Tom Harper (director)
| Tom Harper | |
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| File:Tom Harper on ColliderVideo.jpg
Harper interviewed in 2018
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| Born | 7 January 1980 London, England |
| Occupation |
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| Years active | 1998–present |
Tom Harper (born 7 January 1980) is a British film and television director, producer and writer. He is best known for his work on The Aeronauts, Wild Rose, Peaky Blinders, and the BBC TV mini-series War & Peace.
Early life and education
Harper grew up in a Quaker family. He "credits Quakerism with setting the tone in his attitudes towards pacifism and non-violence."[1]
Harper attended Acland Burghley School[2] before going on to study at The University of Manchester.[3]
Career
Harper began his career making short films. He wrote and directed Cubs in 2006 about urban fox hunting which was nominated for a BAFTA in the Best Short Film category and won a BIFA.[4]
Harper then moved on to direct a range of film and television work which includes Misfits, The Scouting Book for Boys (2009), This Is England '86, The Borrowers (2011), Peaky Blinders (2013) and The Woman in Black: Angel of Death.[5]
In 2014, Harper re-teamed with Jack Thorne, the writer of The Scouting Book for Boys, to make War Book, which premiered at the London Film Festival and had its international premiere as the opening film of the International Festival of Film Rotterdam.[6] The film received critical acclaim[7] with The List calling it a "powerful, provocative and essential piece of modern British cinema".[8] Harper was also a producer on the film.[9] He directed the 2016 BBC TV mini-series War & Peace, starring Paul Dano, Lily James and James Norton for BBC1 and The Weinstein Company.[10] The series topped ratings and won rave reviews.[11] The series was nominated for 6 BAFTAs (including Best Drama Series) and won for Best Production Design.[12]
Harper next directed the pilot episode of The Son for AMC based on Phillip Meyer's acclaimed novel.[13] Pierce Brosnan played the lead, replacing Sam Neill (with whom Harper previously worked on Peaky Blinders) who was forced to pull out for "personal reasons."[14] The series was picked up for a second season in May 2017.[13]
In 2017, Harper teamed up with Jack Thorne again, to make "The Commuter," starring Timothy Spall, the third episode of the Channel 4/Amazon Video anthology series Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams.[15]
Wild Rose starring Jessie Buckley (with whom Harper had worked previously on War and Peace) and Julie Walters, and written by Nicole Taylor, was filmed in Glasgow, Scotland, and Nashville, USA, in the summer of 2017. Owen Gleiberman described it in Variety as "a happy-sad drama of starstruck fever that lifts you up and sweeps you along, touching you down in a puddle of well-earned tears."[16]
The Aeronauts, based on James Glaisher and Henry Coxwell's famous 1862 flight, and starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones started its shoot in the summer of 2018. The script was written by Jack Thorne, their fifth collaboration, and Harper along with Todd Lieberman produced the film for Amazon Studios.[17] Until March 2020, The Aeronauts was the most watched film of all time on Amazon Prime.[18]
Filmography
| Year | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Eyelines | Short film |
| 2004 | Beat | Short film |
| 2006 | Squat Street | credited as director, TV mini-series |
| 2006 | Cubs | Short film |
| 2007 | Coming Up | credited as director, TV series, 1 episode |
| 2007 | Cherries | Short film |
| 2008 | Dis/Connected | TV film |
| 2009 | Demons | credited as director, TV mini-series, 3 episodes |
| 2010 | The Scouting Book for Boys | |
| 2010 | This Is England '86 | credited as director, TV mini-series, 2 episodes |
| 2009–2010 | Misfits | credited as director, TV series, 4 episodes |
| 2011 | The Borrowers | TV movie |
| 2011 | The Swarm | Short film |
| 2013 | Peaky Blinders | credited as director, TV series, 3 episodes |
| 2014 | War Book | |
| 2015 | The Woman in Black: Angel of Death | |
| 2015 | War & Peace | credited as director, TV series |
| 2017 | Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams | credited as director, TV series |
| 2018 | Wild Rose | |
| 2019 | The Aeronauts | |
| 2023 | Heart of Stone | Post-production |
References
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- Tom Harper at the Internet Movie Database
- Interviews with Tom Harper, British Film Institute
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