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Paul William Scott Anderson (born March 4, 1965 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England) is a British filmmaker, producer and screenwriter.

A self-proclaimed fanboy, Paul W.S. Anderson specializes in sci-fi movies and video game adaptations. His respect for the material he adapts has been called into question by its intended fanbase, who have spent years debating his worthiness online.

Biography

Paul W.S. Anderson, already a graduate of the famous University of Warwick (UK), first came to public attention as the writer-director of the incredibly violent movie Shopping, which starred Sean Pertwee, Jude Law and Sadie Frost as thieves who ram-raided storefronts. When released in his native England, it was banned in some cinemas, and only came to the United States as an edited, direct to video release.

After this, he directed the hugely successful 1995 video game adaptation Mortal Kombat. While prior video game movies, like Street Fighter and Super Mario Bros., had been disasters, Mortal Kombat was a great hit with audiences, if not critics. Unlike Super Mario Bros. and Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat recreated the look and feel of the fighting game instead of simply attaching the brand name to a generic adventure movie. Anderson declined to direct the sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, which was not well received by critics or audiences, and is deemed to be far inferior. Anderson was asked to direct a third movie, Mortal Kombat: Domination, but declined again.

The massive success of Mortal Kombat gave Anderson free reign to choose his next project, Soldier, written by Blade Runner screenwriter David Webb Peoples. Intended as a "side-quel" to Blade Runner, the movie was set in the same universe (but not the same planet), and contained numerous references to Blade Runner. Kurt Russell was attached to star, but was unavailable at the time, which delayed the production. In the mean time, Anderson made Event Horizon, which took the premise of the classic sci-fi novel and film Solaris, but filled it with Hellraiser-style horror scenes. The film was poorly received by both critics and the box office, and Anderson blamed the failure on studio-enforced cuts that removed most of the good material. Others involved with the film assert that all the 'best' material is in the released version.

Soldier was eventually completed and released in 1998, and was a disaster both critically and commercially.

After the poor performance of both Event Horizon and Soldier, Anderson was forced to think smaller. His planned remake of the cult classic Death Race 2000 was put on hold, and he set about writing and directed a TV movie, The Sight, in 2000. It was a minor success, and Anderson returned the cinema screens in 2002 when he wrote and directed an adaptation of the video game series Resident Evil. It was at this point that, to avoid confusion to American auteur Paul Thomas Anderson, he began to credit himself as "Paul W.S. Anderson." Ironically, this only lead to him being confused with another American director, Wes Anderson.

Working with a moderate budget in comparison to his other movies, Resident Evil was a success in cinemas and on DVD, prompting Anderson to write (but not direct) the sequel, Resident Evil: Apocalypse. During the Resident Evil shoot, he began dating its star, model / actress Milla Jovovich. They are now engaged.

Anderson's next project was the much-anticipated Alien vs. Predator, an idea that had been thrown around ever since an Alien's skull was seen in the trophy room of the spaceship in Predator 2. Due to the immense legal complications involved in bringing the two characters together, a movie version had been stuck in development hell for years despite the franchise crossing into every other form of media, from books to comics to video games. The fact Alien vs. Predator was being made at all was enough to get many fans of the originals onboard from the second the project was greenlighted. Some, however, were unhappy with the choice of Anderson as the writer and director, and had the opposite reaction, writing it off as a failure before it had even entered production.

The criticism was, again, largely restricted to the online community, and AVP was a financial success, although its average rating of 5.3/10 at IMDB puts it far behind the other Alien and Predator movies in terms of popularity. Anderson was asked by 20th Century Fox to write the screenplay for a possible Alien 5, but nothing came of it. He is currently producing an adaptation of the video game Driver, as well as two horror movies, The Dark and Necropolis. A third Resident Evil movie, Resident Evil: Afterlife, has been approved, which Anderson will again write and produce, but no director is attached. He has also expressed interest in adapting the video game Grand Theft Auto and Alfred Bester's seminal sci-fi novel The Stars My Destination, but neither one has so far come to pass.

