Director TONY SCOTT has created a series of landmark action films, mastering the balance of technical virtuosity with an exuberant sense of tempo. Scott, a member of the exclusive club of billion-dollar-grossing directors, has been one of mainstream Hollywood’s more reliable and stylish action filmmakers since the mid-1980s. With one high-profile project set for release and many more in development, Scott shows no sign of slowing the pace.
DÉJÀ VU marks Scott’s third collaboration with Denzel Washington and his sixth collaboration with Jerry Bruckheimer. In 1995, he directed “Crimson Tide,” starring Washington and Gene Hackman and produced by Bruckheimer, which received both critical and popular acclaim. Scott went on to direct Washington again in the 2004 action-thriller “Man on Fire,” this time alongside Dakota Fanning and Christopher Walken.
Scott made his feature debut in 1983 with the modern vampire story “The Hunger,” starring Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, and Susan Sarandon. The movie was adapted as a trilogy for Showtime in 1998, in which Scott directed one episode starring Giovanni Ribisi and David Bowie. In 1986, Scott directed Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis in the mega-blockbuster “Top Gun,” whose stunning aerial sequences helped make the film a global success. Scott confirmed his place as one of Hollywood’s premier action directors the following year with “Beverly Hills Cop II,” starring Eddie Murphy.
Scott’s ability to mine box-office gold from a deft blending of material and talent was evident in Touchstone Pictures’ “Enemy of the State.” Reuniting Scott with Gene Hackman and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the political thriller, starring Will Smith, became one of the biggest hits of 1998. In 2001, Scott directed Universal’s “Spy Game,” a taut, ambitious thriller that reunited screen giants Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. In 2005, after years of development, Scott finally brought his beloved project “Domino” to the screen with an all-star cast lead by Keira Knightley portraying real-life bounty hunter Domino Harvey.
Scott’s additional film credits include: “Revenge” (1988), with Kevin Costner and Anthony Quinn; “Days of Thunder” (1990), starring Tom Cruise and Robert Duvall; “The Last Boy Scout” (1991), with Bruce Willis; the critically acclaimed “True Romance” (1993), starring Christian Slater, Roseanna Arquette and Christopher Walken, with a script by Quentin Tarantino; and “The Fan” (1996), starring Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes.
Born in Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, England, Scott attended the Sunderland Art School, where he received a fine-arts degree in painting. While completing a yearlong post-graduate study at Leeds College, he developed an interest in cinematography and made “One of the Missing,” a half-hour film financed by the British Film Institute and based on an Ambrose Bierce short story. He then went on to earn his Master of Fine Arts degree at the Royal College of Arts, completing another film for the British Film Institute, “Loving Memory,” from an original script financed by Albert Finney.
In 1973, Scott partnered with brother Ridley to form the London-based commercial production company RSA. Over the next decade, Scott created some of the world’s most entertaining and memorable commercials, honing his film vocabulary and picking up every major honor in the field, including: a number of Clio awards, several Silver and Gold Lion Awards from the Cannes International Television/Cinema Commercials Festival, and London’s prestigious Designers & Art Directors Award. While working as a commercial director, Scott also made three movies for television: two documentaries and a one-hour special entitled “Author of Beltraffio” from the story by Henry James. In 2002, under the RSA banner, Scott produced a series of stylish short film adver-tainments for automaker BMW, starring Clive Owen. Scott himself directed one of these shorts entitled “Beat the Devil” that featured Owen, James Brown and Gary Oldman.
In 1995, the two brothers went on to form the film and television production company Scott Free. With offices in Los Angeles and London, the Scotts have produced such films as “In Her Shoes,” “Tristan + Isolde” and the soon-to-be-released “The Assassination of Jesse James,” starring Brad Pitt. They also executive produce the hit CBS series “Numbers,” currently in its third season, as well as the upcoming TNT miniseries “The Company,” starring Chris O’Donnell and Michael Keaton.
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