Happy Birthday Joe Wright!

Today (August 25th), is Pride & Prejudice's own brilliant director Joe Wright's 44th Birthday! I found out a few years ago that his birthday's today and he shares the same birthday as Tom Hollander! They've worked together 3 times in 3 (Pride & Prejudice, The Soloist, and Hanna) of his 5 feature films.

Joe Wright (born 25 August 1972) is an English film director best known for Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Hanna, and Anna Karenina.

Wright was born on 25 August 1972 in London, where his parents founded the Little Angel Theatre, a puppet theatre in Islington.

Wright always had an interest in the arts, especially painting.^[1] He would also make films on his Super 8 camera as well as spend time in the evenings acting in a drama club. Wright is dyslexic. He left school without any GCSEs.

Joe Wright is married to Sitarist Anoushka Shankar, daughter of Ravi Shankar, and they have a son named Zubin. 

Read more about JW here!

Joe Wright

Interesting Joe Wright Trivia (via IMDB)...

Directing style trademark

• Shots of characters' hands to show tension and emotion
• Settings with different tones
• Very long, complicated tracking shots that display many events
• His parents founded Islington's Little Angel Theater, a puppet theater.
• Is Dyslexic and left school with no O-levels.
• His father, Joe Wright, was 65 when he was born.
• Named one of Variety's "10 Directors to Watch" (2006).
• In 2007, he became the youngest director in history to have a film open the Venice Film Festival (his film Atonement was chosen to open 64th Venice International Film Festival).
• Has directed 2 actresses to Oscar-nominated performances: Keira Knightley, and Saoirse Ronan.
• Has worked with Saoirse Ronan twice (Hanna (2011) and Atonement (2007)) and Keira Knightley three times (Pride & Prejudice (2005), Atonement (2007) and Anna Karenina (2012)).
• Became engaged to actress Rosamund Pike in September 2007. They met on the set of Pride & Prejudice (2005). Called off his engagement to Rosamund Pike shortly before their wedding. The "save the date" cards were already sent out. [June 2008].

Joe Wright P&P Related Quotes
"Pride & Prejudice (2005) is my first film with a happy ending. Before, I naively thought they were a cop-out, but now I've come to believe that happy endings and wish fulfillment are an incredibly important part of our cultural life".

"On our first day of filming we shot a dining room table scene, which any director will tell you is tough, and with Dame Judi Dench at the head of the table - on the first day of my first feature - terrifying. But she's a professional and a genuinely nice person, so it was a joy to see her play a difficult woman." (Joe Wright)

“This is about a girl who falls in love. I wanted to hold back looking at Darcy, seeing Darcy, for a while. So you don’t really see him clearly until Elizabeth sees him. The whole idea of the film is to make it as subjective as possible. So you’re constantly seeing the world through her eyes”. (Joe Wright)

"It was lovely. What a joy of job. Three months skipping around the English countryside with loads of girls. It was heaven." (Joe Wright)

Joe Wright on casting Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet:
"I wouldn't say that I didn't want to cast her, I didn't go to anyone else before Keira but I felt perhaps that she was too beautiful to play Elizabeth Bennet. So I met her anyway, and she was the right age and I was very keen to cast people that were the right age. So I met Keira very late one night in a hotel bar in Montreal and discovered this scruffy little kid who's a tomboy really, sort of spiky knees and elbows, and suddenly it occurred to me that was perfect for Elizabeth. Elizabeth Bennet is a tomboy and she refuses to conform to the feminine ideals of the period. Then I started talking to Keira and discovered her to be incredibly bright, incredibly funny, independently spirited, very strong young woman who doesn't say what she thinks you want to hear, but says exactly what she thinks. All of those qualities made me think that Keira was perfect for Elizabeth Bennet."

"She was the most incredibly focused person of any age that I have ever met and I think that is part of her strength. She's extraordinary, she's almost Zen-like in that way, she's really extraordinarily focused. She conserves her energy; she puts it all into those moments when the camera is turning. She's incredible."

Joe Wright on casting Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy:
"First, Matthew's the right age. Second, he's a big strong manly man. I didn't want a pretty boy, boy band kind of boy, I wanted a man, and he's an incredible actor. I've loved his work for many years and I think he is an astonishingly good actor. I know also he is not vain; he's not coming to the role trying to promote himself as a f---ing sex symbol. He's coming as an actor trying to understand who his character is. He's interested in people and I think that's probably why he acts and so for all of those reasons he felt perfect. Also, he is just a big sexy man and when I put him opposite Keira Knightley they were just astonishing together."

 
Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen on Joe Wright

“I loved working with Joe Wright. I think he did an amazing job with the movie. It’s only an impression of the book. I think he was really successful in telling the story in two hours and still managing to appease the whole spectrum of people from the hardcore Austen fans to men in the street who went grudgingly to a girlie film.” (Matthew Macfadyen)

~*~

"On-screen chemistry between two actors is rare. I think creative chemistry between actor and director is even more rare -- and for some reason Joe [Wright] and I have that." (Keira Knightley)

~*~

"Joe is an actor’s director. There are plenty of directors who aren’t that interested, but Joe likes actors I think, he’s interested in the process of it. So it was a treat, it really was." (Matthew Macfadyen)

~*~"Joe just kept saying that he believed in me, which is amazing because all actresses are, by nature, completely insecure beings. If they say that they’re not, they’re lying. It’s a profession made out of insecurities. You’ve got to use them all. So, to have somebody say, `I believe in you, you can do this´ is absolutely extraordinary. He [Joe Wright] was so sweet and he kept saying, `I’m going to keep you safe darling, don’t worry about it´" (Keira Knightley)


Joe Wright's Frequent collaborators (Cast & Crew from Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, The Soloist, Hanna, and Anna Karenina):

P&P Actors

Keira Knightley + Matthew Macfadyen + Joe Wright (P&P '05 director) in Pride & Prejudice and Anna Karenina (2012)

 Keira Knightley + Brenda Blethyn + Peter Wight + Joe Wright (P&P '05 director) in Atonement (2007)
Tom Hollander + Joe Wright (P&P '05 director) in Hanna (2011) 

Penelope Wilton + Joe Wright (director) in Bob & Rose (2001)  
Simon Woods + Pip Torrens + Joe Wright (director) in The Last King (2003)

Tom Hollander + Jena Malone + Joe Wright (director) in The Soloist (2009)
See more here: Pride & Prejudice Actors co-starring in other TV and Film projects

Frequent Crew Collaborators

Producer: Tim Bevan (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Anna Karenina)
Producer: Paul Webster (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Anna Karenina, Pan)
Original Music by: Dario Marianelli (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, The Soloist, Anna Karenina, Pan)
Cinematography: Seamus McGarvey (Atonement, The Soloist, Anna Karenina, Pan)
Casting by: Jina Jay (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Hanna, Anna Karenina, Pan) 
Production Design by: Sarah Greenwood (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, The Soloist, Hanna)
Set Decorator: Katie Spencer (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Hanna)
Costume Design by: Jacqueline Durran (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, The Soloist, Anna Katenina, Pan)
Production Companies: Studio Canal (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, The Soloist), Working Title Films (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, The Soloist, Anna Karenina)
Distributors: Focus Features (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Hanna, Anna Karenina) for US theatrical release 2012; Universal Pictures (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement) for UK/International release 2012

Director Joe Wright poses with the The Carl Foreman Award for Special Achievement by a British Director, Writer or Producer in their First Feature Film for Pride and Prejudice backstage in the Awards Room at The Orange British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) at the Odeon Leicester Square and at an afterparty on February 19, 2006 in London, England. (Getty Images)