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Angela's Ashes  About the Filmmakers
"When the script arrived I thought, 'Oh no, not another harrowing woman's part.' But I read it and the story is so uplifting -- so full of love -- and you don't turn down the opportunity to work with Alan Parker. He's wonderful -- you just know you're in a really safe pair of hands."
"I went to Dublin twice while the film was being made, but I visited the set for only a few minutes. I felt intrusive. It's a peculiar thing to feel you're intruding on your own life."
ALAN PARKER, Director, writer, and producer
Alan Parker wrote and directed his first film, "Bugsy Malone," in 1975. The film was a musical pastiche of 1920s gangster films with an entire cast of children. The highly original film received eight British Academy Award nominations and five Awards.
His second film was the controversial "Midnight Express" (1977), which won two Oscars and six Golden Globe Awards and four awards from the British Film Academy. This was followed in 1979 by Parker's film "Fame," a celebration of youth and the arts, which won two Academy Awards, six nominations, four Golden Globe nominations and was later adapted into a successful television series.
In 1981, Parker directed "Shoot the Moon," starring Diane Keaton and Albert Finney, and the powerful "Pink Floyd: The Wall," the feature film adaptation of the successful rock album that has become a classic of the genre.
In 1984, Parker directed "Birdy," based on the William Wharton novel and starring Nicolas Cage and Matthew Modine, which won the Grand Prix Special Du Jury at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival.
No stranger to controversy, his next film "Angel Heart," written and directed by Parker in 1986 and starring Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, and Lisa Bonet, opened in the United States amidst a storm caused by the X rating initially imposed on it by the MPAA.
In 1988, Parker directed the civil rights drama "Mississippi Burning," starring Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Director and winning for Best Cinematography. Parker was also awarded the D. W. Griffith Award by the National Board of Review for directing. The film was nominated for five British Academy Awards, winning three. It also won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
In 1989, Parker wrote and directed "Come See the Paradise," a love story set against the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, starring Dennis Quaid and Tamlyn Tomita.
"The Commitments," made in 1990, a story of a young Irish working-class soul band, was awarded a Golden Globe Nomination for Best Picture and won Parker the Best Director prize at the Tokyo Film Festival, as well as British Academy Awards for Editing, Screenplay, Director and Best Picture.
In 1993, Parker wrote and directed "The Road to Wellville," based on the novel by T. Coraghessan Boyle and starring Anthony Hopkins, Bridget Fonda, Matthew Broderick, John Cusack, and Dana Carvey.
In 1996, Parker directed, wrote, and produced "Evita," based on the successful stage show by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice and starring Madonna, Antonio Banderas, and Jonathan Pryce. The film won three Golden Globe Awards, including Best Picture.
A founding member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain, Parker has lectured at film schools around the world. In 1985 he was honored by the British Academy with the prestigious Michael Balcon Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema, and in November 1995 Parker was awarded with a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the British film industry.
During the shooting of "Angela's Ashes" Parker was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Directors Guild of Great Britain.
SCOTT RUDIN, Producer
Films: "Sleepy Hollow," "Bringing Out The Dead," "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut," "The Truman Show," "A Civil Action," "In & Out," "Ransom," "Mother," "Marvin's Room," "The First Wives Club," "Twilight," "Clueless," "Sabrina," "Nobody's Fool," "The Firm," "Searching for Bobby Fischer," "Sister Act," "The Addams Family," "Addams Family Values," "Little Man Tate," "Regarding Henry," "Pacific Heights," "Flatliners," "Jennifer Eight," "Mrs. Soffel," and the Academy Award™-winning film "He Makes Me Feel Like Dancing. "
Upcoming Films: Curtis Hanson's "Wonder Boys" and John Singleton's "Shaft."
Theater: "Passion," "Indiscretions," "Hamlet," "Seven Guitars," "Skylight," "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," "On The Town" (with the New York Shakespeare Festival), "The Chairs," "The Judas Kiss," "Stupid Kids," "The Blue Room," "The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told," "Closer" (London and New York), and "Amy's View and Antigone" (London).
Upcoming Theater: "Wise Guys" (Stephen Sondheim/John Weidman), "The Light in the Piazza" (Adam Guettel), "The Wild Party" (Michael John LaChuisa/George Wolfe), "Copenhagen" (Michael Frayn/Michael Blakemore), and "Jar The Floor" (Cheryl West/Marion McClinton).
DAVID BROWN, Producer
In partnership with Richard D. Zanuck, Brown produced some of the more memorable films of recent times, including "Jaws," Academy Award®-winner "The Sting," "The Verdict" and "Cocoon." They launched Steven Spielberg on his maiden voyage in films, having produced "The Sugarland Express" and engaged him to direct "Jaws." Brown also served as Executive Producer for the Academy Award®-winning film "Driving Miss Daisy," which Richard D. Zanuck and Lili Fini Zanuck produced.
Brown produced the critically acclaimed and award-winning Robert Altman film, "The Player," which was written by Michael Tolkin, as well as Rob Reiner's Academy Award®-nominated "A Few Good Men," starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Keifer Sutherland, and Kevin Bacon. He also produced "The Saint," starring Val Kilmer and Elisabeth Shue and directed by Phillip Noyce, as well as "Deep Impact," directed by Mimi Leder and starring Morgan Freeman, Robert Duvall, Tea Leoni, Vanessa Redgrave, Maximilian Schell, and Elijah Wood.
Mr. Brown and Joe Wizan produced "Kiss the Girls," a thriller starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd, which became a worldwide hit.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, on March 25, 1991, awarded Mr. Brown and Mr. Zanuck the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, given only by the Board of Governors of the Academy to "a creative producer whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production." At that time, there had only been 27 such awards given in the Academy's then 65-year history. In addition, and also with Mr. Zanuck, Mr. Brown received from the Producers Guild of America the David O. Selznick Lifetime Achievement Award on March 3, 1993.
Mr. Brown is a resident of New York, member of the Trustee Advisory Board of the Museum of Modern Art and of the Board of Visitors of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
DAVID WIMBURY, Producer
David Wimbury first worked with Alan Parker as second assistant director on Parker's "Midnight Express" in 1978. Since then he worked as production manager on "The Meaning of Life" and his producing credits include "Oxford Blues," "Absolute Beginners," "Withnail and I," "A Handful of Dust," "How to Get Ahead in Advertising," "The Commitments," and "Evita."
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