Paul W. S. Anderson

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

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.

Related Topics:
University of Warwick - Shopping - Sean Pertwee - Jude Law - Sadie Frost - England - United States

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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 simply attached a brand name to a generic adventure movie instead of recreating the look and feel of the much-loved fighting game. Anderson declined to direct the sequel, ', which was poorly received by critics and audiences alike, is deemed to be far inferior, and is currently #92 on the list of IMDB's Worst 100 user-rated movies of all time http://imdb.com/chart/bottom. Anderson wanted to direct the third movie, ', but was turned down.

Related Topics:
1995 - Mortal Kombat - Street Fighter - Super Mario Bros. - Fighting game - Sequel

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The massive success of Mortal Kombat gave Anderson free reign to choose a straight-to-video B-movie, 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.

Related Topics:
Soldier - Blade Runner - David Webb Peoples - Kurt Russell - Event Horizon - Solaris - Hellraiser - Critics

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

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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.

Related Topics:
Cult classic - Death Race 2000 - The Sight - 2000 - 2002 - Resident Evil - Paul Thomas Anderson - Wes Anderson

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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, '. During the Resident Evil shoot, he began dating its star, model / actress Milla Jovovich. They are now engaged.

Related Topics:
DVD - Milla Jovovich

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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.

Related Topics:
Alien vs. Predator - Alien - Predator 2 - Book - Comics - Video games

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The film was a critical and financial failure, with its average rating of 5.3/10 at IMDB putting it far behind the other Alien and Predator movies in terms of popularity. Anderson has claimed that 20th Century Fox asked him 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, ', has been approved, which Anderson will again write and produce, but according to Mike Epps he is the director of Afterlife. He has also claimed that he was asked to write a screenplay based on the popular Grand Theft Auto game series, but this has proven to be untrue.

Related Topics:
IMDB - 20th Century Fox - Driver - Horror movies - The Dark - Necropolis - Mike Epps - Grand Theft Auto

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