Gavin Hood
Gavin Hood
Gavin Hoodis a South African filmmaker, screenwriter, producer and actor, best known for writing and directing Tsotsi, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He also directed the films X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Ender's Game...
NationalitySouth African
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth12 May 1963
although became famous finance hard holding onto period problem published setting written year
Athol Fugard became famous as a playwright, so although 'Tsotsi' the book was written in the '60s, it was only published in the '80s. It was then optioned pretty much every year by producers. I think the problem was that holding onto its period setting made it very hard to get finance.
best close ground middle works
What's genius about 'Gravity' is that you are close upon the actors, but 3D works best when you have foreground, middle ground and background.
emotions heart human stories
Our stories are the same as your stories. They're about the human heart and emotion.
deep emotions fellow heart human stories thank
I want to thank my fellow nominees, who I've become deep friends with. We may have foreign-language films, but our stories are the same as your stories. They're about the human heart and emotion.
needs parents
My parents have been car-jacked. I have been mugged. We all know what it is like. But do you write a story about the way it is, or the way it should, or could, or needs to be?
artistic-ability black video
You have to separate artistic ability from ethnic origin. Not only am I not black, I am also not a woman, therefore how can I direct women? I am also only 42, therefore how can I direct someone who's 60? So you see where the argument ends up? If you take it to its logical conclusion, I would have to walk around and point a video camera at myself. And who the hell is interested in that?
jobs race stories
I am a story-teller working with a craft. My job is to use my craft - which is a different thing to my race - and tell a story well.
mean thinking years
I think if you read the story as bad guy turns good guy, then clearly it is a cliché. But my experience, when I spent three years working with young people in the townships on issues principally around HIV/AIDS, is that people are usually neither entirely good or bad. They are usually variations of both. Just because someone is a carjacker doesn't mean they are a ruthless cold-blooded murderer.
military awful conflict
Having been in the military myself, there is an awful moment when you're in this moment of conflict.
scripts now-and-then
One reads many scripts, and some of them are good and some of them are not, but every now and then, one really grabs you. You simply can't put it down.
war reality people
And for the people who promote drones as the answer to everything, there is a danger from being distanced from the reality of the ugly mess of war.
military important asking
The question becomes, because we're remotely far away from the territory we're about to bomb, does it make it easier to do it? That it is an important question, and the military is asking those questions.
philosophy winning thinking
When I see big movies that are only about good versus evil, and the good guy wins, I only can think we're in a far more complicated world than that. I frankly think that this binary philosophy is actually a dangerous way to look at the world.
laughing hug paradise
Hany Abu-Assad was sitting next to me, and his film 'Paradise Now' had won the Golden Globe. He said to me at the Globes, 'Paradise now, talk to you later.' [laughs] I gave him a big hug for that.