2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
He had two big dreams in life: to score for Scottish side Celtic in the European Cup final and to direct one of the James Bond films. From the first, he only had a fan devotion to his favorite football club, and he has not refused the second until now - director Paul McGuigan was one of the contenders for the production of "Casino Royale" with Daniel Craig. The film was made by someone else, but McGuigan has some equally impressive work in his arsenal, including 4 episodes from the super popular series Sherlock.
Failed pastor
McGuigan was born in September 1963, in the town of Bellshill in the Scottish region of North Lanarkshire, 15 km southeast of Glasgow. His father owned a small pub, and the family was truly Catholic. For a long time, Paul seriously considered the path of a priest as his future, and only a serious speech impediment became the main obstacle on this path. A stutter that future director Paul McGuigan suffered from as a young man led him to seek another calling, but it didn't stop his love of socializing. It is his ability to establish personal contact with all members of the film crew.bands: from stars to driver - Paul calls the main guarantee of his success in the profession of director.
After graduating from high school, he enters Glasgow College of Construction and Printing, where he seriously studies the technical side of photography. He opens his own photo studio and soon becomes a famous master, including work for advertising agencies. The first experiences in the cinema were also associated with advertising. His videos were distinguished by particularly high-quality video sequences and a fascinating story. In the mid-90s, he became a TV documentary filmmaker. How director Paul McGuigan makes several documentaries for BBC Channel 4.
No special film education
In 1998, he received an offer to film several stories by Irvine Welsh, combining them into one film "Acid House". Recalling his first day on set as a feature film director, McGuigan said that his "innocence" in terms of film school served him well: his work is still distinguished by a true freshness of vision and genuine originality.
Following the release of his next film, Gangster 1, director Paul McGuigan is being dubbed the "British Scorsese" in film circles. The first to voice this analogy was the outstanding actor Malcolm McDowell, who played one of the main roles in the film. While many were dismayed by the amount of violence in this film, critics praised it for its outstanding visual style and distinctive storytelling.
Breakout to Hollywood
Since the beginning of the 2000sbegins a stage in McGuigan's film career associated with his work in the United States. First comes "Day of Reckoning" (2003) and the thriller "Obsession" - a film released in 2004. In them, the director hones his ability to create stories full of mysticism and sophisticated imagery, the action of which can take place both in the distant past and in the future.
The film "Lucky Number Slevin" (2006) made McGuigan a real star. This is a picture of a real master, in which an amazing atmosphere is created, where events unfold according to an unpredictable and non-trivial plot. The participation of stars of the first magnitude - Josh Harnett, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman - made the film a hit among critics and audiences.
The 2009 film "The Fifth Dimension" became a landmark work for the director. The director later said that his decision to forgo moving to Los Angeles and stay in Scotland may have deprived him of several tempting projects that would have made his career even brighter. On the other hand, one of his most iconic works could pass by - a series that has become truly cult in a short time.
Sherlock (2010)
The immortal stories of Arthur Conan Doyle have countless film adaptations. The adventures of the brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend and biographer John Watson have received a completely new interpretation in the television series Sherlock. Paul McGuigan, in collaboration with the authors of the series, gave this story a surprisingly unexpected and modern sound, filming in 2010 2 episodes of the first season - "A Study in PinkTones" and "The Great Game", and in 2012 two more series - "A Scandal in Belgravia" and "The Hound of the Baskervilles".
The series has received numerous awards from film and television critics and huge popularity among viewers around the world. Among other things, McGuigan recalls the amazingly creative and friendly atmosphere that prevailed on the set. Many actors of the series have become real friends for him and participants in his future projects.
Films and series, director and producer
It's always interesting to understand the nature of a director's creative style. The choice of those films of other masters that he considers to be models says a lot about her. In McGuigan's case, the list of his 5 favorite movies is amazing. For him, as a master of tense and dynamic thrillers, the presence of the cult Hitchcock (“Rear Window”) and the dramatic “Requiem for a Dream” by Darren Aronofsky are quite understandable, but the presence of the fantastic comedy of 1951 “The Man in the White Suit”, a family musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and Wong Kar-Wai's particularly subtle, psychological and visual nuanced "In the Mood for Love" make McGuigan's films more multifaceted to analyze.
The latest big screen project was Victor Frankenstein (2015), another famous story that has been adapted many times. As Paul McGuigan once said, big-budget films, large-scale in conception and effects, become a rare event, not only in his practice, but the significance of the workover television projects is only growing. As a director, he directed several series of projects Monroe (2011-2012), Life as a Show (2012-2013), Scandal (2012), Devious Maids (2013), Family (2016). In the last two cases, he also acts as a producer.
McGuigan's life is filled with family (latest child, daughter Silver-Rae, born March 11, 2016), working on current projects and designing future ones.
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