THE DIRECTOR
Marcus Thompson
Marcus Thompson’s film career is built on a solid foundation of drawing, painting and experimenting with magnetic tape, collage and any other medium he could find to express himself. Having made several experimental films during his time at art college in Bristol, he joined Granada Television as an assistant film editor in order to learn the craft of professional film post-production. After moving to London he soon made a name for himself as an editor with award winning ‘The South Bank Show’ for London Weekend Television and several BBC classics such as Michael Wood’s ‘In Search Of’ series. It was not until the early eighties that he was able to find the resources to put his hard learned experiences into practice, with the production of ‘Edward’, a 35mm cinema short about the lifestyle and work of artist Edward Bell, which he wrote, directed and produced. The film was selected to represent Great Britain in the Los Angeles ‘Filmex’ Film Festival of 1982.
It was the success of this first professionally made short that caught the attention of film producer Mike Dineen, who commissioned Thompson to direct corporate films for London based Bedford Productions. Commissions followed with films for Philip Morris, Paris based fashion magazine Marie Claire and London’s top class store, Harrods.
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Freed from the cutting rooms, after many years as a picture and sound editor Thompson was now able to pursue his directorial career on a full time basis. He created, co-wrote and directed the TV series ‘Neat And Tidy’ and soon after, ‘Malevolence’, the feature length film-noire set in a remote country cottage. An art exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London in 1990 led directly to a commission from EMI Records to conceive and direct a music video for chart toppers Jesus Jones. This was followed by countless videos produced by Judy Parkinson for other bands such as Run Rig, Ocean Colour Scene, Innocence, Two Tribes, River City People, The Poppy Factory, Distant Cousins and EMI’s RPLA, to name but a few. At this time Thompson also directed commercials for Honda Motorcycles, again produced by Judy Parkinson
By 1993 Thompson decided the time had come to concentrate on his real ambition; to write and direct his own feature films, and as a result, principle photography commenced on ‘Middleton’s Changeling’ on May 30th 1994 in Alicante, Spain.
Marcus Thompson has become a highly accomplished screenwriter, director and producer, and has produced and directed four feature films, ‘Malevolence’, ‘Middleton’s Changeling’, the musical film noire ‘The Biggest Thing That Ever Hit Broadway’, and award winning, ‘A Place To Stay’, a supernatural love story. Thompson’s ‘Shooting Bernarda’, an adaptation of Lorca’s masterpiece, is slated for 2020 in Andalucia, Spain. Development is also underway on ‘Liberator’, the legend of Simon Bolivar, who liberated the director’s country of birth from Spanish rule. He has recently delivered the screenplay for ‘Betsy And The Emperor’, which he was commissioned to re write by New York based GC Corp/Killer Films. Development on his psychological thriller ‘Townsville’ is underway and is slated for production in Australia in 2019. ‘Shore Leave’ is in production and scheduled for delivery in 2020. Thompson recently delivered the final draft of his screenplay entitled ‘William The Conqueror’ to Regal Entertainment.
Other feature films in development include ‘The Hairdresser’s Apprentice’, a period drama set in the golden age of coiffure. Maridadi Publishing, for whom Thompson has already designed two books, are currently in the process of publishing his collected works entitled ‘Codex Digitalis’ to accompany the exhibition of 53 new portrait paintings to be held later in Nice, London and Los Angeles.
