Andrew Davis | |
|---|---|
 Davis in 2024 | |
| Born | November 21, 1946 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, producer, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1969–present |
| Website | andrewdavisfilms |
Andrew Davis (born November 21, 1946) is an American film director, producer, writer, and cinematographer who is known for directing a number of successful action thrillers including Code of Silence , Above the Law , Under Siege , [1] and The Fugitive .
Davis was born on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, and has directed several films using Chicago as a backdrop. He is the son of actor Nathan Davis and Metta Davis, and the brother of musician Richard "Richie" Peter Davis (co-founder of the cover band Chicago Catz) and Jo Ellen Friedman. Davis had his father fill out many character roles throughout the years, notably as the grandfather to Shia LaBeouf's character in the Disney film Holes .
After attending the Harand Camp of the Theater Arts summer camp program and Bowen High School, Davis went on to study journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he was issued a degree in journalism in 1968. [2] It was not long before his interest in civil rights and anti-war issues converged with his growing interest in filmmaking. Davis was mentored by acclaimed cinematographer Haskell Wexler, with whom he worked on Medium Cool , and began his film career as a cameraman on blaxploitation films like The Hit Man, Cool Breeze and The Slams in the 1970s. [3]
Wexler and Davis reunited in 2014 to discuss the film before a screening at the Pollock Theater on the campus of the University of California at Santa Barbara. [4]
Davis is best known as a big-budget Hollywood filmmaker. His 1993 film The Fugitive received seven Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, while Jones won for Best Supporting Actor, which is his only Oscar win to date. The Academy ultimately gave the 1993 Best Picture award to Schindler's List . That year Davis was also honored with a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director by the Hollywood Foreign Press. The Directors Guild of America nominated him for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Direction.
Roger Ebert reviewed The Fugitive in 1993. He commented: "Andrew Davis' The Fugitive is one of the best entertainments of the year, a tense, taut and expert thriller that becomes something more than that, an allegory about an innocent man in a world prepared to crush him." Ebert observed that "Davis paints with bold visual strokes" and that he "transcends genre and shows an ability to marry action and artistry that deserves comparison with Hitchcock, yes, and also with David Lean and Carol Reed." [5]
His first feature film as a director was the 1978 semi-biographical picture Stony Island . The film had a theatrical release in 1978 and was eventually released on DVD on April 24, 2012. [6] Stony Island centered on young musicians forming a band in their impoverished south side neighborhood. The film stars veteran musicians like saxophone player Gene Barge and soul singer Ronnie Barron as well as relative newcomers like Dennis Franz, Edward "Stony" Robinson, Rae Dawn Chong, Susanna Hoffs and Davis brother Richie Davis. Roger Ebert describes the movie in a 2012 article, "The energy, I gather, came in large part from the performers themselves. The movie is more or less based on fact; the director and co-writer, Andy Davis, has a brother, Richie Davis who was the last white kid on the block down on Stony Island, and actually was involved in a band something like the one in the movie." [7]
In 1981 Davis directed a horror film titled The Final Terror , which was released in 1983. The film was produced by Joe Roth and features several early performances from stars like Rachel Ward, Daryl Hannah, and Joe Pantoliano, among others. Davis co-wrote a screenplay for a Harry Belafonte project Beat Street which was a rap musical featuring breakdancing and the street music culture of early eighties New York City. Mike Medavoy and Orion Pictures tapped Davis to direct the Chuck Norris vehicle, Code of Silence .
Davis co-wrote, produced and directed a film titled Above the Law for Warner Brothers in 1988. This film is most notable for being the feature film debut of Steven Seagal. Davis then went back to Orion with his project The Package , working with Gene Hackman and Tommy Lee Jones.
Davis brought Jones with him to his next project, which was originally titled Dreadnaught but eventually carried the title Under Siege . In the picture Davis re-teamed with Seagal to create the top grossing fall film of 1992.
Davis continued directing big budget adventures throughout the 1990s including The Fugitive , Steal Big Steal Little , Chain Reaction , and A Perfect Murder.