Trivia

His films often have a rock score at the end, as apparent in Event Horizon, Soldier, Resident Evil, and Resident Evil: Apocalypse.

Anderson has cast actor Jason Isaacs several times, appearing in Event Horizon, Soldier, and Resident Evil (in both a voice-over at the beginning and as a masked doctor uttering 'Put him in the Nemesis program' at the end)

His films often end without any kind of closure. The characters find themselves in a new, even more dangerous situation in the final scene. In the case of Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil, the sequels picked up immediately from this point.

Filmography

Director

Alien Vs. Predator (2004)
Resident Evil (2002)
Soldier (1998)
Event Horizon (1997)
Mortal Kombat (1995)
Shopping (1994)

Producer

Resident Evil: Afterlife (2006)
Driver (2006)
Necropolis (2005)
The Dark (2005)
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
Resident Evil (2002)

Writer

Resident Evil: Afterlife (2006)
Necropolis (2005)
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
Alien Vs. Predator (2004)
Resident Evil (2002)
Shopping (1994)

External links

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 The criticism was, again, largely restricted to the online community, and ''AVP'' was a financial success, although its average rating of 5.3/10 at [[Internet Movie Database|IMDB]] puts it far behind the other ''Alien'' and ''Predator'' movies in terms of popularity. Anderson was asked by [[20th Century Fox]] to write the screenplay for a possible ''Alien 5'', but nothing came of it. He is currently producing an adaptation of the video game ''[[Driver (game)|Driver]]'', as well as two [[horror film|horror movies]], ''[[The Dark]]'' and ''[[Necropolis (movie)|Necropolis]]''. A third ''Resident Evil'' movie, ''[[Resident Evil: Afterlife]]'', has been approved, which Anderson will again write and produce, but no director is attached. He has also expressed interest in adapting the video game ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' and [[Alfred Bester (author)|Alfred Bester]]'s seminal [[sci-fi]] novel ''[[The Stars My Destination]]'', but neither one has so far come to pass.
-==Fan Backlash==
-Despite his ability and success to get projects that would be considered dreams off the ground, Anderson and his films are not well liked by their intended audience, many of whom mercilessly assault him over the [[Internet]], even going so far as to post death threats and perform elaborate hoaxes to discredit him. While it is not uncommon for directors to be attacked anonymously over discussion forums, the amount of abuse that is heaped on Anderson daily is above and beyond even the backlash suffered by [[Joel Schumacher]] in the wake of his widely derided ''[[Batman]]'' sequels.
-After the disastrous release of ''Soldier'', which had suffered some on-set problems, a backlash against Anderson began which, seven years later, shows no signs of stopping. While his previous films had not been popular with critics, his intended audience began to actively dislike him, seeing him as emblematic of how major studios ruined potentially good ideas. These feelings began to be more and more visible following a scathing review of ''Soldier'' by another self-proclaimed fanboy, [[Ain't It Cool News]] [[webmaster]] [[Harry Knowles]].
-: ''Ya know, I don&#8217;t really care for Paul Anderson&#8217;s films. MORTAL KOMBAT was just loud and noisy without any characters or motivations that I got into. EVENT HORIZON was a real cluster of completely blown opportunities.''
-: ''[...]''
-: ''When given that script, Kurt Russell and an additional $60 million dollars and all you can do is come up with that...... ARGH!!! Did he realize the opportunity he had? I mean here... here was the fucking deal man. This was his chance to make a great fucking movie. He didn&#8217;t need to spend it lighting farts. But that&#8217;s what he did, ignited methane. A total waste. Too bad the fire didn&#8217;t back up into the internal organs and cook the bastard.''
-:'' [...]''
-: ''I mean, I can take cinematic douches like URBAN LEGEND, but dammit this was just mediocrity. There is nothing worse than mediocrity. Because it ain&#8217;t exactly the worst thing in the world, and it ain&#8217;t exactly great... instead it&#8217;s FORGETTABLE! I mean by next week I&#8217;m gonna fucking just forget it. But right now, my adrenal gland is crying for the fucking head of PAUL ANDERSON!!!!'' ([[October 28]], [[1998]])''
-However, Knowles didn't forget about it next week, or even next year.
