Stegath Dorr
Encyclopedia
Stegath James Dorr is a Canadian-American screenwriter
, film
actor
and producer
, credited under the screen name James Wagnor. He is noted for forming the commercial film industry in Oman beginning in 2006 with his association with Kamel Krifa and introducing the concept of the "global ensemble cast" which integrates a mixed international cast of actors who are each star
s within their own countries to leverage the appeal appeal of a film in different markets. According to the Oman Daily Observer
, the country's largest English-language newspaper
, Dorr's work in Oman has been instrumental in "sparking international interest in the Sultanate's potential as an exotic locale for film shoots." While Oman has long appealed to filmmakers for its extraordinary geography
, obtaining permission to film in the country has been very difficult in the past and has previously only been granted to documentary filmmakers.
Dorr is credited for writing, producing, and starring in Pirate's Blood, "the first English-language feature film
to be shot in Oman". Dorr is also noted for casting Canadian adult video actress Sunny Leone
in Pirate's Blood, her first mainstream Bollywood
film, along with longtime Filipina
movie star Isabel Granada
and Bollywood
actor Nishant Sagar.
Dorr is also the cousin of Laurette Spang-McCook
, who played Cassiopeia
in the original Battlestar Galactica
. Dorr was schoolmates with Swedish actress MyAnna Buring
at the American British Academy
.
in the 1985 HIV AIDS social commentary
horror film
The Carrier and found work as a gofer for the crew at age eleven alongside fellow Detroit native Bruce Campbell, employed on the same production as a sound editor. Dorr's father was a government scientist whose research shifted his family around the world, and Dorr was raised in Africa and Asia and the Middle East. During high school, he and later BBC cameraman Nick Wright made their first student film together. At age eighteen, Dorr briefly served in the USIS Branch of the American Embassy in Muscat before returning to Michigan to attend a community college. In 1993, he enrolled in Central Michigan University, where he studied journalism and film production. Dorr was employed as the staff film critic for the CM Life entertainment column from 1993–1994, his successor was Tom Root, later creator of Robot Chicken. While a CMU student, Dorr became the then-youngest submitter to successfully enter a film to the Foyle Film Festival
in Ireland
in 1995, aged 21, with the gritty youth drama Dermot, a videofilm told in a style of bleak naturalistic irony about the chronic failure of US immigrants
to realize the American Dream
in suburban Flint
following the precipitous decline of the American auto industry. After leaving the United States in the late nineties, Dorr was employed from 1999-2000 as a film reviewer for Gulf-based Apex Publishing. In Canada, Dorr was employed at the North Bay Center for the Performing Arts from 2002-2003 while completing a degree in Journalism and Economics at Canadore College. From 2003 to 2006, Dorr worked as a writer and co-producer of documentary films and commercials with IMPACT FILMS in Muscat
, Oman.
reported that Dorr is working on the "first-ever Hollywood feature to be primarily shot in that country - a film called Brothers Till the End" and that "shooting is scheduled to begin in 2010."
Since 2006, Dorr has worked on several Gulf-based productions as a screenwriter, actor and production manager on several feature film projects, including Blood Desert, a political satire filmed around 2004-2005 which was screened at the Muscat Film Festival in 2006 to positive responses and later became available on pirate and bootleg DVD. The following year Dorr wrote, co-produced and appeared the film Pirate's Blood, under the screen name of James Wagnor.
Dorr developed a "revenge film" project entitled Razor to be set and shot in The Philippines. Dorr described Razor as a commercial project, but the production was subsequently canceled in preproduction. While his dream project "is a project I am planning on street children, which may or may not make money but will touch the hearts and minds of people.".
In late 2010, Dorr was reunited with Sunny Leone in the Philippines for a new horror film entitled Black Shama which commenced filming in December on location in Cebu.
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
, credited under the screen name James Wagnor. He is noted for forming the commercial film industry in Oman beginning in 2006 with his association with Kamel Krifa and introducing the concept of the "global ensemble cast" which integrates a mixed international cast of actors who are each star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
s within their own countries to leverage the appeal appeal of a film in different markets. According to the Oman Daily Observer
Oman Daily Observer
The Oman Daily Observer is an English-language Omani daily.Established in November 1981, it is the oldest and most widely circulated English-language broadsheet in Oman....
, the country's largest English-language newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
, Dorr's work in Oman has been instrumental in "sparking international interest in the Sultanate's potential as an exotic locale for film shoots." While Oman has long appealed to filmmakers for its extraordinary geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, obtaining permission to film in the country has been very difficult in the past and has previously only been granted to documentary filmmakers.
Dorr is credited for writing, producing, and starring in Pirate's Blood, "the first English-language feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
to be shot in Oman". Dorr is also noted for casting Canadian adult video actress Sunny Leone
Sunny Leone
Not to be confused with fellow pornographic actress Sunny LaneSunny Leone is an Indo-Canadian pornographic actress, actress, businesswoman and model. She was named Penthouse Pet of the Year in 2003 and was a contract star for Vivid Entertainment...
in Pirate's Blood, her first mainstream Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
film, along with longtime Filipina
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
movie star Isabel Granada
Isabel Granada
Isabel Granada is a Filipina actress and singer. As an actress, she made her first appearance in the TV series Villa Quintana, broadcast on he GMA Network.-Early life:...
and Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
actor Nishant Sagar.