In the fall of 2001, Davis was set to release Warner Brother's Collateral Damage starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, the initial release date was pushed in an effort to be sensitive to the tragedies of 9/11, as the film's plot and content too closely echoed the tragedy. The film was finally released theatrically in 2002. [8]
In 2003 Davis developed Holes for the Walt Disney Company starring Shia LaBeouf, Sigourney Weaver, Patricia Arquette, Tim Blake Nelson, Jon Voight. Louis Sachar and Davis developed the script based on Sachar's children's novel of the same name. A.O. Scott's review in The New York Times (written in April) called it "the best film released by an American studio so far this year". [9]
Davis filmed the Disney/Touchstone feature film, The Guardian in 2006. The film focuses on the Rescue Swimmers of the U.S. Coast Guard and stars Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. Costner plays a legendary rescue swimmer who returns to the training facility to bring up the next generation of swimmers, including a rescue swimmer played by Kutcher. Production was halted when the film's New Orleans location was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. The real-life Coast Guard advisers on the film were immediately deployed to rescue victims of the storm.
In April 2024 in France at the Reims Polar Film Festival, Davis was the guest of honor with a career tribute ceremony. Stony Island was also featured at the 25th anniversary of Ebertfest in Champaign Illinois in April 2024 featuring a live performance by the films costar and Davis’ brother Richie Davis, and his band, The Chicago Catz.
Film
| Year | Title | Director | Producer | Writer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Paco | No | Associate | Yes |
| 1978 | Stony Island | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 1983 | The Final Terror | Yes | No | No |
| 1985 | Code of Silence | Yes | No | No |
| 1988 | Above the Law | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 1989 | The Package | Yes | Co-producer | No |
| 1992 | Under Siege | Yes | No | No |
| 1993 | The Fugitive | Yes | No | No |
| 1995 | Steal Big Steal Little | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 1996 | Chain Reaction | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1998 | A Perfect Murder | Yes | No | No |
| 2002 | Collateral Damage | Yes | No | No |
| 2003 | Holes | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2006 | The Guardian | Yes | No | No |
| TBA | Mentors - Tony & Santi [10] | Yes | Yes | No |
Ronald William Howard is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Howard started his career as a child actor before transitioning to directing films. Over his six decade career, Howard has received two Academy Awards, four Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Grammy Award. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2003 and was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2013. Howard has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions in film and television.
Steven Frederic Seagal is an American actor, producer, screenwriter, martial artist, and musician. A 7th-dan black belt in aikido, he began his adult life as a martial arts instructor in Japan and would run his father-in-law's dojo for a time. He later moved to Los Angeles where he continued teaching aikido. In 1988, Seagal made his acting debut in Above the Law, which is regarded as the first American film to feature aikido in fight sequences. By 1991, he had starred in four films.
Above the Law is a 1988 American crime action thriller film cowritten, coproduced and directed by Andrew Davis. It marked the film debut of Steven Seagal, who was also a producer, and stars Pam Grier, Sharon Stone, Ron Dean and Henry Silva. Seagal plays Nico Toscani, an ex-CIA agent, Aikido specialist and a Chicago policeman who discovers a conspiracy upon investigating the mysterious shipment of military explosives seized from a narcotics dealer.
Under Siege is a 1992 American action thriller film directed by Andrew Davis, written by J. F. Lawton, and starring Steven Seagal as a former Navy SEAL who must intercept a group of mercenaries, led by Tommy Lee Jones, after they commandeer the U.S. Navy battleship Missouri.
Executive Decision is a 1996 American action thriller film directed by Stuart Baird and written by Jim Thomas and John Thomas, who also produced the film with Joel Silver. It stars Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, David Suchet and B.D. Wong. It depicts the rescue of an airliner hijacked by terrorists, by a small team placed on the plane in mid-flight. The film was released in the United States on March 15, 1996, by Warner Bros. It grossed $122 million against a $55 million budget.
Half Past Dead is a 2002 American action film written and directed by Don Michael Paul in his directorial debut, and produced by Steven Seagal, who also starred in the lead role, alongside Andrew Stevens and Elie Samaha. The film co-stars Morris Chestnut, Ja Rule, Tony Plana, Kurupt, and Nia Peeples. The film tells the story of a criminal who infiltrates a prison to interrogate a prisoner about the location of a fortune in gold while an undercover FBI agent has to stop him. Distribution and copyrights were held by Columbia Pictures. Half Past Dead was released on November 15, 2002, by Screen Gems. The film garnered negative reviews from critics, and only grossed $19 million worldwide against its $25 million production budget.
