Paul William Scott Anderson was born on March 4th, 1965, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England UK. He gained a fair bit of notoriety in his native England when he directed the ultra-violent Shopping (1994) from his own script. The film, highly regarded for its stylish direction and production on a shoestring budget, featured Jude Law and Sean Pertwee in a story about ram-riders, thieves whose technique is to drive a car into storefronts and make off with whatever goods can be grabbed in a few seconds. The film was banned in the U.K for a while, and a somewhat trimmed version became a straight-to-video release in the United States.
Shopping (1994) was enough of a calling card for Anderson that his next film was Mortal Kombat (1995), a flashy adaptation of the hit computer game. Anderson's visual flair and tight editing brought him a great deal of praise. The film performed wonderfully at the box office, giving Anderson a blank check for his next film. He had intended to go straight on to Soldier (1998) at Warner Bros., with Kurt Russell in the lead, but the film was delayed by Russell's decision to take a break from acting, pushing the start date of that film into 1998.
Anderson instead went on to direct Event Horizon (1997) from a script by Philip Eisner, financed by Paramount, allowing Anderson to once again use Sean Pertwee and Jason Issacs, who have become a small stock company for him. The science fiction/horror film was stylish and sometimes effective, but took a critical drubbing for its derivative story and poor script. With many critics commenting on the bloody carnage throughout, Event Horizon proved a weak performer at the box |
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| office. Though Soldier was eventually made following Event Horizon, it didn't fare much better at the box office and his planned 2000 remake of Death Race 2000 (1975) was cancelled, ultimately leading Anderson to the small screen for his next feature, a supernatural mystery titled The Sight (2000). Maintaining a low-key profile that left many fans wondering if he would continue after two consecutive flops, Anderson shot back when he took the director's chair for the long-anticipated celluloid adaptation of the popular survival horror video game Resident Evil (2002). Long rumored among fans to be a choice comeback vehicle for zombie grandfather George A. Romero (Romero in fact submitted a script for RE in addition to directing an atmospheric Japanese television commercial for the game's sequel), the writing and directing credits eventually transfered to Anderson, leaving Romero fans pining for the long-rumored fourth entry into the Living Dead series. Anderson has now been given the helm for the long-awaited film adaptation of the popular Dark Horse comic book, Alien Vs. Predator (2004), which is expected to be one of Summer 2004's biggest blockbusters. (A majority of this biography was taken from Yahoo! Movies and IMDb). |
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