Dorr is also the cousin of Laurette Spang-McCook
Laurette Spang-McCook
Laurette Spang-McCook is an American television actress. She portrayed Cassiopeia in the original Battlestar Galactica.-Early life/family:...
, who played Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia (Battlestar Galactica)
Cassiopeia is a fictional character in the original Battlestar Galactica which ran on ABC from 1978 to 1979. The role was portrayed by Laurette Spang.-History:...
in the original Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)
Battlestar Galactica is an American science fiction television series, created by Glen A. Larson. It starred Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict and ran for one season in 1978–79. After cancellation, its story was continued in 1980 as Galactica 1980 with Adama, Lieutenant Boomer and...
. Dorr was schoolmates with Swedish actress MyAnna Buring
MyAnna Buring
MyAnna Buring is a Swedish actress best known for appearing in the 2005 horror film The Descent.- Early life :Buring was born in Sweden but grew up in the Middle East...
at the American British Academy
American British Academy
The American-British Academy, established in September 1987, is in the city of Muscat, Oman and is one of the premier international schools in the Persian Gulf region. It is a private-non-profit-co-educational-day school that offers a demanding K-12 English-language curriculum to expatriate...
.
Early career
Dorr was born near Detroit, where he began his career as an extraExtra (actor)
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet production, who appears in a nonspeaking, nonsinging or nondancing capacity, usually in the background...
in the 1985 HIV AIDS social commentary
Social commentary
Social commentary is the act of rebelling against an individual, or a group of people by rhetorical means, or commentary on social issues or society...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
The Carrier and found work as a gofer for the crew at age eleven alongside fellow Detroit native Bruce Campbell, employed on the same production as a sound editor. Dorr's father was a government scientist whose research shifted his family around the world, and Dorr was raised in Africa and Asia and the Middle East. During high school, he and later BBC cameraman Nick Wright made their first student film together. At age eighteen, Dorr briefly served in the USIS Branch of the American Embassy in Muscat before returning to Michigan to attend a community college. In 1993, he enrolled in Central Michigan University, where he studied journalism and film production. Dorr was employed as the staff film critic for the CM Life entertainment column from 1993–1994, his successor was Tom Root, later creator of Robot Chicken. While a CMU student, Dorr became the then-youngest submitter to successfully enter a film to the Foyle Film Festival
Foyle Film Festival
Foyle Film Festival is an annual film festival based in Derry, Northern Ireland. The 21st festival took place from 21 to 29 November 2008 and included the Northern Ireland premiere of Brideshead Revisited and the Irish, United Kingdom, and European premiere of Deborah Kampmeier's film Hounddog...
in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
in 1995, aged 21, with the gritty youth drama Dermot, a videofilm told in a style of bleak naturalistic irony about the chronic failure of US immigrants
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
to realize the American Dream
American Dream
The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each...
in suburban Flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
following the precipitous decline of the American auto industry. After leaving the United States in the late nineties, Dorr was employed from 1999-2000 as a film reviewer for Gulf-based Apex Publishing. In Canada, Dorr was employed at the North Bay Center for the Performing Arts from 2002-2003 while completing a degree in Journalism and Economics at Canadore College. From 2003 to 2006, Dorr worked as a writer and co-producer of documentary films and commercials with IMPACT FILMS in Muscat
Muscat, Oman
Muscat is the capital of Oman. It is also the seat of government and largest city in the Governorate of Muscat. As of 2008, the population of the Muscat metropolitan area was 1,090,797. The metropolitan area spans approximately and includes six provinces called wilayats...
, Oman.
Current career
Dorr resides in the Philippines and left SIBA ART PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION in 2010, based in Oman. The Ann Arbor NewsAnn Arbor News
The Ann Arbor News was a newspaper serving Washtenaw and Livingston counties in Michigan. Published in Ann Arbor, under various names from 1835 to 2009, The News was part of Booth Newspapers, owned by Advance Publications Inc. The News was published in the afternoons Monday through Friday and in...
reported that Dorr is working on the "first-ever Hollywood feature to be primarily shot in that country - a film called Brothers Till the End" and that "shooting is scheduled to begin in 2010."
Since 2006, Dorr has worked on several Gulf-based productions as a screenwriter, actor and production manager on several feature film projects, including Blood Desert, a political satire filmed around 2004-2005 which was screened at the Muscat Film Festival in 2006 to positive responses and later became available on pirate and bootleg DVD. The following year Dorr wrote, co-produced and appeared the film Pirate's Blood, under the screen name of James Wagnor.
Dorr developed a "revenge film" project entitled Razor to be set and shot in The Philippines. Dorr described Razor as a commercial project, but the production was subsequently canceled in preproduction. While his dream project "is a project I am planning on street children, which may or may not make money but will touch the hearts and minds of people.".
In late 2010, Dorr was reunited with Sunny Leone in the Philippines for a new horror film entitled Black Shama which commenced filming in December on location in Cebu.
External links
- James Wagnor at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
. - Pirate's Blood at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
.