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]
Marc Evans | |
|---|---|
 Evans at JDIFF 2012 | |
| Born | 1963 (age 60–61) |
| Occupation(s) | Film and television director, producer, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Spouse | Nia Roberts |
| Children | 1 |
Biography
editEvans 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]
Career
editEvans 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]
Personal life
editMarc Evans is married to actress Nia Roberts; the couple lives in Cardiff, and have a daughter, Edith.[15]
Filmography
editFilms
editDirector
| 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 | |
| TBA | Mr Burton |
Executive producer
- Cymru Fach (2008)
Television
editTV movies
- Le jeu du roi (1991)
- Thicker than Water (1994)
- Bliss (1995)
- Doors Open (2012)
TV series
- East of the Moon (1988)
- Letters from Patagonia (1988)
- The Gift (1990, mini-series, co-director)
- Friday on My Mind (1992)
- The Ruth Rendell Mysteries: "Master of the Moor" Parts 1, 2 and 3 (1994)
- Collision (2009, mini-series)
- Playhouse Presents: "Gifted" (2013)
- Hinterland: "Devil's Bridge" (2013)
- Safe House (2017)
- The Pembrokeshire Murders (2021)
- Steeltown Murders (2023)
Documentary films
edit| 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 |
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Marc Evans". BBC Wales. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ a b Hill, Claire (17 January 2004). "Dark Marc". The Western Mail. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ a b "Trauma". BBC Film. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ "Marc Evans". A Life in the Death of Joe Meek. Archived from the original on 1 May 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
- ^ "ITV opens door to latest Rankin drama". c21media.net. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
- ^ "When One Door Closes. Film Director Marc Evans Has Got Everyone's Favourite Polymath, Stephen Fry, Stealing Masterpieces in the Big Boxing Day Drama on ITV1 This Year, Doors Open. the Welsh Visionary Leads Our 10 Pages of Christmas and New Year TV Highlights Compiled by the Ever Festive Nathan 'Santa Baby' Bevan". Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
- ^ "Swansea City's rise to Premier League to be made into film". BBC News. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
- ^ "Swansea City 'Jack to a King' movie all set to hit screens". South Wales Evening Post. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
- ^ "Hinterland director Marc Evans swaps crime for football with new feature on Swansea City FC". Wales Online. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
- ^ "A Welsh wedding for Cassy and Jude". The Knowledge. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
- ^ "Marc Evans on Northern Soul and Shirley Bassey films". Digital Spy. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
- ^ "'Hunky Dory' Director to Helm 'Birthright'". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
- ^ "Marc Evans to direct Birthright". Screen Daily. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
- ^ "Visiting Professors". University of Glamorgan. Archived from the original on 10 December 2008. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ Simpson, Rin (19 July 2009). "Having children doesn't stop you doing things". Wales Online. Retrieved 21 September 2009.