Paul W. S. Anderson
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)