David Gordon Green
| David Gordon Green | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 9, 1975 Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S. |
| Occupation | film director and screenwriter |
David Gordon Green (born 9 April 1975 in Little Rock, Arkansas) is an American filmmaker. He grew up in Richardson, Texas, and attended Richardson High School and the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he studied film directing.[1] He currently lives in New Orleans.
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His films, which are usually coming-of-age tales set in small rural towns, have been categorized as belonging to the Southern Gothic tradition. Green's dialog often has an obtuse, semi-poetic quality.
While in university, he made the two short films, Pleasant Grove and Physical Pinball, at the North Carolina School of the Arts prior to his feature film debut in 2000, the critically-acclaimed George Washington, which he both wrote and directed. He followed that in 2003 with All the Real Girls and Undertow in 2004. In 2007, Snow Angels, his first film created from a screenplay rather than his own writing, was adapted from a Stewart O'Nan novel. The film debuted at Sundance in January 2007[2] and stars Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale. It was released by Warner Independent Pictures.[3]
Green was set to direct a film version of the John Kennedy Toole novel A Confederacy of Dunces, which was scheduled for release in 2005, but never actually began production due to difficulties pertaining to the publishing rights. The film was to star Will Ferrell as Ignatius and Lily Tomlin as Ignatius's mother. A staged reading, also directed by Green, of the script took place at the 8th Nantucket Film Festival, read by Ferrell as Ignatius, Anne Meara as his mother, Paul Rudd as Officer Mancuso, Kristen Johnston as Lana Lee, Mos Def as Burma Jones, Rosie Perez as Darlene, Olympia Dukakis as Santa Battaglia and Miss Trixie, Natasha Lyonne as Myrna, Alan Cumming as Dorian Green, John Shea as Gonzales, Jesse Eisenberg as George, John Conlon as Robichaux & Mr. Clyde, Jace Alexander as Bartender Ben, Celia Weston as Miss Anne, Miss Inez & Mrs. Levy, and Dan Hedaya as Mr. Levy.[4]
Goat, a screenplay adapted by Green from the Brad Land memoir, was at one point in pre-production with Emile Hirsch set to star. However, the status of this project is currently unknown.
In March 2007, it was reported that Warner Independent Pictures had inked a deal with Green to write and direct a screen adaptation of the nonfiction John Grisham book The Innocent Man.[3]
Green recently took a turn toward the mainstream with the Seth Rogen buddy comedy Pineapple Express.
It has been suggested, even by the director himself, that Green's films take a lot of influence from the works of fellow Texan Terrence Malick.[5] Malick himself served as an executive producer of Green's 2004 film Undertow. Green has suggested that no other director had used voice-over narration so well, citing Malick's classic 1978 film Days of Heaven as the principal source of inspiration for Undertow.
In 2006 Green was the opening night guest at the CineYouth Festival - a film festival celebrating the work of youth filmmakers and presented by Cinema/Chicago also the presenting organization behind the Chicago International Film Festival.
Producer:
- George Washington (2000)
- All the Real Girls (2003)
- Shotgun Stories (2007)
- The Great World of Sound (2007)
Director:
- Pleasant Grove (1996)
- Physical Pinball (1998)
- George Washington (2000)
- All the Real Girls (2003)
- Undertow (2004)
- Snow Angels (2007)
- Pineapple Express (2008)
- Goat (2008)
- The Legend of Ronson (2010)
- Suspiria (TBA)
- The Innocent Man (TBA)
- Lord Vishnu's Love Handles (TBA)
Writer:
- George Washington (2000)
- All the Real Girls (2003)
- Undertow (2004)
- Goat (2006) (adapted screenplay)
- Snow Angels (2006) (adapted screenplay)
- Untitled Cruise/Wagner/Motocross Project (TBA)
- ^ PopMatters Film Interview | David Gordon Green and Paul Schneider - All the Real Girls
- ^ indieWIRE: PARK CITY '07 REVIEW | Quiet Anger: David Gordon Green's "Snow Angels"
- ^ a b WIP turns Green with 2 projects
- ^ IGN: Photos: Staged Reading of A Confederacy of Dunces
- ^ The Charlie Rose Show, PBS, episode aired 2000. Available on George Washington DVD. New York: The Criterion Collection, 2001.