-: ''But now it has been made VERY CLEAR by a good dozen or so sources that Paul Thomas Anderson is not involved, but rather... Paul Anderson, director of EVENT HORIZON, MORTAL KOMBAT and SOLDIER. I loathe those three films as movies that put style over substance, that personify the lack of humanity and soul in film. I hate those three movies completely. And I am completely and 100% unexcited about DEATH RACE 3000.'' ([[July 11]], [[1999]])
-Two years later, Knowles had still not run out of vitriol. When he appeared on the [[Comedy Central]] show ''[[Turn Ben Stein On]]'', the following exchange took place:
-: '''Ben Stein''' ''Who are your least favorite directors? ''
-: '''Harry Knowles''' ''Paul Anderson. ''
-: '''Ben Stein''' ''And what's he made? ''
-: '''Harry Knowles''' ''Umm - God, I don't want to send people out to see this stuff.'' ([[March 22]], [[2001]])
-Knowles was not alone in his dislike of Anderson's movies, although nobody else was quite as vocal. As the Aint It Cool News website was so popular, Knowles' opinions of Anderson was hard to ignore, and began to become a more frequent topic of discussion. The bad feelings began to snowball, and Anderson became a kind of all-purpose whipping boy for the "hardcore" online fan community. He was denounced as a hack whose movies lacked both style and substance, and as someone who ruined ideas that could have been dreams come true in the right hands. Anderson did not have much support online, although [[JoBlo]]'s coaxial site [[Arrow In The Head]] defended him and claimed he was simply misunderstood. However, this was confined to online discussion forums - the majority of moviegoers had no opinions of Anderson one way or the other.
-While his ''[[Resident Evil (movie) |Resident Evil]]'' adaptation was a box office success, his respect for the series was called into question when he jettisoned the look, feel and [[1970s|70s]] horror-movie roots of the game in favour of a slick action movie halfway between ''[[Aliens (1986 movie)|Aliens]]'' and ''[[The Matrix]]''. In his own words:
-: ''It's a very modern, high tech, sophisticated movie. This is not the sequel to Dawn of the Dead, you know, it's not a 1970s George Romero movie, because those movies were very much of a time. This is very high tech, very sophisticated, the special effects are very sleek and slick, so it's kind of like The Matrix of zombie movies.'' [http://hometown.aol.com/lallaward/playstationarticle.html]
-Fans of the series claimed that he had totally ignored the essence of what made the games a success, and that the original storyline and characters he'd created were actually inferior to those in the video game. Those enamoured with zombie movies, were also angered because ''Resident Evil'' had originally been tipped as a 'comeback' movie for legendary zombie filmmaker [[George Romero]], but had been given to Anderson instead, as Capcom, the creators of ''Resident Evil'', deemed his script to be more commercial. When Romero's jettisoned script began circulating online, fans still took issue with the changes it made to the series' established lore, but deemed that it was still a better representation of what the series was about, fully embracing its b-movie roots and over-the-top gore. [http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=7315] Whether the movie was ''good'' or not became acacdemic; the complaint was that Anderson had claimed to be a huge fan of the games, but made a movie that was in no way like them.
-Anderson had by this point become such a disliked person that, as an [[April Fool's]] joke, [[J.R.R. Tolkien]]'s website www.theonering.net 'revealed' that Anderson would direct an adaptation of ''[[The Hobbit]]'' after [[Peter Jackson]]'s ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'' movies had finished. This was met with widespread horror from LOTR fans, although they calmed down after noticing what the date was. While posting fake news on [[April 1]] is common for many websites, it is indicative of online resentment toward Anderson that he specifically was chosen - it would have been simple to get a laugh by saying that The Hobbit would be directed by someone like [[Woody Allen]], but, by saying it would be helmed by Anderson, they presented something within the realms of possibility that truly frightened many LOTR fans.
-When he was announced as the writer-director of the dream project ''Alien vs. Predator'', the detractors he had gathered were furious, Knowles especially:
