Marc Evans | |
---|---|
Born | 1963 (age 59–60) |
Occupation(s) | Film and television director, producer, screenwriter |
Years active | 1987–present |
Spouse | Nia Roberts |
Children | 1 |
Marc Evans (born 1963) is a Welsh director of film and television, whose credits include the films House of America , Resurrection Man and My Little Eye . [1]
Evans was born in 1963 in Cardiff, Wales. [2] He studied for a history of art degree at the University of Cambridge, and then took a year out before taking a one-year course in film at the University of Bristol, where one of his contemporaries was Michael Winterbottom. [1] [2]
Evans worked as a runner for a commercials company in London, [1] before beginning directing on TV dramas, starting out with Welsh-medium productions for S4C, [1] and worked on episodes of The Ruth Rendell Mysteries .
He then switched to film, with House of America (1997) about a young immigrant coming from Wales to the United States, who falls foul of the American dream. In 1998 controversy started over his Resurrection Man , an extreme horror period drama set amid sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. [3]
The later films of Marc Evans show a shift from an exploration of the relationships between national identity and myth, to an innovative reworking of the horror genre in the critically acclaimed My Little Eye, which tapped into the Zeitgeist via its embedded critique of the extremities of reality television and the internet. His first box office hit was the Big Brother -inspired horror film My Little Eye . In 2004 he directed Trauma starring Colin Firth, Mena Suvari and Brenda Fricker; script written by Richard Smith, [3] which reprised the darker elements of My Little Eye via a chilling psychological study of amnesia and despair.
In 2006, he directed the Canadian feature film Snow Cake , starring Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman. His documentary In Prison My Whole Life , about death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, premiered at the 2007 London Film Festival and was selected for the Sundance Film Festival in 2008.
Evans, in an interview at Cineworld Cinema in Cardiff, declared that he is working on a musical set in Swansea of the year 1976, with Catherine Zeta-Jones attached, which then changed to become Minnie Driver. The film, Hunky Dory , premiered at the 55th BFI London Film Festival and was released on 2 March 2012, in the UK and Ireland. The film also stars Kimberley Nixon and Aneurin Barnard, the West End Actor of Spring Awakening .
He appeared in A Life in the Death of Joe Meek , an independent documentary about the British record producer Joe Meek, which he was initially slated to direct. [4]
Also in 2012, Marc Evans directed the ITV produced Doors Open , a television adaptation of a book by the crime novelist Ian Rankin. The film tells the story of a self-made millionaire, an art professor and a banker, who come together to undertake an audacious art heist. The TV movie is starring Douglas Henshall and Stephen Fry. [5] [6]
Evans also directed the upcoming documentary feature titled Jack to a King – The Swansea Story , about the rise of Swansea City Football Club to the Premier League for the past decade. It is produced by YJB Films and was released on 12 September 2014. [7] [8] During the documentary production, Evans admitted that, “The thing that appealed to me the most was that it was something totally outside my experience and a story I’d not heard before. It was a film without any adult supervision – it was there for the taking as no one said how it had to be made. We were free to make the kind of film we felt we could make.” [9]
Evans directed Cassy and Jude , a romantic comedy film based on the novel Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker. The film is produced by Sam Taylor and Mike Downey of Film & Music Entertainment Ltd, and is executive produced by Stephen Daldry. [10]
It is rumoured, that Marc Evans will direct another musical film, entitled Once Upon a Time in Wigan, about the northern soul scene in Wigan Casino set in the 1970s. [11] However, he is said to direct the Israeli-Palestinian comedy Birthright, produced by New York-based BoomGen Studios. The film tells the story of a shy Jewish-American boy, who follows the girl of his dreams on a trip to Israel, only to wind up lost in Palestine. [12] The script for this movie was written by Ari Issler and Ben Snyder, after they had been on a trip to Israel. [13]
Evans is a visiting professor at the University of Glamorgan's creative arts school ATRiuM. [14]
Marc Evans is married to actress Nia Roberts; the couple lives in Cardiff, and have a daughter, Edith. [15]
Director
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
1994 | Arthur's Departure | |
1997 | House of America | BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Director |
1998 | Resurrection Man | |
2002 | My Little Eye | |
2004 | Trauma | |
2006 | Snow Cake | |
2010 | Patagonia | Also writer |
2011 | Hunky Dory | |
2015 | Cassy and Jude |
Executive producer
TV movies
TV series
Year | Title | Director | Writer |
---|---|---|---|
1994 | Silent Village | Yes | No |
2000 | Beautiful Mistake | Yes | Yes |
2003 | Dal: Yma/Nawr | Yes | No |
2007 | In Prison My Whole Life | Yes | Yes |
2014 | Jack to a King – The Swansea Story | Yes | No |
2019 | The Prince and The Bomber | Yes | No |
The University of Wales is a confederal university based in Cardiff, Wales. Founded by royal charter in 1893 as a federal university with three constituent colleges – Aberystwyth, Bangor and Cardiff – the university was the first university established in Wales, one of the four countries in the United Kingdom. The university was, prior to the break up of the federation, the second largest university in the UK.
