Alex Proyas Movies
Alex Proyas is an innovative and versatile filmmaker, with a penchant for large-scale science fiction productions. Maintaining prolific careers in both commercials and feature films, Proyas often uses the smaller venue as a testing ground for his big screen imagination, an inspired move that has rendered him a master of visual imagery.Born in Egypt to Greek parents, Proyas moved to Sydney, Australia, when he was three years old. By 18, he was a distinguished freshman at the Australian Film and Television School, and a classmate of Jane Campion, for whom he composed the score to A Girl's Own Story. During his first year at school, Proyas wrote and directed Groping, the 1982 Best Short Film winner at both the Sydney and London Film Festivals. In his second year, he formed a production company along with two peers, called Meaningful Eye Contact. Dissatisfaction with school led Proyas to drop out in 1984, as he began directing music videos through the firm. The success of his video for the Crowded House single "Don't Dream It's Over" gained Proyas several video awards and brought the director to the U.S. in 1987. The next few years saw him directing videos for American artists, such as Fleetwood Mac and Yes, and returning to Australia to work with Crowded House and INXS.
In 1989, INXS' management and Meaningful Eye Contact produced Proyas' first feature, Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds. The low-budget science fiction thriller (which he co-wrote and directed) attracted very little positive attention; its shortcomings were the result of Proyas' inexperience rather than his lack of talent. As Meaningful Eye Contact folded, Proyas quickly began directing television commercials. Throughout the early '90s, he helmed international ad campaigns for Nike, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and American Express, among many others.
Proyas returned to feature film with 1994's sinister comic book adaptation The Crow. Unfortunately, the movie is mostly remembered for the tragic on-set death of its star, Brandon Lee, a misfortune that overshadows its craft. As a commercial director, Proyas had become notorious for creating supernatural city environments through elaborate cinematography and special effects. He commanded The Crow's urban landscapes and architecture, pulling mystery out of the brightest window and sentiment out of the darkest alley. The effort established him as a feature director.
After The Crow, Proyas continued cultivating a script he had begun in 1990, a paranoid thriller (soon to be called Dark City) based on both science fiction literature and hard-boiled detective stories. Released in 1998, Dark City was heralded by critic Roger Ebert as the Best Film of the Year and won the Australian Film Circle Award for Best Screenplay.
Despite his success in features, Proyas has not abandoned other modes of filmmaking. In 1994, the same year as The Crow's release, Proyas was the cinematographer for the award-winning animated short Secrets of the City. His own short film, Book of Dreams: Welcome to Crateland was nominated for the Golden Palm at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. In 1999, after signing a first-look feature film deal with New Line Cinemas, he also signed with Bicoastal Chelsea Pictures to direct commercials.
Proyas' future looks to hold the same eclectic mix of filmmaking. Bicoastal Chelsea Pictures has opened a Sydney branch to accommodate Proyas as a commercial director. The firm is located downstairs from Proyas' own production company, Mystery Clock Cinema. Besides launching a groundbreaking filmmaking website, Mystery Clock has several feature projects in development for Proyas, among them are a remake of the Italian film 10th Victim, a science fiction murder mystery called Hardwired, and a film adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's Masque of the Red Death. Proyas will also direct and executive produce the television series Riverworld (based on the book collection), for the Sci-Fi Channel. Among these science fiction and mystery ventures is also Proyas' pet project, a very small, realistic film about a garage band in Sydney -- a comedy. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, All Movie Guide
- 2011
A man is shocked to find out what a private detective duo dig up when they're hired to follow him during his day-long memory lapses in this Alex Proyas adaptation of Robert Heinlein's 1942 novel. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
- 2010
Director Alex Proyas (I, Robot) revamps the mythos surrounding Vlad the Impaler in Dracula Year Zero, a Univeral Pictures release from a script by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless. The horror tale is set to take place in Romania during the Turkish invasion as Vlad goes to the greatest of lengths to fight for his homeland -- even if it means selling his soul and becoming forever doomed as a creature of the night. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
A time capsule containing a cryptic message about the coming apocalypse sends a concerned father on a race to prevent the horrific events from unfolding as predicted in this sci-fi thriller directed by Alex Proyas (Dark City) and starring Nicolas Cage. 1958: As the dedication ceremony for a newly constructed elementary school gets under way, a time capsule containing student drawings of the future is buried on the grounds and scheduled to be unearthed on the school's 50th anniversary. Instead of submitting a drawing, however, one little girl scribbles a series of seemingly random numbers on her paper before it is buried. Fifty years later, the time capsule is unearthed for a new generation of students to examine. Young Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury) is one of those students. The mysterious sequence of numbers falling into his possession, Caleb takes the paper to his father, Professor John Koestler (Cage), for examination. Studying the numbers, Professor Koestler soon discovers that they aren't random at all, but an encoded message containing the precise dates, death tolls, and coordinates of every major disaster since the time capsule was buried. Not only that, but the document also indicates that there will be three more such events, the last of which indicates a doomsday scenario that appears directly tied to Professor Koestler and Caleb. His desperate plea to authorities falling on deaf ears, Professor Koestler realizes that his only hope for preventing more lives from being lost is to take personal action. Though the author of the prophecies is no longer living, Professor Koestler is eventually able to track down her daughter Diana Wayland (Rose Byrne), and granddaughter Abby, who reluctantly agree to aid in the investigation. As the final date on the list draws near, Professor Koestler enters into a frantic race against time to prevent destruction on a global scale, in the process realizing that in order to save millions of lives, he may have to make the ultimate sacrifice. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, (more)
