Paul W. S. Anderson

Paul William Scott Anderson (born 4 March 1965) is an English filmmaker who regularly works in science fiction films and video game adaptations.

Anderson began his professional career as a writer on the British crime drama film comedy series El C.I.D., which ran for three series, from 1990 to 1992, and starred Alfred Molina in its first two.

Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt founded Impact Pictures in 1992, under which most of Anderson's films have been made.

Anderson was born in Wallsend, North Tyneside, England.

At the age of nine, he started making films with a Super 8 film camera.

After attending Newcastle's Royal Grammar School, he became the youngest person ever to graduate from the University of Warwick, with a B.A. in film and literature.

He met producer Jeremy Bolt and they founded Impact Pictures in 1992, looking to raise money for Anderson's feature film debut as director, from an action crime drama script of his own, called Shopping.

Anderson made his feature film debut with the British independent film Shopping (1994), and found commercial success with his second film, the Hollywood-produced Mortal Kombat (1995), based on the first couple of video games of the same name by Midway Games.

After much trouble securing funding, Shopping, which stars Sean Pertwee, Jude Law (in his first feature film role) and Sadie Frost, was released in the United Kingdom in 1994.

The censors of the British Board of Film Classification were not happy with the film's violence and delayed its release for months.

When it was eventually released, critics panned it and some cinemas decided to ban it for promoting an "irresponsible" outlook.

In the United States it received only an edited, direct-to-video release two years later.

Anderson credits Shopping for inspiring Channel Four Films, who had financed it, to also finance the more successful Shallow Grave and Trainspotting films by Danny Boyle, which in turn, he believes, made critics reassess his film in more positive light in later years, as one of the first in a new wave of British films concerning its youth.

Shopping is Anderson's one and only British film, as he grew up watching American and mainland European movies, never imagining himself a British filmmaker.

When Shopping was accepted in the Sundance Film Festival, American studios noticed its impressive look and style despite its relatively small $2 million budget, which led to opportunies in Hollywood for Anderson.

Anderson directed the fantasy martial arts video game adaptation Mortal Kombat in 1995.

Using a script written by Kevin Droney, the film was based on the first entry in the video game franchise by Midway Games, Mortal Kombat, although elements and characters were borrowed from the original game's sequel, Mortal Kombat II.

The film featured an ensemble cast, including Robin Shou as Liu Kang and Christopher Lambert as Raiden.

Anderson became interested in the project because he often played the game at arcades.

The production company decided to hire him based on the accomplished visual flair of Shopping, which was filmed on a very low budget.

Anderson, who at the time knew nothing about visual effects or fight scenes, had to study every book on visual effects that he could find, and learned about filming the fight scenes while they were being shot, often consulting those who were experienced in fight choreography on set, such as Shou.

The film underwent extensive reshoots in order to add additional fights based on feedback from test screenings, which were attended by fans of the video game franchise.

The production company decided to release Mortal Kombat in August 1995, in the hope that the film would become a summer blockbuster.

Previous video game adaptations, such as Super Mario Bros., Double Dragon, and Street Fighter had received particularly negative reviews; although Street Fighter was a commercial success, Double Dragon failed to break even, while Super Mario Bros. became a notorious box-office bomb.

Mortal Kombat was better received by critics, who gave it a mixed to negative reception.

Critics praised the atmosphere, visuals, and fighting sequences, but criticized the plot, dialogue, and acting.

It fared better with audiences and fans of the video games, and scored a high A− on a CinemaScore poll.

As a result, it spent three weeks as the highest-grossing film at the US box office, and earned over $122 million worldwide, produced on a budget of $18 million.

It proved a major success for Anderson, and has been recognised one of the first financially successful film adaptations of a video game.

Anderson and most cast members, including Lambert, declined to return for the sequel, Mortal Kombat Annihilation, which, when released, was critically panned and underperformed at the box office.

The success of Mortal Kombat gave Anderson free rein to choose his next project, the science fiction action film Soldier, written by Blade Runner screenwriter David Peoples.

Peoples' script—and eventually the film itself—contains references to his work on Blade Runner, and can be considered to be taking place in the same universe, as a sidequel or standalone sequel of sorts.

Kurt Russell became attached to star, but decided to take some time off to build up his body, as required by the role, which delayed the production.

Other of Anderson's notable films are Event Horizon (1997), an initial critical and commercial disappointment that found renewed appreciation on home media; Alien vs. Predator (2004), based on the crossover concept of the same name between the Alien and Predator franchises; and Death Race (2008), a remake/prequel to 1975's Death Race 2000.

In the meantime, Anderson directed the 1997 science fiction horror film Event Horizon, written by Philip Eisner and starring Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill.

Despite praise for its visuals and production design, it was not well received by critics or audiences (D+ on a Cinemascore poll), and failed to break even, which Anderson blamed on a tight post-production schedule and studio-enforced cuts.

It later sold well on home video and gained a small cult following.

Plans to complete a director's cut restoring the deleted footage were abandoned when it was discovered that most of it had been lost or degraded.

He is best known as the creative voice behind the first six films of the Resident Evil film series (2002–2016), which stars Milla Jovovich (whom he married in 2009), and is based on the Capcom video game series of the same name.

The series's first six films, of which Anderson directed four, have collectively grossed over $1 billion worldwide.