The Butterfly Effect is a 2004 American science fiction thriller film written and directed by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber. It stars Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, Eric Stoltz, William Lee Scott, Elden Henson, Logan Lerman, Ethan Suplee, and Melora Walters. The title refers to the butterfly effect.
Swept Away is a 2002 adventure romantic comedy film written and directed by Guy Ritchie; it is a remake of Lina Wertmüller's 1974 Italian film of the same name. The film stars Ritchie's then-wife Madonna and Adriano Giannini with a supporting cast featuring Bruce Greenwood, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Elizabeth Banks.
The Fugitive is a 1993 American action thriller film, directed by Andrew Davis with a script co-written by Jeb Stuart and David Twohy, from a previous story draft which Twohy had written. Based on the 1960s television series of the same name, the film stars Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward, Joe Pantoliano, Andreas Katsulas, and Jeroen Krabbé.
One Day in September is a 1999 documentary film directed by Kevin Macdonald examining the 5 September 1972 murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. Michael Douglas provides the sparse narration throughout the film.
Color of Night is a 1994 American erotic mystery thriller film produced by Cinergi Pictures and released in the United States by Buena Vista Pictures. Directed by Richard Rush, the film stars Bruce Willis and Jane March.
The Guardian is a 2006 American action-adventure drama film directed by Andrew Davis. The film stars Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. The title of the film refers to a legendary figure within the film which protects people lost at sea: "the Guardian". The film focuses on the United States Coast Guard and their Aviation Survival Technician program. The Guardian was released on September 29, 2006.
David Ayer is an American filmmaker known for making crime films that are set in Los Angeles and deal with gangs and police corruption. His screenplays include Training Day (2001), The Fast and the Furious (2001), and S.W.A.T. (2003). He has also directed Harsh Times (2005), Street Kings (2008), End of Watch (2012), Sabotage (2014), and The Beekeeper (2024). In 2016, he directed the superhero movie Suicide Squad from the DC Extended Universe, and then the urban fantasy film Bright (2017) for Netflix. He has twice collaborated with actor Shia LaBeouf: first with the World War II drama Fury (2014), then the crime thriller The Tax Collector (2020). He has also collaborated with his friend Cle Shaheed Sloan who has appeared in four of his films.
My Giant is a 1998 American comedy drama film directed by Michael Lehmann. The film stars Billy Crystal, who also produced and co-wrote the story for the film, and Romanian NBA player Gheorghe Mureșan in his debut film appearance. David Seltzer's script was inspired by Crystal's friendship with professional wrestler André the Giant, whom he had met during the filming of The Princess Bride.
Code of Silence is a 1985 American action thriller film directed by Andrew Davis and starring Chuck Norris, Henry Silva, Dennis Farina and Molly Hagan. It was released in the United States on May 3, 1985.
Holes is a 2003 American neo-Western comedy drama film directed by Andrew Davis and written by Louis Sachar, based on his 1998 novel. The film stars Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Patricia Arquette, Tim Blake Nelson and Shia LaBeouf.
Nathan Davis was an American film and television actor. He was featured in Holes, Chain Reaction, Flowers in the Attic, Stony Island.
Stony Island is a 1978 American musical drama film directed by Andrew Davis. It concerns an up-and-coming rhythm and blues band in Chicago. Set in various places in Chicago, including gritty Stony Island Avenue, it stars Richard Davis, the director's brother, and features early appearances from Dennis Franz and Rae Dawn Chong as well as numerous local musicians including saxophone great Gene Barge. Susanna Hoffs, whose mother co-wrote the screenplay, also appears. Future director Mark Romanek worked as one of the cameramen.
Richard Peter Davis is an American guitarist and bandleader who is Chicago-based. He is the son of actor Nathan Davis, the brother of director Andrew Davis, and a co-founder/current member of the rhythm and blues band known as the Chicago Catz.
Chicago Catz is a Chicago, Illinois area cover band that was formed in 1986 by five noteworthy musicians. Approaching their third decade, "The Catz", as they are affectionately known, have become one of the Windy City's most established professional R&B pop music bands. For more than 20 years, this group of notable professional musicians have performed at some of the most prestigious private parties and events in Chicago.
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