-: ''FUCK THIS! I loathe Paul Anderson movies... Loathe them the way I loathe BATMAN & ROBIN or ROLLERBALL. They're just things that didn't need to exist. Paul Anderson continually makes mediocre films at outrageous prices. He has taken a great script (SOLDIER) and turned out trash. He's been given gobs and gobs of cash and flushed out on to our screens with turkeys like EVENT HORIZON. He made RESIDENT EVIL which felt like the pansiest loud noisy obnoxiously castrated zombie flick in years! Now they want to trust that guy with ALIENS VS PREDATOR? FUCK THIS!''
-When the movie was released, it again came under attack from its intended fanbase, who claimed it violated many of the rules established in the previous movies. Predators appearing in sub-zero climates, Aliens growing to full size extremely quickly, Predators losing fights too easily, toning the violence down to PG-13 and tying both creatures into the origin of the [[Aztec]] civilization infuriated longtime fans. More casual fans, while not concerned with the way the movie "broke the rules" were still unhappy with what they considered a weak script, badly-edited fights and numerous plot-holes. [http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=18140] There were no pre-screenings for critics, but those that did see it were unimpressed. [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/alien_vs_predator/]
-During a promotional screening, it was widely reported that Anderson blamed the poor performance on 20th Century Fox, who insisted it be less than 90 minutes and PG-13 only a few weeks before it was finished. [http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/index.php?Show=2378&Template=newsfull] However, this was later revealed to be a hoax to make Anderson appear duplicitous. Anderson and Fox have confirmed that no other footage exists, and that the PG-13 cut is the one which they had always intended to release.
-When the movie's shooting script began circulating online shortly after its release, there were no other scenes of gore or violence, and it specifically mentions being PG-13. However, the phony promotional screening was still accepted as fact by many websites, who seized upon Anderson's "lies" to further discredit him.
-''So what's did you learn this summer? Don't believe a word that comes out of Paul Anderson nor [[Uwe Boll|Uwe Boll's]] mouth.''   (bloody-disgusting.com)
-However, this is not the first, yet alone the most ludicrous hoax concerning Anderson that was widely believed. Shortly before the release of the first ''[[Resident Evil (movie) |Resident Evil]]'' film, issue #211 of [[Fangoria (magazine) |Fangoria]] magazine, received a bogus interview, in which Anderson "explained" that his version of ''[[Resident Evil]]'' was based on an old screenplay he wrote, titled "The Undead." Even though this "interview" looked completely ridiculous and fake, many people believed it and still do to this day.
-What many people do not realize, is that the decision to make ''[[Resident Evil (movie) |Resident Evil]]'' different from the games was made by [[Constantin Film]] and [[Capcom]] and not by Anderson. He simply obeyed to the instructions that were given to him by his employers.
-The controversy did not end there, however. Screenwriter [[Peter Briggs]], who had penned the very first ''Alien vs. Predator'' screenplay, disputed some of Anderson's other comments in an online interview, saying Anderson's claim that Briggs' original screenplay was "locked down" was incorrect, and that many elements of Anderson's screenplay were suspiciously similar to his. [http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/index.php?Show=2432&Template=newsfull] Strangely, Knowles was one of the more forgiving critics, who said it was Anderson's best movie yet, labelling it "a curiously entertaining floater."
-While the huge box office success of many of his movies proves that he's capable of entertaining a mass audience, particularly the coveted male 14 - 25 demographic, dedicated fans - the very people he claims to be "the voice of" - almost uniformly despise his body of work. Anderson's defenders claim that this is because they have unrealistically high expectations, and that their constant nitpicking is stopping them from just enjoying the movies on their own terms. The fans retaliate that, if Anderson is handling something with such a large and dedicated fanbase, he should be more respectful of it and not simply make a "popcorn movie" that bears a superficial resemblance to its source. This debate has been going on for years an often becomes quite heated, but it is confined almost totally to the Internet. Ironically, the people who most support or dislike Anderson are the ones who matter the least in terms of his success - his movies are most popular with the mainstream audience rather than the intended fanbase that it is aimed for.
 ==Trivia==