John Hillcoat | |
---|---|
Born | Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | 14 August 1961
Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter, music video director |
John Hillcoat (born 14 August 1961) is an Australian film director, screenwriter, and music video director.
His early work includes the 1988 prison film Ghosts... of the Civil Dead , as well as music videos for bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Depeche Mode and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. His breakthrough film, the 2005 outback Western The Proposition , was written by Nick Cave and received widespread critical acclaim. Hillcoat went on to direct The Road (2009), an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's 2006 novel of the same name, and Lawless (2012), a Prohibition-era crime drama. His films often explore themes of survival, violence, and morality, showcasing a raw, atmospheric aesthetic.
Hillcoat was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on 14 August 1961, and grew up in North America and Europe. [1] He attended Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary School in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and was enrolled in its Special Art Program. As a child, his paintings were featured in the Art Gallery of Hamilton. He was active with the McMaster University Film Board, most notably producing an animated short titled The Finger.
Back in Australia by the late 1970s, aged 18, Hillcoat studied film at the Swinburne University of Technology, in Melbourne. He became immersed in the city's post-punk scene, through which he met his now wife, the photographer Polly Borland, and began a lifelong creative collaboration with Nick Cave, editing the music video for his band The Birthday Party's single "Nick the Stripper" (1981). Hillcoat also got a job filming concerts at the famed Melbourne post-punk venue the Crystal Ballroom. [2]
Hillcoat has often worked with Nick Cave, the band Depeche Mode, and actor Guy Pearce. The Road , his adaptation of the novel by Cormac McCarthy, premiered at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival, and was released in the U.S. in November 2009. His 2012 film, Lawless , competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. [3] [4] Hillcoat's film, Triple 9 was released in 2016. [5] In 2017, he directed "Crocodile", an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror . [6] In 2024, It was announced that Hillcoat would be directing a film adaptation of another McCarthy novel, Blood Meridian .
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
1988 | Ghosts... of the Civil Dead | |
1996 | To Have & to Hold | |
2005 | The Proposition | |
2009 | The Road | |
2012 | Lawless | |
2016 | Triple 9 | Also producer |
Short film
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
2010 | Red Dead Redemption: The Man from Blackwater | Short machinima film to promote the video game Red Dead Redemption |
2018 | Corazón |
Documentary film
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
2001 | Digital Hardcore Videos | |
2021 | Bob Dylan: Odds and Ends | Co-directed with Jennifer Lebeau |
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
2011 | Black Mirror | Episode "Crocodile" |
2022 | George & Tammy | Miniseries |
2023 | Special Ops: Lioness | 4 episodes |
Year | Award | Category | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1989 | Australian Film Institute | Best Original Screenplay | Ghosts... of the Civil Dead | Nominated | |
1992 | ARIA Music Awards | ARIA Award for Best Video | "Chocolate Cake" by Crowded House | Won | [7] |
1996 | "Sit on My Hands" by Frente! (with Polly Borland) | Nominated | [7] | ||
1996 | Verona Love Screens Film Festival | Best Film | To Have & to Hold | Nominated | |
2005 | Australian Film Institute | Best Director | The Proposition | Nominated | |
Film Critics Circle of Australia | Best Director | Nominated | |||
Inside Film Awards | Best Feature Film | Won | |||
Best Director | Nominated | ||||
2009 | Venice Film Festival | Golden Lion | The Road | Nominated | |
2012 | Cannes Film Festival | Palme d'or | Lawless | Nominated | |
2013 | ARIA Music Awards | ARIA Award for Best Video | "Jubilee Street" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds | Nominated | [7] |
Nicholas Edward Cave is an Australian musician, writer and actor. Known for his baritone voice and for fronting the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Cave's music is characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety of influences and lyrical obsessions with death, religion, love, and violence.
Cormac McCarthy was an American writer who wrote twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays, and three short stories, spanning the Western, postapocalyptic, and southern gothic genres. His works often include graphic depictions of violence, and his writing style is characterised by a sparse use of punctuation and attribution. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American novelists.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are an Australian rock band formed in 1983 by vocalist Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and guitarist-vocalist Blixa Bargeld. The band has featured international personnel throughout its career and presently consists of Cave, violinist and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, bassist Martyn P. Casey, guitarist George Vjestica, touring keyboardist/percussionist Larry Mullins, also known as Toby Dammit, and drummers Thomas Wydler (Switzerland) and Jim Sclavunos. Described as "one of the most original and celebrated bands of the post-punk and alternative rock eras in the '80s and onward", they have released eighteen studio albums and completed numerous international tours.
