Joe Wright

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Joe Wright (born 1972) is a 2 time BAFTA-winning, 2 time Golden Globe-nominated English film director best known for 2005's Pride and Prejudice and 2007's Atonement.

[edit] Early life and career

Wright was born in London, where his parents founded the Little Angel Theater, a puppet theatre in Islington.

Wright always had an interest in the arts, especially painting. He would also make films on his Super 8 camera as well as spend time in the evenings acting in a drama club. Being dyslexic, he left school without any GCSEs. On the strength of his paintings and Super 8 films, he gained admittance to an art school where he studied fine art and film. In his last year, he received a scholarship to make a short film for the BBC that won some awards. On the success of the short, he was offered the script for the serial Nature Boy with Callum Keith Rennie. He followed this up with the serials Bodily Harm with Timothy Spall, and the highly acclaimed Charles II: The Power and the Passion with Rufus Sewell which won the BAFTA for Best Drama Serial.

Wright is currently engaged to actress Rosamund Pike, whom he met when she played Jane Bennet in Pride & Prejudice.^[1]

[edit] Feature films

[edit] Pride and Prejudice

In 2005 he made the transition to feature films with the critically acclaimed Pride and Prejudice starring Keira Knightley. The film received numerous accolades including 4 Academy Award nominations (including best actress), 6 BAFTA nominations (Wright won the BAFTA for most promising newcomer) and a host of other nominations and wins.

[edit] Atonement

Wright's latest feature is an adaptation of Ian McEwan's Booker Prize shortlisted novel Atonement (film) which was released in 2007, reuniting Wright with Keira Knightley and also stars James McAvoy. On December 13, 2007, the film was nominated for 7 Golden Globe Awards, more than any other film this year. Wright himself was nominated for Best Director.

[edit] The Soloist

He will start working on a film called The Soloist in January with Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. . It is about " true story of musical prodigy Nathaniel Ayers, who developed schizophrenia in his second year at Juilliard and ended up homeless on the streets of downtown L.A. where he performs the violin and cello."[1]

[edit] Directorial trademarks

After only two full-length features, Joe Wright has distinguished himself as a very talented director, winning a BAFTA award for best newcomer for Pride and Prejudice and becoming the youngest director ever to have a film open the Venice Film Festival with Atonement. According to the director's commentary on Pride and Prejudice, Joe Wright is very influenced by the work of the famous British film director David Lean, has a certain knowledge of art history and tries sometimes to compose his shots after classical paintings. Already we see some directorial trademarks that distinguish Wright's movies:

[edit] Long tracking shots

Charles II, Pride and Prejudice and Atonement all have impressive tracking shots in them. Atonement has a continious 4.5 minute shot of the Dunkirk evacuation. "Basically, I just like showing off" Joe Wright told the audience at the Hay Festival.[2]

[edit] Warm colour palette

The cinemathography for Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, by Roman Osin on the first and Seamus McGarvey on the latter, have included a striking warm colour palette.

[edit] Filmography

Director

[edit] External links

• Joe Wright at the Internet Movie Database

[edit] Notes

1. ^ BAMIGBOYE, Baz (31 August 2007) Rosamund Pike gets a ring from Mr Wright, Daily Mail

fr:Joe Wright ja:ジョー・ライト zh:喬·萊特