Mike Newell

Spawning such contemporaries as Ken Loach, Stephen Frears, and Michael Apted, television work provided the creative outlet that many young filmmakers of the time so desperately needed. Newell's U.K. television feature debut, The Man in the Iron Mask (1977) served as his springboard to international success, finding theatrical release in the U.S. Continuing with work in television in the following years, Newell began to concentrate on his attempts to move into feature territory in the late '70s. Newell's first theatrical feature The Awakening (1980), a U.S./U.K. co-produced adaptation of Bram Stoker's -Jewel of the Seven Stars, earned mixed reviews, though it began to cement Newell's reputation as a talented and versatile director with a gift for getting the best performances possible from his actors. Following Awakening with Bad Blood (1982), a disturbing study in small town alienation set in New Zealand, Newell continued to refine his gift for darkly enchanting, personalized films on a feature level. Working through the remainder of the decade in multiple genres, including crime (Dance with a Stranger, [1985]), drama (Soursweet, [1989]), and the activist sports drama Amazing Grace and Chuck (1987), Newell proved time and again that his sure directorial hand and sharp eye for storytelling transcended genre restrictions in favor of deeply rooted character studies. Though he had over 54 credits to his name upon entering the final decade of the millennium, the 1990s proved to be the decade in which Newell began to gain the international recognition that he so richly deserved. Making his '90s theatrical debut with the charmingly romantic Enchanted April (1992), Newell continued with a critically praised melancholy family fable in 1993, Into the West, before making his breakthrough with the influential romantic comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). Offered directorial hand on a slew of similarly themed romantic comedies in the wake of the success of Four Weddings (including Notting Hill, [1999]), and taking advantage of one such offer with the less successful Hugh Grant comedy An Awfully Big Adventure, Newell proved his versatility and struck gold again in 1997, with Donnie Brasco. In 1999, Newell spun a tale of dysfunctional air-traffic controllers with Pushing Tin, "a movie about people crashes, not plane crashes." ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide