - Enduring Love (2004)
- VenusVenus (film)Venus is a 2006 British comedy-drama film starring Peter O'Toole, Leslie Phillips, Vanessa Redgrave and Jodie Whittaker. It is directed by Roger Michell and written by Hanif Kureishi....
(2006) - Morning GloryMorning Glory (2010 film)Morning Glory is a 2010 American comedy-drama film directed by Roger Michell, produced by J.J. Abrams and written by Aline Brosh McKenna. It stars Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Patrick Wilson and Jeff Goldblum. After some delays, the film was released in the United States on November...
(2010)
External links
- Interview BBC website
- Biography Yahoo site