Ioan Gruffudd is a Welsh actor. He first came to public attention as for his portrayal of Harold Lowe in Titanic (1997), and then for his portrayal of Horatio Hornblower in the Hornblower series of television films (1998–2003). Subsequent roles have included Lancelot in King Arthur (2004), Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic in Fantastic Four (2005) and its 2007 sequel, William Wilberforce in Amazing Grace (2006), and Tony Blair in W. (2008).
This article is about the particular significance of the year 2005 to Wales and its people.
Twin Town is a 1997 Welsh dark comedy crime drama film, filmed mainly around Port Talbot and set in Swansea, Wales. It was directed by Kevin Allen and had a working title of Hot Dog; a hot dog van features in a number of scenes in the film. It stars real-life brothers Rhys Ifans and Llŷr Ifans along with Dougray Scott. The director appears on screen, briefly seen as a show host on a TV set in the static caravan home of the twins while co-writer Paul Durden briefly appears as a rude taxi driver.
Michael Bogdanov was a British theatre director known for his work with new plays, modern reinterpretations of Shakespeare, musicals and work for young people.
The cinema of Wales comprises the art of film and creative movies made in Wales or by Welsh filmmakers either locally or abroad. Welsh cinema began in the late-19th century, led by Welsh-based director William Haggar. Wales continued to produce film of varying quality throughout the 20th century, in both the Welsh and English languages, though indigenous production was curtailed through a lack of infrastructure and finance, which prevented the growth of the industry nationally. Despite this, Wales has been represented in all fields of the film making process, producing actors and directors of note.
Rakie Olufunmilayo Ayola is a Welsh actress known for her work in theatre and television. Ayola has appeared in television shows including Black Mirror, Noughts + Crosses, Doctor Who, Silent Witness and EastEnders, a number of Shakespearean theatrical performances and feature films such as Great Moments in Aviation,The i Inside and Sahara. She appeared as Kyla Tyson in the BBC medical drama Holby City from its eighth to eleventh series.
Kimberley Nixon is a Welsh actress. Nixon is known for her role as Sophy Hutton in the BBC One period drama Cranford, and appearances in various films such as Wild Child and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. More recently she has starred as Josie Jones in the Channel 4 comedy-drama Fresh Meat and as Sarah Pearson in the BBC Two comedy Hebburn.
Daniel Gwyn Evans is a Welsh actor and director.
Aneurin Barnard is a Welsh actor. He is known for playing Davey in Hunky Dory, Claude in The Truth About Emanuel, Bobby Willis in Cilla, Tim in Thirteen, King Richard III in The White Queen, William in Dead in a Week or Your Money Back, Gibson in Dunkirk, and Boris Pavlikovsky in The Goldfinch.
The Celtic Media Festival, formerly known as the Celtic Film and Television Festival, aims to promote the languages and cultures of the Celtic nations in film, on television, radio and new media. The festival is an annual three-day celebration of broadcasting and film from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Isle of Man, Galicia, Cornwall and Brittany. The festival was founded in 1980.
Nia Roberts is a Welsh actress. She is married to director Marc Evans.
Valley of Song is a 1953 British comedy drama film directed by Gilbert Gunn and starring Mervyn Johns, Clifford Evans, Maureen Swanson and the London Welsh Association Choral Society. It marked the film debut of actress Rachel Roberts. It was released in the U.S. as Men Are Children Twice.
Hunky Dory is a British independent musical film about the trials of an idealistic drama teacher as she tries to put on the end-of-year show. It was written by Laurence Coriat and directed by Welsh director Marc Evans and stars Minnie Driver, Aneurin Barnard, Kimberley Nixon and Robert Pugh. It premièred at the 55th BFI London Film Festival on 25 October 2011, and was officially released on 2 March 2012 in the UK.
John Hefin MBE was a Welsh television producer and director who served as head of drama at BBC Wales. He began working for the BBC in 1960, and his career at the corporation included devising the long-running Welsh soap opera Pobol y Cwm, co-writing and directing the comedy film Grand Slam, and producing the 1981 biopic The Life and Times of David Lloyd George. He was later involved with the work of Film Cymru, the Film Commission Wales, and the media journal Cyfrwng. He also worked in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at Aberystwyth University. He died from cancer in November 2012.
Kieran John Evans is a Welsh film director and screenwriter whose work includes music videos, film and documentaries. His 2012 film Kelly + Victor, produced by Janine Marmot, saw Evans awarded the BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer at the 2014 BAFTAs.
Jack to a King: The Swansea Story is a 2014 British documentary film about the Swansea City Football Club's history from July 2001 to May 2011. It focuses on the club's rise from almost going out of business at the bottom of the Football League to the glamour of the Premier League. The documentary was released on 12 September 2014.
Chris Tally Evans is a Welsh disabled artist, actor, director, and writer. He was born in 1962 in Swansea, trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama as a performer and graduated from Trinity College, London, with a teaching diploma.
Tom Rhys Harries is a Welsh actor, best known for his roles as Manchester DJ Axel Collins in the Netflix series White Lines (2020) and Eddie Walker in the Apple TV+ series Suspicion (2022). Harries has also acted in recurring roles in the television series Jekyll and Hyde (2015), Unforgotten (2018), and Britannia (2019). In film, Harries has appeared in Hunky Dory (2011), Slaughterhouse Rulez (2018), and The Gentlemen (2019).