Iain Softley | |
|---|---|
 Iain Softley introducing a screening of Hackers at Electromagnetic Field 2024. | |
| Born | 30 November 1956 |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, producer, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Spouse | Sarah Curtis |
| Children | 3 |
Iain Declan Softley (born 30 November 1956) is an English film director, producer, and screenwriter. His films include Backbeat, Hackers, The Wings of the Dove , K-PAX , The Skeleton Key , Inkheart and the BBC adaptation of Sadie Jones's novel The Outcast.
Softley was educated at St Benedict's School, Ealing, London, and Queens' College, Cambridge, where he directed a number of highly-praised theatrical productions. He worked for Granada TV and the BBC in the 1980s before moving on to music videos and film.
Softley's first film, the Stuart Sutcliffe biopic, Backbeat , which he wrote and directed, was released in 1994. It opened the Sundance Film Festival [1] and went on to receive a BAFTA Award nomination for Best British Film. For his work on the film, Softley received Best Newcomer Awards from The London Film Critics Circle and Empire Magazine. [2]
Following Backbeat, Softley directed the cyber thriller Hackers, starring Angelina Jolie and Jonny Lee-Miller. This was followed in 1997 by an adaptation of Henry James' novel, The Wings of the Dove, starring Helena Bonham-Carter. The film premiered at the Toronto and Venice Film Festivals, earned four Academy Award nominations, and won a number of awards including two BAFTAs and multiple acting honors for Bonham Carter. [3]
Softley's next two films (released by Universal Pictures [4] ) topped the US box office: [5] the sci-fi mystery film K-PAX , starring Kevin Spacey, and Jeff Bridges, and the suspense thriller, The Skeleton Key with Kate Hudson, Gena Rowlands and John Hurt.
Other film credits include: Inkheart , from Cornelia Funke's best-selling book, with Helen Mirren, Paul Bettany and Jim Broadbent; Trap for Cinderella, starring Tuppence Middleton and Alexandra Roach, which Softley adapted and directed from Sebastien Japrisot's French crime novel; and Curve starring Julianne Hough, produced by Blumhouse Productions and released by Universal Pictures in 2016. [6]
In 2010, Softley directed a stage adaptation of Backbeat, which was co-written with Stephen Jeffreys. It premiered at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, [7] before transferring to the Duke of York's Theatre, in London [8] and then subsequently Toronto, Los Angeles and Berlin. [9] [10] [11]
In 2016, it was announced that Softley will direct Icarus, based on the life of British/American astronaut, Michael Foale, which Softley has developed with writers Hilary Thompson and Laurence Coriat. He will co-produce the project through his company, Forthcoming Films. [12] Softley attended Queens' College, Cambridge at the same time as Foale.
Aside from his work in film, Softley has also worked in television. In 2012, he directed the short film, The Man, as part of Sky Arts' Playhouse Presents strand. The film was a satirical take on the clandestine Bilderberg Group and starred Stellan Skarsgard, Zoe Wannamaker, Hayley Atwell and Stephen Fry. [13] In 2015, the BBC broadcast a two-part adaptation of author Sadie Jones' novel The Outcast which Softley also directed. [14] The film was warmly received by The Guardian , with Julia Raeside writing: "The tone set by Iain Softley's beautifully restrained direction and the careful use of music creates a real feeling of loss from the start, just as in the book, but he somehow avoids all hammy visual foreshadowing and narrative signposting, so often used to gee a plot along". [15]
Softley also directed the upcoming Disney+ short film The Shepherd , which stars John Travolta and is an adaptation of Frederick Forsyth's novel The Shepherd . [16] [17]
Together with his wife, film producer Sarah Curtis, Softley runs Forthcoming Films, which produces and develops their respective projects. Past productions include: Backbeat , On a Clear Day , Hysteria , Trap for Cinderella and Ophelia . [18]
Future productions include: the Michael Foale biopic Icarus. [19]
Softley and Curtis live in London. Together, they have three children. [20]
| Year | Title | Director | Producer | Writer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Backbeat | Yes | No | Yes |
| 1995 | Hackers | Yes | Executive | No |
| 1997 | The Wings of the Dove | Yes | No | No |
| 2001 | K-PAX | Yes | No | No |
| 2005 | The Skeleton Key | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2008 | Inkheart | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2013 | Trap for Cinderella | Yes | No | Yes |
| 2015 | Curve | Yes | No | No |
| 2023 | The Shepherd | Yes | No | Yes |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Playhouse Presents | Episode "The Man" |
| 2015 | The Outcast | Miniseries (2 episodes) |
K-PAX is an American science fiction novel by Gene Brewer, the first in the K-PAX series. The series deals with the experiences on Earth of a being named Prot. It is written in the first person from the point of view of Prot's psychiatrist.
Inkheart is a 2003 young adult fantasy novel by Cornelia Funke, and is the first book of the Inkheart series, with Inkspell (2005) and Inkdeath (2007) succeeding it. The novel became one of the finalists of 2004 BookSense Book of the Year Award for Children's Literature and won the Flicker Tale Children's Book Award in 2006. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association listed the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children".
