J.R. MacReady

The Director and Producer of notable films such as Shopping, Mortal Kombat, Soldier (a informal sequel film whose story is set in the "Blade Runner" universe), Event Horizon, Alien vs. Predator, and the Resident Evil trilogy, Paul Anderson is infamous for catching the irrational ire of Fanboys since the RE and Alien/Predator Franchise, though he is a fan himself of same of the material he's directed. He employs Jason Issacs and Colin Salmon in several of his films and to top it all off, he engaged to Russian-Ukrainian-Serbian Beauty Milla Jovovich.

Anderson graduated from the University of Warwick as the youngest student to achieve a BA in Film & Literature. He made his debut as the writer-director of Shopping, which starred Sean Pertwee, Jude Law and Sadie Frost as thieves who smashed cars into storefronts. When released in the United Kingdom it was banned in some cinemas, and only gained a release in the United States as an edited, direct to video release.

After this, he directed the successful 1995 video game adaptation Mortal Kombat. While prior video game movies, like Street Fighter and Super Mario Bros., had been all-out disasters, Mortal Kombat was well received by fans, and some critics. He declined to direct the sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation which was not well received by critics or fans, but he directed Soldier instead. Anderson was asked to direct a third movie, Mortal Kombat: Devastation, but declined again.

The success of Mortal Kombat gave Anderson free rein to choose his next project, Soldier, written by Blade Runner screenwriter David Webb Peoples. Intended as a Sidequel to Blade Runner, the movie was set in the same universe (but not the same planet), and contained numerous references to Blade Runner. Kurt Russell was attached to star, but was unavailable at the time, which delayed the production. In the meantime, Anderson made Event Horizon, which took the premise of the classic sci-fi novel and film Solaris, but filled it with Hellraiser-style horror scenes. The film was poorly received at the box office, and Anderson blamed the failure on studio-enforced cuts. While not a box-office success, the film gained a small cult following.

Soldier was eventually completed and released in 1998, and was a disaster both commercially and critically.

After the poor performance of both Event Horizon and Soldier, Anderson was forced to think smaller. His planned remake of the cult film Death Race 2000 was put on hold, and he set about writing and directed a TV movie, The Sight, in 2000. It was a minor success, and Anderson returned to cinema screens in 2002 when he wrote and directed an adaptation of the survival horror series Resident Evil. It was at this point that, to avoid confusion to the American director Paul Thomas Anderson, he began to credit himself as "Paul W. S. Anderson."

Working with a moderate budget in comparison to his other movies, Resident Evil was a commercial success in cinemas and on DVD, prompting Anderson to write (but not direct) the sequels, Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Resident Evil: Extinction.

Anderson's next project was the much-anticipated Alien vs. Predator, a concept popularized by a series of Dark Horse Comics and later hinted at in Predator 2. A movie version had been stuck in development for years despite the franchise crossing into every other form of media, from books to comics to video games. The fact Alien vs. Predator was being made at all was enough to get many fans of the originals onboard from the second the project was greenlighted. Some, however, were unhappy with the choice of Anderson as the writer and director, and had the opposite reaction, writing it off as a failure before it had even entered production.



Honestly, I think the guy is a great director/writer who knows what he's doing despite what people might say. Plus, he seems like a all round nice person (just a feeling). His niche obviously is Sicence Fiction. I also just found that Death Race is something of a remake of Death Race 2000 (1975) and was directed by him. :p

(First and foremost, if you don't like Paul Anderson, please don't bother to post slanderous comments about him here. Thank You.)

ROCKSTAR

Thanks for the thread!

I haven't seen Death Race, but I heard it was pretty good.

I remember that he scared a lot of people with Event Horizon! I never quite got around to watching it from start to finish, though.

J.R. MacReady

For some reason, Event Horizon is one Paul Anderson movie (aside from the recently released one) that I never saw. I always got it confused with Supernova, starring Angela Bassett and James Spader, and I have no idea why.

I'll probably watch Death Race when its released on DVD (whenever). Hopefully it will be a great popcorn-flick.

J.R. MacReady

YouTube - Paul WS Anderson (Director) "Death Race" Interview (MannyThe MovieGuy)

Paul W.S. Anderson - ReelzChannel Video Interview

ROCKSTAR

Hee.

I'll also be all over Death Race when it hits DVD.

Thanks for that interview! 15 cameras IS impressive!

J.R. MacReady

Your welcome. And that's exactly what I thought; This guy seriously has his art down to "perfection" so to speak. He leaves no angle unturned.

moodychick

Resident Evil is his best work. It's one of the best zombie movies of the modern day era. The laser room scene still freaks me out.

The other sequels he directed are underwhelming, but still entertaining.