Director Alex Proyas (Dark City, The Crow) helmed this sci-fi thriller inspired by the stories in Isaac Asimov's nine-story anthology of the same name. In the future presented in the film, humans have become exceedingly dependent on robots in their everyday lives. Robots have become more and more advanced, but each one is preprogrammed to always obey humans and to, under no circumstances, ever harm a human. So, when a scientist turns up dead and a humanoid robot is the main suspect, the world is left to wonder if they are as safe around their electronic servants as previously thought. Will Smith stars as Del Spooner, the robot-hating Chicago cop assigned to the murder investigation. Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, and Chi McBride also star. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, (more)
Adapted from a series of novels by science fiction icon Philip Jose Farmer, the made-for-cable Riverworld is set on a distant planet where famous historical characters are reincarnated in a young, attractive,and healthy form. After his death in a space accident, Earth astronaut Hale (Brad Johnson) is reborn on Riverworld, where, much to his amazement, he rubs shoulders with dozens of past celebrities, from Mark Twain to the Emperor Nero. Hale is told that anyone who has ever lived on Earth at any time in history is qualified to start life anew on Riverworld -- even if that person is a space alien who just happened to be Earthbound at the time of his demise. But before he can jump to the conclusion that Riverworld is the intergalactic version of Heaven, Hale quickly learns that all is not well in this faraway land. Greed, mistrust, and tribal warfare are the principal "industries" in Riverworld, with many of Earth's past villains (Nero, in particular) hoping to exploit their new lives in order to resume their wicked ways. Moreover, the residents are constantly monitored by a tribe of sinister, hooded figures who occasionally intervene in the action whenever they feel that things are getting out of control -- their control. Organizing a rebellion, Hale leads several other reincarnated souls on an arduous journey along the river that girdles the planet, hoping to learn the secret of Riverworld and convert its hellish aspects into something resembling paradise. Riverworld made its Sci-Fi Channel debut March 22, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Alex Proyas, director of The Crow and Dark City, switches gears for the lightweight romantic comedy Garage Days. Set in the Sydney suburb of Newtown, Freddy (Kick Gurry) really wants his band to make it big. The band consists of his girlfriend Tanya (Pia Miranda) on bass, the drugged-out Lucy (Chris Sadrinna) on drums, and the mopey Joe (Brett Stiller) on guitar. Their inept manager, Bruno (Russell Dykstra), thinks they can get successful if they hook up with record executive Shad Kern (Marton Csokas). However, the band develops personal problems when Joe's girlfriend Kate (Maya Stange) announces she's pregnant and falls for Freddy, then gothic girl Angie (Yvette Duncan) seduces Joe, and Tanya gets involved with Lucy. Garage Days premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kick Gurry, Maya Stange, (more)
Alex Proyas (The Crow) directed this noir-styled futuristic thriller, scripted by Proyas, Lem Dobbs (Kafka), and David S. Goyer (The Puppet Masters). Separated from his wife Emma (Jennifer Connelly), amnesiac John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakens alone in a strange hotel to learn he is wanted for a series of brutal killings -- but he can't remember if he did or didn't commit these murders. Indeed, most of his memories have completely vanished, and he becomes the focus of interest for both mad genius Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) and sympathetic detective Frank Bumstead (William Hurt). Attempting to unravel the twisted riddle of his identity, Murdoch encounters a group of ominous beings known as the Strangers, shadow-like figures who have a collective memory and possess the ability to stop time and alter physical reality through a process called The Tuning. Focusing their minds, they are able to change the size and shape of the material world. Murdoch manages to stay a step ahead of his adversaries as he slowly jigsaws together the puzzle of his past-bittersweet memories of his childhood, his love for Emma, and the key to the murders -- while following a labyrinth leading to the Strangers' Underworld, a set inspired by Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Rufus Sewell commented on the Underworld: "When Alex first sent me the sketches for that set, I was more excited than I had been when I read the script. The Underworld was truly remarkable -- a little bit scary, very thrilling, and full of hundreds of bald people." At the Fox Film Studios in Sydney, Australia, where 50 sets were built, three months were spent constructing the set for the Underworld, the largest indoor set ever built in Australia. The production design by George Liddle (Rapa Nui) and Patrick Tatopoulos (Godzilla, Space: Above and Beyond) is a composite of different styles and eras, combining the look of 1940s Manhattan with German Expressionism. The music is by Trevor Jones (G.I. Jane). The film's dedication reads: "In Memory of Dennis Potter with gratitude and admiration." ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, (more)
Based on the graphic novel by James O'Barr, this fantasy follows Eric Draven (Brandon Lee), a rock musician who is murdered along with his fiancée Shelly (Sofia Shinas) by a group of marauding thugs who terrorize the decaying city in which they live. One year to the day after his death (which happens to be Devil's Night), a mystical crow appears at Eric's grave; Eric rises from the dead and, with the bird as his guide, goes on a mission to avenge himself against Top Dollar (Michael Wincott), the leader of the gang who killed him. Star Brandon Lee was killed while filming a scene in which he was shot with a shell from an improperly cleaned gun that was supposed to be loaded with blanks. Like his father, martial arts superstar Bruce Lee, Brandon was fated to enjoy his greatest popular success after his premature death. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brandon Lee, Ernie Hudson, (more)
- 1986
Felix (Michael Lake) and his sister Betty (Melissa Davis) are crucifix-obsessed weirdos living in an isolated house in the desert, who, even in this obscure location, are able to lay their hands on many candles. For some reason, they want to leave this place where they feel stranded, and they have been working for quite a long time to build an airplane. Along comes a stranger named Smith (Norman Boyd), who duly helps them finish the plane. Alas, by that time Betty has become completely bonkers, and Felix feels he must stay with her - so Smith flys out alone. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Lake, Melissa Davis, (more)