Warren Ellis is an Australian musician and composer. He is a member of the rock groups Dirty Three and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. He also performed with the band Grinderman until its disbandment in 2013. He has also composed film scores with long-time friend, collaborator and band-mate Nick Cave. Ellis plays the violin, piano, accordion, bouzouki, guitar, flute, mandolin, mandocello and viola. He has been a member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds since 1994.
Anton Johannes Gerrit Corbijn van Willenswaard is a Dutch photographer, film director, and music video director. He is the creative director behind the visual output of Depeche Mode and U2, having handled the principal promotion and sleeve photography for both bands over three decades. His music videos include Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence" (1990), U2's "One" (1991), Bryan Adams' "Do I Have to Say the Words?", Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box" (1993), Travis's "Re-Offender" (2003) and Coldplay's "Talk" (2005). He directed the films "Viva la Vida" (2008); the Ian Curtis biographical film Control (2007), The American (2010); A Most Wanted Man (2014), based on John le Carré's 2008 novel of the same name; and Life (2015), after the friendship between Life magazine photographer Dennis Stock and James Dean.
Blood Meridian; or, The Evening Redness in the West is a 1985 epic historical novel by American author Cormac McCarthy, classified under the Western, or sometimes the anti-Western, genre. McCarthy's fifth book, it was published by Random House.
Child of God (1973) is the third novel by American author Cormac McCarthy. It depicts the life of a violent outcast and serial killer in 1960s Appalachian Tennessee.
The Road is a 2006 novel by the American author Cormac McCarthy.
"Jubilee Street" is a song by the Australian alternative rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It is the fourth track and second single from the band's fifteenth studio album, Push the Sky Away, and was released on 15 January 2013 on Bad Seed Ltd.
Andrew Dominik is an Australian film director and screenwriter. He has directed the crime film Chopper (2000), the Western drama film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), the neo-noir crime film Killing Them Softly (2012), and the biographical psychological drama Blonde (2022). He has also directed the documentary film One More Time with Feeling (2016) and two episodes of the Netflix series Mindhunter in 2019.
The Road is a 2006 post-apocalyptic novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy. The book details the grueling journey of a father and his young son over several months across a landscape blasted by an unspecified cataclysm that has destroyed industrial civilization and nearly all life. The novel was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 2006. The book was adapted into a film of the same name in 2009, directed by John Hillcoat.
The Road is a 2009 American post-apocalyptic survival film directed by John Hillcoat and written by Joe Penhall, based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy. The film stars Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee as a father and his son in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Nick Wechsler is an American film producer.
Matt Bondurant is an American novelist. Among his works are the books The Third Translation (2005), The Wettest County in the World (2008), The Night Swimmer (2012), and Oleander City (2022).
The Crystal Ballroom was a music venue that opened in 1978 in St Kilda, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Located within the George Hotel at 125 Fitzroy Street, it quickly became the epicentre of Melbourne's post-punk scene, launching the careers of The Birthday Party, Dead Can Dance and other local groups, as well as hosting international acts, including The Cure, New Order and The Fall.
Lawless is a 2012 American crime drama film directed by John Hillcoat. The screenplay, by Australian singer-screenwriter Nick Cave, is based on Matt Bondurant's historical novel The Wettest County in the World (2008). The film stars Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, and Guy Pearce.
Jeff Nichols is an American film director and screenwriter. His films are characterized by their Southern United States backdrop and ambience. He is also known for his longstanding collaboration with actor Michael Shannon, who has appeared in all of his feature films to date.
Scott Haze is an American actor. He is known for his role in the 2013 film Child of God, as well as Thank You for Your Service (2017), the 2021 western Old Henry, and others. He also directed Mully (2015), a documentary on the African humanitarian Charles Mully.
Child of God is a 2013 American crime drama film co-written and directed by James Franco, and starring Scott Haze, based on the novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy. It was selected to be screened in the official competition at the 70th Venice International Film Festival and was an official selection of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. The film made its United States premiere at the 51st New York Film Festival and then was screened at the 2013 Austin Film Festival.
A list of works by or about Cormac McCarthy, the American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. McCarthy published twelve novels, spanning the Southern Gothic, Western, and post-apocalyptic genres, as well as multiple short-stories, screenplays, plays, and an essay.