Gavin Hood

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Gavin Hood (2015)

Gavin Hood (born May 12, 1963 in Johannesburg , South Africa ) is a South African film director , screenwriter and actor .

biography

The Johannesburg-born son of a well-known nature photographer attended St. Stithians College . After that he wanted to go into the film business, but at the insistence of his family, he decided to go to the University of the Witwatersrand , where he graduated with a law degree. He then practiced a profession in law, but gave it up after six months to become an actor.

In 1989 he played the lead role in the South African Broadcasting Corporation- produced television series The Game , a drama about rugby players . After the horror film Curse 3: Blood Sacrifice (1991), which was released directly on video, he raised money, moved to the United States and studied film at the University of California, Los Angeles . At UCLA, a jury that included Steven Spielberg and Michael Douglas awarded Hood the Diane Thomas Screenwriting Award in 1993 for a script he had written . In order to be made into a film, the script, A Reasonable Man , was to be Americanized and given a happy ending, which Hood disagreed with.

After returning to South Africa, he made a name for himself directing television series on issues such as AIDS, prostitution and child abuse for the Ministry of Health. For this work he was awarded an Artes Award , a South African film prize, among other things . After minor supporting roles in several US-American films such as Shadowchaser 2 ( Project Shadowchaser II , 1995) and Operation Delta Force 2: Mayday (1998), he realized his first 35mm film with the 22-minute The Storekeeper in 1998 . The short film is about the owner of a small general store in South Africa, who after a few robberies decides to finally fight back. The £ 30,000 drama won prizes at numerous international film festivals, including the Grand Prize at the Melbourne International Film Festival .

The great success of the short film enabled him to film the script A Reasonable Man . The film, which was finally released in 1999, is about an urban lawyer (played by Hood himself) who investigates a case where a shepherd boy killed a baby because it is believed to have been possessed by an evil spirit. The budget for the film, which was awarded the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, was estimated to be US $ 60,000 .

His next project was the approximately 4.2 million US dollar adventure film W pustyni iw puszczy , produced in Poland and based on the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz . Hood stood in for Maciej Dutkiewicz from Poland , who was unable to direct due to a kidney stone disease. The children's film , which has won awards at the Giffoni Film Festival , is about two children who are kidnapped by Egyptian rebels and have to cross the desert after they escape. W pustyni iw puszczy was the most successful Polish film of 2001.

The film adaptation of a novel by Athol Fugard was released in 2005 and directed by Gavin Hoods. The drama, titled Tsotsi , starring Presley Chweneyagae, is about a nineteen year old in the slums of Johannesburg who struggles through life with robberies and murders. The approximately three million US dollar film was in the favor of critics and won several internationally recognized film awards, including the Oscar for best foreign language film .

In November 2006, filming began on Hood's first US feature film Powerless . The director was able to win Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal for the political thriller set in the Middle East. The film premiered on September 7, 2007 at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival .

In 2009 he shot the X-Men offshoot X-Men Origins: Wolverine with Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber , which opened in German cinemas in May of the same year.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Moviegod.de
  2. ↑ Variety : “Wolverine” Claws on May '09 Date ( Memento of the original from October 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , October 17, 2007  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.variety.com
personal data
SURNAME Hood, Gavin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African film director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Johannesburg , South Africa