James McTeigue
James McTeigue is a
film director born in
Australia. He has worked on a number of Australian films, but is most famous for his role in
The Matrix films as well as
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and his directorial debut in 2006,
V for Vendetta.
McTeigue first became involved in the film industry in the late 1980s, acting as production runner or production assistant in a number of small Australian films. In 1991 his role became
assistant director, being the third assistant director in another Australian film, titled
The Girl Who Came Late.
In 1994 he was the second assistant director in
Country Life, a film adaptation based on Michael Blakemore's National Theatre production of
Uncle Vanya, which had a much wider audience than his previous affairs. He also acted again as second assistant director in a small Australian television film.
It was however, later in the year of 1994 the McTeigue broke into mainstream Hollywood, being the second assistant director for
No Escape, and the big budget
Street Fighter. In 1996, McTeigue again assumed the role of second assistant director, with an American television film and a small Australian film being completed that year.
In 1997 he was the second assistant director for WWII film,
Paradise Road, as well as
The Well, that year he also became first assistant director for a television series,
Big Sky. The following year he was the second assistant director for the American sci-fi film,
Dark City as well as Australian film,
The Sugar Factory.
It was the following year, 1999, that McTeigue really came to prominence. McTeigue was apparently going to act as second assistant director for
The Matrix film, that is, until the first assistant director, a friend of McTeigue who told him about the project had to drop out, which saw
The Wachowski Brothers make McTeigue first assistant. The film was released in 1999 and became a huge success.
The following year he followed up his success with
The Matrix, acting as first assistant director on the massively popular Australian film,
Looking for Alibrandi. He was also involved in
The Monkey's Mask that year, again as first assistant director.
In 2002 McTeigue worked with
George Lucas, as he became the first assistant director for
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. The following year he was also the first assistant director for both Matrix sequels,
The Matrix Reloaded and
The Matrix Revolutions.
In 2006 McTeigue made his directorial debut, directing the Wachowski brothers' produced film,
V for Vendetta. After spending so much time on
The Matrix film series, the brothers gave the opportunity to McTeigue to direct, first showing him a copy of
Vendetta graphic novel during post-production of
The Matrix Revolutions. McTeigue has been highly praised since the films release in March of 2006.
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Interview with McTeigue and Joel Silver
