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Thomas M. Wright

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Thomas M. Wright
Born
Thomas Michael Wright

(1983-06-22) 22 June 1983 (age 41)
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Other namesThomas M. Wright
Occupation(s)Actor, producer, writer, director, theatre designer
Years active1998–present

Thomas Michael Wright (born 22 June 1983) is an Australian actor, writer, film director and producer. He is the co-founder (2006) and director of theatre company Black Lung and director of the feature film Acute Misfortune (2019). As an actor he came to attention in Jane Campion's series Top of the Lake, for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the (US-Canadian) Critics' Choice Awards. He is set to direct a new thriller, The Unknown Man, in 2020 for See-Saw Films and Anonymous Content starring Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris, as soon as COVID-19 restrictions in Australia are lifted.[1]

Early life

Wright was born on 22 June 1983 in Melbourne.[2]

Career

Theatre

Wright created the theatre company Black Lung, also known as The Black Lung Theatre and Whaling Firm,[3] in 2006, with fellow writer and director Thomas Henning. Their first production, Avast, was called "Insanely fast-paced, artfully arrhythmic, meta-theatrical - a breathtaking combination of precision and chaos" by Chris Kohn, writing for Realtime.[4] Under the Black Lung banner, Wright created productions with Adelaide Festival and Darwin Festival, Belvoir, Malthouse Theatre, and Queensland Theatre Co. and Brisbane Festival.[3] Black Lung were hailed as one of the most influential theatre companies of the decade.[5][6]

Wright was the director, co-writer and production designer of Doku Rai,[7] a production created over four and a half years, with a three-month rehearsal process on the remote island of Atauro Island, East Timor. Doku Rai came about after Wright formed a close relationship with Michael Stone, then Chief Military Advisor to the President of East Timor, José Ramos-Horta. Stone facilitated Wright flying in and out of the country over a number of years. Doku Rai was created with a group of independent Timorese artists, a number of them former resistance fighters. The film sequences in Doku Rai were co-directed by Wright with director Amiel Courtin-Wilson.[8][9]

As an actor he played lead roles for the Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company,[10] including the title role Baal in the controversial production commissioned by Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton and directed by Simon Stone in 2011.[11]

Television and film

Wright came to attention of the world as an actor in the Disney Channel Original Movies, Stepsister From Planet Weird and Zenon: The Zequel in the early 2000s, and later in the Sundance / BBC TV series Top of the Lake in 2013, for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the US Critics' Choice Awards.[12][13] Regarding his casting as Johnno Mitcham in the series, director Jane Campion compared him to a young Daniel Day-Lewis.[14]

He appeared as cult-figure Steven Linder in the 2013 US adaptation of The Bridge. Executive Producer Elwood Reid said of Wright’s audition for the series: "...it was the best audition I have ever seen. He walked in and the temperature of the room changed".[15]

In 2015, Wright played the guide Mike Groom in the feature film Everest, based on the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which eight climbers were killed and several others were stranded by a storm.[16] He also played the murdered journalist Brian Peters in Balibo (2009), and Thomas Bodenham in Van Diemen's Land.[17]

Wright featured in the film The Man With The Iron Heart (2016), an adaptation of Laurent Binet's Prix Goncourt-winning novel, HHhH, with Jack O'Connell, Rosamund Pike, Stephen Graham and Jason Clarke.[18] He also filmed the Sony / WGN America Series Outsiders in the lead role of Sheriff Wade Houghton for producers Peter Tolan and Paul Giamatti. His performance was cited as the standout of the series by Hollywood Reporter[19] and Variety.[20]

In 2017 Wright was the subject of an Archibald Prize finalist portrait by Marcus Wills, Antagonist, Protagonist (Thomas M. Wright), with a scene set up to look like a crime drama, with Wright as protagonist.[21]

In 2018 he featured in Warwick Thornton's Sweet Country, which received the Venice Film Festival's Special Jury Prize, the AACTA Award for Best Film and the Toronto Film Festival's Platform Prize.[22]

He co-wrote, directed and produced the feature film Acute Misfortune, released in 2019, based on Sydney journalist Erik Jensen's award-winning biography of Australian artist Adam Cullen, Acute Misfortune: The Life and Death of Adam Cullen. The film received The Age Critics' Prize at Melbourne International Film Festival, where it premiered. It received a five star review in The Guardian,[23] and was named one of The Guardian's "10 Best Australian Films of the decade 2010-2020"[24] and the best Australian film of 2019.[25] It was given a "Notable mention" (along with Sweet Country) in The Monthly Awards 2018,[26] and Screen Daily called it an "Overlooked gem" in their list of the year's best films.[27][28][29][30][31] The film was nominated for the 2019 AACTA Award for Best Independent Film.[32] The score, by Evelyn Ida Morris, was nominated for best soundtrack at the 2018 ARIA Music Awards.[33] The Hollywood Reporter called Acute Misfortune "one of the year's most striking and accomplished directorial debuts".[34] Wright is nominated in the Best Director (Feature Film) category for the 2020 Australian Director's Guild Awards.[35]

In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, it was announced that a new film, The Stranger, would begin filming in South Australia as soon as enough of the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. Written and directed by Wright, it will be produced by and star Joel Edgerton. Sean Harris will play the second lead role. The film was originally announced at Berlin’s European Film Market in February, and will be made by Anonymous Content and See-Saw Films, with support from Screen Australia and the South Australian Film Corporation.[36][37][38][39]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role
2000 Stepsister from Planet Weird Cutter Colburne
2001 Zenon: The Zequel Orion
2007 The King Alfie
2009 Van Diemen's Land Thomas Bodenham
2009 Balibo Brian Peters
2010 Torn Tim Strauss
2015 Everest Michael Groom
2016 The Man with the Iron Heart Josef Valcik
2017 Sweet Country Mick Kennedy
2019 Acute Misfortune Director
2021 The Unknown Man Director

