|
Director of Sky Captain Background: “I never expected anything I'd created to be seen outside of perhaps the Sundance Film Festival.” Kerry Conran American filmmaker educated at the California Institute of Arts Kerry Conran made an auspicious debut with Paramount Pictures' “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” (2004), which was filmed entirely against bluescreen using a technique Conran invented. He received a 2005 Online Film Critics Society nomination for his work in the film. The same year, Conran won the Filmmaker's Showcase Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. His brother, Kevin, also worked in the movie as the production designer and costume designer.
Michigan Native
Childhood and Family: Kerry Scott Conran was born on November 6, 1964, in Flint, Michigan. Part of a family of aspiring artists, his older brother Kevin Conran was an illustrator and his younger sister Kirsten Conran was an art director at an ad agency. Young Kerry grew up watching such classic films as “Metropolis” (1927), “King Kong” (1933) and “Superman” (1941) and spent most of childhood making short super-8 movies. The experiences later propelled him to enter a film school at the California Institute of Arts.
Promising Filmmaker
Career: “By the time I'd graduated from school, I'd gotten a decent working knowledge of what you could do with the Mac. I had written a few little things for it, and somehow word got out that I was doing quirky nonintuitive things with the computer that filled certain gaps. I had gotten a phone call to write a piece of animation software. Instead of being paid, I asked to keep the equipment that had to be purchased to do it, always with a mind of trying to make this short film of mine. I was really on life support. I had just enough money to survive. That also contributed to me dropping out of society. I just dedicated every waking hour I had to working on that short.” Kerry Conran Born and raised in Michigan, Kerry Conran developed an interest of making super 8-movies during his youth, thanks to his penchant of seeing classic films. A graduate of the California Institute of Arts, he began to form the idea of his own science-fiction serial in the spirit of those the 1930s while studying there. It later became the direct-to-video release “The World of Tomorrow” (2005). With the digital technologies he had at his feat, Conran projected to create an entire feature-length film without even having to leave his apartment. With help from his brother and a few friends, Conran worked independently to create fantasy world on his personal computer and set up a blue screen in his apartment. Conran's hard work paid off after four years when his six minutes of footage attracted the attention of Hollywood film producer Jon Avnet. Avnet agreed to finance the project, with Conran not only on board as screenwriter, but making his debut as director. Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Gambon and Angelina Jolie, among others, “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” (2004) marked the first film entirely shot on blue screens. Although it was not a box-office hit, the action-adventure was moderate success with the critics, earning three awards and eleven nominations, including an Online Film Critics Society for Best Breakthrough Filmmaker. Following his screen breakthrough, Conran was chosen to helm an adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel, “John Carter of Mars” (2009), after director Robert Rodriguez leaving the project. However, Conran was later replaced by Andrew Stanton. Conran and Jude Law have expressed interest in turning “Sky Captain” into a franchise.
Awards:
|
