Neil Marshall
Neil Marshall
Neil Marshallis an English film director, editor and screenwriter. Marshall began his career in editing and in 2002 directed his first feature film Dog Soldiers, a horror-comedy film which became a cult film. He followed up with the critically acclaimed horror film The Descent in 2005. Marshall also directed Doomsday in 2008, and wrote and directed Centurion in 2010. He has also directed two prominent episodes of US television series Game of Thrones: "Blackwater" and "The Watchers on the...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth25 May 1970
became built dad everywhere fascinated growing high history names roman romans ruins spent stone terrifying time wall
Roman history was kind of unavoidable where I was growing up. It was everywhere - all the place names and ruins and forts. My dad's a history buff, and I spent a lot of time on Hadrian's Wall. I became fascinated by the idea of what was so terrifying up there that the Romans built a 60-mile long, 30ft high stone wall to keep it out?
cast conscious exception
With the exception of 'Descent,' that was a very conscious thing to make an action or horror movie that was an all-female cast because I hadn't seen anything like that before.
against becomes choice filming layers less location rather shooting stripping
Shooting against greenscreen... my choice of filming is, like, I'd rather shoot on location than shoot on a set, and I'd rather shoot on a set than shoot against greenscreen. You start stripping away the layers of reality, and it becomes a lot less fun to actually film.
arthur certainly everybody happens knows nobody society version western
Pretty much every society, every culture in the world has some version of the Arthur legend, so everybody knows it; certainly in the western world, everybody knows King Arthur, but nobody knows what happens next.
blend cross
I see myself more as an action director. All right, I do enjoy intense, bloodthirsty action but I like to blend and cross genres. I don't want to be too predictable.
films hawks john sam
'Raiders of the Lost Ark' made me want to make films. I am wild about the films of John Carpenter, Ridley Scott, Howard Hawks and Sam Peckinpah.
people
I enjoy scaring people too much to let it go!
blend
I do enjoy intense, bloodthirsty action, but I like to blend and cross genres. I don't want to be too predictable.
episode equivalent longer people running time watch
One episode of 'Game of Thrones' is equivalent to my film 'Centurion' in budget and scope. 'Centurion' has a longer running time, but that's kind of the only difference, and I think people now, if they want drama, they watch TV.
allow care giant guys ideas implicitly mess scare shot trust
The guys on 'Game of Thrones' trust me implicitly to take care of the action stuff. I don't mess with their drama, but they allow me to come up with ideas like 'Hey, what if the giant had a bow? And what if he shot some guy off the wall?' With 'Constantine,' too, they really trust me to scare the audience.
nowhere
My belief is that if you start a film all the way up at level 10, you've got nowhere to go.
became built dad fascinated history romans spent stone terrifying time wall
My dad's a history buff, and I spent a lot of time on Hadrian's Wall. I became fascinated by the idea of what was so terrifying up there that the Romans built a 60-mile long, 30-ft-high stone wall to keep it out.
scene
I don't think they're gratuitous with the nudity on 'Game of Thrones.' It's very much part of the world. There's a lot of it, but that's the world they come from. It never is there to distract from the scene or the actors or story.
background became design filmmaker graphic newcastle school sheer
I always wanted to be a filmmaker and became one through sheer single-mindedness. I came to filmmaking from a background in graphic design. I went to film school at Newcastle Polytechnic.