Christopher Wicking

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Christopher "Chris" Wicking (born January 10, 1943 in London , England ; † October 13, 2008 in Toulouse , France ) was a British screenwriter and film critic who mainly wrote the books for horror and fantasy films .

Life

Christopher Wicking was born in London during World War II , where he attended the Coopers' Company School . He later studied at St Martin's School of Art .

Soon he wrote his first articles for film magazines and worked as an employee at the film production company Anglo-Amalgamated . He was then given the opportunity to work as an assistant film editor in the production of documentaries and was also able to gain his first experience as a screenwriter. Wicking wrote portraits for various directors for Cahiers du cinéma . He was a big fan of the western and admired directors like Anthony Mann , William Wellman and Budd Boetticher , all of whom he would later interview. In 1972 he organized and curated a William Wellman retrospective at the National Film Theater .

With the support of Michael Reeves , he was hired in 1969 to work on the script of Death Grip of the Red Mask . However, Reeves could not start shooting due to health problems and died a few weeks later, so that Gordon Hessler took over the directing position. Wicking also wrote the scripts for Hessler's next films, which were again made for American International Pictures .

In 1971 Wicking wrote his first script for a hammer film , the horror film The Tomb of the Bloody Mummy . The production, however, was not a good star; After one day of shooting, leading actor Peter Cushing withdrew from the project due to his wife's illness, and director Seth Holt died on set before it was finished , so that Michael Carreras had to complete the shoot .

Director Peter Sykes filmed Wicking's scripts for Demons of the Soul (1972) and The Bride of Satan (1976); this was Wicking's last work for Hammer-Film. After that, he mainly wrote film reviews for magazines such as Time Out , Sight & Sound and The Monthly Film Bulletin . In addition, various scripts for television productions were created. In 1979 Wicking co-authored a book with Tise Vahimagi on American television directors, American Vein: Directors and Directions in Television .

In 1981 he adapted DH Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley for Just Jaeckin's film Lady Chatterley's Lovers . Wicking wrote an early version of the screenplay for the music film Absolute Beginners - Junge Helden , which, however, was revised several times at the request of director Julien Temple . Wicking's other scripts remained unrealized.

Wicking has taught screenwriting at the Royal College of Art , the not-for-profit Arvon Foundation and University College Dublin .

Christopher Wicking, who temporarily lived near his production company Midnight Movies Ltd in Ireland and temporarily in the south of France, died of a heart attack in Toulouse in October 2008 . He left behind his second wife, theater director Lily Susan Todd, and a son and daughter.

Filmography (selection)

Additional Dialogue
script

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  • with Tise Vahimagi: American Vein: Directors and Directions in Television . Talisman Books, 1979, ISBN 9780905983097 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Gavin Gaughan: Christopher Wicking: Screenwriter who specialized in horror . In: theguardian.com of February 6, 2009.
  2. ↑ a b c John Jeremy: Christopher Wicking: Screenwriter and critic who wrote for Hammer and worked on the adaptation of 'Absolute Beginners' . In: independent.co.uk of October 25, 2008.
  3. ↑ Stephen Jones: My Friend, Chris Wicking . In: stephenjoneseditor.com of October 27, 2008.
personal data
SURNAME Wicking, Christopher
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wicking, Chris
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH London , England
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 2008
Place of death Toulouse , France