Anthony Waller(I)
- Producer
- Director
- Writer
British citizen, Anthony Waller,
was born in October 1959 in Beirut, Lebanon to English parents. He grew
up both in the Middle East and England. As an 11 year-old, Anthony
started experimenting with Super-8 film. While still in his early
teens, three of his animated films were finalists in two international
film competitions sponsored and televised by the BBC.
In 1978, Waller was admitted to the UK's National Film School as the
youngest ever student, where he studied until 1981. Director
John Schlesinger awarded him
the Shakespeare Scholarship 1981 with which he spent a year on
attachment at Munich's HFF (Film and Television School) in Germany.
In November 1981, Waller won 1st prize in the fiction category for his
graduation short film, When the Rain Stops (1981), at the first
International Festival of Film Schools in Munich.
Waller stayed on in Germany for 8 years, initially working for German
television as a vision mixer and editor. He subsequently directed and
edited over 200 commercials, music videos and movie trailers, and
co-founded the commercial production company, Cobblestone Pictures, in
Hamburg in 1992.
Waller also began composing music professionally in 1984 with a
Christmas Carol he wrote for the German football team, FC Bayern. Since
then, he has composed some of the jingles for the commercials he
directed, including MB Games, Bahlsen, Baileys and notably Old Spice,
the song of which was also sung by him and released as a Maxi CD by
Intercord in 1993.
Waller's first feature film was the thriller,
Mute Witness (1995), filmed entirely
in Moscow in 1993, and financed privately by himself and his
co-producing partners. Filming was complicated by its coincidence with
Russia's October revolution, a diphtheria outbreak, -23 degree
temperatures, local mafia extortion and last minute cast changes.
Despite these initial difficulties,
Mute Witness (1995) was sold to
Columbia TriStar as a completed movie, and was distributed worldwide in
all major territories, and invited to 23 festivals, including the
Cannes Film Festival, Courmayeur (Audience Award), Gerardmer (Audience
and Grand Jury Award), Moscow (Audience Award), Birmingham (Grand Jury
Award) Sundance, Toronto and Tokyo. It included a cameo performance by
Sir Alec Guinness, shot 8 years earlier in
1985.
In 1995, Waller co-founded the Amsterdam-based, Cometstone Pictures. In
1996, Cometstone's first production was
An American Werewolf in Paris (1997),
which Waller directed, co-wrote and executive produced. With a budget
of $22 million, the movie was an entirely European co-production, sold
to Hollywood Pictures in a negative pick-up deal for a Buena Vista
release on Christmas Day 1997. Further projects Waller has directed are
the psychological thriller,
The Guilty (2000), and the
supernatural thriller,
9 Miles Down (2009).
as well as the dramatized Documentary "The Singularity is Near" with Ray Kurzweil, and the 16pt TV series, "Trader" (alias Oil for Blood) and most recently, "The Piper" with Elizabeth Hurley.
was born in October 1959 in Beirut, Lebanon to English parents. He grew
up both in the Middle East and England. As an 11 year-old, Anthony
started experimenting with Super-8 film. While still in his early
teens, three of his animated films were finalists in two international
film competitions sponsored and televised by the BBC.
In 1978, Waller was admitted to the UK's National Film School as the
youngest ever student, where he studied until 1981. Director
John Schlesinger awarded him
the Shakespeare Scholarship 1981 with which he spent a year on
attachment at Munich's HFF (Film and Television School) in Germany.
In November 1981, Waller won 1st prize in the fiction category for his
graduation short film, When the Rain Stops (1981), at the first
International Festival of Film Schools in Munich.
Waller stayed on in Germany for 8 years, initially working for German
television as a vision mixer and editor. He subsequently directed and
edited over 200 commercials, music videos and movie trailers, and
co-founded the commercial production company, Cobblestone Pictures, in
Hamburg in 1992.
Waller also began composing music professionally in 1984 with a
Christmas Carol he wrote for the German football team, FC Bayern. Since
then, he has composed some of the jingles for the commercials he
directed, including MB Games, Bahlsen, Baileys and notably Old Spice,
the song of which was also sung by him and released as a Maxi CD by
Intercord in 1993.
Waller's first feature film was the thriller,
Mute Witness (1995), filmed entirely
in Moscow in 1993, and financed privately by himself and his
co-producing partners. Filming was complicated by its coincidence with
Russia's October revolution, a diphtheria outbreak, -23 degree
temperatures, local mafia extortion and last minute cast changes.
Despite these initial difficulties,
Mute Witness (1995) was sold to
Columbia TriStar as a completed movie, and was distributed worldwide in
all major territories, and invited to 23 festivals, including the
Cannes Film Festival, Courmayeur (Audience Award), Gerardmer (Audience
and Grand Jury Award), Moscow (Audience Award), Birmingham (Grand Jury
Award) Sundance, Toronto and Tokyo. It included a cameo performance by
Sir Alec Guinness, shot 8 years earlier in
1985.
In 1995, Waller co-founded the Amsterdam-based, Cometstone Pictures. In
1996, Cometstone's first production was
An American Werewolf in Paris (1997),
which Waller directed, co-wrote and executive produced. With a budget
of $22 million, the movie was an entirely European co-production, sold
to Hollywood Pictures in a negative pick-up deal for a Buena Vista
release on Christmas Day 1997. Further projects Waller has directed are
the psychological thriller,
The Guilty (2000), and the
supernatural thriller,
9 Miles Down (2009).
as well as the dramatized Documentary "The Singularity is Near" with Ray Kurzweil, and the 16pt TV series, "Trader" (alias Oil for Blood) and most recently, "The Piper" with Elizabeth Hurley.