Cornelia Maria Funke is a German author of children's fiction. Born in Dorsten, North Rhine-Westphalia, she began her career as a social worker before becoming a book illustrator. She began writing novels in the late 1980s and focused primarily on fantasy-oriented stories that depict the lives of children faced with adversity. Funke has since become Germany's "bestselling author for children". Her work has been translated into several languages and, as of 2012, Funke has sold over 20 million copies of her books worldwide.
Backbeat is a 1994 independent drama film directed by Iain Softley. It chronicles the early days of The Beatles in Hamburg, West Germany. The film focuses primarily on the relationship between Stuart Sutcliffe and John Lennon, and also with Sutcliffe's German girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr. It has subsequently been made into a stage production.
Outcast or Outcasts may refer to:
The Wings of the Dove is a 1997 British-American romantic drama film directed by Iain Softley and starring Helena Bonham Carter, Linus Roache, and Alison Elliott. The screenplay by Hossein Amini is based on the 1902 novel by Henry James. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards and five BAFTAs, recognizing Bonham Carter's performance, the screenplay, the costume design, and the cinematography.
The Inkheartseries is a succession of four fantasy novels written by German author Cornelia Funke, comprising Inkheart (2003), Inkspell (2005), Inkdeath (2007), and The Colour of Revenge (2024). The books chronicle the adventures of teen Meggie Folchart whose life changes dramatically when she realizes that she and her father, a bookbinder named Mo, have the unusual ability to bring characters from books into the real world when reading aloud. Mostly set in Northern Italy and the parallel world of the fictional Inkheart book, the central story arc concerns the magic of books, their characters and creatures, and the art of reading.
Inkheart is a 2008 fantasy adventure film directed by Iain Softley, produced by Cornelia Funke, Dylan Cuva, Sarah Wang, Ute Leonhardt, Toby Emmerich, Mark Ordesky, Ileen Maisel and Andrew Licht, written by David Lindsay-Abaire, music composed by Javier Navarrete and starring Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent, Andy Serkis, and Eliza Bennett. It is based on Cornelia Funke's 2003 novel of the same name.
Harriet Jane Morahan is an English actress. Her roles include Sister Clara in The Golden Compass (2007), Gale Benson in The Bank Job (2008), Alice in The Bletchley Circle (2012–2014), Ann in Mr. Holmes (2015), Rose Coyne in My Mother and Other Strangers (2016), Agathe/The Enchantress in Beauty and the Beast (2017), and as a voice actress, Doctor Who companion Helen Sinclair for Big Finish Productions.
The Shepherd is a 2023 British drama short film written and directed by Iain Softley and starring Ben Radcliffe and John Travolta. Travolta serves as an executive producer of the film. It is based on Frederick Forsyth's 1975 book of the same title. The film was released on Disney+ on December 1, 2023.
Hossein Amini is an Iranian-born British screenwriter and film director who has worked as a screenwriter since the early 1990s. He was nominated for numerous awards for the 1997 film The Wings of the Dove, including an Academy Award for Best Writing – Adapted Screenplay. He also won a "Best Adapted Screenplay" award from the Austin Film Critics Association for his screenplay adaptation of Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive (2011), based on the novel by James Sallis. For his directorial debut, he both wrote and directed The Two Faces of January, an adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel.
John Stephen Gerrard Jeffreys was a British playwright and playwriting teacher. He wrote original plays, films and play adaptations and also worked as translator. Jeffreys is best known for his play The Libertine about the Earl of Rochester, which was performed at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago with John Malkovich as Rochester, and later adapted into a film starring Malkovich and Johnny Depp.
Sadie Jones is an English writer and novelist best known for her award-winning debut novel, The Outcast (2008).
Trap for Cinderella is a 1965 French-Italian psychological thriller film directed by André Cayatte. It is adapted from Sébastien Japrisot's novel of the same name.
Lily Chloe Ninette Thomson, known professionally as Lily James, is an English actress. She studied acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and began her career in the British television series Just William (2010). Following a supporting role in the period drama series Downton Abbey (2012–2015), her breakthrough was the title role in the fantasy film Cinderella (2015).
Holliday Clark Grainger, also credited as Holly Grainger, is an English screen and stage actress. Some of her prominent roles are Kate Beckett in the BAFTA award-winning children's series Roger and the Rottentrolls, Lucrezia Borgia in the Showtime series The Borgias, Robin Ellacott in the Strike series, DI Rachel Carey in the Peacock/BBC One crime drama The Capture, and Estella in Mike Newell's adaptation of Great Expectations.
The Outcast is a British two-part television adaptation of Sadie Jones' 2008 debut novel of the same name. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 12 July and 19 July 2015.
Kate Hodgson is an English actress and photographer.
Blueprint Pictures Limited is an indie film and television production company founded in 2005 by producers Graham Broadbent and Peter Czernin. Sony Pictures Television has owned a small stake in Blueprint Television since 2016.
Trap for Cinderella may refer to:
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