Spending as much time as possible with Axelle. She's awesome, the love of my life, and my best pal in the whole wide world! xxx Watching movies - expanding my useless knowledge of cinema, or just chilling out with a beer and watching some mindless entertainment. My other interests include photography, fell walking (although I can't see me getting much of that done now I live in London) and archery.
I'd like to meet:
I know you're supposed to say "people with similar interests" and such like but what the hell....As a director based in the UK it can feel a little isolated sometimes. You rarely get to meet your peers, let alone have a few beers and talk about movies with them. The people I most want to meet are other film directors - people who clearly share the same passion as I do. Top of list would have to be the man who has inspired me the most - STEVEN SPIELBERG. I'd also love to meet JAMES CAMERON, RIDLEY SCOTT, JOHN CARPENTER, TERRY GILLIAM, SAM RAIMI, JOHN BOORMAN to name a few. There's also a few, now sadly ex-directors, I would have liked to have met, including HOWARD HAWKS, SAM PECKINPAH and JOHN FORD.PS - Since first writing this, I've been lucky enough to meet, however briefly, JOHN CARPENTER, TERRY GILLIAM and most recently, RIDLEY SCOTT. Not bad! 3 down, 4 to go....
Music:
LOT'S OF 80'S STUFF, SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES, THE SEX PISTOLS, THE ROLLING STONES, THE BEATLES, THE JAM, THE CURE, U2, JERRY GOLDSMITH, JOHN WILLIAMS, HANS ZIMMER, JEFF WAYNE'S WAR OF THE WORLDS, TUBULAR BELLS and STAR TURN to name a few
Television:
CHEERS, SPACED, THE GOODIES, ALAN PARTRIDGE, THE FAST SHOW, DEADWOOD, 24, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (2007), I also love MYTHBUSTERS and SMASH LAB, two programmes dedicated to blowing shit up, and all in the interests of science. Marvelllous!Axelle's recently got me into BUFFY, only about 10 years late!
Books:
Mostly movie related books - autobiographies from ERROL FLYNN and DAVID NIVEN to JOHN BOORMAN and SAM PECKINPAH. On the fiction side, pretty much anything by STEVEN PRESSFIELD - GATES OF FIRE pisses on 300 from a great height! TIDES OF WAR and LAST OF THE AMAZONS are awesome books. Also love HG WELLS (WAR OF THE WORLDS) and EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS way ahead of their time JOHN CARTER ON MARS books. I've also read several biographies about the life of an amazing adventurer called RICHARD MEINERTZHAGEN. And the VIZ 'PROFANISAURUS' - funny as.....!
Heroes:
My Dad. Indiana Jones...well duh! John Wayne - (ignore the politics, the man was a movie legend). Ash - groovy! Jack, Simon and Sam - my team - always cool under heavy pressure. See above - RICHARD MEINERTZHAGEN was a friend of T.E.LAWRENCE and an arrogant imperialistic bastard of the highest order, but he was also an outrageous and fearless adventurer with balls of British steel. There are so many legends surrounding him I can't believe there hasn't been a film made about this guy!