Television

Year Title Role
2013 Top of the Lake Johnno Mitcham
2013–2014 The Bridge Steven Linder
2016–2017 Outsiders Sheriff Wade Houghton
2020 Barkskins Cooke

Stage

Year Title Role Notes
2004 51 Ashworth St. The Boy Co-writer, co-director, designer
2005 Hamlet Laertes Beggars Theatre
2007 The Glass Soldier Jonas Fink Melbourne Theatre Company
2007 Pimms Dying Man Writer, co-director
The Black Lung Theatre
2008 Love Song Beane Melbourne Theatre Company
2008 Avast I The Older Brother Malthouse Theatre
2008 Avast II Jack Lemmon Co-director, designer
Malthouse Theatre
2009 Glasson God The Black Lung Theatre
2010 Furious Mattress The Exorcist Malthouse Theatre
2011 Baal Baal Sydney Theatre Company
2011 And They Called Him Mr. Glamour Director, designer
Belvoir St. Theatre
2011 I Feel Awful Writer, director, designer
Brisbane Festival
2013 Doku Rai Co-writer, director, designer
The Black Lung Theatre

References

  1. ^ "Joel Edgerton's 'The Unknown Man' Heads for South Australia Shoot". 20 April 2020.
  2. ^ Thomas M. Wright at IMDb Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  3. ^ a b "Black Lung". AusStage. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  4. ^ Kohn, Chris. "The sweet breath of The Black Lung". RealTime Arts. Retrieved 20 April 2020. RealTime issue #74 Aug-Sept 2006 pg. 43
  5. ^ "And now for something different". The Australian. Subscription paywall.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  6. ^ "[photo of three men outside Black Lung Theatre]". Archived from the original (photo) on 21 July 2007.
  7. ^ "Doku Rai: You, Dead Man, I Don't Believe You". AusStage. 17 September 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  8. ^ Power, Liza (11 August 2012). "From the wild zone". The Age. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  9. ^ "Actor and director Thomas M Wright and 'Doku Rai'". Radio National. 19 September 2013. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  10. ^ "Thomas Wright". AusStage. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  11. ^ Blake, Jason (12 May 2011). "Baal". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  12. ^ "Big Bang Theory unbeatable as Aussies sink at TV Critics' awards". The Sydney Morning Herald. 12 June 2013. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  13. ^ "Critics' Choice TV Awards Announced – Variety". Variety. 22 May 2013. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  14. ^ "Actor Tom Wright is at the top of his game with Jane Campion television project". The Australian.
  15. ^ The West Australian (2 July 2013). "Aussie actor Wright repulses US producer". The West Australian. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  16. ^ "Everest Movie vs. True Story of 1996 Mount Everest Disaster". HistoryvsHollywood.com. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  17. ^ Croggan, Alison (3 March 2009). "Review: Van Diemen's Land". theatre notes. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  18. ^ "The Man with the Iron Heart (HHhH)". Cineuropa. 3 April 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  19. ^ Lowry, Brian (22 January 2016). "TV Review: 'Outsiders'". Variety. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  20. ^ "'Outsiders': TV Review". The Hollywood Reporter. 26 January 2016. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  21. ^ "Archibald Prize Archibald 2017 finalist: Protagonist, antagonist (Thomas M Wright) by Marcus Wills". Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  22. ^ Maddox, Garry (5 December 2018). "Sweet Country dominates AACTA Awards, with a surprise best actor win". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  23. ^ Buckmaster, Luke (3 August 2018). "Acute Misfortune first-look review – Adam Cullen biopic is an enthralling, complex triumph". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  24. ^ Buckmaster, Luke (10 December 2019). "From Animal Kingdom to The Babadook: the best Australian films of the decade". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  25. ^ Buckmaster, Luke (16 December 2019). "From The Final Quarter to Judy & Punch: the best Australian films of 2019". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  26. ^ Glass-Kantor, Alexie (October 2018). "The Monthly Awards 2018: Film: 'Terror Nullius' by Soda–Jerk". The Monthly. Archived from the original on 13 April 2019.
  27. ^ Ward, Sarah (20 December 2018). "Films of the year 2018: Sarah Ward". Screen. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  28. ^ "Home". Acute Misfortune. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  29. ^ "Acute Misfortune (2019) - The Screen Guide". Screen Australia. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  30. ^ Morris, Linda (25 November 2015). "Erik Jensen's biography of flawed artist Adam Cullen wins Sydney literary award". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  31. ^ "Acute Misfortune". MIFF. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  32. ^ "Winners & Nominees". AACTA. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  33. ^ "Aria Awards". ARIA Awards. 28 November 2019. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  34. ^ Young, Neil (17 August 2018). "'Acute Misfortune': Film Review - Melbourne 2018". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  35. ^ "ADG - Australian Directors' Guild ADG AWARDS 2020".
  36. ^ "Joel Edgerton Thriller 'The Unknown Man' To Shoot In South Australia". Glam Adelaide. 20 April 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  37. ^ "Crime thriller The Unknown Man to be filmed in SA". InDaily. 20 April 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  38. ^ "Work in the Screen Industry". SAFC. 19 April 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  39. ^ Frater, Patrick (20 April 2020). "Joel Edgerton's 'The Unknown Man' Heads for South Australia Shoot". Variety. Retrieved 21 April 2020.

Further reading

  • Austlit (25 June 2018). "Tom Wright". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. (Login via state library to access